The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1895-11-02
THE DURRANT CASE.
An Extract From Barnes Closing Argu-
| ment to the Jury.

of An Extract From Barnes Closing Argu
ment to the Jury.
on Prosecuting Attorney Barnes in hi
be closing argument Wednesday among
- other things said:
'p. ''The individual who perpetrated the
Is, hideous murder, with which the de
IN fendant stands charged and which has
h. narrowed the soul and frozen the
he blood of this community, is no ordi'
in nary criminal; and his crime in every
I'd aspect in which 1t may be considered
is without parallel. 1t was not COM
mitted under blind and furious i'm.
pulse to revenge some real or fancied
n wrong to his person, his property or
his character, nor from motives Of
8, gain, nor in the commission of rob-
berry, nor yet under the hot spur of
/. jealousy, that hell of the injured lover.
1t was in every sense cold-blooded,
vicious murder. 1t was without the
slightest provocation or apparent ex-
cuse or palliation. The assassin chose
for his victim an innocent and helpless
Il maiden, in years almost child, al
: most a stranger in our city, a simple
schoolgirl, temporarily residing with
a relative and engaged in the struggle
, to obtain an education as a teacher in
7 the normal school. She was undevel-
oped in mind, pure in life and thought,
pure and unsuspecting in nature, and
presenting in body none of the quail
ties which are supposed to arouse the |
evil passions of the seducer and iber- !
tine. For the scene of his dreadful |
assault the murderer selected an evan
gelical church dedicated to the wor-
ship of God, temple where the doc
trines and life of Jesus Christ were
taught and illustrated in Sabbath as
sembly, in midweek.. prayermeeting
and in social gathering. He took the
life of his victim, not with the savage
mercy of the quick pistol or the silent
knife, but he tortured her with the
lingering process of strangulation,
driving his cruel fingers deep into the
tender flesh of her slender throat; and
| so fiercely did he do his DEVILS work
that the stigma of his crime remained
until the discovery of her corpse,
clearly discernible as the cause of
death, not only by the expert surgical
examiner, but by the most unlearned
observer. What other, if any, wrong
was done her before her soul exhaled
and went to heaven we do not know.
"The advancement of natural de-
composition baffled Investigation and !
made knowledge impossible, but we
know that either living or dying, or
dead, she was taken by him up the ,
steep stairs of the steeple of the bel +
fry of the church, where he supported
the poor body with blocks of wood, 3
and left it there to rot in nakedness
and wither in the cool western wind
that swept through the lofty spire. He
hid the remains where he believed r
they would remain undiscovered and !
receive no promise of Christian burial. Z
There he left her. She was dead, but :,
he fancied himself save from detection !,
and exposure. The heaven-pointing =
spire of the Redeemer's church was !,
his only confidant and accomplice. No :
human eye had witnessed his assault .
upon Blanche Lamont. No ear had /;
heard her first shrek of terror and
amazement as this monster fell upon
her, or the last stifed moan of dying !.
agony that preceded the awful silence :,
of her final rest. None, save the God :.
whom he feared not, had seen him as :,
he extended the naked and slender :,
form on the belfry floor, laid the thin :,
arms across the undeveloped bosom, :,
propped the head and Strengthened the ;,
meager body in the dust. Not human e e
being had beheld his retreat from the :.
awful presence of the death which was - :,
his work, and the secret was safely r.
locked in his own breast. There lay 3,
the speechless and untestifying corpse, "
and what was it now to give him fear? b.
1t had been nothing but girl after
all, and concerning her there would be
the same old story to which he could
help give currency-the same old story r.
of vanished girl, distracted family,
an Ineffective and perfunctory search
the houses of ill-repute, a re- M
luctant conclusion that this little one, a,
like others of Ewes daughters, had a
gone. to her moral distinctions; pic to
ture turned to the wall, name never {"
spoken and oblivion, personal and So ai
cial, for poor lost Blanche Lamont. te
And he was right for the moment. Ia
The wrath of the God whose law he W.
had violated, and whose temple he had r
seemed to slumber. The cf
murderer went his guilty way with his M
crime, unscathed and un- ia
whipped of justice, while his victim M
lay in the spire that points its slender tb
finger to the sky as il reproaching its fir
ruler for his unmoving Indignation" -