leofrankwasinnocent | Recent Entries

Ummm... Come to think of it, why would Leo Frank need to enlist Jim Conley has his look out man and to lock the door?

Remember that there was a set of doors that could be locked on the office floor where the alleged trysts Frank had took place and where the important alleged one with Mary was supposed to take place. The fact that these doors were locked when Newt Lee came to work on that Saturday was made a big deal of by the prosecution. But why if Leo Frank could easily lock these doors would he need Jim Conley to lock the front doors?

I think that these doors being locked would also be considered a little less strange than the factory's front doors. Imagine word getting back to Montag that someone tried to enter his Pencil Factory on a Saturday when it was supposed to be open and the front doors were locked! Would that look good?

And remember that the prosecution also argued that Leo Frank had the key to the elevator to shut it down or turn it on so he also had the power to make that elevator useless to anyone on the ground floor.

It seems very odd that Leo Frank would involve a third party into something he would want to try to hide from as many people as possible when he could have controlled the whole thing by himself.

Once more we return to the fact that Jim Conley never in his initial statements indicated that he was there for any other reason to write the murder notes, implying the murder was premeditated something that makes no logical sense, and that it is far more likely that the whole locking the doors and watching for Leo Frank was fabricated later to give him a reason for being at the factory.

Infact, there was a strange little bit of testimony that Conley gave in reference to the locking of the doors:

" I was upstairs between the time
I locked the door and the time I went down and unlocked it."

What does that mean? When was Jim Conley upstairs before he had to go down to unlock it. Slaton couldn't make sense of that either. Was Conley even able to keep his own story straight?

So what was Jim Conley really doing there at the factory? Easy. He was looking for money, in any way he could find it, from the place he most associated with it.

Honestly look at both versions of the murder of Mary Phagan. Which sounds more like it actually happened in the real world?

Does Jim Conley's tales of signals and cladestine meetings, of a prearranged meeting on Saturday to watch for a girl who may or may not come, of an attempted rape in a metal room that went wrong and the subsequent ordeal of moving the body? Does a quick concealment in a wardrobe while two factory workers arrive and interupt the proceedings? Does a supposed $200 given to burn the body and then taken back and promised to be given when the body was burned but then the man who was supposed to do the deed returned home and fell asleep? Does such dialogue such as "Why should I hang, I have wealthy people in Brooklyn?" "Good luck as done struck me" or "Now remember keep your mouth shut" or "Is this the way you do things?" happen in places besides bad melodramas?

Or would it make more logical sense that Jim Conley went to the factory because he associated it with income? Maybe he had promised to give his lover some cash but was reluctant to use his own. Some of his affidavits say that when he returned home at about 2:30 or after he gave Lorena Jones money. She said to Pinkerton agents that at 3:00 she went to the store to buy snuff. He hid in the factory not wanting Darley to see him because he knew he would be thrown out. Seeing Mary Phagan coming with her pay he attacked her. Maybe he asked for a nickel first. Maybe she refused and in anger he attacked her. He took her to the basement where he killed her, tried to deflect suspicion on another black worker incase he had been spotted and then fled with the purse and flowered ribbon from off of Mary's hat. He gave Lorena Jones some if not all of the cash and also the ribbon from off of Mary's hat.

Which of these seems like something that would happen in real life and not a penny dreadful?

I'm going with that second one.

You know it really got me down for a few weeks going everywhere Leo Frank is mentioned and seeing someone proclaiming his guilt. It depressed me that there were places on the net that used his name to drag it through the mud and to also post terrible and offensive anti-semitic garbage.

Then you got me thinking.

You know that Leo Frank was innocent and you are scared of that.

You're not proclaiming the truth. You're spreading lies. You aren't trying to shed light. You're trying to extinguish the candle. You see, cowards have the loudest voices and by trying to be everywhere and post to infinity you betray your weakness.

You're not only trying to convince others of lies. You're trying to convince yourself too.

Why do people regularly forget about the black toilet in the basement? People like Dorsey and the ignorant people who believe Leo Frank was guilty always say that Mary Phagan was going to the washroom near the metal room.

Listen the murder note says Mary was going to make water and was pushed down a hole.The scuttle hole near the elevator is obviously that hole and the toilet she was going to use was the black toilet in the basement.

Do you think it really matters that it was a black toilet? Do you think it matters at all when the notes are so ridiculous that they claim that a girl was allowed to write them while she was being played with? Conley was so stupid in many ways that he probably thought it was logical that she was going to use the black toilet. He did in all logic after all when he wasn't using the elevator shaft. And besides I didn't know that toilets were race activated and failed to work if you weren't the right race.

Give me a break!

Some people will have you believe that Monteen Stover and NOT Jim Conley was the star witness at the trial.

WRONG!

There was ample enough proof that Monteen Stover arrived before Mary Phagan. Mary's trolley was several streets away from the factory at 12:07. In fact, it was really only Conley's word that strengthened the prosecution's claim that Monteen arrived before Mary. He testified, in other words lied, that he had seen Mary enter before Monteen.

Once again Jim Conley's testimony was the one the prosecution relied on.

If we take Jim Conley's word for it, which is always a risky venture, we are told that Leo and Mary went to the metal room. In the metal room Leo attacked Mary. Soon after this Monteen Stover arrived. She waited 5 minutes and left. After this Conley heard someone quietly going back to Leo's office and then this person going back to the metal room. I'm assuming that this was supposed to be Leo Frank.

My question is why did Leo Frank show amazing insight on when to tiptoe to his office? Conley supposedly recounted how Monteen Stover was wearing tennis shoes and this supposedly proved to everyone that he had seen the girl. We'll disregard the fact that Conley had many weeks to learn and rehearse this piece of information. But okay so Monteen Stover was wearing tennis shoes. Tennis shoes are rubbersoled. Tennis shoes were called sneakers. They were called this because they were silent and thieves often wore them to sneak up on victims. So what were the chances that Leo Frank wouldn't have run immediately to his office and bumped right into Monteen Stover of the silent sneakers? That was very lucky.

The doors would have been too far away in the metal room to hear. If Leo Frank had supposedly not heard Mrs. White enter the second time to see her husband, being startled when she supposedly saw him by the safe in the outer office at 12:30 how would he have heard the doors in the metal room?

This is yet another amazing piece of timing in the tale of Jim Conley!

Some poor delusional people have been trying to spread a misconception that Leo Frank confessed at his trial. This springs from Frank's testimony that it was possible that sometime between 12:00 to 12:45 he may have used the washroom. These people reason that since Mary was supposedly killed in the metal room this equals a confession.

WRONG!

This in no way equals a confession at all. What? Do these people fail to remember that Leo's theory of the crime was that Jim Conley had taken Mary Phagan into the basement to kill her? To Leo Frank it wouldn't matter where he was on the office floor because Mary Phagan wasn't murdered there.

There was just as much evidence to support that Mary had been killed in the basement. The condition of her body suggested this as being far more likely than the metal room.

These people who hold falsely onto this supposed confession, however, also try to claim Frank confessed a total of 4 times! Now let's look at these to see how silly this all is:

1. Jim Conley. Okay. We are going to believe the word of the man who would hang if Leo Frank wasn't going to be convicted? How on earth could anything this man have said have been taken as honest? He showed that he repeatedly lied! Why would you accept his word? I find it highly infuriating of certain individuals to take Conley's word when he repeatedly changed it but to point out any supposed little change in Leo Frank's testimony. Hypocrites!

2. Minola McKnight: You can't take Minola's testimony. She was forced into it. The evidence all shows that the woman was practically kidnapped and tortured to give it. She completely denied it afterwards.

Furthermore, I'm sorry if you do accept it you have to disregard Conley's. They cross each other out you see. In Minola's testimony she claims that Leo Frank returned to the house at 1:30. According to Conley he left Leo Frank at the office at 1:30. Wow! Once again Leo Frank shows super powers! He can teleport himself now!

Also had Leo Frank left at 1:40 he would have caught the trolley back to town and not have needed to take the 2:00 one. He could have missed the parade and arrived at the factory at a much earlier time.

3. Leo Frank's Trial Testimony: Leo Frank did not confess at his trial! Give me a break! The defence theorized that Mary Phagan was killed in the basement NOT the metal room or anywhere on the office floor. Leo Frank could have gone to the washroom and it wouldn't make a difference. Besides if the washroom break occured during Stover's visit it was proven that it was impossible for Mary Phagan to have reached the factory before Monteen Stover arrived. Even if the trolley was 7 minutes earlier, and how would it be possible on a holiday for a trolley to be 5 minutes early, than the trolley men testifed it had arrived it still would NOT have allowed enough time to fit all that the prosecution theorized happened.

4. The Atlanta Constitution: This is really just Frank stating what he did at the trial. What goes for #3 goes for this one too.

Leo Frank did NOT confess. Just like those who say he did do NOT have brains that apparently work.

There are some people who claim that the case against Leo Frank can be solved with a so called trinity:

Monteen Stover's Testimony + States Exhibit B + Leo Frank's Trial Testimony Response Monteen Stover's

This is hogwash!

Monteen Stover's Testimony

Monteen Stover claims that when she came to the factory at 12:05 Leo Frank was not in his office. She left at 12:10.

First off, Monteen Stover's Testimony doesn't matter one bit. It was proven that she could not have reached the factory BEFORE Mary Phagan. See this post:

http://leofrankwasinnocent.dreamwidth.org/4946.html

Leo Frank could hardly have been killing Mary Phagan in the metal room when Mary Phagan had not reached the factory yet.

States Exhibit B

On April 28th Leo Frank made a statement to the police where he stated that Mary Phagan had entered his office between 12:05 to 12:10.

This was just one day after the discovery of Mary's body people! He was giving an estimate. I dare you to remember the exact time that something seemingly inconsequential at the time happened. Unless you're Marilu Henner I doubt you'd be completely accurate.

Besides wouldn't this time disprove Monteen Stover anyway? She would have been there waiting in the empty office when Mary came to ask for her pay and Leo Frank was there to give it to her and supposedly lure her into the metal room.

And even if Leo Frank had used the washroom but didn't mention it here I doubt he would be likely to bring it up in a statment like this or any subsequent ones. Any type of toilet function was probably very embarrassing to the well bred in those days. He also never claimed at the trial that he had used the washroom. He still stood by that, to the best of his recollection, he never had left the office but that it is POSSIBLE he may have gone to the washroom.

Leo Frank's Trial Testimony Response Monteen Stover's

This deals with Leo Frank saying that he may have unconsciously used the washroom from 12:00 to 12:45.

There are some very strange people who take this to mean that he was confessing that he was in the murder area when Monteen arrived because the men's washroom is there.

These same very strange people must be overlooking a very strong fact:

Leo Frank's defence claimed that Mary Phagan was killed in the basement NOT in the metal room.

Leo Frank could have been anywhere on the office floor and it wouldn't matter. Mary wasn't killed there. Mary Phagan was killed in the basement and there was more evidence for this. Mary's body told the story. Her skin was ground with dirt and cinders. There was no dirt or cinders in the metal room. Her mouth cavity also contained these. Also consider the fact that Conley never stated he dragged Mary at anytime in the basement when supposedly moving her body there. He said he carried her on his shoulders. So how did her body become so dirty?

Bye Bye this type of trinity!

So we are left with no trinity of this type at all.

Monteen Stover doesn't matter because she arrived and left before Mary.
Leo Frank's initial statment is irrelevant.
Leo Frank's defence was that Mary was killed in the basement. There was equal evidence for this. It wouldn't matter even if Leo Frank was in the metal room or anywhere else on the office floor at any time between 12:00 to 12:45.

According to Jim Conley Leo Frank had arranged for him to arrive at the factory on Saturday in order to watch for Mary Phagan. After showing Conley how to lock the door, even though Conley had supposedly been doing this for quite a while and should have known how, Leo Frank explained things a little as Conley testified:

“Now, there will be a young lady up
here after awhile, and me and her are going to chat a little,” and he says,
“Now, when the lady comes, I will stomp like I did before,” and he says,
“That will be the lady, and you go and shut the door,” and I says, “All
right, sir.” And he says, “Now, when I whistle I will be through, so you
can go and unlock the door and you come upstairs to my office then like
you were going to borrow some money for me and that will give the
young lady time to get out.”

Conley went on to describe who entered the factory, recounting how after Lemmie Quinn arrived Mary Phagan appeared.

"The next person that I saw was
Miss Mary Perkins, that’s what I call her, this lady that is dead, I
don’t know her name. After she went upstairs I heard her footsteps go-
ing towards the office and after she went in the office, I heard two people
walking out of the office and going like they were coming down the steps,
but they didn’t come down the steps, they went back towards the metal
department. After they went back there, I heard the lady scream, then
I didn’t hear no more, and the next person I saw coming in there was
Miss Monteen Stover. She had on a pair of tennis shoes and a rain coat.
She stayed there a pretty good while, it wasn’t so very long either. She
came back down the steps and left. After she came back down the steps
and left, I heard somebody from the metal department come running back
there upstairs, on their tiptoes, then I heard somebody tiptoeing back
towards the metal department. After that I kind of dozed off and went
to sleep. Next thing I knew Mr. Frank was up over my head stamping
and then I went and locked the door, and sat on the box a little while, and
the next thing I heard was Mr. Frank whistling. I don’t know how many
minutes it was after that I heard him whistle. When I heard him whist-
ling I went and unlocked the door just like he said, and went on up the
steps. Mr. Frank was standing up there at the top of the steps and shiv-
ering and trembling and rubbing his hands like this."

Notice anything strange? Why on earth did Leo Frank not stamp his foot the moment that Mary Phagan entered his office? He had told Jim “Now, when the lady comes, I will stomp like I did before. That will be the lady, and you go and shut the door,”

When Conley was supposedly watching for Frank on Thanksgiving he states that after the lady went to Frank's office Frank came out and stamped his foot. So why on this occassion did the same rule not apply?

Why would Leo Frank have stamped his foot about 20 minutes after having attacked Mary Phagan?

The whole prosecutions case was built on the theory that Leo Frank had been lusting after Mary Phagan. They theorized that he fired Gantt so he could have a chance with her. They theorized that he had orchestrated taking her on Saturday April 26th against her will, having asked Conley to watch on Friday when Helen Ferguson asked for Mary's pay and Leo wouldn't give it to her. Mind you Helen asked for Mary's pay after Frank had supposedly requested Conley to watch for him, suggesting Leo Frank was psychic, but that it the topic of another post. They also stated that Frank had repeatedly made advances towards little Mary and that she had resisted.

So if Leo Frank was lusting after Mary Phagan why didn't he give the signal the moment she walked in the door? Wouldn't he have seen her in her beautiful dress and wouldn't his passion have rose to the point that he just wanted her so much he stamped his foot? He would have had to know that Mary would have resisted. Wouldn't he want that door locked at the first opportunity so even if Mary fled she couldn't escape? Wouldn't he have wanted it locked so no one else could enter and spoil his fun? Why wouldn't Leo Frank while Mary was in his inner office not have gone to the outer office in a pretence to get her pay and then stamped his foot. Mary wouldn't have known if the envelope was on Leo Frank's desk already. This would have also given Frank the oppotunity to lock her in his own offices. How would he have known she would ask if the metal had come in so he could lure her to the metal room? And if he didn't stamp his foot when she came into his offce wouldn't he have done it on the way to the metal room, seeing the stairs and knowing Conley was down there for the single purpose to lock the door? Why would he even have needed to take her to the metal room if he'd been having trysts in his office? He could have exited his office saying he was going to check for the metal and once again use this opportunity to give Jim Conley the awaited signal and then rush back inside for his illicit plans.

It makes no sense that Leo Frank would go to the trouble of asking Jim Conley there to lock the door and then forget all about it.

So why would Leo Frank not stamp his foot when he knew Mary Phagan was inside the factory?

Simple. Jim Conley's story is fiction. Leo Frank was not waiting for Mary Phagan and Jim Conley was not waiting to lock the doors or waiting to hear any signals at all!

But let's look at the evolution of the tale and we shall see how it was formed and why it makes no sense.

Jim Conley's Affidavits to Black and Scott

Okay so in the first affidavit where Conley admitted he wrote the notes he claimed that Frank called him up on Friday to write them.

This generally scared the police and those who were trying to prosecute Leo Frank for Mary Phagan's murder because it suggested that the murder was pre-planned, especially the part about Frank asking why he should hang. The whole case was based on the idea that it was accidental: Leo Frank killed Mary Phagan when she rebuked him.

The police wanted something different so they questioned Conley and he eventually told another story.

This time he said that on Saturday he met Leo Frank going to Montags. Frank told him to wait and when Frank finished going to Montags Conley and he walked to the factory. Frank told Conley to wait on a box by the steps and that when he whistled Conley was to come up the steps. After some time Frank whistled took him into the office and had him write the notes.

This story was accepted by the police whole heartedly until Frank's supporters said that it was more likely that Conley murdered Mary for her money especially since Mary's purse and pay was never found.

Once more Conley was grilled.

This time he changed the last affidavit by saying that he had helped move the body with Leo Frank.

This was loved by those who wanted to see Frank convicted. It seemed like the perfect story.

However, you see there is a problem.

Jim Conley NEVER truly got away from the implication that Mary Phagan's murder was premeditated. When you read his affidavits Jim Conley never stated that he was there at the factory at Frank's urging for any reason other than to write those notes.

The Invention of the Signals

I'm guessing that while the prosecution was all smug and happy about the last affidavit someone realized this fact. Another reason needed to be invented in order for Leo Frank to have asked Jim Conley to come to the factory one that was not about writing murder notes.

This is probably where the idea was formed that Jim Conley was there to watch out for Frank's planned tryst with Mary. They had probably discovered that Conley had been paid off to watch for Dalton. They added to this the already mentioned whistling for Conley to come upstairs and also a new signal, one where Leo Frank would stomp his foot for Conley to lock the door. Working together Conley and the prosecution helped build a tale where he had been asked by Leo Frank to watch the door and lock it so the tryst would be uninterrupted.

It seems all good doesn't it? It seems like a very good story and very believable.

There's another problem however. If Jim Conley was watching for Leo Frank, if Leo Frank would stomp his foot when Mary Phagan entered the office locking the door how on God's green earth did Monteen Stover, the prosecution's other star witness get inside the factory to find Leo Frank's office empty?

The Monteen Stover Wrinkle

Before Jim Conley had been discovered to having wrote the notes, the prosecution had depended on the testimony of a young girl named Monteen Stover. She had supposedly gone to Leo Frank's office on April 26th and found it empty from 12:05 to 12:10. It was this damaging revelation that cast further suspicion on Leo Frank. The prosecution loved what this implied: Leo Frank wasn't in his office because he was in the metal room raping and killing poor Mary.

But if Conley had been watching for Leo Frank and had locked the door after Mary's arrival how did Monteen Stover get inside the National Pencil factory? The two stories did not fit.

They did not want to sacrifice this bit of testimony for Jim Conley's. They did not want to sacrifice Jim Conley's for Monteen Stover's. They wanted to have them both so a story was formed where Leo Frank gave the sigal to Jim Conley after Monteen Stover had left.

Fiction not Fact

This, however, makes the story seem hollow for those who have a brain they regularly use. Why would Leo Frank have waited so long to give the signal? Why for that matter when he was supposedly even scurrying back to his office after Stover had left would he not have stamped his foot then? Unless Mrs. White's being able to get into the factory was also looming in the prosecutions mind and they couldn't have Leo Frank give it even this early. So they had him give it sometime that depended on it happening after 12:30.

Remember that Mrs. White also claimed she had seen Frank in his offce at 12:30. I'm a little confused what Leo Frank had been doing from 12:30 to 12:50 when he went up to see White, White and Denham that would have required for him to have Conley lock the door even. If he was in his office by the safe, even if he was hiding Phagan's pay envelope as some claim this seems awfully trivial and also like the last thing he would be in the process of doing to hide what he had just done. I doubt that Leo Frank would have left Mary Phagan's body at all. The guilty seldom leave a body alive or dead alone. This is what also makes Conley's claim that he heard Leo Frank tiptoing back to his office after Stover's departure seem unlikely. Why would Leo Frank have gone back to his office at all, leaving behind a presumably unconscious but still alive Mary, unless it was to give the signal, which he didn't do?

The signals bear the mark of fiction not fact. They are forced to fit the testimony of Monteen Stover and because of this they ring false.

If it was the truth, if Conley had been watching for Leo Frank, I find it hard to believe that he would have shielded this fact from the police. I hardly buy people like Tom Watson's claim that Conley was shielding Leo Frank from anything. When Conley claimed that Frank had said "Why should I hang?" many people saw and still see this as being a confession. This was one of the problems the police had with Conley's tale when he said he wrote the notes on Friday. They didn't believe Leo Frank would have confessed to a crime in advance. So why would Conley have kept Frank's affairs from the police when he wasn't trying to conceal the fact that Leo Frank killed Mary Phagan?

He did not alter the second statement he had given about why he was at the factory. In the one where he revealed he had moved the body the first part of Conley's tale was left alone. Why when he admitted to moving the body would he not have come clean about watching for Leo Frank? Unless it was that that part had not been created yet? He could not confess it because it never happened and had not even been formed in his own mind.

Another weird thing is why would Leo Frank have retold Jim Conley how to lock the door and about the signals if it was a regular occurence. Once again this seems more like something fictional where you have to let the audience in on something because it is technically for the first time and they would be unaware of it. If it had been fact Leo Frank would have just said "Watch for me", Jim Conley would have known what that meant and that would have been about the end of it.

The truth exists. It can't be changed or altered but fiction can. When something is remembered that actually happened it fits perfectly and makes sense. And unlike fiction fact does not have plot holes. Why Leo Frank would not have stamped his foot when Mary Phagan entered his office, why he waited so long to do it, is one huge gaping plot hole.

A big part of the prosecution's case against Leo Frank was that when a girl named Monteen Stover came in for her pay Leo Frank was not in either of his offices. Now Monteen Stover was very specific about the time that she arrived. She said she looked at the clock and it was 12:05 when she arrived and 12:10 when she left.

Her conviction about the time is what screws her testimony and makes it irrelevant. There is no way that Monteen Stover arrived at the National Pencil Factor before Mary Phagan so it hardly matters where on earth and what on earth Leo Frank was doing at this time. He could be making a forgotten about stop to the washroom and it wouldn't matter.

W.T. Hollis, the conductor, and W.W. Matthews, the motorman, of the trolley Mary Phagan rode to town both testified that Mary was still on the trolley when it stopped at Marietta and Broad which was at 12:07 1/2. 12:07 was the schedule time. They claim to have looked at their watches as they were supposed to do and they were on time. Now Hollis got off at Marietta and Forsyth and Mary was still on the trolley. Matthews was relieved at Broad and Marietta and sat behind Mary. He says that Mary got off at Hunter and Broad around 12:10. Both testified that it is over 2 minutes from Broad and Marietta to Hunter and Broad. Hollis testified that he had timed it time and time again since and it was always about 2 1/2 minutes. The Factory was about one block and a half away from Hunter and Broad.

Now witnesses after this testimony said that the trolley was on time that day or ahead of schedule and that it was often ahead of schedule. They say even about 5 minutes ahead of time. Hey! I'd give them 7 minutes and it still wouldn't make one difference! There is no way that Mary could have arrived at the National Pencil Factory before Monteen Stover at 12:05

Let's look at it this way giving the trolley time to get in 7 whole minutes ahead of schedule during the traffic of a Confederate Memorial Day Holiday.

12:07 minus 7 minutes.
We're at 12:00.
Mary has a full 5 minutes to get to the factory before Monteen.
But wait! This is when the trolley arrives at Marietta and Broad.
It was timed that the trolley always takes 2 1/2 minutes to get to Hunter and Broad.
Still I'll knock off half a minute.
So we are at 12:02.
Mary arrives at Hunter and Broad.
Mary is still a block and a half away from the factory.
Mary only has 3 minutes to get to the factory, walk to Leo Frank's office, be lured into the metal room which is a fair distance away from the office for Leo to make a pass at her and to refuse and subsequently be attacked.
Mary is a short and chubby girl. I was once a short and chubby girl myself. I doubt she could get to the Factory in under a minute. Plus add to this the fact that it is a holiday.
Another factor hardly considered is that Mary had dressed herself up really nicely for this special day. She is dressed up in her finest clothes, clothes that are for a special occassion. Is she going to run in these clothes? Is she going to risk sweating in them or possibly ripping them? I doubt it.
I give Mary Phagan 2 minutes to get to the factory.
Now we are at 12:04.
Supposedly it took 40 seconds from the factory door to Leo's office.
Now we are at 12:04:40
I doubt it would only take 20 seconds for Leo and Mary to have any discussion that would lead them to the metal room especially if Mary was afraid of Leo Frank.
I will give any discussion at the least 40 seconds and this is likely far too short.
Now we are at 12:05:20.
Mary still has to walk to the metal room and to rebuke Leo Frank's advances and we have already ran into Monteen Stover's arrival.
Jim Conley says that Mary Phagan screamed but Stover never claimed to have heard a scream at all.

And remember I was lenient with even this time frame and gave the trolley a whole 7 minutes to get to Marietta and Broad. None of the witnesses the state called ever stated that the trolley arrived more than 5 minutes early! Also if Mary Phagan had gotten off earlier at any time it would increase the distance she would have to walk bringing the time frame to about the same or more.

There was NO way that Mary Phagan got there before Monteen Stover. We only have Jim Conley's, the other suspects, word that Mary arrived before Stover. Despite the prosecution's claim that they didn't rely on Jim Conley it isn't completely true. Once again his testimony was relied on to strengthen the prosecution's theory that when Monteen arrived at 12:05 to Leo Frank's empty office he was busy in the metal room raping/murdering poor Mary Phagan.

It was Jim Conley that strengthened this theory. But wait we're going to rely on Conley's testimony over Hollis and Matthews the people who were running the trolley? Conley who supposedly pees on elevator doors and poops in the elevator shaft? Conley who will hang if he can't convince everyone that Leo Frank is guilty?

It is argued by certain factions that since it was against rules for the trolley to get in ahead of time Hollis and Matthews could be lying. But when you stop and look at it why would they do that? Hollis admitted they were sometimes early by a few minutes even on the stand! They had been punished for it so it wasn't anything new even. And why would they try to save Leo Frank when they seem to have been well aquainted with little Mary unless they knew for a fact that Monteen arrived before Mary? Hollis said that he had timed the time it took to get from Broad and Marietta to Hunter and Broad several times since Mary's death and it was always the same. That sounds like a man who has been checking things out repeatedly because of his own questions and always finding the same result, knowing that Mary could not have arrived before Monteen. They would know that it was unlikely that Frank had killed Mary and that if he was sentenced to death the wrong man would be punished for Mary's death. Mary's real killer would not be punished. The real killer of the little girl who use to joke with them about being late and mad would get away scott free.

Even if you consider the other testimony that the trolley was often early they never ever gave it over 7 minutes and this still wouldn't have been enough time for Phagan to have arrived before Stover.

J. H. HENDRICKS said that he had seen the trolley come in 2 or 3 minutes early. Okay that would make 12:04. Mary has 1 minute to get to the Factory and for everything to happen before Stover arrived.

J. C. McEWING said he knew the car to be 4-5 minutes ahead of time. Okay so that would make 12:03. Mary had 2 minutes to get to the Factory, go to Leo Frank's office, talk a bit, walk to the metal room, be made a pass at, rebuke it and be attacked before little Monteen Stover comes walking into the factory with her tennis shoes on.

HENRY HOFFMAN claimed that the car had been as much as 3 minutes ahead of time under his watch. 3 Minutes! 3 Minutes! Wow! Once again that would bring us to 12:04 and that itty bitty minute.

W. B. OWENS testified that the car came in a minute or 2 minutes ahead of time a few times. 2 minutes huh? Okay so 12:05. Mary's still walking to the factory when Monteen is walking in the front door.

LOUIS INGRAM says that the car arrives a much as 4 minutes early. Once again that brings us to 12:03 and that scant 2 minutes for all what the prosecution theorized happened to happen.

In an odd way all of these rebuttal witnesses prove that it was more than unlikely that Mary Phagan arrived at the factory before Monteen Stover. Unless she was the Flash. You know the more I think of Conley's tale and the prosecution's case the more it seems to imply that they believe that superheroes exist. You know. Mrs. White can walk through locked doors, Leo Frank can be in two places at once and that Mary Phagan had super speed.

But seriously, Mary Phagan could not have arrived before Monteen Stover. It doesn't matter where Leo Frank was. He could not have been murdering Mary Phagan when she wasn't even at the factory yet.

So if Monteen arrived before Mary once more we find Conley in a lie and it also cuts into his supposed timeline of what happened, making Mary arrive after 12:10. We know that Mary would have had to arrived after 12:10 because she didn't bump into Monteen and Monteen says she looked at the clock before she left and it was 12:10.

Sorry Monteen Stover, star witness, you shouldn't have been a witness at all!

Just as I am at a loss as to why Leo Frank would put Mary Phagan's parasol in the elevator shaft and not near her body or by the rest of her belongings I am at a loss as to how the bloody handkerchief fit into the scenerio if he was the killer.

Jim Conley never mentioned a bloody handkerchief in his tale. Now maybe if someone had asked him he would have come up with conflicting stories as he was fond of doing but he never mentioned it at all even though he had mentioned Mary's hat, slipper, ribbon and parasol (although this he would even later contradict).

If Leo Frank had brought down the handkerchief with the notes and parasol I am still left confused as to why he put the parasol in the shaft and not dropped it near the body with the handkerchief and notes. These seem contradictory and useless actions.

Conley also claimed that he dropped the sack or bed tic that they carried Mary's body in alongside Mary's belongings beside the boiler. However, this item was never found. If Leo Frank took this item away to be disposed of why did he leave the handkerchief? For that matter I bet there was a lot of bloody cloth that Leo Frank would have needed to dispose of assuming he used such items to clean up the mess the wound to Mary's head had caused. Why did he leave the handkerchief?

But if Conley was the killer and not Leo Frank the handkerchief's position and being found there would make complete sense.

I'm going to theorize that the handkerchief was in the silver mesh purse. I think that when Conley decided to write the notes, Mary now dead, he at first looked in Mary's purse to see if she had some paper in there or maybe even a pen. The notes he believed stupidly would be taken as coming from her after all. He didn't find either of these and would later need to search the basement for them. However, he did find her handkerchief. He used this handkerchief to wipe the blood from off of his hands. He dropped the purse, now stained partially with blood after being handled, and tossed the handkerchief away.

Or maybe he simply wanted to clean his hands off before writing the notes and possibly moving Mary's other belongings, ie. shoe,hat and knew it was likely there was a handkerchief in the purse.

Some time after the composition of the notes, Conley removed the staple from the basement door. He once again picked up the purse not realising that in doing so he got blood on his hands again. This is why there were bloody fingerprints on the basement door. Not knowing he had become marked again, Jim Conley opened the basement door, and escaped, leaving behind fingerprints that would never be completely investigated. Or at least as far as we know.

A liar is apt not to mention things that they know will contradict their story. They avoid items they know have the opportunity to incriminate them. Jim Conley did not mention having seen Mary Phagan on the day she was killed. Even at the trial he claimed he still didn't know her name. Although at the trial he claims to have seen Frank with Mary's purse he never did so before even at the repeated urging of Black and Scott, and an interview with Harllee Branch. He denied to these men that he had seen it at all.

And Jim Conley never mentioned Mary Phagan's handkerchief. He knew why it was bloody. He knew how it had gotten out of the little girl's purse and he blocked it from his mind, fearing it could harm him.

"As to how that dung came to be in the elevator shaft, when Mr. Frank had explained to me
where he wanted to meet me and just as I started out of the place that
negro drayman came in there with a sack of hay and I gave him a drink
of whiskey that I bought at Earley’s saloon on Peters Street that morn-
ing, and he suggested that I go down in the basement and do it, there’s a
light down there, and I went down the ladder and stopped right by the
side of the elevator, in front of the elevator, somewhere about the edges
of it."

This is the testimony that Jim Conley gave in regards to the dung in the elevator shaft. He voluntarily admitted that he had pooped in the elevator shaft in the morning before he was supposedly watching for Leo Frank.

I find it extremely odd that this bit of testimony is not questioned though.

Jim Conley needed to take a dump and he asked the drayman where to do it? Jim Conley had been working at the factory for a long time and he didn't know that the black toilet was in the basement? He had been working in the basement for 2 months, had regularly used the exit way there to escape from people he owed money to, and he didn't know that there was a black toilet down there? He needed to ask the drayman? And the drayman who had been working there for years, who would have likely known the black toilet was down there, told him to use the elevator shaft?

This makes no sense!

Furthermore the drayman, Truman McCrary denied seeing Jim Conley that day and denied telling him to ease his bowels in the elevator shaft.

Conley stated that this was at a time before he was watching for Leo Frank. About the time Conley was leaving the factory around 8:30-9:00. He would have had a lot of time to use the washroom downstairs.

Knowing that Conley's tale makes little sense, and relies on a huge conspiracy to ignore the black toilet, I'm going to conclude that Jim Conley was lying. There is also the fact that Harry Scott claims that Jim Conley originally claimed he knew nothing about the poop:

"He denied knowing
anything about the fecal matter down in the basement in the elevator
shaft. He never said he went down there himself between the time he
first came to the factory and went to Montag’s."

Now the question is why was he lying both times? Is there something about that poop that Conley knew the truth about and wanted to hide its true meaning?

Fight or Flight Response

In 1927 a Harvard physiologist named Walter Bradford Cannon investigated something he would call the Fight or Flight Response. He studied how the body reacts to threat and fear. Let's try to apply this information discovered after the Phagan crime to the crime itself.

There are three interesting results of the fight or flight reflex which I wish to mention:

First the inability to achieve an erection
Second a general attitude of restlessness
Third, in response to stress one of the bodies reactions is to shut down digestion. This often causes the person who is suffering fear to suddenly poo. I know. There is no easy way to discuss this without being gross. Please bear with me. Anyway, this is likely why the term "Scared S**tless" came into being.

Inhibition of Erection

There was no sperm found while examining a certain area of poor Mary Phagan. She had not been raped in the way that the prosecution wanted to pin it on poor Leo Frank. If this had been the reason for Mary's murder it seems odd that there was no semen found. This is likely why the prosecution and Conley invented the whole excuse that Leo Frank wasn't "built" like other men; this stemming from the misconception of circumcision making Leo Frank not like other men. Likely Conley heard the word "cut" and thought that Frank was less of a man and this could explain away the lack of sperm: He couldn't have sex he didn't have a full member.

However, consider Fight or Flight response. If Conley had attacted Mary unexpectedly he would be terrified. Maybe in truth he hadn't planned it. Maybe he had asked for money from her and she had refused. Mary Phagan seemed rather vocal and her money was hardly enough to share.

Even if he had wanted to rape Mary Phagan Conley wouldn't have been able to. He could have played with her, possibly even using the umbrella, but it would do no good. His body was making it an impossibility.

This is why the girl wasn't raped in the normal sense.

Restlessness

Another reflex of fight or flight response is restlessness.

When the Pinkerton agents questioned Jim Conley's lover Lorena Jones she professed that Conley seemed restless on April 26th. At about 3:00 she had gone to the store to buy some snuff. When she came home she did not see Conley but as she was walking towards a washstand he jumped out from it and startled her. She said he said he did it just to scare her.

Release of Bowels

I don't believe that Jim Conley released his bowels in the morning. I believe that he did so either before or after killing Mary Phagan.

Note where the stool was found: the elevator shaft in the basement.

What was also in the elevator shaft? Mary Phagan's umbrella.

Is it not more than a little strange that the victim's parasol was near Jim Conley's poop? If it had been an item of Leo Frank's beside a possession of Mary Phagan's you bet everyone would have thought that this was a dead giveaway. But when it is a man's poop no one wants to consider it. This was, remember, before the invention of the current gross out film.

I wish I knew a little bit more about the elevator shaft in the basement. Did it have metal doors like the ones upstairs? If it did it is possible that Jim Conley used the umbrella like a crowbar to pry his way inside. This could explain why the umbrella was in there.

So you may ask why he didn't use the black washroom? The answer is simple. He did not want to leave the body. If she was still alive he wouldn't want to risk her coming to and leaving while he was gone. If she was dead self preservation would make him want to keep that body within visual range.

Also there was a trail starting from the elevator shaft to where the body was discovered. Jim Conley always claimed that he had carried Mary Phagan's body in a crocus sack or bed tick on his shoulders. He never said he dragged her. Yet the trail was there. A trail beginning right near where his poop was found.

My guess is that he knew he had dragged her on that cold earthen floor and just like anything that was too close to the truth he tried to hide it in lies.

I believe that he brought the unconcious body of Mary Phagan, after he had taken/pushed her down the scuttle hole or shaft, to a place in front of the elevator. He probably did this because "there's a light down there". Also, if he had needed to use the shaft as a makeshift washroom at this time he could have dragged her body the short distance there, once again, so that she would be close by.

There are two options for when he pooped. Obviously he would be scared. Fight or flight response was in action. The question is did he do it before he killed her or after? Did he think that the fall down the hole would have killed her but she was still alive, the ladder possibly breaking her fall? Had he just finished attacking her in whatever means used and then needed to poo? Or had he just strangled her and the impact of that made him need to release his bowels. Either option makes sense.

I think it would be plausible that she was alive when he defecated. He knew what he had done. He knew what he would need to do and he was terrified. I think that while he was in the process of defecating he could have tossed the umbrella in the shaft and taken up a piece of cord he found in there, knowing he needed to kill her now and finding a way.

Two of Jim Conley's Belongings

Mary Phagan was in two areas in the basement of the factory. There was indication that she had been dragged from right in front of the elevator shaft to the rear of the basement where she was discovered. The facts are that two of these areas had things that pertained to Jim Conley.

At the start of where the poor girl had been dragged from was Jim Conley's dung. Where the body had been dragged to they found two notes with his handwriting.

Those two items are bookends and they tie Jim Conley directly to Mary Phagan's murder, where she had been to where she was moved. They also show that Jim Conley was in the basement on the day of the murder the same basement where Mary Phagan's body was found. Isn't that a little odd?

Where Conley Claims to Have Found the Body

Conley claims that he found the body of Mary Phagan initially outside the men's toilet. This is 37 feet away from the lathe where Mary supposedly hit her head. Why would Leo Frank have taken Mary to this spot to attack her when she was supposedly already unconscious over by the lathe? I doubt he would have wanted to move her a full 37 feet away when he could take her just where she was lying.

There's something a little strange that Conley says he found her close by a toilet.

This can go two ways.

He remembered that he wrote in the note that she had been going to "make water" and he needed to say he found her by a washroom. In this case he chose the men's and not the ladies, not particularly swift.

Or he subconciously remembered his own act of defecating when he attacked/killed her and added this element to the tale he was weaving.

Fight and then Flight

Jim Conley's actions show some of the basic signs of fight or flight response. In fact, he chose to both fight and flee. By choosing to remain and write those notes to incrimnate William Nolle, the fireman, who was different in appearance to himself, he decided to fight before eventually fleeing after their composition.

Harry Scott, while on the stand, stated that Jim Conley had claimed ignorance about Mary Phagan's parasol:

"We asked him about the parasol. He didn’t tell us anything about it."

Jim Conley contradicted himself by telling Harllee Branch for the Atlanta Journal on May 30th 1913 in regards to the parasol and the body:

"Her hat, one slipper, a piece of ribbon and her parasol lay several feet away. I never did see any purse."

However at the trial he didn't mention the parasol with the other items saying instead:

"and I looked back a little distance and saw her
hat and a piece of ribbon laying down and her slippers and I taken them
and put them all in the cloth"

When asked at the trial why he didn't move the parasol he says this:

"The reason I didn’t take the parasol down with the shoes, it was too far back for me to see it."

How it moved from one moment to the next is beyond me. How he couldn't see it in the metal room is also beyond me.

Okay. So for Conley's story he's obviously saying that Leo Frank moved the umbrella himself later. But why would Leo Frank have put it in the elevator shaft? Wouldn't he have put with Mary's other belongings?

Conley contradicted himself about where he was told to put those other items. Once he said that Frank didn't tell him where to put them. At the trial he said that Frank told him to leave them where they were with Mary's body. Conley however says that he moved them to near the boiler. Why he chose to do that it strange in itself. So why would Leo Frank have put it in the elevator shaft?

Unless Conley's lying.

If you read "Jim Conley Scared Dungless or Fight or Flight Response" you know some of my questions about the elevator shaft.

I think there are a few far more likely explanations as to why that parasol was in the elevator shaft in regards to Jim Conley then there are with Leo Frank putting it there.

There is something I can't find out about the elevator. I know that on the first floor it had sliding doors that could be opened but I don't know if this is the same for down in the basement or not. Some of the possible theories will take this into consideration.

1. Mary Phagan was thrown down the elevator shaft. Jim Conley had used her parasol to help open the elevator doors. After he was finished with it he threw it down there also.

2. Jim Conley assaulted Mary with the parasol in the basement. It was in his hands when he had to release his bowels. He carried the parasol into the shaft, which he used as a makeshift washroom not wanting to leave the body, and then dropped it in there, not needing it anymore.

3. If the sliding doors were in the basement too, after Jim Conley had played with or murdered poor Mary Phagan he used the parasol to help open the elevator doors so he could use the shaft as a quick washroom. He left the parasol in there after he had used it to open the doors.

4. During the attack on Mary Phagan the parasol got pushed or thrown into the elevator shaft.

Any of these would offer a more plausible explanation as to why the parasol was in there than if Leo Frank had placed it there. It would also explain why Conley didn't move it with the rest of Mary's items. He would have forgotten it or it was too dark for him to see it. Or if the elevator shaft had sliding doors that blocked the item maybe he didn't see it at all.

Jim Conley also repeatedly showed an inclination to lie about or ignore things that may have been too close to the truth if he was the one who murdered Mary Phagan, in particular the mesh bag. He knew the real reason why the umbrella was in the elevator shaft.

There were two murder notes discovered by the body of Mary Phagan.

The first one found was on white scratch pad paper. Several feet away they discovered the scratch pad it had been written on with some paper still on it.

It says this:

He said he wood love me land down play like the night witch did it
but that long tall black negro boy did his self

Another note was found written on a yellow National Pencil Factory Order Sheet. It says this:

mam that negro hire down here did this i went to make water and he push
me down that hole a long tall negro black that hoo it wase long sleam tall
negro i wright while play with me

Now the police seemed to assume that the first note was the one that they found first. The "land down" note comes first and the "mam" note comes second.

Jim Conley gives this impression also several times.

But if you look at it logically it would make little sense that the "land down" note would come before the "mam" note.

Mam is the beginning of a letter. These are NOT two seperate notes but rather two pages of a letter.This is likely how the letter would begin if it was suppose to have come from Mary. She is addressing someone, probably her mother. Furthermore, if you read the notes from "mam" to "land down" it makes more sense. As Berry Benson says it explains who the murderer is and then goes on to explain that she is writing while he is playing with her. This carries through to the "land down" note. She further explains the attack and reasserts who it is who is attacking her. If you read the "land down" note to the "mam" note then it makes little sense. It starts without explaining who is doing what to her, not fully earning the right to use the address "that" since we don't know who "that" is yet.

In short, which of these makes the most sense:

He said he wood love me land down play like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro boy did his self mam that negro hire down here did this i went to make water and he push me down that hole a long tall negro black that hoo it wase long sleam tall negro i wright while play with me

or

mam that negro hire down here did this i went to make water and he push me down that hole a long tall negro black that hoo it wase long sleam tall negro i wright while play with me he said he wood love me land down play like the night witch did it but that long tall black negro boy did his self

I'd go with the second one.

But while Benson realized this aspect let's look at something that is rarely commented on: Why on earth if the "land down" note came first and was written on a scratch pad with some leaves still left would Leo Frank have then gone to the trouble of getting a different type of paper altogether to write the second note? Why would he write two notes on two different types of paper at all?

The Necessity of Two Different Types of Sheets

If you are writing a note from a girl who is supposedly writing while she is being raped, something that is a ridiculous notion in itself, would you seriously think she could have found one sheet of paper let alone two to write on?

Do you think that if she found a pad of paper that had several sheets on it that she wouldn't use just these?

Do you think that Leo Frank, well educated, would have thought it likely that Mary could have written while being raped and that she could be so lucky to find two sheets of paper, ignoring in the process her great luck in finding a pad of paper with several sheets still left on it?

Why would he have given Jim Conley a pad of paper to write on with several sheets and then decide on having him write the second note on a National Pencil Co. sheet? Would he have given him a National Pencil Co. sheet at all when the notes were written in his office where paper was probably bountiful?

Imagine though that the notes were written out of necessity. Picture that Jim Conley had just killed Mary Phagan. He knows that there is a possibility that others saw him there in the factory that day. He has thought of a way to try to get out of it possibly relying on the notion that to prejudiced white people black people look similar. He decides to blame it on another black man, but one that doesn't strongly resemble him. One who is long, dark and slim not short, light and stocky. He has decided to write notes from the little girl he has killed.

He has no paper. He goes looking for it. In the dark celler where trash is plenty he at first finds one lone sheet of paper: A carbon sheet from the factory that has been discarded who knows when. He writes on it with shaky hands addressing it to Mary's mother. He barely has enough room to finish it needing to squeeze in "me" on it.

Maybe he is pleased with this at first. Maybe the more he thinks about it he wants one last time to drive home the fact that it was a black person who looked very different than himself.

Once more he searches. This time he is far more lucky and finds a pad of paper that has not only one sheet but several even though he only needs the one. By this time he is less shaky and more composed. His handwriting is cleaner. He writes the note but fails to sign it "Mary" not knowing his victim's name, something Leo Frank if he was obsessed with the girl would have known.

He rips the note from the pad and drops both by Mary's corpse. He then leaves.

This explains why there were two different sheets of paper and why one of these was taken from a pad of paper that had a few leaves left. There is no logical reason why Leo Frank would have used two different types of paper for those notes. There is no reason why he would even have left two notes in the first place when you look at it! There is no reason why he would have left one note at all!

So Jim Conley originally claimed when he stated he had helped move the body that Leo Frank handed him $200 for writing the notes. He then added as a footnote that Leo Frank had taken back the money.

At the trial Jim Conley stated that the $200 was to burn the body. He says that Leo Frank told him to come back in 40 minutes that a way to the factory would be open and that he could burn the body then.

Now Jim Conley stated that he went several places finally returning home to where he fell asleep after eating a meal. He had intended to go back to the factory but slept until it was closed, conveniently.

According to Jim Conley he left Leo Frank at 1:30. Now 40 minutes from that would be 2:10. So why then did Lorena Jones tell the Pinkerton agents that at 3:00 her common law husband was hiding behind a washstand and trying to scare her? That seems pretty awake to me and much later than when Conley was suppose to be at the factory.

Now why would he have gone home when Leo Frank had instructed him to return to the factory a mere 40 minutes later? Why when there was $200 to be had, after Jim Conley had helped to move the body already, would he not have gone down there instantly to burn the corpse? I'm thinking there would be people who would sell out their own mother for that amount of cash back then. I wouldn't but Conley seems like the type to.

Simple. This is a fabrication. The burning of the body is simply another plotline added to Jim Conley's story in order to build the prosecution's case against Leo Frank.

The Invention of Burning the Body

I have little doubt that originally the $200 was just a flourish that Conley invented in order to make his tale more authentic or colorful. However, the absense of the money posed a problem and he needed to add a reason why it mysteriously disappeard. This whole thing in a way reminds me of a glorious scene from "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka" when two of the bad buy's henchmen are trying to explain why they failed in a mission. Things are going smoothly with the lie until one idiot says that they were shot. Of course, they obviously weren't so the lie is evident.

Jim Conley's lies weren't quite as bad as that but they come pretty close.

Well while this was a nice touch to the fairy tale the man was weaving I'm sure that Dorsey and his men found another way to twist this.

See they probably had a problem. If the murder notes were written at 1:30 and the body all taken care of why on earth would Leo Frank have been so jumpy about Newt Lee coming about 4:00? Newt Lee was another witness they were relying on. My guess is that they thought they could use Conley's tale about the $200 as a means to as why Leo Frank was so jumpy. Dorsey during his closing arguments tried to impress upon the jury that Frank was nervous because he was waiting for Conley to return to burn the body.

But this conflicts with the murder notes. Why write the murder notes at all if the body was to be burned? If that was Frank's way of solving things he wasted a great deal of time.

Why did Frank leave also after 1:30? He wouldn't be at the factory when Conley came back in 40 minutes. The doors would be locked. If he opened the door in the basement for Conley to enter than this would have seriously cut into his time to return home. He might as well not have bothered. He would have gotten home about 2:00 and have had to have left immediately. And besides how could the man be spotted at 1:10 by Helen Kerns waiting for the trolley and at 1:20 by a neighbour if he was still at the factory? Frank also stated that he missed the 1:50 trolley and so he talked with neighbours. Mrs. M.G. Michael, Jerome Michael, Mrs. Hennie Wolfsheimer and Julian Loeb all testified that they saw Leo Frank at this time and he seemed normal.Cohen Loeb and Hinchey also testifed that Leo Frank was on the trolley at around 2:00. Boy Leo Frank was amazing! Loeb said that Leo Frank did not seem nervous. Wouldn't he have been a little nervous if he was going to miss Jim Conley's return? Would he have gone to purchase cigars so casually on his way to the factory?

Also why would Leo Frank have given Jim Conley anymore than $10? That would even be a lot back then! Why would Jim Conley have handed back the money when Leo Frank asked for it? He was in a position to hold far much more over Frank's head.

And the other really confusing thing Berry Benson found out that there wasn't even $200 in the factory that day and that Leo Frank had only been taking out about $5 every so often from his bank. Where did this $200 come from? Oh! I know! It grew on a tree! Maybe that would have been Conley's next claim! The sad part is that a great many people probably would have believed him then.

It was suggested that it was suspicious that Leo Frank did not answer his phone at around 3:00 when they were trying to alert him that a girl had been found dead at the factory.

Yet it was thought of as being suspcious that he had anxiously called Newt Gantt around 7:00 to see if everything at the factory was all right.

Leo Frank could not do anything right in the eyes of the law it seems. Why if they reason he was nervous and wanted to make sure that Newt hadn't discovered anything at 7 would he miss the call at 3? Wouldn't he have been right there ready to take it? Does this make sense?

Isn't it more likely that he phoned Newt at 7:00, he claims to have phoned at 6:30 but didn't get an answer, because he wanted to make sure that everything went well with Gantt having just been inside the building? He had fired Gantt for stealing. Wouldn't he have feared letting a fired employee back inside the building with only Newt Lee to watch him? Since it was the last thing he had done before leaving the factory wouldn't having made the decision to let Gantt inside be playing on his nerves as he returned home? Wouldn't he want to ease his mind when he got home and phone to make sure everything went well?

I find it hard to believe that Leo Frank if he had been that nervous about the discovery of the body would have knowingly missed the call at 3. It seems more likely that he would have stayed up all night just waiting for it to get the waiting over with.

Honestly why would Leo Frank fear letting Gantt in in regards to the murder of Mary Phagan? The prosecution reasoned it was because he feared Gantt would discover that he had killed Mary. What? Did he fear that Gantt would smell the girl? How could Gantt have possibly known that Mary Phagan had been there that day? Mary Phagan was down in the basement, a place Gantt would not in all probability go.

There's more likelyhood that Leo Frank was afraid that Gantt would get into mischief in the place, by stealing or causing some damage, and Montag, his boss, would give him hang for letting an ex employee inside the building with only the night watchman there.

One of the major reasons that the police suspected Leo Frank was his anxiety on the day they informed him that Mary Phagan had been murdered. As if being awakened before 7:00 am by the police for the only stated reason that a tragedy had occured isn't reason enough to be nervous! They also didn't like his nervousness when he looked at the body and when he was at the factory. I'm left wondering how one is supposed to be when they see a body. I'd find it more disturbing if he was like those people who hang their heads out of car windows as they pass car accidents.

They then found it suspicious when Newt Lee said that Leo Frank was nervous when he came to the factory at 4:00 and when Gantt was at the factory around 6:00.

They say that this was because he had murdered Mary Phagan and was fearful of discovery.

My question is why then did White, White and Denham report no signs of anxiety from Leo Frank when he came up to tell them he was leaving at about 12:50? This would have been directly after he had killed Mary Phagan. It is remarkable that he was able to remain so calm directly after the deed.

It is also very remarkable that Mrs. M.G. Michael, Jerome Michael, Mrs. Hennie Wolfsheimer and Julian Loeb reported no signs of nervousness about him also when they met him after he had failed to catch the 1:50 trolley. It is incredible that Cohen Loeb further sensed no agitation from him when they were together on the 2:00 trolley. These are further remarkable because Leo Frank supposedly had to be back by the factory, according to Conley, by 2:10. This is when Frank had supposedly told Conley to return to the factory to burn the body and he would be paid.

Another strange fact is that Harry Denham says that at about 3:00 when he was leaving with Mr. White Leo Frank was not nervous.

Later on that evening Mr. and Mrs. Morris Goldstein and Mr. and Mrs. M. Marcus and I Strauss visited the house and testified that there was nothing unusual about Leo Frank that night.

It is strange that directly after the killing and on the day in question that Leo Frank, a nervous man by nature, seemed so able to pull off an air of serenity only to blow it the moment that the police came around.

But what about Newt Lee's testimony some may ask.

Well look at it logically. Leo Frank had gotten Newt Lee to come to work early because Leo had planned to go to a ball game. Then he decides to stay and work. Newt Lee is cranky about not having gotten a lot of sleep. Wouldn't you be a little nervous about telling the man that you had had him come in early for no reason? Wouldn't the man's presence alone make you a little nervous because you had likely ticked him off?

Which brings us to Gantt. Leo Frank had fired him for potentially stealing. Wouldn't you be a little nervous seeing a man you had fired? Wouldn't you be a little anxious about having him in the factory?

It seems like Leo Franks nerves were caused by three factors alone and only one of these pertain to Mary Phagan.

1. Newt Lee. He was nervous with Newt Lee because he had possibly irritated the man by telling him to get up early and come to work early and then called it all off.

2. Gantt. He had fired this man for thievery and now he was going to go inside the factory.

3. The Police had told him a crime had been committed. Mary Phagan, a little girl, had been murdered. I think in the back of anyone's mind they would fear that they would be suspected of the crime especially if they had seen her last.

These explain why he was nervous at certain times and not at others. If Leo Frank had killed Mary Phagan I think that he would have been nervous ALL the time that day not just at certain times where the reasons could be explained easily without the theory that he had just killed someone.

You can't have it both ways. You can't say that Leo Frank's nerves give him away for having killed Mary when at certain times when he should have been nervous he wasn't nervous at all!

Why if Leo Frank had by some outrageous stroke of luck have gotten Mary Phagan, a girl who was afraid of him, into the metal room alone would he not have backed her up against something? Isn't this the usual form of attack so the victim can't flee.?

Why would he do it in the open where there was distance so she just happened to fall backwards and hit her head against the lathe handle?

And why when she had fallen and was unconscious would he move the body 37 feet away from the lathe to where Jim Conley claims to have found the body? Couldn't he have taken her there and then? Why would he need to move it 37 whole feet? And if he moved it after the attack why was he taking it away from the door? This would make the distance to the basement where he planned to take it further away.

Conley had this to say about Mary's hat:

"and I took her back there and taken the cloth from
around her and taken her hat and shoe which I had picked up up-
stairs right where her body was lying"

" I put both of her hands down
easily, and rolled her up in the cloth and taken the cloth and tied her up,
and started to pick up her, and I looked back a little distance and saw her
hat and a piece of ribbon laying down and her slippers and I taken them
and put them all in the cloth "

My question is why was the hat with the other items?

This may seem odd but hear me out. It was supposed that Mary Phagan had hit her head on the lathe handle and that is where she got the gash on the back of her head. But wouldn't this have knocked her hat off if she was wearing it or wouldn't the hat have saved her from getting such a nasty gash at all?

Even if she was holding the hat in her hand at the time of the attack she would have likely dropped it when she fell. The hat would have remained by the lathe.

The distance between the lathe and the place where Conley found the body was 37 feet. Leo Frank would have had to have moved the body 37 feet for some strange reason and he would have had to have brought the hat with him for Conley to have found it close by.

But if Leo Frank moved the hat why didn't he move the parasol? It would have had to have been close by as well.

And why, once again, if he was paying such meticulous details to clean up and placing things together would he have missed those few strands of hair on the lathe handle? There would have been blood there marking the lathe that he would have had to clean up so why when he was taking the time to move the hat and clean up the blood did he miss those hairs that were so ready to be seen?