Monday, 8th September 1913: Medical Student Is Held As Swindler, The Atlanta Georgian

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Hugh W. Timothy, 28 years old, the son of a wealthy Chattanooga department store owner and known in Atlanta society circles, was arrested Monday by Harry Scott, of the Pinkertons, on suspicion of having used the mails in a swindling scheme which is said to have already netted young Timonthy more than $1,250 since he started operations in March.

Timothy's plan, according to Scott and the postal inspectors, was to advertise that he was in a position to fit applicants for jobs as porters with the Pullman Car Company.

They say that the advertisements directed those who responded to address their replies to Box 804 at the local post office.

The applicants were sent a form letter which told them, it is said, that Mr. Pollere would be very glad to mail them a set of printed instructions which would fully prepare them for service as porters with the Pullman people.

This set would cost $5, but if for any reason they failed to pass in their examination, the money willingly would be refunded to them.

Many Victims, Say Inspectors.

There were many victims, the postal inspectors assert.

Complaints came not only from Atlanta, but from cities far removed.

Two hundred and fifty are said to have bitten at the bait.

One of the postal inspectors notified Timothy that complaints had been received and that he would have to cease getting mail at the local office.

The inspector later went on his vacation.

When he returned, he found his desk cornered with a fresh batch of complaints from would-be porters on Pullman cars.

Timothy, according to the inspector, had observed the order in regard to relinquishing his box at the post-office, but was having all the mail sent to the newspaper offices where he called for it regularly.

He is said to have cashed all the money orders and checks through the Central Bank and Trust Corporation, where he had an account under his fictitious name.

Assistant Cashier King had been informed of Timothy's alleged operations, and Monday morning when the young medical student entered to cash a check for $15.

King glanced at him keenly and then shouted:

We want you, young man, starting after Timothy, who bolted for the door.

Cashier Gives Chase.

Pedestrians near the Candler Building were startled as Timothy dashed from the door with King, hatless and coatless, in full pursuit.

It happened that Harry Scott, whose agency had been employed on the case, was shadowing Timothy on the case, was shadowing Timothy on his trip to the bank, Scott was waiting outside.

When Timothy ran out of the bank he almost leaped into the arms of the astonished Scott.

That's one of the easiest arrests I ever made, said Scott, when he had regained his composure.

The prisoner was taken to the office of United States Postal Inspector Robert E. Barry and his father in Chattanooga was notified of his plight.

Timothy was interrogated closely in regard to his alleged operations and his hearing was set for Monday afternoon before United States Commissioner W. Colquitt Carter.

PAGE 2, COLUMN 1

SEEK TO PROVE FRANK JURORS WERE BIASED

Attorneys for Defense Working to Secure Affidavits Showing Prejudice.

An important movement in the battle for the life of Leo M. Frank, sentenced to be hanged October 10 for the murder of Mary Phagan, was disclosed Monday in the information that a rigid investigation is being conducted into the record of every man on the jury which convicted him of the crime, with a view of running down the stories that several of the jurors had a well-defined bias against the defendant before they went into the jury box.

This information was supplemented by the sensational statement that an affidavit was in possession of persons interested in behalf of the convicted man, which stated that one of the veniremen had declared in the presence of two or three witnesses that if he got on the jury he would vote to hang Frank, regardless of the evidence.

This affidavit is said to be corroborated by the verbal statements of one or two other persons who were present at the time the remarks is said to have been made.

The reports of bias in respect to several others of the jurors are being investigated.

Solicitor Dorsey is entirely confident of his ability to prove that Frank had a fair trial.

Means Much to Defense.

If this attitude of bias and prejudice can be established in reference to one or more of the jurymen the defense will have won a vital victory in its battle for a new trial, the motion for which will be argued October 4 before Judge Roan.

The allegation of prejudice, however, will be only one of the grounds on which Frank's lawyers will ask a new trial.

It will be their claim that the verdict was not warranted and was not borne out by the evidence in the case.

They will charge that the jurors were subjected to undue influence and intimidation by the clamor of the crowds that several times manifested their hostility toward Frank and their approval of Dorsey's efforts to convict him.

A strong fight also will be made in the fact that parts of Conley's testimony, admittedly incompetent at the time they were given, were allowed to stay in the records when the defense made an objection on the following day.

Detectives Seek New Evidence.

Solicitor Dorsey is combating every move of the defense.

He has convicted his man; he believes absolutely in his guilt of the prisoner, and he does not intend that any effort to save Frank's life shall be successful.

The Solicitor has three detectives working on the case whenever additional information comes to his office.

Detectives Starnes, Campbell and Rosser have been detailed on certain angles, just as they were before the trial and before the State was rewarded with a conviction.

Dorsey is said to have a score of new witnesses in readiness in the event that the defense is able to get a new trial from Judge Roan or the Supreme Court.

One of them is said to be a jailer who was on guard in Frank's part of the Tower during the period before the trial.

New Lee Disappears; Detectives Search City.

City detectives are making a close search of the city for Newt Lee, the negro night watchman at the National Pencil Factory, who mysteriously disappeared after his release from the Tower August 26.

He is wanted as a witness before the Grand Jury Tuesday, when the Jim Conley case will be taken up by Solicitor-Dorsey.

Even Lee's attorneys, Graham & Chappell, are in ignorance as to his whereabouts, according to their reply to City Detective R. H. Starnes' request of them for his address.

The negro was to meet the detectives at police headquarters Saturday night, but did not appear.

His failure to show up was not regarded as important until the detectives failed to find him Monday.

The fact that he could not be located at any of the places where they felt certain of finding him and that his attorneys also knew nothing of him caused the officers to redouble their efforts.

Lee is regarded as one of the most important witnesses in the effort to indict Conley.

As a matter of fact, he will be practically the only witness called by the Solicitor, as Conley's admission that he helped move the body is regarded as sufficient to bring an indictment as an accessory after the fact.

PAGE 4, COLUMN 5

Mary Phagan Shaft Fund Inaugurated By Trainmen Lodge Plans for a monument to be erected by public subscription over the grave of Mary Phagan, killed in the National Pencil Factory April 26, were made public Monday by officials of Atlanta Lodge, No. 720, Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen.

The brother adopted resolutions Sunday afternoon authorizing the appointment of a committee to solicit funds from the present until November 1.

It also was decided to present the resolutions at the next meeting at the Atlanta Federation of Trades and to ask the Federation of Trades and to ask the Federation to appoint a committee to work jointly with that of the brotherhood in the collection of the memorial fund.