1702 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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my life met with such unreasoning prejudice as there is in this
case, to give the facts, just the simple truth. I have never
known a case where it is as hard to hold a man to his story, to
just the simple truth as in this case. I have never heard tell or
read of anything as outrageous as was resorted to in this case to
secure the evidence of Minola McKnight, or the treatment accorded
to Albert McKnight. I talked to Albert McKnight after he was late-
ly arrested. I have read the affidavit made by Albert McKnight
that was put in this motion for a new trial. He stated that what
he had sworn for the defense was absolutely true, and he was in-
duced to tell the story he did on the stand by Claborne or Creen.
I read the brief of evidence in this case. I would say the brief
of evidence covered the truth in this case completely. I read the
evidence of Jim Conley. I have never known of a white man with a
hitherto unblemished reputation being convicted on the
testimony of a low criminal negro, who himself admitted to having
written the notes found by the body of the girl, or of any court,
jury, or anybody accepting any such criminal explanation of the
crime. My conclusion as to who was the murderer of Mary Phagan,
so far as all the evidence on the trial of a case is concerned,
is unquestionably Jim Conley. I read the testimony of the Pinker-
ton man, Scott as to how Jim Conley changed his testimony, start-
ing out that he knew nothing about it, and then he claimed he had
written the notes on Friday, and then changed and said he had
written them on Saturday, and that whenever he said anything that
would not fit, they would tell him to put in something that would
fit. My statement first made as to the conviction of Frank is based
on the brief which I read. I have never talked with Jim Conley. So far
as my information goes, he has been kept ever since prosecution
at the jail. I understand that nobody has been allowed to talk
to him. My information as to the terms on which this man Smith w
would allow me to talk with him, was provided that he was present
and I think he wanted a reporter of the court present also. I
dont think under such circumstances I could get anything out of
Jim Conley. I examined the letters he wrote in the jail and the c
clothes of the little girl. The contents of these letters were very
vile. I never saw a case more filled with that character of por-
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