The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-21
DURANT is A PUZZLE
EITHER A CRIMINAL OF GREAT
NERVE OR AN INNOCENT MAN.
Circumstantial Evidence
That Tends to Show He Is the MUIR
derer of Miss Minnie Williams.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20.-Theodore w.
Fl. Durant, medical student and assistant
Sunday school superintendent, is to stand
trial for the murder of Miss Minnie Will
1iams, in Emanuel Baptist Church library,
on Friday night, April IL, for the coroner's
jury has found that the young woman came
to her death by his hands; that he crimi-
nally assaulted her, choked her to death by
thrusting pieces of her underskirt down her
throat cut her wrists so that she would
bleed to death and to complete the muir
dereous work. had driven knife into her
heart and, in beastial fury, slashed her
breast. The slashing and cutting was done
after the girl was dead. There was slight
flush to be seen on the prisoners cheek
when he heard that the verdict would place
his life in jeopardy, but his cold gray eyes
gave no sign of emotion. And lightly he
went back to his cell. laughed and joked
with his jailers and went to sleep last night
as though he had no cares in the world.
Durant is either criminal of remarkable
nerve and GOODNESS or else he is an inno-
cent man. But people wonder how this
young man could have heard the gruesome
details of the killing of the little woman
who his friend without evincing the
slightest emotion or interest.
Durants friends have based their belief
blood was found on his clothing. 1t has all
along been asserted that the murderer
could not have possibly inflicted the terrible
wounds on the body of the girl who was
presumably struggling for her life without
getting a considerable quantity of blood on
his clothes. Acting on this theory, the de-
teetives began a search for the blood
stained clothing, without success. With
the result of the autopsy and the conclu-
sions of the physicians, the matter is easy
of explanation. With skill acquired in the
dissecting room of the medical college, it
would have been easy matter for him to
have inflicted the wounds upon the lifeIess
body, from which the flow of blood would
the crimson fluid. 1t would have been an
easy task even for an unskilled hand. and
nothing seems more probable than that the
butcher, be he Durant or another, left the
church without mark on him to show OF
his bloody work. The detectives even are
not satisfied with this, and last night they
were again at work in the church building,
searching from cellar to belfry and lobby to
altar. They think that the bloody garments
of the murderer may be found between the
lathing and the weather board of the hall
With axes and chisel they viii tear up the
flooring and rend the wainscoting.
Another curious circumstance has come
was found several horse hairs and some
human hairs. A microScopical examination
was made of them and they were measured,
with the following result: The long silky
hair. presumably from Miss .Williamss
head, was found to be six two-thousandths
OF an inch in thickness; the shorter hair
thought to be that of the murderer, meas
ured FIVE two-thousandths of an inch and
the horse hair, of which there were half
dozen strands. was found to be twenty
one four-thousandths of an inch thick.
Some hair from tie name of the horse
ridden by Durant on his trip to Mount
Diablo was taken to the expert and whem
put under the microscope was found to
measure exactly the same as the horse
hair found on Miss WiIlams's clothing.
when 1t was found that the hair from the
name cs several horses measured either
rode. The stable-keeper who owned the
horse says that Durant examined the ami
NAL in the afternoon OF the day that Miss
Williams was murdered
The church In which the crime was conn
mftfed has long been held in anything but
high regard BY the neiehbors O. OF