William Henry Theodore Durrant (1871 – January 7, 1898), known as "The Demon of the Belfry", was hanged for two murders committed at San Francisco's Emmanuel Baptist Church, where he was assistant superintendent of the Sunday School. He maintained his innocence of the crimes. His sister was stage dancer Maud Allan.
Early life
William Henry Theodore Durrant was born in Toronto, Ontario, to William Durrant, a shoemaker, and his wife, Isabella Hutchenson Durrant. The family emigrated to San Francisco, California, in 1879. He had one sibling, a younger sister, Beulah Maud (or Beulah Maude), who became an actress and interpretive dancer known as Maud Allan.
At the time of his arrest, Durrant was a 23-year old medical student at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, assistant superintendent of the Sunday school at the 21st Street Emmanuel Baptist Church and a member of the California Signal Corps.
It is believed that young Durrant suffered from manic depression. There were unsubstantiated rumors of a dark side to Durrant's personality. One claimed that he occasionally visited brothels in San Francisco's Commercial Street, where allegedly he once brought with him, in a sack or a small crate, a pigeon or a chicken, and at a certain time during the evening's debauch he cut the bird's throat and let the blood trickle over his body".
Blanche Lamont
Blanche Lamont (1875 – April 3, 1895) was a 20-year old who had been teaching at a one-room school in Hecla, Montana. She had moved to San Francisco to further her education and was living with her aunt, Mrs. Tryphenia Noble, on 21st Street in the Mission District.
On April 3, 1895, Durrant met Lamont at the Polk Street electric trolley stop just after 2:00 p.m. They rode together to the 21st Street stop. Other people on the trolley stated that they were very close and that Durrant was whispering into Lamont's ear and tapping at her lightly with his leather gloves. They got off at their stop and were seen by a Mrs. Mary Noble walking down 21st Street to the Emanuel Baptist Church.
A Mrs. Caroline Leak saw them enter the church together; Mrs. Leak, who later testified at Durrant's trial, was the last person known to see Blanche Lamont alive. George King, the church choir director and organist, who was practicing hymns on the organ, testified that Durrant came downstairs at 5:00 p.m. looking pale and shaken. Durrant had given him some money, requesting for him to go to a nearby drugstore and purchase some medicine, in the hopes that he may feel better. Mr. King returned a short time later, and said Durrant seemed somewhat better by then, though still complaining of lingering "fatigue" and "dizziness".
Mrs. Noble came to the church looking for Lamont a few hours later, during the evening prayer service. Durrant approached Noble and inquired about Blanche; she told him that she was worried about her. Durrant told Noble that he was sorry that Blanche was not there, but that he would come to her house later to bring a book for her. Mrs. Noble later said that he did come by later with the book, having even suggested that Lamont might have been kidnapped, forced into prostitution, and/or that she may have run away to become a sex-worker of her own accord, thus "abandoning her religious virtues". Mrs. Noble found these notions to be bizarre and unsettling, and highly unlikely.
The next day, Durrant tried to pawn some women's rings at a pawn shop in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. These were determined to belong to Blanche Lamont. That same afternoon, Mrs. Noble received an unexpected package, consisting of several rings belonging to the missing Blanche. Strangely, the package was directed to George King (the church choir director); his name was written on wrapping paper, packed around Blanche's rings. It was three days after her disappearance that Mrs. Noble had reported her missing to the police.
Police questioned Durrant because he was the last person Blanche was seen with and, additionally, because a young woman of the church said that she had once come upon Durrant in the nude at the church library. Police did not have a body, or any evidence that anything had happened to Blanche, so she remained listed as a missing person.