The People v. Leo Frank - A Review

Documentary Explores a Dark Chapter in Human Behavior

Nov 2, 2009

Can the Jews ever really feel at home anywhere in this world? That seems to be the question posed by the documentary, "The People v. Leo Frank', airing tonight on PBS

Can the Jews ever really feel at home anywhere in this world? That seems to be the question posed by the documentary, The People v. Leo Frank, airing Nov. 2, 2009 on PBS. Leo Frank was a manager who ran the National Pencil Company in the early 1900's and became the only known Jew to be lynched in America. Convicted of the rape and murder of Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old pencil factory worker, Leo Frank's case is still considered today to be a gross miscarriage of justice. The trial, sensationalized by the media, brought out the underlying resentment of educated industrialists from the North becoming too powerful in the South.

The Body of a Young Girl

Before dawn in the early morning of April 17, 1913, a night watchmen at an Atlanta pencil factory discovers the body of a 13-year-old girl apparently beaten, strangled and possibly raped. She was Mary Phagan, a factory worker. The manager of the factory, Leo Frank, was arrested along with several other suspects including a janitor seen washing red stains out of a work shirt shortly after the murder. Jim Conley, the janitor insists Frank, his boss, was the killer. Frank admits to being the last person to have seen Mary alive and is reported by police to have exhibited nervous behavior upon being notified of the murder.

"Hang the Jew"

Eventually, a murder indictment was returned against Leo Frank on May 24, 1913, and the actual trial began in the heat of the summer on July 28th. The prosecution contended that Frank was actually trying to pin the murder on the pencil factory's janitor, Jim Conley, who claimed Frank ordered him to hide in a wardrobe and dictated notes about the murder to him in exchange for cigarettes. Conley claimed that Frank had told him, "Why should I hang, I have wealthy people in Brooklyn." Frank's team of eight lawyers presented the case that Conley was actually the murderer and that the night watchmen, Newt Lee had helped Conley write the murder notes, allegedly from Frank. Conley was seen by the factory's day watchmen washing "rust stains" out of a shirt shortly after the murder. The newspaper headlines read, "Suspicion turned to Conley; accused by factory foreman" and claimed that Conley "strangled Mary Phagan while about half drunk". Hundreds of spectators were in attendance in the court room, even more outside gathered as a mob looked through the windows into the courtroom supposedly intimidating members of the jury and witnesses. Cries of "hang the Jew" were heard repeatedly from the crowds. On August 25th, Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.

Reasonable Doubt

After Frank was convicted, new evidence came to light which caused folks to wonder if he was guilty of the heinous crime. So much doubt surrounded his conviction that the outgoing governor at the time, John M. Slaton commuted his death sentence to life in prison. Slaton assumed "Frank's innocence would eventually be fully established and he would be set free." The commutation was issued just six days before the newly elected governor took office. Riots broke out all over Atlanta in response to this commutation as a populist newspaper convinced readers that Frank should not be allowed to escape justice.

Kidnapped, Tried and Lynched by a Mob

Populist and politician Tom Watson rallied people against the commutation and pushed for the lynchings of both Frank and ex-governor Slaton. A detachment of the Georgia National Guard dispersed an angry mob gathered outside the governor's home. The Knights of Mary Phagan were openly discussing and organizing a plan to kidnap Leo Frank from the prison and take him 240 miles away to Mary Phagan's hometown of Marietta and lynch him. On August 17th, the armed Knights of Mary Phagan forced their way into the prison encountering little resistance and kidnapped Frank. The group comprised of prominent citizens, community leaders, lawyers, bankers, a Georgia legislator and even the son of a U.S. Senator took Frank to Frey's Gin, two miles west of Marietta.The lynching site had already been prepared with a rope and table provided by Sheriff William Frey. Frank's last request was to write a note to his wife and that his wedding ring be returned to her.

This superb dramatized documentary is put together using actual transcripts from the trial and makes for an intriguing look at how an alleged murder was viewed by the people of that time through the lenses of racial, social and religious prejudice. Abraham H. Foxman, Director of the Anti-Defamation League states, "The lessons of the Frank case are as clear today as they were 90 years ago: the diversity that makes America unique is too often used as a scapegoat in difficult times." The People v. Leo Frank brings historical re-enactments, case histories, and expert accounts together in a well-produced, authentic representation of actual events that took place around the only the only known lynching of a Jew in the American South.

The copyright of the article The People v. Leo Frank - A Review in Historical Films is owned by Mark Oehlert. Permission to republish The People v. Leo Frank - A Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.