Wednesday, 17th September 1913 No Bill Is Found Against Newt Lee, The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Constitution,
Wednesday, 17th September 1913.
PAGE 3, COLUMN 3
The Fulton County grand jury, sitting Tuesday in regular session, returned a "no-bill" against Newt Lee the negro factory night watchman whose testimony figured so largely in the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan.
The action of the grand jury eliminates Lee in the matter of being connected with the murder in any manner.
Wednesday, 17th September 1913 Say Partee Shot In Self-defense, The Atlanta Georgian
PAGE 20, COLUMN 3
Witnesses Tell Grand Jury Jack-
Son Killing Was Justified No
Bill' Asked for Newt Lee.
That W. D. Partee, a locomotive engineer, who on July 28 shot and killed Samuel Jackson, another engineer, in the yards of the Georgia Railroad, acted in self-defense was the testimony given before the Fulton County Grand Jury when it met Tuesday morning.
J. W. Hix, of Etowah, Tenn., an eyewitness to the shooting, testified that Jackson cursed Partee and then attacked him before the latter drew his weapon and fired the fatal bullet. Other witnesses were J. F. Jordan and R. H. Morris.
Partee has been out on bond. His attorneys seek to have a "no bill" returned by the Grand Jury.
Attorneys for Newt lee, the Frank trial witness and one-time suspect in the investigation of the slaying of Mary Phagan, appeared before the Grand Jury at the morning hearing to ask that a "no bill" be returned in the negro's …More
Wednesday, September 17th, 1913: Jim Conley To Fight Felon Charge Bitterly, The Atlanta Georgian
Conley To Fight Felon Charge Bitterly
Attorney Will Permit Him to Plead
Guilty Only to Misdemeanor,
Judge Sought.
Jim Conley's trial on a felony charge as accessory after the fact in the murder of Mary Phagan will be strongly combated by his attorney, William M. Smith, according to an announcement made Tuesday.
It is the contention that Conley, on the State's own theory of the crime, is guilty of nothing more than a misdemeanor, and that he can not be tried for a crime of which he is not accused.
Two indictments were drawn against the negro at the last session of the Grand Jury. One charged him with a misdemeanor and the other with a felony. A nice point of law has arisen on the felony indictment, the Georgia statutes providing that an accessory after the fact, to be liable to punishment as a felon, must have "hidden, harbored or concealed" the person guilty of the capital crime, as well as …More
Wednesday, 17th September 1913: Beavers Passes Up Pleas That He Get In Sheriff’s Race, The Atlanta Journal
Beset by Friends and Enemies to Try for County Office, Beavers Declares He's Police Chief Till He's Fired SAID THAT WATERS, WILL BE A FOURTH CANDIDATE Since Beavers Prefers Vice War to Sheriffship, Mayo, Wright and Mangum Are Now Only Candidates An effort on the part of some of the friends of Chief of Police J. L. Beavers, who fear that his days in the office he now holds are numbered, and some his enemies who want to stop the vice crusade, to get the official to run for sheriff of Fulton County has failed. While admitting that a number of people had urged him to become a candidate for sheriff at the coming election, Chief Beavers declared to The Journal Wednesday that he was not even considering the matter. I will stay chief of police until they fire me, Chief Beavers remarked, when a reporter asked for his position relative to an effort to induce him to become a candidate for …More
Tuesday, 16th September 1913: Veterans Urge Funds For Phagan Monument, The Atlanta Journal
Big Meeting of
Interested Or-
ganizations Has Been
Pro-
posed for
December 10
A movement to gain the co-operation of the various
organizations raising a fund for a Mary Phagan monument has
been placed on foot by Camp No. 763, United Confederate
Veterans of Marietta. A meeting of delegates from each of the
bodies interested in the work is advocated. J. Gid Morris,
commander of Camp No. 763, has offered his home for the
purpose on December 10. It is proposed at the same time to
make tentative plans for the erection of the shaft in time for its
unveiling on Confederate Memorial day, April 26, 1914, the first
anniversary of her death.
At the regular monthly meeting of the camp in Marietta
recently $5 was contributed toward the fund by the camp. It was
then suggested that every veteran donate 25 cents. This
suggestion was enthusiastically received and before the meeting
closed $40 had been subscribed. …More
Tuesday, 16th September 1913 Jim Conley’s Lawyer Planning His Defense, The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Constitution,
Tuesday, 16th September 1913.
PAGE 9, COLUMN 2
Jim Conley may not plead guilty to being accessory after the fact in the murder of Mary Phagan. This is the startling statement of the negro's attorney, William Smith, late Monday.
"I may have Jim take a plea to one of the counts of the indictment against him, but I do not believe he will plead guilty to all of the counts," was the way Attorney Smith declared himself.
Conley remains at the Tower awaiting his trial, which will probably come up at the October term of the criminal branch of the superior court.
PAGE 9, COLUMN 6
VETERANS RAISE FUNDS
FOR PHAGAN MONUMENT
Through the efforts of Camp 763, Unite Confederate Veterans of Marietta, a sum already totaling over $40 has been raised looking towards the erecting of a monument over the grave of little Mary Phagan for whose murder Leo M. Frank was found guilty and sentenced …More
Tuesday, September 16th, 1913: No Judge To Try Fulton Docket, The Atlanta Georgian
Frank Case and New Bench Appointments Cause Congestion
in Court 100 Await Trial.
Solicitor General Dorsey is on a still hunt for a judge to conduct the large grist of cases which have piled up since the June term of court. The Frank trial caused all other court busine accumulate, and the recent bench appointments still further have delayed the disposal of several scores of cases.
More than one hundred prisoners are in the county jail awaiting trial. Some of them have been there much longer than is usual to hold them before trial. The Solicitor wishes to have them placed on trial at the earliest possible moment and does not wish to wait until some time in October for Judge Ben H. Hill to take the new Atlanta circuit judgeship if he can avoid this delay.
An effort is being made to have one of the Superior Court judges preside. If this fails, it is probable that a judge from an outside circuit will be brought in. …More
Monday, 15th September 1913: Frank Trial Not Fair Declares Preacher, The Atlanta Constitution
Public Mind Too Inflamed forImpartial Hearing of Case,Says Dr. Holderby.
Leo M. Frank did not receive a fair trial for the murder of Mary Phagan on account of the inflamed condition of the public mind, according to Rev. A. R. Holderby, past of the Moore Memorial church.
The declaration was made during a discussion of the topic.
A Square Deal for Every Man, which was the subject of Dr. Holderbys discourse Sunday morning.
I wish to speak a word of caution to you today as regards your attitude towards one of our citizens who had been convicted of an atrocious crime, he said.
It is not for me or for you to affirm that he is innocent or guilty.
The jury has rendered its verdict.
The question that concerns the church did this man have a fair and impartial trial?
If the trial was conducted without vindictiveness and prejudice and the testimony was sufficient to convict then the verdict is just. But if …More
Monday, 15th September 1913: Express Theft Arrest Due By Nightfull, The Atlanta Georgian
Detectives Work on Theory That Guilty Man Will Squander $72,000 Booty.
Detective Harry Scott, Atlanta agent of the Pinkertons, said Monday that the hunt for the daring robber who looted the Southern or the Adams Express Company of $72,000 in transit from New York to Savannah and South Georgia banks had narrowed down to two or three express employees, who were being kept under special surveillance.
He anticipated an arrest during the day.
The centering of suspicion on particular employees has not caused the detectives to relax their vigilance.
On the contrary, the closest sort of a watch Is being kept on every employee of both companies who by the most remote possibility might have been connected with the bold theft.
The instant one of these men emerges into the white lights'' and begins spending money freely he will be arrested as the man who stole the $72,000, according to Special Agent Weaver, of …More
Monday, September 15th, 1913: Are Burns Men Here, The Atlanta Constitution
PAGE 10, COLUMN 4
Report Says They Are Working on Frank Case.
That detectives in the employ of the Burns Agency are in Atlanta working up new evidence to be used in the hearing on a new trial for Leo M. Frank, which is set for Oct. 4, 1913, is the rumor which spread through the city Sunday and set tongues freshly wagging on the famous case.
The rumor further has it that Solicitor Dorsey had in his possession a bit of valuable evidence given him while he was arguing the case before the jury and too late to be introduced into the proceedings. The local Burns men would neither affirm nor deny the report regarding their agents, and Mr. Dorsey could not be reached last night to make any statement regarding the rumored new evidence, which it is said was submitted to him by a girl formerly employed in the pencil factory.
PAGE 10, COLUMN 2
FRANK TRIAL NOT FAIR
DECLARES PREACHER
Public Mind Too Inflamed for
Impartial …More
Monday, 15th September 1913: Thaw Lawyer Uncle Of Mrs. Leo M. Frank, The Atlanta Journal
Samson Selig, an Atlantian by birth and well known locally.
Samson Selig, one of Harry K. Thaw's legal advisers in his fight to prevent extradition from New Hampshire to New York, is an Atlantian by birth. He attended school here in his youth, later moving to the metropolis with his parents, and completing his education there. He is at present a member of the law firm of House, Grossman & Vorhause, of New York City.
Samson Selig is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jonas Selig, aunt and uncle of Mrs. Leo M. Frank.
Samson Selig, in an interview in a New York paper received by relatives in Atlanta, declared that Thaw's chances to frustrate the attempt to place him again in Matteawan asylum are better in New Hampshire than in Canada. High British government officials were behind his recent sudden deportation, the attorney said in an interview.
PAGE 5, COLUMN 5
DR. HOLDERBY TALKS ON BE INDICTED FRIDAY
Also Makes …More
Sunday, 14th September 1913: Three Judgeships Announced Judge B. H. Hill Appointed To New Atlanta Judgeship, The Atlanta Journal
Journal's Prediction of Week Ago Fulfilled in Appointments by Governor by Which Three Courts Are Shifted
JUDGE ROAN SUCCEEDS TO COURT OF APPEALS
Charles S. Reed Takes Judge Roan's Place on Stone Mountain Circuit, George M. Napier Is Solicitor General Governor John M. Slaton yesterday announced appointments
incident to the new Atlanta judgeship exactly as The Journal
exclusively predicted last Wednesday.
His appointments are as follows:
To the fourth division of the Fulton superior court, Judge
Benjamin Harvey Hill, chief justice of the state court of appeals.
To succeed Judge Hill on the court of appeals, Judge L. S.
Roan, of the Stone Mountain circuit.
To succeed Judge Roan on the Stone Mountain circuit,
Charles S. Reid, solicitor general of the circuit.
To succeed Mr. Reid as solicitor general, George M. Napier,
of the Atlanta bar.
EFFECTIVE IN OCTOBER.
The …More
Saturday, September 13th, 1913: Classmate Of Leo Frank Writes Warm Defense, The Atlanta Constitution.
Classmate Of Leo Frank Writes Warm Defense
New York Physician Declares
Leo Frank Was Noted in College
For His Clean Morals.
Dr. Morris J. Clurman, A. B., graduate of Cornell university with Leo M. Frank and now a resident of New York, writes the following letter to The Constitution in reference to the case of his classmate:
Editor, Constitution:
I trust you will honor a New Yorker with a little space in your newspaper and thereby yield me an opportunity to express candidly and in an absolutely unbiased manner what I know concerning the character and past life of Leo M. Frank, who is now convicted to die for a horrible crime that was committed in your city.
As a classmate of Leo M. Frank at Cornell and as one who for four years while at college and for some years thereafter came into intimate contact with him. I feel particularly and peculiarly qualified to speak with authority concerning …More
Friday, September 12th, 1913: Newt Lee Ignored, The Atlanta Journal
PAGE 7, COLUMN 4
It was expected that a bill charging murder which was drawn against Newt Lee, the watchman at the National Pencil factory who figured in the Frank case, would be presented to the grand jury, to be no-billed, but it was not taken up Friday morning.
Later the grand jury will take action on it, however, in order to clear the records in the case by formally returning the no-bill.
Friday, 12th September 1913: Crawford Jackson Indicted Statement On Case Issues, The Atlanta Journal
Grand Jury Returns Bill Against Minister on Testimony of Girl and Her Parents " Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Indicted for Murder
Rev. Crawford Jackson was indicted by the grand jury Friday morning for attempted criminal assault, the indictment growing out of the charges made a short while ago by a young girl who was in his office. An indictment for attempted criminal assault was returned also against John T. Mitchell, the white man arrested by the country complaint on the accusation of a young girl living on the Utoy road.
A true bill charging murder was returned against Frank Barton, a fourteen-year-old white boy, charged with having stabbed his playmate, John Edgar, about July 4.
Three witnesses were heard by the grand jury before the indictment against Mr. Jackson was returned. The girl in the case, her sister, and her father testified, following which the true bill was signed.
MR. JACKSON'S …More
Friday, 12th September 1913: Roan Likely To Be Named In 30 Days, The Atlanta Georgian
Rumor That He Will Get New Superior Court Judgeship Gains Ground.
That Judge L. S. Roan would be appointed to the new Superior Court Judgeship created by the last legislature within the next 80 days was the information Friday.
Although no interviews in regard to the appointment have been given out by Governor Slaton, and various rumors as to probable appointees have gone the rounds, the rumor concerning the appointment of Judge Roan is said to hit the mark squarely.
Those who are in close touch with the situation point out that the Governor has decided definitely to appoint Judge Roan, but that he has deferred action until the latter has completed his work in the Leo Frank case on or about October 4, when the motion for u new trial will be heard.
Should Judge Roan receive the appointment, which seems certain, Charles S. Reed, Solicitor of the Stone Mountain Circuit, probably will be named as his successor …More
Friday, September 12th, 1913: Plennie Minor Will Barbecue Tomorrow, The Atlanta Constitution
Deputy Sheriff Plennie Minor, has issued invitations to what promises to be one of the most enjoyable gatherings that Fulton County has seen in many days. It is to be held at Germania Park, Saturday afternoon.
According to Plennie's invitations, which have been sent out to a large number of his friends, and probably no official in the county has a larger list, the affair will be a "barbecue, fish fry and so forth." Pennie has yet to explain what "and so forth" is, but those who know his hospitality are going ahead and making preparations to attend, confident that the "and so forth" will not interfere with the other part of the program.
Automobiles have been provided to take the party to the place where the affair will be held. They will leave the Thrower building at 12:30 sharp and all who get there by or before the hour named will find a seat in an auto and a nice ride and pleasant time ahead …More
Thursday, September 11th, 1913: Frank’s Lawyers Are Hunting For Affidavits, The Atlanta Journal
Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey staid Thursday that he was receiving letters from various towns in the state informing him that the attorneys of Leo M. Frank are canvassing the towns to secure affidavits showing that jurors who convicted Frank were biased.
Some of them say, stated the solicitor that they were approached for affidavits but that they declined to give them.
Thursday, 11th September 1913: Judge Roan Picked To Get Appointment To New Judgeship, The Atlanta Georgian
Well-founded rumor were circulated at the State Capitol Thursday morning that Judge L. S. Roan would be appointed to the Superior Court judgeship created by the last Legislature.
Although many rumors have gone the rounds, the one forecasting the appointment of Judge Roan is said to strike just a little closer to the mark than the others.
One rumor had it that Chief Justice Ben Hill, of the Court of Appeals, would be appointed, being succeeded on the Appeals Court bench by Judge Roan.
Thursday, 11th September 1913 Judge Hill May Get Atlanta Judgeship, The Atlanta Constitution
Reported That Judge Roan,
of Stone Mountain Circuit,
Will Be Appointed on the
Court of Appeals.
While Governor John M. Slaton has made no announcement of whom he expects to appoint to fill the fourth judgeship recently created in Fulton County, it is rumored that Judge Benjamin Harvey Hill, of the Court of Appeals, will be selected to fill the position, and that Judge Leonard Strickland Roan, of the stone Mountain circuit, who, by special act of the legislature, has been holding the criminal division of the superior court in Fulton, will be selected to succeed Judge Hill.
Should Judge L. S. Roan be placed on the court of appeals, of which Judge Hill is now chief, a vacancy would then occur in the Stone Mountain circuit. Solicitor General Charles S. Reid is a candidate for that position, and it is generally believed that he will be appointed. A number of prominent attorneys are also candidates …More