Category: THE LEO FRANK CASE: THE LYNCHING OF A GUILTY MAN

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE AMERICAN MERCURY is proud of its decades-long reputation for seeking the truth without fear or favor. As such, we do not flinch when a part of that truth can best be discovered in the words of those whom the Establishment has deemed "radical" or "controversial" or even "evil." (When the current murderous regime in Washington, or its Hollywood/New York media machine, says someone is "evil," we immediately start to suspect that there must be something good about that someone.) So even if the New York Times or the Anti-Defamation League excoriate us for

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury LOOK AT THE headline and lead article in the Atlanta Georgian newspaper of April 29, 1913, we have illustrated above. Click on this link to see a large and easy-to-read version. "LEE'S GUILT PROVED, Detectives Assert" — "SUSPICION LIFTS FROM FRANK" — "We Have Sufficient Evidence Now to Convict Negro Nightwatchman of Killing Mary Phagan" — "Additional clews furnished by the head of the pencil factory were responsible for the closing net around the negro watchman" — "what suspicion had rested on Frank was being rapidly swept away by the damaging evidence against

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE JEWISH Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) — back in the days when they and their allies had a near-monopoly on public discussion of the Leo Frank case — once made the claim that Leo Frank was arrested and indicted and convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan "without evidence." Listen to this audio book and learn of the vast amount of evidence amassed during four separate investigations into the case — evidence that strongly indicates Frank's guilt — evidence that convinced the coroner's jury, the grand jury, the trial jury — and evidence

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHEN LEO FRANK was first arrested for the murder of Mary Phagan, his and his defense team's major focus was placing the blame on Newt Lee, the Black night watchman who discovered the murdered girl's body. They were so eager to avoid any attention being given to another Black man, Jim Conley, the factory sweeper who later was shown to be Frank's accessory after the fact — that they totally ignored the sighting of Conley by a witness on the day of the murder. This was a most unusual and revealing omission, since

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury JIM Conley's testimony in the Leo Frank case riveted the attention of not only all those present in the courtroom, but the entire state of Georgia and beyond hung on his words as they were reported. Despite being a member of a disparaged minority, Conley's word was given respectful attention — and ultimately was even believed over the word of Leo Frank, an elite Jewish man considered white by the standards of the American South. This was unprecedented, but it was also inevitable given the detail, plausibility, and unshakable nature of Conley's evidence.

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury PARTISANS OF Leo Frank have often tried to discredit Jim Conley's testimony by pointing out that his account of the visit of Corinthia Hall and Emma Clark to the pencil factory where the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan took place was off by more than an hour. But these Frank partisans fail to note that Conley never stated that he saw the two young woman at all — he was merely told that they were there by Leo Frank, who had hustled him into a dark, locked closet after Frank announced the two

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WE HEAR A LOT today about people "playing the race card" — using race unjustly in a dispute, or as a moral bludgeon to obscure the facts. In 1913 Atlanta, the Leo Frank defense team played the race card — and in a very big way. Interestingly, the pro-Frank forces used race in a way that most people would find grossly unacceptable today: crudely attacking prosecution witness James Conley, a black man, in open court and on the record as a "dirty," "lying," "thieving" "nigger" — and characterizing the sex killing of Mary

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE PROSECUTION in the Leo Frank case never mentioned the word "Jew" until it was brought up by the defense — and lead prosecutor Hugh Dorsey had a long history of friendly relations and close collaboration with Jews throughout his life and career. So the accusation, common today among pro-Frank partisans, that the indictment and prosecution of Leo Max Frank was motivated by "anti-Semitism" simply doesn't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. In this, the eighth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam — part of

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury JEWISH WRITERS on the Leo Frank case have made some astounding claims about the "atmosphere of anti-Semitism" during the trial of B'nai B'rith official Leo Frank for the strangulation sex murder of his 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in 1913 Atlanta. There were, we are told, "anti-Semitic" mobs (yes, plural) on the streets, some right outside the open courtroom windows, openly threatening the judge and the jury, screaming "crack the Jew's neck!" and "hang the Jew or we'll hang you!" and the like. It is even claimed that Jew-haters with rifles stood almost on

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE "Hang the Jew" hoax — the claim that "anti-Semitic mobs" stood outside the courtroom during the 1913 Atlanta murder trial of Leo Frank, shouting "hang the Jew or we'll hang you" or the like and thereby intimidating the jury — was demolished during our audio book segment last week, and shown to be an invention totally unsupported by the facts. This week we hear in detail how that hoax has been cut and pasted, repeated, amplified, mangled, and embellished by lazy, sloppy, and partisan academics, writers, and journalists over the years. One

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ALMOST THE ENTIRE pro-Leo Frank narrative is dependent on one claim: that Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey fabricated James Conley's story (or edited and embellished a story made up by Conley) and then coached him to deliver it skillfully on the witness stand. If Conley's story was not fiction, and not the result of conspiracy, collusion, and coaching; then it must be true — and Leo Frank must be guilty. Thus everything depends on the "coaching" allegation. In this week's audio book section, we'll see how untenable is the "coaching" claim. Why would Dorsey and

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury TO HEAR the attacks made on the character of James Conley — a major witness against Leo Frank when Frank was tried for murdering a 13-year-old girl in his employ, Mary Phagan — you could easily be forgiven for assuming that you were hearing a speech from a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan instead of the words of B'nai B'rith-associated Frank and his defenders, so harsh were the racial attacks and epithets used against the Black man. Such was the race-baiting nature of the immense nationwide publicity campaign waged by Jewish

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE CRIMINAL ACTS of the Leo Frank forces as they attempted to get a new trial for their client — or invalidate the results of the original trial — are so numerous, so outrageous, so obvious, and so egregious that — once you hear about them in this new audio book — you will be outraged at how academia and the media have kept these facts from you. Did you know an attempt was made to pay an inmate to poison one of the state's main witnesses, James Conley? In fact, it's fair

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WAS THERE REALLY an anti-Jewish and anti-Frank "mob atmosphere" at Leo Frank's trial, as Frank partisans have alleged? If there was, then how did Mrs. Frank get away with calling Prosecutor Dorsey a "Gentile dog" in open court, and then suffer no consequences whatever? Why did such a provocation result in zero retaliation by anyone, much less a "mob," and zero repercussions for any Jew or the Jewish community as a whole? In fact, Jewish businessmen in Atlanta continued to advertise and sell and prosper just as they had before, and Mrs. Frank

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHO LYNCHED Leo Frank? The culpability is often laid at the feet of a "mob" in the popular literature that promotes the Establishment's narrative of the case. But was it a mob? How many "mobs" consist of the leading citizens of the community? How many "mobs" have as their leaders no fewer than two Superior Court judges? A very curious mob indeed! (ILLUSTRATION: On the day after the lynching of Leo Frank, a crowd gathered at the site, where Frank's body still hung for some hours.) In this, the fifteenth audio segment of

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury IS IT POSSIBLE that the Jewish community — namely, the same forces that launched the massive public relations campaign portraying Leo Frank as an innocent victim of "anti-Semitism" — had a hand in murdering him? If not, then why did the Jewish-owned New York Times (the flagship of the Frank publicity machine) create the evidently fictional "Knights of Mary Phagan" and position them as wanting to lynch Frank some months before the actual lynching? Was one motivation their fear that the repellent and perverse personality of a released Frank would undo all the

by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHILE THE supposedly angelic and innocent Leo Frank and his alleged persecution at the hands of "anti-Semites" was a propaganda asset to the Jewish establishment, did it eventually dawn on Jewish leadership that the real Leo Frank, during any possible new trial they might obtain for him with all its inevitable revelations, might be a disaster for Jewish interests? (ILLUSTRATION: Albert Lasker, Jewish advertising wizard and kingpin of the Leo Frank PR campaign; despite his efforts for Frank, he said Frank impressed him "as a sexual pervert.") In this, the seventeenth audio segment

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,