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IIEARST’S SUNDAY AMERICAN. ATLANTA, OA , SUNDAY, MAY 11, 1913.
5 A
NO REAL SOLUTION OF PHAGAN SLAYING MYSTERY REACHED YET
Detectives in Coroner’s Jury Probe
Admit 1 hey Have Nothing on
Which to Convict Anyone in Mys
terious Tragedy of Atlanta.
TESTIMONY BROUGHT OUT
NO INCRIMINATING POINTS
BY AN OLD POLICE REPORTER.
The most sensational testimony offered at the Coroner's in
quest in the Phagan ease was lost sight of entirely by the news
papers.
Juror Langford asked Detective Black, who was on the wit
ness stand: *
“Have you discovered any positive information as to who com
mitted this murder ? ’ ’
Detective Black replied, “No, sir, I have not!’’
Coroner Donehoo asked Detective Scott of the Pinkerton force
on the witness stand:
“Have you any definite information which makes you suspect
any party of this crime t ”
Detective Scott replied, “I would not commit myself. ,1 am
working on a chain of circumstances. Detective Black has been
with me all the time on the case and he knows about the circum
stances I refer to. ’ ’
As you read this over and consider it carefully, you will be im
pressed by the fact that the two most important detectives engaged
for a period of two weeks on the Phagan case testify under
Dath that they have no positive information as to who committed
the crime—in fact really know' nothing about it at all.
I am setting down here my own thoughts and ideas, without
intending the slightest disrespect to any official, and further,
I believe I am at liberty to do so because of Scott’s and Black’s
testimony.
MYSTERY STILL WITHOUT SOLUTION.
In The Sunday American of last week I published an arti
cle saying that the developments of the preceding week had led
nowhere, and that the mystery was then as dark and deep as any
mystery that ever puzzled police and detectives.
I can only repeat this statement to-day. I am not in the con
fidence of any of the detectives, of Solicitor Dorsey, or of Cor
oner Donehoo, or any of the persons engaged in the attempt to
unravel the crime.
I know what the average newspaper reader knows—no more,
no less. I walk about the streets a great deal, I ride on the cars
and meet a great many people who talk about the terrible affair,
and I believe I am right in saying that the consensus of opinion
now is that the police and detectives are very far indeed from solv
ing the mystery.
In making this statement I do not wish to be understood as
casting reflections upon the police or detective force. The men
engaged on the case are well-meaning, but of limited experience,
and they may have made mistakes.
The infallible detective, like the indispensable man, does not
exist.
All detectives are not “man catchers,’’ and many detectives
employ very stupid methods in their work. They can see the ob
vious things, but they lack imagination. Their minds work like
a circular saw, and a knotty problem sometimes stops their minds
from working entirely, just as a tangle of knots in a plank being
sawed puts the saw out of business.
I pay my respects here to Coroner Donehoo in the way he has
handled the case. Ills examinations of witnesses showed unusual
intelligence. His questions were searching and he exhibited a zeal
in the public welfare that must not be overlooked. But Coroner
Donehoo is not a Sherlock Holmes. He performed his functions un
der the law in a creditable manner. He really wasted hours in
asking questions that might have been spared except that there was
always a hope that a blind question might catch a witness off-guard
and there would be an ensuing revelation. , ^
What did the Coroner’s inquiry develop?
Take first the case of Lee. The testimony against him is that
he is the only person KNOWN to have been in the pencil factory
after 6:30 o’clock in the evening until the body was discovered.
Frank testified that he found three “skips" in the clock tape
Lee should have punched.
Sergeant R. J. Brown testified that Lee could not have seen
the body from the place the night watchman told him he first
saw it.
Sergeant L. S. Dobbs testifiecTthat Lee, without suggestion
from any one, said that the words “n>ht witch” in one of the
notes found near the body of the dead girl meant “night watch-
maD -”
F. M. Berry, assistant cashier at the Fourth National Bank,
testified that the notes found near the body were in his opinion
written by Lee.
Detectives told of finding a shirt with blood stains near the
right shoulder in a barrel at the rear of Lee’s house. The indi
cations were that the shirt never had been worn, however.
TESTIMONY FAVORING LEE.
Testimony favoring Lee is that he was not alone in the build
ing until after 6:30 o’clock, and that it can not reasonably be sup
posed that he would have been able to lure th*> girl to the factory
by any means after this time, or even that the girl would have
S OLICITOR GENERAL HUGH DORSEY, in a characteris
tic pose, examining a witness. On Solicitor Dorsey is
placed dependence for the solving of the puzzling Phagan slay
ing case. He is making every effort to unravel the mystery.
■been alone in that vicinity at that, time. There is no evidence to
account for her whereabouts between 12:10 and 6:30 o’elock.
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’clock Sunday morning.
W. 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
ture. Tin 1 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 the
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 Mary Thagan. By
his own testimony, he saw her at 12:10 Saturday afternoon, April
26, when she appeared at the factory to get her pay. No one was
able to swear she was seen after that time.
G. W. Epps, Jr., a boy friend of the Phagan girl, 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 theory that she never left
the factory after once going to get her pay.
FRANK’S CONDUCT WITH GIRLS.
Thomas Blackstoek, a former employee, testified that he had
seen Frank attempt liberties with girls in the factory.
Nellie Pettis, 9 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 cut a box of money from
a drawer and looked at her and then the money and asked: “How
about it?”
Mrs. C. D. Donegan, 165 West Fourteenth Street, said she
had seen Frank smile and flirt with the girls in his employ.
Nellie Wood, 8 Corput Street, testified that Frank had at
tempted familiarities with her in his office, and had put his hands
on her and had tried to persuade her to remain with him in his
office.
Frank testified that he was at 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 was
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 the 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 roeular rounds.
Lee testified that Frank appeared greatly agitated when he
met him at the door of the factory office jimt before 4 o’clock.
He said that Frank seemed nervous and was 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
Frank at his home after the police had viewed the body at 3
o'clock Sunday morning, but that he could not get him.
W. W. 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 hod “found anything’’ when nothing
had been told him at that time us to the tragedy.
Rogers said lie saw Frank remove the time slip from the
time clock which Lee hud punched. Rogers said that there wen-
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 Sunday the body
was found that the clock was punched all right and later contra
dicted himself by saying there were three “skips” in it, and that
it “looked queer.”
Lee testified that Frank had told him in a private confer
ence that “they would both go to hell” if Lee maintained bis
present attitude.
Harry Scott, Pinkerton detective, bore out Lee on this point.
I am inclined to classify this at negative testimony.
Frank is reached and held through a process of elimination.
Testimony pointing toward the innocence of Frank was that
of Frank himself.
He said that he bad not known Mary Phugan "by name be
fore her murder; that he recalled paying her at 12:10 Saturday
afternoon, but 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 lie was entirely alone from 4 o’clock until 6, and
that he arrived home at 7 in the evening, where he remained. He
declared he 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 be in the handwriting of Frank.
Leimnie Quinn 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. Emil Selig, Frank’s pareuts-in-law, corrobo
rated the 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,
but that on the contrary he had been most courteous when he
had any personal dealings with them, which was not frequently.
Miss Corinlhia Hall, one of the employees, said she never
had observed Frank attempt any liberties with any of the girls.
Herbert Schiff, chief clerk in the factory, testified that the
work which Frank accomplished Saturday afternoon on the
financial sheet would have taken any expert five or six hours.
EVIDENCE IS NOT CONVINCING.
I ask would YOU consider this very convincing in the case of
either man?
I do not.
But after the Coroner’s inquest the case assumes a new form.
The whole matter now rests in the hands of Solicitor Dorsey. I
have never met him. All that I hear about him is in his favor.
But he has never shown any unusual skill as a detective. He
knows criminal law, and lie 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 trial.
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 suc
cessful 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
may foreshadow something big. They ware, of course, sufficient
to warrant the Coroner’s Jury in holding him for the. Grand Jury.
An indictment by the Grand Jury does not mean that a per
son is guilty. Far from it.
CRIME SHOULD BE UNRAVELED.
I hope Solicitor Dorsey will be able to unravel the great mys
tery, and that he will have evidence enough to convince—not only
a jury of twelve men, but the entire community ns well, of the
guilt or innocence of whatever persons, Frank, Lee or others who
may yet be caught in the net, of the murder of the innocent little
girl.
An indictment by the Grand Jury is a very important legal
document. It must be air tight, and held together by such a strong
chain of evidence that it can not be broken anywhere. It has to
run the whole gauntlet of the law. An imperfect indictment falls
of its own weight.
For the battle really begins—not before a Coroner’s Jury, but
in the court room, where the law and the facts have precedence
over everything else.
When the prosecution in the Phagan ease goes into court, it
will be faced by one of the best lawyers in the South.
Luther Z. Rosser, big of frame, big of intellect, big in the
knowledge of the law and schooled in all the intricacies of its ma
chinery, will be at the opposing counsel’s table, making a battle
for his client, turning evidence with his shield from the lanoe of
Mr. Dorsey, sifting every piece of evidence for the jury, challeng
ing every inch of the law to the judge.
And I am told, that he is as skillful with the use of the broad
sword as he is deft with the rapier.
I am writing thus freely, for the reason that the two detectives,
quoted at the beginning of this article, in their testimony gave me
the right to discuss the matter in the columns of the newspapers as
I am doing.
PRECEDENT HAS NOT BEEN VIOLATED.
This is no violation of precedent. It is not for the purpose of
establishing the guilt or innocence of any person. It is solely be
cause I am trying to set down what I believe to be the thoughts
running through the minds of the average man and woman.
Frank and Lee may be guilty, but it would require a great
deal more evidence than has been published in the newspapers to
convince me of it.
It may be that Mr. Dorsey lies a mass of evidence to present to
the jury when it confronts the accused in open court, and over
whelm the defense with serration after sensation and buttressed
fact after buttressed fact.
I uo not know whether this is so or not. I give my own opinion
for what it is worth. What the detective* and poliee now have
ugainst Frank and Lee at this moment is apparently worthless.
Any day or any hour may bring forth new suspects and the
real criminals.
I can not help but sympathize with Frank in being held as he
is on the very slight evidence presented against him. At the mo
ment, it would seem as though he were a victim of circnmstancB
and that he would have to take the consequences that follow being
the superintendent of the factory and the last person who is said
to have seen Mary Phagan alive. And consequences, as George
Eliot said, are unpitying.
FRANK S PAST IN HIS FAVOR.
I said in my article in last Sunday’s American that what is
known of Frank’s past is in his favor. 1 reiterate that. He is a col
lege graduate, a man of culture, lias traveled considerably, and
stands well among his friends.
Public Opinion that first condemned Lee, then Frank, then
both of thi m, then was ready summarily to dispose of them with
out waiting for the processes of the law, is calmer to-day and is
anxious for the facts.
I do not mean by this that I believe Public Opinion would
acquit Frank without a trial, for the belief prevails that not all of
the evidence has been made public. But Public Opinion is willing
to “play fair” and hear the facts.
I hope Solicitor Dorsey will continue his investigation while
he is weaving his web around Frank and Lee. It may be that they
are not guilty. It may be that some other person or persons com
mitted the ghastly deed. It is worth while for our alert prosecutor
to watch in all direction? for the criminals.
And it may be well for our citizens to keep their minds open
and receptive, not acquitting or condemning anybody, no matter of
what color, race or creed, nntil all the facts are known.
We can afford to be patient—even with THE LAW.
The great professor Drummond once asked a little girt in a
Glasgow Sunday school for a definition of patience. She replied:
“To wait a-wheel, sin dinna get weary, to keep yer mouth
shut and yer eyes open! ’ ’
MOOSERS SEEKING KNIFE AVENGES
IRE HOUSE JOBS SIX-YEAR SLIGHT
Each of 20 Progressives Should
Have Place on Important Com-
mitttees, Says Murdock.
Arthur Bridwell Claims Ancient
Grudge Caused Him to Stab
0. W. Gilbert.
WASHINGTON, May 10.—Victor
Murdock, leader of the Progressives,
failed to got from Oscar Underwood,
the Democratic leader, a promise to
day that each of the twenty Pro
gressives in the House should be
given places on tb>| more important
committees.
Murdock spent more than an hour
with the Democratic leader and
chairman of the House Committee on
Committees, trying to convince him
that representation on the Ways and
Means Committee and on the Rules
Committee, two Important assign
ments, are not sufficient to satisfy the
Progressives.
James Mann, Republican leader, Is
.insisting that with this recognition of
the Progressives the House Demo
cratic organization has gone far
enough, and that the Progressives
should be satisfied with appointment
to minor committees. Mann has 120
followers to take care of as against
20 led by Murdock. Underwood de
sires to please each faction.
FLAGLER REPORTED TO
BE EXTREMELY WEAK
WEST PALM BEACH. FLA., May
10.—No material change was noted
to-day in the condition of Henry M.
Flagler, the financier, who is seri
ously 111 at his home here. Mr. Flag
ler passed a restful night, but was
reported to be extremely weak.
With the muttered remark that
“I’ve waited six years for a chanoe
to do this,” Arthur Bridwell, 21 years
old, a soda water clerk at the Lyric
Theater, plunged a dirk Into O. W.
Gilbert’s left side, according to the
police, while the pair were convers
ing in the Georgia Pool Room, at 44
Peachtree Street, late Saturday after
noon. Bridwell stabbed Gilbert
twice, and then fled from the pool
room, after attempting to stab J. F.
Grogan, owner of the place, who
tried to aid Gilbert.
Arrested by Officers Green and
McKibben in the bill room of the
Atlanta Theater six hours later and
locked In a cell at police headquar
ters, Bridwell refused to make any
statement regarding his former
trouble with Gilbert. All he would
say whs that Gilbert bad wronged
him six years ago, and that he had
now gotten his revenge. Gilbert’s
friends say they know-of no trouble
the two have had.
Gilbert, wiio is manager of Scher
er’s lunch room on Peachtree Street,
is in a critical condition at Grady
Hospital. He was operated on at 9
o'clock Saturday night, and physi
cians found that the left kidney had
been perforated. He is not expected
to live.
According to eyewitnesses of the
stabbing, Gilbert gave Bridwell no
excuse Saturday for the assault. The
restaurant man entered the pool room
shortly after five o’clock and was
conversing with Grogan when Brid
well entered. The attack followed.
Grogan rushed to the rescue of GU*
bert, and according to witnesses,’ was
attacked by Bridwell.
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