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

Search for:

Reading Time: 3 minutes [389 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

LEO Hl. FRANE. 257

The negro reported hearing a sound that seemed like a laugh broken off into a shriek. It pierced the stillness of the hushed building. Though it was uncanny, he remained seated faithfully, as he was under orders to wait for a signal. That scream was not the signal. Later, Frank would stamp on the office floor.

This negro claims that the white man killed the little girl. However, Frank was in his office, preoccupied with his wonderful financial sheet. I will demonstrate how he could have sat at his desk and heard this negro attack the little child who had come to draw her pay.

Mr. Hooper turned to the diagram, showing the jury the proximity of the metal room to Frank’s office. He explained his theory that nothing could have happened on the floor without being heard or seen by Frank.

Mr. Frank, I will give you the benefit of all you deserve. When all is summed up, you were sitting only a few feet from the spot where a murder was committed, and you never raised a finger. Let me show you something else. When this ordeal was over, there were two men and a woman upstairs who had to leave the building before the body was moved. It would be dangerous to leave it lying back in the metal room, staring hideously from unseeing eyes. Frank went upstairs and told the trio up there that if they were going, it was time for them to leave, as he was going to lock up the factory. He was in a hurry and told them so. Mrs. Arthur White, perceiving his evident haste, hastened downstairs. When she reached the office, Frank, the man-in-a-hurry, was in his shirt sleeves, writing at his desk.

Why should I hang? What does that show? In the first place, his appreciation of a little girl of 14. Did it hurt him to knot the rope of cord around her neck? Did it hurt him as he drew it tighter and tighter around the tender throat until the dim spark of life was choked extinct? To the contrary. It only excited him enough to ask himself the question, "Why should I hang?" There come times when we all speak our true thoughts and sentiments. That was such a time.

---