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

Here is the translated text as follows:

376 X¥. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

The electricity might innocently electrocute some members of the fire department in case of a fire. I ask you, gentlemen of the jury, what was the necessity for leaving the box open when a simple turn of the lever would have shut off the electricity and enabled the key to have been hung up in the office, just exactly like old Holloway swore when he didn’t know the importance of the proposition? In the affidavit which I have and which was submitted in evidence to you, it states that the box was locked and the key was put in Frank’s office. Why don’t they bring the fireman here who went around and gave such instructions? First, because it wasn’t necessary; they could have cut the electricity off and locked the box. And second, they didn’t bring him because no such man ever did any such thing, and old Holloway told the truth before he came to the conclusion that old Jim Conley was “his nigger” and he saw the importance of the proposition that when Frank went there Sunday morning, the box was unlocked and Frank had the key in his pocket.

Mr. Rosser: You say Mr. Frank had the key in his pocket? No one mentioned it; that isn’t the evidence. I say it was hung up in the office; that’s the undisputed evidence.

Mr. Dorsey: Holloway says when he got back Monday morning, it was hung up in the office, but Boots Rogers said this man Frank—and he was sustained by other witnesses—when he came there to run that elevator Sunday morning, found that power box unlocked.

Mr. Rosser: That’s not what you said.

Mr. Dorsey: Yes, it is.

Mr. Rosser: You said Frank had the key in his pocket next morning, and that isn’t the evidence; there’s not a line to that effect.

The Court: Do you still insist that he had it in his pocket?

Mr. Dorsey: I don’t care anything about that; the point of the proposition, the gist of the proposition, the force of the proposition is that old Holloway stated, way back yonder in May, when I interviewed him, that the key was always in Frank’s office. This man told you that the power box and the elevator were unlocked Sunday morning and the elevator started without anybody going and getting the key.

Mr. Rosser: That’s not the point he was making. The point he was making, to show how clearly Frank must have been connected with it, he had the key in his pocket. He was willing to say that when he ought to know that’s not so.

The Court: He’s drawing a deduction that he claims he’s drawing.

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