Friday, 11th July 1913 Conley Not Right Man, Says Mincey

Friday, July 11, 1913

Insurance Man Who Made Affidavit Says Conversation Was With Some Other Negro—Saw Conley at Station.

It was disclosed Thursday afternoon that William H. Mincey, the insurance agent who has made an affidavit to the effect that Jim Conley on the date of the Phagan murder drunkenly admitted that he had slain a girl had appeared at police headquarters during Conley's grilling and had positively failed to identify the negro.

This was told a Constitution reporter by Detective Harry Scott of the Pinkertons and Detective Chief Newport Lanford. The insurance agent, they declared, had come to the police station while Conley was being cross-examined and had asked to see the prisoner.

He wanted to see if he could identify Conley as the negro whom he had seen drunk at the corner of Electric and Carter streets on the afternoon of Saturday, April 26. He was admitted to Conley's presence. After asking the negro a number of questions pertaining to a conversation he had held with the black encountered at Electric and Carter streets, Mincey, the detectives assert, declared he could not identify the suspect.

He's not the man I saw, Lanford and Scott say the insurance man declared.

Conley was asked by Mincey on that date if he had not talked with him about the issuance of a life insurance policy. Conley denied having ever seen the man. Mincey, the detectives say, was positive in his declaration that Conley was not the negro with whom he had held the conversation.

Did Not Approach Detectives

Scott said to the reporter last night:

This man Mincey never made mention of Chief Lanford and me of having heard the negro say he had killed a girl that afternoon. He never offered us any such story. He was so absolutely sure of his failure to identify Conley that we paid no more attention to him or his story.

If we had heard any such story against Conley and could have verified it like the report says it is now verified we would have immediately sworn out a warrant charging him iwth [sic] Mary Phagan's murder. Neither Lanford nor I put credence in the report of Mincey's affidavit. It looks flimsy from every standpoint.

Mincey is said to have put into the hands of Frank's counsel a sworn statement declaring that on the afternoon of the Phagan muder [sic] he had encountered Jim Conley at the corner of Electric and Carter streets and had approached the negro on the subject of issuing life insurance.

Conley, his statement is said to state, was drinking and refused the insurance offer. I killed a girl this afternoon, he is reported with having answered, and I'm likely to be in jail tonight. He grew threatening the insurance man states and to avoid trouble Mincey walked away.

Investigating Possible "Plant