The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-10-31


SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 3O.-District
Attorney Barnes today appeared as the
central figure in the last scene of the
trial of Theodore Durrant. While the
spectators in the crowded court room
craned their necks to catch every word
of the speaker, he delivered what is con-
sidered in many respects one of the
strongest arguments ever made to a
California jury. Aside from being logical
and convincing in his discussion of the
testimony, he made two or three dram
atlc by-pIays that put to a severe test
the IRON nerves of the prisoner OS these
scenes, the most impressive took place
IN the early part OF mis- argument when
he spoke of how counsel for the defense
mad invoked the spirit of Blanche La
mont, and voiced her thoughts by say
ing, Let him so free; he harmed me
not. While looking intently at the frame
bearing Miss LamOnt'S dress which
stood near the jury box, and telling how
tnfough the long days OF the trial he
mad seen the young school girl clothed
IN all her innocence ana purity MIR.
Barnes reached the climax OF the scene.
Turning upon Durrant, who was seated
only three feet away, the district at
torney, with clenched nsts and in a voice
OF thunder exclaimed: L see her now.
There she stands behind him at this
very moment, not praying for vengeance
TOR her deep ana remeGileSs wrongs, not
for the laws of retribution upon her MUIR
derer, but with uplifted hands and
streaming eyes, praying that God will
not put it into your hearts, by the mock
cry OF verdict of not guilty to set free
this monster
To Prey Upon other Souls,
pollute with vie hands the unsullied
snow of other children, and oefy anew
that God OF justice whose ministers you
are"
Durrant was the least affected person
in the court room. While Mrs. Noble,
the dead girls aunt wept silently, and
everybody else was thrilled with the
impressiveness of the scene Durrant sat
stolid and Indifferent. As the district
attorneys last words We're uttered, the
prisoner whispered something in the ear
of his mother who sat near him and
smiled as If pleased at the wit of his
own remark
Mr.. Barnes began his argument by
dwelling upon the personalities of Miss
Lamont and Durrant and outlining the
grounds upon which the state bases it's
contention that no one but Durrant
could be the murderer. He spoke in part
as follows:
'"The individual who perpetrated the
hideous murder. with which the defend
ant stands charged, and which has har-
roWed the soul and frozen the blood of
this community, is no ordinary criminal,
and his crime in every aspect in which
it may be considered, is without d, paral-
lei 1t was not committed under a blind
and furious impulse; to revenge some
real or fancied wrong to his person, his
property or his character, nor from mo-
tives of gain, nor in the commission of
robbery, nor yet under the hot spur of
jealousy. 1t was in every sense a
COId-BIOOded, Vicious Murder.
1t was without the slightest provocation
or apparent excuse or palliation. The as
sassin chose for his victim an innocent
maiden. She was undeVeloped in mind,
pure in life and thought, of simple and
unsuspecting nature, and presenting in
body none of the qualities which are
supposed to arouse the evil passions of
the seducer and the libertine. For the
scene of his dreadful assault, the muir
derer selected an evangelical church,
dedicated to the worship of God. 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 strangling,
driving his cruel fingers deep into the
tender flesh of her slender throat; and
SO tiercely did he do his devils work,
that the stigmata of his crime remained
until the discovery of her corpse, clearly
dscernible 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 be-
fore her soul exhaled and went to
heaven, we do not know. The advance
ment of natural decomposition baffied
investigation and made knowledge i'm
possible; but we know that either living,
or dying, or dead, she was taken by him
up the steep stairs of the steeple of the
belfry of the church, where he supported
the poor body with blocks of wood, 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 they
promise of Christian burial. None saw
the crime save the God whom he feared
not. as he extended the naked and slen
der form on the belfry floor, laid the
proper the head, and Strengthened the
meager body in the dust Not human
being had beheld mis- retreat from the
awful presence OF the death which was
locked in his own breast. There lay the
speechless and untestifying corpse, and
what was ii now to give him fear? 1t
had been nothing but a girl after all,
and concerning her, there would be the
same old story to which he could help
to give currency-the same old story
of a vanished girl. distracted family,
an ineffective and perfunctory search
among the houses of i'll repute, a re-
luctant conclusion that this little one,
like others OF our daughters had gone
10 her moral distinctions; picture
turned to the wall, a name never spoken
and oblivion, personal and social, for
poor lost Blanche Lamont. And he was
right for the moment. The murderer
went his guilty way, with his undivulged
crime, unscathed and unwhipped of JUS
tice. while his victim lay in the spire
that pointed its slender finger to the
sky. as if reproaching its ruler for his
unmoving Indignation
circumstances of Discovery.
Mr.. Barnes then related the circum-
stances in connection with the discovery
of Miss Lamont's body, and from the
facts drew the conclusion that she was