00:00Frank asked room to conceal Body Believes Lanford, Atlanta Constitution, Monday, June 2, 1913.
00:06Detective Chief Forms new theory as to reason why prisoner is said to have phoned Mrs. Formby,
00:11her disappearance puzzling to officers. Lanford says he will find her in time for trial but does
00:16not know where she is now. That Leo M. Frank telephoned Mrs. Formby on the night of Mary
00:21Fagan's murder for a room to which he would be able to remove the victim's body and thereby
00:25lessen suspicion against himself is the theory on which Chief Newport Lanford is basing a search
00:31for Mrs. Formby which is extending over the entire South. She mysteriously disappeared several days
00:37ago. Efforts to locate her have been futile. The entire detective department is puzzled.
00:42The Pinkertons are mystified. Her whereabouts is a matter that interests detectives and the Pinkertons.
00:47Mrs. Formby, in a recent interview to a reporter for the Constitution, told him that she had been
00:52made several offers of money to leave Atlanta until the Mary Fagan trial had been completed.
00:58She also openly announced that within a short while she intended leaving the city for New Mexico,
01:03in which state she said she intended to live. Chief determined to find her. Chief Lanford says,
01:09however, that he will produce her at the trial of Leo M. Frank and that she will be an important
01:14witness. He admits, though, even with this announcement, that he has not yet been able to
01:18find her. We were able to find the girl's murderer, says the Chief, and surely we will
01:23be able to locate Mrs. Formby. His theory is that the suspected superintendent, after deliberating
01:29over the crime, the Chief accuses him of having committed, communicated over the telephone with
01:34Mrs. Formby to obtain a room to which he could remove the body, thereby lessening the suspicion
01:40which would likely cling to himself if the corpse remained in the factory basement, carried notes to
01:45basement. Chief Lanford's theory is that the superintendent, after Conley had departed from
01:51the pencil plant, carried the notes to the basement where the body had been placed. The staple was
01:56wrenched from the back door, so that in case a cab or other conveyance which might drive up the
02:02runway in rear of the building could back up to the door to receive the ghastly freight. He believes
02:08that Frank, when he discovered he could not obtain a room at Mrs. Formby's, the only woman he could trust,
02:13dared not communicate with any other place, so he went to his home, leaving the body in the basement.
02:20That is the Chief's theory as outlined to a reporter for the Constitution Sunday afternoon.
02:25It will be remembered that Conley, in his confession to having helped the superintendent remove the body
02:30to cellar, declared he did not see Frank take the notes from his desk in the office on the second
02:34floor, and that he knew nothing of the staple being extracted from the rear door. Mrs. Formby several days
02:40ago stated to a Constitution reporter that Frank had told her over the telephone that night that it was
02:45a matter of life or death, and that if she did not rent him a room in her place, she
02:49was liable to be
02:50killed. Corroboration of Mrs. Formby's story of the telephone messages is hinted by Lanford, who told
02:56the reporter Sunday afternoon that the telephone operators who testified before the grand jury on the
03:01Friday of its session were believed to have told of overhearing Frank's communication with the
03:06Formby woman. Lanford attacks Mangum. Chief Lanford, in a talk with the Constitution Sunday afternoon,
03:13wraps Sheriff C. Wheeler Mangum for his attitude in preventing the detectives from confronting Frank
03:18with the Negro Conley and his remarkable admission. The detective declares that Mangum is playing
03:24politics, and in an effort to remain in the office of Sheriff is catering to friends of his prisoner by
03:29refusing to admit the sleuths to the suspect's cell, will not reveal names. He will not reveal the names of
03:35the operators and will not state positively the nature of their evidence, except that the tell of
03:40certain telephonic communication alleged to have been held by the suspected pencil factory official
03:44during the night of the Mary Fagan tragedy. James Conley, the Negro sweeper, apparently feels safer in
03:50the police headquarters prison than he did in the tower. Chief Lanford says that it was at the Negro's
03:55request that he was removed to the station house. Attempts were made, the chief declares, to intimidate the
04:01imprisoned sweeper. This itself, says the chief, is evidence of Sheriff Mangum's partiality. He should
04:07have allowed no one to see the Negro, inasmuch as he kept everyone from Frank except his friends.
04:13Conley never asked to see any of those folks who came to his cell and threatened him. It's outrageous,
04:17that's all I can say about it. A new regime is needed. Politics and the Sheriff's administration
04:22can't go hand in hand. Conley has made no new confession. Lanford and his men say they do not
04:28expect anything more from him than the story that has already been told. Solicitor Dorsey even is
04:34said to have expressed the same opinion, that the sweeper is telling the unadulterated truth is the
04:39opinion of headquarters detectives and Superintendent Harry Scott of the Pinkertons.
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