Lemmie Quinn, foreman, who testified that he visited the factory and talked to Mr. Frank just after Mary Phagan is supposed to have left with her pay envelope. He was given a searching examination by the coroner Thursday, but stuck to his statement.

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

Atlanta Journal

Thursday, May 8^th, 1913

Lemmie Quinn, the Factory Foreman, Was Put Through a Grilling Examination, but He Steadily Maintained That He Visited the Factory Shortly After the Time Mary Phagan is Supposed to Have Left With Her Pay Envelope

FRANK’S TREATMENT OF GIRLS IN FACTORY DESCRIBED AS UNIMPEACHABLE BY ONE YOUNG LADY EMPLOYEE

Mr. Frank’s Manner at the Time He Was Informed of the Tragedy by Officers at His Home on Sunday Morning is Told of by Former Policeman — Both Frank and the Negro Night Watchman Are Expected to Testify During Afternoon, When Inquest Will Be Concluded

The coroner’s inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan adjourned at 12:55 o’clock Thursday to meet again at 2:30. At the hour of adjournment, six witnesses had testified. They were “Boots” Rogers, former county policeman; Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the pencil factory; Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee of the factory; Miss Hattie Hall, stenographer; J. L. Watkins and Miss Daisy Jones. L. M. Frank and Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, were both present at headquarters during the morning session, but neither had been recalled to the stand when recess was ordered. Both are expected to testify during the afternoon, when an effort will be made to conclude the inquest and return a verdict.

Though put through a searching examination by the coroner in an effort to break down his statement that he had visited the factory on the day of the tragedy shortly after noon just after Mary Phagan is supposed to have received her pay envelope and left, Quinn stuck to his story. He declared that he had recalled his visit to Mr. Frank, and that Mr. Frank told him he was going to communicate the fact to his lawyers.

“Boots” Rogers testified that Mr. Frank had changed the tape in the time clock while the officers were in the factory Sunday morning after the body of Mary Phagan had been found, and that he stated at the time that the sheet he took from the clock seemed to be correct. Rogers also described Mr. Frank’s manner when the officers went to his home in an automobile to take him to the factory Sunday morning.

Miss Daisy Jones, who was mistaken for Mary Phagan by J. L. Watkins. She was a witness before the coroner Thursday. G. W. Epps, the boy who came to town with Mary Phagan on the day of the tragedy and left her on her way to the factory [right].

Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee in the factory, testified that Mr. Frank’s treatment of the girls in the factory was unimpeachable. She also testified that she had met Lemmie Quinn at a restaurant near the factory near the noon hour Saturday, her statement being confirmatory of his visit to the factory on the fatal day. J. L. Watkins testified that he had mistaken Miss Daisy Jones for Mary Phagan when he thought he saw Mary on the street near her home on Saturday afternoon about 5 o’clock. Miss Jones testimony was also in this connection.

NEW WITNESSES CALLED.

Following a conference between Solicitor General Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor General Stephens and Chief of Detectives Lanford, just after the inquest recessed for lunch, it was learned that Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee would be recalled at the afternoon session and that there would be the following new witnesses: Miss Alice Wood, of 8 Corput street; Miss Nellie Pitts, of 9 Oliver street, and Mrs. C. D. Dunnegan [sic], of 165 West Fourteenth street.

Rogers Describes Mr. Frank’s Manner When Told of Tragedy

“Boots” Rogers, formerly a county policeman, was the first witness. Mr. Rogers said that he lived at 100 McDonough road. He was at the police station at 3 o’clock on the morning of April 27, he said, when a call came from the factory of the National Pencil company. The officers responded to the call in his automobile, he declared. Those who went with him were Police Sergeants Brown and Dobbs, Call Officer Anderson and Britt Craig, a newspaper reporter.

Mr. Craig was the first person to enter the basement, the witness said. He (Mr. Rogers) entered second; Dobbs and Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, bringing up the rear. All saw the body about the same time, Mr. Rogers said.

George W. Epps

The witness said that the girl’s body was lying face down, with the hands folded beneath the body. The body was turned over by Police Sergeant Dobbs, he said.

Rogers continued that they found two notes near the body. The first note, found by Sergeant Dobbs, was on white scratch paper and on a tablet lying face down. The sheet with the note on it was detached and fell off when the tablet was picked up. It was lying about a foot from the body’s right shoulder. Another note was found later, written on a yellow order blank of the factory, lying about a foot from the feet of the body. Rogers wasn’t sure whether he or Sergeant Dobbs noticed that first. He didn’t notice a sharpened pencil nearby. There were a number of stubs, but none sharpened that he saw.

Asked “Who telephoned Mr. Frank that the girl was dead?” he said no one did as nearly as he remembered—that Detective Starnes telephoned Mr. Frank later in the morning to come down to the factory.

About two or three minutes after the first officers arrived with him, said Rogers, they were admitted to the factory. They saw the negro night watchman, Newt Leet, through the glass door, coming down the stairs with his lantern.

“She’s down in the basement—she’s down in the basement,” Rogers aid the negro told them first. He showed them the way down, indicating the trap door and the ladder. Britt Craig, a newspaper man, went first, and was followed by the witness, then by Sergeant Dobbs of the police, and last by the negro.

Everything was in gloom, though a gas jet was burning dimly at the foot of the ladder.

NEGRO WASN’T EXCITED.

“Look out, white folks, you’ll step on her,” the witness said the negro exclaimed when they started toward the rear of the basement. The negro took the lead then, with his lantern, and led them to the body. The negro’s manner was as cool as that of a man would be under the circumstances, said the witness. The negro wasn’t excited. “He was being questioned by all of us,” said the witness. He answered questions promptly.

“How did you happen to find the body?” the witness said was one of the questions put to the negro. He repeated the negro’s answer—of how he was making his rounds, and entered the basement, and by the dim rays of his lantern noticed a suspicious looking object on the ground near the back. “Somebody’s put that there to try to scare me,” the negro said he remarked to himself, going over to see closer. The body was revealed and he hurried back upstairs to telephone the police.

BODY FOUND FACE DOWN.

The witness said that Sergeant Dobbs asked the negro how the body was lying when he found it. The negro’s answer was “on its face.” “Did you turn it over?” the negro was asked; and answered “no sir, I didn’t touch it.”

This point of the evidence was in conflict with previous testimony by the negro himself, who swore at the inquest that when he found the body it was lying on its back face up, with its head toward the back door—exactly the reverse of the position in which the officers found it.

Rogers, the witness, said that the body was lying on its face, hand folded beneath it, when he and the officers first saw it. The negro stuck to the same story while answering all the questions, said the witness. After about ten minutes Sergeant Dobbs ordered that the negro be held under arrest. The negro was taken upstairs by Call Officer Anderson. The rest of them looked around for the girl’s left shoe, which was missing from the body.

Officer Anderson and the negro went upstairs first alone. Twenty or thirty minutes later the witness went up and found the officer and the negro sitting in the office. Anderson was trying to telephone to some of “the factory folks,” said the witness. The negro was sitting nearby in silence. Some one suggested that the officer telephoned to Mr. Frank, the superintendent, at his home. Anderson tried to get Mr. Frank’s number. There was no answer. Anderson talked to the operator, and told her something very serious had happened and that the call was urgent; and Anderson said he heard the persistent ringing that followed.

IDENTIFIED AS MARY PHAGAN.

While he and Sergeant Dobbs had been moving about downstairs, looking for the girl’s shoes, said Rogers, they found the staple on the back door pulled, and pushed the door back and went out into the alley, searching it to Hunter street for some clue. Rogers then went away to find some one to identify the body, said he. The shoe was found by somebody else later. He went to 100 McDonough road, said he, to get Miss Grace Hix, a relative of his own, whom he knew to be employed in the factory. He brought Miss Hix back with him in the automobile, and she identified the body as that of Mary Phagan. Miss Hix sought first to telephone to Mary’s mother, Mrs. J. W. Coleman, but there was no phone in the Coleman home, so she telephoned instead to the home of another girl, Miss Ferguson, and got Mrs. Ferguson, and asked her to go over and break the news to Mrs. Coleman.

MR. FRANK NOTIFIED.

Mr. Rogers said that Detective Starnes, who had been summoned to the factory, called Mr. Frank over the telephone shortly after 6 o’clock. The witness said that he drove Detective Black to Mr. Frank’s home, and that Mrs. Frank, wearing a heavy bathrobe, came to the door. He said that Mr. Frank stood in the hall, fully dressed except his collar and tie.

The witness said that Mr. Frank appeared nervous and excited and asked whether the night watchman had reported to the police that something had happened at the factory. Mr. Rogers said that neither he nor Mr. Black answered.

The witness said that Mr. Frank remarked that a drink of whiskey would do him good and that Mrs. Frank said there was none in the house, but insisted that Mr. Frank get some breakfast before going out. However, they hurried to the undertaking establishment, the witness said.

Mr. Rogers said that on the way to the undertaker’s establishment, Mr. Frank remarked that he had dreamed he had heard his telephone ring about daybreak. Detective Black asked Mr. Frank whether he knew Mary Phagan, the witness said, Mr. Frank replying that he didn’t know whether he did or not.

The witness said that Mr. Frank did not go into the room in which the Phagan child’s body lay.

Mr. Frank remarked, the witness said, that he could refer to his payroll and see whether Mary Phagan worked at the pencil factory.

“Was Mr. Frank steady or trembling at the undertaking establishment?” was asked Mr. Rogers.

“I couldn’t say,” he answered.

Mr. Frank suggested that they go to the factory, the witness said. At the factory, the witness said, they found a number of detectives and policemen and Mr. Darley, an official of the factory, who had been summoned. They went upstairs, the witness aid, to the office and Mr. Frank referred to the payroll, saying that Mary Phagan worked there and that she had been paid $1.20 the day before, shortly after 12 o’clock.

ELEVATOR AT SECOND FLOOR.

The witness said that Mr. Frank then asked if the pay envelope had been found, remarking that it must be around somewhere. They went to the basement in the elevator, which stood at the second floor, the witness said. Mr. Frank switched the current and there was some delay in getting the elevator to work. The fire doors of the elevator were open at this time, Mr. Rogers said, but he didn’t remember whether they were open or closed when he went to the factory the first time.

The elevator was run to the basement, the witness said and Mr. Frank was shown where the body had been found.

CHANGED TAPE IN CLOCK.

When he returned from the basement, said the witness, he sat in Mr. Frank’s inner office with the negro , Lee. Mr. Frank stayed in outer office, but came in twice where he and negro were, and, on the second trip, Mr. Frank looked at the negro and shook his head and said, “Too bad!”

Mr. Frank asked repeatedly if the officers were through with him, saying he wanted to go out and get a cup of coffee, but no opportunity to get the coffee arose. After a while, said the witness, after Mr. Frank had been through the building with Chief of Detectives Lanford, Mr. Frank suggested that they change the tape in the time clock. Mr. Frank took a key to the clock, which he wore on a ring at his belt, and opened the clock with it and removed the time slip and laid it down by the clock. He then went back into his office and got a blank slip. He asked one of the officers standing near to hold back a little lever while he inserted this slip. The lever knocked against a little pencil in the clock. Newt Lee, the negro, was standing near. Mr. Frank turned to the negro and asked, “What is this pencil doing in the hole?” Lee said he had put it there so his number would be sure to register every time he rang. Mr. Frank put the key back at his belt and dated the slip which he had taken from the clock with a pencil which he took from his pocket. The witness though Mr. Frank wrote the date “April 26, 1913,” on it, but he wouldn’t be sure about that, he said.

Mr. Frank, after examining the slip, stated that it was punched correctly, said the witness. He also looked at the slip. The first punch started at 6 p. m., and it was punched every half hour, the witness thought, up to 2:30 o’clock. At 2:30 was the last punch. Mr. Frank took the slip into his own office, said the witness, and the witness said he did not know what became of it after that. A little later they all got into his automobile, said Rogers, Mr. Frank sitting in Mr. Darley’s lap in front beside him (the witness) at the wheel, and some of the officers sitting with Frank in the back.

At this point the coroner asked where Mr. Darley was when the clock slip was being removed. He was standing near by, said the witness.

After delivering his passengers at police headquarters, said Rogers, he went with Miss Hix to take her back to her own home.

On the trip to headquarters, said he, Mr. Frank did not seem to be as nervous as he had been. When he returned to headquarters, said the witness, the detectives were getting Newt Lee, the negro, to write. Lee then seemed very nervous.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 8th 1913, “Phagan Inquest in Session; Six Witnesses are Examined Before Adjournment to 2:30,” 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
July 31^st, 1913

By Sidney Ormond

Comparisons are odious, but to the close observer of events following the Mary Phagan murder and the trial now in progress one cannot help contrasting the impression made on the jury by Newt Lee, the negro night watchman of the National Pencil factory, and the testimony of John Black, detective, who worked up a large part of the evidence being used against Leo M. Frank by the state.

It was only a short while ago that John Black, according to the statement of Lee, was ‘blunblamming’ at him night and day in an effort to get something new in regard to the death of Mary Phagan. Lee was not allowed to sleep, and you know what that means to a negro. No sooner would he curl up on his bunk to dream of yellow-legged chickens, watermelons and the fresh air of liberty, than along would come Black or Starnes or some other member of the detective force to harass him with questions. For months his life has been one volley of interrogations fired at him coaxingly or menacingly. He told his story so often that doubtless if he were asked which he preferred, chicken or watermelon, he would say,

‘I went down into the basement and—’

When Newt Lee went on the stand Luther Rosser, who is a bearcat when it comes to mixing a person up, had no terrors for him. The mere fact that Newt has no education stood him in good stead. His memory, or his ‘recollection,’ as he termed it, had been developed just in proportion as his education had been neglected.

Luther Rosser never budged him from his original story. He remembered the exact words he used before the coroner’s jury.

“So, Mr. Frank told you to go out and have some fun, did he?” Luther Rosser would ask.

“Naw, suh. He didn’t say dat. He tole me to go out and have a good time,” Newt would reply.

With John Black, the case was different, and the manner in which he became muddled up and confused under the crossfire of Mr. Rosser’s questioning proves that the memory of the illiterate is often more reliable than the memory of a person of fairly good education. It proves another thing. Newt Lee is stolid. He has no nerves. Being questioned by Luther Rosser meant absolutely nothing to him. He didn’t give a whoop whether it was Luther Rosser or John Black. Black is inclined to be nervous. He dreaded the ordeal through which he was to pass and he looked forward to it with increasing fear as the days passed. Detective that he is he knew Luther Rosser’s tactics. He had been questioned by him before. He had felt the sting of Rosser’s sarcasm – he had suffered from the vitriol which Rube Arnold occasionally pours into a wound inflicted by his colleague. He knew he was in for a hiding that great strips of skin were going to be taken off his person and that no matter what he said or how he said it he was in for a merry, merry old time of it.

“I should worry,” soliloquized John Black. And worry he did.

No one questions that Black did his best. Jim Jeffries also did his best one fatal Fourth of July.

The testimony of Newt Lee and John Black forms a nice study in psychology. Lee would doubtless think you were cursing him if you used that word in his presence and [sentence cut off in printing].

But really that is all there is to it. One did and the other didn’t.

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

Atlanta Constitution
July 31^st, 1913

Detective John R. Black, the officer who went in Rogers’ machine from the factory to Frank’s residence on the Sunday morning that Mary Phagan’s body was discovered, was next put up by the state. He took the stand at 11:45 o’clock, and was still there when court adjourned for lunch.

In answers to Solicitor Dorsey’s questions he said he had been on the police force for six years and previous to that had worked as n cooper for the Atlanta Brewing and Ice company.

“Do you know any of the directors of this company?” began the solicitor, when he was quickly interrupted by the defense. Despite Mr. Dorsey’s claim that he had a material end in view, the judge ruled with the defense and without making further ado the solicitor started another line of questions.

Black told how he had been waked up at his home on that Sunday morning and told to report at headquarters and how, after a talk with Lee at the station, he had gone to the pencil factory and from there to Frank’s house with Rogers.

He told practically what Rogers had said about Mrs. Frank’s appearance at the door and of Frank’s stepping from behind a portiere curtain in the hall.

“He came out before I got through talking with Mrs. Frank,” said the detective.

“Frank was nervous and excited, and talked in a hoarse voice,” Black stated in response to queries.

Had Seen Frank Before.

He further stated that he had seen Frank twice before and had talked to him once. He said that he saw him about two years ago when he and another officer went to the factory to get a negro, and that he had talked to him about eighteen months ago when he went on a similar visit. On being questioned, he stated that at neither time was there anything about his actions to make him think the man nervous or excitable.

Attorney Rosser frequently interrupted while this testimony was being given and Attorney Arnold, for Frank, also interposed.

“It’s rank conclusion when a police officer or any witness is allowed to express his opinion about a defendant’s bearing or deportment,” objected Mr. Arnold.

Judge Roan ruled that Black might tell what the defendant did and how he acted, giving the facts and not giving his opinion.

“When you went to the factory about eighteen months ago, did you talk to Frank?” asked Mr. Dorsey.

“Yes, sir.”

“Was he nervous or composed?”

“On that occasion there was nothing to make me think him nervous.”

“Tell if he was nervous or composed on April 27, when you saw him, and state your reasons,” said the solicitor.

“He was nervous and showed it by the way he put on his collar and tie,” replied the witness.

Tells Dorsey to Keep Pleasant.

“That’s another conclusion,” Mr. Rosser broke in.

“Let me examine the witness,” the solicitor flung back.

“I’ve got a right to object,” said Mr. Rosser.

“Go ahead,” replied the solicitor, appearing rather nettled.

“All right, but please be pleasant and don’t scowl so when I’m doing it,” replied Rosser.

“Tell what Frank did to make you think him excited,” said Mr. Dorsey.

“The way he asked for coffee several times.”

“What about the collar and tie?”

“He couldn’t get his collar and tie on, and rapidly asked questions. He kept on asking what happened at the factory, and I told him he had better dress and go see. His voice was hoarse and trembling.”

“Did you look at his face?”

“Yes, I was watching him closely.”

“How did it look?”

“Pale.”

“What did he say about going to the factory?”

“He kept on insisting on getting a cup of coffee, and I finally told him that I had been up until 1 o’clock the night before, and had then been aroused at 4 o’clock in the morning, and hadn’t had any coffee or breakfast either. I told him we’d better go to the factory and get through with that.”

“What did he say next?”

“He again insisted on having some coffee.”

Mr. Rosser objected hotly to use of the word “insisted,” and succeeded in having it ruled out.

“Well, how many times did he ask for coffee?” queried the solicitor, getting his desired information in another way.

“He asked for coffee twice at the house and he also asked for it at the factory.”

“Did he mention breakfast at the factory?”

“Yes, I heard him say something about breakfast to Chief Lanford.”

“Did Frank give any reason for wanting breakfast or coffee either at the house or at the factory?”

“No.”

“Did anything else happen at the house or in the auto?”

“Not that I remember.”

“What did you, Rogers or Frank say in the auto?”
“I asked him if he knew a girl at the factory named Mary Phagan, and told him she had been found murdered.”

“What did Frank say?”
“He said he didn’t know the name but would look on the pay roll at the factory and see if it was listed there. I then suggested going by the undertaker’s to see if Frank could identify the dead girl. When we got there Rogers, then Frank, and then I went back to the place where the body was.

“Frank looked at the body and stepped out,” the detective continued.

“Did he see the face?”

“He just casually glanced—“

“Did he see her face?” reiterated the solicitor.

“I can’t say that he did,” replied the witness.

“Didn’t Gheesling turn the face in his direction?”

“Yes.”

“What did Frank do then?”

“He stepped aside, there was a curtain there and he stepped back of that.”

“When he went behind the curtain could he see the body?”

“No.”

“Did Frank ever go into the room where the body lay?”

“When we first came up Frank went right to the door while Gheesling was uncovering the body,” Black replied.

“Did he go there again?”

“Not to my knowledge,” the witness replied.

“How long did Frank stay behind the curtain?”

“Just a moment.”

“When he came from behind the curtain did he go toward or away from the body?”

“He went away from it.”

“Did Frank say anything?”

“He said he didn’t know the girl, but that from her dress he thought she was one of the girls he had paid off the day before and that he would look on the pay roll and see if the name of Mary Phagan appeared on it.”

Black then told of going to the factory with Frank and Rogers and at this time court adjourned until after lunch.

Afternoon Session.

The afternoon session began with a continuation of Detective Black’s story. He was being questioned by Solicitor Dorsey.

“What did Frank say and do at the factory that morning?”

“He talked with Mr. Starnes, Newt Lee, Mr. Darley and myself.”

“Did you see him go to the clock?”

“Yes. He asked if it had been punched correctly, looked at it, made an examination and said it had been punched correctly up until 2:30 a. m.”

“Did Frank state at any time that the clock was accurate?”

“He said on Tuesday that the clock had been passed three times.”

“Did he produce a time slip at that time?”

“Yes, a slip which he gave to Chief Lanford on Monday.”
“What became of the slip he had Sunday?”

“He carried it into this office Sunday morning.”

“Who was present Sunday morning when he stated that the slip had been punched regularly?”

“Detective Starnes, Chief Lanford, Newt Lee, ‘Boots’ Rogers and myself.”

“Do you know of any date he put on the slip at that time?”

“I couldn’t state.”

“When did you first hear Frank state the slip was incorrect?”

Not Positive of Date.

“I am not prepared to swear, Mr. Dorsey. It was Wednesday or Monday, one or the other.”

“Who was being held at that time under suspicion of the crime?”

“Newt Lee.”

“Frank was not then under arrest?”

“No.”

“When was he arrested?”

“Tuesday morning, about 11:30 o’clock.”

“What were the inaccuracies he quoted from the slip?”

“10 p. m., 11:30 p. m., and—I can’t recall the others.”

“Ddi Frank send for counsel before he was put under arrest?”

“Monday morning Herbert Haas and Attorney Rosser were at the pencil factory.”

Attorney Arnold interrupted here, declaring that the question was irrelevant. Solicitor Dorsey said in an answer,

“Here is a man not charged with anything employing counsel before his arrest. My intention is to show his conduct in every respect.”

Judge Roan sustained the solicitor.

“Mr. Black, please state when Frank first had counsel,” he put

“On Monday morning Frank went to—“

An objection was made by the defense, which was overruled.

Black continued:

Attorneys at Frank’s Home.

“At 8:30 o’clock Monday morning Attorney Rosser came to police headquarters. Detective Haslett and I went to Frank’s home. I asked him to come to headquarters to see if he could throw any light on the murder. He got to the station within thirty minutes. On the way downtown we talked to Ben Fell. We reached the station house at 8:30 o’clock.”

“What was there?”

“In a few minutes Mr. Rosser came in. Herbert Haas following him a moment later.”

“Did you hear Haas make a statement in Frank’s presence?”

“Yes. Haas demanded Chief Lanford and the detectives to search Frank’s residence.”

“Was Frank under arrest at that time?”

“No.”

“Was he restrained of his liberty?”

“No.”

“What were Haas’ grounds for making such a demand?”

“He said he was Frank’s attorney, and was entitled to demand a search.”

“What time was that?”

“About 11:30 a. m.”

“With whom did Attorney Rosser confer?”

“Leo Frank.”

Frank’s Talk With Lee.

“Do you know what took place between Frank and Lee on Tuesday night?”

“Detective Harry Scott and I had a talk with Lee. We talked with Frank, and I suggested he take Lee in a room and try to get something out of him. They went together in a locked room, and stayed 5 or 10 minutes.”

“Did you hear what was said?”

“Some. I could not hear perfectly, though—not enough to swear to what I did hear.”

“Did you talk with Frank after he had been in the room with Lee?”

“We went inside where they sat, and Frank and Newt stuck to his story. He said he told the negro that it looked like he knew something, as no one was in the factory but him that night. He said he could get nothing out of him.”

“Did you talk with Frank in reference to getting data on the murder? If so, what did he suggest?”

“In a way, he seemed to suspect Lee and Gantt.”

“Who else?”

“He said no one was there from 6 p. m. but Lee, and that the negro should know something of it. He also stated that Gantt had been there that Saturday afternoon.”

“Subsequently, was Gantt arrested?”

“Yea. The conversation with Lee was after Gantt was arrested.”

“When did Frank first say anything about Gantt?”

“Monday.”

“Was this before or after Gantt’s arrest?”

“Before.”

“Did he mention anybody else?”

“Yes, Jim Conley.”

“After you and Haslett arrested Frank did you talk to him any?”

“Yes. On several occasions.”

Frank’s Demeanor.

“Did you observe his demeanor?”

“He seemed to be a little nervous, as just any man would be who had been arrested.”

The solicitor protested that the latter part of the detective’s answer be ruled out. Judge Roan held that the statement would remain in record.

“Well, I will go a step further,” said Dorsey. “Was Newt Lee nervous when he was arrested? This is over our objection. What I want to show is that Lee was calm under arrest for the identical crime. Did you observe Frank’s appearance and conduct the day of his arrest?”

“Yes.”

“Was he excited? If so, tell why you think he was excited.”

“On Monday Frank was jovial and friendly—“

Counsel for the defense objected to the “friendly” being sustained by Judge Roan, who held that the word could be construed in many ways.

Black continued:

“On Tuesday he was sullen, and unwilling to talk?”

“What did he do?”

“He refused to talk, when previously he had been jovial and talkative.”

Rosser Begins Cross-Examination.

Attorney Rosser began the questioning at this juncture.

“You didn’t release Mr. Frank until the word was given from the chief of detectives, did you?”

“I suppose not.”

“Do you mean anything by the word release?”

“I spoke before I thought, when I uttered it.”

“Wasn’t his detainment equivalent to arrest?”

“I can’t say so.”

“Then, you retract a thing you said under oath?”

“Yes, I retract the word ‘release.’”

“Wasn’t it 11 o’clock before I got to the station?”

“No. I know you got there between 8:30 and 8 o’clock.”

“Didn’t you swear a while ago that I was there at 11?”

“I won’t swear it.”

“Were you in the room when I got there?”

“I was in the hallway.”

Denies Lanford Spoke Roughly.

“Didn’t I say, ‘Frank, what have they got for you?’ and he answered, ‘they want me to make a statement’? Didn’t I say, ‘give it to them’? Didn’t Lanford say ‘come on in here,’ like he was snarling at a negro?”

“No. He didn’t talk that way.”

“Didn’t I say I was going to be present during the examination merely in order to hear what he would say?”

“Yes.”

“You also know that I didn’t say a word to him?”

“No. I wasn’t inside the room.”

“You wanted to talk to him by yourself, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Finally, after being released, Frank went home unmolested?”

“Yes, but he wasn’t ‘released,’ as you call it.”

“You swore so, didn’t you?”

No answer came from the witness.

“Frank was a witness before the inquest, wasn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“He answered every question promptly and willingly?”

“So far as I know.”

“It isn’t true that he declined to make any statement?”

Black’s “Recollection.”

The witness gave no reply to this question. It was directly withdrawn.

“Who was present when you talked to Frank on the time previous to Sunday?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What did you say just now—?”

“George Bullard—I just now recollected.”

“You heard Starnes talk over the phone with Frank?”

“Yes.”

“What time was it?”

“Some time after 6 o’clock—about 6:15, I suppose.”

“You’re depending entirely upon recollection, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then, why is it you recollect so well in some things and fail so badly in others?”

Question unanswered.

“You can’t remember exact words used, can you? Did the conversation take place at 5 o’clock?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

“What time did you get to the Selig home?”

“I don’t recollect perfectly.”

“Why did you wait to tell Frank of the murder until you had got away from his home?”

“I had talked with Newt Lee, and therefore wanted to question him.”

“In fact, you had no reasons for doing it?”

“Yes. I had several.”

“Haven’t you a way of writing down things you wish to remember?”

“Yes.”

Refers to Grace Case.

With a smile, Rosser turned to Reuben Arnold, his associate, remarking:

“That’s the way they did it in the Grace case.”

“Hurry and scurry,” he said to the witness, “is an enemy to memory, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the detective complied.

The attorney again turned to Arnold, saying:

“He draws conclusions, I’m sorry for him.”

“Did Frank dress in front of you?” he asked Black.

“Yes.”

“What sort of tie and collar did he have?”

“I don’t remember?”

“You don’t remember!” mocked the attorney in sarcasm.

“Did Rogers go anywhere in the Selig home?”

“No.”

“How long did you stay there?”

“No longer than ten minutes.”

“Frank went along willingly with you and talked freely, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“Tell me, did either you or Frank go into the room where the body lay at the undertaker’s?”

“No.”

“Frank had an opportunity to view the body, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“As a matter of fact, didn’t you and Frank go out of the room together?”

“No.”

“You were in same relation to the curtains as Frank, weren’t you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Didn’t Frank say he thought the body was that of a girl he had paid off Saturday?”

“Yes.”

“You went to the factory with Frank and watched him go to the safe and get book and find name of Mary Phagan?”

“Yes.”

“You went into the metal department. Who else went with you?”

“Several others.”

No Blood in Hallway.

“Did you see any blood in the hallway?”

“No”

“The factory stayed open that Sunday until about 12 o’clock didn’t it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Starnes went over the factory—who else?”

“Chief Lanford.”

“Nobody discovered any blood that day?”

“No.”

“You saw Mr. Frank at the clock. Did he have to open the clock?”

“He opened it.”

“Was Darley there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Didn’t Frank and Darley both say the slip was punched properly?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did ‘Boots’ Rogers hold the lever?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long did you keep Mr. Frank at the station Monday?”

“Until about 11:30 o’clock.”

“The officers got after Gantt early that Monday, didn’t they?”

“Yes.”

“Before Frank was carried to the station?”

“I don’t think so.”

Intimation Against Gantt.

“Frank intimated Gantt had been caught stealing, didn’t he?”

“I think so.”

“Weren’t you present when Frank revealed his under linen to me at police headquarters that Monday?”

The solicitor entered protest to this question, holding it inadmissible because evidence of such a nature had not hitherto been introduced.

“Tuesday morning about 10 o’clock.”

After much argument, Stenographer Parry, who had noted the morning testimony, was called into the courtroom to read that part of the detective’s statement wherein there was possibility of evidence of the character protested by Dorsey. He read, at the suggestion of the defense, that portion pertaining to the demand made by Haas to search Frank’s home.

Attorney Rosser said,

“I want to show circumstances which promoted Haas’ demand.”

Dorsey’s reply was,

“There is no evidence yet introduced that Frank’s home was searched. Rosser seeks to introduce examination of the defendant’s person. The law prohibits such an examination.”

Counsel for Defense Sustained.

Counsel for the defense was sustained.

“Were you present during this examination?” Black was asked.

“I don’t recollect that I was.”

“You were there when Mr. Haas made his demand, weren’t you?”

“I was at police headquarters, but was on the outside of Chief Lanford’s office.”

“Didn’t I, myself, demand Haas to go with you?”

“I didn’t hear it if you did.”

“Didn’t you testify just now that Haas in my presence had made the demand?”

“I did not say in your presence.”

“Wasn’t I there?”

“I did not see you.”

“In accordance with Haas demand, didn’t you go to the Frank home?”

“Yes, I went and examined his laundry.”

“You also went to Lee’s house?”

“Yes.”

“What did you find?”

“A bloody shirt.”

“Where is it?”

“Mr. Dorsey has it.”

Shirt Produced in Court.

Counsel for the defense asked that the shirt be brought into view. It was produced by the state.

“Is that the shirt Mr. Black?” asked Rosser, holding the crimson-spotted garment to view.

“Yes, sir.”

“What time did you find it?”

“Tuesday morning about 10 o’clock?”

“Did Newt Lee say it was his shirt?”

Solicitor Dorsey objected and was sustained by Judge Roan. He then began questioning the detective.

“Where was Newt Lee when Frank visited his (Frank’s) house?”

“Locked up.”

The solicitor explained to the court that he wanted to show that Frank was trying to put the finger of suspicion at Lee, that after his (Frank’s) home had been searched, he insisted that Lee’s house be inspected.

Bloody Shirt a “Plant.”

“Our contention,” he said, “is that this shirt is a plant.”

“I also want to show,” he continued, “that Frank said the time clock was correct one day, and two days later, said it was incorrect and—

Judge Roan interrupting, said:

“I understand what you mean.”

“Mr. Black, would Lee have had time to get to his home that night and day?”

“I don’t know.”

Did Frank ever tell you that Lee could have found time to get home, in view of the inaccuracy of his punches?”

“Frank said he could.”

“What day did he say this?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What did you do after Frank said the time slip showed that the watchman had time enough to get home during the night?”

“I don’t remember.”

“How did you happen to go to Newt’s home?”

“After Frank had told me about the time Newt would have had during the night.”

“Before or after you made the search of Lee’s house were you told by Frank?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Before or after Frank told you about the inaccurate slip?”

“Afterward.”

Shirt Found Under Barrel.

The shirt was given to the witness for examination.

“Where did you find this shirt,” he was asked.

“Under an old clothes barrel at Newt Lee’s home.”

“How did you get in the house?”

“A negro woman was there—we entered by a skeleton key.”

Here Attorney Rosser took up the examination.

“Didn’t you say you had had no conversation about the time slip on Monday?”

“No.”

“When did you have these conversations—what time, I mean?”

A long pause resulted on part of the witness. Judge Roan attempted to speak. Mr. Rosser interrupted.

“Give him time to answer, your honor.”

“Alright,” replied the judge.

“I can’t remember,” was the detective’s reply.

Admits Being Confused.

During a rigorous examination that shortly followed, the detective said to Attorney Rosser,

“I don’t like to admit that I’m crossed up Colonel Rosser, but you have got me in that kind of fix, and I don’t know where I’m at.”

The solicitor then took up the questioning.

“What day did Frank tell you the Newt Lee slip was not correct?”

“To the best of my knowledge it was Monday.”

He was then called from the stand

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

Atlanta Constitution
July 31^st, 1913

SLEUTH CONFUSED UNDER MERCILESS CROSS-QUESTIONS OF LUTHER ROSSER

Just Before He Left the Stand He Confessed That He Was “Mixed Up” and That He Could Not Recall What He Had Testified a Moment Before—Tangled on Finding Bloody Shirt.

FRIENDS OF PRISONER HAVE HIGH HOPES NOW OF FAVORABLE VERDICT

“Boots” Rogers, Grace Hicks, Mrs. J. W. Coleman and J. M. Gantt on Stand During Day—Mobs of Curiosity Seekers Besieging Doors to Gain Admission to Frank Trial.

When Wednesday’s session of the Leo M. Frank trial had come to a close, the friends of the accused were filled with high hopes for his acquittal. They were nothing short of jubilant, and on all sides expressions of satisfaction were heard.

This feeling was based on the fact that the testimony of John Black, member of the Atlanta detective department, who worked up a large share of the evidence against Frank, fell to the ground, in a large measure, under the merciless cross-questioning of Luther Rosser.

Time and again Black contradicted himself as to time; time and again he confessed that he did not remember. Just before he left the stand he confessed to Mr. Rosser that he was “mixed up,” and that he could not recall what he had testified a moment before.

Black Very Nervous.

Black’s memory proved treacherous on many points, but it was in regard to the finding of the bloody shirt at Newt Lee’s house that he got mixed up and confessed his inability to recall dates.

Solicitor Dorsey had stated that he expected to show that Black had gone to Lee’s house only after Frank had informed him that several punches were missing from the time slip taken from the register clock, and that Lee would have had time to go home; that after Frank’s house had been searched for incriminating evidence at the suggestion of Herbert Haas, that Frank sought to have Lee’s house searched and that the bloody shirt was really a “plant.”

Black’s answers failed to bear out the contention of the solicitor. He could not say with any degree of certainty what day it was Frank had told him of the “misses” on the time slip.

He was also hazy as to the time Frank was actually detained at police headquarters. He could not tell by some hours what time he and Detective Haslett took Frank to the police station on Monday morning following the murder.

Black impressed a majority of the spectators as honestly trying to recall facts, but his inability to do so was manifest.

He seemed nervous. During the cross-examination by Luther Rosser he folded and refolded a large white handkerchief, frequently mopping his face.

Rogers on the Stand.

Other witnesses who testified for the state Wednesday were W. W. (Boots) Rogers, Grace Hicks, a sister-in-law of Rogers, who worked at the pencil factory and who first identified the body of Mary Phagan; Mrs. J. W. Coleman, mother of the dead girl, who was questioned for a short time, and J. M. Gantt, the discharged shipping clerk, who, for a time, was held in jail on suspicion.

Mr. Rogers made a good witness. He was accurate as to time, and the cross-questioning of Luther Rosser failed to confuse him. Rogers testified that to his best knowledge and belief Frank never saw the face of the dead girl in the undertaking establishment and that he could not have known who she was. At the coroner’s inquest Frank testified that he had seen the girl at the undertaking establishment.

Grace Hicks told of identifying Mary Phagan by her hair and she did not know whether Frank was personally acquainted with the dead girl or not. She said that she had worked at the pencil factory for five years and that during that time she had spoken to Leo Frank just three times. Grace Hicks is a decidedly pretty girl of 17, and she told her story in a perfectly frank and straightforward manner.

J. M. Gantt testified that he had been discharged from the National Pencil factory for alleged shortage in the pay roll. He explained that one of the pay envelopes was short and that when he declined to make it good Frank discharged him.

He said he had known Mary Phagan for years; that the families lived close together in Cobb county at one time.

He told of Leo Frank remarking.

“You know Mary pretty well, don’t you?”

He said Frank was decidedly nervous on the day he went to the factory to get his shoes.

Crowd Still Large.

Instead of diminishing, interest in the Frank trial grows daily. Mobs of curiosity seekers besiege the doors for admission. Many of them resort to all sorts of subterfuges to gain admission. The “I am a reporter” is the favorite dodge. At times bona fide newspaper men find difficulty in gaining admission on account of the suspicion entertained of all persons claiming to be reporters.

“BOOTS” ROGERS GOES ON STAND

The first witness put on the stand when court convened Wednesday was “Boots” Rogers, in whose machine police officers responded to Newt Lee’s call to the factory where Mary Phagan’s body was found.

Rogers told of the trip there and of the finding of the body and of the arrest of the negro. He then said that Detective J. N. Starnes called up a person, whom he afterwards heard was Frank, and told him to come to the factory.

Rogers took Detective John R. Black in his auto and went to Frank’s house. At the door he said the ring was answered by Mrs. Frank, who was dressed in a heavy bath robe, and while they were talking to her Frank himself appeared from behind a portiere curtain in the hall and began to ask them what was the matter at the factory.

Says Frank Was Nervous.

Testimony as to the defendants’s nervousness and his frequent asking for coffee before he left home and later at the factory made up the greater part of Rogers’ statement on the stand.

Rogers also went into some detail about the actual finding of the body and later about the way in which Frank acted at the undertaker’s shop.

Frank was nervous there, Rogers said, and did not enter the room to see the girl, but went into another room before the undertaker had turned the face toward them.

Rogers also told of the time clock at the factory and declared that Frank had taken out and put away the slip in the clock and put another one in its place.

Rogers declared that Frank had declared that the clock was correctly punched and that he also looked at the slip and that as far as he could tell the punches were regular and there was nothing out of the way in the appearance of the slip.

MISS GRACE HICKS GIVES TESTIMONY.

Miss Grace Hicks, a sister-in-law of Rogers and the girl whom he carried to the factory to identify the dead girl’s body, was next placed upon the stand. She said that she had worked there five years and that she had known Mary Phagan for about a year.

That Leo Frank came into the metal department where the Phagan girl and she worked, but that she had never seen Frank speak to Mary Phagan, was a part of her testimony.

The girl was asked a number of questions about the details of the factory building and of the routine of the employees in her department. She said that Lemmie Quinn was her foreman and that in the five years she had worked there she had only spoken to Frank three times.

The girl was also asked about paint spots on the floor and also if a white substance was not kept in the building similar to that which covered some of the alleged spots on the floor. She said she had never seen any red spots on the floor around her room, but that she had seen paint spots of other colors.

BLACK TELLS OF VISIT TO FRANK.

John Black, third witness on the stand, testified that he was called to the pencil factory at 4 o’clock on the morning of the 26^th. He told of having gone with “Boots” Rogers to the home of Leo Frank to bring him to the plant building in Rogers’ car and of Frank’s apparent nervousness.

Black told, also, of searching the home of Newt Lee and discovering the bloody shirt, which Solicitor Dorsey charges is a plant. He also told of hearing Attorney Herbert Haas, associate counsel for the defense, demand of Chief Lanford that detectives search Frank’s home on a day before the accused man was put under arrest.

Black told of Frank’s visit to the undertaking establishment shortly after daybreak on the day of the discovery, and of hearing the conversation over the telephone when Detective Starnes summoned Frank to the pencil plant.

He remained on the stand for several hours.

Mrs. J. W. Coleman, mother of Mary Phagan, was recalled to the stand for a short time to identify the mesh bag of her daughter.

J. M. Gantt, once a Phagan murder suspect, then testified about his visit to the factory to get his shoes. He was the last witness. Court adjourned at 4:50 o’clock.

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

Atlanta Journal
July 31^st, 1913

Detective John Black “Goes to Pieces” Under Rapid-Fire Cross-Questioning of Frank’s Attorney at Afternoon Session

Action characterized the Wednesday afternoon session of the Frank trial, and it was the first time the tedious proceedings had taken on life enough to attract more than passing interest.

This action came in the fierce and merciless cross-examination of Detective John Black by Attorney Rosser, leading counsel for the defense. Black has taken a prominent part in the investigation of the Phagan murder, and it was expected that he would prove one of the state’s principal witnesses, but before Mr. Rosser had finished with him he went all to pieces and admitted that he was hopelessly confused.

There were only two witnesses at the afternoon session—Detective Black and J. M. Gantt, the former shipping clerk at the pencil factory. Gantt was on the stand but about twenty minutes and the only two important points in his testimony were assertions that Frank knew Mary Phagan and that Frank seemed to be frightened and very nervous when the witness saw him at the pencil factory door on the evening of the murder.

DORSEY’S CHARGE.

There was a considerable colloquy between Solicitor Dorsey and Attorney Rosser as to the propriety of the questions framed by the solicitor. During this colloquy Mr. Dorsey addressing the judge, declared, “I propose to show, your honor, that this bloody shirt was a plant, and that it was through suggestions made by the defendant that the detectives were induced to search Newt Lee’s house.”

The question was finally put and the witness rather hesitatingly replied that it was on Tuesday that the shirt had been found and that it was on Monday morning that Frank had suggested that the officers search his own house, and that it was also on Monday that the defendant had announced that there were skips in the time clock slips.

Court re-convened at 2 o’clock.

SECOND VISIT TO FRANK’S.

Detective Black also told of going to Frank’s home again Monday morning at 7 o’clock with Detective Haslett to ask him to come down to the police station to talk the murder over. Black said that he and Haslett had to wait on the porch while Frank ate breakfast, and when Frank finished his meal they accompanied him to headquarters. They arrived about 8 o’clock or 8:30.

Shortly after they got there he noticed Attorney Rosser and Herbert Haas. At 11:30 o’clock Monday morning Haas insisted to Chief Lanford that a search he made of Frank’s house by officers, Frank accompanying them.

Solicitor Dorsey asked the witness just what Haas said to Lanford. Black replied that Haas stated he was Frank’s lawyer and that in that capacity he would insist that nothing should be left undone to clear up the matter so far as Frank was concerned.

Solicitor Dorsey then asked the witness if on that morning Frank had consulted with Rosser and Arnold. He said he didn’t know about Mr. Arnold, but that Frank had consulted with Rosser and Haas at police headquarters.

The witness was asked what conversation he had had with Newt Lee. He and Pinkerton Detective Scott suggested to Frank, replied the witness, that he take Newt Lee into a room and see if he could get anything out of him that would throw light on the murder.

The witness said that Frank had spoken very highly of the negro night watchman. The two were left in a room alone together for five or ten minutes, said the witness. Black was not able to overhear very well what was said in the room. Detective Scott and Black went into the room and Frank told them Newt Lee stuck to his first story of not knowing anything about the murder.

Black said that Frank told them he insisted to Lee that he, the negro, must know something about the murder as no one else was in the factory on that Saturday night. Black said that he talked with Frank about getting suggestions from him, and that Frank seemed to suspect Gantt and to believe that Lee might know something about it, inasmuch as Lee was the nightwatchman and as such it was his duty to go through the factory every thirty minutes.

“He told me,” said the witness, “that Gantt came to the factory about 6 o’clock Saturday afternoon and that he left him there, that he had had some previous trouble with Gantt and at first had refused to let him go in and and look for his shoes, but that he later told Lee to let him in and watch him while he was in the factory, that he had given this direction because Gantt knew the surroundings of the office.”

Subsequent to this conversation, Gantt was arrested, said Black. Frank did not talk with Gantt. Frank did not refuse to talk with Lee.

The first mention was made of Jim Conley’s name.

Solicitor Dorsey asked the witness if there had not been other suspects. Black said yes.

“Who were they?”

“Jim Conley was one,” replied Black.

“Did Gantt talk to Conley?”

“No.”

“Did you talk to Frank on several occasions after he was arrested?”

“Yes. He seemed to be nervous, as any man under arrest would be, and was willing to answer questions.”

Solicitor Dorsey asked that the statement be stricken, saying it was not an answer to his question. Judge Roan refused to rule it out.

Solicitor Dorsey asked this question:

“Was Newt Lee nervous after he was arrested?”

Attorney Rosser objected.

“Well,” said Solicitor Dorsey, “if you let him give this gratuitous opinion about Frank, isn’t it fair to let me compart it with the demeanor of another man accused of the same crime?”

Attorney Rosser still objected. Judge Roan agreed to sustain Rosser, but told the solicitor that he would rule out Black’s opinion if the solicitor would withdraw his question. This was done.

The solicitor then put his question in another form.

The solicitor then put his question in another form.

“After Frank was arrested, did you observe his deportment, conduct and appearance?”

“Yes, he was excited and sullen and didn’t have much to say. Previously he had talked willingly.”

Solicitor Dorsey announced he was through with the witness and Attorney Rosser took up the cross-examination.

“You said Frank was ‘released’ Monday evening,” began Attorney Rosser. “You mean then that he had been detained there against his will?”

Detective Black said that he had used the word ‘released’ inadvertently, and that Frank had not been under arrest that day.

Attorney Rosser attacked the statement that Frank had retained counsel Monday (?) about 8 or 8:30 o’clock.

“As a matter of fact, don’t you know that it was 10 o’clock in the morning when I came to police station?”

Black answered, “No, I don’t know it.”

“What? You don’t know it was 10 o’clock when I came?”

Black answered, “No, sir. I still think you were there at 8:30 o’clock.”

“Were you in the room when I got there?”

“I was in the hall.”

“Didn’t you hear me go up and introduce myself to Mr. Frank? Didn’t you know that I never had seen him before? Didn’t you hear me ask him what they wanted with him? Didn’t you hear him say that they wanted a statement from him? And didn’t you hear me tell him to give it voluntarily?”

ROSSER RAPS LANFORD.

Detective Black answered in the negative. “I wasn’t in the doom,” said he.

“Didn’t you hear Chief Lanford call Frank into his private office with a snarl, like he was talking to a negro, and say, ‘Come in here.’”

“No, Chief Lanford doesn’t talk that way.”

“You and Chief Lanford didn’t want me in there, did you, Mr. Black? You didn’t want me to hear what you had to say to him?”

“No, sir.”

In answer to other questions, Black testified that Frank during his detention at the station house and in his examination by the coroner’s pury [sic], answered all questions readily.

Attorney [R]osser reverted to the previous conversation which Black testified he had with Frank regarding another matter, before the murder of Mary Phagan occurred.

“Can you remember who was with you on that occasion?” he asked the witness.

“No—Bullard.”

“What refreshed your memory so suddenly? As a matter of fact, aren’t you figuring that your partner should have been there?”

“No, it just occurred to me.”

Where were you when this conversation took place?”

“In the pencil factory.”

“What part of the pencil factory?”

“Around the office.”

“As a matter of fact, you can’t swear truthfully that you spoke to him at all, can you?”

“Not positively.”

THE PHONE CONVERSATION.

Regarding the telephone conversation when Detective Starnes called Frank on the morning after the murder, Attorney Rosser asked Black if he could remember what Starnes said.

“No, sir,” replied Black.

“Did you have Newt Lee in your custody at that time?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What time did you get to the undertaking establishment?”

“About 6:30 o’clock, to the best of my recollection.”

“As a matter of fact, wasn’t the sun high and hot when you got back?”

“No.”

“Why didn’t you tell Frank, until after you got in the automobile, that a girl had been killed at the factory?”

“I wanted to see the effect of the news on Frank.”

“When you really want to remember anything, you write it down, don’t you, Mr. Black?”

“Well—yes.”

“Didn’t Frank go upstairs and put his collar and tie on?”

“No, sir.”

“You don’t see things like other men, do you, Mr. Black?”

“I suppose I do.”

“How long did it take Frank to put on his collar and tie?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Did he tie his tie, or was it a hang-me-on?”

“It was a cravat.”

ROSSER GRIL[L]S BLACK.

“How long did you stay out there?”

“Maybe not ten minutes.”

“And Frank talked freely to you in the automobile, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“You took him to the undertaking establishment?”
“Yes.”

“How did you say you went into the undertaking place—in what order; the undertaker first, Rogers, Frank and then yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Frank was between you and the body?”

“Yes.”

“You saw the girl’s face?”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, Frank had an opportunity to see her face. He was closer to her than you?”

“Yes.”

“Now about that curtain. It opened into a sleeping apartment, didn’t it?”

“I don’t know.”

“As a matter of fact, you and Frank stood just inside the door, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You on the left and Frank on the right?”

“I think so.”

CURTAIN AT UNDERTAKER’S.

“Mr. Black, that curtain was about 10 feet from the little opening, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“To have gone behind that curtain, Frank would have had to walk several feet out of his way from the opening where he stood?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“You wont’ swear, Mr. Black, will you, that Frank went behind that curtain?”

“I think he did.”

“You were standing in the same relation to the curtain as Frank, were you not?”

“No.”

“This slepeing [sic] room was about six feet off, was it not?”

“No.”

“Frank didn’t go behind the curtain, did he?”

Black didn’t reply.

“You know what ain’t so, don’t you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You went upstairs into the factory with Frank?”

“Yes.”

“He unlocked the safe without trouble at the first effort?”

Black nodded.

“And he took the book out at the first reach?”

“Yes.”

“And he carried it and put it on the table?”

“Yes.”

“And he opened it at the right place?”

“Yes.”

“He ran his finger down the column of figures until he reached Mary Phagan’s name?”

“Yes.”

“And immediately he informed you that he had paid Mary Phagan $1.20.?”

“Yes.”

“You went through the factory with Frank?”

“Yes.”

“Who else went?”

“I don’t know—several people.”

“A whole horde of ’em, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know. There were several.”

“And none of you saw the splotch said to be blood?”

“No, sir.”

“None of you saw the spots in the hallway, close to the dres[s]er?”

“No.”

“How many of you went over the building?”

“I don’t know exactly.”

“Perhaps thirty people?”

“I don’t know.”

“This large horde, made up of officers and curiosity seekers, went over the factory and nobody saw these alleged blood spots?”

“No, sir.”

“How long was the factory open on Sunday morning—till about 12 o’clock was it not?”

“I don’t know.”

“How many times did you go to the factory that morning?”

“Twice.”

“You were there quite a while the first time, were you not?”

“Yes.”

“Detective Starnes went over the factory with you, did he not?”

“Yes.”

“Campbell and Beavers, too?”

“I don’t know about Beavers, but Chief Lanford did.”

“And no blood spots were discovered that day?”

“Not so far as I know.”

“You saw Frank at the clock?”

“Yes.”

“He opened the clock and took out a slip?”

“Yes.”

“Darley was there?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember being there.”

“Who held down the lever?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t have to hold the lever down.”

“Boots Rogers held it down, didn’t he?”

“I don’t recollect.”

Black then stated that he believed Rogers held the lever while Frank put a new slip in. He didn’t think anyone held it down when Frank took the old slip out.

“A moment ago, you didn’t have any recollection, did you? You’ve got it now, though, haven’t you?”

Black smiled feebly.

“How long did you keep Frank at the station house that morning? From about 8:30 until 11:30, didn’t you?”

“He stayed there,” answered the witness.

“Well, that’s what you meant. You meant you kept him there, didn’t you?”

“I could say, we kep you there, but we didn’t,” responded the witness.

FRANK’S SURRENDER OF SLIP.

“When did Frank turn over this slip that he took out of the clock?”

“I don’t know.”

“Sunday morning?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Didn’t you tell Mr. Dorsey a few minutes ago that he turned over the slip on Monday morning?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Look here, Black. Is your memory so bad you can’t remember what you told Dorsey twenty or thirty minutes ago? And yet you attempt here to state the words of conversations that occurred more than three months ago?”

Witness did not answer.

“You heard Frank say he was mistaken about the way the time slips were punched—that at first he examined them only in a casual way?”

“I don’t recollect.”

Mr. Rosser referred to conversations which Black had had with J. M. Gantt, and brought forth the statement that Frank had charged a shortage against Gantt before Gantt was discharged, and that he had given orders that Gantt not be admitted to the factory.

“I wiesh [sic] to examine this witness no further now, your honor, but I want to call your honor’s attention to the rule that if we want to use him to impeach another witness who follows him, we may call him back to the stand.”

The statement of Attorney Rosser was taken to indicate that there is a possibility that the defense may use no witnesses.

NEWT LEE’S SHIRT.

Mr. Rosser asked Black if he had searched Newt Lee’s house. Black answered that he had, and that he found a bloody shirt. The shirt, which had been in the possession of the solicitor general, was exhibited to the witness by Mr. Rosser and was identified by him. He found the shirt at the bottom of a barrel at Lee’s residence, said the detective. He brought the shirt to police headquarters and showed it to Lee. Solicitor Dorsey objected, and Judge Roan held that Newt Lee’s admission that the shirt belonged to him could not be introduced in evidence.

Solicitor Dorsey took up the redirect examination.

The solicitor made the statement that he would try to show that the shirt found at Newt Lee’s house was a plant of the defense. This statement came during an argument between the lawyers, and was precipitated by this question of the solicitor: “What did Frank say about Lee telling or not telling all that he knew about the crime?”

Attorney Rosser objected to Black answering that question.

The solicitor explaining his motive in asking it said, “I want to show that Frank was trying to point suspicion at Newt Lee. I want to show that he wanted his own house searched so that when the officers had gone through it and nothing had been found there, he could tell them to go and search Newt Lee’s house. Our contention is that this shirt was a plant and Frank’s request was a ruse to get the police to search his house and then Newt Lee’s house and thus throw suspicion on the negro. The shirt was part of the scheme.”

THE QUESTION ALLOWED.

Judge Roan allowed the question.

Detective Black, answering it, said that Frank declared Lee hadn’t told all he knew.

Solicitor Dorsey asked: “Did Frank at any time tell you that Lee had time to go home and get back to the factory during the night?”

Black replied that after Frank was supposed to have looked at the tape the second time, he (Frank) had made that remark to him (the witness.)

“Did you search Newt Lee’s home?”

“Yes.”

“Was it before or after Frank called your attention to these discrepancies in the time slip?”

“Afterward.”

Solicitor Dorsey took the shirt and handed it to the detective.

“Which side of the shirt is the blood on?”

“On both sides.”

“Does it look like it had been put on one side and then had soaked through?”

“I can’t tell,” answered the detective.

“Now, Mr. Black, I want to get this one point clear. You told me that you had one conversation with Mr. Frank on the Monday morning after the murder, and I understood you to tell Mr. Rosser that you didn’t have any. What about that?”

“To the best of my recollection I had one conversation with Frank on that day.”

ROSSER GROWS ANGRY.

Jumping to his feet and advancing towards the witness in a threatening manner, Attorney Rosser shook his finger at him and demanded:

“Didn’t you say that personally you had no conversation with Frank about these slips?”

“No, sir.”

“Well, what time Monday did you have this conversation with Frank?”

After hesitating for a moment or two, the witness replied that he could not remember.

Glowering at the witness, Mr. Rosser demanded:

“Black, didn’t you say time and time again that you couldn’t say whether it was before or after you talked about the slips that you went to Lee’s house?”

“I said it was after I talked about the slips.”

“Look here, Black, isn’t it in the record—right here in the record—that several times over you admitted that you couldn’t tell whether you went to Newt Lee’s house after the conversation about the slips or before?”

“I wont’ say.”

“Isn’t it true that you never did discuss these slips with Frank?”

“I remember on one occasion Frank said the slips were mispunched, and that was what caused me to go to Lee’s house.”

Before the witness had finished his answer, Mr. Rosser was shaking his finger at him and putting his question:

“What I want is for you to tell me if you haven’t sworn already that you couldn’t say whether this talk about the slips occurred on Monday.”

“I said I didn’t remember, but I had gone out after Frank suggested there were mispunches.”

Mr. Rosser started to fire another question at the witness, when the latter interrupted him to say:

BLACK ADMITS HE’S CONFUSED.

“Look here, Mr. Rosser, I don’t like to admit that I’m balled up, but you’ve got me cros[s]ed up and I don’t know where I’m at. I want to tell the truth—“

“Come down, Black,” said Mr. Rosser. But before the witness could leave the stand, Solicitor Dorsey proposed this question:

“When was it, Mr. Black, that you first heard Mr. Frank discuss these punch slips?”

“Sunday morning.”

“When was it Frank told you that what he had said on Sunday about the slips was wrong and that there had been skips?”

Attorney Rosser objected, insisting that this ground had been gone over with the witness. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

Solicitor Dorsey asked:

“What day was it you knew that Frank changed his statement?”

Attorney Rosser objected to this declaring it was immaterial.

“Well, what day did Frank tell you these slips were not correct?” amended the solicitor.

“To the best of my knowledge, it was on Monday.”

“Come down, Mr. Black.”

“Yes, come down, Mr. Black,” echoed Mr. Rosser, with a sneer.

As the witness was leaving the stand, it was announced that Mrs. J. W. Coleman, the mother of Mary Phagan, would be recalled. Some of the bailiffs misunderstood and thought that Mr. Rosser desired that Black resume the witness chair. To this mistake, Mr. Rosser shouted, “Not on your life.”

MRS. COLEMAN RECALLED.

Mrs. Coleman was recalled by Attorney Rosser.

“Did Mary, on the day she left home the last time, carry a little mesh bag?”

“Yes.”

“That’s all,” said Mr. Rosser.

“Describe that bag,” asked Solicitor Dorsey.

“It was just a plain silver mesh bag,” said Mrs. Coleman.

Mr. Dorsey produced the bloody handkerchief and the parasol. The latter was identified positively by Mrs. Coleman as having belonged to Mary. She said she was almost certain that the handkerchief belonged to Mary.

Mrs. Coleman left the witness stand and was given a seat in the court room beside her husband, J. W. Coleman, who has watched every step of the trial.

J. M. Gantt was called to the stand.

“Were you ever employed at the National Pencil factory?” asked Solicitor Dorsey.

“Yes, from January 1 to about April 7, when I was discharged by Mr. Frank.”

“Why were you discharged?”

“For an alleged shortage.”

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”

“Yes, I knew her when she was a little girl. She was born on a farm near where I lived. But I hadn’t seen her for years until I met her in the pencil factory.”

“Did Leo M. Frank know Mary Phagan?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know that he did?”

“One day she had been in the office talking to me about a mistake in her time. When she left, Mr. Frank turned to me and said, ‘You seem to know Mary pretty well.’”

“When was that occurrence?”

“How intimate were you and Mary?”

“I knew her very well when she was a child. And I saw her frequently at the factory.”

On questions from Solicitor Dorsey, Gantt said that he worked in the office on the second floor and in the shipping department there. Mary Phagan worked in the rear of the second floor.

Frank worked in the office near him, said Gantt.

RETURNED TO FACTORY.

“From April 7, when you were discharged, to April 26, had you been back to the factory?”

“Yes, twice.”

“Did you see Frank?”

“Yes, both times.”

“Did he offer any objection to your presence?”

“No.”

“What do you know about one girl getting her pay for another girl with Frank’s knowledge and consent?”

Attorney Rosser objected to this question as irrelevant, but Solicitor Dorsey declared he later would show its relevancy, and was allowed to proceed.

“Mr. Frank had no objection to one girl getting the pay envelope for another if I knew the parties.”

“Were you in the habit of helping Mary?”

“No.”

“Explain everything in connection with the alleged shortage.”

“One Saturday after we had gotten the money for the payroll and it had been checked up and found to be correct, and after it had been put in the envelopes and distributed, one of the men came back and said he was more than $2 short. I didn’t know anything about it, and told him to see Frank. After he had talked with Frank, Frank came out and asked me if I knew anything about it. I said I didn’t. Then Frank said he was not going to make it good. I said that neither was I. A little bit later he called me in and discharged me.”

TIME CLOCK AGAIN.

“Do you know anything about the time clock?”

“Yes.”

“How long would it take a man to make punches for twelve hours?”

“About five minutes.”

Solicitor Dorsey asked Gantt if he had known of Newt Lee failing to make a complete register of the time clock. Attorney Rosser objected, and Judge Roan sustained the objection.

The solicitor asked Gantt who took his place in the pencil factory. Gantt replied that he didn’t know. Solicitor Dorsey asked if previous to Gantt’s discharge, Frank had said anything about Gantt’s work.

“He said he had the best office force that he ever had.”

“Was it possible for Frank to sit at his desk and see the register clock?”

It was possible, said Gantt, if the safe door was closed.

Solicitor Dorsey asked if Frank frequently fixed the tape in the clock.

“Not while I was there,” said Gantt.

He was questioned about the evening of April 26, when he met Frank came down the stairs. He first saw Frank just after he left the stairway and was walking toward the front door. Frank, he said, looked up and saw him through the door glass and then recoiled and hesitated, as if in doubt, and then came on out. As he came up the little depression in the sidewalk toward the street level, he jumped back a step. Frank was nervous and pale, said Gantt. He hung his head, hesitated and stuttered, said the witness.

ON CROSS-EXAMINATION.

On cross-examination, Attorney Rosser questioned Gantt upon his testimony before the coroner’s jury, reading a portion of it in which was included this question, supposed to haove [sic] been asked of him by the coroner: “Did Frank know Mary Phagan?” And the reply to it on the transcript was, “I suppose so. She was right there in the factory all the time.”

Mr. Rosser asked him about that.

Gantt admitted that the record was correct as far as it went.

Both sides told Gantt to step down.

Attorney Rosser arose. “Your honor,” said he, “we have an insurance policy here for one of the jurors to sign.” The lawyers for both sides examined it and turned it over to Deputy Sheriff Minor for the juror, Monroe S.n Woodward, to sign. It was a life insurance policy.

Court adjourned at 4:40 o’clock.

Frank was taken out ahead of the jury and whisked back to the county jail in an automobile. The jury followed.

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 31^st, 1913

By JAMES B. NEVIN.

Poor John Black!

With this unwitting assistance of the Solicitor General and the assistance of Luther Rosser, he furnished all the “punch” there was in Wednesday’s story of the Frank trial.

Black evidently was undertaking to tell the truth, and was unwilling to tell more or less than the truth, but that didn’t help matters much, so far as the State was concerned.

When Solicitor Dorsey exclaimed “plant!”—which means nothing more than “faked” or “framed up” evidence for the benefit of the defense—I glanced rapidly at Rosser.

I saw precisely what I expected to see—a momentary flicker of a smile about the lips and eyes of the man, an almost immediate lightening of the lips and narrowing of the eyes, and then a quick return of the habitual ferocious frown.

I knew Dorsey had put his foot in it—put it right in, away up over the ankle, and I also knew that getting that foot back to solid ground again was going to be an undertaking pregnant with extreme difficulty and danger.

State Balloon Goes Up.

The Solicitor was fretted when he exclaimed “plant”—thereby accusing the defense of rankly unfair and unpardonable methods of establishing Frank’s innocence.

And right then and there up went the state’s balloon, and it hasn’t come down yet!

If there is one thing, in all, this world Luther Rosser loves better than anything else he knows of, it is an adversary in the courtroom who hollers “plant,” and things like that—particularly when said adversary is mad!

When Mr. Dorsey on Wednesday, in a moment of forgetfulness and vexation, exclaimed “plant,” it was meat and bread and pie and cakes and beer and skittles to Luther Rosser!

Right then, I would much have preferred being a high private in the ranks of the Bulgarian army than John Black!

The Solicitor handed Mr. Rosser the very club Mr. Rosser was laying for, and wherewith the said Mr. Rosser proceeded to pound poor, unoffending John Black to smithereens!

In no conceivable way did Black’s responses justify the Solicitor’s passionate outbursts.

Witness Goes Far Adrift.

On the contrary, it served to confuse and befuddle the witness, to send him far at sea.

After that he contradicted himself, failed to remember, became hazy and evidently worried and distressed.

He had been shot mortally from an unexpected quarter, and he soon realized that Luther Z. Rosser was determined to finish the job—and finish it he did!

As for the rest of the day and the beginning of this day—

Court officials have settled themselves down in full expectation of a long siege in the Frank trial.

So far, the progress of the case has been, in the main, commonplace in the extreme, and bewildering only when spectators have considered the thousand and one questions asked, and the always inevitable interposition of objections.

The thing the average person in the audience does not understand, however, is that in all that seemingly interminable objecting and wrangling there is, at least upon the part of the defense, a far-reaching purpose the mere mention of which will serve to illustrate its importance.

Effect of One Little Error.

In murder cases the defense has the right, in the event the battle goes against it, to move for a new trial upon assignment of judicial error in the first trial. If a new trial be refused by the trial judge, the defense may appeal to the highest court of review in the State, and if that court finds error to have been committed on the trial of the case, it will remand the entire proceeding back to the court of original jurisdiction for correction of the error, which means, of course, for another trial.

Then the case will begin all over again, exactly as if it never had been tried at all.

The State, on the other hand, has no such right as that—if it loses it for all time. Frank, save of his own motion, never can be tried a second time for the killing of little Mary Phagan.

The more rulings of the defense, therefore, calls upon the trial judge to make the more chances there are that error may creep in—and one little assignment of error sustained by the court of review would serve to reverse the entire judgment, and send the cake back for another trial.

State Must Grin and Bear.

In insisting that the case be held strictly within the legal rules, which a trial judge never can be absolutely sure of doing, the defense throws an anchor to windward in case of defeat—and the State can do nothing but grin grimly, and bear it.

The big battle Wednesday to get the diagram of the pencil factory, containing as it did a red-lined indication of the State’s theory of the crime, before the jury had, as will readily be seen, a tremendous significance—and although Judge Roan let it go in, it went in over the bitter and carefully recorded protest of the defense, and in case Frank should lose his fight now, the admission of the diagram doubtless will be assigned as error on original trial.

The State, of course, can not take advantage of its own errors, but Dorsey can hope to obtain nothing more than present advantage by combating them—hence the defense may cut in all sorts of directions, with the burden of proof on the State and the presumption of innocence always with the defendant at bar, and the State may whistle for consolation.

It makes the trial rather uphill pulling for the State, therefore, however much one may think it otherwise.

If Dorsey wins a point, it may avail him something on the present trial, but it will get him nothing eventually, in case he is forced to go to the higher court. The Solicitor has one long, straight shot for victory—and no more.

The defense, on the contrary, is not nearly whipped if it loses its present fight.

Defense Seems to Have Shade.

If there has been any advantage gained by either side thus far, it has been gained, I should say, by the defense.

Nothing necessarily damaging has yet been set up agains Frank. Indeed, much of the evidence drawn out seems almost childish in its meaninglessness.

Rogers testified that Frank was “nervous” when he (Rogers) saw him Sunday morning, April 27, and that he continued “nervous” for some time thereafter—although Rogers never saw him before, and had no way of comparing his conduct then with his general conduct.

But if Frank was “nervous,” does the State seek to establish the presumption against him therefore that his “nervousness” was occasioned by the thought of little Mary Phagan’s dead body there in the cellar, and Frank responsible for it?

Maybe so—but then—

Rogers swore almost in the same breath that Frank, looking up the record of Mary Phagan after the party reached the factory, deliberately set the combination on the office safe, opened it the very first time, without excitement or unusual circumstances of any sort.

Does the State intend to establish the presumption here that Frank, notwithstanding the weight of guilt upon his soul, was diabolically cool and deliberate in his movements, as indicated by the safe incident?

What Is State’s Purpose?

Why not that presumption as rationally as the other?

Which thing does the State intend the jury shall believe from Rogers’—its own witness—testimony?

Fiddlesticks! What IS the State driving at, anyway?

Maybe we shall find out eventually!

Again, when Grace Hix was placed on the stand—and she was the State’s witness, remember—she testified on cross-examination that Frank had only spoken to her three or four times during her five years’ service in the pencil factory; that he talked to the girl employees very seldom, and that she had never known him to address Mary Phagan at all.

The very pretty young girl answered the questions given her in a straightforward way—evidently she was seeking to speak only the truth.

So, too, Rogers had the appearance of sincerity—and what he said, whether significant or of small importance, apparently concerned him not at all.

Therefore since the State seemingly made so little of either of these witnesses, although they were offered as the State’s witnesses and not the defense’s, prompts me to say that the advantage falling to either side because of their introduction fell, really, to the defense.

What Has State Shown?

What, frankly, has the State established thus far?

That Mary Phagan is dead; that she probably was murdered; that the place of the murder was Fulton County, and the date of it April 26.

As a matter of fact, nothing much has been developed that has not been public property for weeks—some of it for months.

There is a feeling, growing more fixed every day, I think, that the State if it hopes to win, must set up something more than it has yet made public.

If the State has some big cards up its sleeve, if it is prepared to surprise the defense, and many people think it has the first and will do the second, then the case yet is in its infancy and the real charge against Frank still is to be made out.

If the State has no unrevealed evidence and is NOT prepared to strike the defense heavy and unanticipated blows, it is but the simple and honest truth to say here and now that the feeling, vague and elusive enough, but unmistakably there, that acquittal eventually will come to Frank and will steadily grow and develop as the days run by and the monotonous trial proceeds.

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 31^st, 1913

Although the State’s witnesses were on the stand all of Wednesday the day was distinctly favorable for Frank, partly because nothing distinctly unfavorable was developed against him—the burden of proof being upon the State—but most largely because of two other factors, the utter collapse of the testimony of one of the State’s star witnesses, City Detective John Black, and the testimony in favor of Frank that was given by another of the State’s witnesses, Miss Grace Hix, a 16-year-old factory employee.

Girl Helps Frank.

Miss Hix testified that the strands of hair found on the lathing machine on the second floor might have been the hair of one of the other girls in the factory, many of whom when they were ready to leave the factory at night, combed their hair right where they had been working. She said that Magnolia Kennedy’s hair was almost exactly the color of Mary Phagan’s. She also said that the red spots on the second floor might be paint. She never saw Frank attempt any familiarities with the girls.

Black was made the uncomfortable victim of the fiercest grilling any of the witnesses in the Frank trial have received up to this time.

Luther Rosser, chief of counsel for Frank, tore into Black the instant the city detective was turned over to him for cross-examination.

Black Bewildered.

Within the space of 30 seconds the attorney had Black unmistakably bewildered, although the detective tried his best to stick to the details of the story he had just narrated under Solicitor Dorsey’s questioning.

In another 30 seconds Rosser continued his bulldog tactics and had Black practically admitting that he had told an untruth under oath, and that although a moment before he had sworn that he had seen Rosser at the police station between 8 and 8:30 o’clock the Monday morning after the crime, he now was not sure that it was not 10 or 10:30.

Rosser, seeking to discredit Black’s previous testimony and his memory, drove Black to admit that he could not remember any of the details of Frank’s attire the morning that Black visited the Frank home, and that he was not sure at all that Frank could not have seen the face of the Phagan girl when he visited the morgue Sunday morning.

Shaky Testimony.

Black swore when Dorsey was questioning him that Frank put on his collar, tie and coat on the first floor of his home, but when Rosser got hold of him he was just as willing to admit that it might have been in the cellar or on the roof, and the remainder of his testimony became shaky to the same extent.

Taking up a number of the details of Black’s testimony on direct examination, Rosser made the perspiring detective admit that he was not certain of a single one of them. None too fluent and assured under the friendly interrogation of the Solicitor General, Black instantly became halting and confused when Rosser let loose with his fire of disconcerting questions.

The detective’s features flushed crimson. He mopped his face which was running with perspiration. Then he held his handkerchief up by two of its corners to dry in the breeze from an electric fan. Before he could accomplish this, it must be applied again to his liquid features.

He tripped and stumbled over his answers. He became hopelessly muddled as to times and conversations. He was groping, but his memory turned traitor.

The “Plant” Story.

The climax came when Solicitor Dorsey came out with his declarations that the bloody shirt found at Newt Lee’s home was a “plant,” and that it was inspired by Frank or persons interested in Frank. He said that he intended to show that Black had gone to Lee’s home to make a search only after Frank had informed him that several punches were missing from the time tape taken out of the register clock, and that Lee would have had time to go home between punches. The Solicitor added that he proposed to show that the only interpretation of Herbert Haas’ demand for a search of Frank’s house was in order to open up the way for a search of Lee’s house by the detectives.

It took only a few moments to demonstrate that the Solicitor was leaning on a broken reed. Black already had passed through the ordeal of more than an hour’s grilling by Rosser and Dorsey had him in the redirect. Black gave only a half-hearted and half-certain assent to Dorsey’s inquiry if these circumstances did not transpire before the search of Lee’s house.

But when Rosser charged at him again even this fragment of memory and assurance had departed from him.

“Don’t you know, Black, that, as a matter of fact, that shirt was found before Frank ever said anything to you about the misses in that time tape?” Rosser bellowed at the red-faced, wilting detective.

Waited Six Minutes.

Black opened his mouth, but no answer came forth.

“Don’t you know it?” persisted the lawyer.

Still no answer.

Rosser drew his watch from his pocket and held it on the witness. Six minutes passed and the silence continued. Judge Roan started to speak.

“Give him time to answer, your honor,” interrupted Rosser grimly, still holding the watch.

“I don’t remember,” finally came from the lips of the witness.

A moment later Black gave up.

“I’m all crossed up,” he said. “I don’t know where I’m at.”

Rosser laughed.

“Come down,” he said.

“Come down,” echoed the Solicitor.

J. M. Gantt, discharged employee of the pencil factory, followed Black on the stand. Gantt’s most important piece of testimony was that Frank, contrary to the representations he made the morning after the murder, knew Mary Phagan by name.

He knew this, he said, because one day when he had been talking with the Phagan girl Frank said to him: “You seem to know Mary pretty well, Gantt.”

Rosser brought out in his cross-examination of Gantt that the young man had failed to tell of this alleged incident when he was before the Coroner’s jury when he was asked if Frank knew the girl.

Say Frank Was Nervous.

The bulk of the State’s evidence Wednesday was only for the purpose of showing that Frank was nervous, trembling and pale on the afternoon of the tragedy and the next morning when he was taken to the morgue and to the factory by the detectives. Gantt testified that Frank seemed nervous and apprehensive Saturday night at 6 o’clock when Gantt went to the factory to get some shoes he had left there when discharged. “Boots” Rogers and Detectives Starnes and Black testified that he acted in a nervous and agitated manner the next morning. Rogers and Black declared that Frank would not look on the face of the dead girl when they took him to the undertaking rooms.

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

Atlanta Journal
July 30^th, 1913

GRACE HIX TESTIFIES THAT GIRLS FREQUENTLY COMBED THEIR HAIR OVER MACHINES

Miss Hix Also Testifies That Magnolia Kennedy, Who Worked Near Mary Phagan, Had Hair of the Same Color and Shade—Important Admissions Lay Foundation for Defense’s Claim That Murder Was Not Committed in Metal Room

STATE ENDEAVORS TO SHOW THAT FRANK VERY NERVOUS AND DID NOT LOOK ON FACE OF MURDERED GIRL

Attorney Rosser Directs His Questions to Combat Claim of Nervousness—Witness Declares She Never Saw Any Red Paint in the Metal Room—State Claims New Evidence Will Soon Be Given—Trial Will Run Into Second Week

Four distinct features marked the trial of Leo M. Frank Wednesday. One was an admission from Miss Grace Hix that the girls frequently combed their hair over the machines in the metal room of the factory; another was a strenuous effort on the part of the state to prove that Frank was very nervous on the morning of the discovery of little Mary Phagan’s body; still another feature was the attempt of the state to show that Frank was reluctant to look upon the dead girl’s face in the undertaking parlors, and the fourth was the state’s effort to prove that red paint never had been seen on the floor of the metal room where the state alleges bloody spots were found.

Around each of these points stiff legal tilts occurred. In developing from Miss Hix’s testimony the fact that the girl’s combed their hair in the metal room, Attorney Rosser laid the foundation for a refutation of the theory that Mary Phagan was murdered there.

The state is expected to introduce as evidence several strands of hair found on the handle of a turning lathe in the metal room, presumed to be those of Mary Phagan. Attorney Rosser drew from the Hix girl the admission that Miss Magnolia Kenneday, one of the metal room employees who worked very close to Mary Phagan’s machine, had hair almost the same shade as that of the murdered girl.

Evidently as to the nervousness of Frank on the morning of the murder was given by City Detective John Black and W. W. Rogers, who, after the body had been found called at Frank’s home in an automobile to bring him to the pencil factory. Upon cross-examination by Attorney Rosser these witnesses were unable to furnish any specific instances of Frank’s conduct indicating nervousness, beyond the fact that he walked rapidly, talked fast, found some difficulty in adjusting his collar and tie, and several times referred to his desire for a cup of coffee or something to eat.

Both of these witnesses swore that when they took Frank to the undertaking establishment they did not see him look at the dead girl’s face. However, neither of them would swear positively that Frank did not do so.

Apparently Solicitor Dorsey regarded as important the testimony of Grace Hix that the factory paints were kept in the polishing room, which a some distance from the metal room. The girl declared that she had seen a few drops of paint on the floor of the metal room leading from the polishing room to the water cooler, but that she had never observed any red paint on the floor. Attorney Rosser compelled the witness to admit that the floors of the factory were very dirty and badly stained and that on account of the dust and dirt only two or three days would be necessary to elapse to make it impossible to determine the color of a stain of pa[i]nt which had been dropped upon the floor.

Attorneys in the case are fighting strenuously over every point however insignificant it may seem to the spectators.

Despite the battle of three days, however, no testimony not already in the hands of the public has been presented. The prosecution, nevertheless, promises to produce new and startling evidence before much more progress in the case is made.

The report that J. M. Gantt, who was arrested shortly after the murder and later released, would give sensational evidence to the effect that he saw Frank and Conley together about 1:25 on the day of the tragedy was denied by Gantt. Gantt declared he met a friend of his, Rosser Shields, about 1:50 in the afternoon and went to the restaurant opposite the pencil factory, but that he did not see anyone come in or got out of the factory, as he was not noticing.

An effort of the prosecution to develop through the testimony of “Boots” Rogers that Leo M. Frank did not look upon the face of Mary Phagan as she lay is the morgue on the Sunday morning when Frank, accompanied by officers, visited the undertaker’s, and an equally determined effort of the defense to show that Rogers did not know whether Frank saw the little girl’s face or not, was one of the interesting features of the Wednesday morning session. Solicitor Dorsey, presumably, was endeavoring to show that Frank had lost his nerve and that he could not bear the sight of the child’s face, and Attorney Rosser combatted his efforts very energetically. The witness was stopped several times by each side as he was dismissed by the other and made to go over his testimony.

Another interesting feature was the line of questions directed at Miss Grace Hix, the friend of Mary Phagan, who was first to identify her body. Solicitor Dorsey asked her in considerable detail about a door on the second floor, leading to the third story. This door was near the point where the defense claims the girl was killed. It has never figured in the case however, until shown on the solicitor’s diagram. The purpose of the solicitor is not yet apparent. Mr. Dorsey also had Miss Dix tell what the natural route would have been from Frank’s office to the metal room. The lines on the solicitor’s diagram indicate a route which Mr. Frank is supposed to have taken and which apparently was somewhat out of the way.

Before Rogers took the stand the diagram of the pencil factory was again submitted by Solicitor Dorsey, but with all writing removed. After an argument by the attorneys with the jury out of the room Judge Roan admitted the diagram as representing the state’s theory.

While lawyers and principals in the Frank trial refuse to estimate the probable length of the big legal battle, those who have been following the case closely now believe that it will run far into next week. Judging from the progress made since the jury was chosen the state will do well if it closes its case next Saturday.

Everybody is wondering whether or not Conley, if he is called, will stand up under the battery of the defense when he takes the stand against the accused factory superintendent. Conley is expected to be the state’s main witness.

Conley is almost certain to take the stand twice during the trial. He will, of course, be a witness in the direct presentation of evidence by the state. And it is more than probable that he will be called in rebuttal to refute the statement that W. H. Mincey, defense witness, is expected to make. Mincey claims that Conley, while intoxicated, confessed to murdering a girl on the day Mary Phagan was killed.

So far the prosecution has presented nothing that has not been told the public weeks ago through the newspapers. Attorney Frank A. Hooper, for the prosecution, promises that evidence heretofore unknown will be brought before the jury this week, however. In conversation with newspapermen Thursday morning he said that the state would present important new evidence before it closes its case.

PUBLIC ADMITTED.

At 8:40 o’clock the public was admitted to the court room until the seats were taken. About fifty people were left outside when the doors were shut again. Frank already had arrived from the jail, in charge of the sheriff. Judge L. S. Roan was in his own chambers.

The jury was waiting in the room designated for its use. No woman appeared among the crowd first admitted to the court. Frank, the accused man, appeared cheerful, and chatted unconcernedly with friends close to him.

Court reconvened at 9 o’clock. The judge, lawyers and other principals appeared in mohair or linen suits.

Newt Garner, special deputy attached to the solicitor’s office, produced the diagram which the solicitor had sought […]

Did Frank Look at Mary Phagan’s Face at Morgue on Sunday?

[…] to introduce as evidence Tuesday afternoon and hung it again upon the wall. The key writing and most of the lines had been erased.

The solicitor again sought to introduce the diagram in evidence. The defense objected. The defense objected even to it being hung where the jury might see it. Attorney Arnold pointed out a heavy dotted line and two crosses and two red dots, assuming that they illustrated the story which the negro, Conley, he supposed would tell.

Solicitor Dorsey cited a decision by the state supreme court.

Judge Roan asked Mr. Arnold if all the writing which might indicate the meaning of the lines and crosses and dots had been removed. Mr. Arnold admitted that the writing was erased. “But, your honor, writing is not necessary in order to explain a picture of a horse,” he argued.

STATE WINS A POINT.

Judge Roan asked Mr. Dorsey. “The lines simply indicate the state’s theory, do they not?”

Mr. Dorsey answered affirmatively.

Judge Roan admitted the diagram as evidence, and the jury was brought in and the trial began.

W. W. Rogers, formerly a county police officer, in whose automobile the officers went to the scene of the murder and in which they brought Frank there, went upon the witness stand.

Rogers now is a bailiff in Justice Girardeau’s court. He is known as “Boots” Rogers.

Along about April 26, he said, he was operating an automobile for hire between Buckhead and Roswell.

ROGERS TELLS OF TRIP.

On April 26 he was riding around town in his car. That night he was at police headquarters with his car. About 3 o’clock Sunday morning, April 27, a call came to police headquarters from the pencil factory, and he drove some officers up to the factory on Forsyth street.

The officers were let in through the front door by the negro night watchman, Newt Lee. The negro led them to the basement where they discovered the body of Mary Phagan.

Rogers was present when Detective Starnes used the telephone in the pencil factory office. This was just after daylight, between 5 and 5:30 o’clock. He couldn’t recollect exactly what he heard Starnes say nor did he know what replies came over the wire.

Starnes was asking some one to come to the pencil factory. He did not know to whom Starnes was talking. He heard him say, “I’ll send an automobile for you.” The detective hung up the receiver and asked him, the witness: “Will you drive to Mr. Frank’s home, 68 East Georgia avenue, and bring him to the factory?” He consented, and went there with Detective Black, the drive requiring five or six minutes.

Detective Black preceded the witness to the door of the home. Black knocked on the door or rang the bell. In “a few minutes” the door was opened by Mrs. Frank. To the best of his recollection Mrs. Frank wore a heavy bathrobe. She opened the door wide and Detective Black and he stepped into the house entrance.

FRANK WAS DRESSED.

Black asked for Mr. Frank. Mrs. Frank called to her husband, and almost instantly he walked through the portieres in the hall toward the door. He was dressed for the street, with the exception of collar, tie, coat and hat.

Solicitor Dorsey inquired whether Mrs. Frank also was dressed for the street. Attorney Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

Frank wore a pleated bosom shirt. The witness said he noticed that particularly because it appeared to be ironed so nicely. Solicitor Dorsey requested the witness to go ahead and tell the jury what Frank had on.

Witness replied that he could tell only what he saw. Frank had on shoes, blue hose (he thought), blue trousers, white shirt and suspenders (he thought).

Describing Frank’s actions after he entered the reception hall, Rogers testified that Frank walked directly to Detective Black and inquired, “Has anything happened at the factory?” Black did not answer, but hung his head.

FRANK ASKED QUESTIONS.

“Frank then came to me,” the witness said, “and asked me the same question, and I did not answer.” Turning to Black again, Frank asked, “Did the night watchman call up and report anything to you?”

To this question Black replied, “You’d better get on your coat and go with us to the factory.”

Rogers testified that he did not hear Starnes tell over the telephone to whomever he was addressing, that a murder had been committed at the factory.

About 3:30 o’clock, he said, he heard Call Officers Anderson, who had Newt Lee in his custody, trying to call some one over the telephone from Frank’s office in the pencil factory.

The witness returned to the scene at Frank’s house. Frank asked his wife for his collar and tie.

Solicitor Dorsey asked Rogers if anything was said about dreams while he and Black were at Frank’s home. The defenses objected. Solicitor Dorsey said he was refreshing the mind of the witness from the transcript of evidence taken at the coroner’s inquest. Rogers replied.

FRANK’S DREAM.

“Mr. Frank said something about the phone ringing early that morning. He didn’t know whether it actually had rung or whether it was a dream.”

Rogers testified that Mrs. Frank asked her husband to drink some coffee before he went to the factory. Frank said, “Yes, I’d like to have time to drink a cup of coffee.” Detective Black said, “I think a drink of whisky would do him good.”

Mrs. Frank explained there was no whisky in the house because her father, Emil Selig, had suffered an attack of acute indigestion and had consumed it. Rogers asked Mrs. Frank for some water to put in the radiator of his automobile, and on her permission went back into the kitchen and got a bucket full of it.

There was no preparation being made for breakfast in the kitchen and there was no fire that he saw. There was a gas range there, said the witness. Rogers said that Frank was “extremely nervous,” that his voice was refined or strained and “kind of lady-like.”

FRANK APPEARED NERVOUS.

Frank was rubbing his hands and put questions abruptly and moved above briskly in the hall. Frank had his hair combed when they arrived at the house five or six minutes after they left the factory.

“On the trip to town, about how long did it take you?”

“About five or seven minutes. I remember looking down at the speedometer and seeing that it registered forty-one miles an hour.”

“What was said about Mary Phagan?”

“One of us. I think it was Black, asked Frank if he knew a girl by the name of Mary Phagan. Frank asked if she worked in the factory. Black said, “I think so.” Frank said he would look on the pay roll and see. One suggested taking Mr. Frank by the undertaker’s, and we went there.”

“Did you see a corpse?”

“Yes.”

“Describe the place and all about it.”

“There is a little hall leading through the place. On the left is a chapel and on the right is a large room. In that room the corpse was laying on a cooling board. The room was dark, but Will Gheesling, who worked there, lit a light behind the corpses. Then he took the sheet down and turned her head toward me. I looked back then, to see who was following, and saw Frank step into a little side room which I afterward learned was the place where Gheesling slept.”

FRANK AT UNDERTAKER’S.

“Did you see him look at the corpse?”

“I didn’t. I remember looking back to see who was following me, just as the head was turned toward me, and then he stepped into this little room. He could have looked at it, but couldn’t have seen the face until Gheesling turned it around.”

“Did you have any conversation there?”

“Someone asked Frank if he knew her. He replied that he was not certain, but if it was Mary Phagan and she worked at the factory he could tell there.”

At this point the witness said that in the conversation at Frank’s residence he had heard Frank tell his wife to call up Darley and have him come to the factory.

“Did Frank ask Black any questions at the undertaker’s?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What was Frank’s manner?”

“He still was apparently nervous.”

“What did he do or say?”

“It was just his general manner that made me think he was nervous—his quick actions and his quick steps.”

“When was Frank first told the girl’s name?”

“So far as I know it was in the car coming down when he first heard the name and heard that there had been a murder.”

“Did he ask anything about her name at the undertaker’s?”

“I don’t remember.”

“How long were you at the undertaker’s?”

ASKED ABOUT ENVELOPE.

“Ten or fifteen minutes. We went from there to the factory. As we stopped the car, Mr. Darley and some other man were going into the factory and Mr. Frank called to them. We all went up the steps together. We went directly to Mr. Frank’s office, and he immediately opened the safe and took out the time book. Running his finger down a page, he came to the name Mary Phagan. ‘Yes, she was here yesterday to get her pay,’ he said. ‘Wait and I’ll tell you what time. If I make no mistake, stenographer left at 12 o’clock, the office boy went a few minutes later, and then she came in and got her pay. It was 1:20.”

“What else was said?”

“Mr. Frank asked if the envelope had been found lying around the factory.”

“What day did he say Mary Phagan got her pay?”

“He said ‘yesterday,’ referring to Saturday, April 26.”

“Did he give the time any more accurately than at a little after 12 o’clock?”

The witness repeated his testimony regarding Frank’s statement.

“What were his appearance and deportment then?”

“He was still nervous.”

“Describe his manner.”

“He still stepped around quickly, and his speech was quick and sharp.”

“Describe his countenance.”

“I didn’t notice it especially.”

“What about the elevator?”

“After he had opened the safe, and so forth, something came up about where the body was found, and I think he said he wanted to see the place. Frank then went by the time clock and up to a switch box by the elevator. He turned this on and the machinery started running.”

THE ELEVATOR.

“Was the switch box locked?”

“No, the lock and key were there by it, but it was open.”

“What was said about this by Frank?”

“He said that he had been accustomed to keeping it locked until he was told by the insurance company that it was against the law to keep an electric switch box locked. The crowd got into the elevator, and Frank reached for the rope. It was hung (caught), and Mr. Darley helped him to get it loose.”

“Describe Frank’s manner.”

“He still was nervous.”

“Go into detail.”

The witness repeated his detailed description of Frank’s quick actions.

“Did you head Frank ask any questions on the way to the basement?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Did he then advance any theory about the crime?”

“Frank stated that Newt Lee had worked for a long time with Darley and had been at the factory only a short time. If the negro knew anything about it, said Frank, Darley would come nearer than anybody else to getting it out of him.”

THE TIME CLOCK.

“Did you see anybody take any punch slip out of the time clock?”

“That was later on after we had left the basement and come back to the office floor. Frank suggested to Darley that they’d better nail up the back door and they went back down. The officers left Lee with me, and after they came back upstairs they took Frank through the factory. When they returned to the office, one of them officers suggested that they’d all better go down to the station house, and Frank, turning to Darley, said, ‘I guess I’d better put a new slip on the clock.’ Darley said, ‘Yes.’ Frank took his keys out of his pocket, unlocked the door of the lock on the right, and took out the time slip. He examined the slip and then said it was punched all right.

“Lee was handcuffed and was standing near. Darley also was there. After seeing that the time slip was punched all right, Frank laid it down on the table and went into his office, coming out with a blank slip. While he was in the office getting the new slip, several of us examined the one taken from the clock. When Frank put in the new slip, he asked some of us to help him, and I held a lever. Frank found a pencil in one of the punch holes and asked Lee why it was there. The negro said he put the pencil there so he would punch the right hole and make no mistake.

“Frank locked the clock and on the margin of the slip he wrote in pencil ‘April 26, 1913.’ Then he folded the slip and carried it back into the inner office. When I examined the slip I noticed just the first two punches especially. One was punched at 6:01 o’clock and the second at 6:32 or 6:33.”

“He didn’t notice any skips on the slip,” said Rogers.

“He thought if there had been any omissions, he would have seen them.”

While they were in the factory, he heard Frank say several times that he wanted to go out and get a cup of coffee. Solicitor Dorsey wanted to know if anybody else said anything about coffee. Attorney Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

LITTLE TO SAY OF CRIME.

“Did you hear Frank say anything about wanting to get breakfast?” asked the solicitor.

“I don’t remember that I did, but while we were at his home Mrs. Frank asked if Mr. Frank couldn’t get his breakfast before he left.”

“While you were in the factory,” the solicitor asked, “did Frank talk much about the murder?”

Frank had very little to say about the murder, replied Rogers. When the others pointed out where the girl’s body had been found in the basement, Frank said, “That’s too bad.”

Rogers said he did not notice Frank’s eyes. Frank was in the factory about an hour that morning. From the factory they went to the station in his, Rogers’, automobile. Darley sat on the front seat beside the witness, and Frank sat on Darley’s knee.

Newt Lee, the negro nightwatchman, was in the rear seat with Detective Black. As far back as the witness knew, nothing had been said to indicate that Frank was under arrest. At police headquarters the officers took Frank to the detective chief’s office on the third floor. Rogers did not go upstairs with them. He stayed behind to take his sister-in-law home.

Replying to questions by the solicitor the witness did not remember to have seen Frank do any writing at the station house. He did see Newt Lee write. Some of the officers were writing. The solicitor sought to refresh the witness’ memory about his testimony on this point before the coroner’s jury. Attorney Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

Solicitor Dorsey asked Rogers if he had seen the officers do anything with Frank and Lee at the station house. Attorney Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

The solicitor asked if Rogers saw Frank with a pencil in hand.

ANOTHER OBJECTION SUSTAINED.

Taking up the stenographic record of the testimony at the coroner’s inquest, the solicitor stated that he desired to ask the witness what he swore at the inquest. Attorney Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

The solicitor then asked Rogers about Frank’s appearance while at the station house. Frank was nervous, said Rogers. Just like he was when the witness first saw him at his home and like he was at the factory. Asked to describe his actions, Rogers and Frank jumped from the car immediately it was stopped in front of the station; that he walked rapidly and nervously into the station; and that what few words he spoke were uttered in a nervous and excited manner. Darley followed Frank to Chief Lanford’s office. Rogers did not observe Frank’s hands at the station.

CROSS-EXAMINATION.

Rogers was cross-examined by Attorney Rosser.

Rogers testified that he had not seen Frank before that Sunday morning when he went to his home and got him. He did not know Frank’s usual actions and mode of expression. He couldn’t say whether Frank was perturbed or excited more than usual.

When the officers arrived at the factory, very early that morning, they waited at the door a minute or two for Newt Lee to come down and open the door.

Rogers admitted that they could not tell, at first, whether the body was that of a white or negro girl. They had to pull down one stocking and wipe her face off before they could tell. Rogers said that the cord cut into the flesh of the body’s neck, but the skin wasn’t broken.

The piece of her underskirt around her neck was over the cord. Attorney Rosser questioned Rogers closely about the time when they returned to town and took Frank to the undertaking parlor. Attorney Rosser asked Rogers if Detective Black didn’t say a drink drink would do them all good.

“Not in those words” answered Rogers. He reported what Mrs. Frank had said about her father having consumed all the whisky in the house. Frank and Mrs. Frank and the lawyers laughed.

Attorney Rosser asked Rogers what he said about Mary Phagan’s pay envelope before the coroner’s jury. Rogers said that he told the coroner’s jury about it, but couldn’t recall his exact words.

When they visited the undertaking establishment, said Rogers, he did not know whether Frank and Black were inside when the light over Mary Phagan’s body was flashed on.

Mr. Rosser asked him if he didn’t know Black was leaning against one side of the door and Frank against the other side. He didn’t know whether they were or not. He wouldn’t attempt to say that Frank didn’t see the corpse then. “Didn’t you know that Gheesling was looking at Frank when he turned the light on?” asked Mr. Rosser. Rogers said no.

Mr. Rosser developed from the witness that the elevator appeared to be a rather clumsy and frail affair, but the witness declined to say that it stopped with a bump. Mr. Rosser also brought out the fact that when Darley came to Frank’s assistance when they started the elevator, it started toward the top, but Darley stopped it, and then Frank took hold of the rope and ran the elevator to the basement.

Rogers testified that when they found the body it lay with its head toward the front and its feet diagonally across toward the right rear corner.

BRUISES ON BODY.

The body was lying on its front, with arms folded beneath it. The face looked toward the right wall.

Attorney Rosser brought out a repetition of testimony about bruises and slight cuts on the face, and about the examination of the body by the police. One of the stocking supporters was broken, testified the witness. Her undergarments were torn.

Rogers stayed about twenty minutes in the basement, and then left to get the undertaker and to go after his sister-in-law, who identified the body. Attorney Rosser brought out the fact that Frank went to police headquarters from the factory willingly and readily.

Solicitor Dorsey took the witness on re-direct examination.

“When you first saw the body in the basement, could you tell by the hair whether it was that of a white person?”

Rogers answered that at first glance it looked like the hair of a white girl, but he couldn’t tell from the face. Both Rosser and Dorsey interrupted the witness. The solicitor said that what he wanted the witness to do was to say whether he could tell by the hair that the body was that of a white person. Rogers answered that the hair impres[s]ed him that way.

DID FRANK SEE FACE?

Solicitor Dorsey asked the witness if the body that he saw in the basement was the same that he saw in the undertaking establishment. Rogers said that it was.

The solicitor asked if Frank saw the face of the body at the undertaking establishment. Rogers said he didn’t think so.

Attorney Rosser demanded to know if the witness had not stated that when he first went into the room where the body lay, he did not notice where Frank was and that Frank might have seen the fact at that time.

Rogers admitted that he said he did not know what Frank’s position was when he, Rogers, entered the undertaker’s room, but that unless Frank was close to where he, the witness, stood, he could not have seen the face.

Attorney Rosser interrupted again, striving to draw from the witness an admission that it was possible for Frank to have seen the face of the body without Rogers knowing about it. The witness repeated that he did not think Frank saw the girl’s face.

Solicitor Dorsey sought to go over with the witness the testimony he gave on direct examination about this point. Attorney Rosser objected, Judge Roan sustained the objection.

ANOTHER TILT.

Addressing the court, the solicitor said: “All I want to know, your honor, is whether it was possible for Frank to see the girl’s face. If not, why not?”

The solicitor put this question to the witness:

“What, if anything, prevented Frank from seeing the girl’s face when he turned off into the little room?”

Although Mr. Rosser was endeavoring to interrupt, the witness replied: “The body was lying so that he couldn’t have seen it.”

“What was it you testified about the envelope?” asked the solicitor.

Mr. Rosser objected. Judge Roan sustained the objection.

Addressing the witness, Attorney Rosser inquired:

“Didn’t you tell me that when the girl’s face was turned toward you, you were intent upon looking at it and didn’t know where Frank was?”

“I told you he had to be close to me in order to see the face. If he was outside, he could have seen the body but not the face.”

“Didn’t you tell me,” demanded Mr. Rosser, “that Gheesling, the undertaker, was in better position to know all about this matter, then yourself?”

“Yes,” answered the witness.

“Come down,” said Mr. Rosser.

Solicitor Dorsey interposed another question.

“When Frank went into the room, the girl’s face was turned toward the wall, was it not?”

“Yes,” replied the witness.

“Come down,” said the solicitor.

“Look out! Wait a minute,” snapped Mr. Rosser. “You were so busy looking at the girl’s body that he could have seen the face and you wouldn’t have known it?”

ROGERS LEAVES STAND.

“He could have seen the body but not the face. To see the face, he would have had to be somewhere close to where I was standing.”

“You just said, did you not, that you didn’t know where he was?”

“Yes.”

“Come down,” commanded Mr. Rosser.

“Hold on!” ordered the solicitor. “Didn’t you testify that Frank didn’t enter the room where the body lay?”

“Yes, sir,” answered the witness.

“And that he stepped off into a side room?”

“Yes.”

“Come down,” said Mr. Dorsey.

And this time the witness left the stand.

Miss Grace Hix, sister-in-law of “Boots” Rogers, who preceded her on the stand, was called as the next witness.

Miss Hix said that she had known Mary Phagan ever since Mary had worked at the pencil factory, nearly a year. Miss Hix worked with her in the metal room at the rear of the second floor. Mary was a pretty girl about thirteen years old and was well developed for her age. Mary and the other girls working there registered four times a day at the time clock, said the witness, checking in at the beginning of the day’s work, out and in again at noon, and out at inght [sic].

Mary’s machine was next to the dressing room, near where the blood stains were found on the floor. Frank made visits through the metal room at least once a day, and that sometimes the girls would see elsewhere in the factory.

MARY LAID OFF.

The last day that Mary had worked prior to the murder was on the preceding Monday, Mary had been laid off then on account of the metal giving out.

Solicitor Dorsey questioned her closely about the metal and where it was kept. His questions indicated that this will become an important point in the state’s case.

Miss Hix testified that the metal was kept in a closet under the steps leading from the metal room to the third floor.

Using Mary Phagan’s parasol, handed to her by Solicitor Dorsey, Miss Hix pointed out the metal room on the chart. She pointed out also a little room alongside it, occupied by Lemmie Quinn, the foreman, as an office; and the men’s and women’s toilets.

Solicitor Dorsey asked her if any of the metal had come between Monday and Saturday of that week. She replied that none had come. Mr. Dorsey asked her then if she knew whether or not Frank was aware that the metal supply had given out. She didn’t know.

She said that although Saturday was the usual payday, the majority were paid off on Friday night of this particular week, between 6 and 7 o’clock. On the Wednesday preceding the murder, Lemmie Quinn, the foreman, had called her up and told her the girls would be paid off Friday.

With Mary Phagan’s parasol again, Miss Hix pointed out Frank’s office on the chart, and the register clocks, and the probable course anyone would take in going from Frank’s office to the metal room in the rear on that floor.

She pointed out Mary Phagan’s machine in the metal room.

GOOD DEFENSE WITNESS.

Miss Grace Hix was cross-examined by Attorney Rosser. She made about as good a witness for the defense as she had for the prosecution, Mr. Rosser bringing out several material points. Miss Hix said that a person standing by the time clock could not see into Mr. Frank’s private office.

While Frank often passed through the metal room to see how things were going on, he seldom spoke to any of the girls. She remembered only three times in a about a year that he had spoken to her, and one of those times was when she went to him to bor[r]ow a quarter.

Miss Hix said that she did not know whether Frank knew her name. The floor of the factory was quite dirty, and there were several buckets of a white lubricant sitting around; also different colored paints were used around the factory.

She knew that they used blue and white paints, but was not sure about red paint. Only four girls worked in the department—herself, Magnolia Kennedy, Helen Ferguson and Mary Phagan. She and Helen and Magnolia got their pay on Friday afternoon. They went to the factory together some time after 6 o’clock.

In the metal room she and the other girls were accustomed to comb their hair only a few feet from Mary Phagan’s machine. Magnolia Kennedy, she said, had hair of almost exactly the same color as Mary Phagan’s. She described that hair as about two shades darker than her own.

Asked to point out somebody in the court room whose hair was about the same color, she pointed to Attorney Arnold. The girls usually combed their hair when they were getting ready to leave the factory.

She described Mary Phagan as being stockily built, quite a strong girl, who would weigh about 115 pounds. Miss Hix said that Darley, as general foreman, employed the help and Frank had very little to do with it. She described the distance between the time clock and the office as about ten feet.

She never saw Frank manipulate or have anything to do with the time clock, she said. She identified a pencil handed to her as one similar to the pencils which she helped make.

On re-direct examination, Solicitor Dorsey developed from the witness that she had not seen posted notices that Saturday, April 26, would be a holiday and that employes of the factory would be paid off Friday afternoon.

DIDN’T SEE NOTICE.

She admitted that probably she would have seen it had one been posted. These notice cards, said the witness, usually were tacked about at different places in the factory, and usually about a week in advance of the holiday which they related to. She saw no such cards on the Monday before the murder. Mary Phagan worked on that day. Foreman Quinn never had phoned her before. On this particular occasion he telephoned to her Friday after dinner.

Miss Hix stated that she still works at the pencil factory. She did not know where the uncalled for pay envelopes were kept, but thought they were kept in the office. Solicitor Dorsey endeavored to have the witness state whether a person punching the clock could be seen from Frank’s desk in the inner office. Witness did not know which desk Frank occupied. Neither did she know whether the door of the outer office, when opened, obstructed the view of the clock from Frank’s office. She does not enter the private office, she said.

Solicitor Dorsey questioned the witness in much detail as to where the paint was kept and how it was sued. She said that the paint was kept in the polishing room, a different department from the metal room in which Mary Phagan worked.

The door or entrance to the polishing room is about four or five feet from the door of the dressing room in front of which the red spots were found. She never had seen any paint in the metal room. However, she had seen drops of paint on the floor outside the polishing room, close to the dressing room and cooler.

Solicitor Dorsey wanted to know whether she could tell whether or not what she saw was paint. She answered in the affirmative. She added, however, that she had never seen any red paint outside of the polishing room.

Attorney Rosser interposed a question. He wanted to know if the floors throughout the factory are not stained and dirty, and if the stains on the floors are not so mixed as to make it hard to distinguish among them. Miss Hix answered that the floors are very dirty and that if paint remains on them for two or three days the dirt would cover it so it would be hard to tell whether it was paint or not.

Miss Hix was excused.

BLACK TAKES STAND.

City Detective John Black was called to the stand.

Detective Black said he had been on the detective force for six years. Before that he was a cooper.

Black testified that he was awakened about 4:30 o’clock on the morning of April 27 by Police Sergeant Bullard, who called him over the telephone and told him of the murder. He went from home to the police station, arriving there about 5 o’clock. He talked to Newt Lee at police headquarters from about 5 to 5:30 o’clock, he said. Then he went to the pencil factory, arriving there shortly before 6 o’clock.

About 6 o’clock Detective Starnes called Frank over the telephone and told him they wanted him at the pencil factory and offered to send an automobile out to get him. He went with Boots Rogers in the automobile to Frank’s home, and in answer to a ring Mrs. Frank opened the door. She wore a bath robe. He told her he wanted to see Mr. Frank. A moment later Frank stepped from behind some curtains in the hall.

Solicitor Dorsey asked Black if he had seen Frank before that moment. Black replied that on two previous occasions he had encountered Frank at the pencil factory on cases which took him to the factory. On one of these occasions, said Black, he had a conversation with Frank. On that occasion, said he, there was nothing unusual in Frank’s demeanor.

FRANK’S MANNER.

Solicitor Dorsey asked the detective as to Frank’s manner on the morning of April 27. Frank was very nervous that morning, said the detective. The solicitor asked him to explain, and Attorney Rosser objected.

Argument followed. Attorney Rosser said: “If my brother (Dorsey) would sit down and quit smiling at me, I’d be happy.” Judge Roan sustained the solicitor. The question was repeated.

Black answered that he was very nervous, and had trouble putting on his collar and tie. Frank mentioned breakfast twice, said Black. He asked questions rapidly. Frank asked him if anything had happened at the pencil factory and before he could answer that question, asked him if the night watchman had reported anything to the police. Black said that he gave indirect answers to both questions, and told Frank simply he’d better dress and come down to the factory and see.

Black said that he was watching Frank insisted, too, that he wanted a face seemed pale. Frank’s voice was hoarse and “trembly.” Black said that Frank insisted, too, that he wanted a cup of coffee before he left the house.

“What was said in the automobile when you were going to the factory?”

“Frank wanted to know what had happened, and I asked him if he knew a girl by the name of Mary Phagan and told him that her dead body had been found in the basement. Frank said he didn’t remember such a girl; that he knew very few of the girls employed in the factory.

TRIP TO MORGUE.

“I suggested that we go by the undertaker’s shop. When we entered the undertaker’s, one of the undertakers was in front. Rogers followed him. Frank went next, and I followed Frank. When the undertaker lifted the sheet down, Mr. Frank looked at her and stepped aside. I would say that he glanced at her casually.”

“Do you know that he saw her face?”

“I can’t say.”

“Did you see Gheesling turn her head over?”

“Yes,” that was just about the time Frank stepped aside.”

“What do you mean by ‘stepped aside?’ Where did he go?”

“He stepped behind a curtain.”

“Could he see the body from there?”

“No.”

STEPPED AWAY FROM BODY.

“Did he ever go into the room where the body was?”

“Except for that first time I can’t say that he did. After he stepped behind the curtain he went away from the body.”

The solicitor was interrupted by Attorney Rosser, who declared that he was “viciously leading” the witness. After a little tilt, the solicitor was allowed to proceed.

“What did Frank say then?”

“I asked him if he knew the girl, and he answered that he did not know her just then, but thought from her dress that he had paid her off Saturday and could tell by going to the factory.”

“How long did you stay at the undertaker’s?”

“About five minutes. We went from there to the factory, and just as we drove up we saw Mr. Darley and another man. There was a general conversation as we went up the stairs.”

Judge Roan adjourned the court at that point, 12:25 o’clock, until 1 o’clock.

AFTERNOON SESSION.

A large crowdr than at preceding sessions was waiting outside the court house when the doors were opened Wednesday afternoon. Shortly before 3 o’clock as many as could find seats were allowed to enter, and a number were turned away. A number of women were among the crowd.

Court re-convened at 3 o’clock.

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

The Atlanta Journal

Friday, July 18, 1913

*Editor’s Note: Small sections of text are missing due to scanning near a crease.

NOTED SLEUTHS WHO HAD ACCUSED FRANK NOW CHANGE THEORY

Harry Scott, Field Chief of the Pinkertons, Refuses to Discuss the Agency’s Change of Theory.

AGENTS HAVE WORKED ON CASE ALONG WITH POLICE

The Pinkertons Were Employed by the National Pencil Factory Immediately Following the Murder

That the Pikerton [sic] detectives, who for so many weeks held to the theory that Leo M. Frank is guilty of the Mary Phagan murder, now lay the crime to the door of Jim Conley, is a recent development of interest to the students of the murder mystery.

While Harry Scott, the field chief of the Pinkerton operatives, who have been working on the case practically from the first, employed by the National pencil factory to find Mary Phagan’s murderer, regardless of who the criminal might be, refuses to discuss the case, the Journal has learned from unquestioned authority that the theory of the Pinkertons has undergone a change.

The Pinkertons, while not admitted to many of the later conferences, which the solicitor has held with the city detectives, are said to be in possession of practically every point of importance in the state’s case.

Scott, who was [sic] worked on the case with John Black, one of the best of the city detectives, was present at the time Jim Conley made his three most startling confessions of complicity in the murder, and he […] the negro Conley’s manner of […] connection with the crime, and the strangeness of parts of his story, are said to be more responsible than any thing else for the Pinkerton man’s dropping the theory that Frank is guilty, and taking up the fight against Conley.

While the Pinkerton’s attitude has been known for a number of days to the counsel for the defense and for the attorneys and detectives actively identified with the prosecution, it was only made public Friday.

A significant fact connected with the Pinkerton’s attitude in the case is that Friday morning Scott made an effort to see Conley and give him another grilling, but was denied admission to the negro’s cell.

Scott, after talking with Chief Beavers, said simply that he had been informed that the negro did not want to talk with anyone during the day, and that he (Scott) would probably see him another day.

Scott, working with Detective Black, made a number of attempts during the negro’s admissions of complicity to secure a confession from him, but failed.

While the Pinkertons do not now believe the factory superintendent guilty of the crime, the attitude of the solicitor general and the city detectives in the case has not been changed, and Solicitor Dorsey is making his preparations to go to trial in the case on July the 28th.

He, too, has talked many times with the negro Conley, and the negro’s story has served only to strengthen his theory that Frank is guilty, rather than to shake it like it shook the theory of the Pinkertons.

Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben R. Arnold, attorneys for Frank, are in conference almost daily, and they are expected to be ready to go to trial on Monday week when the case will be called.

* * *

The Atlanta Journal, July 18th 1913, “Pinkertons Now Declare Leo M. Frank Is Innocent,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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.”

* * *

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)