00:00I have no proof of bribery in Fagan case, says Chief Atlanta Journal Monday, May 26, 1913.
00:06Chief Detective declares he has no direct evidence of attempt to influence witnesses
00:10as published Conley sticks to story under severe grilling.
00:13His statement that he wrote notes at Frank's dictation, a disturbing element.
00:17Search for evidence continues.
00:19Chief of Detectives Lanford positively denied to the journal Monday afternoon that he has
00:24secured any proof of efforts to bribe witnesses in the Fagan case proper.
00:27The official made this statement when questioned about the numerous rumors and reports of bribery
00:32of witnesses, some of which have been published and given general circulation.
00:36Chief Lanford states that he is in possession of no affidavits relating to attempts to bribe
00:41Fagan witnesses, nor has he proof of any sort, he says, which would show that friends of
00:47the man indicted for the murder or anyone else had sought to bribe any witness.
00:51Chief Lanford says, however, that he personally believes that efforts to influence witnesses
00:56have been made and that he is vigorously probing the rumors.
01:00The indictment of Leo M.
01:02Frank on a charge of murdering Mary Fagan has not halted the several investigations of
01:07the case.
01:08Monday morning, neither the city detectives, the Pinkertons, nor the Burns forces ceased
01:14their efforts to unearth new and cumulative evidence in the case.
01:18The principal efforts of the detectives are now as they have been since from the beginning,
01:23directed towards securing evidence to building up the state case against the factory superintendent.
01:29Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, who was first employed by the National Pencil Company to search
01:34for and prosecute the murderer of Mary Fagan, now states that he has secured sufficient evidence
01:39to convict Frank.
01:41When the case comes to trial, the Pinkertons will join in the prosecution, and the evidence
01:46they have gathered will be submitted to the courts.
01:48Chief of Detectives Newport A.
01:50Lanford shares the opinion of the Pinkerton man that evidence sufficient to convict has
01:55been gathered against the factory official, a disturbing element.
01:59The sensational statement of James Conley, the Negro sweeper, that he wrote at Frank's
02:03dictation notes, believed to be the ones found by Mary Fagan's body, is proving a disturbing
02:08element in the case, and detectives have made every effort to break the Negro's story.
02:13If his story is not true, they say that they want to know it now.
02:18However, they say that they are becoming more and more convinced that the story told by Conley
02:22Saturday morning is the absolute truth.
02:25Conley certainly wrote the notes, said one of the detectives Monday.
02:29It doesn't take an expert to realize that beyond a shadow of a doubt, his hand penned the words
02:34on the two bits of paper.
02:35The only question is to make sure that he is telling the truth as to the time of the writing
02:39and circumstances, and he tells a might straight story.
02:43Conley tells the detectives that he only realized some days after the crime that he was the writer
02:48of the all-important notes in the mysterious case.
02:51Then, Conley says, a Negro in his cell got hold of a copy of the journal, in which the
02:56notes were reproduced in a photograph with specimens of Newt Lee and Leo M. Frank's handwriting.
03:01Conley claims, according to the officer, that he then kept quiet in hopes that he would
03:06receive financial reward from the man, whom, he says, dictated the words to him.
03:10Frank had told him, according to the detectives' version of the Negro story, that he wanted
03:15him to write in order that he might send his, Conley's letter to Mrs. Frank in Brooklyn, who
03:20wanted to give a good job to a bright and honest Negro boy.
03:23Frank left him with the impression, the Negro is said to have told the officers, that an easy
03:28job with good pay awaited him with Mrs. Frank Sr. in Brooklyn.
03:31The detectives declared that never has a witness been put through such a severe cross-examination
03:37as they have given him in an effort to break down his sensational story.
03:41J.B. Pope, well-known county policeman and near-neighbor of the Coleman's, denies the
03:46report that Mary Fagan received a message over his telephone Friday before the tragedy
03:50to report at the factory that afternoon for her money.
03:54Officer Pope states that his phone was often used by members of the Fagan girls' family,
03:59but no such message came over it that Friday, he says.
04:02Pinkerton denies statements.
04:04The journal has received a letter signed by Alan Pinkerton, of Pinkerton's National Detective
04:09Agency, written in reply to a statement by Colonel Thomas B. Felder, which appeared in Sunday's
04:14journal.
04:15This statement was headed,
04:17Lanford is controlling genius of conspiracy to protect the murderer of Little Mary Fagan,
04:21and contains several references to Pinkerton's agency.
04:25The letter from Mr. Pinkerton reads in part as follows,
04:27These statements, insofar as they refer to Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, are
04:33absolutely without an iota of truth, as Pinkerton's National Detective Agency had absolutely not
04:39previous knowledge of information concerning or to the issues between certain Atlanta City
04:44officials, an attorney at law, Thomas B. Felder, and the agency's first knowledge of
04:49these issues, or in connection therewith, came to our notice through newspaper publications
04:54of May 23, 1913.
04:57We respectfully request that you give this, our denial in connection with the statements
05:02referred to, as equal prominence as that which you gave the published articles in question.
05:07Solicitor Dorsey on Monday stated that reports that two telephone girls went before the grand
05:12jury to give testimony relatives to an alleged telephone conversation on the evening of the
05:17tragedy is incorrect.
05:19Mr. Dorsey says that he knows of no such witnesses.
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