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TTTTC ATLANTA OEORGIAN ANT) NEWS.
TO FORGET BASE URGE?
SCENE IN COURTROOM AS CONLEY
WAS UNDER FIRE OF THE DEFENSE
™!
courtroom have been looking for (’on-
ley to “break down,” to fall on his
knees and confess it all a lie, and all
that sort of thing.
There never was any chance that
Reuben Arnold
assisting in
the grilling
of the negro.
w
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
"Gentlemen of the jury, having
heard from Jamea Conley, the black
est, moat damning story ever told in
Atlanta by one human being against
another, having sat there and listened
as he smudged with unspeakable
scapdal the defendant in this case,
Leo Frank, although It is irrelevant,
immaterial, and has nothing to do
with this case, you will kindly forget
it, being on your oaths as jurymen to
consider the evidence declared com
petent!”
And the jury, being like most other
juries, in one way and another, and
having heard all the things as afore
said, will promptly proceed to do as
instructed about forgetting it—NOT!
I have heard juries told too many
times to “forget” things—such, for
instance, as that there is no such
thing as “unwritten law” in this
land of the free and home of the brave
—and I have seen too many times
those very same juries proceed to
“forget”—NOT!
Juries are, after all, composed of
mere human beings, and things such
as Conley said to the Frank jury can
NOT be forgotten, and will NOT be
disregarded by the average Jury.
Merely Question of Belief.
It Is merely a queston of whether
the jury' BELIEVES the negro!
There was something infinitely pa
thetic in the situation Tuesday, when
court met in the afternoon.
For one thing, it brought to the
cheeks of the defendant’s wife, al
ways and e 'er at h ! ~ side, the first
tears I yet hive seen fall from her
eyes. •
She has bo T ne herself with amaz
ing fortitude thus far—the wonder is
that she has not long aeo collapsed.
When Reuben Arnold, moving to
strike from the record the vile story
of Jim Conley, paused a second before
reading the exact w'ords he desired
expunged, 'ooked a moment in the
direction of the defendant’s wife, and
said, with no show of the spectacular
whatever, “Your honor, I w'ould pre
fer not to read this in the presence
of these two ladies, and I therefore
pass it to your honor that you may
read it in silence!” The moment was
tense and tragic!
Weeps For First Time.
I do not know whether it was grati
tude to Arnold for the kindness and
consideration thus shown, whether it
was realization of the weighty pur
pose of the motion, whether it was the
first chilling breath of apprehension,
or whether it was just a physical giv
ing way that moved Mrs. Frank. What,
ever it was, as Arnold passed the pa
per along to Ju go Roan, the firs’,
tear I ever saw from the eyes of
Lucile Frank trickled down her cheek
and she dropped her head in her
hands for a moment or tw r o and
sobbed!
Apparently there was nothing in the
incident, either upon the part o^Ar-
nold or the woman, designed to be the
least bit theatrical. The jury had
been removed, the stage settings were
wanting.
It merely was a natural and minor
incident that tugged, somehow, at the
heartstrings and caught at the throat.
In all the packed courtroom ther«
were tw r o women only—beyond that, j
there was a morbidly hungry crowd of
men, ready to grasp greedily at any- |
tiling: sensational. [Conley's story that, through the in-
Arnold denied the crowd for the
sake of—the women.
And now the jury has been asked
to forget the damning thing that has
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T-g-T--%~s, "f.’-'JT 1 ”
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Crowd Set in
Its Opinions
.. J']
By 0. B. KEELER.
The impression persists that court
room crow’ds are made up in the
main of tw r o classes, as follows:
(1) People who take It for grant
ed that any person being tried on any
charge in any court ie guilty, and then
some.
(2) People who arc constitutionally
AIM DESPITE RIG ODDS
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
Practically the entire case on w'hieh
the State of Georgia bases its claim
on the life of Leo Frank to pay for
r. . ,r i • -1 iinniiTrttsiiiii iw-Ti m Lr --
M
SYTp-
Jim Conley
as he appeared
on the witness
jtand during
cross-
examination.
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Luther Z.
Rosser
in a
characteristic
attitude as he
fired volleys of
questions at
Conley.
Conley would do that. It should be
borne in mind that to “break down”
Conley’s story does not necessarily
mean to break down Conley—to col
lapse him.
The point is: Can the defense—ha?
or will the defense—so UNDERMINE
I troduction of other evidence, It even
tually will fall to the ground as a
j mass of lies?
Slowly, but persistently, with dead-
been said to it, that* has been said j intent even it with tediousness of
in the presence of the wife and the method. Luther Z. Rosser for more
mother—and that was too vile to say ! than two days has attacked the amaz-
a second time in the presence of the ; ln& and terrible story upon which the
latter!
Do you think the jury WILL for
get—do you think it CAN forget?
Maybe you do—I don’t!
And as to Conley and his story in
its entirety—the spectators in that
State hopes to convict Leo Frank of
the murder of Mary Phagan.
Rosser has been almost maddening
In his patience with the negro. He
has gone over the same ground, time
after time, in his efforts to get Con-
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1
ley’s various stories adjusted to the
purpose of the defense.
Conley, rapid-fire enough in direct
examination, rattling off his grewsome
and frightful story as if it were a
recital of an altogether common
thing, became quite another Conley
under cross-examination.
Where but a few moments ago he
had remembered most amazing and
inconsequential details—such as the
fact that a woman who called to see
Frank on Thanksgiving Day wore a
blue and white polka dotted dress, a
green hat and white shoes and stock
ings—under cross-examination he
could remember nothing at all save
after the most persistent prodding.
Time and again Mr. Rosser had to
go over the entire ground of an entire
situation to draw' from Conley one
further comment upon it. Questioned
on his story under both cross and
direct examination, me negro was pat
enough in reply—on other points he
was as vague, as he possibly could
be.
Twenty-one times Tuesday he ad
mitted to Mr. Rosser that he had
“lied.” Seven limes’ in addition to
that he admitted that he had been
“mistaken.”
As the cross-examination pro
gressed, too, it became evidem
enough that the defense is to hold the
entire charge against Frank' to be
largely a “frame-up,” with Conley as
the bright and particular star about
whon) it revolves.
The negro said he at first refused to
speak of the crime at all, and w'hen
b^did speak deliberately lied because
he “wished to protect Mr. Frank.”
“He was my young superintendent
—I would have done anything to save
him,” said the negro—whether with
sinister cunning or genuine sinceri
ty, the Jury must say.
Showed How Negro Lied.
And yet, with Conley’s own lips
Rosser showed how. time and again,
he deliberately lied about his move
ments on the fatal Saturday that
was Mary Phagan’s last on earth-
after h r had said that he had looked
in vain for help from Frank, and was
then determined to tell “the whole
truth!”
After Conley's excuse of protect
ing F'rank had been shattered by the
negro’s own “confession,” he had to
make three subsequent and different
“confessions” before he got things
shaped to his liking—and every time
he readjusted his story it was changed
s
to meet the ever bobbing up objections
to the story of the day or two be
fore.
Continuously Mr. Rosser referred to
the fact, always admitted by the ne
gro. that his various affidavits were
changed “at police headqTIarters." m
the presence of officers, ' after being
released from jail and carried to
headquarters.”
There are dozens of puzzling in
consistencies to be bridged over in
Conley’s story—scores of things yei
to be explained and straightened out.
And yet—
In the average mind I doubt wheth
er Conley's story has been seriously
discredited in the main.
There are people w'ho admit, read
ily enough—hundreds of them—that
Conley *s a liar, a thousand times
over, a loafer, and an utterly unde
sirable citizen.
Doubt Slowly Crystallizing.
They will say thus and so to his
disparagement, but
Fateful. suggestive. profoundly
melancholy “but” for Leo Frank!
It bespeaks a widespread and crys
tallizing doubt that is dangerously
incompatible with Frank’s hopes for
life and liberty and the restoration
of his* good name.
With all the undermining and in
congruities of Conley’s story that the
most subtle ingenuity of the defense
can conjure to its aid, the Jury has
been given a story which, if so much
as 5 per cent of it sticks, likely will
serve to convict.
The primary circumstances—these
might be swept aside like chaff be
fore the wind, if only Conley’s story
might be crushed to earth and made
absurd.
But there Is the story in all its
abundance of sinister detail—th*
comings and goings of questionable
men and women, the negro, time and
again, on watch downstairs, respond
ing to signals, the connivance of the
negro with the white man in unna
tural and perverted practices, the
coming of innocent little Mary Pha
gan, the pattering of anxious feet
above, the suppressed scream, the call
to Conley for further assistance in
consummating unlawful deeds with
women—this time murder—the re
moval of the body, and the promise to
pay on some subsequent day!
Will the story thus given to the
jury, unless completely and alto
gether broken down, ever be re
moved from its mind entirely? And
unless it is removed entirely, can
Frank hope for acquittal?
If it is, in its essentials, the truth,
what will the jury care about the
exact time at which Conley bought
some whisky on Peters street: or
whether he went straight from Pe
ters street to the laundry; or whether
he remembers the mythical “woman
in green who went up the factory
steps,” no matter how vitally impor
tant these things may be to the sus
tained truth of Conley's story.
Conley may lie in a dozen details
of his story, he may have readjusted
it continuously under the direction
of Tom, Dick, or Harry, he may be
everything he ought not to be—and
yet, if one BIG detail in his awful
story sticks in the minds of that jury,
Leo Frank is undone hopelessly.
If the story Conley tells IS a lie.
then it is the most inhumanly devil
ish, t he most cunningly clever, and
the most amazingly sustained lie ever
told in Georgia!
Every little detail, as finally ad
justed—and not then until Conley
went upon the stand Monday—fits
the necessities of those bent upon
Frank's conviction. If it is, as the
defense contends, a “frame-up,’’ it is
a diabolically smart “frame-up”—one
can not escape that conclusion!
Girl’s Visit Dovetails In.
Even the coming an d going of
Monteen Stover, the five minutes of
time in which the primary circum
stances might be made to dovetail
into the Conley story, is cited by the
witness Conley as the very period of
time w'herein Conley, sitting in the
dark hall below, heard patterihg foot
steps above, the faint scream, and im
mediately after Miss Stover went out,
the tiptoeing of F'rank to the front,
and then the story of the death up
stairs.
Monteen Stover could not have
chosen a more exact and useful mo
ment to wander in—and yet, she
heard no scream, although she did
not see F'rank in his office during the
few minutes she remained upstairs.
If the Conley story is a lie, if it has
been TOO CLFWERLY “framed up”
—if and a thousand other “ifs”—
w'hat matters that?
It matters this: If it be a lie, it
MUST break down, somewhere,
sometime; if be the truth, it will
stand against ALL the assaults made
upon it!
It has come to the point where one,
seeking the truth and justice and
the right to all men at all times and
in all circumstances, can only say he
will leave it to the jury—and that the
JURY will speak the TRUTH!
incapable of believing anybody is
guilty of anything whatever.
That is one powerful impression
gained at the F'rank trial. It is an
impression sticking out pointedly in
the wake of the Thaw trial, and the
Nan Patterson trial, and the Beatty
trial, and the Hyde trial.
All three of the Hyde trials, in fact.
Never an Opinion Altered.
At the risk of being convicted of
exaggeration in the first degree, the
writer, who was rather intimately
associated with the celebrated poison
case, would estimate that 18.397 per
sons expressed in his hearing what
they insisted were unalterable opin
ions as to the guilt or innocence of
the accused physician before the jury
in the first trial had been impaneled.
And of the 18,397 (estimated) not
one single instance is recalled of on?
single opinion being altered.
The fact that the physician was
convicted on his first trial made not
the least difference to those who be
lieved him innocent.
Court Ruling Mattered Not.
The fact that the Supreme Court
reversed and remanded the case for
further trial made not the least dif
ference to those wno voted guilty.
The second and third trials, one
of which resulted In an escaped juror,
fleeing madly by way of a rain spout
from the dread lair of the hypothet
ical question, and the other in a hung
jury, had no perceptible effect on the
factions.
Except to solidify them In their
original beliefs.
One side desired to take steps at
once.
The other aide named men-chil
dren for the object of a persecution
unparalleled since the days of Nero.
Arguments Never Will End.
And if Bennett Clark Hyde’s an
nual trials proceed as per schedule
until the year 1950. there will be
hoary-headed wrangling over the
same old points, by the same ancient
and original wranglers, lined up the
same way as when the greatest mys
tery of the West came to the fall of 1
the gavel in the opening trial.
Take the Beatty Case.
There were men and women—you
know some of them—who raised
frantic hands to heaven, that a poor
boy should thus be railroaded to his
doom.
They were about set to buy mileage
and travel to throw themselves and j
their petitions at the feet of a cruel ■
and callous Governor.
And then Beatty confessed.
Did that still the trouble lachrymal
waters?
Not precisely.
They said the poor boy’s mind had
been weakened by his persecution.
And if you are in a hypercritical
mood or are otherwise disposed to
stick pins in toy balloons, just ask
your memory to inform you how
many times you have heard these
pronouncements since the trial of
Leo M. F'rank began:
F'irst: “Well, I’ve been absolutely
certain from the very first that F’rank
did it.”
Second: “Well. I never have be
lieved that F'rank was guilty of that
crime.”
And now do you feel hypercritical?
And now do you fancy that 18,397
is an inflated estimate?
Of course, there must be a Third
F^state—a well-balanced, thoughtful,
cautious body. Particularly cautious,
and slow of speech—mayhap in some
sporadic instances slow of thought.
They are the Judicial ones. They
hold the balance open at both ends,
to receive and weigh the testimony
and the facts.
At least, they say they do.
That would be the jury, perhaps.
And some others—perhaps.
that life taken from Mary Phagan is
before the Jury. # .
Most of the remaining evidence of
importance which the Solicitor Gen
eral may introduce merely will be re
buttal to testimony presented by
F'rank’s counsel.
Whether the evidence presented is
strong enough to convict is a question
for the Jury to decide. Whether the
testimony introduced by the defense
will be convincing enough to cause
the reasonable doubt which th e law'
says shall make F'rank a free man or
w'hether the defense’s attack on the
State’s case has been of sufficient
strength to create a question in the
minds of the jurors, time alone will
tell.
But this fact remains unchallenged:
Every single thing that Solicitor Gen
eral Hugh Dorsey declared in advance
that he would get before the jury is
there now. It may not be enough to
convict, but the case which Uie State
said fastened the crime on Leo F'rank
has been put in evidence.
Dorsey Had Huge Task.
One by one the prosecutor has
forged the links in the chain that lie
maintains fixes the guilt of the Pha
gan murder on Leo F'rank and Leo
F'rank alone.
It has been long, tedious work.
Dorsey has had to fight against con
siderable odds, but his work has been
well done.
When the defense has its innings,
the chain may be torn asunder as
though struck by lightning, but that
will be the work of the skilled attor
neys w’ho are fighting to save the life
of the pencil factory superintendent.
Here was Dorsey’s work: He had
to adduce enough circumstantial evi
dence to corroborate the testimony
of Jim Conley before his case could
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even be seriously considered. The un
supported word of the negro sweeper
wouid have been about as valuable as
a punctured drum. The Solicitor
knew this.
F'irst, he had to prove the vemis,
He had to locate Frank in the Na*-
tional Pencil Company factory at the
time Mary Phagan was slain. He
did this by the unattacked testimony
of many witnesses. He did it so
thoroughly that the defense has tac
itly admitted that F'rank was at the
factory about the time he deed was
supposed to have been done.
Question of Time Settled.
Then he had to prove the time.
According to the State’s theory the
murder was committed about 12:10
on Memorial Day. Frank himself has
said and his employees and his as
sociates have testified he was there
at that time. This point also is prac
tically unchallenged.
At last came the hardest task. He
had to prove that Leo Frank was the
only human being in the pencil fac
tory at that time who could have
taken Mary Phagan’s life.
By every witness introduced on this
point it was shown that as far as
human knowledge goes Leo F'rank and
Jim Conley were the only men in that
part of the factory at that time.
Either could have committed the
crime. It was Dorsey’s work to place
the blame on F'rank alone.
Newt Lee’s testimony was Intro
duced to Hiow that F'rank sent him
away that afternoon. Dr. Harris*
testimony tended to show that the
Haying must have been done imme
diately after F’rank had given the
child her week's wage and had given
it to her while they were alone. Mrs.
White’s testimony tended to show
that Jim Conley was sitting down
stairs making no attempt at flight
after the time the crime is supposed
to have been committed.
Then came Conley's direct evidence
and the chain was practically com
plete
As has been said before, this chain
may not stand the acid test of the
defense’s attack. It may not be
strong enough even unattacked to
convince the Jury that F'rank is re
sponsible for Mary Phagan’s death.
But it is what Dorsey went out to
get before the Jury. He has done it.
And he has done it practically un
aided. The valuable assistance he
iiad reason to believe he would re
ceive from tlie police department has
been more or less missing. In fact,
the greatest blows to the State’s case
have been delivered by detectives,
supposdly expert witnesses ivho have
been unable to withstand the cross
fire of Luther Rosser.
The case has meant a lot to Dorsey,
and right now, wdth the thrilling bat
tle approaching its final stages, Dor
sey stands out as big and command
ing a figure as the brilliant lawyers
against whom he is arrayed.
He may lose his case, but If he
does he will come out with reputa
tion enhanced.
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