I placed a single red rose on the grave.  My finger traced over the name Mary Phagan.  The epitaph was one I knew by heart.

First Visit 1978

ON THIS DAY OF FADING IDEALSAND DISAPPEARING LANDMARKS
LITTLE MARY PHAGAN'S HEROISM

IS AN HEIRLOOM THAN WHICH

THERE IS NOTHING MORE PRECIOUS

AMONG THE OLD RED HILLS OF

GEORGIA.

SLEEP, LITTLE GIRL; SLEEP IN

YOUR HUMBLE GRAVE BUT IF THE

ANGELS ARE GOOD TO YOU IN

THE REALMS BEYOND THE TROU

BEL [SIC] SUNSET AND THE CLOUDED

STARS, THEY WILL LET YOU

KNOW THAT MANY AN ACHING HEART IN

GEORGIA BEATS FOR YOU, AND

MANY A TEAR FROM EYES UNUSED TO WEEP, HAS PAID TRIBUTE

TOO SACRED FOR WORDS. [Footnote 1]

     Looking up, I saw an old couple trudge up the grassy hill towards the grave.  I stood up and turned to meet them, "Can I help you?" I inquired.                 xi.

The lady wore a light blue dress with a matching striped jacket and white sandals.  Her brown eyes were framed by glasses and her hair was gray.  I guess she was in her mid-to-late eighties.  Her husband also had brown and gray hair, balding a little on top.  Twin-like, they were almost color-coordinated:  he wore a light gray wool suit and pale blue shirt.  He must have been around ninety years old, and he walked with a can.  He towered over her.

Somehow, from the way they carried themselves, I knew their questions would be different.  Not the usual, "Do you know where the grave of little Mary Phagan is?" "Are you, by any chance, related to little Mary Phagan?" "How do you feel about the murder of little Mary Phagan"?

They seemed to be remembering, too.

The lady looked at me with concern and intensity, and finally spoke:  "It was on April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day, that little Mary Phagan was murdered in downtown Atlanta.  Not many people celebrate Confederate Memorial Day anymore.  Not many native born here anymore."

She turned her head slightly, and her eyes swept over Mary Phagan's gravestone.  "We remember different times.  Times long ago.  Times that don't come except for her story."

She paused and added, "We were there.  And little Mary Phagan's story remains with us.  All the sadness and some of the hate, we felt it.  Yes, times were different all right. A lot of murders happen today.  But they don't symbolize something like hers did.  We were one of her kind, hard-working and striving to have a decent life.  We made it, but she didn't."

For the first time, she looked closely at me.  "You look a lot like her," she said, her voice faltering.                     xii

I nodded sadly.  "My name is Mary Phagan, Little Mary Phagan was my great-aunt."

For a moment the couple stared at me in disbelief, and then they wrapped their arms around me to comfort me.  "Yes," the old woman said, "I can see the resemblance now."  Breaking the embrace, she patted my shoulder gently.  For a while, we were silent and then, as daylight faded, they politely excused themselves.                                       xiii

____________________________________________Footnote 1: Erected by Marietta Camp
No. 763, U.C.V June 25th, 1915, and in 1933 a grave-top marble slab inscribed with indelible word was placed over her grave. the engraving of the epitaph was something written decades ago by a former U.S. Congressman from Georgia, Tom Watson, who had passed away in 1922.

.

BROADWAY'S PARADE IS NOT THE "TRUE STORY" OF LEO FRANK:  HATE ON A STAGE 1998-2024

It has been announced that there will soon be a performance of one of the most blatantly deceitful productions ever to appear on an American stage. Parade purports to be a “true account” of the 1913 rape and strangulation murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in an Atlanta factory. Leo Frank, the factory manager, was arrested and convicted of the crime. She was more than a faceless victim of a century-old murder; she was my great aunt and she is the one for whom I am named. For many years my family studied this horrific crime and after thousands of research hours I wrote a book in 1987 titled The Murder of Little Mary Phagan.
As experts on the case, and the propaganda and misinformation surrounding it, we must inform you that the play Parade is part of a cynical attempt to rewrite history and to hide one of the most racist chapters in American history.

And, further, they pose Frank as a symbol of "civil rights" even though it is abundantly clear that Leo Frank and his supporters employed the most racist of tactics to elude justice. They seek to bury the fact that Frank and his high-priced team of private eyes and lawyers attempted to
pin the blame on two innocent African American men!

For over a century, powerful members of the Jewish community have taken on Leo Frank as a cause celebre. They falsely claim that Frank was a victim of anti-Semitism and they have engaged in an unrelenting campaign to exonerate him. A major part of that propaganda campaign is Alfred Uhry’s play Parade. But Uhry and those who promote Parade have concealed the mountain of evidence that proves that Frank was indeed the murderer of Little Mary Phagan.

And, further, they pose Frank as a symbol of "civil rights" even though it is abundantly clear that Leo Frank and his supporters employed the most racist of tactics to elude justice. They seek to bury the fact that Frank and his high-priced team of private eyes and lawyers attempted to pin the blame on two innocent African American men!

Parade, a musical began at the New York's Lincoln Center December 17, 1998.  Parade was a short-lived Broadway musical which earned Tony Awards for best book of a musical [Alred Uhry] and best original score [Jason Robert Brown].

Parade comes from the Confederate Memorial Day Parade, where Mary Phagan was murdered at the National Pencil Company April 26, 1913, the subsequent trial and conviction of Leo Frank, Superintendent and the lynching of Frank by the Vigilance Committee in Marietta.  The musical Parade clearly indicates Jim Conley, the negro committed the murder of Mary Phagan.

Peach Buzz December 19, 1998, wrote that the most critical review from Ben Brantley chief critic of New York Times "singled out Uhry's book as one of the weakest elements of the musical about Leo Frank case, which premiered Thursday at Lincoln Center... flat and iconic as a bleeding saint religious mural. For tears to flow, we have to get to Leo Frank as a man, not a symbol, Brantley wrote.  The civics lesson that is 'Parade' forbids our ever approaching such knowledge."

With ticket sales falling and Canadian Livent Inc. partnership filling for Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code, Lincoln Center Theater ends Parade on February 28, 1999, with an estimated loss of 5.5 million,

Parade opens June 13-18, 2000, at Atlanta's Fox Theater.

Marietta's Theater in the Square looks at the same chapter in Georgia, The Lynching of Leo Frank August 16, 2000. and Final Performance September 24, 2000.

"Robert Myers’ The Lynching of Leo Frank examines the social, political and moral climate surrounding the famed early 1900s case. Frank, a Jewish factory manager, was convicted of the murder of young pencil factory worker Mary Phagan. While imprisoned at Milledgeville, he was forced from the jail by a *mob and hanged in Marietta, less than two miles from the site of the town square." [TheaterMania.com]  *[no mobs, they called themselves the "Vigilance Committee]

2015: The hundredth anniversary of the lynching of Leo Frank

Parade, Marietta Theater in the Square; The Phagan family attended and were deeply offended by the musical Parade.  The portrayal of Mary Phagan and our great-grandmother, Fannie Phagan Coleman was shameful, distasteful and blatant lies.

2018:  From September 27–October 7, Jason Robert Brown and Alfred Uhry’s Tony-winning musical Parade played the historic town of Marietta, Georgia, where the tragic events of history chronicled in the show played out over a century ago.

2019: Student Protests Lead Point Park to Postpone Parade Musical

Pittsburg Post-Gazzette

In 2019, Pennsylvania College Students at Point Park University in Pittsburgh “rejected the Alfred Uhry play PARADE and the school CANCELLED its performance. For years Uhry, the writer of the movie Driving Miss Daisy has promoted PARADE as the ‘true story’ of the Leo Frank case.” According to the Jewish Chronicle, “some Point Park students...took issue with the show’s conclusion that implies that Jim Conley, a black janitor and Frank’s main accuser, was the actual perpetrator of the crimes...”
Students at Point Park determined that they would not be a part of racist propaganda.

2023:

New York City Center (NYCC) has announced that it will present one of the most blatantly deceitful productions ever to appear on an American stage. *Parade purports to be a “true account” of the 1913 rape and strangulation murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan in an Atlanta factory. Leo Frank, the factory manager, was arrested and convicted of the crime.  *This was the first time that a neo-Nazi hate group, The National Socialist Movement, protested the Broadway revival of “Parade.”  They held signs/pamphlets stating that Leo Frank was a pedophile.  

What the management of NYCC may not know is that when they chose to stage the play Parade, they made themselves part of a cynical attempt to rewrite history and to hide one of the most racist chapters in American history. NYCC’s mission statement claims that they are “committed to being an anti-racist organization.” It further states that they will “Conduct internal and external listening and learning sessions to recognize the challenges faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in society while we identify and reject white privilege in all its forms throughout our organization and industry.” Well, if this is so, then Parade represents a firm step by NYCC in the opposite direction.

NYCC chose The Telsey Office to be the casting agency for Parade, and they say this on their website: “We are constantly and endlessly striving to be an actively anti-racist organization through education, communication, and most importantly, measurable action. This includes being unafraid to have uncomfortable conversations...

The New York City Center and The Telsey Office have now made themselves part of that racist campaign.

Even The Telsey Office’s description of Mr. Conley in their casting call is completely inaccurate and full of the same ugly stereotypes promoted by Leo Frank’s defense team.

It reads:
"[JIM CONLEY] Character is male, 20s,
Black. Janitor who works for Leo Frank....
Secretly, he is a convict on the run. Pompous showman with a strong build."
(So much for “constantly and endlessly striving to be an actively anti-racist organization through education.”)

Further, Alfred Uhry’s Parade demands that we ignore sworn testimony of Leo Frank’s sexual crimes against girls and young women, even before the murder of Little Mary Phagan. Frank, it is now clear, was very much the Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein of his era. At least 20 young women and girls Frank employed at the factory he managed testified of how they were victims of his sexual harassment. In 1913, they did not have the #MeToo movement to stand up for them.

Scholars Slam “Fictional” Parade
Frankly, no serious scholars of this case have ever taken Parade as anything other than a made-up fairy tale to advance a political agenda. Boston University professor Dr. Jeffrey Melnick is author of a book about the Leo Frank case, Black–Jewish Relations on Trial: “Uhry has romantic, nostalgic ideas of Southern Jewish culture. I’m pretty critical of him.” “I’m clearly in a strange position of agreeing with a lot of what the Nation of Islam has to say…” In fact, Dr. Melnick was asked directly whether he felt Frank was really guilty. He answered, “I studied all I could and I can’t figure it out still.” Dr. Melnick says of the Nation of Islam book: “They say this really great thing about how Frank has been used, how Frank has been picked up as this 1915 Jewish martyr who then we used to read backwards into Southern history to say Jews have always been in parallel position to African-Americans. It’s not a defensible story. As a Jewish-American raised on stories of victimhood and vulnerability, I recognize the way these
stories are used for sympathy. The Frank case is a zero-sum battle. If Frank didn’t do it, someone black had to do it.”

Journalist Steve Oney is the ADL expert on the case. He penned a book of 742 pages titled The Dead Shall Rise:“Uhry took dramatic license to bring the story to life. It’s a play. It’s not a history. It’s a play based on facts. I don’t think Alfred Uhry would tell you it’s the truth. It’s the truth as they see it, as they dramatized it.”

Alfred Uhry was asked by an interviewer, “What do you
hope people will bring away from this musical?”
UHRY: “If people are touched, I’ve done my job. This is risky. Sometimes I think, ‘OK, this time they’re going to catch me, I have no talent, they’re going to nail me for the fraud I am.’”
EXACTLY.

If one reads the old newspapers, one will not see any mobs or read about any anti-Semitism.  Nowhere can it be found in the original newspapers that there was a “mob outside of the courtroom shouting antisemitic slurs,” as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has promoted for decades with absolutely no proof. Even Frank’s “savior,” Gov. John Slaton, acknowledged that reality and the fact that the Jewish people were respected members of society in Georgia at the time. The religion of Leo Frank played no role in his guilty verdict or his death sentence (execution by hanging) or his lynching. The facts of the murder case and the cache of damning evidence pointed convincingly to Frank having committed a reprehensible crime. Oddly enough, it was Frank’s own mother who brought religion into the trial by embarrassing herself in court with the shouting of anti-Christian slurs at the prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey.

Author Steve Oney is considered by the ADL to be their top authority. He reported: “To the extent that there was bias in the coverage, it was mostly in Frank’s favor…” He goes on to state that Atlanta’s newspapers, “evincing the prejudices of the time, ridiculed the state’s star witness—a black factory janitor named Jim Conley…”
In fact, in the face of damning evidence Atlanta’s media insisted upon Frank’s innocence and sought to reinforce how much integrity he had as the leader of B’nai B’rith. The three Georgian papers, all with Jewish editors, went along with Frank’s defense team in their racist desire to pin the crime on two separate African American men.

The play PARADE refuses to acknowledge the evidence of Leo Frank’s guilt in this horrible crime.

On June 21, 2023, Bill Torphy writes:

OPINION: The Leo Frank case - the ‘Parade’ that won’t end (ajc.com)

Suggests he is tired of the "anti-semitism" scan and never says Frank is innocent nor does he say that Conley is guilty.  Is this a pushback to those in Georgia who demand an exoneration for Frank?

It took seventeen [17] years for Steve Oney to publish his book And the Dead Shall Rise, The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank, published by Pantheon, a division of Random House, October 7, 2003 with 742 pages which starts with the murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old who worked at the National Pencil Factory and ends with the lynching of Leo Frank, superintendent of the factory by a group of vigilantes on August 17, 1915 from an oak tree outside Marietta near the present-day Big Chicken.

Oney is a University of Georgia graduate and then went to Harvard where he was as a Nieman Fellow.  Oney worked for several years as a staff writer at The Atlanta Journal Constitution Magazine before he became a freelance writer for Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, Playboy, GQ, Premiere.

What makes this book different than the others that have been written?

1. Considered to be the Anti -Defamation League [ADL] definitive account of the case without conclusion about Frank's innocence or guilt.
2. NO PROOF AT ALL that “prejudice” or “anti-Semitism” affected the trial.

Claims by the ADL and former governor Roy Barnes, Rabbi Lebow, Jewish Community and others "And there were just mobs of people. And as the jury would go [to] the courthouse every day, the mob would scream, ‘Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you!’ didn't happen!  This is very significant because this particular claim is central to the belief that anti-Semitism infected Frank’s murder trial and tainted the guilty verdict.

But Steve Oney is very, very clear about it:
“[I]t didn’t happen. It was something that someone wrote a couple years after the crime, and then it got stuck into subsequent recountings of the story….Jews were accepted in the city, and the record does not substantiate subsequent reports that the crowd outside the courtroom shouted at the jurors:
‘Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you.’”

3. It is the first published account of an accurate listing of vigilantes who planned and carried out the lynching of Frank.  Oney spoke to numerous Mariettans [Bill Kinney, Associate Editor of Marietta Daily Journal, Judge Luther Hames, George Morris, Lucille Suhr, Lex Jolley, Narvel Lassiter, Bob Garrison, Jimmy T. Anderson, Eugene Herbert Clay, Chuck Clay, Mary Phagan-Kean.] *March 8, 2003 MDJ   

On Thursday, October 9, 2003, Oney was guest speaker at the Marietta Kiwanis Club meeting with approximately 250 people. Notable guests who had ties to the case included:

Georgia Department of Education Program Specialist for Visual Impairments, Mary Phagan-Kean, great-niece of Mary Phagan.

Associate Editor, Bill Kinney, uncle to Cicero Dobbs.

State Senator Chuck Clay, great-nephew of Herbert Clay alleged lynching planner.

Marietta Councilman Andy Morris, great-grandson of. alleged lynching planner Cobb Superior Court Judge Newt Morris.

Realtor James Bolan Glover, kin of alleged planner Bolan Glover Brumby.

Insurance Executive J.F. Shaw, son of alleged lyncher Coon Shaw.

Media Mogul, Tom Watson Brown, great-grandson of Tom Watson who published The Jeffersonian in which his editorials supposedly created the atmosphere to undertake the lynching after Governor Salton commuted Frank's death sentence.

Steve Oney Interview: James Edward Phagan, Sr. and Mary Phagan-Kean at the home of James Edward Phagan Sr. in 1980's before his book was published. [1714 Hudson Woods Trial, Decatur, Georgia] 

Honestly, we were shocked at his depiction of the Phagan Family -Mary Phagan was a "hillbilly"  "cracker" very, very flirtatious, developed for her age.

"Mary would have been one of the prettiest girls in any crowd.  Eyes blue as cornflowers, checks high-boned and rosy, smile beguiling as honeysuckle, figure busty [later, everyone acknowledged that she was exceedingly well-developed for her age], she had undoubtedly already tortured many a boy.  There was simply something about her -a tilt to the chin, a dare in the gaze-that projected those flirtatious wiles that Southern girls often employ to devastating effect.” *Steve Oney quotes Page 25 of the Pinkertons Files on May 13, 1913- those words are not stated.  Mrs. Coleman states that "Mary had not reached puberty, but that the girl was large and well-formed, appearing to be at least sixteen years of age." *Page 3-4 of Oney's book

Mary had worked eleven-hour shifts, five days a week [barring holidays] during the time period from spring 1912 to April 26, 1913 at the National Pencil Company.  The Atlanta Constitution reported that Mary resigned the Thursday, April 24, 1913, before her murder:  Apil 28, 1913. "Mrs. Coleman reports stated that Mary began working at the age of 12 for the National Pencil Company and did not have to work after she married J.W. Coleman" [The Leo Frank Case, 1991 Special Edition, Leonard Dinnerstein page 11]. Nowhere in the record can it be found that Mary "quit school to help out at home.  Or that in 1909, at the age of 10, she'd hired on part-time at a textile mill and in 1911, she'd taken a steady job at a paper manufacturer. [Actually, it was my grandmother, Mary Phagan: Interview March 5, 1987] *Page 5 Oney [Atlanta Georgian, April 28, 1913]- Steve Oney is promoting misinformation as my grandmother, Mary Phagan [Interview 1986] was the one hired at age 10 at a part-time at a textile mill and in 1911 had taken a steady job at a paper manufacturer.

1910 Census which indicates Mary was not working at age 11.

Family History see Chapter 2 pages 9-23 or repeat this?

William Jackson Phagan was born on November 17, 1854, in Hall, Georgia, his mother, Ruth, was 24. He married Angelena "Jelena" O'Shields on February 18, 1872, in Hall, Georgia.

William Jackson Phagan and Angelina O'Shields Phagan, made their home in Acworth, Georgia. Their land off Mars Mill Road was also home to their children: William Joshua, Haney McMellon, Charles Joseph, Reuben Egbert, John Marshall, George Nelson, Lizzie Mary Etta, John Harvell, Mattie Louise, Billie Arthur, and Dora Ruth. Two other children had died during childbirth.  "These children grew up to be very close to one another. Their father, W.J., believed that that was what the family unit was meant to be: by depending on each other and furthering their education, he was sure, the Phagans would get far ahead in the world.  "The eldest son, William Joshua, loved the land and farmed with his father. On December 27, 1891, he married Fannie Benton. The Reverend J.D. Fuller presided over the Holy Bans of Matrimony for them in Cobb County, Georgia. W.J. gave them a portion of the land and a home of their own, and Fannie and William Joshua farmed the land together. They, too, became successful farmers.

"Around 1895, W.J. moved the family to Florence, Alabama. William Joshua and Fannie, now with two young children, Benjamin Franklin and 0llie Mae, moved with them.  "The family's new home, purchased from General Coffee, had been a hospital during the War Between the States. The house needed extensive renovation, but posed no financial burden on the family. W.J., Angelina, and their children lived in the main house; the young couple's new home was not far away.  "The years in Alabama were good for them, especially for William Joshua and Fannie. They had two more children, Charles Bryan and William Joshua, Jr. They continued to farm the land.  "In February of 1899, William Joshua Phagan died of measles. Fannie, who was then six months pregnant, was left with their four young children. She was devastated but kept her courage up: she knew the child she was carrying could be in danger.

On June 1, Mary Anne Phagan was born to Fannie in Florence, Alabama.  "Fannie remained in Alabama long enough for her and her baby daughter to gain their strength. Then she moved her family back home to Georgia, where she planned to live with her widowed mother, Mrs. Nannie Benton, and her brother, Rell Benton."

W.J. Phagan moved his family back to Georgia as well. The death of his eldest son so bereaved him that the family could no longer remain in Alabama. He purchased a log home and land on Powder Springs Road in Marietta. W.J. also provided Fannie with a home for her and her five children to live in. He saw to it that they had no hardships.  "About 1907 the last of the Phagan family left Alabama and returned to Georgia. Reuben Egbert and his family moved back to their native state and remained there for the rest of their lives. W.J. kept an eye on all his children and his grandchildren, and by 1910 had all of them nearby him, as well as financially secure, in Marietta.

Wedding announcement published 9 Aug 1911, in the Atlanta Constitution, for Laura Rogers and WJ Phagan:

1911 Wedding Announcement of William Jackson Phagan

W.J. Phagan House in 1913, Marietta, Georgia.

Phillips-Phagan-Hunt Historic House

Burned down on October 22, 2005.

W.J. Phagan died on November 20, 1914, in Marietta, Georgia, at the age of 60, and was buried in the prominent section of the Marietta City Cemetery where Mary Phagan is also buried.

The Family of Little Mary Phagan & The Truth About the Leo Frank Case is being censored to keep the public away from factual truthful information about Leo Frank. They are trying to blame the victim, Mary Phagan, and sully her reputation. They say, “Why would Mary go to the factory alone knowing of Frank’s reputation?”
The fact is Mary didn't see the notices posted at the Pencil Company on Friday that Saturday was a holiday, and the help would be paid off Friday evening.  Mary Phagan, had been laid off the previous Monday, April 21, 1913, as a result of a shortage of brass sheet metal supplies. Not having been at the factory since the metal tips had run out, Mary had not seen the notice and reported at the usual hour on Saturday.

Certainly, Frank was a sexual pervert, but until then he had not shown himself to be violent and he had not been known to murder. Several other girls were also coming in that Saturday for their pay, and despite the holiday, many people had come to the factory for other business-related activities. Literally, just minutes before she arrived in Frank’s office two other female workers, a secretary, the office boy, a janitor, and the factory foreman had been there performing various tasks. Yet another woman was at the factory visiting her husband who was working on the above floor. So Mary could never have believed she was in danger. She planned to collect her pay and go on her way to see the Confederate Memorial Day parade.

NBC plans Leo Frank miniseries

On March 22, 1987, the Atlanta Journal and Atlanta Constitution by Monte Plott

"We had a script in 1982, but there was a change in management at the network and they said people don't want historic things.  They want [ed] contemporary realism, Stevens said.  "Now, there is renewed interest in the historical miniseries and in this case."  And in June 1987, Stevens also had the "codicil of Frank's exoneration [pardon without addressing guilt or innocence]" which changed the network in loving the idea and bought a four-hour miniseries.

This verifies that the Tennessean special supplement "AN INNOCENT MAN WAS LYNCHED'" and Alonzo Mann's appearance before the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, THAT THE TENNSESSEAN STAFF INITIATED PLANS FOR A BOOK, AND HAD EVEN SPOKEN TO A PRODUCER FOR A TELEVISION MINISERIES.

I realized that my father's prediction of more books being written about the case and television miniseries was beginning to come true.

Before NBC announced, "The Murder of Mary Phagan as a historical docudrama/miniseries to be released in January 1988, Tom Watson Brown (great grandson of Tom Watson) and I were able to review the teleplay which originally was titled "The Ballad of Mary Phagan" and wrote to inform them of the inaccuracies. Technical assistance was offered to NBC but was turned down.

The teleplay was based on Harry Golden's A Little Girl Is Dead, 1965 which had factual errors on every single page and even included the same misspelling of names.

Steve Oney who published his book And the Dead Shall Rise, The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank, 2003 had the opportunity to read a good deal of the teleplay:  "It is inaccurate in many, many points, both specific and in the larger spirit and it takes immense liberties. [Miniseries stirs Phagan controversy, AC, January 7, 1988]

Regrettably George Stevens, Jr. and Jeffrey Lane chose to ignore the truth and did not conduct any historical research regarding the rape- murder of Mary Phagan, the conviction of Leo Frank in 1913 and his lynching in 1915 even though they stated, "some aspects of the case have been changed, scenes have been invented and composite characters created, but they maintain that the miniseries is essentially truthful."[Phil Kloer, Atlanta Constitution, January 7, 1988, Miniseries stirs Phagan Controversy]

The only facts not disputed- Mary Phagan was found murdered in the basement of the National Pencil Factory; Leo Frank, superintendent was arrested, tried and convicted; Slaton Commutation sentences Leo Frank to life in prison and Leo Frank was lynched. And the nightmares continued.

Ironically, The Today Show on NBC contacted my publisher, Joan Dunphy and requested an interview regarding my book Murder of Little Mary Phagan which was recently released the week before on January 25, 1988.   Robert Seitz Frey, The Silent and the Damned, 1988 appeared as well. We were interviewed by Deborah Norville from Dalton Georgia.

Bill Kinney; January 31, 1988
Marietta Daily Journal After a delayed flight from New York to Atlanta, "Mary Phagan- Kean told the Metro Marietta Kiwanis Club (MDJ Phagan-Kean calls Series 'inaccurate and boring'" "Mary Phagan's great-niece says miniseries isn't history (January 26 & 27, 1988), after viewing Part II that she was 'banking on the intelligence of the American People' and it is a totally fictionalized and Hollywoodized account- the portrayal of the Phagan's as a poor family, John Phagan, Mary's father died before Mary was born, Mary Phagan fighting for her life and Fannie Phagan Coleman spitting in the face of  the private detective William J. Burns'." Skip Chesshire, a Kiwanis member:  "I was impressed with her poise and the fact she answered each question as honestly as she could.  It made me very skeptical of the docudrama on TV after hearing the great-niece of the little girl actually murdered."

Marietta Daily Journal Associate Editor Bill Kinney has covered Cobb County for over 40 years and is a recognized expert on the Leo Frank case.

"Mary Phagan 'docudrama' is more fiction than fact" [January 26, 1988]

"The 'docudrama' is an idea whose time has never come.  It should quickly become a thing of the past."

"Some well-known name's were sullied by miniseries" [January 31,1988]

"NBC's nationally televised docudrama on 'The Murder of Little Mary Phagan' was a great work of fiction with an incredible string of misstatements and distortions of fact that characterized the first South-bashing episode."

"NBC missed the Frank case's ABCs [February 2, 1988] "The miniseries falsely puts the Phagan family in a bad light."

"It's deplorable that a great TV network has so little regard for factual presentation or historical accuracy. It's painful to have to again rehash the historical facts."

Matthew H. Bernstein, Screening a Lynching, University of Georgia Press, 2009 stated that Mary Phagan-Kean's comments to the Metro Marietta Kiwanis Club were "seconded by Celestine Sibley by beloved local columnist who had authored a five-part series on the case for the Constitution twelve years earlier."

Celestine Sibley, [The Atlanta Constitution, January 29, 1988] has been interested in the Phagan-Frank case for years-to the extent of researching and writing a five-part series years ago (1978) and read most of the books, newspapers of the day and transcript of the trial and interviewed many people, some of whom knew firsthand details of the life and time of the principals, if not the deaths.

"And now I'm sorry I sat up late two nights to at television's miniseries, 'The Murder of Mary Phagan'.  What a terrible thing to do, using the skills of fine actors and technical crews for one of those 'based on productions!'"

"That 'based on true story' label won't wash.  Using the real name of people and places and the fictionalizing their character and actions left this viewer reeling with confusion.  How much was true? How much in expedient concoction to scriptwriters?'"

"I was glad that they finally worked in Fiddling' John Carson's singing 'Death of Mary Phagan' outside the trial, but when the entire courtroom full of people got to their feet and started singing a hymn like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City, I burst into laughter.'"

Georgia experts on the case Bill Kinney and Celestine Sibley book reviews:  The Murder of Little Mary Phagan by Mary Phagan, 1987.

Bill Kinney: Marietta Daily Journal, April 24, 1988:

"Ms. Phagan's book is a valuable contribution to the literature on the case, not only because it furnishes heretofore generally unknown information about the victim, the Phagan family and their beliefs about Frank and Conley, but also because Ms. Phagan recites the facts pertaining to the case.  It is clear from the narrative that the author, unlike so many other people who have assessed the case. has studied. Indeed, the failing of much that has been written on the Frank case is the authors' reliance on inaccurate or exaggerated summaries of the trial, rather than an independent reviews of the Coroner's Inquest and transcripts of the trial itself. As such, her book, besides containing a touching story of a family's grief, contains historical fact that created the emotions that still rage today.  It is be regretted that the publisher (submitted by the author) did not include an index.  The annoyance of the absence of footnotes is largely offset by clear references to sources in the text."

Celestine Sibley:   Atlanta Journal Constitution, June 12, 1988

"The Murder of Little Mary Phagan", the first book to be written by a member of the slain child's family, and a rather scholarly study of the case...Mary Phagan's is perhaps the most readable and certainly the most thorough recapitulation of the case...Determined to learn all about the case that brought ever-fresh pain to her family, the current Mary Phagan, a Marietta teacher of the blind, spent 10 years collecting evidence in the case and interviewed surviving principals...including Alonzo Mann whose testimony resulted in a posthumous pardon for Frank (without addressing his guilt or innocence)from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles in 1983....Phagan herself strives for objectivity ending her story with questions: 'Will we ever know with complete certainty who killed Mary Phagan?  Has the answer gone to the grave with all the participants in the tragedy?'"

In 1994, Marietta City Cemetery erected historical markers throughout the cemetery from research by Curt Ratledge of Atlanta. [From historic Old Midway Church to Marietta, in Georgia: 1778-1897, April 24, 1992]

So what grave is the most visited?

Mary Phagan's grave.

The marker standing by the grave of Miss Phagan reads:

"Celebrated in song as 'Little Mary Phagan' after her murder on Confederate Memorial Day 1913 in Atlanta.  Grave marked by CSA veterans in 1915.  Tribute by Tom Watson set 1933.  Leo Frank sentenced to hand, granted clemency before lynching Aug. 17, 1915.  His 1986 pardon based on the State's failure to protect him/apprehend killers, not on Frank's innocence."

The City Parks and Tourism Committee, Marietta City Council, and Jewish Community connived to revise and censor history in 1995. 

The marker was changed to "bamboozle" the public into believing Leo Frank was pardoned for Mary Phagan's murder because the Jewish Community was offended that the marker stated the truth - Leo Frank was not given a pardon for his innocence of the murder of Mary Phagan.

Marker change:

Transcription of The Marietta Daily Journal, Saturday, December 2nd, 1995

Family of Mary Phagan protests marker change

Without a formal vote and with the press absent, Marietta City Council has changed the inscription on the city's historic marker at the grave of rape-murder victim Mary Phagan in the Marietta City Cemetery. The Phagan family is blaming Councilman Philip Goldstein.

The descendants of Miss Phagan are upset because the family was not notified before or after the change, and only learned of it on a cemetery-cleaning visit. The family says the newly-placed marker - which sits on a city-maintained path near the grave and is not to be confused with Miss Phagan's ornate tombstone, which makes no mention of the circumstances of her death - omits the reason for the 1986 posthumous pardon given Leo Frank.

Frank - Miss Phagan's boss - was convicted in 1913 by a Fulton Superior Court jury of the 13-year-old girl's murder in an Atlanta pencil factory and sentenced to hang. When Gov. John Slaton commuted Frank's sentence to life in 1915, a group of Marietta men abducted Frank from the state prison near Milledgeville and lynched him near what is now the Big Chicken on Frey's Gin Road in Marietta.

The Phagan family initially opposed placing a marker at their ancestor's grave, fearing there would be increased damage to the cemetery plot and curiosity seekers would leave graffiti. That hasn't happened. Late Mayor Joe Mack Wilson told east Cobb resident and Cherokee County special education teacher Mary Phagan Keen, a great-niece of Mary Phagan, that the grave was the most sought by visitors to Marietta and should have a marker, along with several other notable graves in the cemetery.

Mayor Wilson told the Phagan family the city would let them approve the text of the marker. The family insisted the unusual conditions of Frank's 1986 pardon be explained. That was done. Now controversy has arisen because that portion of the marker has been changed.

The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board in 1983 turned down a request for a pardon based on Frank's alleged innocence. Frank's former office boy, Alonzo Mann, told two Nashville Tennesseean newsmen he saw black janitor Jim Conley holding a limp body in his arms the day of the murder. In its 1983 denial of a pardon for Frank, the board said after Mann's testimony it "did not find conclusive evidence proving beyond any doubt that Frank was innocent."

A new parole board then granted Frank a pardon in 1986 on the grounds the state did not protect him in prison, thereby allowing him to be lynched and thus ending any further court appeals. Frank's conviction was appealed unsuccessfully by his lawyers three times to the Georgia Supreme Court and twice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 1986 pardon said: "Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the state's failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state's failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds...the board hereby grants to Leo M. Frank a pardon." The family opposed the 1986 pardon, and now is irked at the council and Goldstein.

"We are as much a victim as the family of Leo Frank," said Ms. Keen. For 80 years, we have been the object of the curosity[sic]-seekers and subjected to unfair and untrue books and TV docudramas. The current council didn't show the same respect to us as did Mayor Wilson and a previous council." Ms. Keen's father, James Phagan, said the action was "extremely insensitive of the council" and "disingenuous of Councilman Goldstein. How can you separate Mary Phagan and Leo Frank?" he asked. "Can you mention the Holocaust and not mention Hitler? It's simply pandering by Councilman Goldstein to a segment of the community. It's another effort to change history."

The inscription change was made by the Parks and Tourism Committee chaired by Councilman Dan Cox. Members are Councilwoman Betty Hunter and Goldstein. The full council OK'd the action. Cox admitted the committee had yielded to "political pressure" by Goldstein and the Jewish community. Calling the change "a no-win situation," Cox said he reluctantly consented to the change "because it offended a part of the community."

On the 80th anniversary of Frank's lynching Aug. 17, a group of Jewish leaders led by Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth in east Cobb said the historic marker at Mary Phagan's grave should be removed. The group placed a small plaque in the side of the VPI Corp. building owned by Roy Varner at 1200 Roswell St., near the site of Frank's lynching. The plaque reads: "Wrongly Accused, Falsely Convicted and Wantonly Murdered." Attending the ceremony were Marietta Councilmen Goldstein and James Dodd, who told Jewish leaders they would look into removing the line of the marker that refers to the pardon conditions.

"This is a plaque that marks the grave of Mary Phagan," said Goldstein. "The last two lines deal with information on Leo Frank, and it's not his grave." Goldstein was quoted in the Jewish Times as saying: "The wording is factually correct. The mention of Frank on Phagan's marker should be deleted because it is irrelevant, not because it upsets the Jewish community."

It was Dodd who brought the matter before council, supported by Goldstein. "This is a lose-lose situation for me," Goldstein said. The marker referring to the condition of Frank's pardon has been removed and replaced with a previous marker the Phagan family had objected to.

New Marker Placed at Mary Phagan's Grave in 2016 by Family to counter the current Historical Marker.

Little Mary Phagan

Mary Phagan, daughter of Fannie and John Phagan, was born on June 1, 1899 in Florence Alabama.   She was a beautiful little girl with a fair complexion, blue eyes, dimples, long reddish brown hair, and was jovial, happy, and thoughtful toward others.

On April 26, 1913, Mary planned to go up the National Pencil Company to pick up her pay of $1.20 and then watch the Confederate Memorial Day Parade.  She told her mother she would be home after the parade.   Mary did not return home that afternoon and was found raped and murdered in the basement of the National Pencil Company around 3:00 a.m. on April 27, 1913.   Mary was 13 years old.

Leo Frank, Superintendent of the National Pencil Company was arrested, tried, and convicted for the rape and murder of Mary Phagan.   Leo Frank was lynched August 17, 1915 by the Knights of Mary Phagan.  No Phagan was involved in the lynching.

The 1986 pardon does not exonerate Leo Frank for the murder of “Little Mary Phagan”.

Little Mary Phagan is not forgotten.

Little Mary Phagan and Phagan Family Gravesite 2023 Marietta City Cemetery

'Will we ever know with complete certainty who killed Mary Phagan?  Has the answer gone to the grave with all the participants in the tragedy?'"

It has been 37 years since the first book was published in 1988.   Unfortunately, Horizon Press chose not to publish the bibliography and index. This revision now includes the updated bibliography and index.

Much of the information published on the case since 1987 has been distorted by Broadway, Hollywood, journalism and academic propaganda which have profited from retelling these related historical events about Georgia's past in a biased and slanted matter to present Leo Frank and the Jewish community as central victim of this true crime when in fact Mary Phagan was the true victim.

Bill Kinney, known authority of the Leo Frank lynching spoke in 1990 to the Marietta Rotary Club:

"What modern day journalists write about the Frank Case; they lose sight it happened 77 years ago.  They try to relate and equate it to today's Cobb County.

Many of us who have studied the trial transcript believe the jury had little choice from the evidence presented except to convict Frank.

If the Frank evidence were put out to a jury today, Frank probably still would be found guilty."

The Phagan family has no objection to anyone expressing their opinions about the Frank case, but we do insist that organizations and personal campaigns not distort the truth and facts to use this case for their own political purposes. For over 110 years, each passing decade brought with it “new historical evidence” falsely claiming to exonerate Leo Frank. The Phagan family has stated since 1915 that if there were clear-cut evidence to clear Frank of this heinous crime, we would come forward and ask for exoneration. However, such historical evidence has never come to light. Rather, there are considerable data, extensive documentation, revealing
archival material, and legal, court, and government records that only support and even strengthen the guilty verdict.

During the Pandemic [November 16, 2019 - May 5, 2023, The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020 and assessed the outbreak had become a pandemic on 11 March 2020. The WHO ended the PHEIC on 5 May 2023.]

Georgia Governor Kemp signed an executive order for mandatory "Shelter in Place for Georgians" due to COVID-19 from 6 p.m. on Friday, April 3 through Monday, April 13, 2020, and extended to April 30, 2020. [Press Release, Georgia Governor, Brian P. Kemp, Office of the Governor]

April 30, 2020

[Press Release, Georgia Governor, Brian P. Kemp, Office of the Governor]

"To protect vulnerable populations, I will sign an order today requiring medically fragile and elderly Georgians to continue to shelter in place through June 12, 2020. 

During the Pandemic, I continued my research and  verified my oral history with written evidence and  discovered that there was fabrication of data and misrepresentation of historical sources and academic malfeasance [hoaxes]many of the books written by Jewish American Revisionist Scholars [someone who examines and tries to change existing beliefs about how events happened or what their importance or meaning by deliberately and purposely using deceitful, dishonest, fraudulent, underhanded, hiding information secret from public knowledge] with regards to the murder of my great-aunt Mary Phagan.

Leonard Dinnerstein was an American historian and author. He was a professor at the University of Arizona and was a specialist on Antisemitism in the United States.  His book, The Leo Frank Case, 1968 was based on his dissertation about the lynching of Leo Frank.  Most scholars/authors who study the case refer to Dinnerstein's book as the standard work and parrot his malfeasances/hoaxes even today.

Clark Freshman's thesis: Beyond Pontius Pilate and Judge Lynch: The Pardoning Power in Theory and Practice as Illustrated in the Leo Frank Case, March 1986, Harvard College challenges Leonard Dinnerstein "Hang the Jew" sources in the Notes Section #13:

Macon Daily Telegraph, August 27, 1913, Dinnerstein makes the claim that crowds at the trial itself shouted "Hang the Jew"; based upon a newspaper reaction to Slaton's commutation published in New Castle, Pennsylvania, itself based on a interview with "an Atlantan" not at the time of the trial, but after the commutation in 1915.

Leonard Dinnerstein, The Leo Frank Case, (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1960), pages 192-193.  It should also be noted that Dinnerstein here, as elsewhere, relies not on actual newspaper clippings of the time, but on a collection of scrapbooks of newspaper clippings that Governor Slaton's family has deposited at the Georgia State Archives.  Indeed although the scrapbooks do contain editorials both for and against the commutation in Frank's case, historical objectivity should caution against acceptance without verification.  Despite the paucity of evidence for the claim "Hang the Jew", later supporters of Frank have relied on this as typifying the atmosphere around the case.  See, for example, "Application for a Posthumus Pardon for Leo M. Frank," files of the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, hereafter "Posthumous Pardon Application"; and, most recently, in the coverage of the recent Frank pardon, "Georgia Pardons Victim 70 years after Lynching," New York Times, March 12, 1986: A 16.

Leonard Dinnerstein did not have supporting evidence or verification of "Hang the Jew" but rather invented the malfeasance/hoax.  Leonard Dinnerstein has committed academic fraud as he misrepresented historical sources, and The Leo Frank Case book should no longer be a valid or reputable source.

In 2014, a student studying the case sent Mr. Dinnerstein the below message in response to me asking him about the Wikipedia article on Frank. He did admit that there wasn't enough evidence to substantiate the "Hang the Jew" claim, which I have bolded below.

In 1991, Alan M. Dershowitz wrote the Introduction for the Leonard Dinnerstein’s revised edition of his 1968 book, The Leo Frank Case which promotes malfeasances/hoaxes which are italicized.

Introduction
By Alan M. Dershowitz

The trial, conviction, death sentence and its commutation and eventual lynching of Leo Frank during the second decade of the twentieth century, constitute a major episode not only in American legal history, but also in the development of American political institutions. The Knights of Mary Phagan, formed to avenge the murder of the young factory worker for which Frank was convicted, became an important component of the twentieth century resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith was founded in reaction to the anti-Semitism generated – or at least disclosed – by the Frank case.

Sometimes characterized as the American “Dreyfus” case (a reference to the frame-up of a French Jew which fanned the flames of nineteenth century European anti-Semitism), the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta, Georgia was conducted in a carnival atmosphere. Crowds outside the courthouse sang “The Ballad of Mary Phagan,” which included the following lyrics:

Little Mary Phagan

She left her home one day;
She went to the pencil-factory
To see the big parade.

She left her home at eleven,
She kissed her mother good-by;
Not one time did the poor child think
That she was a-going to die.

Leo Frank he met her
With a brutish heart, we know;
He smiled, and said, “Little Mary,
You won’t go home no more.”

Sneaked along behind her
Till she reached the metal-room;
He laughed, and said, “Little Mary,
You have met your fatal doom.”

Down upon her knees
To Leo Frank she plead;
He taken a stick from the trash-pile
And struck her across the head.

Crowds inside the courtroom shouted anti-Jewish epithets, and demanded Frank’s death. The smell of the lynch mob was in the air.

The State’s star witness was a black maintenance worker at the factory which Frank managed and at which Mary Phagan worked. He testified that Frank killed the young girl and ordered him to dispose of the body. When the jury convicted Frank, it was the first time in memory that a white man had been convicted of murder on the basis of uncorroborated testimony of a black witness. This apparent advance in racial justice was explained away by a local observer who said: “That wasn’t a white man convicted by that N…’s testimony. It was a Jew.”

Predictably, Frank was convicted, sentenced to death and denied relief on appeal, despite some critical dissenting words from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. Unpredictably, the Governor of Georgia decided to commute Frank’s death sentence and leave him to serve out a term of life imprisonment. That appeared to be a great victory for Frank and his many supporters around the country, since the evidentiary foundation underlying Frank’s conviction was beginning to crumble as a result of the discovery of new evidence strongly suggesting that it was the government’s star witness – and not Frank – who had killed the victim. It seemed only a matter of time before Frank would be freed from his imprisonment.

In order to prevent Frank’s freedom, several of the “best” citizens of Georgia – including a minister, two former Supreme Court Justices, and an ex-sheriff – decided to take the law into their own hands. They constituted themselves as a vigilante committee and let it be known that they intended to kidnap Frank from prison and lynch him. Despite some perfunctory efforts by prison authorities to protect Frank, the lynch mob had little difficulty breaking into the prison and kidnapping Frank. It was obvious that at least some of the prison authorities were in on the plan. Frank was taken to Marietta, where he was lynched. Everyone knew exactly who was involved in the lynching – indeed some members of the lynch mob boasted about their participation and gave interviews to the press. Photographs of the lynching and souvenir pieces of the rope were sold throughout Georgia. Nonetheless, the coroner’s jury investigating the murder of Leo Frank concluded that it was unable to identify any of the perpetrators. This was typical of lynchings in the South during that era. The only difference is that this victim was not black.

There is a fascinating and largely unknown ethical story behind the public legal story of the Frank case. I use it as a teaching vehicle in my course on legal ethics. It turns out that while Leo Frank was on death row, one of Atlanta’s most prominent lawyers learned that Frank was innocent and that another man – presumably the government’s star witness – was the killer. We do not know for certain whether the real killer confessed directly to the lawyer, or to another lawyer who then sought ethical advice from the pillar of the bar. This is the way the eminent lawyer described it in his own writings:

I am one of the few people who know that Leo Frank was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted and lynched. Subsequent to the trial, and after his conviction had been affirmed by the Supreme Court, I learned who killed Mary Phagan, but the information came to me in such a way that, though I wish I could do so, I can never reveal it so long as certain persons are alive. We lawyers, when we are admitted to the bar, take an oath never to reveal the communications made to us by our clients; and this includes facts revealed in an attempt to employ the though he refuses the employment….The Law on this subject may or may not be a wise law – there are some who think that it is not – but naturally since it is the law, we lawyers and the judges cannot honorably disobey it.

The eminent lawyer (and any other lawyer who may have received the real killer’s confession in confidence) was forced into the most excruciating legal, ethical and moral dilemma a professional can possibly confront. The ethical rules of the profession are fairly clear. There is no available exception to the rule mandating confidentiality of privileged communications about past crimes. It is not a future crime for a guilty client to remain silent while an innocent man goes to his death for the murder committed by a silent, guilty client. The issue is a bit more complicated if the confessing client was, in fact, the witness who testified against Frank, for the client would then be confessing to perjury. Some courts and commentators have suggested that allowing perjured testimony to remain unrecanted, while the victim of the perjury remains under a death or prison sentence, may constitute a continuing fraud on the court, and thus an exception to the lawyer-client privilege. But that line of authority is hazy at best, and the eminent lawyer did not apparently consider it. He saw the legal and professional ethics issue as simple and straightforward. That still left the moral and personal issue of whether any human being – regardless of his or her profession – can and should allow a preventable miscarriage of justice to be carried out, especially in a capital case. My students in legal ethics generally split down the middle over whether they would violate the rules of the profession – engage in an act of civil disobedience against their own client – in order to save an innocent non-client.

In a typically lawyer-like way, the eminent lawyer in the real case apparently saw to it that the governor learned the information known to him, but without his own “fingerprints” being on the communication. This is how he put it: “Without ever having discussed with Governor Slaton the facts which were revealed to me, I have reason to believe, from a thing contained in the statement he made in connection with the grant of the commutation, that, in some way, these facts came to him and influenced his action.” But the eminent lawyer’s compromise did not work. Although the governor did commute Leo Frank’s sentence, he was not able to persuade a vengeful public of Frank’s innocence. I doubt that Frank would have been lynched had the eminent lawyer come forward and disclosed his information. Instead, his client would almost certainly have been lynched. The complexity of ethical and moral issues in the law can rarely be resolved by simple compromise solutions of the kind attempted by the lawyer in the Frank case. Indeed some such issues have no entirely satisfactory solutions.

Nearly seventy years after Leo Frank’s murder, new evidence of his innocence emerged. An eighty-two-year old man, who have been a youthful eyewitness to events surrounding the killing of Mary Phagan, finally came forward and told what he had seen back in 1913. His evidence contradicted the State’s star witness and strongly suggested that the murder was committed by that same witness, the black maintenance man. The murderer threatened the young witness with death if he ever mentioned what he had observed, and he did not come forward for all those years. Now, he has told his story and it seems to have persuaded most objective people that Leo Frank was lynched for a crime committed by someone else.

Finally, in 1986 Frank was posthumously pardoned with following official apology: “The lynching aborted the legal process, thus foreclosing further effort to prove Frank’s innocence. It resulted from the State of Georgia’s failure to protect Frank. Compounding the injustice, the State then failed to prosecute any of the lynchers.” Remarkably, some Georgians continued to resist the pardon.

Alan Dershowitz

Cambridge, Massachusetts
January 11, 1991

Source: Dinnerstein, Leonard. The Leo Frank Case. Notable Trials Library edition, 1991.

Plants by Defense

Sexual Assault

Bitemarks

Murder Notes

Shit in the Shaft

Exodus of Jews

Appeals

Slaton

Knights of Mary Phagan

Judges:  I am one of the few.......

Movies/Plays

Smearing of Mary Phagan

Censorship

Yellow Journalism

Night Witch

These malfeasances of historical revisionism are a reinterpretation of historical accounts: distortion of the historical record such that events appear to have occurred and/or impacted history in a way that is it a drastic disagreement with the historical record and usually meant to advance a socio-political view or agenda. [definition of historical revisionism]

Each of these malfeasances [hoaxes]are addressed in this revision.

Leo Frank was indicted by a grand jury that included four of the five Jewish members [Sol. Benjamin, A.L. Guthman, George A. Gershon, and Albert Boylston] and was tried and convicted by a 12-man jury and the death sentence was imposed by the judge. His lawyers appealed his case to the highest levels of the US court system and was denied each time. The Georgia Board of Prisons, the agency responsible for recommending commutation of sentences, recommended that Frank’s sentence NOT be commuted but the governor, who was part of the firm representing him, took it upon himself to commute Frank’s sentence to life imprisonment only four days before the end of his term. Slaton claimed he was correcting Judge Roan’s mistake. The judge had recently passed away, but he had allegedly written a letter just before his death in which he said he wasn’t convinced of Frank’s guilt.  Yet he had pronounced the death sentence on Frank rather than taking a position of clemency and sentencing him to life and had several chances to amend the sentence or grant Frank’s request for a new trial. Judge Roan’s family believed the letter was a forgery. The doctor who ran the New York sanitorium where he was being treated swore in an affidavit that he had been of sound mind when he dictated the letter to a staff member.