The Leo Frank Case: Chapter 1 Of 22 - Inside Story Of Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery

⁣One Sabbath morning on April 27th, 1913, Newt Lee was a night watchman on the second floor of the National Pencil Factory. It's cool and he has to make his rounds every half hour. As he descends the stairs to his first floor, darkness engulfs him behind him, and only a thin streak of light indicates the stairs he must climb. Mr. Frank, the factory manager, has let him rest most of the afternoon, but he hopes to have a good time and not come back until six. Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, Newt mutters to himself and begins throwing the light of his lantern back and forth on the empty ground floor. After many lonely nights like this, Newt Lee learned the importance of quiet communication and good sleep. Newt is a night watchman tasked with investigating the factory basement. He found Mr. Frank, who had been asked to go upstairs with Mr. Gant to get his shoes, raised his voice and appeared nervous, rubbing his hand and rushing out the door. . Newt examines the dim and quiet first floor of the factory. He opened the trapdoor over the hole in the channel, and a faint light came through. The gas jet is burning, but getting weaker. Newt says it's Mr. Frank's order to keep the lights bright. As he climbs his feet and carefully anchors himself on each step, his lantern flickers with light, faintly illuminating the dim light of the basement. his feet touch the ground. Lung. A key detail in this text is that Newt Lee is in a basement with a lantern flickering yellow light, a pile of clothes and things he has never seen before. His heart pounded, and he strained his ears for another sound, but the silence enveloped and gripped him, and for the first time in his life, a black man felt a deadly, nauseating terror. He tried to shake it off and laugh, but his voice was stiff and glaring in the silence. Taking another step forward, Newt Lee staggered back as the lantern flashed again. He sobbed and jumped up the ladder when he saw something that stopped the blood like a dam of ice. The thing next to the boiler was no joke, no holiday prank. And Newt Lee sobbed on the ladder.