Atlanta Georgian. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, August 21, 1913, Image 2

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I f IT! fj A 11 iA A 1A UH,Um*lAJN A A L) JN b,YV». r FRANK CALM AS HOOPER ARGUES TO SEND HIM TO THE' GALLOWS, Stoically and Unblinkingly He Listens to Scathing Arraignment of State 1 ACCUSED ATTEMPTED ID (ATTORNEY F, / HOOPER I ARGUING E BEFORE JURY AND GANTT, STATE SAYS Continued from Page 1. protection of the law ju*t an any other citizen “But another thin* He is not en titled to any more He la not. on ac count of hia high position and wealthy connections, entitled to any more than any other defendant The strong: arm of the law is strong enough to reach to the highest places and do justice there. "It is strong enough to reach down ! into the gutter and regulate the lives j of the lowliest. I am not going to ( undertake to go over ell the fu*:- lr I this case Believes Firmly In Frank's Guilt. “I congratulate you, gentleman of ?he jury, that the ca.ee is nearing an end. I have felt Sympathy for you. because you not only have worked hard, but you have been de prived of your liberty and the en joyment of your homes. In one sense of the word, you have been In Jail. “There has never been a criminal Case in Georgia that has been no long. There has been no trial so important or the result of which will be so far- reaching. and that only makes the re sponsibility on you the greater. “There Is one other thing that I want to say to you before I go into the facts of the case. This mnn ought not to he convicted eimtdy because someone has to be, nor because of the law’ that demands an eye for an .eye and a life for a life. We think the evidence shows him to be guilty hs- yond any reasonable doubt “In taking up this evidence 1 am considering you deeply. I am consider ing the strain you have been under. 1 am thinking deeply: in fact. 1 am trying to make myself as one of you twelve men. and in attempting to bring this to a conclusion i am striv ing to get at the truth. “Let's see what the situation was on Memorial Day. Saturday April 20. Here is thin great big pencil factory, which was being run by a number of men with thin defendant in charge. Let us consider the conditions that existed there, and, gentlemen, 1 must say that I am not proud of these con ditions. Witnesses Incensed By Factory Conditions. “Bui to gel to the real fact* of this o»*p; to come to a full resllsntlon of just how things occurred, we must understand the conditions that exist,,1 here absolutely before we can pro* ceed with this case. The character of this plsec was one to make us think deeply. The evidence w hich has been laid before you h.re has been of the kind to make one doubly serious. Take the defendant. Between 25 and 40 girls have come before you and said that his character was good. “They spoke In the highest terms of him That must be considered. But on this charge this la negative evidence. But also consider that we have brought before you girl after girl who told of his character being bad .who told of the Immoral condi tions that existed In this great pencil factory, and. ge-.tlemen of the Jury, most of these ^Irls had quit working at that factory from two years to three weeks befo e the time of this trial. “Every one of them said his charac ter was bad. Did you notice the em phasis with which they said It was bad” And did you notice that they would have told more if they could have been allowed to? Did you notice how highly incensed they felt toward •the Immoral conditions which existed at this factory ? "You have those who are still there who will say that his character Is good, but you have those who have left who Invariably say his character is bad. We put them on notice from the very flrst that we were willing to enter fully Into his character We could furnish particular Information In regard to this, but we have been prevented. "We have asked their own wit nesses and our own. we have asked them. Did you ever hear of this Inci- dent?’ and 'Did you ever hear of that Incident?’ We brought these partlcu- isr girls before you. and asked them in regarl to Frank’s character. They said tt was bad. Ws turned them over to the defenee, and they failed to question them in regard to any ot the Incidents to which we have re ferred.'* Colonel Arnold Interrupted at this point, protesting to Judge Roan that he conaioered Mr. Hooper was mak Ing an Improper argument in aajing that the State could not go Into the particular evidence and in Intimating that It was an Incriminating etreum ce that the defense did not take plage of Its privilege and ques tion the Slate - witnesses in regard to the particular incidents. Judge Roan sugtalned Hooper, saying that It was his only legal recourse Hooper continued: "If out of loo men. 90 of them say that a certain person's chsrenter Is good, but ten of them say, 'Beware of that man: he Is a had man.' would you say that you had s man of good character? Says Girl*' Morals Were in Hand* of Men. "It is almost impossible to magni fy the temptation in the National Pencil Factory to a man without con science and flllod with lust. These girls in the factory were entirely de pendent upon the attitude assumed by the men who were superior to them. This defendant, assisted by the noble Darley and the handsome young Schlff, practically had these girls morals in his hands. The girls were absolutely dependent upon this trio. “We find that the defendant con nected himself up with a man whose character Is *nod enoush at present, but who admittedly wax leading an immoral life at that time. What can we say when a man whose dally as sociates are bankers and prominent business men shall associate himself in his leisure hours with a man ot the character-of this B Dalton? "I expect most all of you have read that little Kory, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." We are all dual characters, none Is so Rood but that there Is some evil; none ao bad but that there I is some good. It is when the evil | predominates that we have a bad man. The bad is Rood when with his | own class. When the shades of night have fallen, and he seeks associates of his baser passions, then it is that we Ret a glimpse into his other na ture. *Sn it U with this defendant. “He didn’t seek out the hankers and people of his regular sphere when hia baser pansions came on. He looked for an associate In a man like Dalton. Dalton has had a number of men to get up here and say they would be lieve him. They are men who have worked side by aide with him. Of course, he Is a fellow of a lower class, but it has been shown to you that he Is a good fellow of his class, con genial to that environment. “Then there are other facte to *up. port this idea. This defendant claimed to you he did not know Mary Phagan. Yet the evidence showed that he pa seed back and forth by her every day. We find he did know her. Wit nesses declared he stopped \o speak to her and show her how to do her work. He told her HK was the su perintendent of the factory. He pur sued her out of the beaten path. This little girl, sent there by her parents to be under hie protection, was in hia eye, the eye of lust. Tic was laying a foundation for his object. Conley, Too Ignorant to Lie, Stuck to Truth. 'Let's turn back to the first evi dence of this, the first interest of this man who never knew Mary Phagan. He said to Gantt, a man reared in the same community, several weeks be fore the tragedy. 'You are pretty thick with Mary Phagan?’ He had her in his mind. Next we se© him getting Gantt removed, and tt was Just after he had remarked what a good office force he had The firt* opportunity was about one dollar. He sought to give you the impression of dishonesty. He would attack this mnn whom he wouldn't let go into his factory unless accompanied by a negro. Shame upon him! "Thus he got rid of Gantt, and be gan to lay his plans. “You remember that the defense pitted ita case against Conley. I haven’t >«ld anything about him ye:, but he comes in right here. He was to them like a stone mountain. They must break him down, or they are lost. They must break him down, and you have seen here the greatest fight between my herculean friend Rosser on the one side, and that poor. Ignor ant negro on the other, and you have seen the result. It was brains against Ignorance: strength again** weakness —and after three and one-half days you saw Conley unshaken. His evi dence was written as fast as he talked and my friend here. Rosser, carried him back over the same ground again and again, but they could not break him down, because it was the truth. It continued to pour like the waters through a mill race, because that ne- j gro didn’t have renw enough to lie He was telling for the first time the real story of what Actually happened that fatal day. “Why didn't Mr. Roster bleak Jim Conley down? It was because, after all the l'.e« the negro had told, he was telling the truth, and the truth is stronger than either of these two gentlemen. And it wax the truth gentlemen of the Jury, that held Jim Conley unbroken on the etand for three days. And truth is greater than all. Yes, even after my herculean friend had worn himself out in a three days’ effort to break the negro, he tried to put It off on his brother, Mr. Arnold. But the low protects a man, and would not allow this. They will tell you that Jim Conley Is a powerful liar—and he Is. But take each of his affidavits. Each one of them gave a little more of the truth, and on Mr. Rosser s long cross-exami nation he brought ou^ more of the truth. “The opinion 1 expressed at the time was that If the defense contin ued to bore Into Conley they might bring out even more of Ihe truth What they brought out did Frank no good. They beat upon him mentall\ but he. remained unshaken “This defendant is a smart man. h was a remarkable statement that he made upon the stand to you. but he didn’t need to get on the stand here and talk to you for more than twr and a half hours. He went Into each detail, going from one thing to tht other, and putting it on one man and then the other. “But let us go back to Jitn Conley, the Jim Conley they could not shake, because he was telling the truth. He tells you he had done that often be fore. He told you ihat he saw othet people come there: that he saw men and women meet there; and. gentle men. there are other people who cor roborate Jim Conley; who said they saw men and women come to this pencil factory and meet the defend ant there. Says Affidavits Fit Exactly With Negro’s Narrative. “The next morning Frank was there to see him; the next morning Jim was there. Do you know, gentlemen, that Providence sometimes will di vulge the truth at the very last min ute? At the last minute yesterday two men came up here and said that they saw Jim Conley there. Mrs. Ar thur White said f>he saw someone re sembling Jim. but she was not cer tain. So Jim was telling a story that A good many people were disbelieving, but here came two men who said they saw him there, or a negro very much like him. who directed them to the of fice at the right of the stairs. As Mrs. White came downstairs she saw a negi*> sitting exactly where Jim Conley in his affidavits said he was. They made their affidavits at differ ent places, but they fitted in exactly. "Why was he there? For what war he sitting there hour after hour? He was sitting there to do a? he had done many times before—to watch at the direction of Frank One thing they have said in that he was drunk. 1 suproee he did drink a few beers that morning, but have you noticed that he told of everyone that went up there that morning, and in the order in which they went up. He could have said that he saw Mrs. White, but he admitted that he was napping about this time. Now we come to the time of the tragedy. Jim was still there. "But about this little Mary Pha gan. A little girl who asked for Mary’s money had been refused the night before. They told her that Mary would have to come after it herself. This was a violation of the general rule at the office. Even Schiff told you. I think, that they gave out the envelopes to other person* if they knew them well enough. Frank told Jim on Friday night to come back the next morning, but he didn’t have any work for him to do. All he want ed of him was to watch at the door as he had done before. He wanted him to watch while girls came up to the office to chat with him. You will notice something peculiar about that word 'chat.' It is a word I never have heard before, but you Will notice that tnere are two persons mat Attorney F. A. Hooper, who opened the Frank trial argument for the State. poor, ignorant negro—I wish you could have heard it; that scream that sounded like a ripple of laughter that ended when ahe realized his hellish purpose; the acream that ended when her life began to ebb.” Rosser interrupted Attorney Hooper to say that there was no evidence about laughter. Hooper replied: “Al: right; 1 was mistaken.” “The scream,” Hooper continued, "and then those fast running foot steps. That was Frank coming to gef the cora that strangled the child Then he gave the signal for the negrt to lock the door and come up, and Conley found him nervous and shak ing, fresh from that harrowing scene on the rear of the on w’hich hi* office was located. “Now, gentlemen, we have this mar Frank—this man of high standing and character—either committed this crime or that he was back in his office in plain hearing of any scream or any running - of the elevator or the hearing of people going up and down the stairs, attending to his duties In his office, preparing that wonderful state ment we have heard so much about. Finds Mute Accuser use it. One of them Is Frank and the other Is Conley. “He tells Jim he wants to have a chat with that girl that day. ‘Jim. you just make yourself convenient; wait around.’ Jim Comes and waits He make* himself etfsy there in the hall. He takes a nap. People come and go. Then Mary Phagan comes, the beautiful little Mary. She must have been a beautiful little girl. I i guess you all remember her pictures, with her curly hair and bright eyes, and trim figure. “She entne with a little boy. They must have been sweethearts. She had an engagement with him. .She want ed to go to the factory first for he: little $1.20. She went, tripping along, a happy child. From that dreadful hour not one thing was heard from her. Hut we know what a horrible catastrophe she met as she went, so innocently, for her little $1.20. “Frank was there. How do w know it? From his own statement. And he had to change it when ne came upon the stand. A live human being, a young girl, came here and said he was not there when she went to his office. Frank did not see her. She waited flv* minutes. He was not in. I am not going into the details t f the time. Mr. Dorsey will do that in hie conclusion What 1 want to im- prt.sk upon you is that Frank stated j here from this stand he might have * gone out of his office for a moment. | It was the first time such an admis sion Was intimated. But there was j the sworn statement of Mohtten Sto ver to combat him. “It had to be got around. You don’t ; have to depend altogether on Jim ! Conley’s story. Mon teen Stover went to hia office after Mary Phagan, an! j he was not hefe. Rosser Interrupts to Enter an Objection. j “In the meantime another little girl was waiting in his office—M on teen Stover—and Conley was waiting for the signal downstairs. Frank fol lowed that little girl back there, and . I want to ba perfectly frank and say I I do not think he had murder in his 1 heart when he did, but the pent-up J passion? of weeks gained control and i ne could not stop. That scream that was poorly described here In Factory Diagram. "By this diagram I will show you that he w’as bound to have known of the commission of this crime, even if he hadn’t committed it, but lis tened to that brute negro attack tnat little girl. “I want to show* you that even if he was where he said he was, and where Monteen Stover said he was not, that this crime Could not have been committed without his knowl edge. “I W’ant to show you that he could see from his desk to a point by the clock. I don’t want to give any tes timony. for if I did I could show that he saw more than that, but by this diagram—and it is ayfaet—I will show that Jils line of vlnon sitting at his desk would bring him to the clocks. “Frank doesn’t sit back In his chair He sits away forward, and when ne is at work he is the hardest working man you ever saw. And. gentlemen, he could see Into the space beyond his office. "Little Mary Phagan was killed back there in the metal room—back there where our friends say they could see not find any blood spots, but where we have shown there were Spots of blood. And. gentlemen of the jury, if Frank did not commit this crime, he sat supinely there at his desk and let that brute negro kill her. let that negro bring her up the pas sageway, bring her up to the elevator and take her down tnat elevator, which, when running, shook the'whofe building, which the negro said he could hear downstars; which witness after witness has told you could oe heard over the entire building, and which Frank could not have helped but hear. “Frank’s First Word Betrayed His Giiilt. ” “Mr. Frank, I will give you the benefit of every doubt, but according to your own statements as to the time you were there, and the time which has been shown conclusively that the girl w’as killed, you were right there; you sat right there, and you never moved. “Now. to bring Jim (Conley back into it: Gentlemen of the jury, isn’t it an evident fact—haven’t you been shown conclusively, that either Frank or Conley killed little Mary Phagan? Or that Frank killed,her by himself, as Conley says? Or that Frank sat supinely at his desk and let this negro Conley kill her, and yet he made no move? “As soon as the murder was con summated, there was something up stairs that had to be attended to. Thorp were two men upstairs and a woman. Frank was anxious that they be let out of the factory. He went upstairs and told them that if they /wore going to go, now w’as the time. 1 "Mrs. Arthur White left. Arthur White and Harry Denham stayed. Frank told Mrs. White that he was going to put on his coat and hurry away. Hut this man. who was in such a hurry, still was without his coat when she got down to the office floor. Frank went into his office, washing his hands in that imaginary water. They say that this was his habit, and that we must not assume anything from it. "The first words that he uttered when he got inside the office, he opened the doors to his guilt that all might look in. Frank said: Why should I hang,’ adding that he had wealthy people In Brooklyn. “What was the estimate that he put on the life of a young girl? Didn’t it hurt him to wind the rope about her neck until It had sunk deeply into the tender flesh? I can't conceive how any being with the instincts of hu manity could have twisted the rope about the neck of that pretty little girl. But he said: ‘Why should I be punished for doing such a little thing as taking the life of this little girl? I have rich relatives In Brooklyn.’ They will say he never uttered these words. He has denied them on the stand. But did Jim know that ne came from Brooklyn? Did Jim know that he had rich relatives in Brook lyn? Did Jim know that he reckonei a human life In dollars and cents? “No; those words came from the bottom of this man’s heart. “From the African temperament of Jim Conley came the next remark. ‘What's going to become of me?’ he asked. 'Oh, I’ll take care of you, Jim: you have been a good negro. I will write mv mother in Brooklyn.’ “This is that old mother who has stayed here in th.» courtroom so faith fully through all this trial. I can not understand how she has had the bravery to do it.” At this point Attorney Rosser ob jected on the ground that the speaker was Quoting from the affidavits that Conley first made and not those that he told on the stand. "You will find that they are all about the same,” said Hooper. "Frank says: ‘Jim, can you write?’ Jim says: 'Yes, I can write a little bit.’ Says Frank Lost Head In Fixing the Notes. “Why did he ask Jim that ques tion? Jim had furnished reports on those boxes. He knew what Jim could do. “Jim was trustful; he wasn’t on his guard like he was when confronted by the terrible Mr. Rosser. He had faith in his boss, and how false was his boss? As false as he was to the little girl. As false as he was to poor old Newt Lee when that bloody shirt was planted. “You all, I presume are Southern men, or have lived long enough in the South to become familiar with the traits of the negro. Can you tell me that you could imagine a negro on his own Initiative writing such notes as were found beside that body? “They charge the crime to a negro —a negro who could hardly write. Would a negro who stood before the grilling of Luther Rosser for three days, and came out victor, be fool enough to do that? “The truth of the matter—the fixing of those notes seems to he the only time that Frank lost his head. He might have known the police would go back of that. “Then we come to the money in the case: I don’t think Frank had any $200 in his office when he was talking ! to Conley, but dollar bills would look j mighty big. He handed the reward to j Conley. Then he thought: ‘You are as deep In the mud as I am in the mire.’ Aloud he'said: ’Let me see that money, Jim;' and he sticks it back into his pocket as if to say: 'If everything comes out all right, I will give it back to you.’ Tells How He Arranged To Dispose of the Body. “False again to the poor negro who hah carried out his hellish purpose, he compromises with a cigarette box containing about * 1.50. “Perhaps there was another idea in his head; there was the mute and mutilated evidence of the crime in the basement. That must be destroyed. This money would be a reward to g?t that removed. “Then we come back to that origi nal proposition that the body was carried down the elevator shaft by Frank and Conley. But there is the part of burning the body. A man who had committed the crime would not hpeitate to burn it. He knew that there was no man to come back there that day except Newt Lee. "I don't care anything about what time Frank got home or what he did there; he got back to the factory at 3 POPULAR EXCUR SION TO WRIGHTS- VILI.E BEACH. $6 round trip; six clays; Satur day. August 23. Special train, sleepers and coaches. Leave 0 p. m Make reservations early. SEABOARD. Cash Gro. Co., its Whitohall J/ 2 C EGOb 17 ooz. Lemons, 10cdoz. 25 Pounds Sugar $1.25 No. 10 Silver Leaf Lard $1.35 $6 WRIGIITSVILLE BEACH Round trip Saturday. August 23. Special train, sleepers and coaches. Leave Old Depot 6 p. m. SEABOARD. Are You Sick, Diseased, Nervous, Run Down? Have You Blood Poison, Kidney, Bladder end Urinary Troubles? IF SO. CONSULT (FREE) Or Huflheft, Atlanta's Leng Established. Mast Reliable Specialist. 1 cure to stay cured NERVE. BLOOD and Skin Diseases. STRICTURE. Prostatic Troubles. VARICOCELE. HYDROCELE, Kidney. Bladder and Urinary Diseases. Piles and All Chronic and Private Diseases of Men and Women. I give floe, the celebrated Oerman prepara tlon. for Blond Poison, snd (luarantt-e re suits. Every thing absolutely confidential. If you ean't call. writ*. Free Consultation and Advice to all. HOURS 9 a. m. to 7 p. m. Sundays. 9 to 1. DR. HUGHES Opposite Third Natlcnal Bank. 16*2 N. Broad St.. Atlanta. Qa. o’clock, where he had an engagement with Conley to dispose of th* body, and he knew that Newt Lee was go ing to get there at 4 o'clock. "Conley overalept himself and Lee came first. Frank said: ’You go away. Newt,' then to himself he eald: 'And give me two more hours to set rid of that body.’ "But Conley never came back, and Newt Lee did. He had to let him in, and he knew then that he was lo*t. "When Frank saw Gantt in front of the factory door, did he start back aghast and say, 'There is that blood thirsty thief that was $1 short?’ No: he said. 'There is Gantt; he was Mary Phagan's friend. He lived near her and her family has sent him to find her.' "But Gantt would not harm a rte«u He reassured Frank by telling him ne nad come to ~et a pair of shoe* a* had left in the factory. But Prank didn’t want him In there, and told him the ehoes had been swept out. Charges Frank Lied to Gantt. “Gantt told him there was another pair. and. gentlemen of the jury, Frank had to let him in, and he went in and found not One pair of shoes, but both pairs. "Did FYank tell him a lie to keep him out of the factory, or did he really think the shoes had been swept out? He told a lie. and he waa so afraid Gantt would find something that he sent him in under guard. "And. gentlemen of the Jury, as he stood at that entrance In the presence of Gantt the thought was going through his head, it is going to be known in a day that Mary is gone. Lord knows I don’t want to let you in here, but I have got to let you In, but I will guard you. Come on In, but you go with him, Newt,’ and, gentle men of the Jury, notice this: "The striking thing about it—the singular fact is that Gantt found both pairs of ( shoes, showing, gentlemen of the jury, that Frank had never seen the negro sweeping them out. "Did he lie about this, gentlemen? And after he had left the pencil fac tory. trembling and with a burden upon him, what did he do that night? He did something he had never done before. He called up Newt Lee over the telephone, and when he could not get him the first time, he called again and asked if that long-!e-<red Gantt wasf there. "And when he found that Gantt had left and had discoveerd nothing, what burden rolled from him! No wonder he looked light-hearted. No wonder that he could read baseball stories and joke. No wonder that hit family could say that he had nothing on bis mind. “Another Thing on His Mind That Night.’’ "But yet he had another thing On his mind before the night had gone. During the early hours his telephone rang, but he did not answer it. Hon est old Newt Lee notified the police and tried to notify him. "But Frank did not answer. He says he heard the telephone but faint ly, or he Imagined he heard it. "But the police heard the call, and they went down into that basement Continued on Page 3, Column 1. WHEN FAG0E0 OUT Take Hereford's Acid Phftsphit* Especially rc<ywnm«nrtM as an Invigorate* f* overworked body and brain. A healthful tftMe. Adf. Atlanta is en joying cheaper minimum tele phone rates to day than any American city in which inde pendent com petition has been stifled. The Atlanta citizen can have a telephone in his home for 8 1-3 cents a day. Thousands of them have. Why not you? ATLANTA TELEPHONE & TELEGRAPH GO. I ' T i