In August 1913, Leo Frank, a Jewish factory superintendent at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Georgia, was tried and convicted for the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Phagan was found dead in the factory basement on April 26, 1913. The case drew widespread public attention and occurred amid significant antisemitism and racial segregation in the American South.
Jim Conley, an African American janitor at the factory, was initially arrested and later became the prosecution’s key witness. Conley admitted to writing notes found near the victim’s body and testified that he did so at Frank’s direction. His testimony changed multiple times during the investigation and trial.
Frank was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. In 1915, Georgia Governor John Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life imprisonment after reviewing the case. Shortly afterward, Frank was abducted from prison by a group of men and lynched near Marietta, Georgia.
