W P MERK, Sworn In For The State, 163rd To Testify

W. P. Merk, witness for the State in rebuttal, at the Trial of Leo Frank in the Fulton County Superior Court of Atlanta, Georgia, in 1913 (Testimony Portion From July 28 - August 21, 1913; Closing Arguments August 21-25, 1913)
Streetcar motorman W. P. Merk, employed by the Georgia Railway & Electric Co. for three years, testified that he knew Daisy Hopkins. On a Saturday between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., he met her at Whitehall and Alabama Streets. She told him she was going to the pencil factory and made an engagement for him to visit her room later. That evening, around 8:30 p.m., Merk was in her room at Walker and Peters Streets. Hopkins told him she had been at the pencil factory that afternoon.
Merk attacked Hopkins’s credibility, stating her general character for truth and veracity was bad and he would not believe her on oath.
This testimony was offered to impeach Daisy Hopkins, a defense witness who had denied ever visiting the factory with men or engaging in immoral acts there. By establishing her presence at the factory on a Saturday afternoon and destroying her reputation, the State sought to discredit her denial of Frank’s alleged misconduct and bolster claims of improper activity at the factory.