Did Murderers Plan Cremation?

Did Murderers Plan CremationAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Detectives Believe That They Intended to Burn Body of Little Mary Phagan in the Furnace of Factory.

Did the murderers of Mary Phagan lower her body into the darkness of the pencil factory basement with the intention of cremating the corpse in the furnace of that plant?

Such is the belief of detectives. The dead girl was discovered only a few feet from the furnace. Her body had been dragged first to the fire box, circled around its base, then abandoned in the desolate recess in which it was found.

Investigation revealed that the firebox was in condition to be lighted. It was littered with shavings and paper, and, to all appearances, in readiness for a new fire. The door was open. The aperture was hardly wide enough to admit a body the size of the victim’s.

It is the dective’s [sic] theory that the slayers were frightened from their original plans. The prized staple from the rear door indicated a hurried exit. Detective John Black told a Constitution reporter Monday of his belief: Continue Reading →

Policeman Says Body Was Dragged From Elevator

Policeman Says Body Was Dragged From ElevatorAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

R. M. Lasseter [sic], the policeman on the morning watch past the pencil factory, was called at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He was questioned as follows:

Q. Were you in the pencil factory Saturday night or Sunday morning?—A. I was there at 4:45 Sunday morning.

Q. What did you find?—A. A parasol.

Q. Where did you find it?—A. At the bottom of the elevator shaft. I found there also a big ball of red wrapping twine that never had been opened. (Here the witness was shown the cord that had strangled the girl and asked if that was the kind of cord he had found. He said it was not. The cord he found was very much smaller.)

Body Had Been Removed.

Q. Had the body been removed when you were in the building?—A. Yes.

Q. Where was the elevator?—A. I don’t remember; it was on the second or third floor.

Q. Is the bottom of the elevator shaft of concrete, or wood, or what?—A. I don’t know. It was full of trash and I couldn’t see.

Q. Did you look for signs of a struggle?—A. Yes, I saw where something had been dragged along the ground, and I traced it back to the elevator shaft.

Q. Did you find anything to indicate that the body came down the ladder?—A. No, sir; the dragging signs went past the foot of the ladder. I saw them between the elevator and the ladder.

Dragged From Elevator.

Q. You think, then, that the body was dragged from the elevator?—A. Yes, sir; I think from the evidence that it was dragged from the elevator.

Q. Where was the umbrella?—A. In the center of the elevator shaft, closed.

Before the witness was dismissed he said that he had passed the pencil factory at 1 o’clock Sunday morning and saw that the back door was closed. He said he did not pass the place again until after the body was removed. This was a voluntary statement from the witness and was not made in answer to any question.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 30th 1913, “Policeman Says Body Was Dragged From Elevator,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Confirms Lee’s Story of Shirt

Confirms Lee's Story of ShirtAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Negro Woman Says Man Accused of Phagan Crime Was Not Home Saturday Night.

If Newt Lee, the watchman, went home on Saturday night and discarded a bloody, stained shirt, Lorena Townes, the negro woman with whom he boarded, knows it. Lorena says Lee was not home on Saturday night.

Detectives found the blood-stained shirt in an old barrel in Lee’s room, and around this point has been built the theory that after committing the crime the man went home, changed his shirt, returned to the factory and then telephoned the police. Supporting this belief are the alleged omissions in Lee’s time clock checks during the night.

Lee lived in a little back room at 46 Henry Street; Lorena Townes sleeps in the front room opening on the porch. There is no hallway. There is a side door to Lee’s room, but it is always locked from the inside, according to Corinne Holsey, who lives in the other half of the house. Continue Reading →

Went Down Scuttle Hole on Ladder to Reach Body

Went Down Scuttle Hole to Reach BodyAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

Previous to Watchman Newt Lee’s testimony, three police officers, who were called to the pencil factory when Mary Phagan’s body was found, testified. Their testimony, with the exception of such parts as were unfit to print, follows:

W. T. Anderson, police call officer on duty Sunday morning, was first witness.

“We went over in an automobile to the pencil factory and the negro took us into the cellar where the body was found,” he said.

Anderson told of the location of the scuttle hole, from which a ladder led to the basement, and of the location of the body. Continue Reading →

Tells of Watchman Lee ‘Explaining’ the Notes

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

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

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

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

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

He then identified the two notes.

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

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

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

Seek Clew in Queer Words in Odd Notes

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

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

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

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

mama that negro hired down

here did this I went to get water

and he pushed me down this hole

a long tall negro black that has it

woke long lean tall negro I write

while play with me.

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

Guilt Will Be Fixed Detectives Declare

Guilt Will Be Fixed Detectives Declare 1

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

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

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

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

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

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

Slayer’s Hand Print Left On Arm Of Girl

Slayer's Hand Print Left on Arm of Girl

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

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

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

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

Girl and His Landlady Defend Mullinax

Girl and His Landlady Defend Mullinax

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

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Declaring her belief in the absolute innocence of her sweetheart, Arthur Mullinax, in the murder of Mary Phagan, pretty 16-year-old Pearl Robinson made a pathetic figure as she appeared before Chief of Detectives Lanford this afternoon and accounted for the whereabouts of Mullinax Saturday night up until about 10:30 o’clock.

With Miss Robinson were Mrs. Emma Rutherford, the landlady of Mullinax, and her two sons, Thomas and James, who took up the moves of Mullinax from the time he left Miss Robinson until the next morning, establishing what appears to be a complete alibi. In order to establish the alibi Mrs. Rutherford had to contradict entirely a statement she made last night to the police in which she had said that she knew nothing of where Mullinax was from noon Saturday until Sunday morning.

Call Mullinax “Good Boy.”

“Arthur is a good boy,” said his loyal little sweetheart.

“I know he would do nothing bad. He was too good and true. He was with me Saturday night from 8 o’clock until nearly 11 o’clock. We went to the Bijou theater together and left before it was over. We got home about 10:30 o’clock. Continue Reading →

City Chemist Tests Stains For Blood

City Chemist Tests Stains for BloodAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Pieces of wood, the stains on which are believed to be those of the blood of murdered Mary Phagan, are undergoing a chemical examination this afternoon by the city chemist.

The discovery of white powder on the factory floor strengthened the belief that a frantic effort had been made to erase the evidences of the crime. The powder resembled very much cleaning preparations that are used.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 28th 1913, “City Chemist Test Stains for Blood,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Chief and Sleuths Trace Steps in Slaying of Girl

Chief and Sleuths Trace Steps in Slaying of Girl

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

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

In the room where Mary Phagan was attacked and paid out her young life to the brutality of her assailant, across the floor where her limp form was dragged, down the stairs and down through the square trap-door into the dirty basement where her body was found, Chief of Police Beavers and two detectives trailed, step by step, every move of the girl’s murderer to-day.

Determined that not a clew should be overlooked in the efforts to fix guilt upon the man or men that took the young girl’s life, the Chief and his aides began at the very spot in the tip plant in the rear of the second floor where the bloodstains and the strands of matted hair indicated that the girl had put up such a desperate fight for her life and honor.

Curious Crowd About Factory.

Meanwhile the surging crowd of curiosity seekers on the outside of the building would be restrained, and that with the excitement of the employees made it necessary to close down the factory for the day.

Excited men in the throng, morbidly curious or filled with wrath at the inhuman deed, forced their way into the building and refused to turn back. A detective had an encounter with one insistent man who would not leave the building.

Inside the building the nervous tension of the employees was apparent in every department. With the ghost of the terrible crime stalking about, they could not work. After several hours of ineffectual work, the foreman saw that the girls and other employees were so wrought up over the tragedy that it was useless to keep them in the building longer. They were told to go. Continue Reading →

Gant [sic] Was Infatuated With Girl; at Factory Saturday

gant_infatuated

At the right is Miss Ruth Phagan, aunt of Mary Phagan, and in her arms is Miss Ollie Phagan, sister of the victim, whom she is trying to comfort.

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

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Gant [sic] was arrested on a warrant sworn out, in Judge Powers’ court, charging him with murder.

Gant was last seen before his arrest at 8:45 this morning by Herbert Schiff, assistant superintendent of the factory. A few minutes later he was on a car bound for Marietta.

The officers in Marietta were notified by telephone and were on the watch for a man answering Gant’s description.

The detectives began to spread their nets for Gant on significant stories coming from half a dozen different sources.

All were to the effect that Gant had tried on many occasions to pay attentions to the little girl, and that his infatuation for her was evident even in the factory.

Continue Reading →

Arrested as Girl’s Slayer

John_M_Gant_Accused_of

Photograph of Mary Phagan showing her in street dress. [The almost fourteen-year-old girl was found slain in the dingy basement of her work establishment, beaten and strangled to death. — Ed.]

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

JOHN M. GANT [sic] ACCUSED OF THE CRIME; FORMER BOOKKEEPER TAKEN BY POLICE

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

J. M. Gant [sic], arrested in Marietta for the murder of Mary Phagan, gave to a reporter for The Georgian his story of his actions that led to his arrest. He protested his innocence, and declared he was home in bed at the time the crime is supposed to have been committed.

In striking contradiction to this statement is the assertion of Mrs. F. C. Terrell, of 284 East Linden Street, where Gant said he slept Saturday night, that she had not seen Gant in three weeks.

“I watched the Memorial Day parade in Atlanta,” said Gant, as he sat in the Marietta police station, “and after the parade was mostly over I went out to the ball game. After the game I remembered that I had left some old shoes at the pencil factory, and decided to go over and get them. I went over there at 6 o’clock and Superintendent Frank let me in.

“He told the negro watchman to help me find my shoes, and both of them saw me get them and also saw me leave the building.

Continue Reading →

Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling Case

Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling CaseAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Two mysterious notes—incoherent, misspelled and unintelligible—were found in the cellar of death;

Were they written by the girl as she lay in delirium just before the end came, or

Were they written by her slayer to throw the police off the track and turn suspicion towards a negro?

Here they are:

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

“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 Georgian, April 28th 1913, “Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling Case,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Story of the Killing as the Meager Facts Reveal It

Story of the Killing as Meager Facts Reveal ItAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

A new turn was given the mystery to-day when strands of blood-matted hair were found in a lathing machine on the second floor of the factory.

The discovery made it certain that the crime was committed in the factory by some one who had access to the building, a theory which had been without conclusive support previously.

Blood stains leading from the lathe to the door showed the manner in which the fiend had dragged the body of his victim and had taken her to the basement.

Appearances indicated that the murderer had sought to cover up the trail of his crime by endeavoring to efface the bloody stains.

Another name was brought into the case to-day by the testimony of pencil company employees. Detectives were hurried to the building and an arrest is expected momentarily. The new suspect is said to be a former employee who was seen about the building Friday and Saturday.

The blood-matted strands of reddish-brown hair were discovered this forenoon when L. A. Quinn, foreman in the tip plant on the second floor, sent R. P. Barrett, a workman, over to the lathe. Continue Reading →

Police Question Factory Superintendent

Police Question Factory Superintendent

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

STRAND OF HAIR CLEW IN KILLING OF PHAGAN GIRL

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Body of Mary Phagan Is Found in Basement of Old Granite Hotel in Forsyth Street—Mute Evidence of Terrible Battle Victim Made for Life

WHITE YOUTH AND NEGRO ARE HELD BY THE POLICE

After Being Beaten Into Insensibility Child Was Strangled and Dragged With Cord Back and Forth Across Floor—Incoherent Notes a Clew.

Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company plant, in which Mary Phagan was employed, was taken to police court this morning by Detective Black to tell what he knows in connection with the girl’s death. The police say he is not under arrest.

At the same time Geron Bailey, the negro elevator boy employed in the factory, was arrested. One theory names Bailey as the man to whom the incoherent letters apply that were found by the side of the dead girl, and that evidently were written in an effort to describe her assailant.

Policemen Mack, Phillips and Starnes went to the factory this morning upon the statement that blood and matted hair, evidence of a terrible struggle had been found on the third floor of the factory. It was on this visit that they summoned Frank and arrested Bailey.

They conducted a minute investigation of the signs of the struggle of the third floor, going so far as to tear up several sections of the plank flooring in their inspection.

A new and terrifying turn was given the gruesome Mary Phagan strangling mystery to-day when strands of blood-matted hair were found in a lathing machine on the third floor of the National Pencil Company’s factory, 37-39 South Forsyth Street. Continue Reading →