Matt Griffin AKA "The Ninja Bandit" Part 1

We are going to divide our post about Matt Griffin into at least two parts because there is so much information about him, not any of it good!

Griffin first appears on the radar on Thanksgiving Day 1984. He was a New Mexico State Police Officer when he attempted to force his way into Febye Garcia's home while the family was having Thanksgiving dinner. When Ms. Garcia resisted, Griffin sprayed mace into her eyes. He resigned from the State Police shortly thereafter.

Griffin next turns up working for the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) less than three years before Kaitlyn Arquette is murdered. Of course Griffin couldn't avoid trouble, he knocked on an apartment door allegedly in response to a loud noise report. When the resident, Mr. Ralph Narducci asked Griffin for ID, Griffin preceded to beat him on the head and face. Mr. Narducci was hospitalized and settled with the city for the sum of $35,000. This incident happened on Halloween night 1986.

Nineteen days after this incident, Matt Griffin was fired by APD Chief of Police Sam Baca for not returning a witness fee for a trial he NEVER testified at!

Thirty-three days after Griffin was fired, he robbed a bank dressed as a ninja. He used a stolen Camaro as his get-away car. This was on January 2, 1988. This is his first known bank robbery.

Then, in March of 1988, the APD rehired Griffin after his attorney made a deal with the city. APD Chief of Police Baca later stated he didn't want to rehire Griffin, but he did so on the advice of the Legal Department for the APD. This was two months after Griffin committed his first known bank robbery.

On June 28, 1988, the "Ninja Bandit" committed his second known bank robbery, again using a stolen Camaro. This was five months and twenty-six days since his last robbery.

As an interesting side note, a 9 mm Glock handgun disappeared from the APD's evidence room while Griffin was assigned to stand guard over it. This was July, 1988, a year before Kait was murdered.

Two months and twenty-three days after his last bank robbery, the "Ninja Bandit" robbed another bank. Again, he used a stolen Camaro. This was on September 21, 1988.

Three months and eighteen days after the his last robbery, the "Ninja Bandit" robbed another bank, and yes, he used another stolen Camaro! Do you think we are seeing a pattern here? This was on January 19, 1989 approximately six months before Kait Arquette is murdered.

On January 27, 1989, Matt Griffin is involved in a shooting. The victim is Peter Klunck. Griffin refused to talk to investigators UNTIL AFTER a gun was recovered that he said belonged to Klunck. The gun had no fingerprints on it, and according to one witness, it was planted. Klunck did off the record work at the automobile repair shop on Arno Street where Griffin is alleged to have hung out with other "rogue" cops. The repair shop on Arno figures prominently into Kaitlyn Arquette's murder, as we shall see later. The APD stated that Klunck was shot in the chest in self-defense, but the truth is he was shot three times in the back. Friends of Klunck also say he was involved in illegal activities with Griffin, but wanted out. Personally, we believe Klunck wanted out, but he was also going to expose Griffin for being the crooked cop that he was, so Griffin had to find a way to silence him. Which he did. The fatal shot to Klunck came from Griffin's gun.

Two months and seven days after Griffin killed Klunck, he was involved in another shooting. He killed Michael Howard after Howard caught him trying to steal his car from his apartment building's parking lot. ( Wonder if it was a Camaro?) This was April 3, 1989.

Three months after the "Ninja Bandit" committed his last bank robbery, he robbed a bank that he had previously robbed. This was fifteen days since Griffin killed Howard. This robbery would prove to be his last as the "Ninja Bandit." The robbery occurred on April 18, 1989. This robbery happened three months before the murder of Kait Arquette.

All five of these bank robberies occurred within a period of one year, four months and one day. In the research that Seeker and I have done, we have been unable to find out just how much money Griffin stole. We do know he obviously didn't buy any getaway cars with this money, because he used stolen Camaros in his robberies. One of the big questions we have is, "Where did all the money go?" We have been unable to find out if any of it was recovered. One of the best guesses that we have is that Griffin shared his "new found wealth" with a group of crooked cops that he associated with. However, it is a little hard to ignore when a police officer is killing witnesses who get in his way, so apparently the APD had to put a stop to Griffin and his alter-ego the "Ninja Bandit." The end would come for Griffin less than three months after his last bank robbery.

On July 10, 1989, exactly one week to the day of Kait's passing, Griffin is named to be the "Ninja Bandit." He was arrested for the murder of Michael Howard and for the five bank robberies he committed while he was an officer for the APD. Just the kind of officer that any good citizen would want serving the public! He was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.

On July 16, 1989, Kaitlyn Arquette was chased down and shot in her car. She died the next day.

The next blog entry will cover another suspect in Kait's murder. His name is Paul Apodaca. He and Griffin hung out at the same automobile repair shop on Arno. Whether or not they are connected in the conspiracy to kill Kait remains to be seen. However, a development in 1994 shows that Griffin pointed the finger at Apodaca. This will also be covered in the next blog entry.

The information on Griffin comes from the website that Kait's family has set up. We would encourage anyone interested in this case to visit the site. It is an excellent site for reference. The site's address is: http://www.kaitarquette.arquettes.com/ There are easy to follow links on the site. Our information came from the "corrupt cops" part of the site. The address is: http://www.kaitarquette.arquettes.com/corruption%20overview.htm Seeker also has a website with a forum dedicated to Kait. The membership is private and if you want to join, go to http://www.cyber-villa.org/forums and click on the "contact us" button. Please include your desired user name and tell us that Kait's case is the one you are interested in knowing more about. Please mention that you read about Kait's case on our blog!

If you read this entry and enjoyed it or not, please leave us a comment. You can also leave us a comment on criminal cases you'd like to see a blog entry written about. If we can find the information on the case, we'll try to blog about it!