davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Washington times., 1915-03-21

able as it was. And 10 and behold! he
has had in the meantime seven inter-
views with the Solicitor. He swearS
on every one he changed his statement
and added to it. and the testimony he
delivered in court no more compares
with the last affidavit than II II hadh
related to the same subject.
Now, at the very beginning, they had
nothing against Frank except the fact
that he was at the factory when IN"
little girl called there, and they would
not have known that he had seen II eX-
ccpt from his own statement that he
had They would never have mad =
shadow OF a case against him except
for his statement that he saw the little
girl. His own statement, then and now
throws the only light on whom she saw
when she first went to the factory. that
was all they had against him, winch
VAS no evidence at all She could have
seen somebody else. Her body was
found next day in different part OF
the factory.
There were numbers of people there
in the faCtory-llable to have been people
there that nobody knew of either; and
the States main witness, confessed
criminal admits he was there and in a
rlaCe where he could much more readily
have committed the crime than Frank
A place where he could have robbed her
and thrown her down the elevator shaft
and nobody ever find it out. The States 5
witness had more opportunity. less char
| acter, vastly more circumstances against
! him. because the notes were written by
| him confessedly and by comparison OF
! the handwriting, too.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
State Tried to Get Away from DAM
aging Testimony. of Its Own
- Witness.

ting Mrs. White out OF the building
mistake. about the time. There have
about it.
truth OF a lie. Did Frank stay there
calculation? If we prove him out Of
there by credible evidence five, ten or
fifteen minutes before that their case
falls to the ground. l don't believe he
could have gotten home by two o'clock
If he had done all the negro said. Bear
in mind, he couldn't have started before
one and couldn't have ended before half
past one. Well, my friend Dorsey's re-
ply to that was (and of all the claptrap
I've ever heard, it was the worst of all
the demagoguery, ii was the worst, be
fore the jury but they were willing to
swallow anything; all you had to do
was to assert it and they would gulp il
down)-Why, Mr.. Dorsey turned TO this
alibi table we have here, which was
conservatively prepared. and criticised
us for saying Frank left the factory
at one And 1 want to say there never
! was a cleaner. stralghter defense ever
put UP than the one Frank put up
| Now, l want to show you something
! that Mr.. Dorsey did indulge In, that, il
| it wasn't for the setting around this
! case, and the feeling about this case
! this argument would have not only no
| weight, but would have been repudiated
with Indignation by everybody VINO
heard it. 1t was SO unjust and so un-
| fair.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
Reads Letter Written by Frank to His
Uncle on Day of the
Tragedy.
Tragedy.

any other people who ever inhabited the
world.
1t isn't a loud courage. a noisy cour-
age, that gets out on the street and
says, II can whip anybody in forty feet
of me-" but it's the Kind of courage
that stands persecution to the death.
and it has been ingraincd in them
through 1000 years Of persecution; and
they made some of the best soldiers
who ever went to the war from our
State, or from any other state. But
continuing the letter:
Enclosed you Will find last
weeks report. The shipments
still come up we'll, though the
result Is not what one would wish
There is nothing new in the fay-
tory" etc, ito report. Incosed
YOU will lind the price list YOU de
sire. The next letter you get from
me you should get on boa"d
ship. The next I shall write 10
you at the address you gave me in
Frankfort. with much love to
you" etc.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
TENTH INSTALLMENT OF LEO NJ. FRANK III

swallow this verdict you have to find
that the street car that the motorman
and conductor swear they carried this
little girl on, ran six or seven minutes
ahead of schedule and that the clock in
the factory was from four to six min
utes behind time. Did you ever hear
of a case where. sucn bold assaults
were made upon facts that there could
be no doubt about?
Did you ever hear such temerity in
attacking schedules, timepieces and un-
disputed things. and by such men as
this fellow Kendley, who, without
rhyme or reason, butted in here at the
eleventh hour and swore he saw that
little girl going down Forsyth street?
And such a man as Mccoy, who swore
he was standing at the corner OF For
syth and Walton streets and pulled his
wa tch out just as he saw Mary Phagan;
and when we brought him into court, a
man who had his watch in soak at the
time?
We have got II established on a
firm basis that she couldn't have got
ten there by any possibility before ten
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
TAKE ADVANTAGE
Of WIFE'S ABSENCE.

When his wife didn't visit him at the
station house for a few days, they take
advantage of that. oh, Lord. i would
hate TO have that on my conscience, in
the case of q man on trial for his life.
There are murders that can he com
mitted out of court, and there are many
murders that have been committed in
court, and the great God who looks
down on us all looks at it in the same
way. These little forms OF law and
court houses and written laws don't
cut much figure under that .All-SeeinS
Eye that looks to the very truth OF d
thing. Have You had hand unfairly
and untruthfuly and unjustly in TAX
ring the life of a fellow creature? Don't
come to me and say: Il did 1t under
the form of law; don't say, II was in
| the Court House and that any mean
! passion / could play on. any unfair
! turn or twist l could give to the de-
! fendant's conduct, I had right TO do
! it," That Al-SeeinG Eye viii strip you
| Of every little contention of that sort.
Did you, by any act or by any in
: sinuat!on, help unjsstly to take the
! life. OF a fellow creature?'
Your Hoaor said something about
i .hese notes. 1t occurs to me that X
there is anything that marks this crime
as "nigger." it's these notes; if there IS
l any thlnC tIul iStSTIHSS ~ 80 NOh'
! ing from that race. It's those nutes--
rubs "niggar" all over this case.
His plan was TO burn the body. tho
negro says, taking it into the base
ment for that purpose. Why the
rotes. hidden In the sawdust. woul'I
have left evidence OF the crime after
the body was burned. So ridiculous Is
it have you ever thought that TIE
notes were buried In the sawdust, stuck
! in the sawdust? He would have run
the risk of leaving an indication thai
some crime had been committed by
failing to take up the notes when tao
body was burned and the body hadn
been found. Would he have left any
trails Of the crime. written or any cthc1
kind. the girls clothesS or anythins
else?
Mr.. Dorsey talks about Frank no
calling attention 10 the negrO's writing
The proof shows that he didn't know
for a long time that ConlCy was deny
ing that he could write. He didn't know
that the negro denied it for weeks, unit
the detectives came to Holloway an'
, told him, and Holloway told them h
could write.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
lnconceivable, He Says, That Any White
Man Could Have Written the
Notes Introduced.

Now, Your Honor, would any de-
partment, unhampered by other con-
siderations, when they found out that
the negro had written the notes, have
hesitated? 1t Is inconceivable that
any white man could have written
those notes. 1t would never have
occurred to any intelligent mind; and
the detectives get the man who wrote
the notes, he denying all the while
that he had written them; denied be-
ing able to write, and they go and get
his writing and they compare it and
find he wrote the notes.
If there had been a disposition 20
treat this man fairly that would have
ended the case and the negro would
have confessed long before now II
they had given him any sort OF
chance. But he never had any chance
at all; he wasn't allowed to confess
Every time he would come near one.
as near as he could, he was switched
off on to Frank and to this mon
strous lie about watching for Frank
Conley says Frank called him in and
says, Can you write, Jim" And the
miserable liar had said for pages that
he had been writing for Frank and
turning his writing in to Frank on
his reports from the fourth floor for
months and months. Can you write
JIM" That started the conversation.
Now Your Honor will remember the
extent to which the negro's tale grew.
He first sad-and without any rhyme or
| reaSon-that he wrote the notes for
! Frank on Friday, as if Frank, assum-
! ing he is the murderer, knew on Fri
! day he was going to meet this girl
| and even kill her and take her to the
basement Saturday. If Frank was
| going to meet the girl Mr.. Dorsey
! doesn't pretend he knew ne was gons
to Kill her. Well, of course that was
a ridiculous and unreasonable lie, anC
he invented a dozen tales about wha'
| he had done that day in different bar,
| rooms. He showed the most apt minC
at inventing tales-I I have ever seen
and some people say, how could {
negro have invented those things?
Well. II there is anything a negro car
do it is to invent remarkable stories
IF they have any one talent, it's invent
ing striking lie.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
DIDN'T GIVE FRANK "
MUCH TIME FOR DEED.

I'm giving the cold faclS in this
case Can anybody answer that with
logic? Can anybody answer 1t with
cou,non sense Either Conley lied or
he toId the truth. They are committed
10 him. Tie only way the!r case can
At In IS to get Mary PAasa1 there be-
fore Aiontecn StoVe:, because they say
when Monteen Slower came up thcTe
Frank was out Of the office killing
he raUst, have had her back here for
Just 4 little while, because Jim Con-
10y saws she had gone into Franks
Office Mary Phagan had-had gone
back 20 the metal room. and he had
heard her scream before tnis little
Stuver girl ever came, ard the Slower
girl came at 1905. Oh, my! Tney
don't give F-ank much time to do this
deed!
Now We are getting down 10 the
very yitals Of tho case, and that is as
much a part of the case as the origl-
nal matter--the moving OF the BODY,
If Conley has lied about that he's lied
about 1t all. Conley says he lett the
building not sooner than 1.3O. Harllee
Branch says from the time the negro
took in his demonstration that II
couldn't have been finished before 1.S0.
DR.. Owens says the same thing.
There's no conflict about it. 1t took
over half an hour to move that body;
and the negro couldn't have been mis-
; taken as to any earlier time than four
minutes to one, because Denham and
! White are seeing Frank and talking
| to him up stairs, and 1t was evident
| that it must have been after that that
! the moving OF the body started. The
! solicitor coRtended that he was get
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
HIDEOUS APPEARANCE
OF RACE PREJUDICE.

We have had murders the equal or
this. but you have to hunt down n little
under the surface to find the cause OF
the outcry that ended in the conviction
Of this man, and when you scratch down
a little bit you'll find it's the same old
cause-and I'm talking plainly and can
didly-when you scratch down just a
little bit, you'll find it's the same old
cause that has run through the ages
that it's the same old cry of Jew"
that has been shedding innocent blood
for twenty centuries.
And about the only parallel to this
case that I know of that's gone on in
recent times is a trial that's going on
to-day in Kieff, Russia, where they are
trying a Jew for ritual murder OF
thirteen year old boy and the police and
detectives and everybody around in that
country have worked up evidence on
him, and they have a most terrible case,
il YOU consider the bald. naked evidence
that's being introduced against him. But
il is a case that the civilized world
stands aghast at and looks upon with
horror and one that the civilized world
| knows is a lie and persecution from
! beginning to end.
Not that the boy wasn't killed; not
! that a murder wasn't committed; but
! the attempt to connect that man with
| it Is the outcropping and the hideous
| appearance again of the racial preju-
| dice that hasn't reflected any credit on
! the race that Your Honor and l belong
! to. for two thousand years
| 7 have got a stack of letters now-l
get them every day. l never got letter
i that didn't contain the words d
JeW"-"defending a d Jew against
one of your own kind for killing one
OF your own kind" That expression
seems to be uppermost in their minds
the very expression used by Henslee
the juror here I'm not arguing mere
piece of imagination, but / do believe
and | do hope that this case will b'
the beginning of our understanding o
what hideous thing race prejudice is
AS ! said, it does not exist with en-
lghtened people. but an intense preju
dice on the part of ignorant peopl
sometimes overlaps that class ant
spreads into other circles by the mer
fact of its existence.
don't believe there's a case on recor,
where a wretch who confessed h
4 watched for crime; who confesse
that he had seen crimes against tn
[ order of nature cOmmitted--no matte
how unreasonable it may be for a ma
n to do a thing of that sort and be see
e who confessed that he tried to con
= ceal the body after knowing murde
{ was committed who never made tn
slightest confession that he knew any
'Si thing about the crime until the evj
- dence on him was so strong that h
a couldn't answer it; who lied in wrltn
lsi four times in material details about II
= who lied so on the stand that 30
rel couldn't compare his last affidavit wit
m! his testimony on the stand and TeCOG
- nize any points of similarity
II, ] say ] don't believe under oTdinar
i-i circumstances his testimony would
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
STATEMENT CHANGED
AT LAST HOUR.

Wasn't he a wonderful watchman"
In none OF his other evidence had
he ever mentioned letting the Slower
girl go up or seeing Lemmie Quinn
go up, but they put that in his state
ment at the last hour, Not that Mon
teen Slower was corroborating him,
but to make his evidence tit in the
evidence that Monteen would give as
TO when she went up there. That's
all. That gives the lie to all his
watching. He wasn't watching; there
would have been no sense in his
watching at the time he claims the
appointment was made to watch.
There was nothing to watch for. 1t
was a monstrous, grotesque lie, and
the whole claim of watching was in
vented and put into his mouth to give
some plausibility and reason for his
tale.
Left alone his tale was SO ridiculous
that the detective says: You have got
to change the day on which he wrote
the notes" And he changed it. Then:
you've got to change the fact that you
knew nothing about the crime" And
he changed IT, The tale in court isn't
| his tale. Why, take negro and give
him protection-all the power of the
law let him know the officers are back
! of him let him have perfect acquaint-
anCe with the physlcdl location oI the
! factory; let him know the thing that's
| charged against a man, and it isn't
| much trouble for him to get up tale
| and to ag,ee to tale that looks fairly
! reasonable
! Now, the physical facts OF this case
show that this crime could never have
been committed by Leo NJ. Frank and
it's dreadful. the things that were re-
sorted to by the State to get away from
the plain, physical facts as to when tht
little girl got there. That was the weak
spot in the States case. They knew il
and they knew they would have t.
bolster up their perjured witnesses by
various little facts as TO the time thii
little girl got there
And they set about doing it. 1aey Sc
clocks back and they ran up schedules
Of street cars And for Your Honor h
The Washington times., 1915-03-21

hole here II write while he plays
with me-"
Your Honor that elevator SHAFT was
there, open and yawning, right III that
dark area where the stairway ends
that's the place where this man puts
himself; that's the place others put
him. His mind was fired with liquor.
He was hard up for money. The little
girl had a purse. The fact that 1t has
never been found and accounted for
shows it was stolen. The fact that she
was down in the cellar shows he threw
her there, because he was at this place
where he could do it. Why, that en-
PLANTATION of the crime is so much
more plausible, so much more reason
able, so much more in the line or MS
confession as to what he did thefe
than any theory as TO Franks doing II,
that it's hard to state any Other
theory.
Now, on one side is an educated
man, a decent man, a man who holds
his head up, has responsible posi-
ton. a man who is responsible for the
success or failure of that factory, a
man who would have had no motive
for crime except the far fetched claim
OF the Solicitor. on the other hand
here is a negro, debascd-a criminal
besotted with liquor hard up for
mo1ey, in a place where he could with
lightnng-like rapidity, grab tho girl
and in the struggle with her throw
her down and render her unconscious.
1t was the work of moment to
| throw her into that cellar. He could
! afterward wait around there and go
! down and put that body in that black
| plaCe and write the notes Why, don't
YOU know that if Frank intended to
! burn her the next day he never
! would have written these notes? why,
the idea of saying he wrote the notes
in case the body was found before ii
was burned! The body being there and
the notes being there show that was
the permanent disposition intended tt
be made of the body. II Frank in
tended TO burn her he would have dont
1t himself or had 1t done.
Bear in mind, Your Honor, the ne
gro writes the notes. That physica
fact is demonstrated as having beer
the neEro's act. There Is no evidence
that Frank had a thing to do with /
except from the negro himself-th
man from whom that damninS eVi
dence comes.
In other words, you get dead evi
dence on a man OF crime, phySica
evidence showing he was there. an
that he hid the body. He's a debase
criminal; he's told a dozen lies abou
1t. And yet in order to excuse an
) clear himself, he brings a decent, re
} spectacle man into II and loads tina
respectable citizen down with the vii
charge of perversion. \ good life I
, count for nothing, The circumstance
of the case to count for nothing! An
, sou are to take that confessed par
tlcipsnts stateWent as to how it oc
CURED, Never was there such cas-
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
NEGRO'S MIND WAS
FIRED WITH LIQUOR.

The Court--Do you think he intended
to create the impression that the girl
wrote the notes before she was dead. or
what?
Mr.. Arnold--Thats what it Neans-
written by the dying girl-if it means
anything at all II went hack there
and that long, tall, black negro
threw me through this hole" Cncon-
sciously he makes the girl say the real
way in which he threw her into the
cellar like the ignorant mind acts In
consciously he made the girl in the note
he wanted To make it appear she wrote
say that sac vas thrown down this
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
WHOLE CASE STANDS
OR FALLS WITH CONLEY

Tho whole case stands or falls with
Conley 4 great part OF Mr. Dorseys
argument was taken up with claiming
that this, that or the other thing cor
rOboratcd Conley He recognized that
this case depended on Conley. He la
bored with that proposition and he
went through the case and attempted
TO pick out those things that he claimed
corroborated him. Mr.. Hooper in his
opening argument. followed up by Mr..
Dorsey. claimed tnat on Friday d plan
was conceived by Frank to meet this
little girl Saturday. and Conley said
1t took form at ) O'Clock, when Frank
met him in the factory and said y
want YOU to come here Saturday and
watch for me" That's the foundation
Of it.
At that ;.me Frank didn't know this
little girl was coming Saturday. He
couldn't have known II. There's 70
claim hhat he had any appointment
with her; that Is, at the time 1t WASH I
known whether she would come and
get her pay or not; and If she didn't
come and get her pay il wasn't known
whether she would come Saturday Or
Monday. The presumption was rathsY
that she would come Monday. And
here we have a man making a solemn
engagement with another one to come
and watch for him when he hasn't any
woman that any transaction is going
to take place with: when he hasn't
spoke 20 her: hasn't arranged it with
her, and he doesn't know when she's
coming. II at all
Now Conley says he came to the
factory to watch. at Il time when there
were numbers OF people in the fac
tory. coming and going; and let's see
! what sort of a watchman he was
He stayed down there at the entrance
and says he saw this little girl Mary
Phagan go up, and right on the heels
of that this man Conley let another
| little girl, Monteen Slower, go up
! after he had heard the first gr
! scream. He had heard Frank go back
! in the metal room with Mary PhagaT
! and he had heard Mary Phagar
| scTeam-which must have indicated
! that something was wrong. And oI
! the heels of that. he says he let thi!
| little girl, Monteen Stover, go righ
| up stairs.
The Washington times., 1915-03-21
NEGRO'S TESTIMONY
THE ONLY EVIDENCE.

I want to ask Your Honor this ques-
ton: Outside of the evidence OF the
negro Coniey. would there be any pre-
tense that therc is enough evidence here
to convict this man? Would Your Honor
hesitate longer than 1t would take you
to pick up pen and write to grant
new trial. If jury would return a ver-
dict of'guilty under such circumstances?
| cay more: Under ordinary circum-
stances. If there was nothing to base
this conviction on except this evidence
OF the negro, would Your Honor not dis
charge jury from the box that con-
victed man on his evidence? What
is there in this case that constrains you
to make ruling different from one you
would make in any other case? Take
the ordinary case without any setting
like this, without any ranting fury, with
out the magnitude this has assumed; ;
would anybody hesitate a minute?
Why, Your Honor. If this had been
an ordinary case, the infiammatory
speech made by Mr. Dorsey would have
made an ordinary jury return a verdict
of acquittal without leaving the box.
The insinuations and methods resorted
to to convict this man, In any ordinary
case, would have killed the case itself.
The jury would have spurned them I;
the community would have spurned them.
the court would have spurned them !;
Have we taken leave of our senses? Is
this case the exception TO all rules? If
so, why?
There's a man over there in that jail.
Your Honor, who is condemned to death
on as base a fabrication as was ever
swallowed in darkest Russia. There .
q man over there condemned to death
n ha Il,y 4, t..s
convicted him in the time of Richard
! the First. Occur de Lion-who In Eng
! land started a great crusade against
! the Jews. ! wouldn't have believed
such a thing could have happened in
Georgia. Lies were circulated from
| the very beginning on this poor man,
| who was helpless to get around and
meet them. 4 lie travels a whole lot
! faster than the truth; people love To
! believe remarkable things; some people
| arc very gullble; many people love to
believe dark things.