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STRANGLING ARREST
The Atlanta Georgian
Read For Profit GEORGIAN WANT ADS Use For Results
AFTERNOON EDITION
VOL. XI. XO. 228.
ATLANTA, GA. MONI) AV. APRIL 28, 1012.
PR lOK TWO CENTS.
'AY NO
POUCE QUESTION FACTORY SUPERINTENDENT
Man I'hagan.
1 4- v enrol d
GIRL SLAIN IN STRANGLING MYSTERY
daughter of Mrs. •!. W. Coleman, 146 Lindsay Street, whose slain body was found in the basmynt of the National Pencil Factory,
27-39 South Forsyth Street. Two men, a white youth and a negro, are held l»\ the jiolie as the crime is investigated. The girl left her
home Saturday to go to factory, where she had been employed, to draw wages due her. She was seen on the streets at midnight Sat
urday with a strange man. She was not seen alive again.
Arthur Mullinax, White Youth Held
By the Police, Declares the Only
Time He Ever Met Mary Phagan
Was in a Church Play.
Arthur Mullinax, identified as the man .who was with Mary
Phagan at midnight Saturday, a few short hours before her dead
body was found, and now a prisoner in solitary confinement at
police headquarters, declared to a Georgian reporter that his ar
rest was a terrible mistake.
He declared that he had never seen the girl except as ’“the
sleeping beauty” in a church entertainment in which both took
part, last Christmas. Here is his complete story:
‘‘1 had absolutely no connec
tion with this affair and have
' been wrongfully accused. Sen-
* toll is horribly mistaken when
he says he saw me in company
with Mary Phagan shortly after
midnight Sunday morning in
Forsyth Street. 1 did not even
".know the girl- that is, never
had been introduced to her—
and had never been anywhere
With her.in my life.
Sleeping Beauty.”
“I had seen her one time. Thai
was last Christmas at an entertain
ment driven 1n the Western Heights
Baptist Church. We both took part
Jn that entertainment. She played
the part of ‘the sleeping beauty,’
and I did a black face act and also
sang in a quartet.
“But I was not even introduced to
the girl. During the entertainment
the girl remarked to me that I was
a good black face artist, but this was
all that passed between us. I have
never been with Tier at any time
since then, much less at midnight.
“As to my movements Saturday
night, I can easily explain them. Af
ter supper, I called on a girl friend,
Miss Pearl Robinson, who lives in
Bellwood Avenue, and we came do vn
town on the English Avenue car. \Y*»
got off of the car at Marietta and
Forsyth Streets and walked directly
s across to the Bijou Theater We
* iaw part of the first show and part
£3 the second, leaving before the per
formance had concluded. We then
boarded a car, and I took Miss Rob
inson directly to her home.
Slept Soundly.
‘ ' “I talked with her there about
fifteen minutes, I should judge, and.
bidding her goodnight, returned to
my boarding house at 60 Poplar
Street, in Bellwood. On arrival there,
I gave Mrs. Emma Rutherford, ir
landlady, a dollar, for some work
done on my clothes.
“Mrs. Rutherford slipped the bill
under her pillow, and I went on to
my room and went to bed. And I
slept soundly until late Sunday morn
ing.
“The only time 1 was on Forsyth
Street Saturday night was when
Miss Robinson and I left the car at
Forsyth and Marietta Streets and
Walked across to the Bilou.
“Horrible Mistake."
“This is absolutely all I know of
this affair. I had nothing to do xvfi’i
it. knew nothing of it, and, being a
stranger to this dead girl, certainlj
had no motive for wishing to get
her out of the way. It’s all a horrib’c
misAftLv I’ll have no irouble prov
ing an alibi and showing myself in
nocent.”
■ \ When Mullinax was locked in i
, cell at 10 o’clock last night, inani
tions were given that he not be i -
Vowed to communicate with anyone
12-Y ear-OId Girl
Sobs Her Love
For Slain Child
“I’d help lynch the man that
killed poor Mary. If they’d let
me, I’d like to hold the rope that
choked him to death. That’s all
he deserves. I was playing with
Mary only a few days ago. She
was my playmate nearly every
day. But when I saw her dead
body I wouldn't have known her,
her face was so bruised and out
and swollen. It was horrible.
I hope they catch the man that
did it.”—VERA EPPS, twelve-
year-old chum of Mary Phagan.
Vera Epps clenched her little
hands and angei blazed through the
tears in her eyes when she told tj-
day in her childish fury of the ven
geance she wi-uld like to wreak upon
the human beast that slew her play
mate and chum, the murdered Mary
Phagan.
She was at her home, 246 Fox
Street, which is only a short distance
from thA Phagan home, the back
yards of the two houses adjoining.
Her eyes wore still wet with weeping
over the fate of her little chum and
she was a-tremble with the horror
of it. Her youthful knowledge could
hardly comprehend il all. She onlv
knew that a fearful crime had been
committed; that her innocent play
mate had been beaten and killed and
that some man had been guilty of
the deed. And her young heart eric I J
for retribution.
“Oh. I just wish I might help ]
lynch him," siie exclaimed. "I would j
be glad if I might only hold the rope. ;
It's all that he deserves.”
Then her youthful philosophy was I
evident when she said:
“It's a heap worse for a white man
to be guilty of such a terrible deed.”
It was difficult to get the little girl
to talk at first. She had been cry
ing for hours over the loss of her
playmate and was almost in hys
terics from the recollection of th *
gruesome spectacle which had me;
her < yes when she gazed upon the
mutilated corpse.
She clasped and unclasped her
hands nervously and was unable to |
utter a word when the first ques
tions were asked her.
* “On*- thing I know." she finally
was able to say. "Mary was a good j
girl. She was just as nice as she
<‘oii!d b*-. We all knew that. I '
know be. ause Iplaxecl with her eve: , j
day. She played around with us
girls ami boys, but she never would
talk to a man.
“She was a pretty girl, and just as!
sweet and good as siie was j>r*»tt' . |
i couldn’t believe it when Mrs. Re“ I. I
who lives next door, came over to I
our house and told us that Mary h i j
been found murdered.
“It was only last Thursday that
Marx and Lilian Waignel, who lives
at 249 Fox Street, and I were play
ing over there on the embankment.
We all rut our initials in the hard
rii't on the 1 embankment and we're
going to leave he s there. M. f\* »f
the rain washes o letters axv iy
were- going to dig them again.
3 FLASHILY DRESSED YOUTHS SEEN
URGING A REELING GIRL ALONG
The story of three men leading a xveeping, unxx filing girl on Forsyth
Street Saturday night is being sounded to its depths to-day by Atlanta
policemen in their efforts to unravol the mystery of Marx Phagan’s death.
The story is told by E. S. Skipper, of 224L. Peters Street. He de
clared that on Saturday night about 10 o’clock he saw a girl whose appear
ance fitted the description'of the girl-victim. Three men xverr with her, all
of them young and flashily dressed.
The girl xvas reeling slightly. Skipper declares, as if rendered dizzy by
drugs. She was crying, and time and again lagged behind h« r compan
ions as if she feared to go further. Each time they insisted and she
seemed powerless to resist them.
Skipper declared that he can identify the three men. H, followed in
their wake xx hen first ho saxx the party on Pryor Street near Trinity
Avenue. At Trinity they turned toward Whitehall, he said, tile men urg
ing the girl t<» accompany them. Down Whitehall to Forsyth he accom
panied them, and saxx them turn north toward Mitchell Street. There he
left them, going toward th*- Terminal Station, his original destination.
Skipper said that tin girl did not appear intoxicated, but merely sick
and pitifully weak.
Folloxving closely on the heels of his story came to the police to-day
the statement of Adam Woodxvard, night watchman tn the Williams Liv
ery Stable. 35 Forsyth Street, three doors from the facory building. H-
told the detectives that about 11 o'clock lie heard a woman scream sev
eral times, but considering it the cry of a merrymaker paid no attention
to it.
The time specified in the statement of the night watchman links
closely xvith that of flu occurrences in Skipper's story and. according to
policemen, lends color to tin theory that the tine* men he saw were the
nn-n who lured littb Marx Phagan to her death.
Priests Forbidden
To Use Automobiles
Bishop of Treves Says Cars Are
Inconsistent With
H umi I ity.
Special Cable to The Georgian.
BERLIN. April 28. Tin- Bishop of
Treves has issued an edict forbidding
Roman Catholic priests to either
ride in or own automobiles
The use of antomobfies. the Bishop
declares, is inconsistent with tre hu
mility which «hou’d adorn the -•!*•■: e\-.
and on ih* the” hand the use of axi-
tmnob'Ue* has often been the raust
of financial embarrassment of priests
“Playful Girl With
Not a Bad Thought"
Siie was jusi a little, playful girl,
without a had thought in her mind,
and siie has been made the victim
of the blackest crime that can be
perpetuated.” xvas the bitter denun
elation of the assailant of Mary Pha
gan by her uncle, D. R Renton, yes
terday.
Mary and her mother lived with
Mr. Benton at his home near Mari
etta for several rears following the
death of Mr. Phagan. Then Mary's
mother married J W. Poleman and
the family movod from Marietta to
East Point about 1907. Twelve
months ago they moved to their little
home in Atlanta.
Lane Too Busy to
Accept High Honor
Secretary of the Interior Cannot Go
to California to Receive Degree
of LL. D.
WASHINGTON. April 2X. Secre
tary .if the Ini* ior Franklin K Lane
lias been forced by pressure of public
business to decline an invitation
from Dr. Benjamin hie Wheeler,
president of the Pniversify of Gaii-
fotnia, to receive ih<- highest hon >
I within the gin of the university, i f»
1 degree of LL. D.
Dreams Parents Are
Dying, Finds It True
Woman Rushes to Home to Find
Father and Mother Unconscious
From Gas.
NEW YORK. Anril 2> In ans^.-r
to the summons of her parents xx horn
she dreamed siie saxx beckoning to
her as t’ru-x were sinking in a marsh,
Mrs. May Alym and her husband,
<*har * v .1. Allen, of Newark, called ;*t
the home of her parents. Mr and Mr*
Donald Dorley. and found the aged
couple in an unconscious cortdithvn.
Gne iet of tn« gas rang* was open
Both are expected to die.
Body of Mary Phagan Is Found in
Basement of Old Granite Hotel in
Forsyth Street—Mute Evidence of
T errible Battle Victim Made for Life
WHITE YOUTH AND NEGRO
ARE HELD BY THE POLICE
After Being Beaten Into Insensibility
Child Was Strangled and Dragged
With Cord Back and Forth Axross
Floor-—Incoherent Notes a Clew.
Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil Com
pany plant, in which Mary Phagan was employed, was taken to
police court this morning by Detective Black to tell what he know*
in connection with the girl s death. The police say he is not un
der arrest.
At the same time Geron Bailey, the negro elevator boy em
ployed in the factory, was arrested. One theory names Bailey as
the man to whom the incoherent letters apply that we re found by
the side of the dead girl, and that evidently were written in an ef
fort to describe her assailant.
Policemen Mack, Philips and Starnes went to the factory this
morning upon the statement that blood and matted hair, evidence
of a terrible struggle had been found on the third floor of the fac
tory. It was on this visit that they summoned Frank and arrested
Bailey.
They conducted a minute investigation of the signs of the
struggle of the third floor, going so far as to tear up several sec
tions of the plank flooring in their inspection.
—— %
A new and terrifying turn was given the gruesome Mary Plm-
gan strangling mystery to-day when strands of blood-matted hair
were found in a lathing machine on the third floor of the National
Pencil Company's factory. 37-39 South Forsyth Street.
The discovery made it certain that the dreadful crime was
committed in the factory by some one who had access to the build
ing, a theory which had been without conclusive support pre
viously.
Blood stains leading from the lathe to the door showed the
manner in which the fiend had dragged the body of his victim
had taken her to the basement.
Appearances indicated that the murderer had sought to cover
up the trail of his crime by endeavoring to efface the bloody stains.
Another name was brought into the case to-aay by the testi
mony of pencil company employees. Detectives were hurried to
' the building and an arrest is expected momentarily. The new sus
pect is said to be a former employee who was seen about the build
ing Friday and Saturday.
The blood-matted strands of reddish-brown hair were discov
ered this forenoon when L. A. Quinn, foreman in the top plant on
the third floor, sent R. P. Barrett, a workman, over to the lathe.
Barrett gave a cry of alarm when he saw the evidences of the
shocking crime and of the struggle the little girl apparently had
made against the superior strength of her assailant.
The hair was twisted about the turn-up screw on the lathe, a
j crank like device which is used to move the pencils forward and,
| backward on the machine.
Blood was on the sharp end of the crank, leading to the belief
that it had been used as a weapon and was responsible for the,
bloody gash in the back of the Phagan girl's head. The alterna
tive theory is that she fell back against it in her struggles.
Evidence of Terrible Struggle
Tin' mutilated body of Mary I’lmgait was found in a dark, dis
mal earner of the pencil factory basement shortly after 3 o'clock
yesterday morning by Newt Lee, the negro night watchman. The
negro said he almost stumbled against the body before be gap-It,
MOHR