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

Atlanta Journal

Tuesday, April 29^th, 1913

Believes That Newt Lee Bound and Gagged, Then Murdered Mary Phagan

W. J. Coleman, step-father of Mary Phagan, believes that she was murdered by Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, but that before the murder she lay bound and gagged in the factory of the National Pen [sic] company, 37 South Forsyth street, from shortly after noon on Saturday until past midnight.

As people passed back and forth along the street, as members of the girl’s family waited anxiously for her return, he thinks that she lay helpless within the factory, while the negro waited for an opportune time to attack and then murder her.

His belief is that as soon as she had been paid the wages that she went to the factory to collect, she passed into the dressing room, perhaps for a drink of water. There, in his opinion, the negro seized the girl and bound and gagged her. He says there is plain evidence in the dressing room that the girl was first attacked there.

He does not believe that either Arthur Mullinax or J. M. Gant [sic] had any hand in the murder of Mary Phagan.

“The negro evidently kept the child in the factory all day,” Mr. Coleman said, “and was afraid to attack her until midnight for fear she would scream or somebody would come. He may or may not have knocked her senseless from the first, or he may have tied her. I do not know but when Gantt entered the shop, it is more than likely that he knew nothing of the girl’s presence there and simply went up and got his shoes, as he said, and went out again.

“All this about Mary having seen on the street at midnight or at any other time after 12 o’clock in the day I do not think can be true. I believe she remained all day in the building. After the negro did the work he was afraid to leave or not to notify the police, which would make appearances worse for him. Therefore he called the officers.”

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Atlanta Journal, April 29th 1913, “Stepfather Thinks Negro is Murderer,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Journal

Monday, April 28^th, 1913

Arthur Mullinax, Trolley Conductor, Denies That E. L. Sentell Saw Him Saturday Night With Mary Phagan

Arthur Mullinax, identified by E. L. Sentell, of 22 Davis street, clerk for the Kamper Grocery company, as the man whom he saw with Mary Phagan, the murdered girl, at midnight Saturday, vehemently denies any part in the atrocious crime, and declares that he will be able to prove an alibi. Subjected to a quizzing in the office of Chief of Police Beavers, he told an apparently straightforward story of his actions on the night preceding the finding of the body. Investigation of his statement by the police, however, developed discrepancies, they say. He is kept in solitary confinement on a tentative charge of suspicion.

Sentell, who was an acquaintance of the dead girl, told the police that he saw her at Forsythe and Hunter streets with Mullinax at 12:30 o’clock Sunday morning. He said he spoke to her and that the former street car man tipped his hat in response to the salutation.

In the presence of Chief Beavers, Chief of Detectives Lanford, Police Captain Mayo and Detective Black, the clerk and Mullinax were brought face to face. The clerk reiterated his identification. Pointing at the prisoner, he said:

“That is the man who was with the girl last night. I’m positive. There’s no doubt about it.”

“It’s false! It’s a lie!” cried the man accused. “I was at home asleep, and I can prove it.”

Sentell never wavered in his contention, however.

“WAS WITH ANOTHER.”

Mullinax told the police following his arrest Sunday, that he had called on a girl friend, Miss Pearl Robinson, who lives in Bellwood avenue, and later accompanied her to the Bijou theater.

“We came downtown on an English avenue car, got off at Marietta and Forsyth streets, and went directly to the theater. We arrived at about the middle of the first show and left about the middle of the second. Then we boarded a car and I took the girl home. The only time I was near the intersection where Sentell says he saw me with Miss Phagan was when I took the car with Miss Robinson.”

A coincidence in the case is the fact that Miss Robinson wore the same kind of a dress and is of the same size and appearance as the murdered girl. Friends of Mullinax declare that this shows that Sentell is mistaken in his identification.

“When we arrived at Miss Robinson’s house we talked for awhile,” Mullinax said in his cell. “I guess I stayed there for fifteen minutes. Then I went home. I room at 60 Poplar street, in Bellwood. When I got there I gave Mrs. Emma Rutherford, my landlady, a dollar which I owed her. She slipped it under her pillow. I went to bed then, and didn’t know of the murder until Sunday morning.

THE VITAL FLAW.

In this part of the suspect’s statement the police believe they have picked a vital flaw. Mrs. Rutherford, they say declares that Mullinax did not come home Saturday night and pay her a dollar.

“He gave it to me Saturday at noon,” she said.

In his cell at the jail Mullinax is denied to all callers. Although obviously perturbed over his arrest, he had remained cool and has told time and time again the same story of his actions on the night of the crime.

To reporters he said that he had known the murdered girl but casually. He denied that he had become acquainted with her on her frequent rides on his car between the pencil factory and her home. This, also, is in contravention of other testimony in the hands of the police, officials declare. It is said that witnesses have told of frequent conversations between Miss Phagan and Mullinax on the street car of which the suspect was in charge that would not come under the designation of casual acquaintance.

MET AT CHURCH SOCIAL.

“I met her at a social in Western Heights Baptist church last Christmas,” said the prisoner. “That is the only time I knew her. Anybody that says I was a good friend of hers, lies. Why, I was never even introduced to the girl. We both took part in the entertainment. She depicted ‘Sleeping Beauty’ in a playlet. I did a black-face act and sang in a quartet.

“During the show I was standing in the wings waiting for my turn to go on. Miss Phagan came up to me.

“You look fine in black face,” she said to me. Then I said, ‘Then I’ll keep my face black always.’ It was a joke,” added the alleged murderer as he smiled grimly.

Mullinax said that that was the last time he had seen the girl to talk to her.

“I haven’t been with her since Christmas. I never saw her Saturday night. My arrest is all a horrible mistake, but I’m not worrying much, because the police can’t hold an innocent man long—and I am an innocent man.”

Samples of Mullinax’s handwriting were compared with that of the notes found by the dead girl’s body in the pencil factory basement. The penmanship did not tally.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, “Man Held for Girl’s Murder Avows He Was With Another When Witness Saw Him Last,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 6, 1913

*Editor’s Note: See insert article, “Decisions Which May Aid Defense of Frank”, at the conclusion of this post.

Frank Expects Freedom by Breaking Down Accuser’s Testimony, and State a Conviction by Establishing Truth of Statements.

BY AN OLD POLICE REPORTER.

The developments in the Phagan case have been of late highly significant and interesting.

During the past week, it became evident that the very heart and soul of both the prosecution and the defense is to center largely about the negro, James Conley.

He is at once apparently the hope and the despair of both sides to the contest!

This circumstance, however, while tending to add much to the dramatic and the uncertain, in so far as the outcome is concerned, is not by any means an unusual thing in cases of this kind.

It frequently happens in mysterious murder cases that both the State and the defense must pin their faith to one and the same witness.

Of late there has been some talk of the Grand Jury indicting Conley, even over the Solicitor General’s head, which, of course, it would have a perfect right to do.

The thought occurred to me some time ago that the case might take that direction, but in the article in which that point was discussed, I mentioned it incidentally, rather than as a likely thing.

Indictment may Mean Much.

It seems, nevertheless, that the idea of indicting Conley has had, and still may have, much more behind it than some people have been willing to admit, and that phase of the situation has caused me to speculate somewhat in detail today as to how and why Conley might be indicted.

I find that those who are urging it have much more to stand upon than would seem probable at first blush.

Two things are evident:

First, the defense will attack Conley vigorously.

Second, the character of Leo Frank will be put in issue by the defense, fearlessly and frankly!

These two things, I take it, will constitute the defense’s primary challenge to the prosecution!

And if I be right about that, the issue will be thrilling and dramatic enough to satisfy the cravings of the most exacting, when the case comes on for trial later along this month.

About these two points of disagreement, Hugh Dorsey and Frank Hooper, on the one hand, and Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold, on the other, will be on their mettle—and if the fur and likewise the fire doesn’t fly, I mistake my guess at this writing!

Leo Frank has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, and for reasons presumably unsatisfactory to the Grand Jury.

Points Against Conley.

Let’s examine the points upon which the defense will indict Conley, if the Grand Jury fails to beat the defense to it—which yet is problematical.

The defense will contend:

(1) That Conley wrote of his own notion the notes found beside the dead girl’s body.

(2) That the negro told of incidents and conversations which took place admittedly in the pencil factory an hour or more before he swears he went there.

(3) That the negro admits he was drinking and “broke” when he went to the factory Saturday morning and is known to have spent in the afternoon about the amount of money Mary Phagan is supposed to have had in her little mesh bag when she started out of the factory.

(4) That the negro admits he was in hiding or loafing near the open elevator shaft, at the foot of the steps Mary Phagan must have used as she came down to go out of the factory.

(5) That at the inquest Frank said he thought he had heard voices outside his office, very soon after Mary Phagan started down the stairs, and that the voices he thought he heard which might have been voices of Mary Phagan and the negro, just as the negro attacked the girl.

(6) That the negro said the body of Mary Phagan was carried down the elevator shaft, and yet two witnesses stand ready to swear, and have sworn, that the elevator did not run on the fatal Saturday at all.

(7) That, while the negro accounts after a fashion for the girl’s shoe and hat thrown onto a trash pile, he fails to account for the incriminating parasol found at the foot of the elevator shaft, where it might have been thrown with Mary Phagan’s body from above.

(8) That the negro says Frank called him at 12:56, notwithstanding the fact that Frank was talking to Mr. and Mrs. White at 1 o’clock, and immediately thereafter left the factory, reaching home about 1:20. That, therefore, Frank could not have down the things Conley accuses him of having done, for sheer lack of time, if nothing else.

(9) That the negro did not flee, if guilty himself, because the police promptly accused in turn Newt Lee, Gantt, Mullinix [sic] and Frank as suspects, not once mentioning Conley; and, besides, no one knew at the time these suspects were proclaimed that Conley had even been in the pencil factory Saturday morning.

(10) That Conley was caught washing his shirt, which might have been blood-stained, very soon after Mary Phagan’s murder was effected, and that he said at the time he was worried over something not stated.

(11) That the negro’s statements have been inconsistent and conflicting, both those under oath and those not under oath, and that he has admitted having sworn falsely more than once.

(12) That the negro’s defense of himself is of no merit, because it is the only possible defense of himself he could frame—a last and desperate resort to fix upon Frank Conley’s own guilt.

(13) That Conley’s evidence is of small if any value against Frank, because it was not given until suspicion seemed drifting rapidly toward Conley.

(14) That Frank’s statements have been straightforward, consistent and reasonable, whereas, in contrast thereto, the negro’s have been inconsistent, conflicting and unreasonable.

(15) If the negro’s presence in the factory had been known at the time Frank was indicted, Frank likely never would have been indicted; or, at least, would not likely have been indicted in preference to the negro.

(16) That the motive in the case of Frank never has been established and will be difficult to establish, but that the motive in the case of the negro—i. e., robbery—is immediately apparent.

(17) That the entire factory force testifies to the good character of Frank, whereas the character of the negro, both by his own admissions and the police court records, is bad.

(18) That many of the horrible details of the murder, scattered broadcast when it was first effected, are not true, and that the circumstances of the crime point to the negro Conley as its perpetrator, much more surely than to Frank.

Now, the reader must understand that which I have tried to impress upon him in every article I heretofore have written about the Phagan case, to wit: I know nothing more about the POSITIVE TRUTH of the case than he does—that is to say, my sources of information have been precisely the same sources that his have been—the newspapers.

I have scrutinized the files of The Georgian and The American and other Atlanta papers, and the foregoing eighteen counts against Conley I have gathered together from perhaps fifty different issues.

Framework is Powerful.

I have set them forth as showing the strength of the position of those—or the imaginary strength, whichever it is—invoking the indictment of Conley NOW.

They may be of tremendous significance—they may be of no material significance. But they DO serve to show the framework of the powerful defense that is being constructed for Frank.

I give them for what they are worth.

There stands between Conley and Grand Jury indictment, of course, the compelling necessity of using Conley as a material witness—THE material witness, indeed!—against Frank.

To indict Conley NOW would weaken the State’s case against Frank, unquestionably.

And yet the fact remains that certain members of the Grand Jury have been reported as seriously inclined to that course, nevertheless.

And, after all, that matter (theoretically, anyway) is utterly impersonal with the Grand Jury and arbitrarily in its hands.

Before I became a newspaper man and later along police reporter, I studied law, as I mentioned before, and was admitted to the bar, I practiced four years, and while I abandoned the law long ago for the newspaper profession, I never lost my taste entirely for my first love.

I went over to the State Library Saturday and looked up some few decisions bearing upon the two vital points to be raised in the Phagan case, as I view it now, and two things impressed me profoundly.

State Can Not Attack Frank.

When the defense attacks Conley it will be backed by some weighty law affecting his credibility, and when it puts Frank’s character in evidence—the State CAN NOT put his character in evidence, it will be understood—it will be backed again by some weighty opinions as to the value of character, established and proved.

In the Twenty-third Georgia Supreme Court Reports I find that Mr. Justice McDonald laid down this rule:

If a witness swear willfully and knowingly false, even to a collateral fact, his testimony ought to be rejected entirely, unless it be so corroborated by circumstances, or other unimpeached evidence, as be irresistible!

That is the law of the land, and it will be invoked, I suppose, against Conley, with vigor and possible effect.

The defense, no doubt, will contend that Conley has sworn falsely—and proved it by written instruments—and it then will insist that Conley’s entire evidence must be rejected unless corroborated by other unimpeached testimony.

Can the State corroborate Conley by such evidence?

Evidently the defense doubts it.

I do not know, of course.

Hearsay, irrelevant matter, street gossip, newspaper stories—those things will not do when it comes to trying Leo Frank for his life.

Conley Must Be Corroborated.

Conley, at best an admitted accessory after the fact of the murder, must be corroborated by COMPETENT and LEGAL evidence.

And right here, I think, the defense expects to give the State one of its very hardest nuts to crack.

Maybe the State can crack it, all right!

That remains to be seen, and as to that I venture no opinion.

Again, I take it the defense expects to strike straight from the shoulder when it puts Frank’s character in issue.

I do not KNOW that the defense will do this, but from the tone of some of the articles, particularly Mrs. Frank’s remarkable interview, given out recently by the defense, or authorized by it, I SUSPECT that is exactly what it will do.

This will be a bold stroke, too, for unless the DEFENSE puts Leo Frank’s character in issue, IT CAN NOT BE PUT IN ISSUE AT ALL.

The State is estopped, of its own motion, from doing that.

Therefore, when the defense DOES it, it is pretty apt to be taken as an evidence that the defense is very confident of itself.

Into the case at this point, then, will come a portion of the law of Georgia that is most picturesque and significant—a portion that is founded upon the very bedrock of decency and common sense, and that throws about all observers of the law and about all right-living men a protection as certain and as sure as it is majestic and noble.

Character Good Evidence.

In respect of CHARACTER as evidence of innocence of crime, I find that Chief Justice Simmons, in the 102d Georgia, said this:

“Evidence of good character is admitted as evidence of a positive fact, and may, of itself, by the creation of a reasonable doubt, produce acquittal!”

And, again, the same authority says:

“Of what avail is a good character, which a man may have been a lifetime in acquiring, if it is to benefit nothing in the hour of peril?”

Chief Justice Simmons was a Superior Court judge for some twenty years before he was elevated to the Supreme bench, and a Supreme Court justice for a like period.

He was one of the noblest men that Georgia ever produced, and one of the most profound and approved students of the law.

And he made good character the very Rock of Gibraltar upon which a man attacked might depend in time of peril!

Once the defense puts Leo Frank’s character in issue, however, the State may attack it as bitterly and as vehemently as it likes.

This, it may be, the State is prepared to do.

Unless the State does break down Frank’s character, however, once it is put in issue by his own attorneys, the State will be thereafter at a tremendous disadvantage, I think, particularly when the defense is undertaking to shoot the character of Conley to pieces from the other flank!

Character can not be broken down in a courtroom with whispered words and sinister gossip.

Must Attack in Open.

Under the impersonal rules of evidence and the law, character must be attacked in the open—it must be beaten down, if beaten down it be, with weapons the judge and the jury may see, wielded in fair play, and it must be a fight to a finish.

True, if a defendant deliberately puts his own character in issue, the burden is upon him to sustain his character; but once the law puts that burden upon a defendant, it holds in leash and sure control the State in its attempts to demolish it.

I have written of crimes and of criminals for fifteen years—of petty sneak thieves and bank robbers, of common back-alley bullies and murders, of brutes and degenerates, of clever confidence men and clumsy bunglers.

I have seen the innocent made victims of cruel circumstances and the unquestionably guilty escape, but I am yet to see a case in which good character, firmly and frankly set up, was not a tower of strength to the accused—a sure and abiding “benefit in his hour of peril,” as Chief Justice Simmons says it should be!

After all is said and done, character is the corner stone upon which civilization and society most securely rests.

It holds the business world together, and it differentiates the wheat from the chaff in the professions.

Without it, the grand old name of gentleman is a mockery and a sham—and, above all things, it best marks the woman as fitted to her natural and noblest environment!

If Leo Frank puts his character in issue, it will be a challenge full and free to the State to do its worst—it well may be expected to make or mar the defense of Leo Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan.

DECISIONS WHICH MAY AID DEFENSE OF FRANK

The old police reporter, in sizing up the many possibilities of the Phagan case, has reached two conclusions as to the line of action which he believes will be followed by the defense:

FIRST, he believes the defense will undertake to destroy the value of Conley’s evidence, and fix upon Conley the guilt the State is trying to fix upon Frank.

SECOND, he thinks the defense will make the character of Leo Frank an issue.

The old police reporter, in poring through the files of the Georgia Supreme Court Reports, has found two decisions upon which he thinks the defense will rely.

The first which might be used to break down Conley’s evidence is as follows:

If a witness swears willfully and knowingly false, even to a collateral fact, his testimony ought to be rejected entirely, unless it be so corroborated by circumstances, or other unimpeached evidence, as to be irresistible. —23 GEORGIA REPORTS.

As a circumstance tending to prove Frank’s innocence, the defense, the old police reporter thinks, will produce the following:

Evidence of good character is admitted as evidence of positive fact, and may, of itself, by the creation of a reasonable doubt, produce acquittal!—102 GEORGIA REPORTS.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 6th 1913, “Phagan Case Centers on Conley; Negro Lone Hope of Both Sides,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, May 4^th, 1913

At the top is a sketch made by Henderson from the last photograph taken of little Mary Phagan, the 14-year-old girl of tragedy. Below is a photograph of her mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Coleman, and her sister, Miss Ollie Phagan. The other picture was taken at the funeral.

Could you walk for hours in the heart of Atlanta without seeing a person you know?

What did Atlanta detectives do to keep murderer from “planting” evidence against suspects?

Are all the men who have been held as suspects marked men for the rest of their lives as the result of a caprice of circumstance?

This not the story of Mary Phagan. It is a story about the story of Mary Phagan.

All of the story of little Mary Phagan that can be learned has been told simply and without further sensation than the facts themselves afforded in the columns of The Atlanta Constitution from the time of this paper’s exclusive story of the grewsome discovery of the girl’s body last Sunday morning. It is, therefore, not for this story to shed light on the case, but merely to point out and discuss a few of the extraordinary phases of the most extraordinary case that has ever shocked a city.

The story of the death of Mary Phagan is the most improbable chain of events that has ever occurred within the lifetime of Atlanta. And these events have gripped and stirred the people of Atlanta as nothing that has ever happened before.

Aside from the mystery which shrouded the slyer of the girl, the thing which has held the sympathies of a whole city, as if Mary Phagan were the daughter of each person, is the youth and innocence of the little girl. She was just a little girl. When that has been said about Mary Phagan, all has been said. All testimony that has been brought out shows that she was all in simplicity, guilelessness and purity that is implied in that simple statement.

There have been other cases—recent cases—which have interested the public and appealed more or less to their sympathies, but the principals in the cases were as different as the world is wide. In the other cases there was maturity and experience, worldly wisdom and pasts that came home to roost. In all the interest and sympathy there was a subcurrent that ran chill and repellant. In past cases, could all the tears blot out one word of the sordid tales of illicit loves and intrigues? Could the “leopard skins” change their spots?

No, Lady Macbeth, No Spotted Hand.

But in the story of Mary Phagan there were no words or sentences through which she or any one would have cared to have traced a killing line. There were no stains from a spotted past to shriek their shame to the world. There was no Lady Macbeth in the past of Mary Phagan to wander through the halls of her conscience and scrub with frenzy at the tiniest speck of wrongdoing upon her white hands!

Mary Phagan’s life was one of such beauty and purity that when the world knew of her her memory instantly became the fondled child in the heart of every parent and the playmate of every little girl in the city.

There was also the impenetrable mystery of it all. The haunting of a score of horrible secrets that persecuted and compelled the mind to more than mere idle curiosity.

It seems utterly beyond the bounds of reason that a person with a thousand friends could in the twinkling of an eye drop from the face of the earth—vanish into thin air in the heart of a city of 200,000 souls!

A Life Vanishes Into Air.

Yet from the moment that a street car motorman saw little Mary Phagan walking down Hunter street toward the National Pencil factory at noon Memorial day there was nothing to indicate that of all the hosts of friends who knew her a single one ever laid eyes on her with the blood of life in her veins. There came those—scores of them—who said, “I saw Mary Phagan here at such and such a time,” and, “I saw the girl at the other place at this hour,” but never a man of them all in the final test could prove that “it was Mary Phagan whom I saw!”

Do you think that you, who are reading this, could walk on any street in the heart of the city under the light of the sun for any considerable length of time—for as much as an hour—without meeting and speaking to some friend or acquaintance?

Yet this marvel apparently happened in the heart of Atlanta! It was as if you yourself had watched Mary Phagan when she stepped off the car and walked for half a block down Hunter street, and then maybe you unconsciously blinked your eyes for minutest fraction of a second, and when you opened them again—Mary Phagan was not there! It was as if some invisible master of the black art had whispered a magic word, and—Presto! In the act of taking a step Mary Phagan was gone—as utterly vanished as the snows of yesteryear!

Notes Written By a Light.

That they were written by a light is beyond all question. Each line of the notes follows accurately the ruling of the paper upon which they were written. Could this have been accomplished in the darkness of the remote corner where her body was found? Where then could they have been written?

One note says, “He pushed down this hole.” At the bottom of “this hole” is the only light in the basement—a single sickly gas jet.

Two days after Newt Lee was arrested, a bloody shirt was found at his home. Why did the detectives wait two days after Newt Lee was arrested before they searched his home for evidence? And who was watching his home in the meantime to see that evidence was not “planted?”

Three days after the murder the register of the watchman’s time clock showed three discrepancies of an hour each. Possibly the clock was registered correctly Sunday. Who was watching to see that it was not changed?

Others were in the building on Monday besides employees. The factory was operated on Tuesday and Wednesday. Others not connected with the factory were allowed to enter the building.

As a matter of fact what detective was watching Leo M. Frank’s home to see that no one entered it and stole a monogram handkerchief, say, stained it with blood and placed it in the basement of the building, where the girl’s body was found? What did the detectives do to keep the real murderers from planting evidence against those under suspicion?

And, do you think it was possible for the letter which purported to have been dropped by Mary Phagan on the street car in which she came into the city Saturday at noon to have been undiscovered in that street car until Wednesday when it was first discovered—four days after she was last on the car?

Who Planted The Evidence?

Is there in your mind, reader, a question as to whether there was someone at large who was very, very busy while Newt Lee, Leo Frank, Arthur Mullinax and J. M. Gantt languished in jail?

Again—the mystery!

Who had been “planting” the evidence?

And why?

And what about Newt Lee, Frank, Mullinax and Gantt? Are these marked men for the remainder of their lives? Will they go through life always with a finger pointing at them and some one saying “There is the man was mixed up in that murder?” Are they victims of circumstance? Has a caprice of chance placed a brand upon them for life?

At this minute I glance out my window. Out of the darkness looms the building of the National Pencil company, and from a window in the top story shines dimly one wee little light. Except for this there is nothing but darkness, gloom, great haunting shadows and mystery.

This scene seems, somehow, to typify for me the case of Mary Phagan, and that one tiny light is little Mary herself—the only bright spot in the whole horrible story!

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, May 4th 1913, “The Case of Mary Phagan,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, May 4^th, 1913

The mystery of the death of pretty Mary Phagan enters upon its second week to-day with the police authorities admitting that they are still without a conclusive solution. So far as the public has been permitted to learn, the detectives are not even certain that they have in custody the person or persons responsible for her death.

In the light of present developments, the police believe that no more arrests will be made, but they admit that the entrance of another theory might entirely change the aspect of the case. The detectives base their present belief that they have the guilty man or men on the well-supported theory that Mary Phagan never left the National Pencil factory from the time she received her pay envelope on Saturday noon until her lifeless body was taken from the basement of the building.

If this police supposition is correct, guilt can rest only on one or more of the men who were in the building after noon on the day of the tragedy. The police officers have been able to learn only five who were in the factory Saturday afternoon or night, most of the employees being absent because of the Memorial Day parade.

These five were Leo M. Frank, superintendent; Newt Lee, night watchman; Harry Denham and Arthur White, workmen, and J. M. Gantt, a former employee, who returned for a few minutes on Saturday evening to obtain a pair of shoes he had left in the building. Of these five it is possible for only two to have had any knowledge of their crime. These two, Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, are in custody.

Tragedy That Grips People.

Atlanta for a week has been shocked with the horror and brutality of the deed. That everyone was following with intense interest the developments of the case was manifest in the eagerness with which the newspapers were bought up in the streets. It was a story that gripped and appealed, and it aroused an interest that will not die until the guilty person is apprehended.

The essential details of the case as developed through a week of investigation are these:

Mary Phagan, the 14-year-old daughter of Mrs. W. J. Coleman, of 146 Lindsay Street, was attacked and killed some time between noon and midnight Saturday, April 26. Signs of a struggle on the second floor of the National Pencil Factory, 37-39 Forsyth Street, indicated that this is the place she met her death.

The girl left her home Saturday forenoon to draw her pay at the factory. She arrived at the factory at about 12:07. Superintendent Frank has said that he gave her her pay envelope at this time. The detectives have been able to get no reliable testimony that any one saw her from 12:07 o’clock until shortly after 3 o’clock Sunday morning when the night watchman, Newt Lee, said he found her bruised and mutilated body in the basement as he was making his rounds.

Harry Denham and Arthur White were in the factory from 7:30 in the morning until about 3:15 in the afternoon. Newt Lee called at the at the factory at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, but was told by Superintendent Frank that he need not go to work until 6 o’clock in the evening.

Frank There in Afternoon.

Superintendent Frank left the building about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, returning about 3. From this time until 6:30 in the evening he says he was in the building. At 6 o’clock Lee returned and remained in the factory until he found the body and was taken to police headquarters. J. M. Gantt, the former employee, was in the factory at 6 o’clock, and the evidence shows he left about 20 minutes later. If there were any other persons in the building during these hours the authorities are as yet unaware of the fact.

The night watchman’s story is that he made his rounds regularly every half hour on Saturday night. At the inquest he told that it was not required of him to make a complete round of the basement, his main duty there being only to see that there was no fire. This he gives as his explanation for not seeing at an earlier hour the body of the girl. The undertakers say she had been dead for from six to eight hours when found. On his 3 o’clock round, the watchman went farther into the basement and there saw the body of the girl lying face upward.

He ran upstairs and called the police. Then he attempted, without avail to get Superintendent Frank on the telephone, he testified. The officers came and found the body lying face downward, although the watchman declared he had not touched the body. They also tried to call Superintendent Frank, but were unsuccessful, and finally notified Vice President Haas.

Four Men Are Detained.

Lee, the watchman, and Geron Bailey, elevator man, were taken to the police station. Both denied any knowledge of the crime. Arthur Mullinax, a former street car conductor, was identified by E. L. Sentell, 82 Davis Street, as the man he saw with Mary Phagan at about midnight Saturday. He was taken by the police Sunday night and held pending an investigation of Sentell’s story.

Superintendent Frank was summoned to police headquarters on Monday morning to tell what he knew of the girl and her fate. He offered to aid the police in every way, and later in the day announced that he had engaged the Pinkertons to assist the city [2 words illegible] in solving the mystery. He returned to his home after the conference.

The story of the friendship of J. M. Gantt, former bookkeeper in the factory, for Mary Phagan decided the officers upon his arrest. He was taken on Monday as he alighted from a car at Marietta, where he had gone to see his mother.

Mullinax told a straightforward story of his every movement Saturday night. He had been to the theater with Miss Pearl Robinson, he said, and afterward had gone to this boarding house and to bed. His alibi was established by the stories of Miss Robinson and his landlady.

Gantt was explicit in detailing his moves and was borne out by companions and by his half-sister, Mrs. T.C. Terrell, 284 East Linden Avenue, with whom he lived.

The sensation of the case came Tuesday when a hurried trip by automobile was made to the pencil factory by detectives and Superintendent Frank was brought to police headquarters. The officers denied at first that Frank was under arrest. He was brought to the station only throw additional light upon the mystery and for his own protection, they explained. Nevertheless, Frank’s liberties were soon curtailed and on Thursday night he was transferred with Lee to the County jail on the request of Frank’s attorney, Luther Z. Rosser.

Negro Sticks to His Story.

Frank and Lee were questioned at the police station. The watchman was put through the “third degree” again and again. All the efforts of the detectives were not productive of a confession of any sort.

Frank was firm in the statement of his absolute innocence. Lee broke down and wept on several occasions, but only protested his innocence the more volubly.

The inquest Thursday proved to be little more than an elaboration of the testimony that had been gathered previously by the detectives. Three or four of the witnesses declared they had seen Mary Phagan on the streets or near her home in Bellwood some time Saturday afternoon or night. The stories for the most part were found to be without basis and the theory that Mary Phagan was lured to the factory after once leaving it was abandoned.

Lee was called to the stand. The most damaging evidence brought against him was the testimony of a handwriting expert that two notes found by the side of the dead girl were in the same hand as the test note penned by Lee after he had been taken to the police station.

G. W. Epps, the boy sweetheart of Mary Phagan, created something of a sensation when he testified that Mary had told him that Frank had attempted to flirt with her and that she had asked him (Epps) to wait and go home with her. Gantt and Lee testified that Frank had appeared nervous when they saw him (Gantt) Saturday at the factory.

Gantt and Mullinax were liberated soon after the adjournment Wednesday.

The inquest was to have been resumed on Thursday, but was halted by the desire of the authorities to obtain more clearly defined evidence before they continued the presentation of the case.

The next day Solicitor General Dorsey announced that he had engaged private detectives to run down clews which he thought had been neglected or not sufficiently developed.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 4th 1913, “Slayer of Mary Phagan May Still be at Large,” Leo Frank newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Journal

Friday, May 2^nd, 1913

Outside of Solicitor’s Activity There Have Been No Developments Since the Suspects Were Transferred to Tower

GROUNDLESS RUMORS DENIED BY OFFICIALS

Chief Lanford’s Busy Running Down Tips—Coroner’s Inquest Will Be Resumed on Monday Afternoon at 2

The Atlanta Journal has published every fact and development in connection with the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan. The Journal will continue to print news of further developments and additional evidence as the investigation proceeds. No fact has been suppressed nor will any news relating to the hunt for solution of the crime be withheld from the public. Many silly reports about a confession having been made by one or both of the prisoners held on suspicion in the case have been circulated, but they are without the slightest foundation.

AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION.

Forces in the employ of the solicitor general, Hugh M. Dorsey, are making an independent investigation of the Phagan murder case, it was learned Friday.

The solicitor general refuses to state just how many men he has at work on the mystery or who they are. They have developed nothing, however, which he is willing to give out for publication.

The city was filled with foolish rumors throughout the morning Friday and officials were called upon to deny dozens of groundless reports.

Coroner Paul Donehoo, who has more than 100 witnesses subpoenaed, declares that the inquest will certainly be resumed at 2 o’clock Monday afternoon. The coroner says that the investigation is as thorough and exhaustive as it is possible to make it and every report that reaches him is being probed.

“It is not surprising,” said the coroner, “that the mystery has not been solved by this time and the fact that the crime cannot now be laid at the door of any individual and that person brought immediately to trial is no indication that the guilty party will never be brought to justice. In many instances, where the detectives have had as little to start with as in this case, it has taken them months to finally establish the guilt of the right party.”

MANY DETECTIVES AT WORK.

In addition to the city detectives, the Pinkertons employed by the National Pencil company, and the officers employed by the solicitor general, it is said that many other private detectives are working on the mystery.

Colonel Thomas B. Felder has been employed by a number of citizens living in the vicinity of the home of the slain girl, to assist the state in the case, and while he will make no statement it is reported that he has a private detective agency trying to solve the mystery.

Solicitor Dorsey was in conference on Friday with a number of the city detectives, who have been assigned to the task of finding Mary Phagan’s murderer, and the fact that he has actively entered the case is considered the most important development of Friday.

There will certainly be no grand jury action in the matter, however, until Monday. The grand jury, which has been on duty for the past two months, was discharged Friday, and another grand jury will not be organized until Monday.

DETECTIVES NOT TALKING.

Following the transfer of Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil factory, and Newt Lee, nightwatchman, to the county jail from police headquarters on coroner’s warrants late Thursday afternoon, and the release of J. M. Gantt and Arthur Mullinax, Chief of Detectives Lanford has issued instructions to his men to talk with no one about the case, and to make direct reports to him. The chief is himself very reticent about developments in the case. He declares that his orders were issued because the few statements made by himself and his officers have been repeatedly exaggerated, and in many instances he and his men have been misquoted.

The transfer of the two principal figures in the case to the tower has resulted in things again assuming a normal attitude about police headquarters. The detectives Friday morning were busy running down the many rumors and “tips” which have come to their ears. The officers are literally bombarded by “tips,” and despite the fact that practically all of them prove valueless when investigated, the officers have scattered in every direction, shifting every report to the bottom.

NO NEED FOR MILITIA.

On reports from sources which he considered reliable, Governor Brown Thursday night advised Adjutant General Nash to communicate with officers of the Fifth regiment with a view to having the national guard in readiness should the necessity arise.

The governor states that he did not go to the extent of suggesting that the national guard be mobilized. He simply recommended that the adjutant general request the officers of the regiment to be prepared for such steps, in the event current rumors were to materialize.

The governor also communicated with the jail authorities and with the police.

In carrying out the suggestion of the executive, Colonel E. E. Pomeroy gathered a few members of the Fifth regiment at the armory. No efforts were made to mobilize troops and by 11:30 o’clock those who had reported were allowed to return to their homes.

In the meantime an investigation had developed that the rumors were groundless. Deputy sheriffs in automobiles rushed over the entire city looking for any excitement, and they declare that never had Atlanta been more quiet.

REASON FOR TRANSFER.

Mr. Frank and the negro Lee were transferred to the tower on the coroner’s warrants, because, it is said, there is considerable doubt of the legality of holding them at police headquarters, as both have been arrested in connection with a state, not a city case.

The warrants are similar in all respects, save that in one Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the pencil factory, is named, and in the other Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, is named.

The warrant against Mr. Frank reads as follows:

“Georgia, Fulton county:

“To the Jailer of Said County: Greetings:

“You are hereby required to take into custody the person of Leo M. Frank, suspected of the murder of Mary Phagan, and to retain the said Leo M. Frank in your custody pending a further investigation of the death of said Mary Phagan, to be held by the said coroner of said county.

“Herein fail not.

“Given under my hand and official signature this the first day of May, 1913.

(Signed)

“PAUL DONEHOO,

“Coroner.”

INQUEST DELAYED.

Mr. Frank and the nightwatchman were transferred to the tower immediately after Coroner Paul Donehoo swore his 160 witnesses, the employees of the pencil company, and adjourned the inquest until 2 o’clock next Monday afternoon.

The coroner’s decision to postpone the inquest from Thursday afternoon until Monday afternoon was reached after a conference with Chief of Police Beavers and Chief of Detectives Lanford. The reason assigned for the postponement is a desire to give the detectives additional time to work on the case.

MULLINAX GOES FREE.

Arthur Mullinax, the young man who has been in jail for several days, held on the statement of E. L. Sentell that he (Sentell) saw Mullinax and Mary Phagan walking on Forsyth street about midnight Saturday, has been completely exonerated.

Mullinax took his release calmly, as he did his arrest.

“I have never been worried,” he said, “for I knew I was innocent and was confident that in a little time everybody else would know it, too.

“I am not sore because I have been arrested. If that girl had been my sister I know that I would have wanted the officers to lock up every man against whom there was any suspicion, and hold him until things cleared up.

“I guess I have lost my job—that’s the only thing which worries me.”

Chief Lanford told the released man that he would make a personal effort to see that he got his position back. Mullinax has been working with the Towel Supply company.

GANTT ALSO LIBERATED.

The release of J. M. Gantt followed that of Mullinax.

When habeas corpus proceedings were started for Gantt by his attorneys he was transferred from headquarters to the Tower, and Chief Lanford had to get an order from Judge George L. Bell, of the superior court, before he had authority to release the man.

The warrant drawn against Gantt in Justice F. M. Powers’ court has been dismissed.

MANY THEORIES OFFERED.

Theories of how Mary Phagan met her death and by just what system her murderer can be brought to justice are flooding the office of the detectives. People are calling over the phone to tell the officers just how they should proceed. Many of them come in person, and the office is in receipt of hundreds of letters from this and half a dozen other states, giving advice and theories.

Many of the letter writers are anonymous, but most of the people sign their names. Several letters have been received from “criminologists,” who are willing to divulge their theories only for money. Several letters have come from “seers” and “mystics,” who have communed with the spirits and learned in that way the “identity” of the murderer.

Among the interesting callers at police headquarters Friday were two ladies, who have dreamed about the murder. Both say that they distinctly saw Mary Phagan in her desperate battle with the murderer.

The ladies arrived within a short time of each other, but their dreams didn’t coincide. Both gave the chief accurate descriptions of the murderers of their dreams.

FRANK IN GOOD SPIRITS.

Mr. Frank got a good night’s sleep Thursday night and Friday, he was in a cheerful frame of mind. Many friends called to see him during the day and Mr. Frank talked to them freely. He is confident that when the coroner’s investigation has been concluded his absolute innocence will have been established.

PINKERTONS AFTER TRUTH.

The position of the Pinkerton detectives, employed by the National Pencil company, in the murder case, has occasioned considerable comment about police headquarters.

When asked about the matter, Harry Scott, the representative who is working on the mystery and assisting the city officers, declared that he and his men were out simply after the truth.

“It doesn’t matter whom it hits,” said Mr. Scott, “we want to do everything in our power to find the guilty man, and if we find him we are going to give every bit of our evidence to the state authorities, and lend our assistance in securing his conviction.

“This is just like any other case with us, and in all of them we go after the facts regardless of whom they help or hurt.

“When, for instance, we are investigating a bank robbery and find that the crime was committed by an employee or an official, we disclose the facts just as if the guilty man had been a highwayman.”

Two additional Pinkerton men went to work on the case Friday, assisting Mr. Scott and the city detectives.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 2nd 1913, “Solicitor Dorsey is Making Independent Probe of Phagan Case,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, May 1^st, 1913

Watchman and Frank Go on Witness Stand This Afternoon—Dorsey, Dissatisfied, May Call Special Session of Grand Jury To-morrow.

Coroner Donohuoo [sic] late to-day issued a commitment against Leo M. Frank, superintendent at the National Pencil Company, and Newt Lee, night watchman, charging them with being suspected in connection with the death of Mary Phagan and remanding them to the custody of the sheriff. They were later taken to the Tower.

Arthur Mullinaux [sic], held since Sunday, was released.

Frank’s commitment read as follows:

To Jailor:

You are hereby required to take into custody the person of Leo M. Frank, suspected of the crime of murdering Mary Phagan, and to retain the said Leo M. Frank in your custody pending the further investigation of the death of the said Mary Phagan, to be held by the Coroner of said county.

Coroner Donohoo [sic] adjourned the inquest into the death of Mary Phagan this afternoon until 2 o’clock Monday, without the taking of any testimony. The Coroner said the adjournment was taken for the purpose of obtaining more clearly defined evidence.

The delay is believed to be the result of a request from the police department and is interpreted to mean that the detectives are on the trail of new and important evidence not previously brought to light.

The State made its first move in the Mary Phagan case to-day when Solicitor General Dorsey called into conference Chief of Detectives Lanford and Chief of Police Beavers.

Mr. Dorsey wanted to know just what the police have done in the case, and it was for this reason he questioned Lanford and Beavers.

A new arrest was made in the Phagan case this afternoon. Detectives arrested James Conolley [sic], a negro employed at the National Pencil Company factory.

Connolly [sic] is a sweeper in the factory. The arrest was made on private information given over the telephone to the police that Connolly [sic] had been seen washing some clothing in the factory. He is about 30 years old.

Connolly [sic], at the police station, told the detectives that he was washing his shirt because he was summoned to the inquest this afternoon. The police were inclined to attach little importance to his arrest.

Newt Lee, the night watchman at the National Pencil Company’s factory, will again go on the witness stand to supplement his testimony. Lee is said to have given important information to the detectives after a two – hours cross-examination this morning.

Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the factory, also will be a witness this afternoon.

Calls Inquiry Hesitating.

“The investigation has been hesitating,” said Mr. Dorsey, before his conference with the police officials. “All leads given the police have not been followed closely and there is much more to this thing that has not been brought out. Unless some decisive action is taken quickly the mystery will remain unsolved.”

At the end of the conference, Solicitor Dorsey and he had not fully made up his mind about taking over the case, but it was probable he would reach a decision in time to present the matter to the Grand Jury to-morrow if necessary. He told Chief Beavers and Chief Lanford that the handwriting evidence, what he considered the best possible clue, had been very badly handled by the police, particularly so in permitting Lee to copy the note instead of dictating it to him. He said the handwriting tests had been far from thorough. He criticized two police officials for laxity in one or two other features of the case.

Chief of Detectives Lanford, following the examination of Lee, declared that the watchman had made no confession, or part of one, implicating himself, but that he had divulged facts which will tend to lift the veil of mystery from the murder.

The police say that Lee’s new testimony will relate directly to a conversation that the watchman and Frank held in Lee’s cell on Monday.

Talk With Frank Is Basis.

According to the detectives, Lee will testify that Frank commanded him to stick to his story or “they would both go to —-.”

A conversation Lee had with a fellow prisoner last night in his cell, Chief Lanford said, resulted in the questioning of Lee to-day.

This conversation was reported to the detectives and, working on the new lead, Lee was brought to the detectives’ room at 9:30 o’clock this morning.

Chief Beavers, Chief Lanford, Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, and Detective John Black questioned him for an hour, with the result that it was agreed to again put him on the witness stand.

Lee, accompanied by John Black and Scott, was brought out of the conference shortly after 11 o’clock and removed to a cell.

Police Spurred to Action.

“Now, Lee,” said Black and Scott, as they locked him up, “don’t you talk about this case to anybody but us hereafter, do you hear?”

Orders were given to allow no one but the two detectives to see or talk with the watchman, and visitors, lawyers and persons of all description were barred from the corridors leading to his cell.

The announcement that the State, through Solicitor Dorsey, might intervene and take charge of the investigation unless the mystery was cleared at once spurred the police to further effort late to-day.

“Weed Out” False Clews.

Detective Starnes and Campbell continued throughout the day breaking down the stories of the persons who have testified that they saw Mary Phagan on the street Saturday after she had drawn her pay at the pencil factory at noon.

Chief Lanford said positively that the hunt was near its conclusion and with the completion of the inquest the truth would be established.

Mr. Dorsey was vehement in his denunciation of the manner in which the case had been handled.

Dorsey Voices His Protest.

“The burden of convicting the perpetrator of this horrible crime whoever he may be, will fall directly upon my shoulders,” said Dorsey, “and I don’t propose, for that reason, if not for the many others, to let it drift along.

“No effort has been made to establish if the shirt said to have been found in the ash barrel back of Lee’s home was Lee’s.

“The handwriting tests on the notes have not been exhausted by the police—in fact, hardly touched upon.

“The marks on the [3 words, illegible]

Frank to Testify To-day at Phagan Case Inquest

[Continued from Page One]

lead to an extensive investigation that has never been made.

“People have been let go and come at will in various places who should have been locked up and guarded until the investigation was completed.

“The matter must be sifted to the bottom, and if it isn’t not done soon the State will assume charge and the Grand Jury will be put to work on it.”

Features of Testimony.

The principal features of the testimony that have been brought out so far are as follows:

J. G. SPIER, of Cartersville, Ga., testified—

That he saw a girl and a man standing in front of the pencil factory at 4:10 Saturday afternoon; that the girl was the one whose body he had viewed Monday morning at Bloomfield’s undertaking establishment.

F. M. BERRY, assistant cashier of the Fourth National Bank, testified—

That the handwriting of the notes found by Mary Phagan’s body and that of test written by Lee indicated that they were written by the same person.

J. M. GANTT, in the factory about twenty minutes on Saturday night, testified—

That Frank appeared nervous and apprehensive when he saw him at the factory at about 6 o’clock.

NEWT LEE,  the night watchman, testified—

That Frank showed signs of nervousness by rubbing his hands, something he had never seen him do before. That Frank called him on the phone about 7 o’clock in the evening to see if everything was “all right,” something he never had done before.

HARRY DENHAM, one of the two men in the office Saturday afternoon, testified—

That Frank did NOT seem nervous when he saw him at 3 o’clock; that Frank had a habit of rubbing his hands.

GEORGE W. EPPS, JR., 246 Fox Street, boy friend of Mary Phagan, testified—

That Mary Phagan had told him once that Leo M. Frank had stood at the factory door when she left and had winked at her and tried to flirt. That he rode uptown with Mary last Saturday; that she left him to get her money at the factory, with an engagement to meet him at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, but never appeared.

E. S. SKIPPER, 224 1-2 Peters Street, testified—

That Frank was NOT one of the three men he saw with a girl resembling Mary Phagan about midnight Saturday; that the girl he saw Saturday night he was almost certain was the same one whose dead body he saw in the morgue Monday morning.

EDGAR L. SENTELL, an employee of Kamper’s grocery firm, testified—

That he saw, without a possibility of a mistake, none other than Mary Phagan walking on Forsyth Street, near Hunter, between 11:30 and 12:30 Saturday night, with a man. The man was Mullinax, he was almost positive. That he said, “Hello, Mary,” and that she responded, “Hello, Ed.”

R. M. LASSITER, policeman, testified—

That he had inspected the basement and had found plain signs of a body being dragged from the elevator to the place where the body of Mary was found. That a parasol was at the bottom of the elevator shaft.

SERGEANT R. J. BROWN, of the police department, testified—

That it would have been almost impossible to see the body from the point the negro told him he first saw it.

SERGEANT L. S. DOBBS, of the police department, testified—

That Lee, without anyone else making any comment, said that the words “night witch” meant “night watchman,” in the notes that were found by the side of the dead girl.

CALL OFFICER ANDERSON testified—

That he attempted to get Frank at his residence by phone right after the body was found, but was unable to get him.

Gantt Says Frank Was Nervous.

Gantt’s testimony was in the main corroboration of what he told The Georgian when he was arrested. His most striking testimony came when he declared that Frank was nervous when he called at the factory for his shoes. He said when Coroner Donehoo asked him to tell of his movements Saturday night:

“I went to the factory to get my shoes and met Mr. Frank at the door and got permission to come in. When he saw me he appeared very nervous and started back into his office; then he came out again. He told the night watchman to go with me to get the shoes and to stay with me.”

Gantt testified that while in the factory he telephone his sister, Mrs. F. C. Terrell, of 284 East Linden Street, that he would be home about 9 o’clock, and then he left the factory, the negro accompanying him to the door. He said he, together with Arthur White and C. G. Bagley, went to the Globe pool room, where they remained until 10:30 o’clock. Then, he said, he went home and stayed there till 2 o’clock Sunday afternoon, when he left and came downtown. He called on a girl friend Sunday night, he testified, and stayed at her home till 11 o’clock. He said he didn’t know the officers came to his home Sunday night; that he was not told of their visit by his sister. He said he left his sister’s home at 8 o’clock Monday morning and started to Marietta to visit his mother, who lives on a farm six miles east of the town.

Was Discharged by Frank.

Gantt testified that he had known Mary Phagan since she was 3 years old, and that he knew her when he was timekeeper at the pencil factory. He said Frank discharged him from the factory because of a personal difference. Asked as to the nature of this difference, he said that there was a shortage of $2 in his payroll and that Frank told him he must either make the amount good or be discharged.

Gantt testified that he had never heard Mary Phagan complain of her treatment at the factory and that he had never heard her say she could not trust Frank.

While he was on the stand Gantt also threw new light on the wages paid the girls who work at the pencil factory. He said he paid off the girls, and had paid Mary Phagan every Saturday, while he handled the payroll. He said her weekly salary was $4.05. Asked how this was computed, he declared she received 7 1-11 cents an hour for 55 hours’ work. Coroner Donehoo called attention to the fact that this did not figure up $4.05, but nothing more was said about the matter by either the witness or the jurymen.

E. G. Skipper 224 1-2 Peters Street, declared positively that Leo Frank was not one of the men he had seen on Trinity Avenue, near Forsyth Street, pushing a reeling girl along Saturday night about 11 o’clock. Skipper described the dress worn by the girl he had seen and declared it looked very much like the one that Mary Phagan wore when she was murdered. He was then asked to give a description of the three men who were with the girl. Frank was then brought in and Skipper was asked if Frank was one of the men. He said that Frank did not resemble any of them.

Tells of Mother’s Worry.

Skipper testified that he had seen the body of Mary Phagan at Bloomfield’s morgue, and said she looked like the girl he had seen on Trinity Avenue. He said he recognized her by her dress, parasol and the hair hanging down her back. He said he didn’t follow the girl and the three men Saturday night because it is a common occurrence to see things like that in Atlanta on Saturday night.

J. W. Coleman, the stepfather of the dead child, told a pathetic story of her mother’s worry over her continued absence from home Saturday night. He said he left home Saturday morning before Mary awoke, and that he had not seen her alive since last Friday night.

“I got home Saturday afternoon at 4 o’clock,” testified Mr. Coleman, “and Mary had not come home; but we paid little attention to her absence then, as she often went to a moving picture show after work. I went downtown and came back about 7:20 o’clock and Mrs. Coleman met me at the door. She said Mary had not come home yet, and we were shocked and began to worry. My wife said for me to eat supper and then we’d see if we could not find her. I went downtown and tried to find Mary. I went to all the picture shows, and everywhere I could think of, but could not find her.

“I went back home about 10 o’clock, and Mrs. Coleman was nearly crazy with worry and anxiety. I thought maybe Mary had gone to Marietta with her aunt, Mattie Phagan, and that she had telephone to a neighbor that she would not be home. I went to all the neighbors who had telephones, but none of them had heard from her. We sat up nearly all night trying to figure out what had become of the girl, and decided to get up early and try to find her.

Child Brings News of Crime.

“As we were getting up the next morning little Ellen Ferguson came running up the steps. My wife was excited and exclaimed that something had happened to Mary. The Ferguson girl ran into the house and cried that Mary had been murdered. Then she began screaming and my wife fainted. I caught a car and went downtown. I was with a friend. We passed detectives leading a handcuffed negro, and we followed them to the pencil factory. The man there was not going to let me in until I told him who I was. Then I went in and did all I could to help in the investigation which the detectives had started.”

Mr. Coleman testified that he had several times heard Mary speak of her employers, but had paid little attention to her statements. He didn’t remember whether she had ever said anything about Frank. He said she had often said that things went on at the factory that were not nice, and that some of the people there tried to get fresh. “She told most of those stories to her mother,” said Mr. Coleman.

The examination of J. A. White, 58 Bonnie Brae Avenue, one of the two men who worked at the pencil factory Saturday afternoon, brought out for the first time the fact that in Frank’s private office there is a wardrobe or closet large enough for a person to hide in. He testified that the closet was about 9 feet high and 4 feet wide, and was directly behind the door in Frank’s office. He said he went into Frank’s office when he left the factory Saturday to borrow $2, but didn’t notice the closet. The office door, he testified, was opened and resting against it. He said he didn’t notice whether Mr. Frank was excited.

Didn’t Know of Basement Room.

White testified that he had no knowledge of the small room which was found in the basement. He said the employees of the plant sometimes drank cans of beer in the basement, but said he had never heard of any women being brought in there.

Other witnesses called during the afternoon session of the jury included Detective J. R. Black, who is in charge of the police who are working on the case, and Guy Kennedy, 203 Bellwood Avenue. Black testified that Skipper had made a statement to him about seeing three men and a girl on Trinity Avenue late Saturday night. He said Skipper told him the girl he saw wore white shoes and stockings.

Kennedy, who is a street car conductor on the English Avenue line, had previously told detectives and reporters that he had seen Mary Phagan Saturday afternoon. He told the Coroner’s jury that he was mistaken; that the girl he saw was not Mary Phagan. He said he thought she was until he had seen the body of the murdered girl at the morgue.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 1st 1913, “State Enters Phagan Case; Frank and Lee are Taken to Tower,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

At the left top is Detective Black, of the city, and at the right Detective Scott, of the Pinkertons. Below is a scene of the inquest. At the bottom is a sketch by Henderson of the negro, Newt Lee, whose straightforward story at the inquest has tended to lift suspicion from him.

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

Atlanta Constitution

Thursday, May 1^st 1913

Mary Phagan Was Growing Afraid of Advances Made to Her by Superintendent of the Factory, George W. Epps, 15 Years Old, Tells the Coroner’s Jury.

BOY HAD ENGAGEMENT TO MEET HER SATURDAY BUT SHE DID NOT COME

Newt Lee, Night Watchman, on Stand Declared Frank Was Much Excited on Saturday Afternoon—Pearl Robinson Testifies for Arthur Mullinax—Two Mechanics Brought by Detectives to the Inquest.

LEO FRANK REFUSES TO DISCUSS EVIDENCE

When a Constitution reporter saw Leo M. Frank early this morning and told him of the testimony to the effect that he had annoyed Mary Phagan by an attempted flirtation, the prisoner said that he had not heard of this accusation before, but that he did not want to talk. He would neither affirm nor deny the negro’s accusation that never before the night of the tragedy had Frank phoned to inquire if all was well at the factory, as he did on the night of the killing.

Evidence that Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the pencil factory in which the lifeless body of Mary Phagan was found, had tried to flirt with her, and that she was growing afraid of his advances, was submitted to the coroner’s jury at the inquest yesterday afternoon, a short time before adjournment was taken until 4:30 o’clock today by George W. Epps, aged 15, a chum of the murdered victim.

George rode with Mary to the city Saturday morning an hour before she disappeared at noon. He testified late Wednesday afternoon that the girl had told him of attempts Leo Frank had made to flirt with her, and of apparent advances in which he was daily growing bolder.

“She said she was getting afraid,” he told at the inquest. “She wanted me to come to the factory every afternoon in the future and escort her home. She didn’t like the way Frank was acting toward her.”

Waited Two Hours For Girl.

George had an engagement to meet the girl Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock, he said. They were scheduled to watch the Memorial parade and tour the picture shows. He waited two hours for her. She had disappeared. The next known of her was when the lifeless form was found in the factory basement.

Frank was not present during the investigation but once. Detectives brought him before the jury for identification by E. S. Skipper, the man who saw the mysterious sextette of youths and girls Saturday night at Whitehall and Trinity. He remained but a moment.

Sensational developments were predicted shortly after the inquest was resumed at 2:15 o’clock, when Coroner Donehoo ordered detectives to bring to police headquarters the two mechanics who were in the factory building with Frank during the early part of Saturday afternoon.

They are Harry Denham and Arthur White, two youths who have been connected with the plant for several years. Detective Scott found them at work in the factory and escorted them to the inquest. They left the police station immediately after being examined.

A mystifying phase was added to the progress of the inquest when Edgar L. Sentell, a clerk in Kamper’s grocery, declared positively that he had seen Mary Phagan with Arthur Mullinax at midnight Saturday as they crossed the corner of Hunter and Forsyth streets a few yards distant from the pencil factory.

Sentell had known the dead girl since early childhood. They were intimate friends, he said. Asserting that he had spoken to her, he stoutly maintained that she had answered his greeting.

J. L. Watkins, a neighbor to the home to which Mary lived, also testified that he had seen her Saturday afternoon when she crossed Ashby street at Bellwood. She presumably was on her way home, he stated.

George Epps is a bright, quick-witted chap and proved an eager witness. He was brought before the inquest following the examination of Pearl Robinson, the sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, who testified in that youth’s behalf.

“How old are you son?” was the first question asked him.

“Fifteen—going on sixteen,” he answered with alacrity.

“Do you work or go to school?”

“I work at a furniture store. In the afternoon I sell papers.”

His answers were clear and brief. He made a pleasing impression.

Lives Near Phagan Girl.

“How far do you live from 136 Lindsay street—the home of Mary Phagan?”

“Just around the block.”

“Did you know Mary?”

“Yes, sir, I certainly did. We were good friends.”

“When did you last see her alive?”

“Saturday morning, just before dinner when we came to town together on a street car.

“Did you arrange to meet her that afternoon?”

“Yes, sir. We were to have met at 2 o’clock in Elkin & Watson’s drug store at Five Points. We were going to see the parade and go to the moving picture shows.”

“How long did you wait for her when she failed to show up?”

“Until 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I stuck around two hours waiting for her. Then I had to go and sell my papers.”

“Did you inquire for her?”

“Yes. I went to her house when I got through with my papers. She hadn’t got back. The folks were looking for her.”

“When you and Mary were riding to town, did you talk any?”

She Wanted Money Mighty Bad.

“We talked a whole lot. She said she was going to the pencil factory to draw the wages due her. She said she didn’t have but $1.60 coming to her, but wanted that mighty bad.”

“How was she dressed?”

“She had on a blue dress and a dark blue hat. I remember that hat mighty well because I asked her why didn’t she buy a stylish lid? ‘Umph,’ she said, ‘I’m no stylish girl. I don’t need one.’”

“Did you both get on the car at the same time?”

“No. She was on first. When I got on she motioned for me to come and sit beside her. While we were coming to town she began talking about Mr. Frank. When she would leave the factory on some afternoons she said Frank would rush out in front of her and try to flirt with her as she passed.

She told me that he had often winked at her and tried to pay her attention. He would look hard and straight at her she said and then would smile. She called him Mr. Frank. It happened often she said.”

“How was the subject of Mr. Frank brought up?”

“She told me she wanted me to come down to the factory when she got off as often as I could to escort her home and kinder protect her.”

“When did you hear she was killed?”

“Sunday.”

Positive that he had seen Mary Phagan at midnight Saturday, Edgar L. Sentell offered to swear that it was the pretty victim whom he encountered with the suspected Mullinax at Forsyth and Hunter streets. He was the first witness during the afternoon session.

“I met Mary Phagan and Mullinax at Hunter and South Forsyth streets either between 11:30 and 12, or a little later. I am not positive which,” he stated.

“Were they standing together?” he was questioned.

“No. They were walking along.”

“Are you confident you knew both Mullinax and Mary?”

“I knew Mullinax at the car barns. I had known Mary all my life. I was born and raised with her.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“One week previous to Saturday night.”

“Did you speak to her?”

“I did. I said, ‘Hello, Mary.’”

“Did she reply?”

“She did. She said, ‘Hello, Edgar.’”

“Were her parents accustomed to letting her go with boys?”

Amazed to See Her Uptown.

“No. They were not. It amazed me when I saw her uptown at such an hour with a man. She looked like she was tired and fagged out.”

“What did she wear?”

“A light purple dress, black shoes and a light blue ribbon tied in her hair. She didn’t have a hat. An umbrella was in her hand.”

“Can you swear that it was Mary Phagan you saw?”

“I can and I will. I am swearing now that it was Mary Phagan I saw.”

“Can you swear it was Mullinax?”

“I am not so positive about him. If it wasn’t, it was his spit-and-image.”

“Did you know Mullinax’s name?”

“No. Not at that time. I had seen him so much around the car barns, though. I learned his name later.”

“When did you first hear of Mary’s murder?”

“Sunday morning on an English avenue trolley car.”

“Who did you first tell?”

“Mrs. Coleman, her mother.”

“Did the paper tell who was killed?”

Went to Mother Of Girl.

“No. I heard men at the car barn say the girl’s name was Phagan. I immediately remembered seeing Mary at midnight. I went straight to Mrs. Coleman and learned that it was her daughter.”

“Where did you work before becoming connected with your present employers?”

“I was in the navy.”

“When did you leave?”

“April 18, 1913.”

“How long had you been there?”

“Three months.”

“Why did you leave?”

“Because of eye affliction. I couldn’t read the targets on the rifle range.”

“Is your eye sight ordinarily affected?”

“Not particularly so.”

“Are you sure your eyes didn’t fail you when you saw this girl Saturday at midnight?”

“I am positive they did not.”

“Do you drink?”

“Occasionally. But I never get drunk.”

“Were you drinking Saturday night?”

“Not a drop.”

At this juncture the clothing worn by the murdered girl was held to the questioned man’s gaze.

“Is this the dress she wore when you saw her Saturday night?”

“It is.”

Bloody Hairs Are Found.

The discovery of a dozen strands of bloody hair identified by her sister workers as that of the murdered girls was related by R. P. Barrett, a mechanic in the pencil plant who made the find.

He was placed upon the stand directly after it had been vacated by Policeman Lasseter.

“What is your employment?”

“I am a machinist with the National Pencil company.”

“How long have you been with them?”

“Seven weeks.”

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”

“Yes. She ran a nulling machine at the factory.

“When did you see her last?”

“Tuesday, one week ago. She didn’t work after that because of shortage of metal.”

“How far is her machine from the dressing room she used?”

“About six feet.”

“Was anything unusual found around the machine at which she worked?”

Splotches Of Blood.

“The girls at the factory told me Monday that Mary had been murdered. They were dim, and looked as the floor at the base of her machine. I found several dim, and looked as though whitewash had been spread over them. It looked as though the floor had been swept carefully.”

“Was anything else found on the floor?”

“Yes. Monday morning, I started to work upon a lathing machine nearby the nulling machine of Mary’s. My hands became tangled with long hair. I picked out a dozen strands or more. They were bloody. A number of the girls came and identified them as having come from Mary’s head.”

“Was Mary a quiet girl?”

“Exceptionally quiet, and a very well behaved one.”

“Did anyone pay, or attempt to pay, attention to her?”

“Not of my knowledge. No one did around the factory.”

“How large was the spot of blood you found near the machine at which she worked?”

“About six inches in diameter. There several smaller spots.”

“What floor?”

“Second.”

“How near the elevator?”

“At the extreme end—200 or more feet, I would judge, from the lift.”

Girls Afraid Of Frank.

“Did you ever know of familiarity which Frank tried with Mary?”

“No.”

Declaring that, in his opinion, both of the notes found beside the dead girl’s body were written by the same person, F. M. Berry, assistant cashier of the Fourth National bank, and a handwriting expert, said that the script in the mysterious missives resembled only slightly that of the writing of the suspected watchman.

He took the stand at 3:30 p. m.

“What experience have you in distinguishing handwriting?”

“Only the experience that could be gained by my twenty-three years of service with the bank.”

The notes were shown him. He inspected them closely in the light of a window fronting Decatur street.

“Were they written by the same person?” he was asked.

“In my opinion, they were.”

Was Factory Used For Assignation?

Berry, the factory mechanic, was recalled to the stand at 4:10 o’clock. Sensational evidence was gained from him relative to the usage of the factory building as an alleged place of assignation for men and women.

“Did anybody work in the plant during a Saturday?” was the first question.

“No one of my direct knowledge. I heard, however, of two young employees who were at work on the top floor.”

“Do you know them?”

“Not their names.”

“Could you point them out to the detectives?”

“I could.”

“Then,” from Coroner Donehoo, “I will send a man after them. You go with him.”

“What is the usual pay hour of the factory?”

“At 12 noon on Saturdays.”

“Have you ever heard of the building used for immoral purposes?”

“Yes. Frequently. A Mr. Asbury Calloway, connected with the Scaboard offices near the factory building, has told me that he has often seen men and women and girls going in and out of the building at night.”

“Had you heard such rumors from the inside of the concern—by that is meant from attaches to the plant?”

“No.”

“Don’t you suspect that some of the girls of the factory have filled clandestine appointments in the building?”

“I don’t think so. I believe every girl in the place is straight—absolutely.”

Gantt Smiles During Quiz.

J. M. Gantt, the Marietta youth who is held as a suspect in the Phagan case, was put through a grueling examination. He never flinched through the ordeal, answered the questions promptly and concisely and smiled during the entire procedure.

He was put on the rack the moment his sweetheart, Pearl Robinson [Pearl Robinson was actually the sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, not Gantt — Ed.], had been excused. He remained under examination probably longer than any other witness except the negro, Newt Lee. The time was an hour.

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”

“I did. I had known her since she was a little tot.”

“Were you ever employed with the pencil factory?”

“I was—up until three weeks ago.”

“Why did you leave them?”

“I was discharged.”

“Why were you discharged?”

Alleged Shortage the Trouble.

“Because of personal differences with Mr. Frank, the superintendent.

“What were the differences?”

“Two dollars short in the pay roll.”

“Were you in charge of the pay roll?”

“I was paymaster.”

“Did you ever see Frank with Mary Phagan?”

“No.”

“You always paid off the employees, did you not?”

“I did.”

“How were they paid?”

“With the envelope method.”

“Did you ever pay Mary Phagan?”

“Yes.”

“What did she make?”

“Presumably $4.05 a week, judging by the wage scale of the plant.”

“When did you see her last?”

“The day I quit the pencil company.”

“Had you seen her since?”

“No.”

“Where did you go on Saturday?”

Went to the Factory.

“I went to the pencil factory about 6:30 o’clock that afternoon.”

“Did you see Mr. Frank there?”

“Yes.”

“Did he appear excited, agitated?”

“Yes. He seemed nervous.”

“Did you ever hear Mary Phagan say she couldn’t trust Frank—that she feared him in any manner?”

“No.”

“How long were you in the building Saturday afternoon?”

“No longer than ten minutes.”

“What did you do?”

“I got a pair of shoes I had left in the place when I quit. Also, I telephoned my sister, Mrs. F. C. Terrell what time I intended coming home that night. I used the phone in Mr. Frank’s office.”

“Then what did you do?”

“Went to the poolroom, watched several games of pool and went home.”

“What time did you arrive home?”

“10:30 p. m.”

“Were you there when the police came?”

“No.”

“Did your sister tell of their visit?”

“No.”

Shank Takes Stand.

Other testimony relative to the rumored immoral reputation of the factory building was gained from V. F. Shank, of Shank Bros., whose establishment is on Forsyth street, near the pencil plant.

Shank was called immediately after Barrett had left the stand.

“Do you work at night?”

“I do.”

“Have you ever seen couples going into the pencil factory?”

“I have seen no couples. I have witnessed girls and men going singly into the place after dark.”

“How long has it been since you’ve seen this?”

“Last summer some time.”

“Did you make a statement recently of having seen girls enter the building?”

“I said a crowd of such sights I had seen. We were discussing the question of whether or not frolics were secretly held in the place.”

Thought Girl Was Mary.

E. S. Skipper, of 224 1-2 Peters street, testified that he saw a sextet of men and women reeling drunkenly up Trinity avenue from Whitehall street Saturday night shortly before 11 o’clock. One of the girls, he said, answered the description of Mary Phagan.

“What did you see at Trinity and Whitehall?”

“Three men, two women and a girl dressed like and resembling the dead girl whom I saw at Bloomfield’s. The girl was weeping and trying to break away from the party. She was being led up the street.”

“Did either man answer the description of Frank?”

“I haven’t seen Frank.”

At this juncture the examination was stopped. Frank was brought down from the detectives quarters and put face to face with the witness.

“That’s not the man,” Skipper said.

“When you saw these drunken men and women leading a reluctant girl, didn’t you think it your duty to call the police?”

“I see scenes like that on the streets every Saturday night.”

Step-Father Tells of Grief.

J. W. Coleman, step-father of the murdered girl, told graphically of the grief in the little home on Lindsay street over the death when he took the stand at dusk.

“How old was Mary Phagan?”

“She would have been 14 next June.”

“When did you last see her alive?”

“Friday night. She was at home early and was helping her mother with the housework. I left for work too early to see her Saturday morning.”

“When you got home Saturday afternoon, was Mary there?”

“No. My wife came and said ‘Mary has not come home. What do you suppose is the trouble? I am scared to death.’ I couldn’t eat supper. Her absence affected me. Mary was never known to be away from home at night.

I came to town and visited all the picture shows staying until they all had closed. When I returned, my wife and I speculated on what could have become of the child. We never slept any that night. At daybreak Helen Ferguson, a girl chum of Mary’s came over.

The moment she rang the door bell my wife jumped from her seat. ‘Oh Lord, that’s bad news from Mary,’ she said. The Ferguson girl came in. ‘Mary has been murdered,’ she told us. My wife fainted and she has been almost unable to walk since.”

The coroner then adjourned the inquest until 4:30 o’ clock today.

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, May 1st 1913, “Frank Tried to Flirt With the Murdered Girl Says Her Boy Chum,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, May 1^st, 1913

O. H. Clark, in charge of the check room at the Terminal Station, is convinced that the girl who created a scene there last week, when the man she was with attempted to board a train, was Mary Phagan.

Clark came out to-day with a story that substantiates, in part at least, the story told by the two station guards who watched the couple’s peculiar actions.

Clark asserts that the incident occurred on Saturday rather than Friday, and the man, when he finally abandoned his trip at the girl’s expostulations, went to the check room and put in his traveling bag.

Clark says he remembers distinctly that the identification tag on the bag bore the mark of the “National Pencil Company.”

New Evidence is Favorable to Mullinax.

Further evidence favorable to Arthur Mullinax, one of the suspects held in connection with the Phagan mystery, developed to-day when D. W. Adams, a street car conductor, asserted that E. L. Sentell, on whose identification Mullinax has been held, admitted immediately after the inquest that he was not sure that he saw Mullinax with Mary Phagan on Saturday night.

Adams said that Sentell seemed in doubt as to whether the girl with Mullinax was Mary Phagan or Pearl Robinson, Mullinax’s sweetheart.

It has been shown that Pearl Robinson, on Saturday night when she accompanied Mullinax to the theater, was dressed much like Mary Phagan.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 1st 1913, “Terminal Official Certain He Saw Girl,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Constitution

Thursday May 1^st, 1913

Pearl Robison, the pretty 16-year-old sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, came nobly to his defense with testimony that corroborated that suspect’s alibi. She was placed on the stand late in the afternoon.

“Do you know Arthur Mullinax?”

“I am well acquainted with him.”

“Do you go with him?”

“Yes!”

“Were you with him Saturday?”

“Yes! At supper and to the theater.”

“What time did you get home?”

“About 10:30 o’clock.”

“Was he with you at that time?”

“He was.”

“Did he go in when you returned home?”

“No. He left for his home.”

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”

“I never saw her.”

“Had you ever heard of her?”

“Yes. A lot.”

“How?”

“She was a topic of neighborhood praise for her appearance in the Christmas performance in the Jefferson street church last year. She played the part of ‘Sleeping Beauty.’”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, May 1st 1913, “Pretty Young Sweetheart Comes To the Aid of Arthur Mullinax,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)