The Washington times., 1922-04-23
Donald Grafton Re
veal His Amazing
Matrimonial Exploits.
His Fast and Furious
Work Left Pretty
Girls Gasping.


women, Joseph Donald
Grafton. of Broadway and Pitts
burgh. is already rated on police
records as one of the greatest low
ers of the century.
The speed and success with
which he worked, infatuating the
prettiest and most sophisticated
girls he met in the pursuit OF pleas
ure. has set the metropolis wonder
ing.
Two wives are charged to him
I'm the indictment for bigamy filed
I'm New York county and another
woman claims him as her own.
but the district attorney would
not be surprised II half a dozen
more wives appeared before the
rambling Romeo is brought to
trial. |.... .s
The deeper the investigation
proceeds into the amorous affairs
of the man the more astonishing
are the revelations. He possessed
little money, only an average
complement of good looks, and
scant education-but, assuredly.
he had a way with 1nimi All the
wives and former fiancees of
Joseph Donald Grafton are agreed
on that point.
How much further he would
have gone, how many more women
he would have married, IL allowed
90 pursue his bent undisfurbe6. is
a matter for conjecture. But It is
a fact that the great lover would
still be breaking hearts and build
ing homes, had it not been fn n
mere miscalculation that exp osed
his wholesale love-making to the
public and the police.
For while he was married to one
girl he was pleading with three
others to wed him He wrote half
a dozen love letters a day to as
many women-clever letters, TOO.
and altogether plausible-telling
each that he was hers alone. Often
the love lines crossed, but Dear
Don" was always there with a
ready explanation that soothed
the troubled heart.
One must begin at the begin
ming to understand the scope Of
Joseph Donald Grafton's exploits
and even then the explanation Is
not clear. He was born OF a
Vpm@sthy family in Marietta, forty
enc years ago, attended high school
and was dropped for some trivial
exploit. He drifted out of town,
and his father, George Grafton,
now president and principal owner
OF the Marietta Chair Company,
heard little from him, and that
little was usually unpleasant.
The father remarked, when he
heard of his sons indictment, that
he would not be amazed II Don
were married six or eight times,
because he was that kind Of a lad.
The young man became a sales
man, then a promoter in various
lines, fitting about the big cities
and dividing his time between busi-
ness and, courtship. The Roaring
Forties knew him well and in the
night life Of several big cities cast
of the Mississippi he played "A
spectacular though transient role.
LOVE SCHEME SHATTERED.
A fortnight ago the tiicate. la
borious love scheme that Don mad
been developing for many years
broke into Fragments, when the
New York American discover ID
Peggy Davis. a seventeen-year-cld
''Follies" girl, destitute in a West
Side sanitarium.
She said she had married Graf
ton on December 10 last in the
Union Methodist Church, and had
gone with him and her mother on
their honeymoon to Troy, where
they stayed three months. Then
Hhe returned for an operation to
= New York, and he disappeared,
after sending her this letter from
wilkesbarre, Pa, on March "a.
''I was ready to Jump off the
bridge last night and let the inky
waters of the Susquehanna close
ever my head: but tonight 1 feel
like singing a hosanna of heartfelt
happiness, for have finally ar
ranged to get the money we need. I"
But II he got the money, none of
" came to Peggy, and her letters TO
him at the wilkesbarre hotel re-
mained unanswered. With the
publication of Peggy's plight Ellen
Curley Mcintyre. a handsome
young woman OF Pittsburgh, hur.
ried to the sanitarium to tell the
showgirl that she also was wife
of debonnair Don, and, she
thought, his only wife. Before the
two wives were through compsr-
ing notes they were informed by
New York American investigators