Category: TRANSCRIPTS: ATLANTA GEORGIAN

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 8th, 1913 Harry Scott, of the Pinkerton agency, showed up the "confessions" of Conley in a peculiar light when he was called to the stand by the Frank defense Thursday afternoon. The detective, questioned by Luther Rosser, told the jury that Conley, when he "had told everything," when he had accused Frank of the killing and had made himself an accessory after the fact by declaring that he assisted in the disposal of the body; when every motive for holding anything back had been swept away by his third affidavit, still denied to him (Scott) many of the Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 8th, 1913 By JAMES B. NEVIN. As the defense in the Frank case gets under way, it is evident enough, as it has been from the beginning of this case, that there is but one big, tremendously compelling task before it—the annihilation of Conley's ugly story! The State climaxed its case thrillingly and with deadly effect in the negro. He came through the fire of cross-examination, exhaustive and thorough, in remarkably good shape, all things considered. He unfolded a story even more horrible than was anticipated. Certainly, in every conceivable way, he has sought to damage the defendant—even Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 8th, 1913 Say Mary Phagan Did Not Reach Factory Before 12:10 FRANK TAKES ACTIVE INTEREST IN CASE AND ASSISTS HIS LAWYERS The vital time element which may serve alone to convict Leo Frank or set him free, entered largely into the evidence presented Friday by the defense at the trial of the factory superintendent. Two witnesses testified that Mary Phagan did not arrive at Broad and Marietta streets the day she was murdered until about 12:071/2 o'clock, the time the English Avenue car on which she rod from home was due there. One witness, W. M. Matthews, motorman Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 By O. B. Keeler There are two things about the Frank trial that entitle it to distinguished consideration. Thus far not a single alienist has been called to bat, and only the common or domesticated type of the dread Hypothetical Question has appeared. In most of our great murder trials, the alienist is the last resort, or one of the latest resorts. Usually he is introduced by the defense; anywhere from four to eight of him. The prosecution promptly counters with an equal number of wheel inspectors. The defense (Vide Thaw case) generally proves to its Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 What promised to be a very favorable day for the defense in the trial of Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan, was partly spoiled at its close Friday by the bewilderment of E. F. Holloway, day watchman at the pencil factory, in a maze of conflicting statements. Holloway's confusion under the fire of the Solicitor General was more than offset by the importance of the testimony which had gone before, two of the witnesses giving testimony which was intended to establish that Mary Phagan did not enter the National Pencil Factory on Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 The Georgian today received from Miss Laura Atkinson of No. 30 Ella Street, one of the young women mentioned in C. B. Dalton's testimony, a letter denying absolutely that she had ever walked home with Dalton from the restaurant near the pencil factory, as he swore. Here is Miss Atkinson's letter in full: Editor The Georgian: Will you please allow me space to correct a statement made by Mr. C. B. Dalton in his testimony at the Frank trail and published in your paper yesterday? In answer to a question from Mr. Rosser as to whether Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 Hammering away to show alleged glaring discrepancies in time in the story told by Jim Conley, the defense of Leo Frank Saturday morning recalled George Epps, the newsboy who testified to riding into town with Mary Phagan on the fatal day, in an attempt to show that the boy on the Sunday after the crime made no mention whatever of having seen Mary the day before in a talk with a newspaperman. Epps was called to the stand after C. B. Dalton had failed to respond to a call from the defense. Reuben Arnold questioned the Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 THE RIDDLE OF THE CLOCK IN THE PHAGAN MYSTERYJim Conley swears Mary Phagan went up the stairs of the National Pencil factory and was murdered before Monteen Stover arrived. He says he saw Miss Stover go up and leave.Monteen Stover, State's witness, swears she arrived at 12:05.George Epps, State's witness, swears he and Mary Phagan arrived at Marietta and Forsyth streets at 12:07.The car crew, defense's witnesses, swear Mary arrived at Broad and Marietta at 12:071/2 and at Broad and Hunter at 12:10.If Mary Phagan was at Marietta and Forsyth at12:07, as the State says, or Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 9th, 1913 Intricacy of Figures Produced by Schiff Under Fire WOMEN NEVER CAME INTO FACTORY OFFICE, WITNESS TESTIFIES The second week of the Frank trial ended at 12:30 Saturday with a bitter battle in progress over the testimony of Herbert G. Schiff, assistant superintendent of the National Pencil Factory. Schiff was called soon after court opened in the forenoon and was on the stand when the adjournment was taken until Monday. Schiff, besides denying that Frank ever had women in his office, describes in elaborate detail the duties of superintendent, particularly his work on the afternoon the little Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Every Man on Panel Has Nickname and Formality Has Been Cast Out. No member of the jury that is to decide Leo M. Frank's guilt or innocence had expressed an opinion on the case or even one witness' testimony when the second week of the trial ended yesterday afternoon, according to the deputies who have them in charge. In the court it is an attentive jury. No bit of evidence gets by unnoticed, no wrangle occurs between the attorneys that is not given their undivided attention, and when a person testifies they catch every word—knowing the Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Despite the attacks of the defense in the trial of Leo Frank has made upon his story, Jim Conley—from whose lips fell the most damning and abhorrent testimony a Georgia jury has ever heard—sits calmly in his cell at the Tower, inscrutable and unconcerned. The negro, for weeks the greatest puzzle in the criminal annals of the State, has become an even greater puzzle since he told his story and was taken back to the gloominess of the jail. The fact that he is an admitted accessory after the fact in the murder of little Mary Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 C. B. Dalton, prominent as a witness in the Frank trial, stuck firmly to the story he told in court when he was confronted Saturday by the letter of Miss Laura Atkinson, No. 30 Ella street, one of the young women mentioned in his sensational testimony. She branded his statement concerning her as false. He maintained that all he said as a witness was true—that he met her, as he had other girls of the pencil factory, and walked home with her from a restaurant near the plant on Forsyth street. Dalton was emphatic in his Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Issue Firmly Drawn Between Two Men Defense Starting to Mould Its Case Theory That Negro Attacked Mary Phagan With Motive of Robbing Her Will Be Shown; Two Charges Against Accused Must Be Refuted By AN OLD POLICE REPORTER. The second week of the trial of Leo Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan in the National Pencil Factory on the afternoon of April 26, came to a close Saturday noon. The State's case has been entirely made up in its primary aspects, and the defense has gone into its story of the great crime sufficiently Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Co-Workers in the Factory Declare Stories of Factory Revelries Are Beyond Reason ASSISTANT TELLS HOW ACCUSED MAN MADE OUT COMPLEX ACCOUNTS Testimony of Newsboy Who Said He Accompanied Mary Phagan On Street Car On Day of the Killing Attacked by Defense's Counsel. With one set of lawyers fighting to send Leo Frank to the gallows and another struggling just as desperately not only to save him from this fate, but entirely to remove the stigma of the murder charge, the second week of the battle for the young factory superintendent's life ended shortly after noon yesterday. Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Question of Time Considered of Paramount Importance in Defense Theory of Frank Case EVERY EFFORT WILL BE MADE TO ACCOUNT FOR ALL HIS MOVEMENTS As all interest centered in the dramatic story of Jim Conley while the case of the prosecution in the Frank trial was being presented, so the public now is awaiting with the keenest expectancy the tale that W. H. Mincey, pedagogue and insurance solicitor, will relate when he is called this week by the attorneys for Leo M. Frank. Conley swore as glibly as though he were telling of an inconsequential incident Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 A spectator at the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of little Mary Phagan remarked: "I wonder what the mother of the little girl who was so brutally killed thinks of all this?"Mrs. J. W. Coleman, the mother, was the first witness called at the beginnig of the case, now two weeks gone. She was dressed in deep black with a heavy veil about her face. As she pulled back the veil to speak to the jury the expression was calm without a sign of bitterness. And she answered in even tones. When the Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian August 10th, 1913 Frank's Accuser Is Not the Type of Negro White Men Consider Their Friend. By TARLETON COLLIER. Jim Conley is a low-browed, thick-lipped, anthropoidal sort of negro. You look at him and your faith in Mr. Darwin's theory goes up like cotton after a boll-weevil scare. Here is a burly, short-necked black man. On his upper lip is a scanty mustache of the kind that most negroes fondle with the vain hope that it will grow into a bushy thickness. Conley is the most common African type as to physique. Never a flash of brightness, Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 By L. F. WOODRUFF Eleven widows were made in Atlanta in a day without the assistance of the Grim Reaper, a trip to Reno, pallbearers or affinity stories in the newspapers. And there is but one drop of consolation in their cup. When they were made widows they automatically became peeresses, for which privilege many American girls have caused their fathers large sums of good American money and themselves heartache and their pictures to be printed between the story of the rabbit that chased the boa constrictor and the life narrative of Sophie, the Shop Girl, Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 10th, 1913 Readers of Human Nature See Anything They Want, but Personal Equation Is Forgotten. By O. B. KEELER. Leo Frank sits in the prisoner's dock and all men may read his face. A great many of them do. Here are two of the things they read: (1) No innocent man could remain calm under such fearful charges. (2) No guilty man could remain calm under, etc. Leo Frank admittedly was nervous and agitated that morning the murder of Mary Phagan was discovered. There are two inferences drawn from that fact: (1) A guilty man naturally would be Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 11th, 1913 Battle of Medical Experts Waged in Court EXPERTS TESTIMONY ON CABBAGE TESTS CALLED WILD GUESS A bitter arraignment of the professional ethics and fairness of Dr. H. F. Harris, secretary of the State Board of Health, and a through-going attack on his theories and conclusions marked the Frank trial Monday afternoon. Attorney Reuben Arnold make a scathing criticism of Dr. Harris' methods during his examination of Dr. Willis Westmoreland, a prominent Atlanta physician and surgeon. Arnold was asking the medical expert his opinion of the ethics of a chemist or physician who would take the organs Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 11th, 1913 Big Bob Deavors, Deputy Sheriff in charge of the Frank trial jury, marched to the courtroom Monday morning with an aching head and a grim determination to get even with Juror A. H. Henslee, whose elusive voice piloted him against a bedpost late Sunday evening. Henslee is a ventriloquist of no mean ability, and when the jury has been locked up Sunday his talent has afforded the principal pastime. Yesterday he worked on Deavors, the deputy. He had Bob's wife calling to him from the street, the hall door and finally from the door leading into Read More ...

August 11th, 1913Atlanta Georgian By TARLETON COLLIER. That black-clad woman in the corner of the courtroom—nobody has noticed her much. Things have happened so swiftly in the Frank trial that all eyes are on the rush of events, waiting for a quiver on the face of Leo Frank, watching with morbid gaze the brave faces of Frank's wife and his mother, studying the passing show that the numerous witnesses present. And the woman is so unobtrusive, so plainly out of it all. The tears, whose traces are evident on her face, were not shed as a result of this trial. Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 11th, 1913 By JAMES B. NEVIN. The third week of the most remarkable murder trial ever known in Georgia opened to-day with no apparent lessening of the acute interest and grim appeal heretofore attaching to it. The public has come to realize thoroughly and completely that the issue is a battle not only between the State and the defendant, Leo Frank, but between Leo Frank and the negro Jim Conley. Presumably, the defense will take the entire week rounding out its case and perfecting its undermining of Conley's story. If it does get through within the week, it Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 12th, 1913 The defense had what was probably its best day on Monday. Medical experts were on the witness stand the larger part of the day. The purpose of their testimony was to knock down, one after another, the sensational statements of Dr. H. F. Harris, secretary of the State Board of Health. All of the witnesses joined in ridiculing every important theory or conclusion that was reached by the distinguished chemist and physician. Experts for Defense. These are the medical experts called by the defense to combat the testimony of Dr. Harris: Dr. Willis F. Westmoreland, first Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 12th, 1913 By JAMES B. NEVIN. Reader, proverbially gentle, if not always so, be glad, be joyful, and be filled with exceeding thankfulness that you have not been summoned, no matter which way, as a witness in the Frank trial! Of course, there is a large, fat chance that you have been summoned—most everybody has—but be all those nice things aforesaid, if you haven't. And even at that, knock on wood. The trial is young yet—it is not quite three weeks old, three weeks, count ‘em—and there still is time for somebody or other to remember that you Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 12th, 1913 By L. F. WOODRUFF. There is as much sentiment in the world to-day as there was in 1861 or 1776 or 1492 or 1066 or any other date that may come to your recollection. It's not fashionable to say so, but it's true. People to-day are too prone to accuse themselves and their neighbors of being worshippers Mammom and declaring that the money-grubbing instinct has crushed out sentiment, patriotism and honesty. But right now in Atlanta, there is a striking example of the goodness that is man's to-day, just as much as it has ever been. Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 12th, 1913 Defense Forces Dalton to Admit Jail Record GIRL DENIES STATE'S VERSION OF FRANK'S WORK ON FATAL DAY Here are the important developments Tuesday in the trial of Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan: State announces its theory that Frank planned a criminal attack upon Mary Phagan the day before she came to the factory for her money. The court and chaingang record of C. B. Dalton, the State's witness who testified that he had seen women in Frank's office, was shown up by the defense and admitted by Dalton. Four acquaintances of Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 13th, 1913 With Judge, Jury and Councillors Performing Duty Well, Square Deal Is Assured. By Jas B. Nevin. In considering the Frank trial, particularly with respect to the length of it, and the thoroughgoing exhaustiveness of the hearing, it must be borne in mind that the establishing of justice is the main object of both sides, and that, therefore, patience and poise are absolutely necessary in those who would be fair—fair not only to Frank, but to the State also. With the average citizen, the home-loving and upright citizen, the Frank trial should be largely an abstract proposition. Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 13th, 1913 Leaps to Defense of Son at Dorsey's Question FRANK'S CLASSMATES AT COLLEGE TELL OF HIS GOOD CHARACTER A sensation was created in the courtroom during the cross-examination of Ashley Jones by Solicitor Dorsey at the Frank trial when Mrs. Rea Frank, mother of the defendant, sprang to her feet with a denial of intimations made by the Solicitor reflecting on her son. "Mr. Jones, you never heard of Frank having girls on his lap in the office?" Dorsey had asked. "No; nor you neither!" cried Frank's mother. "Keep quiet, keep quiet; I am afraid you will Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 13th, 1913 In anticipation of the close of the defense's case, the State Tuesday afternoon subpenaed a number of new witnesses to be called in the event that Frank's character was put in issue. It was said that Solicitor Dorsey had prepared against this move by the defense by getting affidavits from many persons who claimed to know the defendant. An effort by the State to obtain testimony reflecting on the morality of Frank was resisted strongly by the superintendent's attorneys Tuesday. Solicitor Dorsey failed to get the answers he desired from the witness, Philip Chambers, a 15-year-old Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 14th, 1913 By JAMES B. NEVIN. The defense in the Frank case did the expected thing when it boldly and unequivocally put Frank's character in issue. It indicated its confidence in the justice of the defendant's cause in doing that, and it met thus a crisis that it hardly could have successfully overcome otherwise, if it so happen that it does overcome it eventually. Having taken the initiative in the matter of thrashing out Frank's character, the State will now be forced to make out an unmistakable case of bad character against Frank, or it is likely that Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 14th, 1913 CONLEY ADMITTED MIND WAS BLANK DAY OF CRIME, GIRL SAYS NEGRO DRUNK DAY OF CRIME, MISS CARSON SWEARS HE TOLD HER Miss Helen Curran, a pretty girl of 17 years, proved one of the strongest witnesses Thursday for the defense in establishing what will be claimed as an alibi for Leo M. Frank. She testified that she saw Frank at 1:10 o'clock the afternoon Mary Phagan was murdered standing by Jacobs' Drug Store, Whitehall and Alabama streets, apparently waiting for his car home. The State fought hard against the "alibi" witnesses. The defense devoted most of Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 14th, 1913 Call New Witnesses to Complete Alibi WIFE AND MOTHER OF ACCUSED ARE WARNED AGAINST OUTBREAKS Nearly a score more of alibi witnesses were to be called by the defense in the Frank trial when court opened Thursday morning. Frank's attorneys thought that they would not be able to coincide before the early part of next week. A number of character witnesses also will be called before the defense ends its case in behalf of the factory superintendent. Solicitor Dorsey, before the jury was brought in, said he wanted to make a request that the mother and Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 14th, 1913 By O. B. KEELER. Right in the first jump, please understand that (1) this is merely the opinion of a layman, unlearned in the law; that (2) he may be the only layman in existence who feels this way about it; and (3) the Frank trial is not being singled out in the following comment, except as it is a fair example of the great criminal trials of this country. In following the trial of Leo Frank, two points keep prodding me with increasing fervor. These are the points: (1) That the prosecution's efforts are centered Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 14th, 1913 There is one class of men to whom death is supposed to hold no horrors. They can not think of it and earn their daily bread. Were the fear of loss of life to enter their brain for one single second during their daily task, they would be as useless as a motorless automobile. Their pay is high for scorning the grave. They can see one of their companions fall victim to the perils of their calling and go back to work on the same job a few minutes later without a tremor, and encounter those Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian August 15th, 1913 Defense's Attorneys Expect to Rest Case To-day CLIMAX NEAR IN GREAT COURT FIGHT; CROWDS AGAIN FLOCK TO TRIAL Interest in the trial of Leo M. Frank surged upward magically Friday when it was reported about the courtroom that the defense was nearing the close of its case, and that the defendant himself would be placed on the stand within a short time to make his only statement before his fate was placed in the hands of the twelve jurors. The rumor spread outside the court house mysteriously and an unusual number sought admittance early Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 15th, 1913 In the presentation of its alibi for Leo M. Frank, the defense probably accomplished more Thursday than it had in all of previous time since the prosecution rested its case. Frank's lawyers had promised that they would show where Frank was practically every minute on the day the murder of little Mary Phagan was committed and would demonstrate that it would have been impossible to carry out the disposal of the slain girl's body and the writing of the notes as the negro, Jim Conley, described them. If their alibi witnesses are to be believed, the Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 15th, 1913 By JAMES B. NEVIN. There is nothing apparently so plain to outside observation as character—just character—and there is, strange to say, nothing so difficult at times to prove. "They say" and "but" are the two most notorious scandalmongers in the universe—"they say" so and so' and he or she is all right, "but!" Character, upon which so much depends in this world, upon which civilization itself and decency and right is founded, is, nevertheless, the most elusive of all things when it comes right down to brass tacks of proving it beyond the shadow of a Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 16th, 1913 ‘I'D DIE FOR HIM!' CRIES ONE, CONVULSING COURT CLUB AND ENVELOPE FOUND BY PINKERTON MAN PUT IN EVIDENCE Two factory girls, one of them defending Leo M. Frank with all the eloquence at her command, and the other admitting that she had known of the factory superintendent opening the door to the girls' dressing room on three different occasions and looking in, formed the center of interest among the score of witnesses who were called Saturday by the defense. They were Miss Irene Jackson and Miss Sarah Barnes. Miss Jackson, daughter of County Policeman Jackson, testified Read More ...

Atlanta GeorgianAugust 16th, 1913 Nearly half a hundred witnesses testified in behalf of Leo M. Frank Friday. As a climax to the day's proceedings in Judge Roan's court the defendant's mother, Mrs. Rae Frank, went on the stand to add her testimony to that which she hoped would save her son from the gallows. Virtually all who were called were character witnesses. Near the close of the day Reuben Arnold announced that he proposed to call every woman and girl employed on the fourth floor of the pencil factory, as well as many from the other floors, to testify to Read More ...