Category: TRANSCRIPTS: ATLANTA GEORGIAN

  Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Who Would Be the Most Interested in Saying That the Night Watchman Did Not Do It? While the tendency of the police straight through has seemed to be to doubt that Mary Phagan, the murdered girl, really wrote the small notes found beside her body purporting to give a clew to her murderer, the girl's stepfather, W.J. Coleman, thinks it possible that she may have written one of the scrawls. That one is the note written on the little yellow factory slip—so faintly traced it is almost impossible to read it. It is Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, April 29th, 1913 Hope for apprehension of the slayer of Mary Phagan has come to the police with the discovery of distinct finger prints, stamped in blood on the sleeve of the dead girl's jacket. The discovery was made by a Georgian reporter in the course of a minute inspection of the girl's clothes yesterday evening. The finger prints are on the right arm of the light silk dress. The imprints of two fingers are just below the shoulder, staining purple the lavender of the child's dress and penetrating to the arm, as if they Read More ...

Atlanta Georgian Wednesday April 30th, 1913 G. W. Epps, Jr., 14 years old, of 248 Fox Street, who lives just around the corner from Mary Phagan, and who was her boy sweetheart, testified before the Coroner's Jury this afternoon that Mary Phagan had asked him to come down by the factory and go home with her a few days ago. She told him, he said, that Mr. Frank had been in the habit of going down to the front door and waiting there until she came out and looked suspicious at her and winked. He was asked: Q. When did Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 At Special Council Meeting Called by Mayor Only One Man Opposes Action. At a special session of city council to-day, called by Mayor Woodward, to give the city's financial aid to the apprehension of the guilty persons in the Mary Phagan strangling case, $1,000 was appropriated as a reward to the person furnishing information leading to the arrest of the man or men who committed the deed. The appropriation found one opponent in Councilman Thomson, who said the lure of a high award would be likely to result in the arrest and hanging Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Records Purport to Show Watchman Failed to Register Three Times Saturday Night. What does the National Pencil Factory time clock show? It was the duty of Newt Lee, the negro night watchman, to punch it every half-hour. Records brought to the police station purport to show that Lee three times failed to punch the clock. But Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the factory, told a Georgian reporter Sunday afternoon that Lee had punched the clock regularly and that the clock record was all right. Misses Were Not Consecutive. Accepting the evidence of the Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, April 30th, 1913 Negro Woman Says Man Accused of Phagan Crime Was Not Home Saturday Night. If Newt Lee, the watchman, went home on Saturday night and discarded a bloody, stained shirt, Lorena Townes, the negro woman with whom he boarded, knows it. Lorena says Lee was not home on Saturday night. Detectives found the blood-stained shirt in an old barrel in Lee's room, and around this point has been built the theory that after committing the crime the man went home, changed his shirt, returned to the factory and then telephoned the police. Supporting this Read More ...

  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 ...

    Atlanta Georgian Thursday, May 1st, 1913 Watchman and Frank Go on Witness Stand This Afternoon—Dorsey, Dissatisfied, May Call Special Session of Grand Jury To-morrow. Coroner Donohuoo late to-day issued a commitment against Leo M. Frank, superintendent at the National Pencil Company, and Newt Lee, night watchman, charging them with being suspected in connection with the death of Mary Phagan and remanding them to the custody of the sheriff. They were later taken to the Tower. Arthur Mullinaux , held since Sunday, was released. Frank's commitment read as follows: To Jailor: You are hereby required to take into custody Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Thursday, May 1st, 1913 O. H. Clark, in charge of the check room at the Terminal Station, is convinced that the girl who created a scene there last week, when the man she was with attempted to board a train, was Mary Phagan. Clark came out to-day with a story that substantiates, in part at least, the story told by the two station guards who watched the couple's peculiar actions. Clark asserts that the incident occurred on Saturday rather than Friday, and the man, when he finally abandoned his trip at the girl's expostulations, went to the Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Friday, May 2nd, 1913 200 Witnesses To Be Called When Inquest Into Slaying of Factory Girl Is Resumed Next Monday—Detectives Are Busy. Coroner Declares Inquiry Will Not Be Made Hastily—Every Clew To Be Probed Thoroughly. Lee and Frank Are in Tower. Grand Jury Meets, but Considers Only Routine Matters—Was No Truth in Report That Militia Had Been Ordered to Mobilize. Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey this afternoon engaged private detectives to run down clews which have not as yet been fully developed by the men already working on the Phagan case. The detectives are to investigate Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Friday, May 2nd, 1913 200 Witnesses To Be Called When Inquest Into Slaying of Factory Girl Is Resumed Next Monday—Felder to Aid State. The exact facts in the Phagan case as this edition of The Georgian goes to press can be stated as follows: First. The Coroner's inquest is not yet ended. It has been adjourned until Monday afternoon next; and until it is ended the State is not likely to take hold of the case except in so far as Solicitor General Dorsey may deem it necessary to acquaint himself with facts that may aid Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Saturday, May 3rd, 1913 Three Former Employees at Pencil Factory Are Summoned to Testify. Expected That Frank and Watchman Will Be Questioned Further. It was reported to-day that three young women, former employees of the National Pencil Factory, will be important witnesses for the Coroner's jury in the Phagan case on Monday. Dr. Claude Smith, city bacteriologist, was asked by the police to-day to make a chemical analysis of the bloodstains on the shirt found in the back yard of the home of Lee. The garment was given to Dr. Smith by Detective Rosser. The detectives Read More ...

  Dr. John E. White   Atlanta Georgian Sunday, May 4th, 1913 Draws a Lesson From the Shocking Occurrence of a Week Ago, and Urges Confidence in the Courage of the Law. By DR. JOHN E. WHITE. Pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Atlanta. The proper study of mankind is man, but the conditions for this study are only occasionally favorable. Dressed up in his everyday clothes, thinking his ordinary thoughts, and his human impulses suppressed to the requirements of conventional life, a man throws very little light on the problem of humanity. The individual exhibits mankind neither at Read More ...

  Let the Law Take Its Course, He Says ‘Guilty Will Be Punished, Innocent Free' Atlanta Constitution Sunday, May 4th, 1913 I desire to commend, with all the emphasis at my command, the Hearst newspapers' timely suggestion to the people of Atlanta and Georgian that they remember the sanctity and majesty of the law of the land, and the sure operation of justice through the courts, in contemplating a recent horrible and unspeakable murder in our midst. I desire to offer the Hearst newspapers a word of praise in that they—leading newspapers of the South—while being brave enough to print Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Sunday, May 4th, 1913 The uncertainty that has marked every phase in the case of Mary Phagan probably will be somewhat removed when the new Fulton County Grand Jury for the May term of the Superior Court meets to-morrow. Definite action by that body is anticipated after the Coroner's jury, which also resumes its sessions to-morrow, has reached a decision. The action, it is believed, will be the result of the efforts of a small army of private detectives retained by the authority of Solicitor General Dorsey. The number of the detectives could not be determined, Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Sunday, May 4th, 1913 Problem of Slaying in Pencil Factory One That Never May Be Cleared, Declares Crime Expert. BY AN OLD POLICE REPORTER. Perhaps as many of the great murder mysteries of history have been solved through the efforts of police reporters—men assigned by newspapers to "cover" criminal cases—as have been solved by detectives. At any rate the police will always admit that police reporters have had a large part in unraveling the knotty problems. In a case of this sort the police reporter's analysis is particularly good, for he is simply seeking the truth. Read More ...

    Atlanta Georgian Sunday, May 4th, 1913 The mystery of the death of pretty Mary Phagan enters upon its second week to-day with the police authorities admitting that they are still without a conclusive solution. So far as the public has been permitted to learn, the detectives are not even certain that they have in custody the person or persons responsible for her death. In the light of present developments, the police believe that no more arrests will be made, but they admit that the entrance of another theory might entirely change the aspect of the case. The detectives Read More ...

Hugh Dorsey, Solicitor General, on left, and Judge W. D. Ellis. The former is hard at work on the Phagan case. The latter has charged the Grand Jury to probe the slaying thoroughly. Atlanta Georgian Monday, May 5th, 1913 In the following story will be found the developments in the Phagan case up to the time the inquest was resumed Monday afternoon: It is said, but without authority, that a great deal of very important evidence has been accumulated, but that it will not be presented at the Coroner's inquest. Instead, it will go directly into the hands of Solicitor Read More ...

    Grand Jury Instructed to Probe Deeply Atlanta Georgian Monday, May 5th, 1913 Evidence Secured by Detectives May Not Be Presented at Coroner's Inquest—Lee and Frank to Testify. Many Other Witnesses Are Ready. The Phagan inquest began at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon at police headquarters. There was a great throng of witnesses in attendance. A large force of police was on hand to keep the crowd of curiosity seekers in order. Frank and Lee were taken from the Tower to police headquarters in charge of Deputy Sheriff Minor. A small crowd congregated about the jail in anticipation of the transfer Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, May 5th, 1913 Makes Statement Under Oath; Nervous, But Replies Quickly Phagan Inquest, Starting Late Monday Afternoon, Attracts Throng—200 Girls and Women Summoned As Witnesses, at Police Station. The Coroner's inquest into the Phagan mystery did not really begin until 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon, instead of 2 o'clock, the hour set for the hearing. Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee left the jail in charge of Chief of Police Beavers, Detectives Lanford and Starnes and entered the patrol wagon for the trip to police headquarters. A curious crowd waited around the jail doorway to get Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, May 5th, 1913 Judge Ellis, in his charge to the May Grand Jury, took up the Mary Phagan case. The address is published in full in this issue of The Georgian. What Judge Ellis said specifically about the Phagan case follows: 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 Read More ...

  Atlanta Georgian Monday, May 5th, 1913 Urges Enforcement of Laws Regulating Locker Clubs and Against Sunday Tippling, Questionable Houses and Carrying Concealed Weapons Judge W. D. Ellis, of the Superior Court, delivered the following address to the new Grand Jury, and touched upon the Phagan case: "Under our system of judicial procedure, we have in the Superior Court of this county six terms each year. Grand juries are drawn and impaneled at each term, but the duties of making investigations into matters of a general nature, such as the inspection of the offices, the books, papers and records of Read More ...