1533 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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stand to testify. Before I went on the stand, Solicitor Dorsey came into the room where the girls were confined and gave us all a lecture and told us that when we went on the stand to go right ahead and tell everything we knew and answer his questions right off sharp and quick. While the girls before mentioned were crowded in said room, a great deal of talk and gossip going on among them, and many of them said they were afraid to go on the stand and testify to an untruth and they were also afraid to go into the court room and testify at all. The said Maggie Griffin stated several times how she was going to tell everything that the Solicitor wanted to know when she went on the stand, and then I made the statement that I was afraid to go on the stand and that I knew nothing about the offense and knew nothing about Mary Phagan. The said Maggie Griffin volunteered with enthusiasm to tell me what I should say, and the said Maggie Griffin thereupon rehearsed me many times in regard to the testimony I should give, and Maggie Griffin told me that I must say that I was acquainted with the defendant and that I knew his character to be very bad, and that I had seen defendant whispering with Mary Phagan, with his face very close to her, and further, that I had seen defendant place his hand upon the person of Mary Phagan. I thereupon told Maggie Griffin that it would be impossible for me to testify to all that the said Maggie Griffin had instructed me to say, and Maggie Griffin said: "We will go over it again so that you won't forget it," and repeated it several times. I did not even know where Mary Phagan worked in the factory, but I was made to say that I knew her by said Maggie Griffin, and whatever I testified to regarding either the defendant or Mary Phagan was the result of coaching given to me by the said Maggie Griffin. During the time of my employment at the National Pencil Factory, I never heard any employee, male or female, say that defendant was a man of bad character, and had never seen any wrong doing on his part.

(This affidavit was witnessed by C.W. Burke)