The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-07

of the most atrocious crimes known at this
end of the century.
MISS LAMONT'S DISAPPEARANCE.
Blanche Lamont was a young girl Of
twenty years, of good family who went to
San Francisco in September, 1894, from Dill
lon, Mont. for her health. She was not
strong, and the high altitude and rarified
air of the Montana city did not agree with
her. Her doctors said she had tendency
towards consumption, so her parents sent
her and a younger sister. Maud, to San
Francisco to live with their aunt, Mrs. c..
C. Noble, at No. 209 Twenty first street.
Blanche was fitting herself to be teacher,
and her younger sister was also in school,
The two girls were much together. and, as
Mrs Noble was strict and old-fashioned in
her ways, Blanche went out very little in
society. About her only male friend was
W. II. Theodore Durrant, whom she met at
the neighboring Emmanuel Baptist Church,
which she also Joined. Durrant was a stu
dent at the Cooper Medical College, and he
was conspicuous in church work. He was
assistant superintendent of the Sunday
school, had charge of the library, and was
the moving spirit in all church socials and
young peoples societies. Mrs. Noble did
not fancy his manner and she liked il less
when she saw he was paying special at
tention to her niece, but she could not well
object to his calling, nor could she forbid
Blanche TO accompany him TO socials with
out causing trouble in the church. Once
only did he take the girl out alone and that
was one afternoon to Golden Gate Park.
They stayed later than they should have
done and Durrant was profuse in apologies
on their return
On April 3, 1895, the girl left her home as
usual in the morning. taking her lunch. She
attended the Boys High School in the
morning and in the afternoon went to a
cooking class at the Normal School. She
was due at home about O clock in the aft
ernoon. Her aunt waited vainly for her and
kept the dinner. When Ii grew dark she
became excited and anxious, but for the
sake of the girls good name she did not
wish to notify the police, or even her
friends. In her perpleXity she decided to
attend the prayer meeting at Emmanuel
Church that evening, hoping that Blanche
might have gone home with some of her
school friends and would be at the meeting.
She saw no trace of Blanche, but near her
sat young Theodore Durrant. When he saw
her he asked:
rs Blanche here to-night?''
She said no, whereupon he added: We'll,
m sorry, for l have got book called The
Newcomes' that she asked for. l will send
1t up 10 the house for her"
Two days afterward the girls disappear
ance was noted, and articles were published
about her and pictures of her printed. The
closest police search failed to reveal any
trace of her. No one imagined that Dur
rant had had any hand in her removal,
though Mrs. Noble suspected him. Her sus-
picions were strengthened when Durrant
called at her house, and, in offering to hunt
Tor the miSsisng girl, cunningly suggested
that she had been lured into some disrepu-
table house. Again Mrs. Noble gravely sus-
pected him, but she had no facts and could
not denOunce him as she wished She re-
scented bitterly his insult to the girl, whom
she knew in her heart to be pure and inno-
cent. Ten days went by with no trace of
the missing girl. Durrant made himself
officious in the search for her, and even
went to the newspaper Offices to make sug-
gestions. Among his ntimates he made no
scruple of declaring that the girl would be
found in some vile den. He spoke of her
disappearance as the stereotyped dropping
out of their life of young girls, and cited
several recent cases that had occurred to
bear out his theory.
THE MINNIE WILLIAMS MURDER.
No trace of the girl was found till April
10, when the postman left at Mrs. Mobiles
a package in a newspaper addressed to her.
Inside the package were three rings which
Blanche wore when she disappeared On
the newspaper were the names of two mem
bers of Emmanuel Church printed in a
feigned hand. This was the day before
Easter, and he return of these rings would
have created a local sensation had it not
been for the greater sensation created by
discovery in Emmanuel Church. near by.
party OF women engaged in decorating
the church for Easter found in the library
room the body of a young woman with
blood on her face. They went at once for
the pastor, the Rev. John George Gibson.
lie is an Englishman and extremely nsr-
Vous. When he arrived and saw that
murder mad been committed he lost all his
self-control. lie besought every one to keep
the facts secret. sent for an undertaken
to remove the body and ordered the janitor
10 clean up the place. When notified that
the coroner and the police must be notified
he wrung his hands and mourned over the
scandal that would ruin the church.
When the police and coroner arrived they
found a scene which shocked even these Of
ficials, hardened to scenes of crime. On the
floor, where she had been flung by the
SaSsin, lay the mangled body of a slightly
covered her face from stab just over the
eye, and blood had soaked through her
clothes and run in pools on the floor from
hidden wounds on her body and from
the arms. The girls hair was diShevelled
her clothes We're torn. and scratches upon
her neck and splashes of blood on the wall
showed that she had made a courageous
but futile fight to protect ner honor and
her life. When examined more closely 1t
was found she had been stabbed again and
again by the murderer. who had grabbed
up for his purpose an ordinary table knife
He had dealt such murderous blows with
this weapon that the blade was broken
into four pieces and these pieces were
sticking in the wounds. There were two
wounds in the breast, one of which pene-
trated the heart, but the surgeons decided
that the girl had died from strangulation
as her throat and wind pipe were filled with
lace edging WHICH had been torn from her
underclothing and rammed down her throat
with pointed stick. All the implements of
the crime were left where the murderer
dropped them. but there was not a single
The police soon discovered that the victim
was Minnie Williams, twenty-one years
old, and a member of Emmanuel Church.
She had lately been living in Alameda with
friends. Two years ago, owing to the sep
aration of her father and mother, she was
compelled to seek work. She had been 90
ing light homework for Mrs. G. II. Morgan,
of Alameda, but had regularly crossed the
bay every Sunday 10 attend church, and
had sometimes been present at SocialS. Tne
day before her death she had packed her
trunk and started to visit Mrs Noy. VINO
lives near the Emmanuel ChurCh. Sle IN
tended to stay there few days before go
ing to Seattle to join Mrs. Morgan's family
She reached Mrs. Voys in time for supper
and after the meal she started out TO at
tend a meeting of the Young Folks Chris
tian Endeavor Society at Or. Vo5els house.
She declined to take q latch Key as she
would be back early. She did not return
but Mrs. Voy was not alarmed as she knew
Minnie had many girl friends and thought
she had gone home with one. The first in
timation she had of the girls fate was the
cry of the neWSbOys with the afternoon
papers.
DURRANT AFTER THE MURDER.
When the police began to investigate they
soon found that Durrant was mixed up with
this girl. Like Blanche Lamont, she was
shy, had no male friends, and had been
captivated by Durrant, in whom she seemed
to have confidence because of his position
in the church. Durrant had taken her to
several socials, and he appeared to have
much to say to her after prayer meetings.
Once he had called on her at Mrs. Morgan's,
and on the day she came over from Ala
media he haunted the ferry station for sew
eral hours, evidently waiting for her. She
was a girl with far more experience or LIE
and firmness of character than Blanche,
and the theory is that her murderer met
her on the way to DR.: Nogel,s. and induced
Eav. ...eNf