The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-21
Baltimore Sun Staff Writer Investigates and Finds An
 other Dreyfus Affair
TRIAL A "TRAVESTY"
 IS HIS CONCLUSION
After Making Thorough Investigation John W. Owens Writes He Is Convinced That Frank Is
 An Innocent Man

The following article about tho cele-
 brated Leo Frank case was written by
 staff correspondent of the Baltimore Sun, who was sent to Atlanta to make
 an impartial investigation. It has been | repeatedly claimed that Frank is victim of racial prejudice
 Ky JOHN ". OWENS 1 few days ago the supreme court of Georgia denied the third appeal for a new trial of Leo NJ. Frank, convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan. Such action had been expected generally and the att torneys and friends of Frank have now ! determined to carry his ase to tho su- preme court of the United States as the last desperate attempt to save his life 1 and clear hls name.
 I Tho widespread interest aroused at the time of the murder made tho case one noted throughout the country. But apart | Americans in general Persistent reports | from Georgians of posltion--Genties and l Hebrews alike-.were that the Frank case was the American counterpart of the Dreyfus case in France and the Beiliss | case in Russia; that Frank had been
 railroaded' and that racial antagonism had played a tremendously potent part | In the process.
 In view of the form assumed by tho case The Sun decided to send a staff correspondent to Atlanta to make an inn ho l the murder until the trial which resulted in Franks conviction. ] made that in- vestigation. l am firmly convinced that Frank Is innocent; that innocent or guilty, the evidence against him was of the flim- siest character and that tho trial was a travesty. If ever man was 'railroad- | ed' Frank is that man. and I say this without disparaging the sincerity of the
 prosecuting attorney. He was sincere The evidence against the man; the way
 the authorities gathcred it,.the popular clamor and other determining factors In l the actual trial. will be discussed subse- quently at some length. At this point it is proper to state the case as 1t appears 1 to me after analysis. Stripping away the dirty fabric of perjury. of blind vengeful- ness. of almost superstitious speculation, of stupid vanity that envelops it, here Is what is revealed:
 Story of the Case
 Mary Phagan, fl years old went to the National Pencil company in Atlanta on Saturday. April 26, le1s to get her pay | for part of a weeks work, t2o. She reached there shortly after noon. About o'clock the next morning (sunday) her body was found in the basement of the building by the night watchman. l She had brulse under one eye; q large gash on the back of her head: q 1 heavy cord drawn tightly around her throat; a strip of her underskirt looped laround her head, evidently as d bandage: her face seemed to have ben imbedded | In dirt and there were minor marks on her face and body and some rents in her 1 clothes. Death had been caused by l strangulation. It was impossible to deter mine conclusively whether she had been Violated. but it seemed to be probable. The body had not been mutiated. There was but one clue--two brief notes lying beside the body directed to her l mother and purporting to have been written by the girl while being attacked
 The notes are not it to print. It was obvious from tho first that they had not been written by her.
 Two men are open to suspicion l Frank, a Jew. the superintendent of the 1 factory, who was in his office on the | second floor and who stated that he had paid the child her wage, and Jim Con ley. negro sweeper in the factory. who was on the first floor near the stairway which the girl used to ascend 1 to the office floor.
 | Frank Cornell Graduate Frank is q Cornell graduate and had | had a spotless reputation: Conley Is of ! the type of the negro denizen of the | underworld and had been arrested seven | or eight times, he Is not sure which number Frank had been engaged with his duties all the morning before Mary (Continued on Page Eightl