033 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:

THE TRIAL OF EDWARD D. WORRELL FOR THE MURDER OF BASIL H. GORDON, UNION, MISSOURI, 1857

THE NARRATIVE

Edward 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, a civil engineer who was assisting in locating the North Missouri Railroad. On this trip, however, Gordon had been out on the proposed line collecting money that had been subscribed as a bonus to the road.

The three men slept the night of January 24, 1856, at a tavern in Warren County, and there Worrell and Braff learned that Gordon had a large amount of money with him. The next day it snowed hard. As Gordon did not return to the railroad offices at St. Louis, the president of the road sent a searching party to hunt for him. They soon learned that the three men had left the tavern together on the morning of January 25, and that Worrell was seen some time afterwards coming out of a hazel thicket a short distance from the tavern, riding a horse and leading another. This satisfied his friends that Gordon had been murdered in the thicket.

Several days were spent searching for the body, and the party had begun to despair of finding it when one of the searchers noticed a small dog scratching in the snow.