1536 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

Search for:

Reading Time: 3 minutes [446 words]

Visible Translated Text Is As Follows:

until about twelve o'clock when I went to the courthouse and took the witness stand. Before Mr. Dorsey went over to the courthouse, he came into the room where the girls above described and I, myself, were, and gave us a lecture and told us all that when we went on the stand to go right ahead and tell everything we knew and answer his questions right off sharp. After the lecture I didn't see Mr. Dorsey again until I went on the witness stand at the courthouse. While remaining in the large room with the twelve or fifteen girls, before I was called to go to the courthouse, there was a great deal of talk and gossip among the girls there, some of them said they knew nothing against Mr.Frank and that they were timid and were afraid that they would be scared when they went into court. Maggie Griffin, however, appeared to welcome and relish the idea of going on the witness stand and told several times how she was going just to tell everything Mr.Dorsey wanted to know, when she went on the stand. Dewey Hewell said she did not know anything about Mr.Frank or Mary Phagan, or anything concerning the case, and Maggie Griffin volunteered, with enthusiasm to tell her what to say and did tell her and rehearsed her at one side of the room. I heard Maggie Griffin tell Dewey Hewell that she must say she knew Mary Phagan, and that she knew Mr.Frank and knew that he was of bad character, and that she should tell everything bad she could think of about him, and to say that she had seen Mr. Frank with his hands on Mary Phagan and that she had seen him whisper to her or talk to her with his face close to hers. Maggie Griffin and Dewey Hewell left the large room described two or three times together, and returned together and I heard Dewey Hewell say repeatedly that she was afraid she would forget all Maggie had told her to say when she went into the court house, and Maggie said, "We will go over it again, so you wont forget it." This was repeated several times. I recall hearing Dewey Hewell say pointedly that she did not know where Mary Phagan worked and that she did not know her by name; but she was rehearsed to know her by Maggie Griffin, in that room; and to say whatever she did say on the witness stand. I have seen the evidence as reported as being given by Dewey Hewell, and recognize in her answers precisely what I