After a series of verbal insults and a formal challenge, Philip Minis shot and killed James Stark in the former City Hotel, Savannah, Georgia, on August 10, 1832.
Stark and Wayne nonetheless crossed the river to Scriven's Ferry, discharged rifles, and declared victory.
[5] On August 10, Minis and Spalding went to the barroom of the City Hotel; when informed of their presence, Stark and Wayne came downstairs.
Stark may have produced or reached for a pistol (accounts varied) and Minis shot him through the chest, killing him.
Minis's friends persuaded him to relinquish his weapon to Spalding (though not before he threatened to fire into the crowd) and withdraw to his office to await the sheriff, who arrived within the hour.
[8] Law's impartiality may have been questioned for other reasons: he was a member of the Anti-Duelling Association[9] and had suggested potentially prejudicial wording for a notice in the Georgian to which editor Richard D. Arnold objected.
[16] Wilson's Code acknowledged that intoxication could lower inhibitions; it was thus "not a full excuse for insult, but it will greatly palliate.
[19] The building where Stark died is allegedly haunted, with phantom shoves, the crack of a pistol, and ghostly figures having been reported.