Tag Archives: Notes

New Theory Fails to Change Course of Murder Probe

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New Theory

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

Atlanta Journal

Wednesday, May 14th, 1913

“A Local Celebrity” Is Working Out the New Theory and He Had Not Reported to the Solicitor on Wednesday

GIRL’S HANDWRITING GIVES IMPORTANT CLUE

Grand Jury to Take Up Case May 22 or 23, Says Solicitor, Criminal Court Postpones Session at Dorsey’s Request

At 2:10 Wednesday afternoon Solicitor Dorsey announced that the grand jury would take up the Phagan case on Thursday, the 22d, or Friday, the 23d, unless something intervened to make it inadvisable. At that time bills will be presented against Leo M. Frank and the negro, Newt Lee, for the grand jury’s consideration.

Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey had received no report Wednesday from the person who is working on the new theory in the Phagan murder mystery. He is continuing his examination of many witnesses, some of whom testified at the inquest, and it is now apparent that the new theory, however plausible, has not turned the investigation from its old course.

One man, whom the solicitor terms “a local celebrity,” is working on the new theory alone, and the solicitor made no intimation as to the time this man is expected to make his report.

The investigation is dragging and Wednesday Mr. Dorsey said again that he was not ready to state when he would present the names of Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, the two men held by the coroner’s jury, to the grand jury.

WILL POSTPONE COURT.

The solicitor, his assistant and attaches of his office are so busy with the Phagan investigation that an effort was made to postpone the regular session of the criminal division of the superior court, which is slated to begin on next Monday.

At 2 o’clock it was definitely decided to postpone the session of the criminal court until the week beginning May 26 to permit the solicitor more time to work on the Phagan case. Continue Reading →

Clue is Sought in Handwriting of Mary Phagan

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Clue is Sought

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

Atlanta Constitution

Wednesday, May 14th, 1913

Reporter of The Constitution Is Summoned by Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey for Conference.

OFFICIALS INVESTIGATE THEORY OF MYSTERY

Much Interest Is Created by the Report That a New Arrest May Be Made in the Near Future.

The handwriting of Mary Phagan is likely to play a prominent part in the investigation of her murder. Rumors came Tuesday from the solicitor general’s office that new clues had been discovered in the form of notes or letters, and that much energy was being concentrated in investigation along that line.

Handwriting experts have been summoned before Mr. Dorsey this morning. A reporter for The Constitution who has several specimens of the murdered girl’s handwriting has also been ordered to appear at the solicitor’s office this morning at 10 o’clock.

It is reported that mysterious notes have been found by a number of the solicitor’s staff, and that Mr. Dorsey’s object is to identify, by the specimens in the reporter’s possession, the Phagan girl’s script. It also has been advanced that the strange notes caused the new theory on which the solicitor is working.

Mr. Dorsey and his entire office staff is unusually reticent about the rumored clues. He will neither deny or affirm the report that notes or letters of any character pertaining to the mystery have been discovered.

“To talk at present,” he said, “would be disastrous. We must have time to verify our theory.”

Dorsey Interviews Mrs. Barrett.

Mrs. Mary Barrett, a woman who is said to have been in the pencil factory the Saturday afternoon that Mary Phagan disappeared, was summoned before Mr. Dorsey Tuesday afternoon. She came with her daughter, a pretty little girl, who was present during her mother’s examination. Continue Reading →

Stains of Blood on Shirt Fresh, Says Dr. Smith

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Stains of Blood on Shirt Fresh

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

Atlanta Constitution

Thursday, May 8th, 1913

City Bacteriologist Makes His Report After Examination of Garment of Negro Which Was Found in Trash Barrel.

LEE’S CELLMATE MAY TESTIFY AT INQUEST

Witness Spent 24 Hours in Same Cell With Phagan Prisoner — Body of Girl Exhumed for Second Time.

DAY’S DEVELOPMENTS IN PHAGAN MYSTERY

Dr. Claude Smith, city bacteriologist, completes examination of negro’s blood-stained shirt, and finds that the blood stains are new.

Body of Mary Phagan was exhumed shortly after noon on Wednesday for the purpose of making a second examination.

Mrs. Mattie Smith, wife of one of the mechanics who were last men to leave pencil factory, tells detectives that shortly before 1 o’clock, when she left the building, she saw strange negro near elevator.

Bill Bailey, negro convict who was placed in cell with Newt Lee for twenty-four hours, now at liberty, and will probably be called upon at inquest today to testify.

Leo Frank will be placed upon the stand again today at 9:30 o’clock, when the coroner’s inquest is resumed.

Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey holds a long conference in cell with Newt Lee, but declines to tell what passed.

Detectives announce they are searching for a Greek, who is now believed to be in Alabama.

Chief Lanford declares that somebody is blocking Phagan investigation, silencing witnesses, and “planting” evidence.

The report of Dr. Claude A. Smith’s analysis of the bloodstains on the shirt found in the home of Newt Lee, who is held in connection with the Mary Phagan murder, has been submitted to the detective department. It reveals that the stains were caused by human blood, not more than a month old. Continue Reading →

The Case of Mary Phagan

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The Case of Mary Phagan

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

Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, May 4th, 1913

At the top is a sketch made by Henderson from the last photograph taken of little Mary Phagan, the 14-year-old girl of tragedy. Below is a photograph of her mother and step-father, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Coleman, and her sister, Miss Ollie Phagan. The other picture was taken at the funeral.

Could you walk for hours in the heart of Atlanta without seeing a person you know?

What did Atlanta detectives do to keep murderer from “planting” evidence against suspects?

Are all the men who have been held as suspects marked men for the rest of their lives as the result of a caprice of circumstance?

This not the story of Mary Phagan. It is a story about the story of Mary Phagan.

All of the story of little Mary Phagan that can be learned has been told simply and without further sensation than the facts themselves afforded in the columns of The Atlanta Constitution from the time of this paper’s exclusive story of the grewsome discovery of the girl’s body last Sunday morning. It is, therefore, not for this story to shed light on the case, but merely to point out and discuss a few of the extraordinary phases of the most extraordinary case that has ever shocked a city. Continue Reading →

Handwriting of Notes is Identified as Newt Lee’s

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Handwriting of Notes is Identified as Newt Lee'sAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

F. M. Berry, one of the most important witnesses of the afternoon, identified the handwriting on the notes found near Mary Phagan’s body as practically the same as that of Newt Lee, who wrote a test note for the detectives.

Mr. Berry said that he had been connected with the Fourth National Bank for 22 years and is at present assistant cashier. During these 22 years he said that he had studied handwriting continually. He was given both notes found by the body of the girl and was asked if they were written by the same person. He said they were.

He then was given another of other notes and asked to pick out the one written by the same person that had written the notes found by the body of the dead girl. He selected two and said that they had been written by the same person that had written those discovered beside the girl. Berry was dismissed and Detective Starnes called. Continue Reading →

Writing Test Points to Negro

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Writing Test Points to NegroAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday, April 30th, 1913

Experts Declare Note Written by Lee Resembles That Found Near Slain Girl.

Handwriting experts said to-day that they were able to determine a resemblance between the handwriting of Newt Lee, the negro watchman in the National Pencil factory, and that in the mysterious notes found by the body of Mary Phagan in the basement of the factory.

They were of the opinion that the negro wrote both notes, as they asserted that many of the peculiarities in the handwriting of Lee were found in the messages that lay in the dirty basement.

The Georgian already had drawn attention to the probability that the negro wrote the notes, or directed them written to divert suspicion.

That the notes were written to throw suspicion on another was suggested by the wording of one of the notes which, as deciphered by a Georgian reporter, was as follows:

‘He told me he wood love me laid down play like the night watch did but that long tall black negro did it by his self.”

The theory immediately arose that Lee wrote the notes to turn suspicion on another negro that had been about the building either from himself or from another person he was trying to shield.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 30th 1913, “Writing Test Points to Negro,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Tells of Watchman Lee ‘Explaining’ the Notes

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Tells of Watchman Lee 'Explaining' the NotesAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Wednesday April 30th, 1913

Sergeant L. S. Dobbs was the third witness. He said he answered the call to the pencil company plant Sunday morning.

Q.—Did you find an umbrella? A.—No. Lassiter did.

Q.—Did you find the notes there? A.—One of them.

He then identified the two notes.

Q.—Were you at the plant when Lassiter found the umbrella? A.—No; he found them about 7 o’clock.

Q.—Where did you find the body? A.—About 150 feet from the elevator shaft.

Q.—Did you examine the body? Continue Reading →

Seek Clew in Queer Words in Odd Notes

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Seek Clue in Queer Words in Odd NotesAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29th, 1913

Who Would Be the Most Interested in Saying That the Night Watchman Did Not Do It?

While the tendency of the police straight through has seemed to be to doubt that Mary Phagan, the murdered girl, really wrote the small notes found beside her body purporting to give a clew to her murderer, the girl’s stepfather, W.J. Coleman, thinks it possible that she may have written one of the scrawls.

That one is the note written on the little yellow factory slip—so faintly traced it is almost impossible to read it. It is the one that says:

mama that negro hired down

here did this I went to get water

and he pushed me down this hole

a long tall negro black that has it

woke long lean tall negro I write

while play with me.

“Somehow, it looks like her handwriting to me,” said Mr. Coleman. “But, of course I can not be sure. Now, about the other note I am doubtful. It seems to be written too well for the child to have done it in the almost insensible condition she must have been in at the time. Whether she wrote either of the notes of her own accord, though, or whether she was forced to do it by her murderer to turn suspicion from himself, of course is mere speculation. Only time can tell, if anything.” Continue Reading →

Gant [sic] Was Infatuated With Girl; at Factory Saturday

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gant_infatuated

At the right is Miss Ruth Phagan, aunt of Mary Phagan, and in her arms is Miss Ollie Phagan, sister of the victim, whom she is trying to comfort.

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

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Gant [sic] was arrested on a warrant sworn out, in Judge Powers’ court, charging him with murder.

Gant was last seen before his arrest at 8:45 this morning by Herbert Schiff, assistant superintendent of the factory. A few minutes later he was on a car bound for Marietta.

The officers in Marietta were notified by telephone and were on the watch for a man answering Gant’s description.

The detectives began to spread their nets for Gant on significant stories coming from half a dozen different sources.

All were to the effect that Gant had tried on many occasions to pay attentions to the little girl, and that his infatuation for her was evident even in the factory.

Continue Reading →

Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling Case

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Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling CaseAnother in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Two mysterious notes—incoherent, misspelled and unintelligible—were found in the cellar of death;

Were they written by the girl as she lay in delirium just before the end came, or

Were they written by her slayer to throw the police off the track and turn suspicion towards a negro?

Here they are:

“He said he wood love me laid down like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro did by his sleb.”

“mama that negro hired down here did this I went to get water and he pushed me down this hole a long tall negro black that has it woke long lean tall negro I write while play with me.”

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Atlanta Georgian, April 28th 1913, “Incoherent Notes Add to Mystery in Strangling Case,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Police Question Factory Superintendent

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Police Question Factory Superintendent

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

STRAND OF HAIR CLEW IN KILLING OF PHAGAN GIRL

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Body of Mary Phagan Is Found in Basement of Old Granite Hotel in Forsyth Street—Mute Evidence of Terrible Battle Victim Made for Life

WHITE YOUTH AND NEGRO ARE HELD BY THE POLICE

After Being Beaten Into Insensibility Child Was Strangled and Dragged With Cord Back and Forth Across Floor—Incoherent Notes a Clew.

Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company plant, in which Mary Phagan was employed, was taken to police court this morning by Detective Black to tell what he knows in connection with the girl’s death. The police say he is not under arrest.

At the same time Geron Bailey, the negro elevator boy employed in the factory, was arrested. One theory names Bailey as the man to whom the incoherent letters apply that were found by the side of the dead girl, and that evidently were written in an effort to describe her assailant.

Policemen Mack, Phillips and Starnes went to the factory this morning upon the statement that blood and matted hair, evidence of a terrible struggle had been found on the third floor of the factory. It was on this visit that they summoned Frank and arrested Bailey.

They conducted a minute investigation of the signs of the struggle of the third floor, going so far as to tear up several sections of the plank flooring in their inspection.

A new and terrifying turn was given the gruesome Mary Phagan strangling mystery to-day when strands of blood-matted hair were found in a lathing machine on the third floor of the National Pencil Company’s factory, 37-39 South Forsyth Street. Continue Reading →