00:00Lanford tells why Conley was placed in police station, Atlanta Journal Sunday, June 1, 1913.
00:06Chief of detectives gives out statement relative to transfer of prisoner from the tower to
00:11headquarters. Further questioning is planned by detectives. No arrangement yet made for Negro to
00:16confront frank report of finding girls purse proves without foundation. The prosecuting
00:22officials connected with the Fagan case all denied Saturday evening that the state's theory of the
00:27murder has been changed by anything that the Negro sweeper Conley has said but the fact that
00:32the Negro was transferred to police headquarters where he can be freely examined by the detectives
00:38seems to show that the officials are not fully satisfied with Conley's story of the crime as
00:43it now stands. Conley was permitted to leave the jail on an order signed by Judge L.S. Roan of
00:49the
00:49Superior Court. Conley was perfectly willing to accompany the officers anywhere they desired to
00:54take him. From the jail he was carried by Deputy Newt Garner to the solicitor's office and it is
01:00said that only after the solicitor had talked with the Negro two hours and gone over all of the
01:05rough places in the story was the decision to take him to police headquarters rather than the jail
01:10reached. Reason for transfer. Two reasons are assigned by Detective Chief N.A. Lanford for the
01:16removal of Conley from the Fulton County jail back to the state cell in police headquarters where he was
01:21imprisoned for more than three weeks. The first according to the chief is that Conley requested
01:27that he be transferred back stating an explanation or his request that he was greatly annoyed Friday
01:32night by persons who came to visit in the tower. A second reason advanced by the chief is that the
01:37detectives themselves prefer to have Conley at police headquarters where he will be easily accessible
01:42at any time they desire to further interview him in regard to the Fagan murder. There is so much red
01:49tape
01:49at the jail concerning the admission of officers to see prisoners, said the chief. We wanted Conley
01:54where we could get to him at any time we thought advisable. Chief Lanford says he reported to police
01:59Chief Beavers what Conley had said and the latter then went before Judge L.S. Roan and obtained the order
02:05for the transfer. Conley still maintains that he is ready and anxious to face Leo M. Frank,
02:10superintendent of the National Pencil Factory, with his accusations. The detectives and other state
02:15authorities are also endeavoring to bring the two principal figures in the murder mystery together
02:20in order that they may watch the demeanor of the two men. When the Negro sweeper accuses the factory
02:26superintendent of being the slayer of Mary Fagan, must get consent. The detectives will be unable to stage
02:33the dramatic meeting without the consent of Frank's attorney Luther Z. Rosser, however, and there is little
02:38probability of his going into the matter before Monday. It was rumored efforts might be made to transfer
02:43Frank to police headquarters, where he would be under the jurisdiction of the city authorities and not
02:47the sheriff, but the rumor is groundless. Solicitor Dorsey refuses to comment on the statement of Conley
02:53as made to him in a two-hours conference at his office Saturday, closely examined. It is understood
02:59that the solicitor vigorously cross-examined Conley and made the Negro go into the most minute detail on
03:04every point in the case. The Negro is said to have made no important variations from the story he told
03:09the detectives Thursday, and the story he recounted with illustrations, when he was carried to the
03:14scene of the tragedy on Friday afternoon. Chief of police J. L. Beavers, who heard Conley's recital
03:20of his part in the tragedy at the pencil factory, was present at the examination before solicitor
03:25Dorsey, and together the officials looked for flaws and rough places in the story. Conley's admission
03:31that he was an accessory after the fact of the crime has naturally made him the principal witness in
03:36the case, and the detectives are making every effort to secure corroborative statements, which
03:41bear even on the seemingly unimportant points of his sensational recital. Detectives Campbell and
03:47Starnes were present at the latter part of the Negro's examination by Chief Beavers and the solicitor,
03:53and they, it is said, will work towards securing evidence of a corroborating nature.
03:57Attorney William M. Smith has been requested by relatives of Conley to look after the Negro's
04:02interests, and he was admitted to the conference for a short time. Mr. Smith made no objection to
04:08the transfer of the Negro to police headquarters, and says that he is willing for Conley to remain
04:12there as long as the detectives desire to keep him. He is also desirous of bringing about the
04:17meeting of Conley and the man he accuses of the crime, mesh bag still missing. Persistent rumor that
04:23the missing mesh bag, said to have been carried by Mary Fagan on the day she met her death,
04:27and been located by the police, was silenced late Saturday night when Detective Hollingsworth
04:33asserted that the bag pawned by a Negro Wednesday and thought at first to have been the Fagan girls
04:37had been identified as the property of another. The Negro pawned the purse with Barney Morris,
04:4392 Decatur Street, and the latter instantly became suspicious. As a result, the Negro was quizzed,
04:50but proved conclusively that the bag had been given to him by a woman for whom he worked.
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