Newspaper Page Text
2 A
H KARST’S SFN'DAV a
LANYA. (i.\. S X LJ A \ AI GUST 10, 1913.
FRANK AND CONLEY BATTLING EACH OTHER FORTHEIR LIVES
Guilt of Slaying Little Mary Phagan Will Be Fixed Upon One cf Two as Issue Now Is Drawn
Study of Frank Convicts,
Then It Turns and Acquits
IIS THEORY OF TRAGEDY
Continued From Page 1.
he had first paid him $200, which was withdrawn under promise
to restore that sum later.
THAT Frank had an understanding with Conley, Whereby
Conley was to return to the factory later in the afternoon on Satur
day and burn the body in the basement furnace, but that Conley
went to sleep in the afternoon and neglected to perform this service.
THAT Frank, called to the factory early in the morning of
Sunday, April 27, displaying great nervousness, and while on his
way to the factory without having been informed of the dead,
girl’s identity, declined, or at least failed and neglected, to look 1
upon her features at the undertaker's, notwithstanding the fact
that he later admitted her identity without having seen her dead.
THAT at the factory, at the place of the crime, his nervousness
continued, and that next morning (Monday), when called to the po
lice station for further questioning, he had secured counsel to de
fend him, notwithstanding the fact that he then had not been placed
under arrest.
THAT after having been placed under arrest and indicted for
the murder, he persistently refused to meet his chief accuser, Jim
Conley, face to face, or discuss any feature of the charges lodged
against him.
THAT in addition to the crime of murder, as set forth in the
indictment, Frank is a dissolute character, practicing the most de
praved and perverted crimes with persons of loose morals, and that
Jim Conley, on more than one occasion, acted as “lookout” for
Frank on the first floor of the factory, while unspeakable and un
mentionable things were being enacted above.
Jim Conley Is the State’s Principal
And All-Important Witness.
The State, in setting up the foregoing allegations, summoned
as its principal and all-important witness, Jim Conley, who already
had made public affidavits to all of the charges set forth, except the
one of perversion and the exact, time of the crime charged.
Conley, after four or five changed statements theretofore made,
set up in his final statement on the stand many other seemingly
minor details not contained in any previous statement.
The foregoing is the State’s case in completed form, except
that it yet will have the right to produce witnesses in rebuttal of
the defense’s witnesses; the defense, in its turn, having the right to
a further rebuttal of the State’s rebuttal.
The defense has contended, or will contend :
THAT Conley’s story is a tissue of frightful lies from start to
finish, and that he himself really committed the crime charged
against Frank, and that the defense will so demonstrate.
THAT Mary Phagan was not killed as early as 12:05 on the
afternoon of April 26, but was, as a matter of fact, killed at least
fifteen minutes later than that, if, as a matter of still further fact,
she was not disabled hopelessly about that time, and actually killed
even later.
THAT if she was not killed previous to 12:05, as set forth, by
the State, that contention being uncompromisingly claimed by the
State’s own witnesses—Jim Conley and Monteen Stover—then Con
ley’s story is impossible and absurd, and Monteen Stover’s evidence
entirely negligible.
THAT Frank did not lure Mary Phagan to the rear of the sec
ond floor, or to any other place, for any purpose whatever, and that
she was only on the second floor sufficiently long to get her pay from
the hands of Frank, and that she immediately thereafter left the sec
ond floor, going down to the first floor to meet her death at the hands
of Conley.
Dc'ense Holds Frank Had Nothing
To Do With the Death Notes.
THAT Frank never asked for or received the assistance of Jim
Conley in disposing of the body of Mary Phagan, because he was
in utter and entire ignorance of the murder until apprised of it
Sunday morning.
THAT Frank had nothing whatever to do with the framing
of the notes found beside the dead girl, and that in support of
such a charge the State has only the word of Jim Conley, intensely
interested in shifting the blame from his own guilty shoulders and
on to the shoulders of Frank.
THAT Frank never paid Jim Conlay any sum of money for
any purpose whatever on Saturday, nor promised him any sum
for any purpose whatever, and that Conley’s word alone says
that he did.
THAT whatever nervousness Frank displayed, if he displayed
any unusual or unnatural nervousness at all, was occasioned by the
mysterious attitude of the officers notifying him of some uunamed
♦rouble at the pencil factory, and that in support of his approxi
mately normal frame of mind is the fact, proved by the State’s
own witnesses; that he opened the office safe to look up the record
of Mary Phagan, after having acquired knowledge of her identity,
without tremor or hesitation whatever, setting the intricate com
bination easily and opening the safe on the first trial.
THAT his innocence of all guilty knowledge of the crime is
further evidenced by his three hours’ perfectly normal work on
his books in the factory on the afternoon of April 26, at which
time, if the State's theory holds, Mary Phagan, with Frank's
knowledge, then was a corpse in the basement, dead at his mur
derous hands.
THAT Frank, instead of declining to look upon the face of the
dead girl at ihe undertaker’s while on his way to the factory
Monday morning, did, as a matter of fact, look upon her face and
recognized her.
Frank’s Counsel Was Not Sought by
Him, the Defense Contends,
THAT Frank had no counsel until after his retention at police
headquarters had been publicly made known, and when he was
notoriously under suspicion, and that even then counsel was sent
to him by some outside friends, and did not come at his invitation'
or by his direction.
THAT Frank's refusal to meet Jim Conley, his lying accuser,
was natural and proper in the circumstances, and that such a
course was persisted in by the particular advice of his counsel; that
Frank was under no moral or legal obligation to discuss his case
with Conley, or with any other witness for the State.
THAT Frank, far from being a dissolute character, is a man
of unblemished integrity, happily married; that he never has prac
ticed depraved and perverted crimes, because such things would be
and are entirely foreign to his nature; that he never has associated
with immoral persons anywhere, at any time; that neither Jim
Conley nor any other person ever acted as '‘lookout” for him for
any purpose whatsoever—and that every monstrous and untrue
DORSEY SATISFIED WITH PROGRESS OF TRIAL;
' DEFENSE REFUSES TO MAKE ANY STATEMENT
I am very well satisfied with the State’s case and do not see that the defense has
dealt it any damaging blows in the evidence introduced to date.
Saturday s developments were of no material advantage to either side.
-SOLICITOR HUGH M. DORSEY.
Neither Luther Rosser nor Reuben Arnold, attorneys for Frank, would make
any statement on .the progress of the trial.
Readers of Human Nature See Anything They
Want, but Personal Equation Is Forgotten.
charge or suggestion of immorality and degeneracy rests absolute
ly and finally upon the unsupported word of Conley, and not other
wise.
THAT there has been no tenable motive assigned to Frank for
the murder of Mary Phagan; that the girl was not sexually vio
lated or in any manner lacerated; that Frank had only the most'
casual acquaintance with her, and that of a perfectly natural busi
ness sort, and that he could not have had, and did not have, any
reason whatever for desiring her death.
THAT, in truth and reality, the motive prompting the murder
of Mary Phagan was robbery upon the part of Conley, and that
for the purpose of securing her pittance of money, contained in a
mesh purse, he did murder her and concealed her body in the base
ment.
Theory of Crime as the Defense
Holds Thai Slaying Occurred.
THAT, as a matter of fact, Mary Phagan reached the National
Pencil Factory on the afternoon of April 26 about 12:12 or 12:15;
that she came up the steps directly to Frank’s office, and received
her pay for the time due her, in amount $1.20; that she at once de
parted Frank’s office, without comment of any sort, and that Frank
never saw her alive thereafter; that going down the steps, with her
silver mesh bag in her hand, she had to pass Jim Conley, recently
aroused from a drunken doze; that in attempting to get from the
foot of the stairs, where Conley was sitting, to the door, some 20
feet away, she had to traverse a gloomy walkway, more than or
dinarily gloomy at the time because the day was a legal holiday
and the doors were closed, but not locked ; that in traversing this
walkway her back was toward Conley; that Conley, without money
and craving more liquor, saw the unprotected little girl with the
enticing silver bag in her hand, and surmising that she had been
paid off by Frank upstairs, hit her a violent blow upon her head,
snatched her purse from her hand, and at once threw her body
into the cellar by way of a nearby open space, for fear of someone
coming into the building; that likely the blow first delivered was
not sufficient to kill, and that her actual death was hastened, or
may have been hastened later in the cellar below, by means of
strangulation, there being always there an abundance of the very
cord employed or supposed to have been employed in that act.
THAT after accomplishing his bloody deed Conley escaped by
withdrawing the inside staple from the basement back door only
a few feet away from the place where the dead girl subsequently
was found; and that tracings of Conley during the afternoon of
April 26 at various saloons about town show that he spent then an
amount of money approximating that which Mary Phagan is sup
posed to have had in her purse at the time of her murder.
Conley Declared to be Jailbird
And Notoriously Dissolute Character.
THAT of all her possesions the purse alone, notwithstanding
exhaustive inquiry, never was accounted for until the last day
Conley was on the stand, when he stated that Frank had had the
purse in his possession just after the murder, and that he had con
cealed it in his safe. This allegation, the defense points out, is
sustained, as are the other most damaging allegations, by Conley’s
unsupported word entirely.
THAT Conley, the State’s main witness, is a notoriously dis
solute character, by his own admission seven times a jailbird, many
times a liar, even under oath and on the witness stand, and admit
tedly was “mistaken” in some statements made against Frank;
that he did not begin to throw suspicion on Frank until after sus
picion began drifting in his (Conley’s) direction; that his plea of
wishing by his first silent course of conduct to “protect” Frank
is not sound, bacause after he feigned disappointment that Frank
did not “get him out of his trouble, as he had promised,” and de
claring that he, therefore, intended to tell the “whole truth of the
murder,” he still persisted in his lies and falsifying to the at-1
tempted damage of Frank, and found it necessary to issue three
conflicting affidavits before he got one he thought might be de
pended upon to stand up.
THAT Conley began his statements with a lie—to the effect
that he could not write—and continued lying steadily thereafter,
but frequently canceling one lie in favor of another, as his first
lies were shown to be useless and senseless.
TEAT Conley in revising his various statements was aided
and abetted by various police officials, presumably anxious for the
rewards offered for the apprehension and conviction of Mary Pha
gan's murderer, and that these officers pointed out to Conley the
discrepancies as they arose from time to time, and that without
this aid Conley’s story never could haye been made to hold to
gether even as well as it did; that notwithstanding this prejudic
ing aid, however, Conley's story still is impossible and absurd, and
of no account whatever against Frank.
Defense Heavily Equipped to Sustain
Every Contention, It Says.
The foregoing, in general, is the theory of the defense, as
already set up and as yet to be developed, and along that line it
will tight its battle to the end.
The defense is heavily equipped with witnesses to sustain its
every contention, and these will be offered, in their order, to break
down the contrary theory of the State, as hereinbefore outlined,
and upon the relative strength of the two showings depends, of
course, the verdict.
Of absorbing interest now is the seeming determination of
the defense to put Leo Frank’s character frankly and fearlessly
in evidenec.
In a former article In The Sunday American several weeks ago I pre
dicted that the defense would do this—and the then apparent determination
of the defense along that line shows no symptoms of having been deviated
from in the slightest.
When Conley made Ills additional unanticipated attack on Frank’s char
acter from the witness stand, it was rather freely predicted about the streets
that Frank never would, after that, agree to have his character put in evi
deuce. Under the law, the State can not put the defendant's character in
evidence—if it is put in at all, it must be put in by the defendant voluntarily.
Once in, however, it may be riddled by the State, if the State is able to
riddle it.
The determination, therefore, of the defense to put Frank’s character
in evidence is being accepted generally as indicating an unfaltering confidence
upon tlie part of the defense that BTank may be able thereby to overcome
the terrible and prejudicial charge of degeneracy, as well as the charge of
murder, both resting so largely upon Conley, am] Conley alone; and it also
indicates a belief upon the part of the defense that the State already has
done its worst in the matter of attacking Frank's character.
The fact that Frank is now engaged in refuting two charges instead of
one makes his case doubly unique in Georgia, as it is contrary to the un
broken theory of the law heretofore.
In Georgia, the courts uniformly have held that a man can not be tried
for more than one offense at one time—that is, that he can not tie charged
with murder, and in the same trial be called to account for another felonious
crime.
The charge of degeneracy, however, got into the case without objection,
and Frank's lawyers cross-examined the witness making it. The judge, there
fore, although a motion was made afterward to strike out this evidence,
ruled that it was too late to expunge it, and that it should go in for what
it was worth.
Defense Calls More Than
Seventy Character Witnesses.
This ruling, while in a way more or less unpreced^pted, was, in the
main, by the public seemingly approved, upon the idea that it was fairer to
both the State and the defense that the horrible charge, having been made,
be thrashed out.
Should Frank be convicted, it is practically certain that a new trial will
he asked on this very point, and It is not at all improbable that Judge Roan
will grant it, although this conjecture is purely and absolutely speculative,
of course.
Tlie defense has summoned some seventy character witnesses, among
whom are more than twoscore female employes of the National Pencil Fac
tory. all of whom will swear, it is said, to the defendant’s decent and gen
tlemanly conduct at all times in their presence and during their varied terms
of service in the factory, running from one to five years.
Resides these, a score or more of Atlanta's most prominent business and
professional men have been cited to-come to court and testify in behalf of
Frank’s good name.
Rarely before, if ever, has there been as intense interest in a murder
trial as there unquestionably is in the Frank case.
The crowds attending the trial have been enormous, the officers finding
it necessary every day to turn away hundreds of anxious would-be spectators.
Public sentiment has swung back and forth—to-day inclined to believe
Frank ihayvbe innocent, to-morrow sternly the reverse.
The jury, sitting there in the courthouse, day after day, has been the
objective study of hundreds of real and near analytical minds—and tlie
answer? .
Acquittal of Erank Likely Would
Bring the Indictment of Conley.
Every fellow answers for himself. The jury is imperturbable, unreadable,
almost seemingly indifferent at times, indeed—but always keenly keyed to
intense interest, nevertheless!
One might as well undertake to read the riddle of the Sphinx as to read
the riddle of the Frank ease in the minds of the jury trying it. It looks as
if it is a jury well above the average—and that is about the beginning and
the end of Hn intelligent guess as to what it will do.
Judge Roan is as baffling as the rest of the case, too, when it comes
to speculating upon what he may or may not think of it all.
He is rated one of the very best Superior Court judges in the State, un
usually able, certainly fearless, and agreed to lie utterly fair and impartial.
At times, his rulings have seemed to favor the defense, and at other
times they have seemed to favor the State: but, withal, the public seems
agreed that he is handling the ease with an open and judicially just mind.
Speculation as to the outcome of the trial is varied. There are those
who can see nothing ahead but conviction, just as there are others who
can see nothing but acquittal.
If a ballot could be taken, however, those holding to the idea of a mis
trial likely would be found in the majority, for that is the way the fight
seems, to many observing minds, to be drifting.
That section of the public generally credited with being calm, poised,
and desirous of seeing tlie right prevail, no matter which way it outs. ap- #
parently has suspended judgment. Extremists pro and eon still are talking
themselves lio.irse about town, however.
The progressing inclination among the people seems to be to let the
jury settle it, and then to call that as near right as abstract justice and
human ingenuity can make it.
Tn the event of an acquittal, the ease ends. The State .has no appeal.
It must win on the first round, or it loses for all time.
The defense, on the other hand, if it loses, may move for a new trial,
upon proper assignment of error in the first trial. Tlie judge of original
jurisdiction passes upon this motion—he may grant it or not, us his discre
tion directs.
The general policy of judges is to refuse motions for new trials, but it is
not an unbroken policy,'by any means.
If the new trial motion is denied, the case goes to a court of review'—
either the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals. If one error or several
be found in the original rulings of the court below, the case will be remanded
back for a new trial, the judgment thus having been reversed ami set aside.
Trial Judge is Considered y
Absolutely Fair and Fearless.
Then the case begins all over again, practically as if it never had been
tried.
In the event of matters taking that course. Frank hardly could be tried
again before next year, 1b!-! and perhaps not before spring.
if Frank is acquitted, tiiere is hardly a doubt that Jim Conley will be
promptly indicted for the murder of Mary I’bugan, and brought to trial
later.
In the event of Frank’s final conviction, Conley will be indicted as an
accessory after the fact. This would mean a sentence of not more than
three years in the State penitentiary for him.
If Frank is convicted, he can be convicted only of murder—the jury will
not lie jiennitted, under the form of the indictment, to find him guilty of a
lesser crime.
Tlie judge will have no discretion in sentencing him.
If found guilty, without u recommendation to mercy, he must hang, un
less the Governor sliould subsequently interfere and order Executive clem
ency.
If he is convicted, and the jury “recommend him to the mercy of the
court." the court then wifi be obliged to send him to prison for life.
The general opinion is that the present trial will run all of this week—
that the best to be expected is that the jury may be given the case by Satur
day night.
After the evidence all is tn, the ease still will have to lie argued to the
jury. It is thought that Judge Roan will take the bridle off in respect of this,
and both sides will be permitted to go the limit.
Mr. Rosser and Mr. Arnold will consume at least one entire day in argu
ment. and Mr. Horsey and Mr. Hooper will not take less time.
It is- expected that Hooper will open for the State and Horsey close,
and that Rosser will open for the defense and Arnold close. The State has
tlie opening and the concluding argument before tlie jury.
If the jury makes a verdict quickly In this ease, The American of next
Sunday ought to carry it. If it makes a mistrial, or delivers a greatly
delayed verdict, it seems certain at this time that neither of those facts can
In' made known before well iuto next week.
It is estimated that the trial will have cost the County of Fulton ap
proximately $10,000. if the ease ends with this trial. If it does not end with
this trial, the eventual expense hardly can be intelligently anticipated now.
By 0. B. KEELER.
Leo Frank sits in the prisoner’s
dock and all men may read his face.
A great many of them do.
Here are two of the things they
read:
(1) No innocent man could re
main calm under such fearful
charges.
(2) No guilty man could re
main calm under, etc.
Leo Frank admittedly was nervous
and agitated the morning the.*, mur
der of Mary Phagan was discovered.
There are two inferences drawn
from that fact:
(1) A guilty man naturally
would be nervous.
(2) An innocent man natural
ly, etc.
Leo Frank sits there in the prison
er’s chair, under the scathe of the
State’s testimony, ' apparently un
moved.
Leo Frank sits apparently unmoved
as his* attorneys attack the mesh of
circumstance.
So far as may be foretold. Leo
Frank will sit unmoved under the
fire of the State’s speeches and under
the justification of his own counsel.
And there will be at least two in
terpretations of his oalm in the trial,
as there were two interpretations of
his agitation that April morning.
Let’s take a bit of time off from
bias and prejudice and try to get a
little deeper into the psychology of
the thing.
Both Read Same Thing.
Here is one who insists that an in
nocent man. confronted with evident
suspicion of a horrid crime. virtuall5
admits guilt, or at least guilty knowl
edge, by nervous agitation.
“If innocent and ignorant of the
crime, he should appear calm and
eager to probe deeper into the mys
tery,” says this one. And usually he
adds: “I know I should.”
And the same interpreter, speak
ing of Frank’s attitude in the trial,
says:
“His calm is the effrontery of a
cold-blooded murderer. In his place,
and innocent, I could not listen un
moved to the hideous charges aimed
at me.”
But here is a small breach of logic.
This reader of the human mind
would have innocence appear calm in
its surprise and agitated in its ex
pected ordeal, prepared for weeks in
advance.
On the other hand, here is one who
would reconcile agitation in April and
calmness at the trial with absolute
innocence.
Is not that reconciliation equally
open to the charge of illogicalness?
Could not the Innocent accu.-Ted
properly have remained calm in the
first steps of an investigation, he
must have been sure would lead
away from himself, and yet have been
shaken by the manifest danger in
the terrific circumstantiality of the
case the State presented against him?
Logic Seems To Double.
It would seem that cold, mechan
ical logic had at least two paths in
which to stray from the truth when
applied to Leo Frank’s attitude.
And that is two too many for the
clear intent of logic.
The-4jrouble is, the would-be logi
cians seem always to overlook the
one great point that sets at naught
all mechanical logic, applied to crim
inality.
And that point Is the Personal
Equation.
You note that the logician inevita
bly says:
“If I were in his place ”
Right in the premise, then, the rea-
soner injects his own personal equa
tion into a consideration of Leo
Frank and his actions and possible
motives.
He attributes to Leo Frank certain
characteristics supplied by his own
personality, adds the influence of mo
tives whose effect on any other hu
man being he could not possibly
know, and then deduces a course of
action and behavior, which he sets
up as the logical one for Leo Frank.
To conform to the laws of true
logic, the reasoner must assume that
among the 1 600,000,000 inhabitants of
the earth there is one that is identical
with himself in temperament, habits,
disposition, environment, intellect—in
fine, must have the same personal
equation.
That in itself would be an assump
tion far outside the pale of absolute
logic.
But granting that, It would still re
main to identify with that particular
human being the person under consid
eration.
The chances of failure would /be,
1,600,000,000 to 1.
And should the incredibly long shot
win, there is yet another trap for
the logician who says, "If I were in
his place, I would do thus and so.’*
Experience Is Needed.
Even with the suppositious advan*^
tage of being acquainted with his own 1
personal equation, the reasoner does
NOT know what he would do under
the stress of circumstances, UNLESS
HE HAS TRIED IT.
Eliminating, then, from the list of
expert readers of the human face
those xtfho do not observe strictly the
laws of absolute logic, we find that
those qualified to pass judgment on
Leo Frank by means of his April ag
itation and his August calmness can
be numbered quite conveniently as
follows:
O.
Which logical conclusion, however,
will in no way embarrass the several
hundred thousand persons now daily
engaged in flying in the face of a
certain admonition, set forth in a cer
tain Good Book, to wit:
“Judge not."
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