Detective John Black Tells the Jury His Views on the Phagan Case Friday, May 9th, 1913

Detective John Black followed Harry Scott to the witness stand and was questioned about several key developments in the investigation, beginning with the discovery of a bloodstained shirt at Newt Lee's home.

Black said that on the Tuesday afternoon following the murder, he went with Detective Fred Bullard to Lee's residence at 40 Henry Street. The two men searched the premises and found the shirt in a clothes barrel inside Lee's room. It was near the bottom of the barrel, covered over with scraps of old garments, the barrel apparently serving as a dumping place for worn-out clothing.

Asked whether the shirt found in the barrel was the same one Lee had been wearing Sunday morning when the Phagan child's body was discovered, Black said it was not. The shirt found at the house appeared to have been washed, though the remainder of his description on that point was not captured in the record.

No Positive Evidence

Juror Langford pressed the detective directly. Had he discovered any positive information as to who committed the murder?

"Do you mean positive information?" Black replied. "No, sir, I have not."

Contradicting Quinn

Black then offered testimony that stood in direct conflict with what Lemmie Quinn had told the jury earlier that morning. Quinn had testified to visiting the pencil factory on the Saturday of the murder. Black said otherwise.

According to Black, Quinn told him the Monday after the tragedy that he had not been to the factory that Saturday at all. "Quinn made the statement in my presence two or three times," Black said. On one occasion, Detectives Starnes and Campbell questioned Quinn in the basement of the pencil factory, and he again denied having been there.

Black also noted that it was at his suggestion that Frank was brought to speak with Lee at the police station, the conversation Lee had already described from the stand, in the hope of getting the truth out of the watchman.