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

The Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, July 3, 1913

Attorney for Watchman Declares Client Knows Nothing of the Actual Crime.

Bernard L. Chappell, attorney for Newt Lee, negro night watchman at the pencile [sic] factory, held in the Phagan case, stated Thursday morning that he would swear out a writ of habeas corpus for the release of the negro.

Attorney Chappell stated that he had come to the conclusion that there was nothing the negro knew about the crime except finding the body, and that the State had no right to keep him without some charge or as a material witness.

Lee was the first suspect arrested in connection with Mary Phagan’s murder. He was ordered held by the Coroner, but when a bill of indictment was offered the Grand Jury at the same time of the Frank indictment, no action was taken against the negro.

Weak Spots in Conley Tale.

Chappell said the writ of habeas corpus would compel the State either to order the negro held as a material witness or make some charge against him.

Conley, in relating his dramatic tale of carrying the body of Mary Phagan from the rear of the second floor and disposing of it at the direction of Frank in a dark corner of the gloomy basement, said that when he reached the elevator he had to wait until Frank went into his office for a key to the elevator door.

The defense will maintain, it is understood, that the elevator door had not been locked for some time. Witnesses will be called to testify that the door had remained unlocked in accordance with instructions from the firms with which the building was insured. From this alleged circumstance, it will be argued that the negro’s story is a fabrication devised to shield himself from the charge of murder and to shift the responsibility onto another man.

To Assail Whole Story.

This is only one particular of at least a score which will be assailed by Attorneys Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben R. Arnold, who are representing Frank. They will say in the first place that the elevator was not running at all on the day of the crime, in spite of Conley’s story that the body was carried down to the basement by this means. Harry Denham and Arthur White, who were working on the fourth floor of the factory, will be called to testify to this.

With the defense and prosecution awaiting the day when the great legal battle which will send Frank to the gallows or free him from the stigma of the murder charge shall begin, Frank’s lawyers are occupying much of their time in making a critical analysis of the succession of weird statements credited to the negro from the time he said he wrote on the Friday before the murder at the dictation of Frank the notes that were found beside the body of the dead girl until he issued his last affidavit.

The negro admitted the story of writing the notes on Friday was false. He admitted that his first story of never having seen Mary Phagan, dead or alive, was a deliberate lie. He is reported to have further changed his story by admitting seeing the girl before she was killed. But, except for this, he maintains his last affidavit is the whole truth. The defense believes it is as false as the rest and is preparing to go into court and break down utterly the fabrication that the negro has erected.

Notes to Play Part.

Although the notes found by the body of the slain girl have received little attention from those working on the case lately, they are bound to have a most important part in the trial of Frank.

The defense will seek to show that there could have been no possibility of their being dictated by the factory superintendent; that if the negro had taken Frank’s dictation, supposing that Frank had committed the crime, a much different sort of a note would have been the result.

Conley has shown since his arrest that he can follow dictation with a fair degree of accuracy. This being the case, it is reasonable to presume, the defense will hold, that he would have followed Frank’s words closely. But the notes are an incoherent, jumbled mass of words that are only half intelligible after the detectives have placed weeks of study upon them. The defense will contend that such a note can not be imagined, by any process of reasoning, as the dictation of Frank.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 3rd 1913, “Writ Sought In Move to Free Negro Lee,” 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

Tuesday, June 3^rd, 1913

Defense Prepares to Show Glaring Discrepancies in Affidavit of James Conley.

[Minola McKnight, the negro cook at Frank’s home, made a written statement Tuesday afternoon to the police following a cross-examination lasting more than an hour at the police station.

The woman was questioned by E. H. Pickett and Roy L. Craven, both of whom are employed at the hardware store of Beck & Gregg. While the bearing of her statement on the Phagan case was not revealed, it is generally thought to relate to the actions of Frank and other inmates of his household on the morning following the murder.

She is believed to have stuck to her story that Frank was home at 1:30, which is one link in the alibi chain the defense is forging.

That Louise H. Beck, foreman of the Grand Jury which indicted Frank, is a co-partner in the establishment with which Pickett and Craven, the questioners of the negro woman, are employed is believed to lend much significance to the cross-examination by the two men. This connection, however, was not made public.

The cook was later released after her statement had been taken, and with her husband left for her Pulliam street home. It was said that she might be called as a witness in the trial of Frank. Much as the detectives attempted to shroud her evidence in mystery, all the indications were that she had not materially changed her statement in favor of Frank. She was released on an agreement with her counsel, George Gordon. — added from a later edition of the Georgian — Ed.]

“Developments of a startling nature may be expected from day to day in the Phagan case,” said Chief of Detectives Lanford Tuesday morning. “They may be expected right up to the date that the trial of Leo Frank begins.

“That we feel we practically have a conclusive case against the factory superintendent does not mean that we are resting in our labors to the slightest extent. We are a little more at rest in our minds, that is all.

“The detectives are working constantly on new clews that present themselves and are investigating every story that is heard, whether it is told by a witness favorable to Frank or against him. We wish to go into court prepared to establish our case against Frank so that not a doubt of his guilt will be possible. That is, of course, if it still appears at that time as certain to us that he is the guilty man as it does now.”

With the continued activity of the detectives, it has become noticeable in the last few days that the defense is at work on its case. Both sides are preparing for a titanic battle when Frank is put on trial for his life the third week in this month. Frank’s cook is still held at police headquarters.

To Cite Time Differences.

Differences in the time given by Jim Conley in his affidavit and the testimony of Coroner’s jury witnesses will be pointed out in the defense of Leo M. Frank against the charge of killing little Mary Phagan, it was revealed Tuesday. They will be used as indications of the superintendent’s innocence because of their many seeming deviations from fact.

One of the most glaring was the negro’s declaration that while he was in Frank’s office to write the notes Miss Corinthia Hall and Mrs. Emma Clark entered. Conley said that this was 1 o’clock or a few minutes after. But Miss Hall had left the building more than an hour before, according to her own testimony before the Coroner’s jury.

“What time was it when you left the factory?” Coroner Donehoo asked Miss hall when she was on the stand at the inquest.

“A quarter to twelve,” she replied. “I looked at the clock when I came down.”

The negro said that he looked at the clock when he went in the office and that it was just four minutes of 1 o’clock. He had been in there a few minutes, he asserted, when the voices of Miss Hall and Mrs. Clark were heard.

Another statement which will be refuted is Conley’s declaration that he assisted in taking the body from the second floor down to the basement on the elevator.

To Testify Elevator Didn’t Run.

Two witnesses will be called to prove that the elevator did not run that day at the time the body is said to have been disposed of.

These two witnesses are Harry Denham and Arthur White. They were on the fourth floor from early in the forenoon until after 3 o’clock in the afternoon. If the elevator had been run they say they would have known it. The experiment of running the elevator has been tried since the murder. It is said that it can not be run without the persons on the fourth floor being aware of it.

The theory that will be presented by the defense is that Mary Phagan was the victim of drink-crazed Conley. From his hiding place near the stairs he saw her descending from the second floor. She was alone. He quickly stunned her with a blow over the head, the defense will suggest, and toppled her down the elevator shaft, taking her purse and later disposing of her body.

The alibis which the defense will seek to establish are, of course, the weapons on which reliance will be placed to complete the riddling or Conley’s testimony and affidavits. Frank had arrived home in the afternoon at the time Conley says the superintendent was dictating notes in his office, according to five witnesses the defense will be able to call.

Conley described at length his alleged conversation with Frank in the factory office after 1 o’clock. Frank says that he arrived home for luncheon at 1:20 o’clock and he is supported in his statement by five witnesses.

Seven witnesses are prepared to testify that Frank was home in the evening at the time he is said to have been telephoning to Mrs. Mima [sic] Fo[r]mby, asking for her permission to bring a girl to her house. If the State’s theory is accepted that Mary Phagan was killed in the afternoon, the defense will hold that the Fo[r]mby affidavit is ridiculous on its face. It will be pointed out that any man, whether he be ignorant or intelligent, would not in the first place confide his crime to a negro or any other person by asking their assistance in disposing of the body.

After this he would not take a cab driver, a woman and any others who happened to observe his movements into his confidence by removing the dead body to a semi-public house like that of Mrs. Fo[r]mby’s.

Police to Combat Them.

The element of time will enter into several other phases of the defense to show that the negro has been lying in all his affidavits. He repeated a conversation which took place between Foreman Darley and Miss Mattie Smith. He said that it took place a few minutes before 12 o’clock.

The defense will claim that, as a matter of fact, the conversation took place at about 9:30 o’clock in the morning and that the negro must have been there at that time in order to hear the conversation, although he testified that he did not come there until he met Frank on the street at 11 o’clock. The police, however, are ready to combat testimony along this line.

That Frank would have been satisfied with the incoherent, almost unintelligible notes found beside the girl’s body, if he had been dictating them, will be represented as most unreasonable. The notes were more probably the sole work of a half-intoxicated negro, as Conley has admitted he was, the defense will maintain.

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Atlanta Georgian, June 3rd 1913, “Bitter Fight Certain in Trial of Frank,” 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

Wednesday, May 28^th, 1913

Negro Sweeper in New Affidavit Denies His Former Testimony and Makes Startling Assertions; Now Declares He Wrote Notes Saturday.

James Conley, negro sweeper, in an affidavit made Wednesday, said that he was lying when he said he went to the National Pencil Factory on Friday. He said that he made the statement that it was Friday when Frank (as he says) told him to write the death notes, because he was afraid he would be accused of the murder of Mary Phagan if he told the truth.

He said he felt that if he said he was there Saturday the police would connect him with the murder. Conley said he got up between 9 and 9:30 o’clock Saturday morning, he knew the time because he looked at the clock on the Atlanta University from his front door. He returned indoors and had breakfast.

He got three silver dollars from his wife to exchange for paper money so that she would not lose it. He continued:

“I told my wife I was going to Peters Street. I went to Peters Street and stopped at a beer saloon at Peters and Haynes Streets. I bought two beers in there, drank one myself and gave another to a man named Bob. I stayed in the barroom three or four minutes and then walked back to the pool table and shot dice with four men. One of them was named Joe Bobs and one Bob Williams. I won 90 cents.

Drank Some Whisky.

“I don’t know how long we had been shooting, but I think it was about fifteen minutes. I left there then went to Erier saloon on Peters Street. I bought a glass of beer there. I walked back to the rear of the place, rolled a cigarette, came back and bought a half pint of whisky. I drank part of the whisky. I started from there to the Capital City Laundry to see my mother.

“I met Mr. Frank at the corner of Forsyth and Nelson Streets. He stopped me and asked me where I was going. I told him I was going to the Capital City Laundry to see my mother. He said, ‘Wait ‘till I come back.’

“He said he was going to see Mr. Montague. He was gone about 20 minutes. He came back and told me to come to the factory, that he wanted to see me. I went with him, walking behind him. He stopped at the Curtis drug store at Mitchell and Forsyth and got a drink. I waited for him outside. Frank had a bundle in his hand.

“After we got to the factory he put the bundle in the trash barrel right near the steps. He put a box there for me to sit on and other boxes back further in the factory. He told me to sit there until he whistled. He told me not to let Darley see me.

Tells of Seeing Darley.

“Along came a woman down stairs, Miss Mattie, I think her name was. She had on a dark suit and a raincoat. She carried a parasol. (This was Miss Mattie Smith). Then Darley came down stairs. He wore a grey suit and had no hat. He stopped Miss Mattie at the front door. She was wiping her eyes like she was crying. I heard him say, ‘Don’t worry, I will see that you get that next week.’

“She went out and he went back up the steps. In a few minutes he came back down and left. Then came Holloway down stairs about five minutes after Darley left. Holloway stood on the sidewalk five or six minutes and then came back.

“Then a negro drove up to the factory in a wagon. He went upstairs. He had some bills in his hand. Holloway came back with the negro, who was pegleg. The negro drove away and Holloway went back upstairs.

“In a few minutes he came down and left the building for good. Then came another lady. She works on the fourth floor for Arthur White. She was upstairs six or seven minutes. Then she came back down with her money. She stood by me and tore open the envelop and counted the money. Then she left the building and for about fifteen minutes there was no one passing me.

Heard Frank Whistle.

“I sat down on the box and put my head against the trash barrel and stretched my feet out with my hat in my lap. I don’t know whether I went to sleep or not. The next thing I knew I heard Frank’s whistle twice. Just like this (imitating whistle). I went upstairs. The double doors were closed. Frank was standing at the top of the steps. He said, ‘I see you heard me all right,’ and I said, ‘Yes.’

“Frank grabbed me by the arm very tight and his hand was trembling. It was just like he was walking down the street with a lady. He carried me through the first office into his private office, came back and shut the door into the outer office. Then he came back to where I was. He didn’t say anything but grabbed up a box of sulphur matches and went into the outer office. When he came back he pulled out a round chair.

“He brought the chair for me to sit in. Then he closed the door and asked me to address a letter ‘Dear Brother.’ Then he asked me to write some things for him. I don’t remember all of it, but I remember one of them was this: ‘That long tall black negro did it by hisself.’ I wrote these things at his dictation. Then Mr. Frank patted me on the back and said that I was a good boy. Then he handed me a box of cigarettes and I took them.”

Vital Evidence Kept Secret.

From this point the negro’s statement was similar to the affidavit published a few days ago. The negro said that he left the factory between five and ten minutes after 1 o’clock, went back to Peters Street and then went home.

Chief Lanford read the above which he said was about half of the affidavit. The chief said that he had only given out the unimportant details, leaving it to be inferred that Conley had given vital evidence.

Harry Scott intimated that the negro’s affidavit Wednesday morning had practically cleared the mystery and was the most important bit of evidence in the hands of the State.

At 2:45 o’clock the negro was taken into the chief’s office for another sweating.

Admission that he was in the National Pencil factory on the day of the murder of Mary Phagan was gained from Conley, after cross-examination by detectives at police headquarters.

The negro, who became the center of attention with his amazing story that Leo Frank had told him to write the death notes, changed his narrative again to-day. Confronted by E. F. Holloway, a foreman in the plant, he admitted having been in the factory after having steadily maintained that he was on Peters Street between 10 and 2 o’clock that fatal Saturday and at home all other hours of the day.

Says Confession Is Near.

Holloway, after leaving the secret grilling at which the admission was obtained, declared he was sure it was only a matter of hours before Conley would confess. He asserted that if he had been allowed to put questions to Conley he could have gotten important information.

The police questions were, of course, all put with the idea of gaining information against Frank.

Chief Lanford had announced that he would go before Judge Roan with a request for an order allowing him to confront Frank with the negro, so that Conley’s statement would be admissible in court. Lanford, however, failed to carry out his plans, although he would not admit they had been abandoned.

Later Chief Beavers said that the plan to confront Frank with Conley would not be carried out to-day and that its wisdom was doubtful, as, of course, Frank could not be compelled to answer any questions.

Refuse to Admit Suspicion.

The police refused to admit that suspicion was turning or should turned to Conley, who has told one falsehood after another since his arrest. They tried resolutely to construe every one of his statements as against Frank and would not admit that the continued contradictions of the negro made his value as a witness next to nothing.

The police declared that Conley had been asked to write the contents of the death notes and had spelled “night watch” as it was in the note, “night witch,” and “self” with the “l” and “e” transposed as in the notes. That all this shows, in view of the fact that the same officials had announced that they had conclusive evidence by “experts” and that Frank wrote the notes is not plain.

Conley was also confronted by General Foreman N. V. Darley in the presence of Detectives Black, Scott and Lanford and the negro made important admissions that will no doubt force him to admit his guilt.

Conley admitted that he sat at the elevator shaft on the first floor at 12:30 on the afternoon of the murder and saw Darley in company with Miss Smith descent the stairs. Conley described Miss Smith as wearing a raincoat and Darley with his coat on with no hat. Darley stated that both descriptions were absolutely correct in every particular. Strange to say, neither Darley nor Miss Smith saw the negro, for he was seated in the shadow of the steps and never made a sound.

Conley said that after Darley came down stairs with Miss Smith he walked to the door with her and then returned and ascended the stairs. This Darley says is true.

Shortly after this Mrs. Albert [sic] White went into the factory to see her husband and get some money to buy a dress. Her husband, Albert White, was at work on the fourth floor with the assistant foreman and machinist Harry Denham. Mrs. White says that she saw a negro who sat immovable at the foot of the elevator shaft as she entered the factory. She could not identify him because of the indistinct light. But as Conley admitted he was there five minutes before it is reasonable to believe that it was Conley that Mrs. White passed.

According to the statement of E. F. Holloway Conley had no business in the factory on the day of the murder, which was a holiday. Holloway says that the negro denied being there when questioned by him. Now Conley admits that he was there.

Holloway believes that had not Darley escorted Miss Mattie Smith down stairs that she and not Mary Phagan would have been the victim.

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Atlanta Georgian, May 28th 1913, “Conley Says Frank Took Him to Plant on Day of Slaying,” 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

Tuesday, May 27^th, 1913

Declares Chief Beavers Is Only Bluffing, and That if All the Allegations Made by the Police Were True, It Wouldn’t Be a Case for the Grand Jury, as He Has Violated No Law in Seeking Evidence of Corruption In Police Department

CHIEF BEAVERS CONFERS WITH SOLICITOR DORSEY IN REFERENCES TO LAYING WHOLE MATTER BEFORE JURY

He Expects the Solicitor’s Co-operation — James Conley Is Identified by Mrs. Arthur White as the Negro She Saw Lurking Near the Elevator of the Pencil Factory on Day of the Tragedy—“This Is H— of a Family Row and No Place for a Stranger,” Says Tobie

Colonel Thomas B. Felder Tuesday ridiculed the statement of Police Chief James L. Beavers that he would insist upon the grand jury making a searching investigation of the charges against Colonel Felder and also the countercharges published by the latter against the police and detective departments.

Colonel Felder appeared to be very much amused while discussing Chief Beavers’ declaration, which he branded as bluff and bluster. “I don’t believe Beavers has the least idea of going b[e]fore the grand jury,” he said, “but even should he do so there is nothing for the grand jury t[o] consider.

“If all the charges which the police and detectives have made against me were true no law has been violated. I have a perfect right to seek truthful evidence from whatever source I may choose.

“If the grand jury cares to investigate my charges against the police and detective departments I will have no hesitancy in supplying it with a list of the disorderly houses and gambling places which are operated in Atlanta without police interference, and an amazingly long list it will be, too.

“Why, there are more houses of an immoral character in the territory between the Baptist Tabernacle and the governor’s mansion than ever existed in the old segregated district, and places of this kind are scattered throughout the city, no section being immune from them.

Colonel Felder was disinclined to give out any extended statement Tuesday, but admitted that he was gathering material which might later form the basis of a sensational expose.

CHIEF CONFERS WITH THE SOLICITOR.

Chief Beavers Tuesday reiterated his determination to take the entire controversy before the grand jury. He conferred with Solicitor General H. M. Dorsey during the morning and eequested [sic] the solicito[r] to aid him in submitting the matter to the grand jury.

Solicitor Dorsey stated that he was very busy in the superior court with other cases and would be engaged all this week, but that on next Monday, or any time thereafter, he would be in a position to go into the case with the chief.

Following his conference with the solicitor Chief Beavers expressed the opinion that Mr. Dorsey would lend him every assistance in getting both the charges against Colonel Felder and those made by him against the police and detective departments before the grand jury.

When the grand jury adjourned last Saturday it was not to meet this week unless specially called by the solicitor. Foreman L. H. Beck reiterated his statement of Monday that he has not called a special meeting of the grand jury and at present has no intention of doing so.

It is said that, unless warrants are drawn and some one committed to the grand jury, Solicitor Dorsey will not himself take the initiative in starting a probe. It is within the province of the grand jury members themselves, however, to hear the testimony of whom they please and when they please.

Neither Chief Beavers nor Chief Lanford shows any disposition to permit [t]he matter to drop without an investigation and their efforts to institute a grand jury probe will probably be continued until there is some action.

BUNRS [SIC] MAN HAS WITHDRAWN.

It became known Monday evening that the Burns’ detective had withdrawn from a further investigation of the Phagan case. C. W. Tobie, the Burns’ man who has been here for two weeks, announced that he “came down here to investigate a murder case, not to engage in a petty political row.” “This is a h— of a family row and no place for a stranger,” he is quoted as saying.

Mr. Tobie intimated that he Burns detectives might continue a secret investigation of the Phagan case but that he would leave either Tuesday or Wednesday for Chicago.

Tuesday morning Carl Hutcheson, a young lawyer connected with Colonel Felder’s law firm, addressed an open letter to Police Chief Beavers and Detective Chief Lanford in which he accuses them of permitting disorderly houses to operate on Ivy, Spring, Pryor and other streets.

Neither of the chiefs saw fit to make a detailed reply to Mr. Hutcheson. Chief Beavers remarked that Mr. Hutcheson “was but a small cog in the gang machine and that he did not care to dignify him with notice.” Chief Lanford said: “I am too busily engaged with important matters to give time to a controversy with small fry like Mr. Hutcheson. If he has evidence that disorderly houses are operating in Atlanta he should submit it to the chief of police or to me. His complaints would receive the same careful attention as those of any other citizen.”

JAMES CONLEY IS IDENTIFIED.

It was announced Tuesday morning by the city detectives that Mrs. Arthur White, wife of a machinist at the National Pencil factory, had identified James Conley, the negro sweeper, as closely resembling the strange negro she saw lurking near the elevator in the factory shortly after noon of Saturday, April 26, the day of the Phagan murder.

Conley is the negro who swears that on Friday, April 25, “he wrote two notes at the dictation of Superintendent Leo M. Frank, and that the notes he wrote were very similar to those published as having been found by the dead girl’s body.

Mrs. White, who it is admitted by several witnesses, including Frank himself, visited her husband on the third floor of the factory, between 12 noon and 1 p. m. on Saturday, April 26, has consistently maintained that while ascending the factory stairs she noticed a negro man standing near the elevator. No other witness, not even Frank, who was in the office on the same floor as that where the negro was alleged to have been, has stated that a negro was in the factory at the hour named.

At first it was thought that Mrs. White must have been mistaken. However, since Conley confessed to writing the notes the detectives have laid more stress on Mrs. White’s testimony. According to the detectives Mrs. White has picked Conley from a dozen other negroes and declared she believes him to be the negro she saw near the elevator.

BELIEVE HE WROTE NOTES SATURDAY.

This leads the detectives to believe that if Conley wrote the notes which he says he wrote that he must have written them on Saturday instead of Friday. The negro, however, sticks to his story that he wrote the notes on Friday about 1 o’clock.

According to the several times corroborated testimony at the coroner’s inquest Arthur White and another machinist named Denham were at work on the third floor of the pencil factory April 26. Some time between 12 and 1 o’clock Mrs. White called to see her husband and about 1 o’clock Frank came up and announced that he was going to lunch and would lock the door; that if Mrs. White wished to get out she had better do so then. Mrs. White left the factory ahead of the superintendent.

White and Denham continued their work until after Frank returned from lunch, ab[o]ut 3 o’clock, when they, too, left the factory.

“HELL OF A ROW,” SAYS TOBIE.

“This is a h— of a family row, and no place for a stranger,” says C. W. Tobie, of Chicago, criminal investigator for the Burns agency, who is “chucking up” the job of getting more conclusive evidence against the murderer of Mary Phagan, who Tobie says he believes is Leo M. Frank, who has been indicted for the crime.

Tobie, who has not yet left the city, intimates that probably Burns operators will take up the case if certain evidence, which he believes to be in existence, is not produced. Should the Burns people take up again or continue the work, he says, their investigation will be a secret one, not an open probe such as he has conducted.

“I came down here,” says Tobie, disgustedly, “to investigate a murder case, not to engage in a petty political row. All of this stuff seems to have been brewing some time, and it has just now come to the surface.

“From the very first it has been repeatedly said that I was here to get further graft charges against the city police and detectives, and there has always been an undercurrent of sentiment against me and my work.

CALLED IN TOO LATE.

“In the first place, I was called in too late for the sort of a job it is. When I first heard of the Mary Phagan murder and was called on the job I thought it was a fresh case.

“I came here twenty-three days late, and I found that the thing was being worked from many different angles and that many of the witnesses had been interviewed by the solicitor’s men, the Pinkerton man, the city detectives and many newspaper reporters. Of course they were tired of talking about the case, and I hesitated at asking them to tell their stories again, simply for the benefit of the Burns people.

“I didn’t stop at that, but now that the Mary Phagan murder is almost forgotten in a bitter political row in which every man is trying to cut his neighbor’s throat, I have to call the deal off.

“I have never tried to get anything against the city detectives or police, and I have never been even requested to make any sort of an investigation for them, but still that seems to be what everybody thinks I am here for.

WORK NOT BLOCKED.

“Despite reports I have never found myself blocked by the city detectives. It is true that the people have gotten tired of telling their same stories over and over again, and that is all of the trouble I have experienced.”

Tobie first announced his intention of quitting the investigation to Solicitor General H. M. Dorsey Monday evening. He determined to drop the probe last Friday afternoon, when The Journal’s exclusive story told of charges of attempted bribery lodged against his employer Colonel Thomas B. Felder, by the city detectives.

Tobie says that the presence here Monday of Dan P. Lehon, superintendent of the Burns southern office, had nothing to do with his decision to quit the case. He says that he simply notified Mr. Lehon of his decision as a matter of courtesy.

“If I did continue the work on the Phagan matter I would get credit for trying to expose the city detectives, and that I am not doing,” says Tobie.

MAY MAKE SECRET PROBE.

While he says that he is convinced that Frank is the murderer, Tobie says that the evidence is [sic] the hands of the public is not conclusive, and that Burns men will make a secret probe if “certain features” do not develop at the proper time.

Tobie declares that the confession of James Conley, the negro sweeper, that he wrote the notes for Leo M. Frank, is a bad feature of the case.

“Conley says he wrote the notes Friday,” Tobie remarked, “yet I can’t believe that the crime was premeditated. If he had said Saturday, it would have been different. His story puts a new angle on the matter.”

Tobie is bitter over efforts to blacken his character and arraigns his former employers the Pinkerton Detective agency.

DENIES KIDNAPING CHARGE.

Relative to his alleged attempt to kidnap the incubator baby in Sedan, Kan., Tobie says that he was working under the Pinkertons, who simply located the baby for a woman from whom it had been kidnaped.

In the matter he says he knew only the head of the Kansas City Pinkerton agency. When located the baby he wired the official, who told him to await the arrival of parties with a letter of introduction. These parties, a lady and a gentleman, arrived and presented the letter. He then dropped the case, he says, after telling them where the child was. Subsequently, they attempted to kidnap the baby, he says, and were caught.

The Pinkertons, he said, “try to blacken the character of every man who quits them, and that is what they have done to me.”

An interesting feature of the Phagan case Tuesday morning was a visit to police headquarters of Newt Lee’s real wife, from whom he has been separated for more than five years. This is the first time she has attempted to communicate with the negro, although the woman with whom he boards and who was said to be his wife, has repeatedly visited police headquarters.

The negro’s wife, after conferring with the detectives, went to the tower with Detective Starnes, promising to assist the police in getting the truth out of her husband.

COLONEL FELDER SILENT.

Colonel Thomas B. Felder Tuesday morning had no comment to make upon the action of the Burns detectives in severing their connection with the Phagan murder case investigation.

“I have nothing whatever to say,” remarked Colonel Felder in reply to question from a Journal representative.

“Will you issue any statement during the day?” he was asked.

“I don’t know. I will have a conference with my friends and decide that later,” said he.

NEWT LEE STICKS TO HIS ORIGINAL STORY

Attorney Bernard L. Chappell, counsel for Newt Lee, the negro night watchman of the National Pencil factory, who is held under direction of the coroner’s jury in connection with the murder of Mary Phagan, Tuesday morning requested the jailers at the Tower not to permit any one to see his client unless he was present.

The attorney fears that some one might make a false affidavit as to what the negro said. He declares that he has never himself conferred with Lee unless one of the jailors was present.

Lee has never varied from the story he told to the coroner’s jury. He still maintains that he knows nothing of the murder beyond the fact that he discovered the Phagan child’s body in the pencil factory basement about 3 o’clock Monday morning, April 27, and that he immediately notified the police.

The negro also reiterates his statement that Superintendent Leo M. Frank sent him away from the factory when he called there about 4 o’clock Saturday afternoon, April 26. He says he cannot understand why the superintendent seemed so anxious for him to go away.

FACTORY GIRLS HOPE MURDERER IS PUNISHED

One of the young ladies employed at the National Pencil factory, where Mary Phagan met her death, who does not wish her name used, has addressed the following letter to the editor of The Journal:

“Nothing has ever been said of the girls of the pencil factory until after the terrible murder, but since then there has been one continuous talk, just as if we were to blame. We are just as anxious to see the guilty punished as the rest of the public, and we all loved Mary Phagan just as much as we possibly could.

“If the public only would interest itself to look into other factories and stores they would find the girls in the pencil factory are just as good as any other working girls.

“It looks mighty hard that we have to work in the place where our little friend was so horribly murdered. But we are only poor working girls, trying to make an honest living, and we try not to think of the tragedy any more than possible, and we have the interest of the factory too much at heart to desert in times of trouble.

“We all hope and pray the guilty will be punished and the innocent given freedom, for we all think our superintendent has a soul himself and that he would not think of such a thing; much less commit such a horrible crime.”

GHEESLAND CORRECTS STORY OF TESTIMONY

W. H. Gheesland, with the Bloomfield undertaking company, wishes to correct the statement published in The Journal that he said before the grand jury that in his opinion Mary Phagan was assaulted before she was murdered.

“The grand jury, knowing that I was not an expert and not qualified to talk on the subject,” said Mr. Gheesland, “did not ask me if the little girl had been assaulted, and I expressed no opinion during the course of my examination by the jury.”

CARL HUTCHESON ISSUES OPEN LETTER TO CHIEFS

Carl Hutcheson, a young attorney associated with the firm of Anderson, Whitman & Dillon, has written the following open letter to Chief of Police James L. Beavers and Chief of Detectives N. A. Lanford, accusing them of permitting disorderly houses to operate on a number of streets in the city: J. L. Beavers, Chief of Police, Atlanta: Newport Lanford, Chief of Detectives, Atlanta:

In your great crusade against Sodom and Gomorrah with your immaculate robes of Puritanism,

I accuse you in all your glory with allowing certain houses on Ivy street, the business of which is to barter in immoral and indecent practices, to continue in flagrant operation. And you know it. If you do not, every sensible citizen of this city, who knows anything of the world, does. If you do not know these things, it is your duty to know, and you should be discharged from your high pedestals for dereliction.

I accuse you of allowing similar houses to operate on certain parts of Spring street. And you know it. If you do not you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you of allowing similar houses to operate in a certain section of Pryor street. And you know it. If you do not, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you of allowing similar houses to operate on a certain section of Central avenue. And you know it. If you do not, you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

ALLEGES GAMBLING PLACE.

I accuse you of failing to take cognizance of a certain house in Ivy street, to which I c[a]lled your attention several weeks ago, where young men were inveigled to gamble away their money, the mistress thereof being the banker and the recipient of these ill-gotten gains. And you know it, and should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you and numbers of your forces with being cognizant of these facts, and yet you, the great crusade leader, stand idly by and fold your lordly hands.

I accuse you with allowing, even yet, low class hotels in this city to exist and practice their nefarious games of lowly gain. And you know it, and should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

If you cannot “turn up” these places, there are hundreds of people who can. I can use infantile detective work and turn up dozens of them within a few days, and you know this can be done. And, if you fail to get busy and continue to parade your great genius (?) you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

CHARGES POLICE PROTECTION.

I accuse you with protecting these places because of your lax methods in keeping “the houses within our midst” closed, and you know it, and should b[e] removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you of closing Manhattan avenue and converting our entire municipality into a “red light” district. And you know it, and unless you change conditions at once you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you of retaining on your force men unfit to protect the “decent” citizens of Atlanta, and you know it, and should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

I accuse you of knowing where numbers of houses which exist by immoral practices are located and you know it, and you should be removed from office for dereliction of duty.

Do you think that the public will be hoodwinked forever? Do you know that the public is so gullible as to believe all of this “bush-wah” about the great work that you are continuing? Yes, you closed Manhattan avenue, but what did you do for the remainder of the city?

You and your bunch are very sore because you were unable to ferret out the Phagan murder, and you know it. When the solicitor general called in outside aid, numbers of your hirelings were very much perturbed and became insanely jealous. That is why all of this hatched-up bunch of lies and slanders have been issued against Thomas B. Felder, whose shoes you are unworthy to untie, and you know it.

I ac[c]use you of retaining a large number of leather-heads for detectives. Detectives? That is a joke, isn’t it? And you know it, and you should be removed from office for allowing such an army of incompetents to work with your departments. You know, and I know, that these fellows secure their offices through political pull and not through efficiency. They are Sherlock Holmeses when it comes to rresting [sic] blind tigers and negro crap players, but beyond taht [sic] they would not know a clew if they saw it tagged.

In the Phagan case, the newspaper men are the ones who turned up the first clews of any merit, and you know it, and should be ashamed of that crowd down there to allow the members of the Fourth Estate to put one over on you; but you know newspaper men have brains, and brains are required to make detectives.

Now, volley forth again your promulgation of purity and tell the people of this great city what large men you are and how you protect the citizenry of this great commonwealth.

If you haven’t the addresses of the houses to which I refer, call at my offices within three days and I will give you a bunch of them.

Friends of mine have advised me against printing this card. Some have feared for my life—but afraid of you and your crowd? Never. I am not afraid of antying [sic] that lays down its firearms and comes at me like a man in fair play. Now, “lay on, MacDuff, and damn’d be him who first cries, ‘Hold: Enough!’”

CARL HUTCHESON.

“HE’S A LITTLE COG IN GANG MACHINE,” SAYS CHIEF

“Small fry shooting bird shot,” smiled Chief of Police James L. Beavers when told Tuesday morning of the open letter of Carl Hutcheson attacking him, and charging that he knowingly allowed disreputable houses to operate in certain sections of the city.

“Hutcheson is just a little cog in the gang machine, trying to divert attention from the real issue and is not worth answering,” the police official said.

Chief Beavers referred a Journal reporter to the record of the “Henderson hotel case,” and refused to comment further on Hutcheson, who is an attorney associated with the firm of Felder, Anderson, Dillon & Whitman.

As a result of a raid on the Henderson hotel in January and the arrest there of a man and woman, J. F. McFarland, who was represented by Attorney Hutcheson, preferred charges against five policemen: Sergeant G. C. Fain; Officers S. H. Arrowood, J. F. Weichel, C. E. Williams and J. E. McDaniels.

Attorney Hutcheson attacked the policemen who made the raid in statements at police court, and hearing of the charges against them was set for trial before the police commission. The case was reached and Attorney Hutcheson asked a postponement, saying that his client had been called out of the city.

The case was postponed until the next regular meeting of the police commission, one month later, and then neither Attorney Hutcheson nor his client appeared to press the case.

SECRETARY FEBUARY ACTED UNDER ORDERS

Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford has issued the following statement fully explaining the connection of his secretary, G. C. February [sic] with the Felder dictograph incident:

“When it became known that Mr. T. B. Felder was willing to try to bribe one of my men to get information in the Phagan case or anything else that might be in the department, Mr. Colyar first approached me, and told me that he had suggest[ed] February to Colonel Felder.

“I then called February in to my office and the matter was explained to him and he was instructed to go ahead with negotiations. I was fully cognizant of every move, and Mr. February acted with my full authority and approval.”

POLICE DO NOT BELIEVE CONLEY GUILTY OF CRIME

The detectives laugh at the theory that James Conley, the negro sweeper, who says that he wrotes [sic] notes at Superintendent Frank’s dictation, is guilty of little Mary Phagan’s murder.

In commenting on the matter, Chief of Detectives Lanford said Tuesday afternoon:

“We are not entirely satisfied with the affidavit Conley has made, but we have never considered him in the light of a principal or a voluntary accomplice in the crime.”

E. F. Holloway, day watchman at the factory, says that he has always been suspicious of the negro Conley.

It was Mr. Holloway who caught the negro washing what at first were supposed to be blood stains from his shirt. Conley, Mr. Holloway says, often came down to the factory before it was time for him to go to work and he would sit watching the girls employed at the factory as they came in.

Thes[e] circumstances, Mr. Holloway says, have made him regard the negro with suspicion since the crime.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 27th 1913, “Col. Felder Ridicules Idea of Grand Jury Investigation of City Detectives’ Charges,” 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

Friday, May 9^th, 1913

Leo M. Frank general superintendent of the National Pencil factory, was recalled to the stand. He was questioned regarding the elevator. The coroner wanted to know what kind of a door there is to the shaft on the office floor. The witness replied that it is a heavy door solid, that slides up and down.

“Where was the elevator on Saturday, April 26?” he was asked.

“I didn’t notice.”

“Where was it on Friday night?”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Was the door open on Saturday?”

“I didn’t notice.”

Asked whether it would not be possible for some one to fall into the elevator shaft if the door was open, he replied that there is a bar across the door.

“Where was the elevator after the murder?”

“I can only say it was at the office floor on Sunday morning,” replied the witness.

The coroner reverted to the time-clock. “What time did you take the slip out of the clock?” he asked.

“I took it out, marked the time on it, and handed it to an officer,” replied the witness.

“What officers?”

“I don’t remember.”

Regarding the guests who, his mother-in-law and father-in-law testified, called at their home Saturday evening, the coroner asked him next.

“Do you remember a party at your home on the night of the murder?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell about it when you were on the stand before?”

“I wasn’t asked.”

“We asked you about whom you saw. Now can you tell us who was there?”

Mr. Frank named them, corroborating what his father-in-law and mother-in-law had testified as to their identity. He didn’t pay much attention to them, said Frank. He merely greeted them and continued his reading.

“Where were you sitting?”

“In the front room.”

“Didn’t the guests have to pass you when they went to the dining room from the front door?”

“Yes.”

“When the officers came out Sunday morning to bring you down to the factory, what was said about something to drink?”

“I told my wife I wanted something warm to drink. One of the officers said that something would do me good. The implication was ‘whiskey,’ but I didn’t mean that. What I wanted was a cup of coffee.”

He was asked regarding the telephone call during the night, and repeated that he thought when he got up that he had dreamed of the telephone ringing, and that later when he was told the officers had tried to get him he concluded that the dream was real.

“Did you see the girl’s body?”

“Yes. I walked in, and they turned on the light and I looked at the body, recognizing her as the girl I had paid the day before.”

“When did you hear the name first?”

“I don’t recollect.”

“What time did you get home on Sunday?”

“I don’t remember, but I think it was about 1 o’clock.”

When he telephoned home to his wife Sunday morning he did not give her any of the details of what had happened, said he. “When you went home, did you go into details?”

“No, I merely told them what the detectives found. We didn’t discuss it very much.”

“What topic did you discuss?”

“I don’t remember.”

TELLS OF QUINN’S VISIT.

The witness said that Lemmie Quinn, a foreman in the factory, first told him about the visit to the factory on one of the two days that he spent at police headquarters. He said Quinn remarked: “I was there at the office Saturday.” The witness said he recalled it when Quinn mentioned about the time.

Mr. Frank could not recollect having told Quinn anything about withholding information about that point until his lawyers could pass on it. He had so many visitors, he couldn’t remember a detail like that, he said. He couldn’t remember who made the suggestion about consulting attorneys. He didn’t know whether Quinn knew (when he recalled the visit to mind) whether he had a lawyer. He didn’t remember how long he had counsel at that time.

“When did Quinn mention this visit on Saturday?”

“I don’t remember.”

“How can you lock the door into the dressing room where the blood was found?”

“I don’t know. I suppose with keys. There is a door with a lock, in the partition. A spring in the lock keeps it closed.”

“Is there any way to lock the doors and stop passage on the back stairs?”

“There are doors to the stairs, but I never heard of them being locked recently.”

TELLS OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION.

The witness was asked other questions, whose purport was not evident, about these two doors and how they stood that day, and the locks on them, etc. The fact was brought out that there was only one lavatory on that floor, and Mr. Frank, answering a direct question, said he did not enter it all day to the best of his recollection.

Regarding his telephone conversation with a detective who called him early Sunday morning, Mr. Frank said he didn’t know who it was, but learned later that it was a detective. “I would like to have you come down at once,” he said he was told. He asked what had happened, and was told there had been a tragedy, and they wanted him to identify some one.

“He asked me over the phone if I knew Mary Phagan. I told him I did not. Then he asked me if I hadn’t paid off a little girl who worked in the tipping department Saturday afternoon. I said yes, and he said, ‘We’ll send out after you right away.’”

“Didn’t you say the other day that the first time you heard Mary Phagan’s name was in the automobile going down town?”

“No.”

“Do you remember whether or not Harry Denham and Arthur White had any lunch with them on the fourth floor?”

“I don’t remember.”

“When you came downstairs to go out to lunch, did you lock the doors leading into the office?”

The witness did not remember. He was asked as to the disposition of the papers he had been working on. He could remember putting them under a paperweight, but could not remember whether or not he closed his desk. The only people in the building when he left there for lunch, said he, were Henry Denham and Arthur White and Mrs. White.

HIS WORK SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

One of the jurors asked him if he had had any trouble that day about the “time” (pay) of one of the girls working in the factory. He said no, but that Darley had noticed a discrepancy in the time of Miss Mattie Smith and had deducted some cash from the envelope.

Another juror asked, “Did you work on the financial sheet only in the afternoon?”

“Yes.”

He got together a few papers pertaining to it, said the witness, before he went to lunch. The last thing he did there that afternoon was to balance his cash. “Did Miss Hall (the stenographer) assist you?” “No.” He named again all the people whom he saw about the factory that day. “Do you know Mae Barrett?” asked a juror. Mr. Frank had not called that name. “I never heard of her,” answered the witness. He said she could be employed somewhere in the factory, however, without his knowing it.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 9th 1913, “Superintendent Frank is Once More Put on Witness Stand,” 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

Thursday, May 8^th, 1913

Miss Corinthia Hall, an employe in the factory, was the first of the young women employed there to testify before the coroner from their viewpoint regarding Mr. Frank’s attitude and demeanor toward them.

She declared his conduct toward the young women in the factory to be irreproachable.

She works in the varnish department on the fourth floor of the pencil factory, and lives at 19 Waverly street, Kirkwood, she told the coroner. She has been working at the factory about three years, she said.

About 11:45 o’clock on the morning of April 26, she said, she left the pencil factory. She had been there for about ten minutes with Mrs. Emma Freeman, a bride of a day, formerly employed there, to get Mrs. Freeman’s coat. She remembered looking at the clock as they went out. She and Mrs. Freeman spoke to Mr. Frank. He asked Mrs. Freeman, “How’s the bride?”

“How did he know she was a bride?” queried the coroner.

Miss Hall said Mrs. Freeman (who had been Miss Clark the day before) ran away from the factory to the minister’s to get married. Mr. Frank was in the door of his office, said she. She saw a stenographer and Mrs. White in the office. Frank asked her, the witness, to tell Arthur White that his wife wanted to see him downstairs. Arriving on the fourth floor, she saw Arthur White, Henry Denham and Mrs. Mae Barrett. The coroner asked her a number of questions as to what Mrs. Barrett had in her hands, if she saw any crocus sacks there. The witness said that she did not see any crocus sacks in Mrs. Barrett’s hands. Mrs. White did not come upstairs at the time. White went downstairs to her. The witness got Mrs. Freeman’s coat and went downstairs, and White introduced her to his wife.

MET QUINN IN CAFÉ.

The coroner asked the witness if she knows “Mr. Hays, who works in the office of A. P. Stewart, tax collector.” She knew Maybell Hays’ father, replied the witness. The coroner asked her if she told Mrs. Hays anything about Mrs. Barrett and some crocus sacks, and she replied that she did not. She detailed her movements after leaving the factory. She went down a couple of doors and used the phone in Harry Malsby’s place, she said. She went to the drug store nearby. She came back to Malsby’s and used the phone again, not having reached the person whom she wished to talk to. Then she and Mrs. Freeman went into the “Busy Bee” café, on the corner of Hunter street, to get some coffee and sandwiches. Lemmie Quinn came in. Just before he came she had paid for the sandwiches, giving a $5 bill, and received a lot of silver change. She got Quinn to give her bills for some of this, she said.

That was about 12:30 o’clock. She asked Quinn what he was going to do that afternoon. He said he was going to the Atlanta theater. His wife didn’t want to go, he said. She told the coroner the name of a young man, saying that it was to him that she telephoned. Asked about the employees on the fourth floor, she mentioned the name of Joe Sletzer, foreman in that department. Replying to a question from the coroner, she said she didn’t know of any trouble between White and Sletzer. She did not see Mary Phagan on Saturday. The last time she had seen Mary Phagan was on the preceding Monday, which was the last day that Mary worked there. She did not see Holloway, the day watchman in the factory, that Saturday, but did not him on the street nearby when she and Mrs. Freeman approached the place.

“Do you know whether Mr. Frank knew Mary Phagan?”

“No, I don’t think so. He doesn’t know many of us.”

“What is Mr. Frank’s conduct toward the girls working in the factory?”

CONDUCT IRREPROACHABLE.

The witness replied in effect that it is irreproachable, so far as she knows.

“You never saw him display any undue familiarity toward any of them, did you?”

“No, sir.”

“Did you ever see him chuck any of them under the chin, or try to kiss them?”

“No, sir!” answered the witness, with emphasis.

She was excused, and the inquest recessed immediately, at 12:55 o’clock for lunch.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 8th 1913, “Mr. Frank’s Conduct Toward Girls Unimpeachable, Says Miss Hall,” 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

Tuesday, May 6^th, 1913

Factory Superintendent’s Statements on the Witness Stand Considered Distinctly Favorable to Him.

Leo M. Frank’s testimony before the Coroner’s inquest threw no new light upon the Phagan case. Indeed, if it did anything it strengthend the belief in the minds of many persons that the mystery is far from solved.

Frank’s testimony was distinctly favorable to him. He was on the witness stand for several hours. He answered every question in a straight-forward manner. He was not more nervous than any other man in the room. He never halted for a word to make reply. The impression made upon those present was good.

The bringing into the case of another man not heretofore mentioned as having been in the factory on the day of Mary Phagan’s death does not seem to have in any way helped to clear the mystery.

Quinn Talks Freely.

Lemmie Quinn, foreman, whose name was mentioned by Frank, apparently had nothing to conceal either, for her talked with the detectives and police without reserve, and gave a clear statement of his work in the factory. His testimony did more, if anything, than the testimony of any other person to shift the suspicion that has been attached to Frank.

Close reading of the testimony leads to the opinion that the police have not yet solved the great mystery.

Frank is in the Tower to-day. He will be heard again on Thursday. The police may have some important questions to ask him, but if they have, they gave nothing to indicate it at the inquest on Monday.

Solicitor Dorsey, now in active charge of the case, feels certain that the mystery soon will be solved. All the officials are reticent. They refuse to discuss the tragedy with reporters.

Following Every Clew.

Many baseless rumors are in circulation on the streets, and the public clew presented to them.

The police and detectives are working diligently and following every clew presented to them.

It is too early to forecast what the authorities have in store in the way of additional evidence, but that brought out yesterday pointed the finger of suspicion at no one at all. It was simply negative. It involved the witness no more than suspicion already had involved him, and was not all damaging to Lee, who is being held with Frank in connection with the mystery.

Quinn was examined by Lanford and Scott, of the Pinkertons. He corroborated Frank’s story in detail. He was permitted to return to his home at 31-B Pullman Street.

Quinn was foreman of the department in which the victim worked. He had known her ever since she first was employed with the concern. A stormy scene is said to have ensued during the interrogation to which he was subjected at headquarters. To a reporter he declared that Scott and Solicitor Dorsey charged him with having accepted a bribe.

He says he retorted to the charge:

“Show me the man that says I took a bribe, and I’ll whip him on the pot.”

Quinn was asked if Frank’s statements were true, and he replied:

“Yes; it’s true. I left my house Saturday morning about 11:45 o’clock. On the way uptown I stopped into Wolfsheimer’s and bought an order of fancy groceries. I stopped at another place and bought a cigar.

“Then I went to the factory. I wanted to see Frank and tell him ‘Howdy do.’ I knew he would be in the place. He is always there on Saturdays. It was about 12:15 or 12:30 when I arrived at the building. I saw no one in front or as I went upstairs to the office.

“Frank was at his desk. He appeared very busy. I stepped in and said: ‘Well, I see you work even on holidays. You can’t keep me from coming around the building on Saturdays, either. How do you feel?”

“He said he was feeling good. He didn’t appear agitated or nervous. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I left. I wasn’t in the plant for more than two minutes. As I came downstairs on the way out, I saw someone in the rear of the first floor—a person whom I would have no grounds whatever to suspect.

Believes Frank Innocent.

“No! I won’t divulge his name. I’ll tell the detectives in time. I’m glad Frank told the Coroner of my visit. It was I who refreshed his memory of the incident. He apparently had forgotten it. I have not been keeping it secret. I told the detective Saturday of the visit.

“I have known Mr. Frank for years and I know he is not guilty.”

Quinn declared that he was in the building about two minutes. He said that he did not see Mary Phagan.

He is outraged at the treatment he alleges was accorded him by the detectives.

“They were insulting and seemed to doubt my statement,” he said. “In an insinuating manner Chief Lanford plied the question: ‘So you put yourself there about the time the Phagan girl left the factory, eh?’”

Quinn was an ardent admirer of the murdered child. He says she was one of his most industrious employees.

He is married and has one child. His connection with the National Pencil Company dates back several years.

Quinn said that it was he who refreshed Frank’s memory of his presence in the building shortly after noon of the day on which the girl is supposed to have been slain.

“I called upon Frank at the jail,” he said. “The moment I reminded him of my visit, he recollected it. He apparently had forgotten it.”

The inquest was adjourned at 7:18 o’clock. It will be resumed at 9:30 o’clock Thursday morning. The two-day postponement is to permit detectives to garner evidence they announce available.

Tells Action in Detail.

In detailing every move on the day Mary Phagan was killed, Frank said he left  about 7 o’clock Saturday morning and was at the office by 8:26. About 9 o’clock Foreman M. D. Darley and others entered his office and talked business matters with him. Frank testified he went to the office of Sig Montag, factory manager, on Nelson Street, at 10 o’clock, and remained there for nearly an hour.

He returned at 11 o’clock and an hour later the stenographer and the office boy left him alone, Darley and the others having departed. He thought it was about ten minutes after noon that Mary Phagan came in to get her pay envelope and after receiving it started out of the door, stopping only to ask if an expected shipment of metal had arrived. He heard her voice as she seemed to be talking with another girl outside. He heard the footsteps die away and believes Mary Phagan left the building, he testified.

Visited by Lemmie Quinn.

Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the tipping department, came into the factory at 12:15 or 12:20, just after the Phagan girl had left. Frank said that the foreman merely greeted him and conversed for five or ten minutes and then left.

Frank said that he himself left the factory at 1 o’clock and went home for luncheon with his father-in-law, Emil Selig. He left home to return to the factory at 2 o’clock, arriving there about 3 o’clock, and speaking to several acquaintances on his way.

At 3:10 o’clock Harry Denham and Arthur White, two employees who had been doing some work on the holiday, punched the clock, stopped to talk a few minutes with Frank and then quit the building, leaving Frank there alone.

Sees Watchman and Gantt.

Newt Lee, the night watchman, came at 3:45, but was told by Frank that he might go away until 6 o’clock. The watchman returned at 6 o’clock and few minutes later J. M. Gantt appeared at the factory and asked permission to get a pair of shoes he had left in the shipping room. Frank left before Gantt had obtained his shoes.

Frank said that he arrived home at 6:25 and that his wife and mother-in-law entered as he was calling Newt Lee to see if Gantt had left the factory. Lee did not answer at this time, but answered when Frank called at 7 o’clock. Frank testified that he remained in the house from this time until he went to bed at 11 o’clock. He was awakened at 7:30 o’clock the next morning by the telephone call which told him of the tragedy.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 6th 1913, “Frank’s Testimony Fails to Lift Veil of Mystery,” 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.

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