Saturday, 24th May 1913 Frank Not Home Hours on Saturday Declares Lanford

Atlanta Constitution

Saturday, May 24th, 1913

On Night of Murder Prisoner Was Not at Residence, as He Says He Was, States Head of Detective Dept

WITNESSES WILL SWEAR TO THIS, HE ASSERTS

Leo Frank Swore at Coroner's Inquest That He Reached Home at 7:30 O'Clock and Did Not Leave House

"I can prove that Frank was not at home during the hours of Saturday night, the night of the murder that he claimed he was. I will have witnesses to swear to this."

Such was the startling statement by Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford to a reporter for The Constitution Friday night.

Further than this Chief Lanford said he had a great deal of evidence which had not found its way into the papers.

"I will admit though," he said, "it has been almost as hard to keep evidence out of the papers as it has been to get hold of it in the first place."

Chief Lanford's statement that he can prove Frank was not at home during the hours he says he was is the most important one in regard to the Phagan case that has come from the detective department in some days.

Leo Frank, in his statement at the coroner's inquest, said that he reached home shortly after 7 o'clock Saturday night and did not leave his residence until the following morning when he accompanied the detectives to the undertaking establishment to identify the body of Mary Phagan. Frank's statement was substantiated by his mother-in-law and father-in-law who stated that they were engaged in a card game that night and that Frank was in the next room reading a magazine.

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