Monday, 28th April 1913 - Apprehended as the Maiden’s Murderer [JOHN M. GANTT], Atlanta Georgian - video Dailymotion

Truth In Trial

Monday, 28th April 1913 - Apprehended as the Maiden’s Murderer [JOHN M. GANTT], Atlanta Georgian reports the detention of J. M. Gantt, a former National Pencil Company bookkeeper, accused of murdering 14-year-old Mary Phagan, found strangled on April 26, 1913, in the factory basement. Arrested in Marietta, Gantt told a Georgian reporter he was innocent, claiming he was home at 284 East Linden Street after a parade, ball game, getting shoes with Leo Frank and Newt Lee, and pool with Arthur White and O.G. Bagley until 10:30 p.m. His landlady, Mrs. F. C. Terrell, denied seeing him for three weeks. Gantt’s appearance matched Edgar L. Sentell’s midnight observation with Phagan. The Atlanta Georgian detailed the case—Lee’s discovery, Mullinax’s custody, Skipper’s account of three men with a weak girl—leading to factory closure and the Leo Frank investigation’s escalation, amid 1913 Atlanta’s racial tensions.  #crime #evidence #usa

Transcript

00:00Arrested as Girl Slayer, John M. Gantt accused of the crime. Former bookkeeper taken by Police

00:05Atlanta. Georgian, Monday, April 28, 1913. J. M. Gantt, arrested in Marietta for the murder of

00:12Mary Fagan, gave to a reporter for the Georgian his story of his actions that led to his arrest.

00:17He protested his innocence and declared he was home in bed at the time the crime is supposed

00:21to have been committed. In striking contradiction to this statement is the assertion of Mrs. F.

00:26C. Terrell of 284 East Linden Street, where Gantt said he slept Saturday night, that she had not

00:32seen Gantt in three weeks. I watched the Memorial Day parade in Atlanta, said Gantt as he sat in the

00:38Marietta police station, and after the parade was mostly over I went out to the ball game. After the

00:43game I remembered that I had left some old shoes at the pencil factory and decided to go over and get

00:47them. I went over there at six o'clock and Superintendent Frank let me in. He told the

00:52Negro watchmen to help me find my shoes, and both of them saw me get them and also saw me leave the

00:57building. Then I went back to town and met Arthur White, who is employed in the pencil factory,

01:02O.G. Bagley, an employee of the Atlanta Milling Company, and Bagley's brother. With them I played

01:07pool in the Globe Pool Parlor on Broad Street until 10.30 o'clock, and then I caught a car and went home.

01:13Yes, I knew the girl. I knew Mary Fagan quite well, but I swear to you I had not seen her since I left

01:18the plant as an employee three weeks ago. I am innocent, and developments will prove it.

01:23Gantt answers the description of the man Edgar L. Centell, says he saw with the Fagan girls shortly

01:28after midnight to a remarkable degree. He is about six feet tall, of slender build and dark complexion.

01:35His hair is dark and inclined to curl, and he wore a blue suit and a straw hat. He said that he is 24

01:42years old and that his name was James, and not John, as Superintendent Frank had stated.

01:47Gantt was arrested by Deputy Sheriff Hicks on the one o'clock car. He did not appear particularly

01:52nervous, and was confident that he would be able to demonstrate his innocence, but the detectives

01:57with him were equally certain that the Slayer had been captured. Here is told in chronological order

02:02the story of the mystery. One Mary Fagan, fourteen years old, was strangled to death in the National

02:07Pencil Cozies factory, 37 South Forsyth Street, 2 Newt Lee, Negro night watchman, found her body in

02:14the basement a little after three o'clock Sunday morning and notifies the police. He was arrested.

02:19Three Arthur Mullinax, identified by E. S. Centell, 82 Davis Street, as the man who was with Mary Fagan

02:26at twelve thirty o'clock Sunday morning, was arrested Sunday afternoon, and is held in solitary

02:31confinement at police headquarters. Four Leo M. Frank, Superintendent of the National Pencil Cozies

02:37factory, was summoned to police headquarters this morning, and detained there to tell what he knows of

02:43the girl and of her terrible fate. Five hair, tangled and matted but identified positively as the dead

02:49girls, was found clinging to a lathe on the third floor of the factory, which leads the police to

02:54believe that someone who had access to the factory is responsible for the crime. Six Geron Bailey, the

03:00Negro elevator boy employed in the factory, was also arrested. Seven E. S. Skipper, 224 Peter Street,

03:07says he saw a girl answering the description of Mary Fagan being forced to accompany three flashily

03:12dressed youths, who took her to Whitehall near Mitchell Street at about ten o'clock Saturday night.

03:17The girl was weeping and seemed weak and dazed. Eight. When the girls employed at the National

03:22Pencil Cozies factory assembled for work this morning, they were so upset and excited from reading

03:27of the murder of Mary Fagan that the factory had to be closed. Nine J. M. Gant, former bookkeeper in

03:34the pencil factory, arrested in Marietta and accused of the murder. Ten Gant tells the Georgian he was home

03:40and in bed at 28 East Linden Avenue when the crime occurred. His landlady says he has not been there in three weeks.

Monday, 28th April 1913 - Apprehended as the Maiden’s Murderer [JOHN M. GANTT], Atlanta Georgian

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