Reading Time: 3 minutes [369 words]

186 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

Frank denied the truth of Conley’s story in toto and said
that Mary Phagan came into his office about noon, that he
gave her the envelope and that she left him and he had never
seen her since, He introduced nearly one hundred witnesses
aa to his good character, including citizens of Atlanta, col-
lege mates at Cornell, and professors of that college.

And the defense produced the statement and affidavits
Conley had made before the trial to the officers of the law.
In the first, on May 13, he gave a minute detail of his actions
on the 26th of April; the saloons he visited and the whiskey
and beer he bought, and itemized the denomination of the
money ke had and what he spent for beer, whiskey and
sausage. He said nothing about Frank or Mary Phagan. On
May 24 he made en affidavit in which he said that on Friday
before the Saturday on which the murder was committed
Frank asked him if he could write, and he dictated to him
practically the contents of one of the notes found by the body
of Mary Phagan. Frank then took a brown seratch pad and
wrote on that himself and then gave him a box of cigarettes
in which was some money, and Frank said to him that he had
some wealthy relatives in Brooklyn and ‘Why should I
hangt”? On May 28, 1918, Conley made for the detectives
another affidavit in which he stated that on Saturday morn-
ing, after leaving home, he bought two beers for himself, and
then went te a saloon and won 90 cents with diee; that he
bought two more beers and a helf pint of whiskey, some of
which he drank; that he met Frank in the street and they
went over to the factory and he told him to sit down on the
step until he whistled. Conley mentioned various people
whom he saw from his place of espionage going up the staira
to Mr. Frank’s office, Then Frank whistled to him and he
eame up the stairs and Frank was trembling, and he and
Frank went into the private office when Frank exclaimed that
Mies Emma Clark and Corinthia Hall were coming, and eon-
eealed Conley in the wardrobe. Conley said that he stayed in
the wardrobe a pretty good while, for the whiskey and the

4 Post, pp. 244-250.

Related Posts