- 2 days ago
Monday, June 2nd, 1913
Mary Phagan Met Death on First Floor, Is Claim
Defense Will Endeavor to Show That Conley Struck Her in Head and Threw Her Down Elevator Shaft
ELEVATOR WAS NOT MOVED APRIL 26, IT IS CONTENDED
Blood Spots on Second Floor Explained by Fact That Employes Frequently Cut Fingers—Theory in Detail
From apparently reliable authority it was learned Monday that the theory to be advanced in defense of Leo M. Frank, the pencil factory superintendent, who has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, will be that James Conley, the negro sweeper, and he alone, killed the girl and hid her body in the factory basement.
Notwithstanding Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank, maintains his sphinxlike attitude and declines to discuss the theory of the defense, it is understood that the arguments in Frank's favor will be based upon the idea that Conley was without assistance in the commission of the crime and that Frank had no knowledge whatever of it.
The defense will, it is said, take the position that Mary Phagan was killed on the first floor of the factory at the foot of the stairs where the negro admits he was in hiding. The suggestion of the girl having been killed on the second floor, as declared by Conley in his affidavit of confession, will, it is said, be ridiculed.
It will be contended that Conley was in hiding on the first floor from about 9 o'clock in the morning, most probably with the intention of robbing some of the women employes who came for their pay.
It will be shown that many of the incidents which the negro swears happened while he was secluded among the boxes by the stairs occurred before Frank went over to Nelson street, and therefore, the negro must be lying when he says that he met the superintendent at the corner of Nelson and Forsyth streets and followed him back to the factory sometime between 10:30 and 11 o'clock.
The several different versions of the negro's story will be cited to show that he began by lying and only made admissions that he had knowledge of the crime when he was caught in lies. The claim will be set up that the negro is very cunning, had a perfect knowledge of the pencil factory and its operations, and has kept thoroughly posted on everything that has been published about the murder. This will be urged to substantiate the allegation that he has endeavored to make his "confession" fit the facts so far revealed.
ELEVATOR DIDN'T RUN.
But it will be insisted that despite the negro's cunning he has made many palpable misstatements of facts. Not only will it be claimed that the negro was in the factory in hiding long before Frank went to Nelson street, as is indicated by certain incidents described in detail, but it will be contended that contrary to the negro's statement the elevator did not run on Saturday, April 26.
Mary Phagan Met Death on First Floor, Is Claim
Defense Will Endeavor to Show That Conley Struck Her in Head and Threw Her Down Elevator Shaft
ELEVATOR WAS NOT MOVED APRIL 26, IT IS CONTENDED
Blood Spots on Second Floor Explained by Fact That Employes Frequently Cut Fingers—Theory in Detail
From apparently reliable authority it was learned Monday that the theory to be advanced in defense of Leo M. Frank, the pencil factory superintendent, who has been indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan, will be that James Conley, the negro sweeper, and he alone, killed the girl and hid her body in the factory basement.
Notwithstanding Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank, maintains his sphinxlike attitude and declines to discuss the theory of the defense, it is understood that the arguments in Frank's favor will be based upon the idea that Conley was without assistance in the commission of the crime and that Frank had no knowledge whatever of it.
The defense will, it is said, take the position that Mary Phagan was killed on the first floor of the factory at the foot of the stairs where the negro admits he was in hiding. The suggestion of the girl having been killed on the second floor, as declared by Conley in his affidavit of confession, will, it is said, be ridiculed.
It will be contended that Conley was in hiding on the first floor from about 9 o'clock in the morning, most probably with the intention of robbing some of the women employes who came for their pay.
It will be shown that many of the incidents which the negro swears happened while he was secluded among the boxes by the stairs occurred before Frank went over to Nelson street, and therefore, the negro must be lying when he says that he met the superintendent at the corner of Nelson and Forsyth streets and followed him back to the factory sometime between 10:30 and 11 o'clock.
The several different versions of the negro's story will be cited to show that he began by lying and only made admissions that he had knowledge of the crime when he was caught in lies. The claim will be set up that the negro is very cunning, had a perfect knowledge of the pencil factory and its operations, and has kept thoroughly posted on everything that has been published about the murder. This will be urged to substantiate the allegation that he has endeavored to make his "confession" fit the facts so far revealed.
ELEVATOR DIDN'T RUN.
But it will be insisted that despite the negro's cunning he has made many palpable misstatements of facts. Not only will it be claimed that the negro was in the factory in hiding long before Frank went to Nelson street, as is indicated by certain incidents described in detail, but it will be contended that contrary to the negro's statement the elevator did not run on Saturday, April 26.
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00:00Frank's defense is outlined. Atlanta Journal, Monday, June 2nd, 1913. Mary Fagan met death on
00:06first floor. His claim defense will endeavor to show that Conley struck her in head and threw
00:10her down elevator shaft. Elevator was not moved, April 26th, it is contended. Blood spots on second
00:16floor. Explained by fact that employees frequently cut fingers theory in detail. From apparently
00:21reliable authority, it was learned Monday, that the theory to be advanced in defense of Leo M.
00:26Frank, the pencil factory superintendent who has been indicted for the murder of Mary Fagan,
00:31will be that James Conley, the Negro sweeper, and he alone, killed the girl and hid her body in the
00:37factory basement. Notwithstanding Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Frank, maintains his sphinx-like
00:43attitude and declines to discuss the theory of the defense, it is understood that the arguments in
00:49Frank's favor will be based upon the idea that Conley was without assistance in the commission
00:54of the crime, and that Frank had no knowledge whatever of it. The defense will, it is said,
01:00take the position that Mary Fagan was killed on the first floor of the factory at the foot of the
01:04stairs where the Negro admits he was in hiding. The suggestion of the girl having been killed on
01:09the second floor, as declared by Conley in his affidavit of confession, will, it is said, be ridiculed.
01:16It will be contended that Conley was in hiding on the first floor from about nine o'clock in the
01:20morning, most probably with the intention of robbing some of the women employees who came for
01:25their pay. It will be shown that many of the incidents which the Negro swears happened while
01:29he was secluded among the boxes by the stairs, occurred before Frank went over to Nelson Street,
01:35and therefore the Negro must be lying when he says that he met the superintendent at the corner of
01:40Nelson and Forsyth Streets, and followed him back to the factory sometime between 10.30 and 11 o'clock.
01:46The several different versions of the Negro story will be cited to show that he began by lying
01:51and only made admissions that he had knowledge of the crime when he was caught in lies. The claim
01:57will be set up that the Negro is very cunning, had a perfect knowledge of the pencil factory and its
02:01operations, and has kept thoroughly posted on everything that has been published about the
02:06murder. This will be urged to substantiate the allegation that he has endeavored to make his
02:11confession fit the facts so far revealed. Elevator didn't run, but it will be insisted that despite
02:17the Negro's cunning he has made many palpable misstatements of facts. Not only will it be
02:22claimed that the Negro was in the factory and hiding long before Frank went to Nelson Street,
02:26as is indicated by certain incidents described in detail, but it will be contended that contrary
02:31to the Negro's statement, the elevator did not run on Saturday, April 26th. Just how the defense
02:37will show this is not known, but that it feels that it can make such a showing, and one that
02:42will be
02:42convincing is admitted by the close friends of Frank. The Negro statement that he obtained from
02:47the cotton room on the second floor, a large piece of gunny sack which he tied about the girl's body,
02:52will be challenged, and evidence will be submitted to show that on the fatal Saturday there were no
02:57empty gunny sacks in the cotton room, that the only sacks there were filled with cotton, and that
03:02these were still in place on the following Monday. To further substantiate this allegation, it will be
03:08pointed out that the gunny sack which the Negro said he tied about the body, and which he declares
03:13he threw on the trash pile by the boiler along with the girl's hat, and one of her shoes has
03:18never been
03:18found. The hat and shoe were discovered on this trash pile a short while after the body was found,
03:24but there was no gunny sack there. Theory of killing. The theory of the defense will be, it is said,
03:30that after Mary Fagan got her pay envelope she immediately left the office on the second floor
03:34and proceeded down the stairs toward the street, that just as she reached the bottom, the Negro,
03:40who was in hiding and who had seen her swinging a mesh handbag, stepped out from behind the boxes
03:44and struck her a blow on the head with a stick. Attention will be called to the fact that the
03:49big
03:49doors leading to the street were closed, and it was entirely possible for the girl to have been
03:53felled without anyone outside on the street or anyone upstairs in the office being any the wiser.
03:59Having knocked the girl down and rendered her unconscious, it will be contended, it is said,
04:03that the Negro quickly pushed her through the elevator shaft, which was but six or eight feet
04:08to his left. Fearing that the girl may have recognized him and apprehending that she was not
04:13dead, the Negro climbed down the ladder through the cubbyhole and quickly tore off the hem of her
04:18underskirt, which he knotted around her neck, it being the most available instrument to check any
04:23possible outcry, after which he hunted around the basement and found a length of cord, which abounds
04:29in all parts of the factory. Looping this cord around the girl's neck so that when it was pulled the
04:34knot would tighten, the Negro dragged her back to the sawdust bin in the rear of the basement, where her
04:39body was found. It will be contended. When he went back to the elevator shaft, he found her hat and
04:45her purse, it will be argued. He placed the purse in his pocket, took the hat, and started back toward
04:50the
04:50rear of the basement. On the way he picked up one of the girl's slippers, which had come off while
04:55she was being dragged. The hat and the slipper he tossed on the trash pile by the boiler. In the
05:01darkness of the elevator shaft he overlooked the parasol, which he had tossed down with the girl's
05:06body. Object of notes. With a view, it is said, to directing suspicion to the other Negroes employed
05:12in the factory, Conley wrote the two notes found near the body. The tablet paper upon which these were
05:18written, it will be asserted, can be found in all parts of the factory. One of them, the yellow order
05:23blank book, it will be claimed, belonged to an old discarded series and was more likely to be on the
05:28trash pile than in the office. The suggestion will, it is said, be advanced that the Negro first wrote
05:34the two-line note which simply stated, That long, tall, black Negro did it by his self. Conceiving the
05:40idea that a note directed to the girl's mother might further lift suspicion from him, the Negro then wrote
05:46the second, in which he referred to the long, tall, black Negro and the night watchman. When the Negro
05:52got ready to leave the factory, it will be asserted he found that Frank had gone to lunch and had
05:56locked
05:56the front doors. Then there was nothing left for him to do but pull the staple from the back basement
06:01door and make his escape from the factory through it. Blood spots explained. Little credence will, it is said,
06:08be placed by the defense in the alleged blood spots found near the dressing room door in the metal room
06:13on the second floor. It will be argued that these spots may or may not be blood, and to explain
06:19them if they are
06:20blood, it will be shown that several times each week the employees cut their fingers and hands and the wounds
06:25frequently bleed on the floor. It will be asserted by witnesses, it is said, that large quantities of anilines and
06:31paints resembling blood are used at the factory, and that possibly the spots at the dressing room door are nothing
06:38more than
06:38paint. To further strengthen this idea, it will be pointed out that the Negro claims to have first
06:43found the girl's body in the little alleyway near the women's lavatory, some fifty or seventy-five feet
06:49from the alleged blood marks, and yet not a sign of blood can be discovered there, although if the Negro
06:54story is true, the body must have lain there for some time. Even admitting the truth of the Negro's
07:00statements, the defense will, it is claimed, call attention to the fact that the body remained at the
07:05dressing room door, where the Negro says he dropped it, only so long as it required him to rush up
07:10to
07:10the front and call Frank to help him to the elevator with it. Therefore, it will be insisted, if there
07:16was to have been any blood on the floor, it would most likely have been at the spot where the
07:20body first
07:21fell, and where it lay for so long. Of course, the above may not be the complete theory of the
07:27defense,
07:27but it is understood that the point set out will form the portions of the theory. Frank keeps cheerful,
07:33confident of acquittal. Friends of Superintendent Leo M. Frank, who called upon him at the Fulton
07:39County Jail Sunday, declare that they found him in excellent spirits. He patted several of his most
07:45intimate friends on the shoulder and advised them not to worry, declaring that everything would come
07:50out all right. The indicted superintendent seemed to feel, it is said, that the affidavit of confession made by
07:55James Conley, the Negro sweeper, sheds the first real light on the pencil factory tragedy, and he
08:01entertains the confident hope, it is said, that Conley will, under continued grueling by the detectives,
08:07clear up every element of mystery surrounding the murder. When this is done, Superintendent Frank
08:12expects, it is said, to be exonerated from all participation in or knowledge of the crime.
08:18Frank reminded his friends that he had, without reservation or evasion, answered every question
08:23which had been put to him by the detectives and the coroner, and that up to date not a statement
08:27he made had been disproven. He called the attention of his friends to the fact that after he returned
08:33to the factory at three o'clock on the afternoon of the murder, he worked for hours making out a
08:38financial statement, and asked them if they believed it possible for him to have gotten his mind on
08:44figures and calculations, if he had even known there was a dead body in the basement, to say nothing
08:49of what would have been his state of mind if he was burdened with the guilt of a murder.
08:53Conley sticks to story, to be questioned again. For the first time since his arrest, three days
09:01after the murder of Mary Fagan, James Conley, the Negro sweeper, was provided with clean clothing
09:06Monday morning. His wife brought the clothing to police headquarters. The Negro asserts that this
09:12is the first change of clothes he has made since Friday, April 25th. Conley still sticks to his
09:17confession. He insists that he has told the full truth, and that all he had to do with the murder
09:23of
09:23the girl, was to assist Frank in taking her body to the factory basement and to write the two alibi
09:28notes, which he says he wrote at Frank's dictation. The Negro continues to assert that he would like
09:35to face Frank and tell his story face to face with the indicted superintendent. Both Chief of Police
09:40Beavers and Chief Lanford are anxious that Frank be confronted with the Negro. Monday morning Chief
09:45Beavers telephoned the office of Luther Z. Rosser, Chief Counsel for Frank, it being his purpose to make
09:51formal request of Mr. Rosser for a meeting between Frank and the Negro. Mr. Rosser was engaged at the
09:57court hours, and Chief Beavers announced that later in the day he would probably call upon Mr. Rosser in
10:02person and ask that the meeting be arranged. The detectives hold to the opinion that Conley has
10:07told the truth in his confession, but Chief Lanford says that he will not discontinue his efforts to get
10:12further information from the Negro. We will continue to question him from time to time,
10:16said the Chief. While we credit the Negro's story as related in his affidavit, we do not propose to
10:22rest upon our oars. What we want is the truth about this crime. We do not wish that an innocent
10:27man shall be prosecuted or punished, and if it could be shown to my satisfaction that Frank had
10:32nothing to do with the murder, I would not hesitate to say so, regardless of public sentiment or my
10:37previous conclusions. Detectives seek purse carried by girl. The detectives are continuing a vigorous
10:45search for the pocketbook of Mary Fagan, no trace of which has been found in the weeks which have
10:50passed since her murder on April 26th. It was learned Monday that detectives have carefully and
10:56systematically searched the home of James Conley, the Negro sweeper, without finding the pocketbook,
11:02nor the hat ribbon which is missing. The detectives received reports that factory employees
11:07found the purse in the elevator a short time after the tragedy, but so far as can be learned,
11:12these reports are without foundation. Indictment not likely. It has been reported that efforts will
11:18be made to indict Conley as an accessory after the fact of the murder at the special meeting of the
11:24Fulton County Grand Jury, which will be held on Tuesday. This is extremely improbable, as there is
11:30little chance of any court action on Conley's case until after the trial of Superintendent Frank.
11:36Chief of Detectives Lanford declares that he is not worried over the disappearance of Mrs.
11:41Nina Formsby, the woman who made an affidavit to the effect that Frank called up her house a number
11:46of times between 6 and 10 p.m. on the evening of the tragedy. Mrs. Formsby alleged that the factory
11:52superintendent wanted to secure a room. Chief Lanford states that he will be able to produce the woman if
11:58she is needed. Mrs. Formsby is out of the city visiting friends, it is said.
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