Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-16
TAKES
ADVAN TAGE
Of POINTS
KNOWN
Exposure Of Evidence by Prison
er's Lawyer Aids Prosecution in
Preparing for Battle.

With certain Of the strong .defenses
Of Leo NJ. Frank exposed by the pre-
liminary battle over the custody of
the negro Conley. the prosecution in
the Phagan murder mystery went to
work on the case to-day with it's
frst definite idea OF the sort OF a
stronghold II must assault.
It was assured that the accused
mans lawyers would not rest with
! fighting suspicion away from Frank
but would seek to fasten the guilt so
firmly upon Conley that Frank not
only would be acquitted. but that he
would be cleared Of every stain which
has been cast upon his name and rem
utation by the terrible charges lodged
| against him.
Report was rife Saturday morning
that the attorneys for Frank had NOT
get acknowledged defeat in their e.
forts to have Conley confined at the
Tower instead OF at the police sta
tton' where they charge he is fnprop-
ery protected and "petted" by the de-
tectives The next move was RI.
mored to be the swearing out of
warrant charging the negro with the
murder to"compels Conley's removal
to the Tower.
Attacked by Rosssr.
Luther 2. Rosser chief Of counsel
Tor Frank. has branded as most un-
usual and irregular the procedure
which has allowed the negro. who has
confessed TO being accessory after the
fact, to be left without an Indictment
against him on the charge to which
he has virtually pleaded guilty.
Rosser urged an impartial inves-
tigation into the possibility that he
Is even more seriously connected with
the crime which resulted in the grew
some death Of Mary Phagan.
Chief Of Detectives Lanford said
Saturday when he was appraised of
the contemplated move of those who
wish to see the negroes stories inves-
tigated by an impartial body that he
| assuredly would honor any warrant
which on its face appeared bona flde.
but that he would fight any effort. to
take Conley to the jail, which he sus-
! pected had back of it the aninus Of
| persons unfriendly to the negro and
friendly to Frank. Lanford asserted
that all Of his actions in the PhaRan
mystery had been inspired by the de-
sire to get the guilty man, and that
it was his conviction that the negro
was only tool after the actual crime.
Guarding Against Surprise.
After the developments Of Friday,
It became evident that the prosecu-
| ton, while It is busying itself in an
effort to place the crime on Frank.
must guard against the surprise OF
finding all Of a sudden that the de-
Tense has stolen march and has in
the meantime shifted every tenable
suspicion directly upon the negro
| Conley
Most Of the evidence must be cir
cumstantial Even the negro's sue
cession of contradictory affidavits. IL
any one of them is to be accepted,
must be regarded as circumstantial,
for IN none of them does he say that
he saw the killing of the girl. She
! was dead, he AYERS, when he first saw
the body. So the death might have
been quite accidental. even if every
word of the negro's latest affidavit ia
| to be believed.
From the fact that the evidence is
so purely circumstantial and that
it is a matter OF grave doubt whether
any Of the negro's statements can be
accepted as having any element OF
truth, the defense viii maintain, it
became evident from its attitude Fri
day. that the evidence points far
more certainly and positively toward
Conley as the murderer than toward
Frank
Absolutely nothing Of a suspicious
nature has been brought against
Frank. the defense viii assert, ex-
cept that he had the opportunity. On
the other hand, a score Of suspicious
circumstances will be brought against
the negro
The work of the prosecution from
this time on will be the adding OF
confrmatory evidence to the negros
stories The detectives have pro-
fessed to have great amount Of