The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1915-08-26
Warned Away with Revolvers.

in the road. The automobiles went
by them and stopped in front of the
patch of woods. The surveyors start
ed to go up the road to see what was
going on. A man came from the au-
tomobiles with a revolver in his hand
and told them to move the other way
and to do it quickly. They did It
very rapidly.
1t was fairly populous road for
the open country, but 1t must be re-
membered that it was practically in
the city of Marietta. Frey had seen
the machines, the surveyors had re-
ceived that pressing invitation to
move quickly only little distance
from his gin, and now there came
down the road a man named Chan
dler. He saw the automobiles stop;
In fact, he was almost upon them,
though coming from the other direc-
tlon than that the surveyors had been
| taking.
A man stepped forward with a re-
volver levelled at him and told him
to stand where he was and make no
move. Chandler became statue.
| AS he stood there he saw Leo Frank
step down from one of the automo-
biles and walk into the woods There
was man on each side Of him.
Nobody but the lynchers saw what
went on in the woods, and one of
them did not see 1t. He was the man
with the revolver, who stood guard
in the road.
The Tragedy in the Woods.
Throughout the entire trip Frank
had been silent and quiet. When he
went into the woods the lynchers
ranged themselves around him, and
their leader said, formally and cold
ly, without any heat:
Mr.. Frank, we are now going to
do what the law said do-hang you
by the neck until you are dead Do
you want to make any statement be-
fore you die?"
In telling this story 1t must be re-
membered that we have not Franks
version, and never will have It, We
have only the lynchers' word for it.
We can presumably rely on their
account as to what they said them
| selves, and for Franks answers we
must take their report and analyze it
| each for himself. Their story is,
then, that Frank answered calmly
! with the one word: mo
The leader then said-and he
| seems to have. done practically all the
body that night, either at the peni-
tentiary or elsewhere, and this seems
! to have been by agreement:
we want to know whether you
are guilty or innocent of killing little
Mary Phagan.'
| To this, according to the lynchers'
story, Frank replied:
II think more of my wife and my
mother than l do of my own life"
He did not ask permission to write
| letter, he made no request of any
kind. He behaved throughout with
calmness and diknity and an utter
| lack OF panic that was a striking a
thing, in its way, as the grave and
sombre executioner-like attitude of
his murderers. Whether he said what
the lynchers say he said; whether, IL
he said it, he meant that he would
not confess crime to save his life,
or merely that he would not lie to
save 1t; whether he said more or less,
| and whether he was rightly under
| stood or misunderstood, no one will
ever know. Whatever the truth,
| what Leo Frank said then was the
| last thing he ever said in this life.
No Cry for Mercy.
There was no cry for mercy when
the lynchers produced a piece Of
brown canvas, placed it around his
| waist and tied 1t behind him. He was
an undershirt and night shirt, and
| on the latter garment, over his heart
was embroidered a name which look
ed more like Lee than Leo. Per-
haps it was a pet name known to the
| one who gave him, or embroidered
the garment.
He had been handcuffed, and they
had brought with them a brand-new
three-quarter-inch manila rope,
which they tied in a hangman's not,
so as to throw his head back and his
chin up. They swung him to that
three which came nearest to facing
Mary Phagan's house, and he hung
there, his body four feet from the
ground.
1t was o'clock. The cemetery
was beginning to fill with people
had been so filling for half an hour
for the news that had come to Carter
had been telephoned all over town
by persons whom he called up in
search of information, and everybody
who heard it was heading for Mary
Phagan's grave. Meanwhile William
Frey, seeking to find Nut the mean
Ing or Franks strange automobile
ride, had come into town, and there
he encountered Carter and White.
The moment they heard his story
they saw that here was the clue to
the failure to find the body at Mary
Phagan's grave, and they went back
with him to the fork in the roads
The automobiles had plainly come
that far, for Frey had seen them, and
they certainly had not gone much
farther, or Carter and White would
have seen them. They began beat
ing up the woods, and in a few min
utes came upon the body.
Not only was the news all over
town Immediately, but 1t was flash
Ing to all points of the compass, and
all over that part of the state men
were climbing into automobiles and
dashing off for Marietta. AS for the
city itself, 1t turned out in a body.
AS the cars passed men jumped for
them and swung aboard. No man
who halted machine was asked
where he wanted to go; he was taken
at top speed for the end OF the town,
for the little match of wOods that he-