From The American Mercury (source)
THE AMERICAN MERCURY is proud to present the first part of our audio version of a rare, almost-suppressed book on the murder of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank, 1913’s The Frank Case — published almost immediately after the events it details took place, when they were fresh in the minds of Atlantans. Only one original copy is known to survive, though there are rumors of others. This book is also unique as it is the earliest known book published about the case.
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Its full title is The Frank Case: Inside Story of Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery. It was published anonymously. It highlights the events leading up to the trial and aftermath surrounding the April 26th, 1913, murder of Mary Phagan by her sweatshop boss, the superintendent of the National Pencil Company, Leo M. Frank. The book strives to maintain neutrality and includes a dramatically-rendered history of this sensational crime.
Published by The Atlanta Publishing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, in September 1913, the one known surviving copy is very fragile, printed on acidic paper, and in rapidly-deteriorating condition. This rare and possibly unique volume was scanned by Georgia State University and made available to the general public. We are now proud to present The Frank Case as an audio book.
The book’s Preface reads:
The sensational case of Leo M. Frank is undisputedly Atlanta’s and the south’s greatest murder mystery of modern years.
The story of how little Mary Phagan was foully murdered as she went to get her pay at the National Pencil factory, revolting and horrible as it is in its details, naturally interests every working man and every working woman.
The mystery of the crime compels the interest of everyone who hears about it.
“The Mary Phagan murder mystery,” however, lost its identity when Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the big factory where the humble little employe met her death, was arrested and it became the Frank case.
In no other murder case in the south has there been such intense interest. It has become more than the ordinary murder mystery; more than the story of a man of position charged with slaying in lustful passion a little factory girl. The reason of the unusual importance of the case is, it is charged, that Frank is being persecuted because he is a Jew.
The story of the fearful crime; of the principal developments of the four months that followed it, and finally the story of the great, trial, where for a solid month the two greatest criminal lawyers in the south battled against the keen wits of Atlanta’s solicitor general to save Frank, has been told by press reports.
Many of the interesting features about the Frank case, however, have never been printed, because the newspapers dared not embody them in their accounts.
This work ends with the conviction of Frank in the superior court of Fulton (Atlanta) county. Trial did not end the case, for immediately after the young defendant was sentenced to pay the death penalty, a motion for a new trial was made, and it will be months, probably years, before he hangs, if he ever does. From the day of his conviction, however, the fight for Frank’s life became a technical legal battle. The real story ends with the trial and every essential feature is given here.
THE AUTHOR.
We are offering this audio book in three parts in April of the year 2020, recorded by Vanessa Neubauer, in commemoration of the life of young Mary Phagan, who died at the hands of Leo Frank on 26 April, 1913 — 107 years ago this month.
To hear part 1 of The Frank Case, simply press the play button on your screen.
Part 2
A photograph of Leo Frank, as published in The Frank Case
THE AMERICAN MERCURY now presents the second part (of three parts) of our audio version of what is probably the most hard-to-find book on the murder of Mary Phagan and the trial of Leo Frank — 1913’s anonymously published The Frank Case — read by Vanessa Neubauer.
The Frank Case: Inside Story of Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery now continues as we get into the detailed story of the trial itself.
One very interesting thing strikes me about this section of the book. Even though the book, I find, is moderately pro-Frank, what it reveals about the atmosphere surrounding the trial tends to strongly disprove the modern “Frank was railroaded by anti-Semitic Southern Whites” theory.
The book states that, after Mrs. Frank attacked the prosecutor, Hugh Dorsey, in an open letter during the proceedings, the phrase “Dorsey is prejudiced [against Jews]” could be heard “on the lips of men all over the city.” That doesn’t fit with the idea that Atlantans were strongly anti-Semitic. And they weren’t: Numerous Jews have said that the South then, as now, was the most pro-Jewish area in the country.
The book goes on to say that “many on the street sympathized with Mrs. Frank’s letter denouncing Dorsey,” which reinforces the previous point.
Even though the crowds surrounding and eager to get into the courtroom are described in the book — and remember, The Frank Case was published in the city where the trial took place, just weeks after it ended — nowhere are the supposed “anti-Jewish mobs” surrounding the courthouse, screaming “hang the Jew or we’ll hang you” mentioned. They were not mentioned because they did not exist. The “screaming mobs” are the product of the well-oiled and heavily-funded pro-Frank propaganda machine. That propaganda machine was begun in 1913 by cynical advertising mogul Albert Lasker (who was paid hundreds of thousands for supporting Frank even though in private he suspected Frank was a sexual pervert) and continues today under the aegis of the “mainstream” media and pressure groups like the ADL. (The ADL was founded by the B’nai B’rith, of which Leo Frank was an official at the time of his crime and conviction.)
We at the Mercury are offering this audio book in three parts in April of the year 2020, in commemoration of the life of young Mary Phagan, who died at the hands of Leo Frank on 26 April, 1913 — 107 years ago this month.
To hear part 2 of The Frank Case, simply press the play button on your screen.
Part 3
WE ARE proud to present today, on the 107th anniversary of the foul murder of Mary Phagan, the third and concluding part of our audio version of an extremely rare contemporary book on the murder and the trial of Leo Frank, her killer, entitled The Frank Case — read by Vanessa Neubauer.
It becomes obvious in this concluding segment that this is a pro-Leo Frank book. Not only is Frank’s very odd unsworn statement (in which he literally spent hours going over every irrelevant detail of his company’s financial statement, and which obviously did not make a good impression on the jury) praised to the skies, but long extracts from it are quoted — some of them twice!
Nevertheless, despite its partisan bias, this is a valuable book. It is valuable for what it does not contain. Despite being rather pro-Frank, and being written in 1913, literally weeks after the events it describes took place, it does not allege, as modern pro-Frank propaganda-pieces do, that “anti-Semitic mobs” shouted threats including “hang the Jew or we’ll hang you” at the judge and jury. It does include the acknowledged episode of Frank’s attorneys asking for a mistrial after prosecutor Dorsey received some mere applause from the courtroom audience during the trial — but not a single mention of the much worse “hang the Jew” threat allegation, nor of any defense references to it or to anything similar. It’s safe to conclude, I think, that such threats simply never took place and are a later invention — for surely the defense, if not the judge, would have taken notice of them.
There is also no mention of “bite marks” on Mary Phagan’s body, another decades-later hoax conjured up by pro-Frank partisans. Such a sensational development could hardly have been ignored by the defense, prosecution, or a lurid-headline-loving press.
We at the Mercury are offering this audio book in three parts in April of the year 2020, in commemoration of the life of young Mary Phagan, who died at the hands of Leo Frank on 26 April, 1913 — 107 years ago this month.
To hear part 3, the concluding part, of The Frank Case, simply press the play button on your screen.