Tuesday, 2nd September 1913: Mystery At Frank’s Pencil Plant Solved, The Atlanta Georgian

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GIRL ODDLY MISSING IS HOSPITAL PATIENT

Miss Clara Belle Griffin, the National Pencil Factory girl whose strange disappearance from her home at No. 265 North Ashby Street led the police to fear another Phagan mystery, was found by her brother Tuesday noon at Grady Hospital where she explained her failure to return home Monday afternoon.

She said that she went to the pencil factory Monday morning, but that she became faint soon after arriving there and went to the hospital, where she had received treatment before.

She was ill all day, she said, and that was the reason her relatives had not been informed of the reason for her disappearance.

Following close on the tragedy of which Mary Phagan was the victim at the pencil factory, Miss Griffin's unaccountable disappearance spurred the police to an immediate investigation.

After making inquiries of all her friends and acquaintances, the detectives decided upon a thorough search of the pencil factory.

Detectives Black and Bullard went to the factory and were about to begin their search when the news came that the girl had been found at the hospital safe and sound.

Relatives Are Frantic.

Miss Griffin lives with her mother and her brother, Louis A. Griffin at the Ashby street address.

They were frantic when she failed to return home Monday night.

She had left in the morning at 6:30 o'clock, saying that she had some work to do that would keep her at the factory until about noon.

She informed her mother that N. V. Darley, the general manager, had told her that she would have to work only the half day.

The apprehension of her relatives was increased by the fact that Monday, like the day on which Mary Phagan was slain, was a holiday, when only a few persons would be around the factory.

The police were notified Monday night and inquiry was made at the home of girl acquaintances, where I was thought she might stay overnight.

This investigation bringing no result, Detective Bass Rosser was assigned to the case Tuesday morning and was instructed to spare no effort to locate the missing girl.

The girl's brother, who is a machinist at the Gate City Coffee Company, visited the pencil factory the first thing in the morning and made rigid inquiry in regard to the whereabouts of his sister.

Darley, the general manager, and E. F. Holloway, the day watchman, told him that no one had been working there Monday, on account of its being Labor Day, and that it was preposterous to suppose that the girl could have been at the factory.

Detectives Begin Search.

Griffin, however, was extremely fearful that his sister had met a fate similar to that of Mary Phagan, from the fact that she never had stayed away from home any length of time unless her mother knew exactly where she was.

When no trace of the girl had been found by 11 o'clock Tuesday, Chief of Detectives Lanford began to believe that the fears of the brother might be well founded, and placed Detectives Bullard and Black on the case, with orders to make a search of the pencil factory from top floor to the basement where the body of Mary Phagan was found the morning of April 27.

The two detectives were at the factory when Louis Griffin called up by telephone, saying that he had found his sister in Grady Hospital.

He had called there previously, but there had been a misunderstanding in regard to the name, and he had been told that she was not there.

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JUDGE PENDLETON ASKS GRAND JURY TO HOLD ALL GUNTOTTERS AND GAMERS

Judge Pendleton severely scored the gambler and the pistol-toter in his charge to the new Grand Jury Tuesday morning, and asked the members of the jury to see that every man charged with either of these offenses was indicted if the evidence indicated a possibility of his guilt.

The judge was bitter in his arraignment of persons who carry concealed weapons, declaring that this was responsible for much of the lawless ness and violence with which the courts are flooded at present.

He branded as a coward the man who carries a pistol in a civilized community.

Judge Pendleton could find no excuse for the practice of gambling.

There was no more senseless vice in the catalogue than this, in his opinion.

He asserted it was the duty of the grand and the petit juries to see that the gamblers are punished to the extent of the law.

The present wave of crime was mentioned by the judge.

He said that he had observed the prevalence of lawlessness and that he was disturbed by it.

He did not think, however, that Fulton County was any worse in this respect than any other county of the State.

Atlanta, he said, is a cosmopolitan city.

We have here people from all parts of the world.

Some of them possibly are not the most desirable citizens. So it is not to be wondered at that we have occasional waves of crime and violence.

H. Y. Mc Cord, Sr., is foreman of the new Grand Jury.

The jury will meet Friday morning and take up a long list of cases, prominent among which will be that of Jim Conley, charged with being accessory after the fact in connection with the murder of little Mary Phagan, for which Leo M. Frank is under sentence of death.

After being organized the jury retired to the Grand Jury room where they were in short conference with Solicitor Dorsey.

Following is the personnel of the Grand Jury:

H. Y. Mc Cord, Sr., foreman, John W. Alexander, George H. Sims, D. J. Baker, John H. Mullin, R. H. Pickett, John J. Finnigan, T. A. Capps, Jerry W. Goldsmith, C. C. Thorn, O. H. Morrow, W. E. Wood, R. B. Seagraves, C. L. Fain, C. L. Elyea, H. M. Walker, George T. Howard and George W. Moore.

Need More Police Stations, Says Mayor.

Mayor Woodward declared Tuesday that the crime wave that has spread over Atlanta emphasized the need of police sub-stations.

Ninety per cent of the cases made by the police are against persons in Decatur, Peters and Marietta streets, he said.

Because of the police station on Decatur Street, that is the most orderly of the three.

We need a sub-station on Peters Street and one on Marietta Street.

With the police within easy call of these concentrated districts crime would be greatly diminished in Atlanta and our city would be a safer and better place to live in.

Mayor Woodward was an Alderman at the time the Decatur street police station was built, and acted as chairman of the committee that had charge of its construction.

It was the plan then to add two sub-stations.

He pointed out Tuesday that Atlanta's rapid growth and the records of disorder and crime made the need of sub-stations now infinitely greater.

After trying his 185 cases Monday, Recorder Pro Tem W. H. Preston declared Monday it was the record day since Prohibition.

Authorities at the Grady Hospital fix the number of victims of crime they have treated within the past two weeks at approximately 150.

The fatalities reach a dozen.

Most of the record arrests have been among the negroes, and this fact is pointed out as an especial reason for police sub-stations.

When policemen are around the negroes can be kept orderly.