Tuesday, 27th July 1915: Doctors To Examine Assailant Of Frank, The Atlanta Constitution

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### At Governor's Request They Will See Whether Creen's Rib Is in Place.

When William Creen, the lifetime convict who recently attacked Leo M. Frank, was closeted last Saturday with Governor Nat Harris, telling him the story of his attack upon Frank and his motives for the act, he made just one request of the Governor, and this request was not for clemency in any form. It was that the Governor saw to it that an X-ray examination is made of Creen's side to find whether a rib which he had broken once, is not, still out of place. Governor Harris promised Creen that he would do this, and the Governor stated Monday that he would take the matter up with the Prison Commission.

### Governor Was Warned.

A rather startling revelation made by Governor Harris was that he was warned while at the State Farm not to talk with Creen alone while Creen had his chain on. When Governor Harris first saw Creen at the State Prison, it was at the side of Creen's cot in the sleeping quarters of the prison, where Creen was chained to a concrete post. Governor Harris promised Creen then that he would come back later and talk with him privately there. It was after this that Governor Harris was told that it might not be safe for him to talk to Creen alone while his chain was still attached. Governor Harris then changed his plan and had Creen brought, without chains, into the offices of Warden J. E. Smith. For the safety of the Governor, the Prison Commissioners directed that Adjutant General Van Holt Nash be present at the conference with Creen.

Governor Harris stated that he did not know why he should not have talked with Creen while in chains. It was suggested Monday that since Creen's chain was some 10 or 12 feet long a slack loop of the chain might have been used as a deadly weapon in the hands of the prisoner while the Governor was talking to him. Governor Harris said he did not know whether this was what was meant or not.

### Creen's One Request.

When the Governor first saw Creen, Creen was sitting on his bunk, across which his chain stretched to the post. Creen dropped the chain to the floor in front of him and invited the Governor to sit down beside him. Governor Harris declined and remained standing.

"In the private audience," said Governor Harris, "Creen told me that he had but one request to make of me. I rather expected that that request would be for clemency of some sort. But instead, he asked me to try to have his rib examined by X-ray and find out whether his health could be remedied. Creen said that he had never gotten into trouble before he fell one time and broke several ribs. He told me that one of those ribs had never been properly reset and that its constant irritation of his side, he believed, is responsible for his partial paralysis and his suffering. He said that this had affected his mind, but that if he could get the rib fixed, he believed he would be all right again.

"I promised Creen I would attend to this for him, and I am going to take this matter up with the Prison Commission. I am not doing this to learn whether the broken rib has been the source of criminal tendencies in Creen or for any other purpose than to give relief from suffering if an examination of this sort would do it. His request seems to me a modest and reasonable one, and if the State can help him to health, it ought to do it, rather than to permit him to continue to suffer."

### Tells of Interview.

Governor Harris talked freely Monday of the private audience which he had given Creen at the State Prison, and declared that, except for this private audience, there was nothing which transpired at the State Prison investigation which he was not all the time willing for newspaper men to see and hear.

"My reasons for not allowing the press to hear Creen's statement," said the Governor to a Constitution reporter, "are already well known to you. You, I believe, were present in the sleeping ward of the prison when Creen stated positively that he would tell his story to no one except the Governor, and that privately. I afterwards endeavored to get Creen to tell me his story in the presence of the press and the Prison Commission, but he steadfastly declined to do this."

Illustrating the extreme secrecy which Creen preserved in making his statement, Governor Harris said that once during Creen's statement someone accidentally opened a door leading from the Warden's office into an adjoining room where Frank, whose throat Creen had cut, lay upon a cot. Creen instantly hushed talking, said the Governor, and the Governor had to have the door shut and locked before Creen would resume his story.

### PAGE 12, COLUMN 4

### WARDENS ORDERED TO SEARCH CONVICTS TO PREVENT ATTACKS

The Prison Commission met Monday and issued an order to the Warden of the State Prison and to county wardens having charge of state convicts working on the public roads instructing them to take every precaution to see that no weapons are smuggled into sleeping quarters by convicts. The order states that the reason for this is to prevent a recurrence of such incidents as the attack upon Frank at the State Prison.

The Commission also issued a statement summarizing the details of the investigation at the State Farm last Saturday, which details have already been published. The Commissioners state that they believe "the conditions at the Georgia Penitentiary will compare most favorably with any penitentiary in the country, and that men come out of it with as little or less of the taint of prison life than from any other prison in the country." The Commissioners state that conditions are being improved from year to year, but admit that they make mistakes, as all men do, and invite information and suggestions for improvement of conditions from any source.