Sunday, June 1st, 1913
Friends of Leo Frank Have Tried to Intimidate Him, Negro Sweeper Tells Detective Chief as Reason for His Transfer to the Police Station.
LANFORD RAPS SHERIFF DECLARING HE IS NOT ASSISTING THE POLICE
"He Appears to Be Placing Obstacles in Our Way," Asserts Chief, in Speaking of Attempts to Interview the Suspected Superintendent. Mangum Denies Intimidation Attempts.
Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford is authority for the statement that James Conley, the negro floor sweeper of the National Pencil factory, who, in his latest affidavit, has admitted his complicity in the Mary Phagan murder, after the killing, but lays the crime at the door of Superintendent Leo M. Frank, was removed from Fulton county Tower to police barracks for imprisonment at his own request to put an end to the attempts of the friends of the superintendent to intimidate him.
Conley was carried to the police barracks Saturday afternoon after he had been removed from the Tower to the courthouse, where he was put through two hours of questioning by Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey and his counsel, Attorney W. M. Smith.
Wanted to Avoid Frank's Friends.
Chief of Detectives Lanford declared to a Constitution reporter last night that Conley had asked him to be taken away from the Tower to escape the harassments of the visitors of Leo Frank, declaring that they stopped at his cell and tried to make him drink liquor, and had tried to intimidate him by making jeering remarks to him and implying threats.
"I could shoot you through the bars of your cell right now," and, "Don't you think you ought to be shot?" are some of the statements visitors are quoted as making.
"Besides," said Chief of Detectives Lanford, "I want to be sure I can have Conley where I can talk to him whenever he is needed, of which I would be by no means certain were he allowed to remain in the Tower.
"I don't want a repetition of the circumstances under which we have to deal with Superintendent Frank. Sheriff Mangum allows friends of Frank to visit him by the score, but flatly refuses to allow men working on the case to see him or talk with him. The sheriff says that Frank does not want to see the detectives and that he will not admit any one to see Frank without his consent.
Three Attempts to See Frank.
"We have made three attempts to obtain an interview with Frank for Conley, who says that he is sure he can make Frank admit the truth of his (Conley's) affidavit, but have been refused upon the same grounds—that Frank does not want to see Conley.
"It seems to me that the important question is not whether Frank wants to see any of the detectives or Conley, but whether the men who are making every endeavor to clear up the mystery of this horrible murder should be hampered in their work by being cut off from the most important man in the whole case.
