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TTTE ATT, A XT \ GEORGIAN ANT) NEWS TUESDAY. APRIL 20. 1013.
TRAGIC FACE OF STRANGLED MARY PHAGAN—NEW PICTURE STUDIES
A photographic study of the victim in the strangling mystery
showing the sad expression in her eyes.
F. C. Terrell, 284 Hast ljinden Ave-
ae, told a Georgian reporter to-day
lat his wife had declared to him
lat she did not tell the truth to the
stectives and Georgian reporters to
horn she had said that she did not
now where J. M. Gantt, accused of
le murder of pretty Mary Phagan,
as on Saturday night.
When seen soon after the discovery
f the deed, Mrs. Terrell stated that
antt, who Is her half brother, had
ft her home where he had been
lr the past seven years, .three weeks
go, presumably to go to California
nd that she had not seen him since.
“Most certainly he was in his room
ere Saturday night," declared Mrs.
errell to a Georgian reporter to-
ay. ‘He came in at 31 o’clock.'*
“Slept With Me.”
“I ate breakfast with Mr. Gantt
unday morning,” said a young wom-
n, an inmate of the Terrell home.
Tes,” said little Willie Terrell,
Mr Gantt slept with me Saturday
ight. And 1 had td wake up at 4
’clock to get my little brother up to
arry my papers and Mr. Gantt was
till In bed.”
-Xo, I had not seen Gantt for three
•eeks," declared F. C. Terrell, broth-
l-in-law of the accused. A mo-
lent later, Mr. Terrell said that Gantt
ad been back in town for four or
ve days and that he was certainly
i his house Saturday night.
“I heard my wife" get up and let
im in at 11 o’clock,” declared Ter-
ell.
A Georgian reporter called at the
’errell ’ residence to tlnd that Mrs.
'errell was in a state approaching a
crvous collapse and much excited in
er manner. She was vehement in
er declaration that Gantt was in bed
t 11 o'clock Saturday night.
in a few moments her husband,
, ho is engineer at the Forsyth Pulld-
ng came in, and before seeing his
life was Interviewed by a reporter.
Strange Contradictions.
"Yes,” said he, “Gantt had been
lone three weeks and I hadn t seen
nythlng of him. He was a quiet
ejlow in his habits, always came
,ome early at nights and we were
urprised to hear that he is suspect-
d of this crime.
“The first I heard of it was Mon-
lax* morning u'hen my brother-in-
aw, J. X. Gantt at Marietta called
ne up and told me they had arrested
Jantt.”
"Bui (lid not you just say that the
letectives were here at your house
Sunday afternoon and had questioned
our wife as to Gantt’s whereabouts/'
rked the reporter.
“Yfs," was the reply, "but my wife
dd rot tell me anything about the
\ tr live, being out here.
"Y'-u : t e my wife lias not been well
t r loni; time and she was very
a.* v'uus and seared and sue did not
. 3 l,. ArferttYes fooling around
here and she told them a story to
keep them from coming again. She
admitted to me that she had falsified
to them.
"I heard mV wife get up at 11
o’clock and let some one in. and she
told me it was Gantt.”
"I thought you said that Gantt had
left here three weaks ago and that
you did not know anything about
him.” volunteered the reporter.
Sure He Came In.
“Oh, no! He had been hack here
four or five days. He started to
California, to Los Angeles, to take a
position, but didn’t get any further
than Memphis. He ran Into the
floods out there, got tied up and de
cided to come back.
“Yes, I am sure my wife got up
and let him in; I was awake at the
time. And I saw him Sunday morn
ing too.”
Mr. Terrell declared that he had
just left the police station where lie
had seen and talked with Gantt.
“He’s just as cool as a cucum
ber," said Mr. Terrell, “and he laughs
at the idea of his being accused of
the murder. He is just as confident
of being cleared as If it was already
decided.”
Not Sweethearts.
"Of course we believe in him. ’ said
Mrs. Terrell. "He is ihnocent and he
will be free just as soon as his story
is told and then the officers can look
for the guilty man. I do not know*
whether or not he knew the little
Phagan girl, but I am sure I never
heard him call her name in my life
He has no picture of her in his room,
and if they were sweethearts I feel
sure he would hav^e one.”
Mr. Terrell also stated that he had
never heard of Mary Phagan and
that if there were any relationships
between the two he knew nothing of
them.
“My wife did not tell me a thing
about those detectives being out
here Sunday," reiterated Terrell. “She
was awfully scared and she did not
know what she was telling them. She
did not want them to come back, so
she said she did not know* anything
about Gantt, or where he was on
Saturday night. But she told me
Monday that she had misrepresent-
td ih* situation just to keep them
away.”
Around a glowing hearth sal the
family Hide, the mother and everal
children. None looked at the other
—their eyes were glued on the smoul
dering embers, and fragments of con-’
versation, all relating to the same
subject, were evidence that a day
and a night had been spent thresh
ing out the tragic events attending
a storm that had centered Its fury
about the household. The arrival of
the father and husband gave new
life to the group.
“Of course we will tight,'' said Ter
rell. “We will do everything we can
to clear his name for lie is us inno
cent as can be. If he were not 1
would noPlift my hand to sa\-e him.’’
Another picture of the Phagan girl in a studious pose. The child was strikingly pretty
and the pictures here shown are from photographs prized hy grief-stricken rlatives in Marietta.
Mary Phagan and her young aunt. Mattie Phagan, who tins one of tin girl's best friends
and is heart-broken over the tragedy. #
1 Feel as Though I Could Die/ Sobs
Mary Phagans Grief-Stricken Sister
Among all the hearts that are
bowed down in sorrow over the mur
der of Mary Phagan, the 14-year-
old factory child found dead in the
National Pencil factory Saturday,
there is none who feels the suffer
ing and the anguish of the separa
tion so keenly as her sister, Ollle. 18
years old, her companion since child
hood.
For with her it is the suffering of
youth, when the rose-veil of life has
been lifted to show its tragic and
terrible side in all its fullness for the
first time. And it is all the more
pitiful for her because it is the kind
of suffering that brings to one that
sense of despair and a later sadness
that makes the whole world seem
never quite the same again, no mat
ter what happens. Something of its
sweetness and joy has gone out to
stay.
“Oh, I am so lonely without her."
the young girl told a Georgian re
porter as the tears fell down her
face unheeded. She was at her little
home on Lindsay Street. “Mary and
1 were always together and we al
ways told each other everything. We
slept in the same bed at night; we
bad ever since we were little bit o’
kids; and we always talked after
the lights were out. There wasn’t a
thing that Mary wouldn’t tell me,
and I would always advise her and
tell her what I thought was right if
little questions would come up be
tween us. She was always such a
good little thing, nobody could help
loving her!"
She clasped and unclasped her
hands in front of her as though she
did not know what to do, and leaned
upon the bureau as if she were
tired.
“I Never Had But One Sister.’’
“I don’t know what I'm going to
do—-1 haven’t got anybody now,” she
said. "I never had but one sister,
and she’s gone."
Her voice choked and she could not
go on for a time. When she did If
was to speak of how she was in Ma
rietta when the tragedy happened
and how the news came home to her
mother o:l Sunday morning. She hud
not been home to go to the poor little
body in the undertakers' parlors
shortly after it was taken there.
“The first mother knew of it all
was a little before 5 o’clock Sunday
morning." she said, her lips quiver
ing. “A girl named Helen Ferguson,
who lives near here and who has i
telephone, was called up by Grace
Hicks, the girl who identified Mary’s
body. Grace told her to come right
on over and tell mother what had
happened.
Saturday night when Mary hadn't
come home they had all been worried.
Mary had said she was coming right
back after the parade* but didn’t show
up. Then somebody remembered she
had said she had heard the show at
the Bijou was good-—some of the girls
had told her—and she would like to
go, but she wouldn’t go without she
had some one to go with her. When
she didn’t come home a little later
they all thought maybe she had found
some of the girls anyway and gone,
and so Mr. Coleman, her stepfather,
went downtown to bring her home.
He waited until the show was over
and everybody had filed out of the
theater, but Mary was not with the
crowd. Mr. Coleman had returned
home and found Mrs. Coleman and
another woman, who had stayed with
her while he had gone to town, Kill
up and waiting for him. Then was
when they decided that Mary had met
up with her*aunt from Marietta and
gone home with her. She had intend
ed going anyway Sunday.
“But I know Mary’s safe," said Mrs.
Coleman, and after a few minutes
they all went to bed.
The Awful News.
When Helen Ferguson’s footsteps
touched the front porch at 5 o’clock
the sound waked her mother imme
diately.
“There’s Mary now!" Mrs. Coleman
exclaimed as she sat up on the bed.
“No, it i«n’t either,” declared Mr.
Coleman. “I feel it’s news for us, and
bad news."
Mrs. Coleman went to the door.
“Mrs. Coleman," said Miss Hender
son. “did you know that Mary had
been killed?”
“Oh, it can’t be possible!” her moth
er sobbed. “What do you mean? I
don’t understand you. Tell me how.
Maybe you’re mistaken—maybe it
isn’t Mary."
But Misf Henderson said that Miss
Hicks was positive in her identifica
tion.
And then Mr. Coleman came out
and brought her mother in the house,
she was crying so, and then as quick
ly as he could be dressed and went
downtown to look at the body. There
was no mistake. It was Mary.
Her voice was pitifully like a child’s
when she had finished, as she asked
The Georgian reporter if he thought
the man would be captured.
“If they get him they ought to treat
him just like he treated her." she de
clared. “Oh. my poor little sister! He
had no pity for her, and they oughtn’t
to have any for him. Oh, God, I just
feel as if 1 could die."
She will attend the funeral of her
sister in Marietta, going up with the
family Tuesday. She was formerly
employed at a downtown department
Ptore, but recently gave up her posi
tion. She is very pretty and attrac
tive, slenderly built and resembles her
sifter to some extent, it is said.
No Flying on French ! Old Arctic Pioneer
Border, Says Kaiser To Seek Polar Dead
Hereafter Army Airmen Must Be
Careful Not to Cavort Too Close
to Frontier.
BERLIN, April 29.—The German
War Office has issued an order for
bidding army officers from engaging
in any official or private balloon
flights that Would carry’ them near
the French frontier.
The German Government is deep
ly chagrined by the two recent Inci
dents, when German military avia
tors landed in France. The French
managed to turn both the Luneville
and Arraneourt affairs into jokes,
and it annoyed the Kaiser.
MRS. BORDEN TO FIGHT
FOR “KIDNAPED” CHILD
NEW YORK, April 29.—Mrs. Gail
Borden, mother of Ramona Borden,
has arrived here from Pasadena, Cal.,
to formulate plans to get possession
of the child who was recovered in
Boston, where she now is with her
father, after a mysterious disappear
ance that lasted for several days.
Mrs. W. .1. White was expected to
arrive in Chicago to-day to tell her
i husband, the millionaire ehewing-
! gum king, "why she was mixed up In
I the case.
Capt. Peter Bayne, 69, Survivor of
Hall E»pedition, 1866-69, May
Find Franklin Victims.
SEATTLE, April 29.—Capt. Peter
Bayne, 09, probably the last survival
of Dr. Charles Hall's expedition that
sought for three years, beginning in
1866, for traces of the remains of the
Sir John Franklin expedition has un
dertaken to complete the work he
began as a young man.
He has purchased the old Arct‘c
schooner Duxbury and is now out
fitting her for a cruise to Victoria-
land, where Sir John Franklin’s body
is buried in a tomb made by his
own men. Bayne will sail June 1.
HIGHER COST OF DRUNKS
STRIKES ANNISTON, ALA.
SUGGESTIVE fi
PICTURES
ON WALLS
Pictures of Salome dancers in
scanty raiment, and of chorus giris
in different postures adorned the
walls of the National Pencil Com
pany’s plant. They had been clipped
from a theatrical and prize-fighting
magazine.
A more melodramatic stage setting
for a rendezvous' or for the commit-,
ting of a murder could hardly have
been obtained. The building is cut
up with partitions, which allow of a
person passing about from one part
to another without attracting the at
tention of others. While the main en
trance is used in gaining entrance to
the building, the first floor is vacant,
this space having formerly been
leased out by the National Pencil
Company. A person could enter the
building, descend the ladder to the
cellar and not attract the attention
of those above. One could likewise
move from one floor to the other with
out being noticed,
Stygian blackness greets those who
enter the cellar. Two gas jets afford
a flickering, sickly light, which seems
only to add to the pitchy darkness.
Temptations Many.
That temptations probably were
laid across the path of the girls who
worked in the plant was not denied by
Superintendent Leo Frank. Instead
he admitted that it was highly prob
able.
“In a plant of this size, where 170
people arc employed, and among them
a large number of girls*, it is quite
probable that some of them were ap
proached by some of the men work
ing !n the shop," said Mr. Frank. “A
force of this kind is continually shift
ing, and undoubtedly many low char
acters have worked there. It lias been
our effort to eliminate them as much
as possible and the foreman have
been strict in this regard,
“Under the present conditions of
morale in Atlanta, with the segregat
ed district abolished, these low char
acters undoubtedly have grown worse
That our janitor was bribed to allow
them in the building, while a surprise
to me, is not an unbelievable sugges
tion. Such fellows as these might be
expected to stoop to such things."
Germany’s $250,000,000 Gold.
BERLIN,, April 29.—The statement
of the Imperial Bank of Germany
shows for Hie first time in its his
tory that there is over $250,000,000
in gold in the vaults of the bank.
ANNISTON, ALA., April 29.—-A
beer or "red-eye" spree in AnniKon
on Sunday is as expensive as cham
pagne on any other day.
Some time ago Recorder f'rcen an
nounced that he would ruise the fine
$1 every Monday morning for persons
convicted of being drunk on Sunday.
The price has now reached $20.
Next Monday the price for plain
Sunday drinks will he $31.
r
n
r
.X.
John Milton Gantt, the accusatb'i
of a terrible crime hanging over him,
from hi» cell at police headquarters,
has made to-day a complete denial of
any connection with the Mary Pha
gan murder in the first formal state
ment to the public since his arrest in
Marietta yesterday afternoon.
The statement, which was given to
a Georgian reporter, was said !>*
Chief Beavers to be substantially tin-
same as that takpn by tile police d • •
partment stf nographer last night fjr
the use of the city detectives.
* This remarkable denial, if it is ro
be given credence, sweeps away .t
whole train of circumstantial evi
dence that appeared most strongly
to connect him with the brutal trag
edy.
He Is Contradicted.
E. F. Holloway, timekeeper for the
National Pencil Company, told a
Georgian reporter that he had it from
Gantt’s own lips that he had be?u
out with the Phagan girl.
He never even walked home wiHi
the girl, he insists.
Mary Pirk, one of the girls em
ployed with Mary Phagan. told til-
authorities that she had heard tip-
girls at the factory say that Gantt
was in love with Mary and waited to
walk home with her frequently.
Gantt declares in his statement
that he was at the home of his half-
sister, Mrs. P, C. Terrell^ 284 East
Linden Street, the night that the
murder was committed, going t he re
direct ly from a pool room.
A woman describing herself a3
Gantt’s half-sister, is said by the po
lice to have told two plain clothes
men that Gantt was not there wh -r.
they went to look for him Sunday
night; that he had not been there
for some tim
to California.
Reverse Statements.
To-day Mrs. Terrell reversed
statement that is said to have
made to the plain clothes men
declared that Gantt not only
there, but slept with her son. Will.
Gantt's statement in full follows;
“I do not deny going to the pencil
factory Saturday afternoon. My pur
pose In going there was to get a pair
the
heei
and
w-is
of shoes I had left there when 1 quit
work then* about three weeks ago.
"Aft^r gating my shoes from t;M
factory, 1 walked around town for a
time and a*, about 7:30 in the eve.i-
ing met Arthur White, who work*
for the pencil company. With hi.u
I went to the Globe Pool Rooms >u
Broad Street, near Marietta - :
“1 didn’t play, but sat down a i l
watched them for several hour-,
leaving there probably at 10: u**
o’clock. I went to the home of niv
helf-sister. Mrs. I*’. C. Terrell, 2sl
East Linden Street, where I hav.»
been staying and she let me in the
house. Mrs. Terrell’s husband is su
perintendent of the Forsyth Bui’, i-
inx. » •
Slept All Night.
"I suppose she let me in about L!
o’clock and l went directly to bed. P
slept all night until Sunday morn
ing.
“I didn’t hear of the murder un il
Sunday night when 1 went to
on a young woman with whom 1
have been going. *8he is Miss Ann
Chambers, of 18 Warren Place, ‘r|j
went there about 8 o’clock Sundr-
evening.
“Her brother Phil* who works
the National Pencil Company’s olan
rushed into the room and said th*i
a girl had been murdered in the bas
rnent of the factory. He did nn
know who it was. That was the very 1 )
first I heard of the crime.
“I did not learn the horrible
tails of the murder until 1 read tht'ii
in the papers Monday morning;
"1 was not trying to escape wh«u
1 went to Marietta Monday morn
ing. J had bought a crop near Ma
rietta and was going* up there to
farm. I had made arrangemen *
some time ago with my mother j ■*
see her Monday and my trip th«-«.
was simply to fill that engagement.
Basest Sort of a Lie.
”1 would not harm any girl. lea-I
of all the daughter of Mrs. Coleman.
Ten years ago I knew Mrs. Coleman
when she was Mrs. Phagan and lived
near Marietta in < obb County. Ma
was just a little girl then about four
years old. From the time I knew h«-r
then as little more than a toddling
child until I went to work in tho
pencil factory last June I never sa v •
her. • 1HIJ
COMING! BASS’ MAY SALE
See Big Bargain Ad in Wednesday Georgian