Phagan Family Newsletter Number Eight: 05/20/2022

Last Updated on June 7, 2024 by Mary P.

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Georgia Legislators Propose Cold Case Lynching Law But REAL Aim is to Exonerate A Single Person: Leo Frank

There is no more important word in today’s world than JUSTICE. I am Mary Phagan-Kean and I am the great-niece and namesake of “Little Mary Phagan,” the thirteen-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by B’nai B’rith leader Leo Max Frank on April 26, 1913. Leo Frank—who admitted he was the last person to see Mary alive—was the factory manager at the National Pencil Company, where the Sam Nunn federal building stands today, and where Mary worked and was killed. On August 25, 1913, after a month-long trial, he was found guilty by a jury of his peers, and on the next day, Leo M. Frank was sentenced to hang for the murder of his young employee Mary Phagan.

Today I represent the Phagan Family as we seek justice for our fallen ancestor, Mary Phagan, because a politically strong and economically powerful group of people have for more than a century been attempting through propaganda and deception to exonerate her killer—Leo Frank.

Background of HB 1555 In March of this year HB 1555 was introduced by Reps. Mike Wilensky, Sandra Scott, William Boddie, James Beverly, Derrick Jackson, and Carl Gilliard, with, according to news reports, the support of Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus, the Urban League of Atlanta, the Anti-Defamation League, and the NAACP. The bill would establish the “Georgia Cold Case Project to Address Historic Lynchings and Related Matters.” The Phagan family believes that any and all earnest attempts to gain JUSTICE for the wrongs of the past must be supported and encouraged. HB 1555 appears to intend to achieve that worthy goal, but a careful examination of the issue reveals that it may be yet another attempt to clear Leo Frank of the crime he committed and to pin the crime on a black man named James Conley (pictured on the right). Our family has researched and analyzed this case and the thousands of court documents and newspaper accounts and we reject this effort by Leo Frank’s backers to make an innocent Black man guilty of this horrific crime. Is HB 1555 What It Seems To Be? According to the 2017 report of the Equal Justice Initiative (https://eji.org), at least 589 African Americans were lynched in Georgia between 1877 and 1950. It is a stain on Georgia that Fulton County, where Mary Phagan was murdered, was one of the places in America where lynchings were the highest. These crimes must be accounted for and long-overdue justice must be given to the families of the victims.

However, Rep. Wilensky, in speaking about the aims of HB 1555, did not mention any of those 589 black lynching victims—or the more than 4,000 victims across America. He mentioned just one person—Leo Frank—the convicted murderer and rapist of our ancestor Little Mary Phagan. He only mentioned how the stone marking the site of Leo Frank’s lynching in Marietta was recently vandalized. Rep. Wilensky said, “This is the time this bill should be passed, to bring back and research and look into all these cold cases.”

How Guilty Was Leo Frank? Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus, the Urban League of Atlanta, and the NAACP are probably not aware of how much generational trauma the Anti-Defamation League has caused the Phagan family in their unceasing efforts to put Leo Frank’s crime on Mr. Conley. The ADL claims that Leo Frank was the victim of “anti-Semitism” and that he was innocent of the murder of Mary Phagan. Rep. Wilensky says he wants “research” done, but extensive research has already been done that conclusively proves that Leo Frank was guilty. In 1987, I authored a book on this subject titled The Murder of Little Mary Phagan (Download the FREE PDF here: http://www.jrbooksonline.com/leo-frank/ mary-phagan.pdf). Further than that, a recently published 536-page book by the Nation of Islam uncovers new facts showing that Frank and his legal team engaged in one of the most racist trial defenses in American history. If the sponsors of HB 1555 were truly interested in researching the Mary Phagan murder case, they need to read both books. The Phagan family has provided physical copies of this book by black scholars of the NOI to the entire Georgia state legislature for their own review. Below are some well-researched facts (along with the relevant pages of the book):

• A 23-member grand jury that included five prominent members of the Jewish community voted for the indictment of Leo Frank. (See pages 52, notes 102-106; 88 n. 181; 146-147;
160; 212; 338.)
• Frank himself told a Jewish newspaper publisher: “Anti-Semitism is absolutely not the reason for this libel [murder conviction] that has been framed against me. It isn’t the
source nor the result of this sad story.” (Page 142.)
• Leo Frank, as leader of B’nai B’rith, publicly and openly used the N-word in referring to African Americans. His defense attorneys used the N-word and other racist slurs
dozens of times in his murder trial. Frank’s main attorney told the jury: “If you put a [N-word] in a hopper, he’ll drip lies.” (Pages 121-133, 363.)
• 20 young women and girls gave such powerful testimony about Leo Frank’s sexual harassment at the factory that none of his many highly paid attorneys dared to cross-examine
them—not one. (Pages 107-123.)
• Frank argued in court that the many Black witnesses that testified should not be believed—simply because they were black—and that “negro testimony” was by definition
inferior and unreliable. Further, Frank argued to the all-white jury that murder, rape, and robbery were “negro crimes” and thus, he, a white man, could not have committed the
murder of Mary Phagan. (Pages 124-136.)
• Frank himself hired two of the most prominent (and expensive) private detective agencies in America—the Pinkerton and Burns agencies—and both concluded that Leo Frank was
the murderer of Mary Phagan. (Pages 47-48; 65-66; 91 note 187; 147; 247.)
• Leo Frank’s own black maid, Minola McKnight, swore that she overheard Frank’s wife and her mother discussing how Frank had confessed that he had killed a girl. (Pages
378-379, 423-428.)
• Before Frank accused his employee James Conley of the crime, Frank accused the African American night watchman who found Mary’s body, Newt Lee. Frank’s hired private eyes
actively targeted Lee and actually planted a blood-soaked shirt in the innocent man’s home, and then told the police where they could find that damning “evidence.” At the same
time, Frank altered Lee’s workplace time card in order to make Lee the prime suspect. (Pages 35-44.)
• Jewish businessman Albert Lasker financed Frank’s legal defense. His private view of the B’nai B’rith president was harsh and disturbing: “he impressed us as a sexual pervert. Now, he may not have been, or rather a homosexual or something like that.” Lasker said, “I hope he gets out…and when he gets out I hope he slips on a banana peel and breaks his neck.” (Pages 216-217, 254-255, 322.)
• The New York Times reported that Frank supporters tried to hire a Black woman named Annie Carter to poison Mr. Conley. She identified the plotters in open court as prominent members of the Jewish community. (Pages 262-263.)
• Leo Frank refused to take an oath on the Bible, and then refused to be cross-examined by prosecutors. (Pages 136-140, 362-382.)
• Leo Frank’s attorneys fought tooth and nail to keep Blacks from participating in any part of Frank’s trial. They used their power to eliminate Blacks from the jury pool. (Page 88)
• Several of Frank’s strongest advocates—including his main lawyer and the man who financed his legal appeals—were both Jewish and open and active members of the American eugenics movement. (Pages 217, 221-222.)
• In 1987 a “witness” named Alonzo Mann materialized, claiming that he was at the factory in 1913 on the day of the murder and saw Conley carrying the body of Mary Phagan. I actually interviewed Mr. Mann in my home on July 19, 1983, for four hours. But Mann had given as many as six conflicting stories that are irreconcilable with the known facts. (Pages 435-464.)

There is much, much more that can and will be presented about the murder of Mary Phagan by Leo Frank. If HB 1555 is intended to get justice for the families of the victims of violence, then the TRUTH about Leo Frank’s murder of Mary Phagan should not be LYNCHED by this bill. Over the course of the many efforts by the ADL to deceitfully clear Leo Frank of his crime, the Phagan family has been purposely excluded from official processes. Georgia’s Century-Old Secrets! HB 1555 is clear about the new process: “Using all available criminal investigation techniques and historical research techniques to investigate, resolve, and, if possible, redress unresolved homicides relating to...historical lynchings.” If this is true, then Reps. Wilensky, Scott, Boddie, Beverly, Jackson, and Gilliard can start by answering why the Georgia government has deemed important documents related to the Leo Frank case “state secrets”! In a time where every state agency and politician is preaching “transparency” and open government, how can anything about a 109-year-old case be considered “SECRET”?! The State Board of Pardons and Paroles will not tell us how many documents remain “classified” in the “state secret” category; nor what exactly those documents contain. Who and What are they protecting, and Why? There can be no justice or resolution of this case if the state of Georgia will not release documents from a 109-year-old case! Censorship Continues The sponsors of HB 1555 should be asking the ADL some hard questions about why they have lurked behind the scenes and pushed to have BOOKS BANNED, YouTube videos removed and to have the internet scrubbed of Georgia and Supreme Court records, and original newspaper links. Thanks to the underhanded actions of the ADL, they are NO LONGER AVAILABLE! What are they trying to hide? If this is NOT the case, then immediately RELEASE THE “SECRET” FILES of the Leo Frank case for all to see.

FACTS ARE NOT HATEFUL!
But the ADL IS DECEITFUL

DECEIT, noun
1. The act or practice of deceiving; deception.
2. A stratagem; a trick.
3. The quality of being deceitful; falseness.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the
English Language, 5th Edition.

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 100 years, each passing decade brought with it “new historical evidence” falsely claiming to exonerate Leo Frank. The Phagan family has stated since 1982 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.