Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1898-01-07


doors that separate the scaffod from
the larger apartment swing to admit
the visitors.
The ceremony was very simple The
audience had no sooner entered the
room than silence fell upon the gather
ing. The door of the condemned cell
clanked and in fraction of a minute
thereafter Warden Hale entered fol-
lowed by Father Lagan and the pris-
oner led between two guards. The
priests stepped aside and Durrant in
n voice, emotionless and apparently
unaffected, made short speech. There
was no sincerity In the mans words
They were cold and passionless.
There was no scene ut the gallows
Mrs. Durrant did not witness the exc
cution. She remained in room in the
lower part of the prison and showed
unmistakable signs of grief tempered
with logged desire to create the inn
preston that she was too proud to
weep.
Durrant died protesting to the last
his innocence Of the murder OF Blanche
Lamont and Minnie Williams. He
maintained to the very end the same
marvellous coolness and nerve which
characterized him throughout his long
imprisonment and many trials and
demonstrated that he was indeed the
criminal of the century. His farewell
words We're spoken in n voice subdued
yet clear. which. by its calmness and
freedom of passion or emotion caused
many heads to turn away and many
eyes to fill with tears. He forgave his
enemies with no trace of concealed
resentment and proclaimed his inno-
cence with the calmness of one as
serting an indubitable truth. He was the
least affected of any Of the many peo-
pie who witnessed the death scene and
even after the fatal drop he quivered
not nor gave other evidence of having
suffered pain.
ON TO THE GALLONS.
At 1924 o'clock the frail door that
guards the threshold of the gallows
room swung open and the little party
conducted Theodore Durrant to the
gallows. Father LaEan led. draped
in cassock and suplice and chanting
the prayers for the dying. Durrant,
his father, friend. Warden Hale and
the guards followed.
The father and his friend left the
party and walked around the gallows
to the front. while the condemned
man and his escort climbed the thr-
teen steps that led to the platform
and the waiting trap.
At last Theodore Durrant stood up
on the gallows. He gave no sign of
weakening. His slight figure was as
erect as though it had been his mar
rage morning. The broad leathern
strap that bound his arms to his sides
allowed his wrists some play and his
fingers rested lightly on the strap.
Five minutes later. when his body was
swinging like a pendulum beneath the
trap, the fingers, now all blue and
chilled looking, still rested where he
had placed them as he left the cell.
NET DEATH UNFLINCHINGLY.
Instantly upon arriving on the gall
lcws. the rope was knotted about his
neck. The murderer held his chin
high in air to make room for the stiff
rev line, kuotted in the peculiar
fashion of the hang-man.
BY an unusual privilege, the con-
demned was permitted to wear a low
collar open front, and n white satin
tie. His face was pale, but it was not
the ashy paleness of terror. 1t was
the face of a man who, knowing that he
has a momentous thing to do. is re-
solved to do It like man.
The rope about his neck. and the
hang-man turned to get the black
cap. when the erect head turned and
Durrant whispered a request to be al
lowed to speak. 1t was granted. Then
with his foot on the trap, the cord
about his THROAT tied fast to the cross
beam on thd gallows, the holy water
Of his baptism in the Catholic church
on his head, he said these final words:
DuRRANT'S DYING SPEECH.
Il desire to say that although I am
an innocent man. innocent of every
crime that has been charged against me-
bear no luminosity toward those who
have prosecuted me, not even the press
of San Francisco, which bounded me
TO the grave. If any man thinks | am
gong to spring sensation.--I am not.
~ If 10 L..
innocent man brought to the grave by
my prosecutors. But / forgive them ALI
They will get their justice from the
great God who Is Master of us all, and
there ], also. expect to get Justice, that
is. the justice of an innocent man.
whether or no the perpetrators of
the crime of which / am charged are
discovered 1t will make no difference TO
me now, but I say this day will be a
shame to the great state of Califor-
mia.
II forgive everybody who has perse-
cuted me. an innocent man, whose
hands have never been stained with
blood, and l go to meet my God with
forgiveness for all men"
Durrant began to speak at 1924 and
ceased at 1898. He delivered his few
sentences at times poorly constructed.
iuii or repetitions and protestations of
his innocence In low slng-song, grow
...S sliNHty NtHtiltnL tone ne declared
that he was not guilty OF the crime
Tor which he had been sent to the gal
lows.
HIS FATHER WITNESSED IT ALL.
His father. who stood with Redeemed
eyes, though fearless, on the floor in
'front.' of his son, showed back the near
est bystandNrs as though fearful that
they should fail in respect to one so
near his earthly end. But the crowd,
though breathless and curious, was not
exultant was not mob, and no sound
OF approval or the contrary discarded
the speaker nor disturbed the CHASTITY
Durrant finished calmly
with falling information.
Impatient for their task. the guards,
Tor the suspense was harder ON them
than on the condemned, drew the
sable cap over his head. As the
descending cap covered his face, there
was no change in the expression of the
man. who almost In the same instant
was dead. Hardly was the cap ad-
1usted when the trap dropped with its
loud rattle, the only sound in the in
tense silence. The body dropped. there
was the sound of the tugging of the
rope as 1t drew taut under the weight
Of the body and that was all. A vibra-
ton or two and the body hung at the
end of hemp quite motionless.
The elder Durrant gazed steadily at
the nrOfpn1 rQ until that ,,A,,n..