Mrs W J Coleman, shattered by the murder of her 14 year old daughter Mary Phagan, lay on her bed in the family home on Lindsay Street and spoke with the quiet urgency of a mother who had lost everything. Through her tears, she called out to the mothers of Atlanta, telling them to watch carefully over their working daughters. She said there were too many dangerous men in the world and urged mothers to question their girls closely about their work, their friends, and the places they spent their time. She told them to keep reminding their daughters how to behave and how to protect themselves.
She said she would never have allowed Mary to go to work at the age of 12 if the family had not needed the money, because there were five children to support. Later, after she remarried, Mary no longer needed to earn wages, but she had grown used to the routine and had even come to like the work. Mrs Coleman insisted she had always guided her daughter with care and believed Mary was sensible, never flirtatious or foolish. Precisely for that reason, she said, Mary must have been forcibly overpowered or gravely threatened by the man she went away with. She added that girls should avoid becoming too familiar with men and should do whatever they could to shield themselves.
Mrs Coleman remembered that in the two years Mary had worked, her daughter had never stayed out overnight. When Mary failed to come home that Saturday evening, she first thought Mary might have gone with an aunt from Marietta who was in town. Instead, she now believed her daughter had already been caught in terrible danger. She said Mary had only planned to go to the pencil factory to collect her pay of 1.60 dollars and that she had looked beautiful, young, and full of life when she left the house. She spoke not only of her own grief but of sorrow for all working girls, saying they were vulnerable and that the city seemed to offer them almost no real protection.
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