Newspaper Page Text
SENSATIONAL '
extra I The Atlanta Georgian
VOL. XI. NO. 229.
Read For Profit—GEORGIAN WANT ADS Use For Results
ATLANTA, GA., TUESD AY,APR1L29,1£I3.
PRICE TWO CENTS.
The Georgian’s Offer of $500 Reward for EXCLUSIVE
Information Leading to the Arrest and Conviction of
the Slayer of Mary Phagan Has Caused Others to Offer
an additional $1,000. The Amount Now Stands :
$1,500 REWARD!
GANTT READING MURDER WARRANT
SED BY SLAIN
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: <1s?
That Mary Phagan never left the
factory after she entered it at 12:16
o'clock Saturday, the day of her mur
der, and that she was killed and her
body dragged into the basement by
the negro night watchman, Newt
Lee. now in jail. Is the firm belief
of the child's stepfather. W. J. Cole
man. and other members of her fam
ily.
As for Arthur Mulliqafc. former
street car conductor, held on suspi
cion, Mr. Coleman told a Georgian
reporter he thought him innocent of
the crime. He was also very doubt
ful if J. M. Gant, ex-bookkeeper for
the pencil factory, where the girl
worked, had anything to do with her
murder or knew anything about it
"If the negro watchman did not kill
the child, how would it have been
impossible for him to heat her.
screams going on in the building
he asked “A livery stable man next
door heard them, and it would have
been much easier for the watchman
to. If the black did not do it him
self, then he must have known
something about it, and who the per
son was who did it."
Outlines Theory of Murder.
Then, in broken tones, for he had
iust returned from making all at -
rruigements for taking the girl’s body
to Marietta. Ga.. to be buried, he out
lined his idea of how she met her
death.
"When Mary turned from the win
dow after receiving her money," he
sa ; d "I think that, instead of going
riii-ectlv out. she went to'the dress
ing room, perhaps for a drink of wa
ter. as one of the notes found said.
Superintendent Prank, missing her
when he came out and supposing she
had left the building, locked her in.
The negro watchman must have seen
her go into the dressing room, and
a. little later seized her a$ii gagged
her."
Later developments in the story go
to show that the spot where the
child's hair was found caught on a
steel lathe was not the scene of hei
st ruggle with her assailant. In the
dressing room, it was said by a mem
ber of her family, there were plain
evidences that the attack was made.
She was also gagged in the room, for
a strip of her new lavender dress
was cut off from the front and bound
around her mouth to keep her from
screaming
Ribbon Found Near Boiler.
Another bit of evidence, it was
said, that went to throw added sus
picion on the black was a bow' of
me child's blue ribbon and a hand
kerchief found down near the boiler,
where he constantly stayed.
■•The negro evidently kept the child
in the factory all day, Mr. Coleman
said, “and was afraid to attack her
until midnight for fear she would
scream ot somebody would come. He
mav or mat not have knocked her
senseless from lhe first, or he may
have tied her. I do not know, but
when Gant entered the shop it is
more than likely that he knew noth
ing of the girl's presence there and
simply '.vent un and got his shoes, as
he said. a,nd went out again.
"All this about Mary having been
seen on the street at midnight or ai
any other time after 12 o'clock in
tile day I do not think can be true.
1 believe she •remained all day In the
building. \£ter the negro did the
vAork, hi was afraid to leave or not
to notify the police, which would
make appearances worse for him.
Therefore he called the officers.”
Now Clears Mullinax.
Mr. Coleman said he had at first
c'ven credence to a report that Mary
C.d come home at 6 o'clock Saturday
a ' ternoon, and that Mullinax. meeting
h r as site got oft of the car, had
t ,-#>ri he hack to town with him..
TiiLa Mr. Coleman said, turned
out to be untrue. The conductor had
made a mistake, and the girl Mulli
nax wan with was Miss Pearl Jtob-
inson, of Bellwood, as he swore in
jail.
This was eorrobox-ated by the con
ductor nimself. J. O, Home, 11 Coraj
Place, on whose ear the reporter rode
out to the Coleman home on Lind
say Street. The conductor said that
Mullinax and Miss Robinson had
taken his car out and, knowing Mui-
linax. he had talked with him and
the girl, who at that time he thought
was Mary Phagan. When Mullinax
and Miss Robinson reached their cor
ner Mullinax remarked that It w
a bit chilly and he was going home
to build a fire. It was later that
they returned to the theater, the
conductor said, hut on whose car.he
did not krow.
P
am*,
made in the Marv Phagan murder mysterv within
SEEK CLEW IN
Mrs. Wilson Cheers
Dying Consumptive
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President’s Wife Takes Flowers to
Lad in Poor District of
Washington.
WASHINGTON. April 29.—The j
sympathy and charity of Mrs. Wood-
rdW Wilson were Illustrated a few j
days ago by her journeying from the |
White House to the bedside of a. poor
boy who is dying of tuberculosis.
Dr. Gary Grayson, naval surgeon
and aide to the President who spen Is
spare moments caring for the sick j
poor, told the President’s wife of a
particularly distressing case.
Mrs. Wilson was touched. Collect
ing a bunch of spring flowers from
the garden, she accompanied Dr.
Grayson in a White House automo
bile to the home of the unfortuna e
lad in the poor district of the na
tional capital.
Commits Hari Kari
Over Jap Alien Bill
Chicago Oriental’s Suicidal Protest
Follows Bryan’s Viait on
Way to California.
CHICAGO, April 29.—A Chicago
Coroner’s jury to-day got its first in
troduction to hari kari. when it was
called upon to render a verdict on the
suicide of Ear Kie Kum, a young Jap
anese who ended his life as a protest
against the proposed California anti
alien land law.
For several days* before his death
Ear Kie Kum every day bought every
edition of every newspaper issued in
Chicago, and read every word of the
dispatches from Sacramento and
Washington
On the day Secretary Bryan was in
Chicago on his way tb California the
young Japanese said he would give
several years of his life, for a talk
with Bryan.
mm-
:* 1
Boy Loses Eyes as
He Cuts Golf Ball
Augusta Lad's Sight Ruined by Acid
in Sphere With Which He
Was Playing.
AUGUSTA. GA. April 29. Richard
Stelling. aged 13. of North Augusta,
has lost his eyesight by a splash of
acid from a golf ball.
Young Stelling picked up an acid-
filled English golf ball on the Arling
ton links and was cutting it open “to
see what it was made of” when the
knife blade plunged through to til-
hollow portion of the baH, splashing
the acid into both eyes.
FORMER PLAYMATES MEET
GIRL'S BODY AT MARIETTA
The little town of Marietta. Ga..
where her baby eyes first opened upon
the light of day scarcely fourteen
years ago, will to-day witness the
sorrowful funeral of Mary Phagan,
the sweet young girl who was mys
teriously murdered in the National
Pencil Factory Saturday night and
whose body was later found in th
basement where it had been dragged
by unknown hands.
The casket, accompanied by the
girl's stricken family her mother
and stepfather, her sister Ollie, IS
years old, and her three brothers.
Ben. Charley and Josh, all young
boys, left the Union Depot at
S:lo o'clock this morning. Reaching
Marietta, it was met by throngs
of Mary's former playmates and
friends bearing flowers to lay upon
the young girl's grave after they have
looked for the last time upon h r
face.
Simple Service.
She will be laid to rest in a Utile
old-fashioned cemetery where nu
merous relatives have preceded her,
and her body lowered into the eaitn
after a simple funeral service. It
will be preached in the Second Bap
tist Ch i ch. which stands on the
cemetery grounds, the officiating mio-
fster being Rev. Dr. Ldncus, pastor
of thp East Point Christian Church
of which the dead girl's mother is a
member. Dr. Lincus will go direct
from Fast Point to hold the service.
Resides the family, there were prob
ably a dozen or„more relatives and
friends from Atlanta who will also go
up to the funeral. In Marietta (hey
were to meet relatives, gathered from
several counties, where the news of
the child's tragic death lias been
wired.
The body will be taken to the sta
tion in a hearse by the undertake-*
in whose shop it has lain for the past
two days, while thousands of people
came to look upon it. The coffin wJI
be of pure white, befitting the inno
cence of the young girl lying withfi
it, and only a simple plate with the
child’s name will appear on the topi
Throughout the dnj at the deid
girl’s home callers have gone to ex
press tHeir sorrow over the tragedy
and their willingness to be of who
ever servfce they might to the fam
ily. The same word met them:
“There is nothing that anybody can
do—we must only bear it!”
Mrs. Coleman III.
From tile moment she received th
news of her child's death Mrs. Cole
man has been unable to leave t.i"
house. She has not even visited th.
undertaking parlors to see the body.
It was not considered best for her in
her weakened and nervous condition,
caused by the shock of the murd.i.
As it is. it is feared that she w 1
break down at the funeral, and every
rare will be taken with her on the
way to Marietta that she may be
strong to fan the ordeal. Although
Mr. Coleman, the child's stepfather,
had only known Mary since his mar
riage to her mother a year ago. he
seemed stricken with sorrow over her
death, and in speaking of her to a
Georgian reporter almost broke dow n
in telling the simple arrangements
that had been made for her burial.
Great bouquets of beautiful flow is
have been sent to the home by friends
all over Atlanta, and the dead girl's
bier at the undertaking shop was
fragrant with masses of carnations
and roses throughout Sunday and
Monday. Hundreds of her boy an i
girl associates at the factory and
friends of her neighborhood have gon»
to see her body. For. although she
was such a young gi;j. she had made
many acquaintances, and was widely
4 loved.
A sensational
a few hours.
ll will bo based on the firm theory of the police and detectives that the strang
led girl was never outside the factory of the National Pencil Company from the
time that she went in there for her pay Saturday noon until her dead and mutil
ated body was taken to the morgue early Sunday morn
ing.
The detectives do not believe that Arthur Mullinax
is guilty of the murder.
They do not believe that J. M. Gantt is guilty of
the murder.
They do not place any dependence on the identifie
ations of Gantt and Mullinax made by various persons
before Chief of Detectives Lauford.
They are confident that the author of the terrible
deed was a person who is not under arrest at the pres
ent time. They know his name. They have talked
with him. They have his story of what he declares is
all he knows of the happenings Saturday night in the
building of tragedy on Eorsvth Street.
But they are not sat is fieri with his tale. It is
known that they will have him behind the bars within
a few hours.
fi is known that the signs of weakening on the
part of Newt Lee. the negro night watchman, have had
a great deal to do with the pending sensational arrest.
Tlie negro's attitude all along has led to the belief that
he was shielding some one.
One moment he has almost admitte dthat he is protecting a
man who has befriended him and helped him, and an instant
later he has suddenly gone back into silence with the solution of
the mystery trembling on his very lips.
In the still hours of this morning, unknown to anyone save
the authorities. Newt Lee was put through a searching, grilling
“third degree" that left him weeping and nerveless.
Before the hangers-on had congregated about the police
station and the herds of informers, witnesses and merely curious
had swpt down upon the detective force, Detective John Black
quietly made his way to the police station and into the cell of the
bowed and almost broken negro.
It was hardly 4 o’clock this morning when Lee was startled
to see the detective's form before his cell. Black walked in and
sat down. From that time for two pitiless hours the detective
plied the negro with questions.
A grt>al fear appeared on the negro's heart. -Not that he
feared for himself or because of his own guilt, but that he was
frightened a1 the terrors of the law which slowly were forcing
him to open his lips and reveal the man who was hiding behind
him.
Black tried to remove tile terrors that oppressed the black
man.
"We know you did no1 do the murder,” the negro repeatedly'
was assured. "We know you are guiltless of the whole affair.
But we know that you know exactly who did it and lhaf you are
protecting that person.”
•lust as Lee was nodding his head iu assent, he suddenly
would straighten up iu an affrighted manner and declare:
"No. no, boss, 1 don't know nothing about it. I don't know
nhoting about it, sail. Before (lod, I don’t.
Then Black would begin his long line of questioning all over
again and would have the negro just oti the verge of the solution
of the whole mysterv when the great fear would sweep over him
again and he would become silent.
What is regarded as a most important and significant circum
stance in bearing out the newly developed theory that the girl
never left the factory after she went in there to get her pay en
velope Saturday noon is the fact that Lee will not swear-that he
her leave the building.
The negro did not see her go out.
No reliable testimony lias been produced that she was seen
I roin the time she went, in the building a1 noon, although she most
certainly would have been seen 'had she followed out her an- .
nouneed intention of seeing the Memorial Day parade.
Leo Frank, superintendent of the factory, admits that, he J
himself does not know positively of the girl’s leaving the building.
the police department, most strongly urged
Beavers to-day the advisability of taking Su
nto custody for Frank s own protection. He
eard serious and well defined threats against
Who Would Be the Most Inter
ested in Saying That the Night
Watchman Did Mot Do It?
While the tendency «»f the polie*
wtraight through hus seemed to be t
doubt that .Mary Phagan. the mu r -
dered girl, really wrote the smnil
notes found beside her body purport
ing to give a dew to her murderer,
the girl’s stepfather, W. J. Coleman,
thinks it possible that she may have
written one of the scrawls.
That ore is the note written on the
little yellow factory slip so faint’y
traced it Is almost Impossible to read
it. It is the one that says:
mama that negro hired down
here did this l went to get water
and he pyshed me down this hole
a long tall negro black that has it
woke long lean tall negro I write
while play with me.
“Somehow, it looks like her hand
writing to me. said Mr. Coleman.
"But, of coure I can not be sure.
Now. about the other note I in.
doubtful. It seems to be written : >
well for the child to have done it n
tbe almost insensible condition sue
mus' have been in at the time.
Whether she wrote either of the notes
of her own accord, though, or wheth
er sh$ was forced to do it by her
murderer to turn suspicion from him
self. of course is mere speculation.
Only time can tell, if anything.”
Doubts Other Note’s Authorship.
The other note whose authority Mr.
Coleman doubts is the one scrawled
on a notepad. It reads as it was at
first translated:
He said he wood love me laid
I ifown like the night witch did it
but that long tall black negro did
it by his self.
This note, however, brings up an
argument advanced by several people
who have atudied it carefully. They
have found that in some way one
word, “play,” was omitted in the first
translation, and they think that in
stead of “night witch” the words were
meant to mean ‘ night watch,” which
is relative to the subject. With these
changes the note would read:
“He said he wood love me laid down
play like the night watch did it, but
that long tall black negro did it by
his self.”
They ask: If the murderer told
the chijd he was going to' “play like
the night watch did ft,” and then the
child goes on to explain that it wasn’t j
the night watchman at all that did j
it, but another negro, wouldn't that
appear that the child was endeavot
ing to shield the night watchman/
Argue Against Watchman.
They also ask: Would a child in
the predicament Man Phagan was
supposed to be in. insensible and her
mind wandering, be thinking of try
ing to shield* a night watchman in
her not..-, even before she described
the man who had tre
cruelly'/ gj
Again i
Continued;
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