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The Atlanta Georgian,
Wednesday, 27th August 1913,
PAGE 12.
REGRETS HE COULDN'T REPLY
Prisoner Prepares Statement to Combat What he Terms Distortion of Facts.
"Dorsey's speech was as full of holes as a sieve! If I could have had just one hour to reply to his eight-hour address I am confident I could have shown the jury that I was an innocent man and that the Solicitor was misrepresenting the facts in order to obtain a conviction."
This was a statement made by Leo M. Frank to friends who visited him in the jail Wednesday.
"Dorsey twisted and contorted the real circumstances of the case until they were unrecognizable," he continued. "He altered everything that was said and everything that was done until it seemed to point to my guilt. If I could have spoken only briefly after he finished his eight-hour speech I could have shown, I am sure, that he departed from the facts of the case wherever it suited him."
"I am preparing a statement in reply to his argument to the jury which I propose to make public, if my lawyers think it advisable. In it I will point out exactly how the Solicitor warped the testimony and the facts to suit his own convenience. I know that these misstatements of his had their influence with the jury and that is why I am rebelling against the unfairness of the situation."
Frank Still Optimistic.
Frank, according to his friends, was as optimistic as ever Wednesday in regard to the ultimate outcome of his case, but was somewhat downcast over the wave of sentiment against him. He said he could not understand how people could be so certain of his guilt when the testimony was circumstantial in the extreme, except for that of Conley, who was an admitted liar and perjurer.
Rabbi Marx, Emil Selig, Prince Myers, Sig Montag, Milton Kline and Herbert Schiff were among Frank's visitors Wednesday. Mr. Selig, Frank's father-in-law remained at the Tower from 8:45 until about 11:30.
Schiff brought with him a stenographer from the pencil factory and Frank dictated a number of letters and also some matter in connection with his own case. The former superintendent is compiling in compact form all of the important testimony at the trial so that he more readily may refer to it when he comes to make his reply to Dorsey.
He sent for his diary and for a quantity of paper while Schiff was with him and the two worked together for more than an hour.
An indictment of Jim Conley, charging him with being accessory after the fact in the murder of Mary Phagan will be asked of the first session of the next Grand Jury, according to the present ....... Solicitor General Dorsey.
The new Grand Jury will meet the first week in September, and probably will have the request of the Solicitor for the indictment of Conley as the first business for its disposal. The maximum sentence for this offense is three years, but it is thought that Conley, as a self-confessed accessory and a State's witness, will get off more lightly than the maximum.
Frank told friends Wednesday that he was planning to have a large part in the conduct of the fight to obtain a reversal of the verdict of last Monday afternoon. Frank rendered his attorney's assistance during the preparation of his case for presentation at the trial which has just ended, but all of the decisions of any consequence were left to them.