Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-02-14
RUN DOWN AT LAST.
George Duvall, a Polished Murderer.
in the Central Station.
A PEACE MAKER MEETS HIS DEATH
His Slayer Pursued Thousands Of Miles
Over the Continent.
A WRITTEN CONFESSION TO BIS WIFE

George DuvalI. the most polished colored
gambler in the country. and the SLAYER of
Jarvis B. Griffin, at the Quay Club, Phila-
delphia, in May, 1887, is in the Central
station. He was arrested in Memphis on
Saturday. after having been pursued sew
eral thousand miles by the officers of the
law. Duvall is accompanied by Detective
Thomas Crawford, who will take his man
back to Philadelphia to-day. there to be
tried for murder.
In May, 1887, Duvall went into the Quay
CLUB. co!ored political organization. at
No. 1135 Lombard street, Philadelphia, and
Joined in game of poker. He was caught
cheating by Warren Williams, the steward,
and put out. The men got into q scuffie
outside, and Jarvis Griffin, another colored
man, tried to separate them, when Duvall
drew revolver and shot Griffin through
the head, killing him instantly. Williams
ran into the house. but Duvall waited for
the police, 10 whom he said he saw the man
who did the shooting run up the alley. and
threw them off. Then he leisurely made his
escape.
He adopted the name of Frank Smith and
went to New York, and thence to Buffalo,
where he was arrested, but secured his re-
lease by sbrewd lying. Next he went to
Canada, but the Buffalo police learned how
they had been fooled and were after him so
close that he drifted West. He worked his
way down to Idaho, where in small town
he got into gambling scrape and fled TO
Salt Lake City, where he opened a barber
shop.
Ruined by Political Ambition.
About two years ago Duvall went to
Seattle, where he opened a barber shop, and
at the time of the fire there was burned out.
Subsequently he opened another shop with
three branches in various parts of the town
and was making money fast until he got
into politics, and in his ambition in that
line lost all his money, got into a scrape
and had to leave the town. He
next landed at st. Louis, Mo-,
where he married young woman
who furnished him with money
to open another boiler shop. Not long
afterward he learned that the police were
after him at Seattle for the murder of
Griffin. He Immediately sold out his shop
and moved with his wife to Independence,
Mo-. but, firing of seclusion, after short
time he went to Memphis, Tenn, where he
became engaged as a porter in an aristo-
cratic club house.
Detective Crawford heard Of his being st
Memphis last week and started after him.
He found him on Saturday. Duvall, or
Smith, as he was known there, denied his
identity so cleverly that he had almost per-
suaded the detective that he was mistaken
in the man, as he had done IN various other
cities before. Crawford decided to take
him back, notwithstanding his declarations
of innocence, and started on the way. 1t
was not until after they had left Cincinnati
yesterday that the prisoner owned up that
he was Duvall. He claimed that he shot
Griffin accidentally. his intention at the
time being to shoot Williams.
Confessed All to His Wife.
The detective and the prisoner got into
the city last night and remained one night
to take q rest. Duvall was locked up in
the Central Station. Last night he wrote a
letter to his wife, confessing to her that he
had killed a man, that his name was
Duyall, not Smith, and that he was sorry
he had so deceived her. begging her for
giveness and asking her to come to Phila-
delphia and bring all the money she could
beg or borrow to help him out He
intimated that it would be only short
time until he would be released.
The letter was written in a remarkably