Dramatis Personae/Who’s Who: Final

Word Count: 5739 Words, Reading Time: 20 Minutes

Last Updated on October 10, 2024 by Mary Phagan

Dramatis Personae/Who's Who

Alexander, Henry A. – lawyer added by Albert Lasker to Leo Frank’s defense team during the appeals process; Hugh M. Dorsey’s Jewish college roommate; “negrologist” who doctored photocopies of murder notes.

American Jewish Committee – founded in 1906 by German Jewish elites to safeguard Jewish rights worldwide. Its members would work behind the scenes to build a nationwide coalition of influential Jews who could raise funds for the Leo Frank defense and shape public opinion. Its executive committee included notables Louis Marshall, Cyrus Adler, Cyrus Sulzberger, Julian Mack, Jacob Schiff, and Julius Rosenwald.

Anderson, W. F. – Atlanta policeman and call officer who responded to the crime scene.

Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith – a.k.a. the ADL; founded in 1913, the Jewish defense organization claims the Leo Frank case as its raison d’être.

Arnold, Reuben – co-counsel with Luther Rosser on Leo Frank’s defense team. His firm’s most lucrative client was the Atlanta Journal.

Atlanta, Ga. – known as the Gate City to the South, it became Georgia’s capital in 1868 and was the seat of Fulton County; founded in 1837 and officially incorporated as a city in 1847. It was by 1900 the largest city in the state and the third largest in the Southeast; owes its origins to two important developments in the 1830s: the forcible removal of the Indigenous peoples (principally the Creek and Cherokee nations) from northwest Georgia and the extension of railroad lines—the lifeblood of Atlanta—into Georgia’s interior. At the time of the Civil War, Atlanta boasted a population of almost 10,000 (one-fifth of whom were slaves), and after the Civil War Atlanta had the largest population of Jews of any city in the South.

Atlanta Constitution – daily newspaper, published and edited by Clark Howell; 1912 circulation of 41,405. Jacob Dewey Gortatowsky was its Jewish managing editor at the time of the Leo Frank Case. Over a twenty-four-year period beginning in 1876, the famed folklorist-writer Joel Chandler Harris had written thousands of articles for the paper.

Atlanta Georgian – daily newspaper owned by Wm. Randolph Hearst (purchased by Hearst from founder Fred L. Seely, in 1912); on Sunday published as Hearst’s Sunday American. For the initial two years under Hearst, first Keats Speed and then Foster Coates were its editors; Michael D. Clofine was its Jewish city editor at the time of the Leo Frank Case; pre-Hearst circulation of 38,000; just before Mary Phagan’s murder, circulation of 60,000. Under founding editor John Temple Graves, one of several Atlanta newspapers that “whipped whites into a frenzy” of race violence in 1906.

Atlanta Journal – published by James R. Gray until his untimely death in 1917; circulation of 52,000 in 1912. John Sanford Cohen was its Jewish managing editor at the time of the Leo Frank Case. U.S. Senator Hoke Smith was the organ’s founder and former owner; one of several Atlanta newspapers that “whipped whites into a frenzy” of race violence in 1906.

Atlanta Massacre of 1906 – a white riot that resulted in the massacre of scores of innocent Black men, women, and children. Incitement of the riot was attributed to Georgia governor Hoke Smith and the city’s newspaper editors, including Georgian editor John T. Graves and the Journal’s John S. Cohen.

Atlanta Police Department – Its detective bureau was reorganized in 1885: 1 captain, 1 sergeant, 8 detectives; first police wagon purchased in1886; an eight-hour workday was adopted for police in 1889; in 1896 the detective department was reorganized, and the Bertillon system of identification through skull and hand measurements used for the first time by detectives; bicycle squad organized in 1897; in 1911 James L. Beavers was elected chief, and the police department acquired its first motorized vehicles, motorcycles and auto patrol wagons; in 1915 Chief William M. Mayo establishes first police school of intensive instruction.

B’nai B’rith – Independent Order B’nai B’rith, or Sons of the Covenant, was founded in New York City by 12 German-American Jews in October 1843. In 1913 Leo M. Frank was president of its 400 to 500-member Gate City Lodge No. 144, District No. 5 (Atlanta), the most prestigious Jewish fraternal order in the city. Held its 1914 national convention in Atlanta; published the racist B’rith magazine.

Bailey, Gordon “Snowball” – laborer employed at the National Pencil Company; arrested the morning of Monday, April 28, 1913, on suspicion; defense witness.

Barnes, Roy- Governor of Georgia 1999-2003; calls for exoneration of Leo Frank in 2015; helped establish Conviction Integrity Unit in Fulton County with Fulton County District Attorney, Paul Howard for purpose of exonerating Leo Frank; Memorial service for Leo Frank in 2024 for Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis to move Leo Frank case to Innocence Project for exoneration; attorney for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis regarding Georgia Senate Committee investigation.

Barrett, R. P. – 18-year-old National Pencil Company machinist who found the hair evidence on his machine the Monday after the murder; worked 8 weeks in the factory metal department; witness sworn for the State.

Beavers, James L. – had risen through the ranks to become Atlanta Police Chief in 1911.

Beck, L. H. – president of Beck & Gregg, Atlanta’s largest hardware company; foreman of the grand jury that indicted Leo M. Frank; Albert McKnight’s employer.

Benjamin, Sol – one of five Jews on the grand jury that indicted Leo Frank.

Black, John R. – Atlanta police detective.

Bowen, Paul – was arrested in Houston, Texas, on May 5th on suspicion of Mary Phagan’s murder.

Bricker, Rev. Luther Otterbein – In 1910 he was called to First Christian Church of Atlanta, where he served for fifteen years until 1925.

Brown, Joseph M. – former Georgia governor, 1911–1913; a leading citizen of Marietta, Ga., hometown of the murder victim, Mary Phagan.

Brown, R. J. – Atlanta police sergeant and morning watch commander who responded to the crime scene. A 20-year veteran of the Atlanta Police Dept.

Brown, Tom Watson-great-grandson of Tom Watson; Atlanta attorney, historian and scholar; researcher; advocate of Leo Frank's guilt.

Burke, C. W. – Burns operative, who “discovered” the infamous Carter letters.

Burke, J. M. – superintendent, State Prison Farm at Milledgeville, Ga.

Burns, William J. – famous private detective whose firm was hired by Leo Frank; indicted by Fulton County grand jury for subornation of perjury. His license was revoked by Atlanta City Council; his accreditation rescinded by International Association of Police Chiefs. Appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation (forerunner of the FBI) in 1921 and forced to resign in 1924 for his role in the Teapot Dome Scandal.

Campbell, Patrick (Pat) – Atlanta police detective.

Campbell, Wade – was at the National Pencil factory the morning of the murder; brother of Mrs. J. Arthur White; had worked for the factory for about a year and a half by the time he testified at Leo Frank’s trial; defense witness.

Carson, Irene – worked for fifteen months on the fourth floor of the pencil factory; sister of Rebecca Carson and daughter of Mrs. E. M. Carson; defense witness.

Carson, Mrs. E. M. – Three-year employee at the National Pencil Company; mother of Rebecca and Irene Carson; defense witness.

Carson, Rebecca – Three-year employee at the National Pencil Company; forewoman who worked in the factory’s sorting department, on the fourth floor; defense witness.

Carter, Anna “Annie” Maud(e) – Burns operative, implicated in infamous “Carter Letters” scheme. Had served a 6-month sentence at the Fulton County Tower jail, where Leo Frank was incarcerated.

Cato, Myrtice – witness sworn for the State; worked on the fourth floor of the pencil factory.

Chambers, Philip – 15-year-old office boy at the pencil factory, where he worked from Dec. 12, 1912, until the time Alonzo Mann was employed.

Civil War – The war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865. Also called the War Between the States.

Clofine, Michael D. – Jewish city editor of the Atlanta Georgian (and Hearst's Sunday American) at the time of the Leo Frank Case. A “constant visitor of Frank” at the Tower jail.

Cobb County Times – first published in 1916 by Otis A. Brumby, Sr.; merged with the Marietta (Daily) Journal in 1951.

Cohen, John S. – managing editor of the Atlanta Journal; the son of a rabbi; “high in the councils of the Ku Klux Klan” and one of several newspaper editors who “whipped whites into a frenzy” of race hate that ultimately led to the white riot of 1906; in 1917 became the Journal’s president and editor in chief.

Coleman, Fannie (Benton) Phagan – mother of Mary Phagan and her older sister Ollie Mae and brothers Benjamin, Charles, and William Joshua, Jr.; widowed three months before Mary’s birth; married J.W. Coleman on Feb. 25, 1912.

Coleman, John W. – cabinet maker; stepfather of Mary Phagan.

Collier’s Weekly – had a weekly circulation of one million; the popular magazine was considered as important as the New York Times in Frank’s PR campaign.

Confederacy – a.k.a. the Confederate States of America; it was the separate government formed by eleven southern states of the United States of America between 1861 and 1865.

Confederate Memorial Day – commonly known as Memorial Day; the day Mary Phagan was murdered in 1913. Observed as an official state holiday the 26th day of April in each year from 1874 until 1984. April 26 marks the anniversary of the end of the Civil War for Georgia.

Conley, James “Jim” – janitor and former elevator operator at the National Pencil Company; arrested on Thursday, May 1, 1913, on suspicion; important witness in the Leo Frank Case.

Connolly, Christopher Powell – Collier’s Weekly writer aligned with the defense; point man in nationwide public relations campaign to save Frank from the gallows.

Craven, Roy L. – witness sworn for the State; employee of Beck & Gregg Hardware, where Albert McKnight also worked; present when Minola McKnight made her affidavit.

Creen, J. William – convicted murderer serving a life sentence; Leo Frank’s assailant while both were imprisoned at the State Prison Farm in Milledgeville, Ga.

Cuero, Texas – birthplace of Leo Frank.

Dalton, C. B. – railroad carpenter; witness sworn for the State; upheld testimony damaging to Frank.

Darley, N. V. – personnel manager of the National Pencil Company and manager of the Georgia Cedar Company, a branch of the National Pencil Company; was at the pencil factory on Saturday, April 26, 1913; witness sworn for the State.

Denham, Harry – defense witness; he and J. Arthur White were working on machinery, doing repair work, on the top floor (the fourth floor) of the pencil factory the day of the murder.

Deal, Nathan-Governor of Georgia 2011-2019; refused to consider pardon for Leo Frank in 2015.

Dobbs, L. S. – Atlanta police sergeant; 20-year veteran of the Atlanta Police. One of the first responding officers to the crime scene. Found the murder notes lying next to Mary Phagan’s body.

Donehoo, Paul – 35-year-old Fulton County coroner, who conducted the inquest into Mary Phagan’s murder; by 1913 had served as coroner for four years; left blind by childhood meningitis.

Dorsey, Hugh Manson – appointed Solicitor General of Fulton County in 1910, he was then elected, serving until 1916; tried the Frank Case in 1913; later became Governor of Georgia (1917–1921); partner at the law firm Dorsey, Brewster, Howell & Heyman, of Atlanta, Ga.; his youngest sister was married at the time of the Frank Case to the son of Frank’s defense attorney Luther Z. Rosser; notable for his 1921 pamphlet titled A Statement from Governor Hugh M. Dorsey As to the Negro in Georgia, which exposed the mistreatment of Blacks in the state.

Epps, George – 14-year-old newsboy; witness for the prosecution.

Felder, Thomas B. – well-known Southern lawyer involved in the Phagan murder case.

Ferguson, Helen – National Pencil Co. teenage employee who worked in the factory’s metal department about two years; first to inform Fannie and John W. Coleman of their daughter Mary Phagan’s death; witness for the prosecution.

Formby, Nina – operated a boarding house for men, in Atlanta; swore to and later repudiated an affidavit damaging to Frank.

Frank, Leo Max – b. Apr. 17, 1884; d. Aug. 17, 1915. Twenty-nine-year-old superintendent of the National Pencil Co.; president, Gate City Lodge No. 144 of B’nai B’rith in Atlanta, Ga.; son of upper-middle-class German Jewish parents; born in Texas and raised in Brooklyn, NY; graduated from Cornell University in 1906 with a mechanical engineering degree; married a daughter of the wealthy and established Selig family in 1910; convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan on Aug. 25, 1913; sentenced on August 26, 1913, to hang; sentence commuted on June 21, 1915, to life imprisonment; lynched on Aug. 17, 1915.

Frank, Lucille Selig – wife of almost 3 years to Leo M. Frank; daughter of the well-connected Emil and Josephine Selig; sister to Rosalind Selig Ursenbach; granddaughter of Levi Cohen, cofounder of Atlanta’s reform synagogue, the Temple. She and Frank lived at the home of her well-to-do parents in a then-fashionable section of Atlanta, the southside.

Frank, Moses – claimed to be a Confederate veteran; was a major operator in the international cottonseed oil business; owned a substantial percentage of National Pencil Company stock; Leo Frank’s wealthy (Brooklyn) uncle, based in Atlanta; financed his nephew’s early defense efforts.

Frank, Rachel “Rae” – Leo Frank’s mother; husband of Rudolph Frank.

Frank, Rudolph – Leo Frank’s father; husband of Rachel Frank; Moses Frank’s brother.

Freeman, Emma Clarke – witness for the defense; prior to April 26 had worked on the fourth floor of the pencil factory, which she visited the day of the murder.

Frey’s Gin – located 2 miles east of Marietta, Ga.; faced the location of Mary’s ancestral home, which was twenty miles northwest of Atlanta; site of the lynching of Leo M. Frank.

Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill– Jewish-owned factory in Atlanta; site of labor unrest; Atlanta’s largest employer. Elsas, Oscar – b. 1871, d. 1924; became president of Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill in 1909 upon the retirement of his father, Jacob, who founded the company in 1881. Oscar Elsas’s company was the largest employer in Atlanta and a client of Luther Rosser and Governor John Slaton’s law firm. Was on the grand jury that declined to indict James Conley.

Fulton County – incorporated in 1853; Atlanta is the county seat; location of National Pencil Co.; site of Leo M. Frank’s trial; location of Tower prison, where Frank was confined upon grand jury indictment, after his conviction, and during his appeals; future stronghold of the Klan in Georgia—the Ku Klux would “absolutely control Fulton county and Atlanta.”

Gantt, James M. – Twenty-six-year-old former shipping clerk of the National Pencil Company; Marietta native; member of a well-known and respected family, having a judge for a relative and an ex-Representative for an uncle; discharged April 7th by Leo Frank; arrived at the factory the evening of the murder to recover his shoes and was arrested on suspicion Monday, April 28, 1913; witness for the prosecution.

Georgia – the last of the original 13 colonies of America to be formed; originally intended to be a debtors’ colony. When slavery was outlawed in the colony of Georgia, Jews left; they returned once slavery was reinstated. From 1877 to 1950, Georgia recorded the most lynchings: five hundred and eighty-six Blacks were victims of lynching.

Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles – The Board is a part of the executive branch of Georgia’s government, authorized to grant paroles, pardons, reprieves, remissions, and commutations and to restore civil and political rights. In 1983 it denied the ADL’s application for a posthumous pardon for Leo Frank. In 1986 the Board issued a posthumous pardon to Leo Frank without addressing his guilt or innocence.

Georgia Senate Special Committee-The special investigative committee was formed in January 2024 to investigate Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis for apparent conflicts of interests, abuse of the public trust, misuse of tax funds.

Georgia Supreme Court – the highest court in the state of Georgia; reviews cases already heard in the state’s lower courts; denied Leo M. Frank’s appeals for a new trial.

Gershon, George A. – New York-born proprietor of a thriving manufacturing company; one of five Jews on the grand jury that indicted Leo Frank; a member of Frank’s synagogue.

Goldstein, Max F. – well-known Atlanta attorney, of the law firm Little, Powell, Hooper & Goldstein (later Little, Powell, Smith & Goldstein); was Frank A. Hooper’s and Arthur G. Powell’s law partner and Leo Frank’s attorney; B’nai B’rith officer; a character witness who knew Leo Frank “about eight or ten years” and testified at the trial on Frank’s behalf; was the senior member of the law firm that in 1914 represented Frank’s hired detectives of the William J. Burns Agency against perjury and other serious charges.

Gordon, George A. – Atlanta lawyer; Minola McKnight’s attorney in 1913; Anna Maude Carter’s attorney in 1914; witness sworn for the State in rebuttal.

Graham, E. K. – witness sworn for the State in rebuttal; at the pencil factory April 26.

Gray, James R. – publisher and editor of the Atlanta Journal; lawyer; after Gray’s death in 1917 managing editor John S. Cohen took over leadership of the Journal, serving as president and editor.

Griffin, Maggie – witness sworn for the State; worked on the fourth floor of the pencil factory.

Guthman, Albert L. – owner of a laundry and dry cleaning company; one of five Jews on the grand jury that indicted Leo Frank.

Haas, Herbert J. – prominent member of a leading Jewish family; former trustee of the Temple; National Pencil Co. lawyer; Leo Frank’s lead attorney and funnel for funds from Chicago financier Albert Lasker for Frank’s defense.

Haas, Leonard – cousin of Herbert Haas and one of Frank’s attorneys; well-known Atlanta lawyer; American Jewish Committee member, District I (Atlanta); past president of the B’nai B’rith in Atlanta.

Hall, Corinthia – forewoman who worked in the finishing department of the pencil factory; visited the factory the day of the murder; witness for the defense.

Hall, Hattie – stenographer for the National Pencil Company, mostly working in the office of Montag Bros.; worked for Leo Frank at the factory on April 26th, the day of the murder; witness for the defense.

Harris, Henry F. – M.D.; Georgia Board of Health; Atlanta’s foremost medical doctor; performed the autopsies of Mary Phagan, beginning May 5; witness sworn for the State.

Harris, Nathaniel E. – the “last Confederate soldier to serve Georgia as Governor,” 1915–1917.

Hearst, William Randolph – newspaper magnate; by 1913 he controlled a growing national newspaper empire; publisher-owner of the Atlanta Georgian and Sunday American at the time of the Frank Case.

Hewell, Dewey – National Pencil Co. employee of four months; worked in the metal department of the factory; witness sworn for the State.

Hill, Benjamin H. – chief judge, Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia, 1907–1913; resigned in 1913 to accept judgeship of the Superior Court, Atlanta Circuit; Fulton County Superior Court judge in the Leo Frank Case.

Hixon, Annie – Ursenbach family domestic worker of two years; defense witness.

Holloway, E.F. – National Pencil Company day watchman; worked at the factory 2 years; witness sworn for the State.

Hooker, John J. – attorney involved in the matter of the posthumous pardon application for Leo Frank, including the videotaped testimony of Alonzo Mann in 1982.

Hooper, Frank A. – of the law firm Little, Powell, Hooper & Goldstein; was Max F. Goldstein’s and Arthur G. Powell’s law partner; lawyer for the prosecution; assisted Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey in prosecuting Leo M. Frank.

Hopkins, Daisy – worked in the pencil factory’s packing department on the second floor from October 1911 to June 1, 1912; defense witness.

Howard, Paul-Fulton County District Attorney 1977-2020; established Conviction Integrity Unit in secret with Governor Roy Barnes, Rabbi Steven Lebow, and others to exonerate Leo Frank in 2019.

Howard, William Schley – one of Frank’s many post-conviction defense attorneys; former prosecutor; also served two terms in the U.S. Congress. Argued clemency for Frank before the state prison commission and argued for the commutation of Frank’s death sentence before Gov. John Slaton.

Howell, Clark – publisher, owner, and editor of the Atlanta Constitution; had served in both the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate. Previously as managing editor of the Constitution he had campaigned against the state’s notorious convict lease system.

Hurt, J. W. – M.D.; Fulton County Physician, who made the initial post-mortem examination on Sunday morning, the 27th of April; witness sworn for the State.

Irby, Mr. – National Pencil Co. shipping clerk. At the factory on the morning of the murder.

Jacobs, Jake – pawnbroker implicated in the infamous “Carter Letters” scheme.

Jefferson, Mrs. George W. – five-year National Pencil Co. employee; together with fellow worker R. P. Barrett discovered the blood evidence on the second floor; witness sworn for the State.

Jeffersonian – a.k.a. “the Jeff”; weekly newspaper published by Thomas E. Watson; printed by his Jeffersonian Publishing Company.

Jones, Ivy – acquaintance of James Conley’s; witness sworn for the State in rebuttal.

Kendley, George – streetcar conductor for the Georgia Railway & Power Co.; witness sworn for the State.

Kerns, Helen – defense witness; her father worked for Montag Bros.

Kinney, Bill-Marietta Daily Journal Associate Editor who covered Cobb County for over 40 years and is a recognized expert on the Leo Frank case; especially the lynching of Leo Frank.

Kitchens, Mamie – National Pencil Co. employee of two years who worked on the fourth floor; witness sworn for the State.

Klein, Milton – well-known Atlanta lumber and building supply dealer; B’nai B’rith officer; Leo Frank’s friend.

Knights of Mary Phagan – New York Times reported that it was a group of vigilantes formed to exact revenge on Phagan’s murderer. No other evidence exists for this Knights group, which was probably fabricated by the newspaper itself.

Kriegshaber, Victor H. – prominent Atlanta business leader, who knew Leo Frank for three years; one of five Jewish jurors on the grand jury panel that indicted Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan; testified at trial as defense witness; a civil engineer, dealer in building supplies, and an officer of the Atlanta Loan & Savings Co.; B’nai B’rith officer; member of the board of trustees of the Hebrew Orphans’ Home (as was Frank); trustee of Leo Frank’s synagogue, the Temple; vice-president of Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in 1915; Atlanta Chamber of Commerce president in 1916.

Ku Klux Klan – a white American terrorist group that emerged after the Civil War and again after the First World War; deployed to engage in anti-Black rhetoric and racially motivated violence and murder to terrorize Blacks from their pursuit of education, the right to vote, freedom, justice, equality, and economic independence.

Lanford, Newport A. – Atlanta Chief of Detectives.

Lasker, Albert D. – notorious advertising mogul based in Chicago and secret private financier of Leo Frank’s appeals and director of his public-relations effort; as president of Lord & Thomas, Lasker not only pioneered new advertising and branding techniques for leading companies but also showed how advertising could “break down social barriers, sharpen political campaigns, and promote philanthropic causes”; Texas-reared (his father was a Confederate veteran); also promoted eugenics and birth control of Blacks.

Lassiter, R.M. – city policeman; a first responder to scene of crime.

Lebow, Rabbi Steven-Rabbi of Marietta’s Temple Kol Emeth, who moved to the area from Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the mid-1980s, has been one of the loudest voices for reversing Leo Frank’s conviction   Rabbi Lebow had been very frustrated, since the 1986 posthumous pardon Leo Frank, because it did not overturn Frank’s conviction and Frank was still officially recognized as the guilty culprit.

Lee, Newt – night watchman at the National Pencil Company; found Mary Phagan murdered the morning of April 27, 1913.

Lehon, Dan S. – Burns detective; indicted by Fulton County grand jury for subornation of perjury; convicted of several Frank-related infractions and fined.

Mack, Julian W. – Chicago judge; a founder and an executive committee member of the American Jewish Committee.

MacWorth, W.D. – Pinkerton “investigator” who planted evidence; an operative for W. J. Burns; defense witness.

Mangum, C. Wheeler – sheriff of Fulton County, protective of Tower prisoner Leo Frank.

Mann, Alonzo – 13-year-old office boy at the National Pencil Company on the day of the murder; defense witness. Began working at the factory Tuesday, April 1, 1913. In 1982, he made the dubious claim that he came back to the factory and saw James Conley carrying the body of Mary Phagan..

Marietta, Ga. – hometown of the murder victim, Mary Phagan.

Marietta Journal – Marietta, Georgia’s weekly newspaper, first printed by Robert McAlpin Goodman in 1866; Josiah Carter, Jr., editor.

Marshall, Louis – leading constitutional lawyer of his day; argued more cases before the U. S. Supreme Court than any other private attorney; Frank’s lead appeals attorney; president of the American Jewish Committee; noted civic leader, who also promoted eugenics and birth control of Blacks.

Marx, Rabbi David – Rabbi of the Temple (formally known as the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation, founded in 1867) in Atlanta, Ga., 1895–1946; Reform synagogue composed primarily of German Jewish families; leading rabbi of Atlanta; served as “ambassador to the Gentiles,” the “unofficial voice of the Jewish community”; past president of the Atlanta Lodge of B’nai B’rith; guest columnist for the Atlanta Journal; served as the personal pastor to Leo Frank.

Mayer, David – prosperous slave-holder; instrumental in the organization of Atlanta’s public school system, and was commonly known as “the father of the public schools”; served on the board of education from 1869 until his death in 1890.

McCrary, Truman “Mack” – defense witness; National Pencil Company drayman for three years; was at the factory on April 26, 1913.

McKnight, Albert – witness sworn for the State; husband of Minola McKnight; employed as a porter at Beck & Gregg Hardware Co. and as a handyman for the Frank/Selig family; swore to an affidavit damaging to Frank’s alibi.

McKnight, Minola – defense witness; domestic and cook for Josephine and Emil Selig and Leo and Lucille Frank; swore to and later repudiated an affidavit damaging to Frank.

Milledgeville State Prison Farm – located a hundred miles southeast of Atlanta; a plantation where prisoners grew and picked 500-pound bales of cotton and other agricultural crops; provided labor for public works projects; warehoused male and female prisoners unable to do hard manual labor or had privileged backgrounds; a facility for white males was just built in 1911; “deplorable conditions” for Black and female inmates; Leo Frank was confined there from June 1915 to August 1915.

Montag, Sigmund “Sig” – controlled a majority share of National Pencil Company stock and owned a paper-manufacturing empire, Montag Bros., based in Atlanta.

Mullinax, Arthur – 24-year-old former streetcar conductor and acquaintance of Mary Phagan’s; arrested on suspicion Sunday, April 27, 1913.

National Pencil Company – 37 South Forsyth Street, Atlanta, Ga.; pencil factory which Leo Frank operated and where 13-year-old Mary Phagan worked and was murdered on Saturday, April 26, 1913. Incorporated in 1908 and located in the Venable Building, which comprised 4 floors and a dirt-floor basement and covered a city block. Among its incorporators were Moses Frank, Sigmund Montag, Isaac H. Haas, and Jacob R. Haas, all of Atlanta, and George Lennig of New York City—all prominent Jewish businessmen.

New York Times – Jewish-owned newspaper, the largest in the world, and a full-fledged member of the Leo Frank defense and propaganda team. The “newspaper of record” was published by Tennessee native Adolph Ochs from August 1896 until his death in April 1935.

Nix, D. J. – 19-year-old former office boy at the National Pencil factory, where he worked from April 1912 to October 1912; defense witness.

Ochs, Adolph S. – Tennessee-born owner-publisher of the New York Times, which he acquired in 1896; publisher of the Chattanooga Times in Nashville, Tn. Ochs was married to Effie Wise, whose father, Isaac Mayer Wise, founded the Israelite and whose brother Leo Wise ran it during the Leo Frank Affair.

Pappenheimer, Oscar – well-known Atlanta business magnate, school board member, and stockholder of the National Pencil Company; received the company financial report weekly from Leo Frank; he and members of the prominent Haas family were partners in a furniture company; defense witness.

Phagan, Mary Anne – 13-year-old worker in the National Pencil Company’s metal department, where she was murdered on April 26, 1913; important contributor to her family’s income; born on June 1, 1899, to Fannie and William J. Phagan in Florence, Alabama.

Phagan, William J. – farmer and father of Mary Phagan and her 4 siblings; married Fannie Benton in 1891; died in 1899 three months before Mary’s birth.

Pickett, E. H. – sworn for the State in rebuttal. Employee of Beck & Gregg Hardware Co., where Albert McKnight also worked; was present when Minola McKnight made her affidavit.

Pierce, H. B. – superintendent of the Atlanta branch of the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency at the time of Mary Phagan’s murder.

Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency – a.k.a. Pinkerton Detective Agency. Formed in 1850 by the Chicago Police Department’s first detective, Allan Pinkerton; with his death in 1884, the agency was taken over by his two sons, Robert and William. By the 1890s, it boasted 2,000 agents and 30,000 reserves; by 1906 there were 20 offices nationwide; reputation as an ex-officio standing army for American business, safeguarding the interests of industry. Hired by Leo M. Frank to investigate the murder of Mary Phagan. Brought suit against the National Pencil Co. to recover the value of services rendered under a contract entered into between them, and a Superior Court judge found in the agency’s favor, the judgment upheld on appeal in 1917.

Powell, Arthur G. – prominent Atlanta lawyer who supported Gov. Slaton’s commutation decision. Powell had served as judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, 1907–1912. Powell resigned his position as judge for the Court of Appeals to enter private practice in Atlanta in January 1912. In 1914 Powell’s law firm represented Leo Frank’s hired detectives of the William J. Burns Agency against perjury and other serious charges.

Pride, Arthur – five-year National Pencil Co. employee; defense witness.

Proctor, Henry Hugh – noted Atlanta preacher. In the early 1900s he had just begun his career as a minister at the First Congregational Church, serving from 1894 until 1920.

Quinn, Lemmie – National Pencil factory foreman of the metal department; defense witness.

Ragsdale, Rev. C.B. – preacher at Atlanta’s Plum Street Baptist Church.

Roan, Leonard S. – trial judge in the Leo Frank Case; in the late 1800s had been Luther Rosser’s law partner.

Robinson, Ruth – National Pencil Co. employee; witness sworn for the State.

Rogers, W.W. “Boots” – former Fulton County officer and brother-in-law of the National Pencil Company employee who identified the murder victim Mary Phagan’s body. Future bailiff and future Burns operative.

Rosser, Brandon, Slaton & Phillips – law firm after 1913 merger of the law offices of Governor-elect John M. Slaton and Leo Frank’s defense attorney Luther Z. Rosser. Firm members included Morris Brandon, Stiles Hopkins, Ben Z. Phillips, and Luther Z. Rosser, Jr.

Rosser, Luther Ziegler – defense attorney in the Leo Frank Case; law partner of Gov. John M. Slaton; in the late 1880s had been Leonard S. Roan’s law partner in the firm of Roan & Rosser.

Schiff, Herbert G. – assistant superintendent of the National Pencil Co.; with the company about five years.

Schiff, Jacob H. – financier based in New York; managing partner of Kuhn, Loeb and Co.; an executive committee member of the American Jewish Committee.

Schwartz, Dale M. – ADL national board member and attorney who, along with Charles F. Wittenstein, handled the attempts in the 1980s to have Frank pardoned by the state of Georgia.

Scott, Harry – twenty-seven-year-old assistant superintendent of the Atlanta branch of the Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency; hired by Leo Frank on April 28, 1913, to investigate the murder of Mary Phagan. By the time of the trial, Scott was Superintendent of the local branch of the Pinkerton Detective Agency.

Seigenthaler, John – longtime editor of The Tennessean; became the newspaper’s publisher in 1973 and later its chairman and CEO.

Selig, Emil – Lucille Frank’s father; Leo Frank’s father-in-law; worked in the family business, the Seligs’ prosperous West Disinfecting Co. in Atlanta.

Selig, Josephine Cohen – wife of Emil Selig; Lucille Frank’s mother; Leo Frank’s mother-in-law.

Sherborne, Robert – Tennessean reporter.

Slaton, John Marshall – Governor of Georgia, 1913–1915; law partner of Leo Frank’s attorney Luther Z. Rosser when in July 1913 their respective law firms formed a partnership and became Rosser, Brandon, Slaton & Phillips; commuted the death sentence of Leo Frank in June 1915.

Smith, Hoke – former Georgia governor, Georgia’s U.S. senator (1911-1921), owner-publisher of the Atlanta Journal (1887–1900); Reuben R. Arnold was one of his most trusted lieutenants. A trial attorney, he was asked to defend Leo M. Frank but declined.

Smith, J. E. – warden, State Prison Farm at Milledgeville, Ga.

Smith, William – attorney appointed to defend James Conley; prepared Conley for the Leo Frank trial.

Starnes, John – Atlanta city police officer; Atlanta police detective.

Stephens, Edward A. – lawyer for the prosecution; assisted Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey in prosecuting Leo Frank.

Stover, Monteen – fourteen-year-old National Pencil Co. employee who worked on the fourth floor of the factory; witness sworn for the State.

Tennessean – in March 1982 published Alonzo Mann’s account of the Phagan murder.

Thompson, Jerry – Tennessean reporter.

Tillander, O. – at the pencil factory April 26 to pick up his stepson’s pay; witness sworn for the State in rebuttal.

Tobie, C.W. – head detective, Atlanta division of the William J. Burns Agency.

Turner, W. E. – worked at the National Pencil Co. factory during March of 1913; witness sworn for the State.

United States Supreme Court – the highest court in the United States; the last court for an appeal of a verdict; turned down Leo Frank’s last appeal for a new trial.

Ursenbach, Charles F. – Leo Frank’s (Christian) brother-in-law; Rosalind Selig Ursenbach’s husband; defense witness.

Ursenbach, Rosalind Selig – Lucille (Selig) Frank’s sister; married to C. F. Ursenbach; defense witness.

Vigilance Committee:

Watson, Thomas Edward – a.k.a. Tom Watson; attorney, politician, author; publisher and editor of the Jeffersonian newspaper and Watson’s Magazine, for which he wrote several articles about the guilt of Leo Frank. A celebrated criminal defense lawyer, he was in 1913 initially asked to defend Leo M. Frank, but he declined.

Watson’s Magazine – monthly literary magazine published by Thomas E. Watson and printed by his Jeffersonian Publishing Company.

White, J. Arthur – husband of Maggie White. He, assisted by coworker Harry Denham, was doing some repair work on the top floor (the fourth floor) of the pencil factory the day of the murder.

White, Maggie – a.k.a. Mrs. Arthur White. Visited her husband at the pencil factory on the day of the murder and saw “a negro” (James Conley) on the first floor, an observation that led to the unraveling of Leo Frank’s alibi. Witness for the prosecution.

Whitfield, L.P. – Pinkerton “investigator” who planted evidence and also Burns operative convicted of several Frank-related infractions and fined.

William J. Burns Detective Agency – a.k.a. Burns Agency; a.k.a. William J. Burns National (later International) Detective Agency. Former U.S. Secret Service man William John Burns was head of the private detective agency, which he co-founded in 1909 and of which he became the sole owner in 1910. Headquartered in New York, with regional offices nationwide, the agency employed more than 1,200 operatives. It was the sole investigating agency for the American Bankers Association and grew to become the second-largest (after the Pinkertons) contract guard and investigative service in the U.S.

Wittenstein, Charles F. – ADL attorney who, along with Dale M. Schwartz, handled the attempts in the 1980s to have Frank pardoned by the state of Georgia.

Woodward, James G. – Mayor of the City of Atlanta for 8 years (four separate two-year terms); served as mayor during the Leo Frank affair, from 1913 to 1917, his third and fourth terms. In 1916 he signed into law a residential segregation ordinance.