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

Atlanta Constitution
August 3^rd, 1913

Despite the throng that has gathered each day around the courthouse where a man is on trial for his life, and despite the number of people who have crowded in to fill every seat, there has been on the whole good order in the courtroom, due to the vigilance of the deputies in charge.

Sheriff C. W. Mangum sits daily in the room and with him are practically every deputy and bailiff that the courtrooms afford. To handle the large crowd and to take care of the entrance all of them are needed. In charge of the men is a deputy who has figured in practically every sensational trial in Atlanta for a number of years and whose knife with which he raps for order and tiny rose which he wears on his lapel are known to every court attendant in Atlanta. He is Plennie Miner, deputy sheriff in charge of the criminal division of the Fulton superior court and a master-craftsman in handling crowds, enforcing order and yet doing it in such a way as to avoid giving offense.

Liddell Second in Charge.

Drew Liddell, another one of the sheriff’s deputies, is second in charge, and there are in addition a number of city and county policemen who keep the crowds on the outside from clustering around the doorway.

The task that the deputies have is a big one each hour on account of the interest in the case and the length to which some of the spectators will go to obtain a choice seat. Should one of the lawyers or others directly interested in the trial leave his seat inside the railing for a moment someone is sure to watch for the deputy nearby to turn his back and then make a sudden dive for that seat. When one of the newspaper men goes to the telephone the same thing nearly always happens, and to prevent disorder and keep things moving the deputies have to keep constantly on the alert.

That it is only a certain element that will do this, of course, makes it easier for the men upon whom devolves the duty of keeping order, for if every one were like the husky that climbed through the window the other day, the task would indeed be hard.

Deputy Miner’s Statement.

That the deputies appreciate the efforts of a great number of the spectators to keep order and desire to ask that others do the same is shown by the statement which Deputy Miner gave out Saturday:

“As the first week of the Frank trial is nearing an end, I desire to express the gratefulness I feel to the public for its kind consideration of the conditions and circumstances which have crowded the place daily.

“Only 250 persons can be seated in the improvised courtroom, and the public, realizing this fact, has refrained from attempting to attend the sessions. Of course, the place has been filed each day, but not to overflowing.

“Sheriff Mangum has been in constant attendance with all the deputies of his staff. Attached to this force has been a sufficient number of [b]ailiffs from other sources. The county police also have been an invaluable aid to handling the crowds. I wish to extend thanks to the city police, without whom we would probably have suffered.

“But, above all, the public, realizing the situation, has acted in such a considerate manner that I wish to give my sincerest thanks to every one who, for a single instance, contributed one iota toward our assistance.

“Gratefully,

(Signed.) “PLENNIE MINER.”

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The Atlanta Constitution, August 3rd 1913, “Good Order Kept in Court by Vigilance of Deputies,” 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
July 31^st, 1913

He Raps With the Barlow Blade and Waves the Oriflamed Kerchief Judiciously.

Plennie Minor, chief deputy sheriff, has a man’s sized job on his hands and he handles it with the aid of a red bandanna handkerchief and a pocketknife.

More formidable armament has been invented, but the oriflammed kerchief and the barlow blade are all that Plennie Miner requires to perform a duty that many would deem arduous, all of which shows that the deputy sheriff is a man of resource and ability.

It is his job to keep order in Judge Roan’s courtroom, while Leo Frank is being tried as the slayer of Mary Phagan. It’s a real job, when it is considered that during each day at least two thousand persons attend the trial or try to and each one looks to Plennie Minor, to see to their personal accommodation.

Everything is Up to Him.

Minor is a public officer, ergo a public servant, and the public expects him therefore to attend to all its wants from a seat beneath an electric fan to a drink of ice water.

In the old days before Democratic simplicity and grape juice became popular in the public mind, Minor would have been equipped with a periwig and a mace. These things were supposed to impress on everyone the majesty of the law.

A red bandanna can never rank with a periwig as an emblem of authority. A pocketknife is hardly in the mace’s class.

But Minor keeps the law’s supremacy as firmly fixed as the rock of Gibraltar, which shows there is considerably more to him than the bandanna and the knife.

When he wipes his rather high brow with the bandanna, spectators at the Frank trial turn toward him with respect. When he raps on a chair leg with his knife, half the courtroom is as quiet as a drum with a hole in it.

And if the bandanna and the knife are not performing their duties efficaciously, Minor has other resources. If the spectators wish to titter or to squirm, Minor makes an oration after he has flourished the bandanna and played the long roll with the knife. He tells the spectators that a courtroom is no place for merry quip, that laughing is entirely as out of place at a murder trial as orange blossoms are at a funeral, and he’ll be gosh dinged—or words to that effect—if he will have it.

His methods are thorough. They get results. This is proved by the fact that he is called on to officiate at every hearing in which the public interest is great.

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

Atlanta Journal
July 27^th, 1913

Genial Deputy Sheriff Will Have Seats for Only 250 People, and Hates to Think He Won’t Be Able to Accommodate Everybody, for That’s His Disposition

Plennie Minor is going to have the hardest job in Fulton county during the next two weeks.

Plennie (he doesn’t allow people to call him Mr. Minor, for he is everybody’s friend) is a Fulton county deputy sheriff and has the arduous task of keeping order in the court room while the Frank case is in progress. Incidentally, he will have to look out for witnesses and prisoners, and generally be the handy man about the trial.

Probably the worst job coming to him will be to keep the crowds out.

There are seats in the court room for 250 people and after they are filled everybody will be barred.

Plennie hates not to accommodate anybody, and declares that he wishes every man who wants to hear the trial could get a seat. But they cannot, and it would be a serious handicap to the progress of the trial if people were allowed to stand in the narrow aisles and in the doorways. Besides, Judge Roan has given instructions that people not be allowed in the court room after the seats are filled.

An efficient corps of bailiffs will be placed on each door and Plennie declares that he is going to see that perfect order is maintained throughout the trial of the case.

Deputy Minor was in charge of the court during the trial of Mrs. Daisy Grace and during other famous criminal trials, and as the result of his work he has received many compliments not only from Judge Roan, but from Judge Thomas and other visiting judges, who have presided here.

Especially hard will be the job of keeping out the crowds on the first day of the Frank trial, for then only a hundred spectators can be seated in the court, as there must be seats for the 144 veniremen who have been drawn.