Leo Frank
Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was a young Jewish man who was lynched in 1915 in Marietta, Georgia by a mob of white supremacists. After being falsely accused and convicted of the murder and molestation of a young girl named Mary Phagan in 1913, Frank's legal team worked to have his sentence commuted from death to life in prison. The judge eventually decided to commute his sentence, and shortly afterward, Frank was abducted from his prison cell, driven to Marietta, and hanged by the neck from a tree until he was dead.
Leo's case underscores the dangers of fake news, as journalist Thomas Dixon, Jr. whipped up racist, anti-Semitic hysteria during his trial and later. Another demagogue who incited the lynching was far-left Democrat Thomas E. Watson, later a brief U.S. senator from Georgia.[1]
Frank was framed by his janitor, Jim Conley,[2][3] who was the true murderer and is defended by fringe black and white supremacists to this day. According to Alonzo Mann, who worked in an office as a kid, Conley carried Phagan's dead body to a basement and was threatened with death if he revealed the truth.[2] Conley was initially arrested as a suspect for washing blood stains off his shirt, but became the prosecution's primary "witness" to wrongfully allege Frank was guilty.[2]
References
- ↑ Thomas E. Watson (1856-1922). New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Leo Frank Case. New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
- ↑ Bogage, Jacob (March 22, 2017). Leo Frank was lynched for a murder he didn’t commit. Now neo-Nazis are trying to rewrite history.. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 28, 2021.
External links
- Leo Frank, Jewish Virtual Library
- Leo Frank Was Innocent, Had Unfair Trial, Marshall Reiterates
- The Fate Of Leo Frank, American Heritage
- https://www.leofrank.com/
