Monday, June 2nd, 1913
Defense to Cite Discrepancies in Time to Disprove Conley's Affidavit—Sheriff Denies Friends of Superintendent Approached Sweeper in Cell.
After a two-hour grilling by Solicitor Hugh M. Dorsey Minola McKnight, a negro woman about 21 years old, was taken to police headquarters and is held under suspicion in connection with the murder of Mary Phagan.
She is believed to have made sensational disclosures to the solicitor.
At the police station she was in hysteria, shouting:
"I am going to hang, but I didn't do it."
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Five persons will be prepared to testify at the trial of Leo M. Frank that he arrived at home for luncheon at 1:20 o'clock the Saturday afternoon that Mary Phagan was killed, which would have been an impossibility, the defense will assert, if Frank had directed the disposal of the body and dictated the notes at the time the negro alleges.
Testimony before the Coroner's jury by Frank and others indicated strongly that he was at home by 1:20 the afternoon of the crime. Conley in his affidavits declared that he went into Frank's office at four minutes before 1 o'clock. He said that after a conversation of a few minutes Frank heard voices and shoved Conley into a closet. Miss Corinthia Hall and Mrs. Emma Clark entered. Conley was kept a prisoner in the closet, he said, for eight or ten minutes.
It was after this, he said, that Frank asked him if he could write. Conley swore in his affidavit that he answered in the affirmative, and that he was directed to write several notes, most of which began: "Dear mother, a long tall black negro did this by hisself."
After this, followed the giving of $2.50 to the negro, according to his story, as well as the giving of the $200 which later was taken back by Frank.
All of the incidents that the negro has detailed, in the minds of many interested in the case, would have kept Frank at the factory considerably after the time that five witnesses will swear he arrived home.
Wife and Her Parents to Aid.
These witnesses are Mr. and Mrs. Emil Selig, Mrs. Frank, the cook in the Selig household and an acquaintance of Frank who is said to have seen him riding home in the street car.
Adding doubt to the negro's affidavit is the testimony of Miss Corinthia Hall before the Coroner's jury, Miss Hall testified that she left the building about 11:45 Saturday forenoon. Conley described her as coming to Frank's office more than an hour later.
Sheriff Mangum made indignant and emphatic denial Monday of the reports that Conley had been approached, threatened or intimidated while he was in a cell at the Tower.
Conley, he said, was not threatened in any way. He was not approached by friends of Leo Frank and no one was permitted to see Conley whom the negro did not wish to see.
