Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.
Atlanta Constitution
August 19th, 1913
Numbers of girls and women, either now employed or formerly employed at the National Pencil factory, were placed on the stand Monday by the defense to swear to the good character of Superintendent Leo M. Frank.
The following, 21 in all, declared Frank’s character good: Miss M. E. Fleming, Miss Annie Howell, Miss Lillie May Goodman, Miss Cora Cowan, Miss Jimmy Mayfield, Miss B. D. Smith, Miss Lizzie Ward, Miss Ida Holmes, Miss Willie Hatcher, Miss Mary Hatcher, Miss Olive Johns, Mrs. Georgia Denham, Miss Bessie White, Mrs. Lizzie Florence, Miss Jennie Spivey, Mrs. Minnie Smith, Miss Grace Atherton, Miss Martha McCord, Miss Lena McMurtry, and Mrs. W. R. Johnson.
Mrs. Mary Bolton, Miss Velvie Holland and Miss Ethel Barber declared that they did not know anything about Frank’s character.
MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN TELLS OF FLIRTING OF FACTORY GIRLS
Mrs. Mattie Thompson, a woman of over ‘middle’ age and an employee of the factory, was among those put on the stand to testify to Leo Frank’s character and also about the alleged flirting carried on by some of the girls from the windows of the dressing rooms.
She said that she did not know the names of any of them and had never seen any of them in the act of carrying on a flirtation, but that it had been talked of in the factory and she and some of the other elderly ladies had reported it to N. V. Darley, assistant superintendent. She said Frank’s character was good.
On cross-examination Mr. Dorsey drew from her the statement that she had been talked to by Attorney Hebert Haas, assisting in the Frank defense, just a short while before she took the stand.
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