Black-Jewish Relations on Trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South

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A service ramp at the rear of the basement led to a sliding door that opened into an alley; the police found the door had been tampered with so it could be opened without unlocking it. Later examination found bloody fingerprints on the door, as well as a metal pipe that had been used as a crowbar. Two notes were found in a pile of rubbish by Phagan's head, and became known as the "murder notes". A trail leading back to the elevator suggested to police that the body had been moved by Lee. In addition to Lee, the police arrested a friend of Phagan's for the crime. By Monday, the police had theorized that the murder occurred on the second floor the same as Frank's office based on hair found on a lathe and what appeared to be blood on the ground of the second floor.

Frank said he was not familiar with the name Mary Phagan and would need to check his payroll book. The detectives took Frank to the morgue to see Phagan's body and then to the factory, where Frank viewed the crime scene and walked the police through the entire building. Frank returned home about At this point, Frank was not considered a suspect. On Monday, April 28, Frank, accompanied by his attorney, Luther Rosser, gave a written deposition to the police that provided a brief timeline of his activities on Saturday.

He said Phagan was in his office between Frank explained that Lee's time card for Sunday morning had several gaps Lee was supposed to punch in every half-hour that Frank had missed when he discussed the time card with police on Sunday. At Rosser's insistence, Frank exposed his body to demonstrate that he had no cuts or injuries and the police found no blood on the suit that Frank said he had worn on Saturday.

The police found no blood stains on the laundry at Frank's house. Frank then met with his assistant, N. The Pinkertons were required to submit duplicates of all evidence to the police, including any that hurt Frank's case. Scott's collaboration with police detective John Black, who from the outset believed in Frank's guilt, resulted in a conflict of interest. The detectives, suspicious of Frank due to his nervous behavior throughout his interviews, believed that Frank had arranged the plant.

Frank was subsequently arrested around Steve Oney states that "no single development had persuaded Instead, to the cumulative weight of Sunday's suspicions and Monday's misgivings had been added several last factors that tipped the scale against the superintendent. To bolster their case, the police staged a confrontation between Lee and Frank while both were still in custody; there were conflicting accounts of this meeting, but the police interpreted it as further implicating Frank.

On Wednesday, April 30, a coroner's inquest was held. Frank testified about his activities on Saturday and other witnesses produced corroboration. A young man said that Phagan had complained to him about Frank. Several former employees spoke of Frank flirting with other women; one said she was actually propositioned. The detectives admitted that "they so far had obtained no conclusive evidence or clues in the baffling mystery Lee and Frank were both ordered to be detained.

In May, the detective William J. Burns traveled to Atlanta to offer further assistance in the case. Tobie, a detective from the Chicago affiliate who was assigned to the case, said that the agency "came down here to investigate a murder case, not to engage in petty politic[s]. The prosecution based much of its case on the testimony of Jim Conley, the factory's janitor, who is believed by many historians to be the actual murderer.

He said that, on the day of the murder, he had been visiting saloons, shooting dice, and drinking. His story was called into question when a witness told detectives that "a black negro Further investigation determined that Conley could read and write, [59] and there were similarities in his spelling with that found on the murder notes. On May 24, he admitted he had written the notes, swearing that Frank had called him to his office the day before the murder and told him to write them.

They were skeptical about the rest of his story, not only because it implied premeditation by Frank, but also because it suggested that Frank had confessed to Conley and involved him. In a new affidavit his second affidavit and third statement , Conley admitted he had lied about his Friday meeting with Frank. He said he had met Frank on the street on Saturday, and was told to follow him to the factory.

Frank told him to hide in a wardrobe to avoid being seen by two women who were visiting Frank in his office. He said Frank dictated the murder notes for him to write, gave him cigarettes, then told him to leave the factory. Afterward, Conley said he went out drinking and saw a movie.

He said he did not learn of the murder until he went to work on Monday. The police were satisfied with the new story, and both The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Georgian gave the story front-page coverage. Three officials of the pencil company were not convinced and said so to the Journal.

They contended that Conley had followed another employee into the building, intending to rob her, but found Phagan was an easier target. To resolve their doubts, the police attempted on May 28 to arrange a confrontation between Frank and Conley. Frank exercised his right not to meet without his attorney, who was out of town. The police were quoted in The Atlanta Constitution saying that this refusal was an indication of Frank's guilt, and the meeting never took place.

On May 29, Conley was interviewed for four hours. Conley then hid in the wardrobe after the two had returned to the office. Frank would get out and help me out and I decided to tell the whole truth about this matter. He said Frank decided to withhold the money until Conley had burned Phagan's body in the basement furnace. Smith was known for specializing in representing black clients, and had successfully defended a black man against an accusation of rape by a white woman.

He had also taken an elderly black woman's civil case as far as the Georgia Supreme Court. Although Smith believed Conley had told the truth in his final affidavit, he became concerned that Conley was giving long jailhouse interviews with crowds of reporters. Smith was also anxious about reporters from the Hearst papers, who had taken Frank's side.

He arranged for Conley to be moved to a different jail, and severed his own relationship with the Georgian. On February 24, , Conley was sentenced to a year in jail for being an accomplice after the fact to the murder of Mary Phagan. Forty extra editions came out the day Phagan's murder was reported. The Atlanta Georgian published a doctored morgue photo of Phagan, in which her head was shown spliced onto the body of another girl. The governor, noting the reaction of the public to press sensationalism soon after Lee's and Frank's arrests, organized ten militia companies in case they were needed to repulse mob action against the prisoners.

Newspaper reports throughout the period combined real evidence, unsubstantiated rumors, and journalistic speculation. Dinnerstein wrote, "Characterized by innuendo, misrepresentation, and distortion, the yellow journalism account of Mary Phagan's death aroused an anxious city, and within a few days, a shocked state. Atlanta's working class saw Frank as "a defiler of young girls", while the German-Jewish community saw him as "an exemplary man and loyal husband.

The prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey , had recently lost two high-profile murder cases; one state newspaper wrote that "another defeat, and in a case where the feeling was so intense, would have been, in all likelihood, the end of Mr. On May 23, , a grand jury convened to hear evidence for an indictment against Leo Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan. The prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey, presented only enough information to obtain the indictment, assuring the jury that additional information would be provided during the trial. The next day, May 24, the jury voted for an indictment.

The jury foreman, on his own authority, convened the jury on July 21; on Dorsey's advice, they decided not to indict Conley. The judge, Leonard S. Roan, had been serving as a judge in Georgia since The defense, in their legal appeals, would later cite the crowds as factors in intimidation of the witnesses and jury.

Both legal teams, in planning their trial strategy, considered the implications of trying a white man based on the testimony of a black man in front of an early s Georgia jury. The prosecution presented witnesses who testified to bloodstains and strands of hair found on the lathe, to support their theory that the murder occurred on the factory's second floor in the machine room near Frank's office.

Both sides contested the significance of physical evidence that suggested the place of the murder. Material found around Phagan's neck was shown to be present throughout the factory. The defense brought many witnesses to support Frank's account of his movements, which indicated he did not have enough time to commit the crime. The defense, to support their theory that Conley murdered Phagan in a robbery, focused on Phagan's missing purse.

Conley claimed in court that he saw Frank place the purse in his office safe, although he denied having seen the purse before the trial. Another witness testified that, on the Monday after the murder, the safe was open and there was no purse in it. The prosecution focused on Frank's alleged sexual behavior. On the day of the murder, Conley said he saw Phagan go upstairs, from where he heard a scream coming shortly after. He then said he dozed off; when he woke up, Frank called him upstairs and showed him Phagan's body, admitting that he had hurt her.

Conley repeated statements from his affidavits that he and Frank took Phagan's body to the basement via the elevator, before returning in the elevator to the office where Frank dictated the murder notes. Conley was cross-examined by the defense for 16 hours over three days, but the defense failed to break his story. The defense then moved to have Conley's entire testimony concerning the alleged rendezvous stricken from the record.

Judge Roan noted that an early objection might have been upheld, but since the jury could not forget what it had heard, he allowed the evidence to stand. Both the person behind the pay window and the woman behind Ferguson in the pay line disputed this version of events, testifying that in accordance with his normal practice, Frank did not disburse pay that day. The defense called a number of factory girls, who testified that they had never seen Frank flirting with or touching the girls, and that they considered him to be of good character.

Frank's character for lasciviousness? The prosecution realized early on that issues relating to time would be an essential part of its case. The starting point was the time of death; the prosecution, relying on the analysis of stomach contents by their expert witness, argued that Phagan died between A prosecution witness, Monteen Stover, said she had gone into the office to get her paycheck, waiting there from The prosecution's theory was that Stover did not see Frank because he was at that time murdering Phagan. Stover's account did not match Frank's initial account that he had not left the office between noon and From the stop it was a two- to four-minute walk, suggesting that Stover arrived first, making her testimony and its implications irrelevant: Frank could not be killing Phagan because at the time she had not yet arrived.

Lemmie Quinn, foreman of the metal room, testified that he spoke briefly with Frank in his office at Frank had said at the coroner's inquest that Quinn arrived less than ten minutes after Phagan had left his office, [] and during the murder trial said Quinn arrived hardly five minutes after Phagan left. By the defense's calculations, Frank's time was fully accounted for from The prosecution labeled Quinn's testimony as "a fraud" and reminded the jury that early in the police investigation Frank had not mentioned Quinn.

Newt Lee, the night watchman, arrived at work shortly before 4: When Lee returned at 6: Frank allowed Gantt in, although Lee said that Frank appeared to be upset by Gantt's appearance. During the trial, the prosecution alleged bribery and witness tampering attempts by the Frank legal team.

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The Constitution described the scene as Dorsey emerged from the steps of city hall: While mounted men rode like Cossacks through the human swarm, three muscular men slung Mr. Dorsey on their shoulders and passed him over the heads of the crowd across the street. On August 26, the day after the guilty verdict was reached by the jury, Judge Roan brought counsel into private chambers and sentenced Leo Frank to death by hanging with the date set to October The defense team issued a public protest, alleging that public opinion unconsciously influenced the jury to the prejudice of Frank.

Under Georgia law at the time, appeals of death penalty cases had to be based on errors of law, not a reevaluation of the evidence presented at trial. The defense presented a written appeal alleging procedural problems. These included claims of jury prejudice, intimidation of the jury by the crowds outside the courthouse, the admission of Conley's testimony concerning Frank's alleged sexual perversions and activities, and the return of a verdict based on an improper weighing of the evidence.

Both sides called forth witnesses involving the charges of prejudice and intimidation; while the defense relied on non-involved witness testimony, the prosecution found support from the testimony of the jurors themselves.

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With all the thought I have put on this case, I am not thoroughly convinced that Frank is guilty or innocent. But I do not have to be convinced. The jury was convinced. There is no room to doubt that. The next step, a hearing before the Georgia Supreme Court , was held on December In addition to presenting the existing written record, each side was granted two hours for oral arguments.

In addition to the old arguments, the defense focused on the reservations expressed by Judge Roan at the reconsideration hearing, citing six cases where new trials had been granted after the trial judge expressed misgivings about the jury verdict. The prosecution countered with arguments that the evidence convicting Frank was substantial and that listing Judge Roan's doubts in the defense's bill of exceptions was not the proper vehicle for "carry[ing] the views of the judge.

The majority dismissed the allegations of bias by the jurors, saying the power of determining this rested strictly with the trial judge except when an "abuse of discretion" was proved. It also ruled that spectator influence could only be the basis of a new trial if ruled so by the trial judge. Conley's testimony on Frank's alleged sexual conduct was found to be admissible because, even though it suggested Frank had committed other crimes for which he was not charged, it made Conley's statements more credible and helped to explain Frank's motivation for committing the crime according to the majority.

On Judge Roan's stated reservations, the court ruled that these did not trump his legal decision to deny a motion for a new trial. The last hearing exhausted Frank's ordinary state appeal rights. On March 7, , Frank's execution was set for April 17 of that year. This appeal, which would be held before a single justice, Ben Hill, was restricted to raising facts not available at the original trial. The application for appeal resulted in a stay of execution and the hearing opened on April 23, A state biologist said in a newspaper interview that his microscopic examination of the hair on the lathe shortly after the murder did not match Phagan's.

At the same time that the various repudiations were leaked to the newspapers, the state was busy seeking repudiations of the new affidavits. An analysis of the murder notes, which had only been addressed in any detail in the closing arguments, suggested Conley composed them in the basement rather than writing what Frank told him to write in his office. Prison letters written by Conley to Annie Maude Carter were discovered; the defense then argued that these, along with Carter's testimony, implicated Conley was the actual murderer.

The defense also raised a federal constitutional issue on whether Frank's absence from the court when the verdict was announced "constituted deprivation of the due process of law". Different attorneys were brought in to argue this point since Rosser and Arnold had acquiesced in Frank's absence. There was a debate between Rosser and Arnold on whether it should be raised at this time since its significance might be lost with all of the other evidence being presented.

Louis Marshall, President of the American Jewish Committee and constitutional lawyer, urged them to raise the point, and the decision was made that it should be made clear that if the extraordinary motion was rejected they intended to appeal through the federal court system and there would be an impression of injustice in the trial.

These issues were reexamined later when the governor considered commuting Frank's sentence. The full court also said that the due process issue should have been raised earlier, characterizing what it considered a belated effort as "trifling with the court". The next step for the Frank team was to appeal the issue through the federal system. The original request for a writ of error on the absence of Frank from the jury's announcement of the verdict was first denied by Justice Joseph Rucker Lamar and then Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Both denied the request because they agreed with the Georgia court that the issue was raised too late.

The full Supreme Court then heard arguments, but denied the motion without issuing a written decision. However, Holmes said, "I very seriously doubt if the petitioner Justice Lamar heard the motion and agreed that the full Supreme Court should hear the appeal.

On April 19, , the Supreme Court denied the appeal by a 7—2 vote in the case Frank v. Part of the decision repeated the message of the last decision: On April 22, , an application for a commutation of Frank's death sentence was submitted to a three-person Prison Commission in Georgia; it was rejected on June 9 by a vote of 2—1. The dissenter indicated that he felt it was wrong to execute a man "on the testimony of an accomplice, when the circumstances of the crime tend to fix the guilt upon the accomplice.

Slaton had been elected in and his term would end four days after Frank's scheduled execution. In , before Phagan's murder, Slaton agreed to merge his law firm with that of Luther Rosser, who became Frank's lead attorney Slaton was not directly involved in the original trial.

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After the commutation, popular Georgia politician Tom Watson attacked Slaton, often focusing on his partnership with Rosser as a conflict of interest. Slaton opened hearings on June In addition to receiving presentations from both sides with new arguments and evidence, Slaton visited the crime scene and reviewed over 10, pages of documents. This included various letters, including one written by Judge Roan shortly before he died asking Slaton to correct his mistake.

During the hearing, former Governor Joseph Brown warned Slaton, "In all frankness, if Your Excellency wishes to invoke lynch law in Georgia and destroy trial by jury, the way to do it is by retrying this case and reversing all the courts. Vann Woodward , "While the hearings of the petition to commute were in progress Watson sent a friend to the governor with the promise that if Slaton allowed Frank to hang, Watson would be his 'friend', which would result in his 'becoming United States senator and the master of Georgia politics for twenty years to come.

Slaton produced a page report. In the first part, he criticized outsiders who were unfamiliar with the evidence, especially the press in the North. He defended the trial court's decision, which he felt was sufficient for a guilty verdict. He summarized points of the state's case against Frank that "any reasonable person" would accept and said of Conley that "It is hard to conceive that any man's power of fabrication of minute details could reach that which Conley showed, unless it be the truth.

During the initial investigation, police had noted undisturbed human excrement in the elevator shaft, which Conley said he had left there before the murder. Use of the elevator on the Monday after the murder crushed the excrement, which Slaton concluded was an indication that the elevator could not have been used as described by Conley, casting doubt on his testimony. During the commutation hearing, Slaton asked Dorsey to address this issue.

Dorsey said that the elevator did not always go all the way to the bottom and could be stopped anywhere. Frank's attorney rebutted this by quoting Conley, who said that the elevator stops when it hits the bottom. Slaton interviewed others and conducted his own tests on his visit to the factory, concluding that every time the elevator made the trip to the basement it touched the bottom. Slaton said, "If the elevator was not used by Conley and Frank in taking the body to the basement, then the explanation of Conley cannot be accepted. The murder notes had been analyzed before at the extraordinary motion hearing.

Handwriting expert Albert S. Osborn reviewed the previous evidence at the commutation hearing and commented, for the first time, that the notes were written in the third person rather than the first person.

He said that the first person would have been more logical since they were intended to be the final statements of a dying Phagan. He argued this was the type of error that Conley would have made, rather than Frank, as Conley was a sweeper and not a Cornell -educated manager like Frank. Conley's former attorney, William Smith, had become convinced that his client had committed the murder. Smith produced a page analysis of the notes for the defense. He analyzed "speech and writing patterns" and "spelling, grammar, repetition of adjectives, [and] favorite verb forms".

He concluded, "In this article I show clearly that Conley did not tell the truth about those notes. Throughout these documents, he found similar use of the words "like", "play", "lay", "love", and "hisself". He also found double adjectives such as "long tall negro", "tall, slim build heavy man", and "good long wide piece of cord in his hands". Slaton was also convinced that the murder notes were written in the basement, not in Frank's office. Slaton accepted the defense's argument that the notes were written on dated order pads signed by a former employee that were only kept in the basement.

This evidence was never passed upon by the jury and developed since the trial. Slaton's narrative touched on other aspects of the evidence and testimony that suggested reasonable doubt. For example, he accepted the defense's argument that charges by Conley of perversion were based on someone coaching him that Jews were circumcised. He also said that Phagan's nostrils and mouth were filled with dirt and sawdust which could only have come from the basement.

Slaton also commented on Conley's story that Conley was watching out for the arrival of a lady for Frank on the day of the murder:. His story necessarily bears the construction that Frank had an engagement with Mary Phagan which no evidence in the case would justify. If Frank had engaged Conley to watch for him, it could only have been for Mary Phagan, since he made no improper suggestion to any other female on that day, and it was undisputed that many did come up prior to This view cannot be entertained, as an unjustifiable reflection on the young girl.

On Monday, June 21, , Slaton released the order to commute Frank's murder conviction to life imprisonment. Slaton's legal rationale was that there was sufficient new evidence not available at the original trial to justify Frank's actions. In the Frank case three matters have developed since the trial which did not come before the jury, to-wit: The Carter notes, the testimony of Becker, indicating the death notes were written in the basement, and the testimony of Dr. Harris, that he was under the impression that the hair on the lathe was not that of Mary Phagan, and thus tending to show that the crime was not committed on the floor of Frank's office.

While defense made the subject an extraordinary for a new trial, it is well known that it is almost a practical impossibility to have a verdict set aside by this procedure. The commutation was headline news.

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Atlanta Mayor Jimmy Woodward remarked that "The larger part of the population believes Frank guilty and that the commutation was a mistake. All I ask is that the people of Georgia read my statement and consider calmly the reasons I have given for commuting Leo M. Feeling as I do about this case, I would be a murderer if I allowed that man to hang.

I would rather be ploughing in a field than to feel for the rest of my life that I had that man's blood on my hands. He also told reporters that he was certain that Conley was the actual murderer. The public was outraged. A mob threatened to attack the governor at his home. A detachment of the Georgia National Guard, along with county policemen and a group of Slaton's friends who were sworn in as deputies, dispersed the mob.

For Frank's protection, he was taken to the Milledgeville State Penitentiary in the middle of the night before the commutation was announced. The attacker told the authorities he "wanted to keep the other inmates safe from mob violence, Frank's presence was a disgrace to the prison, and he was sure he would be pardoned if he killed Frank. The sensationalism in the press that started before the trial continued throughout the trial, the appeals process, the commutation decision, and beyond. The Constitution alone assumed Frank's guilt, while both the Georgian and the Journal would later comment about the public hysteria in Atlanta during the trial, each suggesting the need to reexamine the evidence against the defendant.

Bricker, the pastor of the church attended by Phagan's family, said that based on "the awful tension of public feeling, it was next to impossible for a jury of our fellow human beings to have granted him a fair, fearless and impartial trial. On October 12, , the New York Sun became the first major northern paper to give a detailed account of the Frank trial. In discussing the charges of antisemitism in the trial, it described Atlanta as more liberal on the subject than any other southern cities.

It went on to say that antisemitism did arise during the trial as Atlantans reacted to statements attributed to Frank's Jewish supporters, who dismissed Phagan as "nothing but a factory girl". The paper said, "The anti-Semitic feeling was the natural result of the belief that the Jews had banded to free Frank, innocent or guilty.

The supposed solidarity of the Jews for Frank, even if he was guilty, caused a Gentile solidarity against him. They did so following Judge Roan's reconsideration motion and motivated by the issues raised in the Sun. They chose not to take a public stance as a committee, instead deciding to raise funds individually to influence public opinion in favor of Frank. Albert Lasker , a wealthy advertising magnate, responded to these calls to help Frank.

Lasker contributed personal funds and arranged a public relations effort in support of Frank. In Atlanta, during the time of the extraordinary motion, Lasker coordinated Frank's meetings with the press and coined the slogan "The Truth Is on the March" to characterize the efforts of Frank's defense team. Marshall weighed in, as did many leading magazine and newspaper editors, including Herbert Croly , editor of the New Republic ; C. Stafford, editor of the Daily Oklahoman ; and D. Moore, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Tom Watson, editor of the Jeffersonian , had remained publicly silent during Frank's trial. Among Watson's political enemies was Senator Hoke Smith , former owner of The Atlanta Journal , which was still considered to be Smith's political instrument. This study has a different tale to tell. It casts off old political and cultural baggage in order to assess the cultural context of Frank's trial, and to examine the stress placed on the relationship of African Americans and Jews by it.

The interpretation offered here is based on deep archival research, analyses of the court records, and study of various artistic creations inspired by the case. It suggests that the case should be understood as providing conclusive early evidence of the deep mutual distrust between African Americans and Jews, a distrust that has been skillfully and cynically manipulated by powerful white people.

Just as with the O. Simpson trial, the Frank trial requires that Americans make a profound examination of their essential beliefs about race, sexuality, and power. Leo Frank and Jim Conley in Atlanta. Capitalism and Perversion in the New South. Narrating Villainy in the Frank Case. Making Leo Frank Signify.

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