07 Chapter III Frank views body Leo Frank Case 1913 February 2022

Frank View's body at five o'clock on a calm Sabbath morning, the law's drag leg was out for the little factory girl's murderer. Newt Lee was brought to the station house as soon as he was arrested, where attempts were made to identify the deceased child. While the officers were still at the pencil factory, Deputy Rogers informed them that he knew a girl who worked there who was likely able to identify the murdered child by looking at her.

He mentioned her as his sister-in-law. At 100 McDonough Road resided Grace Hicks. Rogers made the decision to pursue both his device and her. He returned with Miss Hicks just before daybreak, taking her to A.J.P's morgue. The body had been taken to Bloomfield. Grace Hicks examined the lacerated body there. It's the young girl who was manning the machine beside me. With those last words, she sobbed and said, "It's Mary Phagan.".

Other police officers, as well as detective agencies, had been active at the crime scene in the interim. Around 5:30 a.m. me. At his residence at 68 East Georgia Avenue, Frank was called by Detective Stars, who informed him of an incident at the factory and promised to send for him in a car.

Rogers and Detective John Black then proceeded to the Frank residence shortly after daybreak. Mrs. Frank held open the door for them, and her husband emerged right away.

Frank asked them if anything had happened at the pencil factory, but they told him to grab his coat and come with them, according to Black and Rogers' story. Black later reported that Frank was dressed only in his collar and tie, and that he seemed very tense, rubbing his hands all the time. Roger's vehicle carried the three of them as they hurriedly headed toward the town.

While traveling, Black inquired about Frank's acquaintance with a girl named Mary Phagan. The superintendent allegedly replied by promising to check the factory payroll. Black informed Frank of the decision at this point. The three of them looked at Mary Phagan's body at the undertakers while en-route to the factory.

When asked if he knew her, Frank allegedly said he thought so and that he would confirm at the factory. On their way to the factory at dawn, the three of them left the undertakers. A small group of men was waiting outside the factory door as word of the murder had already spread throughout the town.

N was one of them. VII. Frank had asked his wife to inform Darling, the factory's general foreman, before he left the house.

Frank called out to the foreman, who promptly led the superintendent up the stairs to Frank's office. The guy left. Upon opening the safe and extracting a blank book, the superintendent traced a column of names until he came to a stop at Mary Phagan's name. She gazed up from the page.

Yes, Frank replied. Roger's story goes that she came in yesterday to pick up her paycheck. I believe my stenographer departed at 12:00.

After the office boy left a few minutes later, she arrived and collected her pay. We were at 1215. Frank brushed his hands, stepped quickly away from the book, and inquired as to whether any evidence of the pay envelope had been discovered in the factory.

None had been present. See the location where the girl's body was discovered was the superintendent's next request. The foreman, superintendent, and officers entered the elevator that led to the base.

Initially, it was reported that Frank approached a switchbox near the elevator, informed the officers that he was used to it being locked, unlocked it, activated the machinery, and the elevator began its descent. Frank was so anxious that he failed to notice that the elevator rope was caught. Helping him to let go of it was Darley reaching over.

The group went back upstairs after seeing the room in the basement where the body was discovered. Frank is quoted as saying, "Newt Lee has worked for us for a short time, but Darley's known him for a long time.". Darley is one of the people who can extract the most from him.

As they made their way back to the first floor, someone proposed that they all head to the station house. Frank turned to Darley at that point and reportedly said, "I guess I'd better put a new slip on the clock.". Boots Rogers's testimony, which he provided later, best describes what transpired next. While glancing at the location where little Mary Phagan was discovered dead, Frank said, "That's too bad," but he didn't say much about the murder.

According to Rogers, when Frank discussed a fresh slip with Darley regarding the clock, the foreman concurred with him. According to Rogers, Frank removed the time slip, opened the lock on the right door, and took his keys out of his pocket. After looking over the slip, he declared it to be perfectly punched.

Lee stood nearby, his hands bound. Darley was there too. Frank placed the time slip on the table and went into his office, returning with a blank slip after confirming that it was punched correctly.

A few of us looked over the slip that was taken from the clock while he was in the office getting the new one. Frank asked a couple of us to assist him while I held a lever while he put in the new slip. Asking Lee why it was there, Frank discovered a pencil in one of the punch holes.

According to the Negro, he placed the pencil there to ensure he punched the correct hole without error. Frank unlocked the clock and penciled April 26, 1913, on the slip's margin. He then took the slip back into the inner office after folding it.

Just the first two punches were visible when I looked over the slip, with one particularly being punched at or 633. He saw nothing but skips. He reasoned that he would have noticed any omissions from the factory if there had been any.

Still inside Rogers' machine—which had genuinely seen rough use that Sunday morning—Frank and the officers proceeded to the police station. Darley took the front seat with Rogers, Lee in the back, and Detective Black in the middle. Frank had taken a seat on Darley's knee.

He shuddered wildly. Darley stated. According to reports, Frank made a nervous spring out of the car at the police station, bounded into the chief detective's office, and spoke in a clipped, fast-talking style.

Frank informed them of the Saturday morning visit by a certain J to the factory during their talk in the detective's office. M. Gantt, a young man who had just been let out of the factory, returned that afternoon in search of some shoes he had left behind.

Frank informed the detectives that Gantt had a close relationship with Mary Phagan. This statement led the detective force to begin searching for Gantt, with detectives searching for multiple suspects and mute Lee being detained in the station due to suspicions that he had visited Frank at home. It was the end of the first day in the well-known Mary Phagan case.

Crowds had been moving back and forth along Forsyth Street all through that silent Sabbath, content to just stand and stare at the structure where Black murder had taken place. The general public was not allowed anywhere inside the factory, despite the fact that officers kept a constant eye on everyone entering and leaving. Mary Phagan had left her little Bellwood house on Saturday, alive and well, but in the interim, there was grief there.