Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.
Atlanta Georgian
Wednesday, May 7th, 1913
Detectives Figure Strangling Was a Typical Mediterranean Crime—Solicitor Dorsey Grills Watchman Lee in Effort to Get New Points.
A new and sensational interpretation was given the Phagan mystery Wednesday afternoon when it was revealed that Pinkerton detectives are trailing a Greek now missing who was employed in a restaurant near the National Pencil factory before the crime was committed.
The reasons that the city detectives give for the adoption of the new theory are:
The slaying of Mary Phagan was not a negro crime, as the only negro who has been suspected in the case, Newt Lee, would have fled from the scene.
The notes which were left with the evident intention of diverting suspicion from the actual criminal were too subtle for Lee to have framed.
Strangulation, the method by which Mary Phagan was killed, is not a negro method of killing.
But this method is typical of the Mediterranean countries.
Working along these new lines, the detectives are of the opinion that the crime was not committed inside the National Pencil Factory. They believe that the girl was attacked outside the factory and that her body was taken inside with the intention of hiding it ultimately in the furnace, although the body never reached there. Continue Reading →