00:00Luther Z. Rosser, attorney for Frank, trains his guns on City Detective Chief, the Atlanta Journal.
00:05Tuesday, June 10th, 1913, says Chief Lanford is not seeking for truth of murder.
00:10He charges that the Detective Chief has banked his sense and reputation on proving Frank guilty.
00:15Why hasn't Conley been before jury? Attorney declares evidence all points to Negro, says
00:20Felder Lanford. Controversy. Unfair to his client, Luther Z. Rosser, chief counsel for Leo M. Frank,
00:27the pencil factory superintendent who is under indictment for the murder of Mary Fagan,
00:31Tuesday afternoon broke his persistent silence regarding the case and gave out a statement for
00:36publication. Mr. Rosser gives as a reason for this statement the fact that Thomas B. Felder has
00:41publicly charged Detective Chief Lanford with trying to shield Frank and that the Detective Chief has
00:46in turn publicly accused Felder with having been employed in the interest of Frank. The accuracy
00:51of both charges is denied. Mr. Rosser asserts that Chief Lanford has banked his sense and
00:57reputation as both a man and politician on Frank's guilt, and that if he had been seeking the
01:01murderer of Mary Fagan with an open mind and not seeking to vindicate his announced opinion of
01:06Frank's guilt, the Negro Conley would have already told the whole truth. Mr. Rosser declares that both
01:11the actions and statements of the Negro Conley bear the marks of guilt. He states that in making his
01:17revelations concerning the murder, Conley is handicapped by Lanford's opinion. Mr. Rosser inquires
01:22why it was the detectives did not present Conley as a witness before the coroner's jury, and why they
01:27now prevent him from telling his story to the grand jury, which he says should determine whether the
01:32Negro should be indicted, and if so on what count. Mr. Rosser's statement. Following is Mr. Rosser's
01:39statement in full. Editor. The Journal. Felder and Lanford, in an effort to make progress in their feud,
01:45charge each the other with giving aid to Leo Frank. Lanford charges that Felder was employed by Frank,
01:50and is seeking for that reason to shield him. Felder charges that Lanford and his associates are also
01:55seeking for some reason to shield and protect Frank. Both charges are untrue, and at a time when no harm
02:01could come to an innocent man, might well be treated as antidotes to monotony. Unfortunately, however,
02:07the present situation is such that fair-minded citizens may be misled by these counter-charges.
02:12Felder does not, nor has he at any time, directly or indirectly, represented Frank. For Lanford to charge
02:17the contrary, does Frank a serious injustice. If Chief Lanford had been in a sane, normal mood,
02:23he would have known that every act of Felder has been against Frank. The engagement of the Burns
02:27agency, other to have satisfied Lanford, no detective agency of half-prudence would have
02:33double-crossed the Atlanta Department in the Fagan case, nor did Felder have excuse for suspicion
02:38against Lanford. There was reason to suspect his fairness, his accuracy, and the soundness of his
02:43methods, but not his reckless zeal against Frank. Had Felder been in a calm mood, I am sure he would
02:49never have charged the chief and his associates with intention to help Frank. Lanford, at once as
02:54soon as Felder charged him with favoring Frank, settled in his mind the guilt of Frank, and from
02:59that moment has vent every energy of his department, not in finding the murderer, but in trying to prove to
03:05the public that Felder was wrong in charging him with trying to shield Frank. Frank's moral life
03:10stands test, says Chief Lanford is not seeking for truth of murder, continued from page one.
03:16His department has exhausted itself in an effort to fix upon Frank an immoral life, on the theory
03:22that a violator of the Seventh Commandment was likewise a murderer. This effort has failed. No man
03:27in Atlanta has had his moral character subjected to such a test, and there is not in the whole city
03:32of Atlanta a half-dozen men who could have more successfully stood the test. His employees,
03:37without a single exception, have made affidavits to his uprightness. Lanford's department subpoenaed
03:42every one of them before the coroner's jury, and after keeping them more than two days, did not
03:47dare to swear a single one of them. Before and after the coroner's verdict, this whole city has been
03:52combed with a fine-tooth comb, and a light combing has been applied to Brooklyn, the city of his birth,
03:57to find something against his moral character. With what result? The silence of the detective department
04:03gives the answer. Lanford's conduct in connection with the woman Formby and the negro Conley shows
04:09that he was stung by Felder's charge that he was favoring Frank, or that for some reason he
04:14was temporarily out of his head. He swallowed whole the statement of this Formby woman, bearing upon
04:20their face the clear proof that they were by no means to be believed. This woman was not unknown to
04:26Lanford. She did not entrap him by appearing under the guise of a truthful, sober, virtuous woman,
04:31but so absorbed was he, either in trying to disprove Felder's charge, or in the foolish pride of
04:37opinion that he accepted, without doubt or fair investigation, the drive and nonsense of this
04:42woman. Lanford's foolish theory. So far beside himself did he become that he had the folly to
04:47furnish to the papers, based upon this woman's statement, the theory that Frank, during the night
04:53of the murder, wishing to rid himself of the body, was seeking to do so in a room rented from
04:57this woman.
04:58The folly and difficulties of the theory did not disturb Lanford. They would have disturbed
05:03anybody but Lanford. His insane desire to justify himself cleared the matter of all difficulties and
05:09follies. If the case of the Formby woman did not clear Lanford of Felder's charge, that of the Conley
05:15negro ought to have done so. Conley is a very ordinary, ignorant, brutal negro, not unacquainted with the
05:22stockade. His actions immediately after the crime were suspicious, so much so that they attracted the
05:28attention of the employees of the factory and occasioned general comment. In spite of these facts,
05:34Conley was not taken into custody until several days after the crime, and not then until the
05:39employees of the factory caught him suspiciously washing a shirt, and as a result reported him to
05:44the police. He was not brought before the coroner's jury, and practically no notice was taken of him in
05:50that investigation. So swiftly was Lanford and his associates pursuing Frank, that they ran over this
05:56negro, standing in their path with the marks of guilt clearly upon him. Finally, the pressure of
06:01public suspicion brought this negro to Lanford's attention. Conley began to talk, and negro liked
06:07to talk so as to protect himself, and as a means thereto to cast suspicion upon someone else. Ordinarily,
06:13the detectives could be trusted not to aid the negro in an effort to clear himself by placing the crime
06:18on
06:18a white man, but in this case it is to be feared that the negro was not discouraged. Lanford had
06:24finally banked all his sense, all his reputation as a man and a politician upon Frank's guilt,
06:30and it would be remarkable if the discouraged this negro from involving Frank. If Lanford and his
06:35followers had acted wisely, and kept open minds seeking only the murderer, and not seeking to vindicate
06:41their announced opinions the negro would have by this hold the whole truth.
06:48Conley's Many Statements Conley made one statement. It did not meet the announced opinions of Lanford.
06:54He made another. This second was not up to the mark. It did not sufficiently show Frank's guilt.
07:00Another was made, which was supposed to be nearer the mark, whereupon there was great rejoicing.
07:05Forgetting all others, this last statement reached through such great tribulations was proclaimed the
07:10truth, the last truth, and that there would be no other statement. The detectives had at last got the
07:16statement which they thought sustained their views, saved their reputations, and ensured their places.
07:22But what a statement, so full of contradictions, so evidently made for self-protection, and wherein
07:27was so easily apparent the guiding hand of detectives. If Lanford meant to be fair, if was only seeking
07:34the truth, why did he rush into print with the assertion that this statement was the truth,
07:38truth, and therefore of necessity the last? Might he not in decency have left this negro to his own
07:44will, unbiased by the opinion that the statement was true, and the last to be given? Who knows but
07:50that this negro might have given numerous other statements if he had not been so heavily handicapped
07:55by Lanford's opinion? Lanford's Sucking Bottle
07:58The truth is, this negro is not to give any other or further statement if the detective department can
08:04prevent, unless made under their supervision and direction. He must, at all times, be under the
08:10influence and control of Lanford. He must have Lanford's Sucking Bottle at all times to his lips,
08:16sucking Lanford's views and theories of this case. The ragged places in his statement must be darned,
08:21the torn places patched, and no one but the detective department could be trusted to do that. No one has
08:27been
08:27rude enough to bring this negro before the grand jury, nor indeed to make any charge against him.
08:32After the statement of this negro, and in view of all the evidence which so strongly points to him
08:37as the slayer of little Mary Fagan, is the grand jury to leave him without charge or investigation
08:43to be wet nursed by Lanford until Frank's trial? Or is it the purpose to keep the negro's case from
08:48the grand jury in the nature of an offered reward to spur him on to swear his worst against the
08:54white
08:54man? Would it not be just and decent to bring this negro's case before the grand jury, and let that
09:00body hear his confession, so that it can then decide whether the negro should then be indicted?
09:05In the shadow of this great crime, let there be no thimble ringing, let no single fact be concealed,
09:11let no man's place or reputation stand in the way of the fullest, fairest investigation.
09:17Respectfully, Luther Z. Rosser
09:18I'll do it here.
09:18I've been here tonight.
09:18I'll do it here.
09:18I'll do it.
09:19I'm here.
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