1595 Sheet – Supreme Court Georgia Appeals of Leo Frank, 1913, 1914

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COUNTER SHOWING OF THE STATE.

GROUND 1.

W.A. GHEESLING, Sworn for the State. I am the undertaker who took charge of the body of Mary Phagan and who swore upon the trial of the case of the State of Ga. vs. Leo M. Frank and Jim Conley. On Sunday morning, April 27, 1913, one of the first things that I did was to clean up the body of Mary Phagan, and among other things I washed her hair thoroughly with pine tar soap. The effect of pine tar soap on hair is always to change the color of the same, and as a matter of fact the washing of Mary Phagan's hair with the pine tar soap did change the color of Mary Phagan's hair. It rendered the hair lighter. This change was very perceptible to the eye. The effect of washing the hair with pine tar soap was not only to cut out the dirt that had gathered in the same, but also took out and off of the hair all of the oil which is usually found on the hair of living persons. Mary Phagan was buried on Tuesday following the day that I washed her hair. I have been an undertaker for eighteen years, and I personally know that it frequently happens that hair on dead persons' heads grows both in length and size.

J.W. COLEMAN, Sworn for the State. I am the husband of Mrs. Fannie Coleman. Mrs. Fannie Coleman was the mother of Mary Phagan, who was killed at the National Pencil Factory. I am the step father of Mary Phagan. I have known Mary Phagan for about four years before her death, and she lived with me and her mother in our home from the time of our marriage up to the time of her death. I saw the hairs which were taken from the lathe handle in the pencil factory. I saw them at the City Police Headquarters. They were exhibited to me by city detective Black. The hair exhibited to me by officer Black resembled in every way, that I could tell by the naked eye the hair of Mary Phagan. I looked at the hair closely and did my best to arrive a true conclusion, and to the best of my knowledge and belief, the hair exhibited to me by officer Black, as the hair recovered from the lathe in the factory, was the hair of Mary Phagan, my step-daughter, who was killed at the factory. This hair was exhibited to me a few days after the killing.
81.