The Brunswick times. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 188?-1900, 1898-01-08
DURRANT PAYS THE
AWFUL PENALTY,
After One of the Hardest Legal
Battles ever Fought for a
Human Life.
met DEATH WITHOUT A qREMOR.
FOrgave the Newspapers, Which, He Said,
Were Responsible for His Convic-
tion and Sentence.

San Francisco, Jan. Theodore
Durrant, who was four times sem
terced to death, was executed at 10 :37
O'Clock today for two of the most atro-
cious murders in the history of crime.
The most strenuous efforts were put
forth to save life-appeal after appeal
having been made by his untiring
lawyers. but without avail.
A last appeal was made to the Uni
ted States supreme court in Washing
ton today in order TO stay the execu-
tion, but this failed.
DurranG ascended the scaffold calm
ly, following Father Logan, who ad.
mlnistered to his spiritual wants, he
having been baptized into the Catho-
lilo faith early in the day. He made a
brief speech in quiet tones, asserting
his innocence and fOrgiving those who
had prosecuted him, mentioning es-
peoially the press of San Francisco.
His last words were: 81 am inno-
cent" His death appeared painless.
After the drop Durrant did not strug-
gle. In fifteen minutes he was cut
down. His neck was broken. by the
fall.
Dnrrant steadily denied that he had
anything to do with the terrible muir
der of the two lovely girls for whose
life his own was taken today. The
whole state has for many months been
excited over the case, and Governor
Budd, distracted by petitions to hang
the alleged murderer, and prayers to
save him, insisted on going over the
eviaemee himself by examining the
witnesses personally.
L uC w as UWO
!. ago, but during this time neither
Durrant nor bi, lawyers w'ud say
whom they suspected Of the killing,
while asserting the accused mans in
nocence. It was Easter morning of
1895 that San Francisco was Mortified
by the finding Of a beautiful young
girl, dead, IN closet opening on to
the library of Emmanuel church. The
girl had been choked, smothered in
her own clothes, and then almost
hacked to pieces with a case knife,
borrowed from the church kitche
The motive Of the murder was re-
wealed by physical evidence that mur-
der was not the only crime wreaked
on the girl. For ten days, Blanche
Lamont, another young girl, had been
missing from her home in the city E,
and no clue had been found to account
for her disappearance, but the discovery
of the body of Minnie Williams in the
library closet gave the police an idea,
and they attacked every Granny and
corner of Emmanuel church. They
finally broke down a door that gave
access to the beifry, and high up il
the steeple they found the body of the
missing girl. The body was stark
naked, the hands folded across the
chest, the head resting on a block of
wood. On the throat we're the prints
of the nails of the fingers that had
strangled her.
Durrant knew both the girls. He
was the assistant Sunday school super
intendent of the church, and had
offered marriage to Blanche Lamont,
and possibly to Minnie WiliamS, also.
They were both pure, pretty young
girls, whose utmost dissipation was a
Christian Endeavor meeting.
Durrant was only tried on the
charge of numbering Blanche Lamont,
but the other case against him was
equally strong,