Here’s a rewritten, condensed version of Mrs. J. A. White’s testimony brought to about 2,500 characters, while keeping the testimony clear, chronological, and faithful to tone and meaning.
Mrs. J. A. White testified that she visited the National Pencil Factory on the day of the murder to see her husband, Arthur White, who was working there with Harry Denham. She first arrived around 11:30 a.m. and saw Miss Hall, the stenographer, Mr. Frank, and two other men in the office. She asked Mr. Frank if she could see her husband. He gave permission and sent word upstairs through Mrs. Emma Freeman. Mr. White came down to the second floor stairs, where she spoke with him for about fifteen minutes before leaving, just before noon.
Mrs. White returned around 12:30 p.m. and again saw Mr. Frank in the outside office near the company safe. When she asked whether her husband had gone back to work, Frank gave a slight start, turned toward her quickly, and replied, “Yes.” She went upstairs to the fourth floor where her husband and Harry Denham were working, hammering on machinery but not making constant noise. Mr. Frank came upstairs shortly before 1:00 p.m. and told Mr. White that if Mrs. White wanted to leave before 3:00, she’d better come down soon because he intended to lock up the building.
As Mrs. White left, she saw Frank sitting in the office, writing at a table without his coat or hat. While descending the stairs, she noticed a Black man sitting on a box near the bottom of the stairway, five or six feet away from the door. She could not identify him, though he wore dark clothing and sat in a shadowed area. She estimated that she left the factory close to one o’clock and soon afterward was seen at McDonald’s furniture store several blocks away.
When recalled to the stand, Mrs. White said she later saw Jim Conley at police headquarters about a month after the murder. Although Conley was similar in size to the man she had seen on the first floor, she could not state positively that it was him. The lighting had been poor, and she could only tell the man was dark-skinned and dressed in dark clothes. She said the first time she mentioned her sighting of the man was to attorney Bass Rosser on May 7th.
Under cross‑examination, Mrs. White insisted she had told detectives about seeing a Black man as soon as the opportunity arose and had not tried to withhold the information. She acknowledged speaking with Wade Campbell about the encounter but denied ever saying she had not seen anyone when she came down the steps for the last time.
