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The Atlanta Georgian,
Saturday, 21st February 1914,
6th Edition (Final),
PAGE 1, COLUMN 1.
### CLAIM HALTS APPEAL FOR NEW TRIAL
Barrett, Frank's Employee, Asks $1,000 for Finding Hair on Lathe, Complicating Case.
The new angle given to the Frank case by the assertion of Dr. H. F. Harris that he does not believe the hair found on a lathe on the second floor of the National Pencil Factory to be from the head of Mary Phagan was further complicated Saturday by the presentation of a petition to the City Council and Mayor Woodward by Robert Barrett. Barrett, a former employee of the Factory living at No. 549 West North Avenue, is petitioning for the $1,000 reward which the Council offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murderer of the little girl.
Barrett bases his claim to the Reward on the fact that he found the hair in his lathe when he reported for work at the Factory on the morning of April 27, and that he first found blood spots in the Metal Department on the second floor of the Factory.
Changed Aspect of Case.
In his petition, he declares that the conviction of Frank was the direct result of the finding of the hairs and the blood spots, inasmuch as they changed the entire aspect of the case and caused the arrest of Frank the same day. This followed the decision of the detectives that the murder was committed on the second floor and not in the Basement, as was at first generally believed.
The hairs that Barrett found in the lathe are the same that were examined by Dr. Harris, and which the medical expert now declares did not come from the head of Mary Phagan. Barrett intimates that the State built its entire case upon the finding of the hairs, and that the conviction of Frank could not have been obtained had they not been found.
Puts Case Up to City.
Barrett's petition, coupled with Dr. Harris' Statement of doubt regarding the identity of the hairs, is considered one of the most important developments in the case since the trial. It will put squarely up to the authorities a decision upon the importance that the hairs and the blood spots played in the conviction of Frank, and should the Council and the authorities determine that the finding of the hairs was the direct cause of the conviction of Frank, the defense will undoubtedly seize upon the circumstance as a weapon upon which to base their extraordinary appeal, citing Dr. Harris to prove their assertion that the hairs were not from the head of Mary Phagan.
The discovery by Attorney Herbert Haas, of Frank's counsel, of additional grounds upon which an appeal for a rehearing of the case by the Supreme Court could be based, caused the convicted man's attorneys to postpone the filing of the document until Monday morning.
The discovery of the new grounds came after Attorney Reuben Arnold had completed the preparation of the appeal and had authorized The Georgian to state that it would be filed before noon Saturday. Only a few moments before Mr. Arnold intended to go to the Capitol with the document, he held a short conference with Mr. Haas, at which the latter told Mr. Arnold of the new grounds and suggested that the filing of the appeal be postponed until Monday so the new material could be incorporated into the document.
Neither Mr. Arnold nor any of the other members of Frank's counsel would divulge the nature of the grounds upon which the new hearing will be asked, but it is understood that they will number in the neighborhood of fifty, citing instances where, in the opinion of Frank's attorneys, the Supreme Court justices overlooked salient points of the case.
Barrett's petition, which was filed by Attorney Lawton Nalley, sets forth his claim to the reward as follows:
"That on the 25th, 26th and 27th days of April, 1913, he was in the employ of the National Pencil Factory."
"That he furnished the information leading to the arrest of the person guilty of the murder of Miss Mary Phagan."
"That his duties at said time were operating a lathe in the pencil Factory, and when he stopped work on the evening of April 25, 1913, he left an unfinished job in the lathe. . . On Monday morning he returned to the Factory to resume his work on the lathe."
"Upon going to the machine, he discovered ten or twelve long hairs that came from Miss Mary Phagan's head hanging to the handle of the lathe; he also first found blood spots in the metal department on the second floor of the Factory. The blood spots and the strand of Miss Mary Phagan's hair were some fifteen feet apart. The finding of the hair and the blood spots he reported immediately to Messrs. Darley and Lemmie Quinn. . ."
Gave Hair to Detectives.
"Upon these Facts being brought to Mr. Darley's attention he called the detective department, and immediately Detectives John Black and John Starnes came to the Factory and Mr. Barrett, the petitioner, gave the strand of hair to Detective Black and showed them the blood spots in the metal room. During this day Leo Frank was arrested and taken to the station house in the city of Atlanta."
"It was these clews that brought to the attention of the Officers of the law that the crime or murder had not been committed in the Basement of the Factory, as first thought, by the negro watchman, who has since been exonerated of the crime, but was committed on the second floor of the Factory, where Mr. Frank's office was located."
"At the trial of the case of Leo Frank in the Superior Court of Fulton County petitioner appeared as witness and testified to the finding of the hairs and the blood spots on the second floor of the Factory."
To Try Again if Beaten.
It is generally understood, and was tacitly admitted by Mr. Arnold, that should the Supreme Court refuse to grant a rehearing of the case, an extraordinary motion for a new trial, based on the assertion of Dr. Roy Harris that he does not believe the hair found on the lathe on the second floor of the pencil Factory to be that of Mary Phagan's, will be filed with the Superior Court. It is understood that Frank's attorneys will begin work on the extraordinary motion as soon as the motion for a new hearing has been filed.
The situation has been complicated by an additional Statement from Dr. Harris, in which he declared that he would not be willing to swear that the hair he examined in his laboratory and which he had been told had been taken from the lathe in the Factory, was or was not the same as hairs taken from the head of Mary Phagan.
Expert Not Certain.
"There were but a few strands of hair," said Dr. Harris, "and it is difficult to detect fine shadings of color. I could not swear when I made the examination, and I cannot now, that the hair given me was not the hair of Mary Phagan, and I cannot now. There is no way of determining accurately these things. A hair from one part of the head may be different from that taken from a different part. My recollection is that the hairs brought me were flatter than those I cut from the girl's head."
Chief of Detectives Lanford and Solicitor Dorsey, who had charge of the investigation of the murder, are inclined to minimize the importance of Dr. Harris' admission. They declared Saturday that the question of the hair being from the head of Mary Phagan had never been considered a vital point by the prosecution.
"We didn't need the hair to show that the murder was committed on the second floor," said Chief Lanford, "we had plenty of other evidence. When we found that the hair found in the lathe could not be positively identified as belonging to Mary Phagan, we simply dropped that phase of the investigation and devoted our attention to something else."
Mr. Dorsey declared that Dr. Harris told him prior to the trial that he was not sure that the hair was that of Mary Phagan, and that the State had been entirely open and aboveboard in the matter."I expected the attorneys for the defense," said Mr. Dorsey, "to ask Dr. Harris what he thought about the hair, but they failed to do so. Other witnesses testified that they believed the hair to be that of Mary Phagan, and that sufficed to establish my point, inasmuch as the defense did not introduce any evidence tending to show that it was not. I did not depend upon Dr. Harris's testimony on this point for a conviction, anyway; I had other evidence that was much clearer and stronger."
Dr. Harris' admission that he is not positive concerning the identity of the hair was characterized as amazing by Frank's attorneys. Later they issued a statement in which they insinuated that the State held back this portion of the evidence and that other evidence also was likely to turn up before the final chapter of the famous case is written.
Defense Attorneys Amazed.
"Unless we are much mistaken in the fairness of the people of Fulton County," said the attorneys, "the admitted facts will awaken great wonder as to what other things were concealed and misrepresented in the same way."
"The story that the State and its chief medical expert knew during the trial that the hair found in the pencil Factory was not the hair of Mary Phagan amazes us beyond words."
"For some time we have heard vague rumors that the hair that figured in the Frank case was not the hair of Mary Phagan, and that Dr. Harris knew it when he testified at the trial, and that the Solicitor knew it when he was making proof about the hair by Barrett, Magnolia Kennedy and other witnesses; but, in spite of these rumors, we could not bring ourselves to believe that Dr. Harris would have concealed this important matter, with the knowledge of the Solicitor, and that the Solicitor would argue to the jury as he did that the finding of this hair was evidence of the fact that Frank killed Mary Phagan on the second floor of the Factory."
Conley's Trial Near.
Jim Conley, who confessed that he aided Frank in disposing of the body of the little girl, will be placed on trial in the criminal division of the Superior Court on February 23, charged with being an accessory after the fact of the murder.
Since the conviction of Frank and Conley's subsequent indictment, the negro has been kept in the Tower, and visitors have been denied him, with the exception of his wife, who has visited him several times.