658 Slide – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

626 X. AMERICAN STATE TRIALS.

ler, or aue her for divoree. Mr, Adair then, by phone, got
Cook to come to his office, and told him that he represented
Mr. Candler. Cook said he was a close friend of Mr. Hirsch,
and he had just found out things about the wife that shocked
him; thet Candler was an old hypocrite, and that he would
not talk with anyone but Candler abont the case. So a meet-
ing between the two was arranged for the next day, in Mr.
Adair's office. There Cook told the Mayor that, suspecting
Mrs. Hirsch, he had set out to watch her, and had at last found
her in a compromising position with him. He said he had
‘been a bad man, had gone all the gaits, but had recently got
religion at one of Billy Sunday’s meetings; that he was deter-
mined to protect his friend, Hirsch, and that unless the Mayor
would get the woman out of town, s0 that she would never
see her husband again, he would expose him.

That afternoon, Mr, Adair communicated to Mrs. Hirach
the demand made by Cook. She said it was pretty hard for
a woman to have to leave a good husband such as hers, and
that she certainly ought not to be asked to leave him
and her friends in the city unless she was well provided for.
Mr. Candler was very rich, and she thought she ought to have
Donda and securities which would bring her at least $3,000 a
year. That she was like Mayor Candler, very philanthropic
and charitable; she worked a lot in this way, but never had
money to do what she wanted. And considering this, she
thought he ought to be especially liberal, as his whole reputa-
tion would be gone if it ever came out that he had been caught
with her in his office in a compromising situation. And also,
she would like to have about $5,000 to pay her husband’s debts.
This was only right, as she was going to leave him. Then Mr.
Adair had several more interviews with Cook, in which he
reiterated his threat that if Mayor Candler did not get Mra.
Hirsch to leave town, he would expose her to her husband.

The object of the two was now sufficiently revealed for Mr.
Candler to go before the Grand Jury and ask their indietment
for blackmail. A true bill was at once returned, and Cook was
put on trial first. Mayor Candler told his story, and denied