Tuesday, 19th August 1913: Conflicting Statements Made By Franks Former Stenographer, The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Constitution,
Tuesday, 19th August 1913,
PAGE 3, COLUMN 3.
Interest in the morning session of the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, came when Solicitor Hugh Dorsey trapped Miss M. E. Fleming, a witness for the defense, into admitting that she had seen Frank working on the financial sheet on Saturday mornings.
The claim of the defense has been that Frank never worked on this sheet except on Saturday afternoons, and they particularly stressed the claim that he did the three hours' work on the afternoon of the day on which the state claims the girl was murdered.
When Miss Fleming, who stated that she worked in Frank's office as stenographer from April to December, 1911, was put on the stand by the defense she swore to the good character of the defendant.
She was then turned over to the state for cross-examination.
"You don't undertake to tell what other people say about Frank, but just what you know yourself?" began the solicitor.
"Yes, I'm only telling what I know."
"What time did you leave the factory on Saturdays?"
"I was supposed to leave at 1 o'clock unless we were crowded with work, and I usually did get off at 1."
"What sort of work did Frank do there?"
"Well, I've seen him make up the financial sheet and do other work like that," Miss Fleming replied.
"You say you've seen him work on the financial sheet?"
"Yes," she replied.
"Do you know the financial sheet when you see it?" asked the solicitor as though his purpose was to show that the witness would not know a financial sheet from an order book.
"I certainly have seen it often enough, and I do know it when I see it."
"Well, you also said you left the factory at 1 o'clock on Saturdays?"
"I did."
"Then you saw Frank making out the financial sheet on Saturday mornings?" said the solicitor.
"No," the witness replied.
"You said you saw him making it out?"
"I never said that," replied the witness.
"You said you saw him making out the financial sheet at times, and you also said you left there at 1 o'clock on Saturdays, now can you tell the jury how it was that you could have seen him working on it at any other time on Saturday but in the morning?"
"I never saw Mr. Frank working on the financial sheet," the witness contended.
The solicitor called for the official stenographer to read from her testimony. The part in which the witness said she had seen Frank working on the sheet was read to the jury.
Miss Fleming then stated that she had not meant to say that she had ever seen Frank at work on the financial sheet, and that if she had said it she meant that she had only seen him do a little work on the sheet.
Miss Fleming was decidedly confused as she finished, and the solicitor told her she might leave the stand.