Unraveling the Leo Frank Case: A Century of Impact

My personal journey with the case

As an author deeply engaged with historical narratives, I am currently immersed in writing my own book on the Leo Frank Case. This personal connection drives my passion to highlight the many layers and ongoing relevance of this profound story for you to explore.

Here is a list of books, some arguing for Leo Frank's innocence, others for his guilt that are indispensible for anyone interested in the case:    

1. And the Dead Shall Rise by Steven Oney. This book should be the starting point, a first book read, for anyone interested in this case. A native Georgian who studied at Harvard, Oney has written a well-researched, detail-packed book on the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank, the factory manager who was her boss.  

His book reveals the racism endemic in all levels of Southern society in 1913. A small example: journalists referred to Leo Frank either by his name or by his job. African-Americans were frequently referred to in the press as "the Negro" and highly educated lawyers often used the vilest racial slurs in court. 

Oney has stated in an interview that he is 95% sure Frank was innocent. He also demolishes one myth many authors have promulgated: contrary to many authors, Atlanta did not stand outside the courthouse during Leo Frank's trial shouting "Hang the Jew or we'll hang you." That story is an urban legend that seems to have started with an article in the New Castle Herald, a Pennsylvania newspaper, that was published almost two years after the trial. In contrast, Atlanta papers, even the pro-Frank ones, never mentioned such an incident.

2. The Leo Frank Case by Leonard Dinnerstein. Here is the link to the dissertation his later books on the topic were  based on. In my view, the dissertation is a polemic rather than an result of objective historical research. I am surprised that this paper made it past a dissertation committee. His work made known the "Hang the Jew" trope with no *credible* historical support.  He blatantly ignored evidence that contradicted his belief in Frank's innocence--Frank's attempt to implicate an innocent nightwatchman by forging his timecard and his deliberate decision to ignore a man loitering in the factory at the time of the murder, which suggested that the man may have been in league with Frank to cover up the murder.  

The result is that he made Southerners look like unhinged anti-Semites instead of people who believed, perhaps wrongly, that evidence made Frank look guilty. 

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man by the Nation of Islam (NOI) Research Group. I have watched some videos on the NOI website and the attitudes toward white people in general and Jews in particular are *very* uncomfortable. 

Still, their book is well-researched , contains a wealth of footnotes, and presents one perspective on the case that is not entirely without merit. The authors point out that about 60 people were lynched the same year Frank was yet they remain unknown. Most of us could not name one of those sixty men, except Frank. 

The book highlights information Dinnerstein ignored, such as Frank's attempt to make the nightwatchman look guilty. The book also treats the white, impoverished female factory workers with more respect than many mainstream books. 

Sometimes, the authors leap to unwarranted conclusions, such as claiming that pro-Frank forces contemplated bribing a judge because a letter between two of them  discussed the judge's financial situation. It seems more likely that they believed this judge would be reluctant to issue a pro-Frank ruling and risk his reelection because he had a large family to support. Assessing the chances of a favorable ruling is a far cry from contemplating bribery.

My take: ignore all the stuff about Jews but their other claims generally hold up.

The Murder of Little Mary Phagan, 

by Mary Phagan Kean, the victim's great niece.Kean believes that Leo Frank was guilty and sets forth that case with a fair degree of objectivity. In the latest version of her book, she includes a chapter with the prosecution's case and another with the defense's case and admits that problems with the timeline work in Frank' favor. 

This book differs from others by providing more information about the attempts to secure a posthumous pardon for Frank and the change of a commemorative marker without even notifying the Phagan family.

 

The Leo Frank Case: Inside Story of Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery

This anonymous book, published in 1913 and available at no cost online, contains details I have not found anywhere else. For example, the book claims that Jim Conley admitted to writing one of the two murder notes found near Mary Phagan's body but initially denied writing the second. This author claims that the prosecutor had four handwriting examiners claiming that Leo Frank wrote the notes. At last, Dorsey went to New York and found an expert who determined that Conley wrote both notes. At that point, Conley admitted to writing the second note.

This contemporaneous book, contra Dinnerstein, does not mention howling anti-Semitic mobs.

The Case of Leo Frank by Burton Rascoe, written in 1947,  chronicles the evolution of this literary critic's thoughts on the case. His recounting of the facts of the murder differs from those of other authors but his analysis is fascinating. 

First, he avoids racism, anti-Semitism, and mindless hostility toward the South. He admits that the evidence permits no firm conclusions about the identity of the killer and refutes some of the "evidence" against Frank yet he does not automatically assume that Conley is guilty. 

While I believe he is wrong on some points, the book is a beacon of fairness in a case filled with partisanship on all sides.