R P BUTLER, Sworn In For The Defendant, 105th To Testify

R. P. Butler, witness for the Defendant 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)
Shipping clerk R. P. Butler, a four-year employee, testified that the double wooden doors to the metal room contain 15 × 18-inch glass panes. Anyone of ordinary height can see straight through even when the doors are closed. The six-foot-wide doors are usually left open.
From the staircase landing, a person turning toward Frank’s office has a clear sight-line through the glass into the entire metal room. The 10-foot passageway narrows to six feet where boxes are stacked, but remains well-lit. Metal-room floors are dirty, yet the windows remain transparent.
On cross-examination, Butler re-measured: doors are exactly six feet from jamb to jamb. No darkness obscures the view.
Butler’s testimony shredded Jim Conley’s claim that he and Frank dragged Mary Phagan unseen through the metal room. With glass doors wide open and a direct line of sight from the stairs, any employee ascending would have witnessed the entire crime. Conley’s “nobody saw us” became geometrically impossible.