The Bloody Century

Featured Murder...

22. The Demon of the Belfry

Theo Durrant, Superintendent of Sunday School at San Francisco’s Emanuel Baptist Church, was seen entering the church with Blanche Lamont on April 3, 1895, the day she disappeared. Though several people had seen them together that day, Durant was not a suspect in her disappearance. But when Minnie Williams, another girl he had courted, was found murdered and mutilated in the church library and the corpse of Blanch Lamont was found in the bell tower, the innocent Sunday school teacher was recast as “The Demon of the Belfrey.”

Date: April 3, 1895,April 12, 1895
Location: San Francisco, California
Victims: Blanche Lamont, Minnie Williams
Cause of Death: Strangulation
Accused: Theodore Durrant
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