Monday, 20th October 1913: Way Clear For Frank Battle, The Atlanta Georgian

Reading Time: 79 minutes [14551 words]

The Atlanta Georgian,

Monday, 20th October 1913,

PAGE 1, COLUMN 4.

Fight for New Trial to Open Before Judge Roan Next Wednesday Morning.

The way was cleared Saturday for the actual beginning of

the fight over the motion to give Leo M. Frank, convicted of the

murder of Mary Phagan, a new trial. The battle will open before

Judge Roan Wednesday with both sides primed for a vigorous

contest in which charges against jurors accused of bias will play a

large part.

The defense, headed by Luther Z. Rosser, relies in large part

on the evidence showing that Juror A. H. Henslee expressed

violent animus to Frank before the trial opened, winning a new

trial for the prisoner Scores of affidavits will be introduced to

uphold the character of the witnesses who swear that Henslee

said he was sure Frank was guilty and would like to see him

hanged.

On the other hand the State will be prepared to assail a

number of these witnesses and will try to show through Henslee

himself that the sentiments against Frank were expressed after

the trial.

Will Exchange All Papers.

Wednesday, as had been announced in The Georgian, was

formally fixed for the opening of the arguments by Judge Roan

Saturday. At the same time the defense and State agreed to

exchange all new papers in the case. A number of important

documents, it is said have not yet been made public.

In the discussion of the case Mr. Rosser made the offer to

exchange all new affidavits for the new papers in possession of

the State, and Solicitor Dorsey agreed.

While declaring that delay undoubtedly would benefit their

client, Luther Rosser, for the defense, urged that the motion be

brought to a speedy hearing.

He pointed out that he had been neglecting his evil business

for the Frank case, and said that if the fight over the new motion

were not disposed of by Monday a week he would have to ask

that it be put over so that he could take up some of his other

work.

Roan Urges Hosts.

If that was impossible, he wanted the case to be put over

until December.

Judge Ross interrupted with the remark that he was anxious

to pass on the case as quickly as possible, and would be against

any delay until December, and the same sentiments were

expressed to Solicitor Dorsey.

The Solicitor pointed out that he had given every moment of

his time to preparing his answer to the lengthy plea, filed by the

defense, and that he would continue to do everything toward

hastening the hearing.

Dorsey and Leonard Haas, of counsel for the defense, began

Friday a review of the record of the case to check up on all the

evidence briefed by Frank's lawyers. Due to pressure of other

business, Mr. Haas was unable to continue the work Saturday, but

arranged to resume the conference Monday morning at 9 o'clock.

Sixty pages of the 400 were gone over the first afternoon,

minor alterations and additions being made at the suggestion of

the Solicitor. Practically all of the remaining time before the

hearing will be occupied in this work, and it is problematical if it

will be concluded satisfactorily by Wednesday.

PAGE 2, COLUMNS 1

AND 4

WOMAN TO CONFRONT FRANK MAN

OF MYSTERY

ARREST OF

FISHER IS

EXPECTED AS

MOVE TO

BLOCK POLICE

GRILL

I. W. Fisher, the mysterious new figure in the Phagan murder

case, who created one of the greatest sensations of the entire

investigation by his declaration that he knew the murderer of the

little factory girl and that her slayer was not Leo Frank, may be

arrested and placed in a cell on a formal warrant before nightfall

on an old warrant charging him with cruelty to his wife, who is

suing for divorce. He disappeared some months ago when the

warrant was sworn out, the police say.

The strange person, whose startling story was first told to

Chief of Police Bodeker in Birmingham, was virtually a prisoner

Sunday and Monday in the tightly locked offices of Luther Z.

Rosser, chief of counsel for Frank, in the Grant Building. No one

was permitted to see him. His food was brought to him and the

groups of persons who gathered outside the office in the hope of

getting a glimpse of the accuser of a prominent Atlanta man were

disappointed.

Meanwhile detectives in relays patrolled the first and second

floors of the Grant Building. There was no way for Fisher to get by

them without observation. Newspaper photographers, with their

cameras set up for instant action, dozed on the hard steps,

hoping to have an opportunity to get a flash of the mysterious

personage.

Reporters, who had trailed Fisher from Birmingham from

where he was brought to Atlanta by C. W. Burke, an agent for

Attorney Rosser, were on constant duty ready to resume the

chase in the event that any new move was made by Frank's

lawyers or there appeared an endeavor to hide him away.

The vigilance of an entire day and a night resulted in only

the sensational statement of the quasi-prisoner which was

forecast very closely by the Sunday American. This statement was

given out late in the afternoon by Attorney Rosser. Rosser would

not reveal the name of the prominent man charged. He said that

his identity must remain a mystery for a time at least. The only

clew he furnished was that the man was fairly prominent.

Man's Name Withheld.

I do not want to use the name of the man, said Rosser,

and thus possibly to do him an injustice. I will tell everything in

the world except the name of the man.

The man who has just told his story to us is I. W. Fisher. He

once lived here and left e about the time of the murder of Mary

Phagan, and since then has lived in North Georgia, Tennessee and

Birmingham. He now lives in Birmingham.

Without our knowledge or instigation, he went to the Chief

of Police in Birmingham, George H. Bodeker, and asserted that

Frank was innocent, and that he had known of his innocence all

the time, but that he didn't think Frank would be convicted, and

therefore had kept his silence about the real murderer.

He said that he met the man who committed the crime on

Saturday, April 26, and that this man told him he was going to

meet Mary Phagan in the pencil factory at noon. Fisher said that

when the man came factory he said: I raised h"l in there and

you have got to get out of town.'

Since that time Fisher says that this man, who is well to do

and established in business here, has been paying his expenses

wherever he went.

Whether Fisher's story is true or false we do not know. We

are not giving it out as fact, but merely as one of the numerous

stories which have come to our ears during the investigation of

the crime. We would

PAGE 8, COLUMN 1

DETECTIVES AND

FRANK

COUNSEL IN

FIGHT FOR

MYSTERIOUS

WITNESS

Continued From Page 1.

have said nothing about it if the newspapers had not come out

yesterday telling of Fisher's walking into the office of the Chief of

Police in Birmingham. We do not take any stock in it one way or

another as yet. But we are going too investigate it thoroughly and

find whether or not if it is true.

Police Told Name.

We have told the detectives something when we have not

told the public. We have told them the name of the man Fisher

accuses, and have incited them to work with us on our

investigation. There is such a man as the one Fisher names, and

he is well known. Fisher is a married man, and has several

children. They are in Atlanta.

Solicitor Dorsey, Frank A. Hooper, who assisted the Solicitor

in the Frank trial, and members of the detective department

appeared not at all impressed by Fisher's story Monday. I think

he's telling a lie, pure and simple, said Mr. Hooper when he was

asked his opinion.

Chief Lanford laughed at the story and said it was his belief

that Fisher was out in town at the time of the Phagan murder.

Fisher is the same man, he thinks, that testified some ago against

Griff Freeman, who was arrested on a blind tiger charge, and then

disappeared from town after Freeman was bound over Fisher was

not on hand to testify in the State trial.

Mrs. Fischer acted as a sleuth and obtained much of the

evidence that resulted in the prosecution of Freeman. She

testified at the trial that Fisher pawned her shoes and sold their

chickens to get liquor from Freeman. Fisher admitted that he had

bought liquor many times from the defendant.

In an effort to make the identification of the man secreted in

the office of Attorney Rosser as the same man who testified in the

trial of Griff Freeman and then disappeared from the city, Lanford

Monday ordered Detective Cowan to go the Fisher home on

Marietta street and get Mrs. Fisher. She will be taken to Rosser's

office and the attorney will be asked for permission to let her see

the man. Chief Lanford believes it will prove the same man.

May Balk Detectives.

It is conjectural if the detectives will be allowed this privilege

in view of the strict seclusion in which Fisher has been kept so far.

Chief Lanford Monday that if the lawyers have evidence that the

crime was committed by another person than Frank, he thought

they should turn it over to the police so that the man might be

arrested and justice done.

Although Frank has been convicted of the crime, said

Lanford, our eyes and ears never have been closed to evidence

that would point to any other person as the guilty on. I do not

place much reliance on Fisher's story, but I want my department

to investigate it thoroughly. This Fisher, I believe once was with

the Southern Railway, and was discharged because of his drinking

Burke, who now is acting for Rosser, once was special agent for

the Southern.

Attorney Rosser Monday explained the unpassable guard

that had been thrown around Fisher by saying that he wanted to

get every detail of Fisher's story before he let him go.

PAGE 3, COLUMNS 1 &

POLICE WAIT TO

ARREST FISHER

Family and Prosecution

Discredit His Story

MYSTERIOUS

WITNESS

ONCE HELD FOR

MURDER

IS NEW

REVELATION

Charged by his wife with being a raving drunkard, wanted by

the police who give him a long court record, believed by Probation

Officer Coogler to be demented as a result of accusations of

murder made against himself, I. W. Fisher, the accuser of a

prominent Atlanta man in the Phagan case, was confronted

Monday by a general disposition to ridicule his story and the

threatened collapse of a sensation.

Kept a prisoner in the office of Luther Z. Rosser, while the

police waited to arrest him, Fisher continued to be inaccessible to

newspapermen, but various investigations of his record bared

facts that thew a dark cloud on his reliability.

Detectives continued their vigil on the ground floor of the

Grant Building ready to arrest Fisher as soon as he made his

appearance. In the meanwhile the Frank lawyers kept on

investigating his story and seemed determined to hold their man

a strict prisoner until they were entirely through with him.

Mr. Coogler's opinion was contingent on the identity of an I.

W. Fisher Coogler has had before him many times and that of the

Fisher as been virtually a prisoner in the Grant Building being the

same.

Coogler said Monday that Fisher was tried several ago for

the murder of his wife's brother. He was acquitted, but it is known

that a suspicion that he was guilty still rested in the mind of his

wife and that she frequently had charged him with the crime.

These accusations are believed by Coogler to have unsettled

Fisher's Mind, a condition which perhaps has been augmented.

The Fisher Coogler has had before him lived at 797

Marietta street. An investigation of his record has disclosed that

the man was placed on probation November 24 of last year

charged with being drunk and disorderly and abusing his wife. He

obtained employment and contributed to the support of his wife

and children through the probation officer.

Fisher was before Coogler again on Christmas, and this time

he was given employment with the Christian Helpers' League. He

could not stay good, and February 21 he was arrested again,

charged with striking and otherwise mistreating his wife. He was

bound over to the State Court underbond of $200. He obtained his

release only to offend in the same respect again. A peace warrant

was issued, and he stayed in jail two days last May, and soon

afterward he disappeared from the city.

Coogler received a letter from him last May, postmarked in

Parksville, Tenn. He asked that his trunk be sent him. That was

the last Coogler heard of him until Fisher's sensational story

appeared in the Sunday papers.

Mind Broken by Drink.

Grave discredit was cast on Fisher's story by Mrs. Annie

Fisher, his wife, of No. 734 Marietta street, who asserted firmly

that she believed the tale of a business man's confession of the

crime was the fabrication of a mind broken down by drink,

perhaps by drugs.

My husband is a confirmed drunkard, Mrs. Fisher

regretfully admitted. He is at times without any responsibility for

his words or actions. He was once tried on a lunacy writ taken out

by his brother, a business man of Rome, Ga. They declared him

sane at the time, but put him on probation. I have an idea he uses

morphine. He left me August 12.

Both Stallings and his wife declare Fisher is utterly

irresponsible. His sister said she would not believe any statement

he might make, while her husband recounted some strange

stories he said Fisher had told him at different times.

He told them with no straight a face that I almost believed

him, Stallings said, but afterward I always found them to be

untrue.

Believed Frank Innocent.

As to Fisher's knowledge of the Phagan case, Mrs. Fisher said

that only once did her husband say anything that might have

been taken as evidence that he knew something. One night while

reading the newspaper accounts of the arrest Fisher said:

They haven't got the guilty man. Frank didn't murder Mary

Phagan.

Mrs. Fisher also denied that her husband had left Atlanta

immediately after the murder of the little girl, as he said.

He lived with here until August 12, she stated, and then

he went away because I had filed a petition asking divorce and

alimony. He went away to keep the papers from being served.

Mrs. Fisher was very candid and unreserved in talking the

affairs of her husband and herself.

They were married, she said, in Dalton, Ga., thirteen years

ago, and lived there until they moved to Atlanta three years ago.

Maniac When Drinking.

My husband has long been a drinking man, Mrs. Fisher

said. When sober I believe he was perfectly rational, but when

drinking"I don't know just how to express it. He was nearly a

maniac. More than once he threatened to shoot me. I had to have

him arrested less than a year ago because he was threatening my

life.

I was going to sue him for divorce then, but Officer Clarke, a

friend of his, took his part and begged me not to. I consented, and

he was put on probation. Officer Coogler, I believe it was, kept

him on the probation list four months. But it was no use at all.

Since Fisher went away to avoid the service of the divorce

papers, his wife has been taking boarders and sewing to support

herself and their two children. Fisher wrote to her from Parkville,

Tenn., she said, and again from a suburb of Birmingham. He

wanted to return and live with her, Mrs. Fisher said, but she did

not answer the letters.

Then Mrs. Fisher told of a happening the morning after the

murder was committed.

It was Sunday, she said, and just after breakfast we went

to a drug store about a block away. On our way back we met a

man I didn't know. He stopped my husband and said: Fisher, I've

got something to tell you.'

Went to Factory.

Mr. Fisher stopped and talked with him and I went on home.

Later, he came home and told me the man told him a girl had

been killed at the pencil factory. He seemed to be quite curious

about the crime. He and I went and we took our little girl, Eve-

PAGE 9, COLUMN 1

WIFE DECLARES

FISHER

A RAVING

DRUNKARD AND

RIDICULES ENTIRE

STORY

Continued From Page 1.

lyn, and Miss Lille Embree, a young woman who was boarding

with us.

We couldn't go all over the factory, but I didn't think my

husband seemed at all nervous or acted unusual. He did read a

lot about the case. I noticed that. And some time after that I

missed my diary that I kept to set down almost everything I did. I

don't know that he took it, however.

Reporters, who had trailed Fisher from Birmingham, from

where he was brought to Atlanta by C. W. Burke, an agent for

Attorney Rosser, were on constant duty ready to resume the

chase in the event that any new move was made by Frank's

lawyers or there appeared an endeavor to hide him away. The

vigilance of an entire day and a night resulted in only the

sensational statement of the quasi-prisoner which was forecast

very closely by The Sunday American. This statement was given

out late in the afternoon by Attorney Rosser. Rosser would not

reveal the name of the prominent man charged. He said that his

identity must remain a mystery for a time at least. The only clew

he furnished was that the man was fairly prominent.

Man's Name Withheld.

I do not want to see the name of the man, said Rosser,

and thus possibly do him an injustice. I will tell everything in the

world except the name of the man.

The man who has just told his story to us is I. W. Fisher. He

once lived here and left here about the time of the murder of

Mary Phagan, and since then has lived in North Georgia,

Tennessee and Birmingham. He now lives in Birmingham.

Without our knowledge or instigation, he went to the Chief

of Police in Birmingham, George H. Bodeker, and asserted that

Frank was innocent, and that he had known of his innocence all

the time, but that he didn't think Frank would be convicted, and

therefore had kept his silence about the real murderer.

He that he met the man who committed the crime on

Saturday, April 26, and that this man told him he was going to

meet Mary Phagan in the pencil factory at noon. Fisher said that

when the man came from the factory he said: I raised h"l in

there and you have got to get out of town.'

Since that time Fisher says that this man, who is well to do

and established in business here, has been paying his expenses

wherever he went.

Whether Fisher's story is true or false we do not know. We

are not giving it out as fact, but merely as one of the numerous

stories which have come to our ears during the investigation of

the crime. We would have said nothing about it if the newspapers

had not come out yesterday telling of Fisher's walking into the

office of the Chief of Police in Birmingham. We do not take any

stock in it one way or another as yet. But we are going to

investigate it thoroughly and find whether or not if it is true.

Police Told Name.

We have told the detectives something when we have not

told the public. We have told them the name of the man Fisher

accuses, and have incited them to work with us on our

investigation. There is such a man as the one Fisher names, and

he is well known. Fisher is a married man, and has several

children. They are in Atlanta.

Solicitor Dorsey, Frank A. Hooper, who assisted the Solicitor

in the Frank trial, and members of the detective department

appeared not at all impressed by Fisher's story Monday. I think

he's telling a lie, pure and simple, said Mr. Hooper when he was

asked his opinion.

Chief Lanford laughed at the story and said it was his belief

that Fisher was out in town at the time of the Phagan murder.

Fisher is the same man, he thinks, that testified some ago against

Griff Freeman, who was arrested on a blind tiger charge, and then

disappeared from town after Freeman was bound over Fisher was

not on hand to testify in the State trial.

Mrs. Fischer acted as a sleuth and obtained much of the

evidence that resulted in the prosecution of Freeman. She

testified at the trial that Fisher pawned her shoes and sold their

chickens to get liquor from Freeman. Fisher admitted that he had

bought liquor many times from the defendant.

In an effort to make the identification of the man secreted in

the office of Attorney Rosser as the same man who testified in the

trial of Griff Freeman and then disappeared from the city, Lanford

Monday ordered Detective Cowan to go the Fisher home on

Marietta street and get Mrs. Fisher. She will be taken to Rosser's

office and the attorney will be asked for permission to let her see

the man. Chief Lanford believes it will prove the same man.

May Balk Detectives.

It is conjectural if the detectives will be allowed this privilege

in view of the strict seclusion in which Fisher has been kept so far.

Chief Lanford Monday that if the lawyers have evidence that the

crime was committed by another person than Frank, he thought

they should turn it over to the police so that the man might be

arrested and justice done.

Although Frank has been convicted of the crime, said

Lanford, our eyes and ears never have been closed to evidence

that would point to any other person as the guilty on. I do not

place much reliance on Fisher's story, but I want my department

to investigate it thoroughly. This Fisher, I believe once was with

the Southern Railway, and was discharged because of his drinking

Burke, who now is acting for Rosser, once was special agent for

the Southern.

Attorney Rosser Monday explained the unpassable guard

that had been thrown around Fisher by saying that he wanted to

get every detail of Fisher's story before he let him go.

As soon as I get all I want to know, I don't care what

becomes of him, the lawyer said. We are making a most careful

investigation of every statement he has made, and we want to

keep him at hand until we are through. After that the detectives

and the newspaper men can question him to their hearts'

content.

Fisher Not Prepossessing.

Fisher is not a particularly prepossessing witness. When he

stepped from the train Sunday morning in company with Agent

Burke he had a several days' growth of beard. He wore an old

slouch hat, a shirt of striped pattern and no collar. He was

unkempt, and his dark suit appeared as if it had been used to

sleep in.

He kept his mouth tightly closed when the reporters tried to

talk to him. Had he been inclined to be loquacious, his words

would have been quickly checked by the watchful Burke, who

used the strong arm on one inquisitive young newspaper man

who tried to enter into a conversation with Fisher.

The train, due from Birmingham at 6:30 o'clock Sunday

morning, did not get into Atlanta until two hours later. Burke and

Fisher jumped into a waiting carriage and were taken to the office

of Attorney Rosser on the seventh floor of the Grant Building

where they stayed until Rosser's arrival at 10 o'clock.

The photographers flocked around Rosser to get his

permission to get a picture of Fisher.

Not on your life! shouted the lawyer, smiling at the

discomfited snapshotters. And all their efforts throughout the

remainder of the day were fruitless.

PAGE 4, COLUMNS 1 &

FISHER'S FRANK STORY

ATTACKED

Police Bare Record; Defense

Lawyers Hold Him

ALL

SPONSORSHIP

FOR

FISHER AND HIS

STORY

DISCLAIMED BY

ROSSER

Here is the latest trend of events connected with the newest

sensation in the Phagan case"the statement by Ira W. Fisher that

Frank is not guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan, and that a

prominent Atlanta business man, known to Fisher, is the

murderer.

1. Fisher is de virtually a prisoner in the office of LZ. Rosser,

chief counsel for Frank, all of Sunday night and until

afternoon Monday, while police wait to arrest him.

2. The police bare his record, showing a number of arrests

for disorderly conduct while drinking, abuse and

mistreatment of his wife.

3. Fisher's wife states plainly that he is an incorrigible

drunkard; that he did not leave Atlanta immediately after

the murder (as he said), and that she would put no

confidence in the wild story he tells.

4. S. J. Coogler, probation officer, gives it as his opinion that

Fisher's mind has suffered from long brooding over a

murder charge on which he himself was once tried and

acquitted, and that the continued use of liquor and

possibly drugs has produced a hallucination which would

account for the story he tells. Coogler had charge of Fisher

for about three months while he was on probation.

5. Luther Rosser disclaims for himself and his associates all

sponsorship for the story Fisher tells, but announces that

it is being probed to the limit.

6. The growing impression is that this latest sensation in the

Frank case is not a substantial texture and will very soon

be exploded.

Charged by his wife with being a raving drunkard; wanted by

the police, who give him a long court record, believed by

Probation Officer Coogler to be demented as a result of

accusations of murder made against himself, I. W. Fisher, the

accuser of a prominent Atlanta man in the Phagan case, was

confronted Monday by a general disposition to ridicule his story

and the threatened collapse of a sensation.

Kept a prisoner in the office of Luther Z. Rosser, while the

police waited to arrest him, Fisher continued to be inaccessible to

newspaper men, but various investigations of his record bared

facts that threw a dark cloud on his reliability.

Detectives continued their vigil on the ground floor of the

Grant Building ready to arrest Fisher as soon as he made his

appearance. In the meanwhile, the Frank lawyers kept on

investigating his story and seemed determined to hold their man

a strict prisoner until they were entirely through with him.

Police Haven't Seen Fisher

I am not acting sooner for Fisher or for Fisher's story,

declared Mr. Rosser, at his office Monday. We want to keep the

man for a few hours longer, and then if the police would like to

have him they are welcome to him.

Do you believe Fisher's story? questioned a Georgian

reporter.

I have said my say, exclaimed the attorney.

Can I talk to Fisher? the reporter asked.

You can"when I get through with him, said Rosser, and he

strode away in the direction of his office door.

A police officer stated positively Monday noon that the Frank

attorney prisoner would be arrested and taken to headquarters

as soon as he was taken from Rosser's office.

None of the officers has had a look at Fisher, and it is doubt

whether or not they will get him if he should try to walk out of the

Grant building. Since he was taken to the office of Rosser

yesterday morning, he has been given a shave and an overcoat. A

pint of whisky was also seen to have been taken into Fisher's

cell.

The arrival of Chief of Police Beavers in Rosser's office

Monday noon created quite a bit of excitement. Chief Beavers,

however, went into the private office of Rosser, where the

arguments in the Whitehall street injunction were being heard.

Mr. Coogler's opinion was contingent on the identity of an I.

W. Fisher Coogler has had before him many times and that of the

Fisher who has been virtually a prisoner in the Grant Building

being the same.

Coogler said Monday that Fisher was tried several years ago

for the murder of his wife's brother. He was acquitted, but it is

known that a suspicion that he was guilty still rested in the mind

of his wife, and that she frequently had charged him with the

crime. These accusations are believed by Coogler to have

unsettled Fisher's mind, a condition which perhaps has been

augmented by the use of drugs.

The Fisher Coogler has had before him lived at No. 797

Marietta street. An investigation of his record has disclosed that

the man was placed on probation November 24 of last year

charged with being drunk and disorderly and abusing his wife. He

obtained employment and contributed to the support of his wife

and children through the probation officer.

Fisher was before Coogler again on Christmas, and this time

he was given employment with the Christian Helpers' League. He

could not say good and February 21 he was arrested again,

charged with striking and otherwise mistreating his wife. He was

bound over to the State Court under bond of $200. He obtained

his release only to offend in the same respect again. A peace

warrant was issued, and he stayed in jail two days last May, and

soon afterward he disappeared from the city.

Coogler received a letter from him last May, postmarked in

Parksville, Tenn. He asked that his trunk be sent him. That was

the last Coogler heard of him until Fisher's sensational story

appeared in the Sunday papers.

Here is Fisher's probation record:

He was arrested and put on proba-

PAGE 10, COLUMN 1

FISHER IS

DERANGED BY

AN OLD MURDER

CHARGE,

THINKS OFFICER

COOGLER

Continued From Page 1.

tion November 24, 1912. The charge was abusing and mistreating

his wife while drinking, December 24, he violated his parole,

drinking and again being arrested. He promised better behavior,

and was continued on probation, staying at the Christian Helpers'

League on Decatur street.

February 22, 1913, Fisher yielded once more. Intoxicated, he

went to his wife's home and beat her. He was arrested and bound

over in police court under a $200 bond, which he furnished.

May 15 his wife applied for a peace warrant, under which

Fisher was arrested and detained two days, finally giving bond.

Then he disappeared May 28 Coogler received a letter from Fisher

postmarked Parkville, Tenn., requesting his truck, which he had

left in the Christian Helpers' League.

That closed that part of the official record of Fisher in

Atlanta.

Mind Broken by Drink.

Grave discredit was cast on Fisher's story by Mrs. Annie

Fisher, his wife, of No. 734 Marietta street, who asserted firmly

that she believed the tale of a business man's confession of the

crime was the fabrication of a mind broken down by drink,

perhaps by drugs.

My husband is a confirmed drunkard, Mrs. Fisher

regretfully admitted. He is at times without any responsibility for

his words or actions. He was once tried on a lunacy writ taken out

by his brother, a business man of Rome, Ga. They declared him

sane at the time, but put him on probation. I have an idea he uses

morphine. He left me August 12.

Both Stallings and his wife declare Fisher is utterly

irresponsible. His sister said she would not believe any statement

he might make, while her husband recounted some strange

stories he said Fisher had told him at different times.

He told them with no straight a face that I almost believed

him, Stallings said, but afterward I always found them to be

untrue.

Believed Frank Innocent.

As to Fisher's knowledge of the Phagan case, Mrs. Fisher said

that only once did her husband say anything that might have

been taken as evidence that he knew something. One night while

reading the newspaper accounts of the arrest Fisher said:

They haven't got the guilty man. Frank didn't murder Mary

Phagan.

Mrs. Fisher also denied that her husband had left Atlanta

immediately after the murder of the little girl, as he said.

He lived with here until August 12, she stated, and then

he went away because I had filed a petition asking divorce and

alimony. He went away to keep the papers from being served.

Mrs. Fisher was very candid and unreserved in talking the

affairs of her husband and herself.

They were married, she said, in Dalton, Ga., thirteen years

ago, and lived there until they moved to Atlanta three years ago.

Maniac When Drinking.

My husband has long been a drinking man, Mrs. Fisher

said. When sober I believe he was perfectly rational, but when

drinking"I don't know just how to express it. He was nearly a

maniac. More than once he threatened to shoot me. I had to have

him arrested less than a year ago because he was threatening my

life.

I was going to sue him for divorce then, but Officer Clarke, a

friend of his, took his part and begged me not to. I consented, and

he was put on probation. Officer Coogler, I believe it was, kept

him on the probation list four months. But it was no use at all.

Since Fisher went away to avoid the service of the divorce

papers, his wife has been taking boarders and sewing to support

herself and their two children. Fisher wrote to her from Parkville,

Tenn., she said, and again from a suburb of Birmingham. He

wanted to return and live with her, Mrs. Fisher said, but she did

not answer the letters.

Then Mrs. Fisher told of a happening the morning after the

murder was committed.

It was Sunday, she said, and just after breakfast we went

to a drug store about a block away. On our way back we met a

man I didn't know. He stopped my husband and said: Fisher, I've

got something to tell you.'

Went to Factory.

Mr. Fisher stopped and talked with him and I went on home.

Later, he came home and told me the man told him a girl had

been killed at the pencil factory. He seemed to be quite curious

about the crime. He and I went and we took our little girl, Evelyn,

and Miss Lille Embree, a young woman who was boarding with

us.

We couldn't go all over the factory, but I didn't think my

husband seemed at all nervous or acted unusual. He did read a

lot about the case. I noticed that. And some time after that I

missed my diary that I kept to set down almost everything I did. I

don't know that he took it, however.

Reporters, who had trailed Fisher from Birmingham, from

where he was brought to Atlanta by C. W. Burke, an agent for

Attorney Rosser, were on constant duty ready to resume the

chase in the event that any new move was made by Frank's

lawyers or there appeared an endeavor to hide him away. The

vigilance of an entire day and a night resulted in only the

sensational statement of the quasi-prisoner which was forecast

very closely by The Sunday American. This statement was given

out late in the afternoon by Attorney Rosser. Rosser would not

reveal the name of the prominent man charged. He said that his

identity must remain a mystery for a time at least. The only clew

he furnished was that the man was fairly prominent.

I do not want to use the name of the man, said Rosser,

and thus possibly to do him an injustice. I will tell everything in

the world except the name of the man.

The man who has just told his story to us is I. W. Fisher. He

once lived here and left e about the time of the murder of Mary

Phagan, and since then has lived in North Georgia, Tennessee and

Birmingham. He now lives in Birmingham.

Without our knowledge or instigation, he went to the Chief

of Police in Birmingham, George H. Bodeker, and asserted that

Frank was innocent, and that he had known of his innocence all

the time, but that he didn't think Frank would be convicted, and

therefore had kept his silence about the real murderer.

He said that he met the man who committed the crime on

Saturday, April 26, and that this man told him he was going to

meet Mary Phagan in the pencil factory at noon. Fisher said that

when the man came factory he said: I raised h"l in there and

you have got to get out of town.'

Since that time Fisher says that this man, who is well to do

and established in business here, has been paying his expenses

wherever he went.

Whether Fisher's story is true or false we do not know. We

are not giving it out as fact, but merely as one of the numerous

stories which have come to our ears during the investigation of

the crime. We would have said nothing about it if the newspapers

had not come out yesterday telling of Fisher's walking into the

office of the Chief of Police in Birmingham. We do not take any

stock in it one way or another as yet. But we are going to

investigate it thoroughly and find whether or not if it is true.

Police Told Name.

We have told the detectives something when we have not

told the public. We have told them the name of the man Fisher

accuses, and have incited them to work with us on our

investigation. There is such a man as the one Fisher names, and

he is well known. Fisher is a married man, and has several

children. They are in Atlanta.

Solicitor Dorsey, Frank A. Hooper, who assisted the Solicitor

in the Frank trial, and members of the detective department

appeared not at all impressed by Fisher's story Monday. I think

he's telling a lie, pure and simple, said Mr. Hooper when he was

asked his opinion.

Chief Lanford laughed at the story and said it was his belief

that Fisher was out in town at the time of the Phagan murder.

Fisher is the same man, he thinks, that testified some ago against

Griff Freeman, who was arrested on a blind tiger charge, and then

disappeared from town after Freeman was bound over Fisher was

not on hand to testify in the State trial.

Mrs. Fischer acted as a sleuth and obtained much of the

evidence that resulted in the prosecution of Freeman. She

testified at the trial that Fisher pawned her shoes and sold their

chickens to get liquor from Freeman. Fisher admitted that he had

bought liquor many times from the defendant.

In an effort to make the identification of the man secreted in

the office of Attorney Rosser as the same man who testified in the

trial of Griff Freeman and then disappeared from the city, Lanford

Monday ordered Detective Cowan to go the Fisher home on

Marietta street and get Mrs. Fisher. She will be taken to Rosser's

office and the attorney will be asked for permission to let her see

the man. Chief Lanford believes it will prove the same man.

May Balk Detectives.

It is conjectural if the detectives will be allowed this privilege

in view of the strict seclusion in which Fisher has been kept so far.

Chief Lanford Monday that if the lawyers have evidence that the

crime was committed by another person than Frank, he thought

they should turn it over to the police so that the man might be

arrested and justice done.

Although Frank has been convicted of the crime, said

Lanford, our eyes and ears never have been closed to evidence

that would point to any other person as the guilty on. I do not

place much reliance on Fisher's story, but I want my department

to investigate it thoroughly. This Fisher, I believe once was with

the Southern Railway, and was discharged because of his drinking

Burke, who now is acting for Rosser, once was special agent for

the Southern.

Attorney Rosser Monday explained the unpassable guard

that had been thrown around Fisher by saying that he wanted to

get every detail of Fisher's story before he let him go.

As soon as I get all I want to know, I don't care what

becomes of him, the lawyer said. We are making a most careful

investigation of every statement he has made, and we want to

keep him at hand until we are through. After that the detectives

and the newspaper men can question him to their hearts'

content.

PAGE 5, COLUMNS 1

& 7

FRANK WITNESS NAMES J.C. SHIRLEY

IN HIS STORY

MARIETTA

STREET

MERCHANT

LAUGHS

AT WITNESS'

STORY

Characterizing the accusation of Ira W. Fisher, author of the

latest Phagan case sensation, as a huge farce, J. Shirley, a highly

respected furniture dealer at No. 809 Marietta street, a highly

respected furniture dealer at No. 809 Marietta street, named by

Fisher as the little girl's slayer, declared the man a fit subject for

an insane asylum.

Identification of the accused man was made public Monday

afternoon. It came from Birmingham, where Fisher first made his

sensational statements. The man is well known in business circles

of Atlanta. He declared that he was not aware that he was the one

referred to until he was approached Monday.

He said that he was acquainted with his accuser. He stated

that he operated a business establishment on Marietta street,

near the Fisher residence. He declared that he had once had

business dealings with the Witness and had been forced to

transfer his negotiations to Mrs. Fisher when her husband failed ts

obligations.

Mr. Shirley could not ascribe any reason for Fisher having

brought the charge of murder against him unless he was

demented.

Why, I don't recall having talked with Fisher since he left

Marietta street home,'' said Mr. Shirley. The only time I saw

much of him was when he loafed around the store. I don't recall

having ever discussed the Phagan case with him.''

Mr. Shirley denied having ever delivered furniture at the

home of J. W. Coleman, stepfather of Mary Phagan, with Fisher.

Charged by his wife with being a raving drunkard; wanted by

the police, who give him a long court record, believed by

Probation Officer Coogler to be demented as a result of

accusations of murder made against himself, I. W. Fisher, the

accuser of a prominent Atlanta man in the Phagan case, was

confronted Monday by a general disposition to ridicule his story

and the threatened collapse of a sensation.

Kept a prisoner in the office of Luther Z. Rosser, while the

police waited to arrest him, Fisher continued to be inaccessible to

newspaper men, but various investigations of his record bared

facts that threw a dark cloud on his reliability.

Detectives continued their vigil on the ground floor of the

Grant Building ready to arrest Fisher as soon as he made his

appearance. In the meanwhile, the Frank lawyers kept on

investigating his story, and seemed determined to hold their man

a strict prisoner until they were entirely through with him.

Police Haven't Seen Fisher.

I am not acting sooner for Fisher or for Fisher's story,

declared Mr. Rosser, at his office Monday. We want to keep the

man for a few hours longer, and then if the police would like to

have him, they are welcome to him.

Do you believe Fisher's story? questioned a Georgian

reporter.

I have said my say, exclaimed the attorney.

Can I talk to Fisher? the reporter asked.

You can"when I get through with him, said Rosser, and he

strode away in the direction of his office door.

A police officer stated positively Monday noon that the Frank

attorney prisoner would be arrested and taken to headquarters

as soon as he was taken from Rosser's office.

None of the officers has had a look at Fisher, and it is doubt

whether or not they will get him if he should try to walk out of the

Grant building. Since he was taken to the office of Rosser

yesterday morning, he has been given a shave and an overcoat. A

pint of whisky was also seen to have been taken into Fisher's

cell.

The arrival of Chief of Police Beavers in Rosser's office

Monday noon created quite a bit of excitement. Chief Beavers,

however, went into the private office of Rosser, where the

arguments in the Whitehall street injunction were being heard.

Mr. Coogler's opinion was contingent on the identity of an I.

W. Fisher Coogler has had before him many times and that of the

Fisher who has been virtually a prisoner in the Grant Building

being the same.

Coogler said Monday that Fisher was tried several years ago

for the murder of his wife's brother. He was acquitted, but it is

known that a suspicion that he was guilty still rested in the mind

of his wife, and that she frequently had charged him with the

crime. These accusations are believed by Coogler to have

unsettled Fisher's mind, a condition which perhaps has been

augmented by the use of drugs.

The Fisher Coogler has had before him lived at No. 797

Marietta street. An investigation of his record has disclosed that

the man was placed on probation November 24 of last year

charged with being drunk and disorderly and abusing his wife. He

obtained employment and contributed to the support of his wife

and children through the probation officer.

Fisher was before Coogler again on Christmas, and this time

he was given employment with the Christian Helpers' League. He

could not say good and February 21 he was arrested again,

charged with striking and otherwise mistreating his wife. He was

bound over to the State Court under bond of $200. He obtained

his release only to offend in the same respect again. A peace

warrant was issued, and he stayed in jail two days last May, and

soon afterward he disappeared from the city.

Coogler received a letter from him last May, postmarked in

Parksville, Tenn. He asked that his trunk be sent him. That was

the last Coogler heard of him until Fisher's sensational story

appeared in the Sunday papers.

Here is Fisher's probation record:

He was arrested and put on proba-

PAGE 11, COLUMN 1

FISHER IS

DERANGED BY

AN OLD MURDER

CHARGE,

THINKS OFFICER

COOGLER

Continued From Page 1.

tion November 24, 1912. The charge was abusing and mistreating

his wife while drinking, December 24, he violated his parole,

drinking and again being arrested. He promised better behavior,

and was continued on probation, staying at the Christian Helpers'

League on Decatur street.

February 22, 1913, Fisher yielded once more. Intoxicated, he

went to his wife's home and beat her. He was arrested and bound

over in police court under a $200 bond, which he furnished.

May 15 his wife applied for a peace warrant, under which

Fisher was arrested and detained two days, finally giving bond.

Then he disappeared May 28 Coogler received a letter from Fisher

postmarked Parkville, Tenn., requesting his truck, which he had

left in the Christian Helpers' League.

That closed that part of the official record of Fisher in

Atlanta.

Mind Broken by Drink.

Grave discredit was cast on Fisher's story by Mrs. Annie

Fisher, his wife, of No. 734 Marietta street, who asserted firmly

that she believed the tale of a business man's confession of the

crime was the fabrication of a mind broken down by drink,

perhaps by drugs.

My husband is a confirmed drunkard, Mrs. Fisher

regretfully admitted. He is at times without any responsibility for

his words or actions. He was once tried on a lunacy writ taken out

by his brother, a business man of Rome, Ga. They declared him

sane at the time, but put him on probation. I have an idea he uses

morphine. He left me August 12.

Both Stallings and his wife declare Fisher is utterly

irresponsible. His sister said she would not believe any statement

he might make, while her husband recounted some strange

stories he said Fisher had told him at different times.

He told them with no straight a face that I almost believed

him, Stallings said, but afterward I always found them to be

untrue.

Believed Frank Innocent.

As to Fisher's knowledge of the Phagan case, Mrs. Fisher said

that only once did her husband say anything that might have

been taken as evidence that he knew something. One night while

reading the newspaper accounts of the arrest Fisher said:

They haven't got the guilty man. Frank didn't murder Mary

Phagan.

Mrs. Fisher also denied that her husband had left Atlanta

immediately after the murder of the little girl, as he said.

He lived with here until August 12, she stated, and then

he went away because I had filed a petition asking divorce and

alimony. He went away to keep the papers from being served.

Mrs. Fisher was very candid and unreserved in talking the

affairs of her husband and herself.

They were married, she said, in Dalton, Ga., thirteen years

ago, and lived there until they moved to Atlanta three years ago.

Maniac When Drinking.

My husband has long been a drinking man, Mrs. Fisher

said. When sober I believe he was perfectly rational, but when

drinking"I don't know just how to express it. He was nearly a

maniac. More than once he threatened to shoot me. I had to have

him arrested less than a year ago because he was threatening my

life.

I was going to sue him for divorce then, but Officer Clarke, a

friend of his, took his part and begged me not to. I consented, and

he was put on probation. Officer Coogler, I believe it was, kept

him on the probation list four months. But it was no use at all.

Since Fisher went away to avoid the service of the divorce

papers, his wife has been taking boarders and sewing to support

herself and their two children. Fisher wrote to her from Parkville,

Tenn., she said, and again from a suburb of Birmingham. He

wanted to return and live with her, Mrs. Fisher said, but she did

not answer the letters.

Then Mrs. Fisher told of a happening the morning after the

murder was committed.

It was Sunday, she said, and just after breakfast we went

to a drug store about a block away. On our way back we met a

man I didn't know. He stopped my husband and said: Fisher, I've

got something to tell you.'

Went to Factory.

Mr. Fisher stopped and talked with him and I went on home.

Later, he came home and told me the man told him a girl had

been killed at the pencil factory. He seemed to be quite curious

about the crime. He and I went and we took our little girl, Evelyn,

and Miss Lille Embree, a young woman who was boarding with

us.

We couldn't go all over the factory, but I didn't think my

husband seemed at all nervous or acted unusual. He did read a

lot about the case. I noticed that. And some time after that I

missed my diary that I kept to set down almost everything I did. I

don't know that he took it, however.

Reporters, who had trailed Fisher from Birmingham, from

where he was brought to Atlanta by C. W. Burke, an agent for

Attorney Rosser, were on constant duty ready to resume the

chase in the event that any new move was made by Frank's

lawyers or there appeared an endeavor to hide him away. The

vigilance of an entire day and a night resulted in only the

sensational statement of the quasi-prisoner which was forecast

very closely by The Sunday American. This statement was given

out late in the afternoon by Attorney Rosser. Rosser would not

reveal the name of the prominent man charged. He said that his

identity must remain a mystery for a time at least. The only clew

he furnished was that the man was fairly prominent.

I do not want to use the name of the man, said Rosser,

and thus possibly to do him an injustice. I will tell everything in

the world except the name of the man.

The man who has just told his story to us is I. W. Fisher. He

once lived here and left e about the time of the murder of Mary

Phagan, and since then has lived in North Georgia, Tennessee and

Birmingham. He now lives in Birmingham.

Without our knowledge or instigation, he went to the Chief

of Police in Birmingham, George H. Bodeker, and asserted that

Frank was innocent, and that he had known of his innocence all

the time, but that he didn't think Frank would be convicted, and

therefore had kept his silence about the real murderer.

He said that he met the man who committed the crime on

Saturday, April 26, and that this man told him he was going to

meet Mary Phagan in the pencil factory at noon. Fisher said that

when the man came factory he said: I raised h"l in there and

you have got to get out of town.'

Since that time Fisher says that this man, who is well to do

and established in business here, has been paying his expenses

wherever he went.

Whether Fisher's story is true or false we do not know. We

are not giving it out as fact, but merely as one of the numerous

stories which have come to our ears during the investigation of

the crime. We would have said nothing about it if the newspapers

had not come out yesterday telling of Fisher's walking into the

office of the Chief of Police in Birmingham. We do not take any

stock in it one way or another as yet. But we are going to

investigate it thoroughly and find whether or not if it is true.

Police Told Name.

We have told the detectives something when we have not

told the public. We have told them the name of the man Fisher

accuses, and have incited them to work with us on our

investigation. There is such a man as the one Fisher names, and

he is well known. Fisher is a married man, and has several

children. They are in Atlanta.

Solicitor Dorsey, Frank A. Hooper, who assisted the Solicitor

in the Frank trial, and members of the detective department

appeared not at all impressed by Fisher's story Monday. I think

he's telling a lie, pure and simple, said Mr. Hooper when he was

asked his opinion.

Chief Lanford laughed at the story and said it was his belief

that Fisher was out in town at the time of the Phagan murder.

Fisher is the same man, he thinks, that testified some ago against

Griff Freeman, who was arrested on a blind tiger charge, and then

disappeared from town after Freeman was bound over Fisher was

not on hand to testify in the State trial.

Mrs. Fischer acted as a sleuth and obtained much of the

evidence that resulted in the prosecution of Freeman. She

testified at the trial that Fisher pawned her shoes and sold their

chickens to get liquor from Freeman. Fisher admitted that he had

bought liquor many times from the defendant.

In an effort to make the identification of the man secreted in

the office of Attorney Rosser as the same man who testified in the

trial of Griff Freeman and then disappeared from the city, Lanford

Monday ordered Detective Cowan to go the Fisher home on

Marietta street and get Mrs. Fisher. She will be taken to Rosser's

office and the attorney will be asked for permission to let her see

the man. Chief Lanford believes it will prove the same man.

May Balk Detectives.

It is conjectural if the detectives will be allowed this privilege

in view of the strict seclusion in which Fisher has been kept so far.

Chief Lanford Monday that if the lawyers have evidence that the

crime was committed by another person than Frank, he thought

they should turn it over to the police so that the man might be

arrested and justice done.

Although Frank has been convicted of the crime, said

Lanford, our eyes and ears never have been closed to evidence

that would point to any other person as the guilty on. I do not

place much reliance on Fisher's story, but I want my department

to investigate it thoroughly. This Fisher, I believe once was with

the Southern Railway, and was discharged because of his drinking

Burke, who now is acting for Rosser, once was special agent for

the Southern.

Attorney Rosser Monday explained the unpassable guard

that had been thrown around Fisher by saying that he wanted to

get every detail of Fisher's story before he let him go.

As soon as I get all I want to know, I don't care what

becomes of him, the lawyer said. We are making a most careful

investigation of every statement he has made, and we want to

keep him at hand until we are through. After that the detectives

and the newspaper men can question him to their hearts'

content.

PAGE 6, COLUMNS 1 &

POLICE GET FISHER,

FRANK WITNESS

MERCHANT VOWS

PRESECUTE

FISHER

TO LAW'S

FULL LIMIT

Ira W. Fisher, whose story attempted to involve J. C. Shirley,

a respected Marietta street merchant, in the Phagan case, was

turned over to the police authorities late Monday afternoon.

Attorney Rosser notified Chief of Detectives Lanford that he was

ready to give the witness'' up. Detective Eugen Coker was

dispatched to the attorney's office immediately. Fisher was taken

to the police station and subjected to a rigid cross-examination

Monday night.

Fisher reiterated before a crowd of newspaper men and

detectives his startling story.

Despite Shirley's denial of every accusation made by Fisher,

the man persisted in his accusations. He went into detail, going

even so far as naming the amounts of money which he said

Shirley had sent him at various times and giving the towns which

he visited. However, he had no documents to support him and

none who heard the story believed him.

That he will prosecute Ira W. Fisher, who names him as the

principal in his sensational story of the Phagan murder, to the

fullest extent the law allows, was the declaration made to a

Georgian reporter late Monday afternoon by J. C. Shirley, the well-

known and respected Marietta street merchant. He has retained

C. J. Graham, a lawyer who has already figured in the Frank case,

to represent him.

The whole story is a joke, said Mr. Shirley. But I will

investigate the law and determine how I may prosecute this man

for this abominable fairy tale.

C. F. Shirley, who lives at No. 54 Flatshoals road rand is a

brother of the man Fisher names, said Fisher was a drunkard and

a gambler and a mighty sorry man all around. That appeared to

be the opinion of all who have had any connection with Fisher.

J. C. Shirley said he did not even know where the National

Pencil Factory was until he read of the Phagan case in the

newspapers. He declared that he knew none of the girls employed

there, except that he had heard that two girls who lived across

the street were employed at the plant.

Fisher, in Luther Rosser's office, stuck to his story, but very

little credence was attached to it by anybody.

Fisher, according to report, declared that Shirley had met

him on the street on the afternoon of the murder and had

declared that he had met Mary Phagan and played hell.

When informed of this statement, the furniture man laughed.

Why the man is crazy, he said.

Identification of the accused man was made public Monday

afternoon. It came from Birmingham, where Fisher first made his

sensational statements. The man is well known in business circles

of Atlanta. He declared that he was not aware that he was the one

referred to until he was approached Monday.

Mr. Shirley could not ascribe any reason for Fisher having

brought the charge of murder against him unless he was

demented.

Why, I don't recall having talked with Fisher since he left his

Marietta street home, said Mr. Shirley. The only time I saw

much of him was when he loafed around the store. I don't recall

having ever discussed the Phagan case with him.

Mr. Shirley denied having ever delivered furniture at the

home of J. W. Coleman stepfather of Mary Phagan, with Fisher.

Charged by his wife being a raving drunkard; wanted by the

police, who give him a long court record, believed by Probation

Officer Coogler to be demented as a result of accusations of

murder against himself, I. W. Fisher, the accuser of a prominent

Atlanta man in the Phagan case, was confronted Monday by a

general disposition to ridicule his story and the threatened

collapse of a sensation.

Kept a prisoner in the office of Luther Z. Rosser, while the

police waited to arrest him, Fisher continued to be inaccessible to

newspaper men, but various investigations of his record bared

facts that threw dark cloud on his reliability.

Detectives continued their vigil on the ground floor of the

Grant Building ready to arrest Fisher as soon as he made his

appearance. In the meanwhile the Frank lawyers kept on

investigating his story and seemed determined to hold their man

a strict prisoner until they were entirely through with him.

I am not acting sponsor for Fisher or for Fisher's story,

declared Mr. Rosser, at his office Monday. We want to keep the

man for a few hours longer, and then if the police would like to

have him, they are welcome to him.

Do you believe Fisher's story? questioned a Georgian

reporter.

I have said my say, exclaimed the attorney.

Can I talk to Flasher? the reporter asked.

You can"when I get through with him, said Rosser, and he

strode away in the direction of his office door.

A police officer stated positively Monday noon that the Frank

attorneys' prisoner would be arrested and taken to

headquarters as soon as he was taken from Rosser's office.

None of the officers has had a look at Fisher, and it is

doubtful whether or not they will get him if he should try to walk

out of the Grant building. Since he was taken to the office of

Rosser yesterday morning, he was been given a shave and an

overcoat. A pint of whisky was also seen to have been taken into

Fisher's cell.

The arrival of Chief of Police Beavers in Rosser's office

Monday noon created quite a bit of excitement. Chief Beavers

however, went into the private offices of Rosser, where the

arguments in the Whitehall street injunction were being heard.

Mr. Coogler's opinion was contingent on the identity of an I.

W. Fisher Coogler has had before him many times and that of the

Fisher who has been virtually a prisoner in the Grant Building

being the same.

Coogler said Monday that Fisher was tried several years ago

for the murder of his wife's brother. He was acquitted, but it is

known that a suspicion that he was guilty still rested in the mind

of his wife, and that she frequently had charged him with the

crime. These accusations are believed by Coogler to have

unsettled Fisher's mind, a condition which perhaps has been

augmented by the use of drugs.

The Fisher Coogler has had before him lived at No. 797

Marietta street. An investigation of his record has disclosed that

the man was placed on probation November 24 of last year

charged with being drunk and disorderly and abusing his wife. He

obtained employment and contributed to the support of his wife

and children through the probation officer.

Fisher was before Coogler again on Christmas, and this time

he was given employment with the Christian Helpers' League. He

could not say good and February 21 he was arrested again,

charged with striking and otherwise mistreating his wife. He was

bound over to the State Court under bond of $200. He obtained

his release only to offend in the same respect again. A peace

warrant was issued, and he stayed in jail two days last May, and

soon afterward he disappeared from the city.

Coogler received a letter from him last May, postmarked in

Parksville, Tenn. He asked that his trunk be sent him. That was

the last Coogler heard of him until Fisher's sensational story

appeared in the Sunday papers.

Here is Fisher's probation record:

He was arrested and put on probation November 24, 1912.

The charge was abusing and mistreating his wife while drinking,

December 24, he violated his parole, drinking and again being

arrested. He promised better behavior, and was continued on

probation, staying at the Christian Helpers' League on Decatur

street.

February 22, 1913, Fisher yielded once more. Intoxicated, he

went to his wife's home and beat her. He was arrested and bound

over in police court under a $200 bond, which he furnished.

May 15 his wife applied for a peace warrant, under which

Fisher was arrested and detained two days, finally giving bond.

Then he disappeared May 28 Coogler received a letter from Fisher

postmarked Parkville, Tenn., requesting his truck, which he had

left in the Christian Helpers' League.

That closed that part of the official record of Fisher in

Atlanta.

Mind Broken by Drink.

Grave discredit was cast on Fisher's story by Mrs. Annie

Fisher, his wife, of No. 734 Marietta street, who asserted firmly

that she believed the tale of a business man's confession of the

crime was the fabrication of a mind broken down by drink,

perhaps by drugs.

My husband is a confirmed drunkard, Mrs. Fisher

regretfully admitted. He is at times without any responsibility for

his words or actions. He was once tried on a lunacy writ taken out

by his brother, a business man of Rome, Ga. They declared him

sane at the time, but put him on probation. I have an idea he uses

morphine. He left me August 12.

Both Stallings and his wife declare Fisher is utterly

irresponsible. His sister said she would not believe any statement

he might make, while her husband recounted some strange

stories he said Fisher had told him at different times.

He told them with no straight a face that I almost believed

him, Stallings said, but afterward I always found them to be

untrue.

Believed Frank Innocent.

As to Fisher's knowledge of the Phagan case, Mrs. Fisher said

that only once did her husband say anything that might have

been taken as evidence that he knew something. One night while

reading the newspaper accounts of the arrest Fisher said:

They haven't got the guilty man. Frank didn't murder Mary

Phagan.

Mrs. Fisher also denied that her husband had left Atlanta

immediately after the murder of the little girl, as he said.

He lived with here until August 12, she stated, and then

he went away because I had filed a petition asking divorce and

alimony. He went away to keep the papers from being served.

Mrs. Fisher was very candid and unreserved in talking the

affairs of her husband and herself.

They were married, she said, in Dalton, Ga., thirteen years

ago, and lived there until they moved to Atlanta three years ago.

Maniac When Drinking.

My husband has long been a drinking man, Mrs. Fisher

said. When sober I believe he was perfectly rational, but when

drinking"I don't know just how to express it. He was nearly a

maniac. More than once he threatened to shoot me. I had to have

him arrested less than a year ago because he was threatening my

life.

I was going to sue him for divorce then, but Officer Clarke, a

friend of his, took his part and begged me not to. I consented, and

he was put on probation. Officer Coogler, I believe it was, kept

him on the probation list four months. But it was no use at all.

Since Fisher went away to avoid the service of the divorce

papers, his wife has been taking boarders and sewing to support

herself and their two children. Fisher wrote to her from Parkville,

Tenn., she said, and again from a suburb of Birmingham. He

wanted to return and live with her, Mrs. Fisher said, but she did

not answer the letters.

Then Mrs. Fisher told of a happening the morning after the

murder was committed.

It was Sunday, she said, and just after breakfast we went

to a drug store about a block away. On our way back we met a

man I didn't know. He stopped my husband and said: Fisher, I've

got something to tell you.'

Went to Factory.

Mr. Fisher stopped and talked with him and I went on home.

Later, he came home and told me the man told him a girl had

been killed at the pencil factory. He seemed to be quite curious

about the crime. He and I went and we took our little girl, Evelyn,

and Miss Lille Embree, a young woman who was boarding with

us.

We couldn't go all over the factory, but I didn't think my

husband seemed at all nervous or acted unusual. He did read a

lot about the case. I noticed that. And some time after that I

missed my diary that I kept to set down almost everything I did. I

don't know that he took it, however.

Reporters, who had trailed Fisher from Birmingham, from

where he was brought to Atlanta by C. W. Burke, an agent for

Attorney Rosser, were on constant duty ready to resume the

chase in the event that any new move was made by Frank's

lawyers or there appeared an endeavor to hide him away. The

vigilance of an entire day and a night resulted in only the

sensational statement of the quasi-prisoner which was forecast

very closely by The Sunday American. This statement was given

out late in the afternoon by Attorney Rosser. Rosser would not

reveal the name of the prominent man charged. He said that his

identity must remain a mystery for a time at least. The only clew

he furnished was that the man was fairly prominent.

I do not want to use the name of the man, said Rosser,

and thus possibly to do him an injustice. I will tell everything in

the world except the name of the man.

The man who has just told his story to us is I. W. Fisher. He

once lived here and left e about the time of the murder of Mary

Phagan, and since then has lived in North Georgia, Tennessee and

Birmingham. He now lives in Birmingham.

Without our knowledge or instigation, he went to the Chief

of Police in Birmingham, George H. Bodeker, and asserted that

Frank was innocent, and that he had known of his innocence all

the time, but that he didn't think Frank would be convicted, and

therefore had kept his silence about the real murderer.

He said that he met the man who committed the crime on

Saturday, April 26, and that this man told him he was going to

meet Mary Phagan in the pencil factory at noon. Fisher said that

when the man came factory he said: I raised h"l in there and

you have got to get out of town.'

Since that time Fisher says that this man, who is well to do

and established in business here, has been paying his expenses

wherever he went.

Whether Fisher's story is true or false we do not know. We

are not giving it out as fact, but merely as one of the numerous

stories which have come to our ears during the investigation of

the crime. We would have said nothing about it if the newspapers

had not come out yesterday telling of Fisher's walking into the

office of the Chief of Police in Birmingham. We do not take any

stock in it one way or another as yet. But we are going to

investigate it thoroughly and find whether or not if it is true.

Police Told Name.

We have told the detectives something when we have not

told the public. We have told them the name of the man Fisher

accuses, and have incited them to work with us on our

investigation. There is such a man as the one Fisher names, and

he is well known. Fisher is a married man, and has several

children. They are in Atlanta.

Solicitor Dorsey, Frank A. Hooper, who assisted the Solicitor

in the Frank trial, and members of the detective department

appeared not at all impressed by Fisher's story Monday. I think

he's telling a lie, pure and simple, said Mr. Hooper when he was

asked his opinion.

Chief Lanford laughed at the story and said it was his belief

that Fisher was out in town at the time of the Phagan murder.

Fisher is the same man, he thinks, that testified some ago against

Griff Freeman, who was arrested on a blind tiger charge, and then

disappeared from town after Freeman was bound over Fisher was

not on hand to testify in the State trial.

Mrs. Fischer acted as a sleuth and obtained much of the

evidence that resulted in the prosecution of Freeman. She

testified at the trial that Fisher pawned her shoes and sold their

chickens to get liquor from Freeman. Fisher admitted that he had

bought liquor many times from the defendant.

PAGE 8, COLUMN 1

Rosser's Office in

State

Of Siege

Through Night

Kept a virtual prisoner all day, and hedged about by secrecy

that seemed to portend important things, the new entrant into

the Phagan case limelight answered the questions of the Frank

lawyers somewhat hesitantly and not all impressively, according

to the little information that could be gathered from the closely

guarded offices.

The headquarters of the law firm of Rosser, Brandon, Slaton

& Phillips was watched all day and night by a crowd of reporters

who for the most part their pains for their labors. Occasionally

during the day a figure would emerge from the office"most

frequently Herbert Haas. Close questioning brought the

enlightening information from Mr. Haas that he did not know the

man in the case; that if he did he had no idea of the story he had

told, and that at any rate he could not talk to newspaper men.

Secret Conferences.

Outward evidences were the copious questions were being

asked by Frank's lawyers and that considerable importance"

perhaps vital importance"was at first attached by them in the

developments of the day. Young women stenographers had been

summoned from their homes and appeared to be busy. The

conferences were held in the innermost offices, and no a word

drifted to the waiting men outside.

Reuben Arnold arrived about midday and was immediately

closeted with the other principals in the case. He had been there

about three hours when the word went forth that the mysterious

stranger was to be spirited away in an automobile, and the

newspaper men pared for the chase.

As a matter of fact, the word had been given to a private

chauffeur to be prepared, and Detective Burke was to rush the

much-wanted man of mystery away. But the reporters remained

on the alert, refusing to be lured away by various small

subterfuges, and the automobile that had been waiting

downstairs kept on waiting for many hours.

Rosser Secretive.

As usual, Luther Z. Rosser was a synonym for secretiveness.

He threw up his hands in horror at the suggestion that the man of

mystery be posed for the photographers. He had evidently issued

ironclad instructions to Burke to keep the mysterious man's

mouth closed, and Burke obeyed orders. The detective

complained petulantly of the pestiferous attentions of the

newspaper men, but he carried out his orders to the letter. Not a

word would he allow his charge to utter. The man might have

been deaf and dumb for all that could be gotten out of him.

Or he might have been duped. That suggestion was seriously

made by many who saw him. His appearance was anything but

impressive as he was hustled up to the seventh floor of the Grant

Building. A four-days' beard made his drawn features far from

attractive. His eyes shifted constantly. He shuffled his feet as he

walked, and occasionally he threw a glance behind him as though

afraid of a shadow. He was not an inspiring spectacle.

Detectives on Guard.

On the ground floor objectives awaited with much the same

feelings as the reporters on the floors above. Detective Starnes,

who did star work in gathering evidence against Frank, was on

duty for several hours. He simply awaited developments showing

little impatience and almost the interest. Like most every body

concerned, he was not inclined to take the latest developments

seriously as far as pointing to a new solution of the crime.

The detectives on the case speculated on the reasons for

Chief Bodeker of Birmingham, failing to inform the city or county

officials of the alleged revelations and turning the man of mystery

over to private parties instead of to the police. To them if looked

strange but they are loath to discuss whatever significance it

might have.

PAGE 9, COLUMN 3

Fisher Divorce

Record

Revealed by Suit

of Wife

The diverse record of I. W. Fisher, whose sensational

accusations have brought an upheaval in the Phagan murder

case, is revealed in the petition of his wife. Mrs. Annie Fisher, filed

in the Fulton County Superior Court May 16, 1913.

The petition charges cruelty and inhumanity; also

intoxication.

Mrs. Fisher's petition in full is as follows:

Georgia"Fulton County.

To the Superior Court of Said County:

The petition of Mrs. Annie Fisher of said county shows:

That on the 24th day of December 1899, plaintiff and one I.

W. Fisher intermarried in due form of law, to wit: in the county of

Whitfield, Dalton, Ga., and lived together as husband and wife

until May 13, 1913, on which date plaintiff and defendant

separated and are now living separated apart.

2. The Petitioner was then, and has been since, a bona fide

resident of the State of Georgia twelve (12) months next before

the filling of this petition.

3. Petitioner shows that she was very affectionate and kind

to her husband from the time of said marriage, and that during

that time she gave her said husband no cause to complain of your

petitioner. Notwithstanding this, the said defendant has treated

your petitioner in a cruel and inhuman manner, so as to make it

impossible for her to continue her habitation with him. The acts

constituting the cruel treatment of the defendant are specified in

part as follows: Defendant has many times come home from his

work, and being of a very jealous disposition, frequently struck

and abused petitioner, and on numerous occasions has

threatened her life. That these acts of cruelty have rendered

petitioner almost a nervous wreck, and that she is afraid to live

with him longer.

4. Petitioner further shows that defendant has been guilty

of habitual intoxication almost continuously for the past four (4)

or five (5) years. That he has frequently during this time absented

himself during the entire night from home, and for about eight

months during 1912 he and petitioner were living separate and

apart.

5. Petitioner further shows that the issue of said marriage

now living are one boy named James Albert Lee Fisher, age 11

years, and one named Alice Evelyn Fisher, age 5 years.

6. Petitioner further shows that neither she nor defendant

have any property.

7. Petitioner shows that she is physically and financially

unable to properly support herself and her said children: That the

defendant, I. W. Fisher, is a strong and able-bodied man, and

capable of earning $2.50 per day.

Wherefore, petitioner prays:

1. That a total divorce from defendant, that a divorce in

vinculo matrimonii upon legal principles between the petitioner

and said defendant.

2. That the custody of the two children above mentioned be

awarded to petitioner.

3. That defendant be enjoined from molesting or annoying

in any way interfering with petitioner, and from going to her said

residence, speaking to her on the streets, calling her over the

telephone or communicating any threats to her by any other

means.

4. That he be required to pay a reasonable sum into this

court to defray the expenses of this action, and for the support

and maintenance of the said children mentioned in this petition.

POOLE &

LEWIS,

Petitioner's Attorneys.

Georgia, Fulton

County.

Personally appeared before the undersigned, an officer of

said State and County, duly authorized by law to administer

oaths, Mrs. Annie Fisher, who, on oath, says the allegations

contained in the above and foregoing petition for divorce are

true.

MRS. ANNIE FISHER.

Sworn to and subscribed to before me this 16th day of May,

1913.

Z. R.

UPCHURCH,

Notary Public, Fulton

Co.

Read and considered: Ordered

That the defendant show cause before me at Chambers in

the City of Atlanta, Fulton County, Georgia, on the 24th day of

May, 1913, at 9:30 o'clock a. m., why the prayer of the foregoing

petition should not be granted. In the meantime, and until the

further order of the court, defendant is enjoined and restrained as

prayed. This 17th day of May, 1913.

J. T. PENDLETON,

Judge Superior Court, Atlanta Circuit.

PAGE 9, COLUMN 6

WATSON TO

ASK

QUASHING

INDICTMENT

Attorney for Thomson

Editor Does

Not Expect Mail Case to

Reach a Jury.

AUGUSTA, Oct. 20"The trial of Thomas E. Watson, charged

with sending obscene matter through the mails, began here this

morning. Mr. Watson did not arrive until 10:20, a half hour after

court opened, motoring down from his home at Thomson, S. Guyt

McLendon, Mr. Watson's attorney, who has been here two days,

intimated that he would ask the court to quash the indictment,

and he stated he did not think the case would ever reach a jury.

Judge Foster and other court officials arrived last night.

District Attorney Akerman refused to make a statement regarding

the case other than to say he was ready for trial and that it would

not last more than two days.

A large crowd was in the courtroom when court opened.

Numbers of persons from the country, friends of Watson, were on

hand. Some time was taken up in organizing the court, calling the

roll of the grand and petit jurors, the charging of the Grand Jury

by Judge Foster and other preliminaries.

PAGE 10, COLUMN 3