347 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

LEO M. FRANK. 315

I want to read you a definition that an old darkey gave of an alibi, which I think illustrates the idea. Rastus asked his companion, "What's this here alibi you hear so much talk about?" And old Sam says, "An alibi is proving that you was at the prayer meeting, where you wasn't, to show that you wasn't at the crap game, where you was."

Now, right here, let me interpolate, this man never made an admission, from the beginning until the end of this case, except when he knew that someone could fasten it on him—wherever he knew that people knew he was in the factory, he admitted it. All right; but you prove an alibi by that little Kerens girl, do you? She swore that she saw you at Alabama and Broad at 1:10, and yet here is the paper containing your admission made in the presence of your attorney, Monday morning, April 28, that you didn't leave the factory until 1:10.

Gentlemen, talk to me about sad spectacles, but of all the sad spectacles that I have witnessed throughout this case—I don't know who did it, I don't know who's responsible, and I hope that I'll go to my grave in ignorance of who it was that brought this little Kerens girl, the daughter of a man that works for Montag, into this case, to prove this alibi for this red-handed murderer, who killed that little girl to protect his reputation among the people of his own race and religion. Jurors are sworn, and His Honor will charge you, you have got the right to take into consideration the deportment, the manner, the bearing, the reasonableness of what any witness swears to, and if any man in this courthouse, any honest man, seeking to get at the truth, looked at that little girl, her manner, her bearing, her attitude, her actions, her connections with Montag, and don't know that she, like that little Bauer boy, had been riding in Montag's automobile, I am at a loss to understand your mental operations.

But if Frank locked the factory door at ten minutes past one, if that be true, how in the name of goodness did she ever see him at Alabama and Broad at 1:10? Mark you, she had never seen him but one time; had never seen him but one time, and with the people up there on the street, to see the parade.