The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 16, 1895, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 189 sl Emile F. Somps, who lives at 2536 Mission sion street. On Friday night, abont twenty minutes 10 12, he meta young man and woman on Bartlett street, near Twen econd. He went close to them under a gaslight and looked at them carefully. Durrant, he says, resembles in every particular the man that he then saw, while the jacket found on Miss Williams' body was exactly like that worn by the young woman. ] was going home late Mr. Somps said, “and had reached Twenty- second stree n I heard a moise in a | yard. The neighborhood had been in fested with chicker special officer I wa artlett street. “When I reached t saw some pe not light e were. «Y walked toward the Hi 0 ple, who were street. saw that a young woman. “The man wore a Stetson hat. ing at him cl ten feet of h “*Com “Upon this they toward the ¢! It was long overcoat and a toward them, look- till T was within about id to the girl: walked back iding was on Where they think he is the general buil complex In jail Tam n was. al to see by the you ni BLA' Oue Theory The di connected been ann company missed from he reason to bel that he was with the last day she 2 was seen befo e, so the police he left s Du inds, 5 feet 8 inches 1 & fre- dumbbells and i member of | quently pi guite mu Miss L i 140 she 1e accom- gn the ladies’ to assault her, and that bein, expected resistance he cau throat with both b Having accomp covered that the g met with un- t her by the purpose he dis- sible. Her ordinar to cons and stoc cases of uncc of ber feet w not take him Ic been str: 1 his conc knew every »bethought h knowing t ion and dy. He building and he steeple or belfry, ce not much fre- ! lqguented limp and lifeless | tbody i ated by the he found no ¢ § two flights of br: allery, but when it came to ent er thin, low two persons t, but the not do that, not one, but it became light to move up the mecessary to have stairs, To do this he secured a pi candle, which he placed on the landing above him, then throw imp body over his right shoulc 3 a sack of meal, he ascended to the ed it there st have been the placing from lan i Jights of the ste: Once havi g body on the plattorm, the murde ce stripped it of its clothin ith the idea that if left naked it wi decompose much more rapidly, and ved the rings from her fing: troy all possibility 'of identifi ¢ idea of re- turning for it a’ This much acc down from the belf desd girl upstairs hid ber sboes, stockings and hat behind a large “closet, so that no one should see them in fcase they entered the room. As he left £ [Fwith King it is probable that he returned ¥at some later period for the articles men- ftioned and threw them aw £ On Sunday when the body was discov- fered the janitor was summoned toopen Sthe door that leads to the steeple but Sfound that the knob was broken and that Tant came the bolt could not be shot back. He thad noticed some two weeks before that the knob was in order and ‘that no marks of breaking were on it. The door was then forced open ‘and an examination showed that ftwo instruments had been applied to Sforcibly open the door, one seven-eighths of an inch wide and the other half an inch twide. An experiment made yesterday proved that & man weighing 130 pounds could carry a 140-pound man up sixteen stgps in %the belfry without resting, and that he ‘tould carry a man weighing 175 pounds Jfour steps without resting, using his left hand to hold on to the banister. THE JANITOR'S THEORY. He Tells About Meeting Durrant at the Ferry Landing, ! Frank V. Sademan, the janitor, in con- |.E versation yesterday said: ‘It looks to me §very much as if a strong case was being made out against Durrant. +‘For some time past I had been working %in a lumber-yard owned by a friend of ‘mine, being glad to do anything as the simes are hard. Iam not regularly in the + chureh, as they cannot afford to pay me a regular sala; I wasat work when I wa oFd that a young woman had been carried Hut of the churdh, and supposed at the time shat one of the ladies who were decorating e altar had fallen and hurt herself, but it was not until a quarterto 6 that I learned hat & younigirl had been killed in the hurch, When I reached the church some 1 the ladies who had been working on the thoroughfare T | But, | > she was nt isa hat. | of | re he took the { | flowers were going away, and I overheard | the name of Durrant and asked some one how his name came to be mentioned. 1 told that he was acquainted with the 1 «On Friday I saw Durrant at the ferry. | Having nothing to do I took a stroll down there. He spoke to me, saying: ‘We are still Jooking.” I inferred that he spoke of | the Lamont girl, becanse I knew he and the Noble family had been Jooking for her. | He said that he had got a slight clew—a | very slight one—but that everything had | | to be looked after. Hesaid at the same | | time that he was looking out for something ise. 1 suppose that it was the Williams | | girl he was waiting for, as I have since earned that he had written for her to ome over to go to the party at the Vogel | house. | “He also told me that a detective had | called at the house to make a search for the Lamont girl, but'‘that the deteetive bad refused 10 do anything unless he was paid $50 in advance. 1 do mot know who the detective is, but I understood that he was »aid at the rate of $8 a day and expenses. *)\m ant told me that they—I presume the Nobles—had paid him the money and that he had not done anything whatever. ‘Why,’ said he, *he did not even. come to ask me about the matter.’ | “I never eaw him after that Friday. 1!'\'» I noticed him frequently in the church and observed that he was always very cool and deliberate in all his actions. | He'had the free run of the church building and went wherever he ‘pleased and did | some repairing.” When Sademan left the church last < | evening he statea where he could be found, aid he, “I do not want to have any ho may want to see me think that I was trying to keep out of the way.”’ “What a fortunate thing,” said’ the jan- | itor, reflectively, “that I did not light a ire yesterday.” “How s0? “It was pretty cold, and I felt as though I would like to have a fire, but I thought ht say that there was an y evidence.” nitor declared that he could more, as he_bad talked so nuch about the case, that is, reported the same thing so many times, that he had become worn ont. To-day heand hisson will be called upon | to give their testimony at the Coroner’s A SINGLE EHAIR. It May Have Dropped From the Head of the Murderer, One thing that escaped the attention of the detectives was a single hair that was found yesterday in the clot of blood in the i int where Miss Williams’ 1gle hair which may re in the caseis | coarse, ap; m a man’s head and of a reddish brown color, slightly tinged with gray at the end. | This single bair may have belonged to man who or may mot cut the clot where it h was found. THE FORSYTH MYSTERY. Missing Woman Was Not & Baptist. One of the groundless rumors concern- ing the church tragedy which yesterday { took shape from nothingness and eained oral currency about the city was one to ect that Mrs.. Ella Forsyth, the yman who mysteriously disap- the e | young ¥ | peared on April 5, was a third victim of i | the murderer of Minnie Williams and Blanche Lamont. One report had it simply that she was a me! of that church, and so possibly a | | Mrs. Forsyth. | victim of the fate of the two girls men- ned. Other reports even had it that her | body mdlh-un found under the floor of urch. A little investigation showed that there was not the smallest foundation for any of these reports, but it left Mrs. Forsyth’s nce as great a mystery as ever. s of search have not developed any | clew to her whereabouts, and only indefin- picions that the missing woman has way with a man who is not her hus- n Her husband and most intimate friends believe that she has been drowned. | | Mrs. F yth was a young woman of about 20 years old, who two years married | George W. Forsyth, a young man who is a pressman employed by the Schmids Label Company. Her life appears to have been happy e gh, and her husband re. tains im t confidence in her fidelity as | a wife. On Friday, April 5, ten days ago | yesterday, she left home in the forenoon | to. make a trip alone to Bakers Beach | vicinity to gather shells. She | did not come home again, and on the | following Sunday her disappearance was | re vorted to the police. Binge then the f‘"i ¢ have been looking her up, and her | husband, friends and special detectives | have been searching for clews by which her movements might be followed. But as far as is known she melted into air | when she left the door of her little home | at 1604 Larkin street. Some people have been found who thought they had seen a woman of her description along the beach | on t]llmt day, but they were not sure. That is all. | _Her young husband has been forlorn and | distracted ever since, and has not appeared or sent word to his place of work. He speaks of his confidence that she is under the waves as though that was the only possible explanation of her disappearance, and as though her being alive and with somebody else was a calamity which could | not happen. = ‘Give the ocean its time and she ill be found,’” he said yesterday. ‘‘Then T’ll get even with some of these enemies killed the girl, and may have | A remarkable | S who have been saying these things.” The slim young man who broods in his lonely rooms expects the waves to give up his dead to-day, and then he will sadly but ol.ermlphnntly g0 about the tender work of urial. “They say at the Coroner’s office that it tal nin€ or ten s for a body to come to the surface,” he said, “and it ought to be found to-morrow anyway, I will be glad to let you know if anything turns up, but I may not be here to-morrow, because if !&;e body is found I will have a good deal to do.” He even smiled at the rumor of a possi- ble relation between her disappearance and the double tragedy that has horrified the nation. “She ot only did not belong to that church,”” he said, “but she never went there in her life. She didn’t know eny- body that belonged to it, and didn't even know anybody in that part of the town. She used to go to church, but she has done so only occasionally since we were married. She used to go to Dr. Fil- ben’s Methodist church over there, for she was raised a_Methodist, but latterly she went to Mr. Henry’s church. That report about her going off to church and then wmeeting some ifellow instead isall bosh, for whenever she did go she went witha | young lady who is my cousin.” The young husband, who is hardly more than a bright and_manly-looking boy, told the story of her disappearance. We had been down along the beach and gath- ered some shells before, and she wanted some more to' make a workbasket. She went off thatdey to get them and I said *“All right” When she left she took with her nothlnE but the clothes she had on, a gray suit witl white stripes and & passementerie front, and & purse with 35 cents in it. She left $20 in the burean, and I say she wouldn’t have left that if she was rnnuning away. All her clothes hang in there just as she leit them, She hasn't been seen since. I've asked everybody, and had people out hunting and nobody has seen her, though some people thought they ad _ seen somebody like that along that way. Yesterdaya captahn who lives with his wife in a HluuP over by Black Point came here with & woman’s belt he had found on the beach, but it wasn’t hers. Then somebody else came with a brand new woman’s square-toe shoe that had been found on the beach, but it wasn’t like hers and was & No. 2, and she wore d's. % I believe that she climbed around on the rocks in g dangerous place andslipped in. She was kind of daring that way and would ‘'be apt to do samething like that. I think that her body wilt be found soon,and I'll not withhold full’ confidence in her until I know different. It wouldu’t be just to & wife to do so. One of Mrs. Forsyth’s two brothers here isa Mr. Flagg, who is night' manager of Dare’s restaurant on Stockton street. He knows nothing and holds to no theories. Detectives know nothing about the case, but of course thev have opinions. The mystery of this pretty young woman’s dis- appearauce may be cleared up through favorable currents or other means, but any way Durrant is not suspected of connection with it. EMMANUEL CEURCH. Description of the Interior and Looation of the Several Rooms. The Emmanuel Baptist Church on Bart- lett street was in charge of the police all day yesterday, and no one was permitted to enter who did not have business within. The usually quiet street in front of the edifice was crowded all day with men, women and children, who were busy dis- cussing the mysteries that have shocked the people for the past few days. Many were anxious to gain admission, prompted only by a morbid curiosity to gaze upon the empty church, the blood- stained room in which the body of Minnie Williams was found and the platform in | the belfry on which was found the form of poor Blanche Lamont. But all such who could not give good reason why they should be admitted were politely informed that they could mot go in, and they con- tented themselves with gazing at the out side of the edifice and watching the door as if expecting that every time it_was opened another body would be carried out on a stretcher. But they were disappointed. The widely circulated rumor that the body of a third woman had been found under the floor of the church was without foundation. Within the church there was an unusual ilence, and the few who were inside moved with a cautious step as if divine service was being conducted within. Entering on Bartlett street the visitor to the church finds himself in a vestibule that leads to the lecture-room on the ground floor. To the right of the ves bule there is an airy, light room thatis known as the ladies’ parlor. It is neatly but. plainly furnished with. table, chairs and a few pictu On the mantel there i5 2 small workbasket containing a comb, and over the mantel there is a large mir- Tor. In the rear of this apartment is a small room used as a4 classroom for younger Sunddy-school children. This room has two doors in the rear, one on the north and the other on the south side. The one in the south side may be reached by a path on the south side of the bui g i is written on the outside: “Pastor’s study, ring the bell, then open the door and walk upstairs,” The other doormay be reached by walking around the rear end of the building, but it is seldom used. From the rear of fhe children’s room there is a flight of stairs that leads to the pastor’s study. On the north side is the kitchen and'a pantry. At ‘either side of the vestibule in the front of the structure there is a flight of stairs, each leading to the auditorium, At the west of the north staircase there is a door that opens into a room ten by twelve, that looks out on Bartlett street. This was used by the librarian of the cir- g library as a place in which to re- ceive those who called for books. On the south side of the building is a similar room of th ] 2] g A o e @ rooms is a small room eight feet long, and a half feet wide and six feet three inches high at the highest point. There is a slight pitch in the ceiling from the side of the building to the center, caused' by the stairs. There is on the upper floor a broad vesti- bule which has to _be crossed in order to re-enter the auditorium. The altar at the east end looked desolate yesterday, with the drooping Easter flow- ers in the condition they were left in by the ladies of the congregation who were decorating when the frightful news came to them that the body of a murdered girl had been found in the librarian’s room. At the right of the altar is the door that orens into the pastor’s study, a large, pleasant room in the southeast corner of the building, with a bay-window looking south. On the shelves there are a num- ber of good books; thereare a few pictures, and on the floor, resting against the west wall, there is a large photograph of the Rev. J. George Gibson, the pastor. On his desk were scattered a number of papers and books he had used in preparing his Easter sermon. From the vestibule al- ready described a short flight of stairs on KELLY & LIEBES (loak and Suit House, 120 KEA’RlY__STREET. NEW STYLE CLOTH CAPES, bon trimmed. . VELVET CAPES, satin lined, DUCK AND PIQi styles. BLAZER DRESSES; cheviot, new styles. REEFER DRESSES, fancy cheviot eftects.. Yo $16.50 Ely’s Cream Balm Cleanses the Nasal Pa Heals the Sores. Av&!‘hl. nto each nostril ELY BROS06 Yarrea shlN.¥ {in one of our very stylish {ments in every sense of |why you shouldn’t. hat is used asa storeroom. Off each | |tired in will be shown in {our fine suit room at NEW CHARLES M. SHORTRIDCE, Proprietor of THE CALL, s We Will Dress Him for the Spring, This very popular gen- tleman appears before the readers of this jour- nal this morning attired Single - Breasted Three- Button Cutaway English Clay Serges. The beauty and grace of the garment can be seen in every line. We have these serges in three shades, blue, black and gray. We also show them in single and double breasted Sacks and Cuta- . The tailoring is way perfection--idealistic gar- the term. The leading people in town wear our good, ready - to - wear clothes, and we don’t see The garment that Mr. Shortridge appears at- If most of the people knew the good things that we have in our big store there would be very few of them going to the tailors nowadays, but as it is, the best peo- ple in town are wearing our good clothes and we want you among ‘em. Raphael’s (INCORPORATED). GREATER FRISCO'S GREAT STORE, 9, 11, 13 and 15 - Kearny Street. TO-DAY—CLOTHING. N A CRARLES M SHORTRIDAL. PooprieToR Of THE CALL: wiLtl DRESS Him for THE DpRInG: ISSUUCUCESOU TSR