Question about the Leo Frank case

[ceebeegee]

I've been rereading some articles about the Frank case. Can anyone tell me who is supposed to have written those two notes? Was it really the little girl? Surely Conley wouldn't have planted them there, since they implicate him.

Reading about this case makes me hate people.

Comments

[carasol.livejournal.com]

Conley wrote them to implicate Newt Lee, the night watchman who discovered the body.

I just DVR'd a really great documentary on PBS about the case, if you want to come by and watch it. I also have lots of books about it. I blame Jason Robert Brown for my obsession with this story...

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

But doesn't the note say the "negro" did it? Actually, it's difficult for me to understand what the notes are saying, they're pretty incoherent. I'll have to go back and reread them.

[carasol.livejournal.com]

Specifically, they say a "long, slim negro" did it. Lee was long and slim. Conley was short and stocky. That's what he hoped would throw people off the track.

[ceebeegee.livejournal.com]

Oh!--was Newt Lee black then? That's what confused me, for some reason I assumed he was white.

And yeah, JRB's show is pretty terrific. I've recommended it to my Mom many times (we have a lot of Georgia relatives).

[carasol.livejournal.com]

Yes, Newt Lee was African-American, and was the first person arrested for the murder. Then several other people were arrested, including two white men: Arthur Mullinax and John Gantt. Gantt had recently been fired from the factory by Leo Frank, and if I remember correctly, Gantt was the first person to suggest Frank behaved inappropriately towards the girls. Of course, he certainly had a motive for saying that...