00:00Second Fagan Indictment Probable, The Atlanta Journal, Wednesday, July 16, 1913.
00:06Editors note, a small section of text is missing from the article due to scanning blur near a
00:11page fold. Conley Negro may be indicted over Dorsey's protest. New grand jury will take up
00:17case and make an effort to get a true bill against Negro as principal Negro has already
00:21admitted complicity. Solicitor Dorsey is expected to vigorously oppose jury's move.
00:26Negro sweated again by detectives. It was learned Wednesday by the Journal on Reliable Authority
00:32that there is a strong probability of the Fulton County grand jury which was recently organized
00:37by the election of W.D. Beatty as foreman will take up the case of Jim Conley, Negro sweeper at
00:44the
00:44National Pencil Factory, and confessed accomplice to the murder of Mary Fagan before the trial of
00:50Leo M. Frank, who is accused of the crime by the Negro, is entered upon. If the grand jury
00:56takes up the Negro's case, it is believed that a bill charging the Negro with the crime as a
01:00principle will be considered, and if an indictment is brought, it seems probable that murder will be
01:06the charge. The grand jury will take up Conley's case over the vigorous protest of Solicitor Hugh M.
01:12Dorsey, who it is stated has not changed his theory about the murder. Solicitor Dorsey has from the
01:18beginning taken the position that Conley should be held as a material witness, and that this was not
01:23the time for the grand jury to investigate his connection with the Fagan murder. If the grand
01:28jury takes up the Negro's case, there seems little doubt that the Solicitor will bitterly oppose its
01:32action. An indictment of Conley prior to the trial of Frank as principle would undoubtedly greatly weaken
01:38the state's case, and the Solicitor is expected to use jury to persuade if not to consider an
01:43indictment. Meets this week. A meeting of the grand jury will probably be called during the present
01:49week, its chief object being, it is said, to take up O. Sinley's case. It is said that a number
01:54of the
01:54members of the jury are of the opinion that it is the grand jury's duty to investigate Conley's story
01:59and determine whether an indictment should not be returned against him. In response to their requests,
02:04it is said that the foreman, W. D. Beatty, has practically decided to call a meeting. Foreman Beatty
02:10was in conference with the Solicitor Tuesday, but both of them declined to state what the subject of their
02:15conversation was. It is believed that the probability of the grand jury taking up Conley's case and
02:21considering an indictment was the cause of the sweating given to the Negro Wednesday by the Solicitor and
02:27Detective Starnes and A. C. Emble. It is probable that the Solicitor wanted to go over the Negro's story and
02:33make doubly sure that he had told everything that he knows in connection with the crime. Whatever the object, it
02:39is
02:39known that the Negro was put through a grueling examination and that every effort was made to ring
02:45additional information from him. Conley grilled again. James Conley, the Negro was, has confessed that he was an
02:52accessory in the Mary Fagan murder, was grilled again Wednesday by Detective Starnes and Campbell, who have been
02:58working under the direction of the Solicitor General. While the Solicitor maintains that the state's theory of the
03:03crime has not been changed, and he is going ahead with plans for the trial of Leo M. Frank on
03:09July 28th, the
03:11continued sweating of the Negro has occasioned much speculation. Immediately after Conley made his three
03:16startling affidavits in which he, continued on page seven, Colonel one, Conley Negro may be indicted over
03:23Dorsey's protest, continued from page one, said that Frank killed the girl and that he helped dispose of
03:29her body. He was cross-examined for hours at a time, the Solicitor and the detectives making themselves
03:35thoroughly familiar with the case. Then he was allowed to rest for several weeks, but now, almost on the eve
03:41of the Frank trial, the officers have commenced more vigorously than ever their cross-examination,
03:46and this occasioned the rumor that Conley has again changed his story, or that the detectives are
03:52expecting still another confession. Solicitor Dorsey on Tuesday examined a new witness, a young woman who
03:59made a lengthy statement which the state considers of importance. The woman's story had no direct
04:04bearing on the crime, it is said, and can only be used in event the defense puts Frank's character
04:09in issue. Preparations for the Frank trial, which will be held in the courtroom on the first floor of
04:14the old city hall, are now being made by Deputy Plenty Minor and other court attaches. When the sweating of
04:21Conley was concluded shortly before two o'clock, it developed that Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey had been
04:27present at the questioning. He left the room in company with City Detectives Stairs and Campbell,
04:33all of whom declined to give any intimation of what had transpired behind the closed doors.
04:38The Negro was immediately led back to his cell.
