- 2 days ago
Lemmie Quinn, the factory foreman, was put through a grilling examination, but he steadily maintained that he visited the factory shortly after the time Mary Phagan is supposed to have left with her pay envelope
Frank's treatment of girls in factory described as unimpeachable by one young lady employee
Mr. Frank's manner at the time he was informed of the tragedy by officers at his home on Sunday morning is told of by former policeman. Both Frank and the negro night watchman are expected to testify during the afternoon, when the inquest will be concluded
The coroner's inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan adjourned at 12:55 o'clock Thursday, to reconvene at 2:30. By the time of adjournment, six witnesses had testified: "Boots" Rogers, former county policeman; Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the pencil factory; Miss Corinthia Hall, a factory employee; Miss Hattie Hall, stenographer; J. L. Watkins; and Miss Daisy Jones.
Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, the Negro night watchman, were both present at headquarters during the morning session but neither had been called to the stand before recess was ordered. Both are expected to testify during the afternoon session, when an effort will be made to conclude the inquest and return a verdict.
Though subjected to a searching examination by the coroner aimed at breaking down his account, Quinn held firmly to his statement that he had visited the factory on the day of the tragedy shortly after noon, just after Mary Phagan is believed to have collected her pay envelope and left. He declared that he had reminded Mr. Frank of the visit, and that Mr. Frank told him he intended to relay that fact to his lawyers.
"Boots" Rogers testified that Mr. Frank had changed the tape in the time clock while officers were present at the factory Sunday morning, after the body of Mary Phagan had been found, and that Frank stated at the time that the sheet he removed from the clock appeared to be correct. Rogers also described Mr. Frank's demeanor when officers arrived at his home by automobile Sunday morning to bring him to the factory.
Miss Corinthia Hall testified that Mr. Frank's conduct toward the girls employed at the factory was beyond reproach. She also testified that she had encountered Lemmie Quinn at a restaurant near the factory around the noon hour on Saturday, a statement that corroborated his account of visiting the factory that day. J. L. Watkins testified that he had mistaken Miss Daisy Jones for Mary Phagan when he believed he saw Mary near her home on Saturday afternoon around 5 o'clock. Miss Jones testified in connection with the same matter.
New Witnesses Called
Following a conference between Solicitor General Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor General Stephens, and Chief of Detectives Lanford just after the lunch recess, it was confirmed that Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee would be recalled for the afternoon session.
Frank's treatment of girls in factory described as unimpeachable by one young lady employee
Mr. Frank's manner at the time he was informed of the tragedy by officers at his home on Sunday morning is told of by former policeman. Both Frank and the negro night watchman are expected to testify during the afternoon, when the inquest will be concluded
The coroner's inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Phagan adjourned at 12:55 o'clock Thursday, to reconvene at 2:30. By the time of adjournment, six witnesses had testified: "Boots" Rogers, former county policeman; Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the pencil factory; Miss Corinthia Hall, a factory employee; Miss Hattie Hall, stenographer; J. L. Watkins; and Miss Daisy Jones.
Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee, the Negro night watchman, were both present at headquarters during the morning session but neither had been called to the stand before recess was ordered. Both are expected to testify during the afternoon session, when an effort will be made to conclude the inquest and return a verdict.
Though subjected to a searching examination by the coroner aimed at breaking down his account, Quinn held firmly to his statement that he had visited the factory on the day of the tragedy shortly after noon, just after Mary Phagan is believed to have collected her pay envelope and left. He declared that he had reminded Mr. Frank of the visit, and that Mr. Frank told him he intended to relay that fact to his lawyers.
"Boots" Rogers testified that Mr. Frank had changed the tape in the time clock while officers were present at the factory Sunday morning, after the body of Mary Phagan had been found, and that Frank stated at the time that the sheet he removed from the clock appeared to be correct. Rogers also described Mr. Frank's demeanor when officers arrived at his home by automobile Sunday morning to bring him to the factory.
Miss Corinthia Hall testified that Mr. Frank's conduct toward the girls employed at the factory was beyond reproach. She also testified that she had encountered Lemmie Quinn at a restaurant near the factory around the noon hour on Saturday, a statement that corroborated his account of visiting the factory that day. J. L. Watkins testified that he had mistaken Miss Daisy Jones for Mary Phagan when he believed he saw Mary near her home on Saturday afternoon around 5 o'clock. Miss Jones testified in connection with the same matter.
New Witnesses Called
Following a conference between Solicitor General Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor General Stephens, and Chief of Detectives Lanford just after the lunch recess, it was confirmed that Leo M. Frank and Newt Lee would be recalled for the afternoon session.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Fagan Inquest in Session. Six witnesses are examined before adjournment to 2.30 o'clock.
00:05The Atlanta Journal. Thursday, May 8, 1913, page 1, column 5.
00:10Lemmy Quinn, the factory foreman, was put through a grilling examination,
00:15but he steadily maintained that he visited the factory shortly after the time Mary Fagan is
00:19supposed to have left with her pay envelope. Frank's treatment of girls in factory described
00:23as unimpeachable by one young lady employee, Mr. Frank's manner at the time. He was informed of
00:29the tragedy by officers at his home on Sunday morning is told of by former policemen. Both
00:35Frank and the Negro Night Watchmen are expected to testify during afternoon, when inquest will be
00:40concluded. The coroner's inquest into the mysterious murder of Mary Fagan adjourned at 12.55 o'clock
00:47Thursday to meet again at 2.30. At the hour of adjournment, six witnesses had testified.
00:53They were Boots Rogers, former county policeman, Lemmy Quinn, foreman of the pencil factory,
00:58Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee of the factory, Miss Hattie Hall, stenographer, J.L. Watkins,
01:05and Miss Daisy Jones. L.M. Frank and Newt Lee, the Negro Night Watchmen, were both present at
01:10headquarters during the morning session, but neither had been recalled to the stand when recess was
01:15ordered. Both are expected to testify during the afternoon, when an effort will be made to conclude
01:21the inquest and return a verdict. Though put through a searching examination by the coroner in an
01:26effort to break down his statement that he had visited the factory on the day of the tragedy
01:30shortly after noon, just after Mary Fagan is supposed to have received her pay envelope and
01:34left, Quinn stuck to his story. He declared that he had recalled his visit to Mr. Frank,
01:40and that Mr. Frank told him he was going to communicate the fact to his lawyers.
01:44Boots Rogers testified that Mr. Frank had changed the tape and the time clock while the officers were
01:50in the factory Sunday morning after the body of Mary Fagan had been found, and that he stated at
01:55the time that the sheet he took from the clock seemed to be correct. Rogers also described Mr.
02:01Frank's manner when the officers went to his home in an automobile to take him to the factory Sunday
02:05morning. Miss Corinthia Hall, an employee in the factory, testified that Mr. Frank's treatment of
02:11the girls in the factory was unimpeachable. She also testified that she had met Lemmy Quinn at a
02:16restaurant near the factory near the noon hour Saturday, her statement being confirmatory of his
02:21visit to the factory on the fatal day. J.L. Watkins testified that he had mistaken Miss Daisy Jones for
02:27Mary Fagan when he thought he saw Mary on the street near her home on Saturday afternoon about five
02:32o'clock. Miss Jones' testimony was also in this connection. New witnesses called. Following a
02:39conference between Solicitor General Dorsey, Assistant Solicitor General Stevens, and Chief of
02:43Detectives Lanford, just after the inquest recessed for lunch, it was learned that Leo M. Frank and
02:49Newt Lee would be recalled at the afternoon session, and that there would be the following new witnesses.
02:54Miss Alice Wood of 8 Corporate Street, Miss Nellie Pitts of 9 Oliver Street, and Mrs. C.D. Dunnigan of
03:01165
03:01West 14th Street. Rogers describes Mr. Frank's manner when told of tragedy. Boots Rogers, formerly a county
03:08policeman, was the first witness. Mr. Rogers said that he lived at 100 McDonough Road. He was at the
03:14police station at 3 o'clock on the morning of April 27th, he said, when a call came from the
03:20factory of
03:20the National Pencil Company. The officers responded to the call in his automobile, he declared. Those who
03:26went with him were police sergeants Brown and Dobbs, Call Officer Anderson and Britt Craig, a newspaper
03:32reporter. Mr. Craig was the first person to enter the basement, the witness said. He, Mr. Rogers,
03:38entered second, Dobbs and Newt Lee, the Negro night watchman, bringing up the rear. All saw the body
03:44about the same time, Mr. Rogers said. The witness said that the girl's body was lying face down,
03:49with the hands folded beneath the body. The body was turned over by police sergeant Dobbs, he said.
03:55Rogers continued that they found two notes near the body. The first note, found by sergeant Dobbs,
04:01was on white scratch paper and on a tablet lying face down. The sheet with the note on it was
04:07detached
04:07and fell off when the tablet was picked up. It was lying about a foot from the body's right shoulder.
04:13Another note was found later, written on a yellow order blank of the factory, lying about a foot from
04:18the feet of the body. Rogers wasn't sure whether he or Sergeant Dobbs noticed that first. He didn't
04:24notice a sharpened pencil nearby. There were a number of stubs, but none sharpened that he saw.
04:30Asked, who telephoned Mr. Frank that the girl was dead? He said no one did as nearly as he remembered
04:35that Detective Starnes telephoned Mr. Frank later in the morning to come down to the factory.
04:40About two or three minutes after the first officers arrived with him, said Rogers, they were admitted
04:45to the factory. They saw the Negro night watchman, Newt Leet, through the glass door, coming down the
04:50stairs with his lantern. She's down in the basement, she's down in the basement, Rogers' aide the Negro
04:55told them first. He showed them the way down, indicating the trap door and the ladder. Brit Craig,
05:01a newspaper man, went first, and was followed by the witness, then by Sergeant Dobbs of the police,
05:07and last by the Negro. Everything was in gloom, though a gas jet was burning dimly at the foot
05:12of the ladder. Negro wasn't excited. Look out, white folks, you'll step on her, the witness said
05:18the Negro exclaimed when they started toward the rear of the basement. The Negro took the lead then,
05:23with his lantern, and led them to the body. The Negro's manner was as cool as that of a man
05:28would be
05:29under the circumstances, said the witness. The Negro wasn't excited. He was being questioned
05:34by all of us, said the witness. He answered questions promptly. How did you happen to find
05:39the body, the witness said was one of the questions put to the Negro. He repeated the Negro's answer of
05:44how he was making his rounds and entered the basement, and by the dim rays of his lantern
05:49noticed a suspicious-looking object on the ground near the back. Somebody's put that there to try to
05:54scare me, the Negro said, he remarked to himself, going over to see closer. The body was revealed,
06:01and he hurried back upstairs to telephone the police. Body found face down. The witness said
06:06that Sergeant Dobbs asked the Negro how the body was lying when he found it. The Negro's answer was
06:12on its face. Did you turn it over? the Negro was asked, and answered, No, sir, I didn't touch it.
06:18This point of the evidence was in conflict with previous testimony by the Negro himself,
06:22who swore at the inquest that when he found the body it was lying on its back face up,
06:27with its head toward the back door exactly the reverse of the position in which the officers
06:31found it. Rogers, the witness, said that the body was lying on its face, hand folded beneath it,
06:37when he and the officers first saw it. The Negro stuck to the same story while answering all the
06:42questions, said the witness. After about ten minutes, Sergeant Dobbs ordered that the Negro be
06:47held under arrest. The Negro was taken upstairs by Call Officer Anderson. The rest of them looked
06:53around for the girl's left shoe, which was missing from the body. Officer Anderson and the Negro went
06:59upstairs first alone. Twenty or thirty minutes later, the witness went up and found the officer and the
07:04Negro sitting in the office. Anderson was trying to telephone to some of the factory folks, said the
07:10witness. The Negro was sitting nearby in silence. Someone suggested that the officer telephoned to Mr.
07:17Frank, the superintendent, at his home. Anderson tried to get Mr. Frank's number. There was no answer.
07:23Anderson talked to the operator and told her something very serious had happened and that the call was
07:28urgent, and Anderson said he heard the persistent ringing that followed, identified as Mary Fagan.
07:33While he and Sergeant Dobbs had been moving about downstairs looking for the girl's shoes, said Rogers,
07:39they found the staple on the back door pulled and pushed the door back and went out into the alley,
07:44searching it to Hunter Street for some clue. Rogers then went away to find someone to identify the
07:49body, said he. The shoe was found by somebody else later. He went to 100 McDonough Road, said he,
07:55to get Miss Grace Hicks, a relative of his own whom he knew to be employed in the factory.
08:00He brought Miss Hicks back with him in the automobile, and she identified the body as that of Mary Fagan.
08:06Miss Hicks sought first to telephone to Mary's mother, Mrs. J.W. Coleman, but there was no phone in the
08:12Coleman home, so she telephoned instead to the home of another girl, Miss Ferguson, and got Mrs.
08:17Ferguson, and asked her to go over and break the news to Mrs. Coleman. Mr. Frank notified.
08:23Mr. Rogers said that Detective Starnes, who had been summoned to the factory, called Mr. Frank over
08:28the telephone shortly after six o'clock. The witness said that he drove Detective Black to Mr. Frank's home,
08:34and that Mrs. Frank, wearing a heavy bathrobe, came to the door. He said that Mr. Frank stood in the
08:39hall, fully dressed except his collar and tie. The witness said that Mr. Frank appeared nervous and
08:44excited, and asked whether the night watchman had reported to the police that something had happened
08:49at the factory. Mr. Rogers said that neither he nor Mr. Black answered. The witness said that Mr. Frank
08:55remarked that a drink of whiskey would do him good, and that Mrs. Frank said there was none in the
09:00house,
09:00but insisted that Mr. Frank get some breakfast before going out. However, they hurried to the
09:06undertaking establishment, the witness said. Mr. Rogers said that on the way to the undertaker's
09:11establishment, Mr. Frank remarked that he had dreamed he had heard his telephone ring about
09:15daybreak. Detective Black asked Mr. Frank whether he knew Mary Fagan, the witness said, Mr. Frank
09:21replying that he didn't know whether he did or not. The witness said that Mr. Frank did not go into
09:26the room in which the Fagan child's body lay. Mr. Frank remarked, the witness said, that he could
09:31refer to his payroll and see whether Mary Fagan worked at the pencil factory. Was Mr. Frank steady
09:37or trembling at the undertaking establishment, was asked Mr. Rogers. I couldn't say, he answered.
09:42Mr. Frank suggested that they go to the factory, the witness said. At the factory, the witness said
09:47they found a number of detectives and policemen and Mr. Darley, an official of the factory, who had
09:52been summoned. They went upstairs, the witness aide, to the office, and Mr. Frank referred to the payroll,
09:57saying that Mary Fagan worked there and that she had been paid $1.20 the day before, shortly after
10:03twelve o'clock. Elevator at second floor. The witness said that Mr. Frank then asked if the pay
10:09envelope had been found, remarking that it must be around somewhere. They went to the basement in the
10:14elevator, which stood at the second floor, the witness said. Mr. Frank switched the current, and
10:19there was some delay in getting the elevator to work. The fire doors of the elevator were open at
10:24this time, Mr. Rogers said, but he didn't remember whether they were open or closed when he went to
10:29the factory the first time. The elevator was run to the basement, the witness said, and Mr. Frank was
10:34shown where the body had been found. Changed tape and clock. When he returned from the basement,
10:40said the witness, he sat in Mr. Frank's inner office with the negro, Lee. Mr. Frank stayed in
10:45outer office, but came in twice where he and negro were, and on the second trip, Mr. Frank looked at
10:50the negro and shook his head and said, too bad. Mr. Frank asked repeatedly if the officers were
10:55through with him, saying he wanted to go out and get a cup of coffee, but no opportunity to get
11:00the
11:00coffee arose. After a while, said the witness, after Mr. Frank had been through the building with
11:05Chief of Detectives Lanford, Mr. Frank suggested that they change the tape and the time clock.
11:11Mr. Frank took a key to the clock, which he wore on a ring at his belt, and opened the
11:15clock with it
11:16and removed the time slip and laid it down by the clock. He then went back into his office and
11:21got
11:21a blank slip. He asked one of the officers standing near to hold back a little lever while he inserted
11:26this slip. The lever knocked against a little pencil in the clock. Newt Lee, the negro, was
11:31standing near. Mr. Frank turned to the negro and asked, what is this pencil doing in the hole?
11:36Lee said he had put it there so his number would be sure to register every time he rang.
11:41Mr. Frank put the key back at his belt and dated the slip which he had taken from the clock
11:45with a pencil which he took from his pocket. The witness, though, Mr. Frank wrote the date
11:50April 26th, 1913, on it, but he wouldn't be sure about that, he said. Mr. Frank, after examining the
11:57slip, stated that it was punched correctly, said the witness. He also looked at the slip.
12:02The first punch started at 6 p.m., and it was punched every half hour, the witness thought,
12:06up to 2.30 o'clock. At 2.30 was the last punch. Mr. Frank took the slip into his
12:11own office,
12:12said the witness, and the witness said he did not know what became of it after
12:15that. A little later they all got into his automobile, said Rogers, Mr. Frank sitting
12:21in Mr. Darley's lap in front beside him, the witness, at the wheel, and some of the officers
12:26sitting with Frank in the back. At this point the coroner asked where Mr. Darley was when
12:31the clock slip was being removed. He was standing nearby, said the witness. After delivering his
12:37passengers at police headquarters, said Rogers, he went with Miss Hicks to take her back to her
12:42own home. On the trip to headquarters, said he, Mr. Frank did not seem to be as nervous
12:47as he had been. When he returned to headquarters, said the witness, the detectives were getting
12:51Newt Lee, the Negro, to write. Lee then seemed very nervous.
12:54That's all.
12:54.
12:54.
12:54.
Comments