Evening star., 1948-02-16

| which Mr.. Hull claims would have caused
Senator Borah to modify his views.
Where then was the freedom of press and
speech we preach to the rest Of the world2
The true facts of the matter might be
| boiled down to these simple words: Too
| much secrecy in the whole F. D. r. admins
| tration. Conferences, commitments on things
| we taxpayers may yet have to learn about
DELMER G. WRIGHT.
More on the Durrant Case
| To the Editor OF The Star:
The Rev. J. George Gibson, pastor Of San
| made deathbed confession that he murdered
young Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams
of his congregation and silently permitted one
| of his active Sunday school workers, William
| Henry Theodore Durrant, to be convicted on
| circumstantial evidence and hanged at San
| quentin Prison, after protracted and sensa-
| tional trial which the San Francisco dailies
| reported to the extent of three pages day.
| I was a reporter, as was the late Charlie
| Nicholson, working on evidence stories preced-
| ing the Durrant trial. and during IA years
| thereafter I was a San Francisco journalist,
| the last II on the Chronicle.
The fake story of the pastors confession
| first appeared in newspaper in England a
| year or so after Durrant was hanged. A clip
| ping reached the Chronicle from some reader
| in England. called that evening on the Rev.
Mr. Gibson to get his reaction. He was in his
study, which was in the parsonage, not in the
church. When showed him the printed article,
he arose, stepped to his bookshelves, handed
me a little box. It contained possibly 40 such
clippings, all apparently reprints from which,
ever one was the original and all used as in
terestng features by editors Of papers in smaller
cities throughout England. There were also
several editorials citing this confession as q
warning to the courts on the danger of relying
on circumstantial evidence alone for convic-
ton on murder charge.
few years after I wrote about the pastor
being very much alive and possessed of the
collection of fake stories, the Brooklyn Eagle
printed the same old story about the deathbed
confession. Again I went to the Rev. Mr..
Gibson at the same parsonage. He produced q
large pasteboard box containing three or four
times many clippings as before. They were
from Canada and other colonial regions of the
British Empire. Again I wrote a local news
story about the preacher still being alive and
still being widely publiciZed as murderer who
had confessed before he died.
From time to time during nearly 50 years the
old fake story had been revived, used by crimi-
nal defense lawyers in murder trials to discount
circumstantial evidence, which, when complete,
is the best possible evidence, as it cannot lie.
The Rev. Mr.. Gibson had great opportunity
for libel suits but he did nothing. The Baptists
had had enough sordd publicity resulting from
the revelation of findings in Emanuel Church.
So the matter was allowed to go unchallenged.
For all I know, the pastor still may be living.
aged about 81. ARCHIE RICE.
To the Editor of The Star
In recent issues of The Star two corre-
spondents have discussed the relation of the
Rev. Mr. John George Gibson, pastor of the
Emanuel Baptist Church, San Francisco, to
the murder Of Blanche Lamont, April 3, 1895.
Her body was found in the belfry of the
church II days after she disappeared. Theo-
dore Durrant, member of the church, active
in its work and much about the premises
was executed for the crime Matthew Worth
Pinkerton, principal, Pinkerton & Co.'S United
States Detective Agency, in his Murder in
ALI Ages" [Chicago: A. E. Pinkerton & Co..
1881, said in 1898, a date not remote from the
crime: upon the discovery and Identification
Of. the remains, the chief of police sent for
the Rev. John George Gibson, pastor of the
church. This gave rise to the report that the
clergyman had been arrested, charged with
the awful crimes, and for time many believed
him to be guilty reports to that effect being
telegraphed all over the country. Crowds sur
rounded the pastors residence, extra papers
were issued, and the widest excitement pre-
vailed. Nothing of the kind had taken place,
however, the chief only wishing to learn what
light Mr.. Gibson and the church sexton could
throw upon the matter. Later, upon the trial
of Durrant, the attorneys for the defense un-
tSyy
man, broadly intimating that he was the real
murderer. But the feeling against him had
passed away, and his absolute innocence was
almost universally recognized" page 4600
"Durrant was ably defended. little un-
scrupulously, it may be said, since the effort
to persuade the jury that the Rev. Mr.. Gibson
was the guilty party, unsupported by any tangi-
BILE evidence was almost the refinement, OF
cruelty. Such effect as this course had upon
the Jury was to prejudice them against one
in whose behalf such unprofesSional methods
were employed. There is not in the mind of
any candid person, informed in the premises
the slightest doubt as to the guilt Of Theodore
Durrant, not alone Of the crime for which
he was tried but of the murder Of Minnie
Williams as well. He was promptly found
guilty, and sentenced to be hanged February Z,
1896" page 463)
Appeals were taken to every court that
could grant relief or delay, and to every
power that could pardon or reprieve. -Four
times was the wretch sentenced to death, the
last occasion being December 15 1897. Even
then hope was not resigned, and final ap-
peal was made to the Supreme Court of the
United States which, at almost the last mo-
ment, declined to interfere with the tardy
course of California justice" pages 463-4J
Durrant protested his innocence to the end,
but the minister who had been his spiritual