Tuesday, May 27th, 1913
Negro, Whose Story That He Wrote Notes at Frank's Dictation Is Generally Disbelieved, Was Often Drunk. Mrs. White Can Not Identify Him.
Suspicion in the Phagan case was Tuesday morning turned full-flare upon James Conley, the negro whose unexpected assertion last week that he had written the notes found beside the body of Mary Phagan, at the dictation of Leo M. Frank, was followed by a speedy indictment of the pencil factory superintendent.
In the opinion of E. F. Holloway, timekeeper and foreman in the factory, Conley is the guilty man.
Careful study of the negro's story has revealed many absurdities in its structure, wherein evidences of childish cunning are rife in an effort to throw the blame onto Frank. It is this which has served to bring the deed to Conley's door.
However, Mrs. Arthur White, wife of a machinist at the factory, who testified that she saw a negro lurking in the building between 12 noon and 2 o'clock on the afternoon of the murder, denied the published report in an afternoon paper that she had identified Conley as the one. Mrs. White stated Tuesday morning that she had secured only a glimpse of the man. It may have been Conley, or another negro. Mrs. White was asked to pick Conley out of a crowd of twelve negroes some time ago, but her identification was a second choice.
The police, in spite of bending every effort to show that Frank is guilty, therefore, have resorted to a dissection of Conley's story. One of its weakest links, they believe, is the negro's quotation of Frank's statement to him, "Why should I hang?" That the superintendent should place this confidence in the negro sweeper appears absurd.
Another damaging point against Conley lies in the declaration of Holloway, timekeeper of the factory, that the negro had appeared for duty intoxicated on several occasions; that his duties as sweeper brought him in contact with the girls, who feared him.
Where Was Conley?
According to Conley's story, he was on Peters Street from 19 o'clock until 2 in the afternoon of the murder. Police investigation of this has failed to prove the statement. Conley admits that he can not remember anyone whom he saw during that time to bear up his statement. From 2 o'clock until 6 Conley was at his home. This has been proven. Conley declares that from 6 until 8 o' clock that night he was down town; this also has not been established. Conley states he stayed there the remainder of the night.
According to the new theory of Conley's implication, the negro wrote the notes on Saturday instead of Friday, as he claims, and not on anybody's dictation. It is further argued that, in order to ingratiate himself with the law, the made his confession when he thought that the case against Frank was clinched—that his story was the product of his own imagination.
Conley's delay in making this confession until Frank's indictment seemed likely is another link against him.
