Sunday, 24th August 1913 Solicitor Reasserts His Conviction Of Bad Character And Guilt Of Frank

Reading Time: 46 minutes [8445 words]

The Atlanta Constitution,

Sunday, 24th August 1913.

Page two.

"What I had to say yesterday," began Mr. Dorsey at the opening of Saturday morning's session, "with references to character, I think I have demonstrated by law to any fair-minded man that the defendant is not a man of good character."

"In failing to cross-examine these twenty young ladies who claim his character was bad, is proof, of itself, that if he had character that was good, no power on earth would have kept him and his counsel from plying countless questions in his behalf."

"That's common-sense, gentlemen, a proposition that is as fair and a proposition which I have already shown you by law that they had a perfect right to delve into his character. Also, you have seen their failure to cross-question these witnesses."

"Whenever any man has evidence in possession and fails to produce it, the strongest presumption arises that it would he hurtful if they did produce it. Failure to present such evidence is a glaring Indictment. You need no law book to tell you that."

"You know the reason, his able counsel did not ask these hare-brained fanatics' questions of the evidence they had presented against their client. You know it too well, they know it they know it better than you. That's why they did not question."

"You tell me those good people from Washington Street came and said they never heard anything against Frank. Many a man has gone through life, without even his wife knowing his misfortune. It takes the valley to know a man's life."

Bad Character Demonstrated.

"That man has a bad character and it has been ably demonstrated. Often a man uses charitable and religious organizations to cover up his misdealings sometimes to cover up his conscience as Leo M. Frank has done by the B'nai B'rith, of which he is president".

"Many a man has walked high in society and outwardly has appeared spotless, but who was rotten, clean rotten, inside. He has no character, I submit gentlemen, he has none. His reputation for good - is among the people who do not know his real self".

"David, of old, was a great character, until he sent Uriah to the front of battle, so that Uriah might be killed and David take his wife. Judah Iscariot, until he planted the betraying kiss upon the lips of the Lord Jesus, was a good character."

"Benedict Arnold had the confidence of all the people, until he betrayed his nation. Since that day, his name has been a synonym of infamy and disgrace".

Cites Wilde Case.

"Oscar Wilde, literary, brilliant, author of works that will go down for ages, the profoundest of which he wrote while in jail, had the companionship of himself and the son of a Marquis, broken up for criminal practice in which he indulged."

"Wherever the English language is read the coolness and affrontery of Wilde, while he underwent cross-examination, will be the subject of history and admiration. He was a man of Frank's type. Wilde will remain forever the type of pervert as is this man, who stands with the murder of Mary Phagan."

"Not even Wilde's wife suspected he was guilty of perversion. He was sent to prison for three long years. He was a scholar, cool, calm. and, collected and his cross-examination is a worthy part of history."

"Good character! Why, he came to America and lectured throughout the country. It was he who raised this sunflower from a weed. A man of rain, knowledge and physique, courage and bravery, but a sexual pervert."

"Abe Ruef, of San Francisco, a man of Frank's race, boss of his town, respected, honored, admired. But he corrupted Schmidt and corrupted everything he put his hand to. He led a life of heinous sin, ruining and debauching girls without end. Eventually his case terminated in the penitentiary."

"Crime, gentlemen, doesn't go only with the ignorant and poor. The ignorant like Jim Conley, commit the smaller crimes. A man of high intellect and wonderful, endowments commits the worst of crimes. For instance, look' at McKuhn, mayor of Charlottesville, who slew his wife in the bathtub because he had tired of her. A jury of Virginia gentlemen sent him to a felon's grave, his just deserts."

Richeson Sent to Choir.

"Then, there was Richeson, a Boston preacher, who was engaged to one of the wealthiest and most attractive girls of his city. But, entanglement with a poor little girl who had been weak and pliant in his driving and lust-ridden hands, caused him to so far forget himself, as to put her in a grave."

"All these cases are of circumstantial evidence, and, after conviction, in hope he would obtain pardon, he confessed, while a Massachusetts governor and jury were brave and dauntless enough to send him to the electric chair. Then, there were others, including Henry Clay Beattie, of Richmond, scion of splendid family, who took his wife, the mother of a 12-month-old baby, to shoot her in the automobile in which they were riding."

"Yet, that man, gazing upon the blood of his slain mate, was cool and calm enough to joke with the detectives. Slush funds were raised, every effort possible was made to free him, but a courageous and honest jury of Virginia gentlemen sent him to death, thus putting this old Virginia citizenship on a high plane."

"Beattie never confessed, that is true, but he left a note to be read after his electrocution, which he admitted his guilt."

"Dr. Crippen, of England, man of worthy standing, killed his wife because of his infatuation for another woman, and put her body away, like this man Leo Frank put away little Mary Phagan's, hoping it never would be discovered."

"You, gentlemen, have the opportunity that comes to but few men. Measure up to It. Will you do it?"

"If not, let your conscience say why! Tell me as an honest man, why not?"

Attacks Frank's Alibi.

"They say Frank has an alibi. Let's examine It. In section 101 of the Georgia code you'll find just what is an alibi. It involves the impossibility of the prisoner's presence at the scene during the time of the crime. The range of evidence must reasonably exclude possibility of his presence".

"In short, gentlemen, they must show you it was absolutely impossible for Frank to have been on the scene at the time Mary Phagan was killed. The burden is upon them. An alibi, unless properly substantiated, is worthless. I am going to show you why that this alibi is worse than no defense at all".

"I once read an old darkey's description of an alibi, and it was this:"

"Rastus, what's an alibi?"

"'An alibi is somethin' that show you was at the prayer meetin' where you wasn't, and not at the crap game where you was.'"

"Turn around this table a minute this alleged chronological table of Frank's actions that day, and then turn it back to the wall where I want it to stay face against the wall."

"At 1 p.m. Frank leaves the factory. That's mighty nice. Now, turn it back to the wall. Let it stay. It's not sustained by evidence. Not even sustained by the statement of the defendant, himself. His story at police headquarters says he locked the door of the pencil factory at 1:10 o'clock and left the building. There's your alibi. Punctured by the defendant's own statement made when he did not know the value of time element in his case."

"He never realized its importance until he went on the stand, and then he swore it was 1 o'clock when he left the building."

A Sad Spectacle.

"The little Kern girl--God help her! swore she saw him at Alabama and Whitehall streets at 1:10 o'clock; yet here's his own statement that he left the factory at 1:10 o'clock."

"You talk of sad spectacles, the saddest I've ever seen was the bringing of this little Kern girl, the daughter of a man who works for Sig Montag, to help free this red-handed murderer."

"The jurors have a right to take into consideration the reasonableness of what any witness swears. Any man who looked at that little girl could see the untruth stamped clearly in her story."

"If Frank had locked the door at 1:10 o'clock, how did she ever see him at Alabama and Whitehall streets at that time of day?"

"Mind you, she had never seen him but once, this daughter of a Montag employee. Yet, she comes here and tells you the unreasonable story she has told."

"On this time proposition, I want to read this; It's a speech of a wonderful man, a man to whom even the great and brainy Arnold and the big powerful Rosser would have doffed their hats Daniel Webster: "

"'Time's subdivisions,' he says, are all alike. No man knows one day from another or an hour. Days and hours are not visible to the senses. He who speaks of date or minute or hour of occurrence with nothing to guide him speaks at random."

Other Discrepancies.

"Now, what else about this alibi". Old man Sig Montag twisted and warped his words so as to sustain this man. For instance, Frank got down to the building at 8:26 o'clock, according to Holloway and others. Frank says he got there at 8:30. He arrived with a rain coat. They tried to make it appear that he did not have one."

"I'll venture the reason he borrowed Ursenbach's rain coat was because he forgot the coat Jim Conley saw him with."

"Mattie Smith says he left the building at 9:10 o'clock. Frank says he left at 9:30 o'clock. At 11 o'clock Frank returns to office, says the chronological alibi chart. In his own statement he swears it was 11:05 o'clock."

"Move it up or down move it anyway do anything with it. Gentlemen, we've got to have an alibi some way or other."

"12:12 p.m., says the chart, the time Mary Phagan entered the plant. Frank says Mary came at 10 minutes after Miss Hattie Hall left and she left at 12 o'clock. If persons were as accurate as Frank is in regard to time on the day Mary Phagan was killed, wouldn't this old world be a glorious one. No trains missed, no appointments missed no nothing but an entire world accurate on time."

"Lemmie Quinn arrives, says the chart, from 12:20 to 12:22 o'clock. But Lemmie conflicts with Mrs. Freeman and the other lady who saw him at 11:45 a.m."

Here the solicitor was interrupted by Mr. Arnold, who arose saying:

"There is no evidence to that effect, Mr. Dorsey. The girls didn't see him at the factory."

"I don't doubt that anyone didn't see him," retorted the solicitor.

Crowd Rules Arnold.

The crowd in the courtroom broke into a laugh that was well-nigh an applause.

Mr. Arnold said to the judge:

"Your honor, we can do without this crowd. If there is another such outbreak, I'll move to clear the courtroom."

"Lemmie Quinn was blowing hot and blowing cold" continued Dorsey, "and he was too anxious. I never saw a more eager man in my life. Is Jim Conley telling the truth or a lie? Jim says he saw Lemmie Quinn go up the stairs before Mary Phagan got there."

"If this be true, why did Frank want to consult with his lawyers before he spoke at police headquarters?"

"Lemmie Quinn is the hardest man to pin down on a proposition I have ever encountered. He is the most anxious man; the most eager I have ever seen, unless it be old man Holloway. Can you tell me that an honest innocent man would first want to consult his lawyers before making his statement?"

"Let me read you what a great judge said, Judge Lochraine:"

"'I don't take mere words, even of witnesses. I take their acts.'"

"This table that the defense produces is a fraud on its face. It puts Quinn there from 12:20 to 12:22 o'clock, just the time that will suit the defense and its notorious alibi. Men, they are straining at a gnat."

The Charges of Perjury.

"Let's consider for a moment Arnold's flippant charges of perjury."

"You saw the witnesses. You heard what they had to say. Do you remember one Iady, who, almost hysterical, wanted to die for Frank? When did you ever hear of an employee who would be enamored of her employer that that she would die for him if the friendship that existed was merely platonic? I know that back of that willingness to put her neck in the noose meant for Frank there was something stronger, something more powerful than platonic love, don't you? It must be a passion born of something beyond mere friendship. But he is married, and she is single; he is the employer and she is the employee!"

"Take the little Bauer boy. Before he took that ride in Sig Montag's automobile to the offices of Arnold and Rosser, he could remember details, but after that he suffered a lapse of memory. Before that, he could remember just where he laid his watch, but after that his mind went blank."

"It reminds me of the South Georgia instance where everybody was gathered in the church praying for rain. They prayed and prayed, and after a while, the Lord sent a regular trash-mover, a gulley-washer. Then the preacher rubbed his chin a little and said, I guess we must have over done it, just a leetle!"

"Don't you know that Sig Montag must whispered in that boy's ear, You've overdone it, just a leetle?'"

"Does that look like perjury? Oh, how foolish, foolish, foolish!"

"How about that machinist, Lee?"

"He said he had seen in the possession of Schiff papers that he had signed. Then they brought papers up here written on a typewriter, and his name was not even mentioned in them. That's the stuff they're unloading on you!"

Claims Women Were Subborned.

"Perjury? Let's go further."

"I have never seen a case where women have been suborned as in this case."

"Take the stenographer, Miss Fleming. They put her on the stand, and we took her up on a line she didn't expect."

"Oh, we don't mean to say that Frank tried to seduce or ravish every woman who came to the pencil factory. All of them would not have submitted to it. He knew whom to approach and whom not, until he met Mary Phagan. And she called' him."

"How about flirting? She said she never saw or heard of any orders against flirting."

Dorsey then read Miss Fleming's account of Frank's work at the office on Saturday morning.

"Now," he continued, "she says that she saw Frank working on the financial sheet. She said that this was Frank's business in the forenoons of Saturdays. She was questioned on this point time and time again, and was positive that she saw Frank making out the financial sheet."

"Then Arnold Interrupted her and said. He didn't have time to make the financial sheet on Saturday morning, did he?"

"And she caught Arnold. She answered, No.'"

"And was so nervous that he couldn't let me finish, but he interrupted the witness with a most unfair question, and she took the bait and went under the bank with it."

"I have read to you how positive she was about having seen Frank working on the financial sheet. Now look. Afterwards when she was about it she said that she had never made any such statement. I asked her whether she had said these things I have read you from the record, she said, No.'"

"I tell you if you are going to turn men loose on such evidence as that, it is time to quit drawing juries in Fulton county."

Why Frank Was Indicted.

"Why didn't Rosser, Pat Campbell and Starnes take Newt Lee, Jim Conley, or James Gantt instead of this man? Because the evidence against them was only a film of cobwebs, but about Frank the evidence is composed of cables, and they are bound about him and he can't break them. The erudite Reuben Rose Arnold and the dynamic Luther Zeigler Rosser, can not break them!"

"Circumstantial evidence is as good as any if it is the right sort. This evidence draws tightly around him and there is not a break in it."

"Herbert Schiff said that Frank, who was behind with his work, went home and slept instead of making out the financial sheet, because he (Schiff) had not given him the data (pronouncing it dotter,' as Schiff had pronounced it)."

"Do you think that Leo M. Frank, with such a charming wife as he has, with all his friends; Frank, head of the B'nai B'rith, lover of cards and pleasure; do you think that he would go back to the factory on Saturday afternoon to make out that financial sheet just because he did not have the data in the morning. He made out that financial sheet in the morning."

"I submit that this man made out that financial sheet on Saturday morning. I give no reasons because I don't believe them necessary. But even if he made out the sheet on Saturday afternoon, don't come to that belief because the sheet shows no nervousness."

Why Frank Was Calm.

"Why, after the crime, he went to his home and in the bosom of his family he showed composure. He read the joke about baseball and laughed about it. He made so merry over it that he disturbed the card game which was in progress."

"He had been making out financial sheets for six years, and do you mean to tell me that he had to wait for Schiff to tell him what to do before he could make that sheet?"

"He didn't betray nervousness when he wrote for the police, did he? And right here. His mother identified that writing as that of her son, and yet when they put an expert, who knew Frank's writing, on the stand to identify it, he was so afraid that he might do something to hurt this man that he wouldn't identify it. Is that perjury?"

"The frivolity that Frank showed at his home was just the sort of frivolity that Henry Clay Beattle showed beside the automobile in which was the blood of his wife!"

"I'll tell you something this man did do on Saturday afternoon. You remember how Jim Conley told about Frank's looking at the ceiling and saying, I have rich relatives in Brooklyn. Why should I hang?' he wrote that letter to his rich uncle and his people in Brooklyn that afternoon."

"They say his people in Brooklyn were not rich. His uncle is rich, and he thought that he was in Brooklyn that afternoon when he wrote that letter and said what he did."

Dorsey picked up the letter.

"Listen to this. How are the dear ones in Brooklyn?' Does that sound like he thought his uncle was in Brooklyn, or not?"

A Betraying Line.

"Now, here's a line that if you know anything about the conduct of a guilty conscience, you will know was written in the afternoon when Frank knew the body of Mary Phagan was lying in that basement where he had it put."

"He wrote: It has been too short a time since you left for anything startling to happen!' Too short! Too short! Startling!'"

"Do you tell me, honest men, that line did not come from a guilty conscience? What do you think of that, honest men?"

"Now, do you think the rich uncle cared any anything about this line? An eminent authority says that extravagant language is the earmark of fraud."

"Today was Yondif holiday and the thin gray line of veterans is growing thinner each year.'"

"This from Leo M. Frank, the statistician, to a man who cared not for the thin gray, but for the dividends the factory was paying!"

"There's nothing new in the factory to report," he writes.

"Ah, but there was something new, but for the dividends the factory was paying!"

"There's nothing new in the factory to report," he writes.

"Ah, but there was something new, and there had been time enough for something startling, and there had been enough for something to happen! It had happened in the space of thirty minutes! Oh, me! The time was not too short!"

"Yes, his people lived in Brooklyn and Jim Conley would not have known they lived in Brooklyn unless he had heard Frank say so. They may not be rich, but they have a cold $20,000 lying away on interest! And they have no business worth I don't know how much!".

Frank's Wire to Montag.

"Let's read that wire Frank sent to Montag."

"'You may have read,' it says, of a pencil factory girl found dead Found dead in factory? In factory? No! Where? In cellar of factory!' That's what he says. Why? He knew where he had put the body of that girl and that picture was in his mind when he sent that wire."

"He knew he would be arrested unless the police were corrupt, and he didn't want Montag to be unprepared."

"But Pat Campbell was not corrupt! John Black was not corrupt! Rosser was not corrupt! Starnes was not corrupt! And he was arrested!"

"Listen to what Frank said when he wanted to put the rope around the neck of Newt Lee and James Gantt:"

"Police will eventually solve it!"

"Oh, they did solve it!"

"'Assure my uncle,' he says. I'm all right if he should inquire. Our company has the case well in hand.'"

"Maybe he did think that when he got this follow Scott. There's an honest man for you! If there was a slush fund in this case I don't know that there was but if there was one, Scott could have got it. But Scott said that he was going to work this case hand-in-hand with the police." That's what Frank wanted them. He wanted Scott to work hand-in-hand with the police. He wanted to know what the police wore doing."

"Then came Herbert Haas and he's nobody's fool and suggested to Pinkerton detective Harry Scott that he let them have all the evidence he found before he let the police have it. If Harry Scott had fallen for that, things might have been different."

Recognize Weakness of Case.

"Talk about your expert, Hunter? He's not nearly so smart as Frank. Leo M. Frank is as smart as either of his lawyers. Frank realized that weakness of his case. He wrote that statement himself, I'll bet."

"Frank, in his statement, had to drag in a lot of stuff that was not evidence and he would have dragged in more if we had not stopped him."

"And do you remember about the blood? The machinist Lee said that Duffy held out his finger and let that blood spurt from it. Why should he have done that. Isn't the first and most natural thing to grab that finger and tie it up?"

"Miss Rebecca Carson said that she saw Frank and Jim Conley on the fourth floor Tuesday morning before the arrest. That was the morning that Frank said to Jim, Jim, you be a good boy."

"According to their own witness, Jim and Frank were just where Jim said they were that morning."

"Mrs. Carson, mother of Rebecca, when asked about seeing blood spots was very particular to ask what blood spots and where. Then she said that she never saw any blood spots on the second floor, because she didn't want to see anything like that."

"Miss Small corroborates Conley's story. She said that she saw Frank and Jim on the fourth floor of the factory about 9 o'clock on that Tuesday morning."

"Why was Frank there?"

"He wanted to see if Jim was keeping the secret. Arnold said that this is a dirty suggestion. It is dirty. It is more than that; it is infamous. Yet there sits today Leo M. Frank trying to put that rope around the neck of another.

Upholds Detective Department.

"The only thing in this entire case that is at all to the discredit of the police department," continued Mr. Dorsey, "is that they were afraid on account of the influence and position of Leo Frank to put him in a cell like they did Lee and Gantt. That's the only thing against them."

"If my friend, John Black, over there had gone after Leo Frank like he went after Newt Lee, there would probably, very probably, have been a confession and no necessity for this long and tedious trial."

"You," he continued, turning to Frank, "you called for Haas, and you called for Rosser and you called for Arnold, you had to have the very best legal talent that the state afforded, and it took their combined efforts to keep up your nerve."

"You know I'm telling the truth," continued Mr. Dorsey, again addressing himself to the jury."

"There Is only one thing, I tell you, that is to the discredit of the police and that is they were swayed by learned counsel and the glamor of wealth, and treated with too much consideration this man who had snuffed out the life of the poor little girl."

"I honor, although I had nothing to do with it, I honor the way they went after Minola McKnight and the way in which they got her affidavit. Gentlemen, the getting of evidence in a big murder case like this is no Job for a man with the manners of a dancing master. You've got to get on the job like a dog after a possum and you've got to tree that 'possum and keep on barking up that tree until you show he's there."

"You know that Albert McKnight, the woman's husband, would not have told Craven and Pickett any such tale unless it was true."

"So these detectives knew that, too, and they hung around and they barked up that tree until they got the evidence that was there. Talk about illegally holding that woman. Why they had the habeas corpus if they had wanted. To get her out. That's what it was made for. I certainly had nothing and could have had nothing to do with freeing her."

What He Would Have Told Haas.

"If Herbert Haas had come to me on the Tuesday after the murder and told me he wanted me to get Frank out, I would have told him that I was running my office and not the police department. I would have added that the habeas corpus was intended for is that; oh, I don't know. I wouldn't have insulted a lawyer like that. He would have known about the habeas corpus."

"Well, they have taken me to task, too, for the way in which I went early into the case. Well, I mean the memory of the late Charlie Hill; I'm as proud of being his successor in the solicitor's office as I am that the people elected me to that high office, but I tell you gentlemen, I'm going to pattern myself after no man; I'm going to pattern myself after the dictates of my own conscience."

"If I'm proud of anything in this case, I'm proud that I went into this case with the detectives when I did and sought with them to find the real murderer of the little girl, and that, too, when your influence was pouring letters into the grand jury in an effort to try and hang an innocent man negro, even though he was."

"I'm glad I stuck it out and kept them from indicting that innocent man, and I'm going to stick it out as long as I'm in office and if you don't like it, the only way to do is to remove me, because I'm doing what I think is right."

No Evidence of Perjury.

"Now they have talked about perjury. Well, let's not say that everybody in this case have been liars, when wo have no reason or evidence to accuse everybody of boring liars".

"Was Jim Conley a liar?"

"Let's look at some of the things he says and let's look at the many times the little and apparently unimportant details of his statement are corroborated by other witnesses. Mrs.

Small, time and again, in her testimony, corroborates the things Jim told of as happening that Tuesday morning in the pencil factory. Well, now, let's take one of their witnesses: Take Mrs. Carson, mother of Rebecca Carson, the forewoman, whom witnesses swear went into the women's dressing rooms with Frank. Mrs. Carson swore on the stand that she did not go back and look at the spots of blood on the second floor.

"You know why she swore that? Well, there had been too many of those employees admitting to going back there, and the defense did not want to make it appear that the spots caused any stir up there, so by the time Mrs. Carson came, employees began to say that they had paid no attention to the spots."

"Well, we asked Mrs. Small If she went to look at them, and she said that she did, and we asked who went with her, and she did say that Mrs. Carson did, and we asked her how she knew, and she said she remembered because she and Mrs. Carson had gone back there after the others had left, and at a time when they could get plenty of time to look at the spots."

"If this is founded on perjury, if the defense claims it is, then it's simply a case of pot calling the kettle black, and I haven't dealt in glittering generalities, either, in making my charges."

"When evidence or testimony was wanted in any particular phase of this case, there has never been the time when some witnesses or witnesses did not come forward and testify to what was needed, and they'd have you believe those witnesses came willingly, and that there was no slush fund."

Notes Fix Crime on Frank.

"Now, gentlemen, I want to discuss with you briefly these letters, he continued, taking up the two notes found near the dead girl's body. If they are not the order of an overruling Providence, then I will agree with the defense that they are naught but folly. The pad and paper usually found in Frank's office was used, and this man Frank, trying to fasten the crime on another, has indelibly fixed it upon himself.

"The pad, the paper, the fact that he wanted notes, all that goes to show Frank as the man. Tell me, if you can, that a negro over lived who, after killing and robbing or assaulting a girl, would take time before leaving to write these notes."

"These notes wore folly! Yes, as Judge Bleckley once said, 'All crime is a mistake and what proof have we that a man who has made a big mistake will not make little ones in trying to hide the first?'"

"Then, there's another thing that makes against Frank. He said here that when the little girl asked him if the metal had come, that he told her no; and yet, when he had not had time to think about how it would sound, or when he first talked he said he told her that he did not know."

"There's a big difference there, gentlemen. For Frank to have told the little girl that he did not know would have sent her back to the metal room to see for herself, but to have told her no, that it had not come, would have sent her on out of the building. Frank did not want to give us here any reason to suspect that the child ever went back there to that metal room."

Use of the Word "Chat."

"Then, another thing: How could Starnes and Campbell, or even Chief Lanford, know that Conley, when he told them about Frank's saying chat,' when he referred to taking girls and women to his office, was using the same word that Frank used here in his statement four times in the short period between the time he started speaking and the time the jury went out for a few minutes recreation? You noticed, too, that he didn't use the word chat' when he started again.

"I tell you Mr. Arnold is a man of keen foresight, and he knows what a thing sounds like, and he sought to parry the blow before I even started talking that I am now trying to deliver."

"Tell me, if you will, that Conley, when he finished his evil work on that little girl, would have dragged the body way back to that corner of the basement. It meant nothing to him whereabouts in the basement the body lay."

"But it was the white man the superintendent of the factory who knew that it would never do for that body to be found in the metal room."

"Again, in these murder notes you find the words, The long, tall, black nigger did it.' Well, when did Conley ever say did.' Old Jim was up here on the stand, and every time he used that verb at all he said, I done it,' or he done it.' It was never I did it,' with Conley, but always, I done it.'

"Tell me, if you can, that these letters, which are a plant' as sure as was the club and the bloody shirt found at Newt Lee's house, were ever thought out by an ignorant negro like Jim. Conley couldn't have done it if he'd had Starnes, and Rosser, and Campbell and Black, and even Chief Lanford, to aid him. It was a smarter man than this negro, it was a smarter man than these detectives, who laid this plot which it appeared would free him, but which really inculpated him."

"You tell me that Conley wrote those words; well, when this man was arrested and when he knew Conley was arrested and that Conley, infamously told to keep quiet, was not telling anything, did he even hint to the police that Jim Conley writes?"

"These notes were written to protect the white superintendent and they were dictated by the man who sent the telegram to Sig Montag in New York, asking him to tell his uncle that a girl had been killed in the factory cellar and that the police would eventually solve the mystery and that he was all right."

The Statement of a Guilty Man.

"Now, I want to take up that statement of Frank's, that statement that it was said was strong enough to carry him to acquittal, by proving his innocence. I tell you: that was the statement of a guilty man and a statement that was cunningly constructed to fit around the chain of circumstances that showed up."

"You notice, Frank never admitted being anywhere except when It was proven on him, "There was nothing he admitted except what he knew could be proved."

Mr. Dorsey then read a number of authorities on circumstantial evidence and showed where the comparison of circumstantial evidence to a chain, no stronger that the weakest link, had been rejected and the comparison of it to a rope where when all webs are twisted together it will hold and where a few webs may be weak or break and not despoil the rope of its holding power, had been accepted."

"Frank's statement was a brilliant one," he continued, "and if you believe it and follow it blindly, there is only one thing you can do and that is to turn Frank loose."

The solicitor then read the law upon the statements made by defendants In murder cases and made various comments and cited a number of author.

"This man (Frank) says" he continued, "that he sat in his office, checking off the money that was loft from the payroll; he was careful, mind you, not to say he was checking over the cash."

"Out of the money left from that $1,100 payroll and the amount of cash that was kept for various incidentals, don't you see there was enough money to make up the amount he offered Jim Conley when he asked him to burn the body and that he afterwards took back when Jim said he would not burn it unless Leo went with him."

"Jim Conley refused to burn the body by himself. Had Jim Conley started to do that and the black smoke rolled out of that chimney, Leo Frank would have soon been down there with these same detectives and what chance would the negro, have had?"

Another False Statement.

"Old Conley took no chance, he was willing to write the notes to put by the side of the body, but drunk or sober, as you will, he was too wise to go down to the basement by himself and burn that body."

"Then again, in his statement, Frank says that no one came into his office that Friday before the murder and asked for their own or anyone else's pay envelope. Well, here is this little Helen Ferguson, the friend and running mate of little Mary Phagan, who swears to us that she did go there and ask Frank for her own and Mary's pay envelope and that she did it because she knew Mary did not intend to come down, the next day!"

"Oh, they've told about plots and conspiracies; I'll tell you about one. I'll show you that in this man's lustful heart there was a plot to undo this little girl, not a plot to murder her; oh, no, he did not want to take her life, he wanted to use her to satisfy his passion."

"In March, little Willie Turner, a plain country boy, tells us he saw Frank with his arm around Mary and that she was trying to escape and to leave him and go to work, but that he kept on talking to her and told her he was the superintendent In that factory, thus using his position to coerce her to his own ends."

"You can't tell me that a brilliant man like him could pass her machine every day and she as pretty and attractive a little girl as she was and as bright, and then he not learn to know who she was. You can't tell me that this man with the brain he's got could have helped make out the pay roll for fifty-two times in a year and then been so little familiar with the name as to have to look on the time book to find out If a girl by the name of Mary Phagan ever worked there. You can't tell me Wille Turner lied when he said he saw Frank talking to the little girl, and you can't tell me that little Dewey Hewell, the little girl brought here from the Home of the Good Shepherd in Ohio, who, despite her reputation, probably caused right there in that factory, is of tender years and would hardly make up a story like that, was Iying when she said she saw Frank talking to Mary Phagan."

"You can't tell me Gantt was lying when he said Frank knew Mary Phagan, and you want to remember another thing Frank said to Gantt, You seemed to know this girl pretty well.' How did Frank know that Gantt knew her pretty well, if Frank did not know her himself?"

Proclaims Belief in Plot.

"I'm prepared, knowing that man's character as I do, to believe that passion had seized him way back there in March and that he plotted to take advantage of this little factory girl. Mr. Rosser quoted from Burns in his speech, and I can quote from Burns, too, and it will show you something on the case."

Here the solicitor quoted a passage from Burns, beginning, "There's no telling what a man will do."

"You can't tell me that all these people have lied," continued the solicitor.

"I would not be at all surprised if Frank did not begin to covet this girl back there in March when she first came to work on this floor. I would not be at all surprised if he did not get worried about this lanky Gantt, this man from the same country place where she had come from, this man who knew her people: and I would not be surprised If he did not discharge Gantt not for the $1 shortage, which Gantt said he would give up his job before he'd pay, but because he thought Gantt would be in the way of his vile purpose."

"I would not be at all surprised if when Frank and Schiff checked up the pay roll that Friday afternoon and Frank saw that Mary Phagan had not got her money, that he did not slip out and make arrangements with Conley, knowing that the girl would have to come on Saturday morning to get her money."

"I would not be surprised if he did not deliberately refuse the money to little Helen Ferguson, because he wanted to bring Mary Phagan there on Saturday."

"Jim Conley tells us that Frank slipped up to where he was on Friday afternoon and told him to come back Saturday morning, and old Conley says, I done it,' not 'I did it.'

Looked Far Into Future.

"This thing of passion," continued the solicitor, "is a great deal like fraud, and libertines look far into the future. It's probable that the man whose character was torn and whose attorneys feared to cross examine witnesses, who swore against his character, began in March to plot and plan to get this girl in his power, because he could not control the passion that consumed him."

"You try to tell a jury compared of honest men that you didn't know Mary Phagan," continued the solicitor, turning towards Frank, "and do you expect them to believe that?"

"Tell me," he continued, "that Helen Ferguson lied, that this little girl was suborned by the Atlanta detectives to come here and swear to a lie, and that's the little girl they called a hare-brained fanatic.'"

Mr. Dorsey then read from Frank's statement to the jury where he had used the word "chat" in four different places.

"Mr. Arnold says," he continued, "that negroes regularly pick up the words and phrases of their employers, and certainly Frank must have been associated with Jim Conley a great deal to get this word chat from him."

"Well, Frank. also says that Miss Hall left when the whistle blew for 12 o'clock. Well, do whistles blow on holidays? I don't know, I'll leave that for the jury to decide.

"Then Mrs. White says that when she came up that Frank, who was in his office pulling up some pay envelopes, jumped when he saw her. Why, no wonder he jumped, for that little girl was lying back in the metal room then, and he hadn't had a chance to dispose of the body. He found out that Mrs. White wanted to see her husband, and this time he did not call for the husband. He sent the woman up to the fourth floor. After a while he goes up there and makes out he's in a big hurry to get away, and he gets her out. He knows that the men have had their lunch and will be working there the greater part of the afternoon".

"Well, Mrs. White comes down the steps and passes the office. Is Frank ready to leave? Has he got on his hat and coat? No; he's not in a hurry then, not at all. He's got to wait there to get rid of that body."

Addresses Himself to Frank.

Here, Mr. Hugh M. Dorsey gradually drifted in the use or the second person in his talk and seemed to be addressing himself to Leo M. Frank instead of to the jurors:

"You went tiptoeing right back to see if everything was all right, and then you signaled Conley," he continued, "and you soon learned, by what Conley said about not seeing a certain girl go back down the steps, that you were given away, and so you sent him back to get the body. There was no blood there where you hid the girl. The blow was not sufficient, and no blood was there until Conley dropped the body and caused, it to spatter out.

"No, you had struck the girl and gagged her and assaulted her and then you went back and got a cord and fixed the little girl, whom you had assaulted, when, thank God, she would not yield to your proposals."

"You got that cord because you wanted to save your reputation you had no-character you wanted to save your reputation among the good people of Rabbi David Marx's church and among those in the B'nai B'rith, and you wanted to save your reputation among the masses and the Montags."

"Oh, you knew that dead men tell no tales, you knew it, but you forget that murder will out. Oh, had that little girl lived to tell the assault made on her in that factory, there would have been a thousand men in Atlanta who would have not have feared your wealth, and your power and relatives, rich and poor, but who would have stormed the jail and defied the law in taking vengeance on you. It is not right that it should be so, people ought to wait for fair courts and honest juries to decide these things, but they don't and you knew it then."

I wouldn't be a bit surprised that if Frank hadn't put Mary Phagan's handbag in the safe it would have turned up just the same as the painted envelope and blood spots the Pinkertons found on the first floor.'

"This cloth that was found around her throat was torn from her own upscale clothing and placed over her mouth for a gag, while Frank tiptoed back to his office for the cord with which to strangle her."

Describes Death of Girl.

"When she did not yield to his lust that was not like that of other men, he struck her. They scuffled. She fell against the machine. Her brain lapsed into unconsciousness."

"They say he had no marks on his person he did not give her time to inflict marks. Durrant had no marks."

"There never was such a farce as this attempt by Frank's able counsel to disprove the fact that the spots found on the second floor were blood stains. They bring in this perjurer Lee. He says it wasn't. Who is this Lee?"

"You know it was blood and that it was the blood of Mary Phagan, because its location corresponds with the spot where Jim Conley says he dropped the body."

"Barrett discovered the blood and hair long before any reward was ever offered. The hair was identified by Magnolia Kennedy, their own witness."

"When it became apparent that too many persons saw Frank go to the elevator box and get the key, old man Holloway, who lied and betrayed us, perjured himself in a story about having opened the box, himself."

Says Holloway Perjured Himself.

"Holloway perjured himself either to obtain acquittal of his boss or to get the reward for the conviction of Jim Conley, his nigger.' I say that Barrett stands as an oasis in a mighty desert for truth and veracity, although, his own job be in jeopardy. Barrett told the truth. If there is a man in town who rightfully deserves a reward, it is that poor employee of the pencil factory who had courage to tell the truth."

"Compare him with Holloway."

"Neither did Barrett make his discoveries on May 16. His find has no resemblance whatever to a plant."

"But you could wipe Barrett completely out of the case and have an abundance of ground on which to convict."

"Mrs. Jefferson saw the blood and so did Mel Stanford. It was not there Friday, because Stanford swept the floor and is positive he did not see It."

"Jim Conley saw Mary Phagan go up and never come down. She was killed where Jim Conley found her and her body was put where Frank wrote in his telegram: In the cellar.'"

"Darley and Quinn saw the blood spots. Sometimes, you know, we have to go into the camp of the enemy for ammunition. The handsome Darley was tied up by an affidavit. It was a hard pill for him, but he had it to swallow, and he admitted having seen the blood that so glaringly accused his boss."

"To cap it all, Dr. Claude Smith saw the blood, and, upon analyzing it, found there were blood corpuscles disporting the argument of the defense that it was paint."

"Their own witnesses, Herbert Schiff, Magnolia Kennedy and Wade Campbell all saw this blood and admit having seen it."

New Richmond in Field.

"Frank and his friends found that Harry Scott didn't manipulate to suit them. They got some new Richmonds and put them in the field. Where are they now, these men who found the club and blood spots and planted envelope?"

"Where is Pierce, the Pinkerton head? Echo answers "Where?"

"Where is McWorth, who helped find them? Echo answers Where?'"

"All detectives, Starnes, Black, Campbell, Rosser, Scott every one of whom searched in vicinity of the scuttle hole, say they could see no blood spots nor club nor envelope."

"Don't you know that if they had not been planted and had been there after the murder. Holloway and others of his ilk would have been only too glad to have reported It to their superintendent in prison."

"Why, only a few days after the murder, a general clean-up was or ordered by insurance authorities. None of the cleaners found the blood nor the club nor the envelope on the first floor. Why? Because they weren't there."

Evidence All Planted.

"The club and spots and envelope are purely in keeping with the planting of Newt Lee's bloody shirt."

"Boots Rogers saw Frank take out the clock slip that morning and say that it was accurate. But, later, when the shirt was planted, this graduate of Cornell, this man so quick of figures, saw that Newt Lee wouldn't have had time to go home and change his shirt, so he accordingly changed his figures and altered his statement."

"But, the man who planted the shirt did his job too well he got a shirt too clean and smeared blood on both sides."

"And, more about this club Dr. Harris and Dr. Hurt both say that the wound in Mary Phagan's head could not have been inflicted by this planted club. It was too large, too round."

"They harp on this Minola McKnight business. Isn't it strange that Minola, herself, should tell such a story to her husband, then corroborate it in a sworn and written statement."

"Are we going to swallow all this stuff of Mrs. Selig's without knowledge of human nature?"

"Minola, in presence of her counsel, made that statement and swore to it. Gordon would not have been worthy of the name of lawyer had the story not been true and he had not said:"

"'Minola, don't put your name to that story unless it be true.'"

"If the statement wasn't true, Gordon, her lawyer, would not have sat there without raising a hand, knowing, well knowing, that his client could be sent to the penitentiary for false swearing."

"The reason Minola made that affidavit was because it was the embodiment of the truth, the pure truth."

It was at this point that Judge Roan recessed until Monday, on account of the exhausted condition of Mr. Dorsey.