Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN ANT) NEWS. MONDAY. APRIL 28. 1912.
T SUSPECT,
SLAIN GIRL’S AUNT AND SISTER
At tlir riL'Iit is Miss Ruth I’hagan. aunt, of Mary Phagan, and in hi*r arms is Miss Ollie Phagan, sis-
11• r of tile victim whom she is trying to comfort. Below, the old (jranitc Hotel building at 37-39
•South Forsyth Stre<*t, now the home of the National Pencil Company, and scene of the slaying.
charging h
Gar»t va
real at 8:4
Sohlff, assists
factory. A f<
on a car bour
The officeri
tied by teloy
■watch for a
description.
The detec;
arrested on a warrant
m .Judire Powers* court,
n with murder,
last ween before his nr-
this morning by Herbert
ant superintendent of the
cw minutes later he was
rid for Marietta,
s in Marietta were noti-
mne and were on the
man answering Gant’s
cm began to Mpread
their nets for Gant on significant sto
ries coming from half a dozen differ
ent sources.
All were to the effect that Gant had
tried on many occasions to pay atten
tions to the little girl, and that his
infatuation for her was evident even
in the factory.
Gant was employed as shipping
clerk for some time with the pencil
company, but left three weeks ago
Saturdav He was seen Friday and
Saturday, the laii< r time by Superin
tendent Leo M Frank, from whom hs
asked permission to go into the fac
tory to get a pair of shoes he had left.
Then he was seen again this morn
ing near the factory, while the de
tectives were looking in another part
of the city for him.
The fact that he had been seen
about the factory Friday and Satur
day was recalled by employees when
his name was mentioned in the case.
Herbert Sc hi IT. assistant superin
tendent of the factory, was Kitting at
his desk in a front office on the sec
ond floor to-day when he saw Gant
come out of n near-beer saloon across
the way and hurry dov.n Forsyth
Street toward Alabama Street. He
was dressed in a blue suit and wore
a
:f I *
f
|s-j*ass»
3 YDUTHS SEN
GARDEN TELLS
SW SAT
u straw hat. lie carried a package
under his arm
Detective Starnes was notified, but
by the time he had taken up the trail.
•ared. Officers were
le railway stations
Gant had disap]
dispatched to
and to the Ma
thwart him if hi
escaping.
E. F. Hollows
tta
Street cars to
d any thoughts of
timekeeper at the
FLOWERS and FLORAL DESIGNS
ATLANTA FLORAL CO.
Both Phones Number 4. 41 Peachtree
ATUNT& ALL THIS WEEK
H I L E>cf(t Kr, i. Ihur. Kjlits
TH „ EATER Miss BILLY LONG
Weti anti $a And Company In
A Butterfly
on the Wheel
Rights 15c to 5<k I First Tim© In Atlanta
LYRIC
This
Week
Mats. Tubs.,
Thars., Sat.
BILLY THE KID
A DRAMA OF THE WEST.
With the Young American Star.
BERKELY HASWELL.
Home? Again With Vaudeville
FORSYTH Mat * To d, y 2:30
rUnt.Ol l T% To-night at 8:30
Sophye Barnard--Lou
Angier &. Co.—Chn*
Richards — Gaby —
Heim Ch ildren—Barr
4. Hope—Munel 4
Fr*ncl6 and Others....
JfEXT WEEK
Giu Etiw« r ti
Ktd kdb*fri
factory, said that he was aware of
Gant’s infatuation for the girl, but
did not know that she accepted his
attentions at all.
Gant had told him. he said, that he
had been greatly attracted by Mary
Pliagan and had walked home with
her and had been with her on other
occasions
Mary Pirk. a girl who worked near
Mary Phagan in the pencil factory,
said to-day that she knew the mur
dered girl well and that she had hoard
her girl companions talking a number
of times of Gant's infatuation for the
Phagan girl
She had heard she said, that Gant
frequently walked home with her and
paid her other attentions.
Police detectives, after an all-
forenoon conference with l<eo Frank,
permitted the factory superintendent
to go one result of the conference,
however, was to gut an important ad
mission from Newt Lee. the negro
| night watchman, who is being held as
j a material witness.
Gant Admitted to Factory Saturday.
Mr. Frank told the detectives that
after leaving the factory Saturday
| i vening he called up Lee and asked
i him if Gant, who had asked perm is -
i sion of Frank a few minutes before
to g«*t his shoes m an upstairs room,
had left the building yet. The negro
answered that Gant had obtained his
J shoes and left the building within ten
I minutes.
This noon, however. Attorneys Lu-
ler Rosser and Herbert Haas, who
ere representing Superintendent
i*ank. went to Lee'St cell after the
inference in the detectives'office had
mcluded and questioned him sharp-
After catching him in a . misstate-
ent, they induced him to admit that
his first testimony in regard to the
time Gant was in the building was
misleading. He thought that Gant
was there 20 minutes or half an hour.
He added the remark, which is re
garded as highly important, that
Gant, while in the building, called up
und talked to some girl.
Recent Movements a Mystery.
The ease against Gant is made
stronger by the mystery surrounding
his movements during the past three
weeks Mrs. F. C. Terrell, of 284 East
Linden Avenue, with whom Gant has
been hoarding, told a Georgian re
porter this morning that three weeks
ago to-day Gant packed up all his be
longings and left her house, telling
her he had secured a good position in
California and was going there at
onee.
Gant's object in telling the Cali
fornia trip story to Mrs. Terrell is
unknown, but detectives consider his
movements during the three weeks
that have elapsed since then a strong
link in the chain of evidence that is
being woven about him.
Mrs. Terrell wild she had not re
ceived any word from Gant, and sup
posed he was in California. She con
sidered his silence unusual, because
hitherto whenever Gant had been
away from home, for even a day or
two, he had always sent postcards or
j a letter.
.Mrs. Terrell also declared that Gant
had known the Phagan family in Ma
rietta, where Mary Phagan lived for a
number of years. Gant has been liv
ing with the Terrelf family for seven
years. Cp to four or five years ago
the Terrells were neighbors of the
i Phagans in Marietta, and little Mary
| often played around the Terrell home.
I It was there that Gant became ac-
J quainjed with her. Mrs Terrell said,
j Gant is about 22 years old.
Strange Notes Increase Mystery.
A fev inches from the body were
i found two remarkably strange notes,
j Th* s* notes, incoherent and almost 11-
1 legible, only serve to increase the
mystery. Detectives declared there
was no doubt that these notes were
written by the murderer and were a
feeble and tragically grotesque effort
at a ruse. They purport to have been
written by the girl, and tlie wording
would seem to indicate that she had
written them after she wag in the
throes of death.
"A tall, b'ack negro did this." is the
substance of the two notes.
The police were notified by the
janitor, and several officers were
quickly on the scene, immediately
staning a thorough investigation.
After finding that all of the doors
and windows to the building were se
curely fastened, the police took Newt
Lee into custody on suspicion, believ
ing that he eould throw light on the
tragedy. Lee carried the keys to the
building, but protested that he nati
admitted no one to the building, and
that he hefd no idea that any one had
been inside until he found the body.
Detectives are certain that the ne
gro ean explain the mystery of how
the girl found her way into the build
ing. even if he did not actually com
mit the murder.
Negro Pleads Total Ignorance.
The negro’s sole statement to de
tectives wince his arrest has been:
"I didn’t know nothing about a un
til i found th< body,**
Detectives, however, declare the
locked doors and windows render thia
statement unreasonable.
The negro was put through a grill
ing examination time and again Sun
day and last night, but no amount of
questioning could induce him to
change his "know nothing” statement.
To every question he replied:
T don't know not’.dng about it.*
Detectives are sure th • negro has
not told all he knows, and will hold
him unt: the mystery is cleared.
.The theory that the crime was the
work of a negm held full sway and
was assiduously followed b\ detee-
The story of three m m leading a
weeping, unwilling girl on Forsyth
Street Saturday night is being
sounded to its depth*- to-day by At
lanta policemen in their efforts to un
ravel the mystery of Mary Phagan’s
death.
The story is told by E. 3. Skipper,
of 224 1-2 Peters Street. He declared
that on Saturday night about 10
o’clock he saw a girl whose appear
ance fitted the description of the girl-
victim. Three men were with her, all
of them young anti flashily dressed.
The girl was reeling slightly, Skip
per declares,,as if rendered dizzy by
drug-. She was crying, and time and
again lagged behind her companions,
as if she feared to go farther. Each
time they insisted and she seemed
powerless to resist them.
Skipper declared that he can iden
tify the three men. He followed in|
their wake when first ho saw the par
ty on Pryor Street, near Trinity Ave
nue. At Trinity they turned toward
Whitehall, he said, the men urging the
girl to accompany them. Down White
hall to Forsyth he accompanied them,
and saw them turn north toward
Mitchell Street. There he left them,
going toward the Terminal Station,
his original destination.
Skipper said that the girl did not
appear intoxicated, but merely sick
and pitifully weak.
Following closely on the heels of
his story came to the police to-day
the statement of Adam Woodward,
night watchman in th • Williams Liv
ery Stable, 35 Forsyth Street, three
doors from tile factors building. He
told the detectives that about 11
o’clock he heard a woman s ream sev
eral times, but, considering it the cry
of a merrymaker, pa .I no attention
to it.
Soda Clerk Sought
in Phagan Mystery
Weeping Girl Like Mary Phagan
Seen Saturday in Company
of Soda Jerker.
The police late this afternoon began
a search for a soda water clerk who
was seen talking to a girl answering
the description of Mary Phagan Sat-
j urday night at 12:10 .o’clock, in front
of a rooming house at 286 1 -2 White
hall Street. Tlie information wav
given to the police by L. B. and R. C.
King, brothers, who said they passed
the 'Whitehall Street address at that
hour and saw the couple.
Their attention was called to them,
they say. by the fact that the gild
w; s sobbing. As the King brothers
passed they heard the girl say:
"Don’t do that: be a friend to me."
in company with the King brother-
three detectives went to Forsyth and
Whitehall Streets, where the clerk is
said to he working. If lie can be
found he will be taken to police
headquarters and examined by de
tectives.
tives until Sunday afternoon, when E.
L. Sen tell, of 82 Davis Street, a clerk
for the Kamper Grocery Company,
divulged the information that he saw
Mary Phagan at Forsyth and Hunter
Streets Sunday morning, about 12:30
o’clock, in company with Arthur Mul-
linax. Hr said they were walking in
tHe direction of the pencil factory ,
which is but a few doors from this
corner. Sentell knew the Phagan
girl, and said he spoke to her as he
passed.
Since then detectives have been
working on both theories—that the
crime was committed by a negro and
that it was the job of a white man
and that the negro watchman is an
accomplice in that he knew of it.
This gave a new angle to the mys
tery and set detectives on the trail of
Mullinax. who was found late in the
afternoon and placed under arrest on
suspicion.
Gant was arrested as ho alighted
from a street car from Atlanta, car
rying a suitcase. He was taken by
Deputy Sheriff Hicks, to the office of
Sheriff Swanson, where he was ques
tioned and the contents of the suit
case examined.
Chief of Police Goodson, of Mariet
ta. said this afternoon that Gant ex
pressed surprise when arrested, but
didn't make a statement. Gant, it
was stated, was extremely nervous
when he got off the car. and was
evidently expecting something to hap
pen. When Hicks accosted him and
placed him under arrest. Gant turned
pale and stammered that there must
be some mistake
Gant in Saloon.
Charles W. McGee, of Colonial
Hills, a bartender in the saloon of
J. P. Hunter, at 38 South Forsyth
Street, across the street from »iie
plant of the National Lead Pencil
Company, this afternoon said thru
Gant and another man. whom he dii
not know, cam? in his place Satur
day night about 10 o'clock.
"Gant and the other man." said
McGee, "walked back to the lunch
counter and got something to eat, and
then Gant came to the bar ancl said
he wanted to leave a pair of shoes
with us until Monday morning. I
told him he could, and the shoes were
placed behind the cigar counter in the
front part of the saloon.”
While in Hunter’s place Gant and
the other man appeared to be in a
hurry and kept talking earnestly to
gether as though they were planning
something.
This morning at 8 o’clock Gant,
looking like lie had not had much
sleep, came into the Hunter saloon
and got his shoes. He talked to Mc
Gee for a moment at the cigar count
er. and they discussed the Phagan
murder. McGee jokingly said the po
lice were looking for Gant, and the
latter was ,xcited. He stepped quick
ly to the door and glanced across m
the National Pencil Company s buiiu-j
ing. and then looked hastily up and
down Forsyth Street. H then toiu
McGee he was going to Marietta and
walked rapidly up Forsyth Street.
( -~gi
BLACFy curly -
MR
<xmwx
DARK
6 IT TALL
SLBLDK /
BLUE-
SUIT.
£5 YLAES
ODD
m
shots'
Edgar L. Sentell, lifelong friend of Mary I’hagan, says he
saw a man answering this description, walking with the girl
after midnight Sunday, a few hours before the body was found.
He has identified the man as Arthur .Mullniax. who, however,
was to-day apparently cleared b y an alibi established by his
sweetheart.
Body Dragged by Deadly
Pleads Unwritten Law, and De
clares He Thought Encounter
Was Duel to Death.
Elmer T. Darden, who, pleading the
1 unwritten law. was put on trial for his
life in criminal division of Superior
i Court to-day for the slaying of C. M.
» Goddard, a Stone Mountain granite
cutter, in the Union station March 13,
took the stand in his* own defense this
afternoon and made a statement of
. the shooting and its causes.
With the testimony of a dozen eye
witnesses to the shooting, the State
closed its case at 12:30 o’clock and
| court recessed until 2 o’clock.
The testimony given for the State
followed the reports* of the tragedy
already published. Every attempt
j made by Paul Lindsay, attorney for
! the Goddard family, employed to aid
Solicitor Dorsey in the prosecution, to
send up any of Darden’s children to
testify against their father failed.
Wife of Slayer Absent.
Mrs. Darden, who had sworn that
she would be at the trial to clear her
name of any stigma, did not appear.
• Tin State put on Mrs. J. R. Harwell,
in charge of the work of the Travel -
ers’ Aid Society at the Union station;
Addle Mays, a negro attendant: John
Beaoeley. a negro porter, and Police-
I man Hardy, all eyewitnesses.
Darden's statement follows:
Telis of Losing Money.
"I was born in Elizabeth City. Va.,
March ^2. 1.868. and married in June.
1894. About ten years ago my father
left me $35,000. 1 then was ip the
granite business in Vermont.
*‘I bought a farm and little quarry
near Redan, Ga., about eight years
ago. Among my first acquaintances
were the Goddards, and Cossie God
dard especially. He was closer to me
than my brother, and when I was on
the road, which was frequent, 1 had so
much confidence in him I asked him
to watch over my family.
"Finally 1 got extremely bard up
for cash. My wife was a woman of
high ideals and extravagance, and I
guess f am largely to blame, for I
had been her tutor in this particular.
When 1 was no longer able to bestow
on her luxuries, she became dissatis
fied and quarrelsome. I begged her to
be patient, telling her that I realized
that we were almost down and out
; but that my health was good, I was a
man of education and could overcome
j the obstacles.
"On February 12 my wife came to
Atlanta and spent the day and re-
j turned on the 6 o’clock accommoda
tion train. Sin* told me that she had
j been to the picture shows.
Asserts Her Love Waned.
"She made other visits to Atlanta
I the following week and once visited
! the place where 1 worked and made
an engagement to go to lunch with
me. She did not fill the engagement.
She told me again she had been to
the picture shows.
Cord After Terrific Fight DANGEROUS CALOMEL
GOING OUT OF USE
Stretched full length, face down
ward on the floor of basement at the
reare of the plant, the body was
found. A length of heavy cord or
wrapping twine, which had been used
by the slqjer to strangle the child
after he had beaten her to insensi
bility, was looped around the neck,
and a clumsy bandage of cloth, torn
from her petticoat, as if to conceal
the horrible method of murder
•swathed the face.
The stray end of the cord lay along
the child’s back between her two
heavy braids of dark red hair as if
it had been arranged that way de
liberately.
No marks appeared to indicate that
death came by any other means than
stragulation. save a four-inch clean
cut on the back of the head on the
left side.—a serious scalp wound—
and a few bruises on the forehead
and cheeks, on the left arm at the
elbow and on the left leg Just below
the knee.
Body Dragged.
The neck was ut ancl bruised hor
ribly by the contraction of the heavy
strangling cord c.nd me mark* on the
face indicated that the slayer had
dragged the boa: back and forth
across the basem* nt floor to complete
his work of garroting.
The child evidently had struggled |
and fought frantically before perhaps!
brought to unconsciousness by the
blow on the heaJ.
On her left arm was a small gold
band bracelet that had sunk in to the
white tender flesh as if under the
pressure of a heavy grip. Two of
the finger^ on the left hand were
bruised where a small signet ring en
circled the third slender finger.
The hild’s fa* e was covered with
dirt and sand when the detectives
reached the basement after being not
ified by Newt L *. the negro watch
man. who called police headquarters
when, as he asserts, he stumbled over
the little body as lie made his rounds.
The fine black particles were ground
into the neck an 1 shoulders, indicat
ing her body w > - humped along the
flooi dangling and twisting at the
end of ihe garrot-ng cord.
Features Marred.
She was garbed in a one-piece
pongee * ’k dress of lavender, simply
made, and raugh ai the bodice and
trininv’ii at th*- . o-eve- with cheaply
•ace The cress \ 11 barely below th* j>
knees. The stock ngs were black and I \
a black gun me* u pump was on fhe*• >
foot. The other pump was*<
found a few feet away on a pile of
trash. A plain Mue straw hat, with
the band or trimming missing, was
found near tlie eleva;or shaft.
Two turquoise-blue silken ribbon
bows were fastened on each side of
the wavy red braid of hair. Strange
ly enough the bovs had been kept
in place by the improvised bondage
torn from the underskirt by the slay
er. The- bow, sn.d to have been on
the ha't, was never found.
The horrid manner of her deatr.
marred frightfully the girl’s once at
tractive features.
What had been ti «soft white skin,—
white almost to translucence under
which the color might have run in
life in rank swirls—was discolored
and bruised.
The force of the blow on tne near 1
had blackened the right eye uni
swollen both lids beyond recognition.
Into the forehead cuts end scratches
was grounded dirt and sand.
The marks on he left arm and leg
were skin bruises as if made when
the body was dragged across the
floor. The skin had been scrapped off
in little patches Lom spots about two
to three inches in diameter.
MaiV Phagan was 14 years old. She
was slender in stature. She was
perhaps 4 feet. 10 inches in height
and weighed about 105 pounds.
A Safer, More Eeliable Rem
edy Has Taken Its Place in
the Drug Store and in
the Home.
A few years ago men. women
and children took calomel for a
sluggish liver and for constipa
tion. They took risk. 4 ' when they
did so, for calomel is a danger
ous drug. Your family doctor wiii
ho the first to tel lyou this if he
discovers you dosing yourself with
calomel.
But the drug trade has found a
safer, more pleasant remedy than
calomel in Dodson’s* Liver Tone.
Dealers toll us« that their drug
store sells Dodson’s Liver Tone in
practically every case of bilious
ness and liver trouble where calo
mel used to be /taken.
Dodson's Liver Tone is a vege
table liver tonic that is absolutely
harmless for children and grown
people. It sells for 50 cts. a bottle
and is guaranteed to be entirely
satisfetory by all druggists, who
will refund your money with a
smile if it does not give quick, gen
tle relief without any of calomel's
unpleasant after-effects.
MOflTJUJTY FROM COLBS IS ALARMING
Thousands Died Last Year From
Colds, Neglected Too Long
Practically every case of pneu
monia was first just a cold. Dur
ing a hard winter in America hun
dreds will neglect the simple cold
and succumb to grippe. A cold,
permitted to settle and inflame, is
the beginning of the Great White
Plague itself, for which we are
spending Millions of Dollars to find
a cure.
Most colds are traceable directly to
an inactive liver. You get overheat
ed. cool off too suddenly and the
pores close. The blood recedes from
the surface anil a congestion is pro
duced. The same condition exists
if you sit in a draft or get wet. The
liver finds its efforts overcome by
pressure «»f the blood, and. being
unable to perform its functions of
cleansing away ihe waste, undi
gested fomi remains in tlie stom
ach and intestines and ferments.
The head gets hot, the feet cold and
bowels constipated. Then cold sets
in.
If JACOBS’ LIVER SALT is tak
en immediately, it will ward off
the cold. It relieves the conges
tion. rejuvenates the liver and sends
the blooil racing through the veins
with a vigor that will instantly dis
pel the depressing attack of cold. A
simple remedy, but worth ■ its
weight in gold if you value health
Ancl it w*ll not put you in bed.
Take JACOBS’ LIVER SALT be
fore breakfast, an agreeably bub
bling drink, and in an hour you’ll
feel fine. The man who doesn't
catch cold keeps his liver lively,
and you will find ^io other liver
tonic as good as the genuine JA
COBS’ LIVER SALT. All drug
gists. 25c. if yours can not sup-
pi' you. upon receipt of price we
will mail full size jar. postage free.
Made and guaranteed by Jacobs’
Pharmacy Co.. Atlanta.