Arizona weekly citizen., 1895-04-27
THE HEARING. Gathering Evidence in the
 Brutal Girl Murders.
CHIEF CR0WLEY'S BELIEF
A Charge of Killing Blanch La mont Entered Against the
 Accused-New Evideoe.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 22-Public in terest in the Emanuel Baptist church murders is again at high pitch, owning to the fact that young Durrant, the young medical student formally accused of one murder and suspected of the other, will have his preliminary exsmin. atIon tomorrow. It was a week ago last Fridsy that the outraged and mutilated body oi Marian Williamswas found in the back room of the library of the church, and while yet the people were thrilling with the horror of it, the body of Blanch Lamont, young woman who had been missing since April Sd was found in the belfry of the same church, stark naked and with the marks of the murderers fingers on her throat.
 The police have been busy in picking up the threads and weaving their net of circumstantial evidence, so as to leave no weak mesh through which the accus ed can escape, for they believe they have the murderer in the person of the prisoner. That they have more evidence than they have so far admitted seems to be almost certain. But it is s3ld now that they will make au endeavor to try Durrsnt first on the charge of murder ing Miss Lamont, as the evidence in that case Is said to be much stronger against the prisoner than in the killing of Miss Williams.
 Chief of Police Crowley says that he believes Durrant is guilty and that he had no accomplice. It is also said that the prosecution has some sensational evidence in store in this case.
 Referring to a rumor that Blanche La mont was lIred to the church by Dur rants promlse to perform a criminal operation on her to save her from dis grace, and that when she shTieked in agt ny he gresped her by the throat to stifle her cries and choked her to death, pr. Barrett, the c.ty's autopsy physician, stated that the rumor was without foun- dstion. He took special care in the mat ter of the autopsy and he is satisfied that no criminal operation was performed. He also states that both young women died of strargulaticn and that the knife wounds in Marian Williams body were Dot the cause of her death.
 Rev. Gibson, through his private secre- tsry, whom he has employed as a buffer against reporters, has issued an explana- tion of the reasons why he has not visit ed Durrant in prison. The prisoner and bis friends had bitterly complained of his neglect to visit one of the pillars of the church in such deep trouble but the preacher says the utterances of the accused man and the latter's mother contained such covert iusinuation that he (Gibsop) might be the murderer, that he did not feel justified in calling and offering spiritual consolation. The police this evening are still searching the church in an effort to find the cloth ing worn by the murderer when he kill ed Mss Williams. They are delving and probing in the cellar and church-yard and an old we'll on the premises, they are crawling through the interstlces be- tween the ceiling and roof, and climbing up through the belfry. They worked until late last night, also, but without success.
 Chief of Detectives Lees arrived from Los Angeles tonight and started in to investigate the Lamont and Williams murder cases. Today he visited the church and examined the edIfce, the bloodstained library and the belfry where Miss Lamont's body lay for nine days.