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

Atlanta Georgian

Thursday, May 1^st, 1913

O. H. Clark, in charge of the check room at the Terminal Station, is convinced that the girl who created a scene there last week, when the man she was with attempted to board a train, was Mary Phagan.

Clark came out to-day with a story that substantiates, in part at least, the story told by the two station guards who watched the couple’s peculiar actions.

Clark asserts that the incident occurred on Saturday rather than Friday, and the man, when he finally abandoned his trip at the girl’s expostulations, went to the check room and put in his traveling bag.

Clark says he remembers distinctly that the identification tag on the bag bore the mark of the “National Pencil Company.”

New Evidence is Favorable to Mullinax.

Further evidence favorable to Arthur Mullinax, one of the suspects held in connection with the Phagan mystery, developed to-day when D. W. Adams, a street car conductor, asserted that E. L. Sentell, on whose identification Mullinax has been held, admitted immediately after the inquest that he was not sure that he saw Mullinax with Mary Phagan on Saturday night.

Adams said that Sentell seemed in doubt as to whether the girl with Mullinax was Mary Phagan or Pearl Robinson, Mullinax’s sweetheart.

It has been shown that Pearl Robinson, on Saturday night when she accompanied Mullinax to the theater, was dressed much like Mary Phagan.

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Atlanta Georgian, May 1st 1913, “Terminal Official Certain He Saw Girl,” 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

Thursday May 1^st, 1913

Pearl Robison, the pretty 16-year-old sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, came nobly to his defense with testimony that corroborated that suspect’s alibi. She was placed on the stand late in the afternoon.

“Do you know Arthur Mullinax?”

“I am well acquainted with him.”

“Do you go with him?”

“Yes!”

“Were you with him Saturday?”

“Yes! At supper and to the theater.”

“What time did you get home?”

“About 10:30 o’clock.”

“Was he with you at that time?”

“He was.”

“Did he go in when you returned home?”

“No. He left for his home.”

“Did you know Mary Phagan?”

“I never saw her.”

“Had you ever heard of her?”

“Yes. A lot.”

“How?”

“She was a topic of neighborhood praise for her appearance in the Christmas performance in the Jefferson street church last year. She played the part of ‘Sleeping Beauty.’”

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Atlanta Constitution, May 1st 1913, “Pretty Young Sweetheart Comes To the Aid of Arthur Mullinax,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Miss Pearl Robinson, sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, the man questioned by the police in connection with the slaying of Mary Phagan. Her story cleared Mullinax of any suspicion of complicity in the crime which has shocked Atlanta.

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

Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, April 29^th, 1913

Brave little Pearl Robinson!

Her loyalty and devotion to Arthur Mullinax, one of the four men held in connection with the brutal strangling of Mary Phagan, form the only bright feature in a sordid and revolting crime.

What did she care for the stares of the groups of people that hung about the detective headquarters when the life of her lover appeared to be in danger?

What did she care for the remarks that were directed at her when she pushed and shoved her way through the morbid crowds awaiting for a new sensation?

What difference did it make to her that her name instantly would be on the lips of everyone as the defendant of a man pointed out by one witness as the mysterious person with little Mary Phagan the last time she was seen alive?

Love Gave Her Courage.

It was the ages-old story of a woman’s heart refusing to believe any ill of the man to whom it is pledged and devoted.

In the young heart of pretty Pearl Robinson was implanted that eternally feminine and eternally remarkable attribute as deeply as though she were twice her 16 years.

She knew Arthur Mullinax, liked him, probably loved him with the implicit trust of a woman. He had been good to her, kind to her and always gentle and courteous. That was enough. He could not have been guilty of the terrible deed that has shocked a community as it has not been shocked in years.

And she was not afraid to tell to the world her confidence in the innocence of the man toward whom the wavering and shifting finger of suspicion had pointed at various times since the authorities began following out the many clews of the baffling mystery.

She was astounded, overcome, when she read that Mullinax had been held in connection with the gruesome killing. How could they associate him with such an act—that of a fiend and beast? When the first shock had passed she was all action. She would tell the officers their mistake. She had no sooner made up her mind than she proceeded to carry out her intention.

“Arthur Did Not Do It!”

A few minutes later she was in the office of Chief of Detectives Lanford. She was surrounded by sharp-eyed and keen-minded detectives. That did not disconcert her in the least. She trembled from the thoughts of the terrible crime with which the name of her lover had been linked, but not from any fear of the guilt of him she had come to defend.

“Arthur did not commit that awful deed,” she told Chief Lanford, in a positive and not-to-be-contradicted manner.

That settled it. She had said the final word. Of course, she went on and told of his movements on the night of the tragedy, and with the aid of his landlady established a very strong alibi. But that was incidental in her mind. All that mattered and was of consequence was what her heart told her—“Arthur did not do it.”

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Atlanta Georgian, April 29th 1913, “Loyalty Sends Girl to Defend Mullinax,” 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, April 29^th, 1913

That Mary Phagan never left the factory after she entered it at 12:15 o’clock Saturday, the day of her murder, and that she was killed and her body dragged into the basement by the negro night watchman, Newt Lee, now in jail, is the firm belief of the child’s stepfather, W. J. Coleman, and other members of her family.

As for Arthur Mullinax, former street car conductor, held on suspicion, Mr. Coleman told a Georgian reporter he thought him innocent of the crime. He was also very doubtful if J. M. Gant [sic], ex-bookkeeper for the pencil factory, where the girl worked, had anything to do with her murder or knew anything about it.

“If the negro watchman did not kill the child, how would it have been impossible for him to hear her screams going on in the building?” he asked.  “A livery stable man next door heard them, and it would have been much easier for the watchman to. If the black did not do it himself, then he must have known something about it, and who the person was who did it.”

Outlines Theory of Murder.

Scene at Phagan funeral. In front are Benjamin Phagan, brother of Mary Phagan, who came from New York, where he is stationed on a United States battleship; and Miss Ollie Phagan, sister of the dead girl. In the rear are friends of Mary. The photograph was snapped at Bloomfield’s morgue as the body was leaving for Marietta to-day.

Then, in broken tones, for he had just returned from making all arrangements for taking the girl’s body to Marietta, Ga., to be buried, he outlined his idea of how she met her death.

“When Mary turned from the window after receiving her money,” he said, “I think that, instead of going directly out, she went to the dressing room, perhaps for a drink of water, as one of the notes found said. Superintendent Frank, missing her when he came out and supposing she had left the building, locked her in. The negro watchman must have seen her go into the dressing room, and a little later seized her and gagged her.”

Later developments in the story go to show that the spot where the child’s hair was found caught on a steel lathe was not the scene of her struggle with her assailant. In the dressing room, it was said by a member of her family, there were plain evidences that the attack was made.  She was also gagged in the room, for a strip of her new lavender dress was cut off from the front and bound around her mouth to keep her from screaming.

Ribbon Found Near Boiler.

Another bit of evidence, it was said, that went to throw added suspicion on the black was a bow of the child’s blue ribbon and a handkerchief found down near the boiler, where he constantly stayed.

“The negro evidently kept the child in the factory all day,” Mr. Coleman said, “and was afraid to attack her until midnight for fear she would scream or somebody would come. He may or may not have knocked her senseless from the first, or he may have tied her. I do not know, but when Gant entered the shop it is more than likely that he knew nothing of the girl’s presence there and simply went up and got his shoes, as he said, and went out again.

“All this about Mary having been seen on the street at midnight or at any other time after 12 o’clock in the day I do not think can be true. I believe she remained all day in the building. After the negro did the work, he was afraid to leave or not to notify the police, which would make appearances worse for him. Therefore, he called the officers.”

Now Clears Mullinax.

Mr. Coleman said he had at first given credence to a report that Mary had come home at 6 o’clock Saturday afternoon, and that Mullinax meeting her as she got off of the car, had taken her back to town with him. This report, Mr. Coleman said, turned out to be untrue. The conductor had made a mistake, and the girl Mullinax was with was Miss Pearl Robinson, of Bellwood, as he swore in jail.

This was corroborated by the conductor himself, J. C. Horne, 11 Coral Place, on whose car the reporter rode out to the Coleman home on Lindsay Street. The conductor said that Mullinax and Miss Robinson had taken his car out and, knowing Mullinax, he had talked with him and the girl, who at that time he thought was Mary Phagan. When Mullinax and Miss Robinson reached their corner Mullinax remarked that it was a bit chilly and he was going home to build a fire. It was later that they returned to the theater, the conductor said, but on whose car he did not know.

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Atlanta Georgian, April 29th 1913, “Negro Watchman is Accused by Slain Girl’s Stepfather,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)