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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

754 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

Such grounds as these, gentlemen, have never been seen in a case of piracy since the beginning of time. Is it a fact that Quentin did not know that the logbook or any of the papers were missing? Doubtless, all the books and papers fell into the same hands. I have no doubt that the logbook is now in the hands of the prosecutors. The schooner has always been known as a two-topsail schooner; as such, she was known in August 1832, in Havana, and also in Cadiz in 1833. It is no crime to sail in a Baltimore clipper; if it were, many of our most valued nautical men would have long since suffered on the scaffold. The question before you is not whether the pirate was a clipper, but whether she fully answers the description given of the Panda.

Perez tells you there was no money on board the Panda. It appears quite improbable to me that he should know anything about it. Are you convinced of the probability that the captain and mate would set out on a journey like this without a cent of money in their pockets? You must believe Perez has perjured himself, which I think is reduced to a certainty by the evidence of Badlam. I think you must also be convinced that the schooner had money on board, and if so—if she had from two to five thousand dollars on board—that fact proves the voyage to have been an honest one. It has also been proved that the captain paid money to the men at Nazareth. This money was doubtless shipped for the voyage at Havana; and is it likely he would have discharged Silvera with the assurance that he could no longer support him if he (the captain) had possessed such a sum of money as he is said to have stolen from the Mexican?

In cases of piracy, I consider it just as important, in order to convict individuals of the crime, that the money should be produced, as it is in cases of murder that the body should be found. As regards the money found at Nazareth, you have no testimony in relation to that but the testimony of Perez, and he in one place tells you that eleven thousand dollars were buried, and in another, that he is not certain of it.

Mr. Child argued at considerable length on the improbability...

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