Category: TRANSCRIPTS: ATLANTA GEORGIAN

  The Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Coroner's Jury inspects remains and scene of tragedy, then waits until Wednesday Lying on a slab in the chapel of the Bloomfield undertaking establishment, with the white throat bearing the red marks of the rope that strangled her, the body of Mary Phagan was viewed by thousands this morning. No such gathering of the morbidly curious has ever before been seen in Atlanta. More people were attracted than by any crime in the history of the city. The crowds came in droves, and a steady procession passed before the slab on which Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 "I'd help lynch the man that killed poor Mary. If they'd let me, I'd like to hold the rope that choked him to death. That's all he deserves. I was playing with Mary only a few days ago. She was my playmate nearly every day. But when I saw her dead body I wouldn't have known her, her face was so bruised and out and swollen. It was horrible. I hope they catch the man that did it."—VERA EPPS, twelve-year-old chum of Mary Phagan. Vera Epps clenched her little hands and anger blazed Read More ...

  Edgar L. Sentell, lifelong friend of Mary Phagan, says he saw a man answering this description, walking with the girl after midnight Sunday, a few hours before the body was found. He has identified the man as Arthur Mullinax, who, however, was to-day apparently cleared by an alibi established by his sweetheart.   Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 E. S. Skipper Tells Police He Saw Lads Urging Her Down Street Night of Crime. The story of three men leading a weeping, unwilling girl on Forsyth Street Saturday night is being sounded to its depths to-day by Atlanta policemen Read More ...

  Photograph of Mary Phagan showing her in street dress. JOHN M. GANTT ACCUSED OF THE CRIME; FORMER BOOKKEEPER TAKEN BY POLICE Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 J. M. Gantt, arrested in Marietta for the murder of Mary Phagan, gave to a reporter for The Georgian his story of his actions that led to his arrest. He protested his innocence, and declared he was home in bed at the time the crime is supposed to have been committed. In striking contradiction to this statement is the assertion of Mrs. F. C. Terrell, of 284 East Linden Street, where Gantt Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Stretched full length, face downward on the floor of the basement at the rear of the plant, the body was found. A length of heavy cord or wrapping twine, which had been used by the slayer to strangle the child after he had beaten her to insensibility, was looped around the neck, and a clumsy bandage of cloth, torn from her petticoat, as if to conceal the horrible method of murder swathed the face. The stray end of the cord lay along the child's back between her two heavy braids of dark red Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 In the room where Mary Phagan was attacked and paid out her young life to the brutality of her assailant, across the floor where her limp form was dragged, down the stairs and down through the square trap-door into the dirty basement where her body was found, Chief of Police Beavers and two detectives trailed, step by step, every move of the girl's murderer to-day. Determined that not a clew should be overlooked in the efforts to fix guilt upon the man or men that took the young girl's life, the Chief Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Pieces of wood, the stains on which are believed to be those of the blood of murdered Mary Phagan, are undergoing a chemical examination this afternoon by the city chemist. The discovery of white powder on the factory floor strengthened the belief that a frantic effort had been made to erase the evidences of the crime. The powder resembled very much cleaning preparations that are used. * * * Atlanta Georgian, April 28th 1913, "City Chemist Test Stains for Blood," Leo Frank case newspaper article series  

  At the right is Miss Ruth Phagan, aunt of Mary Phagan, and in her arms is Miss Ollie Phagan, sister of the victim, whom she is trying to comfort.   Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Gantt was arrested on a warrant sworn out, in Judge Powers' court, charging him with murder. Gantt was last seen before his arrest at 8:45 this morning by Herbert Schiff, assistant superintendent of the factory. A few minutes later he was on a car bound for Marietta. The officers in Marietta were notified by telephone and were on the watch for a man Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Declaring her belief in the absolute innocence of her sweetheart, Arthur Mullinax, in the murder of Mary Phagan, pretty 16-year-old Pearl Robinson made a pathetic figure as she appeared before Chief of Detectives Lanford this afternoon and accounted for the whereabouts of Mullinax Saturday night up until about 10:30 o'clock. With Miss Robinson were Mrs. Emma Rutherford, the landlady of Mullinax, and her two sons, Thomas and James, who took up the moves of Mullinax from the time he left Miss Robinson until the next morning, establishing what appears to be a Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Stepfather and Sister to Accompany Body, But Mother May Not Be Able to Go. The body of murdered Mary Phagan, which has been at the Bloomfield morgue since she was found strangled to death Sunday morning, will be taken to Marietta to-morrow morning at 8:35 o'clock, over the W. & A. Railroad. At noon the funeral services will be held and the body of the child will be laid to rest in the family lot in the Marietta Cemetary. W. J. Coleman, the girl's stepfather, and her sister, Miss Ollie Phagan, will accompany Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Standing with bared head in the doorway of his Marietta home, with tears falling unheeded down his furrowed cheeks, W. J. Phagan cried to heaven for vengeance for the murder of his granddaughter, fourteen-year-old Mary Phagan, and vowed that he would not rest until the murderer had been brought to justice. In a silence unbroken save by the sound of his own sobs and the noise of the gently falling rain, the old man lifted his quavering voice in a passionate plea for the life of the wretch who had lured the Read More ...

  This youth, formerly a street car conductor, is held in connection with the investigation of the slaying of Mary Phagan in the basement of the National Pencil Factory in South Forsyth Street. He stoutly denies any connection with the crime, and declares his arrest as a "horrible mistake." He has accounted for himself, and likely will be released.   Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Arthur Mullinax, identified as the man who was with Mary Phagan at midnight Saturday, a few short hours before her dead body was found, and now a prisoner in solitary confinement at police headquarters, Read More ...

  Mary Phagan, 14-year-old daughter of Mrs. J. W. Coleman, 146 Lindsay Street, whose slain body was found in the basement of the National Pencil Factory, 37-39 South Forsyth Street. The girl left her home Saturday morning to go to the factory, where she had been employed, to draw wages due her. She was seen on the streets at midnight Saturday with a strange man. She was not seen alive thereafter. MRS. COLEMAN PROSTRATED BY CHILD'S DEATH Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 "No Working Girl Is Safe," She Sobs, Overcome by Her Sudden Sorrow. Lying on the bed in Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Two mysterious notes—incoherent, misspelled and unintelligible—were found in the cellar of death; Were they written by the girl as she lay in delirium just before the end came, or Were they written by her slayer to throw the police off the track and turn suspicion towards a negro? Here they are: "He said he wood love me laid down like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro did by his sleb." "mama that negro hired down here did this I went to get water and he pushed me down Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Edgar L. Sentell, twenty-one years old, a clerk employed in C. J. Kamper's store, and whose home is at 82 Davis Street, was one of the first to give the detectives a hopeful clue to the solution of the hideous mystery. Sentell, a well-known young man, had known Mary Phagan almost all her life. When she was just beginning to think of dolls with never a thought of dreary factories and the tragedies of life, he used to see her playing in the streets of East Point when her folks lived there. She Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Newt Lee, the negro-night-watchman arrested in connection with the Phagan murder, practically admitted to Detective John Black this afternoon that he knows something of the circumstances surrounding the death of the little girl. The police are confident that Lee will tell all he knows before 6 o'clock. Lee's admission came after he had been "sweated" for two hours by a corps of officers under the direction of Detective John Black, and was wrung from him by a trap which Black set and into which the negro walked. Black said: "Now, Lee, I know Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Mullinax was arrested by detectives late in the afternoon in Bellwood Avenue, near the viaduct, as he was on his way to his boarding house. His positive identification by E. L. Sentell, of 82 Davis Street, a clerk for the Kemper Grocery Company, as the man he saw with the little Phagan girl in Forsyth Street about 12:20 o'clock yesterday morning, and alleged discrepancies in the statement of the prisoner led Chief Beavers and Chief of Detectives Lanford to order him locked in a cell and held on suspicion. Sentell, who knew Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Superintendent Leo M. Frank Is Convinced Newt Morris Was Not Implicated. Owing to a delay in receipt of metal shipment part of the plant of the National Pencil Company had been shut down for most of the week and Mary Phagan worked but part of the time. A few minutes after 12 o'clock Saturday she went to the office and drew her pay, which amounted to $1.60. A holiday had been given the employees on Memorial Day and there were but very few about the place. The day watchman left shortly before 11 Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Slaying of Mary Phagan Arouses Friends of Family to Threats of Violence. "I wouldn't have liked to be held responsible for the fate of the murderer of little Mary Phagan if the men in this neighborhood had got hold of him last night," was the statement to-day of George W. Epps, 246 Fox Street, whose home adjoins that of Mrs. Coleman, mother of the slain girl. By to-day the first hot wave of indignation that cried for the blood of the criminal had had time to subside, but the feeling still ran high Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Investigate Story of Wife of Employee That She Saw Strange Negro Around Factory. The Pinkerton Detective Agency was brought into the Phagan murder mystery this afternoon when Leo Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company's factory, called upon the local representatives and engaged their services. The operatives went to work at once, following out clews already obtained and developing new ones. Their attention was called to the story of Mrs. Arthur White, wife of one of the employees of the factory, who went to the factory to see her husband Saturday. She noticed Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 "She was just a little, playful girl, without a bad thought in her mind, and she has been made the victim of the blackest crime that can be perpetuated," was the bitter denunciation of the assailant of Mary Phagan by her uncle, D. R. Benton, yesterday. Mary and her mother lived with Mr. Benton at his home near Marietta for several years following the death of Mr. Phagan. Then Mary's mother married J. W. Coleman and the family moved from Marietta to East Point about 1907. Twelve months ago they moved to their Read More ...

  STRAND OF HAIR CLEW IN KILLING OF PHAGAN GIRL Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Body of Mary Phagan Is Found in Basement of Old Granite Hotel in Forsyth Street—Mute Evidence of Terrible Battle Victim Made for Life WHITE YOUTH AND NEGRO ARE HELD BY THE POLICE After Being Beaten Into Insensibility Child Was Strangled and Dragged With Cord Back and Forth Across Floor—Incoherent Notes a Clew. Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Company plant, in which Mary Phagan was employed, was taken to police court this morning by Detective Black to tell what he knows in Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Timekeeper at Pencil Factory Declares Mary Phagan Attended Strictly to Her Work. "She was a quiet and modest little girl," was the tribute paid Mary Phagan to-day by E. F. Holloway, a timekeeper at the National Pencil Company's plant. "I never noticed her talking with any of the employees. She was invariably polite, as though she had been carefully reared in her home. She paid attention strictly to her own work and never was seen conversing with any of the men, so far as I know. "In fact, I don't know that she Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Weeping Girl Like Mary Phagan Seen Saturday in Company of Soda Jerker. The police late this afternoon began a search for a soda water clerk who was seen talking to a girl answering the description of Mary Phagan Saturday night at 12:10 o'clock, in front of a rooming house at 286 1-2 Whitehall Street. The information was given to the police by L. B. and R. C. King, brothers, who said they passed the Whitehall Street address at that hour and saw the couple. Their attention was called to them, they say, by Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 A new turn was given the mystery to-day when strands of blood-matted hair were found in a lathing machine on the second floor of the factory. The discovery made it certain that the crime was committed in the factory by some one who had access to the building, a theory which had been without conclusive support previously. Blood stains leading from the lathe to the door showed the manner in which the fiend had dragged the body of his victim and had taken her to the basement. Appearances indicated that the murderer had Read More ...

  DENIES GUILT BUT IS IDENTIFIED AS MAN SEEN LEADING GIRL Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 The Georgian will pay $500 reward for EXCLUSIVE information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of Mary Phagan. J. M. Gantt, accused of the strangling of Mary Phagan, was brought to Atlanta this afternoon at 4 o'clock from Marietta, where he had been under arrest in the Sheriff's office since forenoon. Fearing a demonstration from the crowd that had been waiting at the Walton Street station for several hours, Detective Hazlett transferred his prisoner from a Marietta car to a Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, April 28th, 1913 Detectives to-day are using all their resources to learn where Mary Phagan was every minute of Saturday and Saturday night, whom she saw, with whom she talked, and what she said. There are wide blanks in the story of her movements. These must be filled. 12:10 p. m.—Mary Phagan appeared at the National Pencil Factory at ten or fifteen minutes after 12 o'clock noon, Saturday, and drew the pay due her, $1.60. She chatted a few minutes with friends. The manager is sure she then left the building. She told her mother she Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Says Phagan Suspect Left Pair of Shoes In His Place Saturday Evening. Charles W. McGee, of Colonial Hills, a bartender in the saloon of J. P. Hunter at 35 South Forsyth Street, almost directly across from the National Pencil Company plant, corroborated to-day the story told by J. M. Gantt about leaving a pair of shoes in the saloon from Saturday night until Monday morning. "The man I judge to be Gantt from the description came into the saloon, but stayed only a short time," said McGee. "I noticed nothing suspicious about Gantt Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 John Milton Gantt, the accusation of a terrible crime hanging over him, from his cell at police headquarters, has made to-day a complete denial of any connection with the Mary Phagan murder in the first formal statement to the public since his arrest in Marietta yesterday afternoon. The statement, which was given to a Georgian reporter, was said by Chief Beavers to be substantially the same as that taken by the police department stenographer last night for the use of the city detectives. This remarkable denial, if it is to be given credence, Read More ...

  Gantt reading murder warrant   Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 A sensational arrest will be made in the Mary Phagan murder mystery within a few hours. It will be based on the firm theory of the police and detectives that the strangled girl was never outside the factory of the National Pencil Company from the time she went in there for her pay Saturday noon until her dead and mutilated body was taken to the morgue early Sunday morning. The detectives do not believe that Arthur Mullinax is guilty of the murder. They do not believe that J. Read More ...

  Leo M. Frank.   Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Mysterious Action of Officials Gives New and Startling Turn to Hunt for Guilty Man—Attorney Rosser, Barred, Later Admitted to Client. Has the Phagan murder mystery been solved? The police say they know the guilty man. Chief of Detectives Lanford at 2 o'clock this afternoon told The Georgian: "We have evidence in hand which will clear the mystery in the next few hours and satisfy the public." All the afternoon the police have been "sweating" Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the factory where the girl worked, and putting through the Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 The little town of Marietta, Georgia, where her baby eyes first opened upon the light of day scarcely fourteen years ago, will to-day witness the sorrowful funeral of Mary Phagan, the sweet young girl who was mysteriously murdered in the National Pencil Factory Saturday night and whose body was later found in the basement where it had been dragged by unknown hands. The casket, accompanied by the girl's stricken family—her mother and stepfather, her sister Ollie, 18 years old, and her three brothers, Ben, Charley and Josh, all young boys, left the Union Read More ...

Mrs. J. W. Coleman, below, mother of slain Mary Phagan, and Ollie Phagan, sister of the murdered girl . Mrs. Coleman is prostrated by grief over the crime, and warns all mothers of working girls to watch carefully their loved ones. Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Has the murderer of pretty little Mary Phagan slipped the net that the police most carefully spread for him? Is the author of the crime that shocked the city and State with its terrible brutality still at large? Is the mystery, as baffling in its myriad conflicting elements as it is revolting in Read More ...

Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Among all the hearts that are bowed down in sorrow over the murder of Mary Phagan, the 14-year-old factory child found dead in the National Pencil factory Saturday, there is none who feels the suffering and the anguish of the separation so keenly as her sister, Ollie, 18 years old, her companion since childhood. For with her it is the suffering of youth, when the rose-veil of life has been lifted to show its tragic and terrible side in all its fullness for the first time. And it is all the more pitiful for Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Is the murderer of Mary Phagan among the four men who are being held at police headquarters, or is he still at large, either among those still unsuspected or among those who have been severely quizzed by the officers? The men still in custody are: 1—Newt Lee, negro night watchman, who is thought to know much more about the crime than he has told, but who has not been regarded as the perpetrator; 2—Arthur Mullinax, former street car conductor, for whom a strong alibi has been established, and from whom suspicion is Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 J. W. Phillips Thinks Couple Who Asked for Room May Have Been Gantt and Girl. Was the young woman who, in company with a young man, applied to John W. Phillips, keeper of a rooming house at Forsyth and Hunter Streets at about 11 o'clock Saturday night for a room, Mary Phagan, the little girl who was found murdered the following morning? And was Gantt the man with her? Phillips was not positive to-day. He saw the young woman in the morgue at Bloomfield's undertaking establishment, and it is understood he positively identified Read More ...

  Miss Pearl Robinson, sweetheart of Arthur Mullinax, the man questioned by the police in connection with the slaying of Mary Phagan. Her story cleared Mullinax of any suspicion of complicity in the crime which has shocked Atlanta.   Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Brave little Pearl Robinson! Her loyalty and devotion to Arthur Mullinax, one of the four men held in connection with the brutal strangling of Mary Phagan, form the only bright feature in a sordid and revolting crime. What did she care for the stares of the groups of people that hung about the detective headquarters Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 That Mary Phagan never left the factory after she entered it at 12:15 o'clock Saturday, the day of her murder, and that she was killed and her body dragged into the basement by the negro night watchman, Newt Lee, now in jail, is the firm belief of the child's stepfather, W. J. Coleman, and other members of her family. As for Arthur Mullinax, former street car conductor, held on suspicion, Mr. Coleman told a Georgian reporter he thought him innocent of the crime. He was also very doubtful if J. M. Gantt, ex-bookkeeper Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Suggestive Illustrations Clipped From Magazines Pasted Up About Scene of Tragedy. Pictures of Salome dancers in scanty raiment, and of chorus girls in different postures adorned the walls of the National Pencil Company's plant. They had been clipped from a theatrical and prize-fighting magazine. A more melodramatic stage setting for a rendezvous or for the committing of a murder could hardly have been obtained. The building is cut up with partitions, which allow of a person passing about from one part to another without attracting the attention of others. While the main entrance Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Mother and Aunt of Mary Phagan Swoon at Burial in Marietta This Morning. A thousand persons saw a minister of God raise his hands to heaven to-day and heard him call for divine justice. Before his closed eyes was a little casket, its pure whiteness hid by the banks and banks of beautiful flowers. Within the casket lay the bruised and mutilated body of Mary Phagan, the innocent young victim of one of Atlanta's blackest and most bestial crimes. The spirit of the terrible tragedy filled the air. An aunt of the strangled Read More ...