673 Sheet – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

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Reading Time: 4 minutes [599 words]

Here is the translated text as follows:

W. J. COOK

641

I stated to Mr. Candler in his office before he turned the matter over to me that it was a blackmail scheme. I did not jump at the conclusion that they were guilty of blackmail; I arrived at the conclusion it was blackmail before it was turned over to me, and I have been of that opinion ever since. I did not jump at the conclusion after it was turned over to me; I knew about the case before it was turned over to me. I did not see the woman in his office. Mr. Candler related to me what had occurred before it was turned over to me; he related the circumstances.

I did not know about the facts in this case until it was turned over to me, except as related by Mr. Candler.

Of these two, the first I called into my office was Mrs. Hirsch. I called her to come to my office when I was in Mr. Candler's office, before I ever left there, within twenty minutes after I reached Mr. Candler's office that afternoon, Wednesday.

My purpose in calling her to my office was that she had just called Mr. Candler over the telephone, and Mr. Candler having turned the matter over to me, I wanted to talk with her and not have her talk to Mr. Candler. I made an engagement with her to have her come to my office and talk with me. She came, and then she unfolded the whole case to me at my solicitation.

I did not ask Mrs. Hirsch how much she would take to leave town. I have tried to make that clear. I never asked her at that time or any other time how much she would take to leave town. We told her Mr. Cook had demanded of Mr. Candler that she quit her husband and leave town. I did not offer her any inducement to leave town. I did not suggest we would pay her to leave town or intimate we would pay her to leave town. I didn't offer her anything to leave town. I never had any idea of offering her anything to leave town. I did not offer Mr. Cook anything to get her out of town.

As to how we came to say anything to her about going away from her husband and her home, when Mr. Cook made the demand of Mr. Candler that she leave her husband, who was his particular friend, and leave town, there was not anything else left for us to talk about in developing a plot as that was the principal part of it, no other part and parcel but the crux of it. There was nothing else said in that meeting between me and Mrs. Hirsch that I remember.

The next meeting with Mrs. Hirsch was after she returned from the card party that same evening between five and six o'clock.

She stated at this noon meeting that she would have to leave the office then and go to this card party, that she wanted time to think a little over it, she would go out to the card party, and she would return to our office after the card party was over. She wanted time to think about the things Cook had demanded of her, leaving her husband and her home and going out of town. I talked to her on that matter of what Cook had demanded, and she said she would consider the matter and talk with us further about it after she returned from the card party.