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 →

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 →

Body Dragged by Deadly Cord After Terrific Fight

Body Dragged by Deadly Cord After Terrific FightAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Stretched full length, face downward on the floor of the basement at the rear of the plant, the body was found. A length of heavy cord or wrapping twine, which had been used by the slayer to strangle the child after he had beaten her to insensibility, was looped around the neck, and a clumsy bandage of cloth, torn from her petticoat, as if to conceal the horrible method of murder swathed the face.

The stray end of the cord lay along the child’s back between her two heavy braids of dark red hair as if it had been arranged that way deliberately.

No marks appeared to indicate that death came by any other means than strangulation, save a four-inch clean cut on the back of the head on the left side—a serious scalp wound—and a few bruises on the forehead and cheeks, on the left arm at the elbow and on the left leg just below the knee.

Body Dragged.

The neck was cut and bruised horribly by the contraction of the heavy strangling cord and the marks on the face indicated that the slayer had dragged the body back and forth across the basement floor to complete his work of garroling. 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 →