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TTTF ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS.
LEE JUST A SHOT IN DARK:
FATHER AND SON WHO FIGURE
IN THE DEFENSE OF LEO FRANK
L. Z. Rosser, Sr., and s on, L. Z. Rosser, Jr., both en
gaged in Phasjan ease
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
»
If Mr. Luther Z. Rosser's bite is
one-half so dangerous as his growl
undoubtedly is disconcerting an ^
ewe-inspiring, there will be little save
shreds and patches of the prosecution
left when the State comes eventual’y
to sum up its case against Leo Frank.
Rosser's examination of Newt Lee
was one of the most merv* racking
and interesting I ever listened to.
It reminded me much of a big
^ mastiff'worrying and teasing a huge
brown rat. and grimly bent eventual
ly upon the rat’s utter annihilation.
A witness up against one of Ros
ser’s mighty . bombardments is. in a
decidedly uncomfortable predicament
'—no doubt about that!
True, Lee snapped back at Rosser
and growled angrily every little. .Att,
and strove this way and that to get
away from the insistent prod of the
tremendously menacing mass of hu
manity forever in front of him. wor
rying, teasing, sneering, and threaten
ing, but he could not.
Always the terrible Rosser was
there—and so, every little bit, Loj
would fall back into the witness
chair, with an auditle sigh, and say.
ever so softly and abjectly, “Yassir,
yas^ir, Ah guess dat’s so!”
Sometime Lee Countered.
Bulldozer Rosser may be. browbeat-
er perhaps, he still js far and away
the most picturesque, figure in the
trial as it has progressed to date.
The Solicitor General outspokenly
resents the Rosser methods of exam
ining witnesses and endeavors with
all the resourcefulness at his com
mand to counteract them and set
them so far at naught as he may out
just as' plainly he fears the powerful
figure leading the case for Frank, and
dreads to the very limit the effective
ness of his method?. ‘
It must be renumbered that tne
State is relying largely upon the
testimony of two ignorant negroes or
the conviction of Frank.
Conley is the State’s star-witness
and Newt Lee is its second'best bet.
Eoth are densely ignorarjt. and, tneo-
retieallv at least, more or less easy
f . marks for the Rosser method of ex
Time and agrin, Lee rallied and
came back at his tormenter win
telling effect—It is likely altogether
that more than once thq jury’s sym
pathy went out to Lee in large meas
ure. while Ro?ser was grd.ing him—
and to the darkey’s occasional sallies
and adroit sidestens. the spectators
in the courtroom .frequently responfl-
, *d readily with approving titters and
guffaws. , A
Still, more than orire foeter mix a
the negro up somewhat—and m ™y
hear more of that when the adroit
Afnold oomes to the bar for argu-
■Rapiers' Second the 'Clubs.
*nd so, it seems to me now that
the battle is to divide after thij
fashmn' Rosser is to wield the
- bludgeon, and Dorsey is to neutralise
or ward off its shock wherever and
whenever he can. while Arnold am.
Hooper are to undertake the nmr,
Skillful and artistic, hut pone the less
deadly, rapier work th ,
Rosser is to smash and bang things
around, and Arnold is to puncture,
thrust and parry.
It will be in. those circumstance,
f a i r time ('em small bo;.s
and persons of hesitating dispositions
?o" stond from under-hu. nei her
Dorse- nor Hooper is made of that
variety of human cl-y.
"Whom the gods would destroy
thev-first make mad,” of course—and
Duther Rosser has secred many a
brilliant victory in the past through
the simple process of making the
other fellow mad.
And he can make Dorsey mad. too
does, frequently’
tf only Dorsey had Hooper's poise
and unruffled calm, the assaults of
Rosser and the aggravating persist
ence of the man would be as harm
less as the shots of a popgun against
a modern man-of-war.
Dorsey Falls Into Trap
But Dorsey isn't Hooper, and the
is* as 5KS,"
some of his distress of mind and
temper to the witness on the stand,
th^ physehotogical condition Rosser
L fighting, for has been set up. and
if he doesn't make the most of it
every time it happens, his hand w
have lost its cunning and he will
belie and contradict a lifetime
I achievement at the bar.
times, there is something grim-
IV humorous about Rosser—as when,
having' befuddled a witness and ex
asperated him to the very verge of
mwdness Mr. Rosser will say, with
studied sarcasm and belittling om-
n has is “Oh, well, well not quarrel
about that!—well not quarrel, you
an if that doesn't make the witness
a thousand times.madder than ever
before. 1 can not irtiag ne wh> .
When it comes to handling a wit
ness of the caliber of Sergeant
Dobbs. Mr. Rosser does not perform
any particular transformation in his
mnkp-uD or his methods.
He essays no Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde roles-—he ever and always is
the same big. massive. powerful,
crushing, snorting, fighting, destroy
ing mass of humanity, under full
mental and physical steam ahead
His Scowl Good Argument.
If anybody in this world is capa
ble of lifting himself by his .own
bootstraps, unquestionably Mr. Ros-
ser is tne man!
No one in all the courtroom
watches him so closely, and ap
rv’-ently so analytically, as do.es the
N? ndant's wife. Lucile Frank.
•?V-ank watches him rather curious-
w even quizzically; the eider Mrs
^j'. an k the defendant's mother—not
JHite so closely—but the prisoner's
*ife rarely takes her eyes off her
husband's leading counsel
And there is something amazingly
« fascinating about Mr. Rosser.
He is fascinating physically—of
course his superb mental equipment
is not debatable—much after . the
same fashion that oW John L. Sulli
van used to be. - a
In his palmy days, one of old John
Flashes ol Tragedy Pierce
Legal Tilts at Frank Trial
L.’s scowls often served « .-rare an
adversary instantly into a doubt that
a second scowl not infrequently
evolved rapidly into despair.
Old Jake Kilrain told me once in
Washington city that he never was
genuinely afraid but once in his life,
and that was the first time his an
cient enemy, John L. Sullivan,
frowrfed ferociously upon him in the
beginning of their first fight—and
that he (Kilrain) never got over it-
Both Center on Purpose.
"If only, rn^e or twice he had
smiled upon me and looked the least
little, hit pleasa.nt, I might have
licked him'' *aid white-haired old
Jake Kilrain. “but he never did on^e
—indeed. T never once saw Sullivan
smile while firhtirg. in all the days
I have known him!”
And I mean it as a conjolinient to
Luther 7.. Ro c ser when T credit him
with that same ,*ort of terrible defl-
nitehes* of purpose in trying a case.
Mr- Rosser lets it be ‘•een. cau
tiously and carefully at first that he j
had a deadly inherit toward Lee. He
made !♦ plain hv an adroit develop
ment of miestlonipr. that he proposed
showing, if ho could, more in Lee’s
connection with this crime than the
public latterly has Imagined to be
possible.
Eventually it dawned upon the
thick-witted netrro there In the wit
ness chair that Rosser was leading up,
through all those puzzling and wor
rying questions, to a fixed and steady
mark, and Lee could be seen plainly
to squirm and twist as he drew in
evitably nearer and nearer the peril
ous brink.
Storv Virtual’^ Unshaken,
He began to shift and back away
from questions to ram plain of inac-
curacv in the stenographic reports of
the roror.er’c inquest, to evade and
become :ndefinite. Evidently, at one
time, the negro was growing sfraid.
and he undertook to be as cunning
and a« cautions as he might.
And '-et. with all of that, he stood
the ordeal pretty veil, and came
through relatjvojv unhurt and c«r-
t»irilv not seriously damaged I think
his evidence as an isolated thing,
amounts to little, anyway—but I think
it went to the lurv fairly well unchal
lenged at that!
The firhttng so far in its fuller as
pect. h^s beep cn plajnlv skirmish
ing and jecke^'ing for position that
maqv enpptqtnts must have wop-'
dered often as I did, wbpt sort n f
accounting that •*fher end far more
Imnert^nl s«bie figure in the Frank
trial. .Tim Conlev. might be exnee+pd
to give of himself under the merci
less fire of Rosser.
It is about the n°gm Cen' ov that
the battle • will rpach it£ zenith and
the fi ’•hting will be the fiercest.
After Conley has been disposed of.
one wav or the other, the case against
Frank will be either up or down, ac
cording to the status of Conley when
his remarkable story has been put to
the ultimate t*»st.
Will Corley/ Stand the Tesl?
Will Conley be as nimble-wittfcd ap
Lee was? r>lV-'
Will he be able to withstand the
onslaughts of Rosser and Arnold, even
approximately as well as Newt stood
them 0
Tf he does
Ganiev thus far has held himself to
gether pretty well. His examinations,
however, have b^en altogether one
sided. A very different story may be
told after he has been un against the
best legal talent the defense could
secure.
Newspapers have reported, front
time to time, how Conlev was “grill
ed" hv thus and so—never a party to
the defense—and it has been related
how well he “.stuck to his story” when,
after three trials, he apparently suc
ceeded in getting hold of a storv he
could stick to overnight as a funda
mental proposition; hut whether the
word "grilled” should not reallv have
been “drilled" never has been per
fectly clear in my mind.
Conlev ought to have his story well
in hand by now. in anv event; and
so. if it is a true story neither Mr.
Rosser nor Mr. Arnold will succeed in
breaking him down.
On the other hand, if Conlev relates
an untrue atorv. surely Rosser and
Arnold will he able to locate the loose
joints in it and when they do Conley
should read n<* readjlv as anybody the
big and sinister danger signal that
there and then will loom significantly
ahead of him.
Rosser Shoots in Park.
As for the examination of Newt Lee
hv Mr Rosser, it inirressed me often
as a mere shooting in the dark, hop
ing to bit something.
To mv mind there is nothing much
to hep, save and excepting the one
fact that he discovered the dead body
of little Mary Phagan in the factory
cellar.
He 1s a genuine negro, w-ith all of a
neero’s superstitious antipathy for a
dead bodv. He went into the cellar on
a perfectly natural and ordinary mis-
"ion. and there he discovered the bo*”
Just so soon as he satisfied hltns*»lf
as to what it was he undoubted^
did »|f Hi vwore. "light a rag out of
thar! ”
Immediately he called the police, as
he had been instructed to do by
Frank, when he (Lee) first was em
ployed as a* night watchman in the
factory.
That is all he knows about the
crime—and it is all Mr. Rosser ever
got out of him and ever will get out
of him.
The remainder of his testimony is
relatively unimportant, although, to
he sure, there .are bits of it that will
,serve to .account for any seeming un-
mturalnev.v in the behavior of Prank
just, prior to his departure from the
factor” Saturday afternoon and later
along in the evening.
Rattle Has Just Bequn.
The battle for Leo Frank’s life, lib
erty and honor as a man, the fight to
clear his home of the shadow of trag
edy forever, has hardly yet begun.
The fighting s»o far has been Inde
cisive. and to neither side has fallen
anv advantage worth reckoning upon.
The State has sustained itself very
well because It hasn’t lost anything—
and about as much may be said for
the defense.
And not until Jim Conlev gets into
the case will the really big guns be
unlimbered.
By 0, B. KEELER.
Frank and Wife Perfect in
Poise; Mother Pitiful Figure
Arm akimbo, glasses firmly Bet,
■’hanging position seldom, Leo M.
Frank sits through his trial with his
thoughts tn Kamchatka, Terra del
Fuego, or the Antipodes, no far as
the spectators in the courtroom can
judge.
He may realize that if the twelve
men he faces decide that he la guilty
of the murder of Mary Phagan, the
decree of earthly court will be that
his sole hope of the future will be
an appeal to the Court on High. His
mind may constantly carry the im
pression of the likelihood of the
solemn reading of the death war
rant, the awful march to the death
chamber, the sight of the all terrify
ing gibbet, the dreadful ascension of
its steel stairs', the few words of re
ligious consolation—and then the
drop,
Frank's Face a Mask.
But if he does realize these things,
his face is as completely masked
against emotion as that of a skilled
poker player.
T-* all appearances, he is the de
fendant In a civil suit on a contract
of $100, and he has the money in his
pocket to nay the judgment tf the
court should rule against him.
An outsider entering the court
room, uninformed, would look in vain
for the man whose chief Interest is
In the trial.
There is a world of earnestness
written on the faces of the array of
counsel. The jurors sit with fixed
faces. Their nervous fanning tells
their emotion. The court la all In
terest and the spectators lean for
ward, ears strained to catch every
word, eyes keen to observe every
move.
But Leo Frank sits there placid as
a pool, calm as a champion about to
go forth to assured victory. If any
thing. his appearance indicates that
the trial Is not a trial to him. It is
simply a detail of a misfortune that
Is through circumstance.
Frank's months tn prison have not
affected him physically. His eyes are
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
extremely luminous. His olive skin 1
is exceedingly clear. He holds his
spare frame erectly.
He speaks seldom. Occasionally he
turns to pass a word with his wife.
Every now and then he has a brief
conference with hi.** counsel. More
often he gazes straight ahead—at
nothing.
He sits next to the massive Luther
Roscer. When Rosser is on his feet
he is next to studious-appearing Reub
Arnold. When he speaks to them, his
voice is impassionate and his sen
tences are carefully framed.
Frank's Wife Confident.
Behind him is his wife. Mrs. Frank
is a remarl ablv handvome woman.
She shares the stoicism of her hus-
b|j id in the trial. Though she has
not missed one minute of the hear
ing, she has never shown that she
realizes that the outcome of the case
may change her to a widow.
Twice after the court has taken
recesf'es, and Frank has been turned
over to his deputy sheriff guardian,
she has embraced and kissed him.
But afterward whe has walked
from the courtroom, head thrown
back, shoulders erect, apparently un
concerned. On the street she would
be taken for a woman out for an aft
ernoon of shopping rather than the
woman who bears the name of the
man charged with the blackest crime
known to Atlanta criminology.
Then to the left of her sits the pa
thetic figure of the trial. To those
who believe Frank guilty, his person
ality is not one to arouse pity. His
self-assurance in too apparent. His
wife hardly stirs sympathy. She, too.
Is apparently confident of victory.
But there's the mother Hour after
hour she s'its and listens to men try
ing to send her firstborn trt the gal
lows. Hour after hour she is thrilled
by the skillful struggle that his coun
sel makes to have the family name
cleared of the stain brought by the
charge that now rests against it.
Mr?. Frank is a motharly-looking
The trouble i«, plain human emo
tions won't stick at concert pitch all
the time.
And so the Frank trial, after the
first twenty minutes, say, become
much like any other trial.
Except in the flashes.
You get into the courtroom with
some formality. At once you are tn
the midst of order. It is rather pon
derous, made-to-order order. But it
is order.
Officials stalk about, walking on the
balks of their feet, like pussy cats. But
they do not purr. They request you to
be seated. You must not stand up;
you must ait down. Unfortunately,
you must stand up to walk to a place
to sit down. And that grieves the of
ficials. They mop their faces. One
in particular uses an entirely red
bandana handkerchief—sometimes for
for his face, sometimes to flag stand
ing spectators, who must sit down.
There is order.
Thrills Get Temporary Check.
Until you are thoroughly sitting
down there is no chance for the con
cert pitch to vibrate. Human emo
tions are constituted so curiously that
a rasping collar has been known to
overbalance the diead presence of the
King of Terrors. Honest persons have
admitted t-his. And the grim por
tent of the Frank trial produces no
thrills while you are stepping on other
people’s foet.
Being seated, the first thing you do
is to perspire gently. That of Use’.f
Is not romantic. Also it interfere.'
with the concert pitch. It is hard to
reconcile perspiration and cold pric
kles back of the ears.
You get the first tingle when you
pick out the accused. Your neighbor
does not help you do this. One’s
neighbor at a trial rarely knows any
thing about anything connected with
It.
You pick out the prisoner because
you have seen many pictures of him.
cold.
And grim. And pitiful.
Rosser Soars—Regardless.
Then Mr. Arnold objects again, and
there is another dreary wrangle, and
the idea g?t?> uppermost in your head
that the city detective is a most lit
eral-minded witness.
It is confusing.
Mary Phagan’s sister is there. Rhp
wears a black hat and an unaccus
tomed veil. You look in vain for
tributes to emotion. Fhe shows a
mild interest in Mr. Rotwer’p pomp
and circumstance of language. In
stead of another thrill, you gain &
hazy impression that Mr. Rosser is
an orator who loves to soar—-who
would soar, in fact, when he might
get along faster by walking.
You hear the purr of the fans, the
shuffle of feet, the clearing of throats.
You are sensible that it Is very warm
and that the judge twice has handled
his palm leaf as if it were a gavel
You see a juror yawn luxuriously and
once more find proof that yawning is
contagious.
Oh. yes—after the first twenty
minutes (say), the Frank trial is much
like any other, except-—-
‘‘A big splotch that looked like
blood.”
"Where vas It?”
"Well, some of it was over In the
corner. • * * It looked as if it had
been swept over with something
white. * * * The rest- "
“Well, tell the jury where was the
rest.”
“Around a nail that stuck out.
* * * The top of the nail was cov
ered with blood, and * • •”
You sit back and your hands hurt
from squeezing the arms of the seat.
They are talking about a stairway
again, and the city detective is point
ing out something on the map with
the bent-handled umbrella.
No use.
Plain human emotions simply won’t
stick at concert pitch, even for the
terrific romance of murder.
Once in a while, over the whirr of
fans and the shuffle of feet and the
Interminable squabbling of counsel,
you feel the shadow of a crime—an
uglier crime than that which took
Eugene Aram out of Lynn, “with
gyves upon his wrist.”
But only in the flashes.
Defense Plans
Line of Qu
woman. Her form is ample, and in
her younger days was evidently a
woman of striking appearance. She
is typical of th» mother of her race—
the revered head of the Hebrew fam
ily.
In this trial, though. eyes are
practically always fixed on her son.
Their yearning light spreads through
the big courtroom.
Mother’s Looks Are of Love.
Their every flash pends the mes
sage that she wants him bark on her
breast a free man.
No single feature of the trial es
capes her. When the prosecution
scores, another line is added to the
face that has been wrinkled by the
*hree months of wa ting and horror.
When the defense seems to have an
advantage, there is a joy expressed
as great as the power of Niagara.
When the attorneys ask a question,
her eyes are fixed on the questioner.
When the witness answers, her gaze
is on him. When the court rules,
every movement of hie lips is marked
by her.
But there Is always an eye for her
son. During the trial he wished a
drink of water. The pitcher was on
the desk of his counsel, far from his
seat and near hers.
When he looked for it, she divined
his wish. She was on her feet -in a
second. The glas** was in her hand.
The water was poured out. In her
trembling grasp it was passed to him.
As he took it. his stoicism broke.
He smiled his 4 acknowledgment of
the litt’.e act of kindness, and there
was a wealth of love in his smile, and
she smiled back reassurance. Su
perlatives couldn't tell the meaning of
that smile.
• • *
Mary Phagan is dead. She died
horribly, the victim of as cruel a
beast < s ever polluted the soil of the
Southland.
But Mary Phagan Is dead; she
sleeps peacefully beneath a flowered
sod.
The mother of Leo Frank is alive,
and be her wn innocent or guilty,
the mother is the pitiful figure in this
black an I baffling mystery.
That a sensation Is to be sprung by
the defense by the production of the
mysteriously missing ribbon and flow
ers from the hat of the murdered gin
wns repeatedly indicated by Attorney
Rosser’s line of questioning Tuesday
and the afternoon before.
Beginning with Mrs. J. W. Coleman,
mother of Mary Phagan. the attorney
for Frank interrogated every witness
who saw the girl alive or dead that
day in regard to the ribbon and flow
ers.
Mrs. Coleman said that the ribbon
and flowers were on the hat when
I Mary left home. Newt Lee said that
j he had seen no sign of the missing
He is one of those whose pictures look j trimmings. The testimony of Ser-
like them. You are quite certain w r ho 1 * PaI ? t was 'h* same. D**-
1 tective Starnes, when he was turned
it is.
First Chord a Mere Tinkle.
But the opening chord of the con
cert pitch is disappointing. It is
not majestic and soul-stirring. Frank
ly, It is more of a tinkle.
Here Is a slim little man. He Is
dark. His face is sharply cut and
lean. His eyes are well opened,
back of thick lenses. • • * That
was the first real tingle. * * *
Did those eyes glare down upon the
huddled figure of Mary Phagan in
the echoing loneliness of the pencil
factory that Saturday afternoon?
Glared through the thick lenses?
The grrotesquery Jars oddly.
The thrill passes.
There is Rube Arnold, objecting to
something. It Is among the duties
of counsel for the defense to be j
constantly injured. Mr. Arnold Is
good at that. He Is not going to
fail, if the court please, in his full
duty to his client, who sits there.
And the particular part of Mr. Ar-
over for the cross-examination, made
the same admission.
It is believed that Rosser will pro
duce the ribbon and will attempt to
establish that it was found In a place
throwing suspicion upon the negro
Conley.
Frank was brought to the court
house at about 8 o'clock Wednesday
morning. There was no change in
his demeanor or physical appearan-e.
If the trial has been any strain upon
him he does not display the effect*.
He was dressed in the dark mohair
suit he wore Tuesday. He greeted
his friends cheerily and spoke con
fidently of acquittal.
The jurors, sleeping in three rooms
at the Kimball House, spent a rest
less night. They appeared rather
fagged when they were brought into
the courtroom at 9 o'clock.
First Witnesses Unimportant.
Attorneys for the State have an
nounced that the witnesses called
Monday and Tuesday were only for
the purpose of alarting the presenta
tion of evidence against Leo Frank
right from the opening incidents of
the day that the murder was commit
ted, and that they were important
only in so far as they assisted in mak
ing a continuous chain of evidence,
nold’s duty at this moment is to s^eland as they made here and there
that his learned brother does not get j »t*teme n ts which might be tnterpret-
' ed as damaging to the accused.
Working on the foundation laid by
before the jury from this witness any
of his (the witness’) ideas as to ho*’
the defendant looked the morning aft
er the tragedy at the pencil factory.
Mr. Arnold Philosophizes.
Mr. Arnold begs to submit that an
officer. If It please the court, thinks
everybody looks guilty. Mr. Arnold
begs to submit further that the hu
man face is the most inscrutable
thing In the world. And Mr. Arnold
will say—
You discover the defendant's wife
and mother, and lose the thread of
Mr. Arnold’s philosophy.
They sit by his side. The mother's
face is of the inscrutable type pic
tured by Mr. Arnold. The wife’*
face. ♦ • * That was thrill No.
2. * * * You realize in a flash what
the Frank trial means to her. • * *
She w r atches the witnesses more
closely than her husband. She moves
her fan nervously at times. She re
gards the prosecutor and his assist
ant with a certain contemptuous de
fiance. • • • The tingle lasts un
til you realize she is chewing gum.
Mr. Arnold’s philosophic objection
has spun Itself out. Mr. Dorsey re
sumes his questioning. Mr. Dorsey
has a querulous manner of asking
questions Mr. Arnold’s Injured ob
jections may explain that.
The Pathos of a Dress.
The testimony just now is not
thrilling It has to do with a atair-
way and an office and some very
usual-looking cord or heavy twine.
The witness has to get up frequently
and point out things on a framed plan
of the pencil factory that hangs on
the wall where the Jury' can see it.
He uses an umbrella. He may be
pointing out the very spot where Mary
Phagan * * * But the handle of
the umbrella Is bent. Is it his own
umbrella? It looks like a woman’s.
* * * Where did Mr. Dorsey get
that twine, anyway?
Oh. the suitcase. There are other
things in the suitcase. * • • A
little heap of things on the floor of
the witness stand—a crumpled dress,
a hat. • • •
And that time you wink your eyes
very hard, because they sting. What
was in that little girl’s mind as she
put on that hat for the last time?
What painstaking care had she used,
to make It her “best” hat—what
needle pricks, maybe, in the small
fingers? And the lavender dress
* * * And the end of all, In the
J dust and dirt of the pencil factory
' basement.
* Just for a flash It’s all real. And
Tuesday's testimony. Solicitor Dorsey
was understood to he prepared Wed
nesday and Thursday to ' introduce
witnesses who would iwear that the
red stains found in tw.o places on the
second floor w-ere splotches of blood
and not aniline or any other color
ing stain; also that the bloody finger
prints on the rear door of the base
ment were the finger-prints of Leo
M. Frank.
City Detective J. X. Starnes Just
before he left the stand Tuesday
night Identified pieces of wood as
pieces he had chipped from the rear
door of the factory. There were fln-
ger-prints easily distinguishable upon
them. A finger-print expert was In
the employ of Solicitor Dorsey for
some time during the investigation of
Sensation,
eries Indicates
the murder mystery and was named
among the State’s witnesses.
The red-stained ehips from the fac
tory floor were sent to Dr. Claude E.
Smith, city bacteriologist, for analy
sis. Dr. Smith also is one of the
State’s witnesses and was expected to
be called Wednesday or during Thurs
day’s forenoon session.
Writing Psd Evidence?
Starnes was on the stand practical
ly all of Tuesday afternoon. Whi’e
the direct examination was In prog
ress the detective told of his part In
scouring the pencil factory for «vi-
dence.
One of his statements on which the
State is relying to establish that
F rank acted and talked in an Incrim
inating manner the morning the body
was found consisted in his testimony
In regard to a telephone conversation
which he said he had with the fac
tory superintendent that morning.
Starnes, under the examination of
Dorsey, said that he had been very
guarded when he called up Franrf
that morning and had merely said
that he desired Frank's presence at
the factory. He denied that he had
mentioned the fact that a girl had
been killed.
Claim Frank Knew.
It is the purpose of the State to
seek co establit-h that Frank, without
being told of what had happened, had
made remarks to the officers when
they came for him which Indicated he
was not unaware that a girl had been
murdered in his factory.
The main points of Starnes' *esti-
mony were:
That he had discovered sialna re
sembling blood in tw*o places on the
second floor of the factory.
That Frank acted nervous w’hen
brought to the factory.
That Frank made a strange remark
to Foreman M. B. Darley that he "had
more than one suit of clothes,” refer
ring to the fact that he had on a
different suit than the one he wore tha
day before.
That Lee appeared composed when
questioned Sunday* by the det#ctl<vea
That he witnessed the new-night
watchman in the pencil factory make
a complete punch of the time clock
covering a period of twelve ftoiirs in
five minutes. nvr.\
Unaer Rosser’s erowi-examinatlon
Starnes admitted that it was practi
cally impossible for him to remember
the exact words he used in certain
parts of his testimony at the Cor
oner’s inquest. This admission was
obtained by Ro.«wer to show' that
Starnes’ memory in respect to the tel
ephone conversation with Frank could
not be regarded as any more reliable.
Rosser brought out that Starnes failed
to mention at the Coroner’s Inquest
either the matter of the telephone
conversation or of the alleged conver
sation he held with Frank the morn
ing of the murder.
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