Author: Historical Librarian

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Working Conditions Here Wrong, Proved by Phagan Crime, Says McKelway. Dr. A. J. McKelway, president pro tem of the Southern Sociological Congress, declared to-day that if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be 14-year-old Mary Phagan never would have been slain. "If social conditions, if factory conditions in Atlanta were what they should be here, if children of tender years were not forced to work in shops this frightful tragedy could not have been enacted," he asserted. Dr. McKelway's remarks came in the course of a conversation in which he discussed Read More ...

  A new photograph of Mary Phagan   NEW ARRESTS LIKELY; LEO FRANK STILL HELD; CASE AGAINST NEGRO Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 Inquest Into Slaying of Factory Girl Begins, and Flood of New Light Is Expected To Be Thrown on the Tragedy—Lee Maintains His Story. The Phagan inquest began to-day at police headquarters. It seemed likely when this edition of The Georgian went to press that a flood of light would be thrown on the murder mystery before the day was over. Notwithstanding what the police said yesterday—that the mystery had been solved—it does not appear at this Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 F. M. Berry, one of the most important witnesses of the afternoon, identified the handwriting on the notes found near Mary Phagan's body as practically the same as that of Newt Lee, who wrote a test note for the detectives. Mr. Berry said that he had been connected with the Fourth National Bank for 22 years and is at present assistant cashier. During these 22 years he said that he had studied handwriting continually. He was given both notes found by the body of the girl and was asked if they were written Read More ...

Leo M. Frank, Superintendent of the National Pencil Company's factory, still held by the police. Frank's lawyer says he has given to the police every detail of his whereabouts to account for his time on Saturday and Sunday. Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company and one of the central figures in the sensational murder mystery surrounding the death of little Mary Phagan, is well regarded by a host of friends in Atlanta, who scoff at the idea that he can in any way be implicated in the horrible tragedy. His friends Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 A formal statement from Newt Lee, the negro night watchman arrested after he had telephoned the police of the finding of Mary Phagan's mutilated body, was given to the public for the first time to-day. In it he made a sweeping denial of complicity in or knowledge of the crime and said: "It looks like Mr. Frank was trying to put the crime one me." Staggering from the weariness of two days of the "third degree," and bleary-eyed from the persistent attentions of detectives who went to his cell in relays to Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 R. P. Barrett, 180 Griffin Street, a machinist at the National Pencil Company, was one of the witnesses of the late afternoon. He was asked: Q. How long have you worked at the National Pencil Company?—A. Seven weeks the last time. I worked there about two years ago. Q. Did you know Mary Phagan?—A. Yes. Q. What did she do?—A. She ran a "tipping" machine. Q. When did you last see her?—A. A week ago Tuesday. Q. Did she work last week?—A. No. Q. You say you worked in the same department with Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Gantt's Mother, for Whom Mary Phagan Was Named, Weeps for Son. In an easy chair in front of an open fireplace in a little Cobb County farm house, sat an aged mother, with lines of suffering marking her face and her white head bowed in sorrow, praying that her son may be found innocent of the terrible crime for which he is held by the Atlanta police. For two days she sat in the same chair, staring constantly with dry eyes into the embers of the dying fire, seeing in the clouds of Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Chief of Detectives Lanford was confident this morning that he and his department had completed a strong case to present to the Grand Jury for indictment. He said that the evidence against the negro night-watchman at the National Pencil Factory had grown stronger since yesterday. He declared, however, that there still appeared the strongest indications that another person, in all probability a white man, was involved in some manner in the crime. Many puzzling questions have arisen, since the closing of the net around Lee began. The detectives have been utterly unable to Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Describes finding of body of slain girl and events at Pencil Factory before and at time of discovery of crime Newt Lee, watchman at the National Pencil Company's factory, who notified the police of the discovery of Mary Phagan's body, told his complete story on the stand at the coroner's inquest to-day. Lee was on the stand for more than an hour and was plied with questions intended to throw light on the tragedy. He replied to questions in a straightforward way, and in detail his story is substantially the same as Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, was questioned as follows: Q. What is your name? A. Newt Lee. Q. Where do you live? A.  Rear of 40 Henry Street. Q. What do you do? A. Night watchman at the National Pencil Company. Q. What kind of work do you do? A. Watch and sweep up the first floor. Q. What time do you go to work? At what time? A. Six o'clock. If it is not quite 6 o'clock I go around and see if the windows are down. If it is Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 R. M. Lasseter , the policeman on the morning watch past the pencil factory, was called at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He was questioned as follows: Q. Were you in the pencil factory Saturday night or Sunday morning?—A. I was there at 4:45 Sunday morning. Q. What did you find?—A. A parasol. Q. Where did you find it?—A. At the bottom of the elevator shaft. I found there also a big ball of red wrapping twine that never had been opened. (Here the witness was shown the cord that had strangled the Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Brown Offers $200 for Capture of Slayer—C. C. Jones Also Gives $100. Governor Joseph M. Brown to-day offered a reward of $200 for the apprehension and conviction of the murderer of little Mary Phagan and Mayor James G. Woodward issued a call for a special meeting of Council for tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, urging a $1,000 reward. Governor Brown's decision was reached on receipt of the following letter from Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey: "From the best information obtainable, it is my belief that the circumstances surrounding the death of little Miss Mary Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 Sergeant R. J. Brown, the second witness at the inquest, corroborated Anderson's story of the finding of the body. Brown, who was in charge of the morning watch, was one of the four men who answered the call of the negro night watchman, Newt Lee. Brown was interrogated as follows: "How did you get to the factory?" "Call Officer Anderson answered the phone call, and Anderson, Sergeant Dobbs, myself and a man named Rogers—we call him ‘Boots'—went in Mr. Rogers' car to the factory." "Who met you when you got there?" "We got Read More ...

  A photographic study of the victim in the strangling mystery showing the sad expression in her eyes. Another picture of the Phagan girl in a studious pose. The child was strikingly pretty and the pictures here shown are from photographs prized by grief-stricken relatives in Marietta. Mary Phagan and her young aunt, Mattie Phagan, who was one of the girl's best friends and is heart-broken over the tragedy.   Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 F. C. Terrell, 284 East Linden Avenue, told a Georgian reporter to-day that his wife had declared to him that she did not tell Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 Edgar L. Sentell, the man who identified Mullinax as being the man he saw with Mary Phagan Saturday night was the first witness to take the stand when the coroner's jury convened at 2:30 o'clock. The witness said that he worked at Kamper's grocery store, starting to work there last Thursday. He was questioned as follows: Q. How late did you work Saturday night? A. To about 10:30 o'clock. Q. What is your work? A. I drive a wagon. Q. What time did you get in with your wagon Saturday night? A. About Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 Sergeant L. S. Dobbs was the third witness. He said he answered the call to the pencil company plant Sunday morning. Q.—Did you find an umbrella? A.—No. Lassiter did. Q.—Did you find the notes there? A.—One of them. He then identified the two notes. Q.—Were you at the plant when Lassiter found the umbrella? A.—No; he found them about 7 o'clock. Q.—Where did you find the body? A.—About 150 feet from the elevator shaft. Q.—Did you examine the body? "Yes. When I turned the body over I found the face full of dirt, Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 Previous to Watchman Newt Lee's testimony, three police officers, who were called to the pencil factory when Mary Phagan's body was found, testified. Their testimony, with the exception of such parts as were unfit to print, follows: W. T. Anderson, police call officer on duty Sunday morning, was first witness. "We went over in an automobile to the pencil factory and the negro took us into the cellar where the body was found," he said. Anderson told of the location of the scuttle hole, from which a ladder led to the basement, and Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 J. G. Spier followed Newt Lee on the stand. He lives at Cartersville, Georgia Q. Were you about the National Pencil Company plant? A. Yes, sir; we walked over to the Terminal station from the Kimball House. I was with a friend. I left the Terminal station at 10 minutes of 4, then walked back there, going back Forsyth Street. I passed the pencil factory about 10 minutes after 4 o'clock. I noticed a young girl and a young man, a Jew of about 25, talking. Q. Were they excited? A. My impression Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Experts Declare Note Written by Lee Resembles That Found Near Slain Girl. Handwriting experts said to-day that they were able to determine a resemblance between the handwriting of Newt Lee, the negro watchman in the National Pencil factory, and that in the mysterious notes found by the body of Mary Phagan in the basement of the factory. They were of the opinion that the negro wrote both notes, as they asserted that many of the peculiarities in the handwriting of Lee were found in the messages that lay in the dirty basement. The Read More ...