Category Archives: Newspaper coverage

Girl’s Death Laid to Factory Evils

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Girl's Death Laid to Factory EvilsAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Working Conditions Here Wrong, Proved by Phagan Crime, Says McKelway.

Dr. A. J. McKelway, president pro tem of the Southern Sociological Congress, declared to-day that if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be 14-year-old Mary Phagan never would have been slain.

“If social conditions, if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be here, if children of tender years were not forced to work in shops this frightful tragedy could not have been enacted,” he asserted.

Dr. McKelway’s remarks came in the course of a conversation in which he discussed at length the evils of child labor in industrial plants and the absolute necessity of rigid child labor legislation.

A reception at the Piedmont Driving Club yesterday marked the close of the four-day sessions of the sociological congress in Atlanta, Delegates left last night and to-day for their homes.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 30th 1913, “Girl’s Death Laid to Factory Evils,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Mayor Confers with Chief; Says Extras are Misleading

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Mayor Confers with Chief Says Extras are Misleading

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

“I don’t want a disturbance on the street of Atlanta. The town has been stirred over the Phagan tragedy, and I fear that sensational and misleading extras may cause mischief. I have requested Chief Beavers to use great caution in giving out news.”

Mayor James G. Woodward made the above explanation of his visit to Chief James L. Beavers, at police headquarters, shortly after 8:30 o’clock last night. The mayor said that he made a tour of the city and found the people in all sections in a highly nervous state.

He charged that a “misleading and sensational headline” in one of the night extras had caused many to believe that Newt Lee, the negro held by the detectives had been proven guilty. Continue Reading →

Boy Sweetheart Says Girl Was to Meet Him Saturday

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Boy Sweetheart Says Girl Was to Meet Him Saturday

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

G. W. Epps, Jr., 14 years old, of 248 Fox Street, who lives just around the corner from Mary Phagan, and who was her boy sweetheart, testified before the Coroner’s Jury this afternoon that Mary Phagan had asked him to come down by the factory and go home with her a few days ago. She told him, he said, that Mr. Frank had been in the habit of going down to the front door and waiting there until she came out and looked suspicious at her and winked. He was asked:

Q. When did you see Mary Phagan last?—A. Saturday morning. We came to town on the car together. We got to town at 12 o’clock. When we got off the car she told me that she was going to the pencil factory to get her pay and would meet me at the (Falkin?) Drug Store at Five Points to see the parade at 2 o’clock. I looked for her all around at that time. I could not find her. I stayed there until about 4 o’clock selling papers. She never appeared. There wasn’t much of a crowd and I would have seen her if she had come.

Q. Where did you go at 4 o’clock?—A. I went to the ball game.

Q. Where did you go after that?—A. I went home, reaching there at 7 o’clock.

Q. Did you go over to Mary’s house?—A. Yes, I went over there immediately.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 30th 1913, “Boy Sweetheart Says Girl Was to Meet Him Saturday,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

City to Offer $1,000 for Slayer’s Arrest

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City to Offer 1000 for Slayer's ArrestAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Mayor Woodward Declares the Stain of Blood Must Be Wiped Out.

Atlanta, April 29, 1913

To the General Council,

City of Atlanta:

The general council of the city of Atlanta is hereby called to convene in special session tomorrow morning at 10 o’clock, April 30, 1913, to take cognizance, in an official way, of that most brutal crime that was committed in this city on last Saturday night.

I think it proper that the city government should take some befitting action as regards this most deplorable matter, which, as it is, is liable to cast unenviable criticism upon the name of our fair city, and I would suggest that your honorable body offer a suitable reward of not less than $1,000 for the capture of the brute or brutes that could so far forget themselves as to commit such an outrageous crime. I feel satisfied that every taxpayer of this city will heartily co-operate in endorsing the action of the mayor and general council in offering this reward. Respectfully submitted,

(Signed) JAMES G. WOODWARD

The murder of poor little Mary Phagan, in the dark basement of the National Lead Pencil company’s factory, Saturday night, will be considered by Atlanta’s city council, today. Continue Reading →

Gantt Turned Over to Sheriff of Fulton

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Gantt Turned Over to Sheriff of FultonAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

After a hearing before Judge George L. Bell of the superior court in which his attorney George T. [1 word illegible] gave a scathing denouncement of the police and detective department for what he termed the grilling system. J. M. Gantt, held on a warrant charging the murder of Mary Phagan was taken from the police and turned over to the sheriff to be held in the Tower.

Judge Gober stated that he would arrange for a hearing early today before Justice F. M. Powers before whom the original warrant was sworn out. The coroner’s inquest is set for 9 o’clock and Judge Gober declared that if possible he would have a hearing on the warrant before that time and if not he would have it immediately after that.

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Atlanta Constitution, April 30th 1913, “Gantt Turned Over to Sheriff of Fulton,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Net Closing About Lee, Says Lanford

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Net Closing About Lee Says LanfordAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Chief of Detectives Lanford was confident this morning that he and his department had completed a strong case to present to the Grand Jury for indictment. He said that the evidence against the negro night-watchman at the National Pencil Factory had grown stronger since yesterday.

He declared, however, that there still appeared the strongest indications that another person, in all probability a white man, was involved in some manner in the crime.

Many puzzling questions have arisen, since the closing of the net around Lee began.

The detectives have been utterly unable to trace the girl from the factory after she arrived there Saturday noon to obtain her pay from Leo Frank, the superintendent. They have interviewed every friend and every acquaintance of the girl. None of them saw her at any time Saturday afternoon.

If she was kept in the factory from Saturday noon, it was not Lee who kept her in the building or induced her to stay, for he was not in the building at noon. Continue Reading →

Mother Prays That Son May Be Released

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Mother Prays that Son May Be ReleasedAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Gantt’s Mother, for Whom Mary Phagan Was Named, Weeps for Son.

In an easy chair in front of an open fireplace in a little Cobb County farm house, sat an aged mother, with lines of suffering marking her face and her white head bowed in sorrow, praying that her son may be found innocent of the terrible crime for which he is held by the Atlanta police.

For two days she sat in the same chair, staring constantly with dry eyes into the embers of the dying fire, seeing in the clouds of smoke as they swirl upward into the chimney, visions of her son caged in a felon’s cell—her mind filled with terrible pictures of her boy struggling with the horrors of the “third degree.”

The mother is Mrs. Mary Lou Gantt. Her son is James Milton Gantt, the young bookkeeper who is held by the police as a suspect in the terrible murder of little Mary Phagan. Mrs. Gantt was prostrated when the news of her son’s arrest was brought to her Monday morning. Her boy had been away from home for three long weeks, and during that time had narrowly escaped death in an accident at Copper Hill, Tenn., where he had been working. Continue Reading →

Tells of Watchman Lee ‘Explaining’ the Notes

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Tells of Watchman Lee 'Explaining' the NotesAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

Sergeant L. S. Dobbs was the third witness. He said he answered the call to the pencil company plant Sunday morning.

Q.—Did you find an umbrella? A.—No. Lassiter did.

Q.—Did you find the notes there? A.—One of them.

He then identified the two notes.

Q.—Were you at the plant when Lassiter found the umbrella? A.—No; he found them about 7 o’clock.

Q.—Where did you find the body? A.—About 150 feet from the elevator shaft.

Q.—Did you examine the body? Continue Reading →

Sister’s New Story Likely to Clear Gantt as Suspect

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Sister's New Story May Clear Gantt

A photographic study of the victim in the strangling mystery showing the sad expression in her eyes. Another picture of the Phagan girl in a studious pose. The child was strikingly pretty and the pictures here shown are from photographs prized by grief-stricken relatives in Marietta. Mary Phagan and her young aunt, Mattie Phagan, who was one of the girl’s best friends and is heart-broken over the tragedy.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

F. C. Terrell, 284 East Linden Avenue, told a Georgian reporter to-day that his wife had declared to him that she did not tell the truth to the detectives and Georgian reporters to whom she had said that she did not know where J. M. Gantt, accused of the murder of pretty Mary Phagan, was on Saturday night.

When seen soon after the discovery of the deed, Mrs. Terrell stated that Gantt, who is her half brother, had left her home where he had been for the past seven years, three weeks ago, presumably to go to California and that she had not seen him since.

“Most certainly he was in his room here Saturday night,” declared Mrs. Terrell to a Georgian reporter to-day. “He came in at 11 o’clock.” Continue Reading →

Murder Analyzed By Dr. M’Kelway

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Murder Analyzed by Dr MkelwayAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

“If Children of Such Tender Years Were Not Forced to Work, Mary Phagan Might Be Living,” He Says

“If social conditions in Atlanta were of the best—if conditions in factories were of the best and lastly if children of such tender years were not forced to work little Mary Phagan would probably never have been murdered,” declared Dr. A. J. McKelway, president pro tem of the Southern Sociological congress speaking at the final meeting held in Wesley Memorial church last night.

“Let us take this murder and analyze it. A little child of tender years is forced to work. Think of the heavy toll which she undergoes and the physical conditions under which she labors.

“Why is it that such is allowed in our fair land? The sociological congress must do its share of enlightenment. It has shown these evils to the world.” Continue Reading →

Pinkertons Hired to Assist Police Probe the Murder of Mary Phagan

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John M. Gantt, former bookkeeper of the National Pencil company, and acquaintance of Mary Phagan, who is under arrest, and was put through a gruelling [sic] third degree last night at police station. He maintains his innocence.

John M. Gantt, former bookkeeper of the National Pencil company, and acquaintance of Mary Phagan, who is under arrest, and was put through a gruelling [sic] third degree last night at police station. He maintains his innocence.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

For Hours Detectives Labor With John M. Gant [sic], Former Employee of National Pencil Company and Alleged Admirer of Pretty Mary Phagan.

SISTER OF PRISONER ADMITS SHE DECEIVED ATLANTA DETECTIVES

Told Them Gant Had Not Been Home When He Declared He Was in Bed. Now Admits Story Untrue. Gant Caught in Marietta, With Suit Case Filled With His Clothes.

Despite the fact that four suspects in the Mary Phagan case are held at police station, two white men and two negroes, the detective department is not satisfied, and the city is being scoured for evidence that will lead to the arrest of the guilty party.

Last night the Pinkerton detective department was engaged by Leo M. Frank, president of the National Pencil company, to aid the local officers in the search for the man responsible for the brutal murder, committed Sunday morning in the plant of his company on Forsyth street. Continue Reading →

Seek Clew in Queer Words in Odd Notes

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Seek Clue in Queer Words in Odd NotesAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

Who Would Be the Most Interested in Saying That the Night Watchman Did Not Do It?

While the tendency of the police straight through has seemed to be to doubt that Mary Phagan, the murdered girl, really wrote the small notes found beside her body purporting to give a clew to her murderer, the girl’s stepfather, W.J. Coleman, thinks it possible that she may have written one of the scrawls.

That one is the note written on the little yellow factory slip—so faintly traced it is almost impossible to read it. It is the one that says:

mama that negro hired down

here did this I went to get water

and he pushed me down this hole

a long tall negro black that has it

woke long lean tall negro I write

while play with me.

“Somehow, it looks like her handwriting to me,” said Mr. Coleman. “But, of course I can not be sure. Now, about the other note I am doubtful. It seems to be written too well for the child to have done it in the almost insensible condition she must have been in at the time. Whether she wrote either of the notes of her own accord, though, or whether she was forced to do it by her murderer to turn suspicion from himself, of course is mere speculation. Only time can tell, if anything.” Continue Reading →

Factory Employe [sic] May Be Taken Any Moment

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Gantt reading murder warrant [John M. Gantt was a family friend of Mary Phagan's and was accused of being "infatuated" with the young girl. He was let into the factory on Saturday to retrieve pairs of shoes he had left there prior to his leaving the company. Newt Lee accompanied him as he retrieved his shoes and left Saturday afternoon -- Ed.]

Gantt reading murder warrant [John M. Gantt was a family friend of Mary Phagan’s and was accused of being “infatuated” with the young girl. He was let into the factory on Saturday to retrieve some old shoes he had left there prior to his leaving the company. Newt Lee accompanied him as he retrieved his shoes and left that fateful Saturday afternoon — Ed.]

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

A sensational arrest will be made in the Mary Phagan murder mystery within a few hours.

It will be based on the firm theory of the police and detectives that the strangled girl was never outside the factory of the National Pencil Company from the time she went in there for her pay Saturday noon until her dead and mutilated body was taken to the morgue early Sunday morning.

The detectives do not believe that Arthur Mullinax is guilty of the murder.

They do not believe that J. M. Gantt is guilty of the murder.

They do not place any dependence on the identifications of Gantt and Mullinax made by various persons before Chief of Detectives Lanford.

They are confident that the author of the terrible deed was a person who is not under arrest at the present time. They know his name. They have talked with him. They have his story of what he declares is all he knows of the happenings Saturday night in the building of tragedy on Forsyth Street. Continue Reading →

Guilt Will Be Fixed Detectives Declare

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Guilt Will Be Fixed Detectives Declare 1

Mrs. J. W. Coleman, below, mother of slain Mary Phagan, and Ollie Phagan, sister of the murdered girl [above]. Mrs. Coleman is prostrated by grief over the crime, and warns all mothers of working girls to watch carefully their loved ones.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

Has the murderer of pretty little Mary Phagan slipped the net that the police most carefully spread for him?

Is the author of the crime that shocked the city and State with its terrible brutality still at large?

Is the mystery, as baffling in its myriad conflicting elements as it is revolting in its details still as far from solution as it was when the beaten and bruised little body of Mary Phagan was found lifeless in a pile of trash and litter in a Forsyth Street basement?

When the city detectives and Pinkertons picked up the twisted skelna of evidence this morning they admitted that they were as badly tangled as when they laid them down after working incessantly upon them until long after midnight. Continue Reading →

Former Playmates Meet Girl’s Body at Marietta

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Former Playmates Meet Girl's Body at Marietta

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

The little town of Marietta, Ga., where her baby eyes first opened upon the light of day scarcely fourteen years ago, will to-day witness the sorrowful funeral of Mary Phagan, the sweet young girl who was mysteriously murdered in the National Pencil Factory Saturday night and whose body was later found in the basement where it had been dragged by unknown hands.

The casket, accompanied by the girl’s stricken family—her mother and stepfather, her sister Ollie, 18 years old, and her three brothers, Ben, Charley and Josh, all young boys, left the Union Depot at 8:15 o’clock this morning. Reaching Marietta, it was met by throngs of Mary’s former playmates and friends bearing flowers to lay upon the young girl’s grave after they have looked for the last time upon her face. Continue Reading →

“I Am Not Guilty,” Says John M. Gant [sic]

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I Am Not Guilty Says John M. GanttAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

“I Was Not in Love With Mary and She Was Not With Me,” Asserts Man Accused of Murder.

“I did not kill Mary Phagan. I haven’t seen her within a month. They accuse me falsely. I’m innocent and will swear it by heaven above.”

John M. Gant [sic], the youthful bookkeeper arrested on the charge of murdering Mary Phagan, sat in the detective chief’s office at police headquarters last night, looked his questioners squarely in the eyes, and sweepingly denied all accusations.

“I went to Marietta to take charge of a farm I have bought. My folks live there. I had been planning to go for several weeks. Surely, the mere fact that I went to Marietta isn’t proof conclusive that I killed the girl.” Continue Reading →

Charge is Basest of Lies, Declares Gantt

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Charge is Basest of Lies Declares GanttAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

John Milton Gantt, the accusation of a terrible crime hanging over him, from his cell at police headquarters, has made to-day a complete denial of any connection with the Mary Phagan murder in the first formal statement to the public since his arrest in Marietta yesterday afternoon.

The statement, which was given to a Georgian reporter, was said by Chief Beavers to be substantially the same as that taken by the police department stenographer last night for the use of the city detectives.

This remarkable denial, if it is to be given credence, sweeps away a whole train of circumstantial evidence that appeared most strongly to connect him with the brutal tragedy. Continue Reading →

Slayer’s Hand Print Left On Arm Of Girl

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Slayer's Hand Print Left on Arm of Girl

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

Hope for apprehension of the slayer of Mary Phagan has come to the police with the discovery of distinct finger prints, stamped in blood on the sleeve of the dead girl’s jacket.

The discovery was made by a Georgian reporter in the course of a minute inspection of the girl’s clothes yesterday evening.

The finger prints are on the right arm of the light silk dress. The imprints of two fingers are just below the shoulder, staining purple the lavender of the child’s dress and penetrating to the arm, as if they were established at the pressure of powerful fingers grasping her arm. Continue Reading →

Keeper of Rooming House Enters Case

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Keeper of Rooming House Enters CaseAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

J. W. Phillips Thinks Couple Who Asked for Room May Have Been Gantt and Girl.

Was the young woman who, in company with a young man, applied to John W. Phillips, keeper of a rooming house at Forsyth and Hunter Streets at about 11 o’clock Saturday night for a room, Mary Phagan, the little girl who was found murdered the following morning? And was Gantt the man with her?

Phillips was not positive to-day.

He saw the young woman in the morgue at Bloomfield’s undertaking establishment, and it is understood he positively identified her to city detectives and the County Solicitor. She looked very much like the young woman, he said, but he would not make the positive statement to a reporter to-day. Continue Reading →

Pastor Prays for Justice at Girl’s Funeral

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Pastor Prays for Justice at Girl's FuneralAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

Mother and Aunt of Mary Phagan Swoon at Burial in Marietta This Morning.

A thousand persons saw a minister of God raise his hands to heaven to-day and heard him call for divine justice.

Before his closed eyes was a little casket, its pure whiteness hid by the banks and banks of beautiful flowers.

Within the casket lay the bruised and mutilated body of Mary Phagan, the innocent young victim of one of Atlanta’s blackest and most bestial crimes.

The spirit of the terrible tragedy filled the air. An aunt of the strangled girl suddenly screamed, fell over in her seat and was carried from the church in a swoon from which she did not fully recover for hours.

The stricken mother collapsed and it was feared that her condition might become critical.

The scene was in the Second Baptist Church at Marietta, where Mary Phagan had lived when she was a child of only three or four years. An immense crowd was at the station when the funeral train arrived at 10 o’clock. Many of them were young people who had played about with the strangled victim when she had lived there years before. Continue Reading →