HARLEE BRANCH, Sworn In For The Defendant, 97th To Testify

Harlee Branch, 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)
Atlanta Journal reporter Harlee Branch twice interviewed Jim Conley in jail and watched him re-enact his entire story inside the empty factory on May 31.
Key admissions from Conley

He never saw Mary Phagan’s purse.
He finished everything by 1:30 and left the building.
Lemmie Quinn arrived at noon and stayed 8–9 minutes—placing an innocent witness on the second floor during the murder window.

The reenactment

Conley arrived 12:15 p.m.; Branch left 1:05–1:10.
Conley talked + acted nonstop for 50 minutes, forcing reporters to trot behind him.
Wardrobe scene: under 1 minute.
One note: 2 minutes.
Net acting time: 40 minutes (after subtracting 10 minutes of pure talk).
Adding Conley’s own 8-minute wardrobe claim + 6 minutes for the other notes = 64 minutes total—more than triple his sworn 18-minute timeline.

On cross, Branch refused to split hairs:

No stopwatch—only office clock.
Conley read a newspaper and lingered while Branch phoned—extra minutes uncounted.

Branch’s stopwatch-proof trot turned Conley’s “quick 18 minutes” into a documented 64-minute marathon.
The State’s star witness ran out of time—and breath—in front of the press.