Felder Bribe – The Leo Frank Case Research Library

Colyar Indicted as Libeler of Col. Felder

Curator — Tue, 12 Sep 2017 19:49:46 +0000

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 1, 1913

Grand Jury Develops Sensational Sequel to Famous Dictograph Scandal.

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

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

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

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

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

* * *

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

Colyar Not Indicted On Charge of Libel

Curator — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 19:48:04 +0000

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 1, 1913

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

* * *

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

Dictograph Records Crooked, Says Gentry

Archivist — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 03:49:45 +0000

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

The Atlanta Constitution

June 11, 1913

NOTEBOOK WILL PROVE REPORTS WERE ‘PADDED,’ HE SAYS IN AFFIDAVIT

Young Stenographer, Who Made the Report of the Conversation in Room No. 31 Williams House, Voluntarily Makes Statement Before a Notary Public in the City of Washington D. C., Where He Is Employed.

ASSERTS THAT HE LEFT ATLANTA WHEN INFORMED OVER TELEPHONE HE MIGHT BE PUT UNDER ARREST

Swears That A. S. Colyar Has Made Effort to Purchase His Original Notes, Which Are Now in Possession of His Brotheró”Grand Jury Should Make an Investigation” Declares Mayor James G. Woodward.

The sworn charge that the dictagraph statements, alleged to have been made by Colonel Thomas B. Felder, Mayor James G. Woodward and Charles C. Jones, in Room No 31, Williams house, were “padded” was brought back to Atlanta last night by Ed O. Miles, a private detective, and turned over to Mayor Woodward.

The affidavit was composed and sworn to by George M. Gentry, the stenographer who took the dictagraph conversations. Detective Miles located Gentry in Washington, D. C., where he has been employed during the past two weeks. The affidavit was sworn to before Jeannette Henning, a notary public.

GENTRY WILLING TO RETURN WHENEVER HE IS NEEDED HERE.

“Gentry was willing to come back to Atlanta with me,” Detective Miles said last night. “He has promised to work out the remainder of the month, and has assured me that he will return at the end of that time, or earlier if he is wanted.”

Aside from the charge that his stenographic notes were “padded” by A. S. Colyar, and that he was paid $50 for the part he played in the dictagraph drama, Gentry says that he left Atlanta because he could not bear the humiliation which he knew he would suffer after he learned that his notes had been altered.

His affidavit bears out the statement made by Mayor Woodward, immediately after the publication of the dictagraph scandal, to the effect that he did not mention the names of Chief of Police James L. Beavers or Detective Chief Newport Lanford. Gentry also swears that a reporter called at his home after the publication of the dictagraph statements and informed him that warrants had been issued for the arrest of Colyar, Gay C. Febuary and himself (Gentry), and that he left the city upon being informed that he would not be allowed to give bond.

BROTHER HAS ORIGINAL NOTES; “COLYAR TRIED TO BUY THEM.”

According to the affidavit, the original notes taken by Gentry are in the possession of his brother. He charges that an effort was made to purchase them. He mentions Colyar as the man who tried to secure his notes.

Mayor Woodward, Colonel Thomas B. Felder and Charles C. Jones, the victims of the dictagraph scandal, would not comment on the Gentry
affidavit.

“I think it is up to the grand jury to look into the matter and see if there hasn’t been forgery committed,” Mayor Woodward said. “The affidavit bears out all that I have said. The whole thing was a frame-up. Now, let the public see who has done the framing.”

“I knew that there was something wrong the minute I read the statement, alleged to have been made by me,” said Charles C. Jones, after he was shown the Gentry afffdavit. “I didn’t have very much to say, and I don’t remember mentioning the names of Chief Beavers or Chief Lanford as often as I was quoted. I knew that something was wrong the minute I entered the room, and was on my guard.”

Lanford Doesn’t Believe Gentry Signed Affidavit.

“I do not believe Gentry signed this affidavit. I think it is a forgery, pure and simple. If he did, then he liedólied straight out, lied maliciously. It is absolutely false that the dictagraph record was padded. There’s not a word of truth in it. I can prove it. Others can prove it. This is all a scheme to clear the skirts of a lot of dirty politicians.”

Thus did Chief Lanford caustically arraign the affidavit from Washington when he was informed of its receipt. He says that not until he has seen and talked with the young stenographer will he believe that Gentry attested to the document, and, that if Gentry does admit its authorship, he will brand that youth a liar.

“I never saw ‘Gentry but once in my life,” the chief declared, “and that was the day of the dictagraph conversations. He came to my office. My secretary, G. C. Febuary, recommended him as a rapid and efficient[…]

[…]even knew of his existence. I know little about the young man, but what I do leads me to believe that he never attested to any such affidavit. And, besides. I do not believe he is in Washington. I think he is still right here in Atlanta. Anyway, you’ll have to show me before I believe otherwise.”

Here Is Gentry’s Affidavit, Sworn to in Washington

Mr. Gentry’s Affidavit in full is as follows.

District of Columbia, City of WashingtonóPersonally appeared before me, the undersigned a notary public of the District of Columbia, George M. Gentry, who on oath states that:

On Wednesday, May 21, 1913, at or about 10 o’clock in the morning, Mr. Gay C. Febuary called me over the telephone and desired to know if I would do some stenographic work for him. I told him I would but that I couldn’t get off until noon. He said that they were in a hurry for it and he would like for me to come at once, so I arranged to get off and went down to his office. He took me into the chief’s office and the chief told me he wanted me to take down some testimony and he asked me if I could write very fast. Mr. Febuary assured Chief Lanford that I was a good stenographer and I could do the work all right. The chief then told me that the work he wanted done required somebody that could be trusted all right and I assured him that I always treated all stenographical work I had as confidential. Chief Lanford told me then that what he wanted me to do was to take down a conversation that would take place in a hotel and he asked me if I thought I could take it over a dictagraph. Mr. Surles coming in at that time with a satchel which he opened and which contained wires and and other paraphernalia in connection with a dictograph outfit.)

Went to Williams House

“After a few minutes, during which time Mr. Febuary was absent, we went over to the Williams house No. 2, on North Forsyth street, Atlanta, Fulton county, Georgia (Mr. Febuary and I), and I was instructed to go into Room No. 21 of this hotel. Mr. Surles and Mr. Colyar were there, and they probably had to make arrangements for adjoining rooms, as Mr. Surles commented to me that they hadn’t decided just what to do with the dictographs. After a time Colyar came in and instructed Surles to follow him, and gave me instructions to await his wishes. Later on Mr. Febuary came in, and I told him that if I had to wait much longer by myself I was going back to the office.

“I was then allowed to come into the room, where they were installing the dictographs (one on each end of the bottom board of the bureau just under the bottom drawer on the back of the board), and the wires being run through the keyhole of the door between Room 31 and Room 32. The bureau was then screwed against the door facing. At about 12:30 I started getting accustomed to Febuary’s and Colyar’s voices.

Could Distinguish Voices

“At first I could not hear at all, but gradual[l]y I was able to hear more distinctly and after an hour or two of diligent practices I was able to use the dictograph and to distinguish voices very clearly. Right at the beginning I found that I would not be able to hear anything with the windows up. When they were closed it became rather stuffy and this, coupled with the strain I was under, added to the distraction. I stopped particing [sic] at 2:45 that afternoon and went downstairs to the office of the hotel, where I awaited Mr. Felder’s arrival.

“I saw him cross Forsyth street, and after he, Febuary and Colyar went upstairs, or were just about at the top of the stairs, I started up and saw the three enter Room 31 of the Williams house, located as mentioned previously. I then immediately went into room 32 and closed the door, partly, but did not lock it. The windows were down and so I went directly to the table and placed the receiver over my head and started writing what I heard. I took down all the conferences that took place. At somewhere around 5 that afternoon I left the hotel and went to Mr. R. B. Bliss’ house and took some dictation. From there I went home and changed my collar. I returned to the office of the General Fire Extinguisher company, 376 Marietta street, where I wrote the dictation he had given me, signed his letters and then met Mr. Febuary there at the office. We went to the Candler restaurant to supper and from there we returned to the Williams house to keep an appointment with Colyar at about 7:30. At about 8 o’clock Mr. Miles and Mr. C. C. Jones and Colyar went up to the ‘conference room’ and Mr. Febuary and I to the ‘information reception room.’

Preparing for the Trap

“I placed the retriever over my head, and in order to be sure that I would hear everything, Mr. Febuary stood behind me and held them pressed tightly to my ears. This conference lasted about thirty minutes. Between 8:30 and 9:15 Wednesday night Mr. Febuary loafed about town, as we had an appointment with Mr. Branch and Mr. Paschal at 9:30 at the Williams house, and as they were not in The Journal office, we had to kill time until they showed up. I left Mr. Febuary and Mr. Colyar at The Journal office at 9:15 and went over to the Williams house to wait for the arrival of The Journal reporters mentioned above. They came in shortly and we went over to The Journal office and all of us (Colyar, Febuary, Branch, Paschal and myself) went up to the editorial department, where a machine was selected and I then went to work transcribing what I had heard.

“Right at the start I made Colyar angry because when I did not hear what was said I put dashes and so I allowed him to dictate several answers and questions, which do not appear in my notebook and which I am not positive that I heard. I did not hear Mayor Woodward mention Chief Beavers or Chief Lanford during the whole conversation, nor did I write it in the transcription of my notes, these names being evidently added by other parties. At 4:30 Thursday morning, May 22, I finished transcribing my notes and turned the papers over to Mr. Febuary. Later on during the morning he came down to the office, bringing an affidavit which I had written for me to sign before a notary public. He told me that they had made only a few minor changes in the transcription, and that all I had to do was to sign the affidavit which I did. However, I noticed that some interlineations had been made in my copy, or rather in Chief Lanford’s copy, as I had no copy.

Notes Altered, Says Gentry

Colyar and the reporters, just before I started to transcribe my notes, argued as to the number of copies that should be made. They agreed that one copy should be made for the chief, one for Colyar and one for The Journal, and that no more should be made. This kept me from having a copy. I had my notebook, however, and it was the comparison on my notes with the published articles that lead to my discovery that in addition to the several answers and questions which Colyar had personally dictated, other changes had been made, namely that insertion of the names of Chief Beavers and Chief Lanford, in the conference with Mayor Woodward, also many other variations occurred, changing the sense of the statement, and since they had my affidavit attached to the papers I felt that I had been duped.

“As to the remuneration of my services, will say that The Journal reporters, Branch and Paschal, agreed to pay me $5 to get the work written Wednesday night, so it could be published in Thursday’s paper. Saturday morning, after the appearance of the article in Friday’s Journal, The Georgian’s reporter came to the office and offered me either $25 or $45, I do not recollect which, for a copy of the conference with Mayor Woodward, February, Miles and Colyar, and Miles, Jones and Colyar’s conference. I declined the offer. I then went to see The Journal’s reporters and told them that The Georgian had offered me money for a copy of the conference, and they agreed to pay me $50 to hold my notebook from Saturday until Monday. I turned my notebook over to Mr. Brice, who gave it to his stenographer to keep until Monday. Later during the day the reporters told me that The Georgian had gotten a copy, and so I was too late.

“I then went down to Mr. Brice’s office and asked Miss M.—, Mr. Brice’s stenographer, for my notebook, and I took it home and locked it up. Monday, when I went up to see Major Cohen about the $50 he went down to look for Mr. Brice, whom he was unable to find. Later we went back upstairs together and Branch and Paschal explained to him their promise to pay me $50 for allowing The Journal to retain my notebook. However some argument arose over the fact that I took my notebook out of The Journal’s office Saturday night. I told them that they had agreed to give me $50 not to make a copy for The Georgian, and that I had not made the copy for The Georgian, and had, therefore, carried out my part of the compact. They then told be to come back later on and see Mr. Brice about it. I returned after awhile, I believe it was around 1 o’clock, and Mr. Brice paid me the amount in currency and took my receipt.

“Lanford Has Not Paid”

“Chief Lanford has not as yet paid me for my services, from the fact that I have not rendered a bill.

“Saturday morning, before the publication of the Woodward conference, held at 4 o’clock Wednesday, May 21, as previously mentioned, and the Jones conference, held at 8 o’clock the same night, I went to the editorial department of The Journal and requested a proof of what they were going to print. Colyar, who had one reading it, declined to allow me to have a proof, and so I left The Journal building, suspicious.

“Saturday afternoon I went down to the office, carrying with me my original notebook, and a copy of Friday’s and Saturday’s Journal. I compared them all the way through and upon seeing the many variations in what was printed and what I had in my notes, I realized that my transcriptions had been tampered with, and that I had just cause for the suspicions which were aroused by their refusal to allow me to read the proofs Saturday morning.

“Having signed the affidavits, at Mr. Febuary’s request, in which I swore to what I had heard, and seeing something entirely different published, I became very nervous and uneasy. Saturday night when I went home, a reporter called up and said he was one of The Journal reporters and wanted to see me a few minutes. I told him to come over. He came in and introduced himself to me as Mr. Starr, The Journal. My other and aunt recognized his voice as that of a reporter who had called shortly before I came home, and said he was from The Georgian. They both rushed into the sitting room and told me that he was not with The Journal, but was the same fellow that came a few minutes ago, and said he was from The Georgian. He denied that he had said he was from The Journal, although he had told both myself and my grandfather, who went to answer the door bell, that he was from The Journal. Just before he left he informed me that a warrant had been sworn out for Febuary’s, Colyar’s and my arrest, and upon my directing him as to where the door out could be found, he departed, saying that he had got the information he wanted.

Told Me I Would Be Arrested

“Sunday afternoon, at the office, someone called me up and informed me that I would probably be arrested Monday, I did not recognize the voice, and so am unable to say who it was. They also informed me that I would have to make bond in order to be released. I asked who it was, and they hung up or were cut off.

“Monday morning Colyar requested that I turn my notebook over to The Journal and said he would give me $5 if I would show him a receipt from The Journal for the notebook. I came near allowing The Journal to have the notebook, but instead gave it to my brother to take home and instructed him to allow no one to have it.

“Developments later showed me the character of some of the people connected with this transaction and it made me so ashamed of my connection with it that I was afraid I could not face the humiliation that I thought would naturally onsite, and also the fact that they had changed my transcription showed to me very clearly that I was mixed up with a bunch of crooks.

“I am prepared to read my notes whenever it becomes necessary. These notes will show exactly what I heard.

“The foregoing affidavit is made by me voluntarily, unsolicited, and no money or the promise of any remuneration whatever was offered to me for making it, my sole motive being to give the straight history of my connection with the now ‘infamous’ dictograph affair.

“GEORGE M. GENTRY.

“JEANNETTE HENNING, Notary Public, District of Columbia.”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, June 11 1913, “Dictograph Records Crooked, Says Gentry,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Gentry Now Says Dictograph Record Was Tampered With

Archivist — Fri, 24 Mar 2017 19:00:18 +0000

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

https://leofrank.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/1913-06-11-gentry-now-says-dictograph-record-was-tampered-with.mp3

Atlanta Journal

Wednesday, June 11th, 1913

Detective E. O. Miles Gives Out Affidavit From Young Stenographer Repudiating Transcript He Swore to

AFFIDAVIT OBTAINED IN WASHINGTON D. C.

G. C. Febuary Gives Out a Statement, Telling How Notes Were Transcribed and Affidavits Made

The accuracy of the now famous pictograph records of alleged conversations between Thomas B. Felder, Mayor Woodward, C. C. Jones, E. O. Miles, G. C. Febuary and A. S. Colyar is attacked in an affidavit which E. O. Miles has turned over to Mayor Woodward and which he says he obtained from George M. Gentry, the young stenographer who took down the dictograph conversations.

This affidavit was made in Washington D. C., where Miles, one of the dictographed parties, who is a private detective, says he found Gentry. According to this affidavit, Gentry swears that a number of changes were made in the pictograph records after they were transcribed by him. The only specific change set out in the affdavit, however, is that the names of Police Chief Beavers and Detective Chief N. A. Lanford were written into the record of Mayor Woodward’s conversation by some one other than the stenographer.

In this affidavit Gentry explains his disappearance from the city by declaring that when he compared the published records with his stenographic notes he realized that he had been duped and did not care to face the humiliation which he anticipated would follow.

These dictographed records, duly sworn to by young Gentry and others, were published in The Journal, which declined to print these documents unless they were attested before a notary public. These records and affidavits are still in the possession of The Journal, and this paper has no knowledge concerning the alleged changes.

GENTRY READ PROOFS.

Young Gentry was permitted to use one of The Journal’s typewriters to transcribe his pictograph notes. He and Febuary were left alone in the news department Wednesday night, May 21, to do this work. They left a copy of the records in a desk drawer for The Journal. Early on the morning of May 23 Gentry furnished The Journal with an affidavit attesting the correctness of the records. Later he came to The Journal office with his notebook and read the proofs which compared with this shorthand notes, and in one or two places he made minor changes, as he said, to better conform to the original notes.

He was advised to preserve his notes so that in the event any question was raised as to their accuracy, he would have the stenographic record from which to make answer.

The Journal does not undertake to say whether there are or are not discrepancies in the transcribed records compared to the shorthand notes. It has simply relied upon the sworn records and statements furnished by Gentry and others, which records and statements, as stated above, are still in the possession of The Journal and in exactly the same condition as they were when turned over to this paper by Gentry, February and others.

FEBUARY MAKES STAETMENT [sic].

G. C. Febuary, secretary to Detective Chief N. A. Lanford, who was a party to some of the dictographed conversations and who was with Gentry, the stenographer, when some of the pictograph notes were transcribed, has furnished The Journal with the following statement:

“The dictograph conversations between A. S. Colyar, T. B. Felder and myself were transcribed on a typewriter in the news department of The Atlanta Journal by George M. Gentry, the stenographer who took the conversations down in a shorthand as he heard them through a dictograph.

“John Paschall and Harllee Branch, of The Atlanta Journal, were present for about an hour and a half and A. S. Colyar was present for about half an hour. Gentry began transcribing the dictographed record about 10 p. m., Wednesday, May 21. When Mr. Paschall and Mr. Branch found Gentry would not be able to complete the work as soon as expected they left and directed that the copy intended for The Journal be left in a designated desk drawer. Colyar had been gone for about an hour when they left.

“The record was completed about 4 o’clock the next morning, and a copy was left in the desk drawer for The Journal. Neither Mr. Paschall nor Mr. Branch made any suggestions as to the contents of the record. They were only waiting for get a copy for The Journal.

“Both of these gentleman advised Gentry that if there was anything in his notes which he could not read he should indicate this fact in the record, and not to put anything in the record not contained in his notes. He was informde [sic] repeatedly that he would be expected to swear to the accuracy of the record.

HOW AFFIDAVIT WAS MADE.

“After leaving The Journal office Gentry and I spent the balance of the night together. We ate breakfast together, after which Gentry went to his work at the General Fire Extinguisher company, and later in the morning I went to The Journal office and got the copy of the record that had been left there. I took this copy down to Gentry and he went before Charles H. Tranaou, a notary public, and made an affidavit attesting the accuracy of the contents of the record, no one being present but Gentry, Mr. Transou and myself.

“A short time later I took the record and accompanied by A. S. Colyar went before W. W. Brown, a notary public. Both Colyar and myself made affidavit as to the correctness of the record.

“The record covering the conversations between Mayor James G. Woodward, E. O. Miles, A. S. Colyar and myself was transcribed by Gentry at his office and on his own typewriter. I was present but a part of the time while he was doing this work. This record, like that between T. B. Felder, A. S. Colyar and myself, was sworn to by Gentry before Charles S. Transou and Colyar and I attested it before W. W. Brown.

“To the best of my recollection and knowledge Gentry transcribed the record covering the conversation between C. C. Jones, E. O. Miles and A. S. Colyar on the day he transcribed the record of the conversation between Mayor Woodward, E. O. Miles, A. S. Colyar and myself.

“The records are published in The Atlanta Journal, so the best of my knowledge and beliefs were identical trans- of the records Gentry himself transcribed, swore to and turned over to me.”

GENTRY’S LATEST AFFIDAVIT.

Following is a copy of the Gentry affidavit furnished Mayor Woodward by E. O. Miles:

“District of Columbia, City of Washington—Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, a notary public of the District of Columbia, George M. Gentry, who, on oath, states that:

“On Wednesday, May 21, 1913, at or about 10 o’clock in the morning, Mr. Gay C. February called me over the telephtone [sic] and desired to know if I would do some stenographic work for him. I told him I would, but that I couldn’t get off until noon. He said that they were in a hurry for it and he would like for me to come at once, so I arranged to get off and went down to his office, and the chief told me he wanted me to take down some testimony, and he asked me if I could write very fast. Mr. Febuary asslred [sic] Chief Lanford that I was a good stenographer and could do the work all right. The chief then told me that the work he wanted done required somebody that could be trusted all right, and I assured him that I always treated all stenographic work I did as confidential. Chief Lanford told me then that what he wanted me to do was to take down a conversation that would take place in a hotel, and he asked me if I thought I could take it over a dictophone. (Mr. Surles coming in at that time with a satchel, which he opened and which contained wires and other paraphernalia in connection with a dictograph outfit.)

SAW DICTOGRAPHS INSTALLED.

SAW FELDER ARRIVE.

SAYS CHANGES WERE MADE.

LOCKED UP NOTEBOOK.

“Chief Lanford has not as yet paid me for my services, from the fact that I have not rendered a bill.

BECOMES VERY NERVOUS.

BROTHER HAS NOTEBOOK.

“I am prepared to read my notes whenever it becomes necessary. These notes will show exactly what I heard.

“GEORGE M. GENTRY.

“JEANNETTE HENNING, Notary Public, District of Columbia.”

Lanford Declares He Does Not Know About Any Changes

Detective Chief N. A. Lanford Wednesday morning declared that he knew absolutely nothing concerning the alleged tampering with the dictograph records.

“The records were typewritten and sworn to when they were brought to me,” said the chief, “I still have them in my possession and no changes have been made in them since they were turned over to me. Personally, I do not believe that they were ever tampered with or doctored. According to Gentry’s latest affidavit he still has his notes. It would be quite a simple matter for him to take these notes and point out the alleged changes. All I want is the truth about the affair.

Chief Lanford, upon reading the alleged affidavit, sent the following telegram to police Chief James L. Beavers, who is in Washington attending the convention of the National Police Chiefs association:

“Atlanta, Ga., June 11, 1913,

“J. L. Beavers,

“Care Convention Chiefs Police.

“Washington, D. C.

“I understand that George M. Gentry is in Washington and that he made affidavit before Jeannette Henning, notary public, District of Columbia, to the effect that his notes made in dictograph of Colyar and Felder matter were padded. Please have him located and ascertain if this is true and if so under what conditions this affidavit was made, and advise.

“N. A. LANFORD,

“Chief of Detectives.”

“My Vindication Complete,” Declares Thomas B. Felder

Thomas B. Felder, commenting upon the affidavit of George M. Gentry, says:

“Gentry’s affidavit is a complete vindication. It bears out my statement that the whole thing was a frame-up on the part of Newport Lanford and his hirelings. Everyone agrees with me now that I was the innocent victim of a dirty, contemptible plot.

“The notebook is not in the hands of Gentry’s brother. It was at the time he left Atlanta, but it is now in a safe deposit vault and I have the key.

“I have given Mayor Woodward a copy of the affidavit, and I expect he will ask the grand jury to look into the matter.

“So far as I am personally concerned, the incident is closed with this vindication. Gentry will return to Atlanta within the next week or ten days, and he may have something additional to say.”

Says Police Board Ought to Investigate

Other than to say the police board ought to make a thorough investigation of the detective department. Mayor Woodward Wednesday morning made no statement in reference to the Gentry affidavit.

“This young man’s affidavit certainly is enough to convince me that Lanford and his aggregation of so-called detectives are not very careful as to the methods they employ, to say the least of it,” said the mayor. “It is time for the police board to give the detective department a thorough airing, and I’m not so sure but what the city would be better off if the whole detective crew were kicked out and new ones elected. We certainly couldn’t get much worse than we’ve got now.”

It was the mayor’s first intention Wednesday to give out a written statement in reference to the Gentry affidavit, but later he changed his mind. In this connection he said:

“There was nothing in the dictograph record, even as the detectives gave it out, that worried me. There was nothing in it that I was ashamed of, or cared to explain.

“The Gentry affidavit was not gotten at my instigation. I cared nothing about the dictograph. I knew nothing about the Gentry affidavit until it was handed to me by Ed Miles about 9 o’clock Tuesday night.”

Miles Will Not Divulge Young Gentry’s Address

E. O. Miles, the private detective who figured in the dictograph conversations and who brought back from Washington the alleged affidavit from Gentry charging that the dictograph records had been padded, refuses to tell whether Gentry can be found. He will not say whether he is withholding this information at Gentry’s request.

Mr. Miles says he went to Washington after the affidavit in the interest of those who had been dictographed. Further than this he would not talk.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, June 11th 1913, “Gentry Now Says Dictograph Record Was Tampered With,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Lanford Answers Felder’s Charge

Curator — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 23:33:33 +0000

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

Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, June 8, 1913

Declares That He Has Never Seen Gentry But Once in His Life.

“Tom Felder is a contemptible liar,” blazed Chief Lanford last night when informed of the contents of Colonel Felder’s letter directed to him through The Constitution. “I never saw this Gentry but once in my life, and that was before this dictagraph exposure ever happened. I have never seen him since.

“Gentry telephoned police headquarters Saturday, a week ago, however, and asked for Febuary, my secretary. Febuary happened not to be in at the time. I answered the telephone. Gentry wanted to know if a warrant was out against him. I told him I did not think there was, and that he had done nothing for which a warrant could be issued against him.

“I informed him that if a warrant was served on him, for him to notify me and I would help him out of his trouble. That was the last I heard of him until he left town. I did not have a thing to do with his departure. I have been trying to locate him, and wish I did know his whereabouts. I would bring him back to Atlanta and show by him that the charges that the dictagraph notes were padded is a lie from beginning to end.

“Felder’s row is hoed—he’s at his rope’s end. Give him rope enough and he’ll hang himself. He’s doing it now.”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, June 8th 1913, “Lanford Answers Felder’s Charge,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Scathing Replies Made to Letters Attacking Them

Archivist — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 04:10:49 +0000

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

Atlanta Journal

Sunday, June 8th, 1913

Colyar Addresses Felder as “Dictograph Tommy” and “My Dear Co-conspirator in Crime”

SEND HIM TO CREMATORY, SAYS DETECTIVE CHIEF

J. R. Gray Said: “I Have No Comment to Make—Mr. Felder’s Controversy Is With A. S. Colyar”

https://leofrank.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1913-06-08-scathing-replies-made-to-letters-attacking-them.mp3

Replying to the open letters of Thomas B. Felder, attacking them, A. S. Colyar and Chief of Detectives N. A. Lanford last night gave to The Journal statements, denouncing Mr. Felder in unmeasured terms. Chief of Police James L. Beavers, who was also the subject of attack, was out of the city and, therefore, could not be given the opportunity to reply.

James R. Gray, when shown Mr. Felder’s communication, addressed to him, said:

“I have no comment to make on Mr. Felder’s letter. His controversy is with A. S. Colyar. I suppose Mr. Colyar will wish to reply.”

The statements of A. S. Colyar and Chief Lanford follow below in full:

COLYAR’S REPLY.

T. B. Felder Esq., alias Dictograph Tommy.

Sir: As you let last Sunday go by without attempting to prostitute the Sunday press with some more of your hot air and denials, I had thought that perhaps some good friend of yours had given you a hint that even a braying ass can sometimes kill himself and that you had probably decided to withdraw from it newspaper controversy. In my last letter that I wrote to you I offered you what I have been told by many good citizens was a fair proposition, viz: To let fiver honorable gentlemen decide who had lied in the controversy at issue, and you declined to accept the proposition. I will make you a second proposition: I do not know a single member of the honorable supreme court of Georgia, but I am willing to let the chief justice of that honorable court appoint a committee of five honorable citizens, non-residents of the city of Atlanta, and let this committee decide whether you are guilty of unprofessional conduct and a violator of the criminal laws of Georgia, by offering a bribe of $1,000 to G. C. Febuary to steal the papers for you out of the safe, in the Phagan case, and I will only have one request to make of the honorable chief justice when he appoints the committee, and that is that he appoint men in no way connected with the whisky interests and the immoral classes, among whom you have so many clients. I was satisfied when I made you the last proposition that you would not accept it, although I made it in good faith, and I repeat, that you may eliminate me entirely as a witness before the committee, and I have the witnesses of unimpeachable character that will brand you before this committee as a bribe giver, a lobbyist and a grafter. I believe that the people of this fair city are familiar with your record, as it was exposed from the pulpit by the Rev. Len G. Broughton in the Baptist Tabernacle in this city, who publicly denounced you as a lobbyist and a grafter. I have read your letter written this afternoon and addressed to the Hon. James R. Gray, editor and proprietor of The Journal. The clear purpose of that letter is a scurrilous attack upon me, although you have addressed Mr. Gray. I am no saint as I have told you before; I have done wrong in my youth had strayed far away from the teachings and training of a Christian mother and a refined home, and when I first met you I was trying to lead an honorable life, although I was down, and had you had as tenth of the instinct of the gentleman in you that James R. Gray has, you would have tried to help me along life’s pathway in an honorable way and not heed me to go to South Carolina to help you and your co-conspirators frame up against Governor Blease.

HAS THE RECORDS.

I have records in my possession that will show that a certain stool pigeon of yours furnished the money that you sent to me in South Carolina, because you did not have the moral courage to do it yourself. Even though you have stated in me of your first articles that knowing my character that you refused to hire me to go to South Carolina for you—to refresh your memory didn’t you and one of your detectives to Charleston, S. C., with a letter of introduction to me, signed by you, written on the letter head of your then law firm, “Anderson, Felder, Rountree & Wilson?” And furthermore, when I left South Carolina on the 5th day of July, 1911, I drew a draft on your friend for $30, which was endorsed by Rev. B. Lacy Hoge, pastor of the First Baptist church of Charleston, S. C., and after you were through with me, your friend protested this draft and sent it back with the statement that I had no authority to draw the same, although I had drawn, by authority, several hundred dollars’ worth of similar drafts, which Dr. Hoge had cashed, and is it not a matter of fact, that several weeks later the Rev. Dr. Hoge visited Atlanta from South Carolina and threatened to expose you and your friend if you didn’t pay this draft and didn’t you have it paid?

In your first statement of May 23d, the day that the Atlanta Journal published the famous dictograph story, you began to whine like a miserable oar, “I don’t believe they had any dictograph, for the company does not rent their machines to blackmailers, and crooks to be used against gentlemen.” Please tell the people of this city how you succeeded in getting one to dictograph Governor Blease with?

In your letter to Mr. Gray you laid great stress upon the fact that he published the dictograph story, which was “the uncorroborated vaporings of the diseased mind of this mental hunchback and moral pervert, especially when the mass of putrid matter furnished you by him bore all the earmarks of a willful and deliberate forgery. And in view of the further fact that at least one other paper to which it was tendered, rejected it.” This is another one of your frame-ups and willful and deliberate and false statements, for the article in question was tendered no paper except the one that published it.

I defy you to publish any contract, if you ever had one, with the Columns, or any of their neighbors, to prosecute the Phagan case, and I made the assertion here that if you ever had any real desire to prosecute the murderers of this innocent child, your desire was choked with the dollar mark in the interest of you and your friend “Affidavit Tobie.”

A WILLFUL LIE.

You charge that Newport Lanford and I have been friends for three years, and intimate that we have been in the blackmailing business against the citizens of Atlanta during that time. Mr. Lanford is fully capable of answering you and taking care of himself in any controversy that he may have with you, but for myself I denounce your statement a a willful, malicious, infamous lie.

You further charge that Mr. Febuary and myself were the ones that told you that Chief Beavers was corrupt and was visiting a woman on Garnett street and that if the mayor would give us some special officers we would have him arrested. I denounce this statement as a willful, deliberate and infamous lie, and that you knew you were lying at the time you made it. I am sorry that my poverty forbids me from hiring a public hall in this city, where I would take great pleasure in meeting you face to face before the good people of this city and exposing you from the platform as you should be exposed. I could tell some things that I wouldn’t even ask a respectable journal to publish and you know what they are. I am surprised that a man of your alleged intelligence would make an attack that you have made upon a man with the diseased brain you say I have. You laid great stress in your letter this afternoon on the fact that I was arrested for forgery by Chief Beavers, on a telegram from Knoxville. Now why don’t you go on and state that after Beavers held me under bond for six days that you and one of your henchmen that you have publicly claimed that you owned, framed up a second arrest in the court house, to intimidate me from going before the Fulton county grand jury, and wasn’t it done because you believed that the sheriff of this county in order to cater to your malice and spleen, would send me to jail without bond, and didn’t you get made because you got sadly left?

In your letter to Mr. Gray this afternoon you charge that he paid me $500 for an alleged dictograph report, and that after inspecting the same he reached the conclusion that it was faked and that under his direction some one or more of his employees proceeded to edit out of the manuscript the most glaring evidence of forgery, and then published the same.

No one who has sense enough to stay out of the lunatic asylum, will believe your assertion. It is false from beginning to end.

“A SCANDAL MONGER.”

You charge further, that when your dear friend of twenty-five years standing discovered the evidence of this record being faked, that he summoned me to a hurried conference, and that it was decided that Mr. Gentry must be hurried from the scene of action, and that his note book must be obtained and the name destroyed, and you charge him with actually paying young Gentry $100 to become a criminal and a fugitive from justice.

This assertion is too absurd and ridiculous to emanate from any brain except that of the scandal monger that you are.

“Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”

and it would seem that the gods are determined to destroy you, and you have no one to blame but yourself. You have been given every chance to explain and to be allowed to prove the dictograph charges before five honorable citizens, but you preferred to go to your friend, Hugh M. Dorsey, whom you have publicly proclaimed that you own, and tried to muddy the stream so that no investigation of your conduct could be successfully carried out. Were I the miserable villain and unfortunate outcast, that you have described me and you and your friends have painted me in this city, guilty of the crimes that you have committed in the last thirty days, not only in the dictograph record, but where you have attempted to say while under oath, as I have been informed, that I showed you an affidavit from one James Conley claiming that he had murdered this poor girl, I would have been disbarred as a lawyer and put in the chaingang; and if I had attempted to put my hand in my hip pocket as you did in the court house last Thursday. I wouldn’t have been allowed to go to the lavatory before I was searched. You know why you wept. You say that I called Gentry’s mother up on Monday night after your card was published on Sunday and tried to get her to get possession of the note book. I was informed that the lady was sick in bed, and I am surprised that she would have anything to do with you after you have charged that her son helped frame up a forged and perjured dictograph record on you. Evidently she don’t know you. You charge further in your letter that I went to your office after I was negotiating with Mr. Gray for the sale of the dictograph manuscript, and stated to you that I would call you over the phone and ask you if you would give one thousand dollars if I would deliver the goods, and you were to reply yes, and that I told you that this was a frame up to get $500 out of Mr. Gray, and that he fell like a sucker. You further charge that Mr. Gray and Major Jack Cohen were on the line at the time listening to my conversation with you.

For the benefit of the public, I wish to state that I had not seen Mr. Gray in two years until the day before The Atlanta Journal published the story that T. B. Felder had been dictographed and caught in the act of trying to steal the papers in the Phagan case, and that there was no understanding with Mr. James R. Gray, Major Cohen, or any one connected with or representing The Atlanta Journal, to pay me any sum for this story. If I had expected or wanted any money for this story I think I am too good a student of human nature to insult Mr. James R. Gray by offering to sell him a framed up and forged dictograph record. I note in your letter that you try to be serious and state that you are utterly indifferent to sensational and damaging publications reflecting upon your integrity of character.

SUCH AUDACITY!

“Ye Gods!” Have you got the audacity to claim that you have any character in this community after being caught in the act of trying to bribe a poor young boy, who was struggling to make an honest livelihood, to commit the crime of larceny for you, in order that you might feast and fatten on the money that you could filch out of the citizens of Atlanta, while the blood of that poor murdered girl lies in a Cobb county tomb crying for vengeance, and you were posing here as an employed prosecuting attorney, when a majority of the people of this city believed that you were working in the interest of the man accused of the crime? Do you remember a conversation that you had with Mr. Febuary and me in your office on Monday night, May 19, in which you laid great stress upon the fact that Chief Lanford had violated his oath of office by holding without warrant of law Jim Conley, a poor innocent negro? Did you not know at that time what Conley knew? And why were you so anxious to have Conley released and cared nothing for the other two negroes who were held without warrant of law? Why has the public heard no more of your “patriotic” intentions to prosecute Leo M. Frank since The Atlanta Journal published the dictograph story and the public got wise and the money stopped coming into your coffers? Now, my co-conspirator in crime, if you really and truly wanted to prosecute the murderer of Mary Phagan, why didn’t you volunteer to do it like any honorable attorney would, and not have one of your pikers try to palm you off on J. W. Coleman, as he swore that you did?

My dear dictograph friend, I love a fight that is an honorable one, but I hate to fight a poor weak miserable thing like you that will hide behind governors, mayors, and solicitors general that you claim to own. No one believes half of your gas about owning governors, but it does look strange that the solicitor general would not allow a full searchlight to be turned upon your acts in this community since the dictograph exposure came out. If I were you before I paraded to the world about graft and corruption in others, I would stop and think how many people you had grafted in state legislatures and federal prisons, as you did your poor dying friend, Chas. W. Morse, recently elected president of a steamship line. You talk about justice. Poor justice! It is asleep. If you had justice you would now be a guest of Warden Tom Lanford in the city stockade. I know that it is sad to think that you and your friend of twenty-five years standing will not be able to celebrate that silver anniversary.

“Alas they have been friends in youth. But whispering tongues can poison truth. And constancy only lives in realms above

And life is thorny and youth is vain

And to be wroth with one we love

Doth work like madness in the brain.”

WILL WRITE HIM A LETTER

Now in conclusion permit me to say a few things to you, as this will probably be the last letter that I will ever have the pleasure of writing you, with one exception. I am going to visit my native land, my beloved Tennessee, within whose sacred soil sleeps all that is mortal of a sweet sainted mother, a noble father and brothers and sisters. While in this land of my nativity that such heroes as John Sevier, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Andrew Johnson and last but not least, the great “Apostle of Sunshine,” Robert Love Taylor, made immortal, I intend to visit Knoxville, the city that you claim I am a fugitive of justice from and I shall write you a letter from that city, “but I will not write it from the Knox county jail,” and I would indeed take great pleasure in receiving a reply from you dated “Columbia, S. C.,” though it would give me pain to know that my former co-conspirator in crime against Governor Cole L. Blease was languishing in a South Carolina jail, as I know you would be if you were in the Palmetto State. You only escaped going there through the mercy of an all wise Providence and the misplaced charity of His Excellency Jos. M. Brown, governor of Georgia.

FELDER AS A LAWYER.

You talk about your great and unblemished character as a lawyer at the Atlanta bar, when, if the truth were known, when God Almighty created you, Tommy. He hadn’t dreamed of a lawyer in six months; He was thinking of a pea in a pod, rusting away in the ante-room of some legislative hall seeking some poor hillbilly senator that you might flatter or bribe into voting on some pet scheme of some corporation that has heretofore hired you as one of their lobbyists to hang around legislative halls. I am indeed sorry that I, the poor moral pervert and degenerate, irresponsible creature that you claim me to be, have to write you thus, because I know that you imagine that every one must bow at your sweet will and that no one must attack your motives or answer any of your villainous inclinations. Poor moral degenerate that I am, I wish to say to you that my forefathers shed blood at King’s mountain and some of them died upon the fields of Shiloh, and I would be unworthy of the blood that courses through my veins if I would let you, the miserable bribe giver, lobbyist and grafter that you are known to be, drive me out of the state of Georgia, that has been made famous by such sons as Alexander Stephens, John B. Gordon, Robert Toombs and Benjamin H. Hill. No doubt you have discovered by now that even with your two frame-ups to land me in jail I am still at Williams House No. 2, city of Atlanta, made famous by the dictograph, which you stated at the Transportation club, after you had dictographed Governor Blease, would not lie. When it caught you in the act of trying to steal the papers in the Mary Phagan murder case, you denounced in unmeasured terms your dictograph friend which had been so faithful to you in days gone by. As I told the grand jury of Fulton county, you were a framer from Framerville, but your frames are too shallow to stand the storms that follow, as you evidently have found out.

Farewell, Dictograph Tommy. If we never meet again on life’s scene of action and I should be so unfortunate as not to reach the city of heavenly rest, please by charitable enough in Hades not to tell his satanic majesty that I was one of your co-conspirators in South Carolina, for, if you do, he will make life in the lower regions very uncomfortable for me.

A. S. COLYAR.

Atlanta, Ga., June 7, 1913.

“Unprincipled Prevaricator,” Says Chief Lanford

When acquainted with the contents of Felder’s open letter of attack upon him Detective Chief N. A. Lanford gave out the following statement:

“I regret exceedingly the necessity which forces me into a controversy with an irresponsible, unprincipled prevaricator like Felder. He is a stranger to truth and his chief claim to notoriety is based upon the reckless slanders which he periodically vomits forth upon his betters.

“His entire attack on me is woven with a warp of lies and a woof of hypocrisy. It is fortunate for me and the other objects of his venom that he has by his questionable performances of the past made himself sufficiently well known to the general public for it to know with what credence to receive his vicious but silly onslaughts.

“At frequent intervals for many years I have read of Felder’s controversies, in each of them he has always assumed a bombastic attitude and has rushed into print with all the abandon of a fool hurling unsupported charges here and slinging lies yonder. And to save my life I can not recall that he ever made good in a single one of his many wrangles.

“Felder says that I have known Colyar for three years and that I have been conniving with him for that period. This is a lie. The first time I ever saw or heard of Colyar was about a week or ten days after the Phagan murder and I have never met him more than a dozen times since. When he says that I have been conspring with Colyar to frame up on citizens of this community he tells a black and contemptible lie—a lie uttered by a craven coward of the blackest type. There is no spark of manhood left in him or he would not give utterance to such unfounded statements.

“HE LIES AGAIN.”

“He says I promised Surles that I would not use his name. Here again he lies. All I said to Surles, while negotiating with him to install the dictograph, was that I intended to use it in the interest of justice.

“He says I mislead and duped young Gentry, the stenographer who took down the dictograph conversations. Again he lies. I have never seen Gentry but once in my life and that was in my office on the morning of the day Felder walked into the dictograph trap.

“I was seeking to obtain services of an accurate and reliable stenographer and had my secretary call up Edward Crusselle, an expert court stenographer. Mr. Crusselle stated that he was just about to leave the city and furnished my secretary with the names of one or two other stenographers. They were called up but were out. Then my secretary suggested Gentry, whom, he said, was a clean, reliable young man and rapid shorthand writer.

“I had Gentry called up and requested him to come to my office. In acquainting him with the work which I desired him to do I sought to impress upon him that all I wanted was a true and correct record of what came to him over the wires of the dictograph. I told him that I would expect him to swear to the accuracy of the record he made and inquired his age. He told me that he had passed his twenty-first birthday about a week before.

“Felder says I had Colyar call up Gentry’s home and say that unless the young man furnished me his note book I would be in a hell of a fix. This, too, is a lie. I never had Colyar call up Gentry or anybody else.

“He says I sent Gentry out of town and furnished him the money to go on. Another lie. On the Saturday morning after the dictograph incident Gentry talked to me over the telephone. He said that he had been advised that there was a warrant out for him charging him with conspiracy. I told him that was all bosh and suggested to him that if he was annoyed by any one to let me know and I would attend to them. He thanked me and that was the last I’ve heard of him.

HASN’T PAID HIM YET.

“I not only did not furnish Gentry with money to leave town, but the young man has never yet called upon me for pay for his services, which I contracted for in good faith and for which I expect to pay.

“Felder lies again when he says I stood over Gentry and compelled him to doctor the dictograph records. As I said above I never saw Gentry but once, and that was for but a few minutes in my office before the dictograph was even installed. When the dictograph records were brought to me they had been typewritten and duly sworn to by Gentry.

“Felder lies when he says that I have stated that I know Gentry’s whereabouts. At the request of his relatives I did make efforts to locate him. Later these relatives got into communication with him and notified my secretary that he would be on hadn’t when he was wanted.

“I sincerely hope he does return to the city. I will welcome a statement from him giving all the facts about the dictograph matter.

“Fedler says that I conspired with Colyar to frame up affidavits to the effect that he (Felder) had run Gentry out of town to keep him away from the grand jury. This is another of his multitude of lies. He is so accustomed to lying that he just cannot tell the truth. I have never heard of any such affidavit.

“The most amusing of all Felder’s lies is that I am in a conspiracy with Governor Blease of South Carolina to get him into that state, and that I plan to kidnap him, put him into an automobile and rush him over the border.

“Now, of all the absurd propositions that is the limit. Felder evidently suffers many and varied hallucinations. I cannot conceive how it is possible for a man of sound mentality to conjure up such a ridiculous idea. And to think he actually offers it to the public as a fact.

“I have known for a long time that whenever Felder heard the name of Blease mentioned cold chills chased up and down his quavering spine, and he invariably looked about him for assassins, kidnappers and spooks.

SEND HIM TO CREMATORY.

“I don’t know of an automobile sorry enough to use in transporting Felder, but it would be a God-send to the community if one of the garbage carts would get him and carry him to the crematory. I would dislike very much indeed to impose such a carcass on the good old state of South Carolina.

“I have never had any direct or indirect communication with Governor Blease, and the only time that I remember mentioning him was when I suggested that I would take A. S. Colyar to Knoxville, Tenn., without extradition papers if he (Felder) would waive legal formalities and go with one of my men to Columbia where Governor Blease could press his charges against him.

“Having disposed of Felder’s lies I wish to ask him the following questions.

Where is the money you grafted from the public through the plea that you wished to bring detectives here to find evidence to convict the murderer of Mary Phagan?

“Failing to get the Colemans to employ you why did you go to New York, and then come back here with the statement that you were employed by friends of the slain girl to assist the prosecution?

“If you were acting in good faith why did you attack Chief Beavers and myself for keeping Jim Conley, the only witness who knows anything about the murder of the Phagan girl, in jail?

“If you were acting in good faith why did you not also criticise us for holding Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, and Gordon Bailey, the negro elevator boy, who have both been held just as long as Jim Conley?

“YOU BUTTED IN.”

“I have been forced to doubt your good faith in this case. I didn’t drag you into it. You butted in. You are sure because I exposed you by allowing the publication of the Coleman affidavit, showing that the dead girl’s parents had refused to employ you. This publication also exposed your scheme to graft on the public through a subscription.

“As I have said before you butted in to the Phagan case where you were not wanted and as a public official it became my duty to allow the publication of the Coleman affidavit, made without my knowledge, in order that the good people of this and other cities may not be imposed upon any further by such a grafter.

“Having exposed some of your numerous lies and your thorough unreliability I now leave you to your hallucinations.”

“N. A. LANFORD.”

* * *

Atlanta Journal, June 8th 1913, “Scathing Replies to Letters Attacking Them,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Felder Makes Answer to Dictagraph Episode

Archivist — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 06:10:46 +0000

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

Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, June 8th, 1913

Well-Known Attorney Writes Four Cards Covering All the Phases of Situation and Answering All Charges.

DICTAGRAPH TRAP JUST “FRAME-UP,” HE SAYS

Col. Felder Asserts George Gentry, Who Took Down the Stenographic Notes, Will Return and Expose the Deal.

Colonel Thomas B. Felder has written four cards—to Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford, Chief of Police Beavers, James R. Gray, editor of The Journal, and Foster Coates, manager of The Georgian—all bearing on the late pictograph incident which was published in the three papers of Atlanta. He states the whole thing was a “frame-up” from beginning to end and says he will produce proofs of his statements. He says Gentry, who took down the stenographic notes, will return to Atlanta and tell the truth about the whole deal.

In his card to Newport Lanford, Colonel Felder brands him as a crook and applies to him various epithets.

The letters follow:

Apologizes to The Public.

[The letters to Newport Lanford, James Beavers and James Gray have been published on this website previously from the Atlanta Journal. Below is the continuation of this article with the letter to Foster Coates, newly published — Ed.]

Letter to Mr. Coates.

Atlanta, Ga., June 7, 1913.—Mr. Foster Coates, Manager of The Georgian, Atlanta, Ga.—Dear Sir: My acquaintance with you is very limited. It covers a period of but a few months, and, as I now recall, I have never conversed with you on more than half a dozen occasions. I have no claims upon you, either personally or professionally, except the claim that one gentleman has upon another—to decent and fair treatment. This has been accorded me by the newspaper whose policies you control and direct in Atlanta.

My thanks are due, and are hereby tendered, to you for rejecting a lot of billingsgate furnished by Colyar, Lanford and others, reflecting upon my personal and professional character and integrity. I am especially grateful to you for rejecting the scurrilous letter handed you by Lanford, written to him by a “jail-bird” in South Carolina, and permit me to say that the courtesy in immediately submitting this “slime” to me was not only gracious, but in striking contrast with the conduct of some of my friends (?) engaged in the newspaper business in the city of Atlanta.

I learned, with deepest regret, that your [sic] are soon to leave the city of Atlanta for another city, and in behalf of myself, and the public generally, I venture to hope that Mr. Hearst will send here, as your successor, a gentleman who is familiar as you are with the decent amenities of the press.

I beg to remain, very truly yours.

THOS. B. FELDER.

Has No Comment to Make.

James R. Gray, when shown Thomas B. Felder’s communication addressed to him, said:

“I have no comment to make on Mr. Felder’s letter. His controversy is with A. S. Colyar. I suppose Mr. Colyar will wish to reply.”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, June 8th 1913, “Felder Makes Answer to Dictagraph Episode,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Three Open Letters Given Out Saturday by Thos. B. Felder

Archivist — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 03:50:18 +0000

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

https://leofrank.info/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/1913-06-08-three-open-letters-given-out-saturday-by-thos-b-felder.mp3

Atlanta Journal

Sunday, June 8th, 1913

In One of These Letters He Reopens His Controversy With A. S. Colyar About the Dictograph Episode

SAYS LANFORD CONSPIRED TO TAKE HIM TO S. C.

He Also Makes Another Personal Attack Upon Detective Chief—Declares Beavers Is Unfitted for His Office

Thomas B. Felder, the attorney who was dictographed by the city detectives, Saturday afternoon gave out open letters addressed to James R. Gray, editor of The Journal, Chief of Police James L. Beavers, and Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford. These letters purported to be an exposure of what Mr. Felder has characterized as the dictograph frame up. The letter addressed to James R. Gray is largely an attack upon A. S. Colyar, the man who assisted the city detectives in dictographing Mr. Felder. In the letter to Chief Beavers, Mr. Felder declares that he has never charged the chief with being corrupt, but states that he regards him as unfitted for the office of chief of police. In the letter to Chief of Detectives Lanford, Mr. Felder again attacks that official’s character and charges that he is in a conspiracy with Governor Cole Blease, of South Carolina, to kidnap Felder and carry him across the state line.

The communications as given out by Mr. Felder follow in full:

LETTER TO MR. GRAY.

Atlanta, Ga., June 7, 1913.

Mr. James R. Gray,

Editor and Proprietor of The Atlanta Journal, Atlanta, Ga.

My Dear Dick:

Recent occurrences have rudely shocked my confidence in your professions of personal friendship for me. That you have in times past been my friend, I do not doubt; but for reasons best known to yourself, you have chosen to stifle every generous impulse of a lifetime and to exhibit towards me a spirit which I could not expect to find in my worst foe. Why your professed ardor should have cooled so suddenly and your pretended friendship should have passed so mysteriously into eclipse is a riddle which I cannot quite solve, remembering your former fulsome protestations as I do. But for the rude jolts you have recently given an old acquaintance of nearly a quarter of a century, we might be preparing to celebrate the silver anniversary of our friendship; but instead of celebrating this event in our lives, I must bemoan the faults of one “Whose heart is treacherous, though his tongue drops manna”; but I am thankful to say that I have a host of friends, whose friendship I treasure above rubies. They are as steadfast and as true as the north star, “Let the wind blow where it listeth.” In the present, as in every crisis through which I have been called to pass, they have given me without stint and most unselfishly their loyal support and co-operation and I wear them where Hamlet wore Horatio, “In my heart’s core.” I also have my enemies—in the main, among the criminal classes—whose venality and corruption a profound sense of professional duty and obligation has forced me to expose.

I might add that I prize my enemies scarcely less than my friends, for the possession of their enmity constitutes the very highest tribute to my character, both personal and professional. There are not a few of my friends who are bound to me, thank God, by “hooks of steel,” because of the very enemies I have made.

CAN’T UNDERSTAND.

I will never understand, Dick, why you reproduced in the columns of your paper, with the impramata of your sanction, the uncorroborated vaporings of the diseased mind of this mental hunchback and moral pervert, A. S. Colyar, Jr., especially when the mass of putrid matter furnished you by him bore all of the earmarks of a wil[l]ful and deliberate forgery; and in view of the further fact that at least one other paper to which it was tendered, upon the owner of which I had no claim except that of fair treatment, rejected it, upon the grounds—first that the article carried upon its face the indubituble and unmistakable proof of an outrageous “frame-up,” and second, that the tenderer was not a man, but a human monstrosity, without mental, moral or financial responsibility for his action. It is also a curious fact that the manager of the paper rejecting the proffered manuscript had no knowledge of Colyar’s character, while you—so you informed me—knew him to be a “professional crook,” who would sell out to one side as quickly as to the other. To cite evidence of this—his activities to sell in the “market overt” to the highest bidder for cash the fruits of his perjuries and forgeries have abated not one “jot or tittle” since he palmed off on you the mass of putrefaction labeled by him,”Felder and Woodward Dictographed.” As proof of this statement, Dick, let me call your attention to some of the things which he has offered, in this market, since the publication of the alleged dictograph matter he claims to have sold to you. His offer has been declined, because it was not believed this his charges against you were true. I would not be a party to blacken the character of an enemy, much less a friend, by giving publicity to villainous charges embodied in an affidavit I had reason to believe false. I have never in my career winked at or sanctioned fraud, and I never will. If I had been disposed, Dick, to injure your character and reputation by the use of this villainous Caliban, A. S. Colyar, Jr., I could have done so about 2 1/2 years ago, when he offered in this market a batch of forged affidavits which he claimed you employed him to secure, and for which he claimed further you declined to pay him in full. These affidavits contained damnable charges against a distinguished citizen of this city, who was and is known to be an enemy of yours. He tendered along with these affidavits his personal affidavit, in which he made the specific charge that you employed him to secure these affidavits, even though resort to forgery be necessary in their procurement. I may claim some credit for the fact that these affidavits were not given to the public at that time through the columns of your contemporaries; of course you were my friend, Dick, and I was on guard, as I usually am, to protect my friends, when either their lives, liberty or property are put in peril.

SAYS COLYAR GOT $500.

Now, as to the Felder and Woodward dictograph episode—Colyar is offering for sale affidavits which contain the following specific charges against you: First. That you paid him $500.00 for this alleged dictograph report; That upon a close inspection of the record you reached the conclusion that it was faked, that under your direction some one or more of your employees proceeded to edit out of the manuscript the most glaring evidences of forgery; that when portions thereof could not be revised so as to make it appear genuine, they were stricken bodlly [sic] from the manuscript and the following insereted in lieu thereof: “Confusion, care passing, shuffling of feet, conversation lost, disturbance,” and the like; that after my card appeared calling attention to the evidence of the stuff being faked, you summoned him, Colyar, to a hurried conference, when and where it was decided that young Gentry must be hurried from the scene of action; that the custody of the original note book must be obtained and the same destroyed, and that you actually furnished $100 to defray the expenses of young Gentry’s flight.

A few days ago Colyar was arrested on a charge of forgery, alleged to have been committed in Knoxville, Tenn., and placed in jail. Since his liberation, he is authority for the statement that you employed and paid counsel for him, with the distinct understanding that as soon as liberated he should flee from this jurisdiction; that it was upon this distinct understanding that you extended to him succor and aid; but that he is determined to stand by his guns and at the opportune time will cheerfully furnish all necessary evidence of this miserable “frame-up,” including your personal connection therewith.

DOESN’T BELIEVE CHARGES.

I repeat, I do not believe his charges against you to be true any more than you believe his charges against me to be so, for from our intimate association, covering as I have above stated, the period of a quarter of a century, I do not think that either would be justified in believing that the other could be guilty of criminal conduct.

Dick, in this age of commercialism my understanding is that the supreme test of friendship is the willingness and readiness of a friend to render succor and aid in the hour of adversity. When you were put in bankruptcy, I told you I had in cash $12,000 or $15,000, all of which was at your service; that I would raise as much more by pledging my property, and this I would cheerfully do. Again I ask, Dick, which of us has acted a friend’s part, you or I?

SAYS COLYAR IS CRAFTY.

This villain Colyar is usually crafty enough to bolster up his perjuries and forgeries by plausible circumstantial corroborating evidence. To illustrate—on Monday night, after my card was published on Sunday, he called up the widowed mother of young Gentry over the phone, and urged her to get possession of the note book and have it delivered to him at once. To quote him “We will all get in a hell of a fix if we don’t get possession of this note book, for this fellow, Felder, will jail the whole bunch.”

Dick, a delicious episode occurred during my negotiations with Colyar for the alleged purchase of the documents showing that the city detectives were destroying evidence in the Phagan case. Its pertinency will become apparent as it is unfolded. I know you will enjoy it as I did, even though it be at your expense. While Colyar was negotiating with you for the sale of his “dictograph manuscript” he called at my office one day and said to me that within an hour he would meet the custodian of the records—that he would call me over the phone, placing the custodian at an extension phone; he would ask me if I were “ready to come across with that $1,000 if he were ready to deliver the goods.” I was to reply, “Yes.” He now tells me, Dick, that this was a frame-up on you to get that $500, and the way you “fell for it was a caution;” that he put you at one extension phone and my good old friend, Jack Cohen, at another, and that after the conversation you three boys held a love feast, and literally did a song and dance to that melodious, soulful old tune, “Comrades, Comrades, Ever Since We Were Boys,” and that from that moment forward you were as gullible as the yellow-mouth baby mocking bird. His description of his experience with you and Jack afterwards I know would excite your risibles. He says from that moment to the time of his unfortunate arrest and incarceration on the charge of forgery and “a dilemma from which you furnished the money to extricate him” that you would “fall for almost anything.” in his dramatic description of your attitude, he likens you and Jack to the little yellow mouth, unfledged baby birds in the nest, and himself to the old mother bird: that he flew away, “grabbed” the “worm” of my conversation; flew back to the nest; up went your credulous little yellow mouths, and down wend the worm, entrails, hair and all; that after that, every time his “fledgelings” heard the flappings of the wings of the mother bird, whether she brought to the nest worm or twig, up would go the yellow mouths of her darling “fledgelings” and down would go either worm or twig. Dick, I really want you and Jack to get him on one of his numerous visits to your office to rehearse this for you, for I know you boys will enjoy it, as I know you well enough to know that you enjoy a “good one,” even though the joke is at your expense.

IS UTTERLY INDIFFERENT.

Dick, in a vein of seriousness, I am utterly indifferent to sensational and damaging publications reflecting upon my integrity of character, for I rest serene in the conscious security which honor and rectitude always afford to one whose heart is in the right place, and I am content to bide my time in patience for the fulfillment of that sweetest of all maxims, “Truth is omnipotent, and will prevail.” But Dick, baseless libels against the professional character and integrity of a citizen, whether done to get a “scoop” on some competitor, or through malice or malevolence, is not only an extension of the doctrine of the “Liberty of the Press,” but an invasion of the rights of the citizen; and take my word for it, an outrage of this character will some day be perpetrated upon some long suffering citizen, who, goaded to desperation by these attacks, will take the law in his own hands to protect his reputation and character. These wilful [sic], reckless and too frequent onslaughts upon the character of the private citizen by the riotous license of the press have their pathetic, aye, tragice angle, involving as they do not only the personal humiliation and embarrassment of the individual slandered, but the happiness and peace of his family.

The premises considered, I think it due me that you withdraw and repudiate the groundless charges made against me. I am,

Very truly yours,

THOS. B. FELDER

LETTER TO CHIEF LANFORD.

Atlanta, Ga., June 7, 1913.

Newport Lanford,

Chief of the Vice Department of the City of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.

With apologies to the reading public for parading before them a “barrow of butcher’s offal,” so harmoniously blended in your personality, I shall now proceed to redeem the pledge heretofore, made to lay bear, through the columns of the papers your infamous career in the map-administration of the affairs of the official position which you disgrace and dishonor. When I have finished, I promise, that as to you, the incident, so far as newspaper publication is concerned, shall be forever closed.

In dealing with the situation in my several cards, I am acting strictly within the admonition of the late lamented Rev. Sam P. Jones: “When you shave a gentleman, use a razor; when you shave a hog, use a brick.” It must strike even one of your mental calibre that in treating you tonsorially the latter instrument recommended by the illustrious divine must be employed. It is not within the purview of this card to deal with the vice conditions which flourish in this city under your fostering care and protection. This matter is under investigation by the grand jury of this county, and I am quite certain it will be thorough and exhaustive. If so, I entertain no doubt that this phase of the situation, which will be embodied in their findings, will show, abundantly, your criminal connection therewith in all of its hideous deformity.

“BOARD MEMBER PROTECTED.”

I can not, however, leave this branch of the subject without making some comment upon the action of the police board in “resoluting” confidence in their distinguished (?) soon to be extinguished, chief of the vice department of this city by decorating his manly bosom with a bouquet. “Oh, mother, mother, mother, won’t you pin a rose on me?” I know nothing as to the personal or official conduct of any of the gentlemen constituting this honorable body, nor have I lodged any charge against them before the grand jury, or elsewhere, but if the courtesy which is said to have been extended to one of their board who “resoluted,” namely, protecting him from arrest and exposure when caught in the act of beating his paramour, has been extended to any considerable number of the others, even your obtuse mind can discern the reason why these “mothers, mothers, mothers, pinned a rose on you.” Yes, my dear El Capitan, with your military air, you are P. B. and I., pure, beautiful and innocent. It is unnecessary to prove it, for you admit it. And yet, within the past few weeks the hideous crimes committed by you, when exposed, would create a panic about the habitués of a rot pit and bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of the inmates of a brothel. They mark you a hireling scavenger of filth and falsehood, lost to every sense of propriety and recreant to every principle of honor. You are like the dead fish of the sea, you “rise as you rot.”

And you say you met Colyar about three weeks ago? As a matter of fact, you met him about three years ago; and from that good hour to this you have, at intervals, conspired with him to frame upon citizens of this community; but your conspiracies with him have ended, unless they are resumed when you “par fratrum nobile” later, as you surely will, within the gates of the lunatic asylum or the state convict farm in the city of Milledgeville. For be it known you are both “worthy and well qualified,” not to say eligible, for either station, and this is the destiny that awaits you. Together, this “pair of noble brothers,” during the past three weeks, have committed, in the city of Atlanta, the crimes of forgery, perjury and subornation of perjury, in furthering and effectuating the filthiest, foulest and most diabolical conspiracy ever conceived and hatched by a pair of debased, low, slimy criminals. Let me give the details.

You lied to Surles, of the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph company, in inducing him to install the so-called dictograph, i. e., as to its installation; you lied to him in promising not to disclose his name. You disclosed it in an effort to give some respectability in the conspiracy by publishing “the instrument used in dictographing Felder was installed by Surles, the electrician of the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph company.” You lied to and duped young Gentry, one of the unfortunate victims to this conspiracy. Indeed, in connection with your machination, “you lied sitting, you lied lying, and, if you had had wings you would have lied flying.” You lie in speech, you lie in song, you lie in thought, and in the lying you are a veritable human megaphone. When you and your man “Friday” Colyar approached young Gentry, not yet out of his ‘teens and with little experience as a stenographer, to do your filthy work—you do no other kind—he told you he had not had sufficient experience to report a dictograph conversation. You assured him that for your purposes this made no difference; you were not looking for a “stenographer,” you were looking for a “name.” You were again laying the foundation to give respectability to this conspiracy by dragging into your filthy scheme the honorable name of “Gentry,” thereby pre-arranging for the publication of your “official organ” for the startling announcement, in box car letters, “Dictograph notes were reported, by George Gentry, a nephew of Hon. W. T. Gentry, president of the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph company.”

“FORCED HIM TO SWEAR.”

When the criminal farce at the Williams house ended, you stood over this boy and forced him to forge the story and then forced him to forge the story and then forced him to swear to it, and when you realized that your criminal conspiracy had come to grief, you sent him “helter, skelter” from the city, and this is how he went. On Monday night you directed Colyar to call up the home of young Gentry and to say to him that unless he immediately delivered to you his note book, you would be in a hell of a fix. The grief-stricken mother, who had been made aware of your foul conspiracy by her victimized son, answered the phone, and this statement was made to her. I am very thankful that the note book was not delivered to you and that it stands as mute witness to establish the crimes that I am now laying at your door. If it had been, it was your express intention to destroy it as you have destroyed all of the evidence in the Phagan case. You and your co-conspirators furnished the money for the flight of this young boy. You have stated to the people, day by day, through the columns of the press, that you know his whereabouts and that at the proper time you would produce him. This statement was a deliberate lie. You have been moving heaven and earth to locate him, not for the purpose of bringing him back but for the purpose of having him “move on.” I know where he is; I succeeded in locating him, at great personal expense, and as soon as he was located I sent a detective to urge him to return. It may be of interest to you conspirators to know that I am in receipt of a telegram today stating that Gentry would reach a conclusion this afternoon was to whether he will return to Atlanta, and if he concludes to return I will give you the pleasure of seeing him Monday morning, as it will require that much time for him to reach the city from the parts where you sent him.

SAYS HE KNOWS THE FACTS.

In the meantime, I want you conspirators to know that I am familiar with all the facts. Let me pause long enough to say you and your man “Friday” that you carefully prepared affidavits, had them signed by your willing tools, to the effect that I had “run Gentry out of town to keep him away from the grand jury.” These were not given to the public as an enterprising newspaper “scoop” because of your co-conspirators who had more intelligence if not less character than you, admonished you that this was a dangerous expedient and would be inevitably shown up later, so this part of your infamous scheme was abandoned. You say you had no connection with Gentry; you were not present when those notes were written out. Oh, what a sweet scented liar! You stood over him while this bungling forgery was being perpetrated, and aided in it by telling him what to write. In this wicked transaction you were literally the last at the cross and the first at the sepulchre.

I desire to direct public attention to your activities along another line. Your “brother in the criminal bond,” Cole L. Blease, of South Carolina, sued out a warrant in his home county, charging me with an attempted bribery. This seems to be a favorite charge among you criminals. The warrant was issued in 1911; the crime alleged to have been committed was in 1905. In the interim, I spent the greater part of three and a half years in the state of South Carolina, recovering for that graft-ridden state many hundreds of thousands of dollars, out of which the state had been defrauded by Blease and his associates. When this warrant was sued out, your criminal friend Blease sent one of his hirelings to a man in the state of Georgia who had some dealings with the state of South Carolina and urged him to clandestinely visit out [sic] governor, with whom he was supposed to have influence, and urge him to honor the requisition, stating that it was important to get me into the state of South Carolina and have me put out of the way; that he had already arranged this part of the program. Since this time your South Carolina criminal associate presented to the grand jury of his home county all of his forged evidence, and, by the way, forged evidence seems to be the fort of you criminals, whose crimes I have exposed, and the grand jury, by a decisive vote, returned a no-bill.

Now to the point. You have, during the interim between the refusal of the requisition and up to this good hour, been in constant communication with the agents of this vagabond governor (since this controversy you have been somewhat more active) and, not withstanding you are a peace officer in Georgia, sworn to preserve the peace, you have entered into a conspiracy with the agents of your criminal associate in South Carolina to kidnap me some night between the city and my home, put me in an automobile, and send me into the state of South Carolina.

There are several other matters that I wish later to bring to the attention of the people of this community for their consideration, but my purpose is to do it through the medium of the grand jury. I found it a difficult task to uncover the South Carolina criminals, but finally succeeded, but because they were intelligent criminals; I am finding it quite easy to uncover you for the reason that for the lack of intelligence you a common, ordinary, filthy criminal.

I hope to be able, at an early meeting of the grand jury of this county, to lay before them all of the facts and have indictments handed out against you and your fellows in crime.

T. B. FELDER.

LETTER TO CHIEF BEAVERS.

Atlanta, Ga., June 7, 1913.

Mr. J. L. Beavers.

Chief of Police, Atlanta, Ga.

Sir:

Two days after the publication of the alleged pictograph record I called upon Marion Jackson, chairman of the executive committee of the Men and Religion Forward Movement. I called upon him for two reasons; namely, first, I believed him to be my ‘friend,’ and second, I knew him to be yours. In my conference with him I think I convinced him that in the authentic records could be found the charge made by me of official corruption against you. In the conference I offered to submit all matters of issue to the arbitrament of the executive committee of the Men and Religion Forward Movement. He gave it as his opinion that this was not the proper tribunal to settle these charges. The only charges imputed to me as having been made against you were charges contained in the dictograph record. If you do not know that this record is a “forgery,” you stand alone in your ignorance on the subject among the citizens of Atlanta. Up to the time that “this stunt was pulled off” you have always had my best wishes in connection with the discharge of your official duties. I had always considered you sincere, not overly bright and not especially fitted for the office you hold, still not being a citizen of Atlanta—I live in the county—your fitness or want of fitness was not a matter of particular concern to me; but being a tax paper of the city and intensely interested in its progress and prosperity, I felt that you should be given a fair chance to make good for the position you occupied.

“NOT FITTED FOR OFFICE.”

I am now convinced that you are not intellectually and temperamentally fitted for the office you occupy, and I shall proceed to give you the reasons for the conclusion I have reached:

When this pictograph “stuff” was published, instead of inquiring as to its genuineness, as any cit official capable of discharging the duties of his office should and would have done, you permitted yourself to rush into public print, hurling abusive epithets and libelous matter viciously at me. You should have known that this conduct might have resulted in a breach of the peace, which you, as an officer, are sworn to conserve, and if the charges made against me were untrue, you violated a penal statute of the state.

You charged me with being the paid attorney of the vice gangsters, and with co-operating with them as paid counsel to reinstate former conditions in this city. Surely you could not be induced to lodge a charge of this character against a citizen, however humble, without some evidence to support it. I am not now, have not in the past, and do not expect in the future to represent individuals, firms or associations of individuals whose purpose it is to foster or promote vice and crime in the city of Atlanta. I have lived in Atlanta twenty-three and one-half years, and during this period I have never represented the keeper of a brothel in any court in the county of Fulton. I usually decline such employment. During this period I have appeared in four cases of violation of the prohibition laws, and in three of these I was employed by outside breweries to test the constitutionality of laws and ordinances.

I think it very undignified for you to have branded me as a professional crook and to have declared that “it takes one crook to catch another.” In thus characterizing me, you are guilty of libel, and you know it, and in making this and similar libelous charges, you but strengthened the opinion of many, that you are not intellectually and temperamentally fitted for the office of chief of police. Moreover, your maxim is faulty, that “it takes a crook to catch a crook.” Your chief of detectives is a living refutation of this doctrine.

WHO CHARGED CORRUPTION.

In a conversation recently had with you, I promised to tell you who charged you with official corruption. I now beg to comply with this promise—Colyar and February, sitting in my law office about two weeks ago, imparted this information. It was they, and not I, who said that you and Lanford had a graft list; it was they, and not I, who said that you met a woman at 119 Garnett street twice a week, as I now remember, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that this fact was pretty generally known. I expressed my doubt as to the truth of both of these statements, whereupon Colyar stated that he would notify any citizen interested in one of your visits to this number, and that if the mayor would appoint special officers to arrest you he would have you caught and ridden nude through the streets of the city, to quote him literally, “so that the people would know what a damned hypocrite” you are. This conversation with these men in my office furnished the foundation for the dictograph “stuff” in which I am made the author of this remark. It was they who told me that certain detectives and police visited Fombys and got on drunken brawls there almost nightly. It was they also who told me of the existence of dens of vice in the city; it was they also who told me that from some you received money; others received protection from you because conducted by relatives of yours; and still others because frequented or owned by your political friends. If you extend protection, which I have not and do not charge, to any of these, whether in pelf or political influences, you are culpable.

FURNISHED NO LIST.

Permit me to say that while before the grand jury I frankly stated my inability to testify to vice conditions said to exist in Atlanta, for my evidence would be hearsay. I furnished that body no list or roster of disreputable places, but am informed that a list was furnished by others.

In conclusion, permit me to say that my understanding is that you now have in conducting the police department of the city of Atlanta plenary power to appoint, remove and discipline your subordinates. If you are really a capable official, it is your duty to investigate the recent pictograph episode directed by the so-called chief of the detectives department, and if you find him to be guilty of being responsible for the miserable frame-up. It seems to me to be your duty to promptly remove him from office.

I beg to remain,

Very truly yours,

T. B. FELDER.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, June 8th 1913, “Three Open Letters Given Out Saturday by Thos. B. Felder,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Jury Will Probe Dictagraph Row

Archivist — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 22:30:00 +0000

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

Atlanta Constitution

Thursday, June 5^th, 1913

A. L. [sic] Colyar, Jr., George M. Gentry and G. C. Febuary Summoned at Request of Chief Lanford

An investigation of the separate phases of the row resulting from the dictagraph traps laid by city detectives for Attorney Thomas B. Felder and Mayor James G. Woodward is believed to be forecast on the grand jury by the summoning before it of A. L. Colyar, Jr., George M. Gentry and G. C. Febuary. All these men played an important part of the performance and were summoned it is claimed at the request made by N. A. Lanford, chief of the detective department.

One of the most startling features of the afternoon session was the probing into the affairs of Police Commissioner William P. Fain. Allen Young, a real estate dealer, was put upon the stand and is said to have been asked to furnish proof in regard to the revelations in which Fain was said to have been the central figure in a carousal in an Ivy street house.

Whipping Charge Answered.

It is claimed that Fain also mistreated one of the women most brutally and that when the police answered the women’s screams and raided the place they arrested Fain, who was later given his liberty by order of higher police officials.

Mr. Fain made the following statement to a Constitution reporter:

“In answer to the charges which appeared against me in an afternoon paper, I beg to say in justice to my friends and the public that I am not in the least surprised at any accusations that have been or may be brought against me or any other city official who is publicly known as a strong supporter of James L. Beavers, chief of police and his administration of the police department.”

As the main issue was directed at him and his department, it is but natural that the same muckrakers would also attack his supporters with the hope of at least sway in public opinion to suit their ends regardless of the cost to others.

As for the accusations against me they are of such absurdity, their origin of such undermining purpose, their author so insignificant that I do not care to waste my time in further discussion of the matter but I am perfectly willing for the people who know me and the better ones with whom I am not acquainted to judge for themselves.

The other four witnesses who were called before the jury were Colonel Felder who testified also on Tuesday. Police Chief James L. Beavers, J. D. Skaggs, agent for the Southern Express company and Thomas Butts, a negro elevator boy for the Southern hotel.

The fact that Mr. Skaggs was summoned and that another man whose name was not given had been communicating with the solicitor in regard to the operation of locker clubs in Atlanta makes it appear that the question of liquor as connected with vice and immorality will be taken up in a comprehensive report at the end of the term of the present grand jury.

During the morning session Colonel Felder declared in a public statement that he had never held Chief Beavers to be connected either personally or officially with graft or corruption and that he had never said anything that he believed might be constructed to reflect upon the police chief himself.

As Colonel Felder made these remarks he referred to the head of the other department by which it was taken to mean that he was speaking of Chief N. A. Lanford and in this case renewed his accusations.

Session of Three Hours.

After querying the five witnesses for something like three hours the grand jury conferred among themselves for nearly an hour and finally adjourned at 9 to until 10 o’clock this morning.

It is declared that Colonel Felder in his statements before the body gave an added list of houses and hotels where it is claimed that vice flourishes without hindrance.

Colonel Felder is also said to have repeated his request for a grand jury hearing on the charges growing out of the dictagraphing of himself by detectives and the allegations that he had offered Febuary $1,000 for affidavits in the Phagan case.

I talked to them about the vice situation and along practically the same lines as on the first day, was all that Chief Beavers would make in comment upon his testimony.

At the conclusion of the days work Foreman L. H. Beck declared that the probe would be one of the most extensive and thorough ever undertaken by a Fulton grand jury.

We intend to go deeply into the matter and to try to get the facts in both sides and at the proper time we will make them public.

Make Report to Judge.

It is believed to be more than likely that the grand jury which is taking up this probe independently of Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey will make its findings to the superior court judge who dismisses them in July and that they will be a general statement of the vice situation in Atlanta.

In lieu of this the body may indict any persons whom it sees fit provided it secures evidence against them. Should the former way be adopted the situation would probably come back to a succeeding grand jury in case the indictments should be asked by the solicitor.

For today’s session summons were issued to the appearance of John Brice and Harllee Branch, both connected with an afternoon paper. It is believed that through them a phase of the dictograph case may be taken up.

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, June 5th 1913, “Jury Will Probe Dictagraph Row,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Fain Named in Vice Quiz as Resort Visitor

Archivist — Wed, 26 Oct 2016 04:14:36 +0000

Mayor James G. Woodward (left), leaving Grand Jury room after testifying in vice probe; Thomas B. Felder (middle), who exonerates Beavers of graft charges but declares war on Lanford; Carl Hutcheson (right), who gave Grand Jury list of “houses in our midst.”

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

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, June 4^th, 1913

Police Commissioner Accused Before Grand Jury of Brawl in Disorderly House.

As a climax of revelations made before the Grand Jury in its probe of vice conditions in Atlanta, Police Commissioner William F. Fain was named as the central figure in a carousal said to have been held in a house on Ivy Street some months ago, according to evidence presented at the Wednesday afternoon session.

Mr. Fain was also accused of brutally treating one of the women in the party. When the police answered the woman’s screams and raided the place, it was said that Fain was arrested, but was immediately released by order of a man high up in police circles.

This startling information was given the Grand Jury by a real estate operator and friend of Fain’s who was summoned by the tribunal to give testimony.

Whisky For Resorts.

Before the witness left the hearing, it is declared that he laid bare one of the most sensational stories of vice ever brought to light in this city. That the Grand Jury will probably probe to the bottom of it, and that its veracity will be given the acid test before any action is taken is assured.

Another witness at the afternoon hearing was J. E. Skags, agent for the Southern Express Company. Mr. Skags was asked to testify as to shipments of whisky and other liquors into Atlanta to places of ill-fame.

Chief Beavers also was called before the Grand Jury during the afternoon session. The police official is declared to have told the jurors that to his knowledge Atlanta was better morally at this time than ever before. The chief will be called again later in the investigation.

Chief Beavers Cleared.

Elimination of Chief of Police Beavers from all charges of graft and corruption in the Police Department, made by Colonel Thomas B. Felder, marked the second day’s probe by the Fulton County Grand Jury.

Colonel Felder made this distinction to Chief Beavers personally, and in so doing renewed his accusations against Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford.

At the same time it was said evidence of corruption money being paid to the police had been given the Grand Jury.

There was a dramatic situation in the ante-room to the Grand Jury room when Felder, Beavers and Lanford confronted each other. Many hot words were flung back and forth.

“I want to say to you right here,” declared Felder to the police chief, “that I have never made one single charge of graft against you. I do accuse the other chief at the police station of protecting vice, and I have a superabundance of evidence to prove it. I will prove it”

Bribery To Be Probed.

Another unexpected turn in the investigation was revealed at the morning session when it became known that the Grand Jury will take up immediately the bribery charges made against Colonel Felder by the Police Department and counter-accusations growing out of their dictograph episode.

Colonel Felder appeared before the tribunal at its morning session and demanded that the dictograph conspiracy be probed to bed rock. The attorney based his demand upon his own desire for exoneration of the sensational accusations. He declared to the jurymen that the charges were absolutely false and the result of an attempt to blacken his reputation; that justice to himself called for a speedy investigation; that participants in the affair be summoned and the matter settled.

Mr. Felder declared that the investigation Thursday would follow his own charges that the police had altered the dictograph record alleged to have been taken of his conversation with Colyar and Febuary at the Williams House.

The attorney has made the assertion that the record was elaborated by police officials from the chief of detectives’ office and that in swearing to the truth of the conversation perjury had been committed. Mr. Felder averred that strenuous prosecution of this phase of the controversy would be made.

Call Colyar and Febuary.

As a result of the attorney’s demands, the Grand Jury issued summonses for A. S. Colyar, Jr., author of the dictograph conspiracy, and G. C. Febuary, secretary to Detective Chief Lanford, who was alleged to have been offered bribe money by Felder, to appear Thursday.

Also to be heard on this subject at that time will be Chief Beavers and Chief Lanford. Documentary evidence will be introduced by the disputants and the matter of bribery decided upon by the Grand Jury before the vice investigation shall continue.

At Wednesday morning’s session Colonel Felder was the only witness. Mr. Felder appeared before the Grand Jury with a large portfolio of papers pertaining to his allegations of corruption.

Felder Before Jury an Hour.

He went over the situation thoroughly before the Grand Jury, taking more than an hour in which to present his case. While the evidence which he placed before the hearing was not revealed, Colonel Felder intimated that it included affidavits from persons who have paid corruption money to the police in substantiation of the Hutcheson list of resorts now in operation.

Just preceding the opening of the morning session of the Grand Jury, Chief Beavers, Solicitor Dorsey and Detective Chief Lanford were closeted in conference. It was at the beginning of this that Mr. Felder declared himself regarding his charges. The attorney intercepted Chief Beavers as he was entering the Solicitor’s private office.

“My accusations do not touch you, chief,” said Mr. Felder. “I know that you are not mixed up in the shameful conditions which exist in Atlanta.

“My evidence points at another man the other chief at the police station. I have the proof against him and I am going to lay it bare at this investigation.”

Near Open Clash.

At this moment Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford, the other chief at the police station, entered the room.

A silence pregnant with expectancy fell upon those present. Lanford walked directly over to where Felder was standing and took his seat. He was accompanied by Detective Black.

An encounter seemed imminent. Friends of both men declared later that they were keyed up to a dangerous pitch. Then the situation was relieved by the sudden appearance of Solicitor Dorsey and the conference between himself and the two chiefs was called.

A great many of the women whose names appeared as conducting the “houses in our midst,” or hotel proprietors whom the young attorney alleged were paying for police protection, were served with subpenas as soon as Foreman L. H. Beck could arrange with the Solicitor’s office for the service. This list still is in the hands of the foreman. On it also are the names of persons whom it is alleged will make affidavits, or testify, that the allegations of the attorney are true. These, it is understood, may be summoned during the day.

Promises Thorough Probe.

Foreman Beck, who is conducting the probe independently of the State’s prosecuting attorney, intimated before going into the executive session Wednesday morning that the probe would be one of the most extensive a Fulton grand jury ever has conducted.

He said the true conditions would be found out and the public acquainted with them at the proper time. He would not say whether the probe had progressed sufficiently to warrant returning indictments, but made it pretty plain that the jury would conclude its work when it completed the investigation and that the indictments, if any, would be brought at the request of the Solicitor, who would be made acquainted with the conditions.

“More than likely,” he said, “we will embody the result of our investigation in the presentment and return it to Judge W. D. Ellis, who charged us so specifically to investigate vice conditions. Then if the people, or the officers, want to carry the matter further, it can take the customary course through the police or State officers.

Chief Lanford, Chief Beavers, Detective Black and Febuary were among the first arrivals Wednesday. Chief Beavers was anxious to go before the jury and tell what he knew of the vice conditions.

“Conditions are better in Atlanta to-day than they have ever been,” he said, “and I am quite sure the Grand Jury will find it out. But if I am mistaken about it, I want to put my men to work. I am quite sure, however, it will be found the condition has been exaggerated. Of course nothing will come of the charges of corruption in my department.”

Mrs. Nina [sic] Fo[r]mby, the only witness wanted for the Grand Jury Tuesday, it is understood, was telephoned and told to remain away until Wednesday. The idea of her having left the city was ridiculed by the Solicitor’s office.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, June 4th 1913, “Fain Named in Vice Quiz as Resort Visitor,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)