Author: Historical Librarian

Atlanta Georgian Friday, June 13th, 1913 Chief of Detectives Lanford Receives No Order to Take the Negro Sweeper to Court. A more explicit accusation of murder against Jim Conley, negro sweeper at the National Pencil Factory, than has yet been made since his name has been connected with the Phagan mystery, was expected Friday morning when Luther Z. Rosser, attorney for Leo Frank, was to appear before Judge L. S. Roan to combat Solicitor Dorsey's move to keep Conley at the police station and away from the tower. The probability that Conley, accuser, and Frank, accused, would be brought face

The Atlanta Georgian Friday, June 13, 1913 Rosser Declares ‘Gibbering Statements' Point Out Sweeper as Guilty of Slaying. James Conley, self-confessed accessory after the fact in the murder of Mary Phagan, Friday was discharged by Judge L. S. Roan entirely from the custody of the State on the petition of Solicitor Dorsey. Technically free, Conley was at once rearrested and held by the police on suspicion in the murder mystery. The action of Judge Roan constituted a victory for Solicitor Dorsey, who was fighting to prevent the authorities returning Conley to the Tower, from which he had been taken on

The Atlanta Georgian Saturday, June 14, 1913 Attorney for Conley Injects Politics Into Dispute Over Negro's Place of Confinement. William M. Smith, counsel for James Conley, confessed accessory after the fact in the killing of Mary Phagan, in a statement Saturday sought to make a political issue out of his controversy with Sheriff Mangum over the alleged treatment Conley received while in the Tower. Attorney Smith employed references to his own previous statement that the jail was five stories high; was divided into four wings with seventeen cell blocks distributed over five floors, to discredit Sheriff Mangum's characterization of the

The Atlanta Georgian Saturday, June 14, 1913 With certain of the strong defenses of Leo M. Frank exposed by the preliminary battle over the custody of the negro Conley, the prosecution in the Phagan murder mystery went to work on the case to-day with its first definite idea of the sort of a stronghold it must assault. It was assured that the accused man's lawyers would not rest with fighting suspicion away from Frank, but would seek to fasten the guilt so firmly upon Conley that Frank not only would be acquitted, but that he would be cleared of every

The Atlanta Georgian Monday, June 16, 1913 A. S. Colyar is in Atlanta again, promising to spring some more sensations. The investigator who engineered the dictographing of Thomas B. Felder and Mayor Woodward has been in Washington. He sent a letter to Atlanta before him, saying he objected to being made a goat. It is believed Colyar saw George M. Gentry while in Washington and got from him an affidavit. This is said to be much the same as the one printed admitting that the dictograph records had been padded, as charged in Gentry's recent affidavit, but that the general

The Atlanta Georgian Monday, June 16, 1913 Attorney Hooper Declares State Is Prepared for Any Move the Defense May Make. Frank A. Hooper, the well-known criminal lawyer who has been engaged to assist Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey in the trial of Leo M. Frank for the alleged murder of Mary Phagan, said Monday that the case was complete and was ready for presentation in court at any time. Mr. Hooper asserted that the attorneys interested in the prosecution had investigated every angle of the mystery so thoroughly and fortified themselves against any defense that Frank will present, that practically

  The Atlanta Georgian Tuesday, June 17, 1913 Out-of-Town Trips Believed To Be of Great Importance—Defense Has Strong Evidence. Frank A. Hooper, associate counsel with Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey in the prosecution of the Phagan murder mystery, left Atlanta Monday for a trip to Indianapolis. Attorney Hooper was the third man closely connected with the Phagan case to leave town within a space of three days. Colonel Thomas B. Felder, who took an active part in the hunt for the slayer of Mary Phagan until the dictograph controversy arose, left Sunday, saying that he was going to Cincinnati. He

  The Atlanta Georgian Wednesday, June 18, 1913 Extensive Preparations Made to Accommodate Great Crowd Expected at Hearing. When twelve books of evidence of more than 100 pages each were turned over to the Solicitor's office Wednesday morning by his stenographers, Assistant Solicitor General E. A. Stephens announced the State could now go to trial on 48 hours' notice. No evidence would be introduced, he said, except by witnesses who had already been questioned by the Solicitor. To bring out the salient points in the evidence of each witness, the Solicitor plans to question them from the books. They will