...[you know when] the air [is] so still it aches like the place where the tooth was on the morning after you’ve been to the dentist or aches like your heart in the bosom when you stand on the street corner waiting for the light to change and happen to recollect how things once were and how they might have been yet if what happened had not happened. Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men
I often wonder these days about that last bit: what would’ve happened if…? But, as my mater often chides me—that’s just not productive. But, what would’ve happened if Leo had just picked up the goddamned phone when Newt called his house on the night of the murder? We’ll never know.
When the highest court in the world judicially affirms that the State which ‘tried and convicted Frank, accorded him every right guaranteed to him under the highest law’, ought not the decision to be respected?
-Tom Watson
That was written in the aftermath of the trial's conclusion, so I guess you know how Frank’s story ended, not that it was much of a surprise.
The investigation
We left Leo in the hands of the Atlanta police force on the evening of Mary's funeral, on April 29th. He was arrested on purely circumstantial evidence: a young woman who'd hoped to collect her pay stated that she had not seen Frank in his office, around the time when Phagan reputedly picked up hers. The wittness' testimony differed from Frank's, who'd stated that he had remained in his office at least twenty-five minutes after Mary supposedly left. Thus, from the beginning, there was trouble with Frank's timeline.
Initially, the detectives arrested several others in connection with the death: Arthur Mullinax, a conductor on the street car where Mary frequently rode, Newt Lee, John Gantt, a former bookkeeper who'd briefly been at the factory to collect a pair of shoes, Gordon Bailey, who operated the factory elevator, and Jim Conley the custodian (he was arrested after someone reportedly saw him washing "rust stains" out of his shirt. Conley would later do a star turn as the prosecution's main witness.
In the six weeks before the trial, Conley would sign his name to no less than four affidavit's attesting to Frank's guilt. Unfortunately, the story he told differed wildly on each document. Essentially, Conley stated that Frank had enlisted his aid after killing the girl, ostensibly to dispose of the body, and evidence in the factory's cellar. He further reported that Frank had offered him $200 for his silence.
Prior to the courtroom, the case was turned over to a grand jury. It didn't take them long to determine Frank's guilt and Conley's complicity, which were based on things like Conley's statements, and other documents such as an affidavit from Nina Formby, a madam of a local brothel. Formby stated on the day of the murder, Frank made several telephone calls to her establishment asking her to care for an injured girl. Her claims were to be contradicted by a maid, who claimed that no such phone calls had been made. Such salacious details added to the circus atmosphere of the developing scandal: 'a brothel by God!' Sigh.
Frank's legal team consisted of Atlanta's 'best' defense lawyers, eight in all, led by Luther Rosser. In hindsight, this was probably not the smartest move, for it gave the appearance of the wealthy North, coming up against the 'victimized' South--something the jury was sure to notice.
From the beginning of the trial, it was a carnival--both inside the courtroom and out. This tragic atmosphere continued for the duration. Many spectators would later question whether or not this mood in the court affected the jury, in addition to the copious news coverage that was so skewed against Frank. Influencing the jury, much? Anyone?
The prosecution presented witnesses who were, uh, a little less than credible. Let's take the testimony of one George Epps, 15, self-professed friend of Mary Phagan:
Epps is questioned by lead defense attorney, Luther Rosser:
Rosser: “How did you know what time it was when Mary Phagan joined you going downtown that morning?”
Epps: “I looked at a clock just before I took the car.”
Rosser: “You didn’t say anything about a clock when you testified before the coroner’s jury.”
Epps: “Nope, but I looked at one just the same.”
Rosser: “How did you know what time it was when Miss Mary left you?”
Epps: “I estimated it from the time she got on the car, and I told it by the sun. I can tell time by the sun.”
Rosser: “You can tell the time to within seven minutes by the sun, then?”
Epps: “Yes, sir, I can.”
Rosser: “Did Mary get off the car with you?”
Epps: “Yes, sir.”
Rosser: “You went to sell your papers then?”
Epps: “Yes, sir. I thought I could sell them by 3:00 and meet her as she had agreed with me to do.”
Rosser: “Had you sold out by 4:00?”
Epps: “No, sir, I finished sellin’ out at the ball grounds.”
Rosser: “What time was it when you finished selling your papers?”
Epps: “I don’t know, sir,” Epps replied.
Rosser: “Couldn’t you tell by the sun?”
Epps: “No sir, the sun had went down by that time.”
Uh, yeah. OK. Sure. I guess anyone can tell the passage of several minutes by tracking the sun across the sky.
And let's try this testimony out...the cross examination of Detective John Black by Leo Rosser. Black was the lead detective in the Frank case:
Rosser: “You didn’t release Mr. Frank, until the word was given from the chief of detectives, did you?”
Black: “I suppose not.”
Rosser: “Do you mean anything by the word release?”
Black: “I spoke before I thought when I uttered it.”
Rosser: “Wasn’t his detainment equivalent to arrest?”
Black: “I can’t say so.”
Rosser: “Then you retract a thing you said under oath?”
Black: “Yes, I retract the word release....”
Rosser: “Wasn’t it 10:00before I got to the station?”
Black: “No. . . you got there between 8:30 and 8:00.”
Rosser: “Will you swear it?”
Black: “I won’t swear it. .. I don’t know....”
Rosser: “Who was present when you talked to Frank on the time previous to Sunday?”
Black: “I don’t remember.”
Rosser: “As a matter of fact, you can’t swear truthfully that you spoke to him at all, can you?”
Black: “Not positively.”
Rosser: “Hurry and scurry is an enemy to memory, isn’t it?”
Black: “Yes.”
Rosser: “You went through the factory with Frank?”
Black: “I don’t know—several people.”
Rosser: “And none of you saw the sketch said to be blood?”
Black: “No, sir.”
Rosser: “How many of you went over the building?”
Black: “I don’t know exactly.”
Rosser: “Perhaps thirty people?”
Black: “I don’t know.”
Rosser: “This large horde made up of officers and curiosity seekers went over the factory and nobody saw these alleged blood spots?”
Black: “No, sir.”
Rosser: “How long was the factory/open on Sunday morning—till about 12:00,was it not?”
Black: “I don’t know.”
Rosser: “How many times did you go to the factory that morning?”
Black: “Detective Starnes went over the factory with you, did he not?”
Rosser: “Campbell and Beaver, too?”
Black: “I don’t know about Beavers, but Chief Lanford did.”
Rosser: “And no blood spots were discovered that day?”
Black: “Not so far as I know.”
Rosser: “You saw Frank at the clock?”
Black: “Yes.”
Rosser: “He opened the clock band took out a slip?”
Black: “Yes.”
Rosser: “When did Frank turnover this slip that he took out of the clock?”
Black: “I don’t know.”
Rosser: “Didn’t you tell Mr. Dorsey a few minutes ago that he turned over the slip on Monday morning?”
Black: “I don’t remember."
Rosser: “Look here, Black. Is your memory so bad you can’t remember what you told Dorsey twenty or thirty minutes ago? And yet you attempt here to state the words of conversations that occurred more than three months ago?”
There is one thing that the transcript illustrates precisely, and that is how Rosser used racist slurs to try and discredit witness testimony from anyone who wasn't white. In fact, reading some of his invective quite made my stomach turn.
Now, if you've had the patience to read through Black's testimony, then you should have noticed some glaring problems: top of the pops, is that Black rarely (if ever) answers the questions directly. In his description, Frank merely appears guilty. And, this was the lead detective in the case.
I won't bore you with further testimony in this tragic example of what passed for Georgia justice in 1913. In my estimation, Leo never had a shot. Take, for example, Hugh Dorsey's closing argument, which was made over three days in the heat of August:
With no air conditioning.
Hugh Dorsey.
"So he [Frank] has got no good character, I submit, never had it; he has got a reputation, — that's what people say and think about you t — and he has got a reputation for good conduct only among those people that don't know his character. But suppose that he had a good character ; that would amount to nothing. David of old was a great character until he put old Uriah in the fore-front of battle in order that he might be killed, — that Uriah might be killed, and David take bis wife. Judas Escariot was a good character, and one of the Twelve, until he took the thirty pieces of silver and betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ. Benedict Arnold was brave, enjoyed the confidence of all the people and those in charge of the management of the Revolutionary War until he betrayed his country."
Nice. Not only is Dorsey quoting the Bible (David, Judas) he's comparing Frank to Benedict Arnold. Are there any other classic traitors that he could use? Any?
Then, eons later, Dorsey brought up the hand written notes found by Mary's body:
"Now, gentlemen, I want to discuss briefly right here these letters, and if these letters weren't "the order of an all -ruling Providence I should agree with my friends that they are the silliest pieces of stuff ever practiced ; but these letter* have intrinsic marks of a knowledge of this transaction...this man Frank, by the language of these notes, in attempting to fasten the crime upon another, has indelibly fixed it upon himself."
"you tell me that ever a negro lived on the face of the earth who, after having killed and robbed, or ravished and murdered a girl down in that dark basement, or down there in that area, would have taken up the time to have written these notes...."
ibid.
And, here, Dorsey directly addresses the defenses' contention that Conley was lying, especially regarding the notes:
"Do you tell me that this man, Jim Conley, "drunk as a fiddler's bitch," if you want it that way, would, or could have taken time to have written the Be notes to put beside the body of that dead girl? I tell you no h and you don't need me to tell you, you know it. The fact, gentlemen of the jury j that these notes were written — ah, but you say that it's foolish. You say it's foolish? It's ridiculous. It was a silly piece of business, it was a great folly ; but murder will out, and Providence direct things in a mysterious way...."
ibid.
"Your Honor, I have done my duty- I have no apology to make. Your Honor, so fat as the State is concerned, may now charge this jury, — this jury who have sworn that they were impartial and unbiased, thia jury who, in this presence, have taken the oath that they would well and truly try the issue formed on this bill of indictment between the State of Georgia and Leo M. Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan; and I predict, may it please Your Honor, that under the law that you give in charge and under the honest opinion of the jury of the evidence produced h there can be but one verdict, and that is : We the jury find the defendant, Leo M. Frank, guilty! GUILTY! GUILTY!"
[Apparently, Mr. Dorsey waited until noon, timing the ending of his statement with the tolling of a local church bell, indicating noon. Reports later said that he interspersed his cry of "GUILTY!" in the spaces between the bell going "BONG!" Obviously for added effect. What an asshole]
Well, it might have been bullshit, but it was good theater.
It also didn't help that there was an angry mob hanging on the rafters of surrounding buildings, yelling things like "hang the jew." Oh, my.
The jury retired, and returned about three seconds later, with a guilty verdict. There was an immediate shout of jubilation from the crowd, and Dorsey was carried out on the shoulders of onlookers. Jesus.
The following day, Judge Leonard Roan pronounced sentence on Frank: death by hanging. Sigh.
In the trial's aftermath, Leo's lawyers appealed the case, to every court imaginable, but all legal roads end at the Supreme Court, right? And, they upheld the verdicts of the lower courts, with a decision of 7 to 2. Justices Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Charles Evan Hughes dissented on the grounds that the boisterous crowds surrounding the courtroom impeded the proper course of the law.
Enter Georgia Gov. John Slaton
Slaton was approached by Frank's defense attorneys, to petition for a pardon. Slaton was, in many ways, a typical lawyer and politician of his day--meaning that he was not exactly a liberal, who fought against Jim Crow. He was also a former law partner of Frank's attorney, Rossi. It's necessary to know this, in all fairness, because Slaton has been attacked by just about everyone for possible bias against Dorsey, in reaching his decision.
So, what did Slaton do, exactly? Well, first, he decided to re-open the case. Then, he read all four billion pages of the court transcript. He walked the scene of the murder, and painstakingly questioned key witnesses, like Jim Conlin. What were his conclusions? Essentially, that Dorsey's case was hyped up horseshit, and that the 'compelling evidence' against Frank was nonexistent. And, yet, he couldn't free Frank. There was too much mob violence in the air--to cut Leo loose in that atmosphere, would be to consign him to the vigilantes.
On June 21, 1915, just one day prior to Frank's hanging, Slaton commuted his sentence to life in prison. Slaton's term ended immediately thereafter. I don't have to tell you that Atlanta wasn't pleased--mobs roamed the streets, vandalizing Jewish businesses, and burning Slaton in effigy. Finally, he had to call out the state troopers, because enraged people surrounded the governor's mansion, holding torches, and sticks of dynamite. Yeah, Slaton's political career was dead.
Frank was ordered to remain incarcerated at a remote prison, in an attempt to protect him. It didn't work. Frank was attacked once by a fellow inmate, who tried to slit his throat. It almost succeeded, but for the quick work of two other prisoners, who stopped the bleeding in time.
But, there were too many people gunning for Leo Frank. Around one month later, 25 men calling themselves the "Knights of Mary Phagan" (OMG) surrounded the prison in Milledgeville, GA on August 17, 1915. In the middle of the night, these men infiltrated the prison, and kidnapped Frank from his prison bunk. He wasn't even allowed to put on his shoes.
A long line of cars formed a grisly column, as Frank was driven approximately 100 miles to Marrieta, GA (Mary's hometown). He was handcuffed, and someone in the crowd re-read the "sentence" of the court (i.e. death by hanging). A rope was thrown over a branch, and Frank was lifted onto a crude table with the noose around his neck. Someone kicked the table from under him, and he was left to slowly choke to death.
Oh, but we're not done, Dear Reader. Over 3,000 look-e-losers came to see Frank's body, slowly twisting from the tree. Some cut off bits of his nightshirt. Still others took pictures of themselves, standing before the murdered man:
.
People sold off strips of the rope as souvenirs, an item that became so popular, local hardware stores quickly ran out of supplies.
How thoroughly depressing.
It was in the aftermath of this travesty, that two other important things happened: the formal creation of the Jewish Defamation League, and the rise of a 'new' KKK, who held their initiation ceremony on Stone Mountain.
I’m gonna leave you with a song, and a lesson by way of the great Lady Day:
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