the main prosecution witness against frank was james conley. conley was a janitor. he said that frank asked him to help cover up the murder. frank and his defense attorneys said that conley was the real murderer. before that there had been other suspects in the murder, including james gantt, a former employee fired by frank for theft, arthur mullinax, who witnesses said they saw with mary the night of her alleged murder and paul bowen, who was arrested at a hotel because a woman said that she heard him confess to the murder but was released for lack of evidence.