REPORT OF THE TRIAL OF WILLIAM HENRY THEODORE DURRANT

Hardback. Facsimile Reprint. This special edition has been privately printed for the members of The Notable Trials Library. Durrant was a 24yr old medical student who also served as the assistant superintendent of Sunday school of the Emanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco. By any standard he was a "good" young man, and the mystery, if there is one in the case, is how, from a seemingly proper life, he could within the space of 9 days commit two atrocious murders in his church. Blanche Lamont, his first victim, was a girl of 21, tall and attractive. She was a member of the same faith, and late in the afternoon of April 3, 1895, she accompanied him to the church, then deserted but to which Durrant had access with his own set of keys. It may be that he hoped to seduce her and that what happened arose from her refusal. In any event he strangled her in a frenzy, dragged her into the belfry tower, where he left her nude body with her hands crossed upon her breast. Nine days later he brought another girl, Minnie Williams to the church, and if she acceded to his proposals it did not prevent him from choking and stabbing her to death and stuffing her in a closet. Both bodies were found the next day, and Durrant, who had been seen by literally dozens of people with both victims just before their deaths, was promptly seized. The "murder in the belfry" became an international sensation, although actually it was not as unique as one might expect. Only 20yrs before Thomas Piper, a Boston Sunday school teacher, had beaten a child to death in the belfry of his church. Durrant was tried, convicted, and ultimately hanged. The case is a classic of American criminal history. Illus. + Index to Testimony and Index to Illustrations. 214pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Aeg, 1/4 leather, black cloth dec. in gilt to fr. and back covers with banded sp. Ribbon bookmark present. F. (McDade 276).