The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-04-18
ANALYSIS.
John McNaught Gives His Idea
of the Emmanuel Church
Tragedies.

| The publication yesterday of Mrs. Dur
rants appeal for a suspension of judgment
| concerning her sons guilt or innocence of
the hldeous crimes laid to his charge, did
not fail to have its effect on the public
mind. Calm, and almost dispassionate in
nature, 1t was plain address to the justice
OF the community, and asked for nothing
save that reasonable and impartial weigh
ing of evidence which is necessary in order
that justice may be done.
| 1t is indeed time TO review the case with
the most considerate care. Notwithstand-
| ing the amount and the variety of circum-
stantial evidence which has been piled up
! to prove Theodore Durrant the murderer
of Marion Williams and Blanche Lamont.
there has been nothing made public so far
| to justify that conclusion. On the contrary,
| there is much in the evidence to prove his
| innocence and make it certain the police
are on the wrong track.
The awful horror of the tragedy has suf-
feed to excite the public mind to such a
degree that everything connected with it is
seen through the medium of infamed
emotions. AS consequence rumors,
! theories, supposltlons and eXtraneous mat
! tiers of all sorts have been magnified and
mixed up with the known facts of the case,
until the facts have been lost or distorted in
| CI1O COi1uSIOIl anu pQUIlC OPINION mas
| grown out of the medley of exaggerations
and perversions rather than out of the
| truth that has been COMPOUNDED with them.
| The facts that are known are these.
Marion Williams left the residence of Mrs.
| Voy at 1907 Howard street ostensibly to go
| to the residence of DR.. Vogel at 1902 How
| ard street at about 1880 on Friday evening,
and next morning her body, outraged and
! mutilated, was found in the library of EN-
manuel Baptist Church on Bartlett street.
All the conditions of the body, the clothing
| and the room, give evidence that she went
| into the building alive and that the MUIR
| der took place where the body was found.
A search of the building on the succeeding
! day discovered in the belfry the body of
Blanche Lamont, which also showed I'M
mistakable evidence OF outrage and murder.
| On this simple statement of facts the
first inquiry is, How Miss Williams came
| to visit Emmanuel Church that EVENING"
1t was more than two blocks out of the
road from Mrs. Voy's to DR.. Vogel's. She
did not go out of her way and walk that
distance for nothing. Some purpose she
evidently had, and as no other purpose is
at all Ineligible, we are forced to the con-
clus1on that she went to meet some one
with whom she had an engagement.
man answering the description of
Durrant was seen near the church talking
to woman answering the description of
Miss Williams about s O'Clock, and the
TWO were seen TO enter q gateway leading
to the rear of the church. Who was that
man? 1t is proverbially difficult to prove
negative, and the logicians say it is i'm
possible. Nevertheless there is abundant
evidence to prove the negative in this case
and make it morally certain the man
Minnie Williams went to meet was not
Theodore Durrant.
We have sworn testimony to these three
points: First, Miss Williams not only dis
liked Durrant, but she hated him and
feared him; second, she had on the day
previous positively refused to meet him
and had told her friends of the REFUSAL
third, Durrant so far from having any en-
gagement to meet Miss Williams that
evening, was seen hanging around the
| ferry depot for upward of two hours that
| afternoon looking for chance to meet her
| as she came over on the boat from Alameda.
| How then can it be assumed that she went
| over to the church to meet Durrant? Such
an assumption would require US to believe
| that Miss Williams deceived her friends
| when she said she disliked Durant, and
that she spoke falsely when she had re-
fused to meet him that evening. Further
more we would have to assume that Durrant
| having an engagement with a girl at a par
ticular place would spend the greater por-
| ton of the afternoon looking for her some
where else. Such assumptions cannot be
entertained. Miss Williams is reported by
all her friends to have been a straightfor-
ward, honest girl. Nobody doubted her
word when she was alive. and there is no
reason to doubt it now.
Who then was the man she went to meet
in front of Emanuel church? Here we are
thrown into the dark region of onjecture,
but there are two bits of testimony in the
case that give some light to
mate friends testifies that Marion
had secret. There was a man whose
name she would never tell, but whom
she described as about 40 years of age,
with whom she had some sort of relation
that troubled her. That there was nothing
evil in the relation is assured by every
known fact of her pure young life but it
was a relation sufficiently perplexing to
cause her uneasiness. This mans name
she never told to any one. The import
ance of this becomes clear when we recall
that the trip to the church was secret.
She told her friends she was going to DR..
VogePs; but she went two blocks in an
other direction, The secret man and the
secret meeting are two straws that float
together in the same wind, and that wind
does not blow in the direction of Theodore
Durrant.
Consider next the known circumstances
OF the murder. The crimes were of an abb
normal character. There are just two
classes of criminals who outrage women
and murder them. One of these is the
low, british criminal whose lust and
ferocity are tempered by an intellect hard
ly sufficient to lift him above the level OF
gorilla. The second is the man of in
tellect whose intelligence is distorted by
species of sexual madness growing out of
some perverse diabolism of nature. All
criminal history attests that only these
two classes of men, the brute and the tend,
commit crimes of this kind. Abundant
evidence in the case makes il certain the
crime was not committed by brute. 1t is
then the other class of criminal we must
look for
The abnormal man is not known to his
fellows, but the normal man is. Theodore
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