Slain Fort Worth officer’s portrait: A case of mistaken identity

It was an unusual case of mistaken identity.

For years, a painting of Peter Howard, a Fort Worth officer murdered 100 years ago, was among those on display in the memorial room at the downtown Fort Worth police station at 350 W. Belknap Street.

The paintings were put in storage when the memorial room was converted to office space.

But a recent effort to give the portraits a more fitting home — at the newly built police and fire academy in south Fort Worth — revealed a surprise.

In preparation for the move, local artist James R. Spurlock, who has painted several of the officers’ portraits through the years, was commissioned by the Fort Worth Police Officers Association to repaint some of the portraits, including Howard’s, to make them more similar in style.

Spurlock was set to begin Howard’s painting when a feeling of déjà vu came over him as he looked at the officer’s photograph.

“He looked like a different guy. Then I started looking at the mustache and the hair pattern around his ears, and his eyes. I was like, no, this is the same guy. I’ve already painted him,” Spurlock recalled.

Spurlock called police historian Kevin Foster, telling him that the photograph he’d been given of Howard appeared to be the same man as one in a portrait that he had already painted a few years earlier, Capt. George Francis Conant.

“I said these two are the same guy,” Spurlock recalled. “It’s either a dead-ringer twin brother or a younger version of the same guy.”

‘Incredible eye for detail’

Foster, a TCU police sergeant who retired from the Fort Worth Police Department in 2010 after 29 years on the force, began working in 2002 to find forgotten officers who had died in the line of duty so their names could be added to police memorials and their portraits done.

Howard was Foster’s first find.

Foster quickly began investigating the matter and found that Spurlock was right. He said a newspaper had mistakenly run Conant’s photograph when writing about Howard’s slaying on the night of Aug. 16, 1915.

At the time of Howard’s slaying, Conant was alive and well. The captain, however, died a year later, in October 1916, from pneumonia he contracted on a stakeout of a stabbing suspect.

Foster said neither he nor apparently anyone who had viewed the paintings that had hung in the memorial room at police headquarters noticed that two of the portraits were of the same man — Conant.

“The facial features appeared different. The mustache was different looking. Just from the naked eye, I wasn’t able to see they were the same person,” Foster said. “Thank God that Spurlock was able to notice it. He has an incredible eye for detail.”

‘I never forget a face’

Spurlock has since painted a portrait of the real Peter Howard, which was recently hung at the Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex at 505 W. Felix St. along with the 55 other Fort Worth police officers who died in the line of duty, or from injuries or illness suffered in the line of duty.

The Fort Worth Police Historical Association is putting together a pamphlet giving information on each officer so that visitors to the facility can read about the officers.

Foster said he’s happy that a wrong has now been righted.

“I’m happy we got it done because Peter Howard was the very first officer I ever worked on; he was the first officer I’d done any research on,” Foster said. “As it turned out, he ended up being the last portrait we had done — getting his done right. He was the beginning and the end of the project.”

Spurlock said he’s glad to have played a role in identifying the error and being able to pay homage to Howard and the other officers who lost their lives.

“I never forget a face, but a name can escape me,” he said.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Slain Fort Worth officer’s portrait: A case of mistaken identity."