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ITEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA. OA., SUNDAY, MAY 11, 1013.
NO REAL SOLUTION OF PHAGAN SLAYING MYSTERY REACHED YET
Tlirrc of the detectives working on the Fhaffan ease, and some of the events in the grue-
Old Police Reporter
Finds Flaws in Case
some slav ing. The sleuths are (from left to rght: •/. X. Starnes. Harry Scott, J’nkerton opera-
tve. and .John Black.
Continued From Page 1.
H SS IS
HOW*:
ant cashier at
found near tli
the Fourth National Bank,
body were in his opinion
notes found near the body of the deaTl girl meant “night watch
man.'*
V. M. Berry
testified that tin
written by Lee.
Detectives told of finding a shirt with blood stains near the
right shoulder in a barrel at the n'ar of Lee's house. The indi
cations were that the shirt never had been worn, however.
TESTIMONY FAVORING LEE.
Testimony favoring Lee is that.be was not alone in the build-!
ing until alter <! :30 o’clock, and that it can not reasonably be sup
posed that he would have been able to lure the girl to the factory
by any means after this time, or even that the girl would have i
been alone in that v icinity at that time. There is no evidence to i
account for her whereabouts between 12:10 and 6:30 o’clock.
Lee's own testimony was that he did not know the girl and
that he never saw her until he came upon the body in the base
ment of the factory shortly before 3 o (dock Sunday morning.
W . Rogers testified that Lee did not appear excited. Other
officers who went to the factory Sunday morning corroborated
this testimony.
These circumstances conflict with what is known of Lee's na
tore. The natural course for Lee, had he been the culprit, it is
argued, would have been instant flight.
The framing of the notes to divert suspicion, according to tin*
testimony of persons familiar with the negro nature, was too subtle
a plan to suggest itself to Lee's mind.
What was developed against Frank?
The principal points brought out connecting him with the crime
were
He was the last person known to have seen Alary l’hagan. By
his own testimony, he saw her at 12:10 Saturday afternoon, April
26. when she appeared at the fac
tory to get her pay. No orn
she
was seen
was
after
Mary Phagan’s Death Only
Assured Fact Developed
BY JAMES B. NEVIN.
Mary Phagan is dead. She was
murdered.
Leo Frank, and Newt I^ec are in
jail, upon the findings of a Coroner’s
jury, held as suspects fnr Investiga
tion by the Grand Jury
Here Is a case of cause arid effect
Involving the most elusive series' of
connecting events that ever came un
der my observation of criminals and
crime, through fifteen years of varied
newspapef experience in a number
of. American cities.
It is not ray purpose here to try
this case. Such comments as I may
set down are personal merely.
I did sit through the last day of
the Coroner's inquest, j)ut beyond
that, my information as to this
strange case came to me by w3y of
the mouths and pens of persons
charged with some measure of re
sponsibility for fixing th£ truth of
the matter in such wise as it might
be* fixed. My facts are authoritative,
my conclusions strictly my own.
It is my opinion that the slayer
of poor, little Mary Phagan has not yet
been found or identified. More
over within my mind there dwells an
ever-increasing doubt that her .slay
er, or slayers, ever will be appre
hended.
Case Against Prisoners.
As I see It. a wabbly tclvcum-
stantial case has been made out
against Frank, and all but no case
at all against Lee. #
The most horrible false details
have been conjured up in some dis
ordered brain hereabout, and imagi
nary facts and circumstances of this
little girl’s death have been passed
from lip to lip in revolting detail.
It was bad enough, as it was—but
able to swear
that time.
0. W. Epps, Jr., a boy friend
of the Phagan tfirl, testified that
Mary had told him Frank had
waited at the door when she left
the factory one day and had
winked at her and tried to flirt.
Epps rode to town with her the
day she went to'the factory to
get her money, and was to meet
her again at 4 o’clock at Five
Points. She did not appear,
lending strength to the theorv
that she never left the factory
after once going to get her pay.
Frank's Conduct With Girls.
Thomas Blackstock, a former
employee, testified that he had
seen Frank attempt liberties
with girls in tin* factory.
Nellie Pettis, !) Oliver Street, testified that Frank had made
improper advances to her when she went to get her sister-in-law’s
pay at the factory. She said he pulled out a box of money from
11 AM. LEFT HER HOME
FOR THE FACTORY -
11 A, M.T012M . WALKED
WITH BOY SWEETHEART
12.10 PM. DREW HER PAY
FROM FRANK-
1S.10 TO 3 AM.
3 AM. BODY FOUND
removed from out the mass of mis
information, near-facts, pure false
hoods, and prejudice, what remains
of it? What is there left that will
stand up before a jury and fix re
sponsibility for Mary Phagan’s mur
der upon somebody now in custody?
h drawer and looked nt her and then the money and asked: “How
about it?”
Mrs. (I). Doiicgan, 165 West Fourteenth Street, said she
had seen Frank smile and flirt with the yirls in his employ.
Nellie Wood. S Corput Street, testitied that Frank had at
tempted familiarities with her in his office, and had put his hands
on her and had tried to persuade hdr to remain with him in his
office.
Frank testified that he was al the factory Saturday after
noon from 12 to 1 o'clock and from 3 to 6:30 o'clock. Harry
Denham, Arthur White and White's wife were in the factory part
of the afternoon, the two men until 3:10. From 3:10 until 3:45
Frank was alone in the factory. Then Newt Lee came and tvas
told by Frank to take the remainder of the afternoon off until 6
o’clock. From about 4 o'clock until 6, Frank again was alone in
the factory, so far as tile testimony showed.
Lee testified that the crime could not have been committed
in the night without his knowledge, as he had gone past the lathe
machine on the second floor, where the struggle is believed to
have taken place, twice every half hour on his regular rounds.
Lee testified that Frank appeared greatly agitated when he
met him at the door of the factory office just before 4 o’clock,
lie said that Frank seemed nervous and w as rubbing his hands in
an excited fashion.
J. M. Gantt, a former employee who happened to be in the
factory at 6 o clock, testified that Frank appeared nervous and
apprehensive at this time.
UNABLE TO REACH FRANK AT 3.
Call Officer Anderson testified that he tried to telephone
r rank at his home after the police had viewed the body at 3
o'clock Sunday morning, hut that he could not get him.
. \\ Rogers, former county policeman, who carried the
officers in his automobile to the scene of the murder and later
to get Frank, testified that Frank, when he saw the officers, be
gan to ask them if “anything had happened at the factory?"
and if the night watchman had “found anything” when nothing
had been told him at that time as to the tragedy.
Rogers said he saw Frank remove tin* time slip from the
time clock which Lee had punched. Rogers said that there were
no “skips on it, but that it was punched regularly every half
hour from 6:30 in the evening until 2:30 the next morning. It
was shortly after 2:30 o’clock that Lee told the officers he had
found the body. The time slip which later was turned over to
Chief Lanford by Frank had three “skips" in it.
Lee testified that Frank had told him the Sundav the bodv
I’Urie
■ wer
was found that the elock was
dieted himself by saying' ther
it “looked queer.
Lee testified that Frank
ence that “they would both
present attitude.
Harry Scott, Pinkerton detective,
1 am inclined to classify this as i
Frank is reached and held throua
all
ree
right
“skin
and later eontra-
*" in it, and that
go
him in a
II" if Lee
private confer-
maintained his
Testimony pointing toward the innocence of Frank was that
of Frank himself.
lie said that he hail not known Mary Phagan by name be
fore her murder; that he recalled paying her at 12:10 Saturday
afternoon, hut that she left his office at once and he heard her
footsteps dying away as though she had left the building. He said
he remained at the factory until 1 o’clock in the afternoon and
then went to his home for luncheon, returning about 3 o’clock.
He said that he was entirely alone from 4 o’clock until 6, and
that he arrived home al 7 in the evening, where he remained. He
declared lit* knew nothing of the tragedy until the following
morning. He said that he dreamed during the night that some
one was ringing the telephone, but that he did not fully awaken.
In this manner lie explained his failure to answer the telephone.
Harry Denham, one of the men in the factory Saturday aft
ernoon until 3:10 o’clock, testified that Frank did not appear ner
vous or agitated when he saw* him.
F. M. Berry, assistant cashier of the,Fourth National Bank,
testified that the notes found by the side of Mary Phagan did
not appear to hi* in the handwriting of Frank,
Leinmie C^uiim testified that he was in the office of Frank
Saturday afternoon between 12:15 and 12:30, and that he did
not see Mary Phagan in the office or anywhere else in the building.
Mr. and Mrs. Kind Selig, Frank's parents-in-law, corrobo
rated tin* story of Frank’s movements during the day.
Quinn and other men in the factory testified that they never
had seen Frank make any improper advances toward the girls,
hut that on the contrary he had been most courteous when he
had any personal dealings with them, which was not frequently.
.Miss Gorinthia Hall, one of the employees, said she never
had observed Frank attempt any liberties with any of the girls.
Herbert Schiflf, chief clerk in the factory, testified that the
work which Frank accomplished Saturday afternoon on the
financial sheet woqld have taken any expert five or six hours.
EVIDENCE IB NOT CONVINCING.
I ask. Would you consider this very convincing in the ease of
either inau?
I do not.
But after the Coroner’s inquest the ease assumes a new form.
The whole matter now rests in the hands of Solicitor Dorsey. 1
1 have never met him. All that ! hear about him is in his favor.
But he has never shown any unusual skill as a detective. He
I knows criminal law, and he will proceed along the regular lines
of bringing the whole matter to the attention of the Grand Jury,
and indicting both Frank and Lee. Then will come the trick
If Detectives Scott and Black are reported accurately in their
testimony, as quoted at the beginning of this article, then the
prosecution in my opinion has very little upon which to base a
trial of either of the men now held for the crime. Lee came
through the cross-questioning without any discredit at all. The
points made against Frank are not of much importance. They
L\l'. ,el( i Liir 111 it 1( , i, L, /v I" I^ f a i .... . ... 4* X? .. 1 „..«
FERTILIZER HIT
Iff NEW TIFF,
SIR PROTEST
Business Men Receive Message
From Washington, Following
Passage of New Bill,
it was not bad enough, even at that,
for the morbid trend of some peo
ple’s thoughts.
Those on the inside of this investi
gation tell me—and I am speaking of
those who KNOW' whereof they speak
—that these whispered details are,
almost entirely, without any founda
tion in fact. They say that the
girl’s death was accomplished in cir
cumstances paralleling numerous
cases of a similar sort, but not sen
sationally otherwise.
The newspapers, curiously enough,
have been shot at from two amaz
ingly opposite standpoints, therefore
—by one sensation-hungry contingent
charging them with underdoing the
news, and by another charging them
with overdoing It!
When the Phagan case, as con
cerns the suspects now in jail, is
Lee’s Straight Story.
I looked Newt Lee over carefully,
observed his manner and his general
bearing on the stand, during the sit
ting of the Coroner’s jury on Thurs
day. I have studied his testimony as
delivered at the hearing. Lee is
just an ordinary negro. There are
half a million Newt Lees in the
South to-day. He told a simple,
straightforward story from the first—
and no amount of prodding has caus
ed him to swerve a hair’s breadth
from it.
If Lee committed the crime, he is
a most unusual negro—rather than
a most commonplace negro, such as
I take him to he. If he killed Mary
Phagan early In the evening of April
26—and he must have murdered her
early in the evening, if at all—and
remained in the building with her
dead body until 4 a- m.. then to call
the police, he is the most astonishing
negro that ever came under my ob
servation!
If, however, there were other cir
cumstances tending to show that he
did do it, nevertheless, i might in
cline to waive the first cited unnat
ural and unheard of circumstance,
and say all right, he may have done
it.
If Lee committed the crime and
then dragged the body to the cellar
of the National Pencil Factory, there
to lay it In the dirt until he sent in
his 4 o’clock alarm, why was the
staple »f the door leading into the
cellar broken from the outside? Was
this done to arouse the suspicion
that the murderer and the murdered
came into the cellar through the cel
lar door, and that, therefore, the
crime was committed by some one
outside the factory? This necessa
rily would mean that the real mur
derer inside the factory, after com
mitting his crime, dragged the body
to tlje cellar, then went outside, broke
the staple of the door, re-entered
the building and awaited his next
move, the belated alarm to the police.
Where Was Mary Phagan.
Did Lee do that? He is a most
exceptional negro, if he did. And
yet, if murderer and murdered real
ly did enter that cellar from the out
side. and after dark, or near dark,
what became of Mary Phagan from
the time she was paid off at noon
until dark or near dark, as the case
may have been? Could she have
been outside the factory any of that
time, or part of that time, and no
living soul be willing to testify to
that fact to-day?
Against al! these fine spun theories,
must he set off Lee’s remaining in
the factory certainly many hours af
ter the murder was committed, his
alarm to the police near daybreak,
His straightforward story, and his
satisfactory bearing since the crime
was brought to light.
Did Lee murder Mary Phagan? If
not, does he know anything of who
did murder her? Or is he utterly
innocent of al! connection with it?
Personally, I incline to the last
conclusion, but I may be altogethei
wrong.
It looks to me more probable that
Lee did the perfectly negro-like
thing In this Phagan case, and not
the unusual or very-much-out-of-thc
-way thing.
Well, if not Lee. was Leo Frank
concerned in this killing?
A Jury likely will pass upon that,
for I suspect the Grand Jury will in
dict Frank. There is some circum
stantial detail connecting him with
this crime' that may or may not
mean much.
I looked Frank over critically at
the Coroner’s inquest, just as I look
ed Newt Lee over.
Appearance of Frank.
Frank looks very unlike the tradi
tional murderer. That spells little
if anything, perhaps—at least, noth
ing of itself. J And yet a man’s gen
tlemanly appearance should count for
something, when there is nothing
much established against him other
wise.
Unfortunately for Frank, it is eas
ier to make out a case of what he
might have done than it is to make
out a case against somebody else as
to what HE might have done.
But, while Frank MAY have done
all these things, where is the evi
dence that he DID do them? Such
as there is is purely and loosely cir
cumstantial, and woefully lacking in
detail at that.
Solicitor Dorsey plainly is puzzled
almost to his wits end by the mys
teriousness of the Phagan case. I
doubt capitally, although he has not
said this to ine, that he believes he
has sufficient evidence to justify an
indictment either of Frank or Lee.
I think he DOF'S believe that he is
on the light road, but that he is far
from being in sight of the end there
of.
But, even after indictment, it is a
long, long road to conviction in cir
cumstantial cases, even of the strong
est kind.
As to the attempts to break down
Frank’s character—well, there has
been testimony submitted pro and
con on that phase of the ease. To
my mind, the evidence submitted In
vindication of his character has out
weighed that against it—that is to
say, the preponderance is favorable
to Frank.
Who, then, DID murder Mary Pha
gan? The question is almost as far
from an answer to-day, I think, as
it was when Mary Phagan’s dead
body was dragged to light on that
early Sunday morning in April.
At the Coroner’s inquest, ninety-
five per cent, of the questions asked
were irrelevant, and ninety-nine per
cent, of the information obtained
worthless. Necessarily this was so,
because there was so very, very lit
tle to go on! The Coroner, the So
licitor. and the jury did the best they
‘could—angels could have done no bet
ter, perhaps—but there was so little
by way of fact to predicate questions
upon.
If the cases against Frank and Lee
break down, where shall investiga
tion hegin anew? If there were
other clews to be obtained, over and
beyond the pitiful few that were ob
tained, could they be picked up now?
It is within the range jpf the possi
ble, but hardly within the range of
the probable.
Going Into Society?
STODDARD1ZE!
JF YOU are froing to enter the whirl of society, then
I * ST0DDARD1ZE ! It’s the correct thing nowadays to
have one’s clothes STODDARDIZED—it keeps one vvell-
dressed all the time 1 Practically all Atlanta society
women and men STODDARDIZE!
A Wagon for a Phone Call
We pay Charges (one way) on Out-of-Town Orders of $2 or more.
rs , b s s 126 Peachtree Street Dixie's Greatest Dry
btoddard Atlanta PhCleaner and Dyer
lore out 1
proci
/(*(* on
stinioi
*>$ o
may foreshadow something big. They were, of course, sufficient
point I to warrant the Coroner's Jury in holding him for the Grand Jury
,\n indictment by the Grand Jury does not mean that a per
elimination. * son is guilty. Far from it.
The following telegram, which ex-
plains itself, was received from
Washington to-day by come of the
leading business men of Atlanta:
"What do you think of the Demo
cratic Congress, pledged to tariff re
form. taking off of the free list an
article and putting a duty of ten per
cent on same? This I am advised
was done yesterday when the House
of Representatives at Washington
passed the tariff bill putting a tax
of ten per cent on sulphate of am
monia. My understanding that the
ten per cent is an ad valorem tax
which, at the present price of sul
phate. would be over $6 a ton, and
would be fully as much if not more
than the old Republican tariff of 30
cents per hundred pounds, which was
knocked out of the Payne-Aldrich bill
and became a law in August. 1909,
since w hich sulphate of ammonia has
been on the free list.
"You must know about the in
creased production in this country
and that this Infant industry has
greatly prospered in four year** of
free trade. The fertilizer manufac
turers ought to protest to our Rep
resentatives. both in the House and
in the Senate, against this tax which
is directly against the farmer, and
the Democratic party, having pledged
itself to revise the tariff and bring
about cheaper cost of living, is de
liberately adding to the cost if they
tax sulphate of ammonia.
"The price of sulphate of ammonia
is higher to-day than it was in 190k !
when the duty of 36 per ton was im
posed. This material is a by-prod
uct, is healthy and needs no pro
tection."
BERLIN AND SAVILLE
IN TOUCH BY WIRELESS
Special Cable to The American.
BERLIN. May 10.— Wireless com
munication was established to-day
between the new station at Naueli,
near Berlin, and the Sayvllle station
on Long Island. No commercial mes
sages were transmitted, the operators
confining themselves to a series of
questions and answers.
If you want to see the prettiest
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offers, drive out HABERSHAM
ROAD through
PEACHTREE HEIGHTS PARK
We are wiliing to take your judgment
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There is going to be “something doing” in
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Better still—look at the property first and then
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E. RIVERS REALTY CO.
8 West Alabama St.