Atlanta Georgian
Saturday, May 24th, 1913
Chief of Detectives Newport A. Lanford said Saturday that the whole sinister significance of the charges brought against Colonel Thomas B. Felder lay in the fact that the forces of evil in the city had been steadily laboring for the downfall of himself and Chief Beavers ever since the city was cleaned up and the disreputable resorts put out of business.
He declared that since that time spies and agents of “the interests” that were most harmed had been on the trail of himself and Chief Beavers trying to “get something on them” which would result in their disgrace and dismissal from office.
The theft of affidavits and other papers from his safe, he declared, was only a part of the deep plot to discredit the heads of the police and the detective departments.
Every accusation that is made by Lanford, Colonel Felder has denied to The Georgian, and has replied to Lanford by saying that the detective department has not been seeking to find the real criminal in the Phagan mystery, but has been making every effort to save the guilty man from the consequences of his terrible crime.
* * *
Atlanta Georgian, May 24th 1913, “Felder’s Fight is to Get Chief and Lanford Out of Office,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)