The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-16

but i'll accounting for about an hour and
half of that time he has failed to name
witness. In his statement he ignores the
declaration of witnesses, who say that
man and girl resembling him and Min
ME we're seen about 8 o'clock in the vicinity
of the church, and of another witness who
declares that he saw Durrant opening the
rear door of the church and escorting Min
ME within. When he arrived at DR.. Vogels
at $50 he was in a disordered state; he
washed himself and spent the evening
pleasantly with the guests. He was seen
in the vicinity of the church some time
after he had left DR.. Vogel's, and after he
had started directly for home. Unless it
be shown that the witness mistook the
man seen at the church with Minnie, these
facts require no analysis.
The church was dark and deserted and
Minnie would not have entered it with any
man whom she suspected of a past crime
or of contemplation of a new one. 1t is as
serted that she hesitated and yielded to
persuasion. 1t would be idle to speculate
on the numerous worthy reasons that she
might have had for entering the house;
that she had any but the best motives is
wholly out of the question.
1t is prottless also to speculate on the
circumstances attending the murder. The
only valuable feature of them is the fact
and manner of the use of the caseknife to
kill her, unless we may find in the direc-
ton of the heart cuts hint, which must
be vague and possibly valueless, as to
whether the murderer was lefthanded or
righthanded. Durrant is said to be left
handed, or rather "ambidextrous" (Which
is practically a meaningless word). The
question is, Which of his arms was the
stronger? For under great excitement,
where strength is required, a man will give
preference to his stronger arm. If we as
sumo that he stood over or in front of her
and piled the broken knife on her breast,
then, as he is lefthanded, we should eX-
pect the cuts to have been made from the
side toward the front AS matter of fact,
there are vague indications that they were
so made. But they would have taken that
course if a righthanded man, standing at
her right side, had made them.
1t isvery difficult to believe that the hard
tendons of the wrist were severed by dull
caseknife in the work of opening the wrist
arteries. This could have been done far
q
matter, the heart puncture appears to have
been made with knife having a much
sharper and narrower blade than a case
knife. 1t is conceivable that the introduce
ton of the caseknife into the tragedy and
the unnecessary bungling and ferocity with
which it was used were part of a shrewd
design to create the impression of a foot
pads handiwork. There is some further
evidence of such design, as we shall see
later.
In a case of this kind the testimony of
witnesses should be regarded with the
greatest caution, for the simple reason that
the prevailing excitement naturally con-
duces to the production of evidence of the
kind most desired. Already some contra
dictory and incongruous assertions by eye
witnesses have been reported. Thus, one
witness has appeared who is said to have
seen Durrant and Minnie near the church
about midnight. This may be true, but if
so it invests the case with interminable
perplexities. Again. we should not take it
absolutely for granted that the witnesses
who think they saw Durrant and Minnie
at the church are incapable of making
mistake.
Let US return to the proposition of left
handed murderer. AS man undoubtedly
would use his strongest hand in choking a
woman to death, the finger marks on the
right side of her throat would be deepest if
the stranger was lefthanded. This is ex-
actly what appeared on the neck of Blanche
Lamont. And the grip was so hard that
the murderer's nails cut through the skin.
Again, the undergarment of Minnie Will
Jams, which was used to strangle her, was
torn from her right side, and that seems to
indicate a lefthanded man.
A murderer of the character here as
sumed would have an uncommon amount
of craftiness, and in it's exercise he would
experience glowing satisfaction. Assum-
ing that the caseknife was used, and was
used in the most brutal and unscientific
way, and that the main purpose of its use
was to create the impression of a footpad's
presence, we would naturally look for
further craftiness of this order and for this
purpose. There appears to be three more
instances OF it in this case. The first is dis
closed by the pastors declaration that
when he visited the church Saturday morn
ing he found the rear door unlocked, and
would have been surprised thereat had he
NV ttoSuiliSu IldI Il1c udu dTIlVeQ
Now, footpad would have left the door
unlocked upon leaving.
Again, when the officers searched Dur
rants rooms they found Minnies pocket
book in the pocket of his overcoat, Its
contents had been removed. Durrant ex-
plains its presence in his pocket by saying
that on his way home from DR.. Vogels he
saw the purse on the sidewalk near En-
manuel Church. Naturally he picked
it up and put it into his pocket, suspecting
nothing. Thus he was able to leave the
impression that footpad had committed
the murder in the act of robbing the girl,
that he had taken it out to the sidewalk,
where there was presumably a gaslight,
and that he had rified it there and thrown
it away.
Further, the breaking of the library lock
may be regarded as another, for Durrant's
natural reasoning would have been (as-
suming him for convenience that as he had
a key to the door the breaking of the lock
would indicate that he was not present.
This lock may have been broken at any
time after the murder, or even before.
These are the precautions to mislead
that we might have expected from MUIR