The Mississippi in the Civil War Message Board

Col. John Griffith’s Murderers Named

Found half a dozen news accounts in the Texas papers in the March-April 1889 time frame that named the accused murderers of Col. John Griffith of Junction, Texas, Ken Byrd’s ancestor as most know. Looks like the dirty deed occurred on or about 7 March 1889.

To find out who the perps were, please send a postal money order for $5 to my attention.

(Just kidding.)

The names were given as Joab and Mack Brown, employees of Col Griffith as Ken noted. The Junction City Masonic Lodge offered a $700 reward for their capture, but Masonic Sec’ty Frank Vickrey rescinded the offer on March 29, 1889 after many solid citizens stepped up and underwrote the reward.

There is sketchy subsequent info, and no indication of the ultimate fate of the murderers that I have found. A search on John Griffith fizzled out, and there was no result for Joab Brown. But several items came up for Mack Brown, whose frequency of mention in these stories suggest that he probably did the killing. One of the articles gives a fairly full account of the events that led up to the murder, including the presence of sheep (no!) and the rustling of cattle (OK, that’s more like it). Col Griffith was a stellar citizen who was admired by all.

Ken happened to mention Col. Griffith’s 1889 murder in the USS Petrel marker dedication ceremony and, as luck would have it, there turned out to be a few mentions in the press of the day.

My apologies if this is old news that was covered at some earlier point. Will forward these PDFs to Ken for review and posting if he chooses.

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Col. John Griffith’s Murderers Named
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Col. John Griffith’s Murderers - ARCWMB archives
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Col. John Griffith’s Murderers - thanks George..
Thanks Ken *NM*
Col. John Griffith’s Murderers - post 'em..!!!!!
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Col. John Griffith’s Murderers Named