Albany Times Union, N.Y., Carol DeMare column: Family ‘washed their hands’ of fire survivor [Albany Times Union, N.Y.]

Mar. 31--THE FORMER VIRGINIA GRATTO -- sole survivor of an arson fire that killed her husband and seven children 32 years ago -- made news last week when investigators began digging into one of the region's most infamous cold cases.

At the time, investigators found an accelerant on the back porch of the wood-frame house at 108-110 Ontario St., Cohoes, and while an Albany County grand jury agreed it was arson after 10 months of hearing evidence, no one was ever indicted, and the mother never testified, although friends of hers did.

Local, state and federal investigators were in the state of Washington last week to interview Virginia Gratto Utigard, now 61. Authorities were tightlipped over what prompted the renewed interest in the mother. When reached at her home last week in Okanogan, Utigard, a widow, said she had no comment and hung up.

A television station in Spokane, Wash., reported that she said the New York investigators questioned her for seven hours and she "had nothing to hide because I didn't do it." She told the station she was pressured into signing a confession but maintained her innocence.

After the June 2, 1978, blaze, Virginia Utigard, 29, received a sympathy card from Thurston Utigard. The widow, who was three months pregnant, immediately went to Washington where she met Thurston's brother, Norman. He was 20 years her senior and divorced with four kids. They married on July 14, 1978, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. She gave birth to her eighth child in December of that year and named him Norman Utigard Jr.

Greta Utigard, 38, who is married to Tom Utigard, Norman's son from the earlier marriage, had nothing good to say about Virginia Gratto Utigard when reached by phone last week in Washington.

"When Norman died, all of the family pretty much washed their hands of her," the daughter-in-law said. "She was just a very, very unpleasant person and did a lot of emotional damage to the family."

Norman Utigard died in November 2006 at the age of 79.

His obituary said he had worked as an electrical engineer, an airplane mechanic for Boeing, a contractor for the forest service, and as an orchard manager.

Virginia Gratto Utigard "pawned off the family heirlooms and bought computers and cars and spent every cent he had," Greta Utigard said. She said she believed Gratto Utigard's now 31-year-old son still lives with his mother.

Retired Albany County DA Sol Greenberg said the mother raised suspicions because after being treated at the hospital for minor injuries, she returned to the fire scene to try to find her handbag. She was only interested in her pocketbook, he said. That and her quick exit from Cohoes didn't sit well, he said.

Greenberg also recalled last week that the Gratto house was owned by a landlord "who had other property where there were suspicious fires."

A career prosecutor and investigator on Greenberg's staff went to their deaths without solving the crime. Every year on the anniversary of their deaths, Chief Assistant DA Dan Dwyer visited the graves of John Gratto Sr., 31, an unemployed truck driver; Eleanor, 9; Evelyn, 8; Francis, 5; John Jr., 4; Edward, 2; and 4-month-old twins Patricia and Sarah. On his desk, instead of a name plate, was a plaque that read "Dan, Remember the Grattos."

Dwyer died of cancer in November 1992, hours before his 64th birthday. Working with Dwyer was the DA's chief investigator, Roger Amash, who died of cancer at 41 in 1989.

Lecture series

Former Sierra Leone war crimes chief prosecutor David M. Crane will deliver the keynote address at the 2010 installment of the Justice Robert H. Jackson Lecture Series at Albany Law School.

The series, "Jurisprudence in the Global Era," will be held next Tuesday and Wednesday. Crane, a professor at the college of law at Syracuse University, will speak on "At a Crossroads: The Nuremberg Principles in the 21st Century" at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. He was the first American to be the chief prosecutor of an international war crimes tribunal since Jackson, who attended Albany Law, served at Nuremberg in 1945.

Crane's mandate as chief prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone was to prosecute the people responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of international human rights committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone during the 1990s. Among those he indicted was the president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, the first sitting African head of state in history to be held accountable for such crimes.

Panel discussions exploring the impact of international law on the U.S. legal system will be Wednesday. Among the speakers will be James Thuo Gathii of Albany Law, the author of "War, Commerce and International Law."

The series is free and open to the public. Tuesday's session runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in Room 209. Wednesday's panel runs from 1 to 4:30 p.m. in the Dean Alexander Moot Courtroom.

Climate forum

Albany Law School is the setting Thursday for a community forum on the climate crisis, government policy and green jobs. The event, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., is in the Dean Alexander Moot Courtroom.

Carol DeMare can be reached at 454-5431 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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