00:00Slayer of Mary Fagan May Still Be At Large, Atlanta, Georgian Sunday, May 4th, 1913.
00:06The mystery of the death of pretty Mary Fagan enters upon its second week today with the police
00:11authorities admitting that they are still without a conclusive solution. So far as the public has
00:16been permitted to learn, the detectives are not even certain that they have in custody
00:20the person or persons responsible for her death. In the light of present developments,
00:26the police believe that no more arrests will be made, but they admit that the entrance of another
00:31theory might entirely change the aspect of the case. The detectives base their present belief
00:36that they have the guilty man or men on the well-supported theory that Mary Fagan never
00:40left the National Pencil Factory from the time she received her pay envelope on Saturday noon
00:44until her lifeless body was taken from the basement of the building. If this police supposition is
00:49correct, guilt can rest only on one or more of the men who were in the building after noon on
00:54the day
00:55of the tragedy. The police officers have been able to learn only five who were in the factory Saturday
01:00afternoon or night, most of the employees being absent because of the Memorial Day parade.
01:05These five were Leo M. Frank, superintendent, Newt Lee, night watchman, Harry Denham and Arthur White,
01:12workman, and J. M. Gant, a former employee who returned for a few minutes on Saturday evening to
01:17obtain a pair of shoes he had left in the building. Of these five, it is possible for only two
01:21to have had
01:22any knowledge of their crime. These two, Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, are in custody. Tragedy that
01:28grips people. Atlanta for a week has been shocked with the horror and brutality of the deed, that
01:34everyone was following with intense interest the developments of the case was manifest in the
01:39eagerness with which the newspapers were bought up in the streets. It was a story that gripped and
01:44appealed, and it aroused an interest that will not die until the guilty person is apprehended.
01:49The essential details of the case as developed through a week of investigation are these.
01:54Mary Fagan, the 14-year-old daughter of Mrs. W. J. Coleman of 146 Lindsay Street, was attacked and
02:02killed sometime between noon and midnight Saturday, April 26th. Signs of a struggle on the second floor
02:08of the National Pencil Factory, 3739 Forsyth Street, indicated that this is the place she met her death.
02:15The girl left her home Saturday 4 noon to draw her pay at the factory. She arrived at the factory
02:21at
02:21about 12.07. Superintendent Frank has said that he gave her her pay envelope at this time. The
02:27detectives have been able to get no reliable testimony that anyone saw her from 12.07 o'clock
02:32until shortly after 3 o'clock Sunday morning, when the night watchman Newt Lee said he found her bruised
02:38and mutilated body in the basement as he was making his rounds. Harry Denham and Arthur White were in the
02:44factory from 7.30 in the morning until about 3.15 in the afternoon. Newt Lee called at thee at
02:49the
02:50factory at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, but was told by Superintendent Frank that he need not go to
02:55work
02:55until 6 o'clock in the evening. Frank there in afternoon. Superintendent Frank left the building
03:01about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, returning about 3. From this time until 6.30 in the evening,
03:07he says he was in the building. At 6 o'clock, Lee returned and remained in the factory until he
03:12found
03:12the body and was taken to police headquarters. J.M. Gant, the former employee, was in the factory at
03:186 o'clock, and the evidence shows he left about 20 minutes later. If there were any other persons in
03:24the building during these hours, the authorities are as yet unaware of the fact. The night watchman's
03:30story is that he made his rounds regularly every half hour on Saturday night. At the inquest, he told
03:36that it was not required of him to make a complete round of the basement, his main duty there being
03:41only to see that there was no fire. This he gives as his explanation for not seeing at an earlier
03:47hour the body of the girl. The undertakers say she had been dead for from six to eight hours when
03:52found. On his 3 o'clock round, the watchman went farther into the basement, and there saw the body
03:59of the girl lying face upward. He ran upstairs and called the police. Then he attempted without avail to
04:04get Superintendent Frank on the telephone. He testified. The officers came and found the body lying
04:10face downward, although the watchman declared he had not touched the body. They also tried to call
04:15Superintendent Frank, but were unsuccessful, and finally notified Vice President Haas. Four men are
04:21detained. Lee, the watchman, and Jaron Bailey, elevator man, were taken to the police station.
04:26Both denied any knowledge of the crime. Arthur Mullinax, a former streetcar conductor, was identified by E.L.
04:33Sentell, 82 Davis Street, as the man he saw with Mary Fagan at about midnight Saturday. He was taken
04:39by the police Sunday night and held pending an investigation of Sentell's story. Superintendent
04:44Frank was summoned to police headquarters on Monday morning to tell what he knew of the girl and her
04:49fate. He offered to aid the police in every way, and later in the day announced that he had engaged
04:54the Pinkertons to assist the city two words illegible in solving the mystery. He returned to his home after
05:01the conference. The story of the friendship of J.M. Gant, former bookkeeper in the factory,
05:06for Mary Fagan decided the officers upon his arrest. He was taken on Monday as he alighted from a car
05:12at
05:12Marietta, where he had gone to see his mother. Mullinax told a straightforward story of his every
05:18movement Saturday night. He had been to the theater with Miss Pearl Robinson, he said, and afterward had
05:23gone to this boarding house and to bed. His alibi was established by the stories of Miss Robinson and his
05:29landlady. Gant was explicit in detailing his moves, and was borne out by companions and by his half-sister,
05:35Mrs. T.C. Terrell, 284 East Linden Avenue, with whom he lived. The sensation of the case came Tuesday
05:42when a hurried trip by automobile was made to the pencil factory by detectives and Superintendent
05:46Frank was brought to police headquarters. The officers denied at first that Frank was under arrest.
05:52He was brought to the station, only throw additional light upon the mystery, and for his own protection,
05:57they explained. Nevertheless, Frank's liberties were soon curtailed, and on Thursday night he was transferred
06:03with Lee to the county jail on the request of Frank's attorney, Luther Z. Rosser. Negro sticks to his story.
06:10Frank and Lee were questioned at the police station. The watchman was put through the third degree again and
06:16again. All the efforts of the detectives were not productive of a confession of any sort. Frank was firm in
06:22the
06:22statement of his absolute innocence. Lee broke down and wept on several occasions, but only protested his
06:28innocence the more volubly. The inquest Thursday proved to be little more than an elaboration of
06:33the testimony that had been gathered previously by the detectives. Three or four of the witnesses
06:38declared they had seen Mary Fagan on the streets, or near her home in Bellwood sometime Saturday afternoon
06:44or night. The stories, for the most part, were found to be without basis, and the theory that Mary
06:50Fagan was lured to the factory after once leaving it was abandoned. Lee was called to the stand. The
06:56most damaging evidence brought against him was the testimony of a handwriting expert that two notes
07:01found by the side of the dead girl were in the same hand as the test note penned by Lee
07:05after he had
07:06been taken to the police station. G. W. Epps, the boy sweetheart of Mary Fagan, created something of a
07:12sensation when he testified that Mary had told him that Frank had attempted to flirt with her,
07:16and that she had asked him, Epps, to wait and go home with her. Gant and Lee testified that Frank
07:23had appeared nervous when they saw him, Gant, Saturday at the factory. Gant and Mullinax were
07:28liberated soon after the adjournment Wednesday. The inquest was to have been resumed on Thursday,
07:34but was halted by the desire of the authorities to obtain more clearly defined evidence before they
07:39continued the presentation of the case. The next day, Solicitor General Dorsey announced that he had
07:45engaged private detectives to run down clues which he thought had been neglected or not sufficiently
07:49developed.
Comments