This week, we visit the Emmanuel Church in San Francisco-- a church with a very dark history. One of its former pastors had committed suicide in his study, another pastor had murdered a member of the congregation, and a third had carried on so many extramarital affairs that he had been forced to resign.
But, in 1895, when the body of a missing teenage housekeeper was discovered inside the church library with a dinner knife protruding from her chest and another young woman was found butchered in the belltower, it created a media sensation that helped launch one of the greatest careers in the history of journalism.
It was a slow news day and the San Francisco Examiner was looking for something fresh with a local angle. It was a classified ad in Examiner which caught the attention of one newspaper reporter. Nine little words, sandwiched between two names. It was an ad which hinted at the promise of an interesting story:
Blanche: No matter what has happened, come home to me. Maude.
The reporter visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Noble in the Mission District and learned that their 21-year-old niece, Blanche Lamont, had been missing for several days. She was last seen on Wednesday, April 3, 1895. The ad had been placed by her younger sister, Maude, who told the reporter that her sister Blanche was studying to be a teacher. She had left school at her usual time on April 3, but never came home that day.
"Did you notify the police, Miss Noble?" asked the reporter.
"No. We couldn't call the police," said Maude. "There are certain... embarrassing... rumors that Blanche was leading a wayward life."
"I see. And how did these rumors get started?"
"I don't know. But somebody's been spreading the story."
The reporter jotted down notes. Blanche had been born in Rockford, Illinois. Graduated from Rockford Seminary. Enrolled as a student on Powell Street. An attractive woman. Auburn hair. Brown eyes. Height, 5'7". Weight 122 pounds. Last seen wearing a blue dress, black coat, and a small hat with flowers around the brim. The reporter thanked Miss Noble and returned to his office, where he telephoned the authorities.
 |
| A childhood photo of Blanche Lamont |
Chief of Detectives I.W. Lees learned that Blanche had left school on April 3 in the company of three girls. Her companions claimed that she had met a young man and they boarded a trolley. This fellow was about 25 years old, stockily built, with a small mustache. Blanche's friends remembered that day clearly, as it was against the rules for female students to be escorted to or from class by a male escort.
The mystery of Blanche Lamont's disappearance was still unsolved on Good Friday, April 12. That was the day that something unsettling happened to 19-year-old Marian Elora Williams, a 19-year-old maid employed by the family of Mr. and Mrs. Clark Morgan in Alameda, on the other side of the San Francisco Bay. After the Easter holiday, she would make arrangements to join the Morgans at their new home in Tacoma, Washington, and she planned to visit friends until it was time to move away. Marian had left the Morgan residence at 2 o'clock on Friday afternoon, with the intention of visiting a family named Voy in the Mission District. She left the Voy home at 8 o'clock that evening, and never returned home.
On the morning of Saturday, April 13, a group of women assembled at the Emmanuel Church on Bartlett Street to decorate for Easter. One of the women, Mrs. Herman Nolt, went into the church library in search of a vase. Opening the door to a small room adjoining the library, she glanced inside-- and screamed.
She saw the body of a young woman lying face up on a table. The victim had been slashed beyond recognition. Her clothing had been torn to ribbons, her mouth had been gagged with a cloth. A dinner knife protruded from her chest.
The Pastor's Strange Behavior
Mrs. Nolt ran down the street to the home of the pastor, Reverend Gibson. Accompanied by one the church trustees, Dr. W.Z. King, the two men entered the church. A few feet away from the body they found a library car belonging to Blanche Lamont. Instead of notifying the police, Rev. Gibson went straight to an undertaker to have the body removed, stating that he wished to avoid bad publicity. The undertaker refused to move the body until the authorities were notified. Patrolman Barney Riehl was soon on the scene and questioned the reverend about his strange behavior.
As it turned out, the church had a rather unfortunate history; a former pastor had committed suicide in his study, another pastor had murdered a member of the congregation, and a third had carried on so many extramarital affairs that he had been forced to resign.
The investigation revealed that the body was not that of Blanche Lamont, however, but of the missing maid from Alameda, Marion Williams. According to the coroner, she had been dead at least 12 hours and had fought desperately for her life. Marion's purse was also missing.
Reverend Gibson admitted to police that when he'd arrived at the church on Saturday morning, he found the rear door unlocked, and the lock on the door leading to the library had been broken. He made no further examination, then returned home. The church janitor, Frank Sademan, was also questioned. He, too, had noticed the broken lock, but Rev. Gibson had told him to leave it alone, and that he would take care of it.
 |
| Blanche Lamont |
A Suspicious Package
Detectives interviewed Blanche Lamont's aunt, Mrs. Noble, who revealed that she had received a suspicious package in the mail that morning. Inside were three of Blanche's rings, wrapped in newspaper, and on the paper were written the names of three prominent members of Emmanuel Church: Organist George King, church librarian and assistant Sunday School superintendent Theodore Durrant, and music teacher George Schoenstein. Mrs. Noble said that she hid the package, out of fear that rumors about her niece's reputation might be true.
Officer Riehl returned to the church to search for additional clues. He searched under the floors, he searched the basement and the winding stairway to the belfry. It was here he noticed recently-made footprints on the dusty stairs, and marks as if something heavy had been dragged alongside. At the top of the stairs. under the big copper church bell, he found the nude body of Blanche Lamont. She had been dead for about ten days, but her throat still revealed the bruises made by her strangler.
According to police experts, her killer had been a left-handed man. Detectives believed that both Blanche Lamont and Marion Williams had been murdered in the same room adjoining the church library. They suspected that the killer had intended to dispose of Marion's body, but had been scared off before he had the chance.
A Model Gentleman
Police quickly narrowed their list down to two left-handed suspects-- Reverend Gibson and the Sunday School superintendent Theodore Durrant. They had both recently been seen with Blanche Lamont. Gibson, a native of Scotland, had been in the country less than ten years, and had arrived in San Francisco just six months before the murders. His suspicious behavior-- such as imploring an undertaker to remove the body before the police arrived-- and his mysterious past made him a prime suspect. Theodore Durrant, on the other hand, was the most highly respected member of Emmanuel Church. His sister was an internationally famous dancer, his father a hard-working laborer in a shoe factory. Theodore was young man, 24 years of age, and was enrolled as a medical student at Cooper College. He was also a bugler in the California National Guard Signal Corps. He did not drink, gamble, or smoke, and, according to friends, was the very model of a young Christian gentleman.
As a result, police were skeptical when witnesses identified Durrant as the young man they had seen escorting Blanch Lamont home from class on the day of her disappearance. Numerous witnesses were questioned, and Durrant was seen at the Alameda ferry on the afternoon of April 12, the day Marion Williams disappeared after leaving her employer's home. He had been seen entering Emmanuel Church with a young woman that same evening. And it was learned that the nasty rumors being spread about Blanche Lamont had been traced back their source-- and the source was none other than Theodore Durrant. And when Blanche was reported missing, it was Theodore Durrant who had contacted Mrs. Noble and volunteered to search for her.
Brought to Justice
A search of Durrant's home was made, and Marion Williams' wallet was found in the pocket of Durrant's overcoat. Durrant told police that he had found it on the sidewalk outside the church and claimed that he hadn't seen Marion Williams for three weeks. However, this was contradicted by the young woman's employer, Clark Morgan, who said that Durrant had visited his Alameda home just days before the murder. Mrs. Leak and Martin Quinlan, two local residents, had also seen Durrant and Blanche Lamont walking together outside the church on that fateful day, and Mrs. Leak had seen them entering the church together through a side door a few moments later.
Theodore Durrant's murder trial went before Judge D.J. Murphy in the fall of 1895, and ended with a first-degree murder conviction on November 1. On the stand, the disgraced Sunday School teacher had claimed that he had witnessed the murders take place, but that the unnamed "phantom killer" had warned him not to tell anyone what he had seen, or else. The jury wasn't convinced.
 |
| The Durrant murder trial put the Examiner on the map, and kickstarted the career of a journalism legend |
Theodore Durrant, the once-esteemed pillar of San Francisco's Emmanuel Church, was hanged on January 7, 1898. As the bored newspaper editor had suspected on that quiet day in April of 1895, there really was quite a story behind the curious classified ad begging for Blanche to come home. And it turned out that the young editor for the San Francisco Examiner had a bright future-- his name was William Randolph Hearst.