Lemmie Quinn, foreman, who testified that he visited the factory and talked to Mr. Frank just after Mary Phagan is supposed to have left with her pay envelope. He was given a searching examination by the coroner Thursday, but stuck to his statement.

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

Atlanta Journal

Thursday, May 8^th, 1913

Lemmie Quinn, the Factory Foreman, Was Put Through a Grilling Examination, but He Steadily Maintained That He Visited the Factory Shortly After the Time Mary Phagan is Supposed to Have Left With Her Pay Envelope

FRANK’S TREATMENT OF GIRLS IN FACTORY DESCRIBED AS UNIMPEACHABLE BY ONE YOUNG LADY EMPLOYEE

Mr. Frank’s Manner at the Time He Was Informed of the Tragedy by Officers at His Home on Sunday Morning is Told of by Former Policeman — Both Frank and the Negro Night Watchman Are Expected to Testify During Afternoon, When Inquest Will Be Concluded

The coroner’s inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan adjourned at 12:55 o’clock Thursday to meet again at 2:30. At the hour of adjournment, six witnesses had testified. They were “Boots” Rogers, former county policeman; Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the pencil factory; Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee of the factory; Miss Hattie Hall, stenographer; J. L. Watkins and Miss Daisy Jones. L. M. Frank and Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, were both present at headquarters during the morning session, but neither had been recalled to the stand when recess was ordered. Both are expected to testify during the afternoon, when an effort will be made to conclude the inquest and return a verdict.

Though put through a searching examination by the coroner in an effort to break down his statement that he had visited the factory on the day of the tragedy shortly after noon just after Mary Phagan is supposed to have received her pay envelope and left, Quinn stuck to his story. He declared that he had recalled his visit to Mr. Frank, and that Mr. Frank told him he was going to communicate the fact to his lawyers.

“Boots” Rogers testified that Mr. Frank had changed the tape in the time clock while the officers were in the factory Sunday morning after the body of Mary Phagan had been found, and that he stated at the time that the sheet he took from the clock seemed to be correct. Rogers also described Mr. Frank’s manner when the officers went to his home in an automobile to take him to the factory Sunday morning.

Miss Daisy Jones, who was mistaken for Mary Phagan by J. L. Watkins. She was a witness before the coroner Thursday. G. W. Epps, the boy who came to town with Mary Phagan on the day of the tragedy and left her on her way to the factory [right].

Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee in the factory, testified that Mr. Frank’s treatment of the girls in the factory was unimpeachable. She also testified that she had met Lemmie Quinn at a restaurant near the factory near the noon hour Saturday, her statement being confirmatory of his visit to the factory on the fatal day. J. L. Watkins testified that he had mistaken Miss Daisy Jones for Mary Phagan when he thought he saw Mary on the street near her home on Saturday afternoon about 5 o’clock. Miss Jones testimony was also in this connection.

NEW WITNESSES CALLED.

Following a conference between Solicitor General Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor General Stephens and Chief of Detectives Lanford, just after the inquest recessed for lunch, it was learned that Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee would be recalled at the afternoon session and that there would be the following new witnesses: Miss Alice Wood, of 8 Corput street; Miss Nellie Pitts, of 9 Oliver street, and Mrs. C. D. Dunnegan [sic], of 165 West Fourteenth street.

Rogers Describes Mr. Frank’s Manner When Told of Tragedy

“Boots” Rogers, formerly a county policeman, was the first witness. Mr. Rogers said that he lived at 100 McDonough road. He was at the police station at 3 o’clock on the morning of April 27, he said, when a call came from the factory of the National Pencil company. The officers responded to the call in his automobile, he declared. Those who went with him were Police Sergeants Brown and Dobbs, Call Officer Anderson and Britt Craig, a newspaper reporter.

Mr. Craig was the first person to enter the basement, the witness said. He (Mr. Rogers) entered second; Dobbs and Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, bringing up the rear. All saw the body about the same time, Mr. Rogers said.

George W. Epps

The witness said that the girl’s body was lying face down, with the hands folded beneath the body. The body was turned over by Police Sergeant Dobbs, he said.

Rogers continued that they found two notes near the body. The first note, found by Sergeant Dobbs, was on white scratch paper and on a tablet lying face down. The sheet with the note on it was detached and fell off when the tablet was picked up. It was lying about a foot from the body’s right shoulder. Another note was found later, written on a yellow order blank of the factory, lying about a foot from the feet of the body. Rogers wasn’t sure whether he or Sergeant Dobbs noticed that first. He didn’t notice a sharpened pencil nearby. There were a number of stubs, but none sharpened that he saw.

Asked “Who telephoned Mr. Frank that the girl was dead?” he said no one did as nearly as he remembered—that Detective Starnes telephoned Mr. Frank later in the morning to come down to the factory.

About two or three minutes after the first officers arrived with him, said Rogers, they were admitted to the factory. They saw the negro night watchman, Newt Leet, through the glass door, coming down the stairs with his lantern.

“She’s down in the basement—she’s down in the basement,” Rogers aid the negro told them first. He showed them the way down, indicating the trap door and the ladder. Britt Craig, a newspaper man, went first, and was followed by the witness, then by Sergeant Dobbs of the police, and last by the negro.

Everything was in gloom, though a gas jet was burning dimly at the foot of the ladder.

NEGRO WASN’T EXCITED.

“Look out, white folks, you’ll step on her,” the witness said the negro exclaimed when they started toward the rear of the basement. The negro took the lead then, with his lantern, and led them to the body. The negro’s manner was as cool as that of a man would be under the circumstances, said the witness. The negro wasn’t excited. “He was being questioned by all of us,” said the witness. He answered questions promptly.

“How did you happen to find the body?” the witness said was one of the questions put to the negro. He repeated the negro’s answer—of how he was making his rounds, and entered the basement, and by the dim rays of his lantern noticed a suspicious looking object on the ground near the back. “Somebody’s put that there to try to scare me,” the negro said he remarked to himself, going over to see closer. The body was revealed and he hurried back upstairs to telephone the police.

BODY FOUND FACE DOWN.

The witness said that Sergeant Dobbs asked the negro how the body was lying when he found it. The negro’s answer was “on its face.” “Did you turn it over?” the negro was asked; and answered “no sir, I didn’t touch it.”

This point of the evidence was in conflict with previous testimony by the negro himself, who swore at the inquest that when he found the body it was lying on its back face up, with its head toward the back door—exactly the reverse of the position in which the officers found it.

Rogers, the witness, said that the body was lying on its face, hand folded beneath it, when he and the officers first saw it. The negro stuck to the same story while answering all the questions, said the witness. After about ten minutes Sergeant Dobbs ordered that the negro be held under arrest. The negro was taken upstairs by Call Officer Anderson. The rest of them looked around for the girl’s left shoe, which was missing from the body.

Officer Anderson and the negro went upstairs first alone. Twenty or thirty minutes later the witness went up and found the officer and the negro sitting in the office. Anderson was trying to telephone to some of “the factory folks,” said the witness. The negro was sitting nearby in silence. Some one suggested that the officer telephoned to Mr. Frank, the superintendent, at his home. Anderson tried to get Mr. Frank’s number. There was no answer. Anderson talked to the operator, and told her something very serious had happened and that the call was urgent; and Anderson said he heard the persistent ringing that followed.

IDENTIFIED AS MARY PHAGAN.

While he and Sergeant Dobbs had been moving about downstairs, looking for the girl’s shoes, said Rogers, they found the staple on the back door pulled, and pushed the door back and went out into the alley, searching it to Hunter street for some clue. Rogers then went away to find some one to identify the body, said he. The shoe was found by somebody else later. He went to 100 McDonough road, said he, to get Miss Grace Hix, a relative of his own, whom he knew to be employed in the factory. He brought Miss Hix back with him in the automobile, and she identified the body as that of Mary Phagan. Miss Hix sought first to telephone to Mary’s mother, Mrs. J. W. Coleman, but there was no phone in the Coleman home, so she telephoned instead to the home of another girl, Miss Ferguson, and got Mrs. Ferguson, and asked her to go over and break the news to Mrs. Coleman.

MR. FRANK NOTIFIED.

Mr. Rogers said that Detective Starnes, who had been summoned to the factory, called Mr. Frank over the telephone shortly after 6 o’clock. The witness said that he drove Detective Black to Mr. Frank’s home, and that Mrs. Frank, wearing a heavy bathrobe, came to the door. He said that Mr. Frank stood in the hall, fully dressed except his collar and tie.

The witness said that Mr. Frank appeared nervous and excited and asked whether the night watchman had reported to the police that something had happened at the factory. Mr. Rogers said that neither he nor Mr. Black answered.

The witness said that Mr. Frank remarked that a drink of whiskey would do him good and that Mrs. Frank said there was none in the house, but insisted that Mr. Frank get some breakfast before going out. However, they hurried to the undertaking establishment, the witness said.

Mr. Rogers said that on the way to the undertaker’s establishment, Mr. Frank remarked that he had dreamed he had heard his telephone ring about daybreak. Detective Black asked Mr. Frank whether he knew Mary Phagan, the witness said, Mr. Frank replying that he didn’t know whether he did or not.

The witness said that Mr. Frank did not go into the room in which the Phagan child’s body lay.

Mr. Frank remarked, the witness said, that he could refer to his payroll and see whether Mary Phagan worked at the pencil factory.

“Was Mr. Frank steady or trembling at the undertaking establishment?” was asked Mr. Rogers.

“I couldn’t say,” he answered.

Mr. Frank suggested that they go to the factory, the witness said. At the factory, the witness said, they found a number of detectives and policemen and Mr. Darley, an official of the factory, who had been summoned. They went upstairs, the witness aid, to the office and Mr. Frank referred to the payroll, saying that Mary Phagan worked there and that she had been paid $1.20 the day before, shortly after 12 o’clock.

ELEVATOR AT SECOND FLOOR.

The witness said that Mr. Frank then asked if the pay envelope had been found, remarking that it must be around somewhere. They went to the basement in the elevator, which stood at the second floor, the witness said. Mr. Frank switched the current and there was some delay in getting the elevator to work. The fire doors of the elevator were open at this time, Mr. Rogers said, but he didn’t remember whether they were open or closed when he went to the factory the first time.

The elevator was run to the basement, the witness said and Mr. Frank was shown where the body had been found.

CHANGED TAPE IN CLOCK.

When he returned from the basement, said the witness, he sat in Mr. Frank’s inner office with the negro , Lee. Mr. Frank stayed in outer office, but came in twice where he and negro were, and, on the second trip, Mr. Frank looked at the negro and shook his head and said, “Too bad!”

Mr. Frank asked repeatedly if the officers were through with him, saying he wanted to go out and get a cup of coffee, but no opportunity to get the coffee arose. After a while, said the witness, after Mr. Frank had been through the building with Chief of Detectives Lanford, Mr. Frank suggested that they change the tape in the time clock. Mr. Frank took a key to the clock, which he wore on a ring at his belt, and opened the clock with it and removed the time slip and laid it down by the clock. He then went back into his office and got a blank slip. He asked one of the officers standing near to hold back a little lever while he inserted this slip. The lever knocked against a little pencil in the clock. Newt Lee, the negro, was standing near. Mr. Frank turned to the negro and asked, “What is this pencil doing in the hole?” Lee said he had put it there so his number would be sure to register every time he rang. Mr. Frank put the key back at his belt and dated the slip which he had taken from the clock with a pencil which he took from his pocket. The witness though Mr. Frank wrote the date “April 26, 1913,” on it, but he wouldn’t be sure about that, he said.

Mr. Frank, after examining the slip, stated that it was punched correctly, said the witness. He also looked at the slip. The first punch started at 6 p. m., and it was punched every half hour, the witness thought, up to 2:30 o’clock. At 2:30 was the last punch. Mr. Frank took the slip into his own office, said the witness, and the witness said he did not know what became of it after that. A little later they all got into his automobile, said Rogers, Mr. Frank sitting in Mr. Darley’s lap in front beside him (the witness) at the wheel, and some of the officers sitting with Frank in the back.

At this point the coroner asked where Mr. Darley was when the clock slip was being removed. He was standing near by, said the witness.

After delivering his passengers at police headquarters, said Rogers, he went with Miss Hix to take her back to her own home.

On the trip to headquarters, said he, Mr. Frank did not seem to be as nervous as he had been. When he returned to headquarters, said the witness, the detectives were getting Newt Lee, the negro, to write. Lee then seemed very nervous.

* * *

Atlanta Journal, May 8th 1913, “Phagan Inquest in Session; Six Witnesses are Examined Before Adjournment to 2:30,” 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
August 2^nd, 1913

W. F. Anderson, the policeman who answered the telephone when Newt Lee called police headquarters on the morning of the discovery and who went with the police squad to the scene, was next called to the stand.

“About 3 o’clock on the morning of April 26 where were you?” he was asked by the solicitor.

“At police headquarters.”

“Did you have a telephone call about that time?”

“A man called from the National Pencil factory and said a woman had been killed. I asked was it a white woman or negro, and he answered that she was white.”

“Upon arriving at the factory who did you try to telephone?”

Called for Frank.

“I called for Leo M. Frank.”
“Did you get him?”

“No.”

“Did you get central?”
“Yes.”
“How long did you continue to call?”

“Five minutes or more.”

“Who else did you call?”
“Mr. Selig and Mr. Montag.”
“Did you get them?”
“Yes.”
“Within what time?”
“Within a very short time.”
“Did you make any other effort to get in communication with Frank?”

“Yes, about 4 o’clock, with still no success.”
“Who was the first to get into the basement when your party first arrived?”
“We were all together—I think I was last.”
“Describe the body’s underclothing.”
“It was dirty and soiled.”
Attorney Rosser took the witness.

“Did you explain to Montage that a girl had been killed when you called him over the telephone?”
“Yes, and they said we would have to get Mr. Frank or Mr. Darley.”
“What kind of lantern did Newt Lee have?”
“It was sooty and soiled.”

Conduct Experiments.

“You stood in place from which Lee said he first saw the body, did you not?”
“Yes, we put a box with a sack over it and experimented. You could see the bulk of something in the spot in which the body lay.”

“When the coroner’s jury went down, didn’t you take the lantern and say you didn’t think you could see the body—didn’t you say it?”

“I said I didn’t think you could distinguish it as a body.”
“Did you find any tracks in the basement?”
“Yes.”
“Did you say that there were tracks all over the cellar?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that all you said?”
“I said, also, that there were tracks on the left hand side of the shaving room.”
“Do you remember Frank’s telephone number?”
“No.”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, August 2nd 1913, “Policeman W. F. Anderson Tells of Newt Lee’s Telephone Call,” Leo Frank newspaper article series (Original PDF)

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

Atlanta Journal
August 2^nd, 1913

Physician Testifies at Frank Trial That Mary Phagan Met Death Half Hour After Lunch—Describes Wounds

Secretary of State Board of Health Compelled to Leave the Witness Stand on Account of Illness

In the midst of sensational testimony, Dr. H. F. Harris, secretary of the state board of health, collapsed Friday afternoon on the witness stand and was excused until Saturday. Dr. Harris and just testified that his examination of the contents of the stomach of little Mary Phagan showed that the dinner which she had eaten before leaving home was still undigested, and he therefore concluded that he little girl was killed within thirty minutes or three-quarters of an hour after she had eaten. Part of the undigested food taken from the stomach was exhibited in the court room. It had been preserved in alcohol.

Dr. Harris testified that there was no evidence of an assault but there were indications of some kind of violence having been committed. He thought this violence had preceded her death five or ten minutes.

Before he finished his testimony Dr. Harris became suddenly ill, his voice became faint and he begged to be excused. He promised to return Saturday, if possible. He said he had gotten up from a sick bed to come to court. He was assisted from the court room.

Also featuring the opening of the Phagan, was the testimony given by N. afternoon session of the trial of Leo M. Frank charged with the murder of Mary V. Darley under cross-examination of Attorney Reuben R. Arnold, for the defense.

Darley, according to this testimony, during his lunch hour Friday visited the factory, measured some distances and noted on his return to court many discrepancies and inaccuracies in the diagram of the factory which Solicitor Dorsey had prepared for the guidance of the jury in following the testimony of the witnesses.

One of the most important inaccuracies in the chart, according to Darley, was that the drawing showed the safe in Frank’s outer office to be a great deal smaller than the door, when, according to the witness. It is about the same size and cuts off a view into Frank’s inner office when the door of the safe is open.

It is expected that the defense will use this one fact to refute one of the important points brought out by one of its principal witnesses that she, a girl employed in the factory, visited there Saturday afternoon at 12:10 o’clock to get her pay and upon entering the outer office saw no one in either of the offices. She testified that the safe door was open. This is the hour that Mary Phagan is supposed to have entered the factory and prosecution claims immediately thereafter Frank was missing from his office.

Another important development in the afternoon session was the indication from the prosecution, by holding two time slips, that it would claim the accused gave the officers a slip which was not the original taken from the clock Sunday morning.

When Attorney Reuben Arnold, attorney for the defense, was examining N. V. Darley, a state’s witness, concerning the diagram of the factory which Solicitor Dorsey had made for the guidance of the jurors, Mr. Arnold asked:

“Isn’t the toilet in the basement closer to the wall than this picture shows and closer to the boiler?”

“It sets against the wall, and it seems to me that it is closer to the boiler, too.”

“Isn’t the elevator shaft closer to the first floor wall than this picture shows?”

“My impression is that the side of the elevator shaft is a part of the wall.”

“This partition here on the first floor, and the door in it which opens into the woodenware company—the partition is closer to the elevator than is shown on the diagram, is it not?”

“Yes, sir, I think so.”

“There are double doors at the top of the stairs on the second floor, instead of a single door as shown on the diagram, aren’t there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, is there anything at all right about this diagram, except that it is a gen[e]ral picture of the factory?”

“That’s the way it appears to me.”

“It shows no wardrobe in Frank’s office?”

“No, sir.”

“But there is a wardrobe in there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It shows Frank’s office larger than the outer office, does it not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Which office is the larger?”

“The outer office is several feet larger.”

“This picture doesn’t show a bookcase in the outer office, does it?”

“No, sir.”

“But there is a bookcase in the outer office, isn’t there?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And it half shuts off the view from Frank’s office into the outer hall, does it not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“The truth is, Mr. Darley, isn’t it, that this picture is drawn so adroitly as to open up a clear view from Frank’s office through the outer office into the factory?”

Before the witness could answer, Attorney Hooper announced that he objected to Mr. Arnold using the phrase “adroitly drawn.” The court sustained the objection.

“All right,” said Mr. Arnold, smiling. “It’s a fact, but I’ll withdraw it.”

“I object to that statement, too, your honor,” said Mr. Hooper.

“Well, I’ll withdraw it,” said Mr. Arnold. He addressed the witness again. “There’s no such wide space leading from Frank’s office to the outer office, is there?”

“No, sir; there’s a single small door.”

“Did you notice this safe over here, looking like a little B-B cap? As a matter of fact, this safe is wider than the door, is it not?”

“It’s about the same size.”

“Well, it doesn’t show up half as large as the door, does it, in the picture?”

“No, sir.”

“When the safe door is open, it shuts off the view from Frank’s office, does it not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“There are two cabinets in the outer office which are not shown in this picture, are there not?”

“Yes, sir.”

“To be exact, this is not a very accurate picture of the factory, is it?”

“No, sir.”

“It opens up Frank’s office a whole lot better than it is really opened up, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Could you see the time clock from Frank’s desk?”

“Yes, sir, I could see just the outer edge of the dial.”

“Could you see the head of the stairs from his desk?”

“No, sir.”

In the redirect examination of Darley. Solicitor Dorsey found the witness refractory. Darley returned short answers to a number of the solicitor’s questions.

“Who were some of the people who were nervous, besides Frank?”

The witness at first said he didn’t know. Then he declared that Detective Starnes was nervous.

“How did Starnes show his nervousness?” asked the solicitor.

“The best way that I can describe it is that he looked worried.”

“Why do you recall Frank’s nervousness and not the nervousness of anybody else except possibly Starnes?”

“Because Mr. Frank was so much more nervous than the others.”

“Did you notice anybody else around there, nervous on Monday?”

“Holloway and Schiff were nervous. Their hands seemed to tremble.”

“Was Frank nervous Tuesday?”

“He became very nervous when he read an extra saying that he was going to be arrested. He was arrested about fifteen minutes later.”

“Don’t you know that Schiff furnishes to Frank all the data for the financial sheet?”

“I know very little about it.”

The solicitor showed two time clock slips to the witness. On one of them was written in typewriter print the ate “April 28.”

“Could this be the slip that you all took out Sunday morning?”

After some hesitation, the witness answered that the date on that slip should have been April 26. The other slip had a date written with a pen, and the solicitor asked the witness if that was Frank’s handwriting. The witness said he couldn’t identify either slip as the one taken out of the clock Sunday morning.

“Could there have been a duplicate made of the slip Newt Lee punched?”

The witness said he didn’t know.

“Isn’t there a bar across the door leading from the metal room to the third floor?”

The witness didn’t know. Despite a rigid examination by the solicitor, the witness maintained that what he told at the morning session, under cross-examination, about the tablets and order blanks being scattered throughout the building was true.

Darley said that he had known Frank since April, 1911.

“How often in that time have you seen him as nervous as he was on Sunday morning, April 27?”

“Twice—once after he saw the street car run over a little child, and again after his fuss with Mr. Montag.”

Attorley [sic] Arnold cross-examined the witness again.

“You say that Schiff and Holloway were nervous, Monday? Was anybody else?”

“Yes, the whole factory was ‘up in the air.’ Really, we did no work that week. Miss Eula Mae Flowers, one of the foreladies, became hysterical on Tuesday.”

“Since the tragedy, have you gotten any work at all out of Christopher Columbus Barrett?”

“A little,” answered Darley.

W. F. ANDERSON CALLED.

The witness left the stand, and Officer W. F. Anderson, police call man, was summoned.

Officer Anderson told of Newt Lee calling police headquarters on the telephone, on Sunday morning, April 27, and telling the police that a white girl’s body had been found in the basement. After he went to the pencil factory, about 3:30 or before 4 o’clock, while he had Newt Lee in custody, he tried to call Frank over the telephone. In answer to questions by Solicitor Dorsey, he said he heard the connection made, and heard the phone ringing at the other end for above five minutes. After waiting five minutes, he said, he gave up the attempt, and called police headquarters and Herbert Haas and Sig Montag, officials of the pencil company.

“How long did it take you to get them?” asked the solicitor.

“Just a few minutes.”

“Did you make any other effort to get Frank over the telephone, and if so, when?”

“I tried again after I got Montag and Haas, about 4 or 4:10 o’clock.”

“What success did you have this time?”

“Just the same as before.”

Attorney Rosser cross-examined the witness.

“You didn’t get Sig Montag when you called his house, did you?”

“I got a Montag—I don’t remember his initials.”
“Did you try to get Mr. Darley?”

“He didn’t have a telephone.”

SAW NOTES BY BODY

“You saw these notes found by Mary Phagan’s body, didn’t you?”

“I saw Sergeant Dobbs pick one up.”

“When you went to the factory, you shook the front door and old man Lee came down. He wasn’t standing at the door, was he?”

“He came down the stairs.”

“And Lee told you over the telephone that it was a white girl’s body?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What sort of a lamp did that negro have?”

“He had a lantern.”

“Smoky, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you stand at the same place Lee says he stood, and look, and see Mary Phagan’s body?”

“Not that day.”

“When Lee says he saw the body, he says the lantern was on the ground, doesn’t he?”

“That’s what he told me.”

“The little girl’s clothing was such a color that it wouldn’t show up in the dark?”

“I think it was lavender.”

“When the coroner’s jury was down there, you took the lantern and set it where Lee says he set it that night, didn’t you?”

“No, sir; not then.”

“Well, didn’t you testify before the coroner’s jury that you stood with the lantern on the ground and testify I should not think it would be possible to see a body?”

“I said you might see the bulk of it, but you couldn’t tell what it was.”

“Then this is wrong, is it?”

“I said you might not be able to tell what is [sic] was.”

“You say the body was lying east and west with its head against the partition?”

“Yes.”

“You said something about there being some tracks. Where were they?”

TRACKS AROUND BODY.

“On the left hand side of the body, leading from the body to the shavings room.”

“That’s not what you said before the coroner’s jury, is it? Didn’t you say there were tracks all around the left side of the body?”

“I said the tracks led into the shavings room. I went into the shavings room to see if I could any lady’s tracks there.”

“You called up Frank first?”

“Yes.”

“When did you call Mr. Haas and the others?”

“About 4 o’clock.”

“Do you remember their telephone numbers?”

“No, sir, I don’t keep telephone numbers in my mind. I get ’em out of the book.”

“Your testimony at the coroner’s inquest was taken down by the stenographer, wasn’t it?”

“I guess it was.”

“What side of the body did the police come up on?”

“The right side.”

“The tracks were on the left side?”

“Yes.”

“Which side did you come up on?”

“The right side.”

“You found a pencil down there, didn’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“How far was it away from the body?”

“About eight or ten feet.”

“There were a great many pencils in the basement, were there not?”

“Yes.”

“The basement is ragged and dirty, with cinders and all sorts of trash down there?”

“Yes, the basement’s dirty. There were some cinders and trash by the boiler.”

POLICE TEST.

Solicitor Dorsey took the witness again.

“Did you make any tests down in the basement on your own account?” inquired the solicitor.

“Yes. About 10 o’clock one night shortly after the murder we went down there with a lantern. We fixed up a box and threw some sacks over it in the place where the girl’s body was lying. Then we took the lantern and set it down where the negro said his lantern was sitting when he saw the body.”

“Could you see anything?”

“Yes, we could make out the bulk.”

Attorney Rosser questioned the witness.

“You made an investigation for the coroner, did you not?”

“Yes, but I didn’t have a lantern.”

“Well, what did you have?”

“This.” The witness produced one of the electric searchlights carried by policemen, and flashed it across the court room.

“You didn’t use the lantern?”

“No, there was a lantern along, but I didn’t use it. I knew I could see that far with a searchlight.”

“Did you see the place where they said the body was dragged?”

“No.”

STENOGRAPHER CALLED.

Anderson was excused, and Solicitor Dorsey requested H. L. Parry, the court stenographer, to take the stand. The solicitor inquired if he had reported the evidence at the inquest held by the coroner.

“Part of it,” replied the witness.

“Did you report the evidence given by Frank?”

“Some of it. I don’t know whether I reported all of it or not.”

“Well, examine the records here and tell us whether you did or not.”

The witness examined the record.

“Yes, I reported Frank’s testimony,” said Parry.

“Is it correctly reported?”

“To the best of my ability,” responded Parry.

“You are an expert stenographer?”

“I am considered such.”

“What has been your experience?”

“Between twenty-five and thirty years.”

“You are reporting this case?”

“Yes, sir.”

Attorney Rosser arose.

“I’ll get you to say whether or not you took the testimony of Officer Anderson, Mr. Parry?” asked Mr. Rosser.

The witness examined the record and replied that he did not.

“Did you take the negro Lee’s testimony?”

The witness examined the record again and answered, “Yes, sir.”

“Did you take it correctly?”

“To the best of my ability.”

“Well, it was correctly taken, was it not?”

“I can’t say that I’m infallible.”

“Then you are not prepared to say that any record you take is accurate?”

“I said I took them as nearly accurately as possible.”

“Well, are you prepared to say that this record you took of Newt Lee’s testimony is a correct one?”

“In the common acceptation of the term, yes.”

“I want to know, now, if you took Frank and Lee’s statements correctly.”

“I took down and wrote Lee’s and Frank’s words as I heard them. I may have misunderstood some few things, although I was in a good position to hear.”

“And you took down correctly what you did hear?”

“Yes.”

RECORD COMPARED.

Witness, who had been examining closely into the record which he held, looked up at this point and said: “It appears that Lee had been on the stand once before and that the testimony I took was on his recall. Frank’s testimony indicates that he had just been sworn. It begins with the question, ‘What’s your name?’ That of Lee’s which I took begins: ‘Now, Newt, state to the jury,’ indicating that he had been on the stand before.”

Mr. Rosser, referring to his own copy of the testimony given at the coroner’s inquest, walked over to where the witness sat and requested him to turn to that place in his record where certain questions were asked of Lee. Lee’s questions he read from his record, and asked the stenographer to compare them with the record which he held.

“This portion of Lee’s testimony concerned the length of time it required Frank to put a new slip in the time clock. It also quoted Lee as to the length of time it had taken Frank on a previous occasion to put in a slip. With but one or two minor discrepancies, the records, taken by different stenographers, corresponded.

After considerable discussion, Solicitor Dorsey stated that he would defer for a time any effort to put in evidence a portion of Frank’s statement before the coroner’s jury. He would take the matter up later, he said.

Mr. Dorsey started the discussion by offering in evidence all of Frank’s testimony before the coroner. The defense objected immediately. At first Attorney Arnold seemed to take the position that none of Frank’s statement before the coroner’s jury was admissible. Later, however, he said that if the solicitor wanted to put in evidence the whole of Frank’s testimony before the coroner’s jury, representing some four hours of examination, he would offer no objection. It would be manifestly unfair to put in evidence a part of anybody’s testimony.

The argument followed over whether Frank’s evidence was given with the consent of his counsel, the defense contending that the state had never proven that at that time Frank had any counsel employed, although Mr. Rossed [sic] admitted having sat in the room during the inquest.

Dr. H. F. Harris was called to the stand. He is secretary of the Georgia state board of health. He has been a practicing physician since 1889. He graduate then from the Jefferson medical college. He was a professor of chemistry in the Southern Medical college and also in the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons later. He mentioned other positions which he had filled. He resigned three years ago from the Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons. He had been connected with the state board of health since 1903.

Solicitor Dorsey’s first question was: “Did you make an examination of the body of Mary Phagan?”

“Yes, I made an examination. I think it was on May 5.”

“What wounds or marks did you find on her body?”

DESCRIBES WOUNDS.

“There were several abrasions. One or two were on her face, one on her forehead, one on her left arm, one on her left leg, one on her right leg at the ankle, and her right eye was discolored. On the back of her head, somewhat toward the left side, there was a wound one and half inches long. This looked as if it had been made by an upward blow. There was no actual break in the skull, but there was a small hemorrhage inside the skull and directly beneath the wound, showing that the blow that were marks of a cord on her neck which caused it must have been severe enough to make her unconscious for some time.”

“Could this have caused her death?”

“I think not. In fact I am sure not.”

“What did cause her death?”

“When I examined her body, there were marks of a cord an [sic] her neck which had cut into the flesh. I think beyond the question of a doubt that this cord around her neck caused her death.”

KILLED EARLY AFTER LUNCH.

“Were the injuries to her eye and scalp made before her death?”

“Unquestionably.”

“Did you make an examination of her stomach, doctor?”

“Yes.”

“What did you find in it?”

“Cabbage and biscuit—that is, I guess it was biscuit. It was wheaten bread, anyway.”

“How far had it progressed toward digestion?”

“Very slightly.”

At this time Dr. Harris took a bottle from the suitcase that he carried to the witness stand with him, and said, “I have a sample of the cabbage here, if I am permitted to show it.”

“Yes, you can show it to the jury,” said the solicitor.

“Was this the condition of the cabbage when it came from Mary Phagan’s stomach?”

“Yes.”

“How long would you say the cabbage had been in her stomach?”

THIRTY MINUTES AFTER LUNCH.

“It is impossible to say exactly. I am confident, however, that it could not have been there more than half an hour.”

Dr. Harris brought two more bottles from his suitcase. “I have two samples of cabbage taken from the stomach of normal persons after one hour.” He showed the bottles to the court and the jury. Their contents were pesty—in contrast with the other sample from Mary Phagan’s stomach, which could be recognized immediately as cabbage and was almost intact.

“Dr. Harris, did you ever examine the vital organs of her body?”

Dr. Harris testified that there was no evidence of an assault, but there were indications that violence of some sort had been done. He said that some of the blood vessels were dilated.

“What did the dilation of these blood vessels indicate?”
“It indicated that violence of some sort had been done a little time before death.”

“How long before death was this violence done?”

Possibly five or ten minutes, replied the witness. The blood vessels were dilated, and it takes an appreciable time for inflammation to begin. Judging from the character of the inflammation, said the witness, he did not think the interval between violence and death was more than five or ten minutes.

“Doctor, how long after death does rigor mortis begin?”

“It varies so much, that it is impossible to say. I don’t think that would be of importance, in determining the time of death, because as I say it varies in different cases.”

“Is there any standard with reference to strangulation cases?”

“No, sir. I have seen rigor mortis begin within a very few minutes after death.”

“Does it ever begin before death?”

“No, sir. It may be delayed for many hours. I have seen persons dead for hours in whom rigor mortis had not set in. It begins with the eyelids and goes down, and goes off in the same way.”

“Can you state how long Mary Phagan was dying?”

“No, I could not exactly.”

“How long after she had eaten the cabbage and bread was it before death occurred?”

“To the very best of my opinion, she must have lived between one-half and three-quarters of an hour after eating.”

At this point the witness stopped, and appeared to be very faint. In a weak voice: “I’ll have to ask you to excuse me. I cannot go on further. I am very weak.”

“Just one more question, doctor,” asked the solicitor.

“How much blood did Mary Phagan lose before she died?”

“I couldn’t tell that.”

“When can you come back, doctor?”

“I’ll try to come back tomorrow. I’ve been in bed three days and I got up to come down here. I am utterly exhausted.”

Dr. Harris was very pale and appeared quite. He was assisted from the stand and out of the court room by one of the deputy sheriffs. Early during his testimony he had paused and asked for a glass of water, and with it had taken a dose of some medicine.

FEBUARY CALLED.

G. C. Febuary, stenographer to Chief of Detectives Lanford, was called to the stand and identified a report of a conversation between Frank and Lanford on Monday, April 28, in Lanford’s office. The defense let it go in without objection, after some discussion. That report later on was read to the jury in its entirety, by Assistant Solicitor Stephens. It was a short statement of Frank’s movements from about 11 o’clock, April 26, till the next morning.

The part which it was assumed the state was most anxious to get in was Frank’s statement that Mary Phagan arrived at the factory between 12:05 o’clock and 12:10, perhaps about 12:07. The rest of the statement detailed in Frank’s language his movements during the rest of the day. The statement quoted Frank as saying that he took a bath Saturday night and was wearing then different under clothes than the ones he wore on the day of the tragedy. Attorney Rosser examined Febuary and convulsed the court by his opening question:

“Have you got a dictograph on you?”

Attorney Rosser questioned Febuary specificically [sic] about Frank allowing Lanford to examine his clothing. He has been chief of police for a number of years, hasn’t he?”

The witness answered, “I don’t know that he ever has been chief of police.”

“Well,” said Ros[s]er, “chief of detectives, then—that’s worse.”

Before the witness could answer, Mr. Rosser turned to Chief Lanford, sitting in court and pointed out “this handsome man here” as the one he meant.

SAW FRANK SATURDAY.

Albert McKnight, negro, husband of Minola McKnight (the woman being the cook at the Selig residence), was called to the stan[d].

“How long has your wife been employed by Mrs. Selig?”

“A year or two years—something like that.”

“Where were you between 1 and 2 o’clock on Saturday, April 26?”

“At Mr. Frank’s house.”

“Did you see Mr. Frank?”

“Yes, about 1:30 o’clock.”

“What did he do?”

“He went into the dining room and went to the sideboard.”

“How long did he stay in there?”

“About five or ten minutes.”

The solicitor turned the witness over to the defense.

“Who was there, besides you?” asked Mr. Rosser.

“Mr. and Mrs. Selig and Mr. Frank’s wife. I was sitting in the kitchen.”

“How do you know that Mr. Frank didn’t stop to eat? You can’t see through from the kitchen to the dining room, can you?”

“Yes, sir, you can see through.”

“Don’t you know it is impossible to see through the swinging doors?”

“The swinging door was open and you can look into a mirror in the corner of the dining room and see the room.”

“And Mr. Frank went to the sideboard? You don’t know what he did there.”

“No, sir.”

“Oh, you couldn’t see the sideboard from the mirror?”

“No, sir.”

“How big is the kitchen?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, about how big?”

The negro couldn’t answer definitely, and the question was waived.

“How big is the dining room?”

The negro couldn’t describe that, either.

“Have you ever been in the dining room?”

“No, sir.”

“What kind of furniture is in there?”

“I don’t know.”

“What kind is in the kitchen?”

“Well, there’s a safe and a stove and a table.”

“Where did you sit in the kitchen?”

“At the side of the back door.”

“Were you sitting right in front of the little hall betwe[e]n the dining room and the kitchen?”

“No, sir, not exactly.”

“Wait a minute till I look at a diagram of the house I’ve got here,” said Mr. Rosser. Then he put this question:

Well, don’t you know it’s impossible to sit in the kitchen and look through this little hall into the dining room?”

“No, sir.”

Mr. Rosser called the negro from the stand to explain to the jury, on the diagram of the Selig-Frank home, how he could sit in the kitchen and see all over the dining room. The negro insisted merely that he could sit in the kitchen and see into the dining room, and that in a mirror there he could see a reflection of almost all parts of the dining room.

“You haven’t got a curve to your eyesight, have you?” asked Mr. Rosser.

“No, sir,” said the witness.

“You can’t look a curve, can you?”

“No, sir.”

“Where was Minola?”

“She was in the kitchen.”

“Didn’t she go into the dining room?”

“Yes, sir, she went in once.”

“How long did she stay?”

“About two minutes.”

“Do you know whether Mrs. Frank and Mrs. Selig ate anything?”

“No, sir; I didn’t see them eating.”

HEARD THEM TALKING.

“You never saw Mr. Selig at all?”

“No, sir.”

“Where did you go from to the Selig residence?”

“I went from home.”

“What time did you get there?”

“Some time after 1 o’clock.”

“You saw Mr. Frank come in and go to the sideboard?”

“Yes.”

“He walked up to the sideboard, walked out, and went to town?”

“He went back into the sitting room, where Mr. Selig was.”

“I thought you said you didn’t see Mr. Selig?”

“I didn’t, but I heard him talking back there.”

Mr. Rosser held up the diagram in front of the negro again. He asked the negro how it was he could sit back in the kitchen and hear them talking in the sitting room or the hall. The negro reiterated that he heard them.

“And you never moved away from the door until you left to go home?”

“No, sir.”

“Did Minola go with you?”

“No, sir.”

“When did you first tell this tale after the 26^th of April?”

“After I came back from Birmingham.”

“To whom did you first tell it?”

“Mr. Craven, the boss of the plow department at the Beck & Gregg Hardware Co.”

“Was that before or after they got Minola?”

“Two or three days before.”

“You never told any others?”

“Yes, sir, later I told Detective Starnes, Detective Campbell, Mr. Martin and Mr. Dorsey.”

“That’s the time Mr. Dorsey had Minola sent to jail, was it not?”

“I don’t know whether he did or not.”

“He said, ‘Take her on down,’ didn’t he?”

“I don’t know, sir. I guess so.”

Solicitor Dorsey entered an objection. “I did nothing of the kind,” said he.

SAW FRANK TAKE CAR.

“They brought Minola out of Mr. Dorsey’s office while you were there didn’t they?”

“No, sir.”

“You didn’t go to the jail with Minola?”

“No, sir.”

“Didn’t you go to see her when she was locked up down at police barracks?”

“I didn’t know she was locked up till I got home from work that night.”

“You say it was about 1:30 o’clock when Mr. Frank came home to lunch?”

“Yes, sir, it was about that time, but I can’t say for certain.”

“And you didn’t see Mr. and Mrs. Selig or Mrs. Frank?”

“No, sir.”
“What car did Mr. Frank catch to come back to town?”

“He caught the Georgia avenue car at Pulliam street.”

“How do you know? You were still sitting in the kitchen, weren’t you?”

“No, sir, I was on my way home and came up Georgia avenue behind him.”

Solicitor Dorsey took up the redirect examination of the witness. The solicitor caused the negro to repeat emphatically that from the point where he sat in the kitchen he could see Mr. Frank and did see him.

COURT ADJOURNS.

Judge Roan had the jury sent to its room, and stated that the jurors had expressed a request that some magazines be sent to them, that they be allowed to write notes to their wives, and that they be permitted to get fresh linen. Solicitor Dorsey said he had no objection if the magazines were censored properly by the sheriff and any notes received or sent by the jurors were censored also. The defense had no objection.

Judge Roan adjourned court at 5:02 until 9 o’clock Saturday morning.

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

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, July 20, 1913

As Famous Murder Case Nears Trial the Public Mind Again Reverts to the Discovery of the Crime; and Again the Great Question Comes Up:

“What Happened in the Pencil Factory Between Noon Saturday and 3:15 Sunday Morning?”

By Britt Craig.

Automobile in which detectives and newspaper men went to the scene of the murder. In the machine are Detective Starnes, Harry Scott, W. W. (Boots) Rogers and John Black.

There are things that happen right before our eyes that defy the pen of a god to describe. The mind of a master would find itself lamentably incompetent, and the words of a Demosthenes would become panic-stricken in the attempt.

One of these was the night Mary Phagan’s body was found. It was a night as dramatic as the fury of a queen and poignant as her sorrow. It wrote the first thrilling chapter of Atlanta’s greatest criminal case, and it will live forever in the minds of those who knew it.

This story is no effort at description, because description is impossible. It is just a plain, ordinary story of the happenings that night when Newt Lee went down into the basement to wash his hands and emerged, overcome with fear, the discoverer of a crime that put an entire state in mourning.

A week from tomorrow, Leo Frank, manager of the pencil factory, where Mary Phagan’s body was found, will be placed on trial charged with the murder of the young girl, and interest in this mysterious crime again goes back to the night when Newt Lee startled police headquarters with news of his grewsome find.

Finding the Body.

Spot where Mary Phagan’s dead body was found. Detective John Black is shown in the picture.

Newt was nightwatchman in the factory of the National Pencil company on South Forsyth street. He is a typical negro and on the afternoon preceding his discovery, just to show how typical he is, he had spent the whole of two leisure hours allotted to him watching a negro play a banjo and sing cotton field songs at a patent medicine show on Decatur street.

It was between 3 and 3:30 a. m. that night when he arose from the desk in the office where he had been scribbling pictures of cats and dogs and railroad trains to while away the lonesome hours, and picked up his sooty lantern to make a tour of the plant. The world outside was fast asleep, and the only sound was the occasional faraway rap of a policeman’s night stick.

The building was dark and gloomy as a tomb and his footsteps created uncanny sounds. Something in the atmosphere of loneliness inspired him to hum the ancient strain:

“I got a gal in de white folks’ yard,
Brings me butter ‘n brings me lard,
Can’t help but love her, so help me Gawd—
Shout mourners, you shall be free!”

Newt went to the first floor where the big watchman’s clock ticks incessantly on the wall near the bottom of the steps. It was the only lifelike thing in the building, and Newt, like all other nightwatchmen, felt a deep attachment to clocks that tick-tock so humanly through the lonely hours of night.

The hands stood somewhere in the neighborhood of 3:15, showing that his tri-nightly trip into the basement was due. It wasn’t an inviting place, this basement, and Newt, as any other typical negro would do, made it a point not to make any more than the three required trips thereinto.

His “Watching” Perfunctory.

Mary Phagan, the young victim of a most mystifying murder.

It was his custom to go only to the bottom of the ladder that ran from the scuttle hole, from which point he surveyed what little of the cellar that could be perceived by the light of his lantern. Very seldom did he venture further. He preferred the upper floor, with its machinery and the lifelike clock and less possibility of ghosts and spooks.

That night, however, he wanted to wash his hands. Spots of ink had clung to his fingers as he had sketched the cats and dogs at the office desk. The superintendent had forbidden him the use of any but the basement sink, and it was there that he always performed his meager ablutions.

With a courage a negro manages to muster only when he drives from his mind all thought of everything, Newt descended the shaky ladder. A tiny flame flickered from a gas jet directly beneath the scuttle hole, but beyond the interior was as black as the soul of night.

Humming his tune so as to keep his mind vacant of other things, including fear, he walked to the sink. It was midway of the basement, just beyond the furnace. The darkness and solitude seemed so intense that he could almost feel it, and his steps beat upon his ears with a creepy thudding.

He set his lantern down beside the sink and washed his hands. Then he dried them on a newspaper. As he picked up the lantern to return to the scuttle hole it revealed something over in the corner just behind the edge of the partition that ran half the length of the basement.

Negro “Seed Something.”

It was an object that looked human and apparently had on a dress. Newt looked at it closely, his eyes attracted to the spot like a bird’s might be attracted by the charm of an adder. The longer he looked the tighter did something close itself around his stomach, and the more convincingly did the object assume human proportions.

It lay prone in the sawdust, and what appeared to be an arm was stretched lifeless from the shoulder.

He suspected it was a joke, and that someone had put a dummy in the basement to frighten him. He hoped it was! But, dummy or not, it certainly looked human—too human, in fact, for the uncongenial surroundings.

Impelled by a combination of emotions composed mostly of curiosity and fear, Newt strode to the spot. He picked up the lifeless arm. The flesh yielded beneath his grip. It dropped limply to the sawdust.

A panic no man can picture seized him. He wheeled around. The rush of air blew out the flame in his lantern. There was nothing left but darkness, thick, impenetrable darkness that shrouded even the glow of the gas jet at the scuttle hole. That and a quietude overwhelming.

Uttering a shriek that reached only the ears of the dead, he sprang erect and plunged headlong into the inky space ahead.

“Headquarters” Suddenly Awakens.

National Pencil Company building, on Forsyth street, in Atlanta, where Mary Phagan’s body was found.

Police headquarters had been dull and sleepy, an unusual condition for a Saturday night. Sergeant Sells, on the desk, had complained of underwork and the motorcycle men, lounging drowsily in their chairs, agreed that crime wasn’t what it used to be.

The hands of the clock pointed somewhere around 3:30. Boots Rogers, an ex-county policeman, dozed in an easy chair, too contented to go home until breakfast time. His big touring car stood at the burn on the outside.

The reporters on the police run for the Sunday papers had all gone home at 2:30—all except one, a Constitution man, who lived across town and was waiting for Rogers to ride him home in the auto.

Policeman Anderson answered the telephone that rang exactly at 3:30. Headquarters dozed on. Telephone calls, even at 3:30 a. m., are more or less insignificant. There was not even a stir as the policeman entered the booth.

“Is this police station?” came over the wire in an excited tone.

“Yep. What’s the trouble?”

“Somebody’s killed up here ‘t the pencil factory on F’syth street. Hit’s—”

Anderson dropped the receiver and left it swinging on the cord. He jumped from the booth and called to Sells:

“Killing up on Forsyth street!”

“Who is it?” asked Sells, sarcastically, as he swung a record book to the stack above his desk.

“I’m no mind-reader,” retorted Anderson, diving for the door.

The place became alive, Rogers awoke from his doze and jumped to his feet.

“Get in my car,” he called. “I’ll run you up.”

The Constitution reporter had reached for a telephone.

“Wait a second,” he was asking. “Let me call the office—there ought to be a story in this.”

“Wait like a lizard,” blazed Anderson. “Think we’re going to murders on schedule?”

The reporter’s office went unnotified.

Hurry-Up Run to Factory.

At a 40-mile clip Rogers whirled the policemen up Decatur street toward Five Points. At Decatur and Pryor Sergeants Dobbs and Brown were encountered. They jumped into the machine at Anderson’s call. Like a racing demon gone mad, the big car snorted through the uptown district and turned down Forsyth at Marietta street.

The pencil factory building stands almost midway of the block between Alabama and Hunter streets. It is four stories high and looms far above its neighboring structures. There is something in its black and gloomy aspect that is, itself, suggestive of tragedy. A wee light from a gas jet on the second flood [sic] flickered feebly like a beacon of lost hope.

The machine rolled alongside the curb and stopped with a roar. Its occupants clambered out. There were no lights on the first floor, and the interior looked as lifeless as the body Newt Lee had discovered in the cellar. Not knowing what to expect, but in preparation for anything, the policemen drew their pistols.

Anderson knocked at the door. No answer came. A suggestion was made to break through the glass, when there was a commotion in the vicinity of the stairway, down which came a streak of light—the lantern in the negro’s hands as he scampered down the steps from the office to which he had fled in fear.

The newcomers rushed in as he opened the door. Their presence seemed to inspire courage. His teeth chattered and the lantern trembled in his fingers.

Lee Glad to See Officers.

“Lord!” he exclaimed, “I’m glad you come. It’s a girl, dead, down there.” He indicated the scuttle hole to the basement with a quivering finger.

The reporter was nearest it. Some news instinct that makes the newspaper man the luckiest of professionals guided him first into the black and yawning opening. Rogers followed. Before the shivering negro could chatter another word, the entire party had scrambled into the cellar. Lee was the last to enter.

Weird shadows danced on the walls from the dim glow of the lone jet. Rogers and the reporter forged their way through the darkness. Swinging his lantern, Newt was coming behind. Suddenly, he warned:

“Look out, white folks—you’ll step on it!”

He took the lead. Someone slipped and fell in the treacherous sawdust that gave way beneath the feet. The crunch, crunch of feet were the only sounds. The odor of pencil wood and lead pervaded the place almost stiflingly. Its smell will forever bring tragic recollection.

When the lantern’s rays fell upon the form that lay rigid and mutilated in the recess, the knot of men were too startled to move. The intense darkness and sight of the spectacle struck them momentarily powerless. It was a scene that a wholesome mind can attribute to only the stage-managership of Satan.

The body lay on its face. The long tangles of brown hair that straggled over the sawdust told that the girl was white and the dress that reached only to the knees, that she was a child. A jagged gash in the skull bespoke murder. Rigor-mortis had set in. Death had resulted hours ago.

Sergeant Dobbs was the first [to] speak:

“And this in a civilized country!”

Oratory will play a dominant part in the Phagan case, and it will be oratory of a masterful kind, but that simple little sentence, spoken by the policeman as he stood over the lifeless form in the basement darkness, will stand, unquestioned, the most eloquent and damning.

The mysterious murder notes, that went unsolved for weeks, were found, side by side, within a foot of the body. Suspicion, as is always the case with the police mind, was promptly directed to the negro. Someone flatly accused him. He was too astonished to reply. At length he stammered:

“Good God, boss! Do you think I’d do a thing like that?”

As he pointed a tremulous finger at the corpse, and all eyes were turned upon it, it was hard to conceive that any human could have done it. But it had been done. No one was dreaming. The body lay before them, ghastly proof of a fiend’s work. There were no baboons or monsters in metropolitan Atlanta. Someone was guilty—someone human.

So they put the handcuffs on Newt, the discoverer.

To fully convince themselves that the negro was guilty, the policemen made him go through a pantomime of his discovery. It would have driven Belasco’s greatest achievement to shame. There, in a solitude of the grave, with the basement for a stage and the policemen’s electric torches for light, the negro enacted a drama over the body of a slaughtered child that would strike terror to the heart of an audience.

“Third Degree” for Negro.

With a composure that comes from the reaction of panic, he clenched the lantern in his manacled hands and went graphically through every detail of his actions. It was, in itself, a third-degree that would have extracted confession from the hardest-hearted of murderers. Newt Lee manifested his innocence in an eloquence far greater than speech when he pantomimed his discovery.

But the police weren’t convinced. They sent him to headquarters to satisfy a public that demands immediate arrests in such cases.

With an arrest made, two substantial clues obtained in the murder notes, and a search being carried on for more, it became necessary to identify the victim. Rogers drove in his car for Miss Grace Hicks, a relative who lives at 100 McDonough road, and who is an employee of the pencil factory.

The body still lay in the position in which it was discovered, when she encountered the basement, sleepy-eyed and drowsy from the sleep from which she had been aroused. With a single glance at the upturned face, scarred and purple and swollen, she uttered a cry that pierced the building, and swooned into the arms of her kinsman.

“It’s Mary Phagan!” she wailed. “My God, who killed her?”

Sobbingly, she told the policemen of her attachment to the girl whose body lay stretched before her. They had worked side by side at the same machine. For years they had been inseparable chums. Mary was the sweetest girl in the factory and the prettiest.

It seemed a crime of Fate that she, of all others, should be called to identify the corpse of her friend.

She resisted being led away, begging to stay beside the body. The undertakers came and wrapped it in a tarpaulin and carried it away. A newspaper photographer came and made a flashlight of the spot. Detectives arrived and took charge of the scene with characteristic officiousness. Then came the inevitable mob of the curious.

Daybreak mounted over the skyscrapers and streaked the sky with purple. The city began to awaken. Less than an hour passed, and the night Mary Phagan’s body was found retreated before the brilliance of a Sabbath sun.

* * *

The Atlanta Constitution, July 20th 1913, “Grim Justice Pursues Mary Phagan’s Slayer,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

J. A. White [left and] Harry Denham. The two mechanics who were the last workmen to leave the National Pencil company on Saturday afternoon. Leo M. Frank was in the building when they went out. Photo by Francis B. Price, Staff Photographer.

Atlanta Constitution

Thursday May 1^st, 1913

Was the man who first assaulted and then brutally killed Mary Phagan last Saturday night hiding in the basement of the National Pencil company when the watchman, Newt Lee, came down and discovered the girl’s mutilated body early Sunday morning?

This is the question that rose to everyone’s mind, following the testimony of the negronight watchman, at the coroner’s inquest Wednesday. In direct contradiction to the evidence of every policeman who had been on the scene, the negro declared that he found the body, lying face up, with the head toward the wall. When the police arrived, the body was lying face down, with the head pointing toward the front of the building.

The most severe cross examination could not shake the negro. He stuck to his story, never seeming to waver for an instant. So convincing was his air that it became the general idea that the murderer must have been in the cellar at the time, waiting to burn the body of his victim. Lee’s coming down into the cellar may have frightened him away.

He declared that when he reported for work at 4 o’clock on the afternoon before the tragedy, his employer told him to go home until 6 o’clock. Frank looked nervous and excited at the time, he said. He also said that Frank had called him up later in the night, to find if everything was all right, something that he had never done before.

What was thought earlier in the day to be damaging to the negro—his declaration that he was positive that it was the body of a white girl as soon as he saw it—was brushed aside when he explained that he saw the difference because of the hair, which was straight and brown; totally unlike that of a negress.

The same jury that was used by Coroner Donehoo Monday morning was reimpaneled at 9 o’clock Wednesday morning, when the inquest reconvened.

Inquest at Police Headquarters.

The inquest was held at police headquarters. W. F. Anderson, a call officer on the police force, who took the negro’s message, when he reported the finding of the body, was the first to testify.

He described the body as he found it after the negro had led him and other officers to it. He stated specifically that the head pointed toward the front of the building and that the body was lying face down.

Minutely, he gave all of the grewsome details of the dead girl’s appearance. He told how evident it had been that she had been in a struggle to the death, how her stocking was torn, her shoe missing and her whole face discolored by bruises and grime. So shocking was her state, he declared, that he did not know at first whether she was white or colored.

He said that her neck was knotted around with twine and a piece of cloth, evidently torn from her underskirt.

He declared that the staple that had been used to hold the door from the basement closed had been drawn.

Physician Does Questioning.

Dr. J. W. Hurt took up the questioning at this point.

“Could the negro have seen a body lying 20 or 30 feet away from where he was standing, by the light of the lantern that he carried?” he asked.

“He could not,” replied the policeman. “At the most he could have seen for 12 or 15 feet. His lantern was very old and dirty.”

Sergeant R. J. Brown, who also went to the scene of the crime, was next called before the jury. He corroborated the other policeman’s testimony, in regard to the impossibility for anyone to distinguish the race of the girl without the most minute examination. He also declared that the negro could have seen nothing, standing 25 feet away from the body. “It was very hard to see with our regular police flash lights,” he said, “ and the negro only had a very weak lamp. I am sure that he could not have seen anything at a distance of 25 feet.”

“This is nothing but a child,” he testified that he exclaimed when he first saw the body. He said that he could not tell her color until he rolled down one stocking and looked at the knee.

He went over the revolting details of the girl’s condition. His testimony did not conflict with his brother officers’ in any way, but he told of some matters which the other had failed to bring out.

He said that there was dirt in her mouth even. The negro nightwatchman had told him, he said, that he rarely came down in the cellar, but that he had a special reason for doing so on that night.

When he was questioned about the telephoning of the news to Superintendent Frank that the sergeant’s information became most damaging.

“We called up at once almost,” he testified, “but, although we told central that a girl had been murdered and that it was of the utmost importance that we get the number, we could not get in communication with Mr. Frank until much later in the day.”

Blood-Stained Garments Shown.

It was then that the most dramatic occurrence of the whole day took place. A one-piece purple silk dress, dirty and torn and blood-stained, and a gunmetal slipper, worn by Mary Phagan on the night of the murder, were shown to the jury.

Ben Phagan, the dead girl’s sailor brother, rose from his seat and looked down on the little heap of clothes with eyes that tragically stared. For a moment he stood so, and then walked out, his head bowed, his hands over his eyes.

Upon being recalled, Officer Anderson testified that the body of the girl had still been warm when he came there and that blood was flowing from some of the wounds.

Police Sergeant L. S. Dobbs, who was next called, identified the notes that had been found by the girl’s body. He declared that, after a minute examination, he had been able to say with authority that the body was that of a white girl. External appearances, he said, tended to show that the body had been dragged and thrown into the corner.

He said that after examining the body he turned to the negro watchman and accused him of having either committed the crime or of knowing something of it. The negro, he said, denied all knowledge of the affair.

Read Note to Negro.

He said that he then read him the note in which the girl is purported to have written: “Tall, black, thin negro did this. He will try to lay it on night—“ The negro then replied, he declared, “That means me—the night watchman.”

Other evidence simply corroborated the testimony of his brother officers.

Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, was called on the stand at 11:45 o’ clock. He testified that Frank had especially instructed him to come to work two hours earlier than usual that Saturday, because of its being a holiday.

“Go out and have some more fun,” Frank told him when he came to work at 4 o’ clock, he declared. He explained that he made a round of the building every half-hour, only going to the basement when he had an unusual amount of time on his hands.

He said that Frank was still in the building when Gantt, a former bookkeeper, came to the door and asked to be allowed in to get an old pair of shoes that he had left inside. The negro declared that he had told Gantt that it was against the rules, but that he would ask his employer.

Frank Looked Frightened.

Lee declared that Frank looked frightened when he told him that Gantt was downstairs. He thought that this might have been caused by Frank’s fear that the other, whom he had recently quarreled with and discharged, might “do him dirt.”

He said that Gantt got the shoes, wrapped them up and made an engagement with someone over the telephone for 9 o’clock that night. The negro was unable to say who Gantt had talked to, but he said that it was a lady.

“How did you know?” he was asked. “By the name,” he replied. He could not remember the name when further questioned, however.

He said that he saw Gantt leave, passing on down the street. He said that he did not know when Frank left, however. He explained the superintendent might have come back at any time, anyway, as he had a key.

He said that he went down into the basement at about 7 o’clock, after making a round of the building. He declared that the gas jet, which he had left burning when he left before, that morning, was not burning as brightly as before.

Frank Calls Up.

He said that shortly after this Frank called up to find if everything was all right. “It is as far as I know,” he declared he answered.

He said Frank called before at night

When he declared that he had found the body lying with the face up, the coroner directly asked him, “Why did you turn it over?”

“I didn’t,” stoutly averred the negro.

He declared that he had punched the time clock every half-hour; that he himself had put in a fresh slip with Frank.

He said that when he first saw the body in the basement it had looked very vague in its outline, and that he thought that boys had put it there to frighten him. It was only when he saw the bloody face and straight hair, he said, that he recognized it as the body of a white woman. He then became frightened and called up the police.

He said that he had been told by employers on Sunday following his arrest that he had punched the clock regularly Saturday night.

He emphatically declared that his lantern had been cleaned Friday and that it was in good condition. He said that a negro fireman (Knollys) probably had a key to the back door of the building, kept open during the day.

Thinks He Saw Girl.

J. G. Spier, of Cartersville, testified that Saturday afternoon at about 4 o’clock he passed the factory and saw in front of it a 17-year-old girl and a man about 25 years old, both very much excited. He said that he came back nearly an hour later and noticed the same couple standing at the same place.

He said that he visited the body at Bloomfield’s undertaking establishment and was sure that the dead girl was the same one that he saw Saturday afternoon. He said that Frank had the same “outline” as the man he saw, but would not identify him positively. Mr. Spier’s testimony brought the morning session to a close.

Friends of L. M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil company, gave out yesterday for the first time their theory of how Mary Phagan came to her tragic death. They visited the scene of the crime, and, claiming that Frank has been unjustly held and questioned by the police, they are pointing out how the girl could have been robbed, assaulted and murdered without anyone connected with the factory knowing anything about it.

They point to the foot of the stairway by which the girl would have left the factory and show how easily a man could have hidden behind the railing, which is closely boarded up.

“The foul criminal,” they state, “knew it was pay-day, and as it was Memorial day, the place would close early in the afternoon. He could have hidden at the foot of the stairway and when the girl came down the steps with her money in her purse, seized her and thrown her into the hole which leads to the basement to the left of the elevator shaft. It could all have been done so swiftly by a strong-armed man that the girl would have had no time to make an outcry before she was insensible in the basement.

“Then the criminal could have quickly followed on the ladder that stood in the hole and led from the first floor to the basement. Down in the basement he had ample opportunity to carry out his hellish purposes. His exit was easy, as has been shown in the newspapers. No one could have heard or seen the crime committed who was passing in the street or who was on the second or third floors.”

“We are not advancing theories in the defense of Mr. Frank,” states S. S. Selig, who was among those who made an inspection of the factory Wednesday, “for he needs no defense. But the theory we advance is so plausible and fits so well into the clues that have been found that it is remarkable the officers have not worked along that line. The girl’s parasol was found at the foot of the ladder, where it could have fallen when she was thrown into the hole. That the purse and money were missing shows that there was robbery as well as assault and murder.”

* * *

Atlanta Constitution, May 1st 1913, “Newt Lee Tells His Story During Morning Session,” 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

Wednesday April 30^th, 1913

Previous to Watchman Newt Lee’s testimony, three police officers, who were called to the pencil factory when Mary Phagan’s body was found, testified. Their testimony, with the exception of such parts as were unfit to print, follows:

W. T. Anderson, police call officer on duty Sunday morning, was first witness.

“We went over in an automobile to the pencil factory and the negro took us into the cellar where the body was found,” he said.

Anderson told of the location of the scuttle hole, from which a ladder led to the basement, and of the location of the body.

“At the foot of the ladder I did not find anything,” he went on. “On the left of the basement is a partition part of the way, forming a room. The body was at the lower end of the partition, a few inches from the partition and about six feet from the outside wall of the building. Her head was toward the front of the building. She was lying on her face. The cellar was very dark.

“I did not see the body until I reached it. There is a toilet on the opposite side of the basement, on the right side next to the boiler. There was rubbish, shavings and the like. I did not see any white trash lying about.

“Sergeant Dobbs picked up one of the notes while I was there. Think I could identify them.”

On being shown several papers Anderson selected one of the papers as one of the notes found. It was the note written on yellow paper.

“We also found a tablet and a pencil. There were four or five of us there, and I do not know who found it.

“Right in front of the body on the right side, I found her left shoe and hat. She was dressed in a dark colored dress. She had no shoe on her left foot. Her clothes were up to her knees.

“Her left leg just below the knee the stocking was torn and her leg skinned. There was blood on her head, while her eyes were bloodshot. A piece of wrapping cord and her underskirt band were tied around her neck. There was a cut on the back side of her head by the left temple. Her mouth and eyes were filled with dirt and sawdust. She was covered with so much dirt that I could not tell whether she was white or black, and had to pull down one of her stockings to tell whether she was white. Her legs below her knees were also covered with dirt and sawdust.

Staple Pulled From Door.

“There was a staple pulled out of the lock at the back door. It is a side door. It has a bar with a hasp. There was a lock in the staple, but the door was closed. There was a lock in the staple, but the door was closed. Sergeant Dobbs and Brown were there before me.”

“There was blood on her head, stomach and legs. I had a flashlight with me. The watchman had an ordinary lantern, the globe of which was smoked. It did not give much light.

“It was about 25 or 30 feet from negro’s toilet to where the body was lying. I could not see the body from there with his lantern, could not see over 10 or 12 feet with it.

“She had on a white underskirt. Her head was in line with the corner of the partition. A flashlight would have shown the body. It struck me that she would have been too far behind the partition for the lantern light to show her.

What Negro “Thought at First.”

“The negro watchman told me when he saw the body at first he thought some one had placed something there to scare him. He said he did not go down there very much, going down that time to the toilet.

“I questioned the negro at length. He said the toilet in basement was for negroes.

“After questioning the negro, I called Frank at his residence, but could not get him. I then called Mr. Haas, of the National Pencil Company. One of the women members of the family talked to me. Sergeant Brown instructed me to call some of the head men of the pencil company.”

Officer Anderson identified the clothing worn by the girl when he found her in the basement. He was then dismissed.

Officer Anderson was called in again and asked to identify the dead girl’s clothing. In answer to a question, he said the girl’s stocking supporters were unfastened.

Q.—Did the negro say it was a white woman or a negro when he telephoned? A.—He said: “A white woman has been killed up here.”

Q.—Did he tell you how she was lying? A.—He said she was on her back.

Negro Was Excited.

Q.—Was he excited? A.—Yes.

Q.—How long do you think the girl had been dead? A.—I don’t know much about that, but she was not much right.

Q.—Were there any signs of a scuffle? A.—Behind where she was lying there were evidence of a struggle. We found a bloody handkerchief seven or eight feet from the body.

Q.—Did you see a handbag? A.—I did not. I did not see any evidences of her pay envelope.

Q.—What kind of investigation did you make? A.—The first thing we did was to look for the left shoe. We did not make any investigation on the second floor.

* * *

Atlanta Georgian, April 30th 1913, “Went Down Scuttle Hole on Ladder to Reach Body,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)