Girl murdered in pencil factory
Thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan is found sexually molested and murdered in the basement of the Atlanta Georgia pencil factory where she worked.Her murder later led to one of the most disgraceful episodes of bigotry injustice and mob violence in American history.Next to Phagans body were two small notes that purported to pin the crime on Newt Lee the night watchman at the factory.Lee was arrested but it quickly became evident that the notes were a crude attempt by the barely literate Jim Conley to cover up his own involvement.
Conley was the factorys janitor a black man and a well-known drunk.Conley then decided to shift the blame toward Leo Frank the Jewish owner of the factory.Despite the absurdity of Conleys claims they nevertheless took hold.The cases prosecutor was Hugh Dorsey a notorious bigot and friend of Georgias populist leader Tom Watson.
Reportedly Watson told Dorsey Hell we can lynch a nigger anytime in Georgia but when do we get the chance to hang a Yankee JewFrank was tried by Judge Leonard Roan who allowed the blatantly unfair trial to go forward even after he was privately informed by Conleys attorney that Conley had admitted to Franks innocence on more than one occasion.The trial was packed with Watsons followers and readers of his racist newspaper Jeffersonian.The jury was terrorized into a conviction despite the complete lack of evidence against Frank.Georgia governor John Slaton initiated his own investigation and quickly concluded that Frank was completely innocent.
Three weeks before his term ended Slaton commuted Franks death sentence in the hope that he would eventually be freed when the publicity died down.However Watson had other plans He mobilized his supporters to form the Knights of Mary Phagan.Thousands of Jewish residents in Atlanta were forced to flee the city because police refused to stop the lynch mob.The Knights of Mary Phagan then made their way to the prison farm where Frank was incarcerated.
They handcuffed the warden and the guards and abducted Frank bringing him to Marietta Phagans hometown.There he was hanged to death from a giant oak tree.Thousands of spectators came to watch and have their picture taken in front of his lifeless body.
The police did nothing to stop the spectacle.Although most of the country was outraged and horrified by the lynching Watson remained very popular in Georgia.In fact he was elected to the U.S.Senate in 1920.Frank did not receive a posthumous pardon until 1986 on the grounds that his lynching deprived him of his right to appeal his conviction.
