Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / Bittisode 010: Theodore Durrant - The Demon of the Belfry

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Bittisode 010: Theodore Durrant - The Demon of the Belfry · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to an air wave media podcast. Hi everybody,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: and welcome to Hooded. What now the history podcast? That's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: not your history class Bityso it's those little bits of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: history that don't quite have fit in anywhere else with me.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Your host, Katie Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Speaking of books, So I have too many? Probably can
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: you have too many? No? So I have a lot
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: of books, and I order lots of books, mainly for research,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes for fun. And so sometimes if I'm at work
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: or if I'm way somewhere working, I will get my
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: mum to open my mail for me. I'm like, I'll
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: pick up my mail, open it. It's fine. And I
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: forgot that I had ordered a certain book, and I'm
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: on the phone to my mom like, ah, yeah, open it,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: open it. Know where it's fine Because normally we'll chat,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: she'll open it and then she'll be like last laughs
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and epitaphs. Really, what weird history is this? Don't you
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: think you've got enough books on poison? Ah? This time
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: there's a dead silence, like it's a very heavy silence.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It's apparent it's there, to the point that I thought,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: has my phone cut out, did I accidentally mute her?
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Did she accidentally mute herself? But no, She's like, oh,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: really this is the kind of book you want to read.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: And I'm thinking, fuck me, what book is this? What?
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: And I couldn't remember what I'd ordered. I was like,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: because there's a few, and they're mainly about weird things
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: in history and you know, stuff like that, probably one
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: or two deaths. I was like, oh, is it one
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: with a weird, like creepy death title? And it was not, well,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: it was, but it was actually Jeanette McCurdy's I'm Glad
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: my mom died? What My mother did not take too
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: kindly to me purchasing when I explained, you know, like
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: some of the stuff in the book, I'm like, flick
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: through the book, mum, pick a page, right, pick a page,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: read it and you'll get it. And then she was like, oh, okay,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that's fine. But first flat second my mother was not
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: happy with me. But yeah, so this week's episode, bitisode,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: I should say, is about the demon of the Belfry,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: and I'm just gonna quit my jibber jabber in fact
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: you that's right, fact you, I will if that's okay.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Consent is key, so William Henry Theodore Dolande. He was
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: born in Toronto, Canada in eighteen seventy one to William
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Dorant and Isabella Hutchinson Dorrant. And when I hope it's
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Dorent and not like Durrant, and I'm just terribly mispronouncing it,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: which it could be, it happens. He is the brother
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: of Beulah Maude Durrant, who is more so known as
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: maud Alan. That's her stage name and the name she
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: kind of goes by for the rest of her life.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: So they had moved to San Francisco in California in
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the US when he was he was still a kid.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Actually it was only in eighteen seventy eight. His dad
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: had moved down there first, and then he had set
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: himself up and he was working there, and then the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: rest of the family followed, which was fairly normal for
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: the time, fairly typical. So THEO he grows up in
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: San Francisco, he gets a really good education which is
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: paid for by this wealthy dude, who it is believed
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: is Isabella's real father, because Isabella was adopted, so his
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: mom was adopted, but they think her father came from money,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: so Both him and his sister are very well taken
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: care of because their dad's a shoemaker. He's a cobbler
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: or is he a shoemaker? Wait? Does he make shoes
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: or does he pictures? Are they different? Anyway? Not the point.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Somebody could tweet me, tweet me and let me know.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: So he gets this fucking fantastic education, so good in fact,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: that he studies medicine. He's a medical student. He wants
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: to become a doctor of some kind. I mean it
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: is the eighteen hundreds, so it's not as impressive as
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: you think it should be. You know who else was
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: a doctor, doctor Cream fucking jerable man coseplaying as a human.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: That motherfucker was a doctor. So this young man has
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: everything going for him, like he is the straight white
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: man where things are just going well. He's twenty three
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: years old. He's studying at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: and he's also assisting at this Sunday school for the
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Immanual Baptist Church on twenty first Street. So the younger
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: members of the congregation, you know, like teenagers and like
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: twenty year old stuff like that, they create this little society,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: this little church society for like social purposes, so like
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: events and things and theo here theodorant. He gets elected
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: as the club secretary. And he's also a member of
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the California Signal Corps. So he seems to be a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: pretty good guy. He helps out to the church. He's the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: assistant superintendent at the Sunday School, so he teaches Sunday
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: school classes. He helps out in the church, and as
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: we know, straight laced godfearin folk who help out in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: their communities and project an imorage of you know, goodness,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: tended to be the worst fuckers of all. But I digress.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: So he was helping out at the Sunday School. Everything
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: has gone well. He is a respected pillar of the community,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: and then something awful happens. Let's talk about Blanche Lamont.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Blanche Lamont was a twenty year old teacher from Montana.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: She had moved to San Francisco after teaching in this
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: like one room school in Hecla. So Blanche had relocated
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: from Montana to San Francisco and she was staying with
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: her aunt and uncle, the Dobles. Her sister Maude was
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: also staying there. Now. Blanche had moved partially because she
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: had issues, and the warmer weather was supposed to be
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: better for her. The climate was better for her overall health.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: And Montana's winters they're not They're not the most fun,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: one could argue. I mean, he'd freeze the balls off
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: a brass monkey. It's it's cold. It's fucking cold. So
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: partially weather and partially so she could further her education.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Definitely wasn't about furthering her social life because a social
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: butterfly she was not. She didn't really go places, and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: if she did go somewhere like for fun, she was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: usually with other relatives, Like she wouldn't independently go to
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: a funfair or whatever people did for fun in the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: eighteen nineties. So on the morning of April third, eighteen
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: ninety five, the notably kind and lovely Miss Blanche Lamont
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: leaves home in the morning. See the course she was
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: taking was being held at the Boys High School. You know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: I think it was the only place that was doing it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: So she did that, and on the way she's with theodorant,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: like they're on the trolley together. So while Blanche goes
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: to the school, theo heads to Cooper Medical College. So
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: later on in the day between like two and three.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: She goes to a different school for cooking instruction because
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: it's the eighteen nineties and cooking classes were part of
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the typical schooling for women. I say that as if
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: home ech doesn't currently exist like it does. But this
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: was very much a necessary, recommended thing at the time,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: which is stupid. Men learn to cook, Jesus Christ. I
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: don't know a lasagna, something easy, not too complicated, it's
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: just stacking. So so, at some point before her class finishes,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Theodore dr Aunt shows up outside the school and is
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: waiting for her to leave, And when she does come out,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: she's with her friend Minnie Edwards, so he comes over
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: and he starts chatting to Blanche, and Minnie just carries on,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and she goes away and goes inside her the street car.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: She's going to go down, but she manages to clock
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: THEO and Blanche taking seats on the dummy, and so
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: do two other classmates, so she's still got her school
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: books with her, and she gets on. She sits down
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: next to him, and off they go. And as they
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: journey on, it is noted that the young couple are
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: acting very familiar with one another. They're leaning in clothes.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: They're whispering, he's tapping her back. It seems like they
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: are maybe a thing. So there's this proper curtain twitcher
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: keeping her ear to the ground, watching what's going on,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: while peering through the lacy neck curtains, which are basically
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: just massive, massive doilies, like somebody spent a good lock
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: of time like crocheting that. But she's waiting for her
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: daughter to come home. So she's peeking out through.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: The doly and she sees THEO, who she clearly fucking
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: recognizes because she goes to that church. I mean, if
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: the closest church she can see it from a window,
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: that's our church. She sees him open the side gate
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: and let the young lady in. And that was the
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: last time anyone saw Blanche LaMonte alive.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: So later that day, run about five o'clock. George King,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the church organist, he's in practicing. He's trying to get
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the keys all ready for his service. He one doesn't
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: want to let the congregation down. He wants to do well.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: So OVII goes and who comes down from the bell
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: other than theodorant. He doesn't have his jacket, he doesn't
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: have his hat, and he's kind of pale and weird looking.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: So Theo explains to him that he was up near
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the roof trying to find a leak in the gas
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: pipe and he had been overcome with gas, which I
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: am assuming to mean that he inhaled gas, not that
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: he passed gas. I mean the two are not mutually exclusive.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Both could have happened at the same time, but it's unlikely.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So he's kind of weak and pale and all that stuff.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: So George, being like shit, this isn't good, he runs
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: off to the pharmacy and gets a bottle of Bromo
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: seltzer and comes back and gives few it to drink.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: So after he consumes his delicious bottle of Bromo selt Sir,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and he seems to be fine, or at least no
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: longer shitty. The organist asks Theodore to help him move
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: this small organ down from the auditorium into the main hall,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: and Theodore is like, sure, I help, So off they go,
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: and when they get upstairs, the organist notices there is
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: no gas smell, like, there is no odor anywhere. And
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: if there's no smell anywhere, why the fuck was this
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: fellow on the roof looking for a gas leak, and
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: then he starts thinking, wait a minute, did we not
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: get these gas fixtures fixed like fairly recently by a plumber?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: So that's a bit weird, but he keeps it to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: himself at the time. So they get overyth and move down.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: It's fine, and then Theodore asks him to walk him home,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: even though the two fellas live in completely opposite directions.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: He's claiming that he doesn't feel well and he still
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: feels weak as the gas and if you could just
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: walk him home because it make him feel better, and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: being the kind person he is, he does. Later that night,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: there's like a prayer service going on, and Missus Noble,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Blanche's aunt, attends, and she goes looking there enemy because
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: she expects Blanche to be there because she usually is.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Theodore is sitting basically behind missus Noble and he asks
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: her if Blanche is there tonight, and when she tells
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: him that no, she isn't there, he's like, oh, that's
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: a shame, because I have a book for her. So
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: three days later, missus Noble reports Blanche's disappearance to the
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: police and the press, and later that evening, Theodoro de
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: Ranch shows up at her house with a book that
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: he supposedly wanted to give to Blanche, and when he's there,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: he tells her Auntie that he heard from another student
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: that Blanche was neither dead nor missing, but in fact
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: had joined a house of ill repute she'd become a
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: sex worker. Basically, he'd gone there to hand this book
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in that he said was for Blanche, but then also
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: said that Blanche had run away to become a sex worker.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: That Math at Math and my friend. After this incredibly
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: weird interaction, the police then interview Theodore Dorant and he
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: tells them that he believes that Blanche Lemont has been
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: kidnapped by white slavery groups and has been sold into prostitution,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and they're like, yeah, that seems rational, fair enough. Over
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: the next couple of days, Theodore Durant does a couple
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: of weird things. First, he's seen by the church janitor
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: hanging out by the Oakland Ferry landing, and when he
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: asks him what he's doing there, he tells him that
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: he's following clues about Blanche's disappearance. He also goes to
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a pawn shop and tries to pawn this ring and
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the owners like, nah, mah Na. And then a package
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: arrives at Missus Noble's house and it's three rings that
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: belonged to Blanche that she was wearing the day she disappeared.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: And the package had the name George King on it,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: the organist who had walked to Launt home that night,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: nine days after Blanche's disappearance. It's Good Friday, so that
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: would be the penultimate day of the penance, really during Easter,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: during lynt, i should say. And it's two days before
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: Easter Sunday, so on Good Friday, you're supposed to abstain
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: from meat. It's supposed to be like a very very
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: stern day, Somber day. The Young Society of the Immanuel
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Baptist Church or having a WE meeting. Theodore Dolant is
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the secretary of this WE society, and Minnie Flora Williams
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: is supposed to be attending. The meeting was supposed to
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: be held at the house of a church elder, a
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: dentist named Vogel. Minnie had told her former employers, the Morgans,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: that she was thinking about attending this event, this meeting. See,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: she had been working for the Morgans and she'd been
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: living in, but she was moving to a new job
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: at another side of the city, so her trunk had
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: already been moved. And she said to them, well, i
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: won't be back this evening because I'm thinking about going
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: to this this meeting for the younger church members. It
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: is supposed to start whinning about seven thirty half seven,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: and around about seven pm, Minnie and Theodore are seen
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: having a heated discussion outside the church, heated enough that
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: many people take note. Someone thought it was me be
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: like a lover's tiff or something like that, but they
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: were definitely she was unhappy, and this very public argument
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: was the very last time that Mannie Williams was seen alive. Now, Theodore,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: he is the secretary for this group and so he's
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: supposed to be at this meeting pretty sharpish, but he
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: doesn't show up until nine thirty that night, two hours late.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And when he does show up, he is disheveled. Like
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: they use the term excited appearance, but we all know
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: what that means. He was a mess. Now, this Baptist
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Church youth group event must have been really fucking exciting
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: because it lasted another two hours. It started at seven thirty,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: So that's a four hour thing. Eleven twenty five. It finishes,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: and near enough everybody goes home. They'll go in their
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: respective directions, apart from Theodore Dumont, who heads to the
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: church alone. The very next day is the Saturday before Easter,
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: and a bunch of ladies have come in. They're going
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to decorate the church for Easter Sunday. They're gonna make
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: it fancy. They're going to fancy up. And as they're
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: cleaning and sprucing the place up, one of the women
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: opens this cupboard door, and as she opens it, she
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: is met with a horrific sight. I'm going to give
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: you away. Trigger warning slash content warning for gore and essay, okay.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Inside this cupboard in the church's library was the mutilated
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: body of Miss Many Flora Williams. She was half naked,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: her clothes had been torn, She had multiple stab wounds,
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Her wrists had been slashed, her breast had been stabbed repeatedly.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: There was a knife still lodged in her chest. Her
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: clothing had been ripped to the point that her underwear
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: had been ripped off and was stuffed in her mouth
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and down her throat with such incredible force that they
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: struggled to remove it. Once the women get over the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: shock of seeing this fucking horrible scene, they alert the police,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: who fucking I tail it down there. They come in,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: they look, they see the body, and they call in
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the big guns, who heads straight into San Francisco. So
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: they start asking around, you know, doing some very basic,
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: the bare minimum of detective work, and somebody goes, oh, well,
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: the last place I saw her was chatting to Theodore Durrant.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So they go searching. From the first place, they go,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: obviously to his home, so they go in. He's not
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: fucking there because he had already fucked off to the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: signal corpse, like he'd already gone, and so they decided
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to search us home and in his coat pocket they
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: find many Williams coin purse. So at this point the
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: police split into two teams. Two fellows go to trail
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: and hunt Durant and get him arrested, which they do,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: and he's like, this is an outrageous accusation. I protest
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: so on and so forth, but they restume anyway, while
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: the other team searches and investigates the church, and as
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they get up to the belfry, it's fucking boarded up,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: so they have to just break their way in. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: as they smash through the belfry door, what do they find?
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: None other than the naked corpse of Blanche Lamont. Her
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: lifeless body was positioned the same way that medical students
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: would position a corpse before dissecting it, with her arms
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: crossed over her chest and a block of wood beneath
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: her head. And surprise, surprise, the officers concluded that only
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: someone with medical knowledge would have done this. After doing
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: a wee bit more police work, they found her school
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: books and her clothes, which were neatly folded by the
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: way were carefully and neatly tucked into the rafters of
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the belfry. Okay, so I'm going to describe their deaths
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: now their pretty griesome trigger warning content warning essay. If
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: you don't want to hear this, skip forward about fifty seconds. Okay.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Theodore and Blanche entered the church, which just so happened
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: to be empty, where he then strangled her to death.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Once she was dead, he dragged her corpse up to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the belfry, where he removed her clothes and then committed
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: necrophilia with her corpse. He then tidied the place up
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: boarded the belfry door and then went downstairs where he
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: met the organist. Nearly two weeks after this event, Theodore
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: lured many Williams to the church and once inside, he
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: raped her, then killed her, and then mutilated her body.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Unlike Blanche's body, which was neatly rearranged, he just shoved
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: her body in a closet and didn't make any attempt
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: to clean up the bloodstains. He just left his whole
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: plan being get the hell at a dodge. He thought
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: he could just walk away from it. So after he's arrested,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: these reports start coming in about Theodore Durant by young
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: women who feared they would either not be believed, or if
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: they were believed, that their families would take matter into
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: their own hands and somebody would, you know, get the
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: shit kicked out of them and or be dead. A
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: couple women came forward and said that Durrant had offered
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: to give them private physical examinations at the church, which
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: they politely declined. And one young woman reported that he
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: had invited her into the library one day and when
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: she arrived, he was buck naked, and she was so
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: shocked and appalled in a situation that she screamed and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: ran the fuck away. Once this story hits the newsstands,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: it is effectively the crime of the century. You're gonna
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: hear that a lot in sort of historical crime cases,
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: a lot of it is often the crime of the century.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It's a massive fucking deal, and it is everywhere, to
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the point that it takes one month to find a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: jury because everybody has an opinion. They go through three
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: six hundred people to get a jury of twelve. The
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: trial lasts three weeks, and the prosecution brings forth fifty
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: witnesses like that's just them. And the defense's argument is
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: that Theodore Daurant had no motive to kill these women
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: because they had no money. He wasn't due to inherit anything.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: They hadn't like slandered him like there was no reason.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And it gets to the point where the judge goes, listen,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: if you're saying this is for a weird sexual urge,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: then yeah, that's motive enough for me. And so after
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a three week trial, the jury deliberates for five minutes.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: That's not even enough time to get the paperwork done,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and they find the defendant, William Henry Theodore Delant guilty
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: as fuck, and he is sentenced to a short drop
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: in a sudden stop, and his lawyers they mount appeals
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: for like six fucking months until they've exhausted all avenues,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: all options, until there's nothing left. And then on January seventh,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: eighteen ninety eight, Theodore Delante heads to the gallows in
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: San Quentin Prison. The warden starts to read the death
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: warrant and Durrant stops him, saying he will spare him
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: this unpleasant jury, and then he is execut hung from
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the neck until dead. His parents come to claim his
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: body right away because they're worried about body snatchers or
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: that somebody's going to do some fucking dodgy shit with it,
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: you know, which, you know, fair enough. His parents claimed
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: his body right away because they were worried about body snatchers,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: grave robbers and all that kind of thing, and that
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: somebody would do something dodgy with his body, which you know,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: after what he did, fair enough, fair enough, And so
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: they decided they were going to get him cremated, but
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: nobody would take the body. No one in San Francisco
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: would accept the corpse because you know, nobody wanted to
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: be associated with the Monster of the Belfray or the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Demon of the Belfray, depending on which paper you bought.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: He was one of the others. Luckily, a Los Angeles
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: firm managed to like accept it, and so he was
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: cremated in January thirteenth, eighteen ninety eight. And that is
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the Tale of the Demon of the Belfry. If you
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: like my retelling of this tale, feel free to rate
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: interview five stars. I'm not saying you have to. I'm
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: just saying I'd very much like it if you would.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: And tell me something fun about yourself. Tell me what
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: your favorite kind of pajamas are. Who does love pajamas?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: They're the best. Ah. You can follow me on all
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: of the socials. If you message me on Instagram or
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: you tweet me on Twitter, I will respond. I will
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: message back because I'm a sucker for attention. I can't
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: help it. It's just who I am. And before I go,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: can I just tell everyone to go watch Do Revenge
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: on Netflix. It is like a love letter to I
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: don't know what I would call modern classic cinema with
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: chick flicks and things like that, romantic comedies sort of
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: defining movies of genres in the eighties, nineties, and naughties.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: It's hm, I love it so much, like I'm going
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: to rewatch it. Like I usually watch something once and
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: then I'm done. But there are some things I will
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: watch several hundred times because that's who I am as
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: a person. That being said, I'm going to say farewell
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: to y'all. Ariios au Revoir of What Is Them, my friends,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Bye bye,