Caption reads: Detective Harry Scott (in Panama hat), of the Pinkertons, who played the hunch that Jim Conley, the negro, knew something of the girl’s murder. The accompanying figure is Detective John Black, of police headquarters, whose work in co-operation with the Pinkerton man did much to solve the crime. Great dependence will be put in their testimony at the coming trial of Leo Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan.

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

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, July 13, 1913

By Britt Craig.

Have you ever had a hunch that there wasn’t anybody around the table that held a higher hand than your Jacks over tens and consequently you shoved a ‘blue’ to the mahogany with the result that every hostile hand went to the discard?

Have you ever had a hunch that it was going to rain and you pulled in the rugs and took the clothes off the line and let down the windows just in time to see the elements express themselves in a downpour?

Have you ever had a hunch of any kind—one of those real, undeniable inner promptings that chases round and round in your bonnet and worries the life out of you and invariably forces you to do something that you really intended doing but about which you were sorely undecided?

If you’re human, you have.

Detective Harry Scott had one about Jim Conley, the negro sweeper in the Phagan mystery. It was one of those irresistible hunches that buzzes about like a June bug. He took it for its word with the result that he found the key that is predicted to unlock the secret of Atlanta’s most hideous murder.

Detectives are very normal beings. They have hunches like the weakest of us. They’re superstitious, too. You can’t find a single one that will walk under a ladder or fail to knock wood when he brags about himself.

A hunch is one of the most common of human afflictions. It is the very essence of a frailty that affects every normal somebody. The very fact that it is a weakness requires a nerve of steel and backbone of similar fortitude to play one to the limit like Detective Scott played his.

Good detectives, like genius, are utterly human. Genius frequently stalks about in its shirt sleeves without a shave and wearing suspenders. It has been known to chew tobacco and cuss volubly. Sometimes, it has a red nose and a thirst. It can sleep as contentedly on Decatur street as on Peachtree.

Detectives Very Human.

A good detective is so absolutely human that he generally chews tobacco, doesn’t care where he spits it, possesses a vocabulary of profanity that is surpassed only by its eloquence and brightens up sartorially only when he falls in love or his wife makes him.

Detective Scott, although he doesn’t chew tobacco—not since he was 16, at least—or allow his profanity to interfere with his knowledge of perfectly good English, is so keenly human that he had a premonition that Jim Conley knew something or other about the death of Mary Phagan.

While the investigation was at its zenith, the negro lay in police headquarters, neglected and sorely in need of a bath. Scott, casting about for someone on whom to cast suspicion in order to convince himself that he wasn’t prejudiced against the white prisoner, was guided by the hunch to Conley.

He had no reason to suspect the sweeper other than the fact that Jim had been caught washing his shirt in order to appear presentable at the inquest. Nothing but the hunch pointed Conleywards.

He tried to figure that the negro was guilty and there was nothing to figure on. He tried to figure he was innocent, and the hunch figured for him. It pointed to Conley like that uncanny feeling which irresistibly draws you over on the right hand side of the street on the way home of a dark night when the left side is really the nearest.

It weighed as heavily as remembered wrong, it tortured him of nights and made his days miserable. Conley knows something, it whispered. Pick it out of him, or go back to selling fish.

Finally, the Pinkerton man set out with Detective John Black, of police headquarters, to prove that either the hunch was a liar or he wasn’t a detective as good as he had always considered. Conley had maintained that he was illiterate—couldn’t even write his name, and as this seemed the only vulnerable spot in his story, Scott told him he probably was a liar.

At least, it was the only thing about the negro that could plausibly be discredited. On the theory that every negro who owns a wife and home as Conley owned, possesses furniture bought on the installment plan, the two sleuths cast about for some contract to which the black man could possibly have attached his signature.

They visited third-rate furniture stores, business houses and jewelry shops. The search was fruitless. The signature of Conley was as missing as the secret of the sphinx. Scott was prepared to abandon his hunch on the doorsteps of failure, when Fate—not a thirst—took them to the vicinity of a saloon near Five Points.

Providence—and not the bouncer—urged a gentleman in Panama and white shoes, and with the oily air of a collector, gently through the doorway. He stepped to the sidewalk and recognized Black. He greeted and shook a disconsolate hand.

Wanted to See Conley.

“You’ve got a nigger down at police station I’d certainly like to see,” he announced.

“What nigger?” said Black, promoting conversation.

“That Conley nigger?”

Something bright and dazzling flashed through Scott’s hunch-ridden brain as he noticed the batch of bills carefully folded in the person’s coat pocket.

The hunch told him to collar the oily individual and search his batch of bills. He did, at the oily one’s consent. A single glance revealed a contract issued to Jim Conley. A second glance revealed the negro’s name, scrawled in a characteristic hand all over the signee’s line.

Scott’s hunch had been fulfilled. It had guided him to a specimen of the black sweeper’s handwriting—two words in barely legible script that proved the negro a liar three ways from breakfast. It has since proved the means of lifting the Phagan secret from the mire of mystery.

The contract was signed by Conley more than twelve months ago for a watch he had bought from a jewelry firm. It is now in possession of he solicitor general, and likely will be produced as evidence in the coming trial of Leo Frank.

The Third Degree.

What followed its discovery was the most successful third degree ever operated at police headquarters. Scott and Black showed the signature to the solicitor general, detective chief and Chief Beavers.

Then, they showed it to Conley.

It was on a Sunday afternoon. Police station was dull and drowsy and a sleepy atmosphere pervaded the building. Even the inevitable newspaper reporter was absent. Scott and Black took the prisoner into the little 6×8 “sweat box” and sat him where the light could play full on his face.

Scott locked the door and threw the key over the transom. Black pulled off his coat, let down his suspenders and put cigarettes conveniently near. Conley blinked at the light and wondered what was coming off.

Scott pulled a mysterious something from his pocket and laid it on the table. It was a folded bit of paper, and he smiled significantly as it left his hand. Conley grimaced and shifted a leg.

“Well, Jim, we’ve got the deadwood on you. Better cough up and tell us something.”

“Honest, white folks, I swear ‘fore God and High heaven I don’t know a thing.” His plea was pathetic in its apparent sincerity.

“But we know better. The quicker you tell, the better off you’ll be. Kick in, Jim—kick in. It’s the best for you.”

“I can’t kick,” protested the negro. “I ain’t got nothin’ to kick for.”

Scott stepped to the table and pointed at the folded slip.

“You see that! It’s enough to hang you. You don’t know what it is, and you couldn’t guess in a year. It’s dead-wood, nigger. It’s dead-wood. You’d better kick through or we’ll pull it on you.”

The negro studied the slip intently. He was sorely puzzled. Great drops of sweat rolled down his face and his fingers twitched nervously. His very air betrayed guilt.

“Listen,” said Scott. “Can you write?”

“Naw, sir, I can’t. I never could.”

“Will you swear it?”

“I shore will.”

“Do you know the penalty for perjury?”

“Naw, sir—what is it?”

“Twenty years in the gang—maybe more.”

“What’s perjury?”

“Swearing a lie.”

“But I ain’t goin’ to swear no lie.”

“You will if you swear you can’t write. Here! Look at this.”

The Pinkerton man unfolded the mysterious slip. It was the contract. The negro noted the signature with a betraying flash of recognition.

“How could you sign this if you couldn’t write?”

Conley was wordless for minutes. He stared dumbly out the window and twisted his fingers. Suddenly, he exclaimed:

“White folks, I’m a liar!”

“Good! We thought so all the time. Now, we want you to write a bit.”

The sleuths produced pen and paper. Conley was put at the table to write his name.

“Now, write the alphabet.”

He wrote the A, B, C’s in huge, scrawling figures.

“Write this: ‘That long, tall, black negro did this by hisself.’ ”

Conley winced slightly as he evidently recalled the words of the tragic note found beside the body.

He wrote, slowly and deliberately with apparently no effort to disguise his script:

“That long, tall, black negro did this boy hisslef.”

The detectives, peering eagerly over the negro’s shoulder, noted with satisfaction the misspelling of words “by” and “self.” They ordered him to rewrite the words.

“Boy” and “slef,” he wrote.

The original murder missive had been written “boy” and “slef.” Satisfied that Conley was their author, the detectives flatly accused him of writing the Phagan notes.

“I didn’t do it,” he answered. ” ‘Fore God I didn’t.”

Showed He Was Guilty.

“The very fact that you errored in these words show you’re guilty. The handwriting compares with the originals. You accuse yourself of killing the girl. I believe you did it. Everybody else will  believe it. You’ll be hung just as sure as you’re foot high and black.”

“But I ain’t guilty. I don’t know a thing about them notes or about that killing—honest, white folks. Can’t you believe a word I say?”

“Naw, Jim, we wouldn’t b’lieve you on the gallows. You tell so many lies.”

Black broke in.

“Listen, Jim, you don’t want to go to the scaffold. It’s hell to be slung at the end of a rope to God knows where. You’re going, though, just as sure’s hell’s hot, and still heatin’. There ain’t but one way out of it—uncork and tell all you know.

“There ain’t a jury in the world—even a nigger jury—that’d believe you didn’t kill this girl. They’d hang you or lynch you—likely lynching. You’ve got yourself in a pickle, and there ain’t but one way out—kick in. Tell all about it.”

“I don’t know a thing, boss, I swear I don’t. If I did, I’d tell you the truth—the whole truth, so he’p me God!”

Black’s tone had been so convincing that the negro had been left in a quandary. The detectives comprehended it.

Scott said:

“We’ll give you a day to think it over.”

With which, they transferred the prisoner to a dark and desolate cell in the prison downstairs, locked him in and left him alone to his thoughts and a vivid outlook of the scaffold.

While the detectives jubileed inwardly and kept reporters from gaining knowledge of the marvelous development, they quizzed Conley for seven following days trying to exact a confession. It was locked firm in his bosom. He stoutly maintained the original story.

It was the following Saturday—the day that veteran reporters declare was the newsiest in Atlanta’s history. Beside the famous Felder-Lanford dictagraph row, Frank was indicted, developments came thick and fast from many quarters, and other things were happening that kept an army of news-gatherers the busiest of their careers.

At daybreak, Detective Black was summoned by Conley to the negro’s cell.

“I’ve got something to tell you, boss,” he said. Black locked himself in with the prisoner and Conley began to unburden himself of his first tale of complicity in the Phagan crime.

“I wrote those notes,” he admitted. “Mr. Frank had me write ’em. I didn’t know what he wanted with them, and he gave me some money to do it. I’d a told you sooner, but I thought he’d send me more money for not tellin’. I hoped some of his friends ‘d get me out.”

Dorsey Is Notified.

The solicitor was notified immediately. The grand jury was being presented with evidence against the suspected Frank. Conley’s confession was submitted in the meanwhile. Thirty minutes later the famous bill of indictment was drawn.

Although he had eked a wonderful yarn from the negro, Scott’s hunch failed to subside. It buzzed about in his head like a circular saw and got frantic at times. It told him the negro knew even more than he had confessed.

The detective, by this time, considered the hunch productive and trustworthy. He set out on new lines. He faced the negro with a daily accusation of guilt and a picture of his predicted doom. It had a satisfactory effect. Conley grew weak and lost his appetite. He slept little and a nervous and haunted look crept into his eyes.

While the Pinkerton man assumed an attitude of hostility toward the black sweeper, Detective Black affected sympathy, as per plot, and bought the prisoner drinks and pies and sandwiches and consolation. Between the two fires, Jim inclined toward the headquarters man and gradually the crust of his reticence began to crack.

“Mister Black,” he said one day, “you’ve been mighty good to me, and some day I’m going to be the same to you—whenever I get the chance.”

Black carried the news to Scott. Scott went directly to Conley’s cell and drew a masterful picture of a hanging at daybreak. He declared that efforts already were being made to indict him for the actual murder, and told that officials of the pencil factory had openly accused the negro of the crime.

Scott’s visit and attitude left the negro in a state of fear. Black reached his cell shortly after the Pinkerton man had departed. He played upon the suspect’s emotion. He pretended sympathy and offered to see the black carried safely through the ‘plot’ against him.

Finally, when Black and Scott and headquarters had become convinced that the negro was ripe for confessing, he was carried into Chief Lanford’s office. He faced a group of detectives—shirts off, sleeves rolled and a prevailing widespread willingness to wade in.

The sleuths cajoled and coaxed. They warned and threatened. They did everything that detective ingenuity could suggest. Conley seemed adamant. He stuck to his story and never wavered. He was worked into a heat, a boiling, bubbling heat and left therein to think things over.

His questioners stepped into the hallway outside and compared notes. A newsboy arrived with an afternoon newspaper. Glaring headlines announced that pencil factory authorities had publicly charged Conley with murdering Mary Phagan and of trying to shift the crime to their superintendent.

Scott again had an idea. It was born in a dazzling brilliance that was overwhelming.

“Here, boy,” he called to the newsie. “Take one of those papers to that nigger in the room.”

The boy did as directed. Conley was given the paper containing the accusation. What happened to his emotions isn’t on police record. No one knows but Conley. The result, though, is a gilded page in police history.

When Scott and his fellow-examiners returned to the room, the negro was staring blankly at the headline, perspiration streaming and fingers trembling. He glanced at the headquarters men with an air of weak resignation.

“Listen, Mr. Black,” he said to the detective, “I’d like to talk to you privately, please, sir.”

Black was left with the suspect, closeted in the chief’s office. Thirty minutes later he emerged, a smile flooding his face, success in his soul and his mind filled with Conley’s startling confession of complicity in disposing of Mary Phagan’s body in assistance to his superintendent.

It was the second conflicting story he had told. The first was of having only written the murder notes. It has been replaced by his latter and more incriminating tale, to which he has made a definite and sworn statement.

The prosecution maintains that this last admission solves the Phagan case. It pins the crime conclusively to one of two sources—Frank or the negro.

One or the other will be proved at the coming trial—the trial for which an entire state awaits with unprecedented eagerness—a trial that will be based largely on the amazing result of a hunch, a pure, simple hunch, one of the many frailties that affect us all.

But a frailty few of us can resist.

A frailty which Harry Scott, in a flight of fancy, analyzes thusly:

“The God of Good Luck’s Gift—
A whisper of the conscience,
To work a wonder with.”

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The Atlanta Constitution, July 13th 1913, “Detective Harry Scott’s Hunch-Thrilling Story of How it Secured James Conley’s Confession,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, July 3, 1913

A petition filed Tuesday with the Clerk of the Superior Court by A. S. Colyar, Jr., asking for the disbarment of Colonel Thomas B. Felder from the practice of law in Georgia, has been withdrawn by Colyar on information that he first must submit his petition to the court for the determination of whether his grounds are sufficient to warrant an investigation and trial by jury.

Colyar said Wednesday he would apply for a rule nisi. Until this is done there can be no action on his petition. The petition includes as reasons for the disbarment of Colonel Felder the alleged irregular practices of which Colyar accused Colonel Felder in the sensational dictograph conversations furnished by Colyar to the police.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 3rd 1913, “Attempt by Colyar To Disbar Felder Is Halted; Tries Again,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, July 2, 1913

No Indication Given of Results of Investigation of Reports of Disorderly Houses.

The result of the Grand Jury’s sensational vice probe of a few weeks ago will be made known Wednesday when the presentments are returned to Superior Judge W. D. Ellis, who two months ago charged that an extensive investigation be made.

Save when an indictment was returned against Police Commissioner W. P. Fain, which charged him with keeping a disorderly house and beating one of the women inmates, no inkling of the general trend of the probe got beyond the closed doors of the jury room.

When the probe first started the jury expected it to be completed in a day. It took a sensational turn when Colonel Thomas B. Felder charged Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford and his detectives with openly protecting vice, and the attorney stated he could submit to the jury a “vice list” that would “stand Atlanta on its head.”

List Given to Jury.

Colonel Felder and Attorney Carl Hutcheson, a young man in his office, prepared a list for the jury which was said to have contained more than 50 names.

Chief of Police J. L. Beavers, denied the existence of the places named in Colonel Felder’s list, and told the Grand Jury vice conditions were better in Atlanta than in any city in the United States, and better than they had ever been in this city.

It was understood that the jury had declined to probe the charges of police corruption and had given the department a clean bill of record.

Whether the recent scandal at police headquarters made it necessary for the jury to change its presentments Tuesday could not be learned, but that a material revision was made was admitted by E. V. Kriegshaber, chairman of the presentment committee. He would not state, however, whether it had to deal with the recent police expose.

Several times since the vice probe began Foreman L. H. Beck has been swamped with signed and anonymous communications furnishing the names of alleged disorderly houses, and some of the writers agreed to testify before the jury under oath.

Dismiss Body Wednesday.

Practically none of the witnesses whose names were furnished the jury were called, and it was generally understood the body declined to deal with specific places, or names, but would only deal with the question in a general way, and recommended to the court any specific action that might be deemed necessary.

The body will meet at 10 o’clock Wednesday morning for a short session to consider any bills the Solicitor might have pending, after which it will be discharged by Judge Ellis.

If the reported action against Jim Conley, the negro who figures in the Phagan case, is to be taken by this Grand Jury it will have to be taken to-day before the jury is discharged. In the event of the body not taking up an indictment against the negro, it can recommend that the succeeding Grand Jury, which meets next Monday, take it up, or the next jury may take it up of its own accord.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 2nd 1913, “Findings in Probe are Guarded,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 1, 1913

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Colyar for Reply to Attack of Colonel Felder

[…]charging A. S. Colyar, of Nashville, with libel, the Fulton county grand jury at its session on Tuesda ymorning [sic] refused to indict the Tennessean, returning a “no bill” in the case. Mr. Colyar has been in the limelight recently as a principal in the sensational dictograph episode, and has been engaged in a heated controversy with Colonel Thomas B. Felder.

The Tennessean was charged specifically with libelling Mr. Felder in a card published over his signature in The Journal of June 8, in which he excoriated the Atlanta lawyer.

The grand jury had the bill drawn of its own initiative, it is said, and considered it Tuesday morning. The only witness called before the grand jury was John Paschall, city editor of The Atlanta Journal.

In answer to questions of the grand jurors, Mr. Paschall stated that the card was furnished for publication by Mr. Colyar. Colyar has been given an opportunity to reply to an attack on his character, which Mr. Felder had embodied in a card, addressed to the editor of The Journal and which was published on the same day, the newspaper man told the jury in answer to further questions.

Attached to the bill, which was drawn against Mr. Colyar, was a copy of his card.

The grand jury was in session more than an hour considering the bill, before its decision not to return an indictment was reached.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 1st 1913, “”No” Bill Is Returned Against A. S. Colyar,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 1, 1913

Grand Jury Develops Sensational Sequel to Famous Dictograph Scandal.

A. S. Colyar, Jr., dictographer of Colonel Thomas B. Felder, Mayor Woodward and C. C. Jones, was indicted by the Grand Jury on the charge of criminal libel Tuesday forenoon.

Colyar is the man who sought to trap Colonel Felder by means of the dictograph into offering a bribe of $1,000 for certain affidavits in the Phagan case in the possession of the police. The dictograph records as furnished an afternoon newspaper by Colyar contained the offer.

Colonel Felder swore the records were padded. Largely on Colonel Felder’s representations, the indictment was procured. John Pascal, of The Journal, was the only witness called by the Grand Jury in considering Colyar’s case.

Chief of Detectives Lanford and Colonel Felder, indicted last week by the Grand Jury, obtained their freedom by making a $500 bond. It was expected that the same bond would be imposed upon Colyar.

Much of the time Tuesday was occupied by members of the Grand Jury in probing into police affairs. Without calling any witnesses, the scandal which has shaken the department was given serious consideration for nearly two hours. The result of the discussion was not made public.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 1st 1913, “Colyar Indicted as Libeler of Col. Felder,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 1, 1913

The Fulton County Grand Jury returned no bill against A. S. Colyar, Jr., Tuesday forenoon on the charge of criminal libel.  Colyar came into prominence a few weeks ago by dictographing Colonel Thomas B. Felder, Mayor Woodward and C. C. Jones in Williams House No. 2.

Colyar is the man who sought to trap Colonel Felder by means of the dictograph into offering a bribe of $1,000 for certain affidavits in the Phagan case in the possession of the police. The dictograph records as furnished an afternoon newspaper by Colyar contained the offer.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 1st 1913, “Colyar Not Indicted On Charge of Libel,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Friday, June 27, 1913

Grand Jury Indicts Lawyer and Head of Detectives for Attacks on Each Other.

Three indictments charging criminal libel were returned Friday by the Grand Jury against Colonel Thomas B. Felder, the Atlanta attorney, and Newport Lanford, Chief of Detectives, who accused each other of most everything in the category after the famous dictograph episode. There are two bills against Felder and one against Lanford.

The two men will be placed under bond and will be tried in the Fulton County courts under the misdemeanor act for unlawfully and maliciously accusing each other, according to the true bills.

The penalty for conviction of a misdemeanor is six months in the county jail, twelve months in the penitentiary, a fine not exceeding $1,000, either or all three.

Colonel Felder appeared at the Solicitor’s office about 2 o’clock and furnished the $500 bond required. Chief Lanford had not been located at that time, but was expected to do likewise.

The accusation against both men is based on recriminations issued against each other and published in the Sunday newspapers of May 25 and June 8.

In those statements Colonel Felder attacked Lanford bitterly, hurling a line of invectives that the greatest of the Roman orators might have envied. He attacked Lanford’s private and public character, accusing him of “hideous crimes.”

Lanford in Full Denial.

Chief Lanford replied in kind, denouncing Colonel Felder as a “contemptible liar, scoundrel and coward.” He denied absolutely any wrong-doing.

To establish the fact that the statements published had actually been made by Felder and Lanford, the Grand Jury summoned Sidney Ormond, city editor of The Constitution, and M. D. Clofine, city editor of Hearst’s Sunday American. Both men testified that there could be no question that Felder and Lanford issued the statements in question.

The new turn in the dictograph fight was entirely unexpected and promises stirring developments. If the charges are upheld and the two men formally accused, the real fight will come at the trial, when it will be up to both Lanford and Felder to prove the charges they made against each other.

Real Revelations Promised.

That will bare the real inside of the dictograph trap and other things that have been rumored in the last few weeks, and some real explosions are anticipated.

Subpenas also have been issued  out of the Solicitor General’s office for other witnesses who engaged in the controversy at a time when charges and countercharges were flying thick and fast. It is the announced intention of the Grand Jury to probe carefully and thoroughly into Colonel Felder’s charges of alleged crookedness in the detective department.

It is rumored in the lobbies of the courthouse that the investigation of the Felder charge will in time develop into another and more searching inquiry into the vice situation in Atlanta. Colonel Felder’s charges have been based on the alleged protection of resorts by Chief Lanford and his detectives, which have been as vigorously denied.

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The Atlanta Georgian, June 27th 1913, “Lanford and Felder Are Held for Libel,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Constitution

Saturday, June 28, 1913

Indictments Grew Out of the Dictagraph Episode and the Letters Which Followed.

Formal investigation into the invectives hurled between Colonel Thomas B. Felder and Detective Chief Newport Lanford resulted yesterday in indictments of criminal libel being returned by the grand jury against each of them for their cards and interviews in the daily papers in which they attacked each other’s character, after the dictagraph row.

Colonel Felder is held under two indictments on a bond of $500, while Chief Lanford has one indictment against him, and is free on the same bond.

The offenses charged against each are misdemeanors, and the punishment, in case of conviction, is six months in the county jail, twelve months in the penitentiary or a fine of not more than $1,000. It is in the discretion of the judge to impose any or all of these penalties after conviction.

In order to come clear at the trial it will be necessary for the man indicted for criminal libel to prove that the charges he made were true, and it is expected that the cases will develop into the most bitterly fought in the history of the Fulton courts.

Felder Will Not Talk.

Shortly after his indictment Colonel Felder appeared in the solicitor’s office and was told of the two indictments. He appeared to think for a moment that he was being jailed. When he saw the bills his only comment was that he “didn’t give a darn.”

He refused to make any further statement on the matter and declined to discuss what steps he would take to clear himself of the libel charges.

Chief Lanford made only the comment that he could prove every charge he had ever made against Colonel Felder, but he declined to discuss the matter at length.

Both Colonel Felder and Chief Lanford are indicted for the articles that appeared in The Atlanta Constitution and other Sunday papers on June 8, and Colonel Felder is also indicted on another bill for alleged libel in connection with his famous letter addressed to “The People of Atlanta” and published in The Constitution of May 25.

It was in the latter article that Colonel Felder referred to the detective head as the “Lieutenant Becker of our ‘system'” and also charged that since the arrest of Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, charged as suspects in the murder of Mary Phagan, that the detective chief had been protecting them.

It is charged in the bill of indictment that Colonel Felder did maliciously, unlawfully and intending to injure and vilify the reputation of Lanford, write and cause to be published the letter referred to, a great part of which is copied upon the indictment.

Charges Against Lanford.

The indictments against Colonel Felder and against Chief Lanford for their articles of June 8, which appeared in the Atlanta papers, are practically similar in form. Lanford is charged with calling Colonel Felder “a contemptible liar and a scoundrel,” and accusing him of grafting and of pretending to raise a fund for the prosecution of the murderer of the Phagan child.

Colonel Felder’s article on June 3 was full of bitter invectives against the detective chief, whom he accused of graft, and who, he declared, was a disgrace and dishonor to the office he held.

All three of the indictments were returned as “special presentments” by the grand jury, which indicates that the investigations leading up to them were taken up at the volition of the members, and that no outsider appeared as prosecutor.

The only witnesses used in finding the basis for the indictments were newspaper men by whom the grand jurors proved that the articles in question had actually come from the men whose names were given as the authors of them.

In all the grand jury probably put less than an hour’s time upon the question before returning its true bills, and the case was taken up in the interim of routine criminal business.

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The Atlanta Constitution, June 28th 1913, “Lanford and Felder Indicted for Libel,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Journal

Friday, June 27, 1913

GRAND JURY RETURNS BILLS AGAINST EACH; THE CHARGE IS LIBEL

Cards Written by Chief of Detectives and Attorney and Published in the Atlanta Newspapers Form the Basis

TWO BILLS FOUND AGAINST FELDER, ONE ON LANFORD

Both Men Who Have Criticised Each Through Atlanta Press Must Face Jury on Criminal Libel Charge

The Fulton county grand jury on Friday returned two true bills against Colonel Thomas B. Felder, lawyer, and one bill against Chief Newport A. Lanford, of the city detective department, all bills charging libel.

The action of the grand jury insures the airing of Colonel Felder’s charges against Chief Lanford and of Chief Lanford’s charges against Colonel Felder in open court, and in effect it puts it up to each man to prove his charges against the other or to stand convicted of criminal libel.

The two famous cards of Colonel Felder, printed in the Atlanta newspapers of May 26 and June 8, in which the attorney flayed the detective, form the basis for the indictments against the lawyer.

The bills charge that each man “unlawfully, wantonly, maliciously and with malice aforethought caused to be published the articles in question, with the intent to falsely villify and blacken the character of the other and to prejudice before the public the honesty, the integrity, the virtue and the reputation of the other.”

The indictments charge that the statements made by each man against the other were disgraceful, false and malicious.

The grand jury consider the three bills for less than an hour, and returned the true bills on the testimony of three newspaper men who testified simply that the articles in question were signed and given out for publication by the two men against whom the indictments were returned. The three witnesses were M. D. Colfine, Sidney Ormond and W. P. Flythe.

WHAT FELDER SAID.

In his open letter to Chief Lanford, bearing date of June 7 and published in the Sunday morning papers of June 8. Colonel Felder begins by saying: “I shall now proceed to redeem the pledge heretofore made to lay bear through the columns of the papers your infamous career in the maladministration of the affairs of the official position which you disgrace and dishonor.”

Proceeding, Colonel Felder quotes the lamented Rev. Sam P. Jones as follows: “When you shave a gentleman use a razor. When you shave a hog use a brick.” And adds that even one of Chief Lanford’s mental caliber must recognize the appropriateness of the brick.

WHAT COLONEL FELDER SAID.

Colonel Felder further declared that he had no doubt that an investigation of vice conditions by the grand jury would show “abundantly, your criminal connection therewith in all of its hideous deformity.”

Continuing oClonel [sic] Felder said, “Within the past few weeks the hideous crimes committed by you, when exposed would create a panic about the habitués of a rot pit, and bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of the inmates of a brothel. They mark you a hireling scavenger of filth and falsehood, lost to every sense of propriety and recreant to every principle of honor.”

Colonel Felder repeatedly charged in his letter that Chief Lanford had lied and set forth wherein he claimed that he lied.

The reply in one of the papers made to Colonel Felder’s card by Chief Lanford forms the basis for the indictment against the latter.

WHAT CHIEF LANFORD SAID.

In replying to Colonel Felder on Sunday morning, June 8, Chief Lanford said[…]

(Continued on Page 7, Col. 4.)

GRAND JURY RETURNS BILLS AGAINST EACH; THE CHARGE IS LIBEL

(Continued from Page One.)

[…]in a morning paper: “Tom Felder is a contemptible liar, scoundrel and a coward. He is absolutely devoid of truth. He has lied so much that he doesn’t know anything else. . . . The good people of Atlanta are tired of Felder. He has grafted so much upon the people of Atlanta and surrounding towns that all he can think of is graft. Apparently his system is saturated with it. He grafted upon the good people of Alanta [sic] in getting up a fund for prosecuting a murder case in which he had never been employed. I never heard of a reputable lawyer paying a man to retain him and get turned down, and then trying to impose upon the public by raising a fund on the false statement that he had been retained. He said it would require a fund of $6,000 to employ skilled detectives and the response was liberal. We would like to know what Tom Felder has done with the money subscribed.”

Both Chief Lanford and Colonel Felder have been before the present grand jury on several occasions and it is said that both have denied in toto the charges made against each by the other, and at the same time asked a grand jury investigation of their controversy.

JURY MUST DETERMINE.

The action of the grand jury Friday is said to have eliminated the probability of an investigation by the jury of the dictograph incident per se.

It is said to have been the opinion of the solicitor from the first that no legal charge was involved in the controversy unless it was that of libel.

The grand jury has apparently made no effort to determine for itself the truth of the charges against Col. Felder or the charges against Chief Lanford, but has left their truth or falsity to be established by a jury.

The indictments were drawn under section 340 of the criminal code of Georgia, which makes libel a misdemeanor, the penalty being a fine of not more than $1,000 or one year in the chaingang, either or both penalties to be imposed at the discretion of the trial judge.

While it is possible that the case will be tried in the criminal division of the superior court, it is more probable that they will be heard in the city criminal court, where most misdemeanor cases are tried, the felonies occupying the greater portion of the time of the superior court.

WHAT THEY SAY.

Colonel Felder was engaged in the trial of a case in the Thrower building, when the indictments were returned against him. He was informed of the existence of the bill, and an attache of  the solicitor’s office announced to him that his bond had been axed at $250 in each case. Mr. Felder when seen by reporters said that he had no statement to make.

The bond of Chief Lanford was assessed at $500 and he will be asked to make it during the afternoon.

When told of the indictment Chief Lanford declared that he could substantiate every charge he has ever made against Mr. Felder.

It was learned after the indictments were returned that the grand jury took the matter up of its own initiative, and the bills were not presented by the solicitor’s office in the routine manner.

It is said that the grand jury has now wiped its hands of the entire dictograph controversy.

It is known that Colonel Felder demanded an investigation and that Chief Lanford demanded a probe of their controversy, and apparently the grand jury has simply complied with the request of each man.

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The Atlanta Journal, June 27th 1913, “Col. Felder and Chief Lanford Indicted,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, June 22, 1913

Journey Had No Relation to the Phagan Mystery or Dictagraph Incident, He Says.

Colonel T. B. Felder returned Saturday from a six-day trip to Cincinnati. Much speculation was created by his departure for Ohio last Sunday and it was hinted that he had made the journey in interest of his recent connection with the famous dictagraph plot.

It was also reported that he had gone [on] behalf of the Mary Phagan investigation, in which he has been an active figure. His departure within less than twenty-four hours after Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey had left the city gave rise to this suspicion.

He declared to a Constitution reporter last night, however, that the Cincinnati trip had been made solely on personal business and that it had no connection at all with either the Phagan mystery or the dictagraph episode.

Colonel Felder stated that he had received no information from the grand jury regarding his demand that Gentry’s charges be investigated and that he did not know when that body would take up the proposed probe.

A. S. Colyar, a leading actor in the dictagraph case and instigator of the alleged trap, late in the afternoon visited Chief Lanford for a long conference and also had a few words with Chief Beavers.

Colyar says that he will remain in Atlanta for some time.

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The Atlanta Constitution, June 22nd 1913, “Col. Felder Returns From Trip to Ohio,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)