Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, August 10, 1913, Image 2

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2 A TTTCAR8T’S SUNDAY AMERICAN, ATLANTA, GA„ SUNDAY. ATTrUST 10, 1913. FRANK’S CHARACTER IS NEW BATTLE GROUND T HE diagram shows the daily routine of the jurors who are trying the case against Leo M. Frank. Their days is traced from their rising at the Kimball House, their walk to the courtroom, their lunch in I'rvor street, their return to court, their stroll after adjournment, and their final retiring for the night. r L S m-r. A=4l A 7 *7 £>F£/2KZXS'y % [FENSE HAS 10 CLEAR E Continued From Page 1. went to sleep in the afternoon and neglected to perform this service. THAT Frank, called to the factory early in the morning of Bund&y, 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' 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 indioted for murder, he persistently refused to meet his chief accuser, Jim Con ley, face to face, or to discuss any features 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. The State, in setting up the foregoing allegations, summoned as its principal and all-important witness, Jim Conley, who already made public affidavits to all of the charges set forth, exeept 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 dtalls not contained in any previous statement. The foregoing is the State’s case in completed form, exeept that it yei will have the right to produce witnesses in rebuttal of the defenseV 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 wa snot 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 a. y 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. 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 nates 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. TJLAT Frank never paid Jim Conley 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 j that he did. THAT whatever nervousness Frank displayed, if he displayed aiy unusual or unnatural nervousness at all, was occasioned by the mysterious attitude of the officers notifying him of some unnamed trouble 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 and easily opening the safe on the first trial. THAT his innocence of all guilty knowledge of the criiLie is further evidenced by his t-ree 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 the undertaker’s while'on his way to the factory Monday morning, did, as a matter of fact, look upon her face and recognized her. 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 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 actua 1 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. 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 associate! 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 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 Fratfk for the murder of Mary Phagan; that the girl was no* s'xuaily 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. THAT, as a matter of fajt, 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 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 approximately that which Mary Phagan is sup posed to have had in her purse at the time of her murder. That of all her possessions 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 iriade 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, because after the 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 atl 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 showm to be useless and senseless. THAT Conley in revising his various statements was aided and abetted by various police officials, presumably anxious for the reward 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 have 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. The foregoing, in general, is the theory of the defense, as aln^dv set up and as yet to be developed, and along that line it will fight its battle to the end. The defense is heavily equipped with witnesses to sustain its every contention, and these will be offered, in their ordr, to brak down the contrary theory of the State, as hereinbefore outlined, and upon th 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 Prank’s character frankly and fearlessly in evidenec. i 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 fro min the slightest. W 7 hen Conley made his 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 dence. Under the law. the State can not put the defendant’s character in evidence—if it is put in at all, it must lie 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 the part of the defense that Frank may lie able thereby to overcome the terrible and prejudicial charge of degeneracy, as well as the charge of murder, both resting so largely upon Conley, and 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. MUST REFUTE TWO CHARGES. The fact that Frank is now engaged in refuting two charges instead of one makes his case double 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 be 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 taht it was too late to expunge it, and that it should go in for what it was worth. This ruling, while in a way more or less unprecedented, 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 be 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. The defense nas summoned some seventy character witnesses, among whom are more than two score femal 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 tc five years. INTENSE INTEREST HOLDS. 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 t>eeu 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 may be innocent, to-morrow sternly the reverse. The jury, sitting there in the courthouse, day after day. has been the subjective study of hundreds of real and near analytical minds—and the answer? Every fellow answers for himself. The jury is tmperturable, 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 Spinx as to read the riddle of the Frank case 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 an 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, dertainly fearless, and agreed to be utteny 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, withaj, the public seems v agreed that he is handling tljp case with an open and judicially just mind. Speculation as to. Outcome. Speculation as to the outcome of the trial is varied. There are those who can see nothing ahead but ocn- viction, just as there are others who can see nothing but acquittal. If a ballot could be taken, how ever, those holding to the idea of a mistrial likely would be found in the majority, for that is the way the fght seems, to many observing minds, to be drifting. That section of the public generally credited with being calm, poised, and desirous of seeing the right prevail, no matter which way it cuts, appar ently has suspended judgment. Ex tremists pro and con still are talking themselves hoarse about town, how ever. 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. In the event of an acquittal, the case ends The Slate has no appeal. It must win on the first round, or it loses for all time. The defense .on the other hand, if it losies, may move for a new trial, upon proper assignment of error in the first trial. The judge of original jurisdiction passes upon this motion— he may grant it or not, as his dis- cretion 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 oi the court below, the case will be re manded back for a new trial, the judgment thus having been reversed and set aside. Tnen the case begins all over again, practically as If it never had been tried. In the event of maters taking that course, Frank hardly could be tried again before next year, 1914, and per haps not before spring. Conley Indictment Likely. If Frank Is acquitted, there is hard ly a doubt that Jim Conley will be promptly indicted for the murder of Mary Phagan and brought to trial later. In the event of Frank’s final con viction, Conley will be Indicted ad an accessory after the fact. This would mean a sentence of not more than three years in the State peniten. tiary for Mm. If Frank is convicted, he can be convicted only of murder—the jury will not be permitted, under the form of the indictment, to find him guilty of a lesser crime. The judge will have no discretion in sentencing him. If found guilty, without a recom mendation to mercy, he must hang, unless the Governor shouid subse- mj£Mj^JjUerfej^and order executive clemency. If he is convicted, and the Jury “recommend him to the mercy of the court,” the court then will be obliged to send him to orison for life. The general opinion is that the present trial will run all of this week —that the best to be expected is thifc the jury may be given the case oy Saturday night. After the evidence is all in, the case still will have to be 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 con sume at least one entire day in argu ment, and Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Hooper will not take less time. It is expected that Hooper will open for the State and Dorsey close, and that Rosser will open for the defense and Arnold close. The State has tho opening and the concluding argumeut before the jury. ATLANTA’S BUSIEST THEATER FORSYTH KEITH VAUDEVILLE Week Aus. 11th *fS The Star of Musical Comedy RALPH HERZ In Character Songs Vaudeville’s Best Novelty WHl. A, WESTON & CO. In “Attorneys” Rlngllng’s New York Feature ADAS FAMILY Sensational Aerlallsts A Delighting Treat WOOD & WYDE In “Good Night” A Laughing Surprise MILO BELOON & GO. In “Oh Doctor” THE RANDALLS Sharpshooters BRSHGfl &, SAYILUE Novelty NEXT WLEK WILLIE WESTON MIKE BERNARD Dr PAINLESS DENTIST Have your teeth treated at once. Make your bad teeth as good as new. My system of Painless Dentistry enables me to make your aching teeth sound with absolutely No Pain. If your teeth pain you, don’t delay. Come see me at once. Examination free. Lady attendant and ladles’ rest room. Crown and Bridge Work, $3, $4. $5 GUARANTEED TEETH * $5 a Set My Gold Dust Rubber Plate will not slip or drop. Guaran teed for 20 years. Fillings in Gold, Silver, Platinum and Porcelain, 50c anjj 91. PHONE MAIN 4298 Open from 8 to 8 -™ Sundays 10 to 3 TERMS TO SUIT Largest and most thoroughly equipped Sanitary office in the South. Entrance 73 1-2 Whitehall St., opposite Vaudette Theater, fourth door from J. M. High, over A. & P. Tea Store. r ■ Mist Alice l\nn has retumvu irum • pie Aide/