Superintendent reads, receives family, and follows case coverage without apparent fear as grand jury decision draws near
Sunday, May 11th, 1913
Leo M. Frank is waiting.
With the grand jury expected to take up his case sometime this week, the superintendent of the National Pencil Factory sits in the Tower and receives the days much as he has received every other day of his nearly two weeks of confinement. He reads. He exchanges a few words with the guards. He greets his family when they come and converses with them on various subjects in a quiet, composed manner, giving no outward sign that a charge of murder hangs over him.
Comfortable, if Not Free
Beyond the loss of his liberty, Frank has been deprived of little. He eats what he wishes, reads whatever he likes, newspapers and magazines among them, and receives visitors freely. He has followed the full newspaper coverage of the investigation, including the more disturbing details of the crime, reading the accounts with the same dispassion he appears to bring to everything. His comments, as far as anyone knows, have been reserved for his attorney and his family.
Relatives have visited him daily, bringing choice food from the spring market so that he has not been left to depend on ordinary jail fare. This is no special arrangement; any prisoner awaiting trial or grand jury action may receive the same consideration if they are able to afford it. Several close friends have also come to see him, and jail staff say he has received them all pleasantly. His attorney, Luther Z. Rosser, has met with him in brief conference.
The Strain Shows
The toll of confinement is visible, however. Frank is paler than he was a fortnight ago and carries a slight haggardness about him. The composure holds, but it has been tested.
When informed of the coroner's jury ruling, his response was measured: "I expected nothing else at this time." His attitude since has remained unchanged. He says he is confident he will be cleared, that the courts will find the man truly responsible, and that he will eventually go free. Until that day comes, he says, he is prepared to wait and bear his circumstances without complaint.
