Identifier: reportoftrialofw00durr (find matches)
Title: Report of the trial of William Henry Theodore Durrant, indicted for the murder of Blanche Lamont, before the Superior Court of the city and county of San Francisco : including a full history of the case after defendant's conviction ... : also including a complete synopsis of the evidence in possession of the authorities in the case for the murder of Minnie Williams, for which Durrant was never tried, but which developed into an even stronger case than the one upon which he was convicted : illustrated from numerous photographs in the possession of the Police Department of San Francisco
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Durrant, William Henry Theodore, 1871-1898 Peixotto, Edgar D
Subjects: Durrant, William Henry Theodore, 1871-1898 Lamont, Blanche, d. 1895 Williams, Minnie Flora, d. 1895 Trials (Murder) Murder
Publisher: Detroit : Collector Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: California State Library Califa/LSTA Grant

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d her? Could he by any process at all have gained absolute controlover her so that she became helpless and defenseless? I say no, it isimprobable and impossible. Search was made all over this church.Everything that could be found, presumably, was found and has beenbrought here. There is no evidence of anything with which he couldhave bound her. There is no evidence that he had a rope or strap ofany size or anything in the world by which he could have rendered herpartially helpless. The testimony of the physician is that there were_ seven finger marks on one part of the throat and five upon another,which shows plainly that the struggle was a violent one. Can youconceive of any process or way by which a person could, under suchcircumstances and conditions, accomplish the result without beingscratched or having his clothing torn or something to indicate thatthere had been a struggle? And yet by his own testimony and bythat of George King nothing of the kind appeared. As to his ability to
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EUGENE N. DEUPREY.One of Defendants counsel. THE DURRANT CASE. 159 have carried the body up into the belfrey, the same reasoning applies.It could not have been done. I submit that this unfortunate youngwoman was never killed by one man. It took two to accomplish whatwas accomplished in that church. It not only took two to control herphysically that she might be strangled to death, but it took more thanone to carry that body up into, that belfrey and lay it out as it wasand disrobe it of all its clothing and scatter that clothing throughoutthe church as the testimony shows it was. The defendant could nothave done it. It would have been physically impossible. (Here counsel again reverted to the importance of the roll-call andto the liability of mistake upon the part of the women who had testifiedin the case, and closed as follows:) Now, gentlemen, in leaving this case with you, I ask you to con-sider carefully the good character of the defendant, which stands beforeyou to-day unimpeache

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