Wednesday, May 14th, 1913, Friends Say Frank's Actions Point to Innocence

If Leo M. Frank is in any way guilty of involvement in the murder of Mary Phagan, his conduct during his weeks of imprisonment flatly contradicts the established theories of the world's foremost criminologists, according to those who have visited him at the Tower.

Psychologists have long operated on the principle that the crushing weight of guilt upon a murderer's mind will, given sufficient time, eventually overwhelm whatever composed exterior he presents to his accusers. This approach, sometimes called "silent treatment," has been put to systematic use with striking results. Prisoners accused of terrible crimes have been left alone in their cells to brood through the long night hours. A scream echoing down the prison corridors has more than once betrayed a guilty conscience. Jailers rushing to investigate have found prisoners re-enacting their crimes in their cells, muttering the words they spoke at the moment of the killing and striking the air with their fists. In one well-known case, a man beat his head against the bars of his cell before he could be restrained. His breakdown was attributed afterward to the overwhelming remorse that followed a vivid mental replay of the crime.

The psychological theory behind this is well established. The mind of a murderer is understood to contain two distinct regions: the conscious and the subconscious. In the first he constructs his denials; in the second, the truth lies buried. It remains there until the pressure it exerts grows too great to contain, and the conscious mind gives way. At that point the prisoner becomes far easier to bring to a confession.

Quiet Alone Needed

For this process to work, isolation and silence are essential. The prisoner must be left alone with his thoughts. Only then does the horror of what he has done begin to erode the wall of denial he has built. When that wall finally falls, his confession follows in despair. In such cases the broken man inspires a kind of pity. The mental ordeal through which he has passed and lost leaves its mark on the body as well, and prisoners who reach that point have often been found collapsed on the floor of their cells.

Against this backdrop, Frank's conduct since his imprisonment has been striking in its contrast. Confined on suspicion of involvement in the death of Mary Phagan, placed in a solitary cell, spending his nights alone, never seeing the outside world except as a prisoner under guard behind iron bars and steel doors, Frank has displayed throughout two full weeks of confinement a degree of cheerfulness that has surprised nearly everyone who has encountered him.

To the friends permitted to visit him, his bearing alone has been taken as evidence of innocence.

"If Frank were a guilty man," said Dr. David Marx, the prominent rabbi and a personal friend of the factory superintendent, "he would have been driven out of his mind by now.