Category: TRANSCRIPTS: ATLANTA CONSTITUTION

The Atlanta Constitution July 23rd, 1913 Attorneys for Relatives in the Crawford Will Hearing Are Willing to Yield Their Claim of Priority. The conflict between the dates of hearing the litigation over the $250,000 estate of the late Joshua B. Crawford, and the trial of Leo M. Frank, charged with the Mary Phagan murder, may cause a postponement of the Frank trial, as Attorneys Reuben R. Arnold and Luther Z. Rosser are connected with both cases. The Crawford hearing will be renewed today and by right of priority takes precedence over the other trial. It is expected, however, than an Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, Wednesday, 23rd July 1913, PAGE 5, COLUMN 2. Objects to Paying Expenses of Installing Instrument in Williams House. A. R. Colcord, chairman of the police committee, has been asked to approve a warrant for $19 which represents the expense to which the detective department was put to install the dictagraph in room 36, Williams house. Chairman Colcord said Monday that he did not approve of the use to which the dictagraph was put, but explained that he has been informed that it was never intended to entrap Mayor Woodward or any other city official. "I think that Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 24th, 1913 For First Time Since Mary Phagan Was Killed Two Negroes Are Brought Face to Face. James Conley, a sweeper at the National Pencil factory, and Newt Lee, night watchman, who carried the police to where Mary Phagan's body lay on the morning of April 27, were brought face to face yesterday afternoon in the tower by Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey and Frank A. Hooper, an attorney who is aiding the solicitor. J. M. Gantt was taken there by the attorneys, as he knew Conley while both were working for the pencil factory. Attorney Hooper stated after Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution,Thursday, 24th July 1913,PAGE 1, COLUMN 2.Is it proper, also is it legal, for a real ladylike man to further simulate femininity and appear on the streets dressed in women's garb, provided this man be a professional female impersonator?This is a question which is troubling Miss beg your pardon Mr. Auriema, who is nightly appearing at one of Atlanta's moving picture show houses. Also, it is troubling Chief Beavers.If it is proper and legal for a woman to cut her hair and don male costume as did Belva Lockwood and Dr. Mary Walker, who, for many years, were Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 24th, 1913 Report Says That It Has Been Sent to Northern City to Be Put Under Microscope. That the bloody club found in the National Pencil factory after the murder of Mary Phagan is in some northern city undergoing microscopic examination after having been inspected by local experts, is a rumor that prevailed at police headquarters yesterday. Upon being examined by an Atlanta expert, who, it is said, declared that it would be impossible to determine whether or not the blood spots were from animal or human, the weapon was sent north for more minute examination. Frank's lawyers Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 25th, 1913 Negro Was Taken to Tower Without Knowledge of Beavers or Lanford. Action is likely to be taken against Detective John Starnes and Pat Campbell, who Wednesday afternoon carried Jim Conley, the negro in the Phagan case, from police headquarters to the Tower without permission of either Chief Beavers or Chief Lanford. When asked by a Constitution reporter Thursday afternoon what steps he would probably take against the detectives, Chief Beavers declined to talk. He inferred, however, that an investigation would likely result and that action would be taken. Conley was taken from the station house prison Read More ...

  The Atlanta Constitution, July 25th, 1913 Negro Is Taken in Chief's Auto to Sections He Claims to Have Visited on Murder Night. Jim Conley, the negro sweeper and most important figure in the Phagan case, was taken from police headquarters in the automobile of Chief Beavers yesterday afternoon and carried over the ground on which he accounts for his whereabouts during the afternoon of the murder. He was in charge of Chief Beavers and Detectives Pat Campbell and John Starnes, headquarters men who have been attached to the solicitor's office throughout the investigation. He was driven through the Peters Read More ...

    Atlanta Constitution July 25th, 1913, Friday. One Hundred and Forty-Four Names Drawn From Jury Box—No Effort So Far at Postponement. The veniremen from which it is expected to choose the jury for the trial Monday of Leo M. Frank, charged with the Mary Phagan murder, was drawn yesterday afternoon by Judge John T. Pendleton, at the request of Judge L. S. Roan, who returned from Covington, Georgia, slightly ill. The names of 144 men were drawn from the petit jury box, and as far as is known no actual attempt was made to have them drawn from the Read More ...

    Atlanta Constitution July 25th, 1913, Friday. As a reward for his success in the Mary Phagan mystery, Detective Harry Scott, assistant superintendent of the Atlanta Pinkerton offices, has been promoted to the superintendency of the Houston, Texas branch, to which he goes immediately following the close of the Leo Frank trial. Scott's work has been declared to have been the most successful in the entire Phagan investigation. It was a result of his efforts that the famous Jim Conley confession was obtained, in which admission the negro acknowledged complicity and accused Leo Frank of the actual murder. The Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 26th, 1913 They Have Started Summoning Witnesses and Are Quoted as Having Agreed to Go to Trial. That Attorneys Reuben R. Arnold and Luther Z. Rosser, representing Leo M. Frank, charged with the Mary Phagan murder, have decided to go to trial Monday when the case is called was information made public Friday from an apparently reliable source. Coupled with this, and apparently making the trial doubly sure, is the news that the defense has started summoning its witnesses and making final preparations for the actual trial. Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey reiterated Friday his statement in regard to Read More ...

Atlanta Constitution July 27th, 1913 Greatest Legal Battle in the History of Dixie Is the Prediction of Atlanta Attorneys ATTORNEYS FOR STATE HOLD FINAL CONFERENCE Representatives of Leo Frank Still Non-Committal About Report That Postponement May Be Asked Practically every detail for the trial of Leo M. Frank has now been completed and with the state declaring its readiness and determination to go to trial and the defense maintaining its same silence in regard to the much mooted matter of postponement every thing awaits the calling of the case at 9 o'clock Monday morning in the criminal branch of superior Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution July 28th, 1913 Chief interest in the case of Leo M. Frank, which is scheduled to begin today, centers in the selection of a jury, the first 144 veniremen, having been drawn last Thursday and published in The Constitution on Sunday. It seems to be the general opinion that this panel will be exhausted and others summoned before a jury is secured. Attorneys for both sides are of the opinion that it will take about a day to select a jury, which would let the hearing of evidence begin on Tuesday, or on Wednesday, if it should Read More ...

  The Atlanta Constitution July 28th, 1913 Judge L. S. Roan Announces That He Will Call Case at Nine O'Clock This Morning. LAWYERS BELIEVE JURY WILL BE NAMED IN DAY Legal Representatives Take Good Rest on Sunday in Preparation for Struggle That Begins Today. After weeks of preparation by some of the most skilled legal minds in the state and after every point in the affair that has been made public has been discussed and threshed out by thousands of citizens, the case of the state v. Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of little Mary Phagan, will be Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution July 29th, 1913 Attorneys for Both Sides Had Good Line on All Men Examined. According to an unofficial account kept as the matter of striking the Frank jury was carried out, ninety-six men were called into the box and examined before the twelve men to try the case were finally selected. These men were divided into eight panels of twelve each, and came in a panel at a time. Every bit of information that could be got together in advance about the men whose names were on the venire list of 144 men drawn last week, had Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 But F. V. L. Smith's Wife Calls Police and Intruders Flee. Two big, burly, black negroes who evidently had taken a decided interest in the Frand murder trial, and knew that F. V. L. Smith, of 481 Cherokee avenue, had been chosen for the jury yesterday and would not be home last night, attempted to enter his home. No one was there but Mrs. Smith and her little 4-weeks' old child. Seeing the negroes on the porch, she made a step toward them, and they fled. Within a few minutes they returned, and instead Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 W. H. Mincey, who made the famous affidavit in which he declared that Jim Conley had told him on April 26 that he had killed a girl, arrived late last night for the Frank trial. In a statement made to The Constitution, Mr. Mincey reaffirmed his affidavit in its entirety and declared that he would tell this story on the witness stand. He was accompanied by Colonel Ben E. Neal, of Ringgold, Georgia, a lawyer who has known him for years and who states that he will testify as to Mincey's good character, should Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 List Indicates That Prisoner Is Prepared to Put Character in Evidence. Numbers of witnesses were summoned to court by both sides and when the names were called so that all could be sworn it developed that scores of Leo Frank's friends had been called upon. From the fact that there is not a possibility of one in this number knowing anything of the crime, it appears that the defense has made preparation, at least, to put Frank's character in evidence and has secured these of his friends to testify for him. Of the number Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution July 29th, 1913 Men Who May Be Called to Stand Report Trial by Attorney's Agreement. Just as the state was about to open formally its case against Leo M. Frank, Attorney Reuben R. Arnold interrupted by declaring to the court that he expected to have to call on a number of newspaper men to testify as the case went on. "They know a great deal about this case, and we have complete files of the papers here and will be able to tell to a certain extent from them whom we will want," he said. "I may Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 WATCHMAN TELLS OF FINDING BODY OF MARY PHAGAN Trial Adjourns for the Day While Lee Is on the Stand, and His Cross-Questioning Will Be Resumed Today. MOTHER AND THE WIFE OF PRISONER CHEER HIM BY PRESENCE AT TRIAL Jury Is Quickly Secured and Mrs. Coleman, Mother of the Murdered Girl, Is First Witness to Take Stand. With a swiftness which was gratifying to counsel for the defense, the solicitor general and a large crowd of interested spectators, the trial of Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan on April 26, in Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 Up to the hour of the trial, Mrs. Leo M. Frank, wife of the young man now on trial for his life, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan, had kept in the background of the case. Daily she visited her husband at the jail, and brought him delicacies. She came quietly, and when she departed she created no stir of excitement among the hangers-on around the jail. She was accorded the most chivalrous treatment, and her desire to avoid notoriety was respected. Only once did an expression from her appear in the public Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution,Tuesday, 29th July 1913,.Trial Adjourns for the DayWhile Lee Is on the Stand,and His Cross-QuestioningWill Be Resumed Today.MOTHER AND THE WIFEOF PRISONER CHEER HIMBY PRESENCE AT TRIALJury Is Quickly Secured andMrs. Coleman, Mother ofthe Murdered Girl, Is FirstWitness to Take Stand.With a swiftness which was gratifying to counsel for the defense, the solicitor general and a large crowd of interested spectators, the trial of Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan on April 26, in the building of the National Pencil factory, was gotten under way Monday.When the hour of adjournment for the day had Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution, July 29th, 1913 Will Frank's lawyers put any evidence before the court? That is a question that was much discussed on the opening day by a score or more of lawyers who secured seats in the courtroom in order to hear the trial and to watch the way in which the skilled attorneys on both sides handled the case. The fact that so many witnesses have been summoned by the defense does not mean to the legal mind that Attorneys Rosser and Arnold will put up any evidence any more than the summoning of scores of the Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 When Sergeant Dobbs was called from the stand Detective J. M. Starnes, prosecutor of Frank and a detective attached to police headquarters was called in. He has been associated with the solicitor general throughout the Phagan investigation. The defense and prosecution clashed in perhaps their most spectacular battle over an attempt of Attorney Rosser to force the detective into recalling the exact words of a portion of his testimony at the coroner's inquest. An argument was advanced by both Attorneys Dorsey and Hooper and each member of Frank's counsel Attorneys Arnold and Rosser. The apparent motive Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 During the two days' progress of the Frank trial public interest has centered around the case and all eyes seemed turned to it. To date, the interest has really been in watching the struggle between the skilled attorneys who are fighting for position and whose clashes over the preliminary witnesses are merely the skirmishes of the pickets before two mighty armies come together. Thus far the interest, while to a certain extent centered on the maneuvering, has been mostly of the future tense. Every one is looking forward to what is to come. A fierce skirmish Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 Newt Lee, the negro night watchman of the pencil factory, who telephoned police headquarters of the finding of Mary Phagan's body at the pencil factory, was again placed upon the stand when court convened Tuesday for the second day's session. Attorney Luther Z. Rosser renewed his cross-fire of questions by which he sought to confuse the negro and secure new admissions or change valuable points in his testimony, and thus expose a vulnerable point for a concentrated attack upon his entire statement. Mr. Rosser took up practically where he had left off the afternoon before. "Newt, Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 Solicitor Dorsey stood before Detective Starnes at the witness box yesterday afternoon and held to view a lavender frock with a bit of pink ribbon at each shoulder. In the hand that was lowered at his side he held a wee slipper. "Do you recognize this dress?" he put to the witness. "I do." "To whom did it belong?" "To Mary Phagan, the girl who was killed in the National Pencil factory." Mother and Daughter Sob. A moist-eyed woman, gray beginning to fleck her hair and betray her fifty years looked sadly upon the articles in Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 Sergeant L. S. Dobbs, one of the policemen who answered Lee's call to the factory, was put on the stand, after Lee was dismissed. He told of the call at about 3:20 a. m. on April 27, and of how he and Officers Anderson and Brown, with "Boots" Rogers, an ex-county policeman, and Britt Craig, of The Constitution, went to the factory and found the body. The officer declared, among other things, that Lee was not frightened or trembling when they got there, that they had difficulty in telling at first whether the girl was white Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 Sergeant L. S. Dobbs took the stand again at the afternoon session. "Did you help take the girl's body from the basement?" Attorney Rosser questioned. "I was there when the undertakers came," answered the sergeant. "Who cleaned the girl's face?" "Sergeant Brown, I believe." "How?" "With a piece of paper." "How was the body removed?" "In a corpse basket." Here the examination was taken up by the solicitor general. "What is the distance from the ladder to the spot where the body was found?" "About 150 feet." Found Slipper and Hat. "Did you discover anything on Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 30th, 1913 NEWT LEE STICKS TO ORIGINAL STORY DESPITE ATTEMPTS TO CONFUSE NEGRO Striking Feature of Day's Proceedings Was the Evident Effort on Part of Luther Rosser to Connect Watchman With Crime, or Show He Knew More Than He Has Told. DORSEY SAYS DEFENSE IS TRYING TO IMPEACH TESTIMONY OF STARNES Mr. Rosser Declared, However, That All He Was Trying to Do Was to Test the Memory of Detective Who Was Among First to Investigate the Murder of Mary Phagan in Factory. During the second day's proceedings of the Leo M. Frank trial the sensation for which the Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 By Sidney Ormond Comparisons are odious, but to the close observer of events following the Mary Phagan murder and the trial now in progress one cannot help contrasting the impression made on the jury by Newt Lee, the negro night watchman of the National Pencil factory, and the testimony of John Black, detective, who worked up a large part of the evidence being used against Leo M. Frank by the state. It was only a short while ago that John Black, according to the statement of Lee, was ‘blunblamming' at him night and day in an Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 Grace Hicks, a sister-in-law of ‘Boots' Rogers, whom he carried to the factory the morning of April 27 to tell if the dead girl was an employee of the factory was put upon the witness stand by the state after Rogers had been excused. She was a daintily dressed slender girl of 17, and declared that she had worked there for the past five years. To the solicitor's questions she answered that she had known Mary Phagan for about a year at the pencil factory and that the dead girl had worked on the second floor. Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 SLEUTH CONFUSED UNDER MERCILESS CROSS-QUESTIONS OF LUTHER ROSSER Just Before He Left the Stand He Confessed That He Was "Mixed Up" and That He Could Not Recall What He Had Testified a Moment Before—Tangled on Finding Bloody Shirt. FRIENDS OF PRISONER HAVE HIGH HOPES NOW OF FAVORABLE VERDICT "Boots" Rogers, Grace Hicks, Mrs. J. W. Coleman and J. M. Gantt on Stand During Day—Mobs of Curiosity Seekers Besieging Doors to Gain Admission to Frank Trial. When Wednesday's session of the Leo M. Frank trial had come to a close, the friends of the accused were filled Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 Detective John R. Black, the officer who went in Rogers' machine from the factory to Frank's residence on the Sunday morning that Mary Phagan's body was discovered, was next put up by the state. He took the stand at 11:45 o'clock, and was still there when court adjourned for lunch. In answers to Solicitor Dorsey's questions he said he had been on the police force for six years and previous to that had worked as n cooper for the Atlanta Brewing and Ice company. "Do you know any of the directors of this company?" began the Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 J. W. Gantt, who once was a suspect in the famous case, followed Mrs. Coleman to the stand at the afternoon session. "Have you ever been connected with the pencil company?" "From January 1st, 1918, until April 7, I was employed with that concern as shipping clerk. I was discharged by Mr. Frank for an alleged shortage." "Did you know Mary Phagan?" "Yes—I knew her as a little girl." "Did Leo Frank know her?" "Yes." "How do you know this?" Knew Mary Pretty Well. "On Saturday she came into the office for a time record. Frank Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 In spite of the largest force of deputies that has ever been brought together in Fulton county for a similar purpose, the greatest difficulty is being experienced in keeping out the idle and morbidly curious at the Leo M. Frank trial. A glance around the room is sufficient to show that the deputies have been imposed on. Scores of professional loafers—men who have had no visible means of support for years, and who could have possible interest in the trial—throng the room. Many women, who are in no way connected with the case either through friendship Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 Mrs. J. W. Coleman was recalled to the stand for only a moment's interrogation regarding the mesh handbag which she carried with her upon leaving home on the day of the tragedy. Attorney Rosser asked, "What kind of bag did Mary carry with her that day?" "A mesh bag." The solicitor asked that she describe its size and shape. Her description was that of an ordinary mesh bag, unornamented and manufactured of silver. She also identified the handkerchief and parasol as having belonged to the slain child.

The Atlanta Constitution,Thursday, 31st July 1913,PAGE 1, COLUMN 3.Miss Grace Hicks, an employee of the National Pencil factory, and a friend of Mary Phagan, who testified on Wednesday morning; Detective John Black (Wearing derby), who was put through severe cross-examination Wednesday afternoon by the defense, and Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, who has had charge of this agency's investigation of the Phagan mystery. He will go on the stand today.PAGE 1, COLUMN 5NEW WITNESS SOUGHTBY SOLICITOR DORSEYCharles M. Wilt, Former Pris-Oner in Fulton Tower, MayTestify in Frank Case.Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey, it is understood, has wired to North Carolina for Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 When court convened and before the jury had been brought in Attorney Luther Rosser entered an objection to the drawing of the pencil factory which Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey had rehung upon the wall after removing the descriptive lines. Objection had previously been made to the lines and the solicitor had caused these to be erased. Attorney Rosser and his colleague Reuben Arnold declared that the dotted lines which shows the state's theory of how the girl's body was carried from the second floor to the basement were not part of the building and hence were Read More ...

Atlanta ConstitutionJuly 31st, 1913 Harry Scott, Pinkerton Detective Will Also Be Called to Stand During Day William Gheesling, the P. J. Bloomfield undertaking attachee who made the first examination and emblamed the body of Mary Phagan will probably be the first witness called to the stand in the Frank trial this morning. He will be followed by Harry Scott, the Pinkerton detectives who worked with Detective John Black in the murder investigation and who engineered the third degree which resulted in Jim Conley's confession. Dr. Hurt, county physician who made the medical examination upon the corpse and who it is Read More ...

The Atlanta Constitution,Friday, 1st August 1913,PAGE 1, COLUMN 7.Photo by Francis E. Price. Staff Photographer.Mrs. Callie Scott Appelbaum, who was tried before Judge Roan for the murder of her husband. Jerome Appelbaum, and declared "not guilty," and Leo M. Frank, who is now on trial charged with the murder of Mary Phagan. Mrs. Appelbaum was an interested spectator at Frank's trial Thursday afternoon.PAGE 3, COLUMN 1REPRESENTING STATE IN FRANK TRIALLeft to right: Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor E. A. Stephens, and Attorney Frank A. Hooper.PAGE 4, COLUMN 1Spots Were Large As Fan,Declares Woman Who Saw ThemMrs. George W. Read More ...