Claude Duval legend, including claims of alchemy, gambling, and much womanising. He is reported to haunt the Holt Hotel along the A4260 (Oxford Road) in Oxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn. Recent historians have reappraised the legacy of Duval. James Sharpe in "Dick Turpin" regarded Duval as the most significant figure in the shaping of the highwayman myth. John and Philip Sugden's "The Thief of Hearts" reconstructs what is known of the historical Duval, using much fresh evidence, and shows that the traditions about the Frenchman were used by such literary luminaries as
Claude B. Duval resumed his Houma law practice, which became Duval, Funderburk, and Sundbery. Stanwood Duval established a successful insurance agency. Both were active in their community. In 1957, Claude Duval was named president of the Houma branch of Rotary International. In 1963, Duval ran for lieutenant governor on the intraparty "ticket" of former New Orleans Mayor (and also former Ambassador to the Organization of American States) deLesseps Story Morrison, Sr. He was presumably the "conservative" balance to the more "moderate" Morrison. In his own race, Duval was pitted against his St. Mary Parish neighbor and the sitting lieutenant governor, Clarence C. "Taddy"