00:00Says Conley Confessed Slaying. The Atlanta Georgian, Thursday, July 10, 1913.
00:06Editor's Note. Articles with the titles, Tells of Conley Confession and Says Conley Confessed
00:11also appeared in other editions of the Georgian. Negro Made Boast of Killing a Girl, Agent
00:16Declares. Attorneys for Frank Will Put Main Reliance of Defense on the startling affidavit
00:21made by W. H. Mincy and now in their possession. That Jim Conley, Negro Sweeper at the National
00:26Pencil Factory, made a virtual confession to him that he attacked and killed Mary Fagan
00:31is the startling allegation made in an affidavit by W. H. Mincy until recently a solicitor for
00:38the American Insurance Company of 115 1⁄2 N. Pryor Street. It became known Thursday that
00:44this affidavit, which is in the hands of the defense, will be the principal reliance, aside
00:50from the alibis which have been established for Frank in bringing an acquittal of the accused
00:55man and obtaining a conviction against the Negro. No other evidence, in all of the more
01:00than two months' investigation of the mystery, has been so damning and so direct. The defense
01:05has practically only to establish the credibility of Mincy to assure itself of victory, said he
01:11had killed Girl. This sensational information is the first hint that the public has had that
01:16the Negro was alleged to have made a confession of the crime. Up to this time, the detectives
01:21have said that Conley has denied all connection with the killing itself.
01:25I've killed a girl today. I don't want to kill nobody else, are the words that Mincy swore Conley
01:30spoke to him the afternoon that Mary Fagan was murdered in the pencil factory. Mincy, at the
01:35time of which his affidavit relates, was selling life insurance in the Negro districts. He knew
01:40Conley and had been after him several times to take out life insurance, according to the story he told
01:45in the office of Attorney Rosser. Conley was drunk. On the afternoon of the murder of Mary
01:51Fagan, he met Conley near Electric and Carter Streets. Conley was sitting down with his head
01:55in his hands, apparently intoxicated.
01:58How about that insurance? Mincy says, he asked Conley.
02:00Get away from here. I don't want no insurance, Conley is said to have replied.
02:04Mincy says in his affidavit that he urged Conley further and that the Negro appeared to be angry.
02:09I tell you, I don't want no insurance. I'm in trouble. I don't want you to bother me.
02:13Mincy swears, Conley retorted. Mincy asserts that he stayed to argue with Conley and that the Negro
02:18finally said, you go away. I'll be in jail in a few days and I won't want any insurance.
02:23Negro was enraged. His sartartling confession of murder is alleged to have come when he became
02:28enraged at Mincy's continued importunities. The Negro jumped to his feet and advanced toward
02:33Mincy menacingly, according to the affidavit. I've killed a girl today. I don't want to kill nobody
02:38else, Mincy declared. Conley shouted at him. Mincy thought little of the remark at the time
02:43regarding Conley's remarks as mere braggadocio or an exaggeration of some Negro fight in which he
02:48had been involved. When he read of the Fagan murder, he recalled the remarks of Conley.
02:54Goes to factory. On the Tuesday following the strangling of the little girl, he went to the
02:59factory. He talked to E.F. Holloway, the day watchman, and asked him how many Negroes were
03:04employed there. Holloway replied that there were seven or eight. You should have every one of them
03:09arrested at once, Mincy told swears Conley, boasted of slaying W.H. Mincy, insurance agent,
03:15make startling affidavit for frank defense, continued from page one, him, and then he told
03:20of his meeting with Conley. Holloway replied that Conley had not been in the factory that day,
03:25no one knowing at the time that the Negro had hidden himself in the boxes to the right of the
03:30stairway on the first floor. The shock of the tragedy had not yet worn off, and all was confusion
03:35in the building. Because no one suspected that Conley had been in the factory on the Saturday of
03:40the crime, a fact which Conley later admitted when under the third degree of the detectives,
03:45little attention was paid to Mincy's story at the time, says police wouldn't listen. He states that he
03:52went to the police station and was told that they did not want his story. He saw Conley and identified
03:57him as the Negro with whom he talked on the afternoon that Mary Fagan was murdered.
04:01When Conley himself broke down and admitted that he had been hiding on the first floor,
04:06Mincy's sensational story took on the highest significance. He returned to the factory and
04:11repeated the details of his former statement. An interview was arranged with a lawyer acquaintance
04:16not connected with the case in any way. This attorney heard his story and took him to Attorney Rosser,
04:22where the statement was taken in sworn form. We do not want your statement unless you can swear to
04:28the truth of every word of it, he was told. He then dictated the affidavit, which is now in
04:33possession of the defense. Mincy was a solicitor for the American Insurance Company until about two
04:38weeks ago. He left this firm to teach school. He is said to be employed in Chattanooga, but will
04:43return to testify at the trial of Leo Frank, July 28th. He lived at 128 Davis Street until last October
04:50and then moved to another part of the city. Defense has faith in it. Uncovering for the first time the
04:55bulwark of defense which Frank's lawyers have built up around him, as well as containing the first report
05:01of a confession from Conley, the affidavit signed by Mincy at once takes its place as the most important
05:06document or piece of evidence that has entered into the case. Yes, we have the affidavit, admitted one
05:12of the lawyers for the defense Thursday afternoon. We have had it for some time. We place the utmost
05:18reliance in it. We believe this man is telling the truth. It forms one of the strongest foundations
05:23for our belief in the guilt of Jim Conley. C.J. Graham of the law firm of Graham and Chpapel
05:29announced on Thursday that the hearing on the writ of habeas corpus for Newt Lee had been set by Judge
05:35Ellis for Saturday forenoon at 10 o'clock. He said that he would subpena 50 witnesses to appear at the
05:41hearing, among them Leo M. Frank and Jim Conley. Frank's attorneys will fight his appearance at the
05:47hearing, and the state is expected to try to prevent Conley from testifying. Solicitor Dorsey is
05:52strongly opposed to the freeing of Lee until after the trial of Frank, and has declared that he will
05:57use every effort to thwart the movement of Lee's attorneys.
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