AI Summary
5 min readIn 1913, a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagan walked into the National Pencil Company in Atlanta to collect her $1.20 paycheck. She never walked out. Her body was found the next morning in the factory basement, beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted so violently that the word "violent" barely captures it. The case would tear the city apart, expose the rot in its police department, and end with an innocent man lynched by a mob while the real killer walked free for decades.
The Crime and the First Suspect
Mary Phagan was born in 1899 in Florence, Alabama, three months after her father died. Her mother Fanny moved the family to Marietta, Georgia, then to East Point, a suburb of Atlanta. By age nine, Mary had dropped out of school to work in a textile factory. When the family moved again in 1912, she found work at the National Pencil Company, operating a machine that inserted erasers into pencil ends for ten cents an hour. She worked 55-hour weeks.
On the morning of April 26, 1913—Confederate Memorial Day—Mary ate breakfast, put on a violet dress and gray pumps, tied two bows in her hair, and took the trolley downtown. She stopped at the factory to pick up her pay. She was last seen entering the building around noon.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (02:53) **Introduction to the Case** - Ash and Alina set up the story, warning listeners that it is brutal and infuriating, and noting that the police failed in their duty.
- 2 (06:47) **Mary Phagan's Early Life** - The narrative begins with Mary Phagan's birth in 1899 to a widowed mother, painting a picture of poverty and the harsh realities of child labor in the early 1900s.
- 3 (10:38) **The Day of the Murder** - The hosts describe the events of April 26, 1913, when Mary went to collect her pay and was last seen entering the factory.
- 4 (12:04) **Discovery of the Body** - The night watchman, Newt Lee, finds Mary's brutally beaten and sexually assaulted body in the factory basement early the next morning.
- 5 (15:19) **The Murder Notes and Newt Lee's Arrest** - Two hastily scrawled, poorly spelled notes are found near the body, seemingly implicating a "long tall black" man, leading to Newt Lee's immediate arrest.
- 6 (23:42) **Leo Frank Becomes a Suspect** - Police turn their attention to factory supervisor Leo Frank, the last person to see Mary alive, based on his "nervous" demeanor and "ladylike" voice.
- 7 (31:34) **Building a Case Against Frank** - New evidence, including blood and hair near Frank's office, and Newt Lee's testimony about being sent away, begins to snowball against Leo Frank.
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Show Notes
In the early morning hours of April 27, 1913, a night watchman at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, GA, found the body of thirteen-year-old former factory worker Mary Phagan in a basement room of the factory. Mary had been sexually assaulted and strangled, a strip of fabric from her coat still around her neck when she was discovered, and there were two cryptic notes found near the body. Given where Mary was discovered, it was assumed the killer was familiar with the layout of the factory and was either a current or former employee.
Just one day later, suspicion fell on two factory employees, a night watchman, Newt Lee, and the factory’s superintendent, twenty-nine-year-old Leo Frank. In time, investigators ruled Lee out, leaving Leo frank as the sole suspect in the girl’s murder. To many, the arrest, prosecution, and failed appeals of Leo Frank had more to do with him being Jewish than they did his being the most likely suspect, but the real outrage was yet to come. Indeed, two years after Phagan’s death and Leo Frank’s conviction, the people of Atlanta would commit an act of extrajudicial violence that would forever stain the conscience of Georgia.
RESOURCES
Atlanta Constituion . 1913. "Frank and Lee ordered held by coroner's jury for Mary Phagan murder." Atlanta Constitution , May 9: 1.
Atlanta Constitution. 1915. "Mob's own story in detail." Atlanta Constitution, August 18: 1.
Atlanta Journal. 1915. "Leo Frank forcibly taken from prison." Atlanta Journal , August 17: 1.
—. 1913. "Arnold's motion for a mistrial is denied by Judge Roan." Atlanta Journal, August 25: 5.
—. 1913. "Detectives building case on theory that Frank and negro can clear mystery." Atlanta Journal, April 29: 1.
—. 1913. "Dorsey will finish his speech in few hours." Atlanta Journal, August 24: 1.
—. 1913. "Factory girls eager to testify for Frank." Atlanta Journal, July 29: 1.
—. 1913. "Frank Receives sentence like stoic, asserting his innocence of the crime." Atlanta Journal, August 26: 1.
—. 1913. "Negro sweeper tells officer Frank asked him to write some notes day before tragedy." Atlanta Journal, May 24: 1.
—. 1913. "Phagan case will go to grand jury in present form." Atlanta Journal, May 17: 1.
—. 1913. "Phagan inquest in session." Atlanta Journal, May 8: 1.
Berman, Sandra, and Jane Leavey. n.d. Seeking Justice: The Leo Frank Case Revisited. Atlanta, GA: The Breman Jewish Heritage and Holocaust Museum.
Jewish Advocate. 1913. "Is Leo M. Frank of Atlanta GA., guilty of murder." Jewish Advocate, December 12: 1.
New York Times. 1914. "Appeal for Frank in murder case." New York Times, February 25: 6.
—. 1914. "Frank convicted by public clamor." New York Times, March 2: 1.
—. 1914. "Split court denies new trial to Frank." New York Times More from this podcast