041 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

EDWARD D. WORRELL

Gentlemen, a bullet passed through the brain of the victim. The nature of that wound was such that he must have been summoned in an instant to eternity, without a moment's preparation. Every man, no matter how exalted, how pure, or how good, must have time, however short, to meet his God. We all must make our peace with Him. Mr. Gordon must have died in half a second. When the body was found, all inquiry as to his fate, of course, ended. Two men had been last seen in his company. Where were they? Immediate pursuit was made for them.

Inquiry showed that they were deserters from the army of the United States, that they had traveled in company with Mr. Gordon, and that they had also stayed with him lately at a house about six miles from where the body was found. We, gentlemen, are all in the habit of trusting too much to external circumstances. Men of genteel appearance and pleasing manners sometimes win confidence they do not deserve. Perhaps Mr. Gordon trusted too much to the appearance and manners of these two men when he consented to travel in their company.

At that house, the prisoner, Worrell, had been seen to load a pistol. On the next morning, all three had been seen together on the road. They were last seen with Gordon at a hollow on the edge of a prairie, in a place most convenient for the purpose of a crime. We expect to show that the horse they led was identified by peculiar marks. This murder was committed on a Friday; these two men stopped that night at St. Charles, and the next night at St. Louis. The horse, led by them, was the one Mr. Gordon had been riding and was with them at St. Charles. They crossed the Missouri River there on the ice. They were afterwards traced to Vincennes, Indiana.

At that place, the prisoner, Worrell, sold Gordon's horse. There, these men, whose names are Worrell and Bruff, parted. This prisoner went to Delaware; Bruff went to Georgia. Bruff was arrested in Georgia; Worrell was taken at Dover, in Delaware. Worrell was found in possession of Gordon's watch and saddlebags. He not only did not deny but actually admitted them to have been Gordon's. On his arrest there, he was brought back. I will not speak of their respective statements. I will...