- On a spring afternoon in 1913, a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagan walked into a factory in Atlanta to collect her paycheck.

She would never be seen alive again.

What followed shocked Georgia, divided the nation and revealed how fear and prejudice could outweigh justice during a time when the South claimed it was moving forward.

This is the story of Mary Phagan's murder, the trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager accused of the crime, and what the case reveals about attitudes during the New South era.

(dramatic music) Mary Phagan was the daughter of poor tenant farmers who had moved to Atlanta hoping for a better life, just like many families during the New South.

On April 26th, 1913, Mary went to her employer, the National Pencil Company, to collect her paycheck of $1 and 20 cents.

She picked up her pay from the factory's manager, Leo Frank, and supposedly left.

But later that night, Mary's beaten and strangled body was found in the factory basement.

Newspapers quickly reported rumors that she'd been sexually assaulted, and public anger exploded.

People demanded quick justice.

Initially, police focused on three main suspects: Newt Lee, the night watchman, who found Mary's body, Jim Conley, the Black janitor, and Leo Frank, the Jewish factory manager.

To really understand why Frank became such a central figure in this case, it helps to know a bit about him and why his background mattered during the era of the New South.

In 1908, Leo Frank moved from New York to Atlanta for work.

He was Jewish, well educated and ran a factory owned by Northern business interests.

During the New South era, Georgia was trying to modernize and grow its industry, but many people still distrusted Northern influence, and to some Leo Frank came to symbolize that tension.

Okay, so back to the investigation.

Witnesses said both Frank and Phagan had been at the factory before her death, so police questioned him right away.

Frank seemed nervous and some coworkers said his timeline didn't match theirs.

All of this made the police suspicious.

But Jim Conley was also a strong suspect.

He was seen washing red stains from his shirt and gave the police four different stories about helping Frank move Mary's body.

Despite these contradictions, police and prosecutors relied heavily on Conley's statements.

At the time, racial prejudice shaped the investigation.

Many white Georgians believed that a Black man like Conley could not have planned the crime on his own and instead accepted his story that Frank was responsible.

The trial of Leo Frank took place only a few months later, surrounded by intense public pressure and anger.

Crowds packed to the courtroom and newspapers continued to fuel outrage.

During the trial, the prosecution's case was built largely on Jim Conley's testimony and allegations about Frank's improper conduct toward young female workers with little physical evidence to support it.

These accusations, combined with anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish stereotypes, made the jury and public more likely to believe he was guilty.

After a 25-day trial, Leo Frank was convicted of Mary Phagan's murder and sentenced to death.

Across the country, many people, including Jewish organizations, protested the verdict saying the trial was unfair.

Frank appealed his conviction all the way to the Supreme Court, but the courts refused to overturn the verdict.

In a last ditch effort, Leo Frank's attorneys sought a commutation, or a lesser punishment from Georgia's governor John M. Slaton.

Slaton himself reviewed the case.

After studying thousands of pages of evidence, Slaton believed Frank was innocent.

Going against public opinion, he reduced Frank's sentence to life in prison.

This decision enraged many Georgians, including Tom Watson, a former Georgia politician and newspaper editor who used his platform to intensify the public's anger.

Protests broke out, and Governor Slaton had to declare martial law.

When his term ended only a few days later, Slaton secretly left the state for his own safety.

But the public's outrage wasn't only directed toward Governor Slaton.

Many were still angry with Leo Frank.

In August, 1915, a group of powerful men from Mary Phagan's hometown called themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan.

They drove to the prison, kidnapped Leo Frank from his cell and lynched him near Marietta.

Crowds gathered to see the body, some even posed for photographs.

Soon after the lynching, members of the Knights of Mary Phagan formed the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group that used violence to intimidate Jews, Catholics, Black people, immigrants, and anyone who challenged their views.

In the wake of Leo Frank's lynching, about half of George's Jewish population left the state out of fear and concern for their safety.

The Leo Frank Case was significant because it exposed major issues in Georgia during the New South era, including antisemitism, or hatred toward Jewish people, fear of Northern influence, anger toward big business and industrialization, and resistance to fairness and equal justice under the law.

Although Georgia's economy was modernizing, many people resisted social change, and prejudice often overpowered truth.

Decades later, in 1986, the State of Georgia officially pardoned Leo Frank, based in part on testimony from an eyewitness who claimed that Jim Conley, not Frank, was responsible for Mary Phagan's murder.

The pardon didn't declare Frank innocent or guilty, but it acknowledged that he had not received adequate protection, while in custody.

In the end, the Leo Frank Case shows that while Georgia's economy was changing during the New South era, many social attitudes were not.

This case helps us understand how discrimination influenced the justice system, public opinion, and life in Georgia, even during a time of growth and progress.

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