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The Atlanta Georgian,
Thursday, 31st July 1913,
PAGE 31, COLUMN 1.
FRANK NOT IN OFFICE JUST AFTER 12 ON DAY OF SLAYING, SAYS GIRL
The deliberate charge that he had been "trapped" by Pinkerton Detective Harry Scott was made by Solicitor Dorsey at the trial of Leo M. Frank Thursday. Scott played a curious part in the trial, being attacked by both sides.
He was given the same fiery baptism that annihilated City Detective Black the day before, but he passed through the ordeal in much better shape than his brother detective. Scott left the stand at 11 o'clock and Miss Monteen Stover was called.
The Stover girl testified that she visited the factory shortly after 12 o'clock, April 26, and that Frank was not in his office.
Scott refused to be cowed by the battering attack of Luther Rosser, chief of Frank's counsel, and fought back violously at various times during his cross-examination. He was inclined to argue with both Attorney Rosser and Solicitor Dorsey, and at one time blazed forth angrily when he thought that Dorsey was charging him with holding something back.
Defense Discounts Scott's Story.
Rosser succeeded in impeaching Scott's testimony to a certain extent by showing that his testimony at the Coroner's inquest differed in some respects from that given at the trial, and that the testimony at the inquest lacked much that was contained in his testimony just given under the questioning of Solicitor Dorsey, although Scott had sworn at the inquest that he was telling all he knew.
It was evident as soon as the Pinkerton detective was called that a sharp battle was to ensue over his testimony. A lively tilt occurred between Rosser and Dorsey before Scott had been on the stand five minutes. The testimony had progressed only a little further when Dorsey claimed that he had been trapped by the witness into believing that testimony of another sort would be given.
Dorsey demanded the privilege of asking leading questions in order to determine whether Scott's memory was faulty or if he was purposely holding something back.
Haas Wanted First Reports.
The Solicitor got from his witness the details of his engagement by the National Pencil Company and sought to emphasize that Herbert Haas, one of Frank's attorneys, had tried to induce Scott to withhold his evidence from the police, but Scott on cross-examination declared that Haas asked only that the evidence be given the pencil factory officials first.
Scott testified that Frank in the first days of the investigation had told him that J. M. Gantt, a discharged factory employee, knew Mary Phagan well and was familiar and intimate with her, the Solicitor by this evidence seeking to show a disposition on the part of Frank to throw suspicion on someone else.
The detective described Frank's demeanor as extremely nervous at the interview Tuesday night, April 29, between Frank and Lee. Scott said that Frank hung his head, crossed and re-crossed his legs, rubbed his face and lips with one hand and then the other, and seemed not to know where to put his hands.
Rosser Grills Scott.
Rosser, cross-examining Scott, made the detective admit that he had not told of these circumstances before the Coroner's inquest and had not stated any of the conversation between Lee and Frank which he had just told to the Solicitor. Going further, he forced Scott to admit that he had said at the inquest that he had heard none of the conversation.
Scott told Dorsey that he had made a thorough search of the first floor of the factory soon after his services were engaged, and that he had found
PAGE 32, COLUMN 1
RED SPOTS ON FACTORY FLOOR SMEARED OVER, SAYS SCOTT
Swears Frank's Lawyer, Haas, Called for Report Before Police Saw It
DETECTIVE SCOTT PROVES PUZZLING WITNESS BOTH FOR STATE AND DEFENSE
Continued From Page 1.
how Frank acted. A. He acted perfectly natural.
Rosser interrupted.
Q. How do you know it was natural if you never saw him before? A. I just thought it was natural.
Rosser Objects Again.
Dorsey took up the questioning again.
Q. How were his eyes? A. Large and piercing.
Q. How was his breathing? A. Very deep.
Q. Didn't you state to me
Rosser interrupted.
"I object. You can't ask him that." Dorsey replied: "I don't know whether this witness has trapped me or not. I have it written down."
Rosser: "I have no doubt you have it written down from Genesis to Revelations, but this witness has already said the defendant was not nervous." The objection to the question was sustained.
Dorsey: Q. How did he give you the narrative? A. Very rapidly and specifically as to time.
Refreshes Scott's Memory.
Q. How did the defendant state the time when Mary Phagan entered the factory? A. He said about 12:10.
Q. What did Frank say, if anything, about hearing voices before she came? A. I don't recall.
Dorsey addressed Judge Roan: "I want to refresh the memory of this witness with the notes he took on the case."
Q. Mr. Scott, did you furnish a report of this case to the defendant? A. Yes.
Q. To whom? A. To S. Montag, Herbert Haas and L. Z. Rosser.
Q. Did you furnish the State a readable copy like you did the defense? A. I don't know. I read your complaint.
Rosser objected. "I object to anything like this, Your Honor. It is absolutely immaterial here how or whether he furnished the defense with the reports."
"Not Sticking to Testimony."
Dorsey: "I hold, Your Honor, that this witness is not sticking to his previous testimony and I have the right to refer to these reports to refresh his memory."
Judge Roan: "Put your question, Mr. Dorsey."
Q. Was it before or after 12 o'clock that Frank said he heard voices? A. (Scott read from his notes) Frank told me that before 12 o'clock he heard voices outside his office.
Rosser objected. "I object to his "
The objection was sustained.
"Mr. Scott, you can only refresh your memory from the notes," said the court.
Scott refreshed his memory from his notes, and said:
"I now state that Mr. Frank told me he heard those voices before 12 o'clock."
Q. Before Mary Phagan came or not? A. Before.
Q. Where? A. On the second floor.
Dorsey Misled, He Asserts.
Q. What did Frank say he did at home when he went home at 1:10 o'clock? A. He said he went home for lunch.
Q. What, if anything, did Frank say in reference to Gantt? A. He said J. N. Gantt knew Mary Phagan very well and was intimate with her.
Q. What, if anything, did Frank say about Gantt's attentions to Mary Phagan? A. Nothing.
"Your honor," said Dorsey, "I admit I have been misled."
Rosser objected. "These sorts of questions fall on me like a false note on a piano."
"Your honor," said Dorsey, "it is discretionary with you as to whether I may lead a witness. If there ever was a time when a witness should be led it is now with this detective who was hired by the pencil factory and who has been working with the attorneys for the defense. When I talked with him and he told me things and now he testifies differently I have a right to lead him."
Charges Scott "Trapped" Him.
"If you mean to say the witness has trapped you, I will permit it," said Judge Roan.
"I do," answered Dorsey.
Attorney Rosser objected, and the court recessed until authorities could be looked up.
"He is trying to impeach a witness," said Rosser.
"If it is meant that I am holding back anything I want to disabuse his mind of that," interrupted Scott. "I "
"I am not trying to impeach a witness," declared Dorsey. "Here is a detective employed by this defendant and he simply has had a lapse of memory."
Dorsey wanted to submit a memorandum he had taken from Scott, but Rosser objected.
No Reference to Notes.
"He saw me take it," said Dorsey.
"He saw you write it," retorted Rosser, "before my friend Dorsey conferred with Hooper. Hooper is a wise man. He charged three times that he had been trapped by the witness."
Judge Roan ruled: "At this stage of the game I can't allow you to ask the witness leading questions. He may be allowed to refresh his memory, but if it is on anything that is written, he must have seen it at some other time."
Dorsey then questioned the witness:
Q. Mr. Scott, in my talk with you at my office last week, did I not make a memorandum of what you would swear? I want to ask this witness if he wrote these notes.
Rosser objected: "That is just exactly what I don't want."
Judge Roan ruled: "I don't think you can lead the witness at this stage of the game."
Said Gantt and Girl Were Friendly.
Mr. Hooper interrupted: "As I understand it, Mr. Dorsey has the right to ask this witness what he wishes, provided he asks him about the specific question."
"I hold that," said Judge Roan.
Dorsey put the question:
Q. Did Frank say anything about the attention of Gantt to Mary Phagan? A. He said he seemed unusually friendly.
Q. Do you remember when Gantt was arrested? A. Yes, about the time I was in conference with Frank.
Q. Was there anything said by one of the attorneys for Frank about you suppressing evidence?
Rosser objected. "Why, your honor," he said, "a client is not even bound by his attorney in a civil case. I demand that that question be withdrawn."
The objection was sustained.
When Pinkertons Suspected Frank.
Dorsey: "It is a circumstance, your honor."
Rosser (angrily): "Then I withdraw my objection."
Scott answered the question: "Sometime in May I, with Superintendent Pierce, of the Pinkerton agency, went to the office of H. J. Haas, in the Third National Bank Building, and told him there was a strong suspicion against Frank. He said he wanted us to give him personally our reports in full before we submitted it to the police. We told him we would withdraw from the case before we would do that."
Q. Who did the talking and showed you on your walk through the factory? A. Mr. Darley did most of it; Mr. Frank a little.
Q. Did Mr. Frank offer any suggestions as to how or why it happened? A. No.
Q. Did you see any white smear over the blood spots? A. Yes; they were covered with a sort of white smear.
Q. Were you sure it was a smear or a spit? A. It was a smear.
When Frank Met Her.
Q. Are you willing to tell the jury whether Frank was nervous or composed?
"He answered that question," interrupted Rosser.
"Did you?" asked Judge Roan of Scott.
A. I said his eyes were piercing and he looked pale.
Judge Roan asked the witness if Frank was composed.
A. He was composed.
Dorsey resumed his questioning.
Q. What happened at the police station Tuesday night? A. Detective Black and I had a discussion in Frank's presence about Newt Lee. We had been talking to Lee. Mr. Black told Mr. Frank he didn't think Newt Lee was telling all he knew. I said about the same thing. We asked him if he would consent to go into a room with Lee and try to get the truth out of him. He agreed to and we left them alone together about ten minutes. When we interrupted, Lee did not seem to have finished his conversation. "Mr. Frank," said Lee, "it's awful hard for me to be handcuffed to this chair." "Well, they got me, too," said Frank. Frank told me later they did not get anything out of the negro.
Frank's Head Was Dropped.
Q. What did Frank do? A. His head was dropped.
Q. What was Frank's attitude at the police station? A. He was extremely nervous.
Q. On what do you base that statement? A. He didn't know what to do with his hands and feet. He rubbed his face with his hands and was agitated.
Q. How about his eyes? A. His eyes always appeared to be the same.
Q. What was his attitude at the time of his arrest on Tuesday? A.
His hands were trembling. He was pale and silent.
Q. Did you see Attorney Rosser at the police station?
A. No, I did not.
In Office from 12 to 12:30 p. m.
Q. Did you see Frank at the factory Saturday, May 3? A. Yes; with Black.
Q. What conversation did you have with him then? A. I asked him if he was in his office continuously from 12 o'clock noon until 12:30. He answered that he was there in his private office for every minute.
Q. How was it you put the question? A. "For every minute of the time between 12 and 12:30, were you in your private office?" He replied that he was.
Q. Did you search the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Q. Did you search the area around the elevator shaft and radiator? A. Yes.
Q. Did you find anything around there in the shape of hair ribbon, bludgeon or purse? A. No.
Then Rosser took the witness on cross-examination.
Didn't Order Reports Held.
Q. You sent a report to me? A. Yes.
Q. Did you report this, "Mr. Pierce and myself went to Haas' office and he told us to catch the murderer regardless?" A. Yes.
Q. You didn't report that other incident to me. Didn't I say to you
Dorsey: "I object to anything that was said except what was said to Haas."
Judge Roan: "Isn't it competent evidence for these attorneys to show there was not any effort at suppression?"
Dorsey replied: "Your honor, the State can show flight on the part of the defendant, but he can't show that he stood still."
Scott interrupted: "Haas never told us not to give the reports to the police, but merely to report to him first."
Not in Inquest Testimony.
Q. Didn't you testify before the Coroner's inquest everything you know? A. Yes; but not in detail.
Q. Did you say before the Coroner that Frank said that Gantt was familiar with Mary Phagan? A. I don't know.
Q. Why didn't you give it to me in your report? A. Either I didn't think Gantt was a suspect or it was an oversight.
Q. Well, why didn't you tell the Coroner about what Frank said about Gantt and Mary Phagan? Gantt was a suspect then, wasn't he? A. It must have been an oversight, if I didn't do it.
Q. Isn't it true when at the inquest that you did not say one word about Frank holding his head down when you and Black interrupted his interview with Newt Lee? A. I don't recall. I haven't read the minutes.
Admits Working for Frank.
Q. You have stated here you were working in the interest of Frank, the defendant? A. Yes.
Q. You stated there that you were employed by the National Pencil Company A. Yes; Frank was the man I talked to. He had to see Mr. Montag before he could employ me.
Q. Didn't you say before the Coroner's jury that all you could find out about the conversation between Frank and Lee was from Lee? A. Yes.
Q. You didn't say a word about overhearing Lee and Frank in their conversation, and of Frank hanging his head, did you? A. No; I have refreshed my memory since then.
Scott Gets Angry.
Q. Wasn't you asked then to tell it all? A. Yes; but a man would be a fine sister who couldn't refresh his memory. Do you think a man can remember verbatim everything said a year ago?
Q. Hold on; don't lose your temper. A. I'm not losing my temper.
Q. Now, you didn't say anything before the Coroner about Frank saying that Gantt was intimate with Mary Phagan? A. No.
Q. You haven't got the word intimate in your notes here. (Rosser had obtained Scott's notes from him.) A. Well, I've got my own system about taking notes which may be different from yours. I don't write out the whole story. Neither was I cross-questioned before the Coroner.
Q. You didn't say anything about Mr. Frank being nervous before the Coroner? A. I said I wasn't cross-questioned.
Q. You detailed your statement to ten pages before the Coroner and you didn't refer to that? A. Yes.
Q. When you detailed the statement about the conversation between Lee and Frank you didn't say anything about his being nervous? A. I said he hung his head.
Works With Police.
Q. You didn't say anything about his crossing and recrossing his legs? A. I don't think the Coroner asked me.
Q. You didn't say anything about his putting his hand before his face? A. No.
Q. You are a trained detective trained to observe things and you didn't bring out these facts? A. I have too much sense to tell everything I know at preliminary hearing.
Q. Weren't you telling all you knew? A. In a general way. I am not fool enough to go into detail with a fine-tooth comb at a Coroner's inquest.
Rosser: "Your honor, this witness is provoking me."
Dorsey: "I submit, your honor, that he has a right to answer the question."
Judge Roan: "Don't argue with the attorney, Mr. Scott."
Rosser:
Q. Let's go back. You work with the police, don't you? A. Yes.
Q. You never work against them. You just get in the road with them? A. Yes.
Q. You will work against your client with the police, won't you? A. Some time.
Q. You testified about the blood spots, but nothing about the white stuff over it? A. Yes, I think that's right.
Q. That conversation you said about Frank, are you sure that statement didn't come from Darley? A. Yes, I am quite sure Frank dictated them in his office.
Mental Notes.
Q. You are sure you didn't take these notes during your inspection of the factory? A. Yes. I only took mental notes and wrote when we got back to the factory.
Q. You are not positive whether on that point? Yes, because it was so dark I could not see in the factory.
Scott Corrects Report.
Q. Mr. Scott, you say now that Mr. Frank told you when the little girl asked him if the metal had come, Mr. Frank replied, "I don't know?" A. Yes.
Q. Didn't you swear before the Coroner that he said, "No?" A. Yes. I have said about half and half all the time.
Q. Didn't you say in a report to me he said, "No?" A. Yes.
Q. Did you mean I don't know? Don't you know that the meanings of the words are quite different? A. It was just a grammatical error. I now swear positively he said, "I don't know."
Q. You say now Mr. Frank told you he left the factory about 1:10? A. Yes.
Q. You told me in this report (he had Scott to identify the report) that he told you, he left the factory at 1 o'clock? A. Yes. It was simply an error in that report to you.
Q. How many mistakes are there in this report? A. Very few. They are errors of the stenographer I overlooked.
Q. Mr. Scott, Mr. Black and the police always knew the contents of these reports before you made them to me, or Mr. Haas or the owners of the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Scott Ends Testimony.
Dorsey on redirect examination:
Q. When did you report the finding of club to the police? A. I saw it in a report of May 1.
Q. Do you swear what day it was reported to the police? A. No.
Q. About the police do you follow the facts, or the theory? A. I don't quite understand.
Q. Report in full to the jury what you mean by working with the police? A. Mr. Black and I worked in partnership and reported to the police.
Q. Detail on this chart the course of your inspection of the factory with Frank and Darley? A. We went from the office to the machine room, where the hair was found; saw the bloodstains, went down to the basement and were shown where the body as found. We saw where the slipper as found.
"That's all. Call Miss Monteen Stover."
Monteen Stover on Stand.
Judge Roan said: "Mr. Sheriff, take the jury out for a few minutes and let them get a little fresh air."
Solicitor Dorsey began questioning Monteen Stover. She obviously was somewhat overawed, but fairly well composed.
She appeared about the same age as Grace Hix, and, like her, had very light hair. She was dressed in a tan cotton dress with a skirt well above her ankles. She appeared 16 or 17 year of age.
Q. What is your name? A. Monteen Stover.
Q. Where do you work now? A. Nowhere.
Q. Where were you working April 26? A. The day Mary Phagan was killed? "Yes," said Dorsey.
A. Nowhere.
Q. Did you ever work for the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Q. When did you quit? A. Monday before Mary Phagan was killed.
Q. Did you go to the factory on the Saturday before Mary Phagan was killed? A. Yes sir.
Q. What time? A. 12:05 o'clock.
Q. How long did you stay? A. Five minutes.
Q. What did you go for? A. To get on it in a little while.
Mr. Rosser began the cross-examination.
Q. Miss Monteen, where did you start from to go to the factory? A. From home.
Q. What time? A. I don't know.
Q. Did Mr. Frank have one or two offices at the factory? A. He had two offices.
Q. Did you notice the safe in the office? A. No sir.
Q. You just walked in, turned around and walked out? A. Yes.
Q. Did you see any person? A. No sir.
Q. Did you notice the desk in the office? Did you notice a wardrobe? A. No.
Q. What did you do? A. I walked in the front office, saw no one, and went and sat down on the bench near the stairs.
Q. Then you got up and went home? A. No, I went back into the office, looked around and seeing no one, left the building.
Q. You went straight home? A. Yes.
Q. The factory was still in quiet, when you were there? A. Yes.
Q. That door to the metal room you had worked in metal department, and you sometimes saw the door open and sometimes closed? A. Yes, sir.
Reads Affidavit.
Q. How many times has Solicitor Dorsey talked to you about this case? A. Once. I went down to his office and made an affidavit.
Q. No matter what an affidavit might say, you know you sometimes saw that door open and sometimes closed? A. Yes.
Q. If you made such an affidavit, you were mistaken? A. I don't know. I sometimes got there first and it was closed. Then I have passed it and seen it open.
Q. You do know that you saw it both open and closed? A. Yes.
Judge here ruled that he Stover girl could look at the affidavit to refresh her memory.
Solicitor Dorsey handed it to the witness and she slowly read it.
Gantt Recalled.
J. M. Gantt was recalled a moment at the beginning of the morning session Thursday to tell of the time he was arrested and the time he was released. Scott then was called as a witness and it was expected that he would be on the stand most of the day.
The courtroom was crowded as on every other day of the trial. There was a noticeable increase in the number of women present. The seats all were taken half an hour before the time set for the beginning of the trial.
PAGE 31, COLUMN 1
SWEARS FRANK WAS NOT AT HIS DESK NEAR 12, DAY OF TRAGEDY
Monteen Stover, Thursday Witness For State.
PAGE 32, COLUMN 7
COLLAPSE OF TESTIMONY OF BLACK AND HIX GIRL'S STORY BIG AID TO FRANK
Although the State's witnesses were on the stand all of Wednesday the day was distinctly favorable for Frank, partly because nothing distinctly unfavorable was developed against him the burden of proof being upon the State but most largely because of two other factors, the utter collapse of the testimony of one of the State's star witnesses, City Detective John Black, and the testimony in favor of Frank that was given by another of the State's witnesses, Miss Grace Hix, a 16-year-old factory employee.
Girl Helps Frank.
Miss Hix testified that the strands of hair found on the lathing machine on the second floor might have been the hair of one of the other girls in the factory, many of whom when they were ready to leave the factory at night, combed their hair right where they had been working. She said that Magnolia Kennedy's hair was almost exactly the color of Mary Phagan's. She also said that the red spots on the second floor might be paint. She never saw Frank attempt any familiarities with the girls.
Black was made the uncomfortable victim of the fiercest grilling any of the witnesses in the Frank trial have received up to this time.
Luther Rosser, chief of counsel for Frank, tore into Black the instant the city detective was turned over to him for cross-examination.
Black Bewildered.
Within the space of 30 seconds the attorney had Black unmistakably bewildered, although the detective tried his best to stick to the details of the story he had just narrated under Solicitor Dorsey's questioning.
In another 30 seconds Rosser continued his bulldog tactics and had Black practically admitting that he had told an untruth under oath, and that although a moment before he had sworn that he had seen Rosser at the police station between 8 and 8:30 o'clock the Monday morning after the crime, he now was not sure that it was not 10 or 10:30.
Rosser, seeking to discredit Black's previous testimony and his memory, drove Black to admit that he could not remember any of the details of Frank's attire the morning that Black visited the Frank home, and that he was not sure at all that Frank could not have seen the face of the Phagan girl when he visited the morgue Sunday morning.
Shaky Testimony.
Black swore when Dorsey was questioning him that Frank put on his collar, tie and coat on the first floor of his home, but when Rosser got hold of him he was just as willing to admit that it might have been in the cellar or on the roof, and the remainder of his testimony became shaky to the same extent.
Taking up a number of the details of Black's testimony on direct examination, Rosser made the perspiring detective admit that he was not certain of a single one of them. None too fluent and assured under the friendly interrogation of the Solicitor General, Black instantly became halting and confused when Rosser let loose with his fire of disconcerting questions.
The detective's features flushed crimson. He mopped his face which was running with perspiration. Then he held his handkerchief up by two of its corners to dry in the breeze from an electric fan. Before he could accomplish this, it must be applied again to his liquid features.
He tripped and stumbled over his answers. He became hopelessly muddled as to times and conversations. He was groping, but his memory turned traitor.
The "Plant" Story.
The climax came when Solicitor Dorsey came out with his declaration that the bloody shirt found at Newt Lee's home was a "plant," and that it was inspired by Frank or persons interested in Frank. He said that he intended to show that Black had gone to Lee's home to make a search only after Frank had informed him that several punches were missing from the time tape taken out of the register clock, and that Lee would have had time to go home between punches. The Solicitor added that he proposed to show that the only interpretation of Herbert Haas' demand for a search of Frank's house was in order to open up the way for a search of Lee's house by the detectives.
It took only a few moments to demonstrate that the Solicitor was leaning on a broken reed. Black already had passed through the ordeal of more than an hour's grilling by Rosser and Dorsey had him in the redirect. Black gave only a half-hearted and half-certain assent to Dorsey's inquiry if these circumstances did not transpire before the search of Lee's house.
But when Rosser charged at him again even this fragment of memory and assurance had departed from him.
"Don't you know, Black, that, as a matter of fact, that shirt was found before Frank ever said anything to you about the misses in that time tape?" Rosser bellowed at the red-faced, wilting detective.
Waited Six Minutes.
Black opened his mouth, but no answer came forth.
"Don't you know it?" persisted the lawyer.
Still no answer.
Rosser drew his watch from his pocket and held it on the witness. Six minutes passed and the silence continued. Judge Roan started to speak.
"Give him time to answer, your honor," interrupted Rosser grimly, still holding the watch.
"I don't remember," finally came from the lips of the witness.
A moment later Black gave up.
"I'm all crossed up," he said. "I don't know where I'm at."
Rosser laughed.
"Come down," he said.
"Come down," echoed the Solicitor.
J. M. Gantt, discharged employee of the pencil factory, followed Black on the stand. Gantt's most important piece of testimony was that Frank, contrary to the representations he made the morning after the murder, knew Mary Phagan by name.
He knew this, he said, because one day when he had been talking with the Phagan girl Frank said to him: "You seem to know Mary pretty well, Gantt."
Rosser brought out in his cross-examination of Gantt that the young man had failed to tell of this alleged incident when he was before the Coroner's jury when he was asked if Frank knew the girl.
Say Frank Was Nervous.
The bulk of the State's evidence Wednesday was only for the purpose of showing that Frank was nervous, trembling and pale on the afternoon of the tragedy and the next morning when he was taken to the morgue and to the factory by the detectives. Gantt testified that Frank seemed nervous and apprehensive Saturday night at 6 o'clock when Gantt went to the factory to get some shoes he had left there when discharged. "Boots" Rogers and Detectives Starnes and Black testified that he acted in a nervous and agitated manner the next morning. Rogers and Black declared that Frank would not look on the face of the dead girl when they took him to the undertaking rooms.
PAGE 33, COLUMN 1
WOMEN ON WHOM INTEREST CENTERS AT TRIAL OF FRANK
The mother of Leo Frank, who is at her son's side constantly during his trial for life.
Mrs. Leo M. Frank, wife of the accused, who sits at the side of her husband and aids and cheers him.
Mrs. J. W. Coleman, mother of the slain girl,
Mary Phagan. She is a witness for the State.
Ollie Phagan, sister of slain girl, who is attending every session of the trial.
PAGE 33, COLUMN 1
State Balloon Soars When
Dorsey, Roiled, Cries 'Plant'
By JAMES B. NEVIN.
Poor John Black!
With the unwitting assistance of the Solicitor General and the assistance of Luther Rosser, he furnished all the "punch" there was in Wednesday's story of the Frank trial.
Black evidently was undertaking to tell the truth, and was unwilling to tell more or less than the truth, but that didn't help matters much, so far as the State was concerned.
When Solicitor Dorsey exclaimed "plant!" which means nothing more than "faked" or "framed up" evidence for the benefit of the defense I glanced rapidly at Rosser.
I saw precisely what I expected to see a momentary flicker of a smile about the lips and eyes of the man, an almost immediate tightening of the lips and narrowing of the eyes, and then a quick return of the habitual ferocious frown.
I knew Dorsey had put his foot in it put it right in, away up over the ankle, and I also knew that getting that foot back to solid ground again was going to be an undertaking pregnant with extreme difficulty and danger.
State Balloon Goes Up.
The Solicitor was fretted when he exclaimed "plant" thereby accusing the defense of rankly unfair and unpardonable methods of establishing Frank's innocence.
And right then and there, up went the state's balloon, and it hasn't come down yet!
If there is one thing in all this world Luther Rosser loves better than anything else he knows of, it is an adversary in the courtroom who hollers "plant," and things like that particularly when said adversary is mad!
When Mr. Dorsey on Wednesday, in a moment of forgetfulness and vexation, exclaimed "plant," it was meat and bread and pie and cakes and beer and skittles to Luther Rosser!
Right then, I would much have preferred being a high private in the ranks of the Bulgarian army than John Black!
The Solicitor handed Mr. Rosser the very club Mr. Rosser was laying for, and wherewith the said Mr. Rosser proceeded to pound poor, unoffending John Black to smithereens!
In no conceivable way did Black's responses justify the Solicitor's passionate outbursts.
Witness Goes Far Adrift.
On the contrary, it served to confuse and befuddle the witness, to send him far at sea.
After that he contradicted himself, failed to remember, became hazy and evidently worried and distressed.
He had been shot mortally from an unexpected quarter, and he soon realized that Luther Z. Rosser was determined to finish the job and finish it he did!
As for the rest of the day and the beginning of this day
Court officials have settled themselves down in full expectation of a long siege in the Frank trial.
So far, the progress of the case has been, in the main, commonplace in the extreme, and bewildering only when spectators have considered the thousand and one questions asked, and the always inevitable interposition of objections.
The thing the average person in the audience does not understand, however, is that in all that seemingly interminable objecting and wrangling there is, at least upon the part of the defense, a far-reaching purpose the mere mention of which will serve to illustrate its importance.
Effect of One Little Error.
In murder cases the defense has the right, in the event the battle goes against it, to move for a new trial upon assignment of judicial error in the first trial. If a new trial be refused by the trial judge, the defense may appeal to the highest court of review in the State, and if that court finds error to have been committed on the trial of the case, it will remand the entire proceeding back to the court of original jurisdiction for correction of the error, which means, of course, for another trial.
Then the case will begin all over again, exactly as if it never had been tried at all.
The State, on the other hand, has no such right as that if it loses its case in the first instance, it loses it for all time. Frank, save of his own motion, never can be tried a second time for the killing of little Mary Phagan.
The more rulings the defense, therefore, calls upon the trial judge to make the more chances there are that error may creep in and one little assignment of error sustained by the court of review would serve to reverse the entire judgment, and send the case back for another trial.
State Must Grin and Bear.
In insisting that the case be held strictly within the legal rules, which a trial judge never can be absolutely sure of doing, the defense throws an anchor to windward in case of defeat and the State can do nothing but grin grimly, and bear it.
The big battle Wednesday to get the diagram of the pencil factory, containing as it did a red-lined indication of the State's theory of the crime, before the jury had, as will readily be seen, a tremendous significance and although Judge Roan let it go in, it went in over the bitter and carefully recorded protest of the defense, and in case Frank should lose his fight now, the admission of that diagram doubtless will be assigned as error on original trial.
The State, of course, can not take advantage of its own errors, but Dorsey can hope to obtain nothing more than present advantage by combating them hence the defense may cut in in all sorts of directions, with the burden of proof on the State and the presumption of innocence always with the defendant at bar, and the State may whistle for consolation.
It makes the trial rather uphill pulling for the State, therefore, however much one may think it otherwise.
If Dorsey wins a point, it may avail him something on the present trial, but it will get him nothing eventually, in case he is forced to go to the higher court. The Solicitor has one long, straight shot for victory and no more.
The defense, on the contrary, is not nearly whipped if it loses its present fight.
Defense Seems to Have Shade.
If there has been any advantage gained by either side thus far, it has been gained, I should say, by the defense.
Nothing necessarily damaging has yet been set up against Frank. Indeed, much of the evidence drawn out seems almost childish in its meaninglessness.
Rogers testified that Frank was "nervous" when he (Rogers) saw him Sunday morning, April 27, and that he continued "nervous" for some time thereafter although Rogers never saw him before, and had no way of comparing his conduct then with his general conduct.
But if Frank was "nervous," does the State seek to establish the presumption against him therefore that his "nervousness" was occasioned by the thought of little Mary Phagan's dead body there in the cellar, and Frank responsible for it?
Maybe so but then Rogers swore almost in the same breath that Frank, looking up the record of Mary Phagan after the party reached the factory, deliberately set the combination on the office safe, opened it the very first time, without excitement or unusual circumstances of any sort.
Does the State intend to establish the presumption here that Frank, notwithstanding the weight of guilt upon his soul, was diabolically cool and deliberate in his movements, as indicated by the safe incident?
What Is State's Purpose?
Why not that presumption as rationally as the other?
Which thing does the State intend the jury shall believe from Rogers' its own witness testimony?
Fiddlesticks! What IS the State driving at, anyway?
Maybe we shall find out eventually!
Again, when Grace Hix was placed on the stand and she was the State's witness, remember she testified on cross-examination that Frank had only spoken to her three or four times during her five years' service in the pencil factory; that he talked to the girl employees very seldom, and that she had never known him to address Mary Phagan at all.
This very pretty young girl answered the questions given her in a straightforward way evidently she was seeking to speak only the truth.
So, too, Rogers had the appearance of sincerity and what he said, whether significant or of small importance, apparently concerned him not at all.
Therefore since the State seemingly made so little of either of these witnesses, although they were offered as the State's witnesses and not the defense's, prompts me to say that the advantage falling to either side because of their introduction fell, really, to the defense.
What Has State Shown?
What, frankly, has the State established thus far?
That Mary Phagan is dead; that she probably was murdered; that the place of the murder was Fulton County, and the date of it April 26.
As a matter of fact, nothing much has been developed that has not been public property for weeks some of it for months.
There is a feeling, growing more fixed every day, I think, that the State, if it hopes to win, must set up something more than it has yet made public!
If the State has some big cards up its sleeve, if it is prepared to surprise the defense, and many people think it has the first and will do the second, then the case yet is in its infancy and the real charge against Frank still is to be made out.
If the State has no unrevealed evidence and is NOT prepared to strike the defense heavy and unanticipated blows, it is but the simple and honest truth to say here and now that the feeling, vague and elusive enough, but unmistakably, there, that acquittal eventually will come to Frank and will steadily grow and develop as the days run by and the monotonous trial proceeds.
PAGE 33, COLUMN 6
Crimson Trail Leads Crowd To Courtroom Sidewalk
By L. F. WOODRUFF.
The sun's heat is broiling. No man can stand it without suffering. And still men stand, not one man, but scores of them, on a blistered pavement gazing on a red brick building as unsightly as a gorgon's head and look at nothing by the hour.
They are led there by a trail of crimson, and they are held there by the carmine charm that since Cain committed his deed of fratricide has made murder the deed that the law most severely punishes and has made it the act that most interests man.
Go to Pryor and Hunter streets. You'll find a study there. Leo Frank is being tried for the murder of Mary Phagan in the courtroom in a building on the northeast corner.
The trial is progressing in a quiet, orderly manner. Sheriff Mangum's force is attending to that. Few persons not vitally interested in the case are permitted in the courtroom. Outsiders are not even allowed on the same side of the street that abuts on the building housing Atlanta's most famous criminal trial.
But these regulations fail to dampen the interest Atlanta feels in the case.
Dickens was never wrong in his study of human frailties and human emotions. Do you remember when Mr. Pickwick was arrested for trespassing and when asked as to his identity replied "cold punch?" Do you remember when he was placed in the pound the sage of Gad's Hill told how the village populace gazed at nothing through the cracks in the fence of that inclosure?
Old Scene Re-enacted.
The same thing that Dickens wrote of a half century ago is being re-enacted in Atlanta in this good year of 1913. Hundreds of Atlantans are figuratively looking through the cracks of the pound fence and seeing nothing.
They are standing on that sunburnt pavement gazing on a building just because in the four walls of that structure a man is fighting for his life, just because a gallows threatens a man accused of ending the life of a little girl they never saw, they never heard of, until her dead body was found, and the incarnadined mystery was added to the criminal history of Georgia's capital.
For hours they gaze. They can not possibly learn more of the progress of the trial there across the street than they could at their homes or their places of business. But there they stand. The intimacy of the location with the tragedy enthralls them.
When this crowd is viewed, the strange fascination of the old Romans for the arena in which men died, the allurement of the present day prize ring in which men suffer, is not so strange. A peculiar kink in nature has made man love to witness the tribulation of his fellows.
Inside the courtroom the crowd is different. Frank is there because suspicion points to him as the slayer. His wife is there, because it is the wife's place to be near her husband in his supreme hour of trial. His mother is there because mother love demands that she be a protector, a guardian, a consoler, when others are trying to blacken his character, to have him declared unfit to breathe the air of free and honorable men.
Attorneys and Their Fight.
The attorneys are there to fight a fight they think just. Hugh Dorsey is struggling to establish a record that the county of Fulton will uphold the law though the offender be a wealthy and as powerful as the chieftain of the greatest trust. Luther Rosser and Reub Arnold are there in their panoply of invincibility to maintain their reputations as well as defend the man they declare innocent.
Mary Phagan's mother and sister are there because the call of the blood tells them that the death of the little "actor" girl should be avenged. There are scores of spectators, young lawyers, who wish to witness the struggle between those master minds of their profession engaged in the case. Their interest is as natural as the interest of a stock broker's clerk in the personality of the heir to the fortune of Morgan.
At a big round table is seated a group of coatless men working at speed, every energy strained to let the people of Atlanta know the varying issues of the battle.
None of these men is there by choice. They would probably like to be in some other place, where, though dozens of electric fans are blowing constantly, the heat is as oppressive as that of a Turkish bath steamroom.
But outside the railing, in the spectators' assigned seats, is a crowd as incongruous to the atmosphere as a day laborer at a king's levee. Every possible class is represented.
There are business men of big interests. They sit through the hearing with their mouths agape, just as the crowd on the pavement stands. There are typical Crackers in the throng. One man wearing the badge of honor of a Confederate veteran has been in constant attendance during the trial.
Mere Boys Hang on Every Word.
But the large portion of the audience is young, pitifully young, too, when the issue and the result is considered. Boys just in long trousers have obtained admission in some way. They are lustful for every word, every deed. They are not seeking information. They are attending the trial as a result of the same impulse that leads them to spend their sparse nickels for a recital of the deeds of derring-do, of "Diamond Dick," or "Old King Brady."
One man, hardly a man either, for his face was youthful, has been at every session. He is palpably a drug victim. His pallor stands out in striking relief among the rather robust countenances of the rest of the audience. His hands twitch nervously. His head frequently droops. His physical being is demanding the drug he craves. But his mental desire for the thrill of the trial holds him more firmly than the power of the opiate. His interest in the case might be a study for the most eminent neurologists.
A common link holds all of these people, those inside and those out. It is the rope of hemp that hangs as a possible conclusion to this gripping tragedy that has held a city three months.
No man has ever been seen who says that he enjoys witnessing a hanging. No hanging has ever been seen where there were not more people anxious to see the execution than there was room in the death cell.
The sun on Pryor street may scorch, but the awful charm of the noose and black cap makes the place as pleasant as the veranda of a seashore hotel. The heat of the courtroom may sear the very being of the spectators, but the fascination of the death watch keeps them as firmly fastened in their seats as though there were bars of iron about the chairs.
It's a morbid thought, but it's a morbid crowd. Those interested in Frank listen to the case in the hope of developments that will free him of the ordeal of mounting the stairs of steel. Those who wish his conviction are there to see a web of circumstance weaved around him that leads only to that awful end.
PAGE 34, COLUMN 2
RED BANDANNA, A JACKKNIFE AND PLENNIE MINOR PRESERVE ORDER
PAGE 34, COLUMN 2
He Raps With the Barlow Blade and Waves the Oriflamed
Kerchief Judiciously.
Plennie Minor, chief deputy sheriff, has a man's sized job on his hands and he handles it with the aid of a red bandanna handkerchief and a pocketknife.
More formidable armament has been invented, but the oriflammed kerchief and the barlow blade are all that Plennie Minor requires to perform a duty that many would deem arduous, all of which shows that the deputy sheriff is a man of resource and ability.
It is his job to keep order in Judge Roan's courtroom, while Leo Frank is being tried as the slayer of Mary Phagan. It's a real job, when it is considered that during each day at least two thousand persons attend the trial or try to and each one looks to Plennie Minor, to see to their personal accommodation.
Everything is Up to Him.
Minor is a public officer, ergo a public servant, and the public expects him therefore to attend to all its wants from a seat beneath an electric fan to a drink of ice water.
In the old days before Democratic simplicity and grape juice became popular in the public mind, Minor would have been equipped with a periwig and a mace. These things were supposed to impress on everyone the majesty of the law.
A red bandanna can never rank with a periwig as an emblem of authority. A pocketknife is hardly in the mace's class.
But Minor keeps the law's supremacy as firmly fixed as the rock of Gibraltar, which shows there is considerably more to him than the bandanna and the knife.
When he wipes his rather high brow with the bandanna, spectators at the Frank trial turn toward him with respect. When he raps on a chair leg with his knife, half the courtroom is as quiet as a drum with a hole in it.
And if the bandanna and the knife are not performing their duties efficaciously, Minor has other resources.
If the spectators wish to titter or to squirm, Minor makes an oration after he has flourished the bandanna and played the long roll with the knife. He tells the spectators that a courtroom is no place for merry quip, that laughing is entirely as out of place at a murder trial as orange blossoms are at a funeral, and he'll be gosh dinged or words to that effect if he will have it.
His methods are thorough. They get results. This is proved by the fact that he is called on to officiate at every hearing in which the public interest is great.
PAGE 65, COLUMN 1
FOREMAN HITS CONLEY'S STORY HOLLOWAY ACCUSED BY SOLICITOR DORSEY OF ENTRAPPING STATE
Here are the important developments of Thursday in the trial of Leo M. Frank:
Harry Scott, Pinkerton detective, is accused of having "trapped" the prosecution by Solicitor Dorsey, when he testifies that Frank was not nervous when he first saw him.
He is fiercely grilled by the defense after having testified to finding blood spots on the second floor, wiped over with a white substance. He testifies in addition that Herbert Haas, attorney for Frank, asked him to give him reports on his investigations before he gave them to the police and that he refused. He admits making statements that he omitted at the Coroner's inquest.
Monteen Stover testifies that she did not see Frank in his office when she entered the factory at 12:05. She admits not having seen bureau and safe in the room.
R. P. Barrett, a machinist in the factory, declares that he found blood spots, apparently swept over with a white substance, and a portion of pay envelope on the second floor, as well as strands of hair in a lathe.
Mell Stanford, an employee, testifies to having seen the spots.
Dr. Claude Smith testifies that spots on chips taken from the second floor were blood.
E. F. Holloway, State's witness and foreman at the National Pencil Factory, gave the first evidence directly contradictory to the sensational affidavits of Jim Conley Thursday afternoon when he testified that he saw Leo M. Frank return to the factory from Montague Selig's home the morning of the crime and that no one was with him.
Conley swore that Frank met him on the street and that he (Conley) returned to the plant with the accused superintendent.
The charge that he was entrapped outright by a witness was repeated once more at the trial by Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey, when E. F. Holloway, foreman at the pencil Factory declared that the elevator at the plant was not locked Saturday.
Solicitor Dorsey declared that in an affidavit Holloway had said the elevator was locked. Holloway said that when he made the affidavit he had forgotten that he had used the elevator to carry some wood for factory employees and had not locked the power box which controls the lift.
Dr. Claude A. Smith, city bacteriologist, testified Thursday afternoon that one of the chips taken from the second floor of the National Pencil factory had upon it blood corpuscles; however, he could not say they were the corpuscles of human blood, making the statement that it was impossible to distinguish between human and animal corpuscles after they were dry.
This piece of evidence is believed by the State to go a long distance into destroying the contention of the defense that the red spots might be those of paint or aniline dye.
This piece of evidence is believed by the State to go a long distance into destroying the contention of the defense that the red spots might be those of paint or aniline dye.
Dr. Smith said of the bloody shirt found at the house of Newt Lee that it apparently never had been worn when the blood was placed upon it. He declared that there was no odor except of a freshly laundered garment and that the inside of the neck band was not at all soiled.
The expert witness added that the blood on the shirt appeared to have been originally on the inside of the shirt and to have seeped outward through the material. In his opinion, the garment had been used to wipe up a quantity of blood.
Rosser Attacks Smith's Evidence.
Attorney Rosser at once attacked Dr. Smith's finding of red corpuscles on one of the chips. He made the bacteriologist admit that the blood might have been that of a mouse, killed there, as well as that of a human being. He forced Dr. Smith to say that he had found only four or five corpuscles on the one chip. Rosser ridiculed the idea that any significance could be attached to the finding of four or five corpuscles on one chip, when the other chips stained in the same manner revealed no chemical indication of the presence of blood.
"If blood is present the corpuscles can be distinguished for a matter of years, so long as the blood is not dissolved or washed away, can't they?" shouted Rosser.
Dr. Smith conceded that this is true.
The bloodstained garments of Mary Phagan were shown at this time and Frank's wife displayed emotion.
R. P. Barrett, a machinist on the second floor of the National Pencil Factory, gave unexpected and important evidence for the State. He told for the first time of finding between April 28 and 30 part of a pay envelope under the machine used by Mary Phagan, who was murdered in the factory April 26, who made the startling discoveries of the spots resembling blood near the water cooler at the ladies' dressing room on the second floor and the strands of reddish-brown hair on the lathing machine about 20 feet from the Phagan girl's machine.
Not Regarded Seriously
Barrett's finding of the pay envelope was not regarded seriously by the defense. The envelope was begrimed and dirty. It must have been scraped about the floor considerably if it had accumulated all its dirt between the time that Mary Phagan was last paid and the time that Barrett found it on the floor. It bore no date. It bore no number or name. It bore no amount. The only scrap of writing on it was the loop of a letter which remained after the top of the envelope had been torn off. The loop might have been that of a "g," a "y," or any of the other letters that extend below the line of writing. If it was the envelope of Mary Phagan there is still the possibility that it was of another week,
PAGE 66, COLUMN 1
RED SPOTS ON FACTORY FLOOR SMEARED OVER, SAYS SCOTT
Swears Frank's Lawyer, Haas, Called for Report Before Police Saw It
PAGE 66, COLUMN 1
MACHINIST TELLS JURY OF FINDING OF PAY ENVELOPE
Continued on Page 1
even though the person who swept believed he had done so thoroughly.
Scott refused to be cowed by the battering attack of Luther Rosser, chief of Frank's counsel, and fought back viciously at various times during his cross-examination. He was inclined to argue with both Attorney Rosser and Solicitor Dorsey, and at one time blazed forth angrily when he thought that Dorsey was charging him with holding something back.
Defense Discounts Scott's Story.
Rosser succeeded in impeaching Scott's testimony to a certain extent by showing that his testimony at the Coroner's inquest differed in some respects from that given at the trial, and that the testimony at the inquest lacked much that was contained in his testimony just given under the questioning of Solicitor Dorsey, although Scott had sworn at the inquest that he was telling all he knew.
It was evident as soon as the Pinkerton detective was called that a sharp battle was to ensue over his testimony. A lively tilt occurred between Rosser and Dorsey before Scott had been on the stand five minutes.
The testimony had progressed only a little further when Dorsey claimed that he had been trapped by the witness into believing that testimony of another sort would be given.
Dorsey demanded the privilege of asking leading questions in order to determine whether Scott's memory was faulty or if he was purposely holding something back.
Haas Wanted First Reports.
The Solicitor got from his witness the details of his engagement by the National Pencil Company and sought to emphasize that Herbert Haas, one of Frank's attorneys, had tried to induce Scott to withhold his evidence from the police, but Scott on cross-examination declared that Haas asked only that the evidence be given the pencil factory officials first.
Scott testified that Frank in the first days of the investigation had told him that J. M. Gantt, a discharged factory employee, knew Mary Phagan well and was familiar and intimate with her, the Solicitor by this evidence seeking to show a disposition on the part of Frank to throw suspicion on someone else.
The detective described Frank's demeanor as extremely nervous at the interview Tuesday night, April 29, between Frank and Lee. Scott said that Frank hung his head, crossed and recrossed his legs, rubbed his face and lips with one hand and then the other, and seemed not to know where to put his hands.
Rosser Grills Scott.
Rosser, cross-examining Scott, made the detective admit that he had not told of these circumstances before the Coroner's inquest and had not stated any of the conversation between Lee and Frank which he had just told to the Solicitor. Going further, he forced Scott to admit that he had said at the inquest that he had heard none of the conversation.
Scott told Dorsey that he had made a thorough search of the first floor of the factory soon after his services were engaged, and that he had found no ribbon, purse, pay envelope or bloody stick which later was said to have been found near where Jim Conley was hiding, by Pinkerton operatives.
Scott said that he had looked for blood spots, but that most of the evidence of this sort had been chipped up before he entered the case.
Rosser and Scott engaged in a heated argument when Rosser called attention to the fact that the detective had not mentioned at the Coroner's inquest Frank's alleged remark in regard to Gantt's intimacy with the Phagan girl.
Scott gave as his excuse that it was an oversight, or that he possibly had not been questioned on that matter by the Coroner.
"I am not fool enough to give away the whole case in detail at a preliminary hearing, anyway," added Scott.
R. P. Barrett, the machinist at the pencil factory, who discovered the strand of hair on a lathing machine and spots resembling blood on the floor, was called to the stand at the conclusion of Monteen Stover's testimony.
Dorsey Quizzes Scott.
Solicitor Dorsey started his questioning of Harry Scott with the query:
Q. What is your business? A. Pinkerton detective.
Q. Do you know Leo Frank? A. Yes.
Q. When did you first see Frank? A. Monday, April 28, at 7 p. m.
Q. Where was that? A. In Frank's private office.
Q. What was Frank's attitude? A. He was composed.
Dorsey said:
"Your honor, I want to refresh his memory. I was misinformed as to what the witness would testify."
Attorney Rosser objected.
"I am surprised at the evidence," said the Solicitor, "of this witness regarding Frank's attitude."
Noted Nothing Unusual.
"What about his breathing?" asked the Solicitor A. Well, between sentences, occasionally he took a deep breath.
Q. What about the expression of his eyes? A. I had never seen him before. The expression of his eyes was about as they are now.
Frank, sitting a few feet away, wore the same cool expression he has had since the beginning, his face utterly devoid of emotion. The expression of his unusual eyes was calm. Dorsey resumed his questioning.
Q. What did he say? A. "I suppose you have heard of the horrible murder in this factory. The directors and I have decided to employ you to find the murderer."
Frank Said He Was Suspected.
Q. What else did he say? A. He said he had just come from the police station and that the police, particularly Detective Black, seemed to suspect him.
Q. What else? A. He related his movements on the day of the murder. He said that he paid the little girl off that day and that when she left he heard voices on the stair. He said that later he let Mrs. White out of the factory at about 1 o'clock. She saw a negro sitting on a box at the foot of the stairway. Frank said he left the factory at 1:10 o'clock and went home for lunch. He said he returned from lunch at about 2 o'clock and went up to his office.
Scott testified as readily as though we were reading a narrative.
Q. Give the jury a description of how Frank acted. A. He acted perfectly natural.
Rosser interrupted.
Q. How do you know it was natural if you never saw him before? A. I just thought it was natural.
Rosser Objects Again.
Dorsey took up the questioning again.
Q. How were his eyes? A. Large and piercing.
Q. How was his breathing? A. Very deep.
Q. Didn't you state to me
Rosser interrupted.
"I object. You can't ask him that."
Dorsey replied: "I don't know whether this witness has trapped me or not. I have it written down."
Rosser: "I have no doubt you have it written down from Genesis to Revelations, but this witness has already said the defendant was not nervous." The objection to the question was sustained.
Here's the transcription, in the sequential order provided:
Q. Did you report this, "Mr. Pierce and myself went to Haas' office and he told us to catch the murderer regardless?" A. Yes.
Q. You didn't report that other incident to me. Didn't I say to you
Dorsey: "I object to anything that was said except what was said to Haas."
Judge Roan: "Isn't it competent evidence for these attorneys to show there was not any effort at suppression?"
Dorsey replied: "Your honor, the State can show flight on the part of the defendant, but he can't show that he stood still."
Scott interrupted: "Haas never told us not to give the reports to the police, but merely to report to him first."
Q. Didn't you testify before the Coroner's inquest everything you know? A. Yes; but not in detail.
Q. Did you say before the Coroner that Frank said that Gantt was familiar with Mary Phagan? A. I don't know.
Q. Why didn't you give it to me in your report? A. Either I didn't think Gantt was a suspect or it was an oversight.
Q. Well, why didn't you tell the Coroner about what Frank said about Gantt and Mary Phagan? Gantt was a suspect then, wasn't he? A. It must have been an oversight, if I didn't do it.
Q. Isn't it true when at the inquest that you did not say one word about Frank holding his head down when you and Black interrupted his interview with Newt Lee? A. I don't recall. I haven't read the minutes.
Admits Working for Frank.
Q. You have stated here you were working in the interest of Frank, the defendant? A. Yes.
Q. You stated there that you were employed by the National Pencil Company A. Yes; Frank was the man I talked to. He had to see Mr. Montag before he could employ me.
Q. Didn't you say before the Coro
Dorsey: Q. How did he give you the narrative? A. Very rapidly and specifically as to time.
Q. How did the defendant state the time when Mary Phagan entered the factory? A. He said about 12:10.
Q. What did Frank say, if anything, about hearing voices before she came? A. I don't recall.
Dorsey addressed Judge Roan: "I want to refresh the memory of this witness with the notes he took on the case."
Q. Mr. Scott, did you furnish a report of this case to the defendant? A. Yes.
Q. To whom? A. To S. Montag, Herbert Haas and L. Z. Rosser.
Q. Did you furnish the State a readable copy like you did the defense? A. I don't know. I read your complaint.
Rosser objected. "I object to anything like this, Your Honor. It is absolutely immaterial here how or whether he furnished the defense with the reports."
"Not Sticking to Testimony."
Dorsey: "I hold, Your Honor, that this witness is not sticking to his previous testimony and I have the right to refer to these reports to refresh his memory."
Judge Roan: "Put your question, Mr. Dorsey."
Q. Was it before or after 12 o'clock that Frank said he heard voices? A. (Scott read from his notes) Frank told me that before 12 o'clock he heard voices outside his office.
Rosser objected. "I object to his " The objection was sustained.
"Mr. Scott, you can only refresh your memory from the notes," said the court.
Scott refreshed his memory from his notes, and said: "I now state that Mr. Frank told me he heard those voices before 12 o'clock."
Q. Before Mary Phagan came or not? A. Before.
Q. Where? A. On the second floor.
Dorsey Misled, He Asserts.
Q. What did Frank say he did at home when he went home at 1:10 o'clock? A. He said he went home for lunch.
Q. What, if anything, did Frank say in reference to Gantt? A. He said J. N. Gantt knew Mary Phagan very well and was intimate with her.
Q. What, if anything, did Frank say about Gantt's attentions to Mary Phagan? A. Nothing.
"Your honor," said Dorsey, "I admit I have been misled."
Rosser objected. "These sorts of questions fall on me like a false note on a piano."
"Your honor," said Dorsey, "it is discretionary with you as to whether I may lead a witness. If there ever was a time when a witness should be led it is now with this detective who was hired by the pencil factory and who has been working with the attorneys for the defense. When I talked with him and he told me things and now he testifies differently I have a right to lead him."
Charges Scott "Trapped" Him.
"If you mean to say the witness has trapped you, I will permit it," said Judge Roan.
"I do," answered Dorsey.
Attorney Rosser objected, and the court recessed until authorities could be looked up.
"He is trying to impeach a witness," said Rosser.
"If it is meant that I am holding back anything I want to disabuse his mind of that," interrupted Scott. "I "
"I am not trying to impeach a witness," declared Dorsey. "Here is a detective employed by this defendant and he simply has had a lapse of memory."
Dorsey wanted to submit a memorandum he had taken from Scott, but Rosser objected.
No Reference to Notes.
"He saw me take it," said Dorsey.
"He saw you write it," retorted Rosser, "before my friend Dorsey conferred with Hooper. Hooper is a wise man. He charged three times that he had been trapped by the witness."
Judge Roan ruled: "At this stage of the game I can't allow you to ask the witness leading questions. He may be allowed to refresh his memory, but if it is on anything that is written, he must have seen it at some other time."
Dorsey then questioned the witness:
Q. Mr. Scott, in my talk with you at my office last week, did I not make a memorandum of what you would swear? I want to ask this witness if he wrote these notes.
Rosser objected: "That is just exactly what I don't want."
Judge Roan ruled: "I don't think you can lead the witness at this stage of the game."
Said Gantt and Girl Were Friendly.
Mr. Hooper interrupted: "As I understand it, Mr. Dorsey has the right to ask this witness what he wishes,
Continued on Page 4, Column 1.
DETECTIVE SCOTT PROVES PUZZLING WITNESS BOTH FOR STATE AND DEFENSE
Continued From Page 2.
provided he asks him about the specific question."
"I hold that," said Judge Roan.
Dorsey put the question:
Q. Did Frank say anything about the attention of Gantt to Mary Phagan? A. He said he seemed unusually friendly.
Q. Do you remember when Gantt was arrested? A. Yes, about the time I was in conference with Frank.
Q. Was there anything said by one of the attorneys for Frank about you suppressing evidence?
Rosser objected. "Why, your honor," he said, "a client is not even bound by his attorney in a civil case. I demand that that question be withdrawn."
The objection was sustained.
When Pinkertons Suspected Frank.
Dorsey: "It is a circumstance, your honor."
Rosser (angrily): "Then I withdraw my objection."
Scott answered the question: "Sometime in May I, with Superintendent Pierce, of the Pinkerton agency, went to the office of H. J. Haas, in the Third National Bank Building, and told him there was a strong suspicion against Frank. He said he wanted us to give him personally our reports in full before we submitted it to the police. We told him we would withdraw from the case before we would do that."
Q: Who did the talking and showed you on your walk through the factory? A. Mr. Darley did most of it; Mr. Frank a little.
Q. Did Mr. Frank offer any suggestions as to how or why it happened? A. No.
Q. Did you see any white smear over the blood spots? A. Yes; they were covered with a sort of white smear.
Q. Were you sure it was a smear or a spit? A. It was a smear.
When Frank Met Her.
Q. Are you willing to tell the jury whether Frank was nervous or composed?
"He answered that question," interrupted Rosser.
"Did you?" asked Judge Roan of Scott.
A. I said his eyes were piercing and he looked pale.
Judge Roan asked the witness if Frank was composed.
A. He was composed.
Dorsey resumed his questioning.
Q. What happened at the police station Tuesday night? A. Detective Black and I had a discussion in Frank's presence about Newt Lee. We had been talking to Lee. Mr. Black told Mr. Frank he didn't think Newt Lee was telling all he knew. I said about the same thing. We asked him if he would consent to go into a room with Lee and try to get the truth out of him. He agreed to and we left them alone together about ten minutes. When we interrupted, Lee did not seem to have finished his conversation. "Mr. Frank," said Lee, "it's awful hard for me to be handcuffed to this chair." "Well, they got me, too," said Frank. Frank told me later they did not get anything out of the negro.
Q. What did Frank do? A. His head was dropped.
Q. What was Frank's attitude at the police station? A. He was extremely nervous.
Q. On what do you base that statement? A. He didn't know what to do with his hands and feet. He rubbed his face with his hands and was agitated.
Q. How about his eyes? A. His eyes always appeared to be the same.
Q. What was his attitude at the time of his arrest on Tuesday? A. His hands were trembling. He was pale and silent.
Q. Did you see Attorney Rosser at the police station? A. No, I did not.
In Office from 12 to 12:30 p. m.
Q. Did you see Frank at the factory Saturday, May 3? A. Yes; with Black.
Q. What conversation did you have with him then? A. I asked him if he was in his office continuously from 12 o'clock noon until 12:30. He answered that he was there in his private office for every minute.
Q. How was it you put the question? A. "For every minute of the time between 12 and 12:30, were you in your private office?" He replied that he was.
Q. Did you search the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Q. Did you search the area around the elevator shaft and radiator? A. Yes.
Q. Did you find anything around there in the shape of hair ribbon, bludgeon or purse? A. No.
Then Rosser took the witness on cross-examination.
Didn't Order Reports Held.
Q. You sent a report to me? A. Yes.
Q. Did you report this, "Mr. Pierce and myself went to Haas' office and he told us to catch the murderer regardless?" A. Yes.
Q. You didn't report that other incident to me. Didn't I say to you
Dorsey: "I object to anything that was said except what was said to Haas."
Judge Roan: "Isn't it competent evidence for these attorneys to show there was not any effort at suppression?"
Dorsey replied: "Your honor, the State can show flight on the part of the defendant, but he can't show that he stood still."
Scott interrupted: "Haas never told us not to give the reports to the police, but merely to report to him first."
Q. Didn't you testify before the Coroner's inquest everything you know? A. Yes; but not in detail.
Q. Did you say before the Coroner that Frank said that Gantt was familiar with Mary Phagan? A. I don't know.
Q. Why didn't you give it to me in your report? A. Either I didn't think Gantt was a suspect or it was an oversight.
Q. Well, why didn't you tell the Coroner about what Frank said about Gantt and Mary Phagan? Gantt was a suspect then, wasn't he? A. It must have been an oversight, if I didn't do it.
Q. Isn't it true when at the inquest that you did not say one word about Frank holding his head down when you and Black interrupted his interview with Newt Lee? A. I don't recall. I haven't read the minutes.
Admits Working for Frank.
Q. You have stated here you were working in the interest of Frank, the defendant? A. Yes.
Q. You stated there that you were employed by the National Pencil Company A. Yes; Frank was the man I talked to. He had to see Mr. Montag before he could employ me.
Q. Didn't you say before the Coro
Dorsey: Q. How did he give you the narrative? A. Very rapidly and specifically as to time.
Q. How did the defendant state the time when Mary Phagan entered the factory? A. He said about 12:10.
Q. What did Frank say, if anything, about hearing voices before she came? A. I don't recall.
Dorsey addressed Judge Roan: "I want to refresh my memory since then.
Scott Gets Angry.
Q. Wasn't you asked then to tell it all? A. Yes; but a man would be a fine sister who couldn't refresh his memory. Do you think a man can remember verbatim everything said a year ago?
Q. Hold on; don't lose your temper. A. I'm not losing my temper.
Q. Now, you didn't say anything before the Coroner about Frank saying that Gantt was intimate with Mary Phagan? A. No.
Q. You haven't got the word intimate in your notes here. (Rosser had obtained Scott's notes from him.) A. Well, I've got my own system about taking notes which may be different from yours. I don't write out the whole story. Neither was I cross-questioned before the Coroner.
Q. You didn't say anything about Mr. Frank being nervous before the Coroner? A. I said I wasn't cross-questioned.
Q. You detailed your statement to ten pages before the Coroner and you didn't refer to that? A. Yes.
Q. When you detailed the statement about the conversation between Lee and Frank you didn't say anything about his being nervous? A. I said he hung his head.
Works With Police.
Q. You didn't say anything about his crossing and recrossing his legs? A. I don't think the Coroner asked
Q. You didn't say anything about his putting his hand before his face? A. No.
Q. You are a trained detective trained to observe things and you didn't bring out these facts? A. I have too much sense to tell everything I know at a preliminary hearing.
Q. Weren't you telling all you knew? A. In a general way. I am not fool enough to go into detail with a fine-tooth comb at a Coroner's inquest.
Rosser: "Your honor, this witness is provoking me."
Dorsey: "I submit, your honor, that he has a right to answer the question."
DETECTIVES FIGURING PROMINENTLY IN PHAGAN CASE AND FRANK TRIAL
J.N. STARNES. HARRY SCOTT. JOHN BLACK.
Judge Roan: "Don't argue with the attorney, Mr. Scott."
Rosser: Q. Let's go back. You work with the police, don't you? A. Yes.
Q. You never work against them. You just get in the road with them? A. Yes.
Q. You will work against, your client with the police, won't you? A. Sometimes.
Q. You testified about the blood spots, but nothing about the white stuff over it? A. Yes, I think that's right.
Q. That conversation you said about Frank, are you sure that statement didn't come from Darley? A. Yes, I am quite sure Frank dictated them in his office.
Mental Notes.
Q. You are sure you didn't take these notes during your inspection of the factory? A. Yes. I only took mental notes and wrote when we got back to the factory.
Q. You are not positive on that point? Yes, because it was so dark I could not see in the factory.
Scott Corrects Report.
Q. Mr. Scott, you say now that Mr. Frank told you when the little girl asked him if the metal had come, Mr. Frank replied, "I don't know?" A. Yes.
Q. Didn't you swear before the Coroner that he said, "No?" A. I have said about half and half all the time.
Q. Didn't you say in a report to me he said, "No?" A. Yes.
Q. Did you mean I don't know? Don't you know that the meanings of the words are quite different? A. It was just a grammatical error. I now swear positively he said, "I don't know."
Q. You say now Mr. Frank told you he left the factory about 1:10? A. Yes.
Q. You told me in this report (he had Scott to identify the report) that he told you he left the factory at 1 o'clock? A. Yes. It was simply an error in that report to you.
Q. How many mistakes are there in this report? A. Very few. They are errors of the stenographer I overlooked.
Q. Mr. Scott, Mr. Black and the police always knew the contents of these reports before you made them to me, or Mr. Haas or the owners of the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Scott Ends Testimony.
Dorsey on redirect examination:
Q. When did you report the finding of club to the police? A. I saw it in a report of May 15.
Q. Do you swear what day it was reported to the police? A. No.
Q. About the police do you follow the facts, or the theory? A. I don't quite understand.
Q. Report in full to the jury what you mean by working with the police? A. Mr. Black and I worked in partnership and reported to the police.
Q. Detail on this chart the course of your inspection of the factory with Frank and Darley? A. We went from the office to the machine room, where the hair was found; saw the bloodstains, went down to the basement and were shown where the body was found. We saw where the slipper was found.
"That's all. Call Miss Monteen Stover."
Monteen Stover on Stand.
Judge Roan said: "Mr. Sheriff, take the jury out for a few minutes and let them get a little fresh air."
Solicitor Dorsey began questioning Monteen Stover. She obviously was somewhat overawed, but fairly well composed.
She appeared about the same age as Grace Hix, and, like her, had very light hair. She was dressed in a tan cotton dress with a skirt well above her ankles. She appeared 16 or 17 year of age.
Q. What is your name? A. Monteen Stover.
Q. Where do you work now? A. Nowhere.
Q. Where were you working April 26? A. The day Mary Phagan was killed?
"Yes," said Dorsey.
A. Nowhere.
Q. Did you ever work for the pencil factory? A. Yes.
Q. When did you quit? A. Monday before Mary Phagan was killed.
Q. Did you go to the factory on the Saturday before Mary Phagan was killed? A. Yes sir.
Q. What time? A. 12:05 o'clock.
Q. How long did you stay? A. Five minutes.
Q. What did you go for? A. To get my pay.
Q. What floor did you go on? A. The second.
Q. To where? A. To Mr. Frank's office.
Q. Did you see Mr. Frank? A. No.
Q. Did you see anyone? A. No.
Q. Did you notice the door in the rear that leads to the women's dressing room? A. Yes.
Q. Was it opened or closed? A. It was closed.
Q. Had you ever noticed it before? A. Yes.
Q. Wasn't usually opened or closed? A. Sometimes opened and sometimes shut.
Q. Did you notice the clock? A. Yes.
Q. What time was it? A. 12:05 o'clock when I entered and 12:10 when I left.
Stayed Five Minutes.
Q. What did you have on what kind of shoes? A. Tennis.
Q. Did you look at the clock when you went in? A. Yes. I walked up to it. It was 12:05.
Q. What time was it when you left? A. 12:10.
Q. Was there any hat or coat or gentleman's apparel in the office? A. No.
Q. Had you ever noticed the door before? A. Yes.
Q. What was the condition of that door? A. Sometimes closed and sometimes opened.
Q. Your honor, may I repeat this witness' memory on this point from an affidavit she made?
Rosser I object, your honor. He can't show her that.
Judge Roan Did she read the statement before signing it?
Dorsey It was read to her.
Rosser It might have been changed.
Dorsey I won't press the matter right now. I will cite some authority on it in a little while.
Mr. Rosser began the cross-examination.
Q. Miss Monteen, where did you start from to go to the factory? A. From home.
Q. What time? A. I don't know.
Q. Did Mr. Frank have one or two offices at the factory? A. He had two offices.
Q. Did you notice the safe in the office? A. No, sir.
Q. You just walked in, turned around and walked out? A. Yes.
Q. Did you see any person? A. No, sir.
Q. Did you notice the desk in the office? Did you notice a wardrobe? A. No.
Q. What did you do? A I walked in the front office, saw no one, and went
and sat down on the bench near the stairs.
Q. Then you got up and went home? A. No, I went back into the office, looked around and seeing no one, left the building.
Q. You went straight home? A. Yes.
Q. The factory was still in quiet when you were there? A. Yes.
Q. That door to the metal room you had worked in metal department, and you sometimes saw the door open and sometimes closed? A. Yes, sir.
Reads Affidavit.
Q. How many times has Solicitor Dorsey talked to you about this case? A. Once. I went down to his office and made an affidavit.
Q. No matter what an affidavit might say, you know you sometimes saw that door open and sometimes closed? A. Yes.
Q. If you made such an affidavit, you were mistaken? A. I don't know. I sometimes got there first and it was closed. Then I have passed it and seen it open.
Q. You do know that you saw it both open and closed? A. Yes.
Judge here ruled that the Stover girl could look at the affidavit to refresh her memory.
Solicitor Dorsey handed it to the witness and she slowly read it.
Door Open and Closed.
Then Dorsey questioned the witness:
Q. Having refreshed your memory, Miss Monteen, state whether that back door usually was open or closed? A. Sometimes it was open and sometimes it was closed.
Q. When the factory was not running, was it open or closed? A. Closed.
Q. All the time?
Attorney Rosser objected: "You are leading the witness."
The objection was sustained.
Q. What door are you referring to? A. The door right back from Mr. Frank's office.
Lawyers Clash Again.
Rosser then took the witness on the recross-examination.
Q. Was Mr. Dorsey present when you heard that affidavit read? A. No.
"Your honor, Mr. Dorsey said it was read to her," said Mr. Rosser. "How did he know?"
"She said it was read to her," retorted Dorsey.
"No, she didn't," said Rosser.
"I call for a reading of the records," said Dorsey.
"It is not of enough importance," returned Rosser.
Then Monteen Stover was excused, and R. P. Barrett, a machinist at the National Pencil Factory, who found the hair on the lathing machine, was called to the stand.
Solicitor Dorsey questioned him.
Q. What is your business? A. Machinist at the National Pencil Company.
Q. What did you see near the water cooler in Mary Phagan's dressing
Continued on Page 5, Column 1.
PAGE 69, COLUMN 1
MACHINIST'S UNEXPECTED TESTIMONY AT TRIAL OF LEO M. FRANK
I also found the blood spots on the second floor by the water cooler at the ladies' dressing room. I know they were blood. The same day that I found the spots of blood, I found the pay envelope under under the machine at which Mary Phagan worked. The lathe on which I found the hair was about 20 feet away from where I found the pay envelope. The hair was not there Friday, for I worked on the lathe up to 5:30 o'clock, quitting time. The factory was closed Saturday. The spots were not there Friday." Testimony of R. P. Barrett, machinist at the pencil factory.
PAGE 69, COLUMN 1
GIRL DIDN'T SEE FRANK IN HIS OFFICE
Monteen Stover, Who Was at the Factory on Day of Slaying, Testifies at Trial
Continued From Page 4.
room? A. A peculiar spot I have never seen there before.
Q. Were you in the factory Saturday? A. Yes.
Q. Was it there then? A. No.
Q. How large was it? A. About 5 or 6 inches in diameter with lots of little dots around it.
Q. Was there anything else? A. Yes; some white substance smeared over it by the side of the big spot that was not covered up.
Q. What was it? A. Blood.
Q. What did it look like that had been used in putting the white stuff on it? A. A broom.
Q. Did you see the broom? A. Yes; one was nearby.
Q. Was anything on the broom? Yes, lots of dirt.
Found Hair on Lathe.
Q. Did you find any hair there? A. Yes, on the bench lathe.
Q. Describe to the jury how the lathe was shaped. A. It was "L" shaped and made of iron.
Q. Did anyone else see this hair? A. Yes, L. Stanford and Magnolia Kennedy.
Q. Did Magnolia Kennedy identify the hair?
Rosser objected: "It would be only hearsay. Only the God of the Universe could identify the hair."
The objection was sustained.
Rosser began cross-examination.
Q. How far was it from the machine where the hair was found to where the girls combed their hair? A. About 10 feet.
Q. How do you know that hair was not on that machine Friday? A. I worked at the machine until 5 o'clock Friday afternoon.
Q. Did any girls work there Saturday? A. No.
Q. How far was it from where you found the blood spots to where you found the hair? A. About 8 feet.
Pay Envelope Also.
Q. Did you find anything around Mary Phagan's machine? A. Yes, I found a part of a pay envelope.
Q. Describe how you found it. A. The latter part of the week I was standing about 15 feet from her machine when I saw a paper under her machine and I went over and picked it up. It was a part of a pay envelope with the letter "P" or "F" on it.
Q. What day and date was that? A. The same day I found the spot of blood between the 28 and 30.
Q. What did you find under the machine? A. Nothing but filings.
Q. What did you do with the pay envelope? A. Turned it over to that man (pointing out a deputy).
Solicitor Dorsey here had the witness identify the paper and it was then shown to the attorneys for the defense.
Examined Factory Closely.
Q. Did you examine the factory? A. Yes, very closely.
Q. Did you find anything like a baseball bat around the first floor? A. No.
Q. Did you find any part of a pay envelope? A. No.
Q. Did you search closely? A. Very closely.
Q. You say you found blood? A. Yes.
Q. You don't know that it was blood it just looked like blood? A. No, sir, I know it was blood.
Q. What time was it when you noticed the strand of hair? A. A few minutes later.
Q. Were they long strands or knotted? A. They were around my fingers when I noticed them.
Strands of Hair Foot Long.
Q. How long were they? A. About a foot long.
Q. You didn't see them when you took hold of the handle and the first you saw of them was when they were wound around your fingers? A. Yes.
Q. You say this envelope was found under her machine? A. Yes.
Q. Then the lathe the hair was on was 20 feet away? A. Yes, 20 or 25 feet away.
Q. The pay envelope you found had no name or number on it only this little loop? A. Yes.
Attorney Rosser here walked over to the jury and showed them the loop marked on the envelope.
Told of Find Same Day.
Then Mr. Rosser called the witness closer to the jury.
Q. It is the same sort of envelope they always have used at the factory? A. Yes.
Q. There is nothing to identify it unless this little loop be a part of a name? A. Yes, sir, the top of the envelope was torn off. All the writing on it was a loop that looked like the lower part of a "G."
Dorsey here took up the re-direct examination.
Q. When did you tell Schiff about this? A. The same day.
SWEARS SHE DID NOT SEE FRANK IN OFFICE AT NOON ON TRAGIC DAY
Monteen Stover, Thursday Witness For State.
Barrett was excused.
Mell Stanford, who had not figured in the case up to this time, was called. Stanford also is an employee of the pencil factory.
The witness stated that he had worked at the pencil factory for two years and was at work there Friday, April 25.
Spot Not There Friday.
Q. What did you do this Friday? A. I swept the whole floor of the metal room.
Q. Did you see anything there Monday? A. I saw some white compound smeared over something.
Q. Was it there Friday? A. No.
Q. What kind of a broom did you use? A. A little broom.
Q. Do you know anything about a big cane broom? A. Yes.
Q. Where was this broom Monday? A. About 8 feet from the spot.
Q. What was under the white substance? A. Some spots.
Q. Was it blood? A. I don't know.
Q. Could you tell whether the broom used was big cane or a little broom? A. A big one.
The witness was then turned over to the defense for cross-examination. Court then adjourned until 2 o'clock.
Praises Hooper.
Attorney Reuben Arnold took up the cross-examination of Mel Stanford when court resumed after the recess.
Just before court opened Leonard Haas, friend of Leo Frank, leaned across the table to Attorney F. A. Hooper, Dorsey's assistant, and said:
"Mr. Cooper, I want to congratulate you on the very gentlemanly manner with which you have conducted yourself."
He said nothing to Solicitor Dorsey, who was sitting beside him. Dorsey was unmindful if any slight was intended.
Swept Floor Friday.
Q. I believe you said you were a plater? A. Yes.
Q. And you were busy sweeping Friday? A. Yes.
Q. They had regular negro sweepers for the factory proper, didn't they? A. Yes.
Q. Why did you sweep where you did Friday? A. There was no negro there.
Q. What time did you sweep? A. Between 9 and 12.
Q. Did you sweep everything under the machine where Mary Phagan worked? Did you move all the boxes? A. Yes, I swept everything clearly.
Q. What is east of the ladies' toilet? A. A kind of a storeroom.
Q. You swept around the entire floor, the north and all sides? A. Yes.
Q. What part of the metal room was it your duty not to sweep? A. Where the machines are.
Not Examining Floor.
Q. What did you sweep there for? A. It was dirty, and my instructions were to keep the place clean.
Q. What did you consider it your duty to sweep? A. The concrete floor.
Q. Didn't you know someone else would sweep the floor? A. They didn't do it.
Q. Were you sweeping or examining the floor? A. Sweeping.
Q. Did you see anything on the floor? A. Yes; there was some paint where they kept the lacquer.
Q. Will you swear there were not other stains or spots on the floor? A. There were several; I don't recall just where.
Q. Did you notice whether there were any stains in the dressing room Friday? A. I would have seen them.
Arnold Come down; that's all.
Woman Tells of Blood Stains.
Mrs. George W. Jefferson, one of the employees of the National Pencil Company, followed Stanford on the stand. Dorsey began the direct examination:
Q. Were you at the pencil factory the day before the murder? A. I was.
Q. Were you there the next Saturday? A. No.
Q. Were you there the following Monday? Yes, sir.
Q. Did you see any blood on the floor near the women's dressing room on the second floor? A. Yes, sir.
Q. How did it look? A. There was something white over it.
Q. Where do you work? A. In the polishing room.
Cords on That Floor.
Q. Were there any cords on that floor? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where were they? A. On a post near the women's dressing room.
Q. What colors were the paints in the polishing room? A. Red, lion, rule red and bright red.
Q. Was this spot any one of the three paints used in the polishing room? A. No, sir.
Mr. Rosser then took up the cross-examination.
Q. That floor is very dirty, isn't it? A. Yes, sir.
Q. Don't they frequently spill paint on that floor? A. Not on the metal room floor.
Spots as Big as Fan.
Q. This white stuff you saw then didn't hide the red spots, did it? A. Not completely.
Q. You didn't find any other spots, did you? A. No, sir.
Q. You say the spots were about as big as your fan? A. The white spots were about as big as my fan. (Here the witness held up a palm leaf fan.)
Dorsey took the witness.
Q. After the paint is taken into the polishing room, there is no occasion to take it out, is there? A. No, sir.
Mr. Rosser took up the examination again.
Q. These cords the Solicitor showed you are scattered all over the building, aren't they? A. They are not supposed to be.
Q. Did you ever see them around the building? A. No, sir.
Policeman Hazelett.
Mrs. Jefferson was then excused and Policeman B. B. Hazelett was called to the stand. Solicitor Dorsey questioned him.
Q. When you went after Frank the Monday following the murder, did you tell him what you wanted? A. No, sir. I told him Chief Lanford wanted to see him.
Q. How long after you got to the police station with Frank was it that you saw Mr. Haas and Mr. Rosser? A. About an hour.
Here Rosser took the witness.
Q. What time was it you saw us? A. About 8:30 or 9 o'clock.
Y. Wasn't it after 9 o'clock? A.
I don't think so.
Q. Who else was there? A. Well, a crowd of detectives were standing around.
Q. Myself and Haas were the victims surrounded by these detectives, were we? Who else was there? A. I don't know.
Frank Not Arrested.
Q. Did you place Frank under arrest? A. No.
Q. Why did two of you officers go after him? A. No special reason.
Q. Wasn't it because if he did not come voluntarily, you intended to bring him forcibly? A. I guess so.
Mrs. Hazelett left the stand and was followed by William Gheesling, funeral director and embalmer at the Bloomberg undertaking establishment. Solicitor Dorsey questioned the witness.
Q. Did you handle the body of Mary Phagan? A. Yes.
Q. Was this cord found around her neck? (Dorsey displayed a cord to Gheesling.) A. It looks like it.
Q. How did you find it? A. Around her neck swinging to one side.
Dead Fifteen Hours, He Says.
Q. How long would you judge she had been dead? A. Ten or fifteen hours. She was very stiff.
Q. How was the blood? A. It was congulated, showing she had been dead some time.
Q. What was the condition of her face? A. It was in a bad condition, showing that the body had lain with the face down for some time. There was a scar over the right eye, which was made before death.
Q. Why before death? A. Because it was swollen. It wouldn't have swelled after death.
Q. Did you find any scars as though she had been dragged? A. There were two spots, one over each eye about the size of a dime. That was all to show.
Q. How about her tongue? A. It was protruding an inch and a quarter.
Skull Not Broken.
Q. Did you find any other scars on her head? A. Yes, back of the left temple.
Q. Was the scalp broken? A. Yes.
Q. Was the skull broken? A. Dr. Hurt can tell you better about that than I can.
Q. I want you to tell. A. I examined the wound and the skull was not broken.
Q. Were you present when Frank came to your establishment Sunday morning? A. Yes.
Q. Do you know whether he looked at the corpse? A. No, sir, I never noticed.
Here Attorney Rosser took up the cross-examination.
Q. When you found the corpse, was there wet blood on the hair? A. No sir, the blood was dry.
Q. If the blood had been wet when the body was found, how long would you say she had been dead? A. I don't judge by blood, but by rigor mortis.
Rigor Mortis Not Broken.
Q. When does that set in? A. It depends on the cause of death.
Q. How soon would you say rigor mortis set in after death in this case? A. About an hour.
Q. How soon does it break? A. In about twenty-four hours.
Q. Had it commenced to break when you got the body? A. No, because I broke it in her neck.
Q. What experience have you had in handling cases of death from strangulation? A. One or two. I had Clay. They say he was strangled. I don't know whether his neck was broken.
Q. When does circulation stop? A. The last beat of the heart forces the blood into the veins and it is extremely hard to make it flow from the veins after death.
Q. What fluid do you use in embalming? A. I would not like to say. I have been about fifteen years in perfecting it and have kept it secret so far.
Q. Is it your own private formula? A. Yes.
Q. Tell about Frank coming to the undertaking establishment. Tell of never noticed him until I was going, his position while he was there. A. I ever noticed him until I was going out. Frank was standing on the right of the door or hallway on the inside of the room. I passed out between him and Detective Black.
Q. Did Dr. Hurt clean under the nails? A. Yes, he probed under them.
Body Not Mutilated.
Q. Do you know what was found? A. No.
Q. Was the body mutilated when you saw it? A. No, it would have been impossible to have mutilated it with all the clothes it had on it when we found it.
Dorsey took the witness on the redirect examination.
Q. Did the corpse have much blood? A. Only a very small quantity, judging from the amount I took from her.
Dr. Claude A. Smith, city bacteriologist, followed Gheesling on the stand. Dorsey questioned him.
Solicitor Dorsey handed Dr. Smith the bloodstained chips and asked if they had been brought to him for examination.
A. They were brought to my office by detectives.
Q. State what condition they were in? A. Considerably dirty and had some stains on them. I examined them and found the stains to be blood corpuscles.
Q. Were they human blood? A. I couldn't tell.
Q. Look at this shirt. A. This shirt
Continued on Page 6, Column 1.
PAGE 70, COLUMN 1
EXPERT FOUND BLOOD ON CHIP OF FACTORY FLOOR
Continued from Page 5.
was brought to my office by detectives. I examined it thoroughly and particularly under the armpits. There was no odor as there would have been if the shirt had ever been worn. The blood seemed to be smeared on. It was put on on one side and not the other. It didn't soak through the fiber. Some spots were on the inside and some on the outside. The collar band was not soiled and it had every appearance of having just been washed and not worn since then. I don't think a negro ever wore it.
Rosser was on his feet with an objection.
"He is not competent to qualify as to the peculiar odor of a negro. I know about as much about that as he does."
Judge Roan sustained the objection, telling Dr. Smith to just state the facts.
Dorsey gave the witness over to Rosser.
Rosser Clashes With Witness.
Q. You said that down at the tail it seemed to be smeared from the inside? Couldn't the shirt be turned up and smeared on the inside from the outside? Of course.
Q. Now it had the odor of blood strong when you first saw it, didn't it? A. Yes.
Q. Couldn't the odor have been so strong as to have killed the smell of a negro? A. No.
Q. Wouldn't it depend on whose nose was smelling? A. I think not.
Q. Couldn't a negro have put on this shirt and have taken it off right quick without leaving any odor? A. I don't know. I expect you have smelled more negroes than I have.
"Yes, I have," said Rosser. "I have smelled many a negro. I have smelled them and worked with them before you were born."
Found Blood on Chips.
"I grant that," said Dr. Smith.
Q. You say you found blood on one of these chips? A. Yes.
Q. Which one? A. I don't remember. I worked with them all together.
Q. If there had been any blood on the others, you would have found it? A. I don't know that I would.
Q. How long will it take for blood to lose its identity? A. I couldn't say.
Q. Your best estimate, then? A. Why, I have kept blood in my laboratory for years.
Q. You say you found blood corpuscles on only one chip? A. Yes.
Q. Can you count those corpuscles as easy as you can apples? A. No.
Q. You can count them? A. Yes.
Q. How many were there? A. I don't know. I didn't try to count them.
Thunder Interrupts Court.
Q. Give us your best estimate? A. Four or five in the field of the specimen that I examined.
Q. Four or five corpuscles? How soon does rigor mortis set in? You have had considerable experience in observing it, haven't you? A. That depends on the cause of death. It begins as soon after death as the tissue begins to chill.
Q. How long after death does rigor mortis end? A. I wouldn't swear. Somewhere about 10 or 12 hours after death. But it depends on so many things.
Thunder drowned out Mr. Rosser's questions several times. Then the rain poured down and the procedure was interrupted for a moment while court attendants pulled down the windows. It was hard to keep order during Mr. Rosser's comments about the negro's odor and his comparison of blood corpuscles to apples. Frank and his mother both smiled at these remarks and Mrs. Frank was quite amused.
Solicitor Dorsey asked Dr. Smith to explain why the blood could not have got on the inside of the shirt as Mr. Rosser suggested it might have.
He illustrated his point before the jury. Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford stepped up to see clearly.
A. It was above the waistline about six inches from the armpit on the back of the shirt.
Rosser Gives Demonstration.
Q. Could it have been paint on this shirt? A. No. Mr. Rosser again took up the questioning.
Q. Doctor, if I had had blood on the front of this shirt and had taken the shirt off and doubled it up, couldn't you have got the blood on the inside at the back?
Mr. Rosser had the shirt in both hands. He walked toward the jury.
"You have been given some learned opinions. Now I want you to give me some. I will be dogged if it couldn't have been." A. Let me explain.
Dr. Smith got down out of the witness chair and walked toward Mr. Rosser.
"I don't want you to explain I want you to answer my question," returned Rosser.
A. The way the shirt came to me, the blood was mottled on in such a way that that could not have been done.
Q. Couldn't it have been folded like this and blood got on the inside? A. I am not an expert on folding, but I don't think it could.
Rosser Is Sarcastic.
"You are not an expert," said Rosser. "The way you were advancing a theory about this folding, I thought you were posing as an expert. It was my opinion that you did not know any more about it than some of these jurors."
A. No, perhaps I don't know as much about it as some lawyers.
Mr. Rosser sat down quickly.
Dr. Smith left the stand and E. F. Holloway, day watchman at the National Pencil Factory, was called to the witness stand.
Dorsey took the witness.
The witness stated that he was at the National Pencil Factory Saturday morning, April 26, from 6:30 until 11:45 a. m.
Q. What did you do to the elevator when you left the building? A. I ran it up to the fourth floor.
Q. Did you lock the switch box? A. No.
Dorsey Again Entrapped.
Q. You mean that you didn't tell me that? Your honor, I want to state that I have been entrapped outright by this witness.
Q. Didn't you state in the presence of myself, Detective Starnes and Detective Campbell that the elevator was locked and kept locked all the time? A. I said I locked it Friday night.
Didn't you say to me that if Superintendent Darley stated to the Coroner that if the elevator was kept unlocked at the request of the Insurance company, you had never heard of it and that your instructions were to keep it locked? A. I don't remember.
Didn't you tell me that it was locked when you left there at 11:45 o'clock? A. I forgot.
Look at this affidavit and explain to the jury why you signed this statement. A. I forgot.
Stairs Were Nailed Up.
Q. What did Frank say to you that Saturday morning? A. He told me I could go when I got ready that he would close up.
Q. What time did he leave? A. At about 9:45.
Q. What condition were those stairs in the rear of the building to the basement? A. They have been nailed up all the year.
Reuben Arnold here took the witness on cross-examination.
Q. Denham and White were there when you left Saturday? A. Yes.
Q. When they asked you to saw that lumber, you went and got the key and unlocked the box? A. Yes.
Q. You didn't lock it again? A. No.
Floor Was Dirty.
Q. That is a pretty dirty floor in the metal department, isn't it? A. It has not been washed for five years.
Q. Is there anything remarkable to see spots on that floor? A. There are fresh ones there every day.
Q. Have you ever seen spots around the ladies' dressing room that looked like blood? A. Yes, all the time.
Q. This man Barrett found everything that was found in the building, didn't he? A. Yes.
Q. Didn't you see Newt Lee Saturday morning? A. He came out as I went in.
Q. Who arrived next? A. White and Denham.
Q. How long did they say it would take to do their work? A. Until about 3 o'clock.
Tells Who Came in.
Q. Who came next? A. Alonzo Mann, the office boy.
Q. Who next? A. Mr. Darley.
Q. Who next? A. Mr. Frank.
Q. Who next? A. Mattie Smith.
Q. Do you remember a man named Graham coming in? A. He came in while I was up stairs.
Q. Do you remember the doors to the metal department? And whether they were kept locked? A. Only one of the doors could be kept closed. The other one was open.
Q. Did you turn over the building to Newt Lee Friday? A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever hear of a young man named Stanford sweeping up all the metal department? A. Yes, he did it nearly all this year.
Frank Seldom Paid Off.
Q. Did Frank always pay off? A. Very seldom. He was usually in his office, but some one else paid off.
Q. Did you post signs that employees would be paid off on Friday? A. Yes.
Q. Any one could raise those sliding doors to the elevator shaft on any floor? A. Yes.
Q. On the first floor, too? A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember seeing Mrs. Arthur White there that Saturday? A. No, she must have come in after I left.
Q. Newt Lee punched that clock every half hour, didn't he? A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember Irby, the shipping clerk, coming in that morning? A. He came in and stayed about two hours.
Q. Do you remember the stenographer coming in? A. Yes.
Q. What time did Frank come back from Montag's office? A. At about 11 o'clock.
Q. What did he have? A. A folder which he always carried with him.
Q. Was he alone? A. Yes.
Q. He went right to his office, didn't he? A. Yes.
Q. Now, there are some cords here, Mr. Holloway. You use these cords in every part of the building, don't you? A. Yes.
Didn't See Phagan Girl.
Q. Are they in the basement? A. Yes.
Q. They get in the trash and are swept all over the building, don't they? A. Yes, we can't keep them out.
Q. Did you see May Barrett? A. Yes.
Q. You didn't see the little Phagan girl? A. No.
Q. The Stover girl? A. No.
Q. Did you see the girl after the crime? A. Yes.
Q. Was Conley familiar with the metal room? A. He surely was. He was familiar with every part of the building.
Dorsey here began the re-direct examination.
Q. How far from the elevator did Denham and White work? A. About thirty feet.
Q. Didn't I ask you if you locked the elevator Saturday? A. I don't know.
Q. How is it that the stenographer got it down that you said you did and you signed it? A. I didn't remember then that I did any sawing for White and Denham.
Says He Had Forgotten.
Q. Didn't you say you put the key in the office? A. If I told you I done any sawing I don't remember anything about it.
Q. I haven't asked you anything about the sawing. I asked you why you swore before me on May 12 that you put the key in the office in its regular place? Why didn't you leave the key in the elevator so it could be locked? A. I had forgot about the sawing.
Q. You say these cords were all about over the building? A. Yes.
Q. What use was there for them in the basement? A. None except to be thrown in the wastepile.
Here Attorney Arnold took the witness.
Q. Was the lock on the elevator a spring lock or one that had to be locked with a key? A. A spring lock.
Ruling on Affidavit.
Solicitor Dorsey said he wanted to tender in the records the signed statement of Holloway. Attorney Arnold objected, claiming the statement had been admitted by Holloway but revised in his testimony on the stand.
"It looks like star chamber proceedings," said Mr. Rosser.
Judge Roan ruled that if Holloway admitted signing the affidavit it was not admissible.
Holloway then left the stand but was recalled.
Dorsey asked him if that was his signature to the affidavit.
Admits He Signed It.
"That's my signature," answered Holloway.
"You said you locked the elevator?" asked Dorsey.
"There ain't nothing about no sawing in there," Holloway replied.
Deputy Plennie Miner was forced to rap loudly to stop the laughter.
Q. Did you tell me you locked it?
A. I guess I did.
Judge Roan ruled that this single portion of the affidavit could be admitted. Attorneys for the defense objected. Dorsey waived the privilege.
Just before adjournment, Judge Roan asked the jury if they were being cared for in a reasonable way.
"Have you any complaint to make," he asked.
Juror Winburn replied that they had a slight complaint to make about their rooms but that the sheriff had adjusted it.
Court then adjourned.