Leo Frank TV

Here is the translated text as follows:254 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The attitude of the accused toward his victim is evident in the tall, good-natured Jim Gantt, a friend of Mary. He asks Gantt, "You're pretty thick with Mary, aren't you?" This shows that he knew her and had his eye on her. What happened next? He wanted to get rid of Gantt. How did he go about it? You have seen that previously, he was bragging about Gantt and his ability as a workman. But, just as soon as his eye was set upon the pretty little friend of Gantt,

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 253But the defense, on the other hand, were allowed to let down the bars and walk in.That pencil factory was a great place for a man without a conscience. It was a great place for Frank, his handsome assistant, Mr. Darley, and the able Mr. Schiff. We find that Frank had coupled himself up for nightly meetings with Dalton, who now has, it seems, turned respectable. My friends, no doubt, will argue that it was strange a man of such business and social position should consort with such a character. It

Here is the translated text as follows:252 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We, the prosecution, require evidence, but we are not looking for blood indiscriminately. Our sole aim is to find the slayer of Mary Phagan, and in seeking him, I try as much as possible to feel as though I were one of you twelve jurors.Let's examine the situation on April 26 in the pencil factory. The factory was being run by Sig Montag as its boss, with Frank as its superintendent, assisted by the handsome Mr. Darley and the able Mr. Schiff.As a citizen of Atlanta, I am not proud

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 251THE SPEECHES TO THE JURY**MR. HOOPER FOR THE STATE**August 21Mr. Hooper: Gentlemen of the Jury, the object of this trial, as well as all other trials, is the ascertainment of truth and the attainment of justice. In the beginning, I want to have it understood that we are not seeking a verdict of guilty against the defendant unless he is guilty.The burden of guilt is upon our shoulders—we confront the undertaking of putting it upon his. We recognize that it must be done beyond a reasonable doubt, and that it must

Here is the translated text as follows:250 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Frank looked at it and said it was all right. Mr. Frank looked up at the top of the house and said, "Why should I hang? I have wealthy people in Brooklyn." I asked him what about me, and he told me that was all right about me, for me to keep my mouth shut, and he would make everything all right. Then I asked him where was the money he said he was going to give me, and Mr. Frank said, "Here, here is two hundred dollars," and he

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 249When he whistled for me, I went upstairs, and he asked me if I wanted to make some money right quick. I told him, "Yes, sir," and he told me that he had picked up a girl back there and had let her fall, and that her head hit against something, he didn't know what it was. He asked me to move her. I hollered and told him the girl was dead, and he told me to pick her up and bring her to the elevator. I told him I didn't

Here is the translated text as follows:248 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I laughed and said, "Good luck has done struck me," and I bought a ten-cent double-header. Then I went back to Peters Street, but none of the boys I ran with were there. I walked up to the moving picture show and looked at the pictures. I got home about half-past 2 o'clock, took the bucket, and went to get fifteen cents' worth of beer. I came back home and sent the little girl to get a dime's worth of stove wood and a nickel's worth of pan sausage. I

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 247"Can you write?" I said, "Yes, sir, I can write a little bit," and then he gave me a pencil that he got off the top of his desk and told me to put on there, "Dear mother, a long tall black negro did this by himself," and when I went to put down "negro," I put it "n-e-g-r-o-s," and he said, "Don't put no 's' there; that means 'negroes,'" and he said, "Now rub the 's' off," and I rubbed the "s" out, and he said, "It means just one

Here is the translated text as follows:246 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I have made up my mind to tell the whole truth, without the promise of any reward or from force or fear of punishment in any way.I got up Saturday morning, April 26th, between 9 and half-past 9. I went to Potera Street and stopped at the beer saloon, where I bought two beers for myself and gave another fellow a beer. I don’t know what his name was, but they call him Bob. Then I walked up to the Butt-In saloon and shot dice, winning 90 cents. After that,

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANE, 245I remained at home all Saturday night. At 12 o'clock noon on Sunday, I walked up Mitchell Street and got a cigarette, remaining there until 12:45 p.m. I then returned home and stayed until 6:30 p.m., when I went to my mother's house to get my lunch. After lunch, I returned home and remained there until Monday, April 26th. On April 28th, I reported for work at the pencil factory at 7:05 a.m.STATEMENT OF JAMES CONLEY, MAY 24, 1913On Friday evening before the holiday, around one o'clock, Mr. Frank came up

Here is the translated text as follows:244 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A scratch pad that Conley wrote on; an ordinary white scratch pad.The following affidavit was executed by Minola McKnight:Saturday morning, April 26th, Mr. Frank left home about eight. Albert, my husband, got there about a quarter after one, and he was there when Mr. Frank came for dinner, which was about half-past one. Mr. Frank did not eat any dinner, and he left in about ten minutes. Mr. Frank came back to the house at seven o'clock that night, and Albert was there when he got there.Tuesday, Mr. Frank said

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 243It was impossible to see the direction she went in when she left the office. I didn’t keep the door locked downstairs that morning because the mail was coming in. I locked it at 1:10 when I went to dinner. Arthur White and Harry Denham were also in the building. They were working on the machinery, doing repair work, and Mrs. White was also in the building. I went up there and told them I was going to dinner and they had to get out, and they said they had not

Here is the translated text as follows:242 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Based on the evidence I have listened to, I would say that it indicated digestion had been progressing for less than an hour.**Cross-examined:** I couldn’t presume to say how long that cabbage lay in Mary Phagan’s stomach. If it had been a live, healthy stomach and the process of digestion was going on ordinarily, it would be pulverized in four or five hours. It would be more broken up and triturated than it is.Dr. John Funk, an associate professor of pathology and bacteriology, was shown by Dr. Harris sections from

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK244A witness stated in the presence of Miss Haas and other passengers, "There has been so much talk that I don’t know what has been said; I don’t remember saying that I would join a party to help lynch him if he got out."**N. Kelly:** I am a motorman for the Power Company. On April 26th, I was at the corner of Forsyth and Marietta Street about three minutes after 12. I saw the English Avenue car of Matthews and Mr. Hollis arrive at Forsyth and Marietta about 12:03. I knew Mary

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI waited outside for her two hours, then went in and found Mr. February reading over to her some stenographic statement he had taken. As to whether Minola McKnight did not sign this paper freely and voluntarily, it was signed in my absence while I was at the police station. That paper is substantially the notes that Mr. February read over to her.**Albert McKnight:** This sideboard sits more this way than it was at the time I was there.**Cross-examined:** Don’t know if the sideboard was changed, but it wasn’t sitting like

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK239I did it during business hours; I have never met Mr. Frank anywhere, or at any time, for immoral purposes.**Ruth Robinson:** I have seen Leo M. Frank talking to Mary Phagan. He would stand just close enough to her to tell her about her work; he would show her how to put rubbers in the pencils. He would just take up the pencil and show her how to do it; he called her Mary.**Dewey Hewell:** I stay in the Home of the Good Shepherd in Cincinnati. I worked at the pencil factory

Here is the translated text as follows:238X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.O. Jones, Miss Zill Spivey, Charles Lee, N. V. Darley, F. Ziganki, A. C. Holloway, and Minnie Foster testified that they were employees of the pencil company. They knew Leo M. Frank and stated that his general character was good.D. Macintyre, B. Wildauer, Mrs. Dan Klein, Alex Dittler, Dr. J. E. Sommerfield, F. G. Schiff, Al Guthman, Joseph Gershon, P. D. McCarley, Mrs. M. W. Meyer, Mrs. David Marx, Mrs. A. I. Harris, M. S. Rice, L. H. Moss, Mrs. L. H. Moss, Mrs. Joseph Brown, E. E. Fitzpatrick, Emil Dittler,

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 237The room had windows opening onto the street. There was no lock on the door, and I know I never went into that room at any hour when the girls were dressing. Occasionally, I have had reports that the girls were flirting from this dressing room through the windows with men; sometimes the girls would loiter in this room when they ought to have been doing their work. It is possible that on some occasions I looked into this room to see if the girls were doing their duty and were

Here is the translated text as follows:236 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.When the negro Conley was arrested, I didn't know anybody had any suspicions about him. His name was not in the papers; I had no inkling that he ever said he couldn’t write. I was sitting in that cell in the Fulton County jail, about April 12th or 14th, when Mr. Leo Gottheimer, a salesman for the National Pencil Company, came running over and said, “Leo, the Pinkerton detectives have suspicions of Conley. He keeps saying he can't write; these fellows over at the factory know well enough that he

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKI was introduced to the third degree of the Atlanta police department by detectives Scott and Black, who began questioning Newt Lee. The way Detective Black treated that poor old negro, Newt Lee, was something awful. He shrieked at him, hollered at him, cursed him, and did everything but beat him. Then they took Newt Lee down to a cell, and I went to my cot in the outer room.Before closing my statement, I wish to touch upon a couple of insinuations and accusations, other than the one on the bill of

Here is the translated text as follows:234 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I went to the top of the elevator shaft, then returned and showed the officer where the slipper had been found, where the hat had been found, and where the little girl's body was located. I showed him, in fact, everything that I could about the pencil factory. On Monday, I arrived at the factory around 8:30 and immediately began my routine work, sending the various orders to the different places in the factory where they were due to go. A little later, Detectives Scott and Black came up to

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 233I called on a detective, preferably a Pinkerton detective, to work with and assist the city detectives in ferreting out the crime. Then I went downtown to the pencil factory, and upon entering the office, I saw the following men there: Mr. Herbert Schiff, Mr. Wade Campbell, Mr. Darley—Mr. Holloway was out in his place in the hall—and Mr. Stelker, Mr. Quinn, and Mr. Ziganke. These foremen were sitting around because we had shut down the factory, as they told me, due to the fact that the plant was wholly demoralized.

Here is the translated text as follows:232 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI was asked a few questions about it, and I said, "What did Newt Lee say?" "Well, Chief Lanford will tell you when you get down there." When I got down to police headquarters, Chief Lanford hadn’t come down yet. I waited around the office possibly an hour, chatting and talking to the officers. Later, Chief Lanford came in and said, "Come here," and beckoned to me. I went with him into his room in his office, and while I was in there, to the best of my recollection, it

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 231I went to the office where I sat and talked, answering every one of their questions freely and frankly, trying to aid and help them in any way that I could. After staying there for a few minutes, Mr. Darley and I went over to Bloomfield's; they told us somebody was busy with the body at that time and we couldn't see it. So we went over to Montag Brothers and found that nobody was down there. After that, I caught a Georgia Avenue car and rode to the house of

Here is the translated text as follows:230 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The nostrils and mouth were full of sawdust and swollen, and there was a deep scratch over the left eye on the forehead. Around the neck, there was twine—a piece of cord similar to that used at the pencil factory—and also a piece of white rag. After looking at the body, I identified that little girl as the one who had come up shortly after noon the previous day and got her money from me. We then left the undertaking establishment, got into the automobile, and rode over to the

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 229On Saturday, I called the factory and asked Newt Lee if Mr. Gantt had gone again. He said, "Yes." I inquired if everything else was all right at the factory; it was, and then I hung up, had supper, and phoned my brother-in-law, Mr. Ursenbach, to see if he would be at home that evening. He said he had another engagement, so I stayed home reading a newspaper or magazine. Around 8 PM, I saw Minola pass by on her way home. That evening, my in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Emil Selig,

Here is the translated text as follows:228 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I went back and wanted to know if they were ready to go, and at that time they were preparing to leave. I immediately went down to my office, opened the safe and my desk, hung up my coat and hat, and started to work on the financial report. Mr. Sebiff had not come down, and there was additional work for me to do.I heard the bell ring on the time clock, and Arthur White and Harry Denham came into the office. Arthur White borrowed $2.00 from me in advance

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 227I wanted to know when they would have lunch. Minola answered the phone, saying they would have lunch immediately and for me to come right on home. I gathered my papers together and went upstairs to see the boys on the top floor. I saw Arthur White and Harry Denham, who had been working up there, along with Mr. White's wife. I asked them if they were ready to go, and they said they had enough work to keep them busy for several hours. I noticed that they had laid out

Here is the translated text as follows:226 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. Arthur White wanted to see her husband, so I told Alonzo Mann, the office boy, to call up Mr. Schiff and find out when he was coming down. The answer was that Mr. Schiff would be right down. About this time, Mrs. Emma Clarke Freeman and Miss Corinthia Hall, two of the girls who worked on the fourth floor, came in and asked permission to go upstairs and get Mrs. Freeman’s coat, which I readily gave. At the same time, I told them to tell Arthur White that his

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 225On Saturday, April 26th, I arrived at the factory at about 8:30 a.m. I found Mr. Holloway, the day watchman, at his usual place and Alonzo Mann, the office boy, in the outer office. After describing at length the work I did in my office that morning:About 9 o'clock, Mr. Darley and Mr. Wade Campbell, the inspector of the factory, came into the outer office. I stopped the work I was doing that day and went to the outer office to chat with Mr. Darley and Mr. Campbell for 10 or

Here is the translated text as follows:224 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. J. J. Wardlaw worked at the pencil factory. She stated that Mr. Frank's character is good and she has never heard of any improper relations between Mr. Frank and any of the girls at the factory. She has never met Mr. Frank at any time or place for any immoral purpose. Additionally, she has never heard of him putting his arm around any girls on the streetcar or going to the woods with them.THE PRISONER'S STATEMENT.Leo M. Frank addressed the jury, stating, "Gentlemen of the jury: In the year

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M.PRANE. 223If a body is disinterred at the end of 9 days and the stomach is taken out, and among the contents you find cabbage like that and bits of wheat bread slightly digested, you could not by looking at the cabbage hazard an opinion as to how long before death that had been taken into the stomach.**Alfred Loring Lane.** I am a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y. I knew Leo Frank for 4 years at Pratt Institute, which we both attended. His general character is good.**Philip Nash.** I knew Leo Frank for 4

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSDr. J.C. Olmstead, a practicing physician for 36 years, stated that given the facts of this case, it would not be possible for a physician to determine whether or not the wound produced unconsciousness before death. Such a wound could have been made within a short while after death. Cabbage like that is liable to obstruct the opening of the pylorus and delay digestion. A microscope examination of parts of the vagina removed from the body showed that the blood vessels were congested, which may be due to menstruation or the

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 221I 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.

Here is the translated text as follows:920 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The superintendent of the pencil factory, Mr. Frank's character was good.A. D. Greenfield: I am one of the owners of the building occupied by the Pencil Company. I have known Mr. Frank for four or five years. His character is good.Dr. Wm. Owens: I am a physician. At the request of the defense, I went through certain experiments in the pencil factory to ascertain how long it would take to go through Jim Conley’s movements relative to moving the body of Mary Phagan. I kept the time while the other

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK219I never saw Mr. Frank bring any women into the factory. I never saw Jim Conley guarding or watching the door. I have seen Jim take newspapers and look at them, but I don’t know if he read them or not.Henry SmithI work at the pencil factory in the metal department with Barrett. He talked to me about the reward; he said it was $4,300, and he thought if anybody got it, he ought to, for he found the blood and hair. He said he ought to get the first shot at

Here is the translated text as follows:218 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThere was a lot of blood on the floor, spouting out.Cross-examined, Duffy was short in the metal room on the machine opposite Mary Phagan's machine. The pencil company took a written statement from me, signed by me, to keep the fellow from suing the company. I saw my signature this morning; I have never told you I signed that statement.Arthur Pride worked on the second floor of the factory. On Saturdays, I work all over the factory, doing anything that is necessary, until about half past four. I have never

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK217I saw a colored girl who seemed to have a gash in her head; her mouth was full of sawdust. He described her in a general way but did not say anything to me about an attorney or having been to police headquarters. I had not then employed counsel; my sending Mr. Herbert Haas to see Mr. Frank was not employing counsel. I made no trade with Mr. Haas and don’t know who is paying his fee; I have not contributed anything towards it, nor has the Pencil Company.Truman McCraryI am a

Here is the translated text as follows:216 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. A. E. Marcus testified that she is a sister of Mrs. Loo Franc. On Saturday night, she played cards at Mrs. Selig's house where Mr. Frank was present, sitting out in the hall reading. Mr. Frank went to bed after 10 o'clock. She noticed nothing unusual about him; there were no bruises, marks, or signs.Mrs. M. Marows stated that she saw Mr. Frank at half-past 8 in the evening on April 26th at Mrs. Selig's residence. They played cards there, and he stayed in the hall reading. He appeared

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. PRANE215Brooklyn, Mr. Moses Frank of Atlanta is my husband's brother; I saw him at Hotel McAlpin in New York City on April 27th and April 28th. The letter you handed me (see post, p. 250) is in my son's handwriting. The word "Yondef" in the letter is Hebrew, meaning "Holiday."Cross-examined, Mr. Frank has no rich relatives in Brooklyn. My brother-in-law, Mr. Bennett, is a clerk earning $18 a week. My son-in-law, Mr. Stearns, is in the retail cigar business. As for my means of support, my husband and I have about $20,000

Here is the translated text as follows:214X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.As he read it, he kind of grinned. He told me he believed Mr. Frank was just as innocent as the angels from Heaven. He was never known to tell the truth; I would not believe him on oath.Cross-examined. I have never heard Mr. Frank accused of any act of immorality or familiarity with the girls in the factory. Jim Conley got two papers from me on Tuesday and Wednesday. I bought them. Jim always seemed to be kind of nervous or half drunk or something. He aroused my suspicions after

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK213"There, said, 'I can prove where I was.'"Mrs. E. M. CarsonI worked at the pencil factory. Rebecca Carson is my daughter. I have seen blood spots around the ladies' dressing room three or four times. I saw Jim Conley on Tuesday after the murder. He was sweeping around my table. I said, "Well, Jim, they haven't got you yet," and he said, "No." I said, "Jim, you know Mr. Frank never did that," and he said, "No, Mr. Frank is as innocent as you are, and I know you are."Cross-examinedI have seen

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSCross-examined, Mr. Frank got home about 11 o'clock on Sunday. He told us he had been sent for to come to town. He spoke of a crime having been committed; I asked him what had happened. I don’t remember that he told me about the crime. He did not seem unconcerned about it. I said at the coroner’s that I thought he seemed unconcerned about it; I don’t remember his remarking about the youth of the girl or the brutality of the crime. I don’t think Mr. Frank mentioned the name

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKTestimony of a WitnessThey made her get out of bed. They had my husband there to bulldoze me, claiming that I had told him that; I had never told him anything of the kind. I told them right there in Mr. Dorsey's office that it was a lie. They carried me down to the station house in the patrol wagon. They came to me for another statement about half-past 11 or 12 o'clock that night and made me sign something before they turned me loose, but it wasn't true. I signed it

Here is the translated text as follows:210AMERICAN STATE TRIALSWe were out of material, and she was laid off for the rest of the week. I have never seen Mr. Frank speak to her. I went to the factory on April 26th to see Mr. Schiff; he was not there. The street doors were open when I got there. I did not see Mary Phagan, nor Jim Conley, nor Monteen Stover. The doors to Mr. Frank's inner and outer office were open. The time I reached Mr. Frank's office was about 12:20. There were no blood spots under the machine where

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK209It was about 15 minutes to 12 when we left the factory. Mr. Frank was writing when we came into his office. When we left the factory, the following people were still there: Arthur White, Mrs. White, May Barrett, her daughter, Harry Denham, the stenographer, and Mr. Frank.Cross-examined: We met Mr. Holloway as he came out of the factory as we went in. We met Lemmie Quinn afterwards at the Greek Cafe. It took us about 5 minutes to go there and come back to the Greek Cafe. We got a cup

Here is the translated text as follows:208 -AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We closed the office at 6 o'clock. We never had any women up in the office. We paid off the help on Friday, April 25th; I remember paying Helen Ferguson that day. Nobody came up to ask for Mary Phagan's pay. We had posters all over the factory that Saturday would be a legal holiday and the factory would be closed; I intended to come back to the factory Saturday morning, but I overslept.**Cross-examined.** Mrs. Frank, when they telephoned him about the murder, asked if there had been a fire at

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO W. FRANK207He ought to be sweeping, down in the shipping room watching the detectives, officers, and reporters; caught him washing his shirt. It looked like he tried to hide it from me.Henry Scott (recalled): I was present when Conley made his statement on May 18. I wrote that myself. He positively denied that he was at the factory on Saturday or that he knew anything about the murder. We tried for hours to get him to confess. The next statement he made was on May 24, and we took him over to Mr.

Here is the translated text as follows:206 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.From the basement, it was lying on his desk. He put it in the safe.**Mrs. J. A. White (recalled).** I have seen this man before at police headquarters (indicating Conley) about a month after the murder. At that time, I did not identify him as being the man I saw sitting on the box. The man sitting on the box was about the same size as Jim Conley; I couldn’t state it was Jim Conley.**C. W. Mangum.** Had a conversation with Mr. Frank at the jail about seeing Conley and

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK205Frank, "Is that the nigger?" and Mr. Frank said, "Yes," and she said, "Well, does he talk much?" and he says, "No, he is the best nigger I have ever seen." Mr. Frank called me into the office and gave me $1.25. The next time I watched was on a Saturday about the middle of January. A man and ladies came about half-past two. They stayed there about two hours; I didn’t know either one of the ladies; I can’t describe what either one of them had on. The man was tall,

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Well, I am going home to get dinner, and you come back here in about forty minutes and I will fix the money." I went over to the beer saloon and took the cigarettes out of the box. There was some money there—two paper dollar bills and two silver quarters. I took a drink, laid across the bed, and went to sleep. I didn’t get up until half-past six that night. That’s the last I saw of Mr. Frank that Saturday. I saw him next on Tuesday on the fourth floor

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK, 203A while ago, she came into my office and I wanted to be with the little girl, but she refused me. I struck her, I guess too hard, and she fell and hit her head against something. I don’t know how badly she got hurt. Of course, you know I ain't built like other men. I have seen him with women lying on the table in the factory room and in his office with women with their clothes up. He asked me to go back there and bring her up so

Here is the translated text as follows:202X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.May 6th or 7th was the first time I knew Mrs. White claimed to have seen a negro at the factory on April 26th.James Conley. I have been working for the pencil company for over two years. On Friday evening, around 3 o'clock, Mr. Frank came to the 4th floor and told me to come to the factory on Saturday morning at 8:30. I arrived at the factory around 8:30, and Mr. Frank and I reached the door at the same time. I always stayed on the first floor and watched

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKThe blow was hard enough to have made the person unconscious, but not sufficient to have caused death. Beyond question, she came to her death from strangulation from this cord being wound around her neck. The bruise around the eye was caused by a soft instrument; the injuries to the eye and scalp were caused before death. I examined the contents of the stomach, finding 160 cubic centimeters of cabbage and biscuit, or wheaten bread; it had progressed very slightly towards digestion. It is impossible for one to say absolutely how long

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe first floor was cleaned up after the murder.**W. H. Gheesling:** I am a funeral director and embalmer. I moved the body of Mary Phagan at four o'clock in the morning on April 27th. The cord was around her neck, and the rag was around her hair and over her face. I think she had been dead for ten or fifteen hours, or longer. There were some dry blood splotches on her underclothes. The right leg of the drawers was split with a knife or torn right up the seam. Her

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKG. C. FebruaryI was present at Chief Lanford's office when Leo M. Frank and L. Z. Rosser were there; I took down Mr. Frank's statement stenographically. This (see post, p. 242) is a correct report of what Mr. Frank said. It was made on Monday, April 28th.Albert McKnightMy wife is Minola McKnight. She cooks for Mrs. Selig. Between 1 and 2 on Memorial Day, I was at the home of Mr. Frank to see my wife. He came in close to 1:30. He did not eat any dinner; he went to the

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI monitor the elevator and freight that come in and out, as well as the people who enter and leave. The elevator was locked on Friday night when I left, but I went off on Saturday and forgot to lock it. I don’t remember stating that I locked it on Saturday; I did say in an affidavit that it is kept locked all the time. I left the factory at 11:45 on Saturday. Around 9:30, Mr. Frank and Mr. Darley went over to Montag Bros. I have seen Gantt talking to

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 197I received a grant from Mr. Darley or Mr. Frank. Mr. Frank was present at the time. Mr. Frank told me that when the little girl asked if the metal had come back, he said, "I don't know." It may be true that I swore before the coroner that in answer to that question from Mary Phagan about whether the metal had come yet, Frank said, "No," and it is possible that I so reported to you. If I said "No," I meant "I don't know."Miss Monteen StoverI worked at the

Here is the translated text as follows:196X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSMr. Frank stated that he was at the factory for a couple of hours. Mrs. White was there at the time, and he informed her that he was going to lock up the factory and that she had better leave. Mrs. White preceded him down the stairway and went on out of the factory, but on the way out, she said she had seen a negro on the street floor of the building behind some boxes. At 1:10 p.m., he left the factory for home and arrived back at the factory

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK195A man who had been discharged on April 7th by Mr. Frank for an alleged shortage in the payroll, and who had known Mary Phagan since she was a little girl, recounted an incident. One Saturday afternoon, Mary came into the office to have her time corrected. After he had finished, Mr. Frank entered and remarked, "You seem to know Mary pretty well," despite not having been told her name. On April 26th, around 6 PM, he saw Newt Lee sitting in front of the factory. Remembering he had left a pair

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSTo reach the dressing room, one would pass the office from the closets, coming within two or three feet of Mary's machine. Mr. Frank would pass through the metal department, looking around every day.Cross-examined: Standing at the time clock, you can't see into Mr. Frank's private office. A person wouldn't see from Mr. Frank's office anyone coming in or out of the building. I worked at the factory for five years. During that time, Mr. Frank spoke to me three times. I never saw Mr. Frank speak to Mary Phagan or

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKFrank was approached by the undertaking establishment and asked if he would come to see if he knew the young lady. Mr. Frank readily consented, so we got out and went in. The corpse was lying in a small side room to the right of a large room. I didn't see Frank look at the corpse; I don't remember that Mr. Frank ever followed me into this room. He may have stopped outside the door, but my back was toward him; he could not have seen her face because it was lying

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe body was found with a cord around the neck. The tongue was protruding. The scratch pad was also lying on the ground close to the body; the notes were found under the sawdust, near the head. The body was that of Mary Phagan.During cross-examination, Lee told us it was a white woman. We didn't know until the dust was removed from her face and we pulled up the clothes and looked at the skin. There was a pile of trash near the boiler. The hat was on the trash pile,

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKI said, "I ain't allowed to let anybody in here after six o'clock." Mr. Frank came busting out of the door and ran into Gantt unexpectedly, and he jumped back frightened. Gantt said, "I got a pair of old shoes upstairs, have you any objection to my getting them?" Frank said, "I don't think they are up there, I think I saw the boy sweep some up in the trash the other day." And he dropped his head down just so, then said, "Newt, go with him and stay with him and

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe following jurors were selected and sworn: F. E. Winburn (foreman), M. S. Woodward, D. Townsend, A. L. Wisbey, W. M. Jeffries, M. Johenning, J. T. Osborn, F. V. L. Smith, A. H. Henslee, W. F. Medealf, C. J. Boashardt, J. F. Higdon.THE WITNESSES FOR THE STATEMrs. J. W. Coleman:I am Mary Phagan's mother. I last saw her alive on April 26, 1913, at home. Around 11:30, she ate some cabbage and bread. She left home at a quarter to 12 to go to the pencil factory for her pay. She

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 189Leo M. Frank was arraigned on April 26, 1918, in Michigan, where he pleaded not guilty, and his trial commenced on that day. The prosecution was represented by Hugh M. Dorsey, Solicitor General; Frank A. Hooper, and E. A. Stephens, Assistant Solicitors. The defense team included Reuben R. Arnold, Luther Z. Rosser, and Herbert Haas.Defendant in Error. In Error from Fulton Superior Court at the July Term, 1913. Brief of the Evidence.Argument of Hugh M. Dorsey, Solicitor General, Atlanta Judicial Circuit, at the Trial of Leo M. Frank, Charged with the

Here is the translated text as follows:188 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The crowd once again manifested their resentment towards the prisoner; they applauded the state counsel more than once, and the crowd in the streets cheered the prosecuting attorneys as they entered and left the courthouse. When the jury was ready to deliver the verdict, the judge requested that both the prisoner and his counsel be absent from the courtroom when the verdict was rendered, in order to avoid any possible demonstration in the event of an acquittal.The jury returned a verdict of guilty, which was received with cheers by the

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 187After drinking beer, which had caused him to sweat, Jim Conley was approached by Leo Frank, who asked if he could write. Frank then dictated to Conley three times, informing him that he intended to send the note in a letter to Conley's family, recommending him. Frank questioned, "Why should I hang?" He then took a cigarette from a box and handed the box to Conley. Upon crossing the street, Conley discovered two paper dollars and two silver quarters inside the box, prompting him to exclaim, "Good luck has struck me."At

Here is the translated text as follows:186 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Frank denied the truth of Conley's story in its entirety and stated that Mary Phagan came into his office around noon. He claimed that he gave her the envelope and that she left him, and he had not seen her since. To support his character, he introduced nearly one hundred witnesses, including citizens of Atlanta, college mates from Cornell, and professors from that college.The defense also produced the statements and affidavits that Conley had made to law enforcement officers before the trial. In his first statement on May 13, Conley

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 186On the trial, Conley testified that Frank had asked him to come to the factory on Saturday and watch for him, as he had previously done. Conley explained that this meant Frank expected to meet a woman, and when Frank stamped his foot, Conley was to lock the door leading into the factory. When Frank whistled, Conley was to open it. He said he occupied a dark place at the side of the elevator behind some boxes, where he would be invisible. Conley swore that he saw several people, including male

Here is the translated text as follows:184 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A hair found on a lathe, examined under a microscope, led to the opinion that it was not hers. Other witnesses claimed they saw blood on the floor near the dressing room, the same place where Conley said he had dragged the body, and noted that it was not there on Friday. Additional witnesses who examined the floor stated that the spots looked like bloodstains, but they were not certain. There was testimony indicating frequent injuries at the factory, and blood was not an uncommon sight. A part of what

Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 188When Lee came upstairs to report, Frank, rubbing his hands, met him and told him to go out and have a good time until six o'clock. When Lee returned, Frank changed the slip in the time clock, manifesting nervousness and taking a longer time than usual. When Frank went out of the front door of the factory that afternoon, he met a man named Gantt, whom he had discharged a short time before. Frank looked frightened. Gantt declared he wished to go upstairs and get some shoes he had left there,

Here is the translated text as follows:THE TRIAL OF LEO M. FRANK FOR THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGAN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 1913THE NARRATIVESaturday, April 26, 1913, was Memorial Day, a holiday, and there was no work going on in the National Pencil Company's factory in Atlanta. However, Leo M. Frank, the superintendent, was in his office when, a little after noon, Mary Phagan, a white girl of fourteen years old, whose duty was to attach metal tips to pencils, called to collect some pay that was due her. She had not been at work for a week as the supply of

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESCan it be that your conduct may be separated from your actions, and guilt may be fastened upon your actions, although the heart be innocent?Gentlemen, so solemnly, so deeply, so religiously do I feel impressed with this principle that I know not how to leave the case with you, although at the present moment it strikes my mind in so clear a light that I know not how to make it more clear.If this damnable prosecution should prevail, it would be the duty of the district attorney to instantly arraign General Bowie, one

Here is the translated text as follows:180 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You could not have failed to be successful. You are charged with his life and honor, because I assured him that the law was a pledge for the security of both. I declared to him that I would stake my own life upon the safety of his; and I declare to you now that you have as much power to shed the blood of the advocate as to harm the client whom he defends.If the mere naked fact of delivery constitutes the crime of treason, why not hang the man

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 179Upon a mind which virtuous inducements could betray into error; but in what way we can distort it into treason, I have not yet been able directly to learn.The conduct is in itself treasonable, says the chief justice: it necessarily imports the wicked intention charged by the indictment. The construction makes it treason because it aids and comforts the enemy.These are strong and comprehensive positions; but they have not been proved; and they cannot be proved until we relapse into the gulf of constructive treason, from which our ancestors in another country

Here is the translated text as follows:178 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Stone was acquitted. Has any answer been given to that authority? Has any been even attempted?This indictment charges Hodges with having done certain things wickedly, maliciously, and traitorously. Must not the United States prove what they allege? When the law allows even words to be given in evidence, as explanatory of intention, to exculpate, it admits that exculpation may be made out by proof of innocent motives—that overt acts alone do not furnish a criterion—that concomitant facts, illustrative of the state of the heart, must not be neglected.A military force

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESIn the hope of deliverance from the danger that encompassed him, I have been disappointed. As if the salvation of the state depended upon the conviction of this unfortunate man—whose situation, one would think, even an inquisitor might deplore—the district attorney has gone out of his way to bring down vengeance upon him. One of the court has told you that he is a traitor, and you ought to find him so.In a case where justice might be expected to be softened into clemency, and even to connive at acquittal, where every generous

Here is the translated text as follows:176 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In addressing a tribunal where these considerations have their full weight, I expect with confidence that the court will vindicate the doctrines which I have had the honor to advance.Dovatn, C. J.: The Court would have been better satisfied if the whole case had been gone through in the usual way, but as the District Attorney has prayed an opinion on the law, I am willing to give him mine.Hodges is accused of adhering to the enemy, and the overt act laid consists in the delivery of certain prisoners. I

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 176There was an apprehension, by no means unreasonable, for the quiet and safety of the frightened women and helpless children of the neighborhood, and for the security of the persons and property of the whole district. The treason of adherence cannot be committed by one whose heart is warm with all the honorable feelings of the man and the patriot. "Overt acts undoubtedly do discover the man's intentions; but I conceive they are not to be considered merely as evidence, but as the means made use of to effect the purposes of

Here is the translated text as follows:114 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe counsel were allowed to argue that the letters were transmitted with a good intent, in order to avert the danger of so great a calamity as an invasion. Yet, the motives behind the transmission of these letters were considered corrupt. The Court stated that the jury were to judge from all the circumstances whether the intelligence had been sent with that view.My client is charged, as Stone was charged, with being an adherent; and like him, is entitled to be sheltered by his motives from the imputation of treason.

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 173A man acquitted of treason may not be the enemy of the king, nor the friend of any man who is his enemy.Consider the case of a man who, in time of war, is charged with the defense of an important fortress or castle, which he surrenders to an incompetent force. What more effective means could he have adopted to aid the enemy than the delivery of this stronghold? The books all tell you that if he was bribed to this desertion of his duty, if he did it with a view

Here is the translated text as follows:172 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,In the realm of civil liberty and the law of treason, you will find him perpetually contending, and contending with effect, that although the crown had proved the facts charged, it had not shown the evil design, the corrupt purpose, without which the facts are nothing.Let us hear what he says to the jury in the case of Lord George Gordon:"You must find that Lord George Gordon assembled these men with that traitorous intention—you must find not merely a riotous, illegal petitioning—not a tumultuous, indecent importunity to influence parliament—not the

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 171Given the principles upon which the prosecution was founded, I do not think it necessary to trouble the jury with a refutation of them. I will confine myself, therefore, to a few general observations.Mr. Glenn again proposed his prayer for the consideration of the court.In support of it, he read the following authorities: 1 East. Cro. 170. If the joining with rebels is from fear of present death, and while the party is under actual force, such fear and compulsion will excuse him. However, an apprehension, though ever so well grounded, of

Here is the translated text as follows:170 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Pinkney: There is no law in this prayer, for it excludes that which is the essence of the offense—intention—and if it were otherwise, the court has no right to instruct the jury as if this were a civil case. No instance has occurred in modern times of an attempt to bind the jury in such a cause by the opinion of the court. What remedy is there for the party if you err? We may appeal to a higher tribunal, it is true; but what is the consequence? The

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES169Thomas Sparrow was solicited by F. Rendall to help guard the prisoners. Rendall, Benson, Wells, and myself mounted guard that night. At 12 o'clock, Lansdale came in with a deserter. The next morning, Sunday, the two Hodges came with information of the threat, etc., and required that the men should be delivered up. We went to consult General Bowie, who said it was very hard; that the capture was legal, but he supposed we must submit. There were three prisoners and Tom Holden, the deserter.General Bowie (recalled) stated that Hodges never pressed the

Here is the translated text as follows:168 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Thomas Holden: I came to Marlborough when the army was halting at Nottingham. I met two gentlemen whom I told I was a deserter from the British; they took me to Dr. Beanes. Afterwards, Lansdale took me to Queen Anne, where I was confined with the others. In the morning, Hodges and another person came to the door. Mr. Sparrow demanded the names of the prisoners and told us we were to be delivered up. I begged them not to give my name; I would certainly be put to death.

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESBlood would be at our door; I do not know that Hodges was present when this one was stated to be a deserter.Never were people so universally alarmed on God's earth as the people of Upper Marlborough; death and destruction were threatening them every moment if they refused to deliver up these men.Gustavus Hay was called upon by the prisoner to assist in conducting the prisoners to the British lines; at first, he refused. Hodges said an American must do his duty without regard to danger or inconvenience. It was decided that Robert

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSTHE WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTIONWilliam CatonLast August, I was sent by the governor to Queen Anne on business. There, I saw John Randall guarding some prisoners and a deserter. The two Hodges, the prisoner and his brother, rode up and demanded the prisoners. They said that a detachment of the British army had entered the town the evening before and required the prisoners. They had declared that unless the prisoners were returned before 12 o'clock the next day, they would lay the town in ashes. I told the prisoner that if

Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESIn George County, some residents of the town of Upper Marlborough captured four stragglers who were following the army. These individuals, along with a deserter, were sent into the interior of the country. As soon as their absence was noticed, the British commander demanded their return, threatening to destroy the town if his demand was not met. Communications passed between the two parties, resulting in the men being restored or placed in a situation where they could be taken by the enemy. In effecting this restoration, the prisoner was among the most active.

Here is the translated text as follows:164 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Today, a jury was duly impaneled, and a plea of not guilty was made.Elias Glenn, District Attorney, for the Government.William Pinkney, Thomas Jennings, Upton S. Heath, and John E. Hall for the Prisoner.Mr. Glenn, the District Attorney, opened the case by stating that treason was a crime of the deepest dye, which all nations had punished with exemplary severity. In the United States, he said, it had been limited to two species, namely: levying war, and adhering to the enemy, giving him aid and comfort (Laws U.S., April 1790, Sec.

Here is the translated text as follows:THE TRIAL OF JOHN HODGES FOR TREASON, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 1815THE NARRATIVEDuring the War of 1812, while the British army was retreating from Washington, four stragglers and a deserter were captured by the people of a town in Maryland through which the army passed. Upon discovering this, the British commander sent a demand to the town that the prisoners were to be delivered up at once, or he would return and burn it. A committee of the townspeople decided that they must save it from being laid in ashes, and John Hodges and another were

Here is the translated text as follows:162 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He was afterwards tried and acquitted. He was taken back to Leavenworth, where he attempted to desert a second time.THE EXECUTIONMr. Clark Brown of Union, Mo., who has compiled a History of Franklin County, writes: "There is no local newspaper giving an account of the hanging of Worrell. However, I have the report of eyewitnesses. After the conviction in our circuit court, he was taken to St. Louis for safekeeping. Sheriff R. R. Jones assigned the duty to Deputy Sheriff Amos W. Maupin. George Holtgriewe, who is still living, says

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLTHE VERDICT AND SENTENCEThe jury retired to consider their verdict. They were out for about an hour, and when they returned, the foreman pronounced the words: "We, the jury, find the prisoner guilty of murder in the first degree, in manner and form as charged in the indictment."The prisoner was required to stand up and receive his sentence. He arose, with his father and mother on each side of him, their arms around his neck.Judge Stone addressed him, saying, "Mr. Worrell, you have appeared before me for the last time. It is

Here is the translated text as follows:160 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.An insane delusion of a character that tends to steal will not excuse a homicide. The act is to be judged always by the nature of the delusion, and of the facts and circumstances insanely believed to exist, which for this purpose are to be taken by the jury as reality, and the moral and legal status of the act determined accordingly.Another class of cases of insanity that exempts its unfortunate victim from legal accountability is where, in consequence of mental disorder, the person labors under delusions, the necessary tendency

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 159If an individual does not know the nature and quality of the act, or, if knowing it, is unconscious that it was wrong, then the law adjudges him to be an improper subject of punishment and acquits him of any accountability. However, the jury should be careful not to confuse a depravation of the moral sense arising from mental disorder with that which results from a lack of proper culture, or from the long and habitual indulgence of the baser propensities and passions. The principle which exempts from responsibility extends only

Here is the translated text as follows:158 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The law distinguishes between the guilt of an act that results from criminal design and one committed under the pressure of mental disorder and its insane impulses. The former is regarded as a crime deserving of punishment, while the latter is seen as a misfortune deserving of compassion. The former is considered the act of a free agent capable of reason and influenced by motives, whereas the latter is viewed as the act of a victim of disease and a slave of delusion.In order to impart any guilty or criminal

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLIt is not sufficient merely to be present and offer assistance, if indeed, to watch to prevent surprise, and by the knowledge of that fact, encourage and inspire the active agent with confidence and resolution to do the deed. It is not alone sufficient to render such persons liable that they were present at the doing of a criminal act; the evidence must go farther and show that they participated in the guilty purposes of the principal perpetrator of the deed and were present aiding and abetting in its accomplishment. If, therefore,

Here is the translated text as follows:156 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In the absence of affirmative evidence, the elements of murder in the first degree are deduced as an implication of law, with only the killing being proved, and are to be declared by the Court. Mere presumptions of law arising from the absence of extenuating evidence, and where the circumstances attending the killing are not fully disclosed, are not allowed to supply the affirmative proof of the facts and circumstances indicating deliberate malice and premeditation required in murder in the first degree. The jury must be able to find as

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLRather than evidence of deliberate malice, passion may have an extenuating quality, but the proof must disclose the existence of an adequate exciting cause. The clemency of the law is not extended in favor of a class of mankind whose minds and hearts, from habit and indulgence, prove that the darker passions are apt to become too easily and dangerously excited upon slight provocation, and to resent slight affronts with disproportionate violence. The provocation which extenuates an act of homicide in consequence of the passion it excites must be of a character

Here is the translated text as follows:154 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The proof of killing alone is not sufficient to establish the guilt of murder in the first degree. Some of the facts and circumstances from which the law deduces the inference of malice and premeditation include proof of previous threats, former grudges, lying in wait, and seeking an occasion to inflict personal injury. The statute mentions these as some of the more obvious and prominent indications of deliberate malice, but there are others equally effective, such as killing to accomplish some unlawful purpose, such as robbing the person killed; a

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLGentlemen, you would experience no difficulty in finding a suitable object for the exercise of your sympathy. I have done; may the Almighty so direct your minds that in the verdict you shall render, no cause shall be found for future regret.THE CHARGE TO THE JURYJudge Stone, the jury are instructed by the Court that if they find that the prisoner killed Mr. Gordon as charged, then their next duty will be to inquire and determine, first, whether such killing be murder, and if murder, whether in the first or second degree;

Here is the translated text as follows:152 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,If the defendant committed the act, let him say so and face the consequences. It was a voluntary act on his part, and he committed it with full knowledge that he thereby justly forfeited his life. Should you find him guilty of the charge, how different even then will be his fate from that of his victim! The law, in its mercy, will give him ample time to atone for his crime, to make peace with an offended God, and to receive the parting benediction of his family. But poor

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 151It is a mistake to suppose that the culprit is the only one interested in the outcome; and upon mere conjectures or mistaken sympathy, to turn him loose upon society, encouraged to plunge still deeper into crime and iniquity. This disinclination to enforce obedience to the law is said to be the bane of republics, and no doubt contributed in a great degree to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Rome was once the mistress of the world, but no sooner did licentiousness and disorder gain the supremacy than she sank

Here is the translated text as follows:150 &X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Was it under an irresistible impulse that compelled him to search the pockets of the deceased, appropriate their contents, conceal the body, and take and carry away his horse, saddle, saddlebags, and watch? Was it under this same impulse that he changed his name, sold Gordon's horse to Gould, and fled to Dover?Why is it that we are left in the dark when the gentleman had the power to explain this extraordinary phenomenon of the human mind?It is now, gentlemen of the jury, two weeks since you were impaneled, and

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLThe opinion of Lord Denman, as cited in 1 Archbold's Criminal Practice, sections 12, 10, and 11, is recognized as law by our Supreme Court in the case of State v. Hutting, 21 Mo. Rep. 464. The question of incapacity to distinguish between right and wrong, and to choose between good and evil, is a fact that must be affirmatively established by the defendant. It must be established so as to leave no doubt in the minds of the jury; for the mere possibility that the defendant might be insane is no

Here is the translated text as follows:148 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The defense was based on the ground of absent witnesses by whom the defendant expected to prove that he was insane.I shall not contend that all of these tests are infallible, for doubtless some of them do occasionally fail, but as a guide in an inquiry of this kind, they are invaluable. When it can be shown, as in the case here, that the prisoner's conduct does not square with any of them, it is certainly very safe to conclude that he is not a fit subject for this defense.The

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 147I will comment upon this at considerable length and provide a variety of instances from which it appears that in nineteen out of twenty cases, the victim of the monomaniac is someone nearly related to them. The father destroys the son, the son the father, the mother her suckling babe, the brother the sister, and the sister the brother.The delusion is most apt to be connected with those who are in daily intercourse with them. The case of Greensmith, just referred to, is a striking example of this kind. Taylor cites

Here is the translated text as follows:146 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In cases of monomania, it is often observed that the individual acts without a clear motive, or if a motive is assigned, it is connected with their delusion.Numerous instances are given in which parents have murdered their children, despite being strongly attached to them. Nurses have destroyed children placed in their care, with whom a warm attachment had grown. Taylor relates the case of a man named Greensmith, who murdered four of his children. The motive assigned was that he was apprehensive they would be turned into the street. He

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORBRELL. 145He does or says nothing without reason. Prolonged disease and extreme old age contribute largely to this species of insanity. Ray says, "The mind passes gradually from its sound and natural condition to the enfeeblement and total extinction of its reflective powers." When we see a person greatly advanced in life, who has lost his recollections of persons, things, dates, and events, and who in his tone, conversation, and habits plays the part of a second childhood, we say he labors under dementia.Idiocy is characterized by the want of mental power,

Here is the translated text as follows:144 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe case involved the murder of one Chisuall. It appeared in evidence that the prisoner labored under the notion that the inhabitants of the town of Hadleigh, of whom Chisuall was one, were continually issuing warrants against him with the intent to deprive him of his liberty and life. He would frequently, under the same notion, abuse persons whom he met in the street and with whom he had never had any dealings or acquaintance of any kind. In his waistcoat pocket, a paper was found, headed "List of Hadleigh

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 143Mania is a form of insanity characterized by a general derangement of the mental faculties, accompanied by varying degrees of excitement, sometimes escalating to violent fury. It arises from a morbid affection of the brain and is distinguished from ordinary delirium, which typically results from bodily disease. In common parlance, a person suffering from mania is said to be mad; they lose all control over themselves and require close confinement to prevent them from inflicting injury upon themselves or others. In essence, they are entirely bereft of reason and therefore not

Here is the translated text as follows:142 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A medical expert who has treated epilepsy very frequently states that a long attack with short intervals will result in loss of memory and the power to reason, and the mind will gradually sink into imbecility and idiocy. He has known one instance in which the person had fits at intervals of one month, from early childhood to 25 years of age, without impairing the mind at all. He thinks it would require a duration of five years, with intervals of but a few days, to produce even imbecility.How absurd

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 141How admirably does the author's description of feigned epilepsy apply to the case of the prisoner at the bar. Has a single instance of personal injury been sustained in any of the attacks mentioned? Why is it that Dr. Bassett, who was physician to the jail five months after the defendant was confined there, and who saw him daily and attended him in a slight attack of intermittent fever, never discovered any symptoms of epilepsy? And yet, as soon as Dr. Bassett ceased to attend the jail, the prisoner had one

Here is the translated text as follows:140 2. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSDr. Worrell reported that his son had another attack in the same year at Winchester, Kentucky. The doctor was stationed there temporarily as a teacher. His son slept with some young men of the town, one of whom called and told the doctor that his son was in a very bad way. The doctor only saw him as the spasm was passing off.The next and last attack referred to by his father prior to the homicide occurred at the house of a Mrs. Elsay in Baltimore, where the defendant was

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 139He found him in the condition stated by the aunt; he was raving and tearing and kicking up his heels, and looked wild and made strange gestures. They succeeded in getting him into the house, and some time after midnight he became pacified and fell into a sound sleep. The next morning he appeared as usual. The doctor does not pretend to say that it was an attack of epilepsy, but saw nothing of intoxication, and did not suspect anything of the kind.A parent is apt to be blind to the

Here is the translated text as follows:138 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe next proposition submitted by the counsel was that the mind of the prisoner had been seriously impaired by epilepsy.Epilepsy is a disease that manifests in various degrees. In its mild form, it has never been known to produce any visible effect on the mind and typically responds well to medical treatment. However, in its more severe stages, it can result in imbecility, fatuity, and sometimes insanity, though never the specific type of insanity relied upon as a defense in this case. The symptoms of the aggravated form are so

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 137Gentlemen, I am through with the depositions, though it will be necessary to call your attention to some parts of them upon other branches of the subject.I wish now, gentlemen of the jury, to call your attention for a moment to that part of Major Wright's argument, in which he undertook to show that insanity was hereditary in the family of the prisoner. Upon an issue of this kind, it is held competent to introduce evidence to show the existence of the malady with the parents of the accused, or that

Here is the translated text as follows:136 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.James Dunn, in his deposition, has volunteered an opinion as to the insanity of the defendant. He met him in Baltimore in February last, in the office of Mr. Raisin, and conversed with him on the subject of Kansas and Nebraska affairs. The defendant, in the language of the witness, inflated himself with a considerable amount of gas and seemed much excited on the subject. If this is evidence of insanity, then the people of the United States have been unquestionably deranged ever since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill.From

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 185A witness stated that he had frequently drunk with the prisoner in his room and had seen him in the saddle. What can be inferred from this, except the fact that his sickness and the delirium attending it grew out of excessive drinking? There is nothing in the evidence for the defense that furnishes us any other explanation of it.The deposition of George Urghart has been read. Although a physician occupying the same room with the defendant from February to July, 1855, he makes no allusion whatsoever to his mind but

Here is the translated text as follows:184 AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In a society where profanity is not considered a crime, I should suppose such scenes were quite common. Any person discovering a quarrel at his door would be likely to resort to harsh means to quell the disturbance. Mr. Cavendish also refers to the sickness of the prisoner, deposed to by Clark as having occurred in December 1855. Witness saw him in bed and says he seemed to him evidently out of his mind; he was pulling hair out of his head and had been very unwell for two or three

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 183The defendant approached the Secretary of War for his discharge. The witness told him that he thought it would be a hopeless undertaking, whereupon the defendant said, "that there was no use talking, he wished to God he had never been born, and that if he could not get out of the army honorably, he would not desert, but he would get himself out for good."Mr. Moore gives it as his opinion that the prisoner was laboring under strong mental derangement, and predicates the opinion upon the simple statement of the

Here is the translated text as follows:132 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Sergeant Clark states that the duty of a sentinel is regulated by his orders, and that he will always permit one of his own regiment to pass, if satisfied of his honesty of purpose. Worrell well knew that he ran no risk in attempting to pass Messick.In following the line of argument pursued by the counsel, we are next brought to inquire if the depositions filed on behalf of the accused furnish any reliable material for this defense.There is no species of testimony so unsatisfactory as that of depositions, more

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 181Evidence had been found that the deceased's dental work, made by a dentist in Boston, was in the furnace; both of which helped to identify the body and connect the prisoner with the murder. Dr. Webster was a man of learning, a professor in a medical college, and his knowledge of chemistry gave him the power to destroy every vestige of the body in a few hours, so that the corpus delicti could never have been established. Yet he neglected to do it. He also volunteered statements to the brother of

Here is the translated text as follows:130 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I am not acquainted with either Wentz or Couzins. Wentz, it is true, consulted with one or two lawyers in Dover, but there is nothing to show that they communicated the fact to Worrell, and we are not to presume that they were treacherous to their client.The learned counsel thinks that if the prisoner were sane, he would not have acknowledged to Wentz and Couzins that the watch and saddlebags had belonged to Gordon; nor would he have stated to Sturgeon and Taylor that the deceased did not suffer after

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 1899It would convert the whole of New England into a lunatic asylum. I observe sitting on my left my old and much-esteemed friend, Major Robertson, with whom you are all well acquainted. How long do you suppose the Major could travel on a steamboat or in the cars without having something to say to at least three-fifths of the passengers? I am not certain, but it would seriously disturb the equilibrium of the Major's mind if he were not permitted to indulge in this social trait. Men in this particular are

Here is the translated text as follows:128 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Louis; and while in Vincennes, he attended a ball. It occurs to me there is nothing remarkable in this. He knew that no suspicion of Gordon's fate would likely be entertained for some time to come, and moreover, if his conscience upbraided him for the act, he might obtain temporary relief by resorting to places of amusement. Dr. Webster, after the murder of Dr. Parkman, and while the city of Boston was in the highest state of excitement growing out of the supposed murder, attended a convivial party of ladies

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLOn the contrary, others considered him quite shrewd in a trade. Hutchinson saw nothing unusual in his conduct; he appeared perfectly rational and behaved as travelers usually do.Major Wright thinks that, upon the supposition that he killed Gordon, his conduct at the place of the homicide is wholly inexplicable. He believes a sane man would have concealed the body in the thicket. To my mind, however, it is perfectly consistent with reason and exhibits a degree of shrewdness and a knowledge of human nature that few men possess. It was necessary to

Here is the translated text as follows:126 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Is there any other principle than that of alienation of mind? I gave the gentleman's argument my closest attention, and far from satisfying my mind of the truth of his proposition, he led me to the conclusion that the prisoner was a man of more decided intellect than I had attributed to him. The first act to which I shall call your attention relates to what transpired on the day of his desertion.As the first orderly-sergeant, it was his duty, and his alone, to detail every day a man to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 125Where the office of the company is located, the prisoner might, and probably did, suppose that he had a large amount of money in his possession.I might also allude to the fact of his assuming different names, and his flight of a thousand miles from the scene of the murder, and other circumstances developed in the case; but the entire case furnishes so many evidences of express malice that I am not doing your intelligence justice in supposing that you can entertain the slightest doubt upon this point. The idea that

Here is the translated text as follows:124 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.If a killing is premeditated, it constitutes murder in the first degree. For example, if one person, without uttering a word, strikes another on the head with an axe, this would be deemed premeditated violence under our law. It will constitute the offense if circumstances of willfulness and deliberation are proven, even if they arose and were generated at the time of the transaction. If the party killing had time to think and did intend to kill, whether for a moment, an hour, or a day, it is a deliberate,

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 123In the case of the State v. Bower, 5 Mo. 364, the defendant was convicted of murder in the first degree, with malice inferred from the character of the weapon and wound. The proof was in substance: On the night preceding the homicide, the prisoner and deceased stayed all night at the house of Mrs. Roussiere, two miles from the place where the murder occurred. They appeared friendly while there and left her house together the next morning on foot, still appearing friendly. The prisoner carried a large stick in his

Here is the translated text as follows:122 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The Supreme Court of Missouri has stated the same principle in the cases of *State v. Dunn*, 18 Mo. 419, and *State v. Jennings*, 18 Mo. 435.Gentlemen of the jury, I will now call your attention to the several facts and circumstances that demonstrate the malice requisite to classify this case as murder in the first degree. First, consider the character of the wound. It is established in all legal texts that when a wound is inflicted with a deadly weapon or a weapon likely to produce death, and no

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 121If a private person endeavors to suppress an affray or apprehend a felon, and another person, knowing his authority or the intention with which he interposes, kills him, the law will imply malice. Similarly, if one shoots at A and misses him but kills B, the law implies malice, even though it is evident that he had no malice against B and did not intend to do him any bodily harm. Likewise, if one gives a woman with child a medicine to procure abortion, and it operates so violently as to

Here is the translated text as follows:120 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In its legal sense, the term "malice" signifies an evil design in general, a wicked and corrupt motive, an intention to do evil. Blackstone, in his Commentaries, states, "That it is the dictate of a wicked, depraved, and malignant heart." Russell, in his "Treatise on Crimes" (vol. 2, p. 482), explains, "It is not to be understood merely in the sense of a principle of malevolence to particulars, but as meaning that the fact has been attended with such circumstances as are the ordinary symptoms of a wicked, depraved, and

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 119In any arson, rape, robbery, burglary, or other felony, the first and second class express malice is essential and forms a necessary ingredient in the offense, while in the third class it is not supposed to exist. If A breaks into the store of B at night with no other intent than to appropriate to himself the goods of B, and B enters and discovers him in the act and attempts to do him bodily harm, and A, to protect himself, kills B, this is murder in the first degree because

Here is the translated text as follows:118 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.When persons confederate and engage in a common design, the act of one is the act of all. If a blow is given, the blow of one is the blow of all. This law has been recognized by our Supreme Court on several occasions, and recently in the case of *State v. Jennings*, reported in 18 Mo. 435.January 31.Mr. Bay: At the adjournment of the court last evening, gentlemen of the jury, I had closed my remarks with respect to the first proposition contended for by the counsel for the

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLMurders are almost invariably committed under circumstances of secrecy. The murderer abides his time and goes forth in the dark hours of the night to do his bloody work. Conscious that no eye is upon him but the Almighty's, he strikes the fatal blow, and under the cover of darkness makes his escape. If he cannot be made to suffer the penalty of the law except upon the testimony of an eyewitness, the sooner your penal code is abolished the better, for then man will look to himself alone for protection and

Here is the translated text as follows:116 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.It is not the case that jurors lie; however, witnesses may, and often do. The experience of mankind shows that jurors are often imposed upon by witnesses who testify under strong bias or prejudice, and by doing so give a coloring to the case which the facts do not warrant. This is particularly true when the testimony goes to the jury with an imperfect cross-examination. A juror cannot always know what is transpiring in the breast of a witness. A well-trained witness will sometimes testify as if he felt no

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 115The defense has attempted to discredit this type of evidence by parading before you the case of the servant girl who was executed in England for the murder of her mistress, when the homicide was, in fact, committed by another. He has also quoted one or two other cases in which innocent persons charged with the commission of high crimes have been convicted upon circumstantial evidence. These cases are mentioned in the books as having occurred at an early period and are as familiar to the law student as the story

Here is the translated text as follows:114 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Morgan testified that on the 13th of January in St. Louis, he let Mr. Gordon have a chestnut sorrel horse to go up the line of the North Missouri railroad. The horse was fine-looking and had a knot under the jaw about where the curb would come. He also took with him a saddle and bridle belonging to Mr. Signer, which was in my possession. Prior to this, I had used the saddle, and on one occasion carried up on the pommel some iron hinges and tools which scratched

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLEdward D. Worrell remained until the 6th, when he left by train for the East. Bruff left two days earlier. They brought three horses with them: two bays and a chestnut sorrel. The sorrel had a knot under its jaw. The prisoner sold the sorrel horse, along with a saddle and bridle, to my father. The saddle was a plain black one, with the pommel showing signs of wear. Mr. Morgan and Mr. Signer came to Vincennes from St. Louis and wanted to see the horse, saddle, and bridle, and we showed

Here is the translated text as follows:112 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I would like to know if he suffered after he was shot. The prisoner replied, hanging his head, "He did not." Several days after this, I again saw the prisoner in jail; I told him that Mr. Gordon was a particular friend of mine and a co-laborer on the railroad, and I wanted to know if he suffered any after he was shot. He replied, "I can assure you, sir, he did not."Martin McMahon states that in January 1856, he was boarding at Christian Way's tavern in St. Charles. About

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, IIIThey recognized me. The prisoner inquired about my family and the condition of the road. The body of Gordon was found two and one-half miles east of my house.I would here remark, gentlemen of the jury, that Gordon was never seen alive after he left Hutchinson's house.Mr. Pace, the witness to whose testimony I have already referred, says that about five miles east of the place where the body of Gordon was found, the prisoner and Bruff overtook and passed him. Gordon was not with them. Bruff was leading a horse

Here is the translated text as follows:110 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A witness testified that he was about two miles east of Ferguson, in company with two other men, all riding horseback, one of whom was Braff. The witness was on his way to St. Louis with Mr. Hervey. This was around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The witness remained overnight at Warrenton, got an early start the next morning, and as he passed Hutchinson's, he saw Worrell sitting on the steps. Worrell called out to the witness and said, "You have got an early start." The witness recognizes the prisoner

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 109We were surprised to find that Gordon had not arrived. Several days elapsed, and we began to apprehend that something had happened to him. Walker learned from a Mr. McDonald, a railroad contractor, that Gordon had been seen on the 24th on the Boonslick road by a Mr. Ferguson, in company with two men, all on horseback. Walker started the next morning on the locomotive for St. Charles, having directed McDonald to go up on the Pacific road and return by way of the Boonslick road, and ascertain if possible where

Here is the translated text as follows:108 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The defense argues the following points:1. That Worrell cannot be convicted of murder in the first degree because he is not charged with committing a felony in the indictment.2. That there is no evidence of express malice, which is essential to constitute murder in the first degree.3. That even if Worrell committed the offense charged in the indictment, he was at the time laboring under mental alienation, or that condition of mind called homicidal monomania, complicated with epilepsy.I shall endeavor in my argument to follow the path the learned counsel

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLThe limits of the circuit, and some few beyond the limits of the state, have been considered in this case. To have imposed the preparation of the case upon the circuit attorney would necessarily have required him to traverse the whole country in search of testimony, at a heavy expense without any legal claim for reimbursement, and to the entire neglect of those duties which more legitimately belong to his office. But independently of all this, no injury is likely to result to the prisoner from the fact that General Coalter and

Here is the translated text as follows:106 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSIf the answer should be "alive," the intent was to crush its life out; if "dead," to open his palm and give the captive liberty. The difference in these cases is stark: the life of the bird hung upon the caprice of a mischievous youth, while that of the prisoner hangs upon the judgment of his peers, sitting to administer the humane and merciful spirit of our law. You will bear me witness that the defense has, in its entire scope, addressed your intelligence and reason only. It has never

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 105It shocks the moral sense to assert it as a rule of judgment: "Murder must be committed by a sane person." The law has shifted the onus to presume sanity, but it is only a presumption—an arbitrary, artificial presumption—liable to be repelled by other presumptions. Whether balanced or completely overthrown by other presumptions, the affirmative rests on the State.There is said to be a presumption of law that one in possession of recently stolen property is the thief, but that presumption may be balanced or repelled by proof of good character,

Here is the translated text as follows:104 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The witnesses speak for themselves. There is a power in their presence and mode of testifying which drew from the circuit attorney the exclamation: "I believe every word they say!" But we can't educate away disease and misfortune. His epileptic disorder came upon him at seventeen, and his irresistible impulses evinced themselves earlier. But, neither singly, nor both together, have they been able to prevent the growth of high aspirations, kindness of nature, gentleness of disposition, integrity of soul, and honesty of purpose."Why did not," exclaims the circuit attorney, "why

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORBELLIn the case of Edward D. Worbell, the poor prisoner had no superior. What is insanity but the sudden and prolonged departure from the normal standard of character, without any known external cause?In 1853, Worrell entered the office of Attorney Morris, near Fort Leavenworth, to procure the aid of that gentleman in obtaining his honorable discharge from the army. He had a cause which, if presented, would have procured his discharge at once, but he concealed it; he never hinted at it; he pressed his case upon other and untenable grounds. If

Here is the translated text as follows:102 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You see him without a cause, and with a frantic look scattering a frightened multitude. You see him passing, after night, a sentinel whose duty compelled him to shoot. You see him the victim of insane impulses, which he has no power to resist. The prosecution is hard-pressed by these facts. Mr. Gale endeavors to explain the affair of the revolver by holding up Worrell as such a strict disciplinarian that, for mere loud talk in open day, he would kill soldiers and citizens! The argument is a suicide in

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 101.The conduct of the prisoner there is worthy of particular observation, and so do I; but we draw opposite conclusions from the same premises. As soon as the travelers enter the house of Hutchinson, Worrell pulls out his pistol, loads it in the presence of all, and lays it on the mantelpiece in full view, conversing the while with Gordon, who sits by his side. Is that the action of a sane man while meditating murder in the presence of his victim? Is it the conduct of one who responsibly conceives

Here is the translated text as follows:4100 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."The blood of Gordon on his soul," he could sit in a theater, finding an interest in its mimetic scenes. He is horrified that Gordon's specter had not the power to drive him from the ballroom. Let him look to the records of insanity found in these books, and the marvel will cease. These facts, which so startle him, are the very marks of that insanity which shows no appreciable lesion of the mental faculties, in which the victim of the disease "never says a foolish thing, but exhibits his

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLWhen left to himself, you do not find Edward D. Worrell acting under an alias. He is always conspicuously Worrell, without any other name. However, little significance can be attached to this fact if it were otherwise. The moment you assign a motive, a rational motive, to the change of name, you demonstrate the insanity of his actions through a series of acts that are irreconcilable with that motive.Did he change his name to avoid detection? If so, then why wear seven rings on his fingers? Why wear Gordon's watch? Why keep

Here is the translated text as follows:98 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.McKee was told, "Well, he did!" He went to both Dovers, but wherever he went, he wore the cap and military pants, Gordon's watch with the watch paper in it, Gordon's saddlebags, and the one boot with the identifying patch. He first visited his friends and relatives in Maryland. They had no suspicion of crime, but his strange actions and curious conduct proclaimed his mental disorder, as detailed in the depositions from Maryland. Eventually, he arrived in Dover, Delaware, where his parents resided. He stayed at a conspicuous hotel, visited

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLEdward D. Worrell, with his remarkable beard, his remarkable military pants, his military cap, and the not-so-remarkable saddlebags of Gordon, keeps his company without change until he reaches Pittsburgh. There, McGee induces him to have his mustache taken off, and the change wrought is so great that he is not recognized by a gentleman who had traveled on the cars with him from Vincennes. "You have the advantage of me," said the gentleman, "I do not know you." "I am Worrell, do you not know me? This is the difference"—pointing to the

Here is the translated text as follows:96 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He has gotten him; promenades the town with the landlord; visits often the depot of the trains from St. Louis, and attends a ball held in that depot! He talks freely of Western affairs, showing an intimate acquaintance with the troubles of Kansas. He makes known his purpose to go East, changes his dress to the genteel costume of a gentleman at a party, and when it is over, resumes the apparel of the homicide. His extraordinary beard is still worn. The large fur gloves of Gordon he exchanges with

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLEdward D. Worrell's identity was established by a combination of distinctive features, or "remarkables." These included a notable lump, wen, or knot under his chin that caught the attention of even the most careless observer. Other distinguishing marks were a remarkable star on his forehead, a peculiar snip on his nose, and a singular growth of gray hair at the root of his tail, all set against the uncommonly beautiful and perfect chestnut color of his skin.Riding such a horse, equipped with a fine saddle and holding the reins of a beautiful

Here is the translated text as follows:94 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Worrell's manner of travel was no match for the cunning of an old and skillful detective, who could not be kept from the prisoner's track for long.The circuit attorney was embarrassed by the first step after the homicide. He initially thought the body was hidden in "a strange place," but upon mature reflection, he concluded that it was the best hiding spot. The reason he gave was that no sane man would ever think of looking for it in such a place! For this happy suggestion, he is perhaps indebted,

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 93Do not heed the counsel that is at odds with the letter and spirit of our laws, as you value all that men should hold dear.In my opening statement, I mentioned that the apparent motive for the homicide, furnished by the appropriation of the deceased's property, could not be disregarded in determining the state of mind of the prisoner. Sane men act from motive, and as sane men do, unhappily, find in property a motive to crime, such motive is held to be presumptive evidence of sanity. However, it is not

Here is the translated text as follows:92 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe central question we must consider is, "Was Worrell a responsible being at the time of the homicide?"I have already admitted the difficulty that confronts me at this point. Even if the prejudice invoked by the opening speech of the prosecution did not arise at the call, or if it did arise but has since perished from your minds under the force of a higher sense of justice, I am still met with difficulty in the investigation.The form of mania I have to address, though complicated, is not the vulgar

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 91It is difficult to understand the erring reason of a juror as he is passing from the known to the unknown. When you attempt to place yourself in the position of my supposed spectator of the scene, and from your seats here undertake to see the transaction by the eye of Teagon, with the utmost respect for each, I must say that the chances are a thousand to one that you will blunder at every step.On the supposition that Worrell is responsible for his acts, the circumstantial evidence certainly proves a

Here is the translated text as follows:90 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In a case where the government itself fails in the end and object for which it alone was created, it is the "immedicable vulnus" of a State.You will remember, jurors, that the law does not require proof of these hypotheses. On the contrary, the law depends upon the principle that they must be excluded, excluded to a moral certainty by proof. They furnish a defense upon the bare suggestion of them, by showing that the evidence, the circumstantial evidence, of the State does not come up to the standard of

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 89Are you going to hang a man based on your best solution? That is precisely what was done by the jury who murdered the innocent girl; by Jacob; by every jury and every man that ever erred, fatally erred, on circumstantial evidence. It is this best, this plausible hypothesis that ever seduces and leads astray. I deny your power! The law is against it. The law will not act on the best, but the only hypothesis, if there be a "worst," "better," or "best," the law will not choose between them.

Here is the translated text as follows:88 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Now, jurors, let us inquire if every possible hypothesis but the one sought to be proved is satisfactorily negated in this case. Gordon died from a single gunshot wound in the head; it was in the back part of the head. If the location of the wound excludes the hypothesis of suicide, the wound itself excludes the hypothesis of two actors. There was but one shot; that shot might have been accidental. There may have been no intention to kill by the person who shot at the time of the

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 87Was it "without doubt rent in pieces"? The coat was Joseph's, but all that followed was an error made up of one false act and false reasoning from the known to the unknown. The blood was the blood of a kid, not that of his child; there was no evil beast; Joseph was not rent in pieces, but in full life, on his way to the court of Pharaoh and the house of Potiphar, to act an important part in Jewish and Egyptian history.The reasoning of the patriarch was quite up

Here is the translated text as follows:86 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The fate of the unfortunate girl encapsulates the entire narrative. If we fail to learn from it, the lessons of broader experience would be futile. Had the advocate in her case assumed the actual truth of the events, would he have been listened to? Would his suggestion not have been dismissed with a sneer from the prosecution, or negated with the simple retort: "This is far-fetched"? Would the jury have abandoned the lie that seemed so plausible for the truth that appeared so improbable? The law instructed them to relinquish

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 85It was hypothesized that she was guilty, but her guilt was not excluded. However, it never occurred to him to suggest to the jury that, as the house in which the woman was murdered stood upon an alley, on the opposite side of which was another house, also of two stories, it was possible that the murderer entered the opposite building, hoisted a window facing the alley, extended a plank to the sill of the window of the upper story of that in which the mistress was sleeping, walked across on

Here is the translated text as follows:84 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Gentlemen! Peer with the eyes of the mind through the infinitely possible combinations of circumstances, and group together facts in such a way as to save her. She is innocent! She has shed no blood! She was asleep when the deed was done! Her mistress died by the hands of others! I say others—and the innocent slumberer did not learn of the tragedy until hours after her mistress was in heaven or hell! Oh! Can you not see it? Reason out her innocence! Summon your imagination to the help of

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 8&3It is our duty to search diligently, anxiously, and honestly. If you reason badly, it is fatal. If you do not imagine well, it is fatal; and yet, circumstantial evidence is lauded as the guide of safety in the most awful of human inquiries!Jurors, consider the mass of victims sent to the scaffold by circumstantial evidence. I have neither the time nor the strength—and I may add, the patience—to wade through the melancholy records. Let me present to you the case of a poor girl in England, slaughtered, judicially slaughtered, though

Here is the translated text as follows:82 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The critical issue at hand is not merely the presence of a hypothesis but whether every other hypothesis is excluded to a moral certainty. That is the question! That is the question! And the enlightened conscience of every juror must answer it as he would if the life of his own child depended on the answer.How are you to answer it, gentlemen? The "how" reveals the incurable defect, the inherent vice of circumstantial evidence. You are tasked with reasoning out an unknown transaction; you must discern by the mind's eye

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 81Can you answer this question: If you answer (as the prosecution has asserted by indictment and by speech) that one of the two, Braff or Worrell, killed him, the answer shows that the evidence is inconclusive; upon such an answer, you cannot convict either. You perceive that the evidence must go another step further to enable you to think of condemnation. What is that step? The evidence must satisfy you beyond all reasonable doubt that Gordon was killed by one of the two, and that the other knew before the killing

Here is the translated text as follows:80 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Circumstantial evidence should to a moral certainty exclude every hypothesis but the one proposed to be proved." (1 Starkie 511, 512.) Lastly, "Circumstantial evidence ought in no case to be relied on, where direct and positive testimony is within the power of the prosecution." (1 Starkie 513.)Jurors, help me to try the circumstantial evidence in this case by the tests of the law thus laid down. You perceive without any labor of thought that evidence which satisfactorily and certainly proves that one of three persons, A, B, and C, did

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 79It is essential to be reasonable. Thus, this inference of the witness is made the starting point in the process of reasoning by the juror; and if wrong, in fact, secures error throughout the process of induction.A Dutch ambassador told the King of Siam that in his country, the water was so hard in cold weather that it would bear an elephant if he were there. The king replied, "Hitherto I have believed the strange things you have told me, because I looked upon you as a sober, fair man, but

Here is the translated text as follows:78 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.This is not a fact guessed at by you, or inferred, implied, or presumed by the law in the absence of knowledge. Can it be found in the evidence you have heard? The evidence is purely circumstantial. The State has not been able to introduce any positive testimony; not the least. There is nothing to guide you but circumstances, and therefore I have something to say about the nature and quality of that kind of evidence, and what it must be to warrant conviction.That such evidence has been treacherous, all

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 17The prosecution is moved to the law only by the point of the bayonet, and it will not budge an inch further than the practical puncture of the instrument forces it. "Implied malice," says Mr. Gale, "only makes murder in the second degree; the State must prove something more than that the killing was unlawful, to make the crime murder in the first degree.""Something more" must be proved! What is it? What is that "something more," Mr. Gale? In all his speech, he refused to tell you! Up to this period,

Here is the translated text as follows:76 &X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You will no longer have to wait. I cannot anticipate Major Wright's defense. He will be elaborate and entertaining; he will read many cases. If he satisfies you that the prisoner was insane at the time of the killing, acquit him. Otherwise, you must find him guilty of murder in the first degree.MR. WRIGHT, FOR THE DEFENSEMr. Wright: Gentlemen of the jury, you must pardon me if I notice for a moment the extravagant eulogies lavished on me by the gentlemen of the prosecution. This sorcery which they impute to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORPELLThe defense has taken a wide range, to which we have interposed no objection, beginning as far back as 1831. We have, on the part of the State, come up step by step, day to day, month to month, to the fatal January of 1856. The defendant's counsel tried to excite your sensibility on account of the remarks of Mr. Coalter upon the amiable character of Mr. Gordon. Would not the defense have promptly shown it if Gordon had been a rash, impulsive, and violent man? Would it not have been a

Here is the translated text as follows:74 YY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.To establish murder in the first degree, the prosecution must prove deliberation and premeditation, which together form the legal definition of malice: the concurrence of these states of mind and intention. Upon hearing this, I assume your minds are prepared to analyze this case. If you find there was express malice, you must find the prisoner guilty of murder in the first degree. If express malice is not clearly proven to your satisfaction, you must find the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree. The defendant's counsel read to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLWe have all read lately of Huntington in New York, a wealthy nabob who had been practicing forgery for years. He set up insanity as his defense. Who is to judge this but the jury? Judge Coalter only stated to you what is true: that you are the judges of whether the defendant is insane or not. The defendant is charged with the murder of Basil H. Gordon. To this charge, a double defense is presented:1. The killing of Gordon by the defendant is denied.2. He is an irresponsible being and therefore

Here is the translated text as follows:American State TrialsMr. Gale, for the StateMr. Gale: Gentlemen of the jury, it becomes necessary for me, as the circuit attorney of this district, to address you in this important case. After the length of time you have been compelled to listen to the protracted details presented here, the calmness of your countenances shows me that you are prepared to do justice to the State on one side, and to the prisoner at the bar on the other. I implore you, gentlemen, to set aside all external influences and approach this as a new

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL71I came back that night. I had no long or continuous conversation with Worrell while he was there. I don’t profess to be a good judge of insanity, but I know it when I see it plainly. I saw no effort on his part to conceal himself. It was very cold, and the persons in the house remained pretty much around the fire. Worrell did not stay in his room at any time except while sleeping. There was no fire in his room.S. H. GouldIn January 1856, I kept a tavern with

Here is the translated text as follows:70AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I met with Worrell again in St. Louis and had a conversation with him. He recognized me and recalled the horse trade. I asked him if he did not think he should pay me my money back. He replied that he did not have my money, but he would make it right with me. I told him that by describing the horse, the man had proven to my satisfaction that he owned the horse. Worrell assured me that I would not lose anything by it; he would make arrangements for me to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL69A person afflicted in such a manner should not be continued in such an office. If the recruiting officer did his duty, a person so afflicted could not be enlisted.**Charles T. Clark.** I reside at Fort Leavenworth and am a quartermaster sergeant in the U.S. Army. I know the prisoner and knew him at Fort Leavenworth. He deserted on the evening of January 7, 1856. A sergeant named Bruff from Company I also deserted at the same time. Two horses were taken at the same time. I know the horse Worrell was

Here is the translated text as follows:68AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Cross-examined: I have never seen epilepsy combined with the form of insanity known as irresistible impulse. There is a form of insanity known as homicidal mania, when a person, knowing right from wrong, has no power over the will. I have never known an epileptic to commit suicide. Epilepsy would not be more likely to produce a disturbance of intellect in later life if it began in early youth, unless the attacks were very frequent. It has, however, been known to be fatal in a few attacks. According to authorities on homicidal

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL87It is easy. If I understand the duties of a first sergeant, he could not be an imbecile, as I have defined it, without it having been found out.Mr. Wright: Suppose it was uncertain whether the man who appropriated the property had anything to do with the deed, that he fled and acted as no sane man would act, would render himself conspicuous everywhere, proclaimed his name, wore the apparel which would identify him when he had the means of changing, would not flee when pursued, volunteered to tell the property to

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe mental symptoms were not changed materially after the paroxysm was over, in the cases which I have seen. Epilepsy is caused sometimes by mechanical violence, such as a stroke or blow on the head, and sometimes by grief, joy, fear, fright, or other emotions. All the passions, or most of them, may produce it. Some say that the brain of the subject will, on dissection, show traces of the disease, while many deny it. The disease is characterized by a disturbance of the mental faculties, which some say affects chiefly

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 65I would pat my hands over his eyelids, and it seemed to compose him. He would continually talk, call over the roll of soldiers, and almost invariably call constantly on Lieut. Clark and ask if his horse was ready for him to go to Leavenworth City. Sometimes he was apparently cheerful. The alternations from cheerfulness to depression were not founded on any causes I could account for; they were generally sudden. From the latter part of September 1856, until we came up here, I have not witnessed less than 100 paroxysms.

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He woke up. As far as I saw, his condition was the same after the paroxysm at Portsmouth as at Baltimore. I saw him again in the same condition at Claysville, Ky. The day of that fit, he was more excitable than I had ever known him. The fit was at night. There was no object more than usual to excite him. Generally, a word from me, or my hand on his shoulder, will control him. That day, I went to him several times and asked him what was the matter.

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 63The symptoms were violent and more frequent in the forenoon. Sometimes they would begin with drowsiness. He became restless if things did not go right. He would then have a peculiar look in his eye, and then he would faint away. His pulse would flutter and then intermit. I sometimes thought he was going to die. All of a sudden, he would have a most violent spasm, and I thought he would break every bone in his body. His eyes afterwards would become fixed and glazed like the eyes of a

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Edward's normal condition was at Portsmouth, Ohio, at Eldon & Barra's store in the beginning of 1850. I don’t know if he had any fits at Cumberland. While there, he dashed out with only one or three dollars in his pocket to walk to California, determined never to stop until he got there. He broke away from us, and we knew nothing until a friend told us the next day. When he got to Pittsburgh, he wrote for money; received it; came back to Cumberland; then went to Portsmouth. One evening,

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 61I don’t recollect all the persons who were present at the time of his illness in the orderly room. A short time after the doctor gave him medicine, he became calm. I don’t know what he gave him, nor do I know what caused it. I can’t swear it was not produced by liquor. I am not a physician and can’t swear anything about it. At the time of the controversy between the soldiers and citizens, Worrell said something, but I don’t recollect what. He was a very resolute man. I

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS60I am from Leavenworth and belong to the U.S. Army as a private. I knew Worrell from the time I met him at Columbus until he left Fort Leavenworth. He never drank to the point of intoxication. I don’t remember him being more quarrelsome than his duty required him to be. He was promoted as soon as he got to Fort Leavenworth. I went with him from Columbus to Fort Leavenworth in the summer of 1855. Since I first knew him until he left the army, I have known sudden changes

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLWe arrived in Baltimore on Sunday evening. Worrell stopped at Mrs. Elzie’s on Second Street, between Gay and South streets, a private boarding house. He told me he had formerly boarded there. The next morning, I met him on Baltimore Street with a friend. I introduced the prisoner as Mr. Worrell and told him we were going to have a glass of ale, inviting him to join us, which he declined. The only liquor I saw him drink during the entire trip was a glass of ale in Pittsburgh. I next saw

Here is the translated text as follows:58X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.George Urghart: I had some personal acquaintance in 1855 with Worrell; I boarded in the same house with him and his father and mother. He occupied part of my dental office and was constantly there during office hours, and paid every attention to his business. His manners and conduct in his profession exhibited skill. I had full confidence in Worrell, who often acted as my agent in collecting money. Worrell was frank and polite. He was an attendant on religious services, and I have no knowledge of his ever resorting to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL57I knew several individuals attached to his family who were crazy. I have known his father to be a very eccentric man. It has been commonly understood in the neighborhood that Mr. Worrell attempted to commit suicide. He was at times so changeable that he shifted his focus from the study of divinity under Bishop Kent of Indiana to medicine, and from one profession to another without any apparent reason. I have heard from common reports that his grandmother was eccentric on the subject of nicety. I have known several relatives of

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.There was no picture there. He was working his fingers without any apparent object, and soon commenced pulling the hair out of his head. His eyes were wandering, and he seemed to me evidently to be out of his right mind. He had only been sick for two or three days. On the only two occasions on which I saw him in this condition, I was a member of the same company. He often showed me his private correspondence; frequently showed me letters from his relatives and from a young lady,

Here is the translated text as follows:Edward D. WorrellI first met Edward D. Worrell in Boone County, Missouri, in the spring of 1855. He told me he was a private in Company B, Dragoons of the U.S. Army. He desired me to make an application to the Secretary of War for his discharge from the army. He appeared to be in trouble and expressed himself in very singular language, so much so that I thought he was laboring under strong mental derangement. I have seen him several times since. When not depressed in mind, he was a very sociable and

Here is the translated text as follows:54X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The only fact in the case that bears any force against the defense of insanity is the appropriation of Gordon's property. I will not omit the topic of motive when I come to the argument of the case.THE WITNESSES FOR THE DEFENSE.**Hartford T. Clark:** I have known the defendant since September 1852, when he enlisted in the United States Army. I first saw him at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He was then a member of B Company, First Dragoons. He left the army in New Mexico, discharged by order from the Secretary

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 53The kind and gentle do not in a day grow hungry for blood. Such violent and sudden antagonisms are the surest evidence of mental disease. The law of evidence permitting proof of good character in criminal cases is founded upon this philosophy of man's nature, and it is a true philosophy. It is introduced as proof that the crime was not committed, not to excuse it. If piety, honesty, and gentleness may perish or turn to their opposites in a moment, if they cannot furnish any resistance to the influence of

Here is the translated text as follows:52 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A few diligently conceal it, or if they avoid it, declare their murderous designs and form diverse schemes for putting them in execution, testifying no sentiment of remorse.The most of them, having gratified their propensity to kill, voluntarily confess the act and quietly give themselves up to the proper authorities. A very few only, and these to an intelligent observer, show the strongest indications of insanity, fly, and persist in denying the act.While the criminal act itself is in some instances the only indication of insanity, the individual appearing rational

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 51After the close of the evidence, I will refer you to many authors. At present, I read to you from Ray's Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity, section 381:"To determine exactly the mental condition of an epileptic at the moment of committing a criminal act is often a difficult task. It may have taken place in the absence of any observer, in a fit of fury that rapidly passed away, and which perhaps may not have followed any previous paroxysm; or the accused, though subject to the disease, may not have recently suffered

Here is the translated text as follows:50 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.This aspect of it necessarily creates the difficulty of the investigation. How shall we distinguish between crime and insane impulse? May we not mistake one for the other? Is there not danger that a mistake may be of grave consequence, on the one hand to give impunity to guilt, on the other to put to death the innocent? Yes! There is difficulty, there is danger, a mistake is easy; we may confound two things as opposite as heaven and hell. Acting upon the error, you may bring a result which

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 49You have been led to believe that no difficulty can attend the investigation of either subject, that your pathway in both will be as "easy as the road to a mill," and that you may therefore dismiss from your minds all anxiety, all perturbation, all solicitude, touching the rightful exercise of the power of life or death, now committed to your hands. I must say, as respectfully as I know how to utter the words, this is "bad advice." To yield to it is at once a crime in morals and

Here is the translated text as follows:48 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,Gentlemen, the legal test of insanity laid down by the prosecution is not law. Our own Supreme Court has repudiated it in the case of Baldwin. Knowledge of right and wrong is possessed by both the sane and the insane. I grant that for several hundred years, it was the only test for the common law. The obstinate ignorance of the English Bench yielded to the genius of Erskine, what it denied to the experience of lunatic hospitals, and granted in Hadfield's case the existence of insane delusion, under cautious

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. © 47The joint report of all the physicians concluded that the prisoner was certainly insane at the time of the killing.The case provided an excellent opportunity for the "looking" test of insanity. The counsel looked, but could not see it; the jury looked each day upon the prisoner, but could not see it; the judge looked, but could not see it. If sight alone had governed, the prisoner would have been hanged. And now, jurors, what did save that man's life? There was a judge presiding in the case and watching

Here is the translated text as follows:46 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Anyone who has made advancements in the field of science cannot help but be impressed by the great truth that "man is wonderfully and fearfully made."Insanity can be detected by a mere look! However, there is feigned insanity, which can be so convincing that it often baffles even the most enlightened investigators. There is also concealed insanity, which can be so crafty and subtle that it deceives even the most experienced keepers and physicians of lunatic asylums when deciding on a patient's discharge. In other words, the insane patient is

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 45If there is one subject within the circle of disease that more than another tasks and taxes the human mind, it is the subject of insanity. This is the opinion of every author who has written upon it, of every medical jurisprudent, of every keeper of lunatic asylums, and of every man who professes to have learned by study anything of the manifestations or phenomena of mental disorder, without exception. Yet my friend exclaims, "Does not every person know an insane man when he sees him?"I wish it were so! I

Here is the translated text as follows:44 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You are to judge by intuition, not by reason. You are to cut yourself off from the influence of all knowledge gained by others after long study and painful examination of the human mind in ruins, and trust to instinct. Your own unenlightened reason is not even to guide you. It is a question only of eyesight! As the afflicted were "to look on the golden image and live," so you are "to look and determine." This is simple and summary, and, one would suppose, final, too; for if error

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 43In the middle of the nineteenth century, a rampant guilt devised fraud of the gallows and the penitentiary!A man may smile at this folly as the senseless cry greets him on the street, or he reads it in the expression of thoughtless type, hastily put up to sustain a nine days' wonder. However, he may not smile if he sees this stupidity come into court decently dressed, and taking its seat on the bench, at the bar, or in the jury box.Silly individuals sometimes lift the same hue and cry against

Here is the translated text as follows:42 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Was it that, inoculated with the virus of prejudice against the plea, you should look hatefully upon the proof of it? Or were you to be so blinded by this cataract of denunciation as not to see the defense at all?If juries have let some men escape under the plea of insanity, are you therefore to hang a madman as compensation to baffled justice? Are you to forget your oaths and stifle your consciences because other juries have been careless of legal obligation? "Attend to your own business" is a

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 41Appeal to hurtful prejudices. His work was but half done; it remains for him to shape the defense, and crush it in advance."I know," he exclaims, "there is not human power enough to deny the guilt of Worrell—it will not be denied; but the plea of insanity will be set up. Everything nowadays is insanity. Drunkenness is insanity; eccentricity is insanity; forgery is insanity. Huntingdon was insane. Insanity is the broad, common cloak spread to cover crime."Jurors, I am sorry to see a man of talents and high moral position, like

Here is the translated text as follows:40 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The speaker is reminiscent of Antony's oration over the dead body of Caesar, and he is fresh from the interview of Hamlet with the "buried majesty of Denmark." If his policy were like that of the artful Triumvir, who sought to inflame the rabble of Rome to avenge the death of his friend, or like that of the murdered father, who stirred a living son to vengeance, his words would be well matched to his purpose. But he is neither in Rome, moving a fickle populace to counter-revolution, nor in

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 89The vindication and the eulogy are both wrong—both hurtful—both illegal—both disturbing elements which the law carefully shuts out from the consideration of court and jury. I have no word to utter against the deceased—none. The law puts his character out of the reach of an assailant here—out of the reach of eulogy also. His character is not in issue in this cause. If that character was good, the law will not permit you to hear it, lest the memory of his virtues might awaken undue indignation; if bad, the proof of

Here is the translated text as follows:38 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Indignation so deep and so universal was felt, and Providence supplied what indignation could not furnish.Thus, in limine, my friend would have your feelings prejudge the case. He would have you enlightened by the judgment—the foregone conclusion—of a "whole people," and awe you against any resistance to their decree. Into this sacred temple, whither Justice has retired, calmly, severely, and carefully to weigh, to deliberate, and to mature her even judgment, my friend madly rushes and flings the passions of a multitude into the scales.His classic memory alone ought to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 37The power to take life is the most awful power a government possesses, and because of its gravity, its exercise demands the utmost caution. A government may take life, but it should be fatal to the peace of any tribunal of government to do so by crossing the line that marks the distribution of power. If the boundary is doubtful—if we are not certain of the legal territory on which we stand—humanity, the spirit of the law, and justice itself demand that the path of safety is to err humanely. We

Here is the translated text as follows:36 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In the presentation of facts, the circuit attorney frankly admitted to the court and jury that the offense would only be murder in the second degree. He relied upon the subsequent flight of Jackson (who did flee and was arrested some months later in Iowa), and a former grudge, as evidence to elevate the case to the grade of murder in the first degree. He put the case to the jury on the ground, frankly and properly conceded, that a killing, under unknown circumstances, was only murder in the second

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 35The responsibility lies upon others. It is a concept defined in the following words: "Express malice is when one, with a sedate, deliberate mind and formed design, kills another; this formed design is evidenced by external circumstances discovering that inward intention, such as lying in wait, antecedent menaces, former grudges, and concerted schemes to do him harm."Thus, jurors, you see what it is you have to find, and also what is the evidence of its existence. You have to find a fact—the condition or state of the mind at and before

Here is the translated text as follows:384 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We can't send him to the gallows upon it. It is a libel on our nature to presume without knowledge that every killing is with malice. Although man is capable of cold-blooded assassination, he naturally recoils from the deed; and for one murder done in cold blood, there are a hundred killings that result from misfortune, or great provocation, giving rise to sudden passion, or the instinct of self-preservation. If any presumption must be made by the law, the presumption should be more in harmony with reason and experience. But

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 33The concept of "malice implied" in law is a legal fiction—a presumption made in the absence of knowledge. It is a leap in the dark, a guilty guess as to how and why a killing took place, without knowing either the how or the why. It is an arbitrary fiat substituted for proof, demanding proof to overthrow it. It is a conclusion forced on the conscience of a juror, which he must take for truth and act on as truth until the accused, by evidence, shall establish it to be a

Here is the translated text as follows:382 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,A firm of pork packers at Washington, where one member of the firm makes a contract with you, binds every member of the firm because each member has made every other member an agent to act for him. Thus, the act of any one member becomes the act of all, and all are therefore responsible. That is partnership. And so there may be partnership in crime. If two men agree to commit murder, one to do the deed, and the other to stand by and help if need be, or

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WOREKELL, 31There is no proof establishing that he knew of the design prior to the act and participated in it. If he is a responsible being, the evidence establishes the offense of larceny. The appropriation of the horse was subsequent to the death. If he counseled Bruff to flee after the deed, or aided him in his escape feloniously, he might be held responsible as an accessory after the fact—but he is not charged with that offense. To make him responsible for the murder, one of two things must be made manifest

Here is the translated text as follows:30 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In the hierarchy of offenses, and among murders recognized by common law, as well as by the codes of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and New Jersey, some are classified as manslaughter, while others are deemed excusable or justifiable homicide. The remainder constitutes murder in the second degree.You will notice from the reading that one class of murders is designated as murders in the first degree because they are committed in the attempt to perpetrate a felony. However, the defendant is not charged with such a murder; and not being charged, he cannot

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL. 29What may be considered murder in the second degree in other states may only be manslaughter, or justifiable or excusable homicide here. Amidst this confusion, one thing is certain: murder in the first degree—capital murder—cannot be made out of implied malice. Nothing but express malice, proven as a fact and found by the jury, can constitute capital murder in this state. I do not include in this proposition a class of murder in the first degree that is elevated to that degree by reason of being committed in the attempt to

Here is the translated text as follows:28 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In my defense, I submit that the proof has not established the proposition.The indictment contains two counts. On its face, a want of knowledge of who killed Gordon is manifest. Without knowledge, it is framed to meet contingencies. In the first count, it is charged that Worrell killed him—killed him with a pistol—and that Bruff was by, aiding and abetting only. No sooner has the pleader drawn the charge than he reverses the accusation, and declares in a second count that it was not Worrell who killed Gordon—that he was

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLThe purpose of this text is to address the case made by the prosecution and to outline the grounds of the defense.The defense will be presented under two general headings:I. I shall first consider, on the supposition that Worrell is to be treated as a responsible being—a rational creature, having control over his actions—a man, amenable to his Maker and to government, whether the State has proven the charges against him as they are set forth in the indictment. In Missouri, we have two kinds of murder—one takes life, the other only

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We did not want them to see it. He then said he was very glad. He afterwards told me he had been expecting it. He seemed to go willingly. He could not do otherwise very well—a man had hold of each arm. He made no refusal to come willingly, except as I said before, he refused to have the handcuffs put on in the room. When we got down to the hand car, I did put the handcuffs on him. I told him I never traveled in custody of a prisoner

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL, 25We traced this description until we got to Pittsburgh, where we learned he had shaved. After this, the description was the same except for his beard.Captain J. E. D. CousinsI reside in St. Louis and am presently employed by insurance companies as an inspector of buildings. I have been in the police force for many years, serving as captain and in other offices. I saw the prisoner for the first time at Dover, Delaware, in a tavern there. Mr. Worrell came with me and one or two others to the railroad

Here is the translated text as follows:24 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.On about the 26th of February last, around 11 o'clock, Couzins arrived about 8 o'clock in the evening. I had no warrant for his arrest and was not present when he was arrested. We first found his name at Crestline, on the Cleveland & Columbus Railroad, on a register. I was in Vincennes two or three times. In pursuit, I stopped at Gould's, and Couzins was along. We found a name on a register at Gould's, which Mr. Gould told us was registered by him. I don’t think it was

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL23**George A. Signer:** I know the horse and saddle which Mr. Gordon rode away last January. The horse was a chestnut sorrel. The saddle was mine. It was a black English tree saddle. I lent it to Gordon on January 12, 1856. Afterwards, I saw it at Vincennes, in the possession of Mr. Gould, sometime in February 1856.**Erasmus L. Wents:** I know Worrell. I saw him for the first time at Dover, in Delaware, in the street. The next day, I saw him again; he came in company with Capt. Couzins to

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSWe purchased the horse, saddle, and bridle from Worrell after he sold him again. All three horses were sold in Vincennes. Worrell then left on the train for Terre Haute and Indianapolis. He sold two of the three horses, while Bruff sold one. I paid $65 for the horse, which was worth not much more at that time as it was quite jaded. If it had been in good order, it would have been worth $125, as horses were sold then. Worrell went by the name of H. C. Worrell and

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELL,21Hartwell Richards testified that he had seen the prisoner near the corner of Broadway and Mullanphy Street in St. Louis. Richards kept a boarding house and recalled that on about January 25th, 1856, Worrell came to his house between 11 and 12 o'clock and stayed until Sunday, approximately one day. Another man named Bruff was with him. Richards identified the prisoner as Worrell and confirmed he had seen Bruff as well. At Richards' house, Bruff went by the name Charles Strong, and Worrell used the name John Ross. Richards asked them their

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I was in the wagon with Mr. Pace when we saw two men. I did not see them again until we reached Hickory Grove, about two miles from Mrs. Stevenson’s. At that point, there were only two men. One of them, whom I had seen before, was leading a horse without a saddle. I saw them again at the creek below Mr. Kenner’s, where their horses were drinking. The two men I saw the day before were accompanied by three horses.During cross-examination, Mr. Pace and I confirmed that we occupied the

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORKELLThe back part of the head is more fatal than the front. Suppose this wound did not touch the spine, which would produce death, but judging from the description, it severed a diverging nerve, which would also produce death.WILLIAM H. PACEI have seen the prisoner on the 24th of January last, at James Jones' place, on the Boonslick Road, ten miles west of Warrenton, in Montgomery County. Two other gentlemen were with him; I did not know them. The prisoner was one of them. They came in to pay their bill to

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI found him to be tolerably well, though he seemed low-spirited. I thought it best not to prolong the conversation, so I said to him, "Mr. Gordon was a co-laborer of mine on the railroad, and he was a near friend of mine; please state whether he suffered or not after he was shot?" His reply was in these very words: "I can assure you, sir, he did not suffer." I was not present at the finding of the body, but I arrived just afterwards, and before the coroner was called.

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLI was going east, towards him, and could have seen the body, if he had not been covered, at about 40 yards before you came to him.**Cross-examined:** If there had been no snow, the brush would not have hidden him. There must have been one or one and a half feet of snow that fell between the time he left my house and the time he was found. I never saw Gordon before, as I recollect. When I told Worrell about Dr. Watkins, Gordon, I think, said he had seen him, but

Here is the translated text as follows:16XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I saw Worrell's face, two and a half or three miles off. Since then, I have seen Worrell in St. Louis jail. I recognized him, and he recognized me. This was the first time I saw him after he left my house. When I entered the jail, two friends went in with me. I walked behind them; they went in first. Worrell was then in the large hall, not in the cell. I saw the catch of his eye. Worrell at once stepped around, shook hands with me, and said, "How

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLI saw a pony mare, a sorrel. "A man claimed the horse as stolen," (objected to and excluded by the court). I identify Bruff, who is now brought in.**Cross-examined:** I had never seen Worrell before that day. I saw him soon after his arrest in the St. Louis jail in a cell. Two cells were pointed out as containing them, but not discriminated. I have seen him about four times since I first saw him. I went to his cell about three times. I went to see him about the pony. The

Here is the translated text as follows:14AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.At Grove Prairie, the nearest house west of it being Mrs. Stevenson’s, the feet of the corpse were lying nearly east, head west, and twirled over very much. I saw the body stripped and examined. There was a large cavity in his head, about as between my fingers. I did not examine the depth of the wound. The ball did not come through and through. The wound was evidently done by a leaden ball. The body was frozen and must have lain there eight or ten days, from appearances. It had not

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WOERRELLCaptain Couzins handed me this watch (here shown). Captain C. is a well-known police officer of St. Louis. I know this watch was Gordon's. Under a piece of black silk, there is secreted an old-fashioned watch paper having on it the name of Gordon's father, his mother's maiden name, and the date 1802. Gordon joined me in 1854, at my invitation, on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad of which I was chief engineer. Afterwards, I appointed him my principal assistant on the North Missouri Railroad. I had daily and hourly intercourse with

Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSWe had our daguerreotypes taken but left before the pictures were finished; and it was arranged that Gordon, on his return, should take one to Wentz's office at St. Charles, and Sheerbarth would take the other.We reached Huntsville, Randolph County, on the evening of Sunday, January 20. The next day, we left Huntsville. Mr. Gordon parted with us to go alone directly to St. Louis, while Mr. Sturgeon, myself, and Mr. Pratt continued on to Jefferson City. Mr. Sturgeon and I arrived in St. Louis on the evening of January 26.

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLEccentricity of conduct in any man's life can never be considered an excuse for willful crime. It never has been.But I deny that the prisoner is crazy. If at previous intervals he may have exhibited such symptoms, it has no application to this case. The hinge on which this question must turn is not as to—Counsel for the prisoner asks Mr. Coalter not to anticipate what defense is to be made, but simply to state the facts the State expects to prove.Mr. Coalter: I thought it fair—and in fact to the advantage

Here is the translated text as follows:10 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.It is unnecessary to mention that each party is trying to convict the other. It would make no difference. Both are equally guilty. However, I know from depositions on file in this case that the main effort in the defense of this man will be to show that he is not responsible for his conduct due to insanity. After the evidence is presented to you, it will be a hopeless task to argue that the defendant did not commit the act charged against him. No human eloquence would suffice to

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLGentlemen, 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.

Here is the translated text as follows:8 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.At the time the act took place, and also prior to it, the murderer intended to commit the deed.I desire in this opening to be very brief, and therefore shall not dwell further upon mere definitions of law. This indictment contains two counts. The first charges the prisoner, Worrell, with being the principal who committed the act, and that Bruff was aiding and abetting therein. The second count charges Bruff as principal, and Worrell as accessory. It makes no difference which did it, if both aided and were present. In

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLThe jury members empaneled against him were: Joseph Woodruff (foreman), Thomas B. Renick, David M. Tyree, Burrell Roland, Reuben Bledsoe, Dorsey Waters, George Woodcock, Moses V. Kean, Jeremiah Pierce, William T. O. Dickinson, and Jeremiah H. Williams.MR. COALTER'S OPENING SPEECHMr. Coalter: Gentlemen of the jury, at the request of Mr. Gale, the prosecuting attorney of this circuit, I rise to address you with a few remarks. I do so at his request because of my earlier knowledge of this case, which involves a transaction in another county and has been brought here

Here is the translated text as follows:6 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.January 20.Mr. Coalter asked for a continuance, which was refused. The following jurors were then selected, after Judge Stone had ruled that the opinion formed from rumor, in order to disqualify a juror, must be of such a fixed character as to enlist the feelings of the juror either for or against the prisoner and create, in the language of the statute, a bias or prejudice.---**Coalter, John D. (1818-1864).** Born in South Carolina, he came with his parents to Missouri when they settled in St. Charles County. He was sent

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLJanuary 19Today, the special term of the court opened for the trial of Edward D. Worrell, following a severance of the prisoners who had been jointly indicted. The prisoner was brought into court, attended by his father and mother. When called upon and the indictment read to him, he pleaded not guilty.D. Q. Gale, Circuit Attorney; John D. Coalter and W. V. N. Bay, for the State.Uriel Wright, for the Prisoner.The indictment alleges that Edward D. Worrell, along with William H. Bruff, feloniously, willfully, deliberately, and premeditatedly, and with malice aforethought, did

Here is the translated text as follows:4 XZ, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.On May 6, the defendants appealed to the court for a change of venue on the grounds that "the inhabitants of this entire judicial circuit are so prejudiced against these defendants that a fair trial cannot be had in the same." This application was granted, and the indictments were transferred to the Franklin Circuit Court. The prisoners were delivered to the sheriff of Franklin County, and at the September term of the Franklin Circuit Court, the case was continued to a special term of the court to be held in

Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLTHE TRIALIn the Circuit Court of Franklin County, Union, Missouri, January 1857.Hon. John H. Stone, Judge.Edward D. Worrell had, at the May Term of 1856 in the Circuit Court of Warren County, been indicted jointly with William H. Bruff for the murder of Basil H. Gordon.**Bibliography:** "The Law of Circumstantial Evidence and of Insanity. A Report in Full of the Trial of Edward D. Worrell, Indicted for the Murder of Basil H. Gordon, Held at the Court House in Union, Franklin County, Missouri, January 19, 1857. Reported by John Delafield, Esq. St.

Here is the translated text as follows:2 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Upon arriving at the location, they discovered blood all over the mow, which continued to a ravine about fifteen feet from the road. There, they found Gordon's body, covered with brush and snow, with a hole through the head as if made by a large pistol ball. His pockets were turned inside out, and his watch and all his money were gone.Worrell had been seen in St. Charles leading a horse that resembled Gordon's. From there, he went to St. Louis, remaining there for three days and going to the

Here is the translated text as follows:THE TRIAL OF EDWARD D. WORRELL FOR THE MURDER OF BASIL H. GORDON, UNION, MISSOURI, 1857THE NARRATIVEEdward D. Worrell was the only child of Dr. Edward Worrell of Dover, Delaware, a college president. He was well-educated and, after practicing dentistry for a while, enlisted in the army. In 1855, he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth as a sergeant. He deserted in company with William H. Braff of Macon, Georgia, in the early part of January 1856, and started east on horseback. While traveling through Warren County, Missouri, they fell in with Basil H. Gordon,

Here is the translated text as follows:TABLE OF TRIALSPAGEThe Trial of Mrs. Herman H. Hirsch for Blackmail, Atlanta, Georgia, 1918666-688The Trial of Pedro Gibert, Bernardo De Soto, Francisco Ruiz, Nicola Costa, Antonio Ferrer, Manuel Boyga, Domingo De Guzman, Juan Antonio Portana, Manuel Castillo, Angel Garcia, Jose Velazquez, and Juan Montenegro for Piracy, Boston, Massachusetts, 1834699-773The Trial of Thomas Cooper for Seditious Libel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1800781-782The Trial of James Thomas Callender for Seditious Libel, Richmond, Virginia, 1800813-876Independence877-882---