W D MCWORTH, Sworn In For The Defendant, 99th To Testify

W. D. McWorth, 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)
Pinkerton detective W. D. McWorth, on the case for 15 days, delivered a bombshell that shattered the State’s physical evidence.

May 15 search

Ground-floor stains near the front door: “might or might not be blood.”
Every radiator choked with trash, dirt, and 1911-dated papers—undisturbed for years.
Behind one radiator: 8–9 lengths of pencil cord, one freshly knife-cut.
6–8 inches away: a small pile of sweepings.

The “pay envelope” (Defendant’s Exhibit 47)

Found rolled up, coated in dust, 8–10 inches from the trap door.
Marked “186” and initials “M. P.”—NO “5”.
Shown to Mr. & Mrs. Coleman on May 17—still no “5”.
McWorth: “The envelope has not been changed since I last saw it.”

The club (Defendant’s Exhibit 48)

Stood upright with iron pipes; used as a roller by the drayman.
Stains: paint or blood—undistinguishable.

The stick (State’s Exhibit L)

Found near the front door—never shown to police or Black.

Trap-door “blood”

Seven dark spots, 7 inches wide—no difference from water-cooler stains.
McWorth reported: “might be blood, might be stains.”

Cross-examination

No special office-floor search—only for the mesh bag.
Club handed to police 17 hours later; envelope to Pinkerton superintendent Pierce (now missing).
Whitfield (co-discoverer) also vanished.
No “5” ever seen—contradicting State’s claim the envelope proved Phagan’s pay.

McWorth’s dust-covered envelope, freshly cut cord, and missing witnesses blew three holes in the prosecution:

No “5” = tampered evidence.
Undisturbed trash = no body dragged.
Vanished detectives = chain-of-custody collapse.

The State’s “smoking-gun envelope” became defense dynamite—a planted prop exposed in open court.