Thursday, 19th February 1914: Writing New Frank Appeal, The Atlanta Georgian

Reading Time: 6 minutes [936 words]

### PAGE 1, COLUMN 8

**BURNS MEN HUNT NEW EVIDENCE**

"We're Going to Go Deep. No Matter Whom It Hits," Declares Famous Sleuth.

Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold were in conference Thursday for several hours completing the motion for a rehearing of arguments before the Supreme Court on a new trial for Leo Frank. They were planning to submit the motion later in the day.

The motion covers several typewritten pages and refers especially to the strong opinion submitted by Justices Fish and Beck dissenting from the recent majority opinion that Frank was given a fair and impartial trial.

Other reasons are given for the contention of Frank's lawyers that the Supreme Court should give the defendant in the case another opportunity to put his case before the justices for their consideration. No oral argument is likely on the motion for a rehearing.

**Felder to Oppose Motion.**

It will be opposed by Attorney General Thomas Felder, who holds that the defense was given every chance to present its entire argument in the previous hearing.

The entrance of William J. Burns, regarded by many as America's greatest detective, into the South's most baffling murder mystery was the subject of interested comment Thursday wherever the Frank case was under discussion.

Coming just as the Supreme Court of the State had handed down its solemn pronouncement that Leo Frank had been accorded a fair trial under the laws of Georgia and was not entitled to another chance for his life, the startling news that Burns had been engaged on the case had an element of the dramatic and spectacular.

It also furnished food for the speculation as to what he could hope to accomplish or what he might aim to uncover after the mystery had been scrutinized, overhauled, and fine-tooth-combed by Atlanta's entire detective department and part of the police department, the Pinkertons, special operatives from outside, the Solicitor's office, the Coroner's jury and the Grand Jury, a jury in the Superior Court, Judge Roan, and, finally, the Supreme Court of the State.

**Will Make Thorough Probe**

Detective Burns made his attitude in the case plain at once in a conversation with The Georgian. He said:

"It is true that I have been interested in the case by friends of Frank, but I wish to say at the outset that I have not been engaged to clear Frank. The terms on which I have undertaken the work are only that I shall make a thorough and impartial investigation, regardless of whom it may hit."

"Something may have been overlooked or neglected in the original investigation, and I may be able to find this. It may help Frank or it may serve more surely to condemn him. I shall work without any fear or favor, whatever my investigations may develop. The experience has not been unusual for me and my Operatives to find that the very Clients who were engaging us, themselves, or those in whom they were interested, were the ones whom our investigation uncovered as the real Culprits. This never has deterred us. We do not propose to 'trim,' because our own Client or his friends are the ones hit."

"We hope to have the co-operation of the Atlanta Detective Force and the Solicitor's Office. It is not at all our intention to tear down their work so long as we are convinced that they have been correct in their premises. On the contrary, our investigation will serve to reinforce what they have done if Frank is the guilty man."

### PAGE 7, COLUMN 4

**BURNS TO SIFT EVIDENCE IN FRANK CASE**

Noted Detective Is Engaged by Friends of Condemned Man. To Investigate in Person.

**Continued From Page 1.**

"If he is not, they would be as unwilling as anyone else that an innocent man should be punished and would be the first to offer assistance in finding the real murderer.

It is impossible to predict what our work on the case may add to it. You may be sure that we are not going to do anything uncanny. We shall approach it in a common-sense, matter-of-fact manner, and try to satisfy the public as to the person who slew Mary Phagan. We shall review the case from its beginning. We shall endeavor to overlook nothing, however slight, which may throw any light on the mystery, if it proves to be a mystery."

Mr. Burns will have personal charge of the investigation. He will return to Atlanta the early part of next week, after he fills several lecture dates in other Southern cities. He will have with him in the direction of the case Dan S. Lehon, of New Orleans, general manager of the Southern division of the Burns agencies, and C. E. Sears, manager of the Atlanta branch.

**Lehon Highly Praised**

"Lehon is one of the best detectives in America," said Burns. Lehon, who was in company with his chief, blushed his acknowledgment of the compliment.

Friends of Frank had a conference with Burns Wednesday while he was at luncheon. They saw him again following his lecture in the evening in the Baptist Tabernacle. The detective said that he would be actively at work on the case within a few days.

Burns said in reply to a reporter's question that J. Wilberforce Martin, the wealthy Memphis Cotton Man who mysteriously disappeared last year, had been located to the satisfaction of his relatives.

"He wasn't murdered or anything like it," said the detective.

His only reply to a question as to the whereabouts of Ortie E. Mc Manigal, star witness of the dynamite cases who magically vanished from a San Francisco jail, was a noncommittal smile.