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

130 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

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 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 he was shot. If a confession of this char-
acter proves insanity, then a murderer has nothing to do but
acknowledge his guilt and receive his discharge. Confessions
sometimes afford the only means of punishing the guilty and
thousands have been exeeuted upon them, The acknowledg-
ment that the watch and saddlebags were Gordon’s was only
made after Wentz had stated in the hearing of the prisoner,
‘‘that he knew the watch to be Gordon’s.”” It was the ad-
mission of s fact, after the proof of the fact. It is also poa-
sible, and even probable, that he designed charging the mur-
der upon Brnff, for you will recollect that in speaking of the
cloak left at Vineennes he said, ‘‘That cloak would tell the
tale.”? Also when asked at Smyrna why he did not state
who committed the deed, he replied, ‘‘I do not like to talk
about it as the other man is 8 Mason,”

I have now answered the first proposition of the counsel
upon this issue, and J think you will concur with me in the
opinion that the conduct of the prisoner furnishes no evi-
denee of such a want of mental capacity as to render him irre-
sponsible for his acta.

Men, after the commission of high crimes, often demean
themselves in a way that does not comport strictly with our
notions of wisdom. They ere much inclined to think that
all men look upon them with suspicion, and in their efforts
to guard against discovery, say and do things that in the
end lead to their detection. This was strikingly illustrated
in the case of Dr. Webster, who had a week to dispose of the
body of Dr. Parkman, and yet left the thorax of the de-
ceased in a tea chest, and a full set of mineral teeth, which