The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-21
ELEVENTH DAY OF TRIAL.
The Time Was Mainly Devoted to
Filling In the Details Of the
PeopIe'S Case

The eleventh day of the trial of Theo-
dore Durrant for the murder of Blanche
Lamont was not at all exciting, but the
crowd was none the less for that and some
of it pressed hard the sacred precincts of
Judge Murphy behind the rail. Durrant
was in court, just the same, and the crowd
came to see him. In the crowd was Pastor
Gibson's private secretary, young Mr..
Lynch. General Barnes was there in the
morning, and not a few other luminar1es of
the bar dropped in and out during the day
as they usually do.
The most interesting testimony of the
day was that given by Mr.. Oppenheimer,
who came on in the afternoon.
The morning session was void of sensa-
ton save, perhaps, the mild one caused by
the marked absence of the sensation that
every one expected-the sharp cross-exam-
ination of Organist King by District At
torney Barnes.
When, after a few questions, Mr.. Dick
inson turned the comely young man back
to Mr.. Barnes for redirect examination
everybody primed himself for the de-
velopment of something startling. Prob
ably there would be something said about
a clot of blood in the church; assuredly
the witness would at least be sharply and
closely questioned by the counsel for
whose side he had been subpenaed.
But none of these things happened. Only
the unexpected occurred, which was, how
ever, quite regular for this famous trial.
"After giving Durrant the bromo settler
and going into the classroom to rest, where
did YOU sit ?'' asked the District Attorney.
fOn the platform"
might it not have been then that he
lay DOWN."
ayes, sir"
'"That is all"
And these last three words of Mr.. Barnes
made the greatest sensation of the morn
ing session. Even the entrance of the
Mayors secretary, followed closely by a
tall stout well-knit figure, with Clearly
shaver face, caused less of furore in the
over-crowded courtroom than did the sud-
den termination of Mr.. King as witness.
And this is probably due to the fact that
only one or two persons in the room knew
that the clean-shaven man was Congress-
man Bryan of Nebraska, the famous silver
orator. Mr. Roberts brought him up to
the bench and introduced him to Judge
Murphy, who left his high seat and came
down and shook hands and exchanged
nothings with the Congressman.
Meanwhile the cross-examination of the
ianitor of Emmanuel Church, Frank SADIE
man, was going on under the guidance Of
Attorney Dickinson.
Mr.. Sademan had been called to the
stand to tell about the gas-burners and the
condition of the church generally. His
evidence was material, though he knew
nothing about the events of April3.
He said, however, that the gas-burners
were in good condition all over the church
except in the main vestibule. On the
chandelier there he had noticed defective
kew, which sometimes occasioned small
leakage of gas, but that was all.
This testimony was directly in the line
of the States theory. Mr.. Barnes will
argue that it was this small leakage in the
vestibule which occasioned the smell of
gas noticed by Organist King when he first
opened the main door OF the church and
came in.
In the afternoon came Pawnbroker OPP
penheimer, who says that Durrant came
to his store on Dupont street and offered
to sell one of the rings that was afterward
sent through the mail to the aunt OF
Blanche Lamont, Mrs. Noble. Mr.. Open
heimer gave his testimony in quite posi-
tive way. 1t was between 10 and IL
o'clock in the morning when Durrant
came to his store. He was sitting near the
door reading when the visitor appeared.
Durrant handed him the ring and asked
him what it was worth.
Nothing to me-" said the pawnbroker,
after he had examined it.
Then Durrant urged him to buy it, but
Mr.. Oppenheimer had no money to invest
in that class of goods. and the young man
departed without selling the ring.
Mr.. Dickinson recognized the force of
this testimony and questioned the
pawnbroker most minuJely, but without,
apparently, changing his evidence in any
respect or weakening it.