DR. WILLIS F. WESTMORELAND — Sworn In for the Defense — 117th Witness to Testify

Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland, witness for the Defendant in rebuttal, at the Trial of Leo Frank in the Fulton County Superior Court of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913 (Testimony Portion From July 28 - August 21, 1913; Closing Arguments August 21-25, 1913)
Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland, 28-year surgeon, 20-year professor of surgery, and former president of the Georgia State Board of Health, delivered a total demolition of the State’s medical case.
1. Head Wound

A 1½-inch laceration to the skull with no fracture, no brain pressure, and one drop of blood is medically meaningless 9–10 days after burial.
Impossible to say whether the blow caused unconsciousness, was pre-death, peri-mortem, or post-mortem, or came from any direction.
“Pure guesswork” to claim otherwise.
Skulls can fracture without unconsciousness; death can occur with minimal external signs.

2. Black Eye

Post-mortem blows produce identical discoloration while blood remains fluid.

3. Cabbage Timeline

No physician can time cabbage from appearance, acid, or chemistry 9–10 days post-mortem.
Hydrochloric acid follows no fixed curve; free HCl may be delayed for hours.
Embalming fluid destroys pepsin and pancreatic juice; acidity proves nothing.
Poorly chewed cabbage (State’s Exhibit G) can languish 10–12 hours in a living stomach—indefinitely in a dead one.
Fear, anger, or exertion can halt digestion for hours.
Westmoreland: “Digestion has no fixed rule at all.”

4. Vaginal “Violence”

Digital exam on a fresh corpse rips epithelium; 9 days + 8% formaldehyde obliterates evidence.
Menstruation, strangulation, and post-mortem pooling produce identical congestion and swelling.
No microscope can distinguish pre-death assault from natural causes or iatrogenic trauma.
“Impossible” to claim violence 5–15 minutes before death.

5. Cause of Death

Lividity, protruding tongue, deep cord furrow, cyanosis = strangulation, not the head blow.

6. Blood Trail

A skull-piercing wound bleeds profusely; 30–40 minutes in one spot would leave pools.
Dragging the body 40 feet would streak blood—none was found.

Cross-Examination
Westmoreland refused every trap:

Sexual inverts can appear physically normal (conceding a theoretical point but irrelevant to Frank).
Strangulation explains all pelvic congestion.
Menstruation produces reddening and swelling; violence is not required.
No expert can time cabbage from appearance or acid—“Doctors do not know.”
Free HCl may appear in 30 minutes or hours; no fixed rule.

Re-Direct

Human tongue cannot injure vaginal epithelium.
Skull wounds bleed freely; blood would trail any movement of the body.

Verdict
Westmoreland annihilated the State’s one-hour timeline, turned the vaginal “rape” evidence into medical garbage, and reopened the entire crime scene. He left the prosecution’s forensic case in ruins, declaring every definitive claim “impossible,” “guesswork,” or “no fixed rule at all.”