Tag Archives: Leo Frank Trial

Conley’s Story is Still Center of Fight in Frank Case

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Questions asked witnesses by Attorneys Rosser and Arnold indicate that the defense may attempt to convince the jury that it would have been possible for the little girl to have been killed on the first floor of the factory and her body later disposed of through a chute leading from the first floor to the basement at the rear of the building. According to this theory the girl was met at the foot of the stairs leading from Frank’s office, taken toward the back of the building and killed. Her body was then dragged to the trap door leading to the chute and dropped into the basement. Later, according to the theory, it was taken to the spot where it was found by Newt Lee. The accompanying drawing was made from the model of the factory which is being used by the defense at the trial.

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

Atlanta Journal
August 10th, 1913

After Two Weeks of Testimony Only Evidence Directly Linking Frank With the Crime is the Sensational Statement Made on the Stand by Negro Sweeper-Summary of Developments in Trial to Date

STATE HAS INTRODUCED 34 WITNESSES, DEFENSE 10

A Synopsis of the Evidence Presented by Both Sides Shows Just What the State Has Sought to Prove and How the Defense Has Begun to Fight to Convince Jury of Frank’s Innocence

For two long and tedious weeks Leo M. Frank, indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, has been on trial for his life. During those two weeks forty-eight witnesses have testified, innumerable exhibits, documents, books, diagrams, photographs and illustrative contrivances have been displayed to the jury.

Only the remarkable story of James Conley, the negro sweeper, directly connects the defendant with the crime, and even in this ingenious narrative the negro did not say that he actually saw Frank do the deed.

Time and again while under the merciless gruelling of Attorneys Rosser and Arnold, Conley frankly and complacently confessed that he had lied and lied frequently in his many statements and affidavits to the detectives. However, he clung fast to his story as related upon the witness stand Monday, Tuesday and part of Wednesday. He had every circumstance and feature of this story clear in his mind and not once during the sixteen and a half hours that he was in the witness chair did he admit that any portion of it was false — notwithstanding the terrific bombardment of questions hurled at him on cross-examination by Attorney Rosser.

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One Glance at Conley Boosts Darwin Theory

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Frank’s Accuser Is Not the Type of Negro White Men Consider Their Friend.

By TARLETON COLLIER.

Jim Conley is a low-browed, thick-lipped, anthropoidal sort of negro. You look at him and your faith in Mr. Darwin’s theory goes up like cotton after a boll-weevil scare.

Here is a burly, short-necked black man. On his upper lip is a scanty mustache of the kind that most negroes fondle with the vain hope that it will grow into a bushy thickness. Conley is the most common African type as to physique.

Never a flash of brightness, never a gleam of wit, never the sparkle of unconscious humor came during the three days Conley was on the stand. Newt Lee made the courtroom laugh. Conley didn’t. He was always deadly earnest.

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Mary Phagan’s Mother to be Spared at Trial

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

A spectator at the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of little Mary Phagan remarked:

“I wonder what the mother of the little girl who was so brutally killed thinks of all this?”
Mrs. J. W. Coleman, the mother, was the first witness called at the beginnig [sic] of the case, now two weeks gone. She was dressed in deep black with a heavy veil about her face. As she pulled back the veil to speak to the jury the expression was calm without a sign of bitterness. And she answered in even tones.

When the Solicitor opened a little suit case and placed before her the clothes of her little girl.

There was a stifled cry. Those who looked saw a face covered with a handkerchief. That was enough. Solicitor Dorsey put no more questions.

For ten days the grind of the court went on. The mother was forgotten for more immediate things.

Friday she was recalled in the midst of expert testimony on the effect of digestion on cabbage. She came and indifferently told how she had cooked the cabbage that made the last meal of little Mary Phagan. Then she said:

“Mr. Dorsey, will you need me any more? I’m so tired. I want to go.”

He told her she could go. And it is very probable she will not appear at this trial again.

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Atlanta Georgian, August 10th 1913, “Mary Phagan’s Mother to be Spared at Trial,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Dalton Sticks Firmly To Story Told on Stand

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

C. B. Dalton, prominent as a witness in the Frank trial, stuck firmly to the story he told in court when he was confronted Saturday by the letter of Miss Laura Atkinson, No. 30 Ella street, one of the young women mentioned in his sensational testimony. She branded his statement concerning her as false.

He maintained that all he said as a witness was true—that he met her, as he had other girls of the pencil factory, and walked home with her from a restaurant near the plant on Forsyth street.

Dalton was emphatic in his reiteration of every detail of the testimony delivered by him from the witness stand.

Here is Miss Atkinson’s statement, in full, denying Dalton’s testimony:

“Editor The Sunday American: Will you please allow me space to correct a statement made by Mr. C. B. Dalton in his testimony at the Frank trial, and published in your paper yesterday? In answer to a question from Mr. Rosser as to whether he ever went to the pencil factory with any one except Miss Daisy Hopkins, he said yes, he used to go to the Busy Bee and wait for the factory to close to walk home with the girls, and gave my name as one of the girls.

“His statement, as I read it in your paper, impressed me as being intended to convey to the minds of those who heard it, and, of course, all who read it, the idea that I was working at the factory at the time he says he went there, and that he was in the habit of walking home with me. I have no desire to make any derogatory remarks about Mr. Dalton, but in justice to myself and my good name, I certainly do feel it my duty to say that his statement concerning me is false, and he had not the slightest ground whatever for making it and no right to use my name in any way in his testimony.

“I have known him only about six months, and have never been in his company but three times. On two occasions I was at church with a gentleman friend who was also a friend of his and he walked with us from the church to my home, less than three blocks, and one afternoon while out walking met him and he walked with me a distance of about four blocks. That, and a few conversations over the telephone, probably three or four, mark the extent of my acquaintance with him. I worked at the pencil factory exactly two days the second week in July (last month) and did not even see Mr. Dalton on either one of those days. I had never worked there before nor been there, and have not since.

“Will you please state these facts in your paper and clear up any false impression that may have been made on people’s minds concerning me, and the slur I feel has been case on my good name by having him make such a false statement where it would be published broadcast over the country? I will appreciate it and thank you very much if you will correct the statement. Sincerely,

“LAURA ATKINSON.

“No. 30 Ella Street.”

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Atlanta Georgian, August 10th 1913, “Dalton Sticks Firmly To Story Told on Stand,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Phagan Trial Makes Eleven “Widows” But Jurors’ Wives Are Peeresses Also

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

By L. F. WOODRUFF

Eleven widows were made in Atlanta in a day without the assistance of the Grim Reaper, a trip to Reno, pallbearers or affinity stories in the newspapers.

And there is but one drop of consolation in their cup. When they were made widows they automatically became peeresses, for which privilege many American girls have caused their fathers large sums of good American money and themselves heartache and their pictures to be printed between the story of the rabbit that chased the boa constrictor and the life narrative of Sophie, the Shop Girl, who in a night became a stage star.

They also had the satisfaction of having their husbands officially proclaimed good men and true, which they may have questioned when the pay envelope was brought home with $10 missing and unaccounted for, just as all wives have questioned.

They’ll Be Brides Again.

If there is any balm in it, the widows know that it will not be long before they can doff their weeds and once more don their bridal gowns. Their husbands will return to them just as soon as they have decided whether or not Leo Frank is guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan.

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Interest in Trial Now Centers in Story of Mincey

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Question of Time Considered of Paramount Importance in Defense Theory of Frank Case

EVERY EFFORT WILL BE MADE TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL HIS MOVEMENTS

As all interest centered in the dramatic story of Jim Conley while the case of the prosecution in the Frank trial was being presented, so the public now is awaiting with the keenest expectancy the tale that W. H. Mincey, pedagogue and insurance solicitor, will relate when he is called this week by the attorneys for Leo M. Frank.

Conley swore as glibly as though he were telling of an inconsequential incident in one of his crap games that Frank had confessed to him the killing of Mary Phagan. Then the negro went on in elaborate detail to tell the horrible story of the disposal of the girl’s body.

Mincey will tell a similar story, except that Conley will be named as the man confessing the crime and there will be none of the grewsome descriptions of carrying the limp body from second floor to basement in a piece of crocus bagging.

The coming week of the trial will have other witnesses galore. Some of them may be of much more importance than Mincey. Some of them may contribute in a much greater degree to the strength of the defense’s case. But the appearance, on the stand of no person is being awaited with higher interest than that of Mincey.

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Conley, Unconcerned, Asks Nothing of Trial

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Despite the attacks of the defense in the trial of Leo Frank has made upon his story, Jim Conley—from whose lips fell the most damning and abhorrent testimony a Georgia jury has ever heard—sits calmly in his cell at the Tower, inscrutable and unconcerned.

The negro, for weeks the greatest puzzle in the criminal annals of the State, has become an even greater puzzle since he told his story and was taken back to the gloominess of the jail. The fact that he is an admitted accessory after the fact in the murder of little Mary Phagan does not apparently weigh upon his mind.

He asks no questions about the trial or whether the defense has succeeded in breaking down his remarkable tale, and whenever information is vouchsafd to him he receives it with the same cunning smile that baffled Frank’s attorneys and that has baffled students of criminology since the negro became connected with the Phagan case.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, August 10th 1913, “Conley, Unconcerned, Asks Nothing of Trial,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Case Never is Discussed by Frank Jurors

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Every Man on Panel Has Nickname and Formality Has Been Cast Out.

No member of the jury that is to decide Leo M. Frank’s guilt or innocence had expressed an opinion on the case or even one witness’ testimony when the second week of the trial ended yesterday afternoon, according to the deputies who have them in charge.

In the court it is an attentive jury. No bit of evidence gets by unnoticed, no wrangle occurs between the attorneys that is not given their undivided attention, and when a person testifies they catch every word—knowing the formal charge that will come from the judge. “You are to believe all of it, or any part of it, or if you see fit so to do take the word of the defendant, who is not under oath.”
Out of the court it is altogether a different kind of a jury. Probably it is that its members hear enough of the case during “business hours” and are glad to discuss topics that do not bring in the possibility of weighing a man’s life. But not one member of the jury has at any time expressed any opinion. If there is one, it is carefully guarded, but those who have watched the faces during the two weeks said yesterday that it was a jury that was still open to conviction.

The formal “good-morning, Mr. —,” has been abandoned for the more jovial “howdy-do,” and every member has a nickname. Friday morning each member came from the hotel with a tiny white flower on his coat. They were the gift from the wife of a newlywed, who would not be on the jury if Judge Roan had listened to his excuses.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday are the days that are really tiresome. They are allowed to communicate with no one, and, save a morning and afternoon unconstitutional, are not permitted to venture from the three rooms assigned them. Last week the attorneys consented for them to purchase magazines, or any reading matter, to be censored by the Sheriff, and, with exception of this diversion, a juryman on a two or three week trial has anything but the finest position in Atlanta.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, August 10th 1913, “Case Never is Discussed by Frank Jurors,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Frank Struggles to Prove His Conduct Was Blameless

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Co-Workers in the Factory Declare Stories of Factory Revelries Are Beyond Reason

ASSISTANT TELLS HOW ACCUSED MAN MADE OUT COMPLEX ACCOUNTS

Testimony of Newsboy Who Said He Accompanied Mary Phagan On Street Car On Day of the Killing Attacked by Defense’s Counsel.

With one set of lawyers fighting to send Leo Frank to the gallows and another struggling just as desperately not only to save him from this fate, but entirely to remove the stigma of the murder charge, the second week of the battle for the young factory superintendent’s life ended shortly after noon yesterday.

The defense was only fairly under way in its presentation of evidence. Another week, at least, will be consumed in the examination of witnesses, and it is regarded as not at all unlikely that the jury will receive the case for its verdict not before the latter part of the following week.

More than 100 witnesses will be called to the stand before the defense rests. Some of them will be questioned and cross-questioned at length. Others will be on the stand only a few minutes.

Conduct in Question.

Many who will be called are factory employees. They will be asked in regard to Frank’s conduct at the pencil factory. This line of interrogation already has been begun by the defense. E. F. Holloway, day watchman at the factory, and N. V. Darley, general manager, testified Friday that women, aside from those of Frank’s family, never visited him at the factory. Herbert G. Schiff, assistant to Frank, who was on the stand during practically all of the Saturday session, testified to the same thing.

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Study of Frank Convicts, Then It Turns and Acquits

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Readers of Human Nature See Anything They Want, but Personal Equation Is Forgotten.

By O. B. KEELER.

Leo Frank sits in the prisoner’s dock and all men may read his face.

A great many of them do.

Here are two of the things they read:

(1) No innocent man could remain calm under such fearful charges.

(2) No guilty man could remain calm under, etc.

Leo Frank admittedly was nervous and agitated that morning the murder of Mary Phagan was discovered.

There are two inferences drawn from that fact:

(1) A guilty man naturally would be nervous.

(2) An innocent man naturally, etc.

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Frank or Conley? Still Question

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

Atlanta Georgian
August 10th, 1913

Issue Firmly Drawn Between Two Men

Defense Starting to Mould Its Case

Theory That Negro Attacked Mary Phagan With Motive of Robbing Her Will Be Shown; Two Charges Against Accused Must Be Refuted

By AN OLD POLICE REPORTER.

The second week of the trial of Leo Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan in the National Pencil Factory on the afternoon of April 26, came to a close Saturday noon.

The State’s case has been entirely made up in its primary aspects, and the defense has gone into its story of the great crime sufficiently to make clear both its theory and probable line of pleading.

The public, as the case has progressed, has been swayed this way and that, and to-day the remarkable mystery of Mary Phagan’s untimely and tragic end remains, in hundreds of minds, quite as much of a mystery as ever.

The Battle Is a See-Saw.

The State has had its good days and its bad days, and the defense has met the same fate. At times things have seemed dismally dark and gloomy for Frank, while at other times the clouds apparently have lifted from about him decidedly.

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Witness Admits Discrepancies in Model of Pencil Factory

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

T. H. Willet, a pattern maker, who built the model of the pencil factory, was next called by the defense. Under the cross-examination of Mr. Hooper he frequently admitted discrepancies in the pasteboard structure submitted by Frank’s counsel.

“What is your occupation?” he was asked by Mr. Arnold.

“Pattern maker.”

“Did you make an inspection of the National Pencil factory?”
“Yes.”

“In making this model, as to its dimensions and proportions, you have followed exact figures of blue prints?”
“Yes.”

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Epps Boy Not With Mary Phagan, Declares Street Car Motorman

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

W. M. Mathews, of 459 Lee street, car motorman who declares that Mary Phagan rode to town on his car on April 26, followed Daisy Hopkins on the stand.

Mathews gave a new turn to the theory of the girl’s actions of that day by declaring that she rode to Broad and Hunter streets before getting off with another girl who was with her, and also by saying that he did not see George Epps on the car with her.

In answer to questions the motorman asserted that Mary Phagan got on his car at Lindsay street at about 10 minutes to 12 and got off at Hunter and Broad at 10 minutes after 12, the time that Monteen Stover says she left the factory and after the time that, according to the state’s theory, Mary Phagan was killed.

“What time does your car reach Forsyth and Marietta streets?”
“It is due there at 12:07 1-2.”

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Hinchey Tells of Seeing Frank on Car on Day of the Murder

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

H. J. Hinchey, of 391 Peachtree street, a business acquaintance of Leo Frank, and manager of the South Atlantic Blow Pipe company, was put upon the stand by the defense. He stated having seen Frank on the murder date as the superintendent rode into town on a Washington street trolley car, meeting him at Washington and Hunter streets.

He was questioned by Mr. Arnold.

“Do you recollect April 26, Memorial day?”

“Yes.”
“Did you see Leo Frank that day?”
“Yes.”

“Where?”
“Near the capitol.”

“Was he on foot or riding?”
“He was aboard a trolley car.”

“Were you on foot?”
“No, I was driving an automobile.”

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Harry Scott and “Boots” Rogers Recalled to Stand by the State

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

When court convened Friday morning Harry Scott, Pinkerton detective, engaged by the defense in the Phagan case, was recalled to the stand by the state and asked how long it took Jim Conley, the negro sweeper, to write a copy of one of the murder notes when it was read off to him and [1 word illegible], dictated word for word.

The detective declared that the negro had taken about three or four minutes for this.

“Boots” Rogers was next called and asked one question about the condition of the basement. Rogers is the ex-county policeman in whose car the police answered Newt Lee’s call the morning of the murder. His testimony Friday was in regard to the unsanitary condition of the basement.

After a call for George Epps, the little newsie who swore to riding to town on April 26 with Mary Phagan, had gone unanswered, the defense called its first witness of the day, Daisy Hopkins.

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Atlanta Constitution, August 9th 1913, “Harry Scott and ‘Boots’ Rogers Recalled to Stand by the State,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Civil Engineer and Photographer Tell of Making Plats and Photos

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

Ira U. Kauffman, civil engineer, who had been employed by the defense to make drawings of the Selig home at 68 East Georgia avenue, where Frank and his wife lived, and also of the National Pencil factory, followed the street car conductor on the stand.

Kauffman testified that he made the plats of the Selig home on Tuesday of this week. The plats were shown to the jury.

“Could you stand in the kitchen and see the mirror in the dining room?” asked Mr. Arnold.

“It is impossible to see the mirror from the kitchen.”

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Hopkins Woman Denies Charges Made By Dalton and Jim Conley; Is Forced to Admit Untruths

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

Daisy Hopkins, a resident of Redan, Ga., and the woman who Jim Conley and C. B. Dalton declare frequently went to the National Pencil factory with Dalton while Leo Frank was there and was aware of her presence, was the first witness called by the defense Friday morning.

The woman swore to a full and complete denial of every charge that the white man and the negro had made and declared that she only knew Frank by sight, as she had worked at the factory from October, 1912, until June 1912.

When Solicitor Hugh Dorsey took her on cross-examination, however, he succeeded in trapping her into admitting that she had sworn to a lie on the stand when she declared that she had never been in jail. When confronted with a man who is said to have secured her release she admitted that she had been there on a charge of immorality.

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N. V. Darley Denies Testimony Given by Conley and Dalton

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

N. V. Darley, general manager of the National Pencil factory, who has already been used as a witness for the prosecution, was called to the stand for the defense following the pattern maker’s department.

He was examined by Mr. Arnold.

“You are the general manager of the pencil factory, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”

“Looking from a point of ground plan, isn’t this a correct model of the pencil plant?”

“Yes.”

Darley then described various furniture and fixtures in the basement and two floors depicted in the model.

Plain View of Stairway.

“If a body fell down the chute that rose from the first floor to the basement, how far would it land from the spot at which Mary Phagan’s body was found?”
“About thirty or forty feet.”

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Conductor Also Swears Epps Boy Was Not on Car With Mary Phagan

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

W. T. Hollis, of 16 Western avenue, the conductor on the English avenue car on which Mary Phagan rode to town on the day she was murdered, followed the motorman on the stand.

He also declared that the girl was not accompanied by a boy and that she did not get off at Forsyth and Marietta streets where he left the car. He also declared that she was not accompanied by any boy answering the description of George Epps, but that a little girl was with her.

Hollis corroborated the testimony of the motorman in practically every detail as to time and other features up to the moment when he was relieved at Forsyth and Marietta and left the car.

Further than that the witness declared that there were only a few passengers on the car that trip and that he noted the girl’s appearance as she had often ridden with him on the way to the factory in the mornings. He said he did not know her name until after the murder, when he found out she was the one who had been killed.

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Holloway, Witness for Defense, Riddled By Cross-Examination

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

Atlanta Constitution
August 9th, 1913

E. F. Holloway, watchman and timekeeper at the pencil factory, whose testimony Solicitor Dorsey riddled on cross-examination, followed General Manager Darley to the stand.

He gave his answers rapidly, making them frequently even before Attorney Arnold had finished propounding his questions. He is a man who looks older than 60, with cold gray eyes and thin lips.

His general appearance causes the lover of Dickens to think that the aged witness had stepped from one of that author’s novels. He became confused upon the cross-fire of the solicitor, and perspired profusely.

Same Rule for All.

He was examined directly by Mr. Arnold.

“Was it a habit of Jim Conley to register as he pleased?”
“No”

“You applied the same rule to him as you applied to all of the help?”
“Yes.”

“Did you ever see Frank pinch him or touch him?”
“Never saw Mr. Frank even touch him.”

“Do you recall a Saturday that you missed since you have been employed with the pencil company?”
“Not a one.”

“Who would relieve you before Lee went to work on Saturday afternoons?”
“Kendrick, the nightwatchman.”

“At what time?”
“Four o’clock.”

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