Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-07-14
STATE STILL
CONFIDENT
Of CASE
Story of Negro Who Says He Was
Eyewitness Of Staying Disbe-
Ieved by Solicitor.

solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey
and Attorney Frank A. Hooper, en-
gagged in the prosecution of Leo M
Frank, were induced Monday to break
the silence they have maintained
grilling the negro Jim Conley last
week. They made their first public
comments on the sensational devel-
opments of the last few days in the
Phagan murder mystery.
Both declared emphatically that
neither the affidavit of w. H Min
cey, insurance solicitor nor the re-
ported confession of the negro Will
Green, who is said to have been IN
EYEWITNESS Of the attack upon Mary
Phagan. gave evidence sufficient &c
shake their conviction of Leo Franks
guilt
Rumors that the State was prepar-
ing to change its theory and to ask
for the indictment of Jim Conley were
laughed at
Mincey Affidavit Discounted.
q sincerely doubt" said Mr.. Hoop
er. IF that Mincey affidavit ever will,
he heard from again as a seriously
considered piece of evidence in the
Phagan case. To my mind it means
absolutely nothing. The statement
undoubtedly, was made and sworn -
but the prosecution places no de-
pendence in it and will be able to dis
prove It if its signer is called as q
witness in the case.
1t is difficult to understand, OF
course, how such a statement could
be made in good faith. If it was
made in good faith, | believe that
Mincey was laboring under a delu-
sion. Possibly he was talking to
negro the afternoon of the crime
When he read of the murder of the
little factory girl the incidents of his
conversation with some unidentified
coIored man took on form in his
excited imagination that made him
certain that this negro had told OF
= killing and that the negro was Jim
Conley."
But the defense is firm in the be-
lief that the affidavit and Mincey'f
testimony will be important in their
efforts to prove the innocence OF
Frank and the guilt of Conley. This
mart of the defense will be strength
.ned bv character testimony for Min
cev and by statements from negro
women who are said to have over
heard the conversation between Con-
lev and Mincey in which the negro
is quoted as Boosting;
u killed a girl to-day; l don't want
to kill anybody else"
Green Important Witness.
Much depends on the testimony OF
tha negro, VIII Green, who has beer
tracked through a half-dOzen States
, and &c now believed to be in the hands
Of detectives in Birmingham, Ala. The
renort that he had declared he hao
been an eye witness of the attack
unon Mary Phagan and had asserted
that il was a negro who was guilty Of
the crime gave weight for the first
time to the possibility that direct evil
dence would be produced al the tria
OF Leo Frank.
Until Green entered the case the
evidence against both Frank and Lee
was purely circumstantiaL If Green
sticks to the story he is said to have
told to companions, it will throw the
mix of the dependence for the con-
yictfon of Coniey upon his evidence.
Green. according to report, told
friends he was shooting craps with a
negro on the first floor Of the pencil
factory on Saturday, April rs. He il
reported to have said little girl came
down the steps and that his negro
COMPANION, who was partially intoxi
Gated and had been losing money, de-
olared he was going to steal the girls
money.
Green demonstrated, he said. bun
hbe other negro started toward the
girl and Green fled. The next Monday
he read of the murder and left for st
Louis. 1t was al this city the hum
for him began. -