Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-07
)URRANT GETS No NEW TRIAL.
Judge PronOunces Against the Motion Of
the Convicted Murderer,
SENTENCE OF DEATH PASSED UNDATED
Condemned Mnn Removed to san
Quentin Pcniientinry to Await the
Doom Now Depending on Ills
Appeal 10 Supreme Court.


T
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 6.-Theodore Dur
rant was today denied a new trial. In ten
days he will be taken from the couaty jail
to San Quentin prison aud kept there until
sentence is pronounced. lie will appeal 10 the
supreme court. Judge Murphy sentenced
Durrant to be hanged for the murder OF
Blanche Lamont, but fxed no date for the
execution.
There is little doubt but what the Durrant
case Is ore of the most interesting, dra
matte and altogether remarkable cases which
ever engrosscd the attention OF the people Of
the United States, or Indeed the whole world
Tons of testimony have been advanced dur
Ing the trial, which lasted over three months,
and now that the court has denied mo-
ton for a rehcaring and the stolid and
repulsiye young medical student is safely in
tho clutches Of a terrible doom. review of
the awful crime cannot fail in absorbing al
most any reader.
with perhaps a touch of local pride, for 1t
is by no means so, the San Francisco people
have nicknamed the atrocous murders of
Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams the
"crme Of the century" And yet they are
not so far wrong, for even the horrfying
Whitechapel murders are rivaled In point of
cold-bloodsd atrocity by these twin horrors Ct
the Pacific slope.
1t was on the Sd day of April day mem
orable in San Francisco's history, that
Blanche Lamont, a popular member of tho
Sunday school Of Emanuel Baptist church,
who resided alone with her aunt, suddenly
mysterously disappeared. Her absence from
accustomed haunts hardly attracted passing
notice in San Francisco and only those who
knew her mourned her loss. She a
quiet girl; about 20 years Of age, devoted to
her church work, and her disappearance was
variously attributed to anything rather than
a disposition to run away.
On Friday evening, April 12, Minnie Will
iiams,. another pretty and prominent mem
Der of the Emanuel church Sunday school,
left her home in Alameda at 7:15 O'Clock to
attend a meeting Of young people at Dr.
= N9gers. She never appeared there.
THEIR TERRIBLE DISCOVERY.
The very next day party of people who
entered the library of Emanuel church found
that quiet retreat had been desecrated by
murder most foul The dead body of Minnie
Williams was there but so hacked, mu-
tilated that the description of her doom made
clothing, her body had been hacked and
slashed with brutal ferocity and to cap the
horror. part Of her skirt had been thrust into
her mouth as gag and then driven down
her delicate throat with sharp pointed stick
Swift on the heels of this dreadful discovery
came another. The next day, Sunday the
police In their search finally reached the
belfry. which projects conspicuously above
the church itself. There in the dusky twi-
light Of the belfry tower, thsy were brought
face to face with the dead body of missing
blanche Lamont. 1t was entirely nude and
the remains of the once beautiful girl were
Verging on decomposition.
She had been cruelty strangled and the
marks Of murderous fingers shone red against
the marble of her skin
Bits of her clothing were found stuck in
nj hnrn and thnr ,lt NAlf
San Francisco rang with the news of the
double crime and there was a wild scene at
the church that Sunday night, when mob
assembled about the doors The violence dis
played in the killing Of the girls, the mystery
respecting their ends and the fact that
church had bean fearlessly desecrated
aroused the population to a dangerous pitch
of anger that almost found expression in
rioting.
ARREST OF DURRANT
Theodore Durrant had been known to have
been friendly with the two girls, and Blanche
was said to have been last seen in his COM
pany. so the police promptly arrested him.
At tfat very moment of his arrest he first
displayed the iron nerve that from that day
to this has never seemed to desert him. His
only attitude when taken into custody was
that OF indignant innocence. Hardly less sur
prisng than the murders themselves was
Durrants arrest. AS librarian of the church
and an officer of the Sunday school he had
always displayed zeal in the cause of
Christianity that won for him encomiums and
a reputation that set al scorn the commits
sion Of any crime or msdemeanor
Should Durrant be convicted Of the crime
II would be case of DR.. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde,
rlvaling even Stevenson's original creation
Through all the weary months that he laid
In Jail awaiting his trial Durrant maintained
his armor of icy reserve. He appeared
rather Indifferent than otherwise and dis
played little comprehension Of his terrible
situation. Indeed, 1t has only been very re-
Gently, when the tide has set rather against
him, that this young man of blood and iron
has permitted his splendid nerve to be shaken
ever slightly.
Although there had been two murders 1t
was determined that the murder of Blanche
Lamont should he tried first-probably as pre-
senting better chance of conviction. All San
Francisco, or rather all that could be jammed
into the court over which Judge Murphy
presided heard the opening speech of Prose-
cutting Attorney Barnes, when the trial for
mally opened in July. In 1t he promised in
effect to show that Durrant had been seen to
enter Emanuel Baptist church with Blanche
Lamont the fa;al April 3, the day when
she disappeared, and they began laborous
process OF tracing Durrant's ste.s throughout
that day with this purpose in view. This