The Murder of Mary Phagan and Justice Gone Awry

Mary Phagan would suffer a brutal death at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta on April 26, 1913. Raped, strangled and severely beaten, Phagan's body would be left in the factory she was employed at. Evidence pointed towards a dramatic struggle; little Mary had not died easily, adding to the obvious disgust the public would have upon hearing of the case. But her death would signify another eventual victim, Leo Frank. Phagan's death horrified Americans and calls for an arrest and conviction of the murderer pressured police and prosecutors into arresting any individuals who may have been responsible for Mary's death. Although night watchman Newt Lee and factory sweeper Jim Conley would both be implicated in Phagan's death, Leo Frank would ultimately stand trial for the crime. Not only would Frank become the first Jewish American to be lynched in the nation, he also became known as one of the few white men to be convicted on the testimony of a black man at a time when racism prevailed over justice in the South. As with many court cases during this era, a swift conviction meant "future political success would be assured" for Solicitor-General Hugh M. Dorsey (1). The trial to convict Mary Phagan's killer was poised to become an event that encompassed racism, hysteria, anti-Semitism, political ambitions and a lethal form of vigilante justice known as lynching.

The indictment of Leo Frank and his subsequent trial were fraught with errors. Evidence was ignored. Conley's admission as an accessory was not presented to the grand jury since prosecutors believed jurors may feel he was the perpetrator instead of Frank. Newspapers fostered a circus atmosphere by posting large rewards for the capture of Mary's murderer, all the while sensationalizing the sordid details of the crime. Even Phagan's family was not safe from the media frenzy that ensued as the Atlantic Georgian newspaper "made a spectacle of the Phagan family's grief" to gain readership (2).

Leo Frank was convicted on less than reliable evidence. However, a jury would sentence him to death based on the testimony of the man who is now regarded as the true murderer, Jim Conley. Tensions in the courtroom throughout the trial reached epic proportions. Spectators reported that hostilities were directed towards jurors; not outward threats, but implied retribution if Frank was found innocent. Governor John Slaton would cite the pervasive feeling that the jury reached a verdict of guilty "through the domination of a mob and with no evidence to support the verdict" in his clemency papers (3). Frank's case would draw the attention of Jewish Americans in the North who would provide much of the monetary assistance his case required during two appeals processes. The New York Times found its self to be the champion of Frank's rights, reporting on every aspect of the case and quick to counter the sensational stories found in the Southern press. Upon conviction, the Times stood as one of the only newspapers to proclaim that not only did prosecutors suppress evidence proving Frank's innocence, but they also fostered an atmosphere in the courtroom which seemed to promote public disdain for Frank at all costs (4).

Despite appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court Frank would continue to face the death penalty. By 1915 all appeals had been exhausted but on the governor's last day in office he grants Frank clemency (June 20), commuting his sentence to life imprisonment. After being moved to Milledgeville Prison Farm to avoid possible reprisals against Frank, he is savagely attacked by a fellow inmate (July 18). William Green would attack Frank with a large knife typically used to butcher hogs; the result being Green nearly severed Frank's head. Newspapers reported "there was a bare chance he would survive" (5). Several days after the governor's decision was announced it was necessary to call out state militia. Rumours circulated that "governor Slaton would be lynched and others that Frank would be taken out of the jail and hanged" (6). The traditional method of vigilante justice in the South was now being summoned to ensure someone paid for the murder of Mary Phagan.

Leo Frank would survive his harrowing attack by another inmate only to be dragged from the prison on the night of August 17. He is driven to Marietta, Georgia to an area not far from the home of Mary Pagan and lynched by a group of approximately seventy-five men. Frank's remains would be sent to New York only after individuals managed to stop spectators from grabbing "souveneirs" and abusing Frank's corpse. In 1982 did the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles grant Frank a pardon. However this did not exonerate him of the murder of Mary Phagan.

There is much speculation as to why Leo Frank was lynched for a crime with evidence that pointed to the man who was charged as his accomplice, Jim Conley. Also, it was highly unusal for a black man's testimony to be used to convict a white man. Scholars point to anti-Semitism as the root cause. At a time when nativism and disdain for Catholicism and Judaism was rampant in the South, it appears Frank became a victim of sentiments that were overshadowing traditional racism. The effects of the Mary Phagan case have been claimed to have affected two movements with opposing agendas, the Ku Klux Klan and the Anti Defamation League. There is little doubt Leo Frank was innocent of the charges he was convicted of. Careful scrutiny of the evidence presented at his trial, and evidence that was not, clearly exonerates him. Frank remains a victim of his times; a man guilty of being a Jew in an era when anti-Semitism was growing in America. His sentence was of a traditional manner in the Deep South, lynching. While shocking by modern standards Frank's hanging by a mob was not unusual, and rumours purporting to see him hanged following his clemency were taken seriously by authorities. The events of the Mary Phagan murder and Leo Frank's trial were tragic; unfortunately the lives of two individuals were taken. Particularly disturbing is that the true murderer was not executed and an apparently innocent man was the victi of vigilante justice.

1. Leonard Dinnerstein, The Leo Frank Case (Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 1987), 19.
2. Steve Oney, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (New York: Pantheon Books, 2003), 35.
3. “Decision by Governor John Slaton to grant Executive Clemency to Leo Frank”, June 21, 1915. Georgia State Archives.
4. “Frank Convicted by Public Clamor” New York Times, Mar. 2, 1914.
5. “Leo Frank’s Throat Cut by Convict, Famous Prisoner Near Death”, New York Times July 18, 1915.
6. Ibid.


Additional sources pertaining to the Leo Frank trial:

Dinnerstein, Leonard. The Leo Frank Case. Athens, Ga.: The University of Georgia Press, 1987.

Oney, Steve. And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank. New York: Pantheon Books, 2003.

The Leo Frank Clemency Files http://sos.georgia.gov/archives/what_do_we_have/online_records/leo_frank/default.htm

Additional sources pertaining to lynching in the South:

Brundage, W. Fitzhugh. Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930, Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1993.

Pillsbury, Albert, A. “A Brief Inquiry into a Federal Remedy for Lynching". Harvard Law Review, May 1902, Vol. 15, No.9

Wood, Amy Louise. Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940, Chapel Hill, N.C., The University of North Carolina Press, 2009

“Lynchings by State” Archives at Tuskegee Institute, Feb. 1979. http://faculty.berea.edu/browners/chesnutt/classroom/lynchings_table_state.html