Update: A reader had a problem with the source of the analysis, saying it was rendered useless because it came from an anti-semitic site,
The points made in the article are the same points I’ve seen in books I’ve read in the past about the case. To say you’re an anti-semite because you believe Leo Frank was guilty based on analysis of court transcripts and evidence gathered (this is what the site relied on) is akin to saying someone is anti-Lebanese because you think Sirhan Sirhan killed Bobby Kennedy.
But we do not want to link to an anti-semite site. I will spike it, but the facts of the case remain the same no matter what site is was posted on.
In lieu of that link I will post a movie about the case found by Unruly Refugee. —-> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fRs2xd890
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Leo Frank was convicted of the murder of a 13 year-old employee at his pencil factory.
When his death sentence was commuted to life in prison, angry citizens stormed the jail and dragged him to a tree in Marietta, Georgia and hung him.
It happened 100 years ago today. There are those that say Leo Frank was innocent. There are those that say the lynch mob was out to get him because he was Jewish. I’m not interested in who was Jewish and who was black (the only other person who could have killed the 13 year-old girl was a black employee), I’m interested in the evidence.
I saw the movie based on this case long ago. It was good, so I read about the case. There is a list is as good as any in detailing why Leo Frank was guilty.
The parts that seal the deal for me are as follows:
-When the night watchmen arrived for work, Leo Frank was strangely nervous, telling the watchmen to take a couple of hours off before starting his shift. When he said he’d prefer to take a nap in the basement (that’s where the girl’s body was found) he insisted the man leave. When the night watchmen returned, the double doors on the staircase were locked, which was extremely odd.
-That night Frank called the watchmen 2 times to ask if “everything was alright.” This was the first and only time he’d ever done so.
-After the body was discovered the night watchman, as well as the police, called Frank at 4 am. He, or his wife, never picked up the phone.
– After the girl was discovered, and when police asked him about the victim, Mary Phagan, Leo Frank said he never heard of her and didn’t know who she was (there were over 100 employees at the pencil factory.) Later in the investigation, Frank told police that another man was always very interested in Phagan (a girl he previously said he never heard of.) Frank later admitted he was alone with the girl in his office because she stopped by to pick up her paycheck.
– Frank said he never left his office, Not once. But when a witness testifying on behalf of Frank said she went to the office and he wasn’t there, Frank began changing his story, saying he might’ve went to the bathroom. The bathroom is where the body was discovered by the man who eventually was convicted as Frank’s accomplice.
– A black man, James Conley, who said he was sometimes paid to keep watch at the front of the factory while Leo Frank had teenage girls in his office, finally admitted that he helped move the girl’s dead body to the basement, and that he was to later get the body and burn it (for a $200 payment), but he fell asleep.
– If someone else was the murderer, Leo Frank would have heard and seen the murder because of the proximity of where the murder took place to his office. When this dawned on Frank he began changing his story of his movements to possibly match up with a theory that made a black man the lone murderer. The black man never wavered from his story in any detail.
– After the entire factory was inspected from top to bottom by police, and then by hired detectives, in the final hour before Leo Frank’s trial a bloody bludgeon and a torn piece of Mary Phagan’s pay envelope was found behind a radiator where the black man sat. The evidence was so obviously set up that the man who discovered it was fired from the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
– Frank said that when the girl left his office he could hear her having a conversation with another girl, so she was alive until he left his office. An interview with every person that worked in the factory could find no one that had such a conversation with the victim.
– At his trial numerous girls testified that Leo Frank tried to corner them in his office and take advantage of them, touching them inappropriately.
– The relationship between Frank and the “negro floor sweeper” was odd. He was one of the highest paid employees in the factory, while he did menial work. He was once caught urinating on the pencils, and he wasn’t fired. The defense also tried to say that this black man attacked Mary Phagan for her $1 paycheck when he made 6 times that money.
It seems that the black man was always the go-to guy for Leo Frank, and he had so much on Frank that he was allowed to come and go without punching the clock.
His initial stories to the police tried to exonerate Frank, because this was his meal ticket. After a few feeble attempts he told exactly what happened. All of his details checked out, including where they dragged the body, where they dropped the body, where they finally laid the body, including how Frank dictated to him a “death note” that was left by the killer.
All of the evidence pointed to Frank, with the black sweeper as his helper with the coverup.
Frank’s wife requested she not be buried in the same plot as her husband.
Lucille Frank’s family, and their cook, said that Lucille told them that Frank confessed to her and asked for a pistol so he could shoot himself.
Very interesting!! And I actually remember that movie–I was around the same age as the girl, maybe a little older when it was on TV—wanted to travel back in time and find her killer LOL
I vaguely remember that movie. Best I remember; Frank was cast as innocent & the black man guilty in the movie & the lynch mob as guilty of murder. Maybe I saw another movie.
Leo Max Frank had one of those paradoxical names, so much so the girls would snicker “That’s Rich”
Which also solves the mystery of his nickname “Pencil Dick”…
Really? No mention that a pile of democrats hung a jew and got away with it?
No mention about re-writing history?
No mention that none of the democrats were ever charged?
I send you a story about Democrats killing a jew because he was a jew, and you back the killers and h/t me? Dude….really?
I am fully open to learn more facts that I have missed, but I sent you a link about a Raw Story post that the commentators have no understanding about. My email clearly stated that 100 years ago a group of democrats lynched a jew and raw story commentators blame southern republicans. Please don’t distort my intentions like that, that’s just fucking rude.
What kind of tree ? Urinating on the pencils ? Is that why they are yellow?
I’m not linking Raw Story. And I know this case well, didn’t realize it was 100 years ago today.
I decided to do the story because I like it as a controversial whodunnit from the early 20th century when there was little forensics.
If I did the story and didn’t hat tip you’d probably be upset.
There is nothing wrong with me doing the story as I presented it and then you jumping in with your addendum.
That would have been a good way to go about it.
The bad way to go about it has been pretty much covered in your comment.
If you wanted to make the post, make the post. You know how to prepare a post. I know how to copy and paste. Easy peasy.
No, the bad way to do it is h/t somebody and do a 180 degree out of phase post. I know damn well you won’t link that site. Your h/t to me on your view of the story has zero connection to what I sent you. Can you not see that? You h/t me and you make it seem I agree with your version that I have never seen. You may be 100% correct, but for you to take that leap is rude!
A former Democrat governor hangs a jew with his democrat friends, and nobody gets charged, that was my point, and you never even mentioned that?
Lighten up, Francis
Seriously….lighten up Francis…..or go start your own blog
Big Fur Hat, you know I love you, but what you should have done was something like this:
“Menderman sends me a story about a pedophile from generations ago that I am well aware of. History has altered that story, but the facts remain the same…”
Or:
“A reader sent in a link about a 100 year old story…”
Or many more options….
h/t me on your view (which I do not say you are wrong about) that was not my take is just plain wrong. Can you not see that?
Better yet, don’t even mention me.
Didn’t see the movie, but it seems interesting. They should do a remake. Hollywood needs a good story without special effects.
Menderman, you’ll make yourself sick with that attitude. It seems that BFH’s faux-pas was unintentional. An oversight. Nothing to get that ugly about.
Your point is interesting that the dems picked on a jew. Could it be incidental that he was a jew? Was it jew hatred? Or is it that jews can be criminals too?
BFH – the link you provided was very interesting and it laid out in great detail (with valid references included) the case that Leo Frank was the actual murderer.
The Atlanta Urinal / Constipation (as Rush calls it, aka Journal / Constitution) has been running a series of stories about the supposed antisemitism that drove a group of evil southern men to murder poor Leo Frank who was completely innocent. Just more proof of what a worthless, liberal daily rag the AJC has become over the decades. The article linked below shows a granite marker just set with a planted tree proclaiming that Leo Frank “wrongly accused and cruelly lynched”.
http://buzz.blog.ajc.com/2015/08/17/remembering-leo-frank-100-years-later/
The whole thing reminds me of the conflict between desired narrative versus reality in more recent cases like St. skittles and the gentle giant.
It was Jew hatred.
And BFH and I (mostly my fault) have fought it out many times over the years, but BFH is never “unintentional”. He knows how to piss me oft.
This is a very interesting story. I would like to see the movie too.
This is the history of the origins of the ADL, a corrupt racist hate group. And a damn good crime story.
Conley shits in the elevator shaft and pisses on the pencils. Yet he gets paid 6 times as much as other employees that do no such thing. Lots of incriminating evidence against Frank. I think they were right to lynch him.
What I wrote does not undermine you, unless you sent the story in because you think Leo Frank is innocent.
But that wasn’t the point of your story. Your point was that a democrat lynch mob hung a Jew. It’s still wrong of them whether he’s guilty or innocent.
Your angle could have been added in the comments and started an entire new dimension to what I wrote.
No one is going to look at the story, see the hat tip and think, geez, where’s the part about the democrat mob hanging a Jew? That Menderman is an asshole.
Also, I hope you don’t think when I write a piece and it says ht/ Joe Blow it means Joe Blow wrote the piece and I’m just a schmuck taking all the credit.
Hat tips also mean that people made me aware of a subject matter, and I took it from there.
Again, you could have
A: written the piece you wanted written. I would have been glad to publish it.
B: added to my post in the comments.
You haven’t been slighted in the least.
How could it be Jew hatred, some of the jurors were Jews and it was a 12 to 0 guilty verdict?
I’ve never, in the 7 years I’ve had this blog, ever intentionally did anything just to piss you off.
I’ve intentionally defended myself with words that might piss you off. But that’s not the same thing. That would suppose that the disagreement started with me intentionally doing something shitty.
I never have.
^ Correction : it was 21 to 0.
“Four Jews were on the grand jury of 21 persons. Although only twelve votes were needed, the vote was unanimous against Frank.”
I’m sure Jews in Marietta in 1915 weren’t the town’s favorite.
But wouldn’t more Jews be lynched if it was simple Jew hatred?
That the only Jew lynched was a guy that was convicted on some pretty strong evidence has to factor in to the town’s anger when the guy buys his way out of the death penalty.
It was probably easier for them to get riled up because he was Jewish, but they still felt he was escaping justice, Jew or not.
Yes, it was democrats that lynched him, and the idiots on Raw Story are calling them republicans.
I still say the case, stripped of the politics, is far more interesting.
(and again, presenting the case how I did didn’t cock block you from bringing out your angle. My angle doesn’t undermine your angle – that it was an unlawful lynch mob of democrats that murdered him.)
The original article comes from The American Mercury, which is a HIGHLY anti-Semitic publication. If anyone doubts that then all they need do is check right here:
http://theamericanmercury.org/category/world-news/middle-east/
That kind of renders the article worthless.
I read from I Own The World everyday, and I hate to see it publish intentional disinformation from bigots trying to whitewash history the way they want it to read.
I urge you to remove the article and the link.
You are correct about that, and as soon as I posted that comment wanted to edit it to clarify. What I should have said was that very few people can piss me oft, because there are very few people I care about enough to allow them to do so, and for some reason you are on that list. I suppose I need to do as one commentator suggested and lighten up. I was just a bit thrown off by such a different take on the story. And, yes, you do a good job posting readers stories…you have posted probably hundreds of mine and even corrected my speeling when you do. But please, don’t h/t me if you completely disagree with my take on a story I send you, OK?
I personally find a lot of irony in how this case is being portrayed these days. If you believe the stereotypical characterizations of southerners, you would have to wonder why didn’t the rednecks just hang ’em both (the Jew and the “darkie”)?
According to many misguided people, southerners have historically hated both groups equally. so why would they have only focused on Frank (Jewish) but not Conley (black)? They were the only two that could have possibly murdered Mary Phagan (and she was Irish-Catholic, so why would the prejudiced, evil Protestant rednecks involved in Frank’s death have even cared if she had been raped and killed).
Considering that everyone involved was supposedly hated by southerners based on their ethnicity / ancestry, it seems pretty clear to me that only Frank was hung because the people who did it believed beyond a shadow of a doubt (based on the evidence and court verdicts) that he and he alone had killed Mary Phagan. By my lights, it had nothing to do with Jew hatred and everything to do with true justice for a murderer.
Very good points Bubba’s Brother .
You bypassed the concept of the story I sent you, the story about racist democrats turned into modern day republicans. And then you suggest I do and addendum in the comments to make that point? You found your take of the story more interesting than mine, but you never even mentioned my take? And you h/t me for what exactly?
One of the references shown in the link BFH provided is the original archive of the court proceedings including trial testimony. I would consider that to be a pretty unbiased source regardless of where it was used in a story (the .pdf version on the right under “download options” works better than the full text).
https://archive.org/details/LeoM.FrankPlaintiffInErrorVs.StateOfGeorgiaDefendantInError.In
The crime or evidence had nothing to do with what I sent BFH. My point was to expose democrats as the scum they are. The democrats were completely lawless. They went to a prison and hauled out an inmate, took him to a tree and hanged him. They were so unafraid that they took selfies with the dangling jew, and none were ever charged with a crime. Is that what we want? The well connected can dispense vigilante justice as they see fit? That’s the big story, not the crime itself. If you can’t see that, all is lost.
You are correct about it being wrong to hang the guy illegally. And I take back what I said about it being right to lynch the guy.
I do still think they should have executed him, but by way of the legal system, not a mob.
found a link to the full movie:
The People Vs. Leo Frank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fRs2xd890
oops, forgot the space and stuff after the link. Try again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fRs2xd890
//
Every elected politician in Georgia in the early 20th century was a democrat including Governor Slaton who commuted Frank’s death sentence to life in prison. Republicans weren’t particularly popular here due to the War of Northern Aggression and its still lingering effects. In Georgia and many other southern states it was Republicans that were rightly considered to be the lawless ones (aside from secession being a completely legal and constitutional act that was met with unnecessary violence by the federal government under republican rule see Sherman’s march through Georgia and the unlawful and immoral destruction of private property, burning down houses, driving out families, stealing all their food, etc. that he and his troops committed against women and children).
I personally don’t see why anyone would perceive being a democrat in Georgia at that time would be some form of evil that should be carried over to today. Times were different then and the idea of only courts being able to dispense justice was not that firmly entrenched in the culture.
Apparently it will require vigilante justice by the masses if America is to survive because it is the well connected and ruling political class today that are the lawless ones. I’m sure that the men that lynched Leo Frank gave no consideration to themselves being democrats but rather saw themselves simply as honorable men carrying out justice that the legal system had failed to properly accomplish.
The Demonrats would have lynched him even if he had been black …
This 2009 movie seems to be slanted toward the innocence of Leo Frank. The credits mention Steven Spielberg’s Righteous Persons Foundation which has supported the One Voice Movement and George Soros’ Tides Foundation, among others.
My opinion hasn’t changed since watching it, maybe the older version movie is less biased?
“They went to a prison and hauled out an inmate [who was convicted of MURDER by a court of LAW], took him to a tree and hanged him.”
The PEOPLE meted out the justice that their elected officials, who think they are above the law, refused to do.
They should have hanged the Governor, too.
I have read the numerous history articles about the murder of mary phagan and trial of leo frank at The American Mercury website and I found nothing even remotely anti-Semetic about them, unless the new definition of anti-Semitism is anything that disagrees with the Jewish narrative.
The best website I have found about leo frank case is the gargantuan Leo Frank Research Library, which has the entire collection of atlanta newspaper articles from 1913 and the trial legal records.
I regret to inform all the people who believe I was innocent that I am in fact guilty. I’m sorry for all the people who were mislead by my lying. I murdered Mary Phagan and I’m only sorry because I got caught. Had that recalcitrant negro, James “Jim” Conley cremated the body in the oversized cellar furnace, as I asked him, I never would have been rightfully hanged.
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The American Mercury produced one of the most scholarly, detailed, well researched and comprehensive analyses on the 1913 Leo Frank Trial, including an audio book of their research.
Leo Frank made what amounted to a virtual murder confession. He changed his alibi on the witness stand and placed himself at the scene of the crime. You won’t learn about this fact from Steve Oney, Leonard Dinnerstein, ADL, SPLC or other Jewish partisons, but you can learn what really happened at The American Mercury concerning why Leo Frank’s guilt was established with a high degree of accuracy.