September 11, 2024 • 25 mins
Prepare to be captivated by the heart-wrenching and mysterious tales that lie at the very heart of Southern history. I'm Carole Townsend, and in this gripping episode, we revisit the tragic story of Mary Fagan, a young girl whose life was brutally ended at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta in 1913. Discover the eerie circumstances surrounding her death and the harrowing investigation that ensued, drawing Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent, into a maelstrom of suspicion fueled by the racial and anti-Semitic tensions of the post-Civil War South.
Journey further into the dark history with the infamous trial and lynching of Leo Frank, whose case became a lightning rod for societal unrest and media sensationalism. We'll also uncover the spine-chilling legend of the Bell Witch in Tennessee, delving into whether this haunting was a masterful hoax or a true supernatural occurrence. With my extensive research and storytelling, I promise you an episode that not only illuminates the injustices and mysteries of our past but also keeps you on the edge of your seat. Don't forget to subscribe and share, and visit caroletownsend.com for more haunting tales.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carole Townsend (00:04):
Sunday April 26th was, and in some states
still is, a Southern holiday.
It's Confederate Memorial Day,a day set aside to commemorate
the soldiers who lost theirlives during the Civil War.
On the morning of April 26th1913, 13-year-old Mary Fagan
(00:27):
kissed her mother goodbye andtraveled from her home in
Marietta, georgia, to her placeof employment at the National
Pencil Company in Atlanta,georgia.
She was going there to pick upher weekly wages in the sum of
$1.20.
Wages in the sum of $1.20.
(00:49):
Neither mother nor child couldpossibly know that that would be
the very last time they saweach other.
Sit with me a while and I'lltell you a haunting story about
the South that most people havenever heard.
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
(01:14):
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
(01:35):
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe.
(01:56):
And the best place for tellingtales about such things is the
comfort and safety of an oldfront porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
(02:18):
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction, and I'llturn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
(02:42):
Listener discretion is advised.
Mary Fagan was a beautiful child, the daughter of tenant farmers
who had moved to the city insearch of a better life.
Like so many other Southernfamilies during that time, and
she, as did many children at thetime, worked to help support
(03:05):
her family.
The national child labor lawsof the day were bad enough, but
Georgia's child labor standardswere by far the nation's worst.
Children as young as age 10were put to work in factories
for as many as 12 hours a day,often in conditions that were
less than safe and sanitary.
(03:25):
Still, mary was in alighthearted mood that Sunday.
Not only was she collecting herwages on this sunny spring day,
but today was ConfederateMemorial Day, set aside to honor
the dead of the Confederacy.
It was with thoughts of familycelebration and a brisk walk on
(03:47):
a beautiful day that made littleMary smile on her way to her
place of employment that Sunday.
Surprisingly, mary did notreturn home at the expected hour
after her brief errand and asearch was launched by family
members and friends in thecommunity.
Mr Leo Frank, thesuperintendent of the factory,
(04:11):
acknowledged paying Mary herwages that morning, but he swore
that she left his office and hehadn't seen her since.
The frantic search for thelittle girl continued until
about 3.30 the next morning.
The frantic search for thelittle girl continued until
about 3.30 the next morning whenthe factory watchman found her
(04:33):
bloody, brutalized body in thebasement of the factory.
Next to her body were twocrudely worded notes.
The notes read, and this isverbatim Ma'am, that negro hire
down here did this.
I went to make water and hepushed me down that hole.
A long, tall Negro, black.
That who it was?
Long, slim, tall, negro.
(04:56):
It write while play with me.
And the text of the second notehe said he would love me land
down play like the night witchdid it.
But that long, tall black Nidrodid this by himself.
(05:19):
These notes were clearly anilliterate and awkward attempt
by the killer to point thefinger of guilt at the night
watchman who had found Mary'sbody.
He was indeed a tall andslender man, obviously, since
eyewitnesses had seen Mary enterthe factory.
On April 26th, police officersapproached Leo Frank for
(05:40):
questioning at his home early onthe morning of April 27th.
Frank denied even knowing thelittle girl's name, but he did
say that he had paid her a sumof $1.20 for her week's wages.
In an unusual next step, policetook Frank to the morgue to
(06:00):
look at the little girl's body,doing this in an attempt to
observe his actions.
As he looked at the child'ssmall violated corpse, one
officer noted that Frank did notindicate any unusual behaviors
or reactions to seeing the bodyand for the time being he was
not considered a suspect.
(06:23):
As always, in order to makesense of the events that unfold
next, we must understand thetime and the place of things
First.
This crime took place in thedeep south at a time when the
infant city of Atlanta, whichwas growing by leaps and bounds,
was trying to find its footingand its identity in the wake of
(06:45):
a bloody civil war and amidturmoil, racial unrest and
Southerners' resentment of bothAfrican Americans and the
Northern industrialists who hadso brazenly taken over business
in the city.
Everyone from white Southernersto relatively recently
emancipated African Americans toNortherners flocking South to
(07:09):
make their fortunes, feltcontempt, mistrust and hostility
for one another.
To make matters even worse,anti-semitism was also at an
all-time high in the South.
So the fact that Leo Frank wasnot just a northerner but a
Jewish man as well would provecrucial in the outcome of this
(07:32):
tragedy.
Yes, these were dangerous,volatile times during which
conflict and violence eruptedoften.
It was in the midst of thisdisorderly and sometimes chaotic
climate that Mary Fagan wasraped and murdered.
(07:52):
The city was reeling from thehorrific details of this tragic
event, details that were playedup with deafening frequency in
the newspapers.
One weekly paper, theJeffersonian, took every
opportunity with this case towhip readers into a vengeful
fury by publishing story afterstory about Frank's Jewish faith
(08:15):
, his northern roots and othersordid accusations that were
never substantiated.
Public outrage and a lust forrevenge reached fever pitch.
The newspaper's circulation inturn quadrupled, and not just
any defendant would do.
(08:35):
In this case, it had to be LeoFrank, both a Yankee and a Jew,
who would pay the ultimate pricefor the murder of Little Mary.
Detectives were under tremendouspressure, both from their
superiors and from politiciansalike, to solve the case, and,
(08:58):
despite his repeated protests ofinnocence, frank was arrested
on April 29th, the same day asLittle Mary's funeral.
It's important here to notethat four other men were
arrested for the murder prior toFrank's arrest.
There was Arthur Mullinax, astreetcar conductor, who was
(09:19):
seen with Mary the night beforeher death.
Then there was Newt Lee, thenight watchman, who discovered
Mary's body in the dark,deserted basement of the pencil
factory.
John Gant, a bookkeeper at thefactory, was also charged with
the child's murder.
Gordon Bailey, an elevatoroperator, was also arrested for
(09:43):
the crime.
And on May 1st Jim Conley, thejanitor at the pencil factory,
was arrested.
His arrest came after he wasdiscovered rinsing bloodstains
out of his shirt.
Still, despite credible evidenceto the contrary, every man
(10:03):
arrested in this case was setfree, every man, that is, except
Leo Frank, who was tried forthe rape and murder of Mary
Fagan.
The case against Frank wasbased primarily on the testimony
of the janitor, jim Conley, whotold prosecutor Hugh Dorsey,
(10:24):
that Frank often forced Conleyto cover for him while he
molested young girls in hisoffice.
According to Conley, whileFrank attacked Mary, she somehow
slipped and hit her head on apiece of machinery in his office
and the blow killed her.
And hit her head on a piece ofmachinery in his office and the
blow killed her.
Frank, according to Conley,told the janitor to dispose of
(10:49):
her lifeless body.
The prosecutor failed tomention that Conley changed his
story not once, not twice, butfour separate times before the
attorneys heard what they wantedto hear and told him to stick
with that version of events.
They then rehearsed thatversion of Conley's testimony
again and again, coaching theilliterate man, who was no
(11:11):
stranger to police, to beconsistent and believable.
The sensational trial lasted 25days and every day the
courthouse was surrounded byAtlantans demanding Frank's
conviction and the death penalty.
Because of the growing hatredtoward all intruders, including
Jews, had reached out topowerful Jewish friends, allies
(11:47):
and people of influence in theNorth.
At first there was no interestin the goings-on in this
backward southern town calledAtlanta, that is until the pleas
got the attention of AdolphOaks, the publisher of the New
York Times.
He took up the matter, givingthe unfolding story prominent,
unprecedented coverage in theTimes, and the reporters he sent
(12:13):
to Georgia concluded that Frankhad indeed been wrongly
convicted.
The South's reaction tomeddling from the North was just
what you might expect.
The backlash was a media frenzyand the tone could not have
(12:36):
been more vicious.
Sadly, and as you might havealready guessed, frank was
indeed convicted of the heinouscrime.
The crowd outside the courthousethat day erupted in shouts of
joy and triumph.
Prosecutor Dorsey was carriedon people's shoulders from the
courthouse doors to his awaitingautomobile A hero among heroes.
(12:58):
The celebration had beenpredicted by law enforcement and
Frank was kept away from thecourthouse on the very day the
verdict was read, in an attemptto prevent his kidnapping and
lynching on the spot.
This act alone was a flagrantdenial of Frank's constitutional
rights.
Several appeals followed thiskangaroo court's decision, but
(13:23):
none stood.
Even the fact that Frank wasnot allowed to be present during
his own sentencing did not seemto matter in the workings of
justice.
In this case, an angry mob,popular opinion and political
pressure are difficult demons toface down and defeat from
(13:44):
behind bars.
Still then, georgia GovernorJohn Slayton could not ignore
the circus-like atmosphere thathad obviously played a role in
Frank's conviction.
He wasn't convinced that littleMary Fagan had been murdered by
this mild-mannered factorymanager.
So he took it upon himself toreview more than 10,000 pages of
(14:10):
documents and even visited thepencil factory himself, curious
to see if the facts of the casehad been fairly presented.
Deciding that Frank wasinnocent, slayton commuted his
sentence from death to lifeimprisonment.
Surely, he thought, justicewill eventually prevail here and
(14:30):
this man will someday be setfree.
Predictably, slayton'scommutation of the sentence
touched off riots throughout thecity and hundreds of angry
citizens marched to thegovernor's mansion.
Some of Slayton's most rabidopponents meant to kill him.
That very night the governorwas able to call for the
(14:54):
National Guard just in time tostop the advance on the Capitol.
Coincidentally, his term asgovernor ended just a few days
later.
The National Guard escorted himand his family to the state
border and put them on a train.
They would not return toGeorgia for another decade.
(15:16):
After Slayton commuted Frank'ssentence, the prisoner was moved
to a state prison farm inMilledgeville, georgia, in the
middle of the state.
He stayed there for nearly twomonths.
During that short time a fellowprisoner slashed Frank's throat
, but the attack did not end hislife.
(15:38):
In a horrifying series ofevents that is still difficult
to believe.
On August 16, 1915, 25prominent citizens from Marietta
, georgia, who identifiedthemselves as the Knights of
Mary Fagan, caravaned to theprison in Milledgeville.
Through a series of payoffs,promises and guards compensated
(16:02):
for looking the other way.
Frank was forcibly removed fromhis cell and thrown into the
back of one of the seven oreight cars in the caravan.
The group drove a circuitousroute back to Marietta.
Presumably to avoid detectionand interception.
The men drove Frank to a placedeep in the Marietta woods, a
(16:24):
place already prepared with atable and a hanging rope.
The vigilantes tied his handsbehind his back, slipped the
noose around Leo Frank's neck,dragged him onto the table and
then kicked the table fromunderneath him In a gruesome
display of bloodlust and a termI've come to understand as being
(16:47):
mob think.
Frank's body hung from thattree for nearly 24 hours with
hundreds of onlookers gawkingand jeering at the aftermath of
the violence.
They kicked and punched thebody until lawmakers finally
intervened, cut the lifelesscorpse down and carried it away.
(17:07):
No one was ever arrested for thelynching and, according to many
researchers, still today no onespeaks openly about the crime.
In fact, it's remarkable thatso many people could take part
in such a vicious murder andkeep the secrets through the
generations.
But they have.
(17:27):
In 1986, 71 years after LeoFrank was lynched, the Georgia
State Board of Pardons andParoles issued this statement
Without attempting to addressthe question of guilt or
innocence.
The Georgia State Board ofPardons and Paroles issued this
(17:52):
statement conviction and inrecognition of the state's
failure to bring his killers tojustice and as an effort to heal
old wounds.
The State Board of Pardons andParoles, in compliance with its
(18:15):
constitutional and statutoryauthority, hereby grants to Leo
M Frank a pardon.
Of all the unspeakable eventsthat have taken place in the
southern United States, thiscase falls at, or near the very
top.
An innocent man was wronglyaccused of a heinous crime and
murdered for it, and an innocentlittle girl's death went
unavenged, her killer left freeto kill again if he so chose.
(18:40):
Mary Fagan's family never gotthe peace or the dignity of
learning the truth about theirdaughter's murder.
Do I say these things simplybecause they're my opinion
Hardly.
If I've learned anything overthe years of researching
Southern history andinvestigating true crime, it's
(19:02):
that things are rarely as theyseem and that truth, by its very
nature, does not stay buriedforever.
In 1982, reporters from theTennessean newspaper in
Nashville set out to clear thename of Leo Frank.
On Sunday, march 7, 1982, theTennessean printed a 10-page
(19:26):
special section titled JusticeBetrayed A Sin of Silence, in
which a key witness to the LeoFrank case, alonzo Mann, said
that false testimony led toFrank's conviction.
Alonzo Mann said that falsetestimony led to Frank's
conviction.
Alonzo Mann We've never heardthat name before, have we?
(19:46):
He was Frank's 12-year-oldoffice boy at the pencil factory
back in 1913.
In that special article in the,tennessean, mann, who was by
then 83 years old, toldreporters Leo Frank did not kill
Mary Fagan.
She was murdered instead by JimConley, the building janitor.
(20:12):
Mann's memory is not perfectwhen he is recalling people,
places and events of nearly 70years ago, but he vividly
remembers the confrontation hehad with Jim Conley, who was
holding the limp body of MaryFagan in his arms while standing
in the lobby of the pencilfactory when Mann walked in.
(20:32):
He believed he saw this onlymoments after Mary had been
knocked unconscious, butapparently before she was
murdered.
He believed he saw this onlymoments after Mary had been
knocked unconscious, butapparently before she was
murdered, and he believes thatif he had yelled for help, he
might have saved her life.
But Mann then, just a boy saidhe did not call for help or
(20:53):
alert the authorities and thatConley told him If you ever say
a word about this, I'll kill you.
Man was frightened and he ran,after riding a trolley home.
He told his mother what hadhappened.
She instructed him to remainsilent and told him not to get
(21:13):
involved, and he, of course,obeyed her.
He kept this memory to himselffor years, but as he grew older
his secret knowledge weighedheavy on his conscience.
He even tried, he said, to tellan Atlanta newspaper reporter
what he knew, that Jim Conley'stestimony in court was a lie
(21:35):
from beginning to end.
Leo Frank never murdered MaryFagan, as he said.
He paid her her wages thatSunday in spring and the little
girl went on her way, never tobe seen again, except, that is,
by the janitor.
I suppose it's in all of us totry to make sense of things that
(21:57):
make no sense at all themurders of innocents, no matter
their ages, or that to many thehatred of entire races and
communities of people feels good.
Simply because hatred can feelgood, violence can feel good.
I have to believe that we don'tall feel that way.
(22:19):
I have to believe that a kindof evil takes up residence in
people, especially when a mobrules, when individual thought
and conscience dissipate andwhen people are simply different
from one another.
I believe that that kind ofevil has ancient roots and that
those roots grow deep in fertilesoil.
(22:41):
What was Leo Frank's crime?
Well, he committed two,actually he hailed from the
north and he was Jewish.
And Mary Fagan's crime?
She wasn't innocent, she waseasy prey.
Incidentally, the caravan ofprominent white citizens who
dragged Leo Frank from his cellin middle Georgia developed an
(23:05):
interest in forming anorganization to carry out other
such deeds as necessary here inthe South.
A short time after the lynchingof Leo Frank in Marietta, the
Knights of Mary Fagan gatheredon a mountaintop near Atlanta.
You may have heard of thisplace it's called Stone Mountain
.
At this gathering the groupformed the new Ku Klux Klan of
(23:30):
Georgia.
At the same time as the newKlan was taking shape, a group
of frightened, even outraged,jewish community members met to
form the Anti-Defamation Leagueto combat anti-Semitism.
Here's another interestingaside the trial that led to Leo
(23:50):
Frank's wrongful conviction andeventual lynching catapulted
prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to theoffice of governor in 1916.
He was re-elected to a secondterm and during his tenure he
supported mandatory educationfor all races, he condemned
lynching and compulsory labor topay debts, and he endorsed
(24:13):
conventions to discuss racialaffairs.
As I've said before, the truthis often stranger than fiction.
Join me next time as we explorethe strange and fascinating
phenomenon of Tennessee's BellWitch.
Was the years-long haunting anelaborate hoax that's persisted
(24:36):
to this very day, an elaboratehoax that's persisted to this
very day?
Or are the terrifying eventsthat began back in 1817 the
prowlings of an actual witch?
There's a reason that this taleis referred to as America's
greatest ghost story.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
(24:59):
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
caroltownsendcom.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends history and lore.
I hope you'll tell your friends.
(25:20):
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I benefited fromthe following research and
writings to bring this tale toyou the Truth About the Frank
Case by Christopher Powell,connolly, research Guides at the
Library of Congress.
The Trial of Leo Frank AnAccount.
(25:46):
The Leo Frank Case New GeorgiaEncyclopedia and, of course, the
Tennessean newspaper.
No-transcript.
Sunday April 26th was, and in some states
still is, a Southern holiday.
It's Confederate Memorial Day,a day set aside to commemorate
the soldiers who lost theirlives during the Civil War.
On the morning of April 26th1913, 13-year-old Mary Fagan
(00:27):
kissed her mother goodbye andtraveled from her home in
Marietta, georgia, to her placeof employment at the National
Pencil Company in Atlanta,georgia.
She was going there to pick upher weekly wages in the sum of
$1.20.
Wages in the sum of $1.20.
(00:49):
Neither mother nor child couldpossibly know that that would be
the very last time they saweach other.
Sit with me a while and I'lltell you a haunting story about
the South that most people havenever heard.
Here in the South, we love ourstories.
We begin in childhood huddledaround campfires, whispering of
(01:14):
things best spoken in the dark,confiding in our small trusting
circles.
Why is that, do you suppose?
I have researched andinvestigated Southern history
for more than 20 years and Ibelieve it has to do with this
region itself.
There's a lot that hangs in theether here and much that is
(01:35):
buried deep in the soil.
There's beauty here in theSouth and shame and courage and,
make no mistake, there is evil.
There's always been the elementof the unexplained, the just
out of reach that we can allfeel but can never quite
describe.
(01:56):
And the best place for tellingtales about such things is the
comfort and safety of an oldfront porch.
So I invite you tonight to comeup here with me, settle back
into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you
like, and I'll share with yousome of the tales best told in
(02:18):
the company of friends, talesthat prove that truth really is
stranger than fiction, and I'llturn on the light.
You're going to want that.
I'm Carole Townsend.
Welcome to my front porch.
The following podcast containsmaterial that may be disturbing.
(02:42):
Listener discretion is advised.
Mary Fagan was a beautiful child, the daughter of tenant farmers
who had moved to the city insearch of a better life.
Like so many other Southernfamilies during that time, and
she, as did many children at thetime, worked to help support
(03:05):
her family.
The national child labor lawsof the day were bad enough, but
Georgia's child labor standardswere by far the nation's worst.
Children as young as age 10were put to work in factories
for as many as 12 hours a day,often in conditions that were
less than safe and sanitary.
(03:25):
Still, mary was in alighthearted mood that Sunday.
Not only was she collecting herwages on this sunny spring day,
but today was ConfederateMemorial Day, set aside to honor
the dead of the Confederacy.
It was with thoughts of familycelebration and a brisk walk on
(03:47):
a beautiful day that made littleMary smile on her way to her
place of employment that Sunday.
Surprisingly, mary did notreturn home at the expected hour
after her brief errand and asearch was launched by family
members and friends in thecommunity.
Mr Leo Frank, thesuperintendent of the factory,
(04:11):
acknowledged paying Mary herwages that morning, but he swore
that she left his office and hehadn't seen her since.
The frantic search for thelittle girl continued until
about 3.30 the next morning.
The frantic search for thelittle girl continued until
about 3.30 the next morning whenthe factory watchman found her
(04:33):
bloody, brutalized body in thebasement of the factory.
Next to her body were twocrudely worded notes.
The notes read, and this isverbatim Ma'am, that negro hire
down here did this.
I went to make water and hepushed me down that hole.
A long, tall Negro, black.
That who it was?
Long, slim, tall, negro.
(04:56):
It write while play with me.
And the text of the second notehe said he would love me land
down play like the night witchdid it.
But that long, tall black Nidrodid this by himself.
(05:19):
These notes were clearly anilliterate and awkward attempt
by the killer to point thefinger of guilt at the night
watchman who had found Mary'sbody.
He was indeed a tall andslender man, obviously, since
eyewitnesses had seen Mary enterthe factory.
On April 26th, police officersapproached Leo Frank for
(05:40):
questioning at his home early onthe morning of April 27th.
Frank denied even knowing thelittle girl's name, but he did
say that he had paid her a sumof $1.20 for her week's wages.
In an unusual next step, policetook Frank to the morgue to
(06:00):
look at the little girl's body,doing this in an attempt to
observe his actions.
As he looked at the child'ssmall violated corpse, one
officer noted that Frank did notindicate any unusual behaviors
or reactions to seeing the bodyand for the time being he was
not considered a suspect.
(06:23):
As always, in order to makesense of the events that unfold
next, we must understand thetime and the place of things
First.
This crime took place in thedeep south at a time when the
infant city of Atlanta, whichwas growing by leaps and bounds,
was trying to find its footingand its identity in the wake of
(06:45):
a bloody civil war and amidturmoil, racial unrest and
Southerners' resentment of bothAfrican Americans and the
Northern industrialists who hadso brazenly taken over business
in the city.
Everyone from white Southernersto relatively recently
emancipated African Americans toNortherners flocking South to
(07:09):
make their fortunes, feltcontempt, mistrust and hostility
for one another.
To make matters even worse,anti-semitism was also at an
all-time high in the South.
So the fact that Leo Frank wasnot just a northerner but a
Jewish man as well would provecrucial in the outcome of this
(07:32):
tragedy.
Yes, these were dangerous,volatile times during which
conflict and violence eruptedoften.
It was in the midst of thisdisorderly and sometimes chaotic
climate that Mary Fagan wasraped and murdered.
(07:52):
The city was reeling from thehorrific details of this tragic
event, details that were playedup with deafening frequency in
the newspapers.
One weekly paper, theJeffersonian, took every
opportunity with this case towhip readers into a vengeful
fury by publishing story afterstory about Frank's Jewish faith
(08:15):
, his northern roots and othersordid accusations that were
never substantiated.
Public outrage and a lust forrevenge reached fever pitch.
The newspaper's circulation inturn quadrupled, and not just
any defendant would do.
(08:35):
In this case, it had to be LeoFrank, both a Yankee and a Jew,
who would pay the ultimate pricefor the murder of Little Mary.
Detectives were under tremendouspressure, both from their
superiors and from politiciansalike, to solve the case, and,
(08:58):
despite his repeated protests ofinnocence, frank was arrested
on April 29th, the same day asLittle Mary's funeral.
It's important here to notethat four other men were
arrested for the murder prior toFrank's arrest.
There was Arthur Mullinax, astreetcar conductor, who was
(09:19):
seen with Mary the night beforeher death.
Then there was Newt Lee, thenight watchman, who discovered
Mary's body in the dark,deserted basement of the pencil
factory.
John Gant, a bookkeeper at thefactory, was also charged with
the child's murder.
Gordon Bailey, an elevatoroperator, was also arrested for
(09:43):
the crime.
And on May 1st Jim Conley, thejanitor at the pencil factory,
was arrested.
His arrest came after he wasdiscovered rinsing bloodstains
out of his shirt.
Still, despite credible evidenceto the contrary, every man
(10:03):
arrested in this case was setfree, every man, that is, except
Leo Frank, who was tried forthe rape and murder of Mary
Fagan.
The case against Frank wasbased primarily on the testimony
of the janitor, jim Conley, whotold prosecutor Hugh Dorsey,
(10:24):
that Frank often forced Conleyto cover for him while he
molested young girls in hisoffice.
According to Conley, whileFrank attacked Mary, she somehow
slipped and hit her head on apiece of machinery in his office
and the blow killed her.
And hit her head on a piece ofmachinery in his office and the
blow killed her.
Frank, according to Conley,told the janitor to dispose of
(10:49):
her lifeless body.
The prosecutor failed tomention that Conley changed his
story not once, not twice, butfour separate times before the
attorneys heard what they wantedto hear and told him to stick
with that version of events.
They then rehearsed thatversion of Conley's testimony
again and again, coaching theilliterate man, who was no
(11:11):
stranger to police, to beconsistent and believable.
The sensational trial lasted 25days and every day the
courthouse was surrounded byAtlantans demanding Frank's
conviction and the death penalty.
Because of the growing hatredtoward all intruders, including
Jews, had reached out topowerful Jewish friends, allies
(11:47):
and people of influence in theNorth.
At first there was no interestin the goings-on in this
backward southern town calledAtlanta, that is until the pleas
got the attention of AdolphOaks, the publisher of the New
York Times.
He took up the matter, givingthe unfolding story prominent,
unprecedented coverage in theTimes, and the reporters he sent
(12:13):
to Georgia concluded that Frankhad indeed been wrongly
convicted.
The South's reaction tomeddling from the North was just
what you might expect.
The backlash was a media frenzyand the tone could not have
(12:36):
been more vicious.
Sadly, and as you might havealready guessed, frank was
indeed convicted of the heinouscrime.
The crowd outside the courthousethat day erupted in shouts of
joy and triumph.
Prosecutor Dorsey was carriedon people's shoulders from the
courthouse doors to his awaitingautomobile A hero among heroes.
(12:58):
The celebration had beenpredicted by law enforcement and
Frank was kept away from thecourthouse on the very day the
verdict was read, in an attemptto prevent his kidnapping and
lynching on the spot.
This act alone was a flagrantdenial of Frank's constitutional
rights.
Several appeals followed thiskangaroo court's decision, but
(13:23):
none stood.
Even the fact that Frank wasnot allowed to be present during
his own sentencing did not seemto matter in the workings of
justice.
In this case, an angry mob,popular opinion and political
pressure are difficult demons toface down and defeat from
(13:44):
behind bars.
Still then, georgia GovernorJohn Slayton could not ignore
the circus-like atmosphere thathad obviously played a role in
Frank's conviction.
He wasn't convinced that littleMary Fagan had been murdered by
this mild-mannered factorymanager.
So he took it upon himself toreview more than 10,000 pages of
(14:10):
documents and even visited thepencil factory himself, curious
to see if the facts of the casehad been fairly presented.
Deciding that Frank wasinnocent, slayton commuted his
sentence from death to lifeimprisonment.
Surely, he thought, justicewill eventually prevail here and
(14:30):
this man will someday be setfree.
Predictably, slayton'scommutation of the sentence
touched off riots throughout thecity and hundreds of angry
citizens marched to thegovernor's mansion.
Some of Slayton's most rabidopponents meant to kill him.
That very night the governorwas able to call for the
(14:54):
National Guard just in time tostop the advance on the Capitol.
Coincidentally, his term asgovernor ended just a few days
later.
The National Guard escorted himand his family to the state
border and put them on a train.
They would not return toGeorgia for another decade.
(15:16):
After Slayton commuted Frank'ssentence, the prisoner was moved
to a state prison farm inMilledgeville, georgia, in the
middle of the state.
He stayed there for nearly twomonths.
During that short time a fellowprisoner slashed Frank's throat
, but the attack did not end hislife.
(15:38):
In a horrifying series ofevents that is still difficult
to believe.
On August 16, 1915, 25prominent citizens from Marietta
, georgia, who identifiedthemselves as the Knights of
Mary Fagan, caravaned to theprison in Milledgeville.
Through a series of payoffs,promises and guards compensated
(16:02):
for looking the other way.
Frank was forcibly removed fromhis cell and thrown into the
back of one of the seven oreight cars in the caravan.
The group drove a circuitousroute back to Marietta.
Presumably to avoid detectionand interception.
The men drove Frank to a placedeep in the Marietta woods, a
(16:24):
place already prepared with atable and a hanging rope.
The vigilantes tied his handsbehind his back, slipped the
noose around Leo Frank's neck,dragged him onto the table and
then kicked the table fromunderneath him In a gruesome
display of bloodlust and a termI've come to understand as being
(16:47):
mob think.
Frank's body hung from thattree for nearly 24 hours with
hundreds of onlookers gawkingand jeering at the aftermath of
the violence.
They kicked and punched thebody until lawmakers finally
intervened, cut the lifelesscorpse down and carried it away.
(17:07):
No one was ever arrested for thelynching and, according to many
researchers, still today no onespeaks openly about the crime.
In fact, it's remarkable thatso many people could take part
in such a vicious murder andkeep the secrets through the
generations.
But they have.
(17:27):
In 1986, 71 years after LeoFrank was lynched, the Georgia
State Board of Pardons andParoles issued this statement
Without attempting to addressthe question of guilt or
innocence.
The Georgia State Board ofPardons and Paroles issued this
(17:52):
statement conviction and inrecognition of the state's
failure to bring his killers tojustice and as an effort to heal
old wounds.
The State Board of Pardons andParoles, in compliance with its
(18:15):
constitutional and statutoryauthority, hereby grants to Leo
M Frank a pardon.
Of all the unspeakable eventsthat have taken place in the
southern United States, thiscase falls at, or near the very
top.
An innocent man was wronglyaccused of a heinous crime and
murdered for it, and an innocentlittle girl's death went
unavenged, her killer left freeto kill again if he so chose.
(18:40):
Mary Fagan's family never gotthe peace or the dignity of
learning the truth about theirdaughter's murder.
Do I say these things simplybecause they're my opinion
Hardly.
If I've learned anything overthe years of researching
Southern history andinvestigating true crime, it's
(19:02):
that things are rarely as theyseem and that truth, by its very
nature, does not stay buriedforever.
In 1982, reporters from theTennessean newspaper in
Nashville set out to clear thename of Leo Frank.
On Sunday, march 7, 1982, theTennessean printed a 10-page
(19:26):
special section titled JusticeBetrayed A Sin of Silence, in
which a key witness to the LeoFrank case, alonzo Mann, said
that false testimony led toFrank's conviction.
Alonzo Mann said that falsetestimony led to Frank's
conviction.
Alonzo Mann We've never heardthat name before, have we?
(19:46):
He was Frank's 12-year-oldoffice boy at the pencil factory
back in 1913.
In that special article in the,tennessean, mann, who was by
then 83 years old, toldreporters Leo Frank did not kill
Mary Fagan.
She was murdered instead by JimConley, the building janitor.
(20:12):
Mann's memory is not perfectwhen he is recalling people,
places and events of nearly 70years ago, but he vividly
remembers the confrontation hehad with Jim Conley, who was
holding the limp body of MaryFagan in his arms while standing
in the lobby of the pencilfactory when Mann walked in.
(20:32):
He believed he saw this onlymoments after Mary had been
knocked unconscious, butapparently before she was
murdered.
He believed he saw this onlymoments after Mary had been
knocked unconscious, butapparently before she was
murdered, and he believes thatif he had yelled for help, he
might have saved her life.
But Mann then, just a boy saidhe did not call for help or
(20:53):
alert the authorities and thatConley told him If you ever say
a word about this, I'll kill you.
Man was frightened and he ran,after riding a trolley home.
He told his mother what hadhappened.
She instructed him to remainsilent and told him not to get
(21:13):
involved, and he, of course,obeyed her.
He kept this memory to himselffor years, but as he grew older
his secret knowledge weighedheavy on his conscience.
He even tried, he said, to tellan Atlanta newspaper reporter
what he knew, that Jim Conley'stestimony in court was a lie
(21:35):
from beginning to end.
Leo Frank never murdered MaryFagan, as he said.
He paid her her wages thatSunday in spring and the little
girl went on her way, never tobe seen again, except, that is,
by the janitor.
I suppose it's in all of us totry to make sense of things that
(21:57):
make no sense at all themurders of innocents, no matter
their ages, or that to many thehatred of entire races and
communities of people feels good.
Simply because hatred can feelgood, violence can feel good.
I have to believe that we don'tall feel that way.
(22:19):
I have to believe that a kindof evil takes up residence in
people, especially when a mobrules, when individual thought
and conscience dissipate andwhen people are simply different
from one another.
I believe that that kind ofevil has ancient roots and that
those roots grow deep in fertilesoil.
(22:41):
What was Leo Frank's crime?
Well, he committed two,actually he hailed from the
north and he was Jewish.
And Mary Fagan's crime?
She wasn't innocent, she waseasy prey.
Incidentally, the caravan ofprominent white citizens who
dragged Leo Frank from his cellin middle Georgia developed an
(23:05):
interest in forming anorganization to carry out other
such deeds as necessary here inthe South.
A short time after the lynchingof Leo Frank in Marietta, the
Knights of Mary Fagan gatheredon a mountaintop near Atlanta.
You may have heard of thisplace it's called Stone Mountain
.
At this gathering the groupformed the new Ku Klux Klan of
(23:30):
Georgia.
At the same time as the newKlan was taking shape, a group
of frightened, even outraged,jewish community members met to
form the Anti-Defamation Leagueto combat anti-Semitism.
Here's another interestingaside the trial that led to Leo
(23:50):
Frank's wrongful conviction andeventual lynching catapulted
prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to theoffice of governor in 1916.
He was re-elected to a secondterm and during his tenure he
supported mandatory educationfor all races, he condemned
lynching and compulsory labor topay debts, and he endorsed
(24:13):
conventions to discuss racialaffairs.
As I've said before, the truthis often stranger than fiction.
Join me next time as we explorethe strange and fascinating
phenomenon of Tennessee's BellWitch.
Was the years-long haunting anelaborate hoax that's persisted
(24:36):
to this very day, an elaboratehoax that's persisted to this
very day?
Or are the terrifying eventsthat began back in 1817 the
prowlings of an actual witch?
There's a reason that this taleis referred to as America's
greatest ghost story.
I'm Carole Townsend, veterannewspaper journalist and
(24:59):
six-time award-winning author.
You can find me on social mediaand check out my website at
caroltownsendcom.
As always, thanks for listeningand if you're enjoying these
tales of Southern history andlore, I hope you'll tell your
friends history and lore.
I hope you'll tell your friends.
(25:20):
Subscribe to this podcast onSpotify, apple Play, iheart and
anywhere you listen.
My team and I benefited fromthe following research and
writings to bring this tale toyou the Truth About the Frank
Case by Christopher Powell,connolly, research Guides at the
Library of Congress.
The Trial of Leo Frank AnAccount.
(25:46):
The Leo Frank Case New GeorgiaEncyclopedia and, of course, the
Tennessean newspaper.
No-transcript.
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