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

Here is the translated text as follows:

340 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

The strength of the case does not rest upon this instance or that one, but upon all, taken together and bound together, which make a cable as strong as it is possible for the ingenuity of man to weave around anybody.

Now, listen to this statement and let's analyze it as we go on a little. I don't know whether this man's statement to the jury will rank along with the cross-examination of that celebrated pervert, Oscar Wilde, or not, but it was a brilliant statement when unanalyzed. If you simply shut your eyes and mind to reason and take this statement, then, of course, you are not going to convict. But listen to what our Courts say about these statements—I have already read it to you, but I want to read it again, "Evidence given by a witness has inherent strength which even a jury cannot under all circumstances disregard; a statement has none." No cross-examination, no oath, merely a statement adroitly prepared to meet the exigencies of the case.

Now, listen to this. This man Frank says, "I sat in my office checking over the amount of money which had been left over"—not the cash, not cash, but the amount of money which had been left over—"from the pay-roll"—from the $1,100.00 that they had drawn on Friday. To this day, we don't know how much was left over, and we don't know whether what was left over, coupled with the cash left on hand, would make this bundle of bills that old Jim says was shown to him and taken back when Frank wanted to get him to go down into the dark cellar and burn that body by himself. Old Jim says, "I'll go if you go, but if I go down there and burn that body, somebody might come along and catch me, and then what kind of a fix will I be in?" And I'll tell you right now, if Jim Conley had gone down in that cellar and had undertaken to have burned that body, as sure as the smoke would have curled upward out of that funnel towards Heaven, just so certain would Leo M. Frank have been down there with these same detectives, and Jim Conley would have been without a shadow of a defense. But old Jim, drunk or sober, ignorant or smart, vile or pure, had too much sense, and while he was willing to write the notes to...