Monday, 28th April 1913 Where and With Whom Was Mary Phagan Before End?

Atlanta Georgian

Monday, April 28th, 1913

Detectives to-day are using all their resources to learn where Mary Phagan was every minute of Saturday and Saturday night, whom she saw, with whom she talked, and what she said.

There are wide blanks in the story of her movements. These must be filled.

12:10 p. m.—Mary Phagan appeared at the National Pencil Factory at ten or fifteen minutes after 12 o'clock noon, Saturday, and drew the pay due her, $1.60. She chatted a few minutes with friends. The manager is sure she then left the building.

She told her mother she was going to see the Memorial Day parade.

Did she go straight from the factory to see the procession? Who joined her? Where did she stand? When the procession had passed, where did she go? Did someone, that early in the day, start weaving around her the net which later caused her death?

10 p. m.—E. S. Skipper, 224 1-2 Peters Street, saw a girl answering the description of Mary Phagan at about 10 o'clock Saturday night. She was walking up Pryor Street near Trinity with three youths. She was crying, and seemed to be trying to get away from her companions. She seemed to be under the influence of an opiate, not of drink.

Was this, in truth, Mary Phagan? If so, who were the youths? Where had they been, and where did they go?

12:30 a. m.—E. L. Sentell, who had known Mary Phagan nearly all her life, saw her with a man he identifies as Arthur Mullinax, walking north on Forsyth Street near Hunter at about 12:30 o'clock Sunday morning. The girl was tried and angry. She spoke to him.

Did she and her companion go at once to the pencil factory?

If not, where did they go?

3 a. m.—The mutilated body of Mary Phagan was found in a dark corner of the National Pencil Factory basement, 37-39 South Forsyth Street, by the night watchman.

Here are the gaps—from 12:15 Saturday afternoon to 10 o'clock Saturday night. From 10 o'clock Saturday night to 12:30 o'clock Sunday morning. From 12:30 o'clock Sunday morning until 3 o'clock Sunday morning.

When the police and detectives have filled in these blanks, the murderer of Mary Phagan will be known.

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