Full text of "An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin"

FOR ART, who cannot witness injustice without speaking up> and who will never endure the companionship of an accusing conscience CONTENTS Chapter 1 "DIMPLES IN HER CHEEKS".. Chapter 2 "THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGAN MUST BE PAID FOR IN BLOOD' Chapter 3 "HOARSE AND TREMBLING AND NERVOUS AND EXCITED" Chapter 4 "THE SOUL OF HONOR" Chapter 5 "I COULD TELL IT WAS DLOOD DY LOOKING AT IT" Chapter 6 "A VICTIM WORTHY TO PAY FOR THE CRIME" Chapter 7 "MISCONDUCT AT THE FACTORY" Chapter 8 "HE WASN'T THERE EITHER" Chapter 9 "WE WANTED ANOTHER STATEMENT" Chapter 10 "MOST ALL A PACK OF LIES" Chapter 11 "ISN'T THIS A LARK?" lilt! T >*!^ .-"VA "THERE CAN BE BUT ONE VERDICT".... Chapter 13 "THE ASSENT OF A TERRORIZED JURY". "JEW MONEY HAS DEBASED US" Chapter 15 "RESPONSIBILITY RESTS WHERE THE POWER IS REPOSED' Chapter 16 "I AM ALIVE BY A BIG MAJORITY" Chapter 17 "CALMNESS AND DIGNITY" Chapter 18 "LIES HEAPED ON LIES" Major Figures in the Leo Frank Case. Timeline Glossary of Legal Terminology Further Reading '. Authors Note and Acknowledgments . Selected Bibliography Source Notes I > MARY PHAGAN Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan lived in the poor section of Atlanta, Georgia, but she dressed up like a high-society girl on the morning of Saturday, April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day. Even though the War Between the States had been fought thirty-five years before her birth, Mary was excited to celebrate the event. There would be a parade and fireworks, and rumor had it that the widow of the great Confederate general Stonewall Jackson would actually attend! After doing her morning chores and eating a breakfast of leftover cabbage and bread, Mary put on a pretty store-bought violet dress that accentuated her already well-developed figure. This was a holiday — a day when a little innocent flirting with boys would be fun. She carefully fixed a pair of bows in her thick auburn hair and then topped off the outfit with a blue straw hat that brought out the blue in her bright eyes. Her mother stood on the front porch watching Mary go and noticed her daughters excitement: "She had dimples in her cheeks." Clutching her silver mesh purse and a black parasol, Mary hurried through misty rain to catch the streetcar at 1 1:45. Sixteen-year-old Helen Ferguson remembered waving at Mary as Mary rode toward town. And George Epps, a fifteen-year-old newsboy, said he'd talked to her on the streetcar about watching the parade together. But Mary had to make one stop before she could celebrate: she had to pick up her pay. Mary worked at the National Pencil Company with more than a hundred other teenage girls. Because of a supply V I V A photograph of Mary Phagan taken a short time before her death. shortage of metal used to make pencil caps, she had only worked two shifts during the past week, but Mary wanted the $1.20 she had earned. Around noon that Saturday, she crossed beneath the granite facade of the National Pencil Company building to enter the factory. Mary Phagan never left the building alive. And she was not the only person to die. AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME of MARY PHAGAN i DISCOVERING THE BODY Seventeen-year-old Grace Hicks worked at the National Pencil Company. She'd enjoyed herself at Saturday's parade and was surprised when her policeman brother-in-law, W. W. "Boots" Rogers, telephoned her early Sunday morning. He told her that the police had found a body in the factory basement, and it was in such terrible condition that no one could identify it. Perhaps Grace might recognize the girl. Boots Rogers picked up Grace around 4:30 A.M. He drove back to the factory and led Grace through the trapdoor to the basement, where she identified the body as Mary Phagan, who worked with her in the metal department. Shocked at the sight, Grace later said that Mary "was bruised, in the face somewhere, and one of her teeth was knocked out." Grace thought Mary "looked like she had been hit with something right there/' pointing at her own face. "It was bruised, and a hole in her head, here. She had shavings all in her hair." She said Marys face "was mighty near black" with some sort of dirt or cinders. Grace couldn't bear to look any longer. "It scared me." The police wanted to notify Marys family Grace didn't know how to contact them, but she thought Helen Ferguson, another girl who worked at the factory might know. When they called Helen from the factory office, she said that Mary's family was too poor to afford a telephone. She volunteered to tell her friends mother and stepfather in person. The news would not come as a complete surprise, as Marys parents had waited up for her all night. After Marys father had died in Marietta, where Mary had been born, her mother married John Coleman and they raised Mary in Atlanta. Frannie Coleman had been so worried when Mary hadn't come home Saturday night that she'd sent her husband to town to look for her, thinking that Mary might have gone to the movies. John Coleman searched for nearly three hours. Then he came home and started knocking on neighbors' doors before using a friends phone to call police after midnight. 10 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME Around 5:30 A.M., John and Frannie Coleman learned what had happened to Mary when Helen knocked on their door. Mary's mother collapsed in shock at the description of her daughters death. At least she found out before the morning edition of the Atlanta Constitution splashed the news of Marys murder across its front page. Reporter Britt Craig had been in the police station when the telephone rang at 3:30 Sunday morning. "A white woman has been killed up here," said Newt Lee, the National Pencil Company's elderly, African American night watchman. Britt followed the police to the factory and climbed through the trapdoor into the basement, stumbling through the smoky darkness behind the officers. "Look out, white folks," warned Newt Lee, "you'll step on her." Neither Britt nor the policemen were surprised to hear Newt Lee call them "white folks." In 1913 Georgia, this form of address would have been considered a mark of respect from a black man who knew his place: below the whites who were in charge. The men stopped and shone their flashlights where Newt pointed. Britt could see a girl lying on the rubbish-strewn earthen floor, partially hidden beside a storage shed. The officers gently turned the body over and were shocked to see a cord cutting deeply into her throat. Her swollen tongue bulged out from a mouth choked with cinders and sawdust and stained with blood. One shoulder had been bitten. Her dress was pushed up above her knees, and the men saw blood that indicated the girl might have been "criminally assaulted," or "outraged" — 1913 euphemisms for rape. Britt was as angry as the officers that a young girl in a party dress lay dead and violated in the dirt of the factory basement. To these men, Mary Phagan was a child who should have been home with her family instead of having to work in a factory — especially one run by a northern businessman, as the National Pencil Company was. Britt took notes as the officers searched the basement. The men found a sliding wooden door that led to an alley. The door appeared to have been opened recently and then closed again. They also found one of Mary's shoes and a bloody handkerchief. As they raked through the sawdust and litter around the girl, they THE MURDER OF MARY PHAGAN MUST BE PAID FOR IN BLOOD" 1 1 found a note, scribbled in pencil on a sheet of white lined paper that matched a company notepad that lay nearby One officer read it aloud: he said he wood love me land down play like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro did boy his slef At that, Newt Lee muttered something. The other men thought he said, "White folks, that's me." Then the police found a second note beside Marys head. This one was written on a National Pencil Company order sheet: mam that negro hire doivn here did this i went to make water and he push me down that hole a long tall negro black that hoo it wase long s learn tall negro i wright while play with me These notes appeared to have been written very recently and could have been interpreted in two different ways. They might have been written by Mary just before she died, in a last-minute effort to identify her killer. Or they might have been written by the killer, to throw suspicion away from himself and onto someone else. Police records don t indicate exactly what the officers on the scene thought about the notes, but their immediate reaction was to turn on Newt Lee in fury "You did this/' said the sergeant, "or you know who did it." The night watchman began to shake. He insisted he hadn't done anything. But he was tall and had very dark skin, so to the officers, he looked like the man described in the notes. They also remembered his reaction to the first note. Newt Lee looked like the obvious suspect, and they immediately took him into custody. In 1913 the Atlanta police force was entirely white and, as reporter Harold Ross would later write, "The murder of Mary Phagan was the most brutal crime in the annals of the South. After the unfolding of the details the police did what they always do in Georgia — arrested a Negro." After the officers on the scene found the notes, Detectives John Starnes and John Black arrived to continue the investigation. While 12 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME trial 37 & 39 SOUTH FORSYT 1 ST. The two notes discovered near Mary Phagan's body. "' i top note reads: "mam it negro hire down here I this i went to make water and he push me down that hole a long tall negro ack that boo it wase long earn tall negro iwright while play with me" The bottom note reads: "he said he wood love me land down play like the nightwiteh did it but that long tall black negro did boy his slef" The these notes was important to the case. Atlanta, Ga., L PUT THIS OftDBR NUMBER ON YOhU BILL. --. — ■ * 1 1 W Phone Main 171. Order No ./2£ i t *>/ r "... 1 * y -f / ^ ?S ' t/fo/f - <jtL^L Britt Craig wrote his news story for the Atlanta Constitution and Helen Ferguson went to break the news to Marys parents, Detective Starnes searched the crime scene. He found Marys hat in the basement trash pile. He also studied the sliding wooden door more carefully and saw bloody handprints all over it. A metal pipe leaned against the wall nearby, and Starnes thought it might have been used to force the door open. There was no sign of Marys purse. Meanwhile, Detective Black was following a hunch. The detective had already provided evidence that had hung several criminals, and he wanted to be the one to find this girl's murderer. He was not satisfied with the idea of the old black man as the killer. As reporter Ross explained, Black and other members of the police realized something "which determined their whole future course of action: The murder of Mary Phagan must be paid for with blood. And a Negro's blood would not suffice. " But if Newt Lee was not to be charged with the crime, who should be? Something Lee said had bothered Detective Black. Lee claimed that he'd tried to call the factory superintendent, Leo Frank, after he'd found the body. When he got no answer, he called the police. The night watchman might be lying, of course, but if he was telling the truth, why hadn't Leo Frank answered his phone in the middle of the night? Even more troubling, the police had tried to call Leo Frank after arresting Newt Lee, and there was still no answer. They'd called and awakened other officials of the National Pencil Company with no trouble. Detective Black suspected that Leo Frank's refusal to answer his phone was important to the case. 14 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME 1 I CONFUSION When the telephone rang at 7:00 Sunday morning, twenty-nine- year-old Leo Frank felt a trace of unease. He had dreamed the telephone had rung in the middle of the night, and now its ringing came far too early for a social call. He lifted the receiver reluctantly. "Is this Mr. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Factory?" It was Detective Starnes. When Leo Frank answered yes, the detective told him he had to come to the factory immediately Leo objected, saying he hadnt had his breakfast yet, but Starnes insisted he would send a patrol car. The car arrived quickly, and Leo's wife, Lucille, invited the policemen to enter the home she and Leo shared with her parents. Leo came downstairs, only partially dressed. He questioned Detective Black and Boots Rogers with nervous distress, asking what had happened at the factory and whether the night watchman had reported anything. Detective Black interrupted him. "Mr. Frank, you had better get your clothes on and let us go to the factory and see what has happened." 15 Leo Frank in 1915, two years after the death of Mary Phagan. A To the detective, Leo's behavior seemed suspicious as he struggled with his tie. "His voice was hoarse and trembling and nervous and excited/' Black recalled. Boots Rogers also thought Leo looked nervous, and his questions were jumpy. But the police officers weren't particularly reassuring. Leo later remembered, "I asked them what the trouble was and the man who I afterwards found out was Detective Black hung his head and didn't say anything." A four-person conversation that was part of a police investigation should have been simple to document. But the confusion that would mar every step of the attempts to find out what had happened to Mary Phagan began that morning with this initial conversation between the police officers and the Franks. Leo, Lucille, and Boots Rogers recalled that Leo's wife offered everyone coffee, perhaps hoping that southern hospitality would calm the tension. But Detective Black remembered that Leo suggested the coffee. To the detective, it sounded as if the superintendent wanted to delay going to the factory. Leo recalled that the police asked him, in front of his wife, if he knew Mary Phagan. He told them he didn't. Then they asked, "Didn't a little girl with long hair hanging down her back come up to your office yesterday sometime for her money?" Leo agreed that a girl had indeed come to his office for her pay but said he didn't know her name was Mary Phagan. He had issued the $1.20 she had earned based on her employee number, not her name. Leo finished dressing and left with the officers, without any breakfast or coffee. All three men agreed that they drove to the mortuary to view the body Leo recalled looking closely at the girl and identifying her, but both Black and Rogers remembered the superintendent hanging back, then turning away nervously before they left to go to the factory. Detective Black observed everything Leo did with a suspicious eye. Trying to answer police questions, the superintendent fumbled through pay records to confirm that Mary Phagan was the girl he had paid on Saturday. When asked to take the group down to the basement, Leo asked again for coffee before struggling with the power switch and the cables of the manual elevator. In the end, an 'HOARSE AND TREMBLING AND NERVOUS AND EXCITED" 17 The police station in Atlanta, Georgia, as it was in 1913 at the time of the murder of Mary Phagan. Leo Frank was first questioned at this station. employee had to work the elevator. Black saw the superintendents nervousness and his requests for coffee as attempts to delay the moment when he would have to look at the scene of the crime. Once they reached the basement, Black thought it was significant that Leo paid little attention to the sawdust and cinders where police told him the body had lain but was distressed by the forced door with the bloody handprints. Then they all drove to the police station house, where officers wanted Leo to examine the two notes found beside Mary's body Despite the mild weather, Leo shivered uncontrollably as he sat in the front seat of the police car, adding to Detective Blacks suspicion. Leo felt he was only reacting naturally to police suspicion and a horrifying murder. Later, he would say, Imagine, awakened out of my sound sleep, and a run down in the cool of the morning in an automobile driven at top speed, without any food or breakfast, rushing into a dark passageway, coming into a darkened room, and then suddenly an electric light flashed on, and to see the sight that was presented by that poor little child; why, it was a sight that xuas enough to drive a man to distraction. Of course J was nervous; any man would be nervous if he was a man. Detective Black felt no sympathy for Leo Franks nervousness. He knew they needed to arrest a better suspect than Newt Lee quickly, before people criticized a police force that couldn't even find the villain who had attacked and murdered an innocent girl. As Atlanta's population had gone up, crime had increased. Unable to keep pace, the police force had gotten a reputation for failing to solve crimes. At times they tried to improve their success rate by resorting to brutality to get confessions when solid investigation didn't bring results. Unfortunately, the police got off to a poor start on this murder case by breaking the chain of evidence from the factory. When Leo arrived at the police station with the officers, there was no sign of the HOARSE AND TREMBLING AND NERVOUS AND EXCITED" 19 two notes they wanted him to see. The police would later discover that reporter Harold Ross of the Atlanta Journal had removed them to use in his paper, trying to make up for missing Britt Craigs scoop in the Atlanta Constitution. But in front of Leo, the police acted untroubled by this disappearance, even though the notes had not yet been examined by any expert or even dusted for fingerprints. Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford spoke with Leo briefly and then let him go and turned back to other leads. While officers interrogated Newt Lee, taking him back and forth between the station house and the factory basement, other detectives followed up a report from Edgar Sentell, a twenty-one-year-old grocery clerk who knew Mary Phagan. Sentell had read Britt Craigs story in the Constitution, and told police that he'd seen Mary around 12:30 Saturday night with twenty-four-year-old Arthur Mullinax, a streetcar conductor. That led some officers to a new theory. Perhaps the African American watchman had committed the murder, but not alone. Perhaps he had been paid to do it by a white man. When police questioned Mullinax, he confessed that he knew Mary and greatly admired her. They had both been in a church play the previous Christmas. Mary had been the star, and Mullinax admitted, "I couldn't keep my eyes off her." With no more substantial evidence than that, police arrested Arthur Mullinax on suspicion of murder. Another questionable lead would prompt them to also arrest James Gantt, a disgruntled former employee of the factory who had come by that Saturday claiming to want some shoes he'd left behind. But Detective Black wasn't convinced that these new leads were important. That morning he'd observed a nervous, excited man who seemed reluctant to see either the basement site where Mary had been found or the dead girl's body itself. Detective Black needed to know more about the factory superintendent. Who was this Leo Frank? 20 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME I A YANKEE IN ATLANTA Leo Frank had lived in Atlanta for nearly five years, but he still felt very much an outsider in the South. Although he was technically a southerner, having been born in Texas, Leo's parents had moved to Brooklyn, New York, in the summer of 1884 when he was only three months old. Rudolph and Rachel Frank had raised Leo as most New York Jewish parents raised their children at the time. He played with friends in the Brooklyn streets, went to the seaside in summer with his family, attended public schools, and played basketball on his high school team (which was undefeated his senior year, even in a game against the Yale University varsity team). He also read voraciously, and his imagination was so fired by the books he read that he named his small fleet of toy sailboats after the characters in James Fenimore Coopers Leatherstocking Tales series of novels. After graduating from the Pratt Institute, Leo studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University, where he was active on the debate team and made close friends who called him Max. He had also discovered a fascination with photography and enjoyed taking landscape photos. Morris Clurman wrote that Leo was well thought of "by his fellow students who loved him for his manly qualities, his warm-heartedness and his readiness at all times to help a friend. He was the soul of honor." William Lynn Ransom recalled, "He always impressed me as a quiet, sincere, dependable, substantial and rather matter of fact sort erf a fellow with rather emphatic convictions and an absolute loyalty to them and to sound standards of life." 21 Leo Frank, age 9. Leo worked as an engineer for B. F. Sturtevant Company in Hyde Park, Massachusetts, after he graduated from Cornell. He missed New York, however, and returned there to work for the National Meter Company. By this time, Rudolph Frank had been forced to retire after a railway accident, and Leos parents and sister, Marian, were living on the interest from the injury settlement. In 1907 Moses Frank (Leos uncle and a southerner who had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War) suggested a way Leo could help the family. Uncle Moses had invested in the National Pencil Company in Atlanta. His engineer nephew, who had a keen understanding of production machinery, looked like just the person to help improve the company. In preparation for his new job, Leo went to Germany to study pencil manufacturing at Eberhard Faber. Then he moved to Atlanta in 1908 to apply the scientific production methods he had observed abroad. But his new home city was very different from the society he had experienced in New York, Massachusetts, or even Germany. Many southerners lived as much in the past as the present. Although the Civil War had been over for almost fifty years, people kept its memory alive, calling it the War Between the States (stressing their belief in the right of individual states to secede), the War of Northern Aggression or, simply, the Recent Unpleasantness. People who had lived through the war and their descendants honored the soldiers who had fought in it. Celebrations like Confederate Memorial Day mattered equally to older people who had grown up before the war and to young people who had never known the Old South, like Mary Phagan and the other teenagers who worked in the National Pencil Company. One reason the "unpleasantness" seemed so recent was because the U.S. government's process of bringing the Confederate states back into the Union during Reconstruction felt like an extension of the war to most southerners. During the war, Union soldiers from the North commanded by General William T. Sherman had swept across Georgia to the sea, burning over 80 percent of Atlanta to the ground in their wake. After the peace, northern officials had swept into southern states, determined to suppress not only slavery, but any signs of rebellious thinking. These Yankees levied heavy taxes upon 'THE SOUL OF HONOR" 23 owners of small farms and large plantations alike. Southerners had no way to vote against these taxes, because only politicians approved by the northerners could run for office. In these circumstances, any northern businessman would be viewed as an outsider and an enemy. Leo, standing only five feet six inches tall and weighing only 120 pounds, could never pass for a typical well-fed, physically fit southern gentleman. With his delicate, fine-boned face; a full, fleshy mouth; and nearsighted eyes that appeared to bulge behind his thick glasses, Leo looked to the people of Atlanta exactly the image of a calculating Yankee. Nevertheless, Leo was so successful that he was promoted to a directorship, a vice presidency, and the position of factory superintendent. But his professional success did little to help him feel at ease in southern society. People were more formal in their manners than what he had seen in New York. Worried that he might somehow offend someone in this strange new world, Leo carefully considered his every action and word before doing or saying anything, to the point that he appeared stilted and distant. But Leo worked to make himself at home in Atlanta's Jewish society, and there he was welcomed. Within a week of arriving, Leo was introduced to twenty-year-old Lucille Selig and began courting her. The Seligs were a high-society family in Atlanta's Jewish community, but Leo's letters to Lucille show that he was more in love with the girl than her social status. Generously plump, pretty, dark-haired, and quick-witted, Lucille seemed a good match for Leo, teasing him out of his serious nature and making her affection for him clear. When Valentine's Day came, she showed him how he had captured her heart by giving him a handmade red construction-paper heart displaying his name. On June 14, 1909, just five days after he proposed to her and she accepted his hand in marriage, Leo wrote: Your kindly words for me are much appreciated and are treasured up on the scrolls of memory. I am not much on the sentimental letter writing. Read between the lines and see if you can feel the warmth of the writer s feelings for you! 24 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME &r Leo Frank and Lucille Selig in Atlanta, Georgia. Leo was introduced to Lucy shortly after arriving in Atlanta in 1908. They were married in 1910. . . . Continue to enjoy yourself, sweet one y and be assured of a joyous welcome home at the hands of Yours for eternal happiness Leo Lucille and Leo were married on November 30, 1910, and Lucille admirted rhar she mighr be "foolishly fond of him. But he is my husband, and I have rhe righr to love him very much indeed, and I do. If I make coo much of him, perhaps it is because he has made too much of me." In the spring of 1913, their married life became even happier when Lucille proudly announced that she was pregnant. "THE SOUL OF HONOR" 25 Happy in his marriage and in his work, Leo quickly rose to prominence in Atlanta's Jewish community He worked with a number of charitable organizations and was elected president of the local B'nai B nth chapter, a Jewish community service organization. Despite his success with the National Pencil Company and Jewish society, however, Leo was not popular among typical Atlanta citizens. Many Atlanta citizens had their reasons to dislike everything Leo Frank represented. First of all, he was Jewish. The Old South had not been particularly anti-Semitic, or prejudiced against Jews. In fact, Judah P. Benjamin had risen to the position of attorney general of the Confederacy and then secretary of war. Still, while Atlanta's sizable Jewish population was respected, they were still in the minority, and they were considered ''different." Leo was even more different from other Atlanta Jews because he was both a Yankee and an industrialist. This combination made him an unappealing addition to any southern community. Reconstruction had hit southern farmers and rural workers hard. Many were forced to give up their farms and move to cities where they could find industrial work. Between 1900 and 1913, Atlanta had doubled in population. Newcomers desperately hunted for jobs in the mills and factories. Wages were so low (ten to fifteen cents an hour — only two- thirds of what workers in the North earned) that families had as many members working as possible. Nearly all the production-line employees at the National Pencil Company were teenagers. Although child labor laws had technically been in existence in some states since 1836, the first federal child labor law would not be written until 1916. That was too late to help Mary Phagan, who had started working in a textile mill when she was only ten years old. Newspapers fed the resentment that Atlanta readers already felt toward northern-owned factories. The Atlanta Georgian, owned by sensationalist publisher William Randolph Hearst, was willing to exploit any issue that would sell papers and, with more passion than accuracy, regularly attacked factory owners. The front page of the Monday morning Georgian showed a horrifying photograph of Marys body on the slab at the undertakers. Five pages of articles were full of 26 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME Jgm In the weeks after the murder, newspapers published photographs of Mary Phagan's clothes t evidence found around her body. This photo of the clothes Mary was wearing and rd found around her neck was published in the April 30 issue of the Georgian. details about the murder and the family's grief — many of which had been exaggerated (and occasionally invented). There was no twenty-four-hour cable news coverage in 1913, no Internet blogs or YouTube videos or Twitter updates, but people then had the same fascination with the news as they do today. They learned about the twists and turns in any newsworthy event by buying new editions of the papers. Each newspaper published several editions every day and would strive to sell the most papers by coming up with breaking news and dramatic headlines to capture the reader's attention. By that afternoon, both the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution were featuring photos of Mary Phagan and presenting the girl as southern womanhood defiled, enslaved by northern industrialization. The Constitution offered a reward of one thousand dollars to anyone who'd seen Mary after noon on Saturday. By the time those afternoon editions hit the streets, a young machinist had made news by shifting the scene of the crime from the basement to the upper floors — near Leo s office. 28 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME ING AT I INVESTIGATION When eighteen-year-old Robert Barrett got to work a little after 6:30 Monday morning, he saw a red spot on the floor of the factory's second-story metal department, where Mary Phagan had worked. Robert admitted, "I never searched for any blood spots before, until Miss Jefferson came in and said she understood Mary had been murdered in the metal department, then I started to search right away; that was the only spot I could find; I could tell it was blood by looking at it. I can tell the difference between blood and other substances. I found the hair some few minutes afterward — about 6 or 8 strands of hair and pretty long." He reported his finds to his foreman, Lemmie Quinn, who called the police. Detective Starnes arrived, surrounded by reporters, to find a group of factory workers crowding around the machine where Barrett worked. Fourteen-year-old Magnolia Kennedy, a metal department worker like Mary, stared at the strands of hair Robert had found twisted around his lathe and announced, "Its Marys hair. I know it." Detective Starnes hadn't come alone this time. Police Chief James Litchfield Beavers had realized this case was going to be important to all of Atlanta, so he decided to make sure that the investigation was proceeding correctly. Beavers examined the hairs and had an officer chip out a few pieces of the red-splashed wooden floor so he could test 29 it himself, using a bottle of alcohol. When the color didn't dissolve in the alcohol (not a very scientific test, even in 1913), Chief Beavers announced to the reporters that the substance was blood. This created the suspicion that Mary had been killed near Leo Franks office and then dragged to the elevator and taken downstairs to the basement. Reporters, searching for new scoops to fill the pages of those extra editions, eagerly questioned the workers about Mary and about what went on inside the factory. The teenage employees were flattered by the attention, and many of them agreed to be interviewed. Police investigators were equally willing to talk to the press, presenting developing theories as solid information. Newspapers printed more and more editions in the first days after Marys body was found, whipping their readers into a frenzy with their constantly breaking news. Detective Black didn't go to the factory with the other policemen. He and another officer went to Leo Franks house to escort the superintendent back to the police station. As they walked downtown, Leo repeatedly asked why they wanted him. When Black wouldn't answer, the other officer said, "Well, Newt Lee has been saying something." Finally, they reached the station house. Once again, Leo passed through the marble archway and under the scowling gargoyles that watched over the towering Gothic building. Leo was still waiting to speak with Detective Chief Lanford when Herbert Haas, the National Pencil Company's attorney arrived. A few minutes later, Luther Rosser joined Haas. Rosser would act as co-counsel in the case. Rosser handled high-profile corporate cases in Atlanta and was the law partner of Governor-elect John Slaton. Rosser liked to present himself as a robust country boy who rarely wore a tie — something of a diamond in the rough. But he had a reputation as a powerful trial attorney who was a master at cross-examination, a talent that no one expected would be needed at this point. Busy talking to each other, Rosser and Haas missed Detective Chief La n ford's return and his beckoning of Leo into his office. When they realized Leo was gone, the lawyers became outraged that 30 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME he was miking to the police without counsel, and Rosser demanded to be allowed to accompany his client. Chief Lanford was surprised by the lawyers vehemence. He had simply wanted to ask Leo a few questions about Newt Lee's time slip for his Saturday night rounds. Rosser's outburst seemed overly dramatic since Leo Frank hadn't been charged with anything. Chief Lanford began to wonder why the lawyer was so determined to protect his client. When Chief Lanford showed the time slip to Leo, Leo noticed that there were problems with it. The watchman should have been punching in regularly as he made his rounds, but he had missed several punches. While this made Newt Lee look more guilty, Chief Lanford now viewed Leo himself with increasing suspicion. He asked Leo repeatedly to clarify his answers about the watchman's job and his own motivations in setting up Newt Lee's schedule on Confederate Memorial Day. Outraged that police could even consider Leo Frank as a possible suspect, Rosser blustered, "Why, it's preposterous. A man who would have done such a deed must be full of scratches and marks and his clothing must be bloody." Eager to discourage police suspicion, Leo voluntarily stripped, displaying his unscratched chest and arms. Haas suggested that police should be allowed to inspect the dirty laundry at the Franks' home, and Leo agreed. Detective Black and another officer sorted through all Leo's laundry without finding any blood. After they left, Leo felt confident that he had allayed suspicions about himself. Now he concentrated on how he could get the case solved quickly so that factory production could return to its normal schedule. He phoned his assistant, Herbert Schiff, and asked him to find outside investigators, preferably Pinkerton detectives. The Pinkertons had a reputation for working for large companies whose owners paid them to do what was best for the company, whether by investigating crimes or breaking strikes. By Monday afternoon, Leo felt he had protected his company. He sent a telegram to his uncle, assuring him that he had the situation well under control. "I COULD TELL IT WAS BLOOD BY LOOKING AT IT" 31 Members of Mary Phagan's family at her funeral on April 29, 1913. Left to right: Ollie Mae Phagan, Mary's sister; Fannie Phagan Coleman, her mother; J. W. Coleman, her stepfather; Ben Phagan, her brother; and Lizzie Marietta Durham, her aunt. But according to the Monday evening and Tuesday morning editions of the newspapers, nothing was under control. Both the Georgian and the Constitution warned their readers that police claimed they were working around the clock to discover the identity of Mary Phagan s killer but without success. The papers offered new rewards for any additional information. As Mary Phagan's family buried their daughter on Tuesday morning in her hometown of Marietta, they certainly hoped the 32 AN UNSPEAKABLE GRIME police would soon identify the murderer. The Reverend T. T. G. Linkous prayed over Marys grave with steadily increasing fervor: We pray for the police and the detectives of the city of Atlanta. We pray that they may perform their duty and bring the wretch that committed this act to justice. We pray that the authorities apprehend the guilty party or parties and punish them to the full extent of the law. Even that is too good for the imp of Satan that did this. Oh, God, I cannot see how even the devil himself coidd do such a thing. i GOULD TELL IT WAS BLOOD BY LOOKING AT IT" 33 WORTHY TO PAY I I ARREST Fourteen-year-old Alonzo Mann worked as an office boy at the National Pencil Company. One of his jobs was to bring his boss the morning newspaper. Britt Craig's article on the front page of the Tuesday Constitution predicted that Leo Frank would be arrested before the day was over. Alonzo recalled, "I cried when I read the paper before I gave it to Frank. Frank talked to me, telling me always [to] be good as he was in life and that way it would always work out right. Frank could tell I cried." Not all the newspaper morning editions agreed with Britt Craig. The Journal headlines screamed "THREE HANDWRITING EXPERTS SAY NEGRO WROTE THE TWO NOTES FOUND BY BODY OF GIRL" and claimed that Newt Lees guilt was proven. But Detective Black did not believe that the night watchman could have acted alone to commit this murder. He thought the real culprit was someone who had paid him to write the notes to confuse the police. And he was certain that someone was Leo Frank. Late Tuesday morning, Black investigated Lee's apartment and found a bloody linen shirt. He thought the shirt looked freshly pressed, suggesting that it hadn't been worn. The blood looked as if it had been rubbed into the fabric, not spattered onto it while someone was wearing it. Black suspected that Leo had offered his own laundry to be searched (even though Haas, not Leo, had made the suggestion) specifically so the police would also search Newt Lees laundry — and 34 The Atlanta Georgian IxtraNoB >OUCE HAVE THE STRANGLER iTflfA WILL VEJUONEON OITEIEERQI Late this afternoon, Chief of Detect.ves Lanford mad. I PONY CONTEST j FIRST- BRADY *" in, P 0rtant •t*ten.ent to . Georgian reporter. 'W, announced! WBiatrit^, ^X*u™lZTZ i Shave eliminated John Gantt and Arthur Mullinax. t»*f»| DtnV« Li afc*h i W* u£ta ;» m r:HiHE ; ^ iF ^ 4 ^^ *M> NEGRO ARt 1 GIVEN" THIRD DEGREE' Competing newspapers in Atlanta devoted huge headlines and extra editions to covering Mary Phagan's death and the search for her murderer. Hi ft*** .* u> •.. .-. > taxi h*zt lit t j.-i p| |j. K- «*ucd j (uliii ..c*.it I '■" » •'<•-. «•'.(.. v*n ,«| ifur i> «| he concluded that Leo had planted the bloody shirt in the watchman's room for the police to find. Flushed with certainty that his hunch about Leo Frank was proving correct, Black hurried from Lees apartment to the station house to place the bloody shirt into evidence. Then he informed reporters that he had a big break in the case at last. He rushed to the factory where the superintendent was trying to get production back to normal, burst into the superintendents office and proved the Constitution right by arresting Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. Leo could not believe it. Looking around his office for something normal he could take with him, he saw a box of cigars. A heavy smoker, Leo grabbed a handful of them and stuffed them in his pocket. Perhaps he needed something to remind him that he was an ordinary, innocent citizen as Black triumphantly led him to the police station and confronted him with a piece of the bloody shirt. Confused, Leo thought they were asking him if the material came from a shirt of his. He said he'd never owned a shirt like that. While police questioned Leo, his lawyer Luther Rosser sped to the station, only to be turned away. People had gathered outside, and an officer stood on the stairs, under orders not to let the crowd interrupt the interrogation. Furious, Rosser had to telephone the chief, demanding A VICTIM WORTHY TO PAY FOR THE CRIME' 35 to be admitted. As soon as he got upstairs, he upbraided Chief Beavers for trying to keep a lawyer away from his client and then stormed into the interrogation room. Leo was being questioned by Detective Black — in the presence of Pinkerton detective Harry Scott, who had been put in charge of the National Pencil Company's case. In fact, when Rosser appeared, Black let the Pinkerton detective take over the interrogation. Leo had hired Pinkertons to protect the reputation of his company. Now one of them was helping the police build a case against him! Leo was unaware that Pinkerton detectives often worked closely with the police on their cases. And he certainly hadn't known that Detective Scott had previously worked closely with Detective Black. Angry, Leo pointed out, "You were hired by me, if you remember!'' To Leo's surprise, Scott replied, "I was put on the case by my superiors. They were employed to catch the murderer. . . . If you are the murderer, then its my duty to convict you." While Leo was being interrogated, his wife hurried to the police station with her father and her brother-in-law. The same police officer who tried to keep Luther Rosser out of the station successfully kept Lucille away from her husband. In the lobby office, crowded by aggressive reporters, Lucille insisted that Leo was innocent and then broke down sobbing. When Leo heard that his wife was downstairs, in tears, he sent a message telling her to go home, assuring her that he would soon be freed. Lucille left, admitting that she "was humiliated and distressed by numerous people, maybe newspaper reporters, maybe somebody else, snapshotting me with hand cameras." Soon Atlanta erupted with rumors that Lucille had never come to visit Leo because she knew he was guilty, that she had been in the process of divorcing him at the time of Mary's murder, and that only large sums of money had persuaded her to stay by his side. Later, Lucille would write to the editor of the Augusta Chronicle, desperate to expose "that falsehood about my conduct toward the one whom I loved more dearly than my own life, whom I yet love, thank God." 36 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME She explained: / went to the police station and begged to see him. Think of the tender solicitude for me in begging me not to come to his cell. He knew he tuas innocent; I knew he was innocent; he expected to be out without delay; he didnt ivant me to see him behind bars. Because he considered me, even above himself he had to bear the burden of lies, and I had to bear them. Not a day passed after he was taken from home that we did not talk to each other. His concern was always for me. "Dont come doiun here, dear }> he would s ay y "I dont want you to remember having seen me in this place. " After sending his wife home, Leo's ordeal was far from over. Police had been interrogating Newt Lee, and they decided to put the two men together. Just as Leo was about to lie down on the cot in his cell that night, Black and Scott asked him to talk to Newt Lee. They claimed they wanted him to get the watchman to admit his guilt, and Leo agreed. He remembered Black telling him to tell Lee "that you are here and that he is here and that he better open up and tell all he knows about the happenings at the pencil factory that Saturday night, or you will both go to hell." Leo entered the interrogation room and did as requested, but Lee insisted he knew nothing to "open up" about. Both Detective Black and Pinkerton detective Scott listened outside the door as the two men talked. Leo used Blacks words — but later Black insisted he never told Leo what to say. Scott noticed that Leo was clearly nervous and uncomfortable talking to the watchman. "He was very squirmy in his chair/' the Pinkerton detective recalled, "crossing one leg after the other and didn't know where to put his hands; he was moving them up and down his face, and he hung his head a great deal of the time the negro was talking." Leo had reason to become a good deal more "squirmy" soon. As he was led out of the interrogation room, Leo recalled, Scott and Black went in, "and then began questioning Newt Lee, and then it "A VICTIM WORTHY TO PAY FOR THE CRIME" 37 was that I had my first initiation into the third degree of the Atlanta police department. The way that fellow Black cursed at that poor old Negro, Newt Lee, was something awful. He shrieked at him, he hollered at him, he cursed him, and did everything but beat him." Before this, Leo had believed that cooperating with the police would help them find the real killer and free him. Now he feared it might not work that way Newt Lees continued protestations of innocence under their aggressive questioning convinced both detectives that the night watchman was not guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan. They were equally certain that Leo Frank was the killer. And they could sense that the citizens of Atlanta shared this opinion. Later, the pastor of Marys Baptist church wrote to a friend, "My feelings, upon the arrest of the old negro watchman, were to the effect that this one old negro would be poor atonement for the life of this innocent girl. But, when on the next day, the police arrested a Jew, and a Yankee Jew at that, all of the inborn prejudice against Jews rose up in a feeling of satisfaction, that here would be a victim worthy to pay for the crime." First, however, the legal process had to be observed. A coroner's inquest had to officially determine the cause of Mary Phagans death before the case could be turned over to Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey to prosecute the villain. But for that prosecution to be successful, the police and Dorsey still needed one thing: a motive for the killing. 38 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME SURPRISES AT THE INQUEST Fifteen-year-old George Epps waited impatiently through the first part of the coroners inquest on Wednesday, April 30. The newsboy was eager to testify about seeing Mary on the streetcar the day she was killed. What he had to tell the coroner about a possible motive in Mary's death would shock Atlanta. A coroner s inquest is a court proceeding to determine the cause of death. Before anyone can be charged with murder, an officer of the court called a coroner must determine whether the victim died of natural causes, accidental causes, or foul play. Coroner Paul Donehoo had six jurors to help him weigh the evidence and settle on a verdict. The inquest opened with statements from the police officers who had first seen Marys body in the factory basement. Then Newt Lee testified about finding the body and calling the police, followed by several factory employees. So far the inquest was going as expected. Donehoo was a highly respected officer of the court, one who the people of Atlanta believed brought unusual meaning to the claim 39 "Justice is blind." Paul Donehoo was, indeed, blind. Many people thought his inability to see witnesses helped him do his job, because he listened more carefully. Donehoo certainly listened carefully to George Epps when the teenager took the stand. George stated that he had ridden on the streetcar with Mary the morning of her death and made a date to watch the parade with her and then go to a movie — after she picked up her pay. Then George announced that the idea of going into the factory to get her pay had frightened Mary, because Leo Frank would be there. "When she would leave the factory on some afternoons, she said, Frank would rush out in front of her and try to flirt with her as she passed. She told me that he had often winked at her and tried to pay her attention. He would look hard and straight at her, she said, and then would smile. It happened often, she said." George added, "She told me she wanted me to come down to the factory when she got off as often as I could to escort her home and kinder protect her." This testimony supported the deep-seated resentment so many members of Atlanta's working class felt against northern industrialists. These Yankees had dragged families away from their farms where their daughters were safe and plunged them into city life where young girls had to go to work and risk unwanted sexual advances from bosses or coworkers. When people read the newspaper headlines accusing Leo Frank of flirting with Mary, they were both outraged and titillated. They wanted to hear more about what went on inside this factoiy. At first, so did the coroner. The solicitor general, making the case against Leo for the State of Georgia, had subpoenaed many of Marys fellow employees to testify. But the more Donehoo considered Georges testimony and what the other employees might say, the more he feared the inquest was moving too fast. After meeting with chiefs Lanford and Beavers, he adjourned the inquest for a few days. That would allow public outrage to settle down and let the police investigation proceed. While the police continued their investigation, so did the Pinkerton detectives under Harry Scott. In fact, Scott and Black 40 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME concentrated their efforts by investigating together. The Pinkertons might have originally been hired by Leo, but they were no longer investigating the case without bias. They were now working with the police specifically to find evidence that would keep their employer behind bars. In fact, Detective Scott told his fellow Pinkertons, "Unless the Jew is convicted, the Pinkerton Detective Agency [will] have to get out of Atlanta." When the inquest resumed on Monday May 5, Leo took the stand. Donehoo wanted to get a sense of the superintendents character. Unlike the shivering, nervous man who had made police so suspicious, the witness who answered the coroners questions was well dressed and presented a calm, articulate face to jurors and even to reporters. Leo repeated his account of an ordinary work Saturday: he had gotten to his office early; met with his department heads; put the office boy Alonzo Mann, to work; collected the mail; dictated some letters to his stenographer; spoke to several employees who had come in; seen the office boy and stenographer leave; and given a girl her pay envelope shortly after noon. Then he had done some paperwork; locked up for lunch while several men continued to work in the factory; eaten lunch with his father-in-law; and walked through town, greeting several employees who were in the crowd watching the parade. He returned to work after deciding not to attend the afternoon baseball game because of rainy weather and then went home to a quiet evening with his family From the house, he had telephoned night watchman Newt Lee, since the man had only started working for the company two weeks earlier. It was all routine activity, but it left almost an hour unaccounted for between when he paid Mary and when he left for lunch, with no witnesses to confirm that he was working in his office. The police were convinced that Mary Phagan had been murdered during that hour. After nearly four hours of testimony, Donehoo asked if Leo would like to add anything else about the day. Unexpectedly Leo said that one of the plant foremen, Lemmie Quinn, had visited him a few minutes after he had paid the girl. Leo had not mentioned this previously, but it gave him an alibi for what had looked like unaccounted-for time. "MISCONDUCT- AT THE FACTORY' The coroner was astounded that he could have forgotten something so important, but Leo simply said that speaking with Quinn had slipped his mind until Quinn had mentioned it on Monday, a week ago. Leo chose not to reveal that his lawyers had advised him to save the information for the inquest and say nothing to the police about it, advice he agreed with after seeing the police in action with Newt Lee. To reporters, Quinn confirmed that he had spoken with Leo in his office. Newspapers printed new editions proclaiming "Leo Frank Innocent." Despite the favorable impact of Leo's testimony, considerable evidence had materialized that made Leo look like a sexual predator who lusted after the young girls he employed. A streetcar conductor found a suspicious note tucked under one of the seats in the same car that Mary had ridden on Saturday. The note claimed that Leo Frank had made numerous sexual advances to Mary. Police asked Helen Ferguson, Mary's friend, to look at the note, which claimed that Mary had told the writer that Leo Frank had put his arm around her and asked if she "wanted to take a joy ride to Heaven." The note claimed that Mary had asked how, and Frank had promised to show her someday. It was signed "A 13-year-old chum of Mary." When Helen read the note, she immediately recognized the handwriting and told police that the letter had actually been written by Grace Hicks, the seventeen-year-old girl who had identified the body The idea that something was going on with the factory girls may have had its basis in fact. Helen told Pinkerton agent L. P. Whitfield, "I have not seen any misconduct at the factory lately but there used to be misconduct during the dinner hour among some of the girl and boy employees. I have never seen anything myself in this connection but have heard of same. Mr. Frank heard of the improper conduct and he endeavored to stop the boys and girls from being together during the dinner hour." Some of the girls who were interviewed wanted people to think they knew more than they did. Helen also reported, "Grace Hicks was at my house on April 27th, 1913 and she stated that she would tell all she knew about the murder of Mary Phagan, but that she was afraid that the negro Newt Lee, would get out of jail and kill her." 42 AN UNSPEAKABLE GRIME The factory workers who did testify at the inquest were even more outspoken. Fourteen-year-old Nellie Pettis's sister-in-law used to work at the factory, and Nellie had seen Leo a few times. She testified, "I went into the office of Mr. Frank, I asked him for her. He told me I couldn't see her unless I 'saw' him first. I told him I didn't want to c see him.' He pulled a box from his desk. It had a lot of money in it. He looked at it significantly and then looked at me. When he looked at me, he winked. And as he winked he said: 'How about it?' I instantly told him I was a nice girl." Another Nellie, sixteen-year-old Nellie Wood, had worked at the factory herself and testified that Leo "asked me one day to come into his office saying that he wanted to talk to me. He tried to close the door, but I wouldn't let him. He got too familiar by getting so close to me. He also put his hands on me." When the coroner asked where Leo had put his hands, the girl said, "He barely touched my breast. He was subtle with his approaches and tried to pretend that he was joking, but I was too wary for such as that." Some workers were unwilling to testify. A tipster pointed out two men, Ely Burdett and James Gresham, who had "informed him that Frank had been familiar with several of the girl employees and that they were afraid to testify against Mr. Frank." Another factory employee seemed conflicted in his testimony when he stated, "I have never seen Mr. Frank do anything unbecoming to a gentleman, except at times when talking to some of the women employees, it seemed to me that he rubbed up against them a little too much." Former worker Tom Blackstock testified, "I've often seen him picking on different girls," also saying that the superintendent would "rub up against" the girls. This was a phrase that a number of the men who worked in the factory repeated word-for-word. The inquest's jury had to wonder: was this a coincidence, or had they been coached? Although Leo's testimony made a good impression, the damage to his character was done by the end of the inquest. Thanks to the sensational newspaper coverage, the people of Atlanta viewed him as a "MISCONDUCT AT THE FACTORY" 43 Yankee Jew who had not only forced industrialization upon them and forced their daughters into his factory but who had also attempted to force himself upon those daughters. The inquests jury came in with these preconceived notions, and it took them only ten minutes to recommend that the police hold Leo Frank, along with Newt Lee, for further questioning in the murder of Mary Phagan. 44 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME INDICTMENT Recommending further questioning was one thing. Finding answers that would lead a grand jury to formally charge, or indict, either Leo Frank or Newt Lee for murder was another. Before a suspect could be tried for a crime in a court of law, a grand jury must be presented with enough information to indict him. That job fell to Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey. As Atlanta's prosecutor, Dorsey s job was to prosecute and convict the accused. Although Dorsey was an ambitious lawyer and politician, he had been remarkably unsuccessful in prosecuting several major cases. He needed a big, public success to bolster his career, and prosecuting the murder of an innocent young girl seemed the perfect opportunity. Born in a small town, yet raised in the city, Dorsey was capable of acting like a country boy with ordinary working folks or behaving like a shrewdly calculating gentleman in the company of other city lawyers. Dorsey seized authority for the murder case as soon as he could, by ordering the exhumation and autopsy of Mary Phagan himself. Coroner Paul Donehoo, Dr. Henry Harris, and Fulton County physician J. W. Hurt inspected Marys body after it was removed from the grave. Dr. Harris paid particular attention to her stomach contents, as this would help him determine the time of death more accurately Dorsey also ordered the city chemist, Dr. Claude Smith, to test the shirt from Newt Lees apartment and the bloodstains that Robert Barrett had found in the factory metaJ shop. 45 Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey in 1913, after the murder of Mary Phagan. Then Dorsey surprised everyone by ordering a second exhumation of Marys body two days later and blaming it on police carelessness. Apparently, Dr. Hurt had originally taken hair samples from Mary's body, but they had been lost while in police possession. This time, a fingerprint expert was called in to examine the fingerprints on Mary's throat. Forensic scientists also took photographs of the bite marks on the girl's left shoulder. Dorsey quickly began releasing new information to the press. Examining other factory workers than the ones who had testified at the coroners inquest, he found fourteen-year-old Monteen Stover, who used to work at the factory and still had some pay coming to her. She said she had gone to the pencil factory a little after twelve that Saturday, shortly after the time Mary Phagan would have picked up her pay. "I was sure Mr. Frank would be in his office," Monteen told reporters after speaking with Hugh Dorsey, "so I stepped in. He wasn't in the outer office, so I stepped into the inner one. He wasn't there either. I thought he might have been somewhere around the building, so I waited. When he didn't show up in a few minutes, I went to the door and peered further down the floor among the machinery I couldn't see him there." Despite Lemmie Quinn's insistence that Leo had been in his office, Monteen's statement suggested that the superintendent had not been there the whole time. Then Mrs. Nina Formby, a madam of a nearby house of prostitution, claimed that Leo was a regular customer — and that he had called her on Confederate Memorial Day, asking for a place to bring a young girl who'd been taken ill. Mrs. Formby shared her story with the press and even claimed that she was being bribed to keep quiet or leave town until the trial was over. More evidence poured in. Dorsey 's handwriting expert stated that the murder notes could not have been written by Newt Lee. 46 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION VOL XLV.-NV 8». ■•.n.AM'A, (I\. IMIMV MOKMS*;, MAT '', 1913.— FOT7BXEE5 PAQS& I THROUGH HOUSE; ! SHRINERS LEAVE FOR CONVENTION NOWUPTOSENATE - - ; X'r Mc«»ur«, Re-. i ' I"! i e . ; ■■ ■ i BATTLH /:.' rffjs -' *' " PROMISES TO BE SITTER [ Be the Nev. Convention Qiy. RqjuMk»u Scuwi, II" - i \ \\ ill . t Same Korm ;. . ' , «« 200L1VESAREL0ST WHEN THE REBELS DYNAMITE TRAIN S^Mirri at '-■ I l.i Mt-ii.- \r. ]. I tt i... -., SO I i • . • JAP A KESE OFFER AID TO MEXICAN HMBKLS Hundred \\e\\ \tttk& Siibj<-. oi I ' to Ti-h- Hucrr , Offer "i Jafis Refund by Rebel*, Bound Over For Phagar, Murder | FRANK AND LEE ORDERED HELD BY CORONER'S JURY FOR MARY PHAGAN MURDER Sensational Statements Made at hiqnesl by Two Women. One- of Whom Had Been on Em- ployee. Who Declared Thai FranJfc Had Been Onilty of Iniriteper Conduct Toward Hi* Feminine Kmplnycc-s and Had Wade Pro- posals to Them in the Factory. evidence ix baffling mystery THUS PAft, IS CIRCUMSTANTIAL, IS ADMISSION MADBBY DETECTIVES Frank and Lee Both Go on Stand Again and An' Closely Questioned in Regard to N'cw Lines of Evidence m\d Forced to Hcileratc Testi- mony Formerly Made lo Coroner's .lnr\. They Will Hemnin in Jail Pending Action of I he Grand Jury. L« M. 1 aWt wptafeteadcal oi iht IfcjfemJ Psadl t*«wjS »nd Howl 1*3 :hc r.cjm nit hi vv '"'" ' ■ ■ ' '■' «&* M«J [/>(» Morgan Sailed to Death j He Pledged Waodrow Wilson Money and Influence if Needed a Qpen pro;>oul, ind hid « MRS. WtLSGN TO NAME 'r~ POWIEPil ME ;...'; ... , | , , rt f^. **■■* u Bargains That Y»u Need Not Hunt For j '. ' M. (1 m 'I ( ,. -j; t ; . f •■ ' ili i .t ' I Vi . H.-i I '.i amid 'in' - .... ■' ti ( , w a Plumed Hiu. now J»J. C -i. D.tffly Piriiol*.) **. j i Ml »t $.1 Jnd up, TJ pound* nf Su|(*j. %\. Kinssn'i 5i;:tJ . Beat Coal. $+ ■ ton. WASTED Y-.u'U Inn.! 111.- .■ it. 1 U.-j f :.• 111... .».-.■' iulj v ... '. c ..',.i- : 1 WoKUO »t*r.O(tf*i.ti«r •nil! K>utri typUt at gooil Ulity. Woman uither I'ai pl«aaan(], SaleioXn on bath u)ii/ •nd ' - - . ■ FOS 9 Feur Pu.tr r 1 c 1:£ .rrr-- <.f .'i. 1 .-: ]'j .h :*. .£* t.^^..; (■, [llttlfl Ilr; POSTMASTER BIER i TO BE INVESTIGATED ; 1 1 The murder remained front page news for weeks, and much of the coverage was sensational. In this front page of the Atlanta Constitution from May 9, 1913, the paper announces that Leo Frank would go before a grand jury in the case of Mary Phagan's murder. This put Frank in the sights of prosecutor Hugh Dorsey. who would prove to be a master at manipulating the press. This supported Dorseys contention that Leo had committed the crime and the night watchman had done nothing except discover the body. Dorsey believed that Leo had often used his status as factory superintendent to get his way with his young female employees and that things had gone wrong with Mary Phagan, leading to violence. However, the evidence that lawyers are allowed to introduce is limited by rules of procedure. Dorsey knew these rules would prevent him from introducing the idea of sexual misconduct, unless the defense first introduced the issue of the superintendents character. So he decided to force Leo's attorneys to defend their clients character by letting the press run with the rumors about Leos promiscuous activities. Meanwhile, Dorsey focused on a timeline of circumstantial evidence that would put Leo out of his office and unaccounted for at the time when Mary was killed. On May 23> 1913, Dorsey convinced the grand jury to indict Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. He did so without revealing that he had an eyewitness who would be able to describe exactly where Leo was when Mary was killed and how the body ended up in the factory basement. 48 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME jj THE FIRST EYEWITNESS Dorsey s eyewitness was Jim Conley. Conley, twenty-seven, was a sweeper and odd-jobs man at the factory He had a drinking problem and lived with a woman he had never married. He was also black. In the eyes of the white Atlanta society of 1913, Conley should have been a prime suspect. He had been in trouble with the law before and had paid several fines and served two sentences on the chain gang, once for attempted armed robbery. But Dorsey, as well as the police, wanted someone other than an African American working man to be guilty of the death of a white girl who had been murdered in a factory They wanted to convict a white man — and a Yankee industrialist — of this horrendous crime. Jim Gonley from 1914, after the murder of Mary Phagan. 49 Police had originally questioned Jim Conley about Mary Phagan's death on May 1. He had been seen rinsing out a stained shirt at the factory but had claimed he was trying to wash out rust stains. Police had never tested the shirt for blood because Conley also said he'd been drunk all day Saturday, when Mary was killed, and hadn't been near the factory. And he claimed he couldn't read or write, which meant he couldn't have written the two notes found by Marys body. Then Pinkerton agents discovered that witnesses had seen a black man lurking around the factory lobby on Saturday Detective Black and Pinkerton detective Scott found Jim Conley s signatures on several papers. They compared them with the murder notes and believed the handwriting to be the same. Apparently the man could write. They brought him in again for questioning. Confronted with his signatures, Conley admitted that he could write but insisted that he had nothing to do with the murder notes. The detectives decided to lock him in an isolation cell to let him think about it. There is no police record showing what Black and Scott said to him, but on May 24, Conley was ready to make a new statement to the police, the Pinkerton investigators, and Hugh Dorsey. It was a completely different statement — one that implicated Leo Frank. Jim Conley claimed that on Friday, April 25, Frank "asked me could I write and I told him yes I could write a little bit." Then Conley said the superintendent had dictated the two letters that had been found near Marys body and had given Conley a box of cigarettes and $2.50. Conley stated, "He told me he had some wealthy people in Brooklyn and then he held his head up and looking out of the corner of his eyes said, 'Why should I hang?'" Initially, the investigators were confused by Conley's statement, because it suggested that Leo had planned the murder the day before and had prepared the notes in advance. Yet Dorsey was convinced it had been a crime of passion. And if Conley was speaking the truth, why had he waited so long to come forward? Pinkerton detective Scott later said, "We pointed out to him why the first statement would not fit. We told him we wanted another statement." 50 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME Several days later, Conley asked to speak with Detective Black. This time he admitted that he'd made several mistakes the first time. "I made this statement in regard to Friday, in order that I might not be accused of knowing anything of this murder, for I thought that if I put myself there on Saturday, they might accuse me of having a hand in it," he explained. Then he went on to say that on Saturday the superintendent had asked him to sit by the entrance steps until Conley heard him whistle. When he heard the summons, Conley went up to Franks office and found his boss very nervous and upset. Conley said he then wrote the notes at Leo's dictation, not knowing anything about the murder, and had received the cigarettes and money, as he'd said before. This second affidavit was more useful to the prosecution, because it confirmed much of their theory of Leo's actions on Saturday. However, the press quickly pointed out that Conley s shifting story implicated himself. Many thought he should be indicted instead of Leo Frank. The authorities wished that Conley s statement pinned the murder more clearly on Leo's shoulders, so police interrogated the man one more time. Dorsey wasn't present, but his assistant raced back and forth, bringing new questions for the sweeper and carrying his answers back to the solicitor general. This time Conley 's affidavit was what the prosecution needed. He combined his previous stories with new details: When he whistled for me I went upstairs and he asked me if I wanted to make some money right quick and I told him "Yes, sir, " and he told me that he had picked up a girl back there and had let her fall and that her head hit against something, he didnt know what it was, and for me to jnove her, and I hollered and told him the girl was dead, and he told me to pick her up and bring her to the elevator. Then he described how he had tried to carry the girl, but she proved too heavy for him to manage alone, so the superintendent "WE WANTED ANOTHER STATEMENT" 5 1 had helped him carry her onto the elevator and then down to the basement. After Conley wrote the notes from dictation, Mr. Frank looked at it and said it was all right and Mr Frank looked up at the top of the house and said, "Why should I hang, I have wealthy people in Brooklyn, " and I asked him ivhat about me, and he told me that ivas all right about me, for me to keep my mouth shut and he would make everything all right, and then I asked him where was the money he said he was going to give me and Mr Frank said, "Here is two hundred dollars, " and he handed me a big roll of greenback money. Later, Conley added that the superintendent had asked for the money back and said he would give it back on Monday if nothing happened. This was what Dorsey had been looking for: eyewitness testimony that proved Leo Franks guilt. The police took Conley to the factory, sent most of the workers home, and had him show them and a group of reporters where all the action of his affidavit had occurred. Repeating his story, Conley led them through the factory, acting out the events as he described them. One of the employees who remained, the day watchman J. M. Holloway, pointed out that the police often corrected Conley If he said the body was in one place, at times they reminded him it was in a different location: The negro said "lets go back this way", and he shows them a place about 20 feet the other way, and Lanford said "Here is where they dropped it". Now they said "aint this about where you dropped the girl"? and the negro, he started in another direction, and then he said "yes sir". They said "aint this where you dropped it"? and he said "yes ". But the next editions of the newspapers all praised Jim Conley for coming forward and presented his evidence as absolute truth. 52 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME Conley continued introducing new details to flesh out his story for the reporters who crowded around his jail cell. Dorsey was pleased to have his witness, but he was afraid that Conley would say something to contradict his latest statement (which already contradicted his two earlier statements) and damage the case against Leo Frank. Then the Georgian announced that an unnamed man had been shooting craps with Conley in the pencil factory basement on April 26 and had seen Jim Conley himself attack Mary Phagan. The Georgian would subsequently identify this witness as Will Green, an African American carnival worker. "This fellow was half drunk and was losing money to me. He got mad and cursed his luck," said Green. Before long a little girl went upstairs. This negro said he was going to take her money away from her when she came down. I thought he was fooling at first, but when she came down he started for her. I yelled at him not to do it, but he kept right on. Then I skipped out, for I didnt want to get mixed up in any trouble. I stayed around town until the next Monday, and then I read all about how a little girl had been killed . . . and I knew that she was the one I had seen come downstairs at the factory Investigators were unable to find the carnival worker and bring him to Atlanta. This was good news for Hugh Dorsey, as it could have damaged his case. He didn't want Conley attracting any more press attention. He met with Chief Lanford and William Smith, Conley's attorney. (Smith 'WE WANTED ANOTHER STATEMENT" }3 was being paid by the Atlanta Georgian to represent Jim Conley and to give the paper the inside scoop.) They all agreed that it would be a good idea to return Conley to the police station until the trial, where reporters — and other lawyers — could only speak to him with Smiths or Lanfords approval. Leo's attorneys, however, worked to stir up public opinion to bring pressure on the State of Georgia to ask the grand jury to indict Jim Conley for Marys murder. Dorsey resisted strongly, insisting that they had already indicted one man for the crime and should wait until his trial was over before considering any other indictments. In the end> he allowed the grand jury to hear charges against Conley, but Dorsey spoke persuasively to them for an hour, expressing his confidence in his case against Leo Frank and explaining why Conley s indictment would jeopardize it. The grand jury voted almost immediately not to indict Conley. That left Dorsey free to construct the rest of his case against Leo Frank. 54 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME i WITNESS PREPARATION Even before the trial began, George Epps felt a little concerned. There was something about his testimony that the newsboy wanted to discuss with Hugh Dorsey. But George would later say that Dorsey didn't want to hear him, snapping, "Just stick to that." He understood that the solicitor general wanted him to simply repeat his testimony from the inquest, even if he was uncomfortable with some part of it. George wasn't the only person who got a glimpse of Dorsey 's darker side during the days before the trial. The solicitor general summoned numerous potential witnesses to his office, ordering them to be arrested if they did not come willingly He intended to use not only Leo Frank's teenage employees to prove his case but also anyone who was close to Leo's family. One of those people was Minola McKnight, the cook in the house Leo and Lucille Frank shared with Lucille's parents, the Seligs. Dorsey needed her testimony to support the timeline he was carefully constructing, a timeline that would leave enough time for Leo to have committed the murder before meeting his father-in-law for lunch. To do that, he wanted to prove that Leo had actually arrived home later than he claimed. Hearing about the rewards offered by the newspapers, Albert McKnight had told his boss that his wife had information that could help the prosecution, and his boss passed the tip on to the police. But when they questioned Minola, she told them the same story that Leo had told, that he had arrived home at 1:20 and had lunch with his 55 father-in-law because the two ladies had already eaten and were on their way to an opera matinee. That wasn't what Dorsey hoped to hear. The police called in her husband to "remind" her, but Minola McKnight wouldn't change her story. She even claimed that she and Albert had recently quarreled and suggested that he was lying to get back at her. So the police locked Minola in jail overnight and began grilling the hysterical woman again the following morning. Dorsey probably could not have gotten away with handling most witnesses this way, even a working- class woman, but Minola McKnight was African American. He had no problem ignoring her rights with impunity. Desperate to be released, she finally signed a statement that said Leo had gotten home at 1:20 but had rushed out again without eating and when he came home that evening, he drank heavily and was too upset to sleep. He told his wife, who then told Minola, that "he was in trouble, that he didn't know the reason why he would murder, and he told his wife to get his pistol and let him kill himself." The statement also said that her employers had started paying her extra after hearing that the solicitor general wanted to question her. "They just said, 'Here is $5, Minola,' but of course I understood what they meant even if they didnt tell me anything ... I understood it was a tip for me to keep quiet." After Minola signed this statement, the police released her. Chief Lanford proudly told the press about their new evidence against Leo Frank. But when a reporter from the Georgian questioned her about her statement, Minola McKnight told him bitterly, "It's most all a pack of lies." Furious at the way her family's employee had been treated, Lucille expressed her outrage publicly even though Leo's attorneys urged her to remain silent. She wrote an open letter to Atlanta's citizens that was published in the three main newspapers: That the Solicitor, sworn to maintain the law, should thus falsely arrest one against whom he has no charge and whom he does not even suspect and torture her, contrary to the laws, to force her to give evidence tending 56 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME to swear away the life of an innocent man, is beyond belief Where will this end? My husband and my family and myself are the innocent sufferers now, but who will be the next to suffer? . . . This torturing process can be used to produce testimony to be published in the newspapers to prejudice the case of anyone the Solicitor sees fit to accuse. Dorsey sidestepped the charges, pointing out "the wife of a man accused of crime would probably be the last person to learn all of the facts establishing his guilt, and certainly would be the last person to admit his culpability," and saying it was his duty to find evidence that would convict someone who had been indicted by the grand jury. The solicitor general also distracted attention from his misconduct by attacking the police for leaking Minolas affidavit in the first place and threatening to ask the grand jury to investigate the police department. Wanting to avoid such an inspection, Chief Lanford ordered his men to stop sharing details of the case with the press. Dorsey got the testimony he wanted from some witnesses by simply offering a willing ear. This tactic appealed particularly to the factory girls, who were excited at the idea that all of Atlanta would listen to them. It also worked with some of the factory boys. Another witness told Dorsey that sixteen-year-old Willie Turner had seen Leo Frank and Mary Phagan having a conversation together that suggested the man was making advances and the girl was afraid of him. Although Willie believed that the girl and his boss had run into each other accidentally, Dorsey repeatedly had him act out the encounter to emphasize that Mary backed away from the superintendent. He tried to persuade the boy to testify that Leo Franks hands were extended, as if he were trying to grab Mary, although Willie would only go so far in this direction. When Dorsey couldn't persuade witnesses to testify the way he wanted, he was not above bribing or coercing them. Sixteen-year-old Dewey Hewell, who had worked at the pencil factory, experienced "MOST ALL A PACK OF LIES" 57 both. Dorsey tracked her down at the Home of the Good Shepherd in Cincinnati, Ohio, a group home for unwed mothers where Dewey was in custody. Dorsey contacted Police Matron Mary Bohnefield and informed her that he believed Dewey could testify about Leos interest in Mary Dewey later stated in a sworn deposition that she had been afraid of Bohnefield "and that she was afraid to refuse to testify exactly the way the Police Matron wanted her to." She said that she was promised that she would be released from the group home if she testified against Leo. At the same time Dorsey was preparing his witnesses, Leo s lawyers were preparing their defense. Reuben Arnold had joined the team of Luther Rosser and Herbert Haas. An expert in evaluating medical evidence and a smooth talker with an encyclopedic knowledge of the law, Arnold balanced Rosser's vigorous oratory style. The first thing the legal team did was instruct Leo to keep silent. They didn't want him giving interviews — perhaps because he was so cool and detail-oriented and that attitude hadn't made a good impression on reporters or perhaps because they simply wanted to keep their strategy to themselves. Either way, the press didn't like it. Reporters took to calling Leo "the silent man in the Tower," referring to his cell in the tower of the station house. Arnold s and Rosser s strategy was to prove Leos innocence by convincing the jury that Jim Conley was solely responsible for the murder and to undercut all claims of sexual interest in Mary by presenting Conley s motive as greed. They intended to argue that Conley tried to take the money from her pay envelope and when she resisted, he killed her for it. The attorneys found witnesses of their own at the factory to support this contention. Mary Pirk, forelady in the polishing department, Attorney Reuben Arnold during Leo Franks trial in 1913. 58 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME told them, "[Jim Conley] borrowed money from me every week. Sometimes he wouldn't pay me, and I would come in the office and get it." Other factory girls would confirm Mary Pirk's testimony about Conley s habit of borrowing money from them. They also said that he behaved strangely on the Monday after the murder. And police had never found Marys silver mesh purse, further evidence that her murder had been the result of robbery gone bad. The defense also had a witness who claimed that Jim Conley had confessed to the murder. William Mincey was an insurance agent for American Life. He was also a white man, so the attorneys were confident that his race would make him believable, especially to the all-white jury they expected to get. After watching the Confederate Memorial Day parade, Mincey had gone back to selling insurance door to door. He'd seen a man who identified himself as Jim Conley and tried to sell the man some insurance, but Conley was nervous and almost incoherent. He told Mincey to come back the following week, but when Mincey pressed him, Conley said he was in trouble and expected to be in jail soon. The insurance agent asked what for, and Conley replied, "Murder, I killed a girl today." Mincey asked why, and Conley got angry "That is for me to know and you to find out," he snapped. Mincey tried to get more information and started to come closer, offering to write the mans insurance application right then. But Conley jumped up and backed away, saying, "I have killed one today and I don't want to kill another." When he read about Mary's murder, Mincey went to the factory, but things were so hectic that day watchman Holloway turned him away. Mincey said he'd gone to the police station right after Conley had been arrested and been allowed to see him, but Conley claimed he didn't remember Mincey or the conversation. Then Mincey wrote to Dorsey about the meeting but never got a reply, so he contacted Rosser. The defense team found several women who had heard the men's conversation on Confederate Memorial Day and agreed to testify. MOST ALL A PACK OF LIES" 59 Leo's attorneys also planned to use medical experts to show that Mary Phagan could well have been killed later than Dorsey claimed, while Leo was outside the factory building. At this point, Arnold and Rosser felt well prepared to go to trial They believed that all Dorsey had was a distorted timeline and an eyewitness who was lying to protect himself The defense was confident that a jury would compare the compelling evidence against Jim Conley with the weak circumstantial case against Leo and quickly declare him not guilty. 60 AN UNSPEAKABLE GRIME THE TRIAL OPENS As July 1913 drew to a close, many of the teenage factory employees were in a state of thrilled anxiety. Would Hugh Dorsey call them to the stand? Would all of Atlanta hear what they could tell? Temperatures topped one hundred degrees daily that July, and it looked as if heat might postpone the trial still longer. (Air conditioners were not yet used widely.) But Judge Leonard Roan wanted to proceed. Normally the trial would have been held in the Thrower Building because the new county courthouse was still under construction. But authorities anticipated large crowds for this trial. So they created a courtroom that would seat about 250 people out of a big room on the first floor of the old city hall. They installed fans and extra chairs beneath the electric chandeliers hanging from the tin ceiling and also a ventilating device called an ozonator. Unfortunately the ozonator didnt cool the room very well, so Judge Roan ordered the windows opened to bring in fresh air. The open windows also brought the overflow crowd that had gathered in the streets into the room. And while the judge could control the behavior of the people seated in his packed courtroom, he could do nothing about the crowd outside. People cheered, booed, and shouted at the witnesses, the lawyers, the judge, and even the jury. They threatened, "Hang that Jew, or we'll hang you!" Although the defense protested, Judge Roan simply asked the sheriff to find out who was making the noise. That did nothing to stop the crowd s commentary on the proceedings. 61 Passions ran high in the courtroom as well. A Georgia general assemblyman who attended part of the trial recalled, "There was a thirst for the blood of Mary Phagan's murderer. So intense was this feeling that the very atmosphere in and about the courthouse was charged with the sulphurous fumes of anger. I was in the courthouse several times during the trial, and the spirit, the feeling, the thought of the crowd affected me. Without reason, I found myself prejudiced against Frank. Prejudiced, not from facts and testimony, but by popular belief and hostile feeling manifested by the crowd." Witnesses waited to testify in an upstairs room above the courtroom. The Atlanta Journal reported the crowd could see the factory girls at the open windows, laughing and chattering with one another, "Axe you subpoenaed? Isn t this a lark?" For those in the courtroom, it was anything but a lark. Hugh Dorsey knew he had to win this trial or say good-bye to his ambitions of climbing to higher political position. Judge Roan knew that this high-profile case would demand his careful rulings on the evidence or the verdict might be overturned on appeal. The twelve men on the jury knew from the crowd noise that all of Atlanta would be paying attention to their decision. 62 AN UNSPEAKABLE GRIME M. II 1 *%■ And Leo Frank, sitting at the defense table with his wife and his mother beside him, knew that his attorneys had to prove his innocence or he would lose his life. The penalty for murder in 1913 Georgia was to be hanged by the neck until dead. Despite this terrible prospect, Leo seemed calm and collected as he entered the courtroom. "ISN'T THIS A LARK?" 63 THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION THS STANDARD SOOTHERS NEWSPAPER. ■ A. Xi.Vl.-X>,. 51, ATLANTA, HA. WF.DNFSH.n MOItNIN'.!. ,\ri)IHT i.\ 1JM.I, -TV. i-.NTY I'Ai.bH. CONLEY'S MAIN STORY STILL REMAINS UNSHAKEN 12 HOURS BY LUTHER ROSSER 10 KEEP ITS FOES :|0N THE MAIL CLERKS^ 0U1 OFJMESS Two Whit* Men Hold Up the Chid Couns.fi Emery Fm Fan Loumiile .md N.i*fs- Tdi- H-v.v Manufacturer* viHe Nu. % Near C !.-■■'■ , Poughi Caasrewmen Who Alabama. ■ Gen t 'controlled. /ItL REGISTERED MAIL UNDERWOOD INTERVIEW TAKEN BY THE ROBBERS DESCRIBED BY KMF.RY Three Mail Cterka tfantkaH- &»«>■ Telli Ho«- Efforta ed— Robber* Fsrao* a. the! W ere Made to Control Cer- Train Enter* the Subtirl in Camautleej— "Deroo- of Binniiiifli..iri. --';'■> ■ ': " Ridiculed M^if/i Session Near Close Lower House Is Plunged Into All Day Filibuster AS RESULT OF FEUD With Sratr') Keventte* SWr- of Over 51,000,000 acd Need of Sam to Relieve Financial Stj i«-:tcy Grr-ttcr Th vtf, WT»le Day fl Wawed by li pstatarj SfTOfiT .WHOE TO ^0*0: COMMITTEE TO REPORT WEBB BILL, THE CAUSE Wabtwtackr, ol * !,'■;'[ <Jjir..-,i!i.>n to K< htii btrodoad by Kkid, KEEP HANDS OFF, IRIESGEN.HUERTI TO UNITED STATES Av-jMivntly DropnirinR Smiing 0\c N>-yri\ Aunt neys (or Desalt Appea JixJjp. Roan io Sinks All Evidence Relating to A!- !c r rrj Prcvinu-, Conduct of Dc-fore D.\y of Mut- ? Vi^aroi ait Such Ac- tion and Jud, r e Roan Will Decide Tod*y. / Cobb Muriiac PROPOSAL TO MEDIATE ', AN INSULT TO MEXICO Hi Dwiar. \'.n Re- ; ■ ■" '\.i ■ ir. all (fl X turns! ■ Uii-uitv - (mpUcable W'aiy, r,., B* Wajed on Rej I EAD IS THE Much like modern TV news, Georgia newspapers tried to provide constant coverage to a public eager to hear any news of the trial. "I am glad the trial is about to begin after this long wait,'" he declared. "I have no fear. I am not only innocent of this crime, but I am innocent of any knowledge of it." For her part, Lucille sat close to her husband and glared steadily at the prosecutor with fury as he opened his case. Hugh Dorsey put Mary Phagan's mother on the stand first, reminding the jury that Mary had been a pretty, innocent young girl forced to work in a factory. Then he called George Epps, who boyishly leaped to the stand, barefoot. The judge ruled that George couldn't repeat what he claimed Mary told him on the streetcar, but George testified to the time he met Mary and the time he saw her go into the factory. When asked what time he'd finished selling his papers, he said he wasn't sure because he told time by the sun, and the sun had gone down by then. That statement gave Luther Rosser his cue for cross- examination — it had been a gray, rainy day that Saturday, with no sun. This would be his technique throughout the trial: to trip up witnesses on technical errors, implying their whole evidence was a lie because of those small lies. It was a reasonable strategy, but it was a calculated, rational approach that didn't take into account the passion of the crowd — or the passion of the jury. In contrast, Dorsey understood that the way to a jurys heart was to tell a story they could believe, because a convincing story cannot be refuted by fact. He wove a powerful tale that caught up both the jury and the crowd in its emotion. Rosser tried to make them think about the facts, but it was very difficult to make reason outweigh emotion. Newt Lee testified about finding the body and notifying the police — and about not being able to reach Leo Frank. He was followed on Tuesday and Wednesday by a string of police witnesses, including Pinkerton detective Scott and culminating in Detective John Black. Black, especially, presented all Leo's actions in as suspicious a light as possible, particularly his unwillingness to help with the investigation or even speak to police without his lawyers present after his arrest. Leo listened, his impassive expression masking his inner outrage. He knew he'd had good reason not to talk to detectives. "I knew that ISN'T THIS A LARK?" 65 there would not be an action so trifling, that there was not an action so natural but that they would distort and twist it to be used against me/' he later explained, "and that there was not a word that I could utter that they would not deform and distort and use against me." Detective Blacks testimony was specific and detailed under the direct examination by Solicitor General Dorsey, but it dissolved into a repetition of "I don't know" when Luther Rosser took over on cross- examination. This prompted Rosser to demand at one point, "Why is it you recollect so well some things, and fail so badly in others?" Black had no answer. On Thursday fourteen-year-old Monteen Stover testified that she had come to the factory on April 26 to get her pay and that Leo Frank was not in his office, contradicting Leo's statement that he worked on paperwork after he paid Mary. Rosser was careful in his cross-examination of the girl, getting her to admit that she might not have seen Leo since the open safe door blocked her view. But he didn't want to appear bullying, and his polite questions couldn't shake her insistence that she hadn't paid attention to furniture or doors because she was looking for a person, not an object. Robert Barrett testified about the hair and blood he had found. Then the chemist, Dr. Claude Smith, testified that the chips of wood from the floor of the metal room were indeed stained with blood, although Rosser got him to admit that he couldn't identify the blood and it "might have come from a mouse." More medical evidence followed on Friday, with the appearance of Dr. Henry Harris, who had performed the autopsy on Mary Phagan. He testified that the blows to her face looked as if they had been made with a fist and that the condition of the bread and cabbage in her stomach indicated she had been killed only thirty or forty-five minutes after eating. Since Mary had eaten shortly before leaving home, that would put her time of death just after she entered the factory for her pay. But Dr. Harris's most surprising testimony was still to come. "I made an examination of the privates of Mary Phagan," he explained. "I found no spermatozoa. On the walls of the vagina there was evidence of violence of some kind . . . The dilation of the blood 66 AN UNSPEAKABLE CRIME vessels indicated to me that the injury had been made in the vagina some little time before death. Perhaps ten to fifteen minutes." Dr. Harris had just stated that Mary Phagan appeared to have been raped by some object that did not leave any semen. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for Dorsey's plan to build on this implication to accuse Leo of being a pervert. But before the defense could cross-examine Dr. Harris, he complained he was too ill to continue, and Judge Roan excused him on the grounds that he would return as soon as he was able. When Dr. Harris did return to complete his testimony, he focused solely on the time of death, and Arnold was unable to shake the doctor's claims during his cross-examination. Setting up the main case against Leo, the prosecution proceeded to call a witness who had seen Jim Conley in the factory lobby the day Mary was killed. Dorsey ended the day by calling Albert McKnight. Even though his wife, Minola, had retracted her earlier statement, McKnight was still willing to testify in hopes of getting some of the reward money that had as yet gone unpaid. On cross- examination Rosser forced McKnight to reveal some of the details of his wife's mistreatment at the hands of the police, but he couldn't trip the man up on any of his own testimony. Sixteen-year-old Helen Ferguson eagerly took the stand on Saturday morning, wearing a pretty white dress with a bow at the neck. She testified that she had tried to pick up her close friend Mary's pay from Leo Frank on Friday, but he wouldn't give it to her. Helen told the jury that the superintendent said that Mary would get it on Saturday, implying that he intended to see the girl then. Dr. Hurt, the Fulton County medical examiner, reinforced Dr. Harris's testimony about the blows to Mary's face but was less convincing about the charge of rape, stating, "I discovered no violence to the [genital] parts." Reuben Arnold handled the cross-examination, getting the doctor to concede that the blood the police noted on her thighs might have simply been the girl's menstrual period. The trial almost ended at that point. After a break, Judge Roan came back into the courtroom carrying a copy of the Georgian. Jurors could clearly see the bright red headline about the case: ISN'T THIS A LARK?" 67 SHTHE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION K AT1.A.\"T\. i.; \. THURSDAY MOi:\{\i;, \li,ivr iri. 1913. — FOUHTKEJJ PAGES I ..: 1 r ■■ < >>- .1-1 m : MEXICAN CIVIL WAR Tic .- ii WU on Had !■ ted : >S ui I 1 INT SAVE DIGGS , FROMFEDERALPEN — -jCARDS ARE STACKED,,. , ~ TO PUT HARRY THAW ON AMERICAN SOIL : ■:.. " Tvi r f Ai •c'iV, V i- VVh S <- In \ rr- |) <;\. tjSomctinit- Turn;:!;!. /.vi* v ''.not/ BUREAU \Opkrior to courts U Th»« Win in Ceefl -" I\. in v l md Iiu-ih Him ( Bonier Tii v Warrta -. Foi ! tomej Didn'i Pulsate Of- tcr, i- Bui, Like Hi» Client, BUmod the Girl. EVIDENCE ENDED; A RGUMENT WILLOPMR TODAY\ ' "BLAMING THE GIRL il GW. 7e// Jary Fr«n*',-CAaracfer /.Bad li TRIAL NEARTNG E AND LEO M. FRANK! SHOULD KNOW FATE BY NEXT SATURDAY HUERTA INFORMS WILSON THAT HE LACKS SUPPORT OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Shortly After 4 O'Clock Wet 1 nc*d»y AlltraDon the £•:*'.£ I AljnoilM ( ; -,tf : Tilfrc I W,- D! c NEGRESS GARBED AS MANS SHOOISfflNf.mil U. S. JUDGE SPEER j MAYLOSE POSITION BY IMPEACHMENT: AtavtAdmi lien <rfC«rij __poeutti«M«rrE\-Wen0B,4O(l I Pii»iwr Wii Then Put [ Bich on St.i.ul to ( ,ivc Him Opportunity to Deny Ctr- :..in Suteroetiu M ; ,d,- by, WilMf-. r After Hi.- Slorv ToM ,„ jury on Tncd.y Allcrnaoi:. EkAf.'K HOOPER OPENS. FOR Tin: STATE TODAY: NO T1.V.K W.IIT IS SET I SON IISCOVERS FATHER TAKING LIFE WITH GAS StaLe Renewed It, Piu> ■ Ai- l.t.i: »n 1-t.vA'S, Oi..i. r,; :- : .ly bMoraiut.wKlSoJnd Ten or fyfofo Girt* Wfca Dace W'.jr '■:<•,! >t Nstiont] | Pencil F.n-ory S-.vare Th.u n 1 :,r.ictrr..>fS„ r ^;rtr-.^r- \V. Bid— TWO TcM.iiieJ 'll:ry H.d Seen Fr.. n ^ (\ Inti. Hrr -in- Kwji Wiii, I Girl WboH»d IV :i|;cifor | W4STWQ QF BSTnTfS \ the Drfetiie. ^ - CHARGET) TO THE /£/; Wff — j Tl - Kr»nii trt»t Km eaten ■ i i»m 'Mlc • ' <-,?: S. y. .Sj . r| I'lri'mM^nn.iim, - : ;'--i':--Liw B.inli- '.V.'Vi , r '" r ', . ,j ,} ! * V A. Hint'-.- U'-frr.::- .-iiid Avjrd- : " ■' : '\ ;■" ' '■ ivl ■ i:-Ti!».ini iV-.. I.- r... ,: i? ;■,,,. ' '",, at C pa, ?.< at I ! J . . A Hew* Con By Bo . CooumHee. HOTEL AT UNION CITY ■ DESTROYED BY FLAIS'; ■ r THB ATUAWAODS9T1 ' ' ■,. '■ ' • _> sssvtiS fs^ V Comiauttl on Page Twttve, " •— ?rS 5ei;en Witnesses Called by Solicitor Dorsey to Testify Against Prisoner As the prosecution closed its case, the newspapers kept up a steady supply of words and images about the trial. This front page from the August 21 Constitution featured photos of the teenage witnesses against Frank, making them local celebrities for a time. "STATE ADDS LINKS TO CHAIN." The defense called for a mistrial on the grounds that the headline could bias the jury and lead to an unfair verdict. Instead, the judge instructed the jury to disregard the headline. Even though the defense didn't feel this was adequate, they finally accepted the ruling since they expected to win the case. While the court was recessed for Sunday, Jim Conley s attorney, William Smith, prepared his client to testify the next day. He arranged for a shave and a haircut for Conley, and police officers cleaned the man up. Conley came into court on Monday morning in a new suit, looking tidy and respectable. He fleshed out his earlier (third) affidavit on the stand, introducing a code of stomps by which he was supposed to warn his boss that someone was coming. He also described previous encounters between Leo Frank and other girls on other Saturdays, including details of witnessing oral sex — an act which was considered a particularly degrading perversion at that time. When he got to April 26, Conley stated that Frank had told him, "I wanted to be with the little girl, and she refused me, and I struck her and I guess I struck her too hard and she fell and hit her head against something, and I don't know how bad she got hurt. Of course, you know I ain't built like other men/' Although both Dorsey and his witnesses took care never to be more specific, 1913 listeners understood the unspoken implications of engaging in oral sex and not being "built like other men." The prosecution was insinuating that because Leo was Jewish, his genitals were deformed to the point that he could not enjoy conventional vaginal intercourse and could only experience sexual pleasure in ways that were then considered perverted. This false, prejudiced idea had been widely held by anti-Semites for centuries, perhaps fueled by misunderstandings about the Jewish tradition of circumcision. But no one put the accusation into plain words at the trial, so it was impossible for Leo's lawyers to refute as a complete fabrication born out of ignorance and big