Theo Durrant: The Demon in the Bellfry

[jmenges]

Hi all,

To mark the anniversary of Theo Durrant's execution (7 Jan 1898), The San Francisco History Podcast did a really good episode on this case.

You can stream it from their site:

http://www.sparkletack.com/2009/01/05/san-francisco-timecapsule-010509/

And since I didn't see a thread for Durrant, I guess this one can be a starter for a discussion of the Emmanuel Baptist Church murders.

JM

[sdreid]

Yes, and it was even connected to the Ripper case by at least one author. The most interesting thing in that book was the chart of Durrant's heart after he was hanged. If I remember correctly, he was hanging there for something like 25 minutes before it stopped beating and that was the long drop I believe.

[Mayerling]

One curious thing about the Durrant Case is that years later it had a political after-affect that would have surprised Ted Durrant or his two victims. His sister became a well-known "modern dancer" named Maude Allan, and she dared in 1918 to appear in a production of Oscar Wilde's play SALOME in London, doing her dancing. There was a prominent aviation pioneer and right wing politician Noel Pemberton Billings who worked with other neo-fascists (including a "reformed" Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas) to denounce this production, and then attack the current establishment in England as being homosexually oriented, and being blackmailed by the Germans into leading England to defeat in World War I. Allan (facing ruin) sued Pemberton Billings for libel, and the trial (before Mr. Justice Darling) was a totally out of control farce. To further undermine Allan before the Jury the fact that her brother was executed for murder in 1898 for killing two women was brought up. Allan lost the case, and Pemberton Billing and his allies were cheered by rather stupid mobs of people. Later the aviation pioneer turned out to have some skeleton in his own closet and lost his seat in Parliament.

Jeff