Tag Archives: Mary Phagan

Chapter 5 in Phagan Case

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 26th, 1913

The Negro Conley’s Confession That He Was Frank’s Accomplice and Events Leading Up to Trial.

Chapter VI.

“He (Leo Frank) told me that he had picked up a girl back there and had let her fall, and that her head had hit against something—he didn’t what it was—and for me to move her, and I hollered and told him the girl was dead.”

With this startling accusation Jim Conley introduced his third confession. Under the rack of a merciless third degree, continued through the long afternoon of May 29, he weakened or became desperate toward the last and came out with his remarkable affidavit, which laid the responsibility for the killing of Mary Phagan directly upon the shoulders of the young factory superintendent.

Either it was all true or all false. If it were true, the negro simply had wilted under the ceaseless fire of the detectives’ questions and had decided to own up to his share in the crime and to seek to protect Frank no longer. If it were false, Conley, driven to bay, had, as a forlorn hope of saving his own neck, concocted the marvelous tale to thrust the suspicion of guilt upon the innocent Frank.

Defense Attacks Confession.

The latter is the theory of Frank’s lawyers, and they will advance it and bring evidence to support it and argue in its favor with all the ability at their command when the trial, set for next Monday, is under way.

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Third Chapter in Phagan Mystery

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 24th, 1913

Arrests of Suspects in the Factory Slaying. Sensation as Leo Frank, Manager Was Taken Into Custody.

CHAPTER III.

Everything that occurred, trivial or important, during those first few days after the body of little Mary Phagan was discovered in the pencil factory basement took on a dramatic aspect. The people were keyed to so high a pitch by the revolting crime that for for a time it seemed to require only a spark to fire them to violent deeds.

Let a strange person so much as appear at the police station to confer with Chief of Detectives Lanford and wild rumors spread about the whole city like magic. Let one of the detectives drop a careless remark and in a flash everyone mysteriously understood that a complete confession had been made to the police by the murderer.

So it was a sinister reception that the first catch in the detectives’ dragnet received from the group of angry men when he was hurried to police headquarters Sunday night of the day after the factory girl had been slain.

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Second Chapter in Phagan Mystery

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 23rd, 1913

The Discovery of the Body of the Slain Factory Girl and Start of Hunt for Slayer.

CHAPTER II.

His heart pounding in superstitious fright, Newt Lee, the night watchman, forced himself to approach the strange object on the pile of debris in the pencil factory basement. A step nearer and he could make out what appeared to be a human foot. He recoiled and was on the point of precipitate flight.

But he must look closer, he thought. Perhaps, after all, it was only the ghastly prank of some of the factory employees who had manufactured a rude effigy and placed it there to scare him.

Determinedly he walked closer and thrust his lantern out over the mysterious object. He shrieked. Before his horrified eyes the shaky and uncertain light of his lantern disclosed the body of a little girl.

Grimed, bloody and mutilated the body lay on the flat of its back, as the terrified negro remembered it afterward, although the police, coming a few minutes later, found the body on its face, one arm drawn slightly up under the body and the other stretched full length at the side.

Discrepancy Not Explained.

This strange discrepancy never has been explained to the public except by the possibility that Lee, in his terror, was mistaken in the position he believed the body was in when he discovered it. Conley, telling his remarkable story three weeks later, said that he dumped the girl’s body face downward on the trash pile where it later was come upon by Lee.

Lee was to oappalled [sic] by his grewsome find to make a close investigation. He only saw that it was a little white girl and that she had been murdered. With frightened steps he hurried to the ladder at the other end of the basement. He was in a panic. He scuttled up the ladder and dropped the trap door over it. He felt a bit relieved away from the blackness of the basement and the awful thing that it contained.

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Was Mary Phagan Killed With Bludgeon?

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

Atlanta Journal
July 22nd, 1913

BLOODY STICK NOW IN POSSESSION OF FRANK’S ATTORNEYS

Was Found on May 10 by Two Pinkerton Detectives on the First Floor of the Pencil Factory

DEFENSE TO CLAIM NEGRO WIELDED THE INSTRUMENT

It Was Sent to Chemist Outside of State for Examination—Subpenas Issued for State’s Witness

In the possession of the defense of Leo M. Frank is a bloody bludgeon with which it will be claimed at the trial, in all probability, that James Conley, the negro sweeper, struck Mary Phagan over the head while she battled on the first floor of the National Pencil factory for her life.

While it has been known for weeks that the defense of Frank will try to pit the crime on the negro, the claim that any weapon other than the negro’s hands and the cords placed about her neck, were used, is an absolutely new development to the public, although the bloody stick, about an inch in diameter, has been in the possession of the defense since May 10.

It is said that it was found in the factory on that date by two Pinkerton operatives, L. P. Whitfield and W. D. McWorth, who at that time were conducting a systematic search of the factory.

According to the story, which has come to The Journal on excellent authority, on May 9, after city detectives, factory employees, various private sleuths and quite a few curiosity seekers had searched for nearly two weeks without finding any new clues to throw light on the tragedy. Whitefield and McWorth, two of the Pinkerton operatives, who are on the “silent force” never appearing before the public, went to the factory for a new examination of the big building, which was the scene of Atlanta’s most sensational tragedy.

They started on the second floor, where the state maintains that Mary Phagan met her death, and spent the entire day going over that floor.

By the next ddy [sic], May 10, the detectives had reached the third floor of the building. They went back by the boxes upon which Conley says he sat while waiting for instructions from the factory superintendent. Some ten or fifteen feet past the boxes and considerably past the elevator shaft, by a door, and on top of some trash, the Pinkerton men found the bloody bludgeon, right by the spot where the part of a pay envelope with the name Mary Phagan written upon it lay.

EXAMINED BY CHEMIST.

Evidently the defense of Frank considers the find of the two sleuths as important, for the story of the stick has been zealously guarded from the public. In addition, presumably to make certain that the fact of the existence of the stick would not reach the public, it was sent out of the state to a famous chemist, who made an anlysis [sic] to determine whether or not the blood on the primitive weapon was that of a human or an animal. The examination is said to have shown it to be the former.

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Story of Phagan Case by Chapters

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

Atlanta Georgian
July 22nd, 1913

Slaying of Factory Girl, South’s Most Baffling Crime Mystery, Reviewed in Detail.

CHAPTER I.

Will the veil of mystery be lifted when the curtain rises next Monday on another scene in Atlanta’s darkest tragedy?

A vast audience, shocked by the horror of Mary Phagan’s fate on a Saturday of last April and held through the succeeding weeks in the thrall of the baffling crime drama, in keen suspense awaits this question’s answer.

Will Fulton County’s Solicitor General be able to point his finger at Leo M. Frank and exclaim, “That is the man who strangled Mary Phagan!” backing his damning accusation with such abundance of evidence that there can remain no shadow of doubt?

Or will Luther Rosser, certain to be a towering and masterful factor in the titanic struggle that is to be staged, unmask his strength, bring to bear the secret evidence that has been in his possession for weeks, beat down every bulwark of suspicion that the State has erected about its prisoner and, as a dramatic finale, assail the negro, Jim Conley, cowering in the witness stand, with a ranking volley of questions that will leave the negro man shaken and terrified, a confession of the crime upon his lips?

Whole State Stirred.

All of Atlanta—most of the State—is hanging with the most intense interest on the outcome.

No other crime ever stirred Georgia to its depths as has the slaying of the little factory girl.

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Will Not Indict Jim Conley Now, Jury’s Decision

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

The Atlanta Journal

Monday, July 21, 1913

Solicitor Dorsey Makes Brief Announcement to This Effect After Grand Jury Session Lasting Over an Hour

NO ANONYMOUS LETTERS WANTED BY THE JURORS

Solicitor Dorsey Will Now Concentrate Efforts Against Having Frank Jury Drawing From Grand Jury List

Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey has for a second time blocked an attempt by members of the grand jury to indict James Conley, the negro sweeper, who confessed complicity in the Mary Phagan murder.

The grand jurymen who had called a meeting over the protest of the solicitor to consider taking up a bill against the negro listened to the prosecuting official for more than an hour Monday morning, and then authorized him to announce that the matter will not be taken up at this time.

DORSEY MAKES STATEMENT.

The solicitor wrote out his statement, which is as follows:

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Grand Jury Meets to Consider Conley Case

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 21, 1913

Protest of Solicitor Will Be Heeded

Foreman Declares Inquisitorial Body Will Not Ride “Roughshod” Over Dorsey.

With Solicitor Dorsey reaffirming his certainty that Jim Conley will not be indicted before the tral [sic] of Leo M. Frank and declaring that he will fight with all his vigor any movement in that direction, the Grand Jury members gathered in the Thrower Building Monday morning in response to the call of Foreman Beatie to decide whether they will reopen their investigation of the Phagan murder mystery.

A strong probability that no action would be taken during the day arose when it became known that there were only eighteen of the grand jurors in the city, a bare quorum. In the event that all of the eighteen did not appear, there still was the opportunity to go out and summon talesmen at random to serve on the Grand Jury, but no statement was made as to whether this legal privilege would be exercised.

No Witnesses Called.

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Alan Dershowitz’s Introduction to Dinnerstein’s The Leo Frank Case

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Dershowitz

Introduction
By Alan M. Dershowitz

The trial, conviction, death sentence and its commutation and eventual lynching of Leo Frank during the second decade of the twentieth century, constitute a major episode not only in American legal history, but also in the development of American political institutions. The Knights of Mary Phagan, formed to avenge the murder of the young factory worker for which Frank was convicted, became an important component of the twentieth century resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith was founded in reaction to the anti-Semitism generated – or at least disclosed – by the Frank case.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 29

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by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

WITH THIS audio recording, “Leo Frank Case Timeline,” we come to the final section of this important book. In combination with last week’s section setting forth the dramatis personae of this tragic, gripping tale, the listener can put the entire case in proper perspective. And over all these chapters, what an education the listener has received! — in factual accuracy and understanding of the real power vectors involved, far beyond anything even graduate-level courses in American universities, still shamefully wedded to the obviously false ADL/Jewish narrative, can offer on the subject.

In this, the twenty-ninth and last audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we begin with the historical context of the times and conclude with the publication of this book, tracing every major event in the case in chronological order. The story of the murder of Mary Phagan and the trials and lynching of Leo Frank is an important story — a story of a murder and a subsequent power struggle — that has affected the fate of black people, white people, and Jews in the United States. It is a story the final chapter of which has yet to be written. This book, if it reaches the people it should reach, will itself shape that final chapter.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 28

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Here we see Mary Phagan’s mother and sisters, looking somber sometime after their beloved Mary was killed.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THE TITLE of this section of the book — “Who’s Who in the Leo Frank Case” — might sound like it’s describing a dry, lifeless list of names. But it is not. This is a most valuable and interesting piece for every serious student of the Leo Frank case. It puts all the players into perspective, with brief but significant details about the role of each. It makes an excellent refresher as we near the end of the book. Most striking to me was the fact that, early on in the case, so many Jews — even Jews close to Leo Frank — considered him guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 27

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Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Jewish ADL: His group has pushed the highly problematic “Leo Frank is innocent” narrative for a century.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

AS WE NEAR the end of this monumental audio book, we hear the long and moving list of lynching victims, contemporaries of Leo Frank — dozens upon dozens of names, and even some poor souls without names, so unsung were they and so uninvestigated were their murders. After hearing and comprehending the magnitude of these extrajudicial killings, it will become impossible for you to believe in the mainstream media’s — and the ADL’s — emphasis on Leo Frank as the main or only lynching victim worth knowing about, or their promotion of the “Leo Frank was persecuted” narrative, ever again.

We also hear the perspicacious and intelligent take on the case from the Nation of Islam’s Historical Research Group, who authored this, the most important book on the Frank case in over 100 years. They write from the perspective of the black diaspora in America (a point of view almost never heard from on this subject in the mass media). But there are lessons for all peoples here. One might not always agree with every idea expressed by the authors, but this reader sees The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man as one of the most astonishingly honest and meticulously researched modern history books he has read. Anyone who thought that the Nation of Islam was a bunch of “ignorant haters” has just been proven spectacularly wrong.

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Protest of Solicitor Dorsey Wins

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 21, 1913

Presents Evidence Showing Indictment of Negro Would Hinder Frank Prosecution.

Here are the important developments of Monday in the Phagan case:

The decision of the Grand Jury of Fulton County not to bring at this time an indictment against James Conley.

The information that there is a strong probability of another postponement of the trial of Leo M. Frank.

The Grand Jury’s refusal to reopen its investigation of the Phagan murder mystery was a decided victory for the Solicitor after that body had overridden his request that no session be called to take up the matter in any of its aspects.

A report that Judge L.S. Roan, who will preside at the Frank trial, had signified his desire that the case be put off until fall, gave rise to the expectation that another postponement will take place, and that the date probably will be set for some week in September.

Defense Said To Be Willing.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 26

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Leo M. Frank

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THE LEO Frank case marked the maturation of — and radical changes in — the organized Jewish strategies relating to both whites and blacks in the United States. Prior to the Frank case, Jewish groups had definitely positioned themselves (whatever they privately thought, which may have been quite different) as a white ethnicity, and in the South they fully supported segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the social and legal supremacy of whites. After the Leo Frank case, however, organized Jewish interests increasingly portrayed themselves as a “persecuted minority,” suffering under widespread “anti-Semitism,” and co-victims, along with Black people, of white supremacism. But there is a great deal of evidence, some in the Frank case itself, to show that this change was strictly self-serving and insincere. For one example, we should ask ourselves: How did it serve the interests of the multitude of Black lynching victims and their loved ones for the major media outlets operated by Jews to give thousands of times more publicity to the single Jewish victim of lynching — Leo Frank — than to the hundreds upon hundreds of black people who were killed in the same way?

 

In this, the twenty-sixth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn of the brazen way in which Leo Frank himself, and the masters of mass persuasion who worked for him, literally made this sleazy convicted sex killer, abuser and murderer of a 13-year-old girl, into a messiah-like “martyr” and repeatedly compared him to Jesus.

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Dorsey Is Seeking to Be Grand Jury And Solicitor Too, Say Frank’s Counsel

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

The Atlanta Journal

Sunday, July 20, 1913

SOLICITOR SCORED FOR HIS ATTITUDE IN CONLEY’S CASE

Rosser and Arnold Charge Dorsey Seeks to Convict Frank, Guilty or Innocent, Out of Professional Pride

“SHUTTING EYES TO TRUTH, DORSEY PROTECTS NEGRO”

Attorneys Intimate That Dorsey Fears to Let Truth Be Known – Attitude Throughout Case Is Criticised

The attitude of Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey throughout the Phagan investigation, and especially in his attempt to block a grand jury indictment of Jim Conley, is scored in an interview made public by Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben R. Arnold, counsel for Leo M. Frank.

“The solicitor is seeking to convict Frank innocent or guilty, in order to gratify his professional pride,” Frank’s attorneys say.

In the course of the intetrview [sic] the two famous attorneys, who have been engaged to defend the man accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, charge that the solicitor is protecting the negro Conley.

Mr. Dorsey is severely criticised not only for his avowed intention of trying to block the indictment of Conley by the grand jury Monday, but because he prevented the last grand jury, the one, which indicted Frank, from acting on Conley’s case, and because he did not place before the last grand jury any of Conley[‘s] confessions.

Solicitor Dorsey is geeting [sic] his legal and constitutional functions in seeking to control the action of the grand judy [sic],” Attorneys Rosser and Arnold declare.

Despite the criticism of his attitude, there is little doubt that Solicitor Dorsey will be present Monday, when the grand jury takes up the consideration of the Conley case. In fact the solicitor’s presence has been requested by W.D. Beattie, the foreman of the grand jury, who called the meeting.

Solicitor Dorsey is still confident that the grand jury will not indict Conley.

There is little doubt that there will be a quorum present, when the grand jury meeting is called Monday, for Deputy Sheriff Plennie Minor has found that  19 of the 20 grand jurors empanneled [sic] are in the city, and they have promised to be present Monday. It takes 18 grand jurors to act on a bill of indictment. The statement of Mr. Rosser and Mr. Arnold, scoring the solicitor is as follows:

STATEMENT IN FULL.

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Dorsey Fights Movement to Indict Conley

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 20, 1913

Solicitor Is Bombarded With Letters to Proceed Against Negro as Slayer of Mary Phagan.

THE GRAND JURY IS CALLED

Hottest Battle of Famous Case To Be Waged Behind Closed Doors of Inquisitory Body.

Solicitor Dorsey is fighting vigorously the movement in the Grand Jury to indict Jim Conley Monday for the murder of Mary Phagan, despite the bambardment [sic] of letters from many citizens and by the sentiment of some of its own members.

It is for the consideration of these letters and petitions, asking the reopening of the Phagan matter, that the meeting has been called.

It was in the face of Solicitor Dorsey’s bitterest opposition that the meeting was called at all. Foreman Beattie issued his defi [sic] after a previous Grand Jury had been defeated in its efforts to reopen the case with a view of indicting Jim Conley and after Dorsey explicitly had expressed his strongest disapproval of such a move.

Crucial Battle Coming.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 25

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The cartoonish illustration for the Nashville Tennessean’s publication of Alonzo Mann’s “revelations” was an apt harbinger of the bad journalism to follow.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THE PROPAGANDA DISGUISED as journalism put forth by the partisans of Leo Frank has been ongoing for more than a century now. But for pure bluster, shallowness, self-promotion, and incompetence, there is none as egregious as the Nashville Tennessean’s money-fueled subsidy and promotion of the Alonzo Mann hoax in 1982.

 

In this, the twenty-fifth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we take the falsehoods the Tennessean invented — or regurgitated, some of them debunked as long ago as 1913 — in their promotion of Alonzo Mann’s contradictory tale and show them for what they are: a sad attempt to exploit a sick, old man — and rehabilitate the reputation of a sex killer (who just happened to be a B’nai B’rith official and member of a wealthy elite).

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 24

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Alonzo Mann in 1982, left, and 1913

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THERE HAS NEVER been a better refutation of the 1982 supposed testimony of Alonzo Mann “exonerating” Leo Frank of the charge of murder than in this book by the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam. They bring up the points that writers for the Mercury have brought up casting considerable doubt on Mann’s story, but add new information that, to this writer’s knowledge, has never been published before. It is the definitive deconstruction of the Mann fable, which was used in the 1980s as a bludgeon by the ADL — twice — to try and extract a pardon for Frank from the state of Georgia — something that might well be tried again now that a new governor is in place there.

 

In this, the twenty-fourth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we will also learn of the bizarre claim of a pro-Frank partisan that “bite marks” were found on the body of Mary Phagan and that the marks “did not match Leo Frank’s teeth.” No such marks were ever found; the widely circulated tale is a complete fabrication.

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Attorney for Conley Makes a Statement

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 20, 1913

“Not Necessary to Indict Negro to Close His Mouth,” Declares William Smith.

William M. Smith, attorney for Jim Conley, the negro now being held as a material witness in the Phagan murder case and whose indictment for complicity in the crime will be considered by the Grand Jury Monday, brought to the office of The Sunday American Saturday night a statement in behalf of his client.

In a letter accompanying the statement, Mr. Smith conveyed a doubt as to whether this newspaper would print what he had to say.

The attorney’s statement in full follows:

The Grand Jury list published showed the names of some men whom I know, and know they are on the square, and, if they once understand the real situation, there will be a bear fight before Jim Conley is indicted at this time.

Of course it would be great work, if the State could be forced to so indict Conley as to make his testimony legally inadmissible against Frank. What a beautiful technical advantage for the Grand Jury to work to close Conley’s mouth against Frank.

Code of Georgia, section 1035: “Confessions of conspirators. The confession of one joint offender or conspirator, made after the enterprise is ended, is admissible only against himself.”

How long would the good people of this county stand for such legal jugglery to save a brutal murderer from the gallows? It is right that both men shall talk. The Grand Jury can name Conley as a joint offender or conspirator, they can give him a “legal status,” which we have heard so much howl about for the last few days, and save Frank from the embarrassment of having to face Conley, even when he is tried. The Grand Jury may know more about what is legally proper to do in this matter than the men who have been playing this game for a living for years, but they had better move slow. We have been studying the principles underlying this fight for months, and they are fresh hands, just on the job for a few days.

It is not necessary to indict Conley to close his mouth. I can close it and help Frank to go free, and then Mr. Mincey and others of his type can be run off by the friends of Mr. Frank, and be inaccessible as witnesses when Conley is tried, and then Conley can go free. This could be done, but it won’t be. Unless they get me fired from my representation of Conley, and unless the Grand Jury fixes his “legal status” so he can’t swear, Conley will answer the roll call as a witness and tell the whole truth as he knows it. It is evident that a trade whereby Conley would close his mouth would be advantageous to both. With Mr. Mincey and others non est inventus, as I imagine they will be if they are not held after swearing, by some process, Conley could not possibly be convicted of murdering the girl himself, and with Frank free Conley could not even be indicted and punished as an accessory after the fact. Such a trade might even be made interesting to Conley’s lawyer, from a financial viewpoint. In fact, everybody but society and the administration of justice would be helped.

We are not looking for trades. Let everybody tell the whole truth, as they see it, and then let justice take its full course, unhampered by ringers or other influences, permeating either the grand or petit juries of this county. When this is done, the fiendish murder of Mary Phagan will be avenged and the civic conscience of our good people satisfied.

WILLIAM M. SMITH.

* * *

The Atlanta Georgian, July 20th 1913, “Attorney for Conley Makes a Statement,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Mincey Ready to Tell Story to Grand Jury

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

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 20, 1913

Man Who Says He Heard Negro Confess Now Is at Rising Fawn, Ga.

W.H. Mincey, the school teacher who made an affidavit declaring Jim Conley confessed to him on the afternoon of the murder of Mary Phagan that he killed a girl, will appear before the Grand Jury to repeat his startling story when that tribunal convenes Monday to consider the Phagan matter, it was reported Saturday night.

Mincey, who is now at Rising Fawn, Ga., has expressed his willingness to come to Atlanta for this purpose. His evidence, which has proved the most important of all that has come to light since Conley’s affidavit directing guilt at Frank, is considered of the greatest weight in bringing the Grand Jury to its consideration of indicting Conley.

Hugh Dorsey, Solicitor General, insisted Saturday that his every effort would be directed against the indictment of Conley.

The Solicitor will not fight in Conley’s defense except as a last resort. His chief desire is that the Grand Jury postpone action in regard to the negro until after the Frank trial.

“Conley can be indicted after the Frank trial is disposed of much more properly than at present,” said the Solicitor Saturday. “And by the delay, there will be no danger of a miscarriage of justice.”

The chief contention of the Solicitor is that with Conley indicted for the murder, and with uncertainty thus engendered, much of the force of the State’s case against Leo M. Frank will be lost. It is the insistent declaration by police, city detectives and the Solicitor’s force that a chain of direct and apparently conclusive evidence has been forged against Frank.

It is mostly for this reason that Dorsey will request the Grand Jury to keep its hands off the Conley case. The Solicitor also hinted that he holds evidence, revelation of which would prevent the Grand Jury from indicting the negro. He feels also, as he announced, that a consideration of the Phagan case at this time will bring about an indiscreet exploitation of the State’s evidence, thus revealing essential features of the prosecution’s case to the defense.

All this he will present to the Grand Jury, it is expected.

Other phases of the case discussed Saturday included the intimation that the Frank defense will ask for a trial jury drawn from the Grand Jury box, and not from the petit jury box. The legality of this procedure, according to the Solicitor, is a matter of conjecture.

The Grand Jury will meet Monday at 10 o’clock, at the call of the foreman. The body has only twenty members, and by statute a quorum of eighteen is necessary to consider the indictment or exoneration of a person. The fact that a small margin thus is left for probable absence seems to strengthen the Solicitor’s forecast that no indictment will be returned against Conley at this time.

* * *

The Atlanta Georgian, July 20th 1913, “Mincey Ready to Tell Story to Grand Jury,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 23

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William Smith, “volunteer” attorney for James Conley, who later alleged he had had a change of heart and believed Conley to be guilty.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

ATTORNEY WILLIAM SMITH traded his “free” services as a lawyer for James Conley for the influence of an agent of the William Burns detective agency, Dan Lehon, in an unrelated abduction case — illustrating either extreme naïveté or weak legal ethics on Smith’s part. Smith’s defection from advocate for Conley to accusing him of murder is a very strange about-face. But sudden about-faces abound in the Leo Frank case, especially involving people 1) who had strong evidence against Leo Frank, and 2) who subsequently had close contact with agents of the William Burns agency, who were working for Frank.

In this, the twenty-third audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we will also learn of the shameless abuse of the family and legacy of Judge Leonard Roan, who two years earlier had presided over Frank’s trial. Judge Roan was visited on his deathbed by Leo Frank’s attorneys, who, shortly after the judge’s death, produced an alleged letter from him saying he believed Frank innocent and deserved a new trial — precisely what Frank’s attorneys were trying to achieve at the time. Both internal evidence in the letter itself — and statements from Judge Roan’s own family — indicate that the letter is a forgery.

 

This new audio book, based on the Nation of Islam’s The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, the best investigative effort made on the Leo Frank case in the last 100 years, will take you on a trip into the past — to the greatest American murder mystery of all time; a mystery that will reveal to you the hidden forces that shape our world even today. Continue Reading →