Friday, 27th March 1914: 3 Swear To Alibi For Frank, The Atlanta Georgian

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A half-dozen new witnesses to establish an alibi for Leo Frank, twice as many more to testify to the "shaping" of testimony by the Solicitor and detectives and many others whose evidence tends to throw the suspicion of guilt upon Jim Conley are named in the formal notice of an extraordinary motion for a new trial filed Friday by the lawyers for Leo M. Frank.

"No stronger motion for a new trial ever was filed in the State of Georgia," was the comment of Reuben R. Arnold, one of the defendant's counsel, when the notice was submitted.

Positive declarations that they saw Frank at Whitehall and Alabama streets between 1:03 and 1:05 o'clock the afternoon of the murder are made by Samuel A. Pardee, sales manager for the Cotton States Belting and Supply Company; M. V. Green, his companion, a Mrs. Jaffe, and Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller, all of whom are acquaintances of the prisoner.

Contradicts Conley's Story.

This is in positive contradiction of Jim Conley's story that he left Frank in the factory at 1:30 o'clock that afternoon.

A piece of new evidence, regarded by Frank's lawyers as of the utmost importance and significance, is that given by Mary Rich, a negro woman, who conducts a small restaurant. In her testimony, given to the counsel, she asserts positively that she saw Conley coming from the rear of the National Pencil Factory at about 2:15 o'clock on the afternoon of the murder.

Conley, by his own story, had left the factory by the front door at 1:30 o'clock and was on his way home at this time.

The Rich woman declares that she sold Conley a 20-cent dinner, and that he returned to the factory by the way he had come.

Explains Broken Lock.

This is taken to explain the broken lock on the rear door of the basement, which never before has been explained.

A large number of the girl witnesses who were called on the stand by the State to testify to Frank's alleged bad character have repudiated their testimony and they are represented in the extraordinary motion as having been overinfluenced, in some cases intimidated and in others misled into giving testimony derogatory to the defendant.

One of the girls, a Miss Marie Karst, goes so far in her affidavit as to say that she testified affirmatively as to Frank's bad conduct when she did not even know the meaning of the words that the Solicitor used.

Most important of the repudiations of the character witnesses probably is that of C. Brutus Dalton, the Gwinnett County character who testified on the stand that he had been in the factory and had seen women in Frank's office on Saturday afternoons.

Says He Lied for Detectives.

In making his repudiation, he declares that he was led to tell lies on the defendant by the detectives and the Solicitor, and that, as a matter of fact, he never knew Frank to be intimate in any way with women in the factory.

His only knowledge of Frank, he goes on to say, was obtained on an occasion when he went to the factory with one of the young women employees who drew her pay.

The motion, covering 60 typewritten pages, contains all the new evidence given in the recently printed affidavits, and more along the same line. It contains nothing of the researches of Detective William J. Burns, and it is inferred that the service of the notice in reality is merely to fix and hold the date for the hearing, as any other new evidence that may be obtained in the intervening period may be added to and included in the original motion.

In short, it appears from the tenor of the motion that the defense is masking its batteries, and by no means uncovering the full power of its case early in the game.

State's Time Theory Upset.

By the combination of this array of alibi witnesses, the defense believes that it has established convincingly the guilt of Conley and the innocence of Leo Frank. Jones, who is Conley's cousin, now admits that he did not see Conley that afternoon at all.

The affidavits, if they are taken by the court at their face value, show that Conley did not leave the factory at 1:30 o'clock, but that instead he was hanging about the basement until long after 2 o'clock.

They also show that Frank, instead of staying in the factory until 1:30 o'clock, left within three or four minutes after 1 o'clock and went to the corner of Whitehall and Alabama streets, where he was seen by half a dozen persons. These circumstances, if they are established as facts, will upset the State's entire theory of the murder as it was presented to the jury.

Hair Evidence Taken Up.

A good part of the motion deals with the evidence the Solicitor introduced to prove that the hair found on the lathe on the second floor of the factory was Mary Phagan's. The statement of Dr. H. F. Harris that a careful microscopic examination showed him that the hair was entirely unlike that of the murdered girl is quoted in support of a new trial.

The defense declares that the Solicitor asked his brother, Dr. E. T. Dorsey, to examine the hair after Harris had made his findings and the physician refused. Dorsey then failed to introduce Harris' evidence, and later reported the hair to have been lost. The fact is then cited that the State introduced a number of witnesses to prove that the hair found was from the slain girl, and distinctly prejudiced the case against Frank in that way while in the possession of expert evidence of its own to the contrary.

Evidence by Miss Jimmie Mayfield and Mrs. Cora Falta, factory employees, is then quoted to show that the hair was not Mary Phagan's. These two young women testify absolutely to that fact, declaring they knew Mary Phagan well and that the hair found was much lighter and altogether different.

Albert Mc Knight's repudiation of the testimony he gave that he saw Frank at the Selig home on the day of the crime and that he acted suspiciously is then quoted. The defense says Mc Knight swears the statement was written and prepared by Albert Craven, a white man employed by the Beck & Gregg Hardware Company, and was witnessed by E. H. Pickett and August Morrison, Jr., both employed by the same firm. They declare the negro was told that he would have to stick to his false story because it had been witnessed.

Mc Knight swears that he was threatened with the chain gang if he changed the story prepared for him, which he now brands as an entire untruth. Mc Knight says now he left the Selig home before 12:30 and did not see Frank at all on the day of the crime. The defense contends that Craven planned to collect the reward offered for the arrest and conviction of the slayer, a part of which he promised to Mc Knight. Mc Knight says he was weak enough to follow Craven's directions after he had been thoroughly drilled. The defense points out that the Mc Knight testimony was relied upon strongly by the State to shatter Frank's alibi and that the repudiation should entitle him to a new trial.

Mrs. J. B. Simmons' evidence that the Solicitor failed to call her as a witness after she had informed him that she heard screams from the basement of the factory at 2:30 o'clock is set forth as further justification for a new trial. Mrs. Simmons is quoted as declaring that the Solicitor tried hard to make her change her story, but that she steadfastly refused. The motion then contains this paragraph:

"Defendant further shows that it has come to the knowledge of this defendant, since the motion for new trial was denied, that on April 26, 1913, between 2:30 and 3 o'clock, on Whitehall street, that the fact that said Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey had seen Frank at about the time just stated is the reason that he attempted to discredit the statement made to him by Mrs. Simmons."

The defense contends that the State's whole case revolved about the theory that the girl was killed between 12:05 and 12:20 and that Mrs. Simmons' testimony given to the Solicitor that she heard screams at 2:30 would tend to show the girl was alive an hour after the State contends she was killed.The testimony of Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller that she saw Frank at Whitehall and Alabama streets between 1:00 and 1:10 follows. Her affidavit is submitted.

Girl Repudiates Testimony.

Dewey Hewell was one of the State's witnesses against Frank at the trial. She was called to show that Frank had tried to force his attentions on Mary Phagan and that he was a man of bad character. In the affidavit made for the defense, she states clearly that she was coached and drilled in her testimony given on the stand, and that Maggie Griffin, another of the State's character witnesses, was one of those most eager in coaching her. She declares that the Griffin girl told her exactly what to say and that others were coached in a similar manner; that when some of them said they were afraid to go on the stand and tell an untruth, the Griffin girl said that she wasn't afraid and was going on the stand and tell exactly what the Solicitor wanted. The Hewell girl's affidavit sets forth that she told Maggie Griffin that she knew nothing against Frank and nothing about Mary Phagan and that the Griffin girl told her to go on the stand just the same and say that she knew Frank's character to be bad and that she had seen Frank whispering to the Phagan girl with his face very close to her.

Dorsey's Methods Attacked.

"Now we'll go over it again so that you won't forget it," the Griffin girl said, according to the affidavit, after she had given directions as to how Dewey Hewell should testify. "A strong attack upon the methods of Solicitor Dorsey is contained in the ninth ground for a new trial, which was submitted on the affidavit given by Miss Ruth Robinson, one of the State's character witnesses and a former employee at the factory." Miss Robinson charges that the Solicitor, who interviewed her in his office for an hour and a-half, insulted her by insisting that she knew of the alleged immoralities of Frank after she had denied having any knowledge of anything derogatory to the defendants' character. She declares that she was shocked by the Solicitor's broad insinuations and that she never heard such insulting language by direct speech or innuendo by any of the commonest laborers about the pencil factory as was used to her by the Solicitor in his private room. She adds that at the time she believed he possessed some sort of right thus to ask her insulting questions by virtue of his official position, and that she had no right to resent it except by denying each one of his scandalous interrogations.

Badgered by Dorsey, She Says.

She asserts that she was badgered by the Solicitor into saying that Frank knew Mary Phagan by name. She also corroborates much of the affidavit of Dewey Hewell, declaring that she heard the Hewell girl say that she didn't even know Mary Phagan. The tenth ground for a new trial is founded upon the affidavit of Miss Mamie Kitchens, who swears that her testimony at the trial was misunderstood because she was not allowed to tell in her own way the circumstances of Frank entering the dressing room. She declares that the girls were not undressed and that Frank never evinced any improper motives or intentions in looking after the girls. Charges that she was prompted and coached by the Solicitor are contained in the affidavit of Miss Marie Karst, whose statements are made the eleventh ground for a new trial. She asserts that the Solicitor directed her to say on the stand that Frank's character was bad, and that later, when she was asked as a witness if the defendant's character for lasciviousness was good or bad, she answered "bad" in the face of the fact that she did not know the meaning of the word lasciviousness it never having been explained to her at that time. She swears that since she has learned the meaning of the word she can deny that, so far as her knowledge extends, Frank's character or reputation is bad.

Two New Alibi Witnesses.

Samuel A. Pardee and W. V. Green, two of the new alibi witnesses, declare that they were at the local store of the Cotton States Belting and Supply Company, at No. 9 North Broad street, during the morning of April 26 and up to 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Pardee professes to know Frank well by sight. They left the store at 1 o'clock, according to their story, and walked to Jacobs' Pharmacy, at Whitehall and Alabama streets, arriving there between 1:03 and 1:05 o'clock. Pardee declares that he saw Frank leaning against the power pole of the Georgia Railway and Power Company; that he recalls Frank had a paper in his hand; that he (Pardee) waved his hand, and that Frank replied by waving the paper. The defense holds that this evidence, which supports that of Miss Helen Kern at the trial, is supremely important in that it completely upsets the contentions of the State, whose Solicitor sought to establish that Mary Phagan was killed by Frank between 12:05 and 12:30 the afternoon of April 26 and that between 12:56 and 1:30 Frank, assisted by Conley, moved the dead body from the second floor down to the basement. The Solicitor sought to show by Conley, the motion sets forth, that Frank was in the factory the entire time from 12:56 to 1:30 o'clock assisting Conley in the disposal of the body, when such was not the case.

Negress Saw Conley.

Mary Rich, the negro woman who sold lunches at the factory, says in her affidavit which is embodied in ground thirteen of the motion, that she knows Jim Conley and that at about 2:15 the afternoon of the murder he came from the alley at the rear of the factory and bought a 20-cent dinner from her. She says that after buying the dinner he carried it in his hand and went back to the alley in the direction of the Pencil Factory and that she saw no more of him that day. The affidavit of Mrs. J. B. Simmons, previously made public by the defense, relates that the affiant heard screams coming from the Pencil Factory basement between 2:20 and 2:30. This, in conjunction with the Rich affidavit, is represented as refuting the State's theory that Mary Phagan was killed by Frank on the second floor at 12:05 or near that time. Instead, the defense claims, the evidence shows that she was killed in the basement by Conley some time after 2 o'clock.

Dalton Also Repudiates.

Burtus Dalton, in his repudiation, says that when Detectives Starns and Campbell first came to see him he told them that so far as he knew Frank was a moral man in every respect. He asserts that the detectives laughed at him and insisted that he should testify that Frank was a man of bad character and that he (Dalton) had joined the defendant on various occasions in acts of immoral conduct with women and that he had seen Frank and Conley in earnest conversation at different times. Dalton says that he told the detectives that every word of it was untrue so far as it related to Frank, but that they induced him to go on the stand and testify to this effect. The notes found by Mary Phagan's body are discussed at length in ground No. 14, particularly in the light of the new discovery that one of them bears the carbon tracery of the signature of H. F. Becker, former master mechanic in the factory. The improbability that such a pad, which was used in 1909 by Becker, should be in the office of Frank rather than in the basement where all discarded and used pads were taken, is set forth in more than two pages of typewritten manuscript.

Says Conley Menaced Her.

The new testimony of Miss Helen Ferguson, in which she says she was menaced by the negro Jim Conley the week before the murder, also enters into the new motion. The testimony of J. M. Duffy, who declares that he was led into giving false and misleading testimony by the Solicitor, forms the basis for the concluding ground. Duffy declares that Dorsey bullied him into saying that when he cut his hand in an accident at the factory none of the blood could have dropped on the floor near the ladies' dressing room.On the contrary, Duffy now testifies, his hand did bleed considerably and it is quite likely that blood dropped on the floor at that point. Duffy says that when he was called to Dorsey's office the Solicitor said that Lemmie Quinn and a boy named Charlie had testified that Duffy had cut his hand badly and had let a lot of blood drop near the ladies' dressing room, where the blood spots were found by the detectives. Duffy, in his affidavit, declares that Dorsey then said to him: "Now, Mr. Duffy, you know that that is not so, and you know that you were not in front of the dressing room at all, and that there was no blood that ran on the floor, and that, as soon as you had injured your finger, you promptly went to the office of Mr. Frank and then to the Atlanta Hospital." This witness declares that Dorsey asked the questions and then answered them himself and that he could see exactly what the Solicitor wanted him to testify and that he did so testify.

PAGE 6, COLUMN 1

GIRL WITNESSES IN NEW AFFIDAVITS REPUDIATE EVIDENCE AGAINST FRANK

Affidavits Attack State's Time Theory

Most powerful in the new evidence found by Leo Frank's lawyers in the endeavor to brand Jim Conley's story a falsehood from start to finish and to establish the certainty that Frank could not have been in the factory at the time Conley testified he was, is that contained in the affidavits of Samuel A. Pardee, sales manager for the Cotton States Belting and Supply Company; W. V. Green, a Mrs. Jaffe, Ivey Jones, a negro and cousin of Jim Conley, and Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller. The affidavits of these persons were attached as exhibits in the notice of the extraordinary motion for a new trial filed Friday. All of the affiants, with the exception of the negro, swear that they saw Leo Frank about 1:05 o'clock the afternoon of the murder, thus strongly supporting the testimony of Miss Helen Kern, who was unsupported at the trial in her declaration that she saw Frank at Whitehall and Alabama streets at about 1:05 or 1:10 o'clock that afternoon. Conley asserted in his remarkable story told on the stand that he left Frank in the factory when he (Conley) left at 1:30 o'clock. The new witnesses, if they are accurate in their testimony, entirely overthrow this part of the negro's story. Ivey Jones, on the stand, told of meeting Conley shortly after 2 o'clock the day of the murder. In his new affidavit he asserts that he did not see Conley at all that day.

PAGE 6, COLUMN 4

BURNS' NOTED AIDE ON PHAGAN MYSTERY

Dan Lehon, of New Orleans, head of Burns' Agency in South, who is here on Phagan Case.