Monday, 23rd February 1914: Frank Accuser Is Missing, The Atlanta Georgian

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### Conley Case to Jury on Tuesday

Both Sides Rest Argument Set for Tomorrow Undertaker Complicates Hair Evidence.

Unless the jury should be unexpectedly long in its deliberation, Jim Conley, on trial before Judge Hill as accessory after the fact in the murder of Mary Phagan, will know Tuesday morning whether he is to go free or if he must serve time in prison or one of the State's chaingangs.

Defense and prosecution had rested when court adjourned at 2:30 o'clock Monday afternoon. Just four hours sufficed for both sides to present their evidence.

W. H. Gheesling, the undertaker who prepared the body of Mary Phagan for burial, testified, in effect, that because the hair found on the lathe machine in the metal room at the pencil factory was darker than the hair on the girl's head when she was buried, that does not prove the hair found on the machine was not hair from the Phagan girl's head.

Washing Affects Color.

Gheesling testified that washing light brown hair makes it lighter in color, and that he did wash the Phagan girl's hair to get the grit out of it.

Arguments will begin Tuesday morning unless Albert Mc Knight, wanted by the State as a witness and mysteriously missing since Saturday night, is found by that time. Mc Knight is the Negro who testified at the Frank trial to seeing Frank in the Selig home the afternoon of the murder and who last Saturday repudiated the story he told on the stand.

He will be put on the stand for a grilling by Solicitor Dorsey if he is found. Otherwise the attorneys will at once present their case to the jury in brief arguments.

Conley's Defense.

Conley's defense consisted of the reading of part of his final statement concerning his part in the Phagan mystery. The statement concluded with the plea that Conley be discharged because he gave the State all the aid he could in convicting Frank.

In rebuttal, the State read another part of the same statement in which Conley testified that he lied about his connection with the murder at first in the hope that Frank would get out of his trouble and help him (Conley) out of his difficulty.

That Attorney W. M. Smith would not be satisfied with a light sentence for Jim Conley, but proposed to get the Negro entirely free, was evident.

Smith pleaded not guilty for his client and added the statement that he had been convinced, ever since he had been acquainted with Conley's story of his connection with the crime, that he was not guilty as an accessory. The State rested its case at 1:10 o'clock.

The defense rested at 1:25 o'clock after Conley's statement had been read to the jury. The State at once started a brief rebuttal. Solicitor Dorsey expected to put the case in the jury's hands in the afternoon or by Tuesday forenoon at the latest.

"He is guilty neither on a misdemeanor or a felony charge," said Smith. "The provisions of the law are clear in this respect."

Half Hour Getting Jury.

Solicitor Dorsey and Attorney Smith agreed on a number of the facts of the case before the trial began, so that it would be unnecessary to take them up and call witnesses at any time during the Negro's trial.

Only half an hour was consumed in the selection of a jury. The forenoon was taken up with the reading of testimony at the Coroner's inquest and at the trial of Frank.

Before resting his case, Solicitor Dorsey indicated that he would rely largely on Conley's own statement to obtain his conviction. Attorney Smith, on the contrary, was relying on it to establish the Negro's innocence. It was on Smith's request that the Negro's last story of the crime was read to the jury in lieu of an oral statement.

"Admitting all the facts," he told the Court, "there is nothing to show that under the law Conley is guilty of assisting Frank in the murder of Mary Phagan."

While the testimony of Sergeant L. S. Dobbs, telling of the condition of the slain girl's body which evidently had been dragged through the grime and dirt, was being read, Conley picked at the edge of his soft hat and looked steadily toward the blank courtroom wall.

Death Notes Introduced.

The notes were introduced in evidence at once. A number of the veniremen were excused for bias and other cause. Here are those who were selected to pass on the guilt of the Negro: J. A. Simpson, M. F. Johns, A. L. Suttles, J. S. Owens, T. W. Stanley, W. E. Mitchurn, J. G. Scherer, B. J. Meaders, J. A. Cochran, O. T. Kitchens, J. D. Didly, and C. L. Brown.

Detective J. N. Starnes, as the prosecuting witness, had a seat by Solicitor Dorsey and conferred frequently with him.

When Assistant Solicitor Stephens began reading Conley's testimony at the Coroner's inquest, giving all the details of the fateful day in the pencil factory, the Negro, oblivious to all else, leaned forward in his chair, hand cupped to ear, listening intently and nodding his head almost imperceptibly as his mind's eye followed the testimony from incident to incident, as he had related it to the Coroner.

Nods Affirmation of Statement.

The Negro nodded emphatically when the Assistant Solicitor reached his statement: "I was willing to do anything to help Mr. Frank, because he was good to me and was my superintendent."

At noon it looked as though the reading of parts of the record in the case would occupy the greater part of the time of the Court Monday.

A jury to try Conley was selected in the Court of Judge Ben H. Hill Monday forenoon at 10:35 o'clock.

The courtroom was jammed with spectators long before Conley was brought in by a county deputy at 10:25. The bailiffs were compelled to clear the aisles several times and there was some difficulty in keeping order.

The Negro, his teeth showing in a broad smile, took his place by his Attorney, William M. Smith. Smith announced before the case was called for trial that his client would enter a plea of not guilty to the charge of being an accessory.

Negro Has Same Old Hat.

A ripple of amusement was caused when it was noticed that Conley was wearing the sock of white and another of blue. In his hand, he carried the same dirty yellow hat that he wore during the long trial of Leo Frank.

### M'Knight Is Believed to Have Fled

Man Affidavit Charges With Coercion Says He Will Prosecute Mc Knight for Perjury

Interest in the sensational affidavit of Albert Mc Knight, in which the Negro swore that prior to the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan he was coerced by Roy L. Craven and others into making statements damaging to Frank, reached an acute stage Monday when it became known that Mc Knight had disappeared.

According to Craven and O. Morrison, manager of Beck-Gregg Hardware Company, where the Negro was employed, he has not been seen around his accustomed haunts since Saturday afternoon, when he was closeted with Frank's attorneys for more than an hour.

"We have been trying to locate Mc Knight since we heard he had made the affidavit," said Craven and Morrison, "and we can't find any trace of him."

Not at Home Since Saturday.

"Inquiry at his home, we understand, has elicited the information that the Negro has not been seen since Saturday. We intend to keep on hunting for him, and when we find him we will make him face us and repeat the story he swore to in the affidavit published Sunday morning. Mc Knight was to have come to work this morning, but did not show up."

Both Craven and Morrison indirectly charged that Frank's friends are responsible for the disappearance of the Negro, and intimate that he has been sent out of town so they cannot make him face them with his new story.

"One of the other Negroes here told us they saw Mc Knight Saturday," said Craven, "and that he appeared very happy and contented."Craven and Morrison declared that they will keep up the search for the Negro until he is found, and that they will try to have the Negro prosecuted for perjury in the making of the second Affidavit.

Craven Denies Coercion.

"I can prove that the Negro made his first Affidavit of his own free will, and without any suggestion from me," said Craven, "and I'm going to do it, and then let Mc Knight and Frank's Attorneys prove his statements that I coaxed him into making his statements that damaged Frank."

In his original Affidavit, made prior to the trial, Mc Knight declared that he saw Frank about 1:30 o'clock the afternoon of the day of the murder, and that the factory superintendent was nervous and would not eat any lunch. He also related several conversations which he asserted his wife, Minola Mc Knight, had overheard in the Frank household.

In the Affidavit released Saturday by Reuben Arnold and Luther Rosser, Mc Knight declared that he made these statements under coercion and that he did not see Frank at all on the day of the murder. He charged that his evidence was the result of a plot between Craven and others to get the reward offered for the murderer of Mary Phagan.

Frank Appeal To Be Filed Monday.

Frank's Attorneys declared Monday that the Appeal for a rehearing of Frank's Case by the Supreme Court, which has been in process of preparation since the Court denied Frank a new trial last week, will be filed sometime during the day.

Neither Mr. Arnold nor Mr. Rosser would give out any of the details of the Appeal Monday morning, declaring that it will not be made public until it is placed in the hands of the clerk of the Supreme Court.

It is generally conceded, however, that the Appeal will cite 50 or more instances where, in the opinion of Frank's counsel, the Court overlooked salient points of the argument, and failed to consider important points of the Case.

Little Hope for Appeal.

It was indicated Monday that the Attorneys for Frank do not attach great importance to the Appeal for a new hearing, and that they do not consider that there is much likelihood that it will be granted. It will, however, pave the way for an Extraordinary Motion for a new trial before Judge Ben Hill, of the Superior Court, upon which the defense is counting and toward which it is directing its efforts. This Extraordinary Motion, it is understood, will be filed at once if the Supreme Court declines to reopen the Case, and will be based upon the following points:

Wholesale charges of conspiracy between detectives and witnesses.

Dr. Roy Harris' assertion that the hair found on the lathe in the metal room of the pencil factory did not come from the head of Mary Phagan.

The alleged concealing by Solicitor Dorsey of Dr. Harris' knowledge.

Affidavits Charge Coercion.

The Albert Mc Knight Affidavit, in which Roy Craven is charged with coercing the Negro to make statements damaging to Frank's Case.

Affidavits alleging that Detectives coerced Witnesses to testifying against Frank.

An Affidavit from Mrs. Nina Formby, alleging that she was forced by Detectives to make damaging Statements against Frank.

Besides these six grounds upon which to base a motion for an extraordinary Appeal, it is understood that the defense has a number of Affidavits from girls and women who testified that Frank's general character was bad, in which they reverse their testimony and declare that they were told to testify as they did. These women, it is said, have furnished the defense with entirely new evidence which will be incorporated in the motion.

Woman Now Denies Story.

The Affidavit alleged to have been made by Mrs. Formby is the latest Development in the Case. It is understood to have been secured by C. W. Burke, a Private Detective attached to Mr. Rosser's office, who obtained the Affidavit from Albert Mc Knight Saturday attacking Roy Craven. The woman's latest Affidavit, it is intimated by the defense, declares that her previous Statements made to Chief Beavers and Chief Lanford are untrue and that she was forced to make them by detectives who threatened her with arrest and expulsion from the city.

The original Affidavit of Mrs. Formby, made before Chief Beavers, Chief Lanford, and Solicitor Dorsey, Judge Broyles and Sidney J Coogler, stated that shortly before 6 o'clock on the evening of the murder of Mary Phagan, Leo Frank called her on the telephone and asked her if he could bring a girl to her apartments on Piedmont Avenue. She stated that Frank had been there before with women, but that this time she refused to let him come on pretense that she was going to leave her apartments for an automobile ride and would not be at home.

Little Credence Given Tale.

The Police from the start placed little dependence upon Mrs. Formby's Affidavit, and she was never called to the Witness Stand. Police declared that her Record is bad and that she had been the keeper of a disreputable resort.

The defense attaches considerable importance to the Affidavit made Saturday by Albert Mc Knight, who branded as false his previous Affidavit declaring that he had seen Frank on the day of the murder, and that his wife, Minola Mc Knight, had told him of Frank's actions on the night following the murder.

Mc Knight asserts, in his late Affidavit, that his statements damaging to Frank were made at the request of a white man employed by the Beck & Gregg Hardware Company, and that they were the result of a conspiracy to obtain the reward offered for the arrest and conviction of the murderer of the little girl.

Calls Frame-up Charge "Bunk."

"Bunk" was Chief of Detectives Lanford's brief but expressive characterization of Charges of "frame-up" against the Detective and Police Departments in the obtaining of evidence against Frank.

"There is nothing to the charges that are reported to be contained in Affidavits in the possession of the defense," he said. "It's all bosh and nonsense. There was nothing 'crooked' or improper in the methods that were used by the Detectives. I wish the public could know how cleanly the entire Case was conducted by this department."

"Everything was fair and above board. Everything that we did is open to the world. The Affidavits that we took, all were given us voluntarily, or with very little urging. There was no coercion."

Formby Woman's Story

"As to the Nina Formby Affidavit, it was the Formby woman who called up the Detective Department and told us she had some Information of value to us. We sent a man out there. He reported her statement that Frank had called up repeatedly on the night of the murder and had made desperate efforts to obtain her permission to bring a girl to her house."

"We thought there might be something to her story, and Chief Beavers, Solicitor Dorsey and myself went there. We told her if her story was true to come to the Police Station and swear to it. She did this the next day. There was no frame-up or any thought of a frame-up. If she lied, she did it on her own account."