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

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Here is the translated text as follows:

EDWARD D. WORRELL

THE TRIAL

In the Circuit Court of Franklin County, Union, Missouri, January 1857.

Hon. John H. Stone, Judge.

Edward D. Worrell had, at the May Term of 1856 in the Circuit Court of Warren County, been indicted jointly with William H. Bruff for the murder of Basil H. Gordon.

**Bibliography:** "The Law of Circumstantial Evidence and of Insanity. A Report in Full of the Trial of Edward D. Worrell, Indicted for the Murder of Basil H. Gordon, Held at the Court House in Union, Franklin County, Missouri, January 19, 1857. Reported by John Delafield, Esq. St. Louis, Mo. M. Niedner, Publisher. St. Louis, Mo., 1937."

**Stone, John H.** A native of Tennessee, he was educated near Georgetown, Kentucky, to which place his parents had moved. He was not a college graduate, but he read Latin with facility and had a knowledge of Greek. He was a student at the Law School in Lexington; he came to Missouri in 1836 and settled in Fulton, Callaway County, where he practiced law until appointed Judge of the 9th Judicial Circuit in 1843, residing in Potosi. He remained on the bench until sometime in the early part of the war when he fell victim to the turbulent spirit that reigned throughout the state. He was arrested on a charge of disloyalty and thrown into the Gratiot Street prison in St. Louis. The real motive was to prevent him from holding court in one or two counties where large amounts of property were advertised to be sold under execution. His friends obtained his release; he returned to Callaway County and finally settled in St. Charles. The effect of the war and the personal ill-treatment to which he was subjected hurried him rapidly to the grave. He must have died shortly after the close of the war. A more upright, conscientious, and honest man never lived. (Bay, W. V. N., "Bench and Bar of Missouri," pp.)

The Grand Jurors for the State of Missouri, empaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire in and for the body of the County of Warren, on their oaths present that Edward D. Worrell and William H. Bruff, on the twenty-fifth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, at the County of Warren aforesaid, with force and arms, in and upon one Basil H. Gordon, then and there feloniously, willfully, deliberately, premeditatedly, and of their malice aforethought, did make an assault, and that the said Edward D. Worrell, a certain pistol there and then charged with gunpowder and a leaden bullet, which said pistol he, the said Edward D. Worrell, in his right hand then and there...

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