This video introduces the 1913 Leo Frank case, a landmark legal saga in Atlanta, Georgia. On April 26, 1913, 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a National Pencil Company worker, was raped and murdered, her body discovered in the factory basement the next day. Leo Frank, the Jewish superintendent, was convicted based on forensic evidence—blood and hair in the factory—and Jim Conley’s testimony, alleging Frank’s involvement. The trial, detailed in the Leo Frank Trial Brief of Evidence, ended with Frank’s conviction on August 25, 1913, despite defense claims of antisemitism, led by Luther Rosser and Reuben Arnold. The case led to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in 1913 to fight antisemitism, but Frank’s 1915 commutation by Governor John Slaton sparked outrage, resulting in his lynching by the Knights of Mary Phagan in Marietta on August 17, 1915. The video highlights the racial context of the Jim Crow South, where Conley, a Black man, was believed over Frank, a white man, due to compelling evidence. It also notes the 1986 pardon, which didn’t exonerate Frank, and 2025 efforts by the Georgia Innocence Project for exoneration, opposed by Phagan’s family. X debates as of May 20, 2025, show ongoing division, with some citing Alonzo Mann’s 1982 affidavit implicating Conley, while others support the trial’s outcome. The video frames the case as a lens for examining justice, bias, and historical narratives.
