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

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [566 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

LEO M. FRANE, 245

I remained at home all Saturday night. At 12 o'clock noon on Sunday, I walked up Mitchell Street and got a cigarette, remaining there until 12:45 p.m. I then returned home and stayed until 6:30 p.m., when I went to my mother's house to get my lunch. After lunch, I returned home and remained there until Monday, April 26th. On April 28th, I reported for work at the pencil factory at 7:05 a.m.

STATEMENT OF JAMES CONLEY, MAY 24, 1913

On Friday evening before the holiday, around one o'clock, Mr. Frank came up the aisle in the factory and asked me to come to his office. He asked me if I could write, and I told him yes, I could write a little bit. He gave me a scratch pad and told me what to put on it. He instructed me to write, "Dear mother, a long, tall, black negro did this by himself," and told me to write it two or three times. I wrote it on a white, single-ruled scratch pad. He pulled out a box of cigarettes, and in that box, he had $2.50—two paper dollars and two quarters. I took one of the cigarettes and handed him the box, telling him he had some money in the box. He said that was all right and that I was welcome to it because I was a good working negro around there. Then he asked me where Gordon Bailey (Snowball, they call him) was, and I told him he was on the elevator. He asked me if I knew the night watchman, and I told him no. He then asked if I had ever seen him in the basement, and I told him no. I asked him not to take out any money for that watchman I owed, as I didn't have any to spare. He told me he wouldn't, but he would see to me getting some money a little bit later. He mentioned that he had some wealthy people in Brooklyn. Then he held his head up and, looking out of the corner of his eyes, said, "Why should I hang?" That's all I remember him saying to me. When I asked him not to take out any money for the watch, he said I ought not to buy any watch, for that big fat wife of mine wants me to buy her an automobile, but he wouldn't do it. I never did see his wife. On Tuesday morning after the holiday on Saturday, before Mr. Frank got in jail, he came up the aisle where I was sweeping, held his head over to me, and whispered to me to be a good boy. That was all he said to me.

STATEMENT OF CONLEY, MAY 28, 1913

I make this statement, my second statement, in regard to the murder of Mary Phagan. I made the statement that I went to the pencil factory on Friday, April 25, 1913, and went to Frank's office at four minutes to 1, which is a mistake. I made this statement in order that I might not be accused of knowing anything of this murder, for I thought that if I put myself there on Saturday, they might accuse me of having a hand in it. I now make my second and last statement, freely and voluntarily, after thinking over the situation.