Here's Where It Gets Interesting - The Vigilantes, Episode 7

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Life in prison wasn’t enough for the Knights of Mary Phagan. They wanted Leo Frank to pay with his life, and they were going to make sure it happened. In Georgia, vigilante justice wasn’t new, but this time was different. This time, it would change the nation. Would the vigilantes actually get away with it?  Join us for the final episode in this seven-episode series, The Vigilantes. Special thanks to former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes for his time and contribution to this episode.  Host/ Executive Producer: Sharon McMahon Supervising Producer: Melanie Buck Parks Audio Producer: Jenny Snyder  Writers: Amy Watkin, Sharon McMahon Researched by: Kari Anton, Sharon McMahon, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reid, Melanie Buck Parks  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here's where it gets interesting is now available ad-free. Head to SharonMcMahon.com slash ad-free to subscribe today. Leo Frank sat handcuffed in the backseat of a car, still in his nightshirt, unsure what would happen next or where this mob of 25 men was taking him. It only took 10 minutes for the mob to descend on the prison farm, restrain the warden and superintendent, kidnap Leo from his bed, and start their cars to leave. As Leo was tossed into the backseat of one of the vehicles, the prison superintendent stood nearby and asked to have his own handcuffs removed. It's easy to imagine Leo looking up at this point, hoping that the superintendent had a plan to save him.

That's when one of the kidnappers pulled a rope out of a car and held it in front of Leo's face. It was already knotted into a noose. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting. Despite earlier agreements not to stop the men from taking Leo, prison officials jumped into the warden's car to follow the escaping caravan, but the kidnappers had planned for that. The gas line in the warden's car had been cut, and not all of the prison officials were in a hurry to save Leo. They learned that the prison

bookkeeper had a car and sent him to the town of Milledgeville to call for help, but he quickly discovered Yellowjacket Brown's handiwork. Phone and telegraph lines had been severed. Finally, at about midnight, two full hours after the vigilantes left the prison with Leo, someone in Milledgeville found a working phone line and called officials in Augusta, Georgia. They hoped they could find the caravan and get to Leo before it was too late. It was a race against time. Just before the kidnappers left the prison farm, one of them announced they were taking Leo back to Marietta. Whatever phone lines hadn't been cut by the vigilantes were buzzing,

as officers were dispatched all along the route between Milledgeville and Marietta. Newspaper reporters, presumably informed by the same phone calls that alerted the police, raced in that direction, too. They thought there might be a way to stop this whole thing. If they could just find a way to cut off the route, or at least catch up to the mob that had Leo. But the kidnappers had a head start and were way ahead of them. Maybe some of the cars were full of boisterous men celebrating their successful kidnapping, but the car with Leo inside was tense and silent. The vigilantes knew or suspected that the main

roads they'd taken to get to the prison farm were being watched, so they took the long way back to Marietta. Everything was going to plan, until the kidnappers had to cross a stream that didn't have a bridge, and they couldn't find the ferry operator. Someone ran to get the ferryman while another man stood guard over Leo, while Leo hoped that this might hold up the plan just long enough so that he could be saved. While they waited, others continued to cut phone lines in the area and fired their guns into the woods

so that no one within hearing distance would come near. As they intended, people heard the shots and stayed away. Rumors quickly spread that Leo had been shot and killed. But Leo was very much alive, trapped in the backseat of one of the cars barreling down dirt roads around Atlanta. One of the kidnappers asked, is there anything you'd like to say before your execution? Leo slowly shook his head. Perhaps his neck injury was still too painful. And then in a near whisper replied, no. Then they asked him if he killed that faggot girl. And Leo did not respond. Sometime later, they asked him the same question, and he still didn't reply. As they neared their destination, the kidnappers once again pressed Leo,

is there anything you wish to say? And he replied only, no. Shortly after 6 a.m., as the sun was rising and another hot day began, the cars pulled over in a small clearing called Fry's Gin, two miles from Marietta. The land belonged to former Cobb County Sheriff William Fry, a member of the mob who was in on the kidnapping. Fry's Gin got its name because it had once housed the cotton gin used to separate seeds from freshly picked cotton. When they arrived, there was already a table sitting in the clearing, placed there for what was clearly a planned event. Fry's gin also overlooked the property where Mary's family had lived for decades and where relatives of hers still resided. Two men pulled Leo from the back seat and marched him barefoot through the wet

morning grass, the rest of the group following behind. Leo could smell Georgia's red clay, maybe some nearby magnolia trees. Fry's gin must have seemed unnaturally quiet after a long night of listening to car engines. He was thinking about Lucille as he took deep breaths through the neck that had only so recently healed. If Leo's heart was racing, he gave no sign. He gave no sign. An observer later reported that Leo, quote, behaved throughout with a calmness and dignity and an utter lack of panic. Yet surely, Leo knew what that table was for.

Some of the kidnappers walked Leo into the trees around the clearing and stopped at a big oak tree looming large above the other trees. It had been chosen ahead of time for its size. Others carried the table and placed it under the tree. Someone else arrived, carrying the noose. Some eyewitness accounts of this moment claim that Leo asked if he could write a note to Lucille. They say that he was given a pencil and paper. Then he quickly jotted something in Yiddish or German. But others say this never happened.

Historian Steve Oney says that the kidnappers couldn't read the language that Leo had written in, so they destroyed the note, afraid that it named them as the killers. No record of a note to Lucille currently exists. Someone said, Mr. Frank, we are now going to do what the law said to do. Hang you by the neck until you are dead. Do you want to make a statement before you die? No, was reportedly Leo's only answer. We know by now to keep a healthy skepticism about what appeared in the

newspapers at the time. More so in this case, because of course, the only people who could have claimed to be witnesses at this point were either Leo's kidnappers themselves or liars claiming to have been there. And the journalists never revealed their sources. The spokesperson said, we want to know whether you're guilty or innocent of killing little Mary Fagan. Leo supposedly said either an answer to that question or just to himself, I think more of my wife and mother than I do of my own life. Then the kidnappers blindfolded Leo, tied a light brown cloth around his waist to cover what his nightshirt could not, and tied his feet together. They lifted him onto

the table and placed the noose around his neck. Leo took off his wedding band and held it out Judge Morris took it from him dropping it into his pocket with the promise that he would return it to Leo's wife The band was inscribed LS to LMF November 30, 1910 At 7.05 a.m., Judge Newt Morris

kicked over the table. Leo did not die right away, but hung there, flailing as much as he could with hands and feet tied. His desperate movements reopened his neck wound, so blood flowed down his nightshirt. Slowly, Leo suffocated to death. We don't know exactly how long it took for him to

finally pass away, but after half an hour of hanging there, his body was reportedly still warm. half an hour of hanging there. His body was reportedly still warm. The lynchers had watched him struggle for several minutes, at the very least. It was over for Leo Frank. Like Mary Fagan, Leo would die with a rope around his neck. Lucille Frank, staying with friends in the town of Milledgeville, was not aware that her husband had been kidnapped until several hours after it happened. She heard about the men who took him and raced to Atlanta, closer to her parents and to Marietta, where the paper said Leo was being taken. She held out hope until she reached her parents' house and learned of Leo's fate. The Jordan newspaper reported, immediately after she heard of the dangerous plight of her husband, Mrs. Frank collapsed and for a time was hysterical. Physicians worked with her for several

hours before she regained her composure. The beloved husband she had stood beside for two years through trials and appeals, the man she'd just finished nursing back to health, who she would forever claim was innocent, was gone. Lucille was now a 27-year-old widow. Leo died about eight hours after being kidnapped from the Milledgeville prison farm. He was kidnapped between 10 and 11 p.m., and it took all night for the caravan to arrive in Fry's Gin for his hanging. The nation had gone to bed knowing about the kidnapping after newspapers around the country reported the story, and people woke the next morning eager to know what had happened to Leo. Citizens of Marietta, Georgia had heard or read about Leo's kidnapping and started gathering in

the town square at dawn, waiting to hear news of Leo's fate. Newspapers reported that the lynchers had said they were taking Leo to Mary Fagan's grave, which locals knew was in Marietta. to Mary Fagan's grave, which locals knew was in Marietta. A supposedly anonymous source reported to Deputy Sheriff Hicks, who was actually one of the kidnappers, that Leo had been killed. Then someone excitedly shouted, Leo Frank's hanging from a limb down near Fry's Gin. Retribution!

In other words, it was the lynchers themselves who spread the word of Leo's hanging, encouraging the crowds to go and see. Anyone who was already there could claim they had also heard about it and just come out to check it out, which gave the murderers the cover they needed. The more chaos they could create around Leo's death, the less likely they were to get caught. The crowd surged toward the oak tree. The Atlanta Journal reported that they swarmed the road from both directions. They seemed to rise up out of the ground so fast they came. The automobiles came careening, recklessly disregarding life and limb of occupants. Horse-drawn wagons came at a gallop. Pedestrians came running. Women came. Children came. Even babes in arms.

By 8.30 a.m., less than 90 minutes after Leo's death, over a thousand people had arrived at Fry's Gin. Journalist O.B. Keeler, who was at Fry's Gin that morning, described it like a religious rite, as if the people of Marietta were compelled to see Leo Frank's body. Keeler reported that many people in the crowd said something along the lines of, they did a good job, and that the feeling in the air was one of grim and terrible satisfaction. The people of Marietta seemed to view Leo's hanging as closure to the Mary Fagan murder and an end to the uncertainty and frustration people had lived with for two years. They felt they needed to see Leo's body. A local woman was quoted in the Georgian saying, I couldn't bear to look at another human being hanging like that, but this, this is different. It's all right. It's the justice of God.

Lynching in the South became a public spectacle in order to inspire fear and compliance in the Black population. Attending lynchings was actually a common form of entertainment, especially once the public got their hands on cameras. Black and white or sepia-toned photographs mounted on thin cardboard were called cabinet cards. And cabinet cards of lynchings were reprinted and widely distributed, sometimes even made into postcards. Often the lynching victim appears almost like a backdrop in these photographs, a set piece around which white people smile and laugh, celebrating their crime and complicity. Their faces on full display, not worried about who might see them posing at the scene of a murder, because they knew they were immune from consequences.

These cabinet cards were immediately printed, and hundreds were sold. At Fry's Gin, most of the men who had murdered Leo were able to fade into the growing crowd and hide their participation in his kidnapping and killing, but when the crowd started to threaten to destroy Leo's body, one of the lynchers would try to position himself as Leo's protector. A local man named Robert E. Lee Howell pushed to the front and shouted at Leo's body, they won't put any monument over you. They're not going to get you. They're not going to get The crowd was electrified by Howell's frenzy, and others started shouting violent threats as well. This was upsetting to the kidnappers, who had specifically excluded people that they called riffraff,

making sure that only the quote-unquote best citizens were included in Leo's kidnapping and lynching. They felt that they couldn't afford to include anyone who might get distracted or reveal secrets or divert from the plan in any way. The New York Times reported the lynchers would have with them no men of lawless character or bad reputation. them, no men of lawless character or bad reputation. Never mind that some of the lynchers were themselves ex-cons committing premeditated murder. They specifically aimed to exclude Robert E. Lee Howell, who had been a wild card in Milledgeville for years, even at one point assaulting William Burns, the Pinkerton detective in Georgia who investigated Mary Fagan's murder. The dark irony of what happened next is hard to fully digest. One of Leo's murderers stepped in, and we'll never know if his efforts were sincere or only a way to hide out in the open, deflecting attention from his part in the

crime. But Judge Newt Morris, the same man who had kicked over the table in Leo's lynching, now somehow viewed himself as the protector of Leo's body. He climbed onto a tree stump to admonish the crowd of thousands who had arrived on the scene. Citizens of Cobb County, listen to me, will you? The crowd grew quiet, but Howell continued to rabble-rous, shouting, We are not going to let the undertaker have it! The it that Howell was referring to was Leo's body. It was clear that the huge crowd would tear Leo's body apart, given the chance. Judge Newt Morris responded, Don't do anything to this body.

The man has a father and a mother and whatever we think of him, they're entitled to have the body of their son. This calmed the crowd for a minute, but then as two men who worked for the undertaker pushed their way through the crowd to collect Leo, his body was cut down and the crowd surged over Leo as soon as he hit the ground, tearing the rope and pieces of his clothing apart to keep or sell as souvenirs. When the undertaker's men, who were assigned to carry Leo's body away, finally fought through the crowd to place Leo in their long, narrow basket, Howell rushed forward and unknowingly demonstrated why the lynchers had not wanted him there, though why they cared about the

condition of Leo's body remained a mystery. Howell was known to lash out at the slightest provocation, and in this moment, he was enraged over Mary Fagan's murder and probably fueled by the violent energy of the crowd. It wasn't enough for him that Leo was dead. He kicked Leo's head and face several times before he was stopped, and Leo's body was hustled into the Undertaker's wagon. Several automobiles and even people on foot followed the Undertaker's horse-drawn wagon. One car that caught up was a Model T driven by John Wood, with Judge Newt Morris in the passenger seat. The judge hopped out of the car and into the undertaker's wagon, controlling the reins, while John Wood pulled the car close and, quote,

In one deft move, the judge leaped to the ground, jerked the basket containing Leo's remains into his arms, and placed it across the Model T's back seat. Now John, Morris roared after climbing back in beside him, drive like hell to Atlanta. End quote. The long basket holding Leo's body stuck out of both sides of the Model T, so they were still an easy target for those in vehicles that could keep up. Wood and Morris were eventually able to stop and call the funeral home.

Undertakers met them with what they called a motor hearse that could finally conceal the body. Once at the funeral home, the Undertakers tried to keep the location of Leo's body a secret, yet it took less than an hour for hundreds of people to arrive, some of them threatening to break down the door. People were still clamoring for a piece of Leo Frank. One of the same officers who'd been first on the scene to see Mary's body in the basement of the pencil factory now ordered Leo's body moved. It took a squad of 40 officers to accompany the body two blocks to the funeral home's chapel, which was open to the public, presumably to keep the crowds from threatening or damaging the body. The funeral chapel was a contained environment with police officers at the door, and perhaps they thought that allowing the public to view the body would satisfy them. For five hours in the brutally hot day, thousands of people filed past Leo's body, some collapsing

at the site, but many appearing indifferent to the battered corpse. People outside purchased photos of Leo's body hanging at Fry's Gin. By the end of the day, about 15,000 people had seen the work of the Knights of Mary Fagan. So many people in the Atlanta area had believed for two years that Leo Frank had brutally murdered Mary Fagan. Leo's hanging was just as served in their minds, and some wanted the satisfaction of seeing the lyncher's handiwork. Others just wanted to be a small part of one of the nation's most sensational stories. In the investigation that started after Atlanta police were alerted to Leo's kidnapping, officers noticed that several cars were missing from Marietta that night.

As we've noted, not many people owned cars back then, so seven cars missing from one town would be evident. After the lynching, Marietta Mayor E.P. Dobbs released a statement saying, I desire in the interest of justice and truth to say that Marietta and county officials had no knowledge of any automobiles leaving Marietta last night, nor were they apprised of the return of any machines today. None of the officials had any intimation of such an undertaking until the body was found about two miles from the city this morning. intimation of such an undertaking until the body was found about two miles from the city this morning. Never mind that one of the vehicles used for the kidnapping belonged to the mayor himself. The elaborate cover-up had begun. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast Office Ladies, where we rewatched every single episode of The Office with insane behind the scenes stories, hilarious guests and lots of laughs. Guess who's sitting next to me? Steve!

It's my girl in the studio! in the studio. Every Wednesday, we'll be sharing even more exclusive stories from the office and our friendship with brand new guests. And we'll be digging into our mailbag to answer your questions and comments. So join us for brand new Office Lady 6.0 episodes every Wednesday. Plus, on Mondays, we are taking a second drink. You can revisit all the Office Ladies rewatch episodes every Monday with new bonus tidbits before every episode. Well, we can't wait to see you there. Follow and listen to

Office Ladies on the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. Lucille couldn't do anything about her husband's brutal murder, so she immediately immersed herself in the practical tasks, gathering Leo's belongings from Milledgeville and answering the condolence telegrams that began rolling in. Members of their Atlanta synagogue started planning a funeral, but Lucille was adamant that Leo not be buried in Georgia. She arranged to have his body transported to New York. Two days after Leo's lynching, Lucille arrived by train in New York. Those who observed her in Atlanta and on the journey marveled at her outward strength and stoicism. But when she disembarked from the train in New York, her veneer shattered.

But when she disembarked from the train in New York, her veneer shattered. She stepped onto a platform that was nearly empty except for the hundreds of NYPD officers swarming the station, there to guard her and Leo and prevent any violence that the presence of Leo's body might incite. Lucille clung to Leo's family members and sobbed, saying, It's over now. It's all over. A hearse waited near the station, and Leo's body in a pine coffin painted light green, labeled with Leo's death certificate and decorated with several arrangements of flowers placed there by loved ones in Georgia, was loaded inside. Hundreds of mourners lined the New York streets to pay their respects as police motorcycles

escorted the hearse all the way to Brooklyn. Another day and a half passed before the undertaker was able to bring Leo's body to his parents' Brooklyn home. It took that long to repair Leo's face after the attack by Robert E. Lee Howell at Fry's Gin, and the hearse also had to wind through the thousands of people who'd gathered outside. Unlike the crowds in Georgia, people in New York seemed reverent and respectful to Leo's body and the Frank family, wanting only to grieve for a man they viewed as innocent. Nevertheless, both the Franks' home and the funeral home were guarded by police officers. Of course, some of the people crowded outside the Franks' home were reporters, and Leo's mother eventually agreed to an interview, saying, this is not my son they brought home today.

saying, this is not my son they brought home today. It is only the temporary house in which his spirit dwelt. God is just, and he will deal in his own way with those who have done this thing. I want the world to know that a great many Southern people have been very, very kind to us, and I thank them. many Southern people have been very, very kind to us, and I thank them. Newspapers in Georgia at this point were printing fewer details of the Franks' experiences in New York. Some Atlanta newspapers printed only the Associated Press's brief write-up of Leo's funeral. New York papers, on the other hand, focused on the raw emotion of the family and wrote about the funeral in great detail. The New York Tribune reported, the undertaker invited the family to view the body for the last time. A sob filled the room as the lid was nailed down.

A small group gathered in Leo's parents' home for a service before leaving for the cemetery. No one mentioned the way in which Leo had died, but at some point in the service, Leo's mother couldn't take any more. She, quote, half fell from her chair and burst into crying, Oh, my poor boy. Leo, do you hear me, Leo, my boy? In the interest of the family's privacy, the burial was held as early in the morning as possible. Many traditional Jewish burial practices had already been set aside as burying Leo within a day or two of his death hadn't been possible. As the undertaker's assistants carried large floral arrangements

and the high-gloss black coffin draped in purple bunting out to the hearse, newspaper flashbulbs gave the street outside the look of midday. Lucille, wearing a large hat draped in a thick black veil, was escorted to the waiting car, leaning heavily on the two men walking on either side of her. Photographers' flashbulbs exploded in her face, and her feet seemed barely able to hold her up. As she, quote, entered the automobile, her cries could be heard across the street. She was finally safe among family and friends, able to let her grief overtake her. The funeral was small by design to reduce disruption and possible violence. Police guards were posted at the entrance to the cemetery and near the

family's plot, but mercifully, there were no protesters, only mourners quietly paying their respects at a distance. Leo was buried in Brooklyn, and the event was covered by newspapers nationwide. Well-known people admonished the lynchers, including former President William Howard Taft, who said, quote, the lynching of Leo Frank was a damnable outrage. There was no excuse, no mitigating circumstances to justify the action of the Georgia mob. An action like that makes a decent man sick. When Georgia's former governor, the man who had commuted Leo's sentence, John Slayton, heard about the murder, he said, every man who engaged in the lynching should be hanged, for he is an assassin. Lucille did not return to Atlanta. She answered piles of condolence

letters and vowed to keep Leo's memory and the fight for his innocence alive, saying, my dear one lives and will always live in the hearts of those who loved him and whom it is a labor of love to strive to clear his name. We know that Lucille found comfort in the return of Leo's wedding ring. In a strangely sentimental move honoring his last wishes, Leo's murderers had safely delivered his ring to a writer for the Atlanta Georgian who made sure it got to Lucille. Unbelievably, Tom Watson continued his vitriol in the pages of the Jeffersonian after Leo's death, writing things like, quote, Let Jew libertines take notice. Georgia is not for sale to rich criminals.

Lucille made one written public response, published on October 1st, 1915. response published on October 1, 1915. She was clearly referring to Watson when she wrote, I am a Georgia girl, born and reared in this state and educated in her schools. I have no apologies to make for my religion. I only pray that those who destroy Leo's life will realize the truth before they meet their God. They perhaps are not entirely to blame, fed as they were on lies unspeakable, their passion aroused by designing persons. Some of them, I am sure, did not realize the horror of their act. But those who inspired these men to do this unlawful act, what of them? Will not their consciences make for them a hell on earth?

And will not their associates in their hearts despise them? Many of Lucille and Leo's family and friends in Atlanta faded into the woodwork after 1915, no doubt afraid for their own lives. A nephew recalled later that the family rarely left the house after Leo's death. Another family member sold the controlling shares of his business to avoid the appearance of being a Jewish-owned company. Others simply moved out of the area. any. Others simply moved out of the area. Some estimates say that half of the Jewish population of Georgia left the state after Leo's murder. Some Jewish families had to split up, with men staying in Georgia to work but sending their wives and children up north. Lucille left Georgia too, taking a job managing her brother-in-law's clothing shop in Memphis, Tennessee. She saw it as an opportunity to leave the most painful part of her life behind.

Those memories continued to live in her body, though, as she suffered debilitating migraines and nausea for years. A doctor she saw regularly said of Lucille, When I think of her, I think of depression. Leo might have been killed, but she served a life sentence. Lucille lived 42 years as a widow, never remarrying until she died from heart disease

on April 23, 1957, at the age of 69. She was eventually buried between the headstones of her parents in Atlanta. You have to wonder how she felt about being buried so far from Leo and in the place that represented so much pain. There's now a small plaque over the site with an angel and her name inscribed on it. According to reports, small shiny stones are often placed around the plaque even today as a sign of respect. As for Mary Fagan's parents, they lived on a small farm in Smyrna, Georgia with their new daughter, Billy Coleman, who was born in 1915. Georgia with their new daughter, Billie Coleman, who was born in 1915. Mary's mother died in 1947 and is buried in Marietta in the same plot as Mary. Surely Mary Fagan's mother was not grieving

Leo's death in 1915, but newspapers all over the country condemned what had happened to Leo in Marietta. Georgia's Governor Nathaniel Harris, who'd been attending a reunion of Confederate soldiers the morning of the lynching, declared that he was shocked and aggrieved. Though how shocked he actually was is up for debate, given that we know he deliberately turned away as plans were being made to kidnap and lynch Leo. The governor quickly absolved prison officials of any responsibility and assured reporters that he would do everything within his power to bring the guilty parties to justice. And who were the people in charge of this investigation? Several of them were the lynchers themselves.

Several of them were the lynchers themselves. The authorities now responsible for investigating the lynching of Leo Frank worked for the Blue Ridge Circuit, which was led by Herbert Clay, one of Leo's murderers. Hearings to identify and prosecute the lynchers were conducted by lawyers John Tucker Dorsey and Gordon Gann, two more of Leo's murderers. Dorsey was a distant cousin of the prosecutor who'd gotten Leo convicted in his initial trial. So you can predict what happened next. One week after Leo's death, the coroner's jury, a group from the district tasked with helping the coroner determine the cause of death, returned a verdict in just three minutes, declaring Leo's murder, quote, death at the hands of persons unknown.

Except that those, quote unquote, persons unknown, were standing right there in the room. A grand jury was convened to determine who, if anyone, could be held responsible for Leo's death. Once again, it was two of Leo's murderers, John Tucker Dorsey and Herbert Clay, conducting the hearing. They questioned 35 witnesses in two days, but it was all for show. According to John Dorsey's law partner,

who was interviewed years later, seven members of the lynch party were on the grand jury. Lawyer and lyncher Herbert Clay was able to replace some grand jury members with people he knew were sympathetic to the lynchers, and not just sympathetic, actually involved. It's hard to overstate just how shocking this is. Leo's murderers had infiltrated every level of this case to the point where a large percentage of the grand jury was made up by members of the lynch party. On September 2nd, 1915, the grand jury released their findings. Quote, we've been unable to connect anybody with the perpetration of this offense or to identify anyone who was connected with it. No consequences

for any of Leo's murderers, not even a whiff of suspicion around them, at least nothing that anyone was willing to risk calling attention to and suffering retribution for. There were a few other, broader consequences, though. American Jewish Committee Chairman Louis Marshall proclaimed after Leo's lynching that, quote, Georgia is now on trial in the forum of civilization. Georgia suffered several economic blows. The city of Porterville, California boycotted Georgia products, quote, until such time as the states shall have taken proper measures to prosecute the lynchers of Leo Frank. Boston and other cities declared they would not ship goods into Georgia until the lynchers were punished. Some merchants

around the country stopped stocking Coca-Cola, a product made in Georgia, and Chicago police would not honor Georgia's requests for extradition as they said that Georgia was not capable of self-government. Decades after Leo's murder, one of the lynchers, Lawrence Haney, recounted Leo's kidnapping to his two daughters, including the names of the people involved. One of his daughters wrote down the account and placed it inside the family Bible. Historians were later able to match the names in that Bible with the owners of cars and motorcycles used in Leo's abduction. When asked why she thought he did it, Haney's daughter replied, This was something my father felt he had to do. He was not proud, but he wasn't ashamed.

wasn't ashamed. Leo's most famous defender, Mr. Oaks of the New York Times, was enraged that the lynchers went unpunished and prepared a scathing editorial asking all of the Times-affiliated newspapers in Georgia to print it. None were willing. An editor at the Macon Telegraph, known to be an anti-lynching newspaper, telegraphed Oaks with a shocking message. It said, for the sake of the Times and Mr. O, the Telegraph would not print the editorial as requested to do, and for the sake of the decent people of Georgia, and especially for the sake of the Jews of Georgia, would Mr. O not stop this offensive propaganda? It was the outside interference of the Jews, led by the Times, that made it necessary to lynch Leo Frank. The Jews, in fact, were responsible for what happened to him. Oaks was shaken at the accusation that he and the Times were partially responsible for Leo's fate,

and also that the wider reading public might perceive his paper as a Jewish one. No one had come to save Leo in his final hours, and now it seemed like people were still turning away. Leo's supporters had gone silent, and his killers not only went free, but became more emboldened and organized. Three months after Leo was kidnapped and murdered, a group gathered together at Stone Mountain, Georgia. They wore white hoods. The KKK had been dormant for several decades after President Grant nearly stamped it out of existence, but these men believed it was time to bring the Klan back.

Attending this KKK revival was Samuel Venable, one of the brothers who owned Stone Mountain, as well as the building where the National Pencil Company operated. Years earlier, the Venable family had been commissioned by the United States government to mine Stone Mountain granite to build the steps of the United States Capitol. The Venables commissioned the largest carving raised up off of a flat background in the world, and it is on the side of Stone Mountain. The carving depicts Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis. Klan member Gutzon Borglum designed and started the sculpture before being fired over financial disagreements. Borglum went on to design and carve Mount Rushmore. Other sculptors eventually completed the Stone Mountain carving in 1972,

and today Georgians are still arguing about whether or not the carving should remain in place. should remain in place. The ritual at Stone Mountain in 1915 began when the men apparently drank from a natural spring at the base of the Granite Mountain before making the arduous climb. Stone Mountain was rocky and steep at points, and the climb to the top could have been

about a mile and a half long depending on how direct their route was. Many of the Knights of Mary Fagin, the men who'd kidnapped and lynched Leo Frank just a few months earlier, were on that mountain. Each of the men carried stones and built a small altar after they reached the top. Onto the altar, they placed a United States flag, a Bible, a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, as well as the Constitution and laws of the Ku Klux

Klan. They all took the Klansman's oath with their hands on the Bible. A reverend closed the ceremony with a prayer. And after the ceremony, the group did something that had never been done by the original Klan. They burned a cross. So the next time you hear Martin Luther Kinguther king jr's 1963 i have a dream speech near the end when he repeats the phrase let freedom ring and names several places around the country you'll know exactly what he's talking about when he says quote but not only that

let freedom ring from Stone Mountain, Georgia. For all intents and purposes, after Leo's lynching, Mary's murder case was closed. The history books would have but one way of looking at it. Leo had killed Mary Fagan. but one way of looking at it. Leo had killed Mary Fagan. Yet for over 100 years now, people have fought for justice for Mary Fagan by combing through evidence to find out who her killer really was. There are still some who believe that Leo killed her, and many others have tried to exonerate him. In the minds of many people, the Leo Frank case has never been truly closed. In 1922, a Dutch reporter named Pierre van Passen dove into the Fulton County court records and

discovered Leo's dental x-rays and post-mortem photographs of the bite on Mary Fagan's left shoulder. This was evidenced by the way that prosecuting attorneys had had in their possession before Leo's trial even started. The indentations in Mary's skin did not match Leo's dental x-rays. Van Passen wrote, if these photos had been published at the time of the murder, the lynching would probably not have taken place. time of the murder, the lynching would probably not have taken place. After his articles defending Leo were published, Van Passen received an anonymous note warning him to lay off the Frank case if you want to keep your health. Soon after receiving the threat, Van Passen was driving home early in the morning when another automobile forced his car into oncoming traffic.

Vann Passen jumped from his car, which was then demolished by a streetcar. After this incident, he dropped the Leo Frank story, only writing about it four decades later in his memoir. In 1933, and what the New York Times called a quote-unquote pardon spree, Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge granted a full pardon to William Crean, the convicted murderer who slit Leo's throat with a butcher knife. Before Leo arrived at the prison farm, Crean had been serving a life sentence for murder. He shot a man between the eyes for asking him to stop cursing in front of children. There was much speculation that Crean had committed additional murders that he was never charged for, and even the prison warden told his employees to avoid angering Crean in any way, as he seemed more explosive and dangerous than most prisoners. Crean did not serve any additional time for attempting to murder Leo. The quote-unquote investigation determined only that he had acted alone,

and in fact, some people were more concerned with Leo getting what they saw as special treatment in the prison hospital than they were about Crean's punishment. So with no explanation, Governor Talmadge released William Crean in 1933 with a batch of 49 other prisoners. Another person imprisoned in connection with the Mary Fagan murder was Jim Conley, who served one year hard labor for being an accessory to the murder of Mary Fagan. He was arrested again at a brothel in 1915, but claimed he was in love with the woman he'd been with. So instead of sentencing Conley, the judge married the couple. Within the first two months of marriage, Conley was arrested twice for domestic violence, or what was called wife-beating. This would have been unusual, because wife-beating was not illegal across the United States until 1920. The first battered women's shelter didn't open in this country until 1974.

And the Family Violence Preventive Services Act wasn't passed until 1984. Conley being arrested for wife-beating in 1915 was unusual, except that Black men were arrested at far higher rates than white people, and we know that the authorities had Conley's number, pegging him as a general troublemaker. Conley was later arrested again for public time in jail than out of it. In 1919, Conley was arrested for burglary and implicated in as many as 31 unsolved robberies. He was convicted and sentenced to 20 years, but only served half that time. You'd think more people would have started questioning whether Conley did murder Mary Fagan, given his troubled record before and after her death. But believe it or not, the opposite is true. For many, the fact that Conley continued to be arrested for various crimes

meant that he was indeed too stupid to have committed murder. One officer called Jim Conley continued to be arrested for various crimes, meant that he was indeed too stupid to have committed murder. One officer called Jim Conley, quote, the smartest criminal I've ever come into contact with, end quote, but most other people were content with their racist view that a black man was likely to be a career criminal, but not smart enough to get away with murder. Mary Fagan's niece, Annabelle Fagan, remembered the family running into Jim Conley in Marietta. She said, quote, my dad, Mary's brother, was nice to Conley. I remember Conley saying he wanted a drink of whiskey. I don't think dad gave him one, but I do believe he gave him a little bit of money. After 1947, Jim Conley all but disappeared from public records.

There was a person whose description matched his living in a boarding house in Atlanta in the 1950 census. But at some point in the 1970s, an acquaintance of Conley's reported that he had died. an acquaintance of Conley's, reported that he had died. However, there's no death record on file with the state of Georgia. Jim Conley seems to have vanished. But that wasn't the end of Leo's story. The fight to clear his name continued. William Smith, the lawyer who'd surprised everyone by switching allegiances from Jim Conley to Leo Frank in order to help exonerate Leo, or at least get his death sentence revoked, would go to his literal deathbed, exclaiming Leo's innocence.

exclaiming Leo's innocence. As he lay dying in 1949, Smith got a piece of paper and a pencil and in stilted, childish-looking printing, wrote his final thoughts on the case. He wrote, In articles of death, I believe in the innocence and good character of Leo M. Frank. of Leo M. Frank. In 1973, Luther Burton, one of Leo's kidnappers, had outlived the rest of the mob and couldn't shoulder the guilt anymore. Burton walked into James Manning's office and told him everything, including the names of the perpetrators. James Manning was a Cobb County Superior Court judge. Luther Burton died before anything was done with his information, but Judge Manning shared the story with the press. A Marietta journalist wanted to tell Burton's story, but realized he could not write about the case with the descendants of the perpetrators still occupying positions of power. The intimidation that President Grant's administration had fought against over a hundred years earlier was still strong enough to silence many.

But finally, in the 1980s, there was perhaps the biggest break in the case yet, one that might give credence to Leo's assertions that he had nothing to do with Mary Fagan's murder. 85-year-old Alonzo Mann, who'd been an office boy at the National Pencil Company, finally worked up the courage to share what he had seen in 1913 when he was a teenager. Mann explained that a little after 12 o'clock p.m. on April 26, 1913, he had been inside the National Pencil Company and saw, quote, Jim Conley with a girl in his arms and she was limp. He looked around at me. He couldn't reach me. He says, if you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you. So I turned around and went out the door and went home.

Alonzo's mother told him to keep the incident a secret, but by 1983, Mann couldn't sit on this information any longer, saying to a reporter for the Tennessean, quote, Leo Frank did not kill Mary Fagan. She was murdered instead by Jim Conley. The testimony which Conley gave at the trial to convict Frank was a lie from beginning to end. At last, I am able to get this off my heart.

I believe it will help people to understand that courts and juries can make mistakes. New evidence meant that Leo Frank could now be pardoned. Mann's information was submitted to the Board of Pardons and Paroles by the Anti-Defamation League in 1983. This was a fitting full-circle moment for the Anti-Defamation League itself, which had begun in 1913 as a branch of B'nai B'rith in a direct response to Leo's arrest and trial. Blatant anti-Semitism around Leo's case had led the Jewish organization to found the ADL in order to fight bigotry and intolerance. It took a year for the Board of Pardons and Paroles to

make a decision, despite the small amount of information they had to work with. Most of the evidence and court papers of Leo's trial had been lost or destroyed. In late 1983, the Board released its decision not to posthumously pardon Leo Frank, saying, quote, to posthumously pardon Leo Frank, saying, quote, it is impossible to decide conclusively the guilt or innocence of Leo M. Frank. In 1986, the ADL applied again to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, this time asking the state of Georgia to admit that it did not give Leo the security that he needed while in the state's care. the security that he needed while in the state's care. The board agreed that Georgia had failed in its duty to protect Leo Frank's constitutional rights while he was being held at the Milledgeville

prison farm. Leo Frank's pardon was finally granted. It's important to know that this pardon is not a declaration of innocence. It means only that the procedures used to protect Leo were inadequate. In other words, the pardon is only the state of Georgia acknowledging that it did not do enough to protect Leo from the kidnappers who murdered him. And the Leo Frank case has not faded entirely from view even now. Frank case has not faded entirely from view even now. Movies and documentaries of the case have been made, and in 1998, Alfred Ury, an Atlanta native, and Hal Prince opened a Broadway musical about Leo called Parade. Parade shows us that anti-Semitism is unfortunately alive and well. The show reopened on Broadway in 2023. about a dozen neo-Nazi protesters waved

signs and tried to distribute pamphlets saying that the musical glorified the quote-unquote pedophile Leo Frank. Former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes is only too aware of anti-Semitism in the 21st century and is hopeful that Leo's case can still help change things. Governor Barnes spoke with our producer here. There's a rising tide of anti-Semitism. It's not just in Georgia, it's worldwide. And I served on the ADL board for years, and I still talk to them a lot. I think the Leo Frank case feeds into the modern anti-Semitism. And if perhaps if we show how falsely accused he was, then it would shake some sense into these folks that carry torches down the streets

of Charlottesville and stand outside a synagogue holding signs that says Hitler was right and things like that. In 2019, Barnes and the newly formed Conviction Integrity Unit in Fulton County, Georgia, announced that they would re-examine the Leo Frank case. The Conviction Integrity Unit consists of eight members, including three county prosecutors, one defense attorney, lawyers from the Georgia Innocence Project and the NAACP, a representative from the county's faith community, and an attorney or administrator from

a local college or law school. This unit reviews cases and recommends to the Fulton County District Attorney which ones should be re-adjudicated. Barnes wants to exonerate Leo Frank partly due to a personal connection. The men who kidnapped Leo didn't have enough cars to drive their entire group to the prison farm, so they hired a taxi. The man driving that taxi was the grandfather of Roy Barnes's wife, a detail that devastated her when she first learned of his involvement. Barnes had been hearing about the Leo Frank case all his life and even studied it in college and law school, but was then driven to learn even more. I'm from this county and I'd always heard stories about how they hang Leo Frank and lynch Leo Frank and all. And I just couldn't understand it because first, the folks that they said were involved

were some of the, you know, stalwarts of the community. And I just couldn't believe it. And I began to read on it more and more over 50 years ago when I was in college in law school. And I became convinced the more that I read that Leo Frank was not guilty. There's no question there was reasonable doubt, but I am talking about innocent. And except for the overwhelming anti-Semitism that existed, except for the overwhelming anti-Semitism that existed, I don't think he'd ever been convicted. I think it was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in the state's history. Now, there were a lot of miscarriages of justice, particularly against African Americans.

And I do not belittle or minimize that at all because it was abhorrent and I would do anything to help exonerate those folks. But Leo Frank, I became convinced, there was not even an arguable case in my view against Leo Frank. in my view, against Leo Frank. The Fagan family, along with members of the Dorsey and Watson families, have opposed further investigations into the Frank case. The Dorsey family descends from the prosecuting attorney on Leo's trial and another family member, one of Leo's murderers. The Watson family descends from Tom Watson, the politician and writer who published virulent messages against

Leo for years. Most of these family members maintain their stance that Leo was guilty. Mary Fagan Keene, great niece of Mary Fagan, publicly voiced her opinion that her family should have been consulted before any announcement about revisiting Leo's case was made, and that Leo was, quote, guilty as he had been convicted in 1913. She said that her family is, quote, as much a victim as the family of Leo Frank. Only one member of the Fagan family ever spoke out in Leo's defense. Mary Richards Fagan, Mary Fagan's sister-in-law, told reporters at the Columbia Record in 1983 that she thought Leo Frank was innocent. Even today, the Conviction Integrity Unit hasn't made much progress in their efforts to exonerate Leo. The person who decides

whether the case can be re-adjudicated is the Fulton County District Attorney because Leo and Lucille had no children. If they had, then their descendants could have brought the case for re-adjudication. And if you've been listening to the news lately, you know that Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis has had her hands full with Georgia's election interference case against Donald Trump. Roy Barnes is hoping to address the Leo Frank case with her again once the Trump case is wrapped up. He perfectly sums up the importance of the Leo Frank case even today. Every time they hear something that says, well, that's just a bunch of crooked lawyers and technicalities

that got him off. I want you to remember the case of Leo Frank. Those technicalities, quote, unquote, are basic freedoms. And he didn't get it. He didn't get it in a fair and impartial jury. He didn't get it when the jury was exposed to mob violence. He didn't get it when the jury was exposed to mob violence. He didn't get it when their evidence was overwhelming. And Jim Connolly, that he was guilty, which should have at least created a reasonable doubt in the minds of that jury. just as for Lil Frank after over a hundred years would be an exoneration of his conviction an exoneration to the fact that he was not guilty

and an apology for what happened in this state that is the least we can do the least we can do. The least we can do. Back in 1914, standing trembling in a Georgia courtroom after yet another appeal had been denied, and he waited to hear yet another date for his execution, Leo himself spoke prophetically about what the future might bring, saying,

Life is very sweet to me. It's not an easy thing to give up the love of dear ones. Though this may be true, death has no terrors for me. I go to my end in the full consciousness of innocence and in the firm conviction that as there is a God in heaven, my full vindication must come someday. With the dawn of that day, there will come to the people of Georgia a full realization of this horrible mistake. The execution of an innocent man,

a victim of perjury, prejudice, and passion. Perhaps one day that full vindication will come. But until then, I hope this series sheds some light on the many ways justice was never served. For Mary Fagan, or for Leo Frank. Thank you for joining me. This show is hosted and executive produced by Sharon McMahon. Our supervising producer is Melanie Buck-Parks, and our audio producer is Jenny Snyder. It's written by Amy Watkin and Sharon McMahon, and it's researched by Kari Anton, Sharon McMahon, Amy Watkin, Mandy Reed, and Melanie Buckparks. If you enjoyed this episode and want to subscribe ad-free, head to SharonMcMahon.com slash ad-free. We'd love for you to leave us a rating or a review and be sure to hit subscribe so you'll get the next episode as soon as it's available.