St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 21, 1915

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; + LOM Be ee Oe Re YS ee ee roe oe —, titott+ => > LEOM FRANK. . of Mary Phagan, one of the hundred-odd young girls employed by the pencil company. Her mother told what she knew of Mary’s last move- ments. She had left her home in one of the sub- urbs on Saturday morning, not a great while be- fore noon, to go to the factory. The day was a holiday, “Confederate day,” when the veterans parade. All the week, except for one day, had been a vacation for the ‘girl because the shop was out of the material with which she worked, the metal used for the penciljtips. But she had one day’s pay coming to her—$1.20—and it was for the purpose of getting this, and then watch- ing the parade, that she went downtown.. Frank’s Nervousness Against Him. HE question arose: “Who last saw Mary T Phagan alive?” The natural answer was “Leo Frank, the superintendent.” Frank was called up at his home early that Sunday morning, tong before the usual breakfast hour, and was asked if he would accompany a couple of detectives downtown to look at a body and see if he could identify it. “There has been a tragedy,” he was told. It was said then, and was sworn to at his trial, that he was nervous. He wanted to know if he couldn’t have some coffee, if he might not have some breakfast, before leaving his house. The story of the finding of the body seemed to dis- turb him greatly, the police swore. Here is the testimony of “Boots” Rogers, a detective, who went to Frank’s house early on that Sunday morning. ‘Mr. Frank asked Mr. Black (a fellow detec- tive) had anything happened at the factory. Mr. Black didn’t answer. He asked me if anything had happened at the factory. I didn’t answer. Mr. Frank said: ‘Did the night watchman call up and report anything to you?” Mr. Black said, ‘Mr. Frank, you had better get your clothes on and let us go to the factory and see what hap- pened.’ ”’ On the way to the center of town in an auto- mobile the detectives asked Frank if he knew Mary Phagan. He replied: “Did she work at the factory? I don’t know many of the girls, but I can look on my payroll and see.” They suggested that they stop at an under- taker’s establishment to which the victim’s body had been taken. He gave a casual glance at her, ( according to the testimony of Detective Black, and said he wasn’t sure he knew the girl, but thought he had paid her off on Saturday. He was very nervous and agitated. Under examination by the police that day, Sun- day, Frank told what he said was alfhe knew about the matter. While it was true that the factory was not in operation on the holiday, he had gone there with the idea, he said, of clean- ing up some clerical work that needed to be done, Then he was going to a baseball game with his brother-in-law. In the general neighborhood of neon a little girl came into his office, where he was seated, writing, and asked for her pay. Frank Tells of Paying Girl. B didn’t know her name, he said, although H he had seen her at work about the factory. he got her pay envelope out of handeé ft te her. As she stepped out ef his office she turned and inquired if the “metal ~ FO TIO nig oe Baa ae ee ‘ ee ee | As Ascertained by a Trained Investigator Sentto Atlanta by the Post-Dispatch to Prepare an Impartial Review of the Trial Eee ie Pee oe Sy a “ ".Y. : . on - al “~ Se ON IIE ones meaning the material with which she worked. She wanted to know, apparently, when she might return to her machine. Frank's reply to her question, he said, was “No.” He never saw the little girl again, he told his questioners. The incident of her call meant nothing to him. It was merely an interruption to his work. He did not arise or leave his office. He went on with: some rather intricate financial statements he was handling, he said, then went home to his luncheon about 1:20. He called his brother-in- law. on the telephone from his home and said he didn’t think he would go to the ball game. The day was rather raw and his work was far from done. He returned to his office, reaching there shortly after 3 o ‘clock, and worked throughout the afternoon. fHe reached his home again, Frank said, at 6:25 o’clock. He spent the evening there and retired with his wife shortly after 10:30. Apart from Frank’s nervousness, there seemed at that time to be nothing to cause anyone to suspect that he knew anything about the slaying of the little girl. His story seemed quite believ- able. He was a quiet-living, young married man in a fairly responsible’ position, getting @ salary of $150 a month, in no wise conspicuous in At- lanta and scarcely known to many persons except his employer and the Jewish friends with whom he associated both in and out of business hours. Certainly the police knew nothing of him, and surely nothing wrong. He was not arrested. Watchman Is Eliminated. |" was not very iong before the police were yet,” obliged to eliminate Newt Lee, the black watchman, from the case. They could not “hook him up,” as the police saying His story rang true, and there was nothing to contradict it. And Newt was a pretty harmless sort of fellow, anyhow. But they got from him something which seemed to “hook Frank up.” They learned that on the night of the murder, Frank, five minutes after he reached home, or about 6:30 o’clock, called Lee on the telephone and asked “Is everything all right at the fac- tory?” That information was enough, in the minds of the detectives, to arouse at least a pretty strong suspicion against the young Jew | superintendent. “Why,” they reasoned, “did he want to know whether everything was all right? Was it that he wanted to find out whether or not the girl's bedy had been discovered? Frank had an e¢X- planation of the call. He had suspected a pos- sible theft by an ex-employe, one J. M. Gantt, whom he had discharged for dishonesty, and who had been about the pencil factory that Saturday evening at 6 o'clock. He said he had called Lee on that account. But Lee’s story, with some addi- tional details, made things look rather bad for Frank. Not only had the young superintendent made an unusual call on the ’phone in the evening (scmething he had never done before) but he had acted peculiarly in the afternoon. Lee Involves Frank. Gira tee from the certified record ef the in any way goes, with the murder. trial, Lee’s story was this: “Mr. Frank teld me on Friday te come te work Saturday at 4:86 p.m. It was a ee ee ee ee eee ee ae there he says: “Newt, I am sorry I Se ata ow GUO even taan: hee aaa qd me wet \ IN THE MARY PHAGAN MURDER H | “Why I believe Frank is Guilty.” 66 BELIEVE Frank is guilty because ] the evidence in the case showed him to be guilty. He alone had the op- portunity to commit the crime at the time and in the manner it was committed. I believe the State’s witness, Jim Conley, the negro who helped him dispose of the body after Frank had confessed to Conley that he had killed Mary Phagan, told the truth. I believe also that Frank’s actions after the time of the killing clearly indicated his guilt. “But the verdict was not based upon what I believed at the time of the trial or what I still believe. The jurors said ‘Guilty’ be- cause they believed Frank was the murderer. They accepted the testimony of the State’s witnesses and rejected that of those who Prosecutor Dorsey Declares Evidence . Conclusively Proves Frank’s UGH M. DORSEY, Solicitor-General of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit, who prosecuted _ Leo M. Frank and obtained his conviction of the murder of Mary Phagan, was . asked by a staff correspondent of the Post-Dispatch to make a formal statement © Solicitor Dorsey, who will oppose in the United States Supreme Court the final appeat : of Frank’s lawyers to have the verdict set aside on constitutional grounds, was too busy to enter fully into the merits of the case, he said. But he made this reply: " testified for the defendant. Guilt | ATLANTA, Ga., Fed. 20. These latter~ witnesses were obviously interested persons who perjured themselves in an effort to save. Frank. “Present day investigators of the case would believe this, too, had they observed the demeanor of falsification shof#m by Frank’s witnesses on the stand. This you cannot get from the cold record of the case, | “A jury found Frand guilty without hesi- tation. Our higher courts have said time. and again that he was properly convicted. It is impossible in my belief that they could err repeatedly. I shall oppose with all my power Frank’s effért to secure his Mberty on the technical ground that he was not ia the court room when the verdict was re turned.” back at six o'clock.’ He never let me off like I could have laid down in the ship- ping room and slept. I told him so, and he says, ‘You need to have a good time. Go downtown He was rubbing his hands.” At 6 Lee returned, he swore. Gantt, the dis- charged employe, was at the door. Frank, com- ing out, ran into Gantt and “jumped back fright- ened,” to use Lee’s expression. He wanted to g0 in the place and get some shoes he had left behind. , “Mr. Frank said, ‘I don’t know,’ and he dropped his head. Then he said: ‘Newt, go up and stay with him and help him find them.’ Mr. Frank went away. We got the shoes. Then Mr. Frank phoned me that night some time after 7 o'clock. He said ‘How is everything at the factory?’ and I said: ‘Everything’s all right as far as I know,’ and he said good-by. He did not ask me any- thing about Gantt and that was the first time he ever has phoned me at the factory.” The fact that Frank was the last person known ty have seen Mary Phagan alive and the story of the negro watchman, Lee, as to his pecullar actions and the tales of the detectives and the discharged employe, Gantt, about his nervousness, combined to lead the police to believe that he should be arrested, and so on the Tuesday follow- ing the crime, he was taken into custody. Basis for Mob Spirit. Snes things should be understood right chat before. and come back at 6.’ here. There is no question as to the truth of them. They are facts necessary for & proper consideration of the whole case. There had been within a short time preceding the finding of Mary Phagan’s body, a considerable number of killings—10 or a dozen—in and about Atlanta. The perpetrators had never been cap- tured. True, all the victims were negroes, but indignation ran high. There had been, during the administration of Hugh Dorsey, the Solicitor or Prosecuting Attor- ney who is still in office, two murder cases in which the defendants, against both of whom there was very strong evidence, were acquitted. One was the cage of Mrs. Daisy Opie Grace, who ad- go out in town and have a good time and come mitted having shot her husband but said it was* an accident; and the other that of a woman named Appélbaum who admittedly killed her hus- band but-was turned loose because the jury thought the homicide was justifiable. Atlantans perhaps did not realize what every lawyer knows—that it is almost impossible to convict any woman of a high degree of crime, anywhere. They did not think, possibly, that the unsolved murders of the preceding year or so might have been particularly difficult cases. Or they did not realize that Atlanta, with a popula- tion of but few short of a quarter of a million people, had about the same sort of a police serv- ice that it had 15 years ago, when its people numbered less than 100,000. But they knew what they wanted. They de- manded what they wanted. They wanted some- one arrested for this particular murder and when he was arrested they wanted him convicted. This particular slaying of a pretty little white girl in an attempt upon her honor must be avenged. Notes Become the Cruz. N the early days of the case the so-called | “murder notes,” as has been said before, were almost entirely overlooked. The complete attention of the police was being devoted to the prisoner they had in hand, Leo Frank. But a chance incident brought about the arrest of Jim Conley. Until this time it had not been known that he was at the factory on the after- noon of the murder. He had no legitimate business there that day. Frank had always contended that he didn’t know of Conley’s presence. May 16 he was seen washing a’ shirt In the basement—e suspicious act in the eyes of the observer. He was locked up and no attention was paid to him for more than two weeks. A couple of rather unusually bright detectives by this time realized that the notes were the real crux of the case and were trying to learn some- thing about them. Specimens of Frank's hand- writing and that of Newt Lee's were obtained ang compared with the chirography of the two scraps of paper found near the body. They were nothing like it. Conley, when asked if he could write, told the first of a long series of lies—and lies under oath, He said he couldn't write. But a little investiga- tion proved that he could. Specimens of bis pen- manship were obtained. This tallied with the writing found near the girl's body. Then Conley admitted that he had written the notes. He had done so at Frank's direction, he claimed. He had to admit also that he was at the factory on @ day of the murder, which he had previously de- nied. He admitted that he was lying — the place after having been a chat stomp like I did before. That will be the lady and you go shut the door. and Mr. Frank the other, on Friday.” He was going to kill a little girl and he wanted them te think it was a long, tall, black negro that 4id@ tt by himself. Pe agk It was pointed out to Conley that Frank ‘t have planned a murder that way. Quite y the negro admitted that he had been lying. res was on Saturday, after the killing, that he the notes that he confessed—and he wrote beth of them. After several interviews with the police in which they admitted under oath that they had used “a little profanity” while examining him, Cenley told what he said was a complete and truthful story. This coincided with the theory - a a ew so Pe. F * Vp. Cae et Foie, ye > 3 tke 0 eet see ned ' that had been evolved by the police as to Frank's ~ guilt. Here is the theory first: That when Mary Phagan received her pay envelope from Fraak and then asked him whether or not the metal for her machine had arrived, he replied not “Ne” (as he claimed) but “I don’t know,” and went back with her to the metal room, more than 150 feet away, and deserted, as though to find oue for her. There he attacked her and in the strug- gle wounded her head. Then, fearing conse- quences, he choked her to death. A private detective, Harry Scott, who was firet employed by the National Pencil Co. to inveath. gate the murder but later gave up that job testified for the State, supplied the missing lin as to how Frank had induced the little girl to go on to the lonely metal room. His testimony ppm Frank told me that Mary Phagan came te the factory about 12:10 p. m. to draw her péy; that she had coming to her $1.20; that he paid her off in his inside office where he was at his desk and when she reached the outer office door leading to the hall she turned around to Mfr. Frank and asked if the metal had come yet, and Mr. Frank replied that HE DID NOT KNOW.” Conley’s Story as Witness. 2, ERE is Conley’s complete story, as brougtit H out on the stand: Conley knew Frank to be an abnormal man and to have had many affairs with girls. On two separate occasions he had seen Frank with women in his office engaged in*acts of moral depravity. It was the frequent practice of Frank tu have Conley “watch for him” when he had women visitors—that is, Conley would murs! downstairs and see that the front door of factory was locked and that no other . might enter while Frank was engaged in 7 amours. When the woman visitor was ready x depart Frank would “stomp” on a certain part the board flooring as a signal that the door might again be opened. So things happened on the day of the t the negro swore. The essentials of Conley’s ecntinuing are these: Frank called Conley to him early tn the ing, in the pencil factory and said: “I want to watch for me like you have been doing on rest of the Saturdays.” He showed me how turn the knob of the front door so nobody could in. He says: “There will be a young lady come @p here after a while and me and her ere going te a little. Now when the lady comes I will ‘oe I says “All right, sir,” and Mr. Frank says, “Now, when I whistle I will be through, so you can go unlock the door you come upstairs to the office then like you going to borrow some money from me and will give the young lady a chance to get out.” Frank stationed Conley, according to the testimony, among a pile of big packing boxes . the dark vestibule of the factory. Near thee bexes was a trap-door and a ladder leading * the basement. Within a few feet, also, were ¢ stairs leading upward to the office and workroom on the second floor. Conley saw several persona men and women, ascend the stairs and then come down again and pass out. “Then,” he testified, “I saw this Miss Perkins, that’s what I call her, this lady oan ps dead. I don't know her name. (He meant, of course, Mary Phagan.) After she went wu I heard her footsteps going towards the and after she went in the office I heard ~ SSA dew 2 % = Died weak i ee ap > Be % | + ; i} ft