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Testimony of Grace Hicks

Grace Hicks, age 16, identified the body of Mary Phagan and was a co-worker of hers at the pencil factory.

Examination by Hugh Dorsey

Dorsey:  “Was she pretty?”

Hicks: “Yes. She was fair-skinned, had light hair, blue eyes, and was well developed for her age.”

Dorsey:  “Where did you work?”

Hicks: “In the metal room.”

Dorsey:  “How often was Mary at the factory?”

Hicks: “Nearly every day.”

Dorsey:  “Where was Mary’s workplace?”

Hicks: “Right next to the dressing room.”

Dorsey:  A person going from the office back to the rear of the second floor would have had to pass the dressing room, the place near where Mary Phagan worked, wouldn’t they?”

Hicks: “Yes.”

Dorsey:  “Did Frank pass there every day?”

Hicks: “Almost every day. He would come back two or three times a day to see how the work was going on.”

Dorsey:  “When was Mary at the factory last to work?”

Hicks: “The Monday before April 26.”

Dorsey:  “Why didn’t she work that week?”

Hicks: “The metal hadn’t come.”

Dorsey:  “Where was the metal kept?”

Hicks: “In a little closet under the stairway.”

Dorsey:  “When was the regular payday?”

Hicks: “Saturday at 12.”

Dorsey:  "Was anyone paid off Saturday, April 26?”

Hicks: “Most of them were paid off the Friday night before, as Saturday was a holiday.”


Cross-examination by Luther Rosser

Dorsey:  “You worked at the factory a year?”

Hicks: "I worked there five years. Mary worked there a year.”

Dorsey:  “In those five years, how many times did you speak to Mr. Frank?”

Hicks: “Three times.”

Dorsey:  “How many times did you see him speak to Mary Phagan?”

Hicks: “I never saw Mr. Frank speak to Mary Phagan or Mary Phagan speak to Mr. Frank.”

Dorsey:  “Did he speak to the girls when he came through the metal room?”

Hicks: “No. He just went through and looked around.”

Dorsey:  “What did he say when he spoke to you?”

Hicks: "He was showing a man around and I was laying on my arm mighty near asleep and he says: ‘You can run this machine asleep, can’t you?’ And I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ The other times he spoke to me on the street.”

Rosser: “Miss Grace, there is a place up there where you comb your hair, isn’t there?”

Hicks: “Yes.”

Rosser: “Where is it?”

Hicks: “Sometimes, we sit over at the machine and comb our hair and sometimes when I want to curl my hair with a poker or anything I go over there to the table right by the window and light the gas and curl my hair.”

Rosser: “How far from the machine where you sit and comb your hair is the lathe where the strands of hair were found?”

Hicks: “About fifteen feet.”

Rosser: “Was there another girl who sat near Mary who had hair like hers?”

Hicks:  "Yes, Magnolia Kennedy sat on one side of her and I sat on the other. Magnolia’s hair was sandy, too.”



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