Author: Research Librarian Simon Pauling

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHICH GETS MORE coverage in the media: the singular instance of one solitary Jew, Leo Frank (who was duly convicted of the sex murder of a young girl), being lynched — or the literally hundreds of Black men lynched around the same time in the South without even the pretense of a trial, and often for such insubstantial and unsupportable accusations as "wild talk" or "pay dispute"? You may be sure that throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, it is the single case of a Jew being lynched that receives the

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE TESTIMONY of Black men and women was pivotal in the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, and was so regarded by both the prosecution and defense. But little-heralded then, or now, is the horribly bad treatment these Black witnesses repeatedly received. The prosecution often "sweated" or gave Black witnesses "the Third Degree" — which meant physically or verbally threatening or abusing them, with the idea being that only under such severe fear would Black people tell the truth. Even the man on trial, the man the prosecution

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ONE OF the most mysterious aspects of the Leo Frank case is the series of "death notes," four of which were written, according to testimony, but only two of which were ever found. They were discovered right next to the dead body of Frank's victim, 13-year-old Mary Phagan. If taken at face value, they appear as though they were written by Mary while she was being assaulted. But they also are written in an approximation of the African-American vernacular of that time and in a semi-literate style that Mary Phagan would have been extremely

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE "death notes" left beside Mary Phagan's body when she was murdered in 1913 have been the subject of endless speculation. Were the notes written by James Conley at the direction of Mary's convicted killer, Leo Frank? — or were they Conley's creation alone? — or were they purpose-written by Frank, using Conley's writing as a guide, in order to throw suspicion away from the real killer and onto a Black man?   In this, the twenty-first audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ONE OF the weirdest aspects of the Leo Frank case was the — shall we say — strained effort of the Frank team to make some human excrement found in the National Pencil Company elevator shaft into a "proof" that Leo Frank was innocent of murdering Mary Phagan. This so-called "shit in the shaft" theory was based on the overwhelming fear of the Frank defense that the use of that elevator to move Mary's body — evidenced by dragging marks in the basement's dirt floor leading from the elevator to precisely where the

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ATTORNEY WILLIAM SMITH traded his "free" services as a lawyer for James Conley for the influence of an agent of the William Burns detective agency, Dan Lehon, in an unrelated abduction case — illustrating either extreme naïveté or weak legal ethics on Smith's part. Smith's defection from advocate for Conley to accusing him of murder is a very strange about-face. But sudden about-faces abound in the Leo Frank case, especially involving people 1) who had strong evidence against Leo Frank, and 2) who subsequently had close contact with agents of the William Burns

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THERE HAS NEVER been a better refutation of the 1982 supposed testimony of Alonzo Mann "exonerating" Leo Frank of the charge of murder than in this book by the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam. They bring up the points that writers for the Mercury have brought up casting considerable doubt on Mann's story, but add new information that, to this writer's knowledge, has never been published before. It is the definitive deconstruction of the Mann fable, which was used in the 1980s as a bludgeon by the ADL — twice

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE PROPAGANDA DISGUISED as journalism put forth by the partisans of Leo Frank has been ongoing for more than a century now. But for pure bluster, shallowness, self-promotion, and incompetence, there is none as egregious as the Nashville Tennessean's money-fueled subsidy and promotion of the Alonzo Mann hoax in 1982. (ILLUSTRATION: The cartoonish illustration for the Nashville Tennessean's publication of Alonzo Mann's "revelations" was an apt harbinger of the bad journalism to follow.)   In this, the twenty-fifth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE LEO Frank case marked the maturation of — and radical changes in — the organized Jewish strategies relating to both whites and blacks in the United States. Prior to the Frank case, Jewish groups had definitely positioned themselves (whatever they privately thought, which may have been quite different) as a white ethnicity, and in the South they fully supported segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the social and legal supremacy of whites. After the Leo Frank case, however, organized Jewish interests increasingly portrayed themselves as a "persecuted minority," suffering under widespread "anti-Semitism," and

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury AS WE NEAR the end of this monumental audio book, we hear the long and moving list of lynching victims, contemporaries of Leo Frank — dozens upon dozens of names, and even some poor souls without names, so unsung were they and so uninvestigated were their murders. After hearing and comprehending the magnitude of these extrajudicial killings, it will become impossible for you to believe in the mainstream media's — and the ADL's — emphasis on Leo Frank as the main or only lynching victim worth knowing about, or their promotion of the

by Philip St. Raymondfor The American Mercury THE TITLE of this section of the book — "Who's Who in the Leo Frank Case" — might sound like it's describing a dry, lifeless list of names. But it is not. This is a most valuable and interesting piece for every serious student of the Leo Frank case. It puts all the players into perspective, with brief but significant details about the role of each. It makes an excellent refresher as we near the end of the book. Most striking to me was the fact that, early on in the case, so many

by Philip St. Raymondfor The American Mercury WITH THIS audio recording, "Leo Frank Case Timeline," we come to the final section of this important book. In combination with last week's section setting forth the dramatis personae of this tragic, gripping tale, the listener can put the entire case in proper perspective. And over all these chapters, what an education the listener has received! — in factual accuracy and understanding of the real power vectors involved, far beyond anything even graduate-level courses in American universities, still shamefully wedded to the obviously false ADL/Jewish narrative, can offer on the subject.   In this,