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

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 Balti-
more in February last, in the office of Mr. Raisin, and con-
versed with him on the subject of Kansas and Nebraska af-
fairs. Defendant (in the language of witness) inflated him-
self with @ considerable amount of gas and seemed much ex-
cited 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 the testimony of Mr. Gould it appears that while in
‘Vineennes he conversed very sensibly upon that subject; so
much so thet Mr. Gould remarked to a friend standing by
“that he appeared to be a very sensible man, and capable
of imparting much information upon the subject of Kan-
pas,??

The next and last deposition in the case is that of Samuel
Ringold, uncle of the prisoner and brother of Mrs, Worrell.
For what purpose the distinguished eounsel introduced this
deposition, I am wholly at a loss to conjecture; for even if
he had established a pretext for this defense of insanity, the.
testimony of Samuel Ringold would blow it into a thousand
fragments, Permit me, gentlemen, to read you one inter-
rogatory propounded to the witness and the answer thereto:
Question. If at any time since you have known him (de-
fendant) he has evineed any manifestations of insanity, state
the time, place and circumstances under which the manifes-
tations were made, embracing what he said and what he did,
and how he acted, and if this was on more than one occasion ;
state the times, places and circumstances, Answer. In the
negative, except an occasional wildness and excitability.
My God, what a farce are we engaged in, sitting day after
day, seriously and laboriously inquiring whether the prisoner
‘waa sane or insane, when his own uncle, who has known him
from the time he nestled upon his mother’s breast and who
is attached to him by the strong ties of our nature, and
who would gladly sacrifice everything but his honor to ahield
him from the law, tells you, though reluctantly, that he has
never discovered in him any manifestations of insanity. Gen-