- 26 minutes ago
Friday, May 30th, 1913
Helped Frank Dispose of Mary Phagan's Body Conley Now Confesses
Negro Sweeper Who Swore to Detectives That He Wrote Murder Notes Found Near Dead Girl's Body Now Admits His Complicity in Case, According to Statements Which Have Stirred Police Headquarters as Nothing Since Murder.
LANFORD AND BEAVERS PLEASED OVER RESULT OF GRILLING NEGRO, THEY ANNOUNCE TO REPORTERS.
Police and Detective Heads Refuse to Go Into Details of Negro's Statement Or to Discuss What He Said, But Declare That It Will Prove a Big Factor in the Murder Case—Negro Will Be Subjected to Another Third Degree Today.
Dumbfounding his hearers with the confession that he had helped Leo M. Frank lower the lifeless body of Mary Phagan into the darkness of the pencil factory basement, James Conley, the negro sweeper, is authoritatively said to have made that astounding admission during a strenuous third degree at police headquarters late Thursday afternoon.
He is said to have minutely described the movements of himself and Frank as they packed the mutilated form from the office floor of the building down into the dark cellar, where it was left in the desolate recess in which it was discovered the following morning.
Saying he had found the girl stone dead when he entered the building at 1:15 o'clock with the suspected superintendent, he is declared to have admitted that he and Frank proceeded immediately to remove the corpse, silently and with utmost precaution, to its hiding place in the basement.
Conley Asked No Questions.
Through fear he states he did not ask his employer how the little girl met her death. He is said to have told the police that he asked no questions, carried out Frank's instructions to the letter, and departed directly after he emerged from the grewsome trip into the basement.
The girl's body was found, crumpled in a heap, gashed and distorted, secreted on the second floor, he is said to have confessed during the examination, when he arrived with Frank in the building. Frank said but few words, the negro is averred to have told, but helped to carry the corpse to its place of discovery beneath the factory.
As a result of the negro's confession, police headquarters is stirred as never since the murder. Both Chief Lanford and Chief Beavers declared to reporters that they were pleased even beyond expectation over the result of the Conley cross-examination. It was the most exacting of his entire imprisonment.
Although the source of The Constitution's information is substantial and authoritative, police officials refuse to discuss the negro's admission in detail. The police and detective chiefs will not commit themselves, and they neither deny nor affirm the information obtained by a Constitution reporter. The admission is said to have been made between 4:30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon to Lanford, Beavers, Harry Scott, Secretary Febuary and Detective Pat Campbell.
Helped Frank Dispose of Mary Phagan's Body Conley Now Confesses
Negro Sweeper Who Swore to Detectives That He Wrote Murder Notes Found Near Dead Girl's Body Now Admits His Complicity in Case, According to Statements Which Have Stirred Police Headquarters as Nothing Since Murder.
LANFORD AND BEAVERS PLEASED OVER RESULT OF GRILLING NEGRO, THEY ANNOUNCE TO REPORTERS.
Police and Detective Heads Refuse to Go Into Details of Negro's Statement Or to Discuss What He Said, But Declare That It Will Prove a Big Factor in the Murder Case—Negro Will Be Subjected to Another Third Degree Today.
Dumbfounding his hearers with the confession that he had helped Leo M. Frank lower the lifeless body of Mary Phagan into the darkness of the pencil factory basement, James Conley, the negro sweeper, is authoritatively said to have made that astounding admission during a strenuous third degree at police headquarters late Thursday afternoon.
He is said to have minutely described the movements of himself and Frank as they packed the mutilated form from the office floor of the building down into the dark cellar, where it was left in the desolate recess in which it was discovered the following morning.
Saying he had found the girl stone dead when he entered the building at 1:15 o'clock with the suspected superintendent, he is declared to have admitted that he and Frank proceeded immediately to remove the corpse, silently and with utmost precaution, to its hiding place in the basement.
Conley Asked No Questions.
Through fear he states he did not ask his employer how the little girl met her death. He is said to have told the police that he asked no questions, carried out Frank's instructions to the letter, and departed directly after he emerged from the grewsome trip into the basement.
The girl's body was found, crumpled in a heap, gashed and distorted, secreted on the second floor, he is said to have confessed during the examination, when he arrived with Frank in the building. Frank said but few words, the negro is averred to have told, but helped to carry the corpse to its place of discovery beneath the factory.
As a result of the negro's confession, police headquarters is stirred as never since the murder. Both Chief Lanford and Chief Beavers declared to reporters that they were pleased even beyond expectation over the result of the Conley cross-examination. It was the most exacting of his entire imprisonment.
Although the source of The Constitution's information is substantial and authoritative, police officials refuse to discuss the negro's admission in detail. The police and detective chiefs will not commit themselves, and they neither deny nor affirm the information obtained by a Constitution reporter. The admission is said to have been made between 4:30 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon to Lanford, Beavers, Harry Scott, Secretary Febuary and Detective Pat Campbell.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Conley says he helped Frank carry body of Mary Fagan to Pencil Factory Cellar,
00:04Atlanta Constitution, Friday, May 30, 1913. Helped Frank dispose of Mary Fagan's body,
00:10Conley now confesses Negro sweeper who swore to detectives that he wrote murder notes found
00:14near dead girl's body, now admits his complicity in case, according to statements which have
00:19stirred police headquarters as nothing since murder. Lanford and Beavers, pleased over result
00:24of grilling Negro, they announced to reporters, police and detective heads refused to go into
00:29details of Negro's statement or to discuss what he said, but declare that it will prove a big
00:34factor in the murder case. Negro will be subjected to another third degree today.
00:40Dumbfounding his hearers with the confession that he had helped Leo M. Frank lower the lifeless body
00:46of Mary Fagan into the darkness of the Pencil Factory basement, James Conley, the Negro sweeper,
00:52is authoritatively said to have made that astounding admission during a strenuous third degree at
00:57police headquarters late Thursday afternoon. He is said to have minutely described the movements
01:01of himself and Frank as they packed the mutilated form from the office floor of the building down
01:06into the dark cellar, where it was left in the desolate recess in which it was discovered the
01:11following morning. Saying he had found the girl stone dead when he entered the building at 1.15 o'clock
01:17with the suspected superintendent, he is declared to have admitted that he and Frank proceeded immediately
01:23to remove the corpse, silently and with utmost precaution, to its hiding place in the basement.
01:30Conley asked no questions. Through fear, he states, he did not ask his employer how the little girl
01:35met her death. He is said to have told the police that he asked no questions, carried out Frank's
01:40instructions to the letter, and departed directly after he emerged from the gruesome trip into the
01:45basement. The girl's body was found, crumpled in a heap, gashed and distorted, secreted on the
01:50second floor. He is said to have confessed during the examination, when he arrived with Frank in the
01:55building. Frank said but few words. The Negro is averred to have told, but helped to carry the corpse
02:01to its place of discovery beneath the factory. As a result of the Negro's confession, police headquarters
02:07is stirred as never since the murder. Both Chief Lanford and Chief Beavers declared to reporters that they
02:13were pleased even beyond expectation over the result of the Conley cross-examination. It was the most
02:19exacting of his entire imprisonment. Although the source of the Constitution's information is
02:24substantial and authoritative, police officials refuse to discuss the Negro's admission in detail.
02:30The police and detective chiefs will not commit themselves, and they neither deny nor affirm the
02:36information obtained by a Constitution reporter. The admission is said to have been made between 4.30 and
02:42five o'clock in the afternoon to Lanford, Beavers, Harry Scott, Secretary February, and Detective Pat
02:49Campbell. Will Frank see the Negro? A strong effort will be made today to confront the accused factory
02:55superintendent with Conley and his confession. Detectives who pin faith to the Negro's story and
03:00believe Frank guilty speculate upon the prisoner's unwillingness to face the sweeper. If he is not guilty,
03:07they say, he likely would not object to facing the Negro. They say that it is damaging to his plea
03:13of
03:13innocence to refuse the Negro an audience. For four hours Thursday afternoon, Conley was subjected to
03:19the third degree. Newspaper reporters, who usually hovered in convenient vicinity of the door leading to
03:25Chief Lanford's office, in which the examination was held, were shooed away and ordered to remain a good
03:31distance from the place. The interrogation proceeded quietly, unlike the customary police third degree,
03:37in which loudness, abrupt orders, and threats play prominent parts. Only a few hushed sounds sifted
03:43through the latticework above the door. The entire third floor where the detective department is
03:48situated was redolent with the atmosphere of mystery. Everybody seemed to feel the importance of
03:54the examination underway behind the locked doors of the Chief's office. Everybody tingled with
03:59expectation. It was in the very air, and even though it came with the suddenness of a lightning
04:04stroke, the rumor of Conley's confession did not carry with it the surprise it ordinarily would
04:08have carried. Officials are greatly pleased. The examination over, the police chiefs, Harry Scott,
04:16the Pinkerton man, Secretary February, and Detective Campbell emerged with satisfied smiles,
04:22overspreading their features. Conley, his fingers twitching nervously as though the handcuffs he wore
04:28were chafing his wrists, came out between Scott and Campbell. Sweat streamed from his brow, and he
04:33was plainly agitated. He was removed to his cell in the prison downstairs. It was planned to subject
04:38him to a further interrogation at night, but this pathetic plea for sleep and rest prevailed,
04:43and he curled up on his cell bunk, and was sound asleep by eight o'clock. He will be again
04:48examined
04:49today, however. He slept well throughout the night, in fact better than he has slept since having been put
04:54in prison, as though he were relieved of a burden by his confession. Although they will not commit
04:59themselves, both Chief Lanford and Chief Beavers infer that Conley has made the long-sought
05:05admission. They say that the crisis they now allege they have reached is too great to imperil by talking
05:11for publication. All freely admit, however, that the most important admission of the mystery has been
05:17gained. Chief Lanford declared to a Constitution reporter,
05:20I am more pleased with Conley's statement tonight than with any other phase of our investigation.
05:25The result of his examination has exceeded even our most hopeful expectations.
05:30Does Conley admit having seen Frank with the body, or having been connected himself with its disposal?
05:36He was asked. I cannot commit myself, was his reply. I will tell all about it later. It would be
05:43damaging to talk at present. Otherwise I would be too glad to tell all I know. Chief Beavers said,
05:48Right now we face a crisis in the Fagan case. It would be injurious to reveal the latest and most
05:54important developments. I would rather not discuss the report of Conley's confession. I cannot commit
06:00myself, but can say that what he has told is of extreme importance more so than anything that has
06:05not yet developed. Harry Scott, assistant superintendent of the Atlanta branch of the Pinkertons, who played
06:11a leading role in Conley's interrogation, said, Conley is talking, but it would be imprudent at this stage
06:17to tell what he is admitting. He continues to weave the web around Frank. Conley was released from the
06:23chief's office at six o'clock. He is beginning to show the effects of imprisonment and the incessant
06:28interrogation to which he is daily being subjected. The detectives say that Conley explains his past
06:34silence regarding his part in the tragedy by saying that he expected to be given a large sum of money
06:40by
06:40Frank or Frank's friends. When he changed his sworn confession, it was to save his own neck,
06:46he is said to have stated. He was made vividly aware of the treacherous ground on which he was
06:51treading by the handwriting he had submitted, and it was in an effort to retrieve his error that he
06:56had altered his original affidavit. He was made to give numerous specimens of his handwriting last
07:01night. New phrases of the murder notes were dictated, and his writing in each instance compared
07:07perfectly with the original script of the murder notes. Each specimen of his handwriting is kept
07:12guardedly by the detectives. Don't think Conley guilty. Chief Lanford, Chief Beavers, and Harry Scott
07:19last night again denied that they believed Conley guilty of the murder. The evidence is so strongly
07:25against Frank, they say, that it is difficult to vary from the original theory of the superintendent's
07:30guilt. The Negro story, said to have been told at the last examination, is so straightforward and
07:36coincides so perfectly with other phases that have already been brought out that it is said to be
07:41indisputable. Frank remains calm. Frank, in his cell at the tower, is apparently unperturbed over the
07:48Negro's many admissions. Jailers, turnkeys, and tower attaches, who are the only persons beside the
07:54prisoner's friends who are allowed to see him, say he maintains his characteristic good nature.
07:59His health is not falling, they say, and he eats heartily at each meal. He will make no expression
08:05regarding the crime of which he is accused to anyone connected with the jail, declining emphatically
08:10to discuss any angle of the mystery. Conley was arrested, it will be remembered, on the same
08:14afternoon of Frank's arrest. He was discovered by foreman E.F. Holloway while washing a shirt on the
08:20second floor of the factory structure. He was turned over to Detectives Coker and McGill, who rushed from
08:25police headquarters in answer to a telephone call from the foreman, said he could not write. He strongly
08:30denied until a week ago all knowledge of the crime. He even declared he was unable to write.
08:35It was Sunday, one week ago, that Detective Scott discovered the Negro's ability to write.
08:40He was carried to the office of Chief Lanford and forced to produce specimens of his script.
08:46Last Saturday he admitted having written the notes found beside the body. He stated, however,
08:51that they were written on Friday, the day preceding the murder. A day or so following he amended the
08:57first confession, admitting to Detectives that the notes had been written on the afternoon of Mary
09:02Fagan's death, even an hour after her disappearance. Conley is a young Negro, black and chunky, with an
09:09honest face. He is apparently in the twenties, and has been a labourer by profession. He is married,
09:15his wife visiting him daily at police headquarters. He had been in the employ of the pencil factory for
09:20several years. He is said to have admitted last night that immediately following the carrying of
09:25Mary Fagan's body to the basement, he returned hurriedly to the first floor, emerging through the
09:30Forsyth Street entrance, leaving Frank in the building. Whether or not he told of the broken
09:36lock on the back door of the cellar is not known. Bit by bit, the detectives have been worming from
09:41him his startling confession. Thursday afternoon, it is said, he was willing to talk, and once started
09:47on his narrative, continued through to the end with but little questioning to urge him onward.
09:51It was stated by C.W. Tobey, the Burns agent, shortly before his departure from Atlanta,
09:56that his chief, the famous William J. Burns, will personally investigate the Fagan case.
10:02The Burns headquarters in New York were wired by the Constitution to verify the report.
10:07No reply has yet been received. Factory officials accuse him. Three officials of the National Pencil
10:14Company, Herbert G. Schiff, head bookkeeper, M.B. Darley, assistant superintendent, and E.F. Holloway,
10:20General Foreman, have expressed their theory of the Negro sweepers' guilt.
10:25Holloway was the man who telephoned police headquarters to have Conley arrested when he
10:29discovered the Negro washing a shirt on the second floor of the factory building. They state
10:34that the Negro's admission of having written the notes is proof itself of his guilt, and
10:39that his story to the effect that they were dictated by Frank is absurd in every respect.
10:45Conley's penchant for falsehoods, as shown in his two affidavits both contradictory, are
10:49also offered as evidence of his guilt. Conley's statement that he was in the factory for
10:54several hours on the day of the tragedy shows strongly against him, they say. Also, his
10:59denial of ability to write when first placed under arrest, and his subsequent display of
11:04ability to write, are brought out in the pencil factory official's theory of his guilt.
11:09Detective Harry Scott asserts, in rebuttal to this, that Conley's story is that he
11:13withheld his confession on account of anticipation of a large sum of money he says he expected from
11:18Frank or Frank's friends. Final proof, says Lanford. Chief Lanford and Scott announced
11:24Thursday that they considered the Negro's final affidavit proof conclusive of the suspected
11:28superintendent's guilt, and were thereby ready to place the case on trial at any date set by the
11:33Superior Court, before which it will be tried sometime during the latter part of next month.
11:38They admit being puzzled, however, by certain discrepancies in matters of time, as explained in the Negro's
11:44second affidavit, and which are contradicted by witnesses who testified before the coroner's
11:49jury. They expect, though, to clear up this condition by the cross-examination under which
11:54they placed the Negro last night.
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