Chapter 15: 1995: The secret deceitful underhanded revisionist political Marker Change at Mary Phagan’s Grave by the Parks and Tourism Committee, Marietta City Council and the Jewish Community.

Last Updated on June 16, 2024 by Mary Phagan

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