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Minnie Williams

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Minnie Williams Famous memorial

Birth
Beamsville, Niagara Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada
Death
12 Apr 1895 (aged 21)
Mission District, San Francisco County, California, USA
Burial
Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA GPS-Latitude: 37.6716472, Longitude: -122.4569485
Plot
Mass grave in Laurel Hill section
Memorial ID
View Source
Murder Victim. Minnie was the second victim of the so-called "Demon of the Belfry," Theo Durrant. On Good Friday, both Theo and Minnie were supposed to go to a church social that was being held at a parishioner's house, but he somehow lured her into the empty Emannuel Baptist Church instead. There, he sexually assaulted her, stabbed her, and choked her by forcing a piece of her undergarments down her throat with a sharpened stick. When she was dead, he hid her body in the library closet, cleaned her blood off of himself and the library floor, then cheerfully went off to the party. He was eventually tried for Minnie's murder and the earlier murder of Blanche Lamont in the church belfry and was hanged at San Quentin on January 7, 1898. She was originally buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. But, when a city ordinance outlawed cemeteries inside the city limits, all 35,000 bodies were removed from Laurel Hill and reburied in a mass grave in Cypress Lawn.
Murder Victim. Minnie was the second victim of the so-called "Demon of the Belfry," Theo Durrant. On Good Friday, both Theo and Minnie were supposed to go to a church social that was being held at a parishioner's house, but he somehow lured her into the empty Emannuel Baptist Church instead. There, he sexually assaulted her, stabbed her, and choked her by forcing a piece of her undergarments down her throat with a sharpened stick. When she was dead, he hid her body in the library closet, cleaned her blood off of himself and the library floor, then cheerfully went off to the party. He was eventually tried for Minnie's murder and the earlier murder of Blanche Lamont in the church belfry and was hanged at San Quentin on January 7, 1898. She was originally buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco. But, when a city ordinance outlawed cemeteries inside the city limits, all 35,000 bodies were removed from Laurel Hill and reburied in a mass grave in Cypress Lawn.

Bio by: Karen Valentine


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  • Maintained by: Find a Grave
  • Originally Created by: Karen Valentine
  • Added: Nov 21, 2002
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6944373/minnie-williams: accessed ), memorial page for Minnie Williams (Aug 1873–12 Apr 1895), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6944373, citing Cypress Lawn Memorial Park, Colma, San Mateo County, California, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.