Sunday, 22nd March 1914: Burns Is Certain After Week’s Work He Will Clear Phagan Mystery, The Atlanta Georgian

Search for:

Reading Time: 12 minutes [2000 words]

### Declares He Never Has Been on Case Involving So Many Issues Outside of All-Important One Promises to Explain Broken Lock on Cellar Door.

William J. Burns declared Saturday night that one week's work on the Frank case made it certain that he will be able to clear up every perplexing angle of the South's greatest murder mystery. "I will stake my reputation," he said, "on the outcome of my work."

Among other things he asserted he would dissipate the doubt surrounding these all-absorbing phases of the case: The mystery of Mary Phagan's missing purse and the ribbons of the hat the slain girl wore. The mystery of the broken lock on the back door of the pencil factory basement.

### Frank Is Confident.

Frank had no comment to make Saturday night on the week's developments in his case except to repeat that he had full confidence that Detective Burns would be able to solve every puzzling phase of the case. "I might discuss my opinions of the missing purse, pay envelope, and hat ribbons, but I would be anticipating discoveries that already have been made by Mr. Burns. My opinions are deductions only, and are valuable only to a limited extent."

Reuben Arnold returned Saturday night from Washington, where he argued a case before the United States Supreme Court. He will enter at once into the preparations of the extraordinary motion for a new trial. Dan Lehon is expected in Atlanta Sunday from New Orleans. Assistant General Manager Biddinger will be here the middle of the week. Solicitor Dorsey is in Valdosta over the week-end, and will return Monday, when he will begin at once the preparations of his argument against the granting of the extraordinary motion.

### Will Attack Repudiations.

He will attack particularly the repudiations of testimony that have been obtained by agents of the lawyers for the defense. George Epps, Mrs. J. B. Simmons, Albert Mc Knight and several of the character witnesses will be the object of his attack.

If Burns had any misgivings as to his ability to solve the slaying mystery with a conclusiveness and finality that would content every person interested in the famous case, he kept his doubts carefully hid Saturday night. "Will Burns fix the terrible crime upon the guilty person so positively that there can be no chance for a mistake?" is the question that has been asked probably by thousands since the advent of the detective in Atlanta.

Here is the way Burns answered this question Saturday night: "When my associates and I get through with this investigation, I am confident that there will not be a scintilla of doubt as to the person that killed Mary Phagan. I will demonstrate so conclusively the guilty man, I believe, that no reasonable person can be dissatisfied."

### Takes Rap at Smith.

"What little reputation William Smith and these private detectives about the country are willing for me to enjoy, I will stake on the outcome. I do not wish to speak with braggadocio or bombast, but I must say that the way looks clear to me and the solution comparatively easy." "This does not mean that I am overlooking any detail that may serve to point to the guilty person. I did not expect to come to Atlanta and solve the whole mystery by a casual survey of the situation. I knew it meant work, and careful work. I knew that nothing would be accomplished by a superficial investigation. It has been plain to me from the first that trained minds were required to uncover facts and circumstances that were ignored in the turmoil and excitement of the first few weeks following the tragedy."

"To the end that no dark place in the whole case may go unexplored, I have decided to bring here to work with me two of the ablest detectives in the United States Dan Lehon, of New Orleans, and Guy Biddinger, of New York. Both of these men have made reputations for themselves. Both of them worked in the Mc Namara case, and both also were engaged in the famous Musica case, which involved more than $700,000 worth of gems."

### Tells of Their Work.

"Biddinger was the man who went down from New York to investigate the charges that seats were being sold in the United States Senate in the Legislature of West Virginia. He posed as a Standard Oil man with all kinds of money, and it was not long before he had bagged the whole gang of bribers and grafters. Biddinger was sergeant of detectives sixteen years in Chicago." "Lehon handled the graft investigation of the Illinois Central, and has been on scores of other big cases. Both men are clean, straightforward and reliable. Besides this, they have intelligence, which can not be said of all detectives."

Burns declared that he had accomplished much more in his first week of work than he had expected. Outlining his general mode of operation, he said he had familiarized himself with all of the details of the crime, and that, for all practical purposes, he was as well acquainted with the circumstances as though he had been here at the time of the tragedy.

His practice has been to arise about 7:30 in the morning at the Georgian Terrace and prepare for a leisurely breakfast, in the course of which he chats with the newspaper men and tells them only what he wishes to tell them. A mere tyro of a reporter finds it rough going when he attempts to wring any sensational tip or bit of important information from the man who is reputed to be one of the best third-degree artists in the business an allegation which Burns steadfastly denies.

### Sidesteps Leading Questions.

He will talk affably and freely about the general aspects of the Phagan case. He is in bad form if he can not furnish a story of some sort. But the instant he is asked about some of the vital phases, comment on which would indicate his belief in the guilt either of Frank or Jim Conley, he sidesteps as nimbly as the cleverest ring general known to fistiana. Of course, he concedes that he believes one or the other guilty.

He has said this much and by some his observations have seemed most significant that Leo Frank has none of the characteristics of a pervert, and that the man who murdered Mary Phagan displayed in every movement and every act evidence of a mind steeped and saturated in crime or criminal tendencies.

### Burns Promises to Clear All Mysteries in Report

The import of Burns' remarks is found in the fact that the perversion testimony had an indisputably large part in the conviction of Frank, and that Frank was known as a law-abiding and peaceable citizen (while Conley, as he admitted on the stand, had been in the chaingang or stockade seven or eight times for various offenses).

He has supplemented these possibly significant comments by the general observation that detectives, as well as the populace, are liable to jump at conclusions in the first horror of a tragedy like the Phagan murder. He indicated that his was what had been done in the Phagan case, but he has yet to say that the conclusions at which the detectives jumped were right or wrong.

### "Will Clear Lock Mystery."

Any attempt to pin him down to a definite statement as to the theory on which he is working meets with the invariable reply that everything will be explained and made clear when his final report is turned in. "Who broke open the rear door in the basement of the pencil factory?" was one of the questions asked him Saturday night." "I'll tell that when I tell about the slain girl's missing purse, pay envelope and hat ribbon," was the reply.

The breaking open of the rear door has remained one of the obstacles to the smooth working of the State's theory that Frank killed the Phagan girl. The most frequent explanation that has been offered by those who believe in Frank's guilt is that Frank broke it open himself in order to divert suspicion to Conley or to some supposed intruder who might have found his way into the factory and would be suspected of taking the rear door as the only way out after Frank had locked the front door on leaving shortly after 1 o'clock.

### The Defense's Version.Frank's counsel disposed of the circumstance by saying that Conley killed the girl in the basement, found himself locked in on Frank's departure and simply broke open the door and escaped from the factory in that manner.

Burns began his work on the mystery by going over every line of the brief of evidence in the case, paying particular attention to the testimony of Jim Conley as compared with his four previous statements, to the statement of Frank on the witness stand and to certain parts of the character testimony offered.

Throughout the week he was in daily conference with attorneys for Frank and called in a number of persons to ask them more particularly as to the circumstances about which they testified during the trial. He went over the factory twice, each time pursuing the same route that Conley said he took when he disposed of the Phagan girl's body under Frank's direction.

He learned important facts bearing on the disposal of the girl's purse and the hat ribbons, and declared that this phase of the mystery would be perfectly clear at the end of his investigation.

Clews Take Him From City. Later in the week important clews were discovered that were expected to take him out of town. In his absence his lieutenants, Biddinger and Lehon, will be on the ground.

Detective Burns intends next week to seek interviews with Solicitor Dorsey, Chief of Detectives Lanford and all of the members of his department who have worked on the case. "I will see Attorney Bill Smith, too, if he will let me," observed Burns, with a smile, having in mind the declaration of Smith that Burns could not see Jim Conley unless he (Smith) were present. "In view of that pronunciamento of Mr. Smith," continued the detective, "I very readily see that he is the man I need to see and not Conley."

Burns said that he never had been in a murder case in all his career that involved so many issues outside the all-important one of the person guilty of the crime. "The issue has been obscured," he declared. "Some individuals even have taken this excitement as an occasion to air their personal animosities. Personal grudges have entered into the case. Politics has figured. Scores of persons seem to have been engaged in making capital in one way or another out of the situation that developed."

PAGE 5, COLUMN 4

Burns' Local Branch

To Change Quarters

C. E. Sears, manager of the Atlanta branch of the Burns Detective Agency, announced Saturday that the local offices will be moved April 1 from the present quarters in the Empire Building to a suite on the third floor of the new Healey Building. The rapid growth of the organization in Atlanta and the remainder of the South has made the change necessary.

PAGE 5, COLUMN 7

Judge Roan Forced

To Take Vacation

FORT MYERS, March 21. L. S. Roan, Atlanta, Ga., presiding judge in the trial of Leo Frank, has come to Fort Myers for a short vacation, made necessary by his arduous labors for the past few months. He is accompanied by Mrs. Roan and two friends from Atlanta, Mr. and Mrs. A. Morgan. "We are going to live very quietly here, as I am not in the best of health," said the judge, "but my improvement since coming has been very marked." Judge and Mrs. Roan and Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have just returned from a stay at Captiva, on the Gulf of Mexico, where they were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Heffner, of Atlanta.