The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-05-01
DURRANT MUST STAY IN JAIL.
Bail Denied at the Close Of the Pre-
Iimtnnry Examination.


SAN FRANCISCO, April 5o.-The evidence
in the preliminary examination of Theodore
Durrant for the murder of Minnie Williams
is all in and Police Judge Conlon will de-
liver his opinion next Thursday morning.
He denied for the time being motion Of
defendants s counsel to dismiss the case; he
also refused to admit Durrant to bail When
Durrant was taken to the court room to-
day he looked worn and pale; his confine
ment is apparently beginning to tell on
his health. DR.. J.. s. Barrett, who per-
formed TO autopsy on the body of Minnie
Williams, was on the stand, and was cross
examined for hours by the defendant He
stated that Miss Williams died from as
phyxiation and hemorrhage, the former
caused by rags forced down her throat and
the hemorrhage by severing of the arteries
in her wrist. Other wounds in various
parts of her body were inflicted after
death. C. Hills testified that a man resem-
bling Durrant met woman answering TO
Miss Williams's description near Emanuel
Church on Good Friday night, walked rap
idly down the street and disappeared inside
the dark church. He watched them
tently, because he thought at first the wom-
an was his wife keeping an appointment
however. he found his wife there. He ex-
amined the entrances and exits or the
church next day, and found the pair could
not have left the church while he watched
and escaped observation.
The police authorities have invoked the
aid Of a Pinkerton detective In the murder
case. Detective Simmons, who was for
merly at the Chicago headquarters of this
agency, but of late years with the Portland,
Ore, branch of the service, has arrived in
this CITY, has inspected the scene of the
murdef and has taken copious notes from
which to map out mis- line of work. Whether
this acquisition will enable the detective to
obtain further evidence against Durrant Is
problematical. In the meantime additional
circumstantial evidence is cropping up. and
the police feel more than ever convinced
that they have the perpetrator of the
crimes in the person of Durrant.
Chauncey NJ. Johnson, clerk in the State
Board of Trade exhibit rooms, says that
he is positive Durrant visited the rooms
on April u last, between 4:40 and o'clock
woman who answers Miss Williams's de-
scription. He says he noticed the couple
particularly because he requested them to
leave at the closing time, shortly before D
O'Clock. When he saw Durrant's picture in
the paper he was puzzled over it until he
remembered Durrant, as stated. When
Johnson went 10 the register book to see
what names the couple had entered he
found that the sheet bearing the entries
OF names on April II had been distracted
Miss Williams came from Alameda to San
Francisco on that day at 4:ZO "a m, but old
not reach the house where she was living
until after o'clock. She went out that
night before o'clock. The pext morning
her dead and mutilated bodyrfwaS found in
the church library room Durfant has all
while the police theory is that he made an
appointment with her that afternoon to
meet him in the church that evening and
there assaulted and slew her.