The Atlanta Constitution,
Sunday, 5th April 1914,
PAGE 1, COLUMN 1.
On Return to Atlanta, Detective Announces He Will Confer With Dorsey, Lanford, and Smith.
SAYS HE HAS NOT MADE FINAL REPORT ON CASE
Denies the Report That He Stated He Believed a Third Party, as Yet Unarrested, Guilty of Murder.
"I have not made my final report. Neither have I said whether or not I believed Leo Frank to be innocent. Also, I have not made the statement that I believe a third man to be guilty."
Thus spoke Detective William J. Burns last night in denial of various stories that have come to Atlanta from New York and Chicago during his trip to those cities, from which he returned late yesterday afternoon.
"I say this much, however, and that is that I know who is the murderer of Mary Phagan. In time I will let the public know, and I will show conclusive proof. There will not be a single ground for the public to contradict me."
Mystery No Longer.
"The Phagan mystery is no longer a mystery. We have cleared it. I was confident from the outset that we would have success. It was no difficult task, and our work was simple merely the following of the criminal trend of mind, which left so many manifestations in the Phagan tragedy."
Burns stated to a Constitution Reporter at the Georgian Terrace that one of his first moves this week will be to seek conferences with Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey, Detective Chief Newport A. Lanford, and with William M. Smith, counsel for Jim Conley, the latter of whom recently issued a scathing attack against the noted sleuth. Burns will see Smith with a view to getting a talk with Conley.
"I do not expect opposition from any of these sources," Burns declared, "I feel assured that they will give me full co-operation, and that there will be nothing hostile in their attitude toward me."
Seeking the Truth.
"I have merely sought to get at the truth of this case, and I do not see where public officers should protest against assisting me in unearthing the truth. I do not think Solicitor Dorsey is the kind of man who would buck against co-operation with me."
Burns has just returned from a journey to New York, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Mo., and Chicago, in all of which cities he worked on mysterious phases of the Frank case which he will not divulge.
Asked the nature of these angles, on which much speculation has been created since it became known that they existed, Burns replied:
"I cannot give it out at present. I can only say that our investigations in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Illinois and Missouri were successful as successful as we could have desired."
Which means that the detective has brought to Atlanta new and startling evidence from the north.
Confers With Lieutenants.
Until the early hours of this morning, Burns labored in his hotel apartments with Dan Lehon and Guy Biddinger, his lieutenants, inspecting the mass of evidence that has been accumulated by these men since the famous sleuth left the city.
Burns will render his final report about next Friday, he stated. It will be made in complete form and will be turned over to the public through the newspapers.
"And then," he declared to the reporter, "the public and everything concerned will know positively who killed Mary Phagan."