Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San FranciscoU of Nebraska Press, 2005 M01 1 - 334 pages On the day before Easter Sunday 1895, the stabbed and strangled body of twenty-one-year-old Minnie Williams was found in Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco?s Mission District. A search of the church yielded another grisly discovery in the belfry: the decomposing body of another young woman, reported as missing ten days earlier. She, too, had been strangled. But unlike the victim in the library, Blanche Lamont was lovingly laid out as if for burial. Clues led the police to suspect a friend of both victims, a medical student who was also the assistant superintendent of the church's Sunday school. But those who knew Theo Durrant denied that this highly respectable young man could have had anything to do with these horrible crimes. Virginia A. McConnell demonstrates that Durrant was exactly what he seemed to be: a genuinely good man whose life went terribly wrong because of the biological, genetic, and mental problems from which he suffered?problems of which he was not even aware. McConnell also examines the extensive and sensational press coverage of the case and the effect of the murders on San Francisco. |
Contents
In Plain Sight | 1 |
Missing | 13 |
The Durrants of Toronto | 25 |
The Little Quakeress | 45 |
Holy Week Horrors | 65 |
The Prince of City Prison | 81 |
The Inquest and a Trial by Noosepaper | 97 |
The Road to Trial | 133 |
The Case for the Prosecution | 155 |
Theo Takes the Stand | 183 |
Appeals and an Execution | 217 |
Murder in the Emmanuel Baptist Church | 255 |
Epilogue | 277 |
Notes | 287 |
Selected Bibliography | 323 |
Other editions - View all
Sympathy for the Devil: The Emmanuel Baptist Murders of Old San Francisco Virginia McConnell No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Alameda Alice Rix April 15 April 20 arrest asked Barnes belfry Blanche Lamont Blanche's body Bromo-Seltzer cable car Call Carrie Cunningham Chronicle claimed Clark Morgan court courtroom crime Crosett cross-examination defense Deuprey Dickinson Dillon District Attorney door Emmanuel Baptist Church Eugene Deuprey Examiner execution George Gibson George King girls innocent inquest Isabella Durrant John George Gibson Judge Murphy jurors jury killed killer knew later Leak letter look Lucile Turner Mamma Maud Maud Allan Minnie Williams Minnie's Mission District morning mother murder never newspapers night Noble November Oppenheim Papa Peixotto police prison probably prosecution questions Quinlan reporters Sademan San Francisco San Quentin seemed September sister stand story Street streetcar talk tell testified testimony Theo Durrant Theo's Theodore Durrant thing thought told took trial Vogel walked wanted witness woman women young