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

Atlanta Journal

Wednesday, April 30^th, 1913

Harry Denham’s Story Indicates Miss Annie Howell Wasn’t in Factory

The time clock at the National Pencil company’s factory, where Mary Phagan was murdered, shows that employe [sic] No. 141 registered off at 3:07 p. m. last Saturday.

This is the number of Miss Annie Howell, of 664 East Fair street, and at first the detectives thought she might be able to throw some light on the mystery.

It developed later, however, that this must have been a mistake. Harry Denham, one of the men employed in the factory, claims that he punched her by mistake, and then punched his own number, which is 143, as a correction.

The clock shows that No. 143 was punched at 3:09 p. m. on Saturday.

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Atlanta Journal, April 30th 1913, “Says He Punched Time Clock on Wrong Number,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Leo M. Frank [On early Monday morning (April 28th, 1913), Leo Frank already had his lawyers present to answer questions from the police; the most expensive criminal defense lawyers in Georgia, somehow secured over the weekend, just one day after the murder and before Leo Frank was even seen as a major suspect. On Sunday, Frank told the police he was alone with Mary in his office at 12:03pm, but on Monday, with his lawyers at his side, he changed the time to between 12:05 and 12:10pm, a habit Frank would later fall into during subsequent questioning and trials. — Ed.]

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

Atlanta Journal

Wednesday, April 30^th, 1913

They Decline to Say, However, Whether Conversation Between Superintendent and Watchman Was Overheard

WAS MARY PHAGAN SEEN AT 5 P. M.?

J. L. Watkins Says He Saw Her Near Her Home—Chemist’s Tests Shows No Blood Under Negro’s Finger Nails

A report that there was a Dictaphone in the room in which Leo M. Frank talked with Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, at police headquarters Tuesday night in a supposed effort to wring a confession from the negro, was denied Wednesday by both Chief of Detectives Lanford and Chief of Police Beavers.

Neither official, however, would say that the conversation between the factory superintendent and the negro was private. They were asked directly if any member of the police or detective departments heard what was said between Frank and the negro but declined to say.

There is a strong belief that the meeting between the superintendent and the negro was arranged by the detectives in the hope of obtaining evidence without the knowledge of either Mr. Frank or the night watchman. The report spread that sensational evidence was obtained in this manner, but no confirmation could be obtained at headquarters.

WHAT TIME CLOCK SHOWS.

Despite the negro watchman’s statement that he passed every half hour through the machine room, where it is presumed Mary Phagan first battled to save her honor and her life, an examination of the clock’s record which was brought to police headquarters Tuesday afternoon, developed that the clock had not been punched from midnight Saturday until long after the body of the murdered girl was found.

The time clock record shows that the instrument was visited regularly up to 9:25 o’clock Saturday night. It was next punched at 10:29 o’clock. Next the instrument records a visit from some-one, presumably the night watchman, at midnight. The clock was not punched between 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock in the morning.

Considered of far more importance that the irregularity of the visits of the watchman to the time clock, despite the fact that his previous record shows that almost invariably he punched the clock each half hour on past nights, was the finding by City Detective John Black and Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, of a bloody shirt stuffed in a barrel at the negro watchman’s home on Hendrix avenue.

Between the irregular adjustments of the clock the negro would have had ample time to visit his home, it is said.

Still the detectives argue, the evidence against Lee might have been planted. Lee was confronted with the bloody shirt and he says that he hasn’t worn it in two years, and that when last he saw the shirt it had no blood on it. His wife declares that he left the house Saturday wearing the shirt he now has on at police headquarters.

SAYS HE SAW HER AT 5 P. M.

J. L. Watkins, a blacksmith at the corner of Bellwood avenue and Ashby street, is positive that he saw Mary Phagan about 5 o’clock Saturday afternoon, and he is the first witness who is positive that the murdered girl left the Forsyth street factory after she went there Saturday about noon to collect the $1.20 due her for two days’ work in the place.

Watkins lives near Mary Phagan’s home, and says that he has known her for years.

Saturday afternoon about 5 o’clock, he tells The Journal, he saw her walking up Bellwood avenue in the direction of her home on Lindsay street. He was walking behind her, he says, and was only ten paces away.

“I am positive that it was Mary Phagan,” said Mr. Watkins, “and I have known her as a neighbor for many years.

“When I last saw her she was cutting across a vacant lot towards Lindsay street and her home. She was dressed in a blue skirt and white shirtwaist and was bareheaded.”

Watkins was located by the detectives Tuesday and made substantially the same statement to them that he has to The Journal.

NO BLOOD UNDER NAILS.

A chemical analysis was made Tuesday night at the direction of Chief of Detectives Lanford of the dirt under the finger nails of Newt Lee. The analysis proved a point in the negro’s favor rather than against him, since it developed absolutely no trace of blood.

It developed Wednesday that on an investigation by the detectives the supposed “blood finger prints” on the dead girl’s arm were proved to be “paint finger prints,” and according to Chief Lanford, the paint might have been on the arm for weeks.

All efforts to break Lee down and force a confession or more complete statement failed Tuesday night. Francis E. Wright, of Pulliam street, salesman, assisted the detectives in “sweating” Lee during the evening, and emerged from a long conference with the statement that the negro must be innocent. There is also a growing impression among the rank and file at police headquarters, that the watchman, despite the circumstantial evidence against him, did not commit the crime.

Walter Graham, a young white man of 75 Marietta street, smuggled a derringer revolver into a cell at headquarters next to Lee, and Tuesday night discharged the weapon. Lee was badly frightened by the report, but when visited shortly afterwards by the detectives had not weakened.

FRANK KEEPS CALM.

Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the factory, a thin, wiry man, who wears eyeglasses with thick lenses, and who

USE OF DICTAPHONE ON FRANK AND NEGRO IS DENIED BY POLICE

(Continued From Page One.)

does not appear to be in the best of health, is taking his imprisonment very calmly.

When he was told by The Journal of the result of the examination of the time clock record of his factory, he showed great surprise.

“I don’t remember ever having heard of Lee’s failing to punch the clock at regular intervals,” he said.

“While I do not examine the record each day, if the negro failed in his duty, it would have been reported to me immediately. Lee has been unusually faithful about his duties.”

Numbers of Frank’s friends visited him at the police headquarters during Tuesday afternoon and evening, and it was not until shortly after midnight that they left. He, with a guard by his side, went to sleep on a cot in the office of detectives and slept soundly for several hours.

[J.] M. Gantt, whose attorneys, Gober & Jackson, took him before Judge George L. Bell, of the superior court, on a writ of habeas corpus Tuesday afternoon, has been transferred at the judge’s order to the Tower.

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Atlanta Journal, April 30th 1913, “Use of Dictaphone on Frank and Negro Denied by Police,” 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, April 29^th, 1913

Murderer of Mary Phagan Probably Left Factory by the Rear Door

A bloody thumb print, found Tuesday afternoon on the rear door to the basement of the National Pencil factory, leads the police to the theory that the murderer of Mary Phagan left the factory building by that door after he had deposited the girl’s body in the basement.

This theory is still further strengthened by the fact that when the murder was discovered Sunday morning it was found that a staple had been drawn from the fastening on the rear door.

R. B. Piron, said to be an employee of the pencil factory, came across the bloody thumb print while making an examination of the factory premises. He chiseled off the bloody spot and took it to Detective Chief Newport A. Lanford, who will have it analyzed to determine whether the stain is human blood.

Piron also brought along a woman’s handkerchief and a sharpened pencil, which he says he found in the basement near the spot where Mary Phagan’s body lay.

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Atlanta Journal, April 29th 1913, “Bloody Thumb Print is Found on Door,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

1—Mary Phagan’s own handwriting, as shown in her address she wrote for Sunday School teacher. 2—Written by Lee at suggestion of detectives for purpose of comparison. 3—One of notes found in cellar. 4—Also written by Lee at suggestion of detectives.

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

Atlanta Journal

Monday, April 28^th, 1913

City detectives, detailed to run down the murderer or murderers of fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan, are endeavoring to clear up the mystery surrounding the authorship of two crudely written and badly composed notes which were found near the corpse of the murdered girl in the basement of the pencil factory.

These notes were written in lead pencil. They are misspelled, incoherent and nearly unintellible [sic]. They present two questions to the minds of the detectives:

First: Were they really written by the girl while suffering the last throes of a delirious death?

Second: Are they the handiwork of the murderer, to divert suspicion from himself toward a fictitious negro.

One of the notes reads as follows:

“He said he wood love me laid down like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro did by his sleb.”

Here is the other:

“mama that negro hired down here did this I went to get water and he pushed me down this hole a long tall negro black that has it woke long lean tall negro I write while play with me.”

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Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, “Two Maundering Notes Add Mystery to Crime,” 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

Will Meet Again Wednesday Morning When Witnesses Will Be Examined—Five Hundred People Present When Inquest Was Begun

For an hour Monday morning a jury empaneled by Coroner Paul Donahue [sic] groped through dark basement passageways and first floor rooms in the factory of the National Pencil company hunting for evidence that would aid them in reaching a verdict as to who murdered pretty Mary Phagan. At the end of their hunt the body adjourned. They will meet again Wednesday morning at 9 o’clock to continue their investigation.

Many witnesses who can throw a light on the actual crime, the actions of the dead girl or of the suspects under arrest will be examined then. It is probable, also, that the prisoners now held in jail also will testify.

The jury met at P. J. Bloomfield’s undertaking chapel, 84 South Pryor street, shortly after 10 o’clock. It was composed of these: J. C. Hood, Clarence Langford, Glenn Dewberry, Homer C. Ashford, John Miller and C. Y. Sheets. Mr. Ashford was foreman.

The first official act of the jury was to view the remains of the 14-year-old girl. Behind closed doors the coroner’s talesmen inspected the fatal wounds and bruises on the girl’s body.

No witnesses were called. One or two who had been told by the police to be present when excused and told to report again Wednesday morning. They and many others probably will be heard at that time.

A throng of 500 persons had gathered at the undertaking parlors to hear the inquest. They were excluded by the police and when the jury, headed by Coroner Donahue [sic], finally left the funeral parlors for the scene of the murder, the investigators had to elbow and shoulder their way across a crowdbanked sidewalk.

Every inch of ground, every thing that has been mentioned in connection with the case were examined by the jurors in the pencil factory.

They were accompanied by three or four policemen on their tour, and the many details of the mystery given them to unravel, if possible. Once in their investigation a lantern was placed on the spot on the basement floor where Newt Lee, negro night watchman, says another lantern was sitting when he discovered the body. Apparently there was doubt in the minds of some of the jurors as to whether or not it would be possible for one standing where the negro said he stood to see a body. What the consensus of opinion among the investigators was is not known, however.

Shovels, tools, pieces of wood and other objects lying in the basement were examined for evidence that there had been possible weapons in the attack upon the girl. The search along this line was fruitless.

The jury viewed the machine room in the second story, upon the floor of which blood stains were found Monday morning. They saw the lathe to which a few strands of hair were found clinging by a workman. They visited the lavatory and several other rooms in the building. At the conclusion of the search no juror expressed an opinion. They will reserve their judgment until the conclusion of the inquest. This probably will be on Wednesday.

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Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, “Coroner’s Jury Visits Scene of Murder and Adjourns Without Rendering Verdict,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

1—Mary Phagan’s own handwriting, as shown in her address she wrote for Sunday School teacher. 2—Written by Lee at suggestion of detectives for purpose of comparison. 3—One of notes found in cellar. 4—Also written by Lee at suggestion of detectives.

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

Atlanta Journal

Monday, April 28^th, 1913

It’s Discovery Leads to Theory That She May Have Been Attacked There and Then Dragged to Factory Basement

The finding of half a dozen strands of hair in the cogs of a steel lathe in the metal room on the second floor of the National Pencil company’s factory and the discovery of blood splotches on the floor, early Monday morning, aroused the belief that this was the scene of the murder of fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan, Sunday morning. There were no other evidences of a death struggle here, but there was little in the room that could have been disturbed by a combat.

The hair is of the same shade as that of the murdered girl.

A cunning effort has been made to conceal the blood stains on the floor by the smearing of some kind of a powder over the surface. A single drop of congealed blood was found, however, by a Journal reporter, and a further investigation revealed more.

In the absence of contradictory evidence, it is now the belief that the girl was killed in this room and her body then dragged in the opening in the first floor, where it was lowered to the basement. This tends to implicate more than one murderer, as the weighed nearly 150 pounds.

CALLED THERE FOR PAY?

Miss Phagan formerly worked in the very room in which she is believed to have met death. She and four other girls were employed there in manufacturing the metal caps which fasten the rubber erasers to the ends of pencils.

On last Tuesday, because of a shortage in material, she and her companions were laid off by L. A. Quinn, foreman of the shop. They were to return to work when metal arrived.

On Friday, Foreman Quinn endeavored to locate Miss Phagan and her three companions. He wanted to tell them to call for their pay on Friday, as Saturday, the regular payday, was a holiday. Owing to the fact that the dead girl could not be reached by telephone, she was not notified of the change in payday, and on Saturday she went to the factory expecting to get her money.

What she did after her arrival has not yet been determined by the police.

Miss Phagan was the stepdaughter of J. W. Coleman. Her mother was prostrate with grief on Sunday when, after spending a sleepless night, worrying over her daughter’s unexplained absence, she was told that the girl was the victim of one of the most atrocious murders in the criminal history of Atlanta. Sunday night she became hysterical, and physicians were summoned.

The girl also has three brothers. Two live in Atlanta, and one joined the navy but six months ago.

NEGRO FOUND BODY.

Newt Lee, negro night watchman, discovered the body of the girl at 3:30 o’clock Sunday morning. He called the police, who hastened to the scean [sic] in an automobile. The black met the machine and told an almost incoherent story of how he had stumbled on the body in the darkness of the basement. His manner aroused immediate suspicion in the minds of the officers, and he was later taken into custody. He denies knowledge of the crime, however.

The limbs of the corps [sic] had grown rigid, but the blood which had flowed from the deep wound on the girl’s head was still damp.

Other evidences of murder were all about. The handkerchief of the victim was found forty feet away. It was saturated with blood. Another handkerchief—a man’s—was found beside the body. It too, was soaked in blood.

A hat and a parasol, later identified as belonging to the murdered girl, were found in the elevator shaft.

MESH HANDBAG MISSING.

Her mesh handbag, said to have contained a few dollars in cash and valuless personal effects, was missing, however, though she was said to have taken it from home with her.

On her wrist was a plain gold bracelet. It was bent, and was splotched with blood. Upon a finger of her left hand was a small signet ring upon which was engraved “W.”

It was 6 o’clock Sunday morning before the girl was identified. Miss Grace Hicks, one of the girls employed in the factory, was brought to the scene in an automobile. She swooned as soon as she saw the senseless form and battered face of her former companion.

“It’s Mary Phagan,” she sobbed a moment later, “Poor Mary!”

A few hours later detectives reached the conclusion that the girl had been dragged before the murder, either while in the factory or before her arrival there. An examination showed that a criminal assault had preceded the homicide.

A crude garrotte, manufactured of two strips of underclothing torn from the girl’s body, had been used to choke her. Apparently it had been placed about her neck and then twisted.

One of the theories of the police is that the girl and her later murderer (or murderers) entered the building through the Forsyth street entrance, and that the perpetrators of the crime left through a rear door. This theory is borne out by the fact that a door permitting egress through an alley to West Hunter street was forced open. The staple holding the lock was torn from the woodwork.

HANDWRITING NOT KNOWN.

Efforts to identify the penmanship of the notes found by the dead girl’s side failed. Samples of her handwriting, of Mullinax’s and of that of the negro watchman, all failed to agree with it. If either of the men wrote the messages they successfully disguised their handwriting; if the girl really did write the missives, she did so in the throes of approaching death. One of the notes was penciled on an order blank of the factory.

NEGRO’S STORY UNSHAKEN.

Newt Lee, negro nightwatchman, held as a suspect in solitary confinement, denied absolutely any knowledge of the crime. Without weakening or changing his first statements, in any way, the black stood several severe grillings at the hands of the police Sunday. His story was not shaken.

Accompanied by reporters and detectives, he was taken Sunday to the basement in the pencil factory where he discovered the remains of the pretty girl. In pantomime he re-enacted the finding of the body.

A detective lay on the floor in the exact spot where the body was found. The lights were turned out and the negro told to depict his actions earlier in the morning. While the small audience looked on, the black descended the ladder through the trap door outside. He remained there a few moments and then walked over to the side of the detective.

“That’s the way it happened,” he said. The police admit that the negro’s tale of the finding of the body is plausible and possible.

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Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, “Strand of Hair in Machine on Second Floor May Be Clew Left by Mary Phagan,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Mary Phagan [Interestingly, according to testimony given before the Coroner’s Jury by Mary’s boy sweetheart, George W. Epps, Mary had requested that George walk her home from the factory after work a few days before the murder as the superintendent, Leo M. Frank, had a habit of watching for her from the front door, looking suspicious, and winking at her. — Ed.]

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

Atlanta Journal

Monday, April 28^th, 1913

Developments in Case Have Come Thick and Fast Monday but No Evidence Has Yet Been Developed Which Fixes the Atrocious Crime — Mullinax Seems to Have Proved Alibi

SUPERINTENDENT FRANK AIDS POLICE IN TRYING TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY

He Was Closely Questioned for Several Hours Monday but Left Headquarters in Company With His Attorneys and Friends—Crime Was Committed in Metal Room on Second Floor—Sleeping Compartment Found in Factory Basement

Detectives expect to wring the secret of Mary Phagan’s murder from Newt Lee, negro night watchman at the National Pencil factory, 37-39 South Forsyth street.

Their theory is that he is innocent of the crime itself, but that he knows the murderer of the fourteen-year-old girl, and is shielding the man who strangled Mary Phagan with a piece of hempen cord on Saturday and dragged her body into the pitch black cellar of the factory.

The negro will tell nothing, but from him and from J. M. Gantt, the discharged bookkeeper, detectives expect to draw the story of how Mary Phagan was beaten into unconsciousness, assaulted, and then strangled to death.

FOUR ARE UNDER ARREST.

Four men are under arrest: Lee, the negro night watchman; Gantt, who was discharged three weeks ago by the company; Arthur Mullinax, of 62 Poplar street, and Gordon Bailey, a negro elevator boy at the pencil factory.

L. M. Frank, superintendent of the pencil factory, was questioned by the police, and spent the better part of Monday morning at [the] police station. But he was not placed under arrest, and at noon returned home.

An alibi has practically been established for Mullinax by Jim Rutherford, with whom he boarded, and the police have no direct evidence against Gordon Bailey, the elevator boy.

They are depending upon Newt Lee, the watchman, and upon Gantt, the discharged bookkeeper, for a solution of the mystery which brands the murder of the fourteen-year-old girl.

SLEEPING COMPARTMENT.

An improved cot, fashioned from wooden boxes pushed close together and covered with crocus bags, was discovered in a separate compartment in the basement at the rear end near where the dead body of the girl was found. The compartment which is about eight or ten feet wide runs about half the length of the building and the ground is soggy with dampness.

Just inside, and to the left of the door at the back end, is the cot. In the ground near it were discovered two small footprints, that are believed to be those of a woman. The belief is now that the girl was lured here, assaulted and then murdered and her body dragged to the spot outside where it was found lying face downward in a pool of blood.

Through the discovery of this cot the police are led to believe that it has been used as a place of rendezvous.

The watchman discovered the place Sunday and pointed it out to newspaper men who discovered the tell-tale footprints through the aid of lanterns in the ill smelling, damp and dismal place.

It is the theory of the police that the negro, Newt Lee, knew of the place.

The negro fireman, William Nolle, who has been in the employ of the company for two months, denied most emphatically any knowledge of the existence of the rendezvous.

The [diagram] above shows the lathe, where strands of woman’s hair were found. Also the machine room on the second floor, giving location of elevator shaft, stairway, etc. Diagram of basement (where the body was found) shows ladder to trap door and the door where a staple had been pulled. The big cross indicates the spot where the body was found.

Investigations Monday morning proved that Mary Phagan was murdered in the metal room, on the second floor of the factory, and that her body was lowered in the elevator to the basement, and was dragged across the oozy, slimy floor of the cellar to the corner where it was found lying face upward between 3 and 4 o’clock Sunday morning.

They are not sure of the time at which the child was murdered, but they believe that she met her death at midnight instead of Saturday afternoon or Saturday evening.

BELIEVES WATCHMAN KNOWS.

The negro night watchman was on duty during the later afternoon and throughout the night, and they are convinced that he must know how the crime was committed. As soon as he can be made to tell his story, detectives believe that they will have the full account of how the girl was murdered.

Blood upon the floor in the metal room, and strands of hair found in the machinery of a lathe, establish the fact that Mary Phagan met her death there instead of in the cellar.

With inhuman ferocity she was attacked, beaten into unconsciousness and her murder completed by the hempen rope twisted about her throat.

Newt Lee, the watchman, remained in the building throughout the night, but he says that he heard no screams, that he knew nothing of the murder in the metal room, and that he neither saw nor heard the murderer as the dead body of Mary Phagan was placed in the elevator, lowered to the cellar, and dragged across the wet damp floor to the corner where it was found.

The police place no belief in his professed ignorance. They think that he must know who murdered the girl and who bore the body to the cellar.

They are also entertaining the theory that the murderer must have had assistance in lowering the body to the basement, and that perhaps the negro watchman lent his aid.

NEGRO KEEPS HIS TONGUE.

The negro’s silence has been proof against all questions, but the police are confident that he has the whole story at his tongue’s end and that he will eventually clear the mystery.

The third degree for the watchman and an examination of Gantt, the discharged bookkeeper, are the means through which the police mean to discover the murderer of Mary Phagan.

Their efforts Monday morning bore fruit chiefly in the arrest of Gantt, and the discovery of facts which seem to tassure the negro’s knowledge of the murder.

They first discovered that the girl had been murdered upon the second floor and her body lowered to the basement; they next found that Gantt had visited the factory on Saturday afternoon, and they finally effected his arrest at Marietta.

SUPERINTENDENT IS QUESTIONED.

Other developments of the day were chiefly random investigations. L. M. Frank, superintendent of the pencil factory, was questioned at [the] police station during the greater part of the morning and stenographic record was kept of his answers. So rigid was this examination that Mr. Frank employed Luther Rosser and Herbert Haas to represent him in his appearance before the police. But no charges were made against him, and at the conclusion of his examination, he returned home.

The coroner’s jury met and made a personal investigation of the metal room where Mary Phagan was murdered and the cellar where her body was found. But the examination of witnesses was deferred until Wednesday.

FRANK LEAVES STATION.

At 12:15 o’clock Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil company’s plant in which fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan was murdered some time Sunday morning, left police headquarters in the company of his lawyers and a number of friends. Before leaving, he had confronted Arthur Mullinax, the street car conductor, whom the police were holding under suspicion, and had declared that he never saw Mullinax before that moment. Also, he had helped the police to clarify the recollections

POLICE THINK WATCHMAN CAN CLEAR MYSTERY

[Continued from page 1]

of Newt Lee, negro night watchman, relative to one incident upon the evening preceding the crime. Lee had told the detectives that J. M. Gantt, formerly a bookkeeper at the plant, calling there Saturday afternoon and being admitted, had stayed in the office only three or four minutes. Under questions by Mr. Frank, the negro said Gantt stayed inside longer than that—long enough to wrap up his old shoes that he had called to get, and to telephone to some girl.

SAW MAN WITH GIRL.

L. T. (“Charley”) Hall, in charge of the automobile trucks of the city sanitary department, told the detectives that he took his brother-in-law to the corner of Forsyth and Alabama streets, a block north of the pencil factory, at midnight Saturday to put him aboard the last East Point car. After the car left, Hall entered the soda and cigar establishment on the opposite corner, west side of Forsyth, and while there, at about 12:05 o’clock, he saw a couple going down the street toward the pencil factory. The man, said he, seemed to fit the description given to him of Gantt. He had seen the man before around the plant, said he, when he went there with the sanitary trucks. He had looked on him as some sort of an official. Recently for couple of weeks he had not seen him. He was with a girl, whose dress reached just to her shoe tops. Hall thinks the girl wore white shoes. He thought no more of it until he read of the murder.

A woman whom no one could identify, called detective headquarters upon the phone Monday morning and asked if Mullinax, the trolley car conductor, was under arrest. Detective Hollingsworth informed her in the affirmative, and asked if she knew anything of the case. She answered, “Yes,” said he, but hung up before he could get any further replies from her.

FACTORY IS CLOSED.

Owing to the feeling of unrest and intense excitement that prevailed among the women employees at the National Pencil company’s plant Monday morning while detectives were making further investigations into the brutal murder and assault of little Mary Phagan, Assistant Superintendent H. G. Schiff, ordered the machinery stopped and the place cleared for the day.

The girls and women lost no time in getting into their wraps and hats and leaving the scene of the mysterious tragedy that still baffles those investigating the case. All were told, however, to be sure and report on time for work Tuesday morning.

HAIR IS IDENTIFIED.

It is the belief of detectives that an important witness has been discovered in Magnolia Kennedy, the young girl who worked next to Mary Phagan in the metal or pencil tip room. She will testify that the hair found wrapped around a part of a lathe in this department of the factory was that of Mary. L. A. Quinn, foreman of the room, was also positive that the strands of hair had come from the head of the dead girl. Other operatives were of the same opinion but not being in the same part of the place were not so certain.

But the little girl who worked with Mary, said that she was not mistaken. She was asked point blank if she [was sure] the strands came from the head of her companion. “I am positive of it,” she said, “and will swear to it if necessary.”

While detectives, newspaper men and employees gathered about the lathe little Magnolia tiptoed up close to the machine and stared intently at the golden strands. She shuddered. Awe-stricken women stood away from her. Then her voice broke the silence, “It’s Mary’s hair,” she almost whispered. “I know it.”

BLOOD SPOTS FOUND.

Across the room from the lathe, spots of blood were found on the floor near a wooden closet built out from the wall near a door that opened into another department of the factory.

The largest spot was four or five inches in diameter and around it were smaller spatterings. Detectives and Chief of Police Beavers chiseled up shavings of the flooring to get a better light on the wood. An alcohol test was made by dipping the stained piece of wood into the liquid. It was not soluable [sic] as paint or grease would have been, and did not discolor the contents of the glass. This test satisfied the officers that the stains were blood from the body of the murdered girl.

Employers of the factory stated positively that the spots were not there Friday afternoon when the room was swept out.

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Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, “Police Think Negro Watchman Can Clear Murder Mystery; Four Are Now Under Arrest,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

At the top is a photograph of writing done by Newt Lee, the negro night watchman after his arrest. At the bottom is a photograph of two lines of a note found beside the body of Mary Phagan in the pencil factory cellar. Three handwriting experts—Frank M. Berry, assistant cashier of the Fourth National bank; Andrew M. Bergstrom, assistant cashier of the Third National bank and Pope O. Driver, chief bookkeeper and head of mail departments, of the American National bank, unhesitatingly declare that the same hand penned them both. Detectives are satisfied that Lee knows all about the killing of the girl. The only question in their minds is whether he is alone involved.

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

Atlanta Journal

Tuesday, April 29^th, 1913

Frank M. Berry, of the Fourth National Bank, Andrew M. Bergstrom of Third National, and Pope C. Driver, of the American National, Examined Notes at Journal’s Request And Found Same Person Wrote Both

ALL THREE ARE EXPERTS AND MADE MICROSCOPICAL EXAMINATIONS

Their Investigation Shows He Wrote Both Notes and Seems to Prove Conclusively That Either the Negro Committed the Crime or Knows Who the Guilty Party Is

Through its own investigations The Atlanta Journal has proven conclusively that Newt Lee, the negro night watchman for the National Pencil company, either himself mistreated and murdered pretty Mary Phagan, or that he knows who committed the crime and is assisting the perpetrator to conceal his identity.

Locked in this negro’s breast is the key to the murder mystery, which has shocked the entire south.

Three handwriting experts who Tuesday compared the notes found near the girl’s body in the factory basement with notes written by Lee after his arrest and at the instigation of the city detectives are positive that the same hand penned them all.

The experts who made a microscopical examination of these notes and who are unanimous in declaring that the same person was the author of them all are:

FRANK M. BERRY, assistant cashier of the Fourth National Bank.

ANDREW M. BERGSTROM, assistant cashier of the Third National bank.

POPE O. DRIVER, chief bookkeeper and head of the mail department of the American National bank.

ALL AGREE THAT NEGRO WROTE BOTH.

These men have for years made a study of handwriting and they turn their knowledge to account in detecting all manner of forgeries. In examining the notes submitted to them Tuesday they employed powerful magnifying glasses and minutely analyzed the slant of the writing, the shape and size of the letters, the peculiarities of spelling, the method of expression, and the punctuation.

Two notes were found nearby the corpse of the mutilated girl. One of these, written on a yellow scratch pad, read as follows:

“Mam that negro fire down here did this I went to get water and he push me down thro hole a long tall negro black that hoo it woke long sleam tall negro I wright while play with me.”

The second note was written on a coarse-fibred pencil tablet, such as is used by school children. This note read:

“he said he wood love me (land dab n?) play like nigh witch did it but that long tall black negro did boy his slef.”

Shortly after Lee was arrested Chief of Detectives N. A. Lanford caused him to write the last line of the second note, dictating it to him word by word.

COULDN’T DISGUISE HANDWRITING.

Although the negro was very nervous and very naturally sought to disguise his handwriting he was unable to do so. With the exception of the use of four capital letters in the note written at police headquarters and the insertion of an extra e in the word negro this note was identical with the last two lines in the note found in the basement of the pencil factory.

The experts agreed that the size and slant of the writing was the same, that the mode of expression was identical, that there were characteristic peculiarities in the formation of the o’s, y’s, g’s, t’s, b’s, k’s, n’s and other letters used in the two notes.

In both the negro writes boy for by and slef for self. These and a number of other similarities convinced the experts that Lee wrote the notes found beside the dead girl.

MARY PHAGAN DID NOT WRITE THEM.

They examined the handwriting of Mary Phagan and positively declared that she could not have written these notes, even while delirious and suffering great pain. She wrote smoothly, used good grammar, capitalized, punctuated and spelled properly, and it is pointed out that under no circumstances would she have lapsed into an illiterate style of writing.

It is plain that the notes found in the factory cellar were written by an ignorant and illiterate person. It is also plain that the person who wrote them sought to cast suspicion upon the fireman at the factory; and that they were very particular to describe the man which they alleged to have committed the crime, for in the same sentence of one of them the perpetrator is described as a long, tall, black negro.

The other refers to the intention of the perpetrator to fix the crime on the night watchman. It is believed that Lee deliberately described another negro and that he endeavored to divert suspicion from himself by writing into one of the notes that the guilty man would “play like the nigh witch did it.”

Neither of these notes could have been written by Mary Phagan, even though she were still alive when dragged into the cellar, for the cellar was dark as pitch night. And it is not to be supposed that while in a dying condition she would have found it convenient to have obtained a pencil and two different kinds of tablet paper. Further than this she would not have written two notes.

The detectives are satisfied that Lee wrote both notes, but are of the opinion that he wrote them at different times. After writing the first he evidently thought of something else which he believed would divert suspicion from himself and then wrote the second.

Only one question now puzzles the detectives—

Did Lee murder the girl himself or did he undertake to dispose of the girl’s body and to shield some one else?

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Atlanta Journal, April 29th 1913, “Three Handwriting Experts Say Negro Wrote the Two Notes Found by Body of 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 Georgian
August 4^th, 1913

By JAMS B. NEVIN.

When a prospective juryman is on his voir dire in a given criminal case, he is asked if his mind is perfectly impartial between the State and the accused.

If he answers yes, he is competent to try the case, so far as that is concerned. If he answers no, he is rejected.

How many people in Atlanta and Georgia, having heard part of the testimony in the Frank case, still feel themselves to be perfectly impartial between the State and the accused?

How many people, having heard part of the evidence, still have refrained from expressing an opinion as to the guilt or innocence of Frank?

Not many, I take it—and yet, that jury is supposed to be perfectly poised and as yet impartial between the State and the accused, notwithstanding the State’s evidence thus far delivered, and the presumption of innocence legally established in behalf of the defendant.

I venture the opinion that nothing developing in the Frank trial last week so profoundly weighed upon the minds of the people over Sunday as the question of the digestibility of boiled cabbage—nice, greasy, palatable, if often shunned, boiled cabbage!

It is rather curious that of all the mass of matter brought out last week this point should have furnished the greatest amount of food for thought—food as difficult and as varied in its aspects of mental indigestibility as boiled cabbage is in its physical aspect!

Everybody Has His Opinion.

Everybody has his own private opinion as to the manner and methods whereby his, at least, stomach proceeds to the disposing and assimilating of this not too aristocratic article of common, everyday consumption.

How many people in Atlanta Sunday forsook their usual Sabbath day more or less elaborate program of diet in favor of plebeian program of boiled cabbage—just to see what would happen, anyway?

“Is your mind perfectly impartial between the State and the accused?”

Perhaps as an experiment with boiled cabbage may help you in arriving at a conclusion!

Remember, in judging Frank from the State’s standpoint, there is nothing so vitally important as the time element.

If Mary Phagan were killed between 12:05 and the time Frank is admitted to have left his office—which narrows the limit sharply and definitely—then the State’s contention that Frank committed the deed may or may not be true.

If she actually was killed after Frank left his office, of course the case against Frank falls to pieces entirely.

Miss Monteen Stover swears that Frank was not, to the best of her knowledge and belief, in his office from 12:05 to 12:10—and there are five minutes, if the girl’s testimony is conclusive, in which Mary Phagan’s death might have been effected.

Defense to Dispute Claim.

The defense, to be sure, has sought to show, and will seek to show even more definitely yet, that, while Miss Stover may not have seen Frank in his private office, which is detached from the main office, he still might have been there, because of the arrangement of the two rooms and the furniture therein.

But if the jury accept Miss Stover’s testimony as conclusive, and agrees that Frank was NOT in his office at the time stated, and if spite of the fact that Frank has stated, and presumably will state again, that he WAS in his office at that time, then Franks full opportunity to have slain the girl will have been established.

In addition to this established fact—if it be established in the minds of the jury—will be the further testimony of Dr. Roy Harris to the effect that Mary must have been dead at least not later than 12:30, and maybe earlier, as disclosed to Dr. Harris’ satisfaction by the contents of her stomach, examined carefully after her death.

It looks as if the very heart and soul of the State’s case against Frank, in so far as its entirely theoretical and circumstantial side is concerned, revolves very much about the question of how long boiled cabbage may have been in process of digestion in Mary Phagan’s stomach on the day she was killed.

Trivial Thing Controls.

It is rather a strange thing that in so many cases depending alone upon circumstantial evidence to sustain them, unexpected and seemingly inconsequential things should eventually control.

When the Frank trial began, if there was any one thing entirely remote from the minds and opinions of the people—the judge and the jurymen included—it was, I suspect, boiled cabbage!

The lawyers for the State, of course, knew what Dr. Harris was going to testify—but beyond them, nobody else knew.

When, as the case developed in its preliminary and before trial stages, the newspapers were digging daily in this and that direction for new lines of thought, for new circumstances and suggestions calculated to throw light on the great mystery of Mary Phagan’s untimely and most distressing death, when constantly it was being hinted that either the State or the defense had “something big and sensational up its sleeves, yet to come,” who thought of boiled cabbage?

I confess unblushingly and with no reservations or evasions of mind in me whatever that I never did—not once!

And neither did you, reader!

And yet, there has been nothing developed by the State, in the circumstantial evidence, not including Conley, thus far one-half so sensational as its point about boiled cabbage—nothing that the defense so surely and so completely must break down and annihilate!

Clash Over Boiled Cabbage.

Upon the yet mooted points of the digestibility of boiled cabbage, in the average stomach, in Mary Phagan’s stomach, in the weak stomach, in the strong stomach, in the thus equipped stomach and the otherwise equipped stomach—plainly one may anticipate a long, bitter, and badly befuddling battle between experts pro and con as to boiled cabbage inside the human physical make-up.

I suspect the Frank case now is getting to that stage wherein the hypothetical question will figure seriously and menacingly.

Already, of course, hypothetical questions have been asked, on both sides, but it is doubtful whether the case really has quite progressed to that point wherein the real hypothetical question should be expected to make its appearance. But it is very near.

In the famous trial of Harry Thaw, when there was no question whatever of who killed Stanford White, the hypothetical questions asked of the experts often ran into the thousands of words. Indeed, one question was asked, if I remember correctly, that contained over five thousand words.

If the lawyers in the Frank case get to handing those sort of queries around—and both sides likely will plunge heavily into the hypothetical question pool, the water being fine or not, as they individually may view it—the Frank case likely will get so very complex that ordinary folks will find it extremely hard to follow its movements.

Jury to Bear Burden.

The jury, being on its oath fair and impartial, will undertake, of course, to get its mind exactly right on the questions of boiled cabbage.

A human life, an erstwhile happy home, a wife’s all and everything, a mother’s love and confidence, a man’s dearest honor, and the sympathy and loyalty of hundreds of devoted friends—these all are depending, in large measure, upon what the jury in the Frank case finally will conclude in respect of the digestibility of boiled cabbage!

If it were not such a serious matter—such a very, very serious matter—one might almost be tempted to smile grimly to himself, that so much should depend upon seemingly so commonplace a thing as boiled cabbage.

It would be a frightful thing to send a man to the gallows upon an incorrectly diagnosed condition of the alimentary canal, dependent entirely upon boiled cabbage, and yet it would be equally as frightful and unfortunate if justice should gravely miscarry and responsibility for little Mary Phagan’s death fall to be fixed righteously, because the jury missed the vital controlling point in respect of boiled cabbage.

It is upon trifles light as air—not that boiled cabbage ever sat that lightly on human stomach—that grave issues often turn; and thus not infrequently is the “native hue of resolution sicklled o’er with the pale cast of thought,” as Hamlet says.

Has Jury Tried Experiment?

Was the jury progressing satisfactorily toward the acquittal of Frank—or unsatisfactorily, as the case may be—when it ran afoul of boiled cabbage, that to give it serious pause?

And would it be right or wrong, proper or improper, now to to feed the jury one meal of boiled cabbage, thus to let it see by personal experience what becomes of that article of diet, once it is introduced into the human stomach?

Would that be dangerous to the State, in that it might breed a variety of opinion in the minds of the jury sure to produce, at least, a mistrial, or an acquittal—or would it so shatter all doubt in the jury’s mind as to produce conviction?

Has the Frank jury inadvertently been fed some boiled cabbage already, and did every juryman partake thereof—and if so, will that, in either event, be grounds for a new trial?

Far be it from me even to guess so hard is the battle for and against Leo Frank being fought.

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The Atlanta Georgian, August 4th 1913, “Boiled Cabbage Brings Hypothetical Question Stage in Frank’s Trial,” 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
August 3^rd, 1913

Following Chief Beavers the name of Detective Bass Rosser was then called, but he was not present and Policeman R. F. Lasseter was put on the stand.

“Did you go to the National Pencil factory on Sunday morning, April 27?”
“Yes.”

“Did you ever see this parasol before?” asked the solicitor, holding up the which was found in the elevator shaft and identified as Mary Phagan’s.

“Yes, I found it that morning at the bottom of the shaft.”

“What else did you find? Any other wearing apparel?”

“No.”

“Well, did you find anything else?”
“Yes, some twine.”
“You saw evidence of something having been dragged near there, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”

“Traced it back to the foot of the ladder?”

“Yes.”
“Didn’t you tell the coroner that you traced it nearly to the foot of the ladder?”

“No. I don’t think so.”
“Didn’t you pass by that back door on the alley about 1 o’clock that Sunday morning?”

“Yes, but I didn’t shake the door?”
“How did you get down into the basement when you first went there that Sunday morning?” asked Mr. Dorsey when Mr. Rosser stopped.

“Went down the ladder.”
“Did you see the elevator run before you found the parasol?”

“No.”
Lasseter was then excused and Sergeant L. S. Dobbs, who had previously been used by the state, was called upon. He did not respon[d] and court was adjourned until 9 o’clock Monday morning.

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The Atlanta Constitution, August 3rd 1913, “Finding of Dead Girl’s Parasol is Told by Policeman Lasseter,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)