Widnes Examiner. — 1895-09-28 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL AT SAN F RAN CISCO.  -GRUESOME DISCOVERIES IN A CHAPEL. The "San Francisco Chronicle "just to hand announces that the Durant trial, one of the most sensational of recent times, had just entered upon its eighth week. Theodore Durrant, the superintendent of the Emmanuel Baptist Library and Sunday school, is charged with the murder of two young ladies, Miss Minnie Williams and Miss Blanch Lamont, members of the congreeation, whose bodies wire found in the chapel, last Easter. About this time the janitor of Emmanuel Chapel went into the building to prepare for the service, and was astonished to find open the door ef the Sunday school library, which as a rule, was not only closed, but locked. Entering the room a ghastly sight presented itself. On the floor lay the body of a young lady with her clothes diearranged,gaping wounds on several parts on her hod y,and a handkerchief tied tightly round her neck. The floor was covered with blood,and by the side of the corpse was a broken table knife with which the terrible wounds bad been inflicted. The horrified official raised an alarm, and the girl was almost immediately recognised as Miss Minnie Williams, a member of the cangregation,who had left home on the previous evening with the intention of asaisting in the Easter deaorations of the chapel,and also of changing a hook at the library. The police made inquiries,and suspicion naturally fell on the officers of the church,but most of these were speedily able to clear themselves. Then the fact was recalled that about ten days previously another young lady of the congregation, Miss Blanche Lamont, had mysteriously disappeared, leaving no clue behind, and it was decided to make a thorough search of the building. Every nook and cranny was carefully gone over without result, and the last place to be visited was the belfry. The door at the bead of the stairs was found to be locked, and some hesitation was felt at breaking it open, as it was be.. tiered to be an act of sacrilege. At last, however,orders were given for the doors to be broken open, and that being done, Miss Lamont's mysterious disappearance was at once explained. On the Boor, with every article of clothing removed, lay the young girl's body, the hands folded across her breast, and the head supported on a wooden block. She also had been strangled, and the body afterwards posed in the manner in which it was found. Further inquiries were made, and the result was the arrest of Theodore Durrant, the superintendent of the library and Sunday school. He, it was alleged, was intimately acquainted with both young ladies, and had been in the company of Miss Williams on the evening before her body was found. Miss Lamont, who was about twenty years of age, was staying with relatives at San Francisco while she was being trained as a school teacher, and she was on very friendly terms with.Durrant. He met her as she lel t the class on the evening when she disappeared, and several people saw them walk away together. Durrant has shown the utmost callousness since his arrest, and when taken to the scene of the murders displayed not the slightest interest in the proceedings.