Phagan, Mary (c. 1899–1913)
Phagan, Mary (c. 1899–1913)
American murder victim. Born c. 1899 in Georgia; killed, April 27, 1913, in Atlanta, GA.
At age 13, was working at the National Pencil Co. in Atlanta, GA, when she was found dead in the basement (April 27, 1913). The company's Jewish superintendent, Leo Frank, was tried and found guilty of the murder (July 1913); after Frank's death sentence was commuted to life by Governor John M. Slaton, a group known as the Knights of Mary Phagan abducted Frank from prison and lynched him outside Marietta (Aug 17, 1915). Frank's trial and lynching—called by many a gross miscarriage of justice due to anti-Semitism—prompted formation of Jewish Anti-defamation League and was responsible for several US Supreme Court rulings which altered American trial standards. Frank was considered by many to be vindicated in 1982 when Alonzo Mann admitted to seeing company employee Jim Conley dragging Phagan's body (Conley had testified against Frank).
See also Steve Oney, And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank (2003); tv miniseries, "The Murder of Mary Phagan" (1987).