Thursday, 7th May 1914: Perjury Charges In Frank’s Case Will Be Ordered Probed, The Atlanta Journal

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Judge Hill Also Will Instruct Grand Jury Monday Week to Make Thorough Investigation of Alleged Bribery.

BURNS MAY BE CALLED TO TELL ALL HE KNOWS.

Bill of Exceptions on Appeal for New Trial Will Not Be Presented to Court for Several Days.

Judge Hill, in his charge to the grand jury in superior court Monday week, will specially instruct that body to make a thorough and rigid investigation of charges of perjury, coercion and intimidation of witnesses made against each other by both sides in the Frank case. The judge will in effect turn over the whole case to the grand jury with a view of probing all such allegations to the bottom. While his charge will be very broad, it will empower the grand jury to call on the solicitor, the attorneys for the defense or anyone else to appear and testify. Solicitor Dorsey already has stated that he would bring the charges in the Frank case to the attention of the grand jury, so Judge Hill's charge will include the solicitor's intentions. The solicitor has held Dan S. Lehon, of the Burns agency, under $1,000 bond to appear before the grand jury, and it is possible Burns may be subpoenaed. Perjury charges made by the state against the defense and perjury charges hurled in turn by the defense against the state, will be threshed out. It is probable that one particular phase of the charges to be investigated will be the Ragsdale matter, in which Arthur Thurman and C. C. Tedder were involved.

WOMAN BROUGHT BACK.

At 10 o'clock Thursday morning, Attorney Leonard Haas notified the sheriff's office that Annie Maud Carter, the Negress who is said to have received several notes from Jim Conley in the tower, had been brought back to Atlanta in compliance with the court's order and would be found at the office of the Burns agency in the Healey building. Deputy Sheriff George Broadnax at once was sent for her and brought her to the sheriff's office, where Judge Hill was notified, she would be held pending his orders. Deputy Broadnax said the Carter woman told him she had been in Chicago. The Negress refused to discuss her whereabouts with newspaper men. It will be recalled that Detective Burns admitted on the witness stand that he had advised his men to send the Carter woman out of town, but that so far as he knew she was still in the city. It is possible that when the grand jury investigates the case, the Carter woman will be forced to tell the name of the man who bought her ticket from Atlanta, and that this man will be held in contempt of court, as the woman left the city without notifying the court. The Carter woman had been convicted of robbery and was to be granted a new trial. She was under $500 bond when she left the city. Judge Hill Thursday, ordered that her bond be increased to $3,000 and that she be held at the tower until the grand jury session.

BRIEF NOT PREPARED.

The Bill of Exceptions to Judge Hill's overruling of the new trial, was not presented to him Thursday morning. The judge had told attorneys for the defense he would sign the bill at 10 o'clock, that the case might at once go to the state Supreme Court; but attorneys for the defense announced Thursday that they had not had time to prepare the brief. It will be a week or ten days before it will be finished. It is probable the defense attorney's and the solicitor will go over the Bill of Exceptions together before it is presented to the judge for his signature. When Judge Hill sends the bill to the Supreme Court, he is expected to send a written opinion on the case with it.

George Epps Not Guilty Of Charge of Perjury. An aftermath of the hearing of Leo M. Frank's extraordinary motion for a new trial was dismissed Wednesday by Judge Eugene Thomas, of the municipal court, of a warrant charging George W. Epps, Jr., the fifteen-year-old newsboy, with perjury. The warrant was drawn by B. Bernard, the auctioneer, who had been named as one of three men who secured the defense's affidavit from Epps in Birmingham. When Mr. Bernard drew the warrant, he was under the impression that Epps had sworn in an affidavit that he (Bernard) was the (Continued on Page 7, Col. 1.)

PAGE 7, COLUMN 1 PERJURY CHARGES IN FRANK'S CASE WILL BE ORDERED PROBED (Continued from Page 1.)

third man of the Birmingham trio. The facts in the case were that Epps had pointed out Bernard to Newt Garner, attach of the solicitor's office, as the man who impersonated the chief of the Birmingham detectives, and Garner had sworn to Epps' identification in an affidavit, and he also took the witness stand in the boy's behalf. Mr. Bernard has been completely exonerated of all complicity in the deal by the sworn statement of C. W. Burke and Jimmy Wrenn, two defense detectives, who admit they were present when Epps made the Birmingham affidavit. They both agree that the third man was Austin Dennison, a New York detective.

Annie Maud Carter Is Brought Back to Atlanta. Annie Maud Carter, the Negro woman said to have received many notes from Jim Conley while in the Fulton County tower and who was sent out of the city at the suggestion of William J. Burns, was brought back Thursday morning by agents for the Frank defense and turned over to Sheriff Mangum. She has been lodged in the tower where she will be held pending the wishes of Judge Hill. If Judge Hill wishes to question her, she will be held there until he does so; if not, she will be released.