The Tragic Case of Leo Frank

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.

Chapters

• 0:04 Southern Front Porch Tales
• 6:23 The Leo Frank Lynching Tragedy
• 24:17 America's Greatest Ghost Story

Transcript

Carole Townsend: 0:04

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 their lives during the Civil War. On the morning of April 26th 1913, 13-year-old Mary Fagan kissed her mother goodbye and traveled from her home in Marietta, georgia, to her place of employment at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, georgia. She was going there to pick up her weekly wages in the sum of $1.20. Wages in the sum of $1.20. Neither mother nor child could possibly know that that would be the very last time they saw each other. Sit with me a while and I'll tell you a haunting story about the South that most people have never heard.

Carole Townsend: 1:06

Here in the South, we love our stories. We begin in childhood huddled around campfires, whispering of things best spoken in the dark, confiding in our small trusting circles. Why is that, do you suppose? I have researched and investigated Southern history for more than 20 years and I believe it has to do with this region itself. There's a lot that hangs in the ether here and much that is buried deep in the soil. There's beauty here in the South and shame and courage and, make no mistake, there is evil. There's always been the element of the unexplained, the just out of reach that we can all feel but can never quite describe. And the best place for telling tales about such things is the comfort and safety of an old front porch. So I invite you tonight to come up here with me, settle back into a chair and get comfortable, pour yourself a drink if you like, and I'll share with you some of the tales best told in the company of friends, tales that prove that truth really is stranger than fiction, and I'll turn on the light. You're going to want that. I'm Carole Townsend. Welcome to my front porch. The following podcast contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

Carole Townsend: 2:54

Mary Fagan was a beautiful child, the daughter of tenant farmers who had moved to the city in search of a better life. Like so many other Southern families during that time, and she, as did many children at the time, worked to help support her family. The national child labor laws of the day were bad enough, but Georgia's child labor standards were by far the nation's worst. Children as young as age 10 were put to work in factories for as many as 12 hours a day, often in conditions that were less than safe and sanitary. Still, mary was in a lighthearted mood that Sunday. Not only was she collecting her wages on this sunny spring day, but today was Confederate Memorial Day, set aside to honor the dead of the Confederacy. It was with thoughts of family celebration and a brisk walk on a beautiful day that made little Mary smile on her way to her place of employment that Sunday. Surprisingly, mary did not return home at the expected hour after her brief errand and a search was launched by family members and friends in the community. Mr Leo Frank, the superintendent of the factory, acknowledged paying Mary her wages that morning, but he swore that she left his office and he hadn't seen her since.

Carole Townsend: 4:19

The frantic search for the little girl continued until about 3.30 the next morning. The frantic search for the little girl continued until about 3.30 the next morning when the factory watchman found her bloody, brutalized body in the basement of the factory. Next to her body were two crudely worded notes. The notes read, and this is verbatim Ma'am, that negro hire down here did this. I went to make water and he pushed me down that hole. A long, tall Negro, black. That who it was? Long, slim, tall, negro. It write while play with me. And the text of the second note he said he would love me land down play like the night witch did it. But that long, tall black Nidro did this by himself. These notes were clearly an illiterate and awkward attempt by the killer to point the finger of guilt at the night watchman who had found Mary's body. He was indeed a tall and slender man, obviously, since eyewitnesses had seen Mary enter the factory.

Carole Townsend: 5:36

On April 26th, police officers approached Leo Frank for questioning at his home early on the morning of April 27th. Frank denied even knowing the little girl's name, but he did say that he had paid her a sum of $1.20 for her week's wages. In an unusual next step, police took Frank to the morgue to look at the little girl's body, doing this in an attempt to observe his actions. As he looked at the child's small violated corpse, one officer noted that Frank did not indicate any unusual behaviors or reactions to seeing the body and for the time being he was not considered a suspect.

Carole Townsend: 6:23

As always, in order to make sense of the events that unfold next, we must understand the time and the place of things First. This crime took place in the deep south at a time when the infant city of Atlanta, which was growing by leaps and bounds, was trying to find its footing and its identity in the wake of a bloody civil war and amid turmoil, racial unrest and Southerners' resentment of both African Americans and the Northern industrialists who had so brazenly taken over business in the city. Everyone from white Southerners to relatively recently emancipated African Americans to Northerners flocking South to make their fortunes, felt contempt, 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 was not just a northerner but a Jewish man as well would prove crucial in the outcome of this tragedy. Yes, these were dangerous, volatile times during which conflict and violence erupted often. It was in the midst of this disorderly and sometimes chaotic climate that Mary Fagan was raped and murdered.

Carole Townsend: 7:52

The city was reeling from the horrific details of this tragic event, details that were played up with deafening frequency in the newspapers. One weekly paper, the Jeffersonian, took every opportunity with this case to whip readers into a vengeful fury by publishing story after story about Frank's Jewish faith, his northern roots and other sordid accusations that were never substantiated. Public outrage and a lust for revenge reached fever pitch. The newspaper's circulation in turn quadrupled, and not just any defendant would do. In this case, it had to be Leo Frank, both a Yankee and a Jew, who would pay the ultimate price for the murder of Little Mary.

Carole Townsend: 8:49

Detectives were under tremendous pressure, both from their superiors and from politicians alike, to solve the case, and, despite his repeated protests of innocence, frank was arrested on April 29th, the same day as Little Mary's funeral. It's important here to note that four other men were arrested for the murder prior to Frank's arrest. There was Arthur Mullinax, a streetcar conductor, who was seen with Mary the night before her death. Then there was Newt Lee, the night watchman, who discovered Mary's body in the dark, deserted basement of the pencil factory. John Gant, a bookkeeper at the factory, was also charged with the child's murder. Gordon Bailey, an elevator operator, was also arrested for the crime. And on May 1st Jim Conley, the janitor at the pencil factory, was arrested. His arrest came after he was discovered rinsing bloodstains out of his shirt.

Carole Townsend: 9:58

Still, despite credible evidence to the contrary, every man arrested in this case was set free, every man, that is, except Leo Frank, who was tried for the rape and murder of Mary Fagan. The case against Frank was based primarily on the testimony of the janitor, jim Conley, who told prosecutor Hugh Dorsey, that Frank often forced Conley to cover for him while he molested young girls in his office. According to Conley, while Frank attacked Mary, she somehow slipped and hit her head on a piece of machinery in his office and the blow killed her. And hit her head on a piece of machinery in his office and the blow killed her. Frank, according to Conley, told the janitor to dispose of her lifeless body. The prosecutor failed to mention that Conley changed his story not once, not twice, but four separate times before the attorneys heard what they wanted to hear and told him to stick with that version of events. They then rehearsed that version of Conley's testimony again and again, coaching the illiterate man, who was no stranger to police, to be consistent and believable.

Carole Townsend: 11:17

The sensational trial lasted 25 days and every day the courthouse was surrounded by Atlantans demanding Frank's conviction and the death penalty. Because of the growing hatred toward all intruders, including Jews, had reached out to powerful Jewish friends, allies and people of influence in the North. At first there was no interest in the goings-on in this backward southern town called Atlanta, that is until the pleas got the attention of Adolph Oaks, the publisher of the New York Times. He took up the matter, giving the unfolding story prominent, unprecedented coverage in the Times, and the reporters he sent to Georgia concluded that Frank had indeed been wrongly convicted. The South's reaction to meddling from the North was just what you might expect. The backlash was a media frenzy and the tone could not have been more vicious. Sadly, and as you might have already guessed, frank was indeed convicted of the heinous crime.

Carole Townsend: 12:42

The crowd outside the courthouse that day erupted in shouts of joy and triumph. Prosecutor Dorsey was carried on people's shoulders from the courthouse doors to his awaiting automobile A hero among heroes. The celebration had been predicted by law enforcement and Frank was kept away from the courthouse on the very day the verdict was read, in an attempt to prevent his kidnapping and lynching on the spot. This act alone was a flagrant denial of Frank's constitutional rights. Several appeals followed this kangaroo court's decision, but none stood. Even the fact that Frank was not allowed to be present during his own sentencing did not seem to matter in the workings of justice. In this case, an angry mob, popular opinion and political pressure are difficult demons to face down and defeat from behind bars.

Carole Townsend: 13:47

Still then, georgia Governor John Slayton could not ignore the circus-like atmosphere that had obviously played a role in Frank's conviction. He wasn't convinced that little Mary Fagan had been murdered by this mild-mannered factory manager. So he took it upon himself to review more than 10,000 pages of documents and even visited the pencil factory himself, curious to see if the facts of the case had been fairly presented. Deciding that Frank was innocent, slayton commuted his sentence from death to life imprisonment. Surely, he thought, justice will eventually prevail here and this man will someday be set free. Predictably, slayton's commutation of the sentence touched off riots throughout the city and hundreds of angry citizens marched to the governor's mansion. Some of Slayton's most rabid opponents meant to kill him. That very night the governor was able to call for the National Guard just in time to stop the advance on the Capitol. Coincidentally, his term as governor ended just a few days later. The National Guard escorted him and his family to the state border and put them on a train. They would not return to Georgia for another decade.

Carole Townsend: 15:16

After Slayton commuted Frank's sentence, the prisoner was moved to a state prison farm in Milledgeville, georgia, in the middle of the state. He stayed there for nearly two months. During that short time a fellow prisoner slashed Frank's throat, but the attack did not end his life. In a horrifying series of events that is still difficult to believe. On August 16, 1915, 25 prominent citizens from Marietta, georgia, who identified themselves as the Knights of Mary Fagan, caravaned to the prison in Milledgeville. Through a series of payoffs, promises and guards compensated for looking the other way. Frank was forcibly removed from his cell and thrown into the back of one of the seven or eight cars in the caravan.

Carole Townsend: 16:12

The group drove a circuitous route back to Marietta. Presumably to avoid detection and interception. The men drove Frank to a place deep in the Marietta woods, a place already prepared with a table and a hanging rope. The vigilantes tied his hands behind his back, slipped the noose around Leo Frank's neck, dragged him onto the table and then kicked the table from underneath him In a gruesome display of bloodlust and a term I've come to understand as being mob think. Frank's body hung from that tree for nearly 24 hours with hundreds of onlookers gawking and jeering at the aftermath of the violence. They kicked and punched the body until lawmakers finally intervened, cut the lifeless corpse down and carried it away.

Carole Townsend: 17:07

No one was ever arrested for the lynching and, according to many researchers, still today no one speaks openly about the crime. In fact, it's remarkable that so many people could take part in such a vicious murder and keep the secrets through the generations. But they have. In 1986, 71 years after Leo Frank was lynched, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles issued this statement Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence. The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles issued this statement conviction and in recognition of the state's failure to bring his killers to justice and as an effort to heal old wounds. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, in compliance with its constitutional and statutory authority, hereby grants to Leo M Frank a pardon.

Carole Townsend: 18:17

Of all the unspeakable events that have taken place in the southern United States, this case falls at, or near the very top. An innocent man was wrongly accused of a heinous crime and murdered for it, and an innocent little girl's death went unavenged, her killer left free to kill again if he so chose. Mary Fagan's family never got the peace or the dignity of learning the truth about their daughter's murder. Do I say these things simply because they're my opinion Hardly. If I've learned anything over the years of researching Southern history and investigating true crime, it's that things are rarely as they seem and that truth, by its very nature, does not stay buried forever.

Carole Townsend: 19:11

In 1982, reporters from the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville set out to clear the name of Leo Frank. On Sunday, march 7, 1982, the Tennessean printed a 10-page special section titled Justice Betrayed A Sin of Silence, in which a key witness to the Leo Frank case, alonzo Mann, said that false testimony led to Frank's conviction. Alonzo Mann said that false testimony led to Frank's conviction. Alonzo Mann We've never heard that name before, have we? He was Frank's 12-year-old office boy at the pencil factory back in 1913. In that special article in the, tennessean, mann, who was by then 83 years old, told reporters Leo Frank did not kill Mary Fagan. She was murdered instead by Jim Conley, the building janitor.

Carole Townsend: 20:12

Mann's memory is not perfect when he is recalling people, places and events of nearly 70 years ago, but he vividly remembers the confrontation he had with Jim Conley, who was holding the limp body of Mary Fagan in his arms while standing in the lobby of the pencil factory when Mann walked in. He believed he saw this only moments after Mary had been knocked unconscious, but apparently before she was murdered. He believed he saw this only moments after Mary had been knocked unconscious, but apparently before she was murdered, and he believes that if he had yelled for help, he might have saved her life. But Mann then, just a boy said he did not call for help or alert the authorities and that Conley 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 had happened. She instructed him to remain silent and told him not to get involved, and he, of course, obeyed her. He kept this memory to himself for years, but as he grew older his secret knowledge weighed heavy on his conscience. He even tried, he said, to tell an Atlanta newspaper reporter what he knew, that Jim Conley's testimony in court was a lie from beginning to end. Leo Frank never murdered Mary Fagan, as he said. He paid her her wages that Sunday in spring and the little girl went on her way, never to be seen again, except, that is, by the janitor.

Carole Townsend: 21:54

I suppose it's in all of us to try to make sense of things that make no sense at all the murders of innocents, no matter their ages, or that to many the hatred of entire races and communities of people feels good. Simply because hatred can feel good, violence can feel good. I have to believe that we don't all feel that way. I have to believe that a kind of evil takes up residence in people, especially when a mob rules, when individual thought and conscience dissipate and when people are simply different from one another. I believe that that kind of evil has ancient roots and that those roots grow deep in fertile soil.

Carole Townsend: 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 was easy prey. Incidentally, the caravan of prominent white citizens who dragged Leo Frank from his cell in middle Georgia developed an interest in forming an organization to carry out other such deeds as necessary here in the South. A short time after the lynching of Leo Frank in Marietta, the Knights of Mary Fagan gathered on a mountaintop near Atlanta. You may have heard of this place it's called Stone Mountain. At this gathering the group formed the new Ku Klux Klan of Georgia. At the same time as the new Klan was taking shape, a group of frightened, even outraged, jewish community members met to form the Anti-Defamation League to combat anti-Semitism. Here's another interesting aside the trial that led to Leo Frank's wrongful conviction and eventual lynching catapulted prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to the office of governor in 1916. He was re-elected to a second term and during his tenure he supported mandatory education for all races, he condemned lynching and compulsory labor to pay debts, and he endorsed conventions to discuss racial affairs.

Carole Townsend: 24:17

As I've said before, the truth is often stranger than fiction. Join me next time as we explore the strange and fascinating phenomenon of Tennessee's Bell Witch. Was the years-long haunting an elaborate hoax that's persisted to this very day, an elaborate hoax that's persisted to this very day? Or are the terrifying events that began back in 1817 the prowlings of an actual witch? There's a reason that this tale is referred to as America's greatest ghost story.

Carole Townsend: 24:56

I'm Carole Townsend, veteran newspaper journalist and six-time award-winning author. You can find me on social media and check out my website at caroltownsendcom. As always, thanks for listening and if you're enjoying these tales of Southern history and lore, I hope you'll tell your friends history and lore. I hope you'll tell your friends. Subscribe to this podcast on Spotify, apple Play, iheart and anywhere you listen. My team and I benefited from the following research and writings to bring this tale to you the Truth About the Frank Case by Christopher Powell, connolly, research Guides at the Library of Congress. The Trial of Leo Frank An Account. The Leo Frank Case New Georgia Encyclopedia and, of course, the Tennessean newspaper. No-transcript.