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LUTHER ROSSER'S COMPLETE ADDRESS DEFENDING LEO FRANK
Dorsey, Detectives and Conley Are Given Terrific Scoring by Attorney
Luther Rosser s closing argument unquestionably made a deep
Impression. He attacked the State’s case at every point and brand
ed Conley’s story a tissue of rehearsed lies. He analyzed the case
pieoe by piece and against the State's assumptions advanced others
to show that what the prosecution had tried to show was sinister
facts was but distortion of innocent facts.
In a moving description of the death of Mary Phagan and the
picture her body made as it lay in the morgue, Mr. Rosser had
many in the courtroom on the verge of tears, but the motif’ of his
talk was not pathos but ridicule, denunciation and calm analysis.
busy, I am one of the nicest men you
ever met. 1 eat regularly and get
plenty of sleep, and I behave myseif.
1 mean I am fairly good. But let me
stop work for a couple of days and
there is no telling where I will light.
It is the man with nothing to do who
gets into mischief.
Why Frank’s Character
Was Put in Evidence.
"Who do you catch stealing and
doing mischief all around? It is the
idle folks. An old banker retired
from active business in New York
was once given a banquet, and this
is what h e said when his faithful em
ployees gathered around him. ‘In my
40 years in this bank, it has been an
unfortunate coincidence that nearly
glass and search out the small eddies
in his character, but let them take
his full character, the broad and ma
jestic flow of it.
"If we hadn’t said a ✓ word about
his character, the court would have
instructed you to assume a good
character. Under the law, we could
have remained mute, and his char
acter would have been good to you.
But we didn’t wish to do that. We
wanted you to know what manner of
man he was. I say to you with all
th© sincerity of my soul that no man
within the sound of my voice could
show’ as good character as he has, if
put to such a test. I am not dealing
with the infamous lies of Dalton and
Conley.
“But you say, 'Wait a minute. Some
people said he had a bad character.’
That’s correct. I am not going to try
to fool you. I am going to deal with
the facts.
‘T couldn’t fool you if I tried. Let’s
see who they are who say he u s a
bad character. You know you can
And some people to swear against
anyone. Suppose my friend Arnold
had occasion and so far forgot him
self as to put my character up. Don’t
you suppose you could find a hun
dred men in Atlanta to swear that I
am vilely vicious? I am not—not ex
traordinarily so. but in my long prac
tice of law, perhaps I have wronged
someone. Perhaps sometimes in my
zeal I have been too severe, and some
people may think they have a Just
Rosser’s
work on
the case has
taxed even
his
remarkable
physique. He
has lost 25
pounds in
weight.
dressed the detectives grouped
around the prosecution's table.
"You are an active gang," he said
to them. “Not only that, but how
much of the Mlnola McKnight meth
ods you have used nobody knows.
How the3 T have wheedled and turned
and twisted the minds of these little
girls no one but God Almighty knows.
Hundreds of men have worked in
that factory, and they are the larger
vessels, but not one of them appeared
here to testify against Frank's char-
"Has no man who ever worked
there brains enough to scent the cor
ruption and the depravity that ex
isted around the factory? Here IS'
that long-legged fellow Gantt. My
friend Hooper here tried to explain
why he left, but you know why he
was fired. He was there for thrro
months. Don’t you know that it
Frank’s character had been what they
said it was, if he had been the ls.s-
civlous fiend, the brute and moralj
pervert. Gantt would have been the
first man to testify to it?
•1 had intended not to go into the
detail, but if you will bear with me
for a while I will. My friend Hooper |
said he had fairly presented the
State's case. If he has they haven t \
a case and if he has not he has not [
been fair to you.
“They say Frank had been prepar
ing for this for several weeks. Tbati
little fellow says he saw Frank talk- l
Ing to the little girl and calling her!
Rosser’s Speech Remarkably Calm.
Roiser'g speech was remarkable for its calmness, but its very
quietness added to its impressiveness. For the most part he sought
to impress upon the jury that ‘"fair play” must be done, and that
they were a sacred body set apart to weigh facts and do justice
uninfluenced by outside consideration.
However, the speaker was unsparing in discussing Jim Con
ley, C. B. Dalton and the methods used by the detectives to get
evidence that he held up to ridicule. When he had been talking
for two hours he launched into an indirect but bitter arraignment
of Solicitor Dorsey, referring particularly to the attempt to make
Frank’s hiring of Rosser look like a damning circumstance.
Calls Dorsey’s Insinuations Contemptible.
“My friend Dorsey,” he said, “made much of the fact that
Frank hired the lawyer. The charges and insinuations that he
has made are the most contemptible that have ever occurred in a
Georgia court. The things he has done in this trial will never be
done in Georgia again. I will stake my life on that.
“You may question Frank in his judgment; he might have
hired a better lawyeT than I. He might have hired a more decent
lawyer, but he couldn’t have hired a more devoted lawyer. I will
say that for myself if I drop dead in my tracks."
“Gentlemen of the jury,” he
began in a low voice, as he leaned
against the railing of the jury
box, “all things come to an end.
With the end of this case it was
almost the end of the trial. But
for that masterly effort of my
friend Arnold I almost wish it
had ended without any speaking.
My physical condition enables
me to say but little. My voice is
husky and almost useless. But
for my intense interest, my pro
found conviction of the inno
cence of this man, I would say
nothing.
Public Mind
Always Careless.
'1 want to repeat what my friend
Arnold ao aptly said. This Jury is no
mob. The attitude of the Jurors’ mind
Is not th© attitude of the man who
carelessly walks the streets. My
friend Hooper must have brought that
doctrine with him when he came to
Atlanta.
"We walk the streets carelessly, ab
sorbed In our own Interests We
pass our friends and do not recognize
them. The mind wanders in flights
of fancy and flts of revelry. We mean
no harm to ourselves nor harm to our
friends, but we are careless.
"Men, you are set aside. You cease
to b# a part of that revelry of the
streets. In old pagar. Rome women
walked the streets, chratted gayly and
carelessly, but a few were set aside—
the vestal virgins. They cared not
for th© gladiatorial combats or the
strlf©.
"So it is with you set apart. You
car© not for the chatter or the laugh
ter of the rabble. You are unpreju
diced. Yours Is the sworn duty to
pass on a matter of Ilf© and death.
You are to decide on the evidence
without an echo from any hostile
mob With no fear, no favor, no af
fection.
"Others may take th© brave task of
standing up for th© weak and op
pressed. but It Is not for you. You
are a still, silent, consecrated band.
You are to do your duty without one
thought of the past or the future.
You are her© and now consecrated by
Justice to do your duty. I do not feel
that I can add to anything Mr. Ar
nold said except to touch the high
places and probably wander afield
some places where he did not go.
"No crime could be more frightful
than this. That little girl In the
sweetest period of her life was cut
down by some brute and the publk 1
was horrified. We all agree that no
punishment would be severe enough.
It is nothing but human nature in a
crime of this kind that a victim is
demanded.
"A cry goes up for vengeance. It
is the old law nf an eye for an eye
and a life for a life. It is the primeval
man. Th© early Indian when his
companion fell by his side demanded
vengeance. He went out for a vic
tim regardless of who It was. But.
thank God, that age |« past and in
Intelligent twentieth century of
w© no longer say. Give us a vlc-
a sacrifice,’ but, ‘Gi\e us the gull-
man.’
Rosser Analyzes
Dalton’s Character.
"I believe this jury is a courageous
Jury. I know they are not like prime
val men, who sought to find a victim
whether he was guilty or not. Let us
see who the man most likely to
hav« cormauted th© crime. You want
to ask what surroundings such a
crime was likely to have come from,
and to look at the man who was most
likely to have done It.
"My friend Hooper understood that
He said that the conditions at the
factory w'ere likely to produce such a
crime, but as a matter of fact the
conditions are no better and no worse
than in any other factory. You find
good men and had men, good women
and bad women. What man raises
one word against the moral atmos
phere of that factory? Conley? Yes.
I’ll come to him later, not now. Dal
ton? Yes. I’ll take up his case right
now.
"God Almighty when He writes
upon a human face does not always
write a beautiful hand, but He writes
a legible one. If you were in the
dark with that man Dalton, wouldn’t
you put your hand on your pocket-
book? If you wouldn’t, you are
braver men than I. The word ‘thief
Is written all over his face My friend
Rube Arnold said when Dalton came
to the stand, ‘That’s a thief or 1
don’t know one.’ 1 sjnelled the odor
of the chalngang upon him; I ‘reach
ed’ for him; I ‘felt’ for him; I asked
him if he had ever been long away
from home. He evaded me When
he left the stand, I wild, ’Rube, that
man’s been In the chalngang as sure
as there’s a God in heaven.’ And.
sure enough, we looked him up. and
he had been. Then he came to At
lanta, and they said he had reformed
But there are tv/o things in this world
I do not believe In. One is a reformed
thief and the other is a reformed
woman of the streets.
“Joining the Church Is
Old Trick of Thieves.”
"On the cross the thief prayed, and
the Master recognized him. He gave
him forgiveness. He saw the thief
and before the thief spoke He recog
nized him as a thief. Bet the Lord
is all-forgiving, and He said to the
thief, ‘This day thou shalt be with
Me In Paradise.’ Now, I have no
faith In these reformed thieves. I
have no faith in a reformed pros
titute. Tell me you can reform a
thief? I mean a thief at heart, and
the man who has thievery in his heart
will carry it there all his life. H© may
steal with secrecy, and he safe, but
the thievery is still within him. You
may reform other criminals, but the
thief never.
"Has Dalton reformed? Oh. he has
done the beastly thing. Ho has done
the low. with a sanctimonious ex
pression on his face. He slinks down
upon a congregation of godly people
and deceives them. H© joins them
in hypocritical carrying op of their
rk. He deceives them. Why, gen
tlemen of the jury, joining the church
is an old trick of thieves, and here
before us we have had the real il
lustration, that of a thief who stinks
in two counties and goes into an
other to get away from the odor of
his past existence.
"Here is this man Dalton, of the
Anglo-Saxon race. Yes, gentlemen of
the Jury, he had a white face, but that
was all. He was black within. What
did he do, this thief who joined the
church? Look how brazenly he ad
vertised his immorality. When he was
placed upon the stand and questioned
as to his acts, he could have declined
to answer; he could at least have
hung his head In shame. But was he
ashamed? No; he was as proud of
his dirty immorality as a young bov
with a new i*ed top. He smiled over
it. He gloated over It. It was the
first time in his existence that a
group of respectable men and women
had listened to him. and he fairly
gloated.
"Did you hear what he said when
asked as to what Frank was doing
in his office? He said: 1 had such a
peach myself that I had no time to
give attention to anyone else.’ Gen
tlemen, ha said he had Daisy, and
you saw l^jsy. She was the ‘peach!’
ion. Ain’t that a fine combination?
In that dirty, filthy old hole of the '
pencil factory, on old goods boxes, !
with an odor which if put to the nose
of a skunk would be offensive, where
a dog would not step aside, where an i
old lascivious cat would not crouch—
that’s Dalton. Yet only he and Jim |
Conley have brought charges of im
morality against this factory.
"I am going to be fair with you,
gentlemen, If I can. 1 am going to
tell you the truth. I thought this case
was to be tried by a Solicitor Gen
eral. God save the mark! I’ve never
seen such partisan feelings before.
Says State Witness
Left Serpent’s Trail.
"This arm of the State Is to protect
the weak, yet I've heard something
I’ve never heard before, and I never
expect to hear as long as God lets me
live. The Solicitor said, ‘I’ll go as far
as the court will allow n*e. That's
the crux of this whole case. When
the Solicitor General said that. God
only knows how far the detectives
went. Dalton said he went to the
factory some time last year, between
the hours of 1 and 2 o’clock. Did he
go Into the Wooden ware Company s
part of the building or into the pencil
factory? There's nothing to show,
except that wherever he went he left
the trail of a serpent behind him.
Frank didn’t know he was there. It
was Frank's lunch hour. If Dalton
went, he was taking advantage of the
factory authorities.
"When we come to consider : t,
what is there about this factory to
make it so bad as the State has tried
to paint it? It was searched by my
friend Starnes, who wouldn’t stop at
anything to get evidence. It was
searched by that delightfu 1 man John
Black. Do you know when I think of
him I just want to take him in mv
arms and caress him. And it was
searched by Patrica Campbell, that
noble detective who wouldn’t go on
the stand for fear I might ask him
about his tutorage of Jim Conley.
"The entire police department, in
all its pride, went over the record of
that factory w ith a fine-toothed comb.
What have they found?
"Let’s see. In the first place we
Rosser
possesses
none of
the graces
of the
pleasing
speaker,
but in
forcefulness
he is
hardly
surpassed
at the
Atlanta
bar.
grievance against me.
"Now, what did this young man do?
Here are the young ladies, and I
haven’t a word to say against them.
The older I get the gentler I become,
if anything. Oh, why should I abuse
and vilify anyone? With our lives a
moment bright, then dark forever,
why should I?
"Here Is Miss Myrtle© Cato. She
worked there three and a half years.
If she was a sweet, pure girl, and I
take It for granted she was, would
she have stayed there that long, con
stantly associated with Frank, if he
was a vile man? She would have fled
from him long ago. Oh, Mhe has felt
the bitterness of the rabble since this
crime occurred. She was under the
tense heated atmosphere of this trial.
"Then Miss Maggie Griffin. She
worked there two months two years
ago. What does she know about
Frank compared with these women
who have been there for years?
‘‘Miss Estelle Winkle had an exten
sive acquaintance with Frank. She
worked there one week in 1910. Miss
Carrie Smith, like Miss Cato, worked
there three and a half years, and tne
other few worked there very brief
periods.
"That’s all. gentlemen, of the hun
dreds of women who worked there
during the last five years.
Scores Detectives
as “Active Gang’.”
"Why, I could find more people to
swear against the Bishop of Atlanta.
They have searched every corner.
They have spyglassed every nook.
Starnes and Black and Campbell and
Rosser, generated by that mighty de
tective. Chief Lanford.’’
Attorney Rosser turned and ad-
Mary, and this Gantt said Frank told
him he seemed to know Mary Phagaij
very well. Gantt did not tell that be-*
fore the coroner’s Inquest and that
other young fellow had to be
wheedled and led by my friend Dor
sey, only to get tangled up and prove
that he knew nothing.
"Then what was next? The next
Continued on Page 3. Column 1.
have had a mighty upheaval In the
last two years. It is wrong to com
mit adultery, but with segregation,
the proper surroundings, and a de
cent amount of secrecy, the world tol
erates it. But Chief Beavers doesn’t.
He has combed the town with a fine-
toothed comb. Young women have
had to fly to cover, and young men go
down the middle of the road. That
Immoral squad; what do they call It,
Brother Arnold? Oh. yes: the vice
squad, has swept the town with a
broom until there is not one lasciv
ious louse left in the head of the
body politic. And now they try to
tell us this pencil factory was an im
moral resort.
“Who has one word to say against
that boy Schiff? Who has a word to
say against young Wade Campbell?"
Rosser turned toward Attorney
Hooper at this point, and continued;
"You were willing, without one line
of testimony, to attack the charac
ters of these young men, so that you
may carry your case. You are willing
to clasp this Bertus Dalton to your
breast as though he were a 16-year-
ofd. If I know a single thing on this
earth I know the ordinary working
man and working woman of Georgia.
I have an ancestry of working people
behind me. My parents were word
ing people. With 100 of Atlanta's
wording girls, with about the same
number of Atlanta’s hardy working
men, in that factory on Forsyth
street. I assert they could not have
been there eight long years if the
factory had been an immoral house.
Those girls would have tied. The
outraged citizens would have torn
down that old building, stone by
s*tone. You may assert that those
girls wouldn’t have flen. but I tell you
1 have a higher conception of the
Georgia working girl than to believe
for one minute that she would have
remained.
"If I am mistaken, and 100 willing
females stayed there, and 100 thin-
blooded males stood by and let con
ditions continue, I assert the factory
could not have lasted 4S hours. No
man In charge of a business of that
magnitude ever yet attempted to be
on terms of criminal intimacy with
the scores of women 4n his employ
but that they didn’t ^*i!e him with
stronger reins than the Queen of
Sheba.
“Frank’s Statement
Had Ring of Truth.’’
"What do you think would become
of a factory superintendent who got
on intimate terms with his women
employees? This would be bad
enough for a native born American,
but what would you think full-blood
ed Americans would do or say about
a foreigner who came here and at
tempted such a thing, and especially
considering the antipathy which has
always been borne to the Jewish
race ?
"Now, I have shown you that the
factory has been prosperous, and we
know well enough that it could not
have been prosperous If Immorality
had been allowed to exist there.
“Now, let's take up the man. I
don’t have to tell you that he is smart.
Every one of us knows that. When ne
got upon the stand and talked to you,
he gave Illustration of being one of
the most remarkable men I have ever
met. His talk to you was, indeed,
remarkable, and as I sat and listened
to it for the first time, I wondered
and marveled at the brain of the man.
I could never have made up a speecn
like that, even if I had had the brains.
And it wasn’t a written speech, either.
It was the truth, gushing out natural
ly as does the water from the flowing
spring. There was no force behind it.
There was no electricity there. It
was the plain, simple flowing truth as
mother Nature furnished it.
Gentlemen of the jury, if Frank’s
talk to you had been forced, it would
not have had that ring of truth to it.
You may make a silver dollar that in
appearance would fool the Secretary
of the Treasury. But drop that dollar
and the ring will tell. The real dollar
has the real ring, the silver tinkle
that can not be mistaken. And the
real truth, like the real ring, has the
ring that shows that it is nothing but
the truth.
"Frank's words had the ring that
comes from old Mother Nature's
breast when telling the truth. The
old saying is that the idle brain is
the devil's workshop. No one knows
this better than I do. When I am
every man connected with the bank
has been under suspicion at one time
or the other. But there is one thing
I wish to say. There was never a
hard-working, thrifty man among you
who was ever found guilty in the
slightest way.’
"Now, gentlemen of the Jury, that is
the way it is in every walk of life.
When you watch a great river flowing
on to the sea, you don’t take a spy
glass and pick out the little eddies.
No. You look at the heavy flow of
the waters as they move majestically
along.
"So it is w T ith human life. It is
this way with the hard-working man
who follows the straight course and
goes on in a majestic flow on the
oven tenor of his way. It is not for
the Jury, trying him, to take the spy-
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BANKRUPT SALE?
Millinery Supplies for Retail
Merchants and Milliners
<< $26,000,00 STOCK OF MYERS MILLINERY CO. NOW ON SALE >
Purchasers Can Select Just What They Can Use in Their Own Busi
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V
H. A. FERRIS. Trustee
LEADING COUNSEL FOR I
FRANK IN FULL SWING I
Luther Z.
Rosser
closes
argument
for
defense.
GUI
3
Poor Daisy! She Is not to blame. If
she has fallen, which I pray to God
she has not, let us forgive her. like
the Saviour forgave the Magdalene.
"Gentlemen of the Jury, I don’t say
all of us have been free of passion’s
lust, but 1 do say that most of hu
manity guilty of the crime hold It
private. A gentleman wants decent
surroundings when committing such
an act. He wants cleanliness. No
iecent man ever stood on the stand
and bragged about the ‘i**aoh‘ that
he had. Why, even the beasts of the
field hide that.
"Burns had it right when he said n
that poem about ‘be gentle with your
brother man, be gentler with your sis
ter woman.’ that ends with the llns,
Tis human *to step aside.’ .
"Dalton went and got that ‘peach*
and carried her to his ecuttlehoie like
a gopher. Did you ever eee gopher?
My friend Hooper used them for
chains down In South Georgia all his
life. The gopher has a a hole, with
usually a rattlesnake for his compan-