158 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

126 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

ciple than that of alienation of mind.””? I gave the gentle-
man’s argument my closest attention, and so far from satis-
fying my mind of the truth of his proposition, he led me to
the conelusion that the prisoner was a man of more decided
intellect than I had attributed to him. The first act to which
T shall call your attention relates to what transpired on the
day of his desertion.

As first orderly-sergeant it was his duty, and his alone,
to detail every day a man to assist in the stable, and one
in the kitchen. The proof is that on that morning he de- ~
tailed a man for the stable who owned a very fine bay horse,
one of the fleetest in the stable. During tha day he went to
him and told him that he had made a mistake; that he had
intended to place him in the kitchen and the other man in
the stable, and directed the change accordingly. That night
he deserted, taking with him the bay horse, which he could
not have readily done bad the owner remained in the stable.

I leave you, gentleman, to judge whether this fact indi-
eated mental disorder. The prisoner crossed the river on
the ice, and the next morning his cap was found at the edge
of a large hole made im the ice for the purpose of watering
horses belonging to the fort. This was done to elude pur-
suit by creating the belief that in attempting to water his
horse, both he and the horse had fallen in and drowned. This
Tuse was eminently successful, for Dr. Worrell tells you that
shortly afterwards he received a letter from Sergeant Clark,
announcing the death of his son, and the officers at the fort
did not learn to the contrary until they heard that he was
arrested for the murder of Mr. Gordon. Dr. Worrell re-
mained in the same belief until the arrival of his son in Dover.
Here you have evidence of a mind capable of reasoning, of
drawing conclusions from facts, and I question very much
if either Major Wright or myself would have managed it
half as adroitly.

‘We next find him at Ferguson’s busily engaged endeav-
oring to sell a horse—sueceeds in making the sale. Ferguson
tells you that although he was conversing with him half an
hour, he discovered nothing wrong in relation to his mind;