January 29, 2020 • 53 mins
Atlanta police work around the clock to track down suspects in the murder of a 13-year old factory worker. Meanwhile, rival newspapers wage an all-out war to cover the most sensational murder mystery in the history of the state.
Months covered in this episode: 28-29 (of 56)
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Months covered in this episode: 28-29 (of 56)
The Catlick digital scrapbook is NOW LIVE with vintage photos, maps, bonus episodes & more. To subscribe, just go to http://catlick.com, and click on VAULT.
* Browse t-shirts, stickers, & prints at http://catlick.com *
* Catlick on Instagram: http://instagram.com/catlickpodcast *
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hey there, Catolic fans BT here. Thanks so much for tuning into episode
fifteen. Hey, real quick,I want to give you a heads up
regarding something really cool we've got planned. Our Catolic podcast finale is quickly approaching
and we want to close it outwith a bang. So on March the
fourteenth, we're hosting a Catolic Liveevent here in Atlanta. We've got an
(00:28):
amazing night plan of behind the scenestories, inspiring speakers, and even more
crazy Atlanta history. I've had theprivilege to connect with so many of you,
and nothing would make me happier thanmeeting you in person. So I
hope you'll join us. Save thedate March the fourteenth, Stick around till
(00:50):
the end of the episode, andI'll give you the inside scoop on early
bird ticket pricing. Okay, that'sall, enjoy the show. It's around
four am on the morning of Apriltwenty seventh, nineteen thirteen, and a
(01:11):
handful of men are gathered in thedark and musty basement of the National Pencil
Company in downtown Atlanta. A lanternis their only source of light as they
stare at the cold body of afactory employee, thirteen year old Mary Fagan.
Among these men are seasoned police veterans, a lone newspaper reporter, and
(01:32):
a black man named Newt Lee.Newt Lee was the factory's night watchman,
who discovered the body about an hourearlier. The men crouched to get a
closer look. Her face was bruisedand there was a gash in the back
of her head. Her body wascovered in black soot and cinders. A
cord was wrapped around the girl's neck, indicating strangulation as the cause of death,
(01:57):
and finally, clear signs of sexualassault were on Mary Fagan's body and
clothing. The men continued their search, fanning out to canvas the dimly lit
underground chamber. This scan of thecrime scene turned up even more clues.
A bloodstained handkerchief, one of MaryFagin's shoes removed from her foot and tossed
(02:22):
aside, A trail cut into thedirt of the basement leading from the freight
elevator. This suggested that the bodyhad been brought down the elevator and dragged
to its current location. They alsoobserved in the far corner of the basement
a door which led to a backalleyway behind the factory. Now, this
(02:44):
door was normally nailed shut, however, it showed evidence of having been pride
open. Of course, the mostintriguing clue discovered that night were two notes
lying in the trash around Mary Fagan'sbody. They were written by hand,
but roughly scrawled. Here's what thefirst note said. Quote, he said
(03:07):
he would love me land down playlike the night, which did it?
But that long tall black negro didboy hisself? End quote. The second,
written on National Pencil Company stationery,said this quote, ma'am, that
negro higher down here did this.I went to make water and he pushed
(03:29):
me down that hole, A longtall negro black. That who it was?
Long steam tall negro? I write, while play with me. End
quote. That's kind of tough toprocess, so let me just read that
one again. Here it is,ma'am that negro higher down here did this.
I went to make water and hepushed me down that hole. A
(03:52):
long tall negro black. That whoit was, long steam tall negro,
I write, while play with me. Now, the dialect here makes it
really tough to interpret. But we'lltalk more about these notes later. And
for you Vault subscribers, we've gotcopies of both of these letters posted there
so you can read them for yourself. Though the detectives weren't exactly sure what
(04:16):
to make of them, one clearphrase stuck out in both confusing notes,
long Tall Negro, and in thatmoment, the spotlight of suspicion turned towards
the one black man present, NewtLee, the night watchman whose phone calls
the police got. This whole episodestarted in an instant. One of the
(04:42):
officers launched into newtly accusing him ofkilling Mary Fagan, or at least knowing
who did. After all, hewas the only person inside the National Pencil
Company building when officers arrived that night. Lee quickly denied it and began giving
his side of the story. Thatevening, he'd been making his usual rounds
checking in on the various parts ofthe pencil factory building. About three am,
(05:06):
he went down to the basement fora routine inspection. He walked towards
the back of the corridor to checkon the back door. On his way
there, the light from his lanternilluminated the outline of a human form.
His first thought, he told them, was that it was some kind of
dummy placed there as a prank.By one of his co workers. But
(05:27):
upon further inspection he saw something farmore grim. He raced back upstairs and
died police. Predictably, Newt's accountingof events meant little in that moment.
Remember, we're in the gym crowSouth, and a black man's testimony is
doubtful at best and utter deceit atworst. We don't know a lot about
(05:50):
Newtly, but we know a little. He was a humble man as far
as we know, meaning he wasborn into slavery and likely didn't have any
formal schooling. Within days, Newtlee'sname would be all over the pages of
the Atlanta papers. Listen to howone white writer for the Atlanta Georgian described
(06:11):
him. Lee is a black,ignorant, cornfield pot liquor fed darky.
His head is as flat as aballroom floor. His big frame is slightly
bent, not from weakness, butfrom the natural laziness of his type.
He is, beyond a doubt,a white man's inward. This is an
(06:33):
unbelievably cruel, unfair, and racistdepiction of Newtlee. Now I include it
here as yet another example of howwhite supremacy showed up back then. Printed
in the most well read papers,Unchecked and method Apology. I've mentioned it
previously, but there was a veryparticular narrative in the South about black men
(06:55):
and white women. The narrative wasthat black men were hyper sexual brutes on
the prow, stalking the streets andlooking for white women to ravage. You
may remember from episode three and thesubsequent half lick. This narrative was the
one that sparked the Atlanta race Riotof nineteen oh six. Seven years before
(07:15):
this Mary Fagan incident, local Atlanticpapers ran with several unconfirmed tales of black
men assaulting white women in Atlanta.This so infuriated the local white men that
they formed a mob and roamed thestreets, attacking any black person they could
find. More than a dozen peoplewere killed in the riots. So here
(07:39):
in this dark basement stood a blackman alongside the battered, outraged body of
a pretty young white girl. Inthat moment, Newt Lee's fate was as
good as sealed. One of theofficers removed his handcuffs and snapped them on
the wrists of Newt Lee. Hewas under arrest for the murder of Mary
(08:00):
Fagan. You're listening to episode fifteenof Catholic, a silent man in the
tower. After arresting Newtly, thegroup of officers escorted him back upstairs to
(08:52):
the main floor of the National PencilFactory. Don was just beginning to break
out on the streets of downtown Atlanta. One of the attending officers called the
local undertaker. Minutes later, ahearse arrived in the darkened alleyway behind the
National Pencil Factory. They removed MaryFagan's body and whisked it away for further
(09:13):
examination. Another call was placed thatmorning, this one to the Atlanta Police
headquarters. They relayed the news ofthe homicide in Two of the department's top
detectives, John Black, and JohnStarnes, were dispatched to the scene of
the crime. When Starnes and Blackarrived at the National Pencil Factory, they
(09:35):
were eager to investigate the crime scenefor themselves. They wasted no time.
After several minutes, Starnes discovered twoadditional clues overlooked by the previous salutes.
The first was a blue straw hatpresumed to have belonged to young Mary Fagan.
The second, bloody fingerprints smeared acrossthe face of that back door at
(10:01):
the far end of the basement,the one that was usually nailed shut.
Now you'll remember that I told youa local reporter accompanied that first group of
police officers. That reporter was nineteenyear old Brett Craig. Craig was the
son of a North Georgia newspaperman.He was known mostly for his love of
(10:22):
whiskey and for being a young bulldogof a reporter for the Atlantic Constitution.
Brett Craig had been loitering around thepolice department on that Sunday night, hoping
to get a lead on a pettycrime or maybe a burglary. Little did
he know when that call came in, the story of the year had just
fallen right into his lap. BrittCraig saw everything that night, the crime
(10:46):
scene, the body, the evidence, and newtlee himself. But after an
hour or so, Craig just disappearedinto the night, racing back to the
Constitution's news room. He knew hehad a brief window of time to file
his story before the printing presses startedhumming why was Britt Craig in such a
(11:07):
hurry to file his story on thatsleepy Sunday morning. Well, to understand
that We've got to go back toepisode seven of Catlic. That's when I
introduced you to the controversial media magnatenamed William Randolph Hurst. You'll remember that
in the early nineteen hundreds, Hurstowned a big portfolio of newspapers scattered all
(11:31):
around the country, and each ofthem followed his formula of yellow journalism.
This formula outsold other papers by exaggeratingheadlines, stretching the truth, fabricating facts,
and sensationalizing crime and scandal. Readersate it up. You may also
(11:52):
remember that back in February of nineteentwelve, Hearst acquired one of Atlanta's top
three papers, the Atlanta George.So by the time of Mary Fagan's murder,
Hurst's strategy had been active in Atlantafor about fourteen months, and as
the months passed, Hurst's men dialedup the sensationalism. The people of Atlanta
(12:13):
noticed, and the papers circulation soared. This move, in turn, put
the pressure on Atlanta's other two papers, the Journal and The Constitution. So
by the time Mary Fagan's body wasdiscovered, there was an all out circulation
wore already swirling in Atlanta. Thethree rival newsrooms did whatever had to be
(12:35):
done to get even the slightest scoopon their competitors. So it's safe to
say that as brit Craig raced tothe newsroom of the Constitution that morning,
he knew he had the chance toimpress his bosses by breaking a big story.
Hen that's exactly what happened. OnSunday, April twenty seventh. The
(12:56):
Constitution was the first to print thetale of a young white girl raped,
murdered, and then discarded into thebelly of one of Atlanta's child labor sweatshops.
Because info was still scarce, thatfirst article wasn't very big. It
offered the basic details and that wasit. However, across town, those
(13:20):
basic details would catch the eye ofFoster Coats, managing editor of the Atlanta
Georgian. Foster Coates was one ofWilliam Randolph Hurst's closest allies. Coates was
a newspaperman through and through. Hecrafted seductive, sizzling headlines, and he
(13:41):
had an instinct for knowing exactly whatstories would sell papers. When William Randolph
Hurst hired him years earlier, itwas a huge kit. He'd been working
for hurst chief New York rival JosephPulitzer. But in recent years, Hurst
had dispatched Coats to newsrooms across thecountry, places like Boston, Chicago,
(14:05):
and San Francisco. Coates was theguy Hurst sent in when he needed someone
he could trust, someone who couldtransform these stodgy old papers from boring to
bombastic. In April of nineteen thirteen, Coates was given a new assignment,
the Atlanta Georgian, and he'd arrivedin town that month, lodging at Atlanta's
(14:28):
posh Georgian Terrace Hotel and so.On the morning of April twenty seventh,
sitting in his hotel room, Coachbrewed his morning coffee and opened up the
pages of the rival Atlanta Constitution.His eyes scanned past mundane article after mundane
article, until it landed on onenot so mundane, A thirteen year old
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girl brutally and mysteriously murdered inside theharsh environs of an Atlanta factory. He
stopped. His eyes opened wide.He saw the latent potential. He saw
scandal, rape, murder, andmystery. He saw a story that could
tantalize an entire city, and perhapsa nation. He flung the paper aside
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and reached for the nearest phone thenewsroom. Telephone rang Sundays were usually slow
around the newsroom, but not today. Snoozing reporters and staff were called in,
all hands on deck. The Constitutionmay have won Sunday, but Foster
Coach knew that Monday was his.By midmorning on Sunday, police had positively
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identified the remains in the basement ofthe pencil factory as those of Mary Fagan.
They also got in touch with Mary'smother and stepfather, Fanny and John
Coleman. John actually went into Atlantaand searched for Mary himself, standing at
the exits of downtown's mini theaters andscanning the faces of those coming out,
He thought perhaps Mary had decided tosee a show after going to the Confederate
(16:12):
Memorial Day parade. Not finding her, he returned home later that evening after
a sleepless night. Around dawn,to be exact, the Colemans awoke to
the sound of someone knocking on thedoor of their humble Bellwood home. It
was reported that upon hearing the grimnews, Fanny Coleman screamed and collapsed into
(16:36):
a heap on the front porch.A mother's greatest fear had been realized throughout
the day. On Sunday, theAtlanta Police continued their investigation, which would
inevitably lead them to the home ofLeo Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil
Company. Leo Frank had moved toAtlanta five years earlier. Frank grew up
(17:00):
in Brooklyn and was educated at CornellUniversity, where he got a degree in
engineering. He was a northern transplantin the South's grandest city. In black
and white photos from back then,Frank just looks like an engineer. He's
a sharp looking guy, always wearinga suit, sometimes a pork pie hat.
But he also has a bit ofa severe look, angular facial features,
(17:25):
small lips, pointy chin, slightlybulging eyes into a serious expression in
most photos. In some photos he'swearing a pair of spectacles, and in
others he isn't. For some reason, the glasses make him look a little
bit villain like to me. Butfor the most part, Leah Frank was
well put together, the quintessential sharp, no nonsense, white collar businessman of
(17:48):
the early nineteen hundreds. Now,years before all this, Leah Frank had
met Lucille Seelig, the daughter ofa wealthy Jewish businessman. Within ten months
of meeting her, he proposed,and in nineteen ten the two were married.
After the wedding, the Franks boughta home in the area around Washington
Street, which is where most ofAtlanta's wealthy German Jewish population put down roots.
(18:14):
Today, this area is just southof the Georgia State Capitol Building,
and if you ever went to abraves game at Turner Field, you were
close by. As the superintendent ofthe Jewish owned National Pencil Company, Leo
Frank fit in well amongst Atlanta's eliteGerman Jewish community. Now I'm saying Jewish
(18:34):
because there was also an Orthodox Jewishcommunity in Atlanta, which consisted mostly of
immigrants from Russia and Poland. AsI understand it, the two groups didn't
really jive well. The German Jewswere a bit more modern and integrated more
smoothly amongst the gentiles of the AmericanSouth. The Orthodox Jews, on the
(18:55):
other hand, were more old school, maintaining the traditions and customs of their
homeland. Leo Frank was of thetrendier German Jewish persuasion, and as such,
she'd been recently elected president of thelocal chapter of the Bnet Bereaf,
a Jewish service organization and social club. By any measure, Leo Frank was
well respected, a rising star andleader in Atlanta's Jewish community. The morning
(19:23):
after Mary Fagan's body was found,police phoned the Frank residence. As the
superintendent of the factory, Frank wouldhave been able to answer all their questions
about the facility and hopefully shed somelight on who'd been there the day before.
When no one at the Frank residencepicked up the phone, detectives Boots
Rogers and John Black decided to driveover to their house and speak with Leo
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directly. Around seven am, theypulled up to the home of Leo and
Lucille Frank. Lucille opened the doorand the two detectives explained their business.
She quickly called for her husband.When Leo Frank saw the two officers,
he immediately suspected trouble. He askedif there had been a fire at the
(20:07):
factory overnight. No, they toldhim, not a fire, but a
tragedy. Frank the information may evenresponded with a series of rapid fire questions.
Detective Black thought Frank's questions were oddand that he spoke quickly, seemed
nervous, and even looked a bitpale. The two officers explained to Frank
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that the body of a young girlhad been found in the basement of the
factory. They then asked him ifthe name Mary Fagin sounded familiar. He
said no, which wasn't that unusual, given that Frank employed about two hundred
people at the pencil factory, andmost of them were young girls around Mary's
age. Detectives Rogers and Black knewthat Frank had been at the factory the
(20:52):
day before, so they asked himif he remembered a girl with long hair
coming by his office to collect herpay. Frank said he did remember a
girl like that stopping by, buthe didn't know her name was Mary Fagan.
The detectives needed to know for sureif the dead girl found in the
basement was the same girl who stoppedby Frank's office to pick up her paycheck,
(21:12):
so they asked Frank if you wouldaccompany them to the mortuary. He
agreed. When the three arrived,the undertaker led them to the back room.
Mary's body was covered and laid outon a big table. The undertaker
pulled back the sheet under the lightof a bright lamp. These men saw
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what the others had seen, anadolescent girl with a gash in her head,
covered in soot and dirt, blackand blue, with bruises, and
with a cord still wrapped around herneck. That's her, Frank said,
confirming that the girl before him wasthe same one who stopped by his office.
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The group's next stop would be atthe National Pencil Factory. When they
arrived, they were met by anemployee of the factory, a guy named
v Darley. Darley was in chargeof personnel and was a close associate of
Leo Frank's. The group walked toone of the office suites, where they
found a gaggle of police officers anda handcuffed Newtly waiting on them. Frank,
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a meticulous record keeper, retrieved hispay ledger. He opened to it,
flipped a few pages, and thenpointed to an entry bearing Mary Fagan's
name, confirmation that she had infact come by his office that day sometime
between noon and one pm. Next, the group would venture into the basement
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to survey the location where the girl'sbody was discovered. The men filed into
the factory's lone freight elevator that servicedthe basement. As the elevator slowly descended,
several of the detectives observed that Frankseemed nervous, maybe even a bit
fidgetine. When the elevator reached thefloor of the basement, the men were
overwhelmed by an unexpected but identifiable odorfeces. As it turns out, earlier
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that morning, an investigator had discovereda very strange clue, a fairly fresh
pile of undisturbed human excrement deposited onthe ground beneath the elevator. So when
the men reached the bottom of theelevator shaft, it was the stink of
smashed pooh They were met with,we'll revisit this mystery feces later. As
(23:37):
the men moved into the earthen corridorof the basement, an officer pointed out
the spot where Mary's body was found. During this process, someone noticed that
the back door had been left crackedopen. Frank insisted that the door be
nailed shut, as it had beenbefore, otherwise it posed a security risk
to the factory. Darley quickly retrieveda hammer and nails, and Leo Frank
(23:59):
went to work well. According tothe testimonies of those who were there,
he tried to go to work withhammer in hand, Frank couldn't connect with
the nails and his hand shook witheach swing of the hammer, another embarrassing
miss. As the rest of themen looked on. Sinsing his embarrassment,
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Darley jumped in, taking the hammerout of Frank's hand and finishing the job
for him. Having visited the mortuaryand now the pencil factory, the men
had one more stop for Leo Frank, the police headquarters. They wanted him
to evaluate the two handwritten notes.However, upon arrival, the men were
told that the notes weren't there.A reporter for the journal had borrowed them,
(24:48):
but promised to return them shortly.Apparently reporters borrowing evidence back then wasn't
all that uncommon. After that,Leo Frank was told he was free to
leave, and by eleven am hewas back home, enjoying a Sunday morning
with his wife. Meanwhile, wordof the attack slowly began to spread around
the city, and with that camea trickle of tips. Random people showing
(25:11):
up at the police station claiming ofinformation about the murder. One tipster appeared
saying he'd seen a girl matching thedescription of Mary Fagan hanging out late Saturday
night with a street car operator bythe name of Arthur Mullanax. Apparently this
guy had spotted them in a darkand lonely part of downtown, which made
(25:33):
him a bit suspicious. The policequickly dispatched an officer to find Mullanax,
and within a couple of hours hewas brought in for questioning. The street
car operator admitted to knowing Mary Fagan, and that was cause enough for suspicion.
He was arrested on site. Withinjust hours. Police now had two
solid suspects in custody. As Sundaymorning turned into afternoon, word really began
(26:00):
to spread about the murder of MaryFagan, so much so that a crowd
began to gather outside the funeral home. It seems weird now, but back
then it wasn't uncommon to let people, even strangers, view the body of
notable dead people. As afternoon turnedto dusk, the line of gawkers grew,
eventually snaking around the building. Atleast ten thousand people viewed Mary Fagan's
(26:25):
body and paid their respects. Thatday among them mister Leo Frank. By
Monday morning, at Lanta's local newspaperswere exploding with news of the Mary Fagan
murder mystery. To be more specific, one paper in particular was exploding with
(26:45):
the news you Guessed It William RandolphHurst's Atlanta Georgian. In the morning edition.
The paper worked every angle, committingfive full pages to the story,
article after art detailing Mary's beauty,her fair complexion, and her delicate feminine
persona. One article took a swipeat child labor, blaming Mary's death on
(27:08):
the deporable institutions that employed children andthe unseemly people who worked in them.
They also interviewed Mary's mother, thedistraught and devastated Fanny Coleman. However,
amidst all this coverage, there wasone common thread. A single theme began
to emerge, revenge. One headlineboomed neighbors of slaying girl cry for vengeance.
(27:36):
Another article featured an interview with Mary'sgrandfather. The writer paints the picture
of a devastated grandfather speaking from thefront porch of his Mary at a home
with rain gently falling in the background. A quote from the old man,
no punishment is too great for thebrute who foully murdered the sweetest and purest
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thing on earth, a young girlhanging cannot atone for the crime he has
committed now side note here. Yearslater, the journalist that wrote this article
would admit that it wasn't raining itall that day, and that he'd wildly
embellished the grandfather's words. This wasyellow journalism one oh one, and vengeance
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was the perfect theme. By toutingthe theme of vengeance, the Atlanta Georgian
was inviting the reader into this story, thereby transforming him from an isolated observer
to a vital character. The newspaperwas now locked arm in arm with its
readers, and together they would bringthis foul perpetrator to justice. So,
(28:45):
in typical Hirstian style, the AtlantaGeorgian raised the stakes by offering a five
hundred dollars reward for quote exclusive informationleading to the arrest and conviction of the
murderer end quote. This was turninginto Atlanta's very own Headless Torso case,
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the story that had taken New Yorkby storm back in eighteen ninety seven.
And now every Atlantin was an investigator. Every Atlantan was now a detective,
and now the streets of Atlanta werebesieged with every manner of amateur sleuth and
the people ate it up down onthe streets. People could not buy Foster
(29:32):
Coats morning edition of The Georgian fastenough. He smelled money, so he
dispatched every available reporter into the streetsof Atlanta, each of them on a
unified mission to catch the killer.As reporters returned to the newsroom and filed
their stories, special editions of TheAtlanta Georgian flew off the presses almost hourly.
(29:55):
The exact number isn't known, butauthor Steve Oney says that The Georgian
printed somewhere between eight and twenty specialeditions on Monday alone. The Constitution in
the Journal printed their own Fagan stories, but it paled in comparison to the
fire hose of special editions unleashed byThe Georgian. On that first full day
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of media coverage, it was becomingabundantly clear the mysterious death of Mary Fagan
was becoming the biggest news story inAtlanta's history. While the newsboys hawked their
special editions on that Monday, lawenforcement continued their investigative work By Monday morning,
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life at the National Pencil Company wasreturning to normal as the morning shift
workers punched the time clock. However, the typical morning hum of machinery was
interrupted when a worker noticed blood andlong strands of hair near Mary Fagan's normal
workstation. Police were called in toinvestigate. Detectives interpreted what they saw as
(31:03):
signs of a struggle. The beliefset in that Mary began grappling with her
abductor up on the factory floor,and then at some point, either dead
or alive, the two of themended up in the basement. While the
police were there, several factory girlsmentioned the name of a former co worker
they'd seen flirting with Mary Fagan beforehe was fired, a twenty six year
(31:26):
old bookkeeper named James Gant. Policeinstantly began their search for Ghant, and
surprisingly found him on a trolley headedout of town with a large suitcase.
He was immediately arrested. Further investigationfound that James Gant had in fact been
at the factory on that Saturday afternoon. He was spotted with Newt Lee,
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and the theory quickly emerged that he'dkilled Mary Fagan during the day and then
conned Lee into disposing of the bodyat night. Of course, them with
the story is the same problem asthe Arthur Mullenach story. Why would Mary
have been out on the streets witha man or a group of men and
then ended up back inside the pencilfactory where they murdered her. It didn't
(32:13):
add up. Nevertheless, there wasenough suspicion around James Gant that he was
arrested as well. Back at thepolice headquarters, police questioned the night watchman
newtle about James Gant. Newte admittedthat he had been with James that day,
but he explained he said that onSaturday, he showed up for work
(32:35):
on time four pm. When hegot there, he was met by Leo
Frank, who seemed agitated. Franktold him to go kill some time in
the city and come back around sixpm. At six pm, Newtlee came
back to the National Pencil Factory withJames Gant at his side. Lee said
that Frank seemed very annoyed by this. On Monday afternoon, police sent for
(33:00):
Leo Frank once again. They hadmore questions. This time, Frank showed
up at the police station with LutherRosser, a well known and powerful attorney
in Atlanta. Frank began by layingout a timeline his version of events from
that fateful Saturday. He'd arrived thatmorning at the factory to take care of
(33:21):
some clerical work. Around twelve tenpm, Mary Fagan arrived to collect or
pay. He paid her, Sheleft immediately, and that was the extent
of their interactions. Around one tenPM, Leo Frank went home for lunch,
and he came back to the factoryabout three o'clock. At three forty
Newtlee arrived. He told him hereally didn't need him to watch over the
(33:43):
play since he was going to bethere, so he just said, go
out into the city, kill sometime, come back around six. Around
six, newtle arrived with James Gantin tow Kent. Claimed he'd left a
pair of shoes inside the factory beforehe was fired, so Leo granted permission
for Lee to escort Gant inside andget the shoes. After that, Leo
(34:06):
Frank left for the day and wasback home by six twenty five PM.
After sharing his side of the story, Frank still sensed the suspicion of the
investigators, so he offered to showthem his bare arms. After all,
Mary Fagan must have put up afight before she died, so surely the
body of the murderer would show somesigns of a struggle, scratches or bruises
(34:29):
or something. Leo Frank eventually disrobedcompletely, allowing the detectives to inspect his
body. Sure enough, no bruises, no scratches. After this, Frank
invited the officers back to his hometo take a look around. So that's
what they did. For several minutesat the frank homb they combed through Frank's
(34:50):
laundry looking for some article of tornor bloody clothing. Once again, they
found nothing. Police left the Frankresidence and Leo had a quiet dinner at
home with his wife and her parents. As Monday came to a close,
police found themselves swamped with tips.Suddenly everyone had a siding or a theory
(35:14):
about Mary Fagan's demise. One ofthe reports came from a man who said
he saw a girl who looked likeMary Fagan walking with a group of men
downtown, but that she was sluggishand stumbling, as if drugged. Now,
there was a very popular theory circulatedaround Atlanta for years that predatory men
(35:34):
were drugging young, pretty white girlsand then enslaving them in brothel basements.
At the time of Mary Fagin's death, there were at least fifty known brothels
operating in downtown Atlanta, though we'renot sure if any of them were holding
any women captive. Thanks to payoffsand political favors, police mostly just ignored
the Atlanta brothel district mostly. OnTuesday morning, all three Atlanta papers unleashed
(36:02):
a torrent of Mary Fagan news updatesand conspiracies. Not wanting to be outdone,
the Constitution announced that they would givea whopping one thousand dollars for exclusive
information leading to the girl's killer.It was also announced that day that both
Arthur Mullanax and James Gant had beenexonerated upon further investigation. Both Mullanax and
(36:29):
Gant had reasonable alibis regarding their whereaboutsand activities throughout the day on Saturday.
With these two suspects now free,the attention of the investigators turned squarely towards
Newtlee and Leo Frank. On Tuesdaymorning, Leo Frank looked up from his
desk at the National Pencil Company whena uniformed officer appeared in his doorway,
(36:52):
informing him he was under arrest forthe murder of Mary Fagan. Frank was
loaded into the back of a policecar and rushed to the police headquarters.
By the time he arrived, ahorde of reporters was already there. They'd
been waiting. Pushing through the crowd, Leo Frank paused and made a rare
(37:14):
statement, I am not guilty.Such an atrocious crime has never entered my
mind. I am a man ofgood character, and I have a wife.
I am a home loving and godfearing man. They will discover that
it is useless to detain me unlessfor investigation and for information I might be
able to give. Frank was quicklyled away to a cell in the Fulton
(37:39):
Tower. Yep, that's the sameFulton Tower that housed all those suspects and
the ripper cases. It's the sameFulton Tower that held those prisoners from for
scythe county. However, it's probablysafe to assume this was the first Jewish
Cornell grad in a suit to checkinto these infamous jailhouse. On the Tuesday
(38:05):
Leo Frank was taken in, therewere lots of developments with the case,
the main one being that police haddeveloped a new theory Leo Frank killed Mary
Fagan and Newt Lee was his accomplice. Several bits of evidence seemed to support
this theory. For one, theAtlanta Journal, which was the paper that
had borrowed the two murder notes,published copies of them. In the paper,
(38:29):
they announced that they'd brought in somehandwriting experts who compared the notes with
Lee's handwriting, and the experts werecertain that Lee wrote the notes. Additionally,
the police brought in two special interrogators, both white, to meet with
Lee one on one. One ofthem allegedly had a knack for getting black
(38:50):
people to talk well. In thecourse of doing whatever it is a charlatan
like this does, Lee broke downloudly, weeping and declaring his innocence.
The meltdown seemed sincere, and thiswas enough to convince the interrogator that he
was innocent. The next interrogator,and this is even crazier, employed the
(39:12):
use of a pistol. At onepoint, he shouted at Newtlee and fired
a bullet into the ceiling. Onceagain, Lee broke down in a fit
of fear and tears and proclaimed hisinnocence. This interrogator, like the first,
was convinced Newt Lee wasn't the guy. After this charade, the spotlight
of suspicion began to shift away fromNewt Lee. Though Lee was still suspected
(39:38):
of being a witless accomplice, thereal focus was now squarely on Leo Frank.
When news of this shift leaked,the Atlanta Georgian pounced. In their
sixth special edition of the Day,they printed a massive headline on the front
page, police have the Strangler,and beneath it a picture of Leo Frank.
(40:04):
Though the character of James Bond wouldn'tbe created for another forty years,
the Georgian's image of Frank sort ofcast him as a classic James Bond villain.
He's wearing a black suit, ablack bowler hat, and black sunglasses.
And the headline was certain. Itdidn't say police have a new suspect.
(40:25):
It didn't say police think they havethe strangler. No, no,
this was a Hirstian headline, andHirstian headlines were clear and certain, police
have the strangler, and all ofAtlanta knew it. On Wednesday, April
(40:46):
thirtieth, the opening session of theCorner's inquest was held. This was sort
of an informal hearing hosted by thecoroner to determine if enough evidence existed to
bring Leo Frank and or Newtle totrial. Leading the proceedings that day was
Atlantic Corner Paul Donna, who onWednesday afternoon as Donna who directed the proceedings.
(41:09):
A shocking new bit of information emerged. A fifteen year old newsboy named
George Epps testified before the group thathe had actually ridden on the same trolley
with Mary that Saturday morning. Hetestified that as they rode towards Atlanta,
with the skyscrapers getting closer, Marytold him her plans for the day.
(41:31):
She intended to go to the ConfederateMemorial Day Parade and then see a movie
at one of the downtown theaters,but first she had to swing by the
pencil factory to pick up her paycheck. However, she told him something else.
She expressed to him that she wasscared of her boss, a man
(41:52):
named Leo Frank. Here's what thefifteen year old news he said. Again,
I'm quoting here. She began talkingabout mister Frank when she would leave
the factory. On some afternoon,she said, Frank would rush out in
front of her and try to flirtwith her as she passed. She told
me that he had often winked ather and tried to pay her attention.
(42:13):
He would look hard and straight ather, she said, and then would
smile. It happened often, shesaid. She told me she wanted me
to come down to the factory whenshe got off as often as I could,
to escort her home and kind ofprotect her. Now, it's worth
noting here that in nineteen thirteen,this was a really common fear of parents
whose kids worked in these factories.With powerful men overseeing hundreds of child workers,
(42:38):
it's easy to imagine how that powercould be abused, And if your
daughter was particularly pretty, your fearof her catching the eye of one of
her supervisors was very real. ThisGeorge EPP's testimony felt like a bombshell,
though some must have wondered if he'dbeen influenced by the previous day's strangler story
(43:01):
and photo of Frank. The nextday, the Constitution relayed the salacious George
EPP's story with a screaming headline,Frank tried to flirt with murdered girl says
her boy chum. All of Atlantawas a buzz as a new image of
Leo Frank came into view. Investigatorsneeded to vet this story about a flirty
(43:27):
Leo Frank, so they called inone hundred and fifty workers, mostly girls,
from the National Pencil Company. Thefactory shut down for a day as
a stream of young women flowed inand out of the Atlanta Police Department,
each of them giving their opinions onLeo Frank and life at the pencil factory.
More broadly, several women hinted thatthe National Pencil Company had a set
(43:51):
side, that workers were known todisappear into hidden closets and crannies for secretive
trysts, and there was actually alittle bit of evidence to support this rumor.
In yet another search of the factorybasement, investigators discovered a hidden compartment
containing a filthy makeshift mattress surrounded bywhat looked like the footprints of young women.
(44:15):
However, one of the most interestingstatements amongst all those given that day
came from one of the factories maleworkers, Paul Whittaker. Listen to what
Paul said, quote, I haveseen mister Frank at times when talking to
some of the women employees, itseemed to me that he rubbed up against
(44:35):
them a little too much. Inoticed this often, but never said anything
about it. Investigators received countless storiesthat day, many of them later proving
to be false, likely the fantasiesof teenagers who'd been reading the newspapers.
After all the factory workers made theirstatements, Leo Frank was called upon to
(44:57):
testify before the coroner's inquest. Heappeared before them calm, collected and well
dressed. They questioned him for fourhours, and he explained, now for
the second time, everything that happenedto him on that Saturday. His story
was consistent. After that, heretired to his cell in the Fulton Tower.
(45:20):
Now, in the coming days,Leo Frank would go mostly dark.
Though he cooperated with the authorities,he gave the press nothing, refusing to
comment or make any statements whatsoever.Earned him a nickname in the papers,
the silent Man in the Tower.Whatever the Silent Man in the Tower told
(45:40):
the coroners in quest during that fourhour grilling must have been good, because
the papers were much kinder to him. The next day they all reported that
he'd responded well to the questioning policecontinue to chase leads throughout the weekend.
In the course of their work,they came across two more women with startling
stories about Leo Frank. Both ofthem were previous employees of the National Pencil
(46:06):
Company. Fourteen year old Nellie Pettistold the story of going to Frank's office
one day to pick up her pay. He began hitting on her and when
she turned him down, he pulledout a box of money from under his
desk. He showed it to herand gave a wink. She responded by
telling him that she was a goodgirl that he could quote go to Hell.
(46:29):
And then another girl, also namedNellie, sixteen year old Nellie Wood,
only worked at the factory for twodays. According to her, Frank
called her into his office, beganflirting, and then touched her breast.
She quit the next day. Unsurprisingly, the local papers published the accounts of
(46:51):
both girls. With rumors swirling nowfor more than a week, two very
different versions of Leo Frank began toemerge in the mind of Atlantin's The first
original version was that of Leo Frankivy league academician, respected superintendent of the
National pencil company, loving husband,president of Banet Breath, and paragon of
(47:14):
Atlanta's hard working Jewish community. Everyonewho knew Frank vouched for him and his
high character. In the days followingFrank's arrest, several of his Jewish friends
loudly defended the man they all knew. One of the members of Benet Breath
spoke with reporters heaping praise on theyoung factory superintendent. Here is what he
(47:37):
had to say. Leo Frank,the superintendent and general manager of one of
Atlanta's largest and most promising industries,spends two hours in his office on a
holiday after generously relieving the watchman.During these hours, his habits are regular
and industrious, and his life whilein Atlanta is perfectly blameless in every respect.
(47:59):
I have worked with mister Frank fouryears and various charitable organizations, and
have ever found him the most polishedof gentlemen, with the kindest of heart
and the broadest of sympathy. Tosuch an extent, it is recognized among
his fellow lodgemen that we have honoredhim with the office of President, which
is the highest rank in our organization. Leo Frank's image amongst Atlanta's German Jews,
(48:22):
in short, arose not from theirworst fears, but from their best
wishes. Wishes, it must beadded, born not of a week's worth
of headlines in any window, butof five years worth of close association.
That's a pretty strong endorsement. Theother version of Leo Frank that had emerged
(48:44):
from media reports was much darker.He was a creep and a pervert,
with one eye on his work andthe other eye locked onto the young girls
pacing the floor of his factory.The term, when used today sexual predator.
Fueling this view of Frank was thathe was another as both a Brooklyn
(49:07):
bread Yankee and a Jew. Thatmeant that his heritage and his religion were
foreign, unknown and suspect. Sowas Leo Frank the squeaky clean family man
and community leader that his closest friendsthought he was. Or was he a
quiet sociopath living a double life,a monster of a man who'd finally executed
(49:31):
his darkest fantasy on young Mary Fagan. We'll investigate those questions and a whole
lot more. That's next time onCatolic. Hey there, I hope you
enjoyed episode fifteen. I'm really thankfulthat you listened. Hey. As I
(49:54):
mentioned at the top of the episode, we're hosting our Catolic Finale show in
the evening of March fourteenth. It'sgoing to be an amazing night of true
crime, history, mystery, andmore. We're currently finalizing an incredible lineup
of speakers and our goal is tomake the night fun, light, funny,
and inspiring. I'll also be speakingand throwing in some of my favorite
(50:17):
Atlanta history stories that we didn't havetime to cover in Catolic. I'm dying
to meet so many of you who'vereached out since Catolic launched, so I
want to personally invite you to joinme and the rest of the Catholic team
on March the fourteenth. The CatholicFinale Show is going to be held at
an incredible new venue in Atlanta's historicWest End neighborhood, and I hear there
(50:39):
will be a super fun after partywith tasty adult beverages. This is a
ticketed event and early bird tickets willgo on sale February the fourth. We're
capping the number of early bird andearly bird VIP tickets, so write that
date down. Tickets go on saleTuesday, February fourth at catlic dot com.
(51:02):
Oh, one more thing, we'rebringing back the Catlick walking tours during
that same weekend. We'll have verylimited spots, but those details will also
be available on February fourth. Asalways, just check catlic dot com for
details. That's it roll. Theoutro music Catlick is recorded in Atlanta's historic
(51:30):
Cabbagetown neighborhood. Executive producer walnut RidgeHarmon. Original music for this episode provided
by Doucel. Cover art by RachelEleanor Catolic Store manager Burrette Harmon, Catolic
Instagram Follower of the Week Archer andBo Catolic Instagram Hashtager of the Week,
(51:53):
Marjorie Perry, Catolic Instagram story Starsof the Week, Emily Fergus and Ashley
M. Dodi Catolic Hater of theWeek from user name one one two O
two Oh who says this? I'mnot sure why I keep listening. Well,
(52:16):
one zero two zero, I'm notsure why you are either. Thanks
anyway, don't forget. The CatholicVault is still calling your name. Every
week. It gets better and better. We've now got visual artifacts posted for
all fifteen Catolic episodes, including allkinds of interesting nuggets around Mary Fagan and
(52:39):
Leah Frank It's awesome. Get accessin about sixty seconds at catolic dot com.
Just click on vault. That's catolicdot com and click on vault.
And finally, Catolic is Indefinitely writtenand produced by me Bt Harmon hunning Off.
(53:00):
I'd like to remind you to saveold buildings, build bike lanes,
and vote for public transit. We'llsee you in the next episode.
Hey there, Catolic fans BT here. Thanks so much for tuning into episode
fifteen. Hey, real quick,I want to give you a heads up
regarding something really cool we've got planned. Our Catolic podcast finale is quickly approaching
and we want to close it outwith a bang. So on March the
fourteenth, we're hosting a Catolic Liveevent here in Atlanta. We've got an
(00:28):
amazing night plan of behind the scenestories, inspiring speakers, and even more
crazy Atlanta history. I've had theprivilege to connect with so many of you,
and nothing would make me happier thanmeeting you in person. So I
hope you'll join us. Save thedate March the fourteenth, Stick around till
(00:50):
the end of the episode, andI'll give you the inside scoop on early
bird ticket pricing. Okay, that'sall, enjoy the show. It's around
four am on the morning of Apriltwenty seventh, nineteen thirteen, and a
(01:11):
handful of men are gathered in thedark and musty basement of the National Pencil
Company in downtown Atlanta. A lanternis their only source of light as they
stare at the cold body of afactory employee, thirteen year old Mary Fagan.
Among these men are seasoned police veterans, a lone newspaper reporter, and
(01:32):
a black man named Newt Lee.Newt Lee was the factory's night watchman,
who discovered the body about an hourearlier. The men crouched to get a
closer look. Her face was bruisedand there was a gash in the back
of her head. Her body wascovered in black soot and cinders. A
cord was wrapped around the girl's neck, indicating strangulation as the cause of death,
(01:57):
and finally, clear signs of sexualassault were on Mary Fagan's body and
clothing. The men continued their search, fanning out to canvas the dimly lit
underground chamber. This scan of thecrime scene turned up even more clues.
A bloodstained handkerchief, one of MaryFagin's shoes removed from her foot and tossed
(02:22):
aside, A trail cut into thedirt of the basement leading from the freight
elevator. This suggested that the bodyhad been brought down the elevator and dragged
to its current location. They alsoobserved in the far corner of the basement
a door which led to a backalleyway behind the factory. Now, this
(02:44):
door was normally nailed shut, however, it showed evidence of having been pride
open. Of course, the mostintriguing clue discovered that night were two notes
lying in the trash around Mary Fagan'sbody. They were written by hand,
but roughly scrawled. Here's what thefirst note said. Quote, he said
(03:07):
he would love me land down playlike the night, which did it?
But that long tall black negro didboy hisself? End quote. The second,
written on National Pencil Company stationery,said this quote, ma'am, that
negro higher down here did this.I went to make water and he pushed
(03:29):
me down that hole, A longtall negro black. That who it was?
Long steam tall negro? I write, while play with me. End
quote. That's kind of tough toprocess, so let me just read that
one again. Here it is,ma'am that negro higher down here did this.
I went to make water and hepushed me down that hole. A
(03:52):
long tall negro black. That whoit was, long steam tall negro,
I write, while play with me. Now, the dialect here makes it
really tough to interpret. But we'lltalk more about these notes later. And
for you Vault subscribers, we've gotcopies of both of these letters posted there
so you can read them for yourself. Though the detectives weren't exactly sure what
(04:16):
to make of them, one clearphrase stuck out in both confusing notes,
long Tall Negro, and in thatmoment, the spotlight of suspicion turned towards
the one black man present, NewtLee, the night watchman whose phone calls
the police got. This whole episodestarted in an instant. One of the
(04:42):
officers launched into newtly accusing him ofkilling Mary Fagan, or at least knowing
who did. After all, hewas the only person inside the National Pencil
Company building when officers arrived that night. Lee quickly denied it and began giving
his side of the story. Thatevening, he'd been making his usual rounds
checking in on the various parts ofthe pencil factory building. About three am,
(05:06):
he went down to the basement fora routine inspection. He walked towards
the back of the corridor to checkon the back door. On his way
there, the light from his lanternilluminated the outline of a human form.
His first thought, he told them, was that it was some kind of
dummy placed there as a prank.By one of his co workers. But
(05:27):
upon further inspection he saw something farmore grim. He raced back upstairs and
died police. Predictably, Newt's accountingof events meant little in that moment.
Remember, we're in the gym crowSouth, and a black man's testimony is
doubtful at best and utter deceit atworst. We don't know a lot about
(05:50):
Newtly, but we know a little. He was a humble man as far
as we know, meaning he wasborn into slavery and likely didn't have any
formal schooling. Within days, Newtlee'sname would be all over the pages of
the Atlanta papers. Listen to howone white writer for the Atlanta Georgian described
(06:11):
him. Lee is a black,ignorant, cornfield pot liquor fed darky.
His head is as flat as aballroom floor. His big frame is slightly
bent, not from weakness, butfrom the natural laziness of his type.
He is, beyond a doubt,a white man's inward. This is an
(06:33):
unbelievably cruel, unfair, and racistdepiction of Newtlee. Now I include it
here as yet another example of howwhite supremacy showed up back then. Printed
in the most well read papers,Unchecked and method Apology. I've mentioned it
previously, but there was a veryparticular narrative in the South about black men
(06:55):
and white women. The narrative wasthat black men were hyper sexual brutes on
the prow, stalking the streets andlooking for white women to ravage. You
may remember from episode three and thesubsequent half lick. This narrative was the
one that sparked the Atlanta race Riotof nineteen oh six. Seven years before
(07:15):
this Mary Fagan incident, local Atlanticpapers ran with several unconfirmed tales of black
men assaulting white women in Atlanta.This so infuriated the local white men that
they formed a mob and roamed thestreets, attacking any black person they could
find. More than a dozen peoplewere killed in the riots. So here
(07:39):
in this dark basement stood a blackman alongside the battered, outraged body of
a pretty young white girl. Inthat moment, Newt Lee's fate was as
good as sealed. One of theofficers removed his handcuffs and snapped them on
the wrists of Newt Lee. Hewas under arrest for the murder of Mary
(08:00):
Fagan. You're listening to episode fifteenof Catholic, a silent man in the
tower. After arresting Newtly, thegroup of officers escorted him back upstairs to
(08:52):
the main floor of the National PencilFactory. Don was just beginning to break
out on the streets of downtown Atlanta. One of the attending officers called the
local undertaker. Minutes later, ahearse arrived in the darkened alleyway behind the
National Pencil Factory. They removed MaryFagan's body and whisked it away for further
(09:13):
examination. Another call was placed thatmorning, this one to the Atlanta Police
headquarters. They relayed the news ofthe homicide in Two of the department's top
detectives, John Black, and JohnStarnes, were dispatched to the scene of
the crime. When Starnes and Blackarrived at the National Pencil Factory, they
(09:35):
were eager to investigate the crime scenefor themselves. They wasted no time.
After several minutes, Starnes discovered twoadditional clues overlooked by the previous salutes.
The first was a blue straw hatpresumed to have belonged to young Mary Fagan.
The second, bloody fingerprints smeared acrossthe face of that back door at
(10:01):
the far end of the basement,the one that was usually nailed shut.
Now you'll remember that I told youa local reporter accompanied that first group of
police officers. That reporter was nineteenyear old Brett Craig. Craig was the
son of a North Georgia newspaperman.He was known mostly for his love of
(10:22):
whiskey and for being a young bulldogof a reporter for the Atlantic Constitution.
Brett Craig had been loitering around thepolice department on that Sunday night, hoping
to get a lead on a pettycrime or maybe a burglary. Little did
he know when that call came in, the story of the year had just
fallen right into his lap. BrittCraig saw everything that night, the crime
(10:46):
scene, the body, the evidence, and newtlee himself. But after an
hour or so, Craig just disappearedinto the night, racing back to the
Constitution's news room. He knew hehad a brief window of time to file
his story before the printing presses startedhumming why was Britt Craig in such a
(11:07):
hurry to file his story on thatsleepy Sunday morning. Well, to understand
that We've got to go back toepisode seven of Catlic. That's when I
introduced you to the controversial media magnatenamed William Randolph Hurst. You'll remember that
in the early nineteen hundreds, Hurstowned a big portfolio of newspapers scattered all
(11:31):
around the country, and each ofthem followed his formula of yellow journalism.
This formula outsold other papers by exaggeratingheadlines, stretching the truth, fabricating facts,
and sensationalizing crime and scandal. Readersate it up. You may also
(11:52):
remember that back in February of nineteentwelve, Hearst acquired one of Atlanta's top
three papers, the Atlanta George.So by the time of Mary Fagan's murder,
Hurst's strategy had been active in Atlantafor about fourteen months, and as
the months passed, Hurst's men dialedup the sensationalism. The people of Atlanta
(12:13):
noticed, and the papers circulation soared. This move, in turn, put
the pressure on Atlanta's other two papers, the Journal and The Constitution. So
by the time Mary Fagan's body wasdiscovered, there was an all out circulation
wore already swirling in Atlanta. Thethree rival newsrooms did whatever had to be
(12:35):
done to get even the slightest scoopon their competitors. So it's safe to
say that as brit Craig raced tothe newsroom of the Constitution that morning,
he knew he had the chance toimpress his bosses by breaking a big story.
Hen that's exactly what happened. OnSunday, April twenty seventh. The
(12:56):
Constitution was the first to print thetale of a young white girl raped,
murdered, and then discarded into thebelly of one of Atlanta's child labor sweatshops.
Because info was still scarce, thatfirst article wasn't very big. It
offered the basic details and that wasit. However, across town, those
(13:20):
basic details would catch the eye ofFoster Coats, managing editor of the Atlanta
Georgian. Foster Coates was one ofWilliam Randolph Hurst's closest allies. Coates was
a newspaperman through and through. Hecrafted seductive, sizzling headlines, and he
(13:41):
had an instinct for knowing exactly whatstories would sell papers. When William Randolph
Hurst hired him years earlier, itwas a huge kit. He'd been working
for hurst chief New York rival JosephPulitzer. But in recent years, Hurst
had dispatched Coats to newsrooms across thecountry, places like Boston, Chicago,
(14:05):
and San Francisco. Coates was theguy Hurst sent in when he needed someone
he could trust, someone who couldtransform these stodgy old papers from boring to
bombastic. In April of nineteen thirteen, Coates was given a new assignment,
the Atlanta Georgian, and he'd arrivedin town that month, lodging at Atlanta's
(14:28):
posh Georgian Terrace Hotel and so.On the morning of April twenty seventh,
sitting in his hotel room, Coachbrewed his morning coffee and opened up the
pages of the rival Atlanta Constitution.His eyes scanned past mundane article after mundane
article, until it landed on onenot so mundane, A thirteen year old
(14:52):
girl brutally and mysteriously murdered inside theharsh environs of an Atlanta factory. He
stopped. His eyes opened wide.He saw the latent potential. He saw
scandal, rape, murder, andmystery. He saw a story that could
tantalize an entire city, and perhapsa nation. He flung the paper aside
(15:20):
and reached for the nearest phone thenewsroom. Telephone rang Sundays were usually slow
around the newsroom, but not today. Snoozing reporters and staff were called in,
all hands on deck. The Constitutionmay have won Sunday, but Foster
Coach knew that Monday was his.By midmorning on Sunday, police had positively
(15:48):
identified the remains in the basement ofthe pencil factory as those of Mary Fagan.
They also got in touch with Mary'smother and stepfather, Fanny and John
Coleman. John actually went into Atlantaand searched for Mary himself, standing at
the exits of downtown's mini theaters andscanning the faces of those coming out,
He thought perhaps Mary had decided tosee a show after going to the Confederate
(16:12):
Memorial Day parade. Not finding her, he returned home later that evening after
a sleepless night. Around dawn,to be exact, the Colemans awoke to
the sound of someone knocking on thedoor of their humble Bellwood home. It
was reported that upon hearing the grimnews, Fanny Coleman screamed and collapsed into
(16:36):
a heap on the front porch.A mother's greatest fear had been realized throughout
the day. On Sunday, theAtlanta Police continued their investigation, which would
inevitably lead them to the home ofLeo Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil
Company. Leo Frank had moved toAtlanta five years earlier. Frank grew up
(17:00):
in Brooklyn and was educated at CornellUniversity, where he got a degree in
engineering. He was a northern transplantin the South's grandest city. In black
and white photos from back then,Frank just looks like an engineer. He's
a sharp looking guy, always wearinga suit, sometimes a pork pie hat.
But he also has a bit ofa severe look, angular facial features,
(17:25):
small lips, pointy chin, slightlybulging eyes into a serious expression in
most photos. In some photos he'swearing a pair of spectacles, and in
others he isn't. For some reason, the glasses make him look a little
bit villain like to me. Butfor the most part, Leah Frank was
well put together, the quintessential sharp, no nonsense, white collar businessman of
(17:48):
the early nineteen hundreds. Now,years before all this, Leah Frank had
met Lucille Seelig, the daughter ofa wealthy Jewish businessman. Within ten months
of meeting her, he proposed,and in nineteen ten the two were married.
After the wedding, the Franks boughta home in the area around Washington
Street, which is where most ofAtlanta's wealthy German Jewish population put down roots.
(18:14):
Today, this area is just southof the Georgia State Capitol Building,
and if you ever went to abraves game at Turner Field, you were
close by. As the superintendent ofthe Jewish owned National Pencil Company, Leo
Frank fit in well amongst Atlanta's eliteGerman Jewish community. Now I'm saying Jewish
(18:34):
because there was also an Orthodox Jewishcommunity in Atlanta, which consisted mostly of
immigrants from Russia and Poland. AsI understand it, the two groups didn't
really jive well. The German Jewswere a bit more modern and integrated more
smoothly amongst the gentiles of the AmericanSouth. The Orthodox Jews, on the
(18:55):
other hand, were more old school, maintaining the traditions and customs of their
homeland. Leo Frank was of thetrendier German Jewish persuasion, and as such,
she'd been recently elected president of thelocal chapter of the Bnet Bereaf,
a Jewish service organization and social club. By any measure, Leo Frank was
well respected, a rising star andleader in Atlanta's Jewish community. The morning
(19:23):
after Mary Fagan's body was found,police phoned the Frank residence. As the
superintendent of the factory, Frank wouldhave been able to answer all their questions
about the facility and hopefully shed somelight on who'd been there the day before.
When no one at the Frank residencepicked up the phone, detectives Boots
Rogers and John Black decided to driveover to their house and speak with Leo
(19:47):
directly. Around seven am, theypulled up to the home of Leo and
Lucille Frank. Lucille opened the doorand the two detectives explained their business.
She quickly called for her husband.When Leo Frank saw the two officers,
he immediately suspected trouble. He askedif there had been a fire at the
(20:07):
factory overnight. No, they toldhim, not a fire, but a
tragedy. Frank the information may evenresponded with a series of rapid fire questions.
Detective Black thought Frank's questions were oddand that he spoke quickly, seemed
nervous, and even looked a bitpale. The two officers explained to Frank
(20:30):
that the body of a young girlhad been found in the basement of the
factory. They then asked him ifthe name Mary Fagin sounded familiar. He
said no, which wasn't that unusual, given that Frank employed about two hundred
people at the pencil factory, andmost of them were young girls around Mary's
age. Detectives Rogers and Black knewthat Frank had been at the factory the
(20:52):
day before, so they asked himif he remembered a girl with long hair
coming by his office to collect herpay. Frank said he did remember a
girl like that stopping by, buthe didn't know her name was Mary Fagan.
The detectives needed to know for sureif the dead girl found in the
basement was the same girl who stoppedby Frank's office to pick up her paycheck,
(21:12):
so they asked Frank if you wouldaccompany them to the mortuary. He
agreed. When the three arrived,the undertaker led them to the back room.
Mary's body was covered and laid outon a big table. The undertaker
pulled back the sheet under the lightof a bright lamp. These men saw
(21:37):
what the others had seen, anadolescent girl with a gash in her head,
covered in soot and dirt, blackand blue, with bruises, and
with a cord still wrapped around herneck. That's her, Frank said,
confirming that the girl before him wasthe same one who stopped by his office.
(22:00):
The group's next stop would be atthe National Pencil Factory. When they
arrived, they were met by anemployee of the factory, a guy named
v Darley. Darley was in chargeof personnel and was a close associate of
Leo Frank's. The group walked toone of the office suites, where they
found a gaggle of police officers anda handcuffed Newtly waiting on them. Frank,
(22:23):
a meticulous record keeper, retrieved hispay ledger. He opened to it,
flipped a few pages, and thenpointed to an entry bearing Mary Fagan's
name, confirmation that she had infact come by his office that day sometime
between noon and one pm. Next, the group would venture into the basement
(22:44):
to survey the location where the girl'sbody was discovered. The men filed into
the factory's lone freight elevator that servicedthe basement. As the elevator slowly descended,
several of the detectives observed that Frankseemed nervous, maybe even a bit
fidgetine. When the elevator reached thefloor of the basement, the men were
overwhelmed by an unexpected but identifiable odorfeces. As it turns out, earlier
(23:12):
that morning, an investigator had discovereda very strange clue, a fairly fresh
pile of undisturbed human excrement deposited onthe ground beneath the elevator. So when
the men reached the bottom of theelevator shaft, it was the stink of
smashed pooh They were met with,we'll revisit this mystery feces later. As
(23:37):
the men moved into the earthen corridorof the basement, an officer pointed out
the spot where Mary's body was found. During this process, someone noticed that
the back door had been left crackedopen. Frank insisted that the door be
nailed shut, as it had beenbefore, otherwise it posed a security risk
to the factory. Darley quickly retrieveda hammer and nails, and Leo Frank
(23:59):
went to work well. According tothe testimonies of those who were there,
he tried to go to work withhammer in hand, Frank couldn't connect with
the nails and his hand shook witheach swing of the hammer, another embarrassing
miss. As the rest of themen looked on. Sinsing his embarrassment,
(24:22):
Darley jumped in, taking the hammerout of Frank's hand and finishing the job
for him. Having visited the mortuaryand now the pencil factory, the men
had one more stop for Leo Frank, the police headquarters. They wanted him
to evaluate the two handwritten notes.However, upon arrival, the men were
told that the notes weren't there.A reporter for the journal had borrowed them,
(24:48):
but promised to return them shortly.Apparently reporters borrowing evidence back then wasn't
all that uncommon. After that,Leo Frank was told he was free to
leave, and by eleven am hewas back home, enjoying a Sunday morning
with his wife. Meanwhile, wordof the attack slowly began to spread around
the city, and with that camea trickle of tips. Random people showing
(25:11):
up at the police station claiming ofinformation about the murder. One tipster appeared
saying he'd seen a girl matching thedescription of Mary Fagan hanging out late Saturday
night with a street car operator bythe name of Arthur Mullanax. Apparently this
guy had spotted them in a darkand lonely part of downtown, which made
(25:33):
him a bit suspicious. The policequickly dispatched an officer to find Mullanax,
and within a couple of hours hewas brought in for questioning. The street
car operator admitted to knowing Mary Fagan, and that was cause enough for suspicion.
He was arrested on site. Withinjust hours. Police now had two
solid suspects in custody. As Sundaymorning turned into afternoon, word really began
(26:00):
to spread about the murder of MaryFagan, so much so that a crowd
began to gather outside the funeral home. It seems weird now, but back
then it wasn't uncommon to let people, even strangers, view the body of
notable dead people. As afternoon turnedto dusk, the line of gawkers grew,
eventually snaking around the building. Atleast ten thousand people viewed Mary Fagan's
(26:25):
body and paid their respects. Thatday among them mister Leo Frank. By
Monday morning, at Lanta's local newspaperswere exploding with news of the Mary Fagan
murder mystery. To be more specific, one paper in particular was exploding with
(26:45):
the news you Guessed It William RandolphHurst's Atlanta Georgian. In the morning edition.
The paper worked every angle, committingfive full pages to the story,
article after art detailing Mary's beauty,her fair complexion, and her delicate feminine
persona. One article took a swipeat child labor, blaming Mary's death on
(27:08):
the deporable institutions that employed children andthe unseemly people who worked in them.
They also interviewed Mary's mother, thedistraught and devastated Fanny Coleman. However,
amidst all this coverage, there wasone common thread. A single theme began
to emerge, revenge. One headlineboomed neighbors of slaying girl cry for vengeance.
(27:36):
Another article featured an interview with Mary'sgrandfather. The writer paints the picture
of a devastated grandfather speaking from thefront porch of his Mary at a home
with rain gently falling in the background. A quote from the old man,
no punishment is too great for thebrute who foully murdered the sweetest and purest
(27:56):
thing on earth, a young girlhanging cannot atone for the crime he has
committed now side note here. Yearslater, the journalist that wrote this article
would admit that it wasn't raining itall that day, and that he'd wildly
embellished the grandfather's words. This wasyellow journalism one oh one, and vengeance
(28:18):
was the perfect theme. By toutingthe theme of vengeance, the Atlanta Georgian
was inviting the reader into this story, thereby transforming him from an isolated observer
to a vital character. The newspaperwas now locked arm in arm with its
readers, and together they would bringthis foul perpetrator to justice. So,
(28:45):
in typical Hirstian style, the AtlantaGeorgian raised the stakes by offering a five
hundred dollars reward for quote exclusive informationleading to the arrest and conviction of the
murderer end quote. This was turninginto Atlanta's very own Headless Torso case,
(29:06):
the story that had taken New Yorkby storm back in eighteen ninety seven.
And now every Atlantin was an investigator. Every Atlantan was now a detective,
and now the streets of Atlanta werebesieged with every manner of amateur sleuth and
the people ate it up down onthe streets. People could not buy Foster
(29:32):
Coats morning edition of The Georgian fastenough. He smelled money, so he
dispatched every available reporter into the streetsof Atlanta, each of them on a
unified mission to catch the killer.As reporters returned to the newsroom and filed
their stories, special editions of TheAtlanta Georgian flew off the presses almost hourly.
(29:55):
The exact number isn't known, butauthor Steve Oney says that The Georgian
printed somewhere between eight and twenty specialeditions on Monday alone. The Constitution in
the Journal printed their own Fagan stories, but it paled in comparison to the
fire hose of special editions unleashed byThe Georgian. On that first full day
(30:18):
of media coverage, it was becomingabundantly clear the mysterious death of Mary Fagan
was becoming the biggest news story inAtlanta's history. While the newsboys hawked their
special editions on that Monday, lawenforcement continued their investigative work By Monday morning,
(30:38):
life at the National Pencil Company wasreturning to normal as the morning shift
workers punched the time clock. However, the typical morning hum of machinery was
interrupted when a worker noticed blood andlong strands of hair near Mary Fagan's normal
workstation. Police were called in toinvestigate. Detectives interpreted what they saw as
(31:03):
signs of a struggle. The beliefset in that Mary began grappling with her
abductor up on the factory floor,and then at some point, either dead
or alive, the two of themended up in the basement. While the
police were there, several factory girlsmentioned the name of a former co worker
they'd seen flirting with Mary Fagan beforehe was fired, a twenty six year
(31:26):
old bookkeeper named James Gant. Policeinstantly began their search for Ghant, and
surprisingly found him on a trolley headedout of town with a large suitcase.
He was immediately arrested. Further investigationfound that James Gant had in fact been
at the factory on that Saturday afternoon. He was spotted with Newt Lee,
(31:49):
and the theory quickly emerged that he'dkilled Mary Fagan during the day and then
conned Lee into disposing of the bodyat night. Of course, them with
the story is the same problem asthe Arthur Mullenach story. Why would Mary
have been out on the streets witha man or a group of men and
then ended up back inside the pencilfactory where they murdered her. It didn't
(32:13):
add up. Nevertheless, there wasenough suspicion around James Gant that he was
arrested as well. Back at thepolice headquarters, police questioned the night watchman
newtle about James Gant. Newte admittedthat he had been with James that day,
but he explained he said that onSaturday, he showed up for work
(32:35):
on time four pm. When hegot there, he was met by Leo
Frank, who seemed agitated. Franktold him to go kill some time in
the city and come back around sixpm. At six pm, Newtlee came
back to the National Pencil Factory withJames Gant at his side. Lee said
that Frank seemed very annoyed by this. On Monday afternoon, police sent for
(33:00):
Leo Frank once again. They hadmore questions. This time, Frank showed
up at the police station with LutherRosser, a well known and powerful attorney
in Atlanta. Frank began by layingout a timeline his version of events from
that fateful Saturday. He'd arrived thatmorning at the factory to take care of
(33:21):
some clerical work. Around twelve tenpm, Mary Fagan arrived to collect or
pay. He paid her, Sheleft immediately, and that was the extent
of their interactions. Around one tenPM, Leo Frank went home for lunch,
and he came back to the factoryabout three o'clock. At three forty
Newtlee arrived. He told him hereally didn't need him to watch over the
(33:43):
play since he was going to bethere, so he just said, go
out into the city, kill sometime, come back around six. Around
six, newtle arrived with James Gantin tow Kent. Claimed he'd left a
pair of shoes inside the factory beforehe was fired, so Leo granted permission
for Lee to escort Gant inside andget the shoes. After that, Leo
(34:06):
Frank left for the day and wasback home by six twenty five PM.
After sharing his side of the story, Frank still sensed the suspicion of the
investigators, so he offered to showthem his bare arms. After all,
Mary Fagan must have put up afight before she died, so surely the
body of the murderer would show somesigns of a struggle, scratches or bruises
(34:29):
or something. Leo Frank eventually disrobedcompletely, allowing the detectives to inspect his
body. Sure enough, no bruises, no scratches. After this, Frank
invited the officers back to his hometo take a look around. So that's
what they did. For several minutesat the frank homb they combed through Frank's
(34:50):
laundry looking for some article of tornor bloody clothing. Once again, they
found nothing. Police left the Frankresidence and Leo had a quiet dinner at
home with his wife and her parents. As Monday came to a close,
police found themselves swamped with tips.Suddenly everyone had a siding or a theory
(35:14):
about Mary Fagan's demise. One ofthe reports came from a man who said
he saw a girl who looked likeMary Fagan walking with a group of men
downtown, but that she was sluggishand stumbling, as if drugged. Now,
there was a very popular theory circulatedaround Atlanta for years that predatory men
(35:34):
were drugging young, pretty white girlsand then enslaving them in brothel basements.
At the time of Mary Fagin's death, there were at least fifty known brothels
operating in downtown Atlanta, though we'renot sure if any of them were holding
any women captive. Thanks to payoffsand political favors, police mostly just ignored
the Atlanta brothel district mostly. OnTuesday morning, all three Atlanta papers unleashed
(36:02):
a torrent of Mary Fagan news updatesand conspiracies. Not wanting to be outdone,
the Constitution announced that they would givea whopping one thousand dollars for exclusive
information leading to the girl's killer.It was also announced that day that both
Arthur Mullanax and James Gant had beenexonerated upon further investigation. Both Mullanax and
(36:29):
Gant had reasonable alibis regarding their whereaboutsand activities throughout the day on Saturday.
With these two suspects now free,the attention of the investigators turned squarely towards
Newtlee and Leo Frank. On Tuesdaymorning, Leo Frank looked up from his
desk at the National Pencil Company whena uniformed officer appeared in his doorway,
(36:52):
informing him he was under arrest forthe murder of Mary Fagan. Frank was
loaded into the back of a policecar and rushed to the police headquarters.
By the time he arrived, ahorde of reporters was already there. They'd
been waiting. Pushing through the crowd, Leo Frank paused and made a rare
(37:14):
statement, I am not guilty.Such an atrocious crime has never entered my
mind. I am a man ofgood character, and I have a wife.
I am a home loving and godfearing man. They will discover that
it is useless to detain me unlessfor investigation and for information I might be
able to give. Frank was quicklyled away to a cell in the Fulton
(37:39):
Tower. Yep, that's the sameFulton Tower that housed all those suspects and
the ripper cases. It's the sameFulton Tower that held those prisoners from for
scythe county. However, it's probablysafe to assume this was the first Jewish
Cornell grad in a suit to checkinto these infamous jailhouse. On the Tuesday
(38:05):
Leo Frank was taken in, therewere lots of developments with the case,
the main one being that police haddeveloped a new theory Leo Frank killed Mary
Fagan and Newt Lee was his accomplice. Several bits of evidence seemed to support
this theory. For one, theAtlanta Journal, which was the paper that
had borrowed the two murder notes,published copies of them. In the paper,
(38:29):
they announced that they'd brought in somehandwriting experts who compared the notes with
Lee's handwriting, and the experts werecertain that Lee wrote the notes. Additionally,
the police brought in two special interrogators, both white, to meet with
Lee one on one. One ofthem allegedly had a knack for getting black
(38:50):
people to talk well. In thecourse of doing whatever it is a charlatan
like this does, Lee broke downloudly, weeping and declaring his innocence.
The meltdown seemed sincere, and thiswas enough to convince the interrogator that he
was innocent. The next interrogator,and this is even crazier, employed the
(39:12):
use of a pistol. At onepoint, he shouted at Newtlee and fired
a bullet into the ceiling. Onceagain, Lee broke down in a fit
of fear and tears and proclaimed hisinnocence. This interrogator, like the first,
was convinced Newt Lee wasn't the guy. After this charade, the spotlight
of suspicion began to shift away fromNewt Lee. Though Lee was still suspected
(39:38):
of being a witless accomplice, thereal focus was now squarely on Leo Frank.
When news of this shift leaked,the Atlanta Georgian pounced. In their
sixth special edition of the Day,they printed a massive headline on the front
page, police have the Strangler,and beneath it a picture of Leo Frank.
(40:04):
Though the character of James Bond wouldn'tbe created for another forty years,
the Georgian's image of Frank sort ofcast him as a classic James Bond villain.
He's wearing a black suit, ablack bowler hat, and black sunglasses.
And the headline was certain. Itdidn't say police have a new suspect.
(40:25):
It didn't say police think they havethe strangler. No, no,
this was a Hirstian headline, andHirstian headlines were clear and certain, police
have the strangler, and all ofAtlanta knew it. On Wednesday, April
(40:46):
thirtieth, the opening session of theCorner's inquest was held. This was sort
of an informal hearing hosted by thecoroner to determine if enough evidence existed to
bring Leo Frank and or Newtle totrial. Leading the proceedings that day was
Atlantic Corner Paul Donna, who onWednesday afternoon as Donna who directed the proceedings.
(41:09):
A shocking new bit of information emerged. A fifteen year old newsboy named
George Epps testified before the group thathe had actually ridden on the same trolley
with Mary that Saturday morning. Hetestified that as they rode towards Atlanta,
with the skyscrapers getting closer, Marytold him her plans for the day.
(41:31):
She intended to go to the ConfederateMemorial Day Parade and then see a movie
at one of the downtown theaters,but first she had to swing by the
pencil factory to pick up her paycheck. However, she told him something else.
She expressed to him that she wasscared of her boss, a man
(41:52):
named Leo Frank. Here's what thefifteen year old news he said. Again,
I'm quoting here. She began talkingabout mister Frank when she would leave
the factory. On some afternoon,she said, Frank would rush out in
front of her and try to flirtwith her as she passed. She told
me that he had often winked ather and tried to pay her attention.
(42:13):
He would look hard and straight ather, she said, and then would
smile. It happened often, shesaid. She told me she wanted me
to come down to the factory whenshe got off as often as I could,
to escort her home and kind ofprotect her. Now, it's worth
noting here that in nineteen thirteen,this was a really common fear of parents
whose kids worked in these factories.With powerful men overseeing hundreds of child workers,
(42:38):
it's easy to imagine how that powercould be abused, And if your
daughter was particularly pretty, your fearof her catching the eye of one of
her supervisors was very real. ThisGeorge EPP's testimony felt like a bombshell,
though some must have wondered if he'dbeen influenced by the previous day's strangler story
(43:01):
and photo of Frank. The nextday, the Constitution relayed the salacious George
EPP's story with a screaming headline,Frank tried to flirt with murdered girl says
her boy chum. All of Atlantawas a buzz as a new image of
Leo Frank came into view. Investigatorsneeded to vet this story about a flirty
(43:27):
Leo Frank, so they called inone hundred and fifty workers, mostly girls,
from the National Pencil Company. Thefactory shut down for a day as
a stream of young women flowed inand out of the Atlanta Police Department,
each of them giving their opinions onLeo Frank and life at the pencil factory.
More broadly, several women hinted thatthe National Pencil Company had a set
(43:51):
side, that workers were known todisappear into hidden closets and crannies for secretive
trysts, and there was actually alittle bit of evidence to support this rumor.
In yet another search of the factorybasement, investigators discovered a hidden compartment
containing a filthy makeshift mattress surrounded bywhat looked like the footprints of young women.
(44:15):
However, one of the most interestingstatements amongst all those given that day
came from one of the factories maleworkers, Paul Whittaker. Listen to what
Paul said, quote, I haveseen mister Frank at times when talking to
some of the women employees, itseemed to me that he rubbed up against
(44:35):
them a little too much. Inoticed this often, but never said anything
about it. Investigators received countless storiesthat day, many of them later proving
to be false, likely the fantasiesof teenagers who'd been reading the newspapers.
After all the factory workers made theirstatements, Leo Frank was called upon to
(44:57):
testify before the coroner's inquest. Heappeared before them calm, collected and well
dressed. They questioned him for fourhours, and he explained, now for
the second time, everything that happenedto him on that Saturday. His story
was consistent. After that, heretired to his cell in the Fulton Tower.
(45:20):
Now, in the coming days,Leo Frank would go mostly dark.
Though he cooperated with the authorities,he gave the press nothing, refusing to
comment or make any statements whatsoever.Earned him a nickname in the papers,
the silent Man in the Tower.Whatever the Silent Man in the Tower told
(45:40):
the coroners in quest during that fourhour grilling must have been good, because
the papers were much kinder to him. The next day they all reported that
he'd responded well to the questioning policecontinue to chase leads throughout the weekend.
In the course of their work,they came across two more women with startling
stories about Leo Frank. Both ofthem were previous employees of the National Pencil
(46:06):
Company. Fourteen year old Nellie Pettistold the story of going to Frank's office
one day to pick up her pay. He began hitting on her and when
she turned him down, he pulledout a box of money from under his
desk. He showed it to herand gave a wink. She responded by
telling him that she was a goodgirl that he could quote go to Hell.
(46:29):
And then another girl, also namedNellie, sixteen year old Nellie Wood,
only worked at the factory for twodays. According to her, Frank
called her into his office, beganflirting, and then touched her breast.
She quit the next day. Unsurprisingly, the local papers published the accounts of
(46:51):
both girls. With rumors swirling nowfor more than a week, two very
different versions of Leo Frank began toemerge in the mind of Atlantin's The first
original version was that of Leo Frankivy league academician, respected superintendent of the
National pencil company, loving husband,president of Banet Breath, and paragon of
(47:14):
Atlanta's hard working Jewish community. Everyonewho knew Frank vouched for him and his
high character. In the days followingFrank's arrest, several of his Jewish friends
loudly defended the man they all knew. One of the members of Benet Breath
spoke with reporters heaping praise on theyoung factory superintendent. Here is what he
(47:37):
had to say. Leo Frank,the superintendent and general manager of one of
Atlanta's largest and most promising industries,spends two hours in his office on a
holiday after generously relieving the watchman.During these hours, his habits are regular
and industrious, and his life whilein Atlanta is perfectly blameless in every respect.
(47:59):
I have worked with mister Frank fouryears and various charitable organizations, and
have ever found him the most polishedof gentlemen, with the kindest of heart
and the broadest of sympathy. Tosuch an extent, it is recognized among
his fellow lodgemen that we have honoredhim with the office of President, which
is the highest rank in our organization. Leo Frank's image amongst Atlanta's German Jews,
(48:22):
in short, arose not from theirworst fears, but from their best
wishes. Wishes, it must beadded, born not of a week's worth
of headlines in any window, butof five years worth of close association.
That's a pretty strong endorsement. Theother version of Leo Frank that had emerged
(48:44):
from media reports was much darker.He was a creep and a pervert,
with one eye on his work andthe other eye locked onto the young girls
pacing the floor of his factory.The term, when used today sexual predator.
Fueling this view of Frank was thathe was another as both a Brooklyn
(49:07):
bread Yankee and a Jew. Thatmeant that his heritage and his religion were
foreign, unknown and suspect. Sowas Leo Frank the squeaky clean family man
and community leader that his closest friendsthought he was. Or was he a
quiet sociopath living a double life,a monster of a man who'd finally executed
(49:31):
his darkest fantasy on young Mary Fagan. We'll investigate those questions and a whole
lot more. That's next time onCatolic. Hey there, I hope you
enjoyed episode fifteen. I'm really thankfulthat you listened. Hey. As I
(49:54):
mentioned at the top of the episode, we're hosting our Catolic Finale show in
the evening of March fourteenth. It'sgoing to be an amazing night of true
crime, history, mystery, andmore. We're currently finalizing an incredible lineup
of speakers and our goal is tomake the night fun, light, funny,
and inspiring. I'll also be speakingand throwing in some of my favorite
(50:17):
Atlanta history stories that we didn't havetime to cover in Catolic. I'm dying
to meet so many of you who'vereached out since Catolic launched, so I
want to personally invite you to joinme and the rest of the Catholic team
on March the fourteenth. The CatholicFinale Show is going to be held at
an incredible new venue in Atlanta's historicWest End neighborhood, and I hear there
(50:39):
will be a super fun after partywith tasty adult beverages. This is a
ticketed event and early bird tickets willgo on sale February the fourth. We're
capping the number of early bird andearly bird VIP tickets, so write that
date down. Tickets go on saleTuesday, February fourth at catlic dot com.
(51:02):
Oh, one more thing, we'rebringing back the Catlick walking tours during
that same weekend. We'll have verylimited spots, but those details will also
be available on February fourth. Asalways, just check catlic dot com for
details. That's it roll. Theoutro music Catlick is recorded in Atlanta's historic
(51:30):
Cabbagetown neighborhood. Executive producer walnut RidgeHarmon. Original music for this episode provided
by Doucel. Cover art by RachelEleanor Catolic Store manager Burrette Harmon, Catolic
Instagram Follower of the Week Archer andBo Catolic Instagram Hashtager of the Week,
(51:53):
Marjorie Perry, Catolic Instagram story Starsof the Week, Emily Fergus and Ashley
M. Dodi Catolic Hater of theWeek from user name one one two O
two Oh who says this? I'mnot sure why I keep listening. Well,
(52:16):
one zero two zero, I'm notsure why you are either. Thanks
anyway, don't forget. The CatholicVault is still calling your name. Every
week. It gets better and better. We've now got visual artifacts posted for
all fifteen Catolic episodes, including allkinds of interesting nuggets around Mary Fagan and
(52:39):
Leah Frank It's awesome. Get accessin about sixty seconds at catolic dot com.
Just click on vault. That's catolicdot com and click on vault.
And finally, Catolic is Indefinitely writtenand produced by me Bt Harmon hunning Off.
(53:00):
I'd like to remind you to saveold buildings, build bike lanes,
and vote for public transit. We'llsee you in the next episode.
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