Author: Historical Librarian


Saturday, 18th September 1915: Building Owners Honor Wilkinson, The Atlanta Constitution

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The Atlanta Constitution,Saturday, 18th September 1915,PAGE 5, COLUMN 1.Atlanta Man Elected Treasurer; Doty Named President, and St. Louis Gets the Next Convention.The eighth Annual Convention of the National Association of Building Owners and Managers, which has been in session at the Piedmont Hotel for the last four days, came to a close yesterday afternoon, when the delegates were carried over the city, on an automobile ride.At the executive session on Friday morning, Charles F. Wilkinson, manager of the Candler Building and president of the Atlanta Association of Building Owners and Managers, was honored by the national delegates, who chose him
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Sunday, 19th September 1915: Plan The Payment Of Military Bill, The Atlanta Constitution

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The Atlanta Constitution,Sunday, 19th September 1915,PAGE 48, COLUMN 7.Governor Harris and Adjutant General Nash Making Arrangement to Pay Members of Fifth Regiment.Efforts are now being made by Governor Harris and Adjutant General Nash to make Arrangements at the earliest possible moment for the Payment of the Bills of some $5,000 incurred by the Services.Adjutant General Nash stated Saturday that he has been assured by an Atlanta Bank that if it can be done legally, the Bank will advance the State the necessary Money to meet the Bills. This Money, in the event of such a Loan, is to be paid
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Sunday, 26th September 1915: Ex-governor Joseph M. Brown Answers Judge S. B. Adams, The Atlanta Constitution

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The Atlanta Constitution,Sunday, 26th September 1915,PAGE 4, COLUMN 5.The Constitution published on the first Sunday in September an extensive Communication from Judge Samuel B. Adams defending ex-Governor Slaton, and incidentally criticizing ex-Governor Joseph M. Brown, who replies in the following Communication. With this, the controversy over the Matter referred to ends, so far as The Constitution is concerned. We believe that no good purpose can be served by a continued discussion of the issues involved. The sooner the whole of this dark chapter of Georgia History is consigned to the Realm of the Past, the better it will be for
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Sunday, 26th September 1915: To Whom It May Concern And No Others, The Atlanta Journal

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The Atlanta Journal,Sunday, 26th September 1915,PAGE 6, COLUMN 1.In the first place, let me explain that this is an "Advertisement." I do this out of deference to the two Atlanta Newspapers which are carrying it at so much per inch; I don't want to get them mixed up in this thing without knowledge and consent. Also, it is an Advertisement, because it has a purpose to serve; not exactly a selfish purpose, but, nevertheless, a specific and important purpose at least, as I see it. I am addressing it only to those who see the present situation in Georgia as
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Wednesday, 6th October 1915: Georgia Is Attacked By Judge Sheppard, The Atlanta Constitution

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The Atlanta Constitution,Wednesday, 6th October 1915,PAGE 5, COLUMN 3.New York, October 5. The lynching of Leo M. Frank, although not designated by name, was made the basis of a portion of the charge today to the new federal grand jury by Judge William B. Sheppard, of Pensacola, Fla., who swore in the jurors and instructed them. Judge Sheppard told the grand jury that the people looked to the courts for protection and that failure to get it sometimes led to outrage."Not many weeks ago," Judge Sheppard said, "the country was shocked by an outrage committed in a southern state. That
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Sunday, 31st October 1915: Slaton Or Watson? By Thomas W. Loyless, The Atlanta Journal

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The Atlanta Journal,Sunday, 31st October 1915,PAGE 5, COLUMN 5.HAVING had so many requests to re-publish in Pamphlet form the Series of Articles by Thomas W. Loyless, that have appeared in The Augusta Chronicle during the past five or six weeks on the above Subject, the same has been done, and will be ready for distribution on November 5th, and as long as they last which will be only a few days.A great many people have expressed a desire to preserve this Series of Articles dealing with ONE OF THE MOST TRYING EVENTS IN GEORGIA'S HISTORY; while others have expressed a
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Sunday, 31st October 1915: Slaton Or Watson?, The Atlanta Constitution

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The Atlanta Constitution,Sunday, 31st October 1915,PAGE 15, COLUMN 5.BY THOMAS W. LOYLESSHAVING had so many requests to re-publish in Pamphlet form the Series of Articles by Thomas W. Loyless, that have appeared in The Augusta Chronicle during the past five or six weeks on the above Subject, the same has been done, and will be ready for distribution on November 5th, and as long as they last which will be only a few days.A great many people have expressed a desire to preserve this Series of Articles dealing with ONE OF THE MOST TRYING EVENTS IN GEORGIA'S HISTORY; while others
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DR CLARENCE JOHNSON, Sworn In For The State, 193rd To Testify

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DR. CLARENCE JOHNSON, sworn for the State in rebuttal.I am a specialist on diseases of the stomach and intestines. I am a physiologist. A physiologist makes his searches on the living body; the pathologist makes his on a dead body. If you give anyone who has drunk a chocolate milk at about eight o'clock in the morning, cabbage at 12 o'clock and 30 or 40 minutes thereafter you take the cabbage out and it is shown to be dark like chocolate and milk, that much contents of any kind vomited up three and a half hours afterwards would show an
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192 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:160 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.An insane delusion of a character that tends to steal will not excuse a homicide. The act is to be judged always by the nature of the delusion, and of the facts and circumstances insanely believed to exist, which for this purpose are to be taken by the jury as reality, and the moral and legal status of the act determined accordingly.Another class of cases of insanity that exempts its unfortunate victim from legal accountability is where, in consequence of mental disorder, the person labors under delusions, the necessary tendency
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DR GEORGE M NILES, Sworn In For The State, 194th To Testify

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DR. GEORGE M. NILES, sworn for the State in rebuttal.I confine my work to diseases of digestion. Every healthy stomach has a certain definite and orderly relation to every other healthy stomach. Assuming a young lady between thirteen and fourteen years of age at 11:30 April 26, 1913, eats a meal of cabbage and bread, that the next morning about three o'clock her dead body is found. That there are indentations in her neck where a cord had been around her throat, indicating that she died of strangulation, her nails blue, her face blue, a slight injury on the back
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193 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:EDWARD D. WORRELLTHE VERDICT AND SENTENCEThe jury retired to consider their verdict. They were out for about an hour, and when they returned, the foreman pronounced the words: "We, the jury, find the prisoner guilty of murder in the first degree, in manner and form as charged in the indictment."The prisoner was required to stand up and receive his sentence. He arose, with his father and mother on each side of him, their arms around his neck.Judge Stone addressed him, saying, "Mr. Worrell, you have appeared before me for the last time. It is
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DR JOHN FUNK, Sworn In For The State, 195th To Testify

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DR. JOHN FUNK, sworn for the State in rebuttal.I am professor of pathology and bacteriologist. I was shown by Dr. Harris sections from the vaginal wall of Mary Phagan, sections taken near the skin surface. I didn't see sections from the stomach or the contents. These sections showed that the epithelium wall was torn off at points immediately beneath that covering in the tissues below, and there was infiltrated pressure of blood. They were, you might say, engorged, and the white blood cells in those blood vessels were more numerous than you will find in a normal blood vessel. The
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194 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:162 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He was afterwards tried and acquitted. He was taken back to Leavenworth, where he attempted to desert a second time.THE EXECUTIONMr. Clark Brown of Union, Mo., who has compiled a History of Franklin County, writes: "There is no local newspaper giving an account of the hanging of Worrell. However, I have the report of eyewitnesses. After the conviction in our circuit court, he was taken to St. Louis for safekeeping. Sheriff R. R. Jones assigned the duty to Deputy Sheriff Amos W. Maupin. George Holtgriewe, who is still living, says
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195 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:THE TRIAL OF JOHN HODGES FOR TREASON, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, 1815THE NARRATIVEDuring the War of 1812, while the British army was retreating from Washington, four stragglers and a deserter were captured by the people of a town in Maryland through which the army passed. Upon discovering this, the British commander sent a demand to the town that the prisoners were to be delivered up at once, or he would return and burn it. A committee of the townspeople decided that they must save it from being laid in ashes, and John Hodges and another were
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T Y BRENT, Sworn In For The Defendant, 196th To Testify

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T. Y. BRENT, sworn for the Defendant in sur-rebuttal.I have heard George Kendley on several occasions express himself very bitterly towards Leo Frank. He said he felt in this case just as he did about a couple of negroes hung down in Decatur; that he didn't know whether they had been guilty or not, but somebody had to be hung for killing those street car men and it was just as good to hang one nigger as another, and that Frank was nothing but an old Jew and they ought to take him out and hang him anyhow.CROSS EXAMINATION.I have
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M E STAHL, Sworn In For The Defendant, 197th To Testify

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M. E. STAHL, sworn for the Defendant, in sur-rebuttal.I have heard George Kendley, the conductor, express his feelings toward Leo Frank. I was standing on the rear platform, and he said that Frank was as guilty as a snake, and should be hung, and that if the court didn't convict him that he would be one of five or seven that would get him.M E STAHL, Sworn In For The Defendant, 197th To Testify
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196 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:164 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Today, a jury was duly impaneled, and a plea of not guilty was made.Elias Glenn, District Attorney, for the Government.William Pinkney, Thomas Jennings, Upton S. Heath, and John E. Hall for the Prisoner.Mr. Glenn, the District Attorney, opened the case by stating that treason was a crime of the deepest dye, which all nations had punished with exemplary severity. In the United States, he said, it had been limited to two species, namely: levying war, and adhering to the enemy, giving him aid and comfort (Laws U.S., April 1790, Sec.
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MISS C S HAAS, Sworn In For The Defendant, 198th To Testify

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MISS C. S. HAAS, sworn for the Defendant, in sur-rebuttal.I heard Kendley two weeks ago talk about the Frank case so loud that the entire street car heard it. He said that circumstantial evidence was the best kind of evidence to convict a man on and if there was any doubt, the State should be given the benefit of it, and that 90 per cent. of the best people in the city, including himself, thought that Frank was guilty and ought to hang.MISS C S HAAS, Sworn In For The Defendant, 198th To Testify
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197 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESIn George County, some residents of the town of Upper Marlborough captured four stragglers who were following the army. These individuals, along with a deserter, were sent into the interior of the country. As soon as their absence was noticed, the British commander demanded their return, threatening to destroy the town if his demand was not met. Communications passed between the two parties, resulting in the men being restored or placed in a situation where they could be taken by the enemy. In effecting this restoration, the prisoner was among the most active.
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You Are There:Atlanta Georgian, June 29th, 1913

  Brilliant Legal Battle Is Sure as Hooper And Arnold Clash in Trial of Leo Frank The Atlanta Georgian Sunday, June 29, 1913 * * Alternate headline from another page is shown in brackets above. By An Old Police Reporter. As deplorable as the Phagan case is in all its melancholy details, it already is evident enough that there will come of it eventually much that the community may be thankful for. In the first place, Atlanta and Georgia, and incidentally the entire South will have learned a good lesson in law and order, justice and fair play, and to
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You Are There: Detective Harry Scott’s Testimony as Given Before Coroner’s Jury, Atlanta Journal, May 9th, 1913

Detective Harry Scott's Testimony as Given Before Coroner's Jury Atlanta JournalFriday, May 9th, 1913 An unexpected turn was given to the coroner's inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan, Thursday afternoon, when Harry Scott, the Pinkerton detective who has been representing that agency in its work on the case, was called to the stand by the coroner. Mr. Scott was in the room at the moment. One new detail that he revealed was in a reply to a direct question from the coroner, when he stated that Herbert Haas, attorney for Leo M. Frank and attorney for the National
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You Are There: Felder Barely Missed Being Trapped by His Own Dictograph, Atlanta Journal, May 27th, 1913

Felder Barely Missed Being Trapped by His Own Dictograph Atlanta JournalTuesday, May 27th, 1913 Last week, when the detectives were laying their plans to trap Colonel Thomas B. Felder with a dictograph, they came very near trapping the colonel with his own instrument. The amusing incident, which has just come to light, revolves about Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey. Before a dictograph was installed in the Williams house room the city detectives told the solicitor that the attorney was negotiating for the purchase for $1,000 of certain papers in the Phagan case. The solicitor said nothing about the confidences of
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You Are There: Indictment of Both Lee and Frank is Asked, Atlanta Georgian, May 23rd, 1913

Indictment of Both Lee and Frank is Asked Atlanta GeorgianFriday, May 23rd, 1913 Great Mass of Evidence Carefully Prepared by Solicitor Submitted to Grand Jury. CRIME STUDIED 3 HOURS, ADJOURNS TILL SATURDAY Utmost Care Taken to Insure Secrecy at the Investigation, Diagram Studied. The Phagan case is now in the process of investigation by the Fulton County Grand Jury. Two bills for indictment of Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, for the murder of Mary Phagan, were presented before that tribunal at its session Friday morning by Solicitor Dorsey. A host of witnesses gave their testimony. The torn and blood-stained
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You Are There: Lawyers Hammer Lee for Two Hours at Monday Afternoon Session, Atlanta Journal, July 29th, 1913

Lawyers Hammer Lee for Two Hours at Monday Afternoon Session Atlanta JournalJuly 29th, 1913 Negro Nightwatchman Who Found Mary Phagan's Body in National Pencil Factory on Stand—Girl's Mother and Newsboy Examined Newt Lee, the negro nightwatchman who found Mary Phagan's body in the pencil factory basement, was hammered by the defense for over two hours, on the witness stand Monday afternoon. Mrs. J. W. Coleman, mother of the murdered child, and George W. Epps, a playmate who came to town with her on the fatal day, testified in that order. Mrs. Coleman being the first witness called to the stand
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You Are There: Probe Phagan Case Grand Jury Urged, Atlanta Constitution, May 6th, 1913

Probe Phagan Case Grand Jury Urged Atlanta ConstitutionTuesday, May 6th, 1913 Crime Calls for Your Immediate Attention, Declares Judge Ellis, in His Charge. "The Mary Phagan case calls for your immediate and vigorous attention. The power of the state is behind you. What appears to be an awful crime has been committed, and the welfare of the community, the good name of Atlanta, public justice and the majesty of the law demand at the hands of this grand jury and of all officers of the law the most searching investigation and the prompt bringing to trial of the guilty party."
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N SINKOVITZ, Sworn In For The Defendant, 199th To Testify

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N. SINKOVITZ, sworn for the Defendant, in sur-rebuttal.I am a pawnbroker. I know M. E. Mc Coy. He has pawned his watch to me lately. The last time was January 11, 1913. It was in my place of business on the 26th of April, 1913. He paid up his loan on August 16th, last Saturday, during this trial. This is the same watch I have been handling for him during the last two years.CROSS EXAMINATION.My records here show that he took it out Saturday.N SINKOVITZ, Sworn In For The Defendant, 199th To Testify
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198 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSTHE WITNESSES FOR THE PROSECUTIONWilliam CatonLast August, I was sent by the governor to Queen Anne on business. There, I saw John Randall guarding some prisoners and a deserter. The two Hodges, the prisoner and his brother, rode up and demanded the prisoners. They said that a detachment of the British army had entered the town the evening before and required the prisoners. They had declared that unless the prisoners were returned before 12 o'clock the next day, they would lay the town in ashes. I told the prisoner that if
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199 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESBlood would be at our door; I do not know that Hodges was present when this one was stated to be a deserter.Never were people so universally alarmed on God's earth as the people of Upper Marlborough; death and destruction were threatening them every moment if they refused to deliver up these men.Gustavus Hay was called upon by the prisoner to assist in conducting the prisoners to the British lines; at first, he refused. Hodges said an American must do his duty without regard to danger or inconvenience. It was decided that Robert
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S L ASHER, Sworn In For The Defendant, 200th To Testify

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S. L. ASHER, sworn for the Defendant in sur-rebuttal.About two weeks ago I was coming to town between 5 and 10 minutes to 1 on the car and there was a man who was talking very loud about the Frank case, and all of a sudden he said: "They ought to take that damn Jew out and hang him anyway." I took his number down to report him.CROSS EXAMINATION.I have not had a chance to report since it happened.S L ASHER, Sworn In For The Defendant, 200th To Testify
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200 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:168 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Thomas Holden: I came to Marlborough when the army was halting at Nottingham. I met two gentlemen whom I told I was a deserter from the British; they took me to Dr. Beanes. Afterwards, Lansdale took me to Queen Anne, where I was confined with the others. In the morning, Hodges and another person came to the door. Mr. Sparrow demanded the names of the prisoners and told us we were to be delivered up. I begged them not to give my name; I would certainly be put to death.
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201 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES169Thomas Sparrow was solicited by F. Rendall to help guard the prisoners. Rendall, Benson, Wells, and myself mounted guard that night. At 12 o'clock, Lansdale came in with a deserter. The next morning, Sunday, the two Hodges came with information of the threat, etc., and required that the men should be delivered up. We went to consult General Bowie, who said it was very hard; that the capture was legal, but he supposed we must submit. There were three prisoners and Tom Holden, the deserter.General Bowie (recalled) stated that Hodges never pressed the
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202 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:170 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Pinkney: There is no law in this prayer, for it excludes that which is the essence of the offense—intention—and if it were otherwise, the court has no right to instruct the jury as if this were a civil case. No instance has occurred in modern times of an attempt to bind the jury in such a cause by the opinion of the court. What remedy is there for the party if you err? We may appeal to a higher tribunal, it is true; but what is the consequence? The
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203 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 171Given the principles upon which the prosecution was founded, I do not think it necessary to trouble the jury with a refutation of them. I will confine myself, therefore, to a few general observations.Mr. Glenn again proposed his prayer for the consideration of the court.In support of it, he read the following authorities: 1 East. Cro. 170. If the joining with rebels is from fear of present death, and while the party is under actual force, such fear and compulsion will excuse him. However, an apprehension, though ever so well grounded, of
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204 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:172 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,In the realm of civil liberty and the law of treason, you will find him perpetually contending, and contending with effect, that although the crown had proved the facts charged, it had not shown the evil design, the corrupt purpose, without which the facts are nothing.Let us hear what he says to the jury in the case of Lord George Gordon:"You must find that Lord George Gordon assembled these men with that traitorous intention—you must find not merely a riotous, illegal petitioning—not a tumultuous, indecent importunity to influence parliament—not the
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205 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 173A man acquitted of treason may not be the enemy of the king, nor the friend of any man who is his enemy.Consider the case of a man who, in time of war, is charged with the defense of an important fortress or castle, which he surrenders to an incompetent force. What more effective means could he have adopted to aid the enemy than the delivery of this stronghold? The books all tell you that if he was bribed to this desertion of his duty, if he did it with a view
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206 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:114 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe counsel were allowed to argue that the letters were transmitted with a good intent, in order to avert the danger of so great a calamity as an invasion. Yet, the motives behind the transmission of these letters were considered corrupt. The Court stated that the jury were to judge from all the circumstances whether the intelligence had been sent with that view.My client is charged, as Stone was charged, with being an adherent; and like him, is entitled to be sheltered by his motives from the imputation of treason.
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207 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 176There was an apprehension, by no means unreasonable, for the quiet and safety of the frightened women and helpless children of the neighborhood, and for the security of the persons and property of the whole district. The treason of adherence cannot be committed by one whose heart is warm with all the honorable feelings of the man and the patriot. "Overt acts undoubtedly do discover the man's intentions; but I conceive they are not to be considered merely as evidence, but as the means made use of to effect the purposes of
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208 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:176 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In addressing a tribunal where these considerations have their full weight, I expect with confidence that the court will vindicate the doctrines which I have had the honor to advance.Dovatn, C. J.: The Court would have been better satisfied if the whole case had been gone through in the usual way, but as the District Attorney has prayed an opinion on the law, I am willing to give him mine.Hodges is accused of adhering to the enemy, and the overt act laid consists in the delivery of certain prisoners. I
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209 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESIn the hope of deliverance from the danger that encompassed him, I have been disappointed. As if the salvation of the state depended upon the conviction of this unfortunate man—whose situation, one would think, even an inquisitor might deplore—the district attorney has gone out of his way to bring down vengeance upon him. One of the court has told you that he is a traitor, and you ought to find him so.In a case where justice might be expected to be softened into clemency, and even to connive at acquittal, where every generous
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210 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:178 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Stone was acquitted. Has any answer been given to that authority? Has any been even attempted?This indictment charges Hodges with having done certain things wickedly, maliciously, and traitorously. Must not the United States prove what they allege? When the law allows even words to be given in evidence, as explanatory of intention, to exculpate, it admits that exculpation may be made out by proof of innocent motives—that overt acts alone do not furnish a criterion—that concomitant facts, illustrative of the state of the heart, must not be neglected.A military force
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211 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGES. 179Upon a mind which virtuous inducements could betray into error; but in what way we can distort it into treason, I have not yet been able directly to learn.The conduct is in itself treasonable, says the chief justice: it necessarily imports the wicked intention charged by the indictment. The construction makes it treason because it aids and comforts the enemy.These are strong and comprehensive positions; but they have not been proved; and they cannot be proved until we relapse into the gulf of constructive treason, from which our ancestors in another country
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212 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:180 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You could not have failed to be successful. You are charged with his life and honor, because I assured him that the law was a pledge for the security of both. I declared to him that I would stake my own life upon the safety of his; and I declare to you now that you have as much power to shed the blood of the advocate as to harm the client whom he defends.If the mere naked fact of delivery constitutes the crime of treason, why not hang the man
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213 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:JOHN HODGESCan it be that your conduct may be separated from your actions, and guilt may be fastened upon your actions, although the heart be innocent?Gentlemen, so solemnly, so deeply, so religiously do I feel impressed with this principle that I know not how to leave the case with you, although at the present moment it strikes my mind in so clear a light that I know not how to make it more clear.If this damnable prosecution should prevail, it would be the duty of the district attorney to instantly arraign General Bowie, one
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214 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:THE TRIAL OF LEO M. FRANK FOR THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGAN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 1913THE NARRATIVESaturday, April 26, 1913, was Memorial Day, a holiday, and there was no work going on in the National Pencil Company's factory in Atlanta. However, Leo M. Frank, the superintendent, was in his office when, a little after noon, Mary Phagan, a white girl of fourteen years old, whose duty was to attach metal tips to pencils, called to collect some pay that was due her. She had not been at work for a week as the supply of
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215 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 188When Lee came upstairs to report, Frank, rubbing his hands, met him and told him to go out and have a good time until six o'clock. When Lee returned, Frank changed the slip in the time clock, manifesting nervousness and taking a longer time than usual. When Frank went out of the front door of the factory that afternoon, he met a man named Gantt, whom he had discharged a short time before. Frank looked frightened. Gantt declared he wished to go upstairs and get some shoes he had left there,
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216 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:184 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A hair found on a lathe, examined under a microscope, led to the opinion that it was not hers. Other witnesses claimed they saw blood on the floor near the dressing room, the same place where Conley said he had dragged the body, and noted that it was not there on Friday. Additional witnesses who examined the floor stated that the spots looked like bloodstains, but they were not certain. There was testimony indicating frequent injuries at the factory, and blood was not an uncommon sight. A part of what
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217 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 186On the trial, Conley testified that Frank had asked him to come to the factory on Saturday and watch for him, as he had previously done. Conley explained that this meant Frank expected to meet a woman, and when Frank stamped his foot, Conley was to lock the door leading into the factory. When Frank whistled, Conley was to open it. He said he occupied a dark place at the side of the elevator behind some boxes, where he would be invisible. Conley swore that he saw several people, including male
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218 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:186 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Frank denied the truth of Conley's story in its entirety and stated that Mary Phagan came into his office around noon. He claimed that he gave her the envelope and that she left him, and he had not seen her since. To support his character, he introduced nearly one hundred witnesses, including citizens of Atlanta, college mates from Cornell, and professors from that college.The defense also produced the statements and affidavits that Conley had made to law enforcement officers before the trial. In his first statement on May 13, Conley
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219 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 187After drinking beer, which had caused him to sweat, Jim Conley was approached by Leo Frank, who asked if he could write. Frank then dictated to Conley three times, informing him that he intended to send the note in a letter to Conley's family, recommending him. Frank questioned, "Why should I hang?" He then took a cigarette from a box and handed the box to Conley. Upon crossing the street, Conley discovered two paper dollars and two silver quarters inside the box, prompting him to exclaim, "Good luck has struck me."At
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220 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:188 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The crowd once again manifested their resentment towards the prisoner; they applauded the state counsel more than once, and the crowd in the streets cheered the prosecuting attorneys as they entered and left the courthouse. When the jury was ready to deliver the verdict, the judge requested that both the prisoner and his counsel be absent from the courtroom when the verdict was rendered, in order to avoid any possible demonstration in the event of an acquittal.The jury returned a verdict of guilty, which was received with cheers by the
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221 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 189Leo M. Frank was arraigned on April 26, 1918, in Michigan, where he pleaded not guilty, and his trial commenced on that day. The prosecution was represented by Hugh M. Dorsey, Solicitor General; Frank A. Hooper, and E. A. Stephens, Assistant Solicitors. The defense team included Reuben R. Arnold, Luther Z. Rosser, and Herbert Haas.Defendant in Error. In Error from Fulton Superior Court at the July Term, 1913. Brief of the Evidence.Argument of Hugh M. Dorsey, Solicitor General, Atlanta Judicial Circuit, at the Trial of Leo M. Frank, Charged with the
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222 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe following jurors were selected and sworn: F. E. Winburn (foreman), M. S. Woodward, D. Townsend, A. L. Wisbey, W. M. Jeffries, M. Johenning, J. T. Osborn, F. V. L. Smith, A. H. Henslee, W. F. Medealf, C. J. Boashardt, J. F. Higdon.THE WITNESSES FOR THE STATEMrs. J. W. Coleman:I am Mary Phagan's mother. I last saw her alive on April 26, 1913, at home. Around 11:30, she ate some cabbage and bread. She left home at a quarter to 12 to go to the pencil factory for her pay. She
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223 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKI said, "I ain't allowed to let anybody in here after six o'clock." Mr. Frank came busting out of the door and ran into Gantt unexpectedly, and he jumped back frightened. Gantt said, "I got a pair of old shoes upstairs, have you any objection to my getting them?" Frank said, "I don't think they are up there, I think I saw the boy sweep some up in the trash the other day." And he dropped his head down just so, then said, "Newt, go with him and stay with him and
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224 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe body was found with a cord around the neck. The tongue was protruding. The scratch pad was also lying on the ground close to the body; the notes were found under the sawdust, near the head. The body was that of Mary Phagan.During cross-examination, Lee told us it was a white woman. We didn't know until the dust was removed from her face and we pulled up the clothes and looked at the skin. There was a pile of trash near the boiler. The hat was on the trash pile,
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225 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKFrank was approached by the undertaking establishment and asked if he would come to see if he knew the young lady. Mr. Frank readily consented, so we got out and went in. The corpse was lying in a small side room to the right of a large room. I didn't see Frank look at the corpse; I don't remember that Mr. Frank ever followed me into this room. He may have stopped outside the door, but my back was toward him; he could not have seen her face because it was lying
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226 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSTo reach the dressing room, one would pass the office from the closets, coming within two or three feet of Mary's machine. Mr. Frank would pass through the metal department, looking around every day.Cross-examined: Standing at the time clock, you can't see into Mr. Frank's private office. A person wouldn't see from Mr. Frank's office anyone coming in or out of the building. I worked at the factory for five years. During that time, Mr. Frank spoke to me three times. I never saw Mr. Frank speak to Mary Phagan or
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227 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK195A man who had been discharged on April 7th by Mr. Frank for an alleged shortage in the payroll, and who had known Mary Phagan since she was a little girl, recounted an incident. One Saturday afternoon, Mary came into the office to have her time corrected. After he had finished, Mr. Frank entered and remarked, "You seem to know Mary pretty well," despite not having been told her name. On April 26th, around 6 PM, he saw Newt Lee sitting in front of the factory. Remembering he had left a pair
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228 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:196X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSMr. Frank stated that he was at the factory for a couple of hours. Mrs. White was there at the time, and he informed her that he was going to lock up the factory and that she had better leave. Mrs. White preceded him down the stairway and went on out of the factory, but on the way out, she said she had seen a negro on the street floor of the building behind some boxes. At 1:10 p.m., he left the factory for home and arrived back at the factory
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229 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 197I received a grant from Mr. Darley or Mr. Frank. Mr. Frank was present at the time. Mr. Frank told me that when the little girl asked if the metal had come back, he said, "I don't know." It may be true that I swore before the coroner that in answer to that question from Mary Phagan about whether the metal had come yet, Frank said, "No," and it is possible that I so reported to you. If I said "No," I meant "I don't know."Miss Monteen StoverI worked at the
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230 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI monitor the elevator and freight that come in and out, as well as the people who enter and leave. The elevator was locked on Friday night when I left, but I went off on Saturday and forgot to lock it. I don’t remember stating that I locked it on Saturday; I did say in an affidavit that it is kept locked all the time. I left the factory at 11:45 on Saturday. Around 9:30, Mr. Frank and Mr. Darley went over to Montag Bros. I have seen Gantt talking to
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231 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKG. C. FebruaryI was present at Chief Lanford's office when Leo M. Frank and L. Z. Rosser were there; I took down Mr. Frank's statement stenographically. This (see post, p. 242) is a correct report of what Mr. Frank said. It was made on Monday, April 28th.Albert McKnightMy wife is Minola McKnight. She cooks for Mrs. Selig. Between 1 and 2 on Memorial Day, I was at the home of Mr. Frank to see my wife. He came in close to 1:30. He did not eat any dinner; he went to the
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232 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThe first floor was cleaned up after the murder.**W. H. Gheesling:** I am a funeral director and embalmer. I moved the body of Mary Phagan at four o'clock in the morning on April 27th. The cord was around her neck, and the rag was around her hair and over her face. I think she had been dead for ten or fifteen hours, or longer. There were some dry blood splotches on her underclothes. The right leg of the drawers was split with a knife or torn right up the seam. Her
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233 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKThe blow was hard enough to have made the person unconscious, but not sufficient to have caused death. Beyond question, she came to her death from strangulation from this cord being wound around her neck. The bruise around the eye was caused by a soft instrument; the injuries to the eye and scalp were caused before death. I examined the contents of the stomach, finding 160 cubic centimeters of cabbage and biscuit, or wheaten bread; it had progressed very slightly towards digestion. It is impossible for one to say absolutely how long
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234 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:202X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.May 6th or 7th was the first time I knew Mrs. White claimed to have seen a negro at the factory on April 26th.James Conley. I have been working for the pencil company for over two years. On Friday evening, around 3 o'clock, Mr. Frank came to the 4th floor and told me to come to the factory on Saturday morning at 8:30. I arrived at the factory around 8:30, and Mr. Frank and I reached the door at the same time. I always stayed on the first floor and watched
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235 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK, 203A while ago, she came into my office and I wanted to be with the little girl, but she refused me. I struck her, I guess too hard, and she fell and hit her head against something. I don’t know how badly she got hurt. Of course, you know I ain't built like other men. I have seen him with women lying on the table in the factory room and in his office with women with their clothes up. He asked me to go back there and bring her up so
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236 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Well, I am going home to get dinner, and you come back here in about forty minutes and I will fix the money." I went over to the beer saloon and took the cigarettes out of the box. There was some money there—two paper dollar bills and two silver quarters. I took a drink, laid across the bed, and went to sleep. I didn’t get up until half-past six that night. That’s the last I saw of Mr. Frank that Saturday. I saw him next on Tuesday on the fourth floor
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237 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK205Frank, "Is that the nigger?" and Mr. Frank said, "Yes," and she said, "Well, does he talk much?" and he says, "No, he is the best nigger I have ever seen." Mr. Frank called me into the office and gave me $1.25. The next time I watched was on a Saturday about the middle of January. A man and ladies came about half-past two. They stayed there about two hours; I didn’t know either one of the ladies; I can’t describe what either one of them had on. The man was tall,
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238 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:206 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.From the basement, it was lying on his desk. He put it in the safe.**Mrs. J. A. White (recalled).** I have seen this man before at police headquarters (indicating Conley) about a month after the murder. At that time, I did not identify him as being the man I saw sitting on the box. The man sitting on the box was about the same size as Jim Conley; I couldn’t state it was Jim Conley.**C. W. Mangum.** Had a conversation with Mr. Frank at the jail about seeing Conley and
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239 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO W. FRANK207He ought to be sweeping, down in the shipping room watching the detectives, officers, and reporters; caught him washing his shirt. It looked like he tried to hide it from me.Henry Scott (recalled): I was present when Conley made his statement on May 18. I wrote that myself. He positively denied that he was at the factory on Saturday or that he knew anything about the murder. We tried for hours to get him to confess. The next statement he made was on May 24, and we took him over to Mr.
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240 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:208 -AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We closed the office at 6 o'clock. We never had any women up in the office. We paid off the help on Friday, April 25th; I remember paying Helen Ferguson that day. Nobody came up to ask for Mary Phagan's pay. We had posters all over the factory that Saturday would be a legal holiday and the factory would be closed; I intended to come back to the factory Saturday morning, but I overslept.**Cross-examined.** Mrs. Frank, when they telephoned him about the murder, asked if there had been a fire at
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241 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK209It was about 15 minutes to 12 when we left the factory. Mr. Frank was writing when we came into his office. When we left the factory, the following people were still there: Arthur White, Mrs. White, May Barrett, her daughter, Harry Denham, the stenographer, and Mr. Frank.Cross-examined: We met Mr. Holloway as he came out of the factory as we went in. We met Lemmie Quinn afterwards at the Greek Cafe. It took us about 5 minutes to go there and come back to the Greek Cafe. We got a cup
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242 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:210AMERICAN STATE TRIALSWe were out of material, and she was laid off for the rest of the week. I have never seen Mr. Frank speak to her. I went to the factory on April 26th to see Mr. Schiff; he was not there. The street doors were open when I got there. I did not see Mary Phagan, nor Jim Conley, nor Monteen Stover. The doors to Mr. Frank's inner and outer office were open. The time I reached Mr. Frank's office was about 12:20. There were no blood spots under the machine where
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243 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKTestimony of a WitnessThey made her get out of bed. They had my husband there to bulldoze me, claiming that I had told him that; I had never told him anything of the kind. I told them right there in Mr. Dorsey's office that it was a lie. They carried me down to the station house in the patrol wagon. They came to me for another statement about half-past 11 or 12 o'clock that night and made me sign something before they turned me loose, but it wasn't true. I signed it
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244 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSCross-examined, Mr. Frank got home about 11 o'clock on Sunday. He told us he had been sent for to come to town. He spoke of a crime having been committed; I asked him what had happened. I don’t remember that he told me about the crime. He did not seem unconcerned about it. I said at the coroner’s that I thought he seemed unconcerned about it; I don’t remember his remarking about the youth of the girl or the brutality of the crime. I don’t think Mr. Frank mentioned the name
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245 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK213"There, said, 'I can prove where I was.'"Mrs. E. M. CarsonI worked at the pencil factory. Rebecca Carson is my daughter. I have seen blood spots around the ladies' dressing room three or four times. I saw Jim Conley on Tuesday after the murder. He was sweeping around my table. I said, "Well, Jim, they haven't got you yet," and he said, "No." I said, "Jim, you know Mr. Frank never did that," and he said, "No, Mr. Frank is as innocent as you are, and I know you are."Cross-examinedI have seen
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246 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:214X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.As he read it, he kind of grinned. He told me he believed Mr. Frank was just as innocent as the angels from Heaven. He was never known to tell the truth; I would not believe him on oath.Cross-examined. I have never heard Mr. Frank accused of any act of immorality or familiarity with the girls in the factory. Jim Conley got two papers from me on Tuesday and Wednesday. I bought them. Jim always seemed to be kind of nervous or half drunk or something. He aroused my suspicions after
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247 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. PRANE215Brooklyn, Mr. Moses Frank of Atlanta is my husband's brother; I saw him at Hotel McAlpin in New York City on April 27th and April 28th. The letter you handed me (see post, p. 250) is in my son's handwriting. The word "Yondef" in the letter is Hebrew, meaning "Holiday."Cross-examined, Mr. Frank has no rich relatives in Brooklyn. My brother-in-law, Mr. Bennett, is a clerk earning $18 a week. My son-in-law, Mr. Stearns, is in the retail cigar business. As for my means of support, my husband and I have about $20,000
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248 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:216 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. A. E. Marcus testified that she is a sister of Mrs. Loo Franc. On Saturday night, she played cards at Mrs. Selig's house where Mr. Frank was present, sitting out in the hall reading. Mr. Frank went to bed after 10 o'clock. She noticed nothing unusual about him; there were no bruises, marks, or signs.Mrs. M. Marows stated that she saw Mr. Frank at half-past 8 in the evening on April 26th at Mrs. Selig's residence. They played cards there, and he stayed in the hall reading. He appeared
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249 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK217I saw a colored girl who seemed to have a gash in her head; her mouth was full of sawdust. He described her in a general way but did not say anything to me about an attorney or having been to police headquarters. I had not then employed counsel; my sending Mr. Herbert Haas to see Mr. Frank was not employing counsel. I made no trade with Mr. Haas and don’t know who is paying his fee; I have not contributed anything towards it, nor has the Pencil Company.Truman McCraryI am a
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250 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:218 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSThere was a lot of blood on the floor, spouting out.Cross-examined, Duffy was short in the metal room on the machine opposite Mary Phagan's machine. The pencil company took a written statement from me, signed by me, to keep the fellow from suing the company. I saw my signature this morning; I have never told you I signed that statement.Arthur Pride worked on the second floor of the factory. On Saturdays, I work all over the factory, doing anything that is necessary, until about half past four. I have never
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251 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK219I never saw Mr. Frank bring any women into the factory. I never saw Jim Conley guarding or watching the door. I have seen Jim take newspapers and look at them, but I don’t know if he read them or not.Henry SmithI work at the pencil factory in the metal department with Barrett. He talked to me about the reward; he said it was $4,300, and he thought if anybody got it, he ought to, for he found the blood and hair. He said he ought to get the first shot at
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252 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:920 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The superintendent of the pencil factory, Mr. Frank's character was good.A. D. Greenfield: I am one of the owners of the building occupied by the Pencil Company. I have known Mr. Frank for four or five years. His character is good.Dr. Wm. Owens: I am a physician. At the request of the defense, I went through certain experiments in the pencil factory to ascertain how long it would take to go through Jim Conley’s movements relative to moving the body of Mary Phagan. I kept the time while the other
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253 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 221I have been engaged in hospital work for six or seven years and have treated about 14,000 cases of surgery. I have examined the private parts of Leo M. Frank and found nothing abnormal; he is a normal man, sexually. Neither I nor anybody else could give an intelligent opinion of how long that cabbage and wheat bread had been in the stomach before death. Finding the epithelium missing in several places or separated from the wall of the vagina would not indicate any violence done to the subject in life.
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254 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSDr. J.C. Olmstead, a practicing physician for 36 years, stated that given the facts of this case, it would not be possible for a physician to determine whether or not the wound produced unconsciousness before death. Such a wound could have been made within a short while after death. Cabbage like that is liable to obstruct the opening of the pylorus and delay digestion. A microscope examination of parts of the vagina removed from the body showed that the blood vessels were congested, which may be due to menstruation or the
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255 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M.PRANE. 223If a body is disinterred at the end of 9 days and the stomach is taken out, and among the contents you find cabbage like that and bits of wheat bread slightly digested, you could not by looking at the cabbage hazard an opinion as to how long before death that had been taken into the stomach.**Alfred Loring Lane.** I am a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y. I knew Leo Frank for 4 years at Pratt Institute, which we both attended. His general character is good.**Philip Nash.** I knew Leo Frank for 4
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256 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:224 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. J. J. Wardlaw worked at the pencil factory. She stated that Mr. Frank's character is good and she has never heard of any improper relations between Mr. Frank and any of the girls at the factory. She has never met Mr. Frank at any time or place for any immoral purpose. Additionally, she has never heard of him putting his arm around any girls on the streetcar or going to the woods with them.THE PRISONER'S STATEMENT.Leo M. Frank addressed the jury, stating, "Gentlemen of the jury: In the year
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257 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 225On Saturday, April 26th, I arrived at the factory at about 8:30 a.m. I found Mr. Holloway, the day watchman, at his usual place and Alonzo Mann, the office boy, in the outer office. After describing at length the work I did in my office that morning:About 9 o'clock, Mr. Darley and Mr. Wade Campbell, the inspector of the factory, came into the outer office. I stopped the work I was doing that day and went to the outer office to chat with Mr. Darley and Mr. Campbell for 10 or
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258 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:226 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mrs. Arthur White wanted to see her husband, so I told Alonzo Mann, the office boy, to call up Mr. Schiff and find out when he was coming down. The answer was that Mr. Schiff would be right down. About this time, Mrs. Emma Clarke Freeman and Miss Corinthia Hall, two of the girls who worked on the fourth floor, came in and asked permission to go upstairs and get Mrs. Freeman’s coat, which I readily gave. At the same time, I told them to tell Arthur White that his
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259 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 227I wanted to know when they would have lunch. Minola answered the phone, saying they would have lunch immediately and for me to come right on home. I gathered my papers together and went upstairs to see the boys on the top floor. I saw Arthur White and Harry Denham, who had been working up there, along with Mr. White's wife. I asked them if they were ready to go, and they said they had enough work to keep them busy for several hours. I noticed that they had laid out
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260 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:228 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I went back and wanted to know if they were ready to go, and at that time they were preparing to leave. I immediately went down to my office, opened the safe and my desk, hung up my coat and hat, and started to work on the financial report. Mr. Sebiff had not come down, and there was additional work for me to do.I heard the bell ring on the time clock, and Arthur White and Harry Denham came into the office. Arthur White borrowed $2.00 from me in advance
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261 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 229On Saturday, I called the factory and asked Newt Lee if Mr. Gantt had gone again. He said, "Yes." I inquired if everything else was all right at the factory; it was, and then I hung up, had supper, and phoned my brother-in-law, Mr. Ursenbach, to see if he would be at home that evening. He said he had another engagement, so I stayed home reading a newspaper or magazine. Around 8 PM, I saw Minola pass by on her way home. That evening, my in-laws, Mr. and Mrs. Emil Selig,
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262 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:230 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The nostrils and mouth were full of sawdust and swollen, and there was a deep scratch over the left eye on the forehead. Around the neck, there was twine—a piece of cord similar to that used at the pencil factory—and also a piece of white rag. After looking at the body, I identified that little girl as the one who had come up shortly after noon the previous day and got her money from me. We then left the undertaking establishment, got into the automobile, and rode over to the
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263 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 231I went to the office where I sat and talked, answering every one of their questions freely and frankly, trying to aid and help them in any way that I could. After staying there for a few minutes, Mr. Darley and I went over to Bloomfield's; they told us somebody was busy with the body at that time and we couldn't see it. So we went over to Montag Brothers and found that nobody was down there. After that, I caught a Georgia Avenue car and rode to the house of
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264 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:232 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI was asked a few questions about it, and I said, "What did Newt Lee say?" "Well, Chief Lanford will tell you when you get down there." When I got down to police headquarters, Chief Lanford hadn’t come down yet. I waited around the office possibly an hour, chatting and talking to the officers. Later, Chief Lanford came in and said, "Come here," and beckoned to me. I went with him into his room in his office, and while I was in there, to the best of my recollection, it
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265 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 233I called on a detective, preferably a Pinkerton detective, to work with and assist the city detectives in ferreting out the crime. Then I went downtown to the pencil factory, and upon entering the office, I saw the following men there: Mr. Herbert Schiff, Mr. Wade Campbell, Mr. Darley—Mr. Holloway was out in his place in the hall—and Mr. Stelker, Mr. Quinn, and Mr. Ziganke. These foremen were sitting around because we had shut down the factory, as they told me, due to the fact that the plant was wholly demoralized.
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266 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:234 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I went to the top of the elevator shaft, then returned and showed the officer where the slipper had been found, where the hat had been found, and where the little girl's body was located. I showed him, in fact, everything that I could about the pencil factory. On Monday, I arrived at the factory around 8:30 and immediately began my routine work, sending the various orders to the different places in the factory where they were due to go. A little later, Detectives Scott and Black came up to
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267 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKI was introduced to the third degree of the Atlanta police department by detectives Scott and Black, who began questioning Newt Lee. The way Detective Black treated that poor old negro, Newt Lee, was something awful. He shrieked at him, hollered at him, cursed him, and did everything but beat him. Then they took Newt Lee down to a cell, and I went to my cot in the outer room.Before closing my statement, I wish to touch upon a couple of insinuations and accusations, other than the one on the bill of
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268 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:236 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.When the negro Conley was arrested, I didn't know anybody had any suspicions about him. His name was not in the papers; I had no inkling that he ever said he couldn’t write. I was sitting in that cell in the Fulton County jail, about April 12th or 14th, when Mr. Leo Gottheimer, a salesman for the National Pencil Company, came running over and said, “Leo, the Pinkerton detectives have suspicions of Conley. He keeps saying he can't write; these fellows over at the factory know well enough that he
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269 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 237The room had windows opening onto the street. There was no lock on the door, and I know I never went into that room at any hour when the girls were dressing. Occasionally, I have had reports that the girls were flirting from this dressing room through the windows with men; sometimes the girls would loiter in this room when they ought to have been doing their work. It is possible that on some occasions I looked into this room to see if the girls were doing their duty and were
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270 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:238X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.O. Jones, Miss Zill Spivey, Charles Lee, N. V. Darley, F. Ziganki, A. C. Holloway, and Minnie Foster testified that they were employees of the pencil company. They knew Leo M. Frank and stated that his general character was good.D. Macintyre, B. Wildauer, Mrs. Dan Klein, Alex Dittler, Dr. J. E. Sommerfield, F. G. Schiff, Al Guthman, Joseph Gershon, P. D. McCarley, Mrs. M. W. Meyer, Mrs. David Marx, Mrs. A. I. Harris, M. S. Rice, L. H. Moss, Mrs. L. H. Moss, Mrs. Joseph Brown, E. E. Fitzpatrick, Emil Dittler,
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271 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK239I did it during business hours; I have never met Mr. Frank anywhere, or at any time, for immoral purposes.**Ruth Robinson:** I have seen Leo M. Frank talking to Mary Phagan. He would stand just close enough to her to tell her about her work; he would show her how to put rubbers in the pencils. He would just take up the pencil and show her how to do it; he called her Mary.**Dewey Hewell:** I stay in the Home of the Good Shepherd in Cincinnati. I worked at the pencil factory
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272 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALSI waited outside for her two hours, then went in and found Mr. February reading over to her some stenographic statement he had taken. As to whether Minola McKnight did not sign this paper freely and voluntarily, it was signed in my absence while I was at the police station. That paper is substantially the notes that Mr. February read over to her.**Albert McKnight:** This sideboard sits more this way than it was at the time I was there.**Cross-examined:** Don’t know if the sideboard was changed, but it wasn’t sitting like
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273 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK244A witness stated in the presence of Miss Haas and other passengers, "There has been so much talk that I don’t know what has been said; I don’t remember saying that I would join a party to help lynch him if he got out."**N. Kelly:** I am a motorman for the Power Company. On April 26th, I was at the corner of Forsyth and Marietta Street about three minutes after 12. I saw the English Avenue car of Matthews and Mr. Hollis arrive at Forsyth and Marietta about 12:03. I knew Mary
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274 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:242 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Based on the evidence I have listened to, I would say that it indicated digestion had been progressing for less than an hour.**Cross-examined:** I couldn’t presume to say how long that cabbage lay in Mary Phagan’s stomach. If it had been a live, healthy stomach and the process of digestion was going on ordinarily, it would be pulverized in four or five hours. It would be more broken up and triturated than it is.Dr. John Funk, an associate professor of pathology and bacteriology, was shown by Dr. Harris sections from
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275 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 243It was impossible to see the direction she went in when she left the office. I didn’t keep the door locked downstairs that morning because the mail was coming in. I locked it at 1:10 when I went to dinner. Arthur White and Harry Denham were also in the building. They were working on the machinery, doing repair work, and Mrs. White was also in the building. I went up there and told them I was going to dinner and they had to get out, and they said they had not
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276 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:244 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.A scratch pad that Conley wrote on; an ordinary white scratch pad.The following affidavit was executed by Minola McKnight:Saturday morning, April 26th, Mr. Frank left home about eight. Albert, my husband, got there about a quarter after one, and he was there when Mr. Frank came for dinner, which was about half-past one. Mr. Frank did not eat any dinner, and he left in about ten minutes. Mr. Frank came back to the house at seven o'clock that night, and Albert was there when he got there.Tuesday, Mr. Frank said
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277 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANE, 245I remained at home all Saturday night. At 12 o'clock noon on Sunday, I walked up Mitchell Street and got a cigarette, remaining there until 12:45 p.m. I then returned home and stayed until 6:30 p.m., when I went to my mother's house to get my lunch. After lunch, I returned home and remained there until Monday, April 26th. On April 28th, I reported for work at the pencil factory at 7:05 a.m.STATEMENT OF JAMES CONLEY, MAY 24, 1913On Friday evening before the holiday, around one o'clock, Mr. Frank came up
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278 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:246 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I have made up my mind to tell the whole truth, without the promise of any reward or from force or fear of punishment in any way.I got up Saturday morning, April 26th, between 9 and half-past 9. I went to Potera Street and stopped at the beer saloon, where I bought two beers for myself and gave another fellow a beer. I don’t know what his name was, but they call him Bob. Then I walked up to the Butt-In saloon and shot dice, winning 90 cents. After that,
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279 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 247"Can you write?" I said, "Yes, sir, I can write a little bit," and then he gave me a pencil that he got off the top of his desk and told me to put on there, "Dear mother, a long tall black negro did this by himself," and when I went to put down "negro," I put it "n-e-g-r-o-s," and he said, "Don't put no 's' there; that means 'negroes,'" and he said, "Now rub the 's' off," and I rubbed the "s" out, and he said, "It means just one
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280 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:248 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I laughed and said, "Good luck has done struck me," and I bought a ten-cent double-header. Then I went back to Peters Street, but none of the boys I ran with were there. I walked up to the moving picture show and looked at the pictures. I got home about half-past 2 o'clock, took the bucket, and went to get fifteen cents' worth of beer. I came back home and sent the little girl to get a dime's worth of stove wood and a nickel's worth of pan sausage. I
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281 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 249When he whistled for me, I went upstairs, and he asked me if I wanted to make some money right quick. I told him, "Yes, sir," and he told me that he had picked up a girl back there and had let her fall, and that her head hit against something, he didn't know what it was. He asked me to move her. I hollered and told him the girl was dead, and he told me to pick her up and bring her to the elevator. I told him I didn't
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282 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:250 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Frank looked at it and said it was all right. Mr. Frank looked up at the top of the house and said, "Why should I hang? I have wealthy people in Brooklyn." I asked him what about me, and he told me that was all right about me, for me to keep my mouth shut, and he would make everything all right. Then I asked him where was the money he said he was going to give me, and Mr. Frank said, "Here, here is two hundred dollars," and he
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283 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 251THE SPEECHES TO THE JURY**MR. HOOPER FOR THE STATE**August 21Mr. Hooper: Gentlemen of the Jury, the object of this trial, as well as all other trials, is the ascertainment of truth and the attainment of justice. In the beginning, I want to have it understood that we are not seeking a verdict of guilty against the defendant unless he is guilty.The burden of guilt is upon our shoulders—we confront the undertaking of putting it upon his. We recognize that it must be done beyond a reasonable doubt, and that it must
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284 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:252 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.We, the prosecution, require evidence, but we are not looking for blood indiscriminately. Our sole aim is to find the slayer of Mary Phagan, and in seeking him, I try as much as possible to feel as though I were one of you twelve jurors.Let's examine the situation on April 26 in the pencil factory. The factory was being run by Sig Montag as its boss, with Frank as its superintendent, assisted by the handsome Mr. Darley and the able Mr. Schiff.As a citizen of Atlanta, I am not proud
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285 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 253But the defense, on the other hand, were allowed to let down the bars and walk in.That pencil factory was a great place for a man without a conscience. It was a great place for Frank, his handsome assistant, Mr. Darley, and the able Mr. Schiff. We find that Frank had coupled himself up for nightly meetings with Dalton, who now has, it seems, turned respectable. My friends, no doubt, will argue that it was strange a man of such business and social position should consort with such a character. It
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286 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:254 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The attitude of the accused toward his victim is evident in the tall, good-natured Jim Gantt, a friend of Mary. He asks Gantt, "You're pretty thick with Mary, aren't you?" This shows that he knew her and had his eye on her. What happened next? He wanted to get rid of Gantt. How did he go about it? You have seen that previously, he was bragging about Gantt and his ability as a workman. But, just as soon as his eye was set upon the pretty little friend of Gantt,
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287 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 255Truth is stronger than all the brains and ingenuity that can be collected in this whole town—this state, the world. How they did hate to give up the fight. They lost, and with the loss went the loss of their theory in whole.When all was through, they were forced to sit and leave Jim's truth unassailed. How unfortunate! All they could say was that Jim had been a big liar. That is true. In his first two stories, he lied. But, if I had any comment on Jim Conley, it would
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288 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:256 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.On that fateful day, Leo Frank knew the hour. On the previous afternoon, little Helen Ferguson, Mary's chum, had called for Mary's pay, and Frank had told her that Mary should come and get her own pay, breaking a rule of the plant in doing so. He arranged with Jim to hang around and make himself convenient. Jim took his accustomed seat in the hallway. Parties came and went. Jim observed all that happened; he said nothing. Finally, Mary Phagan arrived, beautiful and innocent, coming in her blue frock and
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289 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO Hl. FRANE. 257The negro reported hearing a sound that seemed like a laugh broken off into a shriek. It pierced the stillness of the hushed building. Though it was uncanny, he remained seated faithfully, as he was under orders to wait for a signal. That scream was not the signal. Later, Frank would stamp on the office floor.This negro claims that the white man killed the little girl. However, Frank was in his office, preoccupied with his wonderful financial sheet. I will demonstrate how he could have sat at his desk and heard
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290 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:258 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Now, which is more probable—that Jim heard this expression, or that he imagined the story? Did Jim know Frank had relatives in Brooklyn? Did Jim know there was such a place as Brooklyn? Did he know they were rich? And Jim says, with the typical soul of Africa: "What's going to become of me?" Frank says, "I'll take care of you, for I'll write my mother a letter, so that she can help you." He asks Jim if he can write, and Jim tells him a little bit. He wasn't
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291 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 269Leo M. Frank was expecting Jim Conley, and he also knew that Newt Lee was coming. Aye, there was the rub! He expected them both, and it depended upon which one arrived first as to how things would go. If Jim got there first and disposed of that body, all right; but suppose Newt Lee got there first! Then was the defendant in the position of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, when he wondered which army would arrive first, and knew that upon this question depended victory or defeat. The
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292 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:260 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,The defendant was going to pay a dollar or so. He didn't think that Gantt stole that paltry dollar. He expected him to ask where Mary Phagan was. That, gentlemen of the jury, is why he jumped back when he saw Gantt. But Gantt spoke to the defendant. He just said, "Howdy, Mr. Frank." The defendant felt relieved then. Gantt told him that he had left a pair of shoes in the factory and wanted to get them. But it won't do to let him go in that building now,
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293 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKWe need not delve into many details in this respect. You remember the evidence about honest old Newt Lee's finding the body. That's all we need to know about him. No suspicion attaches to Newt. He notified the police and tried to notify Frank. The police came and took the body of little Mary Phagan to the undertaker's.The police then called up Frank and told him they wanted him. Detective Starnes got mixed up when he told about this on the stand, but he never forgot that when he called Frank up,
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294 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:262 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.With a lot of things piled on top of it, he found a bloody shirt! How did it get there? Newt Lee accounts for his time on Sunday. No suspicion attaches to Newt Lee. He is a free man. How did that bloody shirt get there? It had to be planted. Gentlemen, it was planted! Here are the two propositions, gentlemen: If Newt Lee was to be made the scapegoat, suspicion had to be directed to him. Somebody had to plant that suspicion.He would sacrifice Newt Lee that he might
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295 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKHe is the man about whom it appeared that the whole fight would center. If he could convince you that Jim confessed the murder to him, that would let Frank out! Yet where is Mincey? Gentlemen, this has been a long testimony which you have had to sit through, and I do not wish to take up any more of your time than necessary.Gentlemen, the only belief required of you is the same sort of belief that you would have on the street, at your places of business, or in your homes,
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296 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:264 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.There are fellows like that streetcar man, Kendley, the one who vilified this defendant here and cried for him to be lynched, and shouted that he was guilty until he made himself a nuisance on the cars he ran. Why, I can hardly realize that a man holding a position as responsible as that of a motorman and a man with certain police powers and the discretion necessary to guide a car through the crowded city streets would give way to passion and prejudice like that. It was a type
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297 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 265Employees who have worked at the plant for three or four years have been induced to come up here and swear that Frank does not have a good character, but the decent employees down there have sworn to his good character. Look at the jailbirds they brought up here, the very dregs of humanity, men and women who have disgraced themselves and who now have come and tried to swear away the life of an innocent man.I know that you members of the jury are impartial. That's the only reason why
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298 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:266 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In words that burned, I condemned the third-degree methods of the police and detectives. They used those methods with Jim Conley. My friend, Hooper, claimed that nothing held Conley to the witness chair here but the truth, but I tell you that the fear of a broken neck held him there. I think this decision about the third degree was handed down with Conley’s case in mind. I’m going to expose this Conley business before I finish. I’m going to show that this entire case is the greatest frame-up in
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299 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 287It's the crime of a cannibal, a man-eater. Hooper is hard-pressed and wants to concoct a plot—he sees he has to come up with something. He forms his plot from Jim Conley's story.They say that on Friday, Frank knew he was going to make an attack of some sort on Mary Phagan. The plot thickens. Of all the wild things I have ever heard, that is the wildest. It is ridiculous. Mary Phagan worked in the pencil factory for months, and all the evidence they have produced that Frank ever associated
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300 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:268 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Never said a word about Mary's envelope. There's your conspiracy, with Jim Conley's story as its foundation. It's too thin. It's preposterous.Then my friend Hooper says Frank discharged Gantt because he saw Gantt talking to Mary Phagan. If you convict men on such distorted evidence as this, you'd be hanging men perpetually. Gantt, in the first place, doesn't come into this case in any good light. It is ridiculously absurd to bring his discharge into this plot of the defense. Why, even Grace Hicks, who worked with Mary Phagan, and
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301 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKEverything brought against Frank was some act he did openly and in broad daylight, and an act against which no objection was made.The trouble with Hooper is that he sees a bear in every bush. He sees a plot in this because Frank told Jim Conley to come back Saturday morning. The office that day was filled with people throughout the day. How could he know when Mary Phagan was coming or how many people would be in the place when she arrived?This crime is the hideous act of a negro who
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302 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:270 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.All chips but one were not blood. Dorsey's own doctors have put him where he can't wriggle—his own evidence hampers him! They found blood spots on a certain spot and then had him adapt his story accordingly. They had him put the finding of the body near the blood spots, and had him drop it right where the spots were found.It stands to reason that if a girl had been wounded on the lathing machine, there would have been blood in the vicinity of the machine. Yet, there was no
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303 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKFor instance, this Dalton, who openly claims that he went into the basement with Daisy. I don't believe he ever did, but in such a case, he slipped in. There are some fallen women who can tell the truth. They have characteristics like all other types. We put her on the stand to prove Dalton a liar, and she did it. Now, gentlemen, don't you think the prosecution is hard-pressed when they put up such a character as Dalton? They say he has reformed. A man with thievery in his soul never
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304 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:272 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.They planted it, but it does look suspicious. Don’t ask us about a planted shirt; ask Scott and Black.The first thing that points to Conley’s guilt is his original denial that he could write. Why did he deny it? Why? I don’t suppose much was thought of it when Jim said he couldn’t write, because there are plenty of negroes who are in the same situation. But later, when they found he could, and found that his script compared perfectly with the murder notes, they went right on accusing Frank.
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305 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 273Leo M. Frank had to tell a lie and put upon someone the burden of instructing him to write the notes. The first statement about them was a blunt lie—a lie in its incipiency. He said he wrote the notes on Friday. This was untrue and unreasonable, and he saw it. Frank could not have known anything of an intended murder on Friday from any viewpoint you might take, and therefore he could not have made Conley write them on Friday. Ah, gentlemen of the jury, I tell you these people
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306 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:Q74 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.There is detail enough in the morning, and he admits that they are lies. Now, in his third statement, that of May 28, he changes the time of writing the letters from Friday to Saturday. Here are two pages of what he said, all of which he afterwards said were lies. He says that he made the statement that he wrote the notes on Friday in order to divert suspicion from his being connected with the murder which happened on Saturday. He also says that this is his final and
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307 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 216I don't think that Newt killed the girl, but I believe he discovered the body some time before he notified the police. Newt's a good man.Scott said that it took Conley six minutes to write a part of one note. Conley said that he wrote the notes three times.They say that man couldn't lie. Gentlemen, if there is any one thing that man can do, it is to lie. As my good old friend, Charlie Hill, would say, "Put him in a hopper and he'll drip lies!"He was trying to prove
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308 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:276 AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.For that statement he put in Frank's mouth, it so happened, though, that Frank really did not have rich relatives in Brooklyn. His mother testified that his father was in ill health and had but moderate means, and that his sister worked in New York for her living.Gentlemen, am I living or dreaming that I have to argue such points as these? This is what you've got to do: You've got to swallow every word that Conley has said—feathers and all, or you've got to believe none of it. How are
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309 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKThe prosecution used profanity and worried him to get a confession. Hooper thinks that we have to break down Conley's testimony on the stand, but there is no such ruling. You can't tell when to believe him; he has lied so much. Scott says the detectives went over the testimony with Dorsey. That's where my friend got into it. They grilled Conley for six hours, trying to impress on him the fact that Frank would not have written the notes on Friday. They wanted another statement. He insisted that he had no
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310 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:278 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.That fitted. And Conley changed things every time he had a visit from Dorsey and the detectives. Are you going to hang a man on that? Gentlemen, it's foolish for me to have to argue such a thing.The man that wrote those murder notes is the man who killed that girl. Prove that man was there and that he wrote the notes, and you know who killed the girl. Well, Conley acknowledges he wrote the notes, and witnesses have proved he was there, and he admits that, too. That negro
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311 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 219The detectives told Conley to swear to this and to swear to that, but they made the suggestions, and Conley knew whom he had to please. He knew that when he pleased the detectives, the rope knot around his neck grew looser. In the same way, they made Conley swear about Dalton, and in the same way about Daisy Hopkins. They didn't ask him about the mesh bag. They forgot that until Conley got on the stand. That mesh bag and that pay envelope furnish the true motive for this crime,
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312 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:280 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Every word on that chart is taken from the evidence, and it will show you that Frank did not have time to commit the crime charged to him. The state has wriggled a lot in this affair; they put up little George Epps, and he swore that he and Mary Phagan got to town about seven after twelve. Then they used other witnesses, and my friend Dorsey tried to boot the Epps boy's evidence aside as though it were nothing. The two streetcar men, Hollis and Mathews, say that Mary
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313 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANKHarlee Branch stated that he was present when the detectives made Conley reenact what he claimed had taken place. According to Branch, Conley started at 12:17 and took 50 minutes to complete the motions. The state has attacked nearly everyone we have brought into this case, but they did not attack Dr. William Owen. Dr. Owen's experiments demonstrated that Conley could not have gone through those motions in 34 minutes.Jim Conley declared that he started at four minutes to one o'clock to get the body, and that he and Frank left at
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314 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:282 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,Frank couldn't have known that there was enough hatred left in this country against his race to bring such a hideous charge against him. The little girl entered the factory, received her pay, inquired about the metal, and then left. However, there was a black spider waiting down there near the elevator shaft—a great, passionate, lustful animal, full of cheap whiskey and wanting money to buy more. He was as full of vile lust as he was of the passion for more whiskey. The negro (and there are a thousand
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315 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 283Mrs. Selig and Mr. Selig swore on the stand that they knew Leo Frank came home at 1:20. Of course, Dorsey claims they are Frank's parents and wretched liars when they say they saw him come in at 1:20. According to Dorsey, there's no one in this case that can tell the truth but Conley, Dalton, and Albert McKnight. They are the lowest dregs and jail-birds, but they are the only ones who know how to tell the truth!Albert says he was at the Selig home when Frank came in; of
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316 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:284 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The prosecution introduced witnesses who swore that the woman and Frank had gone into the woman's dressing room when no one was around. I brand it a culmination of all lies when this woman was attacked. Frank had declared her to be a perfect lady with no shadow of suspicion against her.Well, Frank went back to the factory that afternoon after he had eaten his lunch, and he started in and made out the financial sheet. I don’t reckon he could have done that if he had just committed a
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317 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 285Among the speakers, and but for the masterly effort of my brother, Arnold, I almost wish it had ended with no speaking. My condition is such that I can say but little; my voice is husky and my throat almost gone. But for my interest in this case and my profound conviction of the innocence of this man, I would not undertake to speak at all.I want to repeat what my friend, Arnold, said so simply. He said this jury is no mob. The attitude of the juror's mind is not
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318 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:986 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,You can find good men and women in all strata of life, and yet the detectives, working with microscopes and with the aid of my friend, Dorsey, excited almost beyond peradventure, found only two to swear against Frank. They found Dalton and they found Conley. Well, I'll take up Conley at a more fitting time, but Dalton, who is Dalton? God Almighty writes on a man's face, and he doesn't always write a pretty hand, but he writes a legible one. When you see Dalton, you put your hand on
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319 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANE. 287Dalton was a member of his race, and he was a thief and worse, if there can be, and yet he joined the church. He joined the church and he's now a decent, believable man. Well, you remember how brazenly he sat here on the stand and bragged of his "peach," how indecently he bragged of his fall; how he gloated over his vices. He was asked if he ever went to that miserable, dirty factory basement with a woman for immoral purposes, and he was proud to say that he
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320 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:288 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Of course, Dalton left an oozy trail behind him; wherever he went, he did that. You can still feel it in this courtroom. Of course, too, Dalton may have gone into the pencil factory that day and left his cozy, slimy trail there, but otherwise, there's nothing against the factory, and you know there's not, for our great quartet—Starnes and Campbell and Black (oh, how I love Black; I always want to put my arms around him whenever I think of him), and Scott, for he was with that crowd;
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321 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 289Now, another thing. We didn't have to put Frank's character up. If we hadn't, the judge would have told you that Frank must be presumed to have a good character, and that you did not have the right to ask that question about him. But we thought you were, and we put it up and see what a character the man has. There's not a man in the sound of my voice who could prove a better character. Of course, I mean from the credible evidence, not that stuff of Conley's
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322 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:290 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mary Wallace, there three days, and Estelle Wallace, there a week, and Carrie Smith, who like Miss Cato, worked there three years. These are the only ones in the hundreds who have worked there since 1908 who will say that Frank has a bad character. Why, you could find more people to say that the Bishop of Atlanta, I believe, had a bad character than have been brought against Frank.You noticed they were not able to get any men to come from the factory and swear against Frank. Men are
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323 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 201Can such a scene indicate any sign of lascivious lust? I can't see for the life of me where it does. Does what Willie Turner saw, taking for granted he saw it, show that Frank was planning to ruin little Mary Phagan? Does it uphold this plot my friend Hooper had so much to say about? Even with that—considering Willie Turner did see such a thing, there's one fact that takes the sting out of it. He saw it in broad daylight. Frank was with the little girl right in front
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324 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:292 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Though he's a mighty bright man, it is true that some of the pay envelopes were left over on Friday, but he didn't know whose they were. Helen Ferguson says that on Friday she asked for Mary Phagan's pay and that Frank refused to give it to her, saying Mary would come the next day and get it herself. Magnolia Kennedy swears to the contrary. You have one or the other to believe. Consider, though, that this be true! How would Frank know who would be in the factory when
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325 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 298Some of us are early birds, while others slumber even through the tempting call of the breakfast bell. Would you hang us for that?Then, they say he hired a lawyer, and they call it suspicious—mighty suspicious. They wouldn't have kicked if he had hired Rube Arnold, because Rube has a good character. But they hired me, and they kicked and yelled "suspicions" so loudly you could hear it all the way from here to Jesup's cut. I don't know that I had ever met Frank before that morning, but I had
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326 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:294 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Upon arrest, as they say, the accused were held without the privilege of seeing friends, relatives, or counsel. It was a deplorable state of affairs. What happened?Haas went to the phone and called an older and more experienced head to battle with this police iniquity. Why shouldn't he? Dorsey sees in this harmless message a chance. He snaps at it like a snake. Dorsey is a good man—in his way. He'll be a better man, though, when he gets older and loses some of his present spirit and venom. There
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327 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 295What about the Conley story and the Minola McKnight story that are hidden in the still darker recesses of police headquarters?Frank makes his statement and is released. He goes back to the pencil factory, assuming that suspicion has been diverted from him. He thinks of the horrible murder that has been committed in his plant. He telephones Sig Montag about hiring a detective agency to solve the crime. Sig advises him to do it. I don't believe there is any detective living who can consort with crooks and criminals and felons,
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328 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:296 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.But I don't want to. This seems to me the most unkindest cut of all. They say that that time slip was planted. They say the shirt was planted. Gentlemen, is there any evidence of this? Let's see about this statement. Black and somebody else, I believe, went out to Newt's house on Tuesday morning and found the shirt in the bottom of a barrel. They brought the shirt back to the police station and Newt said the shirt was his—or it looked like his shirt. Newt Lee had been
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329 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 297Here is another suspicious thing. Newt Lee came to the factory at four o'clock, and Frank sent the old man away. It was suggested that he was afraid the nigger would find the body, yet when he came back at six, Frank let him stay at the factory when he knew that in thirty minutes Newt was on the job and must go into the basement where they say Frank knew the body was.They say he was laughing at his home. If he had known of the crime of which he
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330 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:298 AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Conley's Proof.None of these individuals ever came forward and said Conley was there and that they were with him. Starnes—and Starnes could find a needle in a haystack, but the Lord only knows what he’d do in an acre—could not find any of these people.Then there was that old negro drayman, old McCrary, the old peg-leg negro drayman, and thank God he was an old-timer, a "fo' de war" nigger. You know Conley, wishing to add a few finishing trimmings to his lines, said that old McCrary sent him down to
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331 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 299They learned that Conley could write. Frank told them that, you know. Well, I don’t mean to be severe, but they took that negro and gave him the third degree. Black and Scott cursed him. "You black scoundrel," they yelled at him. "You know that man never had you come there and write those notes on Friday!" And the poor negro, understanding and trying to please, said, "Yes, boss, that's right, I was there on Saturday." And so they went on and got first one affidavit and then another out of
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332 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:300 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Dorsey did, only he gave him several lessons, and they must have been just sort of finishing touches before he got his degree. Well, in the university course, they didn't dare put the steps in writing, as they had done in the high school; it would have been too easy to trace from step to step, the suggestions made, the additions and subtractions here and there.Professor Dorsey had him seven times, I know that, but God alone knows how many times the detectives had him. Was it fair to take
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333 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 301You must do what you must do—you must make Minola's husband a perjurer, and that would be terrible.You know about that Minola McKnight affair. It is the blackest of all. A negro woman was locked up from the solicitor's office, not because she would talk—she's given a statement—but because she would not talk to suit Starnes and Campbell. And two white men, to their shame, got her into it. Where was Chief Beavers? What was he doing that he became a party to this crime? Beavers, who would enforce the law;
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334 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:302 XY. - AMERICAN STATE TRIALS"The benches always stuck it out, but they were screwed to the floor." You gentlemen have been practically in that fix, but I feel, nevertheless, that you have been peculiarly kind, and I thank you.THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR THE STATEMr. Dorsey: Gentlemen of the Jury, this case is not only, as His Honor has told you, important, but it is extraordinary. It is extraordinary as a crime—a most heinous crime, a crime of a demoniac, a crime that has demanded vigorous, earnest, and conscientious effort on the part of
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335 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 308Did we hear cries of prejudice when we arrested Gantt, when we arrested Lee, when we arrested others? No, the prejudice came when we arrested this man, and never until he was arrested was there a cry of prejudice.Those gentlemen over there were disappointed when we did not pitch our case along that line, but not a word emanated from this side, showing any prejudice on our part, showing any feeling against Jew or Gentile.We would not have dared to come into this presence and ask for the conviction of a
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336 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:804 XY, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The Honorable Judge will charge you that you should not convict this man unless you think he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.A great many jurors, gentlemen, and the people generally get an idea that there is something mysterious and unfathomable about this reasonable doubt proposition. It's as plain as the nose on your face. The text writers, lawyers, and judges go around in a circle when they undertake to define it; it's a thing that speaks for itself, and every man of common sense knows what it is, and
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337 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANE. 305Circumstantial evidence can be as reliable as direct evidence. Eminent authorities have shown that in many cases, circumstantial evidence is more certain than direct evidence. A conviction can be established more effectively by a large number of witnesses providing circumstantial evidence and incidents pointing to guilt than by the testimony of a few witnesses who may have been eyewitnesses to the actual deed.In this case, we have both circumstantial evidence and an admission. With reasonable doubt as a basis, the evidence shows such consistency that a reasonable conclusion is all that
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338 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:306 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The defendant is presumed to have a good character. Had he not put his character in issue, it would have been presumed, and the State would have been absolutely helpless in proving that this man was not as good a man as lived in the City of Atlanta. It's a mighty easy thing, if a man is worth anything, if a man attains to any degree of respectability, to get someone to sustain his character. However, it's the hardest thing known to a lawyer to get people to impeach the
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339 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 307I am at ease, and I know the conscience that abides in the breast of honest, courageous men.Now, the book says that if a man has good character, nevertheless it will not hinder conviction if the guilt of the defendant is plainly proved to the satisfaction of the jury—as it was in the Durant case. I submit that, character or no character, this evidence demands a conviction. And I'm not asking you for it either because of prejudice—I'm coming to the perjury after a bit. Have I so forgotten myself that
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340 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:308 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."We did exercise that right in the examination of one witness, but knowing that we couldn't put specific instances in unless they drew it out, I didn't want even to do this man the injustice, so we suspended, and we put it before this jury in this kind of position—you put his character in, we put up witnesses to disprove it, you could cross-examine every one of them and ask them what they knew and what they had heard and what they had seen; we had already given them enough
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341 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 309Is it possible for someone to have the audacity and passion to come up here and swear that that man's character is bad if it is not true? I tell you it can't be done, and you know it.Ah, but on the other hand, Doctor Marx, Doctor Sonn, and all these other people, as Mr. Hooper said, who run with Doctor Jekyll, don't know the character of Mr. Hyde. And he didn't call Doctor Marx down to the factory on Saturday evenings to show what he was going to do with
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342 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:310 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He says, "You tell me to go up there to the girls' dressing room, shove open the door and walk in as a part of his duty, when he has foreladies to stop it? No, indeed." And old Jim Conley may not have been as far wrong as you may think. He says that somebody went up there that worked on the fourth floor, he didn’t know who. This man, according to the evidence of people that I submit you will believe, notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Reuben R. Arnold
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343 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 311According to the law, they had the right to delve into that character, and you saw that on cross-examination they dared not do it. I have here an authority that puts it right squarely: "Whenever anyone has evidence (83 Ga., 581) in their possession, and they fail to produce it, the strongest presumption arises that it would be hurtful if they had, and their failure to produce evidence is a circumstance against them."You don't need any law book to know that this is true, because your common sense tells you that
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344 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:312 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He appeared on the outside as a whited sepulcher, but was as rotten on the inside as it was possible to be.So, he has no good character, I submit, and never had it; he has a reputation—that's what people say and think about you—and he has a reputation for good conduct only among those people who don't know his character. But suppose that he had a good character; that would amount to nothing. David of old was a great character until he put old Uriah in the forefront of battle
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345 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 313The case culminated in sending him to prison for three long years. He was the man who led the aesthetic movement; he was a scholar, a literary man, cool, calm, and cultured. As I say, his cross-examination is a thing to be read with admiration by all lawyers, but he was convicted, and in his old age, went tottering to the grave, a confessed pervert. Good character? Why, he came to America after having launched what is known as the 'Aesthetic movement' in England, and throughout this country lectured to large
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346 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:314 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.It is courageous enough to let that man who had taken that poor girl's life to save his reputation as the pastor of his flock go, and it is an illustration that will encourage and stimulate every right-thinking man to do his duty. Then, there's Beattie. Henry Clay Beattie, of Richmond, of a splendid and wealthy family, proved to be of good character, though he didn't possess it. He took his wife, the mother of a twelve-month-old baby, out automobiling and shot her; yet that man, looking at the blood
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347 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 315I 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
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348 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:316 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.While waiting for her companions, this daughter of an employee of Montag comes into this presence and tells you an unreasonable, absurd story. It's a story that contradicts the one made by Frank, which has been introduced in evidence and will be out with you. She claims she saw that fellow up there at Jacobs'.On this time proposition, I want to read you this—it made a wonderful impression on me when I read it. It's the wonderful speech of a wonderful man, a lawyer to whom even such men as
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349 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 317On the day of the murder of this girl on Saturday, he forgot to get the raincoat that old Jim saw him have. Miss Mattie Smith leaves the building, you say, at 9:20 A.M. She said—or Frank says—at 9:15. You have it on this chart here that's turned to the wall that Frank telephoned Schiff to come to his office at 10 o'clock, and yet this man Frank, coolly, composedly, with his great capacity for figures and data, in his own statement says that he gets to Montag's at that hour.
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350 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:318 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Dorsey: No, they didn't see him there. I doubt if anybody else saw him there either.Mr. Arnold: If a crowd of people here laugh every time we say anything, how are we to hear the Court? He has made a whole lot of little misstatements, but I let those pass, but I'm going to interrupt him on every substantial one he makes.Mr. Dorsey: He says those ladies saw Quinn—says they "saw Quinn was there before 12, and before I left there at 1 o'clock." "You saw him at that,
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351 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 319The argument against those men was that they had only cobwebs, weak and flimsy circumstances, and these circumstances were inconsistent with the theory of guilt and consistent with some other hypothesis.But as to this man, you have got cables, strong, so strong that even the combined ability of the erudite Arnold and the dynamic Roeser couldn't break them or disturb them.Circumstantial evidence is just as good as any other kind when it's the right kind. It's a poor case of circumstantial evidence against Newt Lee; it's no case against that long-legged
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352 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:320 & AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Until that time—"I didn't stay there very often on Saturday afternoon;" Miss Fleming didn't stay there all afternoon. Now, gentlemen, I submit that this man made that financial sheet Saturday morning. He could have fixed up that financial sheet Saturday afternoon, but he wouldn't have done it without Schiff having furnished the data if he hadn't been suspecting an accusation of murdering that little girl. A man of Frank's type could easily have fixed that financial sheet—a thing he did fifty-two times a year for five or six years—and could
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353 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 821But whether or not he made out that financial sheet, I'll tell you something that he did do on Saturday afternoon, when he was waiting up there for old Jim to come back to burn that body. I'll tell you something that he did do—and don't forget the envelope and don't forget the way that paper was folded, either. Don't forget it. Listen to this: "I trust this finds you and dear tont (that's the German for aunt) well after arriving safe in New York. I hope you found all the
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354 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:322 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Fair men, courageous men, true Georgians, seeking to do your duty, consider this: that phrase, penned by that man to his uncle on Saturday afternoon, didn't come from a conscience that was its own accuser. "It is too short a time since you left for anything startling to have developed down here." What do you think of that? And then listen to this—as if that old gentleman, his uncle, cared anything for this proposition, this old millionaire traveling abroad to Germany for his health, this man from Brooklyn. An eminent
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355 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 323Frank was associated with a store employing two or three people, and we don't know how many more. If his uncle wasn't in Brooklyn, he was so near there that even Frank himself thought he was at the very moment he claimed to be there. He says, "You have seen or are with the people in Brooklyn."Let's go a step further. On April 28th, he wired Adolph Montag in care of the Imperial Hotel. Listen now to what he says: "You may have read in Atlanta papers of factory girl found
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356 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:324 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He said all right. He didn't want him to run anywhere else because he wanted him to work hand in glove with these men, and he wanted to know what they did, what they said, and what they thought. But Haas—and he's nobody's fool—when he saw that they were getting hot on the trail, opened up the conversation with the suggestion that "now you let us have what you get, first," and if Scott had fallen for that suggestion, then there would have been something else. You know it. You
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357 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 325Schiff, as willing and anxious as he was, couldn't stultify himself to such an extent as to tell you that Frank did that work on Saturday morning. But if he did write that financial sheet Saturday afternoon, a thing I submit he didn't do—I'm willing to admit he wrote that letter—I ask you, as fair, honest, and disinterested jurors representing the people of this community in seeing that justice is done and that the man who committed that dastardly deed has meted out to him that which he meted out to
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358 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:326 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Frank: "Tuesday morning?" "I saw him Tuesday morning"—he was up there on the fourth floor after the murder, on Tuesday, sometime between nine and eleven o'clock." I said, "Between nine and eleven, somewhere along there!" "Sometime between nine and eleven thirty." "Now, Jim Conley and Leo M. Frank were both on your floor between the same hours?" "I saw Mr. Frank and I saw Jim Conley.""You know it because you had a conversation with Mr. Frank, and you had a conversation with Jim Conley!" "Yes, I saw them both." And
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359 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 327Let's talk about Jim Conley reading the newspapers. If Jim had committed that crime and he hadn't felt that he had the power and influence of Leo Frank behind him to protect him, he never would have gone back to that factory or sat around and read newspapers. You know it, if you know anything about the character of the negro. Why was he so anxious to get the newspapers? It was because Jim knew some of the facts that he wanted to see, negro-like—that's what made him so anxious about
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360 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:328 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Time Tuesday!" "I couldn't tell you, I guess it was between eight and nine o'clock." The other one saw him somewhere between nine and eleven or eleven thirty. This lady, their witness, says that he was up there between eight and nine.Why was Frank so anxious to go up there on that floor? Why? It was because he wanted to see this man, Jim Conley, that he thought was going to protect him. Mr. Rosser characterized my suggestion that this man Frank called upon and expected Jim Conley to conceal
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361 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 329The facts are too firmly and too deeply rooted. Oh, yes, says Mrs. Small, I saw Frank up there on that fourth floor between eight and nine o'clock Tuesday morning, and the other lady saw him up there between nine and eleven. She wouldn't be sure of the day he was arrested—I say arrested, according to Frank's own statement, they got him and just detained him, and even then, red-handed murderer as he was, his standing and influence, and the standing and influence of his attorney, somehow or other—and that's the
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362 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:8380 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,Let not able counsel and the glamour that surrounds wealth and influence deter you. I honor the way they went after Minola McKnight. I don't know whether they want me to apologize for them or not, but if you think that finding the red-handed murderer of a little girl like this is a ladies' tea party, and that the detectives should have the manners of a dancing master and apologize and palaver, you don't know anything about the business. You have seen these dogs that hunt the 'possum bark up
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363 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 331I am as proud of being elected to the position of Solicitor General by the people of this community as I am of anything else. However, I have never yet seen a man whom I would take as my model or pattern; I follow the dictates of my own conscience. If there is one act since I have been Solicitor General of which I am proud, it is the fact that I joined hand and glove with the detectives in the effort to seek the murderer of Mary Phagan. When your
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364 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:332 XY, ‘AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Q: "I checked the ticket and I went on with my work." So Frank was up there Tuesday morning."Now, speaking about Mrs. Carson, how far towards the elevator did Mrs. Carson go with Frank?"A: "Mrs. Carson wasn't up there, it was Miss Carson, Miss Rebecca." The old lady says she was; I said, "Oh, the old lady wasn't up there at all?" No, sir; she wasn't there Tuesday at all.""You saw Miss Rebecca Carson walking up towards the elevator?""Yes, sir.""What was Conley doing?""Standing there by the elevator." And yet Jim
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365 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 333It was evident that many had seen the blood—that blood which at first wasn't blood but paint, and then wasn't paint but cat's blood or blood from someone who was injured, and then wasn't fresh blood but stale blood—too many had seen it. "On Wednesday, I had no business back there. I was there one day but can't remember." "What did you go back there for?" "A crowd of us went at noon to see if we could see any blood spots." "Were you successful?" "No, sir." "Who went with you?"
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366 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:334 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.There is no slush fund behind this case. Now, let's move on a little bit.They tried very hard to break down this man, Albert McKnight, with Minola—and I believe I'll leave that for a little later and come now to this statement of Frank's. Gentlemen, I wish I could travel faster over this. I'm doing the very best I can. I have a difficult task, and I wish I didn't have to do it at all.Now, gentlemen, I want to discuss briefly right here these letters. If these letters weren't
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367 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO WM. FRANE, 335You say it's foolish, ridiculous, and a silly piece of business—a great folly. But murder will out, and Providence directs things in a mysterious way. Not only that, as Judge Bleckley says, "Crime, whenever committed, is a mistake in itself; and what kind of logic is it that will say that a man committed a crime, which is a great big mistake, and then in an effort to cover it up, won't make a smaller mistake?" There's no logic in that position. The man who commits a crime makes a mistake,
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368 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:336 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Exactly four times, as I'll show you when I come to read this statement by Leo M. Frank, for he chatted, and he chatted, and he chatted, and he chatted, according to his own statement. This letter that I hold in my hand says that this negro "did it." Old Jim Conley in his statement here, which I hold in my hand, every time he opened his mouth says "I done it." Old Jim Conley, if he had written these notes, never would have said "this negro did it by
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369 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 337Jim says he looked at him like he thought, "I done it." It's the difference between ignorance and education, and these notes that you had that man prepare in your office on this paper that stayed on that floor and on that pad that came from your office, bear the marks of your diction. Starnes and Campbell, with all their ingenuity, couldn't have anticipated that old Jim would get up here and state that "this man looked at me when he ran into that baby, like I done it;" and couldn't
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370 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:338 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I tell you, gentlemen of the jury, that a smarter man than Starnes, or a smarter man than Campbell, a smarter man than Black, a smarter man than Rosser, in the person of Leo M. Frank, felt impelled to put there these letters, which he thought would exculpate him, but which incriminate and damn him in the minds of every man seeking to get at the truth. Yet you tell me there's nothing in circumstantial evidence, when here's a pad and there's the pad and there's the notes, which you
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371 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 339Let it be the doubt of a man who has conjured it up simply to acquit a friend, or a man that has been the friend of a friend; let it be the doubt of an honest, conscientious, upright juror, the noblest work of Almighty God.Now, gentlemen of the jury, I tell you that when this statement you heard Frank make is scanned, it is susceptible of but one construction, and that is, that it is the statement of a guilty man, made to fit in these general circumstances, as they
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372 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANE, 341He was willing to help this man take the body from the second floor, where the blood was found, into the basement and keep his mouth shut and protect him until the combined efforts of Scott and Black and Starnes and all these detectives beat him down and made him admit a little now and a little then. He wasn't willing, and he had too much sense, to go down into that basement to do that dirty job by himself and cremate the remains of this little girl that that man
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374 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:342 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.This pretty, attractive little girl, twelve months, and a man of your brilliant parts didn't even know her, and do you tell me that you had made up the pay-roll with Schiff fifty-two times during the year that Mary Phagan was there and still you didn't know her name or number? You tell me that this little country boy who comes from Oak Grove, near Sandy Springs in the northern part of this county, was lying when he got on that stand? I'll tell you no. Do you tell me
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375 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 343Has Conley lied? Has Dewey Hewell lied? Has Gantt lied? Has Miss Ruth Robinson lied? And even Frank, in his statement, admits that he knew Mary well enough to know that Gantt was familiar with her, because Chief Detective Harry Scott was told on Monday, April 28th, that this man Gantt was familiar with little Mary. And yet you expect an honest jury of twelve men—although out of your own mouth you told these detectives, whom you wired your uncle would eventually solve the problem, that this man Gantt was so
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376 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:344 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,You stand in the way of the consummation of your diabolical and evil plans.You say that you and Schiff made up the payroll on Friday, and I wouldn't be at all surprised that, after little Mary had gone and while you and Schiff were making up the payroll on Friday afternoon, you saw little Mary's name and you knew that she hadn't been notified to come there and get her money at six o'clock on Friday afternoon. Then, as early as three o'clock—yes, as early as three—knowing that this little
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377 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 345The issue at hand is torn down, and the person who refused to go into specific instances on cross-examination, if he didn't contemplate this little girl's ruin and damnation, it was because he was infatuated with her and didn't have the power to control that ungovernable passion. There's your plot; and it fits right in and seems tight up, and you can twist and turn and wobble as much as you want to, but out of your own mouth, when you told your detective, Scott, that this man Gantt was familiar
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378 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:346 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.He returned from the factory and said, "But I know there were several of them, and I went on chatting with Mr. Montag." I told you I was going to read this to you, and I just wanted you to know we were going to have this out with you. Another thing he said was, "I moved the papers I brought back from Montag's into the folder." Old Jim says he had the folder and put it away. "I would look and see how far along the reports were, which
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379 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 347In another instance, he says, "I chatted with them." "Entering, I found quite a number of people, among them Darley," etc. "I chatted with them a few minutes,"—using the same words Jim said he used with reference to this girl: "Miss Hall left my office on her way home; there were in the building at the time, Arthur White and Harry Denham and Arthur White's wife, on the top floor; to the best of my knowledge, it must have been ten or fifteen minutes after Miss Hall left my office when
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380 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:348 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.While out of the building, he wanted to call Jim Conley, if Jim had seen, and his saying that he had seen would have given him away. Then it was that he wanted to get her out of the building, and he sent her upstairs and then went upstairs to get her out and pretended to be in a big hurry to get out. But according to her evidence, instead of going out, he didn't have on his coat and went back into his office and sat down at his
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381 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 349Like you, I would have stormed the jail or done anything. It oughtn't to be, because that thing ought to be left to be threshed out before an upright court and an honest jury.But this man Frank knew—he didn't expect her to turn him down. He paved the way, he had set the snare, and he thought that this poor little girl would yield to his importunities. But, ah! thank God, she was made of that kind of stuff to which you are a stranger, and she resisted, she wouldn't yield.
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382 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:350 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.You are born, and that man is not like other men. He saw this girl, he coveted her; others without her stamina and her character had yielded to his lust, but she denied him. When she did, not being like other men, he struck her, he gagged her, he choked her. Then, able counsel go through the farce of showing that he had no marks on his person! Durant didn't have any marks on his person either. He didn't give her time to put marks on his person, but in
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383 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 351Blood was spattered towards the dressing room; you know it was blood because Starnes says he saw it was blood and he saw that the haskoline had been put over it. I’m going to read you this man’s statement, too, unless I give out physically, about this haskoline. It’s the purest subterfuge that ever a man sought to palm off on an honest jury.Starnes tells you that he found more blood fifty feet nearer the elevator on a nail. Barrett—Christopher Columbus Barrett, if you will—discovered the hair that was identified, I
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384 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:352 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In the dressing room at a time when no reward is shown to have been offered—and indeed, when you know that no reward was offered because no executive of this state or of this city offered any reward during Sunday or as early as 7 or 8 o'clock Monday morning—I say to you that this man Barrett stands as an oasis in a mighty desert, standing up for truth and right and telling it, though his own job is at stake, and you know it. And you may fling your
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385 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 353A white substance was smeared over it. "It was not there Friday, I know," said Mel Stanford, "because I swept the floor Friday at that place. The white substance appeared to have been swept over with a coarse broom; we have such a broom, but the one used by me Friday in sweeping over that identical spot was of finer straw. The spots were dry, and the dark led right up here within five feet of where the smear was." Blood and haskoline.Jim Conley saw her go up and didn't see
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386 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:354 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The witness did not go back on the affidavit which he had signed, though he did modify his statements.All right; I'm not going to call over all these other people—Mrs. Small and others—though Mrs. Carson denied it, she went there—who claimed to have seen that blood. But to cap it all, Mel Stanford says, "I swept the floor"—he's an employee and he's an honest man—"it wasn't there Friday." Why? Because old Jim, when he went to move that body, put it there Saturday. To cap it all, Doctor Claude Smith,
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387 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 855Consider that scuttle hole. Don't you know that Frank would have rushed to get his detective, Scott, to put the police in charge of the information that blood had been found there? But long after Jim Conley had been arrested, after this man Holloway had arrested him, after Holloway had said that Jim was "his nigger," realizing the desperation of the situation and that something had to be forthcoming to bolster up the charge that Conley did it, then it was—and not until then—that this man McWorth, after he had gone
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388 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:356 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.After he killed that girl and changed his clothing, that old Newt didn’t have the time. Why did he say it then? Because he knew that Lanford and Black and the other detectives who were there would have examined that slip for themselves, then and there, and would have seen that these punches were regular or irregular. But he stood there, and because he knew he would be detected if he tried to palm off a fraud at that time and place, this man of keen perception, this man who
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389 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 357It is evident that someone planted that shirt sometime on Monday, though we do not know at whose instance and suggestion.Regarding the club, both Doctor Harris and Doctor Hurt have stated that the wound could not have been inflicted with that club. Not a single doctor among the numerous good men and competent doctors has contradicted this. A physical examination of the shirt reveals that it was not worn by the person when the blood got on it—there is as much blood on the inside or the underside that did not
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390 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:358 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I was about to have lunch when I got to my house, and Minola answered the phone. She responded that she would have lunch immediately and for me to come right away. I then gathered my papers together and went upstairs to see the boys on the top floor. This must have been around ten minutes to one, as I just looked at my watch. Mrs. White states that it was 12:35 when she passed by and saw me. That's possibly true; I have no recollection about it, but perhaps
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391 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 359"They didn't keep it shut all the time," said Albert. "And you know he didn't eat anything in that dining room?""Yes, I know he didn't eat."And this is the tale that had been told to Craven by the husband of Minola McKnight. Minola went down there and, in the presence of her counsel, stated these things to these officers. She never would have done it if it hadn't been the truth. Gordon was down there, and he could have said—and if he hadn't said it then he's unworthy of the name
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392 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:360 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.I have enough to attend to my own business without running theirs. Now, go out there and bring in Julius Fisher, a photographer, and all these people to try to prove that the negro Albert McKnight lied. By the mere movement of that sideboard, which Mrs. Selig in her evidence says was put back in the exact same place every time they swept, you try to break down Albert McKnight's evidence. Gentlemen, Albert says that the sideboard had been moved, and you know it had been moved. Albert McKnight stood
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393 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 361"You know you can’t see from the kitchen into the dining room, you know that, don’t you?" "Yes sir, you certainly can see;" and the very evidence of the photographs and Julius Fischer and others who came here, after that sideboard had been moved, sustains Albert McKnight, and shows that once that sideboard is adjusted, you could see, as Albert says, and he did see because he would have never told that tale unless he had been there and seen it. "You can see in there!" "Yes sir, you can see;
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394 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:362 X, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Whether it's fair or not,—that's a fair statement?" And Albert says, "I don't know whether it's fair or not, but I know I saw Leo M. Frank come in there some time between one and two o'clock on Saturday, April 26th, and I know he didn't stay but about ten minutes and left to go to town." And he tells you the way in which he left, and Frank in his statement says that, while he didn't get on that car, he went in such a direction as Albert McKnight
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395 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 363You and I haven’t the physical strength, but there is certain language and certain statements and assertions made in this statement by this defendant which merit some consideration. This defendant stated to you, after His Honor had excluded our evidence and properly, I think, that his wife visited him at the police station. He says that she was there almost in hysterics, having been brought there by her father and two brothers-in-law and Rabbi Marx—no, Rabbi Marx was with me, I consulted with him as to the advisability of allowing my
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396 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:364. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Her husband would never have gone to him through snapshotters, reporters, and over the advice of any Rabbi under the sun. And you know it. Frank says in his statement, with reference to these notes written by Conley, "I said I know he can write." How long did it take him to say it, if he ever said it? "I received many notes from him asking me to loan him money. I have received too many notes from him not to know that he can write." In other words, Frank says
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397 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 865You know why. Ah, you did know that Conley could write. You knew it, not only because he wrote the notes for you, through which you sought to place the responsibility for this crime on another man, but you knew it because he checked up the boxes of pencils, and he had written you numerous notes to get money from you, just like he borrowed money from those other people in that factory. You knew that the most powerful fact that could be brought to light showing who committed this dastardly
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398 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:866%. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.There never lived within the State of Georgia a lawyer with half the ability of Mr. Luther Rosser, who, possessing a consciousness of his client's innocence, wouldn't have said, "Let this ignorant negro confront my innocent client." If there be a negro who accuses me of a crime of which I am innocent, I tell you—and you know it's true—I'm going to confront him, even before my attorney, no matter who he is, returns from Tallulah Falls. And if not then, I tell you just as soon as that attorney does
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399 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK. 867**The Court:** I know; go on.**Mr. Dorsey:** They see the force of it.**Mr. Rosser:** Is that a fair comment, Your Honor, if I make a reasonable objection, to say that we see the force of it?**The Court:** I don’t think that, in reply to your objection, is a fair statement.**Mr. Dorsey:** Now, may it please Your Honor, if they don't see the force of it, you do—**Mr. Rosser:** I want to know, is Your Honor’s ruling to be absolutely disregarded like that?**The Court:** Mr. Dorsey, stay inside of the record, and
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400 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:368 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.If you were innocent of murder, could any lawyer, Rosser or anybody else, keep you from confronting the accuser and nailing the lie? No lawyer on earth, no lawyer that ever lived in any age or any clime could prevent me, if I were innocent, from confronting a man who accused me wrongfully, be he white or black.And you, Leo Frank, went in and interviewed Newt Lee down yonder at twelve o'clock, Tuesday night, April 29th. And what did you do? Did you act like a man who wanted to
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401 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK. 360Newt Lee had been there for only two or three weeks—three weeks, to be precise. Frank could have told you that the detectives emphasized the fact that couples frequented the place on holidays, Saturdays, and at night, at all times and whenever other night watchmen were present. However, with Newt Lee having been there for just three weeks, he effectively prevents the State from impeaching or contradicting his statement. Therefore, he informs you that the detectives stressed the fact that couples had been there while the night watchman, Newt Lee, was
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402 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:370 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS."Now, first, contrast that statement for a moment with this statement with reference to the condition of the floor where Barrett worked. There he says there wasn't a spot, much less a blood spot—'looked at the machinery and the lathe, looked at the table on which the lathe stands and the lathe bed and the floor underneath the lathe and there wasn't a spot, much less a blood spot underneath.' All right; you say that that wasn't blood, you say that that haskoline wouldn't turn that color. In the name
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403 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO U. FRANK, 871Can you justify yourselves on that point, as against the evidence of all these witnesses who have told you that that was blood, and against the evidence of Doctor Claude Smith, the City Bacteriologist of the City of Atlanta, who tells you that through a chemical analysis he developed the fact that that was blood?This defense, gentlemen—they have got no defense. They have never come into close contact in this case, except on the proposition of abuse and vilification. They circle and flutter but never light; they grab at varnish and
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404 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:372 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Even if he had been such a fool and so unlike the other members of his race, by whom brutal murders have been committed, he should have taken time to tie a cord around her neck. A cord seldom found down there in the basement, according to your own statement, except when it's swept down in the trash, but a cord that hangs right up there on the office floor, both back there in the varnish room and up there in the front. If he had done all that—a thing
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405 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 373According to his own statement, Lemmie Quinn had to come and ask him to go back to see the blood spots on the second floor, found by this man Barrett. Is that the conduct of a man, the head of a pencil factory, who had employed detectives and was anxious to assist the police? He saw it in the newspapers, and yet Lemmie Quinn had to go and ask him to go back? And then he tells you in this statement, which is easy to write and glibly rattled off—a statement
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406 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:374 X¥. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Dorsey: Rogers said he never did look at that body.Mr. Arnold: I insist that isn’t the evidence. Rogers said he didn't know and couldn't answer whether he saw it or not, and Black said the same thing.I’m not going to quibble with you. The truth is, and you know it, that when that man Frank went down there to look at that body of that poor girl, to identify her, he never went into that room. And if he did look at her long enough to identify her, neither
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407 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 375Leo M. Frank's nervousness can be attributed to the circumstances surrounding the case, yet he returned, like a dog to its vomit or a sow to its wallow, to view the remains of this poor, innocent girl. I ask you, gentlemen of the jury, if you don't know that the reason Leo M. Frank went to the morgue on Sunday afternoon was to see if he could detect anything in the atmosphere indicating that the police suspected him? He admits his nervousness, and he admits being nervous in the presence of
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408 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 377**Mr. Rosser:** He doesn’t claim that. He says the point is it was easily gotten in the office, but that’s not what he said.**The Court:** You claim that’s a deduction you are drawing?**Mr. Dorsey:** Why, sure.**The Court:** Now, you don’t claim the evidence shows that?**Mr. Dorsey:** I claim that the power box was standing open Sunday morning.**The Court:** Do you insist that the evidence shows he had it in his pocket?**Mr. Dorsey:** I say that’s my recollection, but I’m willing to waive it; but let them go to the record, and
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410 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:378 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.In his statement, the defendant says, "though I didn't look at her and couldn't have recognized her if she was in the dirty, distorted condition," yet he claims, "but I know it was Mary Phagan."He corroborates the detectives' statements, saying that at the undertaking establishment, "we went down a long, dark passageway with Mr. Rogers following, then I came and Black brought up the rear. Gheesling was on the opposite side of the little cooling table, the table between him and me; he took the head in his hands, put
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411 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 370When the incident occurred, the first question asked was not, "Has there been a fire?" but "Has there been a tragedy?" Starnes, the man who initially suspected Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, because he pointed his finger of suspicion at him, and who later went after Gantt because this defendant pointed the finger of suspicion at him, is a perjurer and a liar. Starnes, who has been a detective on the police force for many years, did this simply to gratify his ambition and place a noose around the neck
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412 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:880 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Had he been up there, he innocently called Newt to find out, he said, if Gantt had gone and Newt said to find out if everything was all right at the factory; and you know that the reason he called up was to find out if Newt, in making his rounds, had discovered the body of this dead girl."Would you convict him on this circumstance or that circumstance?" No. But I would weave them all together, and I would make a rope, no one strand of which is sufficiently strong
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413 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 381This man Frank had stepped out of his office to answer a call of nature. He would have remembered it, and if he wouldn't have remembered it, at least he wouldn't have stated so repeatedly and unqualifiedly that he never left his office. Only on the stand here, when he faces an honest jury, charged with the murder, and circumstances stacked up against him, does he offer the flimsy excuse that these are things that people do unconsciously and without any recollection.But this man Scott, in company with Black, after they
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414 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:382 &X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS,"You were in your office," and Frank said "yes." And not until he saw the wonderful capacity, the wonderful ability, the wonderful devotion of this man Scott to the truth and right did he ever shut him out from his counsel. No suggestion then that he might have had to answer a call of nature, but emphatically, without knowing the importance, he told his own detective, in the presence of John Black, that at no time, for no purpose, from a few minutes before this unfortunate girl arrived, until he
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415 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK. 383A man named Mr. Kelley, who rode on the same car with Hollis, the same car that Hollis claims or Matthews claims that he rode on, knew the girl, knew Matthews, and tells you—and he's unimpeached and unimpeachable, and there's no suggestion here, even if you set the evidence of Epps and McCoy and Kendley aside—upon which an honest jury can predicate a doubt that this man Kelley of the streetcar company didn't tell the truth when he says that she wasn't on that car that this man Matthews says she
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416 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:334 - X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Mr. Arnold: I move to exclude that as grossly improper. He says he is arguing that some physician was brought here because he was the physician of some member of the jury. It's grossly unfair and it's grossly improper and insulting, even, to the jury.Mr. Dorsey: I say it is eminently proper and absolutely a legitimate argument.Mr. Arnold: I just record my objection, and if Your Honor lets it stay in, you can do it.Mr. Dorsey: Yes, sir; that wouldn't scare me, Your Honor.The Court: Well, I want to
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417 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO, M. FRANK. 885Do we know anything about the action of gastric juices on foods in the stomach? Can this man, with his short experience of seven years, this gentleman, splendid though he is, from Michigan, put his opinion against the eminent Secretary of the Georgia Board of Health, Doctor Roy Harris? I tell you, no.Now, let's briefly review this nervousness proposition. The man displayed nervousness when he talked to old man John Starnes. When Black went out to his house and he sent his wife down to give him nerve, although he was
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418 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:386 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.The situation was that he dared not say, because he couldn’t then say, that he saw that man also sweeping them out. Then it was that he said, "All right, Newt, go up with him and let him get them," and lo and behold, the shoes that this man Frank would have him believe were swept out, both tan and black, were there. Gantt tells you how he acted; Newt tells you how he jumped. Rogers and Black, honest men, when they went out there after Mr. Starnes had talked
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419 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 387The language used was "Completely unstrung," and now he changed it in your presence to "almost completely unstrung."You tell me that this man, who called for breakfast at home as Durant called for bromo seltzer in San Francisco, and who called for coffee at the factory as Durant called for bromo seltzer in San Francisco, you tell me that this man Frank, the defendant in this case, explains his nervousness by reason of the automobile ride and the view of the body—as this man Durant in San Francisco tried to explain
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420 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:388 XY. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.Man Scott, one of the most material witnesses, although the detective of this defendant's company, might also throw me down. Scott says this man Frank, when he went there Monday afternoon, after he had anxiously phoned Schiff to see old man Sig Montag and get Sig Montag's permission—had phoned him three times—Scott says that he squirmed in his chair continually, crossed and uncrossed his legs, rubbed his face with his hand, sighed, twisted and drew long deep breaths. After going to the station Tuesday morning, just before his arrest—if he
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421 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO H. FRANK. 389The death of Christ on the Cross, as it is said, when He suffered that agony, He said to the thief, "This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise;" and unless our religion is a fraud and a farce, if it teaches anything, it is that man, though he may be a thief, may be rehabilitated, and enjoy a good character and the confidence of the people among whom he lives.And this man Dalton, according to the unimpeached testimony of these people who have known him in DeKalb and Fulton
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422 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:390 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.To impeach this man, Dalton, you could have found it out. And I submit that the man that did it, whoever he was, the man who had the charity in his heart to dress that negro up—the negro that you would dress in a shroud and send to his grave—the man that did that, to bring him into the presence of this Court deserves not the condemnation, but the thanks of this jury.Let's see what Mr. William Smith, a man employed to defend this negro Conley, set up in response
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423 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 391During the night, Jim Conley was offered sandwiches and whiskey and his life was threatened—things that the sheriff, who is as good as the chief of police but no better, couldn’t guard against because of the physical structure of the jail. Conley asked, and His Honor granted the request, that he be remanded back into the custody of the honorable men who manage the police department of the City of Atlanta.Mr. Rosser: No, that’s a mistake, that isn’t correct. Your Honor discharged him from custody—he said that under that petition Your
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424 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:392 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.If Frank had been a member of the police force of the City of Atlanta, he would have been a liberated man when he stepped into this Court to swear, or he would have been spirited out of the State of Georgia so his damaging evidence couldn't have been adduced against this man.But yet you say Conley is impeached? You went thoroughly into this man Conley's previous life. You found out every person for whom he had worked, and yet this lousy, disreputable negro is unimpeached by any man except
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425 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Here is the translated text as follows:LEO M. FRANK, 393When these girls were reclining and lounging after finishing their piece work, and the sardonic grin that lit his countenance is described, it sustains Jim Conley. Miss Kitchens, the lady from the fourth floor, whom Mr. Arnold repeatedly asserted you didn't produce, and her account of this man's conduct when he came in on these girls, whom he should have protected, and when he should have been the last man to go into that room, sustains Jim Conley. Miss Jackson's assertion that she heard of three or four other instances and
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