Arizona republican., 1898-01-08

nnQlnS or MISS LdmOntS s DOQy.
 The ladies of Emanuel church were
 engaged in decorating the edifce pre-
 paratory to the celebration of the
 Easter Sunday services, when the
 mangled body of Minnie Williams was
 found, almost naked, in the library. A
 number of ugly knife wounds and
 some rags that had been forced down the young woma1's throat told of the
 unequal struggle she had made to
 protect her honor.
 1 Miss Williams's body was discovered 1 in the afternoon, and late the same
 night the first clew to the murderer
 was obtained. From some of the young woman's friends 1t was learned
 that she had been seen the evening i before with Durrant, and although i there was nothing else to show that he
 had any connection with the crime, the police decided to arrest him. Dur
 rants home was visited late at nigh,
 but he was not there. His pa.en,s
 said that he had left at midnight with the signal corps of the National Qua:
 to which he belonged to make some l heliographing experiments on Mt. Diablo. The next train ca risd two detectives toward the mountain, and,
 after completing their journey by
 stage, Durrant was found late in the | afternoon and arrested. But the news
 that he was charged with the murder ] of Minnie Williams was not first inn l parted to him by the officers. A mes f sage was flashed on the rays of the
 sun by the photographers in this city ] who were taking part in the exper.-
 ments of the signal corps, and Dug rant knew that he was to be arrested 1 before the officers arrived.
 ] While these events were taking piace'
 on Mt. Diablo, sixty miles away. a discovery had been made in this city 1 which filled the streets with men and
 women crying for vengeance. From
 the first the police associated the find 1 ing of Miss Williams body with the 1 disappearance of Miss Lamont, and a 1 search was at once begun in the church for her body. Men worked all
 night tearing up floors and breaking | down partitions, and at 10 o'clock Sunday morning the body of Miss La mont was found. IA broken door knob and turned bolt excited the susplc- 1 ions of the searchers, and the door leading to the belfry of the church | was broken down. Up the winding
 stairs the policemen groped their way, ! and at the third landing, lying in the
 corner of the darkened belfry, the
 naked body of the murdered girl wes' l found. No knife had been used to | commit the crime, as was the case l in the murder of Miss Williams, but
 her throat revealed the manner in
 which the young woman met her 1 death.
 The post-mortem examination showed that murder was not the only
 crime that had been committed. The
 news of the discovery of the seconn 1 body in the church had spread with 1 incredible velocity, and at 6 ocicck, when Durrant, in custody of the ofa- i cers, alighted from ferryboat at the
 was met by a dense crowd that was
 ominous because of it's silence. The l police were prepared for an outbreak, l however, and two companies of armed l men were present. Duran. was p ac-
 ed in a closed carriage surrounded i by fifty men armed with Winche s.ers, i and driven to the :i-v prison. Dur rant then protested his innocence as l he did to the hour of his dealE. but i the evidence against him accumu ated 1 rapidly, and on April 31 an informa-
 tion was filed against him by District Attorney Barnes charging him wi h i the murder of Blanche Lamont.
 The trial, which began on July P and lasted until November 1, was one of the most celebrated in criminal jur- isprudence. Nearly 1,2OO talesmen l were examined before a jury was s. cured, and six weeks passed before
 the taking of testimony was begun. The evidence throughout was circum- stantial, but when taken together
 
 1 formed a chain so strong as to admit of no reasonable doubt. The prosecu- tion produced witnesses, who traced Durrant's movements on April from ! the time he left Cooper medical col T lege unti! he entered the church with
 Miss Lamont. To all of this testimony i the prisoner entered a denial, and in rebuttal produced the roll call of the
 college, which showed that he was a. tending a lecture at the hour when
 Miss Lamont was murdered.
 The prosecution disputed the relsa- bility of the roll call, and showed that
 students were accustomed to have classmates answer for them when they
 were not present. AS the case became f more hopeless Durrant went on the