Friday, 6th March 1914: Frank Pins Hope To Affidavit Signed By Mrs. Ethel Miller, The Atlanta Journal

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Condemned Man Recalls His Speaking to Her on Street at Time

Conley Said He Was Hiding Body in Factory

DEFENSE'S TIME ALIBI FURTHER STRENGTHENED

Helen Kern's Testimony That She Also Saw Frank

About 1:10 o'Clock on Day of the Crime Is Corroborated

Leo M. Frank attaches much importance to the affidavit of Mrs. Ethel Harris Miller, of Chattanooga, who declares she saw him at the corner of Whitehall and Alabama at about 1:10 o'clock on the day of the Mary Phagan murder.

He said:

I couldn't be at two places at the same time, and Miss Helen Kern and Mrs. Miller both saw me at Whitehall and Alabama streets at the time Jim Conley says I was at the factory.

Frank stated in reply to questions that when he was first informed that Mrs. Miller stated she spoke to him on the day of the murder, he remembered the occurrence, although up to that time it had escaped his memory.

He said:

I even remembered how she was dressed, and described her costume to my friend:

"That's right she said she was wearing clothes of that kind."

Frank, still answering questions, said he had met Mrs. Miller, then Miss Harris, socially, and that she had never worked for the factory or Montag Brothers.

IMPORTANCE NOT REALIZED.

He explained that, according to the information given him, Mrs. Miller did not realize the fact that she saw him on the streets at 1:10 o'clock was material in the case until she read in the newspapers the report of Solicitor Dorsey's speech, in which he attacked the testimony of Miss Kern, which was then uncorroborated.

Frank says he is informed she then communicated with his attorneys, and in September she made the affidavit.

The moment it was mentioned to me, the whole occurrence flashed over my mind, and I remembered that she bowed to me and I tipped my hat, Frank declared.

The hour, which has been fixed for the re-pronouncement of the death sentence on Frank is still kept a secret by Judge Ben H. Hill, of the criminal division of superior court, before whom the convicted man will be arraigned.

It is known, however, that Frank will not be resentenced Friday, and it is generally expected that the time has been fixed for Saturday morning.

Then a new date for the execution of Frank will be set by Judge Hill, and this date will probably be April 10, court attaches think.

Maler Lefkoff, who does not know Frank, corroborates Mrs. Miller to the extent that he was with her at the time and hour she says she spoke to Frank.

This testimony corroborates that of Miss Helen Kern, who swore on the witness stand that she saw Frank at about 1:10 o'clock, the time Conley claims he was at the factory assisting in carrying Mary Phagan's body to the basement.

GIRL IS CORROBORATED.

At the trial the testimony of Miss Kern, a seventeen-year-old stenographer, was unsupported and was vigorously attacked by the solicitor general.

Although not made public until Friday the affidavits of Mrs. Miller and Lefkoff were made before Leonard Haas, one of the attorneys or the Frank defense, September 18, 1913, soon after the trial.

Mrs. Miller now resides at 502 Poplar Street, Chattanooga.

In the affidavit Mrs. Miller declares she had been to meet her sister, who works at the J. P. Allen store.

She states that she and her sister, with their friend, walked up Whitehall to Alabama and turned toward Forsyth Street.

On the corner, she said, she saw Frank and bowed to him.

He returned the salutation by tipping his hat.

Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey is known to be making preparations to combat the defense's extraordinary motion for a new trial, and he was in conference Thursday afternoon with the city detectives and with George W. Epps, Sr., father of the boy who claims a detective framed the story he told at the trial.

All parties refused to discuss the conference.

PAGE 19, COLUMN 4

SPECIAL PERMIT IS NOW NECESSARY TO SEE EPPS (Special Dispatch to The Journal.)

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga., March 6.

Harry Epps, of Eatonton, superintendent of the Putnam Mills at that place, today called on his nephew, George Epps, the boy witness in the Frank case who admitted misstatements in his evidence and who is now in the reformatory here.

As a result of the elder Epps' visit to the reformatory, no one may see George Epps now without a special permit from the state prison board.

This step was taken on Mr. Epps' request that the boy and incidentally his family be spared so much publicity growing out of the case.