Wednesday, 20th January 1915: Jim Conley Removed To Tower. And Girl Detective Is The First Person To Obtain An Interview, The Atlanta Constitution

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Asked if he would like to see Frank hang, Negro says, "That's his business and God's, not mine." Will be star witness in trial of Tedder for subornation of perjury. Girl investigator from Grand Rapids pays own expenses here to make probe with ministers present, she quizzes Jim Conley.

A frail young woman with deep black eyes and an ambition to solve the Frank Case, who has been a girl of mystery around the courthouse for days, caused Jim Conley to spend one of the most eventful days yesterday since he was arrested two years ago and carried to Police Headquarters under suspicion of the murder of Mary Phagan. Conley is now lodged in the Tower beneath the same roof, with Leo Frank. Solicitor Dorsey expects to spring a sensation with him upon the stand in the Carlton C. Tedder trial for the subornation of perjury that is scheduled for Thursday. Until then, the Negro will remain in jail, closely guarded and privileged to see no visitors.

The cause of Conley's exciting day is Miss Lillian M. Schubel, girl investigator, formerly a stenographer and until lately a professional modiste of Grand Rapids, Mich. By special authority from the Board of County Commissioners, Conley was hauled from the Bellwood convict camp Tuesday afternoon and brought to the Courthouse, where he was subjected to a forty-five-minute inquisition by the woman.

Ministers are witnesses. At the demand of the commissioners, the interrogation was witnessed by three clergymen, Dr. John E. White, Dr. C. B. Wilmer and Dr. R. E. Gribbens. It came to an abrupt end when Conley expressed his suspicions that he was about to be the victim of a "frame-up." As secretly as he had been ushered into the Courtroom, he was hurried to the Tower.

Invariably withholding her mission from all persons except those from whom she sought information, Miss Schubel has been a figure of mystery about the Courthouse and in the Ansley and Aragon hotels, at which she has been residing. She contested last night, for the first time, to talk with reporters, to whom she declared she was making the investigation of her own volition. She is determined to stay in Atlanta until she has unearthed something definite in the famous mystery.

Surprise may be sprung. The exact nature of the surprise Solicitor Dorsey expects to unloose with Conley in the Teder trial is a secret. It is rumored that new evidence has been obtained against Tedder, who, during the Frank investigation, was attached to the Office of Conley's Counsel, William M. Smith, holding, at the same time, the secret job of an operative with the William J. Burns Detective Agency.

Solicitor Dorsey was closeted in his office until late last night with Detectives John Starnes and Pat Campbell, the prosecutors of Frank, and with his Assistant, E. A. Stephens, preparing the Case against Tedder.

Conley is being guarded at the jail. Sheriff Mangum issued strict orders that no one be permitted to see him. The Sheriff was notified that Conley remain in jail until he had been used in the Superior Court. He was not informed, however, of the Case in which the Negro is to testify. An effort was made to veil the Conley events in deep secrecy.

His removal Tuesday from the Bellwood convict camp, in which he is serving a year's sentence for complicity in the Mary Phagan crime, was made at the instruction of the Board of County Commissioners, who are said to have granted Miss Schubel permission to interrogate the prisoner.

Paying her own expenses. Miss Schubel stoutly maintains that she is employed by no one to investigate the Frank mystery, and that she is doing it entirely upon her own initiative, spending her own money and paying her own expenses. Her money, she told a reporter last night, comes from savings she had boarded since childhood.

She professes to be endowed with an unusually clear insight into human nature. Her intentions, she says, are not to write her findings for any magazine or newspaper, but to present them to the Solicitor General, whether they be in behalf of Frank or adverse to his defense.

She lives with her widowed mother in Grand Rapids, where, until her journey to Atlanta, she conducted a Modiste Shop. Upon first arriving in the City, she sought and finally gained admission to Hugh Dorsey's Office. Suspecting that she was a Private Detective, the Solicitor ordered her shadowed. For days, she had been a figure of mystery around the Courthouse.

Newt Garner and Charley Isom, two members of the Solicitor's Staff, shadowed the girl investigator"she is only twenty-five"until they satisfied themselves that she was not a Private Detective. Later, when she again consulted Dorsey, he offered to assist her.

Miss Schubel interviewed the governor and obtained his permission to investigate the Case. She told him that it was due to the State of Georgia that the noted mystery be solved, and she would exert every power in her possession.

Confers with Frank. She held several Conferences with Frank and with his Attorneys. She interviewed the Chief of Police and the Chief of the Detective Department, but strove unavailingly to arrange an interview with Jim Conley. For two weeks she pleaded with County Officials and Warden Girardeau with no success.

She appeared at the Bellwood camp one day last week in the guise of a sight-seer, and was within the boundaries of the camp when it was learned that she was seeking to see Conley. As a last resort, she appealed to the Board of County Commissioners last Saturday.

She was granted an audience with Conley under the condition that she ask her questions in the presence of competent witnesses. The Board selected Dr. White, Dr. Wilmer and Dr. Gribbens, assistant to Dr. Wilmer. These ministers gathered at the Courthouse Tuesday afternoon when Conley was brought in from his prison.

Those present during Miss Schubel's attempt to question the negro were Warden Girardeau, the three clergymen and a Convict Guard.

Conley started the interview with the announcement that "he wasn't going to answer any questions."

Miss Schubel stated her position, saying that she was making the investigation solely of her own Accord, and that she was paying her own expenses. After which, she put numerous questions to the Negro bearing on the Phagan Murder. The Negro received them dumbly, declining to reply.

Conley gets suspicious. Finally, after using every art in her interrogative power, Miss Schubel asked:

"Why don't you want to answer my questions?"

Conley meditated, then said:

"You say you're paying your own way, and don't expect to get any pay out of all this work?"

"Yes," answered the girl.

"Then, the only reason I can give is because it looks like a frame-up, lady!"

At this, the queries ended. Dr. White asked a question:

"Would you like to see Mr. Frank hang?"

"That's his business and God Almighty's," the Negro answered. "Mr. Frank knows what he did."

"You've evidently made up your mind not to talk about the Case," said Dr. White.

"Yes, sir," replied Conley. "I don't want to do any more talking than I can help. I've already answered enough Questions. I answered 'em for Mr. Rosser a whole day. Now, if it was in Court, it'd be different."

Warden Girardeau, when seen by a Reporter last night, declined to talk about Conley's removal or his interrogation by Miss Schubel. He said that Conley has been removed "merely as a matter of convenience." He would not state how long he expected Conley to remain in the Tower.

Miss Schubel says she is in the last stages of her investigation and that within another week she will probably return to Grand Rapids. She would not say whether or not she had unearthed any new evidence. Neither would she express her views of the Case, saying she would reserve them until the end of her investigation.The Tedder trial Thursday is another echo of the famous Frank investigation. Tedder and Dan Lehon were indicted several months ago for subornation of perjury. The indictments followed the activities of William J. Burns, which had an outgrowth in the sensational Bribery Charges of Rev. C. B. Ragsdale, the Minister who charged Burns' Operatives with bribing him to tell a false story of a confession by Conley.