Tuesday, 19th August 1913 Jim Conley To Be Recalled

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WOMEN RELATIVES OF ACCUSED AT THE TRIAL MRS. REA FRANK.

MRS. LEO M. FRANK. MRS. EMIL SELIG.

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DORSEY ADMITS HE MADE ERASURE ON FACTORY TIME SLIP

With the State determined to make a desperate fight to break down the impressive story told by Leo M. Frank in his own behalf, the trial of the man accused of Mary Phagan's murder was resumed Tuesday morning.

The defense added a few finishing touches to its case calling Mrs. Emil Selig, the prisoner's mother-in-law to identify a suit of brown clothes worn by Frank on Memorial day.

Wiley Roberts, assistant jailer at the Tower was called but did not answer to his name and proceedings were held up for a few moments.

In the wait Solicitor Dorsey arose and made the unexpected announcement that he himself had erased the identification "Taken out at 8:26" on the time slip taken from the clock in the factory. Frank had made the charge he had written words as an identification of the slip and that they had been erased. The Solicitor declared that he thought the detectives had made the identification.

"Frank did not know who made the erasure," said Attorney Reuben Arnold.

Solicitor Prepares To Uphold Dalton.

The Solicitor had announced earlier that his first witnesses in rebuttal would be called to support C. B. Dalton and impeach Daisy Hopkins, who declared she had never visited the factory with Dalton or that he had ever introduced Dalton to the factory superintendent.

Wiley Roberts was asked:

Q. Has Jim Conley been in your custody during this trial? - A. Yes.

Q. Has he ever asked for newspapers? - A. Yes.

Dorsey interrupted.

"Your honor," he said, "I think the witness, Jim Conley, ought to have the privilege of denying or affirming that before he can be impeached."

"Conley said that he could only read certain words," said Arnold, "but probably Mr. Dorsey is right. I will have to call Jim Conley back again. Mr. Rosser will be back in a minute and we will close."

Frank Proves His Own Best Witness.

Frank had demonstrated that he was better than his lawyers and that he was his own best witness when he came down from the witness chair Monday night after talking almost continuously for four hours.

It is doubtful, as shrewd and eloquent as his attorneys are known to be, if anything more impressive, more convincing and more logical will be presented to the jury in his behalf before his fate is placed in the hands of the twelve men.

The young factory superintendent made no attempt at oratory or dramatics. He did not attempt an appeal to the emotions of the jurors. He probably was wise in this, as the memory of what he said and the manner in which he said it will remain with the jurors long after an emotion of pity would have passed away.

Although Frank seldom raised his voice above a conversational tone, his address was deeply impressive from start to finish. Its truth or falsity, of course, is problematical. But it had all the characteristics that are commonly accepted as accompanying the truth.

He did not ask for pity or mercy. He did not take the attitude of demanding anything to which he was not entitled. His main throughout was that of a man seeking merely justice, and that alone. He was an innocent man or a consummate actor as he stood before the jury. These are the only two conclusions possible.

The matter-of-fact manner in which he delivered his long address only added to its impressiveness and eloquence. That a man with the burden of a foul murder on his conscience could talk easily, freely, fearlessly for four hours before the men whose word can send him to the gallows was hardly to be conceived.

As he stood before the jurors making

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FRANK PROVES OWN BEST WITNESS, SAY LAWYERS

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making minute explanations of the intricate work involved in the financial sheets, the reports and the hundred and one details of his work, the impression that he gave was that of a fluent classroom lecturer thoroughly at home with his subject. He was not disturbed by interruptions. He spoke easily and with unconscious gestures.

He spoke more than two hours on the complexity of the work he was compelled to do Saturday forenoon and afternoon the day that Mary Phagan came to her death. He accounted for every moment of his time on the day of the murder.

The latter part of his address was given over to his experience with the detectives, for whom he did not appear to have great respect or admiration, and to a categorical denial of all the charges made against him.

One of his most startling statements was in reference to the supposed blood spots near the ladies' dressing room on the fourth floor which have figured so prominently in the case since their discovery by R. P. Barrett, a machinist at the pencil factory.

Frank said that he had made an examination of the spots of which the detectives and Solicitor General have made a great deal.

"I did not depend on the light from the windows for my inspection," said the defendant. "I crouched right down on the floor and made the closest sort of an inspection. I discovered a curious thing. I scraped away with my finger and I found that there was an accumulation of dirt and grease over the dark spots. The accumulation was not that of three days. It was not that of three weeks. It was an accumulation of three months or more."

"Another thing which has been overlooked in connection with these spots is the effect that the Haskoline compound would have had had it been smeared over real blood spots when the blood is fresh. The Haskoline, which is simply a lubricating mixture, is applied in a liquid condition. Had the blood been fresh, as the detectives have presumed, it would have mixed with the Haskoline which would have turned a pink or red color instead of remaining white as has happened to be the case."

Admits His Nervousness.

Frank admitted readily that he had been nervous when he was routed from bed and taken without his breakfast to the undertaking rooms to view the body of the murdered girl.

"I was nervous; I admit it," he said. "I was extremely nervous. I was distracted. But what man would not have been under the circumstances? It would have been a man of stone who would not have been affected by the tragedy of this little girl killed on the dawn of womanhood.

He made a sensational charge intimating that an attempt had been made to "frame" against him by the detectives in connection with the time slip taken from the clock the morning after the tragedy.

He declared that on the slip he took from the clock he wrote: "Taken out at 8:26 a. am.," underscoring the words with two heavy lines. He said that he handed this slip at once to Chief Lanford.

That an attempt had been made at the erasure of this means he had taken to identify the slip was the accusation he made. He held the slip up to the jurors and told them that the words were still faintly visible as well as the two lines with which he underscored the words.

He added that such a vigorous attempt had been made to rub out his writing that the red lines on the time slip also had been partly obliterated.

Toward the beginning of his address he referred to his home life, which the detectives at various times have sought to show was unhappy. He drew an affectionate smile to the lips of his pretty wife when he said that his married life had been exceptionally happy, the happiest period of his career.

Denies He Ever Had Seen Dalton.

He referred only briefly to the testimony of C. B. Dalton, who said on the stand that he had seen women in Frank's office and had been introduced to Frank by Miss Daisy Hopkins. Frank denied he ever had met Dalton. He denied flatly any intimacy with women in his office or anywhere else, and denounced as unspeakable slanders the charges of other acts of immorality.

His account of the visit of Mary Phagan to his office was simple and direct. He said she came and asked for her pay and was given it. As she passed from his sight she called back to ask him if the metal had come. He answered, "No," and then heard her footsteps retreating. He thought that he heard a female voice an instant later, but paid little attention to it.

That, he said, was all he knew of Mary Phagan's movements on the day she met her death. He did not even know her name at the time, identifying her by the number on her envelope. That he had any part in her death or in the disposal of her body he denied absolutely. He branded the story of Jim Conley, the negro, as a tissue of lies from start to finish.

"I have told the truth and the whole truth," he said as he left the stand at 6:05 o'clock. He had been talking almost continuously for four hours.