This video follows the Atlanta Journal of April 30, 1913, on Newt Lee's testimony at the coroner's inquest. Lee was the night watchman at the National Pencil Factory. Mary Phagan had been found dead in the basement.
Called at 11:45, Lee said he lived at 40 Henry Street and had worked at the factory about three weeks. He testified that he found Mary Phagan on her back, her head toward the back of the building, west toward Madison Avenue. He knew by her long brown hair that she was a white woman, and he had never seen her. He answered, "I didn't turn it over," and, asked if he had touched the body, "No, sir, I did not." Officers swore they found her face down, head toward the front, to the east. Lee said the body was "just the same" when he returned with them.
Lee said Superintendent Frank told him more than once on Friday to come at 4 Saturday, a half holiday. At 4, Frank met him outside the inner office, said he was sorry Lee had come so soon, and sent him out until about 6. Lee returned a few minutes before 6. Frank was still there. They replaced the time-clock slip, and Lee punched at 6.
At the street door he met Mr. Gantt, a former bookkeeper, who wanted shoes left in the building. Lee said Frank looked frightened on the stairs. He thought Frank feared trouble because they had quarreled and Frank had discharged Gantt. Frank said, "Take him up there and stay with him," and left. Gantt got the shoes, phoned that he would be home about 9, and stayed about half an hour. Lee did not watch Frank leave. The Journal notes that Frank had a key and could have returned.
About 7, Lee went down the ladder. The gas at its foot was very low, not as he had left it that morning. Between 7 and 8, Frank called for the first time and asked if everything was all right. Lee said, "So far as I know." He said he found the body on that trip. He first thought someone had left something to frighten him, then saw blood and called the police. Frank had given him the station number and his own number. He did not go back to the basement until the police came. Policeman Anderson corroborated the dim gas.
Lee said he punched the clock every half hour. After his arrest he thought Frank and Mr. Darley called the clock record regular, and that on Sunday Frank said the clock was all right. He thought the fireman, named Knollys here, had a key to the back door.
The lead calls this slightly damaging to Frank: the hours from 4 to 6, the frightened look, and the new call. It also asks whether someone was still in the basement, and whether the furnace, which was not burning, had been meant for the body. Those are the reporter's questions, not established facts. The paper says Lee implicated no one directly. The inquest adjourned at 12:40 until 2:15.
Source: The Atlanta Journal, Wednesday Evening, April 30, 1913, Last Edition, page 1, columns 7-8, and page 6, columns 3-6.
