W. M. Matthews — Sworn in for the State — 177th Witness to Testify

W. M. Matthews, witness for the State 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)
Streetcar motorman W. M. Matthews testified that he had spoken with W. C. Dobbs but could not recall the conversation. He emphatically denied ever telling Dobbs—or anyone else—that he saw Mary Phagan and George Epps get off his car together at Marietta and Broad Streets on April 26, 1913. Matthews admitted he had been tried in the same court two years earlier for an offense.
On cross-examination, Matthews clarified that he was acquitted by a jury after fatally shooting a passenger who had assaulted him on his streetcar.
This testimony directly contradicted W. C. Dobbs’s claim that Matthews had placed Phagan and Epps together near the factory around noon, undermining the State’s effort to corroborate Epps’s timeline and casting doubt on the reliability of second-hand streetcar sightings.