Reading Time: 3 minutes [361 words]

LEO M. FRANK. 271 ‘

stance, this Dalton, who says openly that he went into the
basement with Daisy. I don’t believe he ever did, but, in
such a case, he slipped in, There are some fallen women who
ean tell the truth. They have characteristics like all other
types. We put her on the stand to prove Dalton a liar, and
she did it, Now, gentlemen, don’t you think the prosecution
is hard pressed when they put up such a character as Delton?
They say he has reformed. A man with thievery in his soul
never reforms. Drunkards do, and men with bad habits, but
thieves? No. Would you convict a man like Frank on the
word of a perjurer like Dalton?

Now, I’m coming back to Jim Conley. The whole case cen-
ters around him. Mr. Hooper argues well on that part. At
the outset of the ease, the suspicion pointed to Frank merely
because he waa the only man in the building. It never
eropped out for weeks that anyone else was on the first floor.
The detectives put their efforts on Frank because he admitted
having seen the girl. They have let their zeal run away with
them in this case, and it is tragic. They are proud whenever
they get a prisoner who will tell something. The humbler the
vietim the worse is the cage. Such evidence comes with the
stamp of untruth on its face.

Jim Conley was telling his story to save his neck, and the
detectives were happy listeners. If there is one thing for
which a negro is capable it is for telling a story in detail. It
is the same with children. Both have vivid imaginations,
And a negro is also the best mimic in the world, He can
imitate anybody. Jim Conley, as he lay in his cell and read
the papers and talked with the detectives, conjured up his
wonderful story, and laid the crime on Frank, because the
detectives had laid it there and were helping him do the
game.

Now, Brother Hooper waves the bloody shirt in our face. It
was found, Monday or Tuesday, in Newt Lee’s house, while
Detectives Black and Scott were giving Cain to poor old man
Newt Lee. Idon’t doubt for a minute that they knew it
‘waa out there when they started out after it. I can't say

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