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

Atlanta Journal

Wednesday, April 30^th, 1913

Harry Denham’s Story Indicates Miss Annie Howell Wasn’t in Factory

The time clock at the National Pencil company’s factory, where Mary Phagan was murdered, shows that employe [sic] No. 141 registered off at 3:07 p. m. last Saturday.

This is the number of Miss Annie Howell, of 664 East Fair street, and at first the detectives thought she might be able to throw some light on the mystery.

It developed later, however, that this must have been a mistake. Harry Denham, one of the men employed in the factory, claims that he punched her by mistake, and then punched his own number, which is 143, as a correction.

The clock shows that No. 143 was punched at 3:09 p. m. on Saturday.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, April 30th 1913, “Says He Punched Time Clock on Wrong Number,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 15^th, 1913

Harry Denham, an employee of the National Pencil company, was put on the stand after the Pittsburg man had testified to the character of the defendant.

Denham was asked a number of questions about what happened in the building on the day of the murder and through him the defense made the point that the elevator made a loud noise when it ran. Denham swore that the elevator shook the entire building when it stopped and when it started.

“Were you at the factory on Friday, April 25?” he was first asked.

“Yes.”

“Were you there Saturday, the following day?”
“Yes.”

“What did you do there that day?”
“I worked on the machinery, repairing it.”

Was Using a Hammer.

“What kind of work did you do between 12 and 1?”

“I was using a hammer.”

“How late did you stay there that day?”

“I left about 3:15 o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Did anybody come up to see you?”
“Yes, May Barrett came up first.”

“What time?”
“About 11:15.”

“Are you certain of the time, wasn’t it about a quarter to twelve?”
Solicitor Dorsey had this ruled out, on the ground that Mr. Arnold was leading his own witness.

“Well, are you certain of the time she came up?” Mr. Arnold next asked.

“No, I’m not.”

“The next two that came up were Corinthia Hall and Emma Freeman, weren’t they?”

“Yes.”

“Who came up next?”

“Arthur White’s wife.”

“Did she come up there once or twice?”
“She came up once, but I believe he went down to see her once, also.”

White’s Wife Appears.

“It was after her husband had gone down to see her that she came up to the fourth floor where you and he were working, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”

“Who next came up?”
“Mr. Frank came up.”

“Was Mrs. White still there when Frank came up?”
“Yes.”

“What did Frank say?”
“He told Mr. and Mrs. White he was going to dinner and wanted to close the front door and that if she wanted to get out before he came back she had better come down.”

“What time was that?”
“Did the machinery of the factory run that day?”
“No.”

“Does the elevator make a noise when it stops?”
“Yes; it shakes the building.”

“When it starts, does it do that, too?”
“Yes; just the same.”

“Did you see or hear the elevator running that day?”
“I did not.”

Saw Frank at 3 O’Clock.

“Did you see Frank again after he came up and talked to the Whites?”
“Yes, he came up about 3 o’clock and asked us if we were through work, and we washed up and left.”

“Did you see him after that?”
“Yes; we went out about 3:15, and as we went out I saw him in his office.”

“How did he look?” asked Mr. Arnold.

“Just as usual to me.”

“When he came up there on the fourth floor about 1 o’clock how did he look?”
“Just the same, as usual.”

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”
“Yes; I know who she was.”

“Did you see her that Saturday?”
“No.”

Solicitor Dorsey took up the cross-examination.

“Did you work there all day Saturday?”

“No; I left at about 3:15.”

“When did you start work?”

“At 7:30 o’clock that morning?”

“Were you busy hammering?”

“Yes.”

“Could you see the elevator from where you were?”

“No; but I could see the wheels above.”

“Was the motor box on the second floor kept locked?”

“I don’t know,” Denham replied.

“How often did you say Frank came up to the fourth floor that day?”

“Twice that I remember.”

“Were you through work when he came up about 3 o’clock?”
“Yes.”

“Did not you say at the inquest that it was 12:25 when Frank first came up?”

“Yes, and I think that’s about right.”

“On April 26 were you on the office floor?”
“Yes.”

“See any blood on the floor?”

“No.”

“Didn’t you swear at the inquest that Monday morning?”
“I said I saw a spot said to be blood.”

“Did you hear any noise in the building Saturday?”
“No.”

“Was the wind blowing?”

Wind Blowing Strong.

“Yes, it was blowing strong; it rattled the shutters.”

“What steps did you take to leave the fourth floor?”
“The front steps always.”

“Could you have taken the rear stairway?”

“Yes, but we never did.”

“There might have been some noise on the third floor or the second floor and you not heard it?”

“Yes.”

“What time did Misses Emma Freeman and Corinthia Hall and Mrs. Barrett come up there?”

“About 11 o’clock.”

“Did you say before the coroner’s jury that it was about 10?”

“I don’t know exactly what time it was.”

The witness was then excused.

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, August 15th 1913, “Elevator Made Loud Noise Said Employee of Pencil Company,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, July 3, 1913

Attorney for Watchman Declares Client Knows Nothing of the Actual Crime.

Bernard L. Chappell, attorney for Newt Lee, negro night watchman at the pencile [sic] factory, held in the Phagan case, stated Thursday morning that he would swear out a writ of habeas corpus for the release of the negro.

Attorney Chappell stated that he had come to the conclusion that there was nothing the negro knew about the crime except finding the body, and that the State had no right to keep him without some charge or as a material witness.

Lee was the first suspect arrested in connection with Mary Phagan’s murder. He was ordered held by the Coroner, but when a bill of indictment was offered the Grand Jury at the same time of the Frank indictment, no action was taken against the negro.

Weak Spots in Conley Tale.

Chappell said the writ of habeas corpus would compel the State either to order the negro held as a material witness or make some charge against him.

Conley, in relating his dramatic tale of carrying the body of Mary Phagan from the rear of the second floor and disposing of it at the direction of Frank in a dark corner of the gloomy basement, said that when he reached the elevator he had to wait until Frank went into his office for a key to the elevator door.

The defense will maintain, it is understood, that the elevator door had not been locked for some time. Witnesses will be called to testify that the door had remained unlocked in accordance with instructions from the firms with which the building was insured. From this alleged circumstance, it will be argued that the negro’s story is a fabrication devised to shield himself from the charge of murder and to shift the responsibility onto another man.

To Assail Whole Story.

This is only one particular of at least a score which will be assailed by Attorneys Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben R. Arnold, who are representing Frank. They will say in the first place that the elevator was not running at all on the day of the crime, in spite of Conley’s story that the body was carried down to the basement by this means. Harry Denham and Arthur White, who were working on the fourth floor of the factory, will be called to testify to this.

With the defense and prosecution awaiting the day when the great legal battle which will send Frank to the gallows or free him from the stigma of the murder charge shall begin, Frank’s lawyers are occupying much of their time in making a critical analysis of the succession of weird statements credited to the negro from the time he said he wrote on the Friday before the murder at the dictation of Frank the notes that were found beside the body of the dead girl until he issued his last affidavit.

The negro admitted the story of writing the notes on Friday was false. He admitted that his first story of never having seen Mary Phagan, dead or alive, was a deliberate lie. He is reported to have further changed his story by admitting seeing the girl before she was killed. But, except for this, he maintains his last affidavit is the whole truth. The defense believes it is as false as the rest and is preparing to go into court and break down utterly the fabrication that the negro has erected.

Notes to Play Part.

Although the notes found by the body of the slain girl have received little attention from those working on the case lately, they are bound to have a most important part in the trial of Frank.

The defense will seek to show that there could have been no possibility of their being dictated by the factory superintendent; that if the negro had taken Frank’s dictation, supposing that Frank had committed the crime, a much different sort of a note would have been the result.

Conley has shown since his arrest that he can follow dictation with a fair degree of accuracy. This being the case, it is reasonable to presume, the defense will hold, that he would have followed Frank’s words closely. But the notes are an incoherent, jumbled mass of words that are only half intelligible after the detectives have placed weeks of study upon them. The defense will contend that such a note can not be imagined, by any process of reasoning, as the dictation of Frank.

* * *

The Atlanta Georgian, July 3rd 1913, “Writ Sought In Move to Free Negro Lee,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, June 3^rd, 1913

Defense Prepares to Show Glaring Discrepancies in Affidavit of James Conley.

[Minola McKnight, the negro cook at Frank’s home, made a written statement Tuesday afternoon to the police following a cross-examination lasting more than an hour at the police station.

The woman was questioned by E. H. Pickett and Roy L. Craven, both of whom are employed at the hardware store of Beck & Gregg. While the bearing of her statement on the Phagan case was not revealed, it is generally thought to relate to the actions of Frank and other inmates of his household on the morning following the murder.

She is believed to have stuck to her story that Frank was home at 1:30, which is one link in the alibi chain the defense is forging.

That Louise H. Beck, foreman of the Grand Jury which indicted Frank, is a co-partner in the establishment with which Pickett and Craven, the questioners of the negro woman, are employed is believed to lend much significance to the cross-examination by the two men. This connection, however, was not made public.

The cook was later released after her statement had been taken, and with her husband left for her Pulliam street home. It was said that she might be called as a witness in the trial of Frank. Much as the detectives attempted to shroud her evidence in mystery, all the indications were that she had not materially changed her statement in favor of Frank. She was released on an agreement with her counsel, George Gordon. — added from a later edition of the Georgian — Ed.]

“Developments of a startling nature may be expected from day to day in the Phagan case,” said Chief of Detectives Lanford Tuesday morning. “They may be expected right up to the date that the trial of Leo Frank begins.

“That we feel we practically have a conclusive case against the factory superintendent does not mean that we are resting in our labors to the slightest extent. We are a little more at rest in our minds, that is all.

“The detectives are working constantly on new clews that present themselves and are investigating every story that is heard, whether it is told by a witness favorable to Frank or against him. We wish to go into court prepared to establish our case against Frank so that not a doubt of his guilt will be possible. That is, of course, if it still appears at that time as certain to us that he is the guilty man as it does now.”

With the continued activity of the detectives, it has become noticeable in the last few days that the defense is at work on its case. Both sides are preparing for a titanic battle when Frank is put on trial for his life the third week in this month. Frank’s cook is still held at police headquarters.

To Cite Time Differences.

Differences in the time given by Jim Conley in his affidavit and the testimony of Coroner’s jury witnesses will be pointed out in the defense of Leo M. Frank against the charge of killing little Mary Phagan, it was revealed Tuesday. They will be used as indications of the superintendent’s innocence because of their many seeming deviations from fact.

One of the most glaring was the negro’s declaration that while he was in Frank’s office to write the notes Miss Corinthia Hall and Mrs. Emma Clark entered. Conley said that this was 1 o’clock or a few minutes after. But Miss Hall had left the building more than an hour before, according to her own testimony before the Coroner’s jury.

“What time was it when you left the factory?” Coroner Donehoo asked Miss hall when she was on the stand at the inquest.

“A quarter to twelve,” she replied. “I looked at the clock when I came down.”

The negro said that he looked at the clock when he went in the office and that it was just four minutes of 1 o’clock. He had been in there a few minutes, he asserted, when the voices of Miss Hall and Mrs. Clark were heard.

Another statement which will be refuted is Conley’s declaration that he assisted in taking the body from the second floor down to the basement on the elevator.

To Testify Elevator Didn’t Run.

Two witnesses will be called to prove that the elevator did not run that day at the time the body is said to have been disposed of.

These two witnesses are Harry Denham and Arthur White. They were on the fourth floor from early in the forenoon until after 3 o’clock in the afternoon. If the elevator had been run they say they would have known it. The experiment of running the elevator has been tried since the murder. It is said that it can not be run without the persons on the fourth floor being aware of it.

The theory that will be presented by the defense is that Mary Phagan was the victim of drink-crazed Conley. From his hiding place near the stairs he saw her descending from the second floor. She was alone. He quickly stunned her with a blow over the head, the defense will suggest, and toppled her down the elevator shaft, taking her purse and later disposing of her body.

The alibis which the defense will seek to establish are, of course, the weapons on which reliance will be placed to complete the riddling or Conley’s testimony and affidavits. Frank had arrived home in the afternoon at the time Conley says the superintendent was dictating notes in his office, according to five witnesses the defense will be able to call.

Conley described at length his alleged conversation with Frank in the factory office after 1 o’clock. Frank says that he arrived home for luncheon at 1:20 o’clock and he is supported in his statement by five witnesses.

Seven witnesses are prepared to testify that Frank was home in the evening at the time he is said to have been telephoning to Mrs. Mima [sic] Fo[r]mby, asking for her permission to bring a girl to her house. If the State’s theory is accepted that Mary Phagan was killed in the afternoon, the defense will hold that the Fo[r]mby affidavit is ridiculous on its face. It will be pointed out that any man, whether he be ignorant or intelligent, would not in the first place confide his crime to a negro or any other person by asking their assistance in disposing of the body.

After this he would not take a cab driver, a woman and any others who happened to observe his movements into his confidence by removing the dead body to a semi-public house like that of Mrs. Fo[r]mby’s.

Police to Combat Them.

The element of time will enter into several other phases of the defense to show that the negro has been lying in all his affidavits. He repeated a conversation which took place between Foreman Darley and Miss Mattie Smith. He said that it took place a few minutes before 12 o’clock.

The defense will claim that, as a matter of fact, the conversation took place at about 9:30 o’clock in the morning and that the negro must have been there at that time in order to hear the conversation, although he testified that he did not come there until he met Frank on the street at 11 o’clock. The police, however, are ready to combat testimony along this line.

That Frank would have been satisfied with the incoherent, almost unintelligible notes found beside the girl’s body, if he had been dictating them, will be represented as most unreasonable. The notes were more probably the sole work of a half-intoxicated negro, as Conley has admitted he was, the defense will maintain.

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Atlanta Georgian, June 3rd 1913, “Bitter Fight Certain in Trial of Frank,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Journal

Friday, May 9^th, 1913

Leo M. Frank general superintendent of the National Pencil factory, was recalled to the stand. He was questioned regarding the elevator. The coroner wanted to know what kind of a door there is to the shaft on the office floor. The witness replied that it is a heavy door solid, that slides up and down.

“Where was the elevator on Saturday, April 26?” he was asked.

“I didn’t notice.”

“Where was it on Friday night?”

“I didn’t notice.”

“Was the door open on Saturday?”

“I didn’t notice.”

Asked whether it would not be possible for some one to fall into the elevator shaft if the door was open, he replied that there is a bar across the door.

“Where was the elevator after the murder?”

“I can only say it was at the office floor on Sunday morning,” replied the witness.

The coroner reverted to the time-clock. “What time did you take the slip out of the clock?” he asked.

“I took it out, marked the time on it, and handed it to an officer,” replied the witness.

“What officers?”

“I don’t remember.”

Regarding the guests who, his mother-in-law and father-in-law testified, called at their home Saturday evening, the coroner asked him next.

“Do you remember a party at your home on the night of the murder?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you tell about it when you were on the stand before?”

“I wasn’t asked.”

“We asked you about whom you saw. Now can you tell us who was there?”

Mr. Frank named them, corroborating what his father-in-law and mother-in-law had testified as to their identity. He didn’t pay much attention to them, said Frank. He merely greeted them and continued his reading.

“Where were you sitting?”

“In the front room.”

“Didn’t the guests have to pass you when they went to the dining room from the front door?”

“Yes.”

“When the officers came out Sunday morning to bring you down to the factory, what was said about something to drink?”

“I told my wife I wanted something warm to drink. One of the officers said that something would do me good. The implication was ‘whiskey,’ but I didn’t mean that. What I wanted was a cup of coffee.”

He was asked regarding the telephone call during the night, and repeated that he thought when he got up that he had dreamed of the telephone ringing, and that later when he was told the officers had tried to get him he concluded that the dream was real.

“Did you see the girl’s body?”

“Yes. I walked in, and they turned on the light and I looked at the body, recognizing her as the girl I had paid the day before.”

“When did you hear the name first?”

“I don’t recollect.”

“What time did you get home on Sunday?”

“I don’t remember, but I think it was about 1 o’clock.”

When he telephoned home to his wife Sunday morning he did not give her any of the details of what had happened, said he. “When you went home, did you go into details?”

“No, I merely told them what the detectives found. We didn’t discuss it very much.”

“What topic did you discuss?”

“I don’t remember.”

TELLS OF QUINN’S VISIT.

The witness said that Lemmie Quinn, a foreman in the factory, first told him about the visit to the factory on one of the two days that he spent at police headquarters. He said Quinn remarked: “I was there at the office Saturday.” The witness said he recalled it when Quinn mentioned about the time.

Mr. Frank could not recollect having told Quinn anything about withholding information about that point until his lawyers could pass on it. He had so many visitors, he couldn’t remember a detail like that, he said. He couldn’t remember who made the suggestion about consulting attorneys. He didn’t know whether Quinn knew (when he recalled the visit to mind) whether he had a lawyer. He didn’t remember how long he had counsel at that time.

“When did Quinn mention this visit on Saturday?”

“I don’t remember.”

“How can you lock the door into the dressing room where the blood was found?”

“I don’t know. I suppose with keys. There is a door with a lock, in the partition. A spring in the lock keeps it closed.”

“Is there any way to lock the doors and stop passage on the back stairs?”

“There are doors to the stairs, but I never heard of them being locked recently.”

TELLS OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION.

The witness was asked other questions, whose purport was not evident, about these two doors and how they stood that day, and the locks on them, etc. The fact was brought out that there was only one lavatory on that floor, and Mr. Frank, answering a direct question, said he did not enter it all day to the best of his recollection.

Regarding his telephone conversation with a detective who called him early Sunday morning, Mr. Frank said he didn’t know who it was, but learned later that it was a detective. “I would like to have you come down at once,” he said he was told. He asked what had happened, and was told there had been a tragedy, and they wanted him to identify some one.

“He asked me over the phone if I knew Mary Phagan. I told him I did not. Then he asked me if I hadn’t paid off a little girl who worked in the tipping department Saturday afternoon. I said yes, and he said, ‘We’ll send out after you right away.’”

“Didn’t you say the other day that the first time you heard Mary Phagan’s name was in the automobile going down town?”

“No.”

“Do you remember whether or not Harry Denham and Arthur White had any lunch with them on the fourth floor?”

“I don’t remember.”

“When you came downstairs to go out to lunch, did you lock the doors leading into the office?”

The witness did not remember. He was asked as to the disposition of the papers he had been working on. He could remember putting them under a paperweight, but could not remember whether or not he closed his desk. The only people in the building when he left there for lunch, said he, were Henry Denham and Arthur White and Mrs. White.

HIS WORK SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

One of the jurors asked him if he had had any trouble that day about the “time” (pay) of one of the girls working in the factory. He said no, but that Darley had noticed a discrepancy in the time of Miss Mattie Smith and had deducted some cash from the envelope.

Another juror asked, “Did you work on the financial sheet only in the afternoon?”

“Yes.”

He got together a few papers pertaining to it, said the witness, before he went to lunch. The last thing he did there that afternoon was to balance his cash. “Did Miss Hall (the stenographer) assist you?” “No.” He named again all the people whom he saw about the factory that day. “Do you know Mae Barrett?” asked a juror. Mr. Frank had not called that name. “I never heard of her,” answered the witness. He said she could be employed somewhere in the factory, however, without his knowing it.

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Atlanta Journal, May 9th 1913, “Superintendent Frank is Once More Put on Witness Stand,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, May 6^th, 1913

Factory Superintendent’s Statements on the Witness Stand Considered Distinctly Favorable to Him.

Leo M. Frank’s testimony before the Coroner’s inquest threw no new light upon the Phagan case. Indeed, if it did anything it strengthend the belief in the minds of many persons that the mystery is far from solved.

Frank’s testimony was distinctly favorable to him. He was on the witness stand for several hours. He answered every question in a straight-forward manner. He was not more nervous than any other man in the room. He never halted for a word to make reply. The impression made upon those present was good.

The bringing into the case of another man not heretofore mentioned as having been in the factory on the day of Mary Phagan’s death does not seem to have in any way helped to clear the mystery.

Quinn Talks Freely.

Lemmie Quinn, foreman, whose name was mentioned by Frank, apparently had nothing to conceal either, for her talked with the detectives and police without reserve, and gave a clear statement of his work in the factory. His testimony did more, if anything, than the testimony of any other person to shift the suspicion that has been attached to Frank.

Close reading of the testimony leads to the opinion that the police have not yet solved the great mystery.

Frank is in the Tower to-day. He will be heard again on Thursday. The police may have some important questions to ask him, but if they have, they gave nothing to indicate it at the inquest on Monday.

Solicitor Dorsey, now in active charge of the case, feels certain that the mystery soon will be solved. All the officials are reticent. They refuse to discuss the tragedy with reporters.

Following Every Clew.

Many baseless rumors are in circulation on the streets, and the public clew presented to them.

The police and detectives are working diligently and following every clew presented to them.

It is too early to forecast what the authorities have in store in the way of additional evidence, but that brought out yesterday pointed the finger of suspicion at no one at all. It was simply negative. It involved the witness no more than suspicion already had involved him, and was not all damaging to Lee, who is being held with Frank in connection with the mystery.

Quinn was examined by Lanford and Scott, of the Pinkertons. He corroborated Frank’s story in detail. He was permitted to return to his home at 31-B Pullman Street.

Quinn was foreman of the department in which the victim worked. He had known her ever since she first was employed with the concern. A stormy scene is said to have ensued during the interrogation to which he was subjected at headquarters. To a reporter he declared that Scott and Solicitor Dorsey charged him with having accepted a bribe.

He says he retorted to the charge:

“Show me the man that says I took a bribe, and I’ll whip him on the pot.”

Quinn was asked if Frank’s statements were true, and he replied:

“Yes; it’s true. I left my house Saturday morning about 11:45 o’clock. On the way uptown I stopped into Wolfsheimer’s and bought an order of fancy groceries. I stopped at another place and bought a cigar.

“Then I went to the factory. I wanted to see Frank and tell him ‘Howdy do.’ I knew he would be in the place. He is always there on Saturdays. It was about 12:15 or 12:30 when I arrived at the building. I saw no one in front or as I went upstairs to the office.

“Frank was at his desk. He appeared very busy. I stepped in and said: ‘Well, I see you work even on holidays. You can’t keep me from coming around the building on Saturdays, either. How do you feel?”

“He said he was feeling good. He didn’t appear agitated or nervous. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I left. I wasn’t in the plant for more than two minutes. As I came downstairs on the way out, I saw someone in the rear of the first floor—a person whom I would have no grounds whatever to suspect.

Believes Frank Innocent.

“No! I won’t divulge his name. I’ll tell the detectives in time. I’m glad Frank told the Coroner of my visit. It was I who refreshed his memory of the incident. He apparently had forgotten it. I have not been keeping it secret. I told the detective Saturday of the visit.

“I have known Mr. Frank for years and I know he is not guilty.”

Quinn declared that he was in the building about two minutes. He said that he did not see Mary Phagan.

He is outraged at the treatment he alleges was accorded him by the detectives.

“They were insulting and seemed to doubt my statement,” he said. “In an insinuating manner Chief Lanford plied the question: ‘So you put yourself there about the time the Phagan girl left the factory, eh?’”

Quinn was an ardent admirer of the murdered child. He says she was one of his most industrious employees.

He is married and has one child. His connection with the National Pencil Company dates back several years.

Quinn said that it was he who refreshed Frank’s memory of his presence in the building shortly after noon of the day on which the girl is supposed to have been slain.

“I called upon Frank at the jail,” he said. “The moment I reminded him of my visit, he recollected it. He apparently had forgotten it.”

The inquest was adjourned at 7:18 o’clock. It will be resumed at 9:30 o’clock Thursday morning. The two-day postponement is to permit detectives to garner evidence they announce available.

Tells Action in Detail.

In detailing every move on the day Mary Phagan was killed, Frank said he left  about 7 o’clock Saturday morning and was at the office by 8:26. About 9 o’clock Foreman M. D. Darley and others entered his office and talked business matters with him. Frank testified he went to the office of Sig Montag, factory manager, on Nelson Street, at 10 o’clock, and remained there for nearly an hour.

He returned at 11 o’clock and an hour later the stenographer and the office boy left him alone, Darley and the others having departed. He thought it was about ten minutes after noon that Mary Phagan came in to get her pay envelope and after receiving it started out of the door, stopping only to ask if an expected shipment of metal had arrived. He heard her voice as she seemed to be talking with another girl outside. He heard the footsteps die away and believes Mary Phagan left the building, he testified.

Visited by Lemmie Quinn.

Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the tipping department, came into the factory at 12:15 or 12:20, just after the Phagan girl had left. Frank said that the foreman merely greeted him and conversed for five or ten minutes and then left.

Frank said that he himself left the factory at 1 o’clock and went home for luncheon with his father-in-law, Emil Selig. He left home to return to the factory at 2 o’clock, arriving there about 3 o’clock, and speaking to several acquaintances on his way.

At 3:10 o’clock Harry Denham and Arthur White, two employees who had been doing some work on the holiday, punched the clock, stopped to talk a few minutes with Frank and then quit the building, leaving Frank there alone.

Sees Watchman and Gantt.

Newt Lee, the night watchman, came at 3:45, but was told by Frank that he might go away until 6 o’clock. The watchman returned at 6 o’clock and few minutes later J. M. Gantt appeared at the factory and asked permission to get a pair of shoes he had left in the shipping room. Frank left before Gantt had obtained his shoes.

Frank said that he arrived home at 6:25 and that his wife and mother-in-law entered as he was calling Newt Lee to see if Gantt had left the factory. Lee did not answer at this time, but answered when Frank called at 7 o’clock. Frank testified that he remained in the house from this time until he went to bed at 11 o’clock. He was awakened at 7:30 o’clock the next morning by the telephone call which told him of the tragedy.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, May 6th 1913, “Frank’s Testimony Fails to Lift Veil of Mystery,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, May 4^th, 1913

The mystery of the death of pretty Mary Phagan enters upon its second week to-day with the police authorities admitting that they are still without a conclusive solution. So far as the public has been permitted to learn, the detectives are not even certain that they have in custody the person or persons responsible for her death.

In the light of present developments, the police believe that no more arrests will be made, but they admit that the entrance of another theory might entirely change the aspect of the case. The detectives base their present belief that they have the guilty man or men on the well-supported theory that Mary Phagan never left the National Pencil factory from the time she received her pay envelope on Saturday noon until her lifeless body was taken from the basement of the building.

If this police supposition is correct, guilt can rest only on one or more of the men who were in the building after noon on the day of the tragedy. The police officers have been able to learn only five who were in the factory Saturday afternoon or night, most of the employees being absent because of the Memorial Day parade.

These five were Leo M. Frank, superintendent; Newt Lee, night watchman; Harry Denham and Arthur White, workmen, and J. M. Gantt, a former employee, who returned for a few minutes on Saturday evening to obtain a pair of shoes he had left in the building. Of these five it is possible for only two to have had any knowledge of their crime. These two, Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, are in custody.

Tragedy That Grips People.

Atlanta for a week has been shocked with the horror and brutality of the deed. That everyone was following with intense interest the developments of the case was manifest in the eagerness with which the newspapers were bought up in the streets. It was a story that gripped and appealed, and it aroused an interest that will not die until the guilty person is apprehended.

The essential details of the case as developed through a week of investigation are these:

Mary Phagan, the 14-year-old daughter of Mrs. W. J. Coleman, of 146 Lindsay Street, was attacked and killed some time between noon and midnight Saturday, April 26. Signs of a struggle on the second floor of the National Pencil Factory, 37-39 Forsyth Street, indicated that this is the place she met her death.

The girl left her home Saturday forenoon to draw her pay at the factory. She arrived at the factory at about 12:07. Superintendent Frank has said that he gave her her pay envelope at this time. The detectives have been able to get no reliable testimony that any one saw her from 12:07 o’clock until shortly after 3 o’clock Sunday morning when the night watchman, Newt Lee, said he found her bruised and mutilated body in the basement as he was making his rounds.

Harry Denham and Arthur White were in the factory from 7:30 in the morning until about 3:15 in the afternoon. Newt Lee called at the at the factory at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, but was told by Superintendent Frank that he need not go to work until 6 o’clock in the evening.

Frank There in Afternoon.

Superintendent Frank left the building about 1 o’clock in the afternoon, returning about 3. From this time until 6:30 in the evening he says he was in the building. At 6 o’clock Lee returned and remained in the factory until he found the body and was taken to police headquarters. J. M. Gantt, the former employee, was in the factory at 6 o’clock, and the evidence shows he left about 20 minutes later. If there were any other persons in the building during these hours the authorities are as yet unaware of the fact.

The night watchman’s story is that he made his rounds regularly every half hour on Saturday night. At the inquest he told that it was not required of him to make a complete round of the basement, his main duty there being only to see that there was no fire. This he gives as his explanation for not seeing at an earlier hour the body of the girl. The undertakers say she had been dead for from six to eight hours when found. On his 3 o’clock round, the watchman went farther into the basement and there saw the body of the girl lying face upward.

He ran upstairs and called the police. Then he attempted, without avail to get Superintendent Frank on the telephone, he testified. The officers came and found the body lying face downward, although the watchman declared he had not touched the body. They also tried to call Superintendent Frank, but were unsuccessful, and finally notified Vice President Haas.

Four Men Are Detained.

Lee, the watchman, and Geron Bailey, elevator man, were taken to the police station. Both denied any knowledge of the crime. Arthur Mullinax, a former street car conductor, was identified by E. L. Sentell, 82 Davis Street, as the man he saw with Mary Phagan at about midnight Saturday. He was taken by the police Sunday night and held pending an investigation of Sentell’s story.

Superintendent Frank was summoned to police headquarters on Monday morning to tell what he knew of the girl and her fate. He offered to aid the police in every way, and later in the day announced that he had engaged the Pinkertons to assist the city [2 words illegible] in solving the mystery. He returned to his home after the conference.

The story of the friendship of J. M. Gantt, former bookkeeper in the factory, for Mary Phagan decided the officers upon his arrest. He was taken on Monday as he alighted from a car at Marietta, where he had gone to see his mother.

Mullinax told a straightforward story of his every movement Saturday night. He had been to the theater with Miss Pearl Robinson, he said, and afterward had gone to this boarding house and to bed. His alibi was established by the stories of Miss Robinson and his landlady.

Gantt was explicit in detailing his moves and was borne out by companions and by his half-sister, Mrs. T.C. Terrell, 284 East Linden Avenue, with whom he lived.

The sensation of the case came Tuesday when a hurried trip by automobile was made to the pencil factory by detectives and Superintendent Frank was brought to police headquarters. The officers denied at first that Frank was under arrest. He was brought to the station only throw additional light upon the mystery and for his own protection, they explained. Nevertheless, Frank’s liberties were soon curtailed and on Thursday night he was transferred with Lee to the County jail on the request of Frank’s attorney, Luther Z. Rosser.

Negro Sticks to His Story.

Frank and Lee were questioned at the police station. The watchman was put through the “third degree” again and again. All the efforts of the detectives were not productive of a confession of any sort.

Frank was firm in the statement of his absolute innocence. Lee broke down and wept on several occasions, but only protested his innocence the more volubly.

The inquest Thursday proved to be little more than an elaboration of the testimony that had been gathered previously by the detectives. Three or four of the witnesses declared they had seen Mary Phagan on the streets or near her home in Bellwood some time Saturday afternoon or night. The stories for the most part were found to be without basis and the theory that Mary Phagan was lured to the factory after once leaving it was abandoned.

Lee was called to the stand. The most damaging evidence brought against him was the testimony of a handwriting expert that two notes found by the side of the dead girl were in the same hand as the test note penned by Lee after he had been taken to the police station.

G. W. Epps, the boy sweetheart of Mary Phagan, created something of a sensation when he testified that Mary had told him that Frank had attempted to flirt with her and that she had asked him (Epps) to wait and go home with her. Gantt and Lee testified that Frank had appeared nervous when they saw him (Gantt) Saturday at the factory.

Gantt and Mullinax were liberated soon after the adjournment Wednesday.

The inquest was to have been resumed on Thursday, but was halted by the desire of the authorities to obtain more clearly defined evidence before they continued the presentation of the case.

The next day Solicitor General Dorsey announced that he had engaged private detectives to run down clews which he thought had been neglected or not sufficiently developed.

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Atlanta Georgian, May 4th 1913, “Slayer of Mary Phagan May Still be at Large,” Leo Frank newspaper article series (Original PDF)