Leo Frank

Leo Frank was a Jewish manager at the National Pencil Company. He was arrested for the rape and brutal murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan.

The Murder

On April 26, 1913, a Saturday and Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia, the National Pencil Company in Atlanta was operating with a reduced staff, creating a quiet environment where Leo Frank, the 29-year-old Jewish superintendent, was working in his second-floor office.

Around noon, 13-year-old Mary Phagan arrived at the factory to collect her paycheck, and Frank admitted to being the last person to see her alive, stating he paid her in his office.

The prosecution argued that Frank, taking advantage of the nearly empty factory, lured Phagan to the nearby metal room under the pretext of her wages, where he attempted to assault her. When she resisted, he strangled her with a cord available in the factory, killing her to silence her.

This was supported by physical evidence, including a supposed blood spot and hair found in the metal room, suggesting the murder occurred there rather than in the basement where Phagan’s body was later found.

Shortly after the murder, according to the prosecution’s key witness, Jim Conley, a Black janitor, Frank called him to the second floor and instructed him to help move Phagan’s body to the basement to conceal the crime. Conley testified that Frank dictated two “murder notes” found near the body, written in a crude style to mimic uneducated speech, as an attempt to frame another Black employee, such as night watchman Newt Lee.

The prosecution argued that Frank’s access to the factory’s materials and his authority over Conley enabled this cover-up. Later that day, witnesses, including Newt Lee and police officers, observed Frank acting nervous and agitated, with trembling hands during initial questioning, which the prosecution interpreted as signs of a guilty conscience. Monteen Stover, another employee, testified that she visited Frank’s office around the time Phagan was there and found it empty, contradicting Frank’s claim that he was at his desk, thus creating a gap in his alibi.

As the investigation unfolded, additional factory workers testified that Frank had a history of inappropriate behaviour toward female employees, suggesting a predatory motive for targeting Phagan. The prosecution emphasized that Frank’s lack of a verifiable alibi for the critical time between noon and 12:30 p.m., combined with the physical evidence in the metal room and Conley’s detailed testimony, pointed to his guilt. The murder notes, they argued, were a clumsy attempt by Frank to deflect suspicion, underestimating Conley’s willingness to testify against him. During the trial in August 1913, the prosecution’s case, bolstered by these points and public outrage over Phagan’s death, convinced the jury, leading to Frank’s unanimous conviction for murder. The alignment of Confederate Memorial Day with the 6th day of Passover (April 26, 1913) added a layer of cultural tension, and suspicions of Blood Libel.

The Case

Within weeks of the early September trial outcome, Frank's friends sought assistance from northern Jews, including constitutional lawyer Louis Marshall, who advised on the appeal. Frank's Georgia attorneys filed three successive appeals to the Supreme Court of Georgia and two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. These appeals were based on procedural issues, such as Frank's absence when the verdict was rendered and the excessive public influence on the jury.

Governor Slaton made a highly controversial decision to commute Frank's death sentence to life imprisonment. Slaton's decision enraged much of the Georgia populace, leading to riots and a march on the governor's mansion.

On the night of 16 August 1915, twenty-five prominent citizens of Marietta, calling themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan, took Frank from his cell and hanged him from an oak tree in Marietta, Phagan’s hometown. A crowd of nearly three thousand people gathered the next morning to view Frank's body, which undertakers had to wrestle away before it could be further battered.

On the back of the case, the 02_ARCHIVE/04 elite theory/ADL - Anti-Defamation League was formed, and the ADL have been rewriting history and aggressively pressuring anyone questioning Frank's guilt ever since. They also successfully obtained a posthumous pardon for Frank in 1986.