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

Here is the translated text as follows:

LEO M. FRANK, 221

I have been engaged in hospital work for six or seven years and have treated about 14,000 cases of surgery. I have examined the private parts of Leo M. Frank and found nothing abnormal; he is a normal man, sexually. Neither I nor anybody else could give an intelligent opinion of how long that cabbage and wheat bread had been in the stomach before death. Finding the epithelium missing in several places or separated from the wall of the vagina would not indicate any violence done to the subject in life. The condition of the blood vessels as described, I would expect to result from other causes than violence. Even if violence caused them, you could not tell how long before death that violence had been inflicted, or that it had been inflicted within from five to fifteen minutes before death.

Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland

I am a practicing physician for twenty-eight years, with a general practice and surgery. I have been a professor of surgery for twenty years and formerly president of the State Board of Health. From the evidence I have heard, it would be impossible to tell whether or not that would have produced unconsciousness before death; the skull may be fractured without producing unconsciousness; death may be produced by a blow on the head that leaves very little outward signs. From looking at such a wound without any knowledge of the amount of blood lost, one could not tell whether it was inflicted before or after death; one could not tell from looking at a wound of that sort from which direction it was inflicted. I have no personal feeling against Dr. Harris; I preferred charges with the State Board of Health, charging Dr. Harris with professional dishonesty.

It would be impossible to form a reliable opinion that cabbage and bread had been in that stomach before death, on that data or any other data, that could be found by looking at the stomach nine or ten days after death. Many things retard digestion. Much depends upon the particular stomach and its affinity for particular foods. Food that is not thoroughly emulsified will remain in the stomach indefinitely. Cabbage like that, and wheat bread, might remain in the stomach until the process of digestion is complete, which ordinarily would be from three and a half to four hours. Any epithelium can be very easily stripped after death. The digital examination could have stripped it. So could the removal for purposes of post-mortem examination. If the subject had had a menstrual period a day or two before death and she was found in the act of menstruating at the time of death, this would account for the congested blood vessels, and it would also make the epithelium much easier to strip. Even if an opinion could be expressed as to violence before death, it would be impossible to say that it occurred from five to fifteen minutes before death. From an examination of the private parts of Leo M. Frank, he appears to be a perfectly normal man. A black eye could be inflicted after death.

Cross-examined

There are sexual inverts who are absolutely normal in physical appearance. A doctor could not look at cabbage in various stages of digestion...

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