Leo Frank Statement to Chief of Detectives Newport Lanford at the Atlanta Police Station, April 28, 1913
On Monday morning, April 28, 1913,
Leo Frank gave an unsigned statement before N. A. Lanford, Chief of Detectives, at the Atlanta Police Station. The statement was stenographed by a government magistrate in the presence of Frank's attorneys, Luther Zeigler Rosser and Herbert Haas, along with detectives involved in the Mary Phagan murder investigation.
In the statement, Frank identified himself as General Superintendent and Director of the National Pencil Company at 37 to 41 South Forsyth Street in Atlanta, a position he had held since August 10, 1908, overseeing a workforce of approximately 107 male and female employees.
Mary Phagan's Arrival: 12:05 to 12:10 PM
Most critically, Leo Frank's Monday, April 28, 1913, statement placed precise bookends around the time Mary Phagan had arrived at the National Pencil Company factory on Confederate Memorial Day, Saturday, April 26, 1913. Frank stated that Mary Phagan arrived in his second-floor office between 12:05 PM and 12:10 PM.
This time window would later prove to be highly significant and damaging to Frank's credibility. The day before, on Sunday, April 27, 1913, Frank had told police investigators who escorted him to the factory that Phagan arrived at about 12:02 to 12:03 PM, meaning his two early accounts already created an eight-minute span, from 12:02 PM to 12:10 PM, as the established maximum range for Phagan's arrival.
A Statement That Would Shift Four Times
Frank would go on to change his stated arrival time for Mary Phagan four separate times across the official record. At the coroner's inquest in early May 1913, he gave a third time, stating she entered his office at 12:10 PM. Then at his capital murder trial on August 18, 1913, he changed it again to 12:12 PM to 12:17 PM, apparently to account for testimony from Monteen Stover that his office had been empty between 12:05 PM and 12:10 PM.
Because Leo Frank changed the arrival time of Mary Phagan four separate times according to the official record, it tended to damage his credibility and make him appear unreliable as a witness
Significance of the Document
State's Exhibit B was considered one of the most important documents presented at Frank's 1913 trial, as the unsigned statement had come directly from Frank within the critical 48-hour period of the murder investigation. Investigators and prosecutors placed particular weight on it precisely because it captured Frank's earliest recollection of events before his legal strategy had fully taken shape.