237 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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LEO M. FRANK

205

Frank, "Is that the nigger?" and Mr. Frank said, "Yes," and she said, "Well, does he talk much?" and he says, "No, he is the best nigger I have ever seen." Mr. Frank called me into the office and gave me $1.25. The next time I watched was on a Saturday about the middle of January. A man and ladies came about half-past two. They stayed there about two hours; I didn’t know either one of the ladies; I can’t describe what either one of them had on. The man was tall, slim-built, a heavy man; I have seen him at the factory talking to Holloway; he didn’t work there; I have been in prison three times since I have been with the pencil company, seven or eight times within the last four or five years. Snowball and I drank beer together sometimes in the building; I never was drunk at the time Mr. Frank told me to watch for him. He talked to me before Snowball. There were eight niggers in all working in the factory. Snowball, the fireman, and I did just plain manual labor; the rest of the negroes had better jobs. The time Mr. Frank told me about watching for him, he didn’t know Snowball was in there. Snowball was standing right there by me.

Miss Daisy Hopkins worked on the fourth floor in 1912. She was pretty, low, kind of heavy weight. She looked to be about twenty-three. I was arrested on the 1st of May. I sent for Mr. Black to come down when I made my first statement on May 18. I denied I had been to the factory in that statement. I told Mr. Black on May 24, the time I made the second statement, that I helped tote the little girl; I think I told them about Mr. Frank getting me to watch for him, that he told me he struck a girl and for me to go back and get her; I didn’t give Mr. Frank clear away that time; I kept some things back. I told the detectives about wanting me to watch for him when I got back to the factory; I don’t know why I didn’t tell them that at the time I told them about moving the body. I told the officers I saw Mary Phagan go in at all; I didn’t tell them I heard any scream; I told Mr. Starnes and Mr. Campbell. That was after I got out of jail. I said I heard the scream before I went to sleep, which I did; I told Mr. Starnes and Mr. Campbell about somebody running back on tiptoes; I don’t know why I didn’t tell it the day I told them I was going to tell the whole truth; I didn’t mean to keep back anything then. That day I told them everything I remembered.

When I got to the top of the stairs, Mr. Frank had that cord in his hands; I don’t remember when I first told about that. If I didn’t tell it that day when I said I was telling the whole truth, I just didn’t remember it. The reason why I didn’t tell Scott and Black before I wrote four notes instead of two, they didn’t ask me how many I wrote. I wrote three notes on white and one on green paper. The reason I didn’t tell Scott and Black about burning the body, because someone had done taken them off the case. I did not see a man named Mincey on the electric car that day; I did not tell how I had just killed a girl and did not want to kill another. I saw Mary Phagan’s pocketbook, or mesh bag, in Mr. Frank’s office after he got back.

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