[80], On July 28, the trial began at the Fulton County Superior Court (old city hall building). [n 41] Some claimed that the prosecutor Hugh Dorsey was under pressure for a quick conviction because of recent unsolved murders and made a premature decision that Frank was guilty, a decision that his personal ambition would not allow him to reconsider. I was appalled at what I was doing. "[58], Critics cite a number of problems with the conviction. This outrage roused the ire of the community; the whites were tried and two were hanged. He said Frank gave him $200, but took it back, saying, "Let me have that and I will make it all right with you Monday if I live and nothing happens." "[75] Different segments of the population focused on different aspects. But, when on the next day, the police arrested a Jew, and a Yankee Jew at that, all of the inborn prejudice against Jews rose up in a feeling of satisfaction, that here would be a victim worthy to pay for the crime. When we think of the fight against lynching today, very few people think of the words of Kelly Miller, Francis Grimk, or William J. Edwards. Many people today believe that the civil rights movement finally stamped out lynching, but Prof. Murphey points out that it had virtually died out well before the Second World War. 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.[189]. [92] The significance of Phagan's torn pay envelope was disputed by both sides. [201] He wrote in The Jeffersonian and Watson's Magazine: "This country has nothing to fear from its rural communities. The body of George Meadows, lynched near the Pratt Mines in Jefferson County, Alabama, on January 15, 1889 Lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas, on May 15, 1916. Lynching History and Analysis,Dwight Murphey, Council for Social and Economic Studies, 1995, 74 pp. What we witnessed with George Floyd was that same public spectacle: someone in broad daylight with onlookers around, being killed at the hands of a law enforcement officer who has just complete disregard for human life and felt he was above the law. She was still alive when a member of the mob split her abdomen open with a knife. "[222] Many American Jews saw Frank as an American Alfred Dreyfus, like Frank, a victim of antisemitic persecution. 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. Copyright 2023 Irish Studio LLC All rights reserved. In a carefully worded statement in response to the outcry over his song and . Locals contend that James Lynch FitzStephen, the Mayor of Galway, strung up his son from an upstairs window for murdering a Spanish house guest in 1493. Muhammad is the highest-profile inmate to die by lethal injection since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April 2008 that the state of Kentucky was not violating a statute prohibiting "cruel and. Smith was also anxious about reporters from the Hearst papers, who had taken Frank's side. They conducted grassroots activism, such as boycotting white businesses. [261] An unrecorded Carson song, "Dear Old Oak in Georgia", sentimentalizes the tree from which Leo Frank was hanged. [127] The appeals process began with a reconsideration by the original trial judge. [265] The 1988 TV miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan was broadcast on NBC, starring Jack Lemmon as Gov. [269], For the American college football player and coach, see, For the television miniseries based on the story, see, "The modern historical consensus, as exemplified in the Dinnerstein book, is that Leo Frank was an innocent man convicted at an unfair trial. The Atlanta Constitution broke the story of the murder and was soon in competition with The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Georgian. Jesse was a Black man who resented the slights and insults of white men. [n 23], The public was outraged. 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. Dinnerstein writes that these attempts failed, "because many Georgians interpreted every item favorable to Frank as a hostile act. The jury foreman, on his own authority, convened the jury on July 21; on Dorsey's advice, they decided not to indict Conley. I wish today to recommend to you and the Governor to commute Frank's sentence to life imprisonment.". Dinnerstein defines an "extraordinary motion" as a motion based on new information not available at the time of the trial. Later examination found bloody fingerprints on the door, as well as a metal pipe that had been used as a crowbar. It's actually a racist song about a sundown town lynching black people. Historians and headlines label certain lynchings - say, Moore's Ford or the 1981 Ku Klux Klan . Our current system suffers from decadence that sometimes makes it hard to condemn the simpler practices of the past. ", Bricker wrote in 1943, "My feelings, upon the arrest of the old negro nightwatchman, were to the effect that this one old negro would be poor atonement for the life of this innocent girl. NAACP continued to push for federal anti-lynching legislation into the 1930s. The prosecution's theory was that Stover did not see Frank because he was at that time murdering Phagan in the metal room. 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. Charles Lynch as a Quaker and planter during the American Revolution. His daughter, Moonshine Kate, later recorded the song. 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 12.00 o'clock, and whom could Frank have been expecting except Mary Phagan under Conley's story. He has set out to investigate the subject without, as he puts it, animus against mainstream American society, but the result is a portrayal of a system of justice that was not, in all respects, inferior to the one we have today. Slaton had been elected in 1912 and his term would end four days after Frank's scheduled execution. On Monday, June 21, 1915, Slaton released the order to commute Frank's murder conviction to life imprisonment. Lynching is generally thought to be one of the most shameful practices in all of American history, second only to slavery. There can be no doubt, of course, that all three were innocent. "Rethinking the Historiography of American Antisemitism in the Wake of the Pittsburgh Shooting. [22] The Jewish community in Atlanta was the largest in the Southern United States, and the Franks belonged to a cultured and philanthropic community whose leisure pursuits included opera and bridge. He said Frank decided to withhold the money until Conley had burned Phagan's body in the basement furnace. Oney pp. [113], Newt Lee, the night watchman, arrived at work shortly before 4:00 and Frank, who was normally calm, came bustling out of his office. "Strange Fruit" is a poem written by Abel Meeropol, a white, Jewish high school teacher from the Bronx and a member of the Communist Party, as a protest against lynchings. NAACP declared Till's murder a lynching. While Charles and William Lynch both appear to have taken the law into their own hands to punish people who had wronged them, there is little evidence that they ever killed anyone. The application for appeal resulted in a stay of execution and the hearing opened on April 23, 1914. "[169] Slaton compared the murder notes, Conley's letters to Annie Maude Carter, and his trial testimony. 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. "[n 28] Historian Nancy MacLean writes that some historians have argued that this was an American Dreyfus affair, which she said "[could] be explained only in light of the social tensions unleashed by the growth of industry and cities in the turn-of-the-century South. He could "pass" and talk to whites but identified as Black. A lynching is a public spectacle; it demands an audience A lynching is a majority's way of telling a minority . Nevertheless, experts define lynching as a violent act characterized by the significant disregard for human life, public display of force to enforce control, impunity for the perpetrators, and. ", He wrote: "Ignoring all other evidence, especially that associated with a black janitor named Jim Conley, and focusing exclusively on Frank, prosecutors brought Leo Frank to trial in what can only be termed a mockery of justice. "[161] Leonard Dinnerstein wrote, "Slaton based his opinions primarily upon the inconsistencies he had discovered in the narrative of Jim Conley. Obviously, the potential for sadism and error were grim defects. Primitive as this was, and subject to whim and cruelty, it answered a deeply-felt human need. When the body was cut down, Howell started stamping on Frank's face and chest; Morris quickly placed the body in a basket, and he and his driver John Stephens Wood drove it out of Marietta. He concluded, "In this article I show clearly that Conley did not tell the truth about those notes. "[156][157][n 17][n 18] According to Tom Watson's biographer, C. 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. He then attended Cornell University, where he studied mechanical engineering. The Selig Company Building Pioneer Neon Company. The jury was convinced. ", "That case, in which a Jewish manufacturer in Atlanta was falsely convicted of murdering a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for him, then lynched in 1915, reeked of anti-Semitism and was devastating to southern Jewry.". The single was released in May, but . Levi Cohen, from her maternal lineage, had participated in founding the first synagogue in Atlanta. [77] As the press shaped public opinion, much of the public's attention was directed at the police and the prosecution, whom they expected to bring Phagan's killer to justice. "[199] Albert Lindemann said that Frank on trial found himself "in a position of much latent tension and symbolism." During the trial, the Atlanta musician and millworker Fiddlin' John Carson wrote and performed a murder ballad entitled "Little Mary Phagan". There he encountered Carolyn Bryant, a white. [179] Slaton privately told friends that he would have issued a full pardon, if not for his belief that Frank would soon be able to prove his own innocence. 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. [56], 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. They consisted of 28 men with various skills: an electrician was to cut the prison wires, car mechanics were to keep the cars running, and there was a locksmith, a telephone man, a medic, a hangman, and a lay preacher. The exact origins of Lynching - the mob-killing of a suspected criminal - are obscure, but they can be narrowed down to three Irish or Irish-American men. Photojournalist Kevin Carter was the first to photograph a public execution by necklacing in South Africa in the mid-1980s. [86], 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. Unbeknownst to Frank, however, was Scott's close ties with the police, particularly his best friend, detective John Black, who believed in Frank's guilt from the outset. The Lynching of Jesse McIlherron, February 1918 Tennessee. ", Among Watson's comments: "Here we have the typical young libertine Jew who is dreaded and detested by the city authorities of the North for the very reason that Jews of this type have an utter contempt for law, and a ravenous appetite for the forbidden fruit a lustful eagerness enhanced by the racial novelty of the girl of the uncircumcized. [63] The police placed little credence in the officials' theory, but had no explanation for the failure to locate Phagan's purse that other witnesses had testified she carried that day. The episode starred Walter Matthau as Governor Slaton and Michael Constantine as Tom Watson. In the first part, he criticized outsiders who were unfamiliar with the evidence, especially the press in the North. The videotaped death of George Floyd was a modern-day lynching. "Fear of Jewish sexuality may have had a special explosiveness in Atlanta at this time because it could easily connect to a central myth, or cultural theme, in the South that of the pure, virtuous, yet vulnerable White woman. Other quotes include: "The best evidence now available indicates that the real murderer of Mary Phagan was Jim Conley, perhaps because she, encountering him after she left Frank's office, refused to give him her pay envelope, and he, in a drunken stupor, killed her to get it. The girl was strangled on April 26, 1913, and found dead in the factory's cellar the next morning. 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. On April 19, 1915, the Supreme Court denied the appeal by a 72 vote in the case Frank v. Mangum. People often resorted to lynching because the competent authorities were a long ride away and justice would brook no delay. The answers were usually "bad".[102]. It's an anthem that reminds me of the stories of young men like Trayvon Martin, Ralph Yarl, you know, young man Ahmaud Arbery, who were killed by the white . In 2019, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard founded an eight-member panel called the Conviction Integrity Unit to investigate the cases of Wayne Williams and Frank. It is true that blacks were lynched more often than whites, and undoubtedly some blacks were executed for crimes that might have earned a white a whipping. [206], On the afternoon of August 16, the eight cars of the lynch mob left Marietta separately for Milledgeville. Till's murder and subsequent injustice deeply affected the Black community and galvanized a young generation of Black people to join the Civil Rights Movement. 245247,252253,258259,265266,279. [97][98] The prosecution, to support Frank's alleged expectation of a visit from Phagan, produced Helen Ferguson, a factory worker who first informed Phagan's parents of her death. Anti-lynching crusaders like Ida B. The African American press condemned the lynching, but many African Americans also opposed Frank and his supporters over what historian Nancy MacLean described as a "virulently racist characterization of Jim Conley, who was Black. Join our community of over 2 million activists across the nation fighting for change and for justice. It is now widely believed to have been an expression of white hatred for blacks that could be visited upon virtually any black for any reason. Among the campaign's other efforts, from 1920 to 1938, we flew a flag from our national headquarters in New York that bore the words "A man was lynched yesterday." A familiar stereotype in Europe, it reached Atlanta in the 1890s "with the arrival of eastern European Jews." What is the Strange Fruit poem? [218], Leo Frank's case was mentioned by Adolf Kraus when he announced the creation of the Anti-Defamation League in October 1913. On May 24, 1913, Frank was indicted on a charge of murder and the case opened at Fulton County Superior Court, July 28, 1913. There is no room to doubt that. On March 7, 1914, Frank's execution was set for April 17 of that year. Innocent men have been lynched and this is a tragedy. 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. In 1986, Frank was posthumously pardoned by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, although not officially absolved of the crime. Many victims of lynchings were murdered without being accused of any crime. 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. Read more:Tracing your Irish ancestry - The Lynch Clan. FILE - Jason Aldean performs during CMA Fest 2022 in Nashville, Tenn., on June 9, 2022. Prof. Murphey writes of lynchings that were advertised in advance in the newspapers, that attracted thousands of people, and that were participated in by leading citizens. [21], In 1912, Frank was elected president of the Atlanta chapter of the B'nai B'rith, a Jewish fraternal organization. [70], On February 24, 1914, Conley was sentenced to a year in jail for being an accomplice after the fact to the murder of Mary Phagan.[71]. In addition to presenting the existing written record, each side was granted two hours for oral arguments. "[184], The sensationalism in the press started before the trial and continued throughout the trial, the appeals process, the commutation decision, and beyond. Nevertheless, the law must reflect the communitys sense of justice, and in this respect our current system often fails. 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. Newspaper reports throughout the period combined real evidence, unsubstantiated rumors, and journalistic speculation. 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. At that time, there were growing concerns regarding child labor at factories. The Roan letter was addressed to the pardons board but received by Rosser. [86][87] The defense denied that the murder occurred on the second floor. Locals have erected a plaque commemorating the event and claiming that the famous term originated in the western county. [n 34][n 35] The Atlanta Constitution stated it was investigating the case again in the 1940s. 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. As Black Americans fled the South to escape the terror of lynchings, a historic event known as the Great Migration, people began to oppose lynchings in a number of ways. On This Day: Padraig Pearse, Easter Rising leader, was executed, Ten things you didn't know about County Carlow. During that time, while his flesh was slowly roasting, Jesse never lost nerve. [183] However, on July 17, The New York Times reported that fellow inmate William Creen tried to kill Frank by slashing his throat with a 7-inch (18cm) butcher knife, severing his jugular vein. Oney pp. "[251] At the time, the lead editorial in The Atlanta Constitution began, "Leo Frank has been lynched a second time."[252]. A guilty verdict was announced on August 25. [n 24] At the time, local papers were the dominant source of information, but they were not entirely anti-Frank. When returned to town, the local citizens proudly announced they would burn him alive. [52], On Wednesday, April 30, a coroner's inquest was held. In the mid-19th century, a mayor of Los Angeles was so eager to join the action that he resigned his office which he thought incompatible with lynching in order to take part. He stayed armed and the sheriff feared him. 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. Gonzales-Day argues that the erasure of the lynching victim "allows the viewer to see, for the first time, the social dynamics of the lynching itself."</p> <p>The photos, absent the images of . He said Phagan was in his office between 12:05 and 12:10p.m., that Lee had arrived at 4p.m. but was asked to return later, and that Frank had a confrontation with ex-employee James Gantt at 6p.m. as Frank was leaving and Lee arriving. Nor was lynching by any means a sport in which any black was fair game. 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." Sixty-three women were lynched during this period: 40 blacks and 23 whites. "[124], 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 10. This evidence was never passed upon by the jury and developed since the trial. 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. Likewise in Kansas, aNew York Tribunecorrespondent reported in 1858 that [t]here is a very general disposition to pass over the hopelessly useless forms of Territorial law and corrupt Federal courts, and try these parties (i.e. [4], In the early 20th century, Atlanta, Georgia's capital city, underwent significant economic and social change. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. Conley's affidavit concluded, "The reason I have not told this before is I thought Mr. Frank would get out and help me out and I decided to tell the whole truth about this matter. [n 42] Later analysis of evidence, primarily by Governor Slaton and Conley's attorney William Smith, seemed to exculpate Frank while implicating Conley. "[129][130][131][132], The next step, a hearing before the Georgia Supreme Court, was held on December 15. [101] In the prosecution's rebuttal, Dorsey called "a steady parade of former factory workers" to ask them the question, "Do you know Mr. Frank's character for lasciviousness?" Frank and his lawyers made a series of unsuccessful appeals; their final appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States failed in April 1915. 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. "[152] The application then passed to Governor John Slaton. Tracing your Irish ancestry - The Lynch Clan, How Martin Luther King inspired a Northern Ireland uprising. [82] In addition to the hundreds of spectators inside, a large crowd gathered outside to watch the trial through the windows. Madam C.J. Photos of lynchings were often sold as souvenir postcards. Immigrants from Mexico, China, Australia, and other countries were also lynched. The lynchings were the most violent expression of anti-Italian feeling in America, but far from an isolated event. Oney writes, "Ordinarily, she was scheduled to work fifty-five hours. Friedman pp. [208] A Cobb County grand jury was convened to indict the lynchers; although they were well known locally, none were identified, and some of the lynchers may have served on the very same grand jury that was investigating them. Lynchings were frequently publicized well in advance and people dressed up and traveled long distances for the occasion. The traditional method of execution involves suspending victims from a gallows or crossbeam until they have died of asphyxiation. [163], During the initial investigation, police had noted undisturbed human excrement in the elevator shaft, which Conley said he had left there before the murder. [95][96], Conley was cross-examined by the defense for 16 hours over three days, but the defense failed to break his story. [253], In response to the pardon, an editorial by Fred Grimm in the Miami Herald said, "A salve for one of the South's most hateful, festering memories, was finally applied. They concluded that the evidence prejudiced Frank in the jurors' eyes and denied him a fair trial. Thousands of petitions in his favor, containing over a million signatures, flowed in. Mooney, editor of the Chicago Tribune; Mark Sullivan, editor of Collier's; R. E. Stafford, editor of the Daily Oklahoman; and D. D. Moore, editor of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Part of the decision repeated the message of the last decision: that Frank failed "to raise the objection in due season when fully cognizant of the fact. Chanes, Jerome. 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. For example: "The best evidence now available indicates that the real murderer of Mary Phagan was Jim Conley, perhaps because she, encountering him after she left Frank's office, refused to give him her pay envelope, and he, in a drunken stupor, killed her to get it.