American Monsters: Theodore Durrant
Find out on this episode of Kinda Murdery!
Sources:
https://archive.org/details/true-detective-feb-1929
https://www.historicalcrimedetective.com/killer-theodore-durrant/
https://the-line-up.com/theo-durrant-the-demon-of-belfry
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Theodore-Durrant-Demon-of-the-Belfry-SF-murders-10418597.php
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Zevon Odelberg is a true crime podcast host and disability advocate. Zevon has cerebral palsy and he wants Kinda Murdery to be welcoming community for people with disabilities and for people living with challenges of any kind. Life can be hard, but being together makes it better.
Speaker 1: Warning. Kind of Murdery contains adult themes, explicit language, and
Speaker 1: descriptions of violence. It is not suitable for anyone, and
Speaker 1: we recommend you stop listening now.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to kind of Mrdery, a true
Speaker 2: crime podcast that's mostly about murder and always about the
Speaker 2: strange and compelling stories that arise when the path less
Speaker 2: travel twists to darkness and those who walk its shadows
Speaker 2: surrender to violence and moral corruption.
Speaker 3: We have a perilous journey ahead, so thank you for
Speaker 3: lending me your courage and good company. I'm Zevan Odelberg,
Speaker 3: and this is kind of Murdery tonight. I bring you
Speaker 3: a story that just might wake you right up and
Speaker 3: keep you awake. So if you're planning on a good
Speaker 3: night's sleep, maybe save this one for the morning. I've
Speaker 3: found this story and I'll be telling it. As written
Speaker 3: again by A. H. W. Corley in the February nineteen
Speaker 3: twenty nine edition of True Detective Magazine. Other articles were
Speaker 3: useful as well, and as always, you'll find my sources
Speaker 3: in the show notes. Please do remember to call the
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Speaker 3: your podcasts, I surely would appreciate it. All Right, to
Speaker 3: the issue at hand. This is the story of the
Speaker 3: San Francisco Steeple murders. It's the tragic story of Blanche
Speaker 3: Lamont and Manny Williams. And it's also the story of
Speaker 3: a handsome and well liked Sunday School superintendent named William
Speaker 3: Henry Theodore Durant, called THEO by friends, but history has
Speaker 3: a different name for him, now, THEO Durant. And please
Speaker 3: don't think I number among his friends just because I
Speaker 3: call him THEO. But William Henry Theodore Durant seems like
Speaker 3: at least two names two History remembers him by a
Speaker 3: different name. He's often referred to as San Francisco's Jack
Speaker 3: the Ripper, although he really requires no British counterpart, for
Speaker 3: he has a lurid nickname all his own, the Demon
Speaker 3: of the Belfry. So now please join me as we
Speaker 3: uncover what truths we can and solve what mysteries we
Speaker 3: may kind of murderies the Demon of the Belfry. The
Speaker 3: true story of San Francisco's Jack the Ripper starts now.
Speaker 3: Not often in criminal history the world over has there
Speaker 3: been perpetrated a crime more horrible and ghastly than the
Speaker 3: ruthless murder of pretty Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams. This
Speaker 3: is the real story of how it happened. Blanche Lamont
Speaker 3: left the normal school in San Francisco one afternoon to
Speaker 3: disappear as completely as though the earth had opened and
Speaker 3: swallowed her. Theodore Durant, a medical student and an ardent
Speaker 3: church worker at Baptist Emmanuel, the church that he and
Speaker 3: Blanche both attended, was last seen with her. Blanche was
Speaker 3: no better than she should be, sneered Durant in a
Speaker 3: significant manner. He's a liar, cried Minnie Williams, the attractive
Speaker 3: friend of the missing girl, furious at the baseless, cowardly
Speaker 3: insinuations of Durant. Were her courageous words the cause of
Speaker 3: her death. For not long afterwards, awful shrieks echoed through
Speaker 3: the church when ladies of the congregation came upon the slaughtered,
Speaker 3: mutilated body that shortly before had been lovely Minnie Williams.
Speaker 3: Horror piled on horror. The nude body of pretty Blanche
Speaker 3: Lamont was then found hidden far up in the church steeple,
Speaker 3: appearing at first under the peculiar half light, almost like
Speaker 3: it was a wax figure. Closer examination, however, destroyed the
Speaker 3: statue like picture. The beautifully molded figure of the young
Speaker 3: girl presented a terrible aspect. Blanche Lamont had suffered a
Speaker 3: horrible death. Her flesh was bruised in blood stained, with
Speaker 3: purple streaks about her throat, showing the marks of strong,
Speaker 3: cruel fingers whose nail prints were embedded in the delicate skin.
Speaker 3: Her face was horribly distorted, as was Minnie Williams. Her
Speaker 3: mouth wide open in a horrible grimace, and her lips
Speaker 3: curled back from the teeth, showed the torture to which
Speaker 3: she had been put before she died. Like her friend Minnie's,
Speaker 3: her dark hair was matted and blood clotted and hung
Speaker 3: in confusion over her shoulders. Look cried the detective, excitedly,
Speaker 3: pointing to a block of wood on which the head rested.
Speaker 3: That's the way they lay out stiffs. In the autopsy
Speaker 3: room at a medical school, a doctor or a medical
Speaker 3: student heated the trick. Her body was wrapped in a
Speaker 3: sheet and tenderly brought down the stairs, on which the
Speaker 3: detectives found strands of her lovely hair. She had been
Speaker 3: killed below that was clear, and then dragged to the
Speaker 3: hiding place. Buttons from her garments were found here and
Speaker 3: there on the stairs, and the platform was the church
Speaker 3: people was strewn with her clothing. Girls wore more clothing
Speaker 3: in those days than they do now, and there was
Speaker 3: a greater number of garments to be accounted for. I'll
Speaker 3: jump in for a little editorializing here. These murders took
Speaker 3: place in eighteen ninety five. This article was written in
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty nine. It just goes to show that the
Speaker 3: older generation always has the same complaints about the younger generation, right.
Speaker 3: I mean, here we are in nineteen twenty nine and
Speaker 3: the writers talking about how scantily clad women are these
Speaker 3: days compared to eighteen ninety five, which would be the
Speaker 3: same as a crotchety guide today complaining that girls are
Speaker 3: practically nude these days compared to nineteen eighty eight, which
Speaker 3: is a refrain I'm sure many of you have heard before.
Speaker 3: On the flip side, It's also a historical fact that
Speaker 3: women did wear more clothes at eighteen ninety five than
Speaker 3: nineteen twenty nine, petticoats and whatnot, And so from a
Speaker 3: police work standpoint, there really were more garments to be
Speaker 3: accounted for. And yet I chuckle the less. All right,
Speaker 3: let's get back to it. Buttons from miss Lamont's garments
Speaker 3: were found here and there on the stairs and the
Speaker 3: platform in the church steeple was strewn with her clothing.
Speaker 3: Girls wore more clothing in those days than now, and
Speaker 3: there was a greater number of garments to be accounted for.
Speaker 3: The church was searched for several days before they were
Speaker 3: all gathered together. Curiously enough, they were all hidden separately,
Speaker 3: even the shoes, hose, and gloves. One of the latter
Speaker 3: was never found. One or two of the girl's garments
Speaker 3: were found shoved in shallow places under the eaves of
Speaker 3: the auditorium, where the murderer had to crawl on all
Speaker 3: fours to hide them. The autopsy showed that the girl
Speaker 3: had not died as was first thought, of asphyxiation, as
Speaker 3: the smell of gas and the steeple had suggested, but
Speaker 3: had died instead from strangulation. The brains and lungs were congested,
Speaker 3: the larynx and trachea were compressed on one side. Seven
Speaker 3: cuts in her flesh were apparent geez, And when she'd
Speaker 3: been shoved up inside the church steeple, her body had
Speaker 3: literally been crushed together, which made an internal examination impossible.
Speaker 3: She too had struggled to protect her honor, and like
Speaker 3: Minnie Williams, had died in that fight. Fine Theodore Durant
Speaker 3: echoed the cry throughout the entire city. He killed Blanchelmont,
Speaker 3: he killed Minnie Williams. Find medical student Durant. The news
Speaker 3: of the discovery of the body of the missing girl
Speaker 3: spread like wildfire all over the city of San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Authorities determined later that Theodore Durant, who at the time
Speaker 3: was with the Signal Corps at Mount Diablo, had actually
Speaker 3: helped with complete unconcern, to spread the news of the
Speaker 3: dreadful secret which the church steeple had revealed. That's a
Speaker 3: little shocking, doesn't seem too smart. Detective Anthony left San
Speaker 3: Francisco at once to bring back the suspect. He caught
Speaker 3: Durant on the road between Walnut Creek and Mount Diablo,
Speaker 3: in a company with some other Signal Corps members. San
Speaker 3: Francisco was in an uproar. At five o'clock, word came
Speaker 3: that Durant was on his way back in the custody
Speaker 3: of Detective Anthony, and the city rejoiced. Durrant was smiling,
Speaker 3: not a wit embarrassed by his plight, insisting courteously that
Speaker 3: his arrest had been a mistake and that he could
Speaker 3: prove himself innocent. His rather glassy blue eyes and pale
Speaker 3: face were not highly suggestive of such hideous, fiendish perversions
Speaker 3: and lust as the crime indicated. Neither, on the other hand,
Speaker 3: did they in the least suggest charm and attraction. Yet
Speaker 3: there were nevertheless young women in town who regarded him
Speaker 3: as dashingly handsome and pitied him in his distress. Not
Speaker 3: a few of them openly scoffed at the idea of
Speaker 3: his guilt. That steady, church going young man a murderer.
Speaker 3: It was absurd. At the Fairy Landing, he was met
Speaker 3: by a surging, angry crowd of people who had waited
Speaker 3: for hours to catch sight of him. Their shouts of
Speaker 3: vengeance did not in the least alarm him. He showed
Speaker 3: no fear even when detectives rushed him into the patrol
Speaker 3: wagon to protect him from the insults and maltreatment of
Speaker 3: the mob. Up and down the city of San Francisco
Speaker 3: flew the news Blanche Lamon's murderer has been caught. Could
Speaker 3: it be true? Was this quiet, well disposed young man,
Speaker 3: this ardent church worker, guilty of the shocking crime. There
Speaker 3: was nothing exceptional about him to the casual observer, nothing
Speaker 3: in his manner of life to mark him a murderer,
Speaker 3: or in his family or in his associations. He had, never,
Speaker 3: as far as most people knew, been seen in the
Speaker 3: company of Blanche Lemont when her aunt was not with her.
Speaker 3: It was all a terrible mistake. Many people insisted he
Speaker 3: was just a simple, misunderstood boy without brilliancy or wealth,
Speaker 3: who had made love to this girl, but who had
Speaker 3: nothing to do with her disappearance or murder. Again, it
Speaker 3: was absurd. Durant's calm manner did much to strengthen this
Speaker 3: attitude among those who, from the beginning were disposed to
Speaker 3: believe in his innocence. He met every accusation with glib
Speaker 3: and patient explanation. The purse which had been found in
Speaker 3: his coat well to be sure. He'd found that on
Speaker 3: the sidewalk just outside doctor Vogel's house on his way
Speaker 3: to the young people's meeting. As he walked along, his
Speaker 3: foot struck a small mirror which evidently had dropped out
Speaker 3: of the purse, which he next discovered lying on the
Speaker 3: open pavement just a few feet away. He picked it up,
Speaker 3: intending to turn it over to his mother, but had
Speaker 3: forgotten to do so. The purse was identified by Minnie
Speaker 3: Williams's heartbroken father as belonging to the dead girl, and
Speaker 3: Durrant smiled coolly when he heard the news. Then someone
Speaker 3: came forward and said that he'd been waiting at the
Speaker 3: ferry at about the time Minnie would have arrived from Alameda,
Speaker 3: and he had seen Durant there. But Durant denied ever
Speaker 3: having been there, and denied having written the note asking
Speaker 3: permission to see her, a note which by the way,
Speaker 3: was never produced in evidence. He claimed that he arrived
Speaker 3: at the young People's meeting late because he had left
Speaker 3: his house late. That was quite simple, he said, even
Speaker 3: to the most obtuse mind, and in this statement his
Speaker 3: mother supported him. Yes, Theodore had left his house very
Speaker 3: late and had rushed right to doctor Vogels, as he
Speaker 3: was anxious to partake in the evening fund. Yet, in
Speaker 3: spite of this assurance, a member of the Signal Corps
Speaker 3: swore that he'd met Durant at eight o'clock that evening
Speaker 3: on the corner near doctor Vogel's house. They'd stopped a
Speaker 3: moment or two to chat about the expected departure of
Speaker 3: the Signal Corps on the following day. At the trial,
Speaker 3: Durant was a dapper figure. He wore a fragrant flower
Speaker 3: or in the lapel of his black coat. His gray
Speaker 3: trousers were carefully creased, his shoes were polished like mirrors.
Speaker 3: The crowds who flocked to the trial regarded him with
Speaker 3: repulsion and yet fascination. Certain women won dubious publicity by
Speaker 3: writing him silly love letters, professing their adoration and assuring
Speaker 3: him of their belief in his innocence. The mob which
Speaker 3: followed the police van as he rode from the prison
Speaker 3: to the court house was divided between those who were
Speaker 3: sympathetic to him and those who heaped abuse upon him.
Speaker 3: But he was impervious to it all, whether shouts of
Speaker 3: encouragement or vilification. On the table before the prosecuting attorney.
Speaker 3: Were the exhibits of the trial, the three rings which
Speaker 3: had belonged to Blanche Lemonte and which had been worn
Speaker 3: to her doom, her shoes, and one of her gloves.
Speaker 3: The other glove was missing. There was a model of
Speaker 3: the steeple in the church. A large French doll representing
Speaker 3: the girl was manipulated by witnesses to show how she
Speaker 3: had been lying when her body was found. Her clothing
Speaker 3: draped on the dressmaker's model trade Blanche Lamont, as she'd
Speaker 3: been dressed when she was killed. This evidence was touching, horrifying.
Speaker 3: Men wiped their eyes at the repeated accounts of how
Speaker 3: the poor girl had lain in the steeple. Women screamed,
Speaker 3: several fainted. Yet in spite of all the excitement and emotion,
Speaker 3: the accused, Theodorant, sat almost bored, plainly indifferent. His family
Speaker 3: rallied about him. Now you know, to me, all this
Speaker 3: indifference makes him look more guilty. An innocent, decent person,
Speaker 3: if not loudly protesting their innocence pretty much all the time,
Speaker 3: would at least be horrified by this brutal murder and
Speaker 3: all this horrible violence and sexual outrage that happened to
Speaker 3: these sweet young girls. But when he just sits there
Speaker 3: like I don't give an f I mean, that seems
Speaker 3: like a psychopath to me. Okay, Back to the story,
Speaker 3: Theo's family rallied about him, his mother faithful in her
Speaker 3: insistence that he was innocent, and his father with pale lips,
Speaker 3: rushing about to turn his small properties into cash for
Speaker 3: the defense of his son. In the course of the trial,
Speaker 3: Durant coldly denied everything of which he'd been accused. He
Speaker 3: denied every step of the prosecutor's chain of evidence. He
Speaker 3: was consistent, unhurried, and unembarrassed. He had not seen Blanche Lamont,
Speaker 3: he said, on the afternoon of her disappearance, But he
Speaker 3: had seen her that same morning. I met her on
Speaker 3: her way to school and asked her to go around
Speaker 3: with me to Organist King's house, as I wanted to
Speaker 3: ask him to go to the church with me later
Speaker 3: to fix the gas burner. But she said that she
Speaker 3: was afraid to go with me she'd be late for
Speaker 3: her classes. I decided then to put off my visit
Speaker 3: to King and take her directly to the normal school.
Speaker 3: We took a streetcar and she got off at the school.
Speaker 3: I went on transferring twice until I reached Cooper Medical.
Speaker 3: I went to class that morning, and instead of lunching
Speaker 3: as usual at the Webster restaurant, I bought some nuts
Speaker 3: and strolled about eating them. During the luncheon period. He
Speaker 3: mentioned several classes mates whom he'd met and with whom
Speaker 3: he talked. He spoke of the various classes, said that
Speaker 3: he saw a notice on the bulletin board to the
Speaker 3: effect that doctor Stillman would not lecture that day, and
Speaker 3: insisted that at the time of his supposed entrance into
Speaker 3: the church with Plant Lamont, he was attending class on
Speaker 3: the care and Feeding of infants conducted by doctor Cheney.
Speaker 3: Doctor Cheney said that Durant or someone had answered to
Speaker 3: Durant's name at the roll call, but pointed out the
Speaker 3: doctor as an alibi. That fact is entirely unreliable. The students,
Speaker 3: I regret to say, almost automatically respond to a name
Speaker 3: when there's no immediate answer. He might or might not
Speaker 3: have answered it himself. No one came forward who admitted
Speaker 3: having answered Durant's name in class, But on the other hand,
Speaker 3: no one could be found that had positively seen Durant
Speaker 3: in class. Glazer, a fellow student, admitted that Durant had
Speaker 3: asked him if he might glance over the notes he'd
Speaker 3: taken in that class, and Durant confirmed this quite cheerfully.
Speaker 3: He said that it was a frequent habit of his,
Speaker 3: as he was rather careless about paying attention to lectures
Speaker 3: and his own notes were never reliable. Pale and sallow faced,
Speaker 3: Durant was equally self possessed and glibbed with the prosecutor.
Speaker 3: He told how he'd left the medical school at about
Speaker 3: four point thirty, arriving at the church shortly before five
Speaker 3: and a little before King, the organist. He was indifferent, reckless, defiant, egotistical,
Speaker 3: even happy before the scathing wrath of the state. He
Speaker 3: told in undisturbed fashion of his entering the church alone,
Speaker 3: of going to mend the gas burner and being affected
Speaker 3: by the escaping gas. Then he heard King at the
Speaker 3: organ he said, and hastened down to speak with him,
Speaker 3: But he was so overcome that he could only ask
Speaker 3: for some Seltzer. Do you not know, you a half
Speaker 3: fledged doctor, that if you were partially asphyxiated, Seltzer would
Speaker 3: not revive you but kill you, roared the prosecutor. It
Speaker 3: didn't kill me, naively, replied Durant. I left the church
Speaker 3: and walked away with King because I wanted to talk
Speaker 3: to him, and because of the air, I felt it
Speaker 3: would do me some good. I went home eight supper,
Speaker 3: feeling much better, walked with my mother to the street
Speaker 3: car she was taking, and then later went to the church.
Speaker 3: I had a book which I wished to loan Miss Lamont.
Speaker 3: As you know, I did not meet her there that evening,
Speaker 3: for she failed to attend the meeting. I never saw
Speaker 3: her again after I left her that morning. At the
Speaker 3: Normal school, Durant was asked why he'd been loitering about
Speaker 3: the Faery Landing on the day of Minnie William's disappearance,
Speaker 3: and he explained it in his fashion. A man had
Speaker 3: come up to him on the street, he said, and
Speaker 3: told him that Blanche Lamont, who was still alive, was
Speaker 3: expected to arrive by ferryboat at any hour. The mysterious
Speaker 3: man had recognized Durant as one of the church members
Speaker 3: interested in the search for the missing girl. Durant was
Speaker 3: there at the landing, he maintained in the hope of
Speaker 3: meeting Blanche and persuading her to return to her family,
Speaker 3: But badly muddled in the cross examination, Durant presented a
Speaker 3: strikingly guilty aspect. He was forced to admit to the
Speaker 3: court that though he had seen a number of the
Speaker 3: missing girl's friends, and although they had discussed her, he
Speaker 3: had not chosen to mention this message given to him
Speaker 3: by the stranger. He had not even meant to doctor Vogel,
Speaker 3: to whom even so remote a hint that the girl
Speaker 3: was alive would have been most welcome. Why had Durant
Speaker 3: not told the girl's family and the searching party, who
Speaker 3: were all desperately eager for every slightest clue. And why
Speaker 3: had he allowed the mysterious stranger to depart without making
Speaker 3: any attempt to hold him and force whatever news he
Speaker 3: had from him. Why hadn't he told the police all this?
Speaker 3: Durant either explained in a most unsatisfactory manner or left
Speaker 3: it with no explanation at all. His attorney was restless
Speaker 3: during the process, but Durant, after recovering from the storm
Speaker 3: of the prosecutor's examination, accompanied the jury coolly enough on
Speaker 3: a trip to the scene of the crime, with perfect
Speaker 3: courtesy as always, but little interest in the proceedings. Durant was,
Speaker 3: in fact the only one not deeply affected by the
Speaker 3: recital of the girl's horrible death and the discovery of
Speaker 3: the mutilated body. He stood sphinxlike and cool in the
Speaker 3: little room leading off the library of the church, while
Speaker 3: the prosecutor told the story of how many Williams had
Speaker 3: been found slashed and bleeding, and pointed to the gruesome
Speaker 3: stains still on the ceiling, the floor, and the walls
Speaker 3: which bore witness only too clearly to the terrible death struggle.
Speaker 3: Durant walked up the stairway to the steeple chamber without faltering,
Speaker 3: while the horror stricken jury listened to the description of
Speaker 3: the discovery of Blanche's body, nude and mutilated under the eaves.
Speaker 3: When they descended, he was the only one who was
Speaker 3: not visibly shaken, and he brushed the dust from his
Speaker 3: attire with a hand that was steady and calm. Psycho,
Speaker 3: the doctor who at the trial examined his fingernails in
Speaker 3: an effort to connect them with the scratches on the
Speaker 3: throat of the victim, said that while they were cut
Speaker 3: rounded instead of square, as had been the nails of
Speaker 3: the girl's assailant. They had been newly rounded, presumably trimmed
Speaker 3: from square fingernails, which could have inflicted the wounds. Durant
Speaker 3: met this testimony calmly with a supercilious smile. Two surprise
Speaker 3: witnesses for the prosecution failed to disturb him, and although
Speaker 3: it seemed as if he had difficulty at times in
Speaker 3: retaining his equanimity, he nevertheless did retain it. Adolph Oppenheimer,
Speaker 3: second hand dealer, testified that Durant had tried to sell
Speaker 3: him the rings displayed in court as belonging to Blanche Lamont,
Speaker 3: and a friend of Durant's family, Miss Crossett, swore that
Speaker 3: she had seen him on the street cart about four
Speaker 3: to ten with a girl, answering to Blanche Lemont's description,
Speaker 3: going in the general direction of the church. The chain
Speaker 3: of evidence tightened about him, and as time went on
Speaker 3: it became overwhelming, though entirely circumstantial. Now it seemed that
Speaker 3: everybody believed him guilty of the Williams murder as well
Speaker 3: as of the slaying of Blanche Lamont, but he was
Speaker 3: tried for the first crime only so that if he
Speaker 3: escaped the news in that instance, the state still had
Speaker 3: another chance. By a trial for the death of Manny
Speaker 3: Williams to bring him to punishment. The state was eleven
Speaker 3: days in apprehending the murderer and nearly three years in
Speaker 3: bringing him to justice. The trial dragged on as one
Speaker 3: of the most sensational ever appearing in a United States court,
Speaker 3: certainly in the courts of California. For the first three
Speaker 3: or four days after his apprehension, Durant had been nervous,
Speaker 3: strangely at contrast with his later calm, which experts said
Speaker 3: could not have been equaled by one man in a thousand.
Speaker 3: Under such trying conditions, he would awake at night in
Speaker 3: his cell screaming violently. But later he conquered this habit
Speaker 3: and slept as calmly and soundly as a child. His
Speaker 3: attitude won him many supporters. Many who had first believed
Speaker 3: him guilty now thought him unjustly accused. Women from all
Speaker 3: over the country sent him letters and telegrams. A few
Speaker 3: one notoriety by sending him flowers and showering him with
Speaker 3: their attentions. But gradually certain rumors spread about town which
Speaker 3: belied the fine esteem in which Durrant had been held
Speaker 3: by many churchgoers. Certain of his young men friends admitted
Speaker 3: confidentially that Durrant had not, after all been the exemplary
Speaker 3: young man he was believed, but had had frequent entanglements
Speaker 3: with women. He boasted to not a few of them
Speaker 3: of these affairs, but married women and young girls in
Speaker 3: his insinuation, women of excellent repute in the church parish.
Speaker 3: He had boasted of a relationship with Blanche Lamont, and
Speaker 3: told stories of how he and three older men on
Speaker 3: a trip to Carson City had raped a Native American woman,
Speaker 3: a story which rather neatly dovetailed with certain facts concerning
Speaker 3: a Native American woman found mutilated and raped in a
Speaker 3: manner similar to the two unfortunate victims of a manual church.
Speaker 3: It's a sign of the times that Durant was not
Speaker 3: tried for her murder. Certain young girls of the parish
Speaker 3: confided in their parents that Durant had attempted to attack
Speaker 3: them and had lured them to the church, but had
Speaker 3: been interrupted, whereupon they'd made their escape. One girl said
Speaker 3: that she'd gone to the church with him on an errand,
Speaker 3: and that he had promised to take her home if
Speaker 3: she would go around by the church with him, and
Speaker 3: that she had waited for him in the library. He
Speaker 3: had re entered, she said, by a different door than
Speaker 3: the one she had expected. Then she saw a sight
Speaker 3: that terrified her to her her very soul. He had
Speaker 3: crept up behind her, entirely unclothed and with a vicious
Speaker 3: look on his face. The door through which he entered
Speaker 3: had been locked behind him, but the girl managed to escape,
Speaker 3: perhaps from a fate like that of many or Blanche,
Speaker 3: through another door which evidently he'd forgotten to fasten. She
Speaker 3: had never told her mother, she'd been too frightened. Nevertheless,
Speaker 3: she'd always thereafter kept out of Durant's way. When she
Speaker 3: heard the news of Minnie's terrible death, she had thought
Speaker 3: at once of Theodore Durant, and had shuddered to think
Speaker 3: that she too might be dead had she not been
Speaker 3: successful in escaping. Other young girls told of similar experiences
Speaker 3: accosted by Durant, who had appeared suddenly before them, nude
Speaker 3: and menacing. God. This guy is an absolute monster. This
Speaker 3: then explained why, if he had killed Minnie Williams, his
Speaker 3: clothes were not bloodstained. Closer and closer was drawn than
Speaker 3: net which would take THEO Durant to the gallows. Dapper
Speaker 3: and calm. However, Durant bore his ordeal without flinching. Defence
Speaker 3: conducted itself in a thoroughly skillful, if not altogether respectable manner.
Speaker 3: In rather unscrupulous fashion, defense attorneys made much of the
Speaker 3: fact that Reverend Gibson had been questioned closely by the
Speaker 3: police in regard to the strange murder of Manny Williams,
Speaker 3: which took place within the sacred precincts of which he
Speaker 3: was the spiritual custodian. They pointed out that the minister
Speaker 3: mister Gibson, as well as Durant, knew every part of
Speaker 3: the church and had access to it at all hours,
Speaker 3: that he too, possessed keys to every possible room in
Speaker 3: the building. They pointed out, insignificant fashion that it had
Speaker 3: been the reverend mister Gibson who had begged the undertaker
Speaker 3: to destroy all traces of the crime, and had insisted
Speaker 3: on trying to wash away the bloodstains. This was not,
Speaker 3: the defense said, because of outraged horror, but because of
Speaker 3: the fear of exposure. And why not indeed attribute the
Speaker 3: same motive to mister Gibson as had been attributed to Durant.
Speaker 3: A lustful perversion did he not deserve this as much
Speaker 3: as Durant. The prosecution was asked to prove that Durant
Speaker 3: had been in the church with Blanchelemont long enough, assuming
Speaker 3: that missus Leake's statement had been true, to have killed
Speaker 3: the girl. It was asked to prove that she had
Speaker 3: been killed before five o'clock when King the organist had
Speaker 3: seen Durant, and not immediately after or even a few
Speaker 3: days after that time. It was all a very clever
Speaker 3: and very bewildering strategy, but the jury was unconvinced. The
Speaker 3: burden of proof lay with the defense, not the prosecution,
Speaker 3: as far as they were concerned. Now, of course, that
Speaker 3: is contrary to the fundamental tenet of the American judicial system,
Speaker 3: and everyone is innocent until proven guilty. But with this
Speaker 3: mountain of circumstantial evidence, and also Durant's inability to display
Speaker 3: anything resembling human or innocent emotional reactions to the horror
Speaker 3: scene and described around him, it does seem like an
Speaker 3: attitude on the jury's part that is warranted in this
Speaker 3: particular case. All right back to it, the burden of
Speaker 3: proof lay with the defense acution as far as the
Speaker 3: jury was concerned. And then something transpired, which decided more
Speaker 3: than anything else in the entire testimony, although technically it
Speaker 3: could not be admitted to the trial. A horsehair found
Speaker 3: adhering to the clothing of Manny Williams was proved to
Speaker 3: have been taken from Durant's own horse. Compared with other
Speaker 3: hairs of the horse, it was found to be almost identical,
Speaker 3: and when compared with hairs of similar horses, it had
Speaker 3: differed substantially. Through July, August, September, and October, the trial
Speaker 3: dragged on. It was the first to be held under
Speaker 3: the then new California law that there should be fourteen
Speaker 3: men on the jury, two who would listen to the
Speaker 3: evidence and if necessary, take the place of any of
Speaker 3: the twelve who might be dismissed or become indisposed during
Speaker 3: the trial. While the jury was out, Durant was apparently
Speaker 3: the only person in the courtroom who was not deeply agitated.
Speaker 3: It seemed to everyone present that he had no chance
Speaker 3: to escape the extreme penalty. Yet he sat still, cool
Speaker 3: and undisturbed, eating heartily of the lunch brought to him
Speaker 3: by his mother. He smiled and chatted with her, trying,
Speaker 3: evidently by ignoring the terrible issue at stake to encourage
Speaker 3: her as to the outcome. His debonair attitude was strangely
Speaker 3: at variance with the tragic air of the foreman. When
Speaker 3: the jury returned only twenty minutes after it had retired,
Speaker 3: the foreman's voice was so low and trembling that even
Speaker 3: those in the front seats could hardly catch his words.
Speaker 3: One ballot only had been taken by the jury. Theodore
Speaker 3: Durrant had been found guilty of murder in the first degree,
Speaker 3: and the penalty was hanging. It was then that Durant's
Speaker 3: supreme nerve broke and left him, but he did not
Speaker 3: hear the shouts of satisfaction which arose outside the court
Speaker 3: house when word was received. His mother had pressed him
Speaker 3: to her breast and had covered his head with her
Speaker 3: thick wrap, her tears falling on his bent head. Durant
Speaker 3: received several stays of execution, but finally his hanging was
Speaker 3: set for January seventh, eighteen ninety eight, at San Quentin Prison.
Speaker 3: Four requests were made to the warden by the condemned man. First,
Speaker 3: that the rope with which he was hanged be burned,
Speaker 3: so that curious people would not barter for a piece
Speaker 3: of it as a souvenir. Wow, that's something people used
Speaker 3: to do at hangings. Yikes. Second that there would be
Speaker 3: no autopsy he had always since becoming a medical student.
Speaker 3: Vowed that no knife should ever touch his flesh irony
Speaker 3: there for a slasher a murderer. Third that no spectator
Speaker 3: gaze upon his face after his hanging. This he is
Speaker 3: believed to have asked, so his father should not immediately
Speaker 3: see him and become horribly unnerved. And lastly, that his
Speaker 3: body should be as quickly as possible turned over to
Speaker 3: his family. He rested comfortably the night before his execution.
Speaker 3: He ate a good, hearty breakfast, bade his guards good
Speaker 3: bye without a tremor, and dressed for the hanging. Deserved
Speaker 3: the absence of a tie and collar, and seemed to
Speaker 3: be about to ask for him, then changed his mind
Speaker 3: as the significance of their lack dawned upon him. He
Speaker 3: can't wear a tie because at his hanging, the hangman's
Speaker 3: rope will be his tie. At the last moment, he
Speaker 3: accepted the consolation of the Catholic faith, but the minister
Speaker 3: who was to have accompanied him to the scaffold declined
Speaker 3: at the last instant to say that he believed Durant guiltless,
Speaker 3: and therefore the condemned man. Durant refused to allow the
Speaker 3: minister to come with him. He did not, however, present
Speaker 3: this query to the priest father Fagin, who walked with
Speaker 3: him to his death. So he converted functionally to Catholicism
Speaker 3: moments before the hangman's rope. Sure, because you can just
Speaker 3: kind of do the old switcheroo on God. Right. As
Speaker 3: he said goodbye to his family, he was a marvel
Speaker 3: of coolness. His mother sobbed hysterically and clung to him,
Speaker 3: for at that time the condemned were not forced to
Speaker 3: say farewells through meshed wires, and at length he pushed
Speaker 3: her gently away, saying the hour has come for us
Speaker 3: to part. He had asked his father to be present
Speaker 3: at the hanging, and the old man complied, walking into
Speaker 3: the rooms supported by two friends. At ten thirty, the
Speaker 3: warden gave up hope of receiving word from Washington to
Speaker 3: delay the execution. At ten forty, Durant walked into the
Speaker 3: room as corroborative word was flashed from Washington that the
Speaker 3: Supreme Court would not interfere. His arms were pinned and
Speaker 3: the rope was placed about his neck. He shuddered slightly,
Speaker 3: but asked permission to speak. His address was delivered in
Speaker 3: a monotone, slowly and distinctly. I desire, he said, to
Speaker 3: say that although I am an innocent man, innocent of
Speaker 3: every crime that has been charged against me, I bear
Speaker 3: no animosity towards those that have persecuted me, not even
Speaker 3: the Press of San Francisco, which has hounded me to
Speaker 3: the grave. If any man thinks I am going to
Speaker 3: spring a sensation, I am not unless it is a
Speaker 3: sensation that I am an innocent man brought to my
Speaker 3: death by my persecutors. But I forgive them all. They
Speaker 3: will get their justice from the Great God, who is
Speaker 3: master of us all. And where I also expect to
Speaker 3: get justice, that is the justice of an innocent man.
Speaker 3: Whether the perpetrators of the crime of which I am
Speaker 3: charged are discovered or not, will make no difference to
Speaker 3: me now. But I say that this day will sometime
Speaker 3: be a shame in the great state of California. I
Speaker 3: forgive everybody who has persecuted me, an innocent man whose
Speaker 3: hands have never been stained with blood. And I go
Speaker 3: to meet my God with forgiveness for all men. The
Speaker 3: trap was sprung. As he concluded, his father swayed in
Speaker 3: the arms of his friends, and a few moments later,
Speaker 3: Theodore Durant was pronounced dead. One of the most interesting
Speaker 3: phases of the whole case, from the psychological standpoint, occurred
Speaker 3: immediately after the execution. Missus Durant, waiting in an ante room,
Speaker 3: had begged that she might be allowed to see her
Speaker 3: son as soon as possible. When the body had been
Speaker 3: placed in its coffin had been taken down to the
Speaker 3: room and set down where she might at last be alone,
Speaker 3: or nearly alone, with her dead son, she cried aloud
Speaker 3: and threw herself upon the coffin, begging the boy to
Speaker 3: speak to her. The scene was a poignant one. The attendants,
Speaker 3: who were obliged by law to remain in the room,
Speaker 3: turned their heads to hide their own tears as well
Speaker 3: to afford her what privacy they could. Then, an old trustee,
Speaker 3: who was in charge of that part of the jail
Speaker 3: in which the gallows had been erected, touched her on
Speaker 3: the arms sympathetically and asked if she would like a
Speaker 3: cup of tea. Missus Durant raised her head and accepted gratefully.
Speaker 3: When he returned, she was composed and smiling. Her grief
Speaker 3: passed its first depth. The old fellow had done better
Speaker 3: than a cup of tea. He had, in fact, brought
Speaker 3: an entire dinner from the official's table, four courses and
Speaker 3: four servants of each for the entire Durant family. Is
Speaker 3: it conceivable that a family thus bereaved, or in fact
Speaker 3: bereaved in any fashion, should sit at a table within
Speaker 3: arm's length of a coffin containing the corpse of their
Speaker 3: loved one and chat over a hearty meal. Yet this
Speaker 3: was just what the Durant family did. Their conversation was unrestrained.
Speaker 3: They gave apparently no thought to the happenings of that
Speaker 3: terrible day or to the presence of Theo Durant's corpse.
Speaker 3: That's weird. Missus Durant, who had nearly swooned in the
Speaker 3: ante room and had to be received, was perhaps the
Speaker 3: most talkative of the lot, while the father showed little
Speaker 3: signs of his recent distress at the gallows. Papa, give
Speaker 3: me some more of the roast, one of the party
Speaker 3: was asking. As the attendant passed the door. The jail
Speaker 3: attendants who had been with the condemned man during his
Speaker 3: last days on earth, had been, and still were deeply
Speaker 3: affected by the execution. They were with reasons scandalized by
Speaker 3: the apparent callousness and cold bloodedness of the family. Who
Speaker 3: they could ask, could eat with the body of a
Speaker 3: loved one so close at hand? Who could crowd food
Speaker 3: pass their lips at such a terrible hour? Could this
Speaker 3: hardness of heart, this callousness be hereditary? I tend to
Speaker 3: be a natured, over nurture guy in a lot of ways,
Speaker 3: so I tend to say probably. But did the family
Speaker 3: happily stuffing their faces feet away from Theo's corpse? Did
Speaker 3: that explain the cruelty in the makeup of the youthful monster,
Speaker 3: who had been characterized in the press as a lustful,
Speaker 3: perverted beast walking the earth in the guise of a
Speaker 3: law abiding, religious, trustworthy young man. Surely his environment and
Speaker 3: associations could not explain it. After a hearty meal, the
Speaker 3: Durance left the prison, riding in a cab provided by
Speaker 3: the occupied members of the press, to whom the bereaved
Speaker 3: parents talked volubly. The father and mother said that they
Speaker 3: themselves had given permission for pictures to be made of
Speaker 3: the hanging, but that the warden had refused to permit it.
Speaker 3: The parents were willing that the death agony of their
Speaker 3: son should be displayed throughout the country where there was
Speaker 3: much hostility and no sympathy for him. Boy, as I've
Speaker 3: talked about on this show before, I really don't believe
Speaker 3: in judging the trauma responses of people processing something horrible.
Speaker 3: We all do it in different ways, but I have
Speaker 3: to say Theodore Durant's family sounds like the Adams family. Ultimately,
Speaker 3: no cemetery was willing to receive the Demon of the
Speaker 3: Belfrey's remains, and after much trouble, the family had the
Speaker 3: body cremated and flung the ashes to the four winds.
Speaker 3: Thus were the murders of Blanche Lamont and Minnie Williams
Speaker 3: many who had died because she stoutly maintained Blanche's purity
Speaker 3: and innocence against infamous slurs. Thus were their murders avenged,
Speaker 3: and so was paid the penalty for deeds which rival
Speaker 3: fiction in horror and fiendishness, murders unique in the history
Speaker 3: of crime. And that was the story of the Demon
Speaker 3: of the Belfry. San Francisco's Jack the Ripper. Now, before
Speaker 3: I let you go, I'd like to remind you, as
Speaker 3: I do, of the free three digit number nine eight eight,
Speaker 3: the lifeline number that you can call any time, twenty
Speaker 3: four hours a day, seven days a week to receive
Speaker 3: immediate counts for substance use, mental health or suicidal thoughts.
Speaker 3: So God forbid, but if you find yourself in crisis,
Speaker 3: please do call nine eight eight. Program it into your
Speaker 3: phone now, and please always do remember that you are
Speaker 3: loved and the world is a better place with you
Speaker 3: in it. I'm Zevan Odelberg, and this has been kind
Speaker 3: of murdery
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