Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-12-11
BELIEVES DURRANT INNOCENT.
Judge Merrlman Thinks Blanther Com
mitted the Crimes and That = Judicial
Murder 10 About Co he Committed.

Judge Merrlman Thinks Blanther Com
nitted the Crimes and That Judicial
Murder 10 About Co he Committed.
Little Rock, Ark, December TO-
Judge E. M. Merriman, of Little Rock,
who was personally acquainted with
and once represented j. q. Blanther,
alias Forbes. as attorney in this city,
insists that Blanther and not Durrant
murdered Blanche Lamont and Minnie
Williams in San Francisco, and that the
execution of Durrant will, therefore, be
a judicial murder. A few days ago the
story was sent out from Atlanta, Ca,
that Blanther was in that city at the
time the girls were murdered. Judge
Merrinlan scouts the idea. Judge Mer-
riman to-day made the following state
ment: :.
"Since the publication of the card
through the Associated Press, in which
/ stated that I believed in the innocence
of Theodore Durrant and the guilt OF
Blanther, alias Forbes, l have re-
ceived many communications support
ing either side OF the question. Now,
as the Supreme Court Of California has
refused to interfere eDurrant must
hang, and still having an abiding falth
in his innocence, | feel that the pubhc
ought to have an insight into the facts
that have arrayed themselves before me
and convinced me that Judicial muir
der is about to be committed.
First, there can be no question but
that the written concession is the
handwriting of Blantner.
Second Blanther confesses that he
murdered Blanche Lamont and Minnie
Williams.
Third, the entire evidence in the
conviction of Durrant has been cir
cumstantial.
Fourth, Blanther being dead, my
lips may reveal the fact that ne had
told me during his troubles here that
the name of Forbes was but an alias;
that he had assumed it for reasons best
known to himself, and that his lie
had been an eventful one.
Fifth, the trial of Durrant seems
to have been forced one by some
power behind the scenes, the prose
cutting attorney being notably bitter
in the conduct of the same, and yet
failing to establish a single TACT by
direct and pasitive proof.
"Sixth. the theory of the State that
Blanche Lamont was murdered on the
night of April 8, 1895, rs and has been
throughout the whole trial an I'M
warranted assumption, for Qf BAN
theirs confession be true) as we'll as
sumo that she was murdered at the
same time Minnie Williams was, on
the night of April II, 1885, or perhaps
the night previous. There is no proof
that the girls were murdered in the
Emanuel church, and a more reason
able assumption would be that they
were murdered elsewhere and their
bodies carried to the church as part or
the programme
Seventh. as to the Atlanta dispatch
that Blanther was seen in that city pc
tween the 18th and 18th of April, 1898.
This may be all true, and he may nave
had all that arranged for his purchas-
ing agency to believe that, but does
ANYBODY know or has anybody even
ventured to say when he left Atlanta?
Ten days interviewed between April )
and u, lat which latter date Minnie
Williams body was discovered. With
in that period of time Blanther might
have been seen in Atlanta and also
have been in San Francisco to do his
bloody work and even had day or two
to spare, if he was working under a
preconcerted plan and stimulated by a
reward for prompt and immediate ac-
ton, as has been intimated by man
named Austin.
Eighth, the theory of the State,
without anything upon which to base
1t, is that one Of the girls was killed
on April 3, the other on April Is. Ban-
Their says he killed them both at the
same time, which is more reasonable
presumption when the whole case Is
founded upon presumption alone.
"If Blanther was at Atlanta at the
time indicated, he probably went there
with perfected plan to return at once
to San Francisco, as soon as he had
established the premises upon which
to base an alibi, following the advice
of some party in whose employ he was
to consummate this dastardly deed. He
could have left Atlanta the fourth or
fifth and been in San Francisco in time
to murder the two girls.
FINALLY lit is very dangerous to take a
mans life on circumstantial evidence
alone.
Agnes Cameron Forbes says she can
prove that Blanther murdered the girls.
Blanther, with death staring him in the
face, standing on the brink of eternity.
said Durrant was innocent, and he was
guilty.
Surrounding circumstances tending to
establish the truth of Blanther's confess
sion, with these facts before it, how can
any court avoid the doctrine of reasonable
doubt and refuse an appeal in the interest
of justice. humanity and right?
IF, after an investigation, all this
should fallacious, then Durrants life
could pay the penalty and the public
would feel better satisfied that a judicial
murder had not been committed"