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

Search for:

Reading Time: 4 minutes [618 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

W. J. COOK.

631

I had been trapped. I ran to his office on the floor below and ran back with him; I was gone probably a minute. When I got back, Cook was gone; Mrs. Hirsch was in my office crying. I left her crying; she began to cry before I left. When my son and I got back, I don't recollect what she said except in answer to my question, "Who was that?" She said, "That is Mr. Cook," that she had seen him at his mother's and sister's. "I visit at their home, and I see him casually there. I think he is in the real estate business with Thrower." She did not stay there more than a minute or two after my son came. She asked me, "Is this your son?" I said, "Yes." I then took up my telephone and called my friend, Forrest Adair, and my brother, John S. Candler, to come immediately to my office.

After Forrest Adair got there, Mrs. Hirsch called me up on the phone. She said she had gone to her husband's office and wanted me to come there; I told her I would let her know in a few minutes. I turned the matter over to Forrest Adair to represent me, and I have not seen the woman any more since then, until this time. Thursday morning, I went to Forrest's office to hear what Cook had to say; he would not see me except alone, and he told me what he was going to do. He claimed he had been watching my office; that he was a friend of Mr. Hirsch, and that he had suspected the virtue of Mrs. Hirsch, and therefore was watching Mrs. Hirsch. He saw her come to my office and come in there, and had seen me with her in a compromising position. I had to restrain myself when he made the statement.

He went on to tell me how he had seen me in the office. I denied that he had seen any such thing at all. I restrained myself because I did not want to lose my temper. It was all I could do to do it. He said he had been a man of the world, had no faith in anybody's religion, but recently had a change of mind, and it was a great shock to him, because he knew what I stood for. He opened his memorandum book and showed me a badge, saying he had served as an usher at the Billy Sunday meetings.

Mr. Cooper: We object to everything on the subject of character that has been said or may be said at this time, as we have not offered the character of the defendant, and I don't think it would be competent for the State to prove the character of the defendant here by the prosecutor, either by confession or by any other means.

The Court: Objection overruled.

Mr. Candler: He said he had been a man of the world, had gone all the gaits, and that he was shocked now at this, and he intended to expose the whole thing. I told him he had nothing to expose. He told me that he expected to meet Mr. Hirsch, that he was his friend and was determined to protect him, and there was but one way that would keep him from going immediately to Hirsch, and that was that I get this woman out of town, and that she should never see her husband again, and that I get a written statement from her to that effect. He said, "Then it would stay in my breast alone." I saw him in the Mayor's office.