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The Atlanta Georgian,
Tuesday, 24th March 1914,
8th Edition (Final),
PAGE 1, COLUMN 4.
WASHINGTON, March 24. "I have uncovered new evidence to remove all doubt as to who killed Mary Phagan, the factory girl of Atlanta, for whose death Leo M. Frank has been condemned to die," today declared Detective William J. Burns. He stopped in Washington en route from Atlanta to New York.
"I am going to clean up some details of the case in New York," he said, "and when I have finished my inquiries I will tell the people what I have discovered."
Will Convict the Negro, Says Haas.
NEW YORK, March 24. Leonard Haas, of counsel for Leo Frank, who is under sentence of death in Atlanta, Ga., as the murderer of Mary Phagan, declared in this city today that the defense has evidence that will convict Jim Conley, the negro, whose testimony furnished the foundation for the prosecution's case.
Mr. Haas, who is in this city in connection with the Frank case, said that he has secured valuable new evidence and that upon his return to Atlanta the motion for a new trial will be filed.
"In my own mind, there is no doubt about Conley's guilt," said Mr. Haas. "We have evidence which, I think, will uphold this charge in court. I am sure that Frank will get a new trial and that he will go free."
Burns' Best Men on Phagan Case Trails.
Two of the most capable men in the service of William J. Burns will arrive in Atlanta Tuesday to take charge of the investigation into the death of Mary Phagan, in the absence of their chief in New York. They are Dan Lehon, of New Orleans, superintendent of the Southern division of the Burns agency, and Guy Biddinger, of New York, assistant manager of the Burns system.
Burns' action in calling in Lehon and Biddinger, who work with their chief only on cases of the greatest importance, indicates that the detective has got the threads of the mystery in tangible shape and is preparing to gather them up and weave them into a solution of the crime.
Lehon will be in charge of the investigation while Burns and Attorney Leonard Haas are in New York working on certain phases of the mystery, and he and Biddinger together are expected to work out various angles of the case that Burns has unearthed.
Persistent rumors are that Lehon and Biddinger will devote their time and energy to the solving of the mystery of Mary Phagan's missing purse and hat ribbons, which never have been satisfactorily explained. Burns, in conversation with newspaper men, constantly refers to the purse and the ribbons, and is eager for any information he can obtain about them. He also has persistently declared that in his final report he will solve the mystery of their disappearance, and when he was asked if Lehon and Biddinger were not coming to Atlanta solely to direct a search for the purse and hat ribbons, he refused to make any definite answer further than to say that "Lehon and Biddinger could find them if anyone could."
Burns stated, when he left Atlanta Monday that he would not be gone more than three days, and intimated that he would bring back important evidence.
It is probable that Haas and Burns will return to Atlanta with an affidavit from H. F. Becker regarding the disposition he used to make of the order blanks which went out of his department when he was master mechanic of the National Pencil Factory, and that the defense will contend that the pad on which the death notes were inscribed was one of many that were thrown into the basement.