LEMMIE QUINN, Sworn In For The Defendant, 47th To Testify

Reading Time: 7 minutes [1089 words]

LEMMIE QUINN, sworn for the Defendant.

I am foreman of the metal department.

Barrett pointed out to me where he claimed to have found blood spots on the metal room floor.

He asked me whether I thought that he (Barrett) would get the reward if Frank were convicted.

He told me that several people told him that he had a good chance to get the reward.

He said a fellow told him that he would get $2700 one time and $4500 the other time.

He mentioned that reward to me on several occasions.

The floor of the metal room is very dirty.

You could not tell at the alleged blood spots whether they were varnish or oil.

We have blood spots quite frequently when people get their hands cut.

I remember a man by the name of Gilbert was hurt in that room.

He was carried towards the main office by the ladies' dressing room and sent to the hospital.

He bled freely.

That was about a year ago.

About eight months ago a boy cut his hand pretty badly and was carried by the ladies' dressing room to the main office, right over the place where Barrett found the blood spots.

His hand was bleeding.

About a hundred women work in the factory.

Haskoline is scattered all over the floor of the metal room.

That floor has never been scrubbed since I have been to the factory.

I could not tell what color hair it was Barrett found.

There were only a half dozen strands in it.

Chief Lanford took it.

There is a place in the room where the girls dress their hair by a little gas jet which they use for heating a curling iron.

It was about ten feet from the lathe where Barrett claims to have found the hair.

If a breeze was blowing from this window from the west it would blow to where the girls were fixing their hair.

The last time I saw Mary Phagan before the murder was Monday.

She left about two o'clock.

She left about two o'clock because we were out of material and she was laid off for the rest of the week.

I have never seen Mr. Frank speak to her.

I went to the factory on April 26th, to see Mr. Schiff.

He was not there.

I often go to the factory on Saturdays and holidays.

The street doors were open when I got there.

I did not see Mary Phagan, nor Jim Conley, nor Monteen Stover.

The doors to Mr. Frank's inner and outer office were open.

The time I reached Mr. Frank's office was about 12:20.

I saw Mr. Frank on Sunday at Bloomfield's undertaking establishment in the afternoon.

He had on a black suit.

On Saturday he had on a brown suit.

There was no blood spots under the machine where Barrett claims to have found the hair.

On Monday Mr. Frank had on a brown suit.

There was no blood at the spot where Conley claims the body of the girl was found.

It was perfectly dry there, there was no water on the floor.

CROSS EXAMINATION.

I noticed the blood spots at the ladies' dressing room on Monday.

I did not tell Mr. Payne and Mr. Starnes that I was not in the factory on April 26th.

I told nobody that.

Mr. Frank is not the first person to whom I told it.

He did not tell me to keep quiet about it until he saw his lawyer.

I did not tell the officers about it.

Mr. Frank said he remembered my being at the factory, but did not remember the time.

At the coroner's inquest I said it was pretty close to 12 o'clock when I got to Wolfsheimer's.

I don't think it could have been as early as quarter after twelve when I got to the factory.

As to why I did not tell the officers, they could have gotten it if they had asked me.

I never mentioned it to Barrett either.

I told Chief Lanford on the following Monday that I was at the factory.

I told it to Frank on Tuesday.

He said he would mention it to his lawyers.

I told Frank I didn't like to be brought into it but if it would help him in any way I would do it.

As to whether I would have mentioned it or not, was up to Mr. Frank.

He afterwards told me that his lawyers advised him to mention it at the coroner's inquest.

That was Tuesday afternoon.

I told you in the statement I gave you that I could not swear positively as to the time I was at the factory.

I said I got to the pool room between 12:20 and 12:30.

I had been up in the factory before I met Mrs. Freeman and Miss Hall at the Busy Bee.

I was in the office and saw Mr. Frank between 12:20 and 12:25.

At that time I made the statement to you that I was there between 12:00 and 12:25 I had reckoned the time down as I have now.

The back door at the stairway going up from the office floor to the top floor is fastened with a bar.

It is not closed except on pay day.

It is true that a man at the office door could easily lift bar and walk up, but a man could not come down to office floor from above at all.

Anybody could fix that bar in its place in half a minute.

I told you in the detective 's office that I reckoned the time of my being in the factory from the time I left home and the destination I went to, and I said I could not remember the stop at Wolfsheimer's which took ten or fifteen minutes, and that is why I reckoned it so positively.

I left home I know at about a quarter to twelve.

I looked at my watch.

It takes twelve or fifteen minutes to walk to the factory.

I got to Wolfsheimer's pretty close to 12 o'clock.

I was there ten or fifteen minutes.

RE-DIRECT EXAMINATION.

At the time the detectives and Mr. Dorsey talked to me about the murder, I overlooked the fact that I had been to Wolfsheimer 's.

My wife called my attention to it when I got home.

I mentioned this matter to my father and my wife before I ever mentioned it to Mr. Frank.

Mr. Frank did not tell me not to mention it to anybody.

If a detective had asked me I would have told him what I knew about it.

At the Coroner's inquest I said it could have been as early as twenty minutes after 12 that I got to the factory, because I had reckoned my time down from leaving home and the number of steps, and I said it must have been between 12:20 and 12:25.