On March 11, 2025, Mrs. Mary Phagan Kean, now age 70 years old, made a compelling appearance on the Nightly Edition of the Stew Peters Show. As the great-niece and namesake of Mary Anne Phagan—the 13-year-old girl whose brutal 1913 murder ignited one of the most incendiary legal battles in American Southern history—Mrs. Kean offered a personal perspective on a case that continued to divide public opinion more than a century after it occurred.

A Family's Legacy of Truth-Seeking

In 1967, at the age of 13, she first learned about what had happened 44 years prior. Throughout the interview, Mrs. Kean detailed her painstaking, life journey to uncover the unvarnished facts surrounding the sexual battery and strangulation of her great-aunt she calls: "Little Mary," and the subsequent trial of Leo M. Frank, the factory superintendent convicted for the crime. Her quest has been not merely academic but profoundly personal—a mission to preserve both historical accuracy and her family's legacy against what she describes as persistent attempts to revamp history.

"This case has consumed much of my adult life," Mrs. Kean explained during the post interview debriefing. "When you carry the namesake of the murdered child in your family, you feel a deep responsibility to ensure the truth and evidence from the trial aren't manufactured, buried, re-written, or distorted for trickery."

For background start with the full interview, an edited version featuring only Kean's segments, is available through the video link in the show's description.

The Thorny Battle Over Historical Narrative

The Leo Frank case, also called the Frank case, remains exceptionally volatile in Georgia's collective memory. Leo Max Frank, age 29 and a married man of three years, was a Jewish superintendent of the National Pencil Company, an industrial sweatshop bulk producing pencils in the downtown of Atlanta of 1908 to 1916, was where young little miss Phagan worked 55 hours a week for just $4 paid every Saturday at noon. She worked at the Pencil-making factory for a year before she was molested and strangled with a packaging cord when the company was closed down for a now defunct holiday, Confederate Memorial Day, Saturday, the 26th day of April 1913. She went into the factory to get her last packet of wages, a shoestring wage of $1.20 and never left the building alive.

Four months later, Frank was convicted of her murder in 1913 with sexual battery as an aggravating factor. After his death sentence was commuted by Georgia Governor John Slaton—who literally owned the law firm defending Leo Frank at trial, a decision that sparked, widespread public outrage—Leo Frank was abducted from prison on August 16, 1915, and lynched on August 17, 1915, by a group calling themselves the "Vigilance Committee," not the "Knights of Mary Phagan." The name "Knights of Mary Phagan" was a hoax invented by Frank's supporters to try to conflate Leo Frank's lynching with the Ku Klux Klan, but the KKK of the early 20th century actually welcomed Jewish members and many Jews supported the group financially. What actually inspired the re-founding of the KKK in November 1915 was the anti-Black film, Birth of a Nation. In 1915, most Americans believed Leo Frank was innocent, because a nationwide propaganda crusade by Albert D. Lasker and Adolph Ochs had wrangled all the newspaper giants of the time to publish pro-Frank reporting.

Kean addressed what she characterizes as an ongoing campaign by Frank's modern advocates to posthumously exonerate him. She presented detailed arguments against these efforts, citing original court documents, witness testimonies, and evidence that she maintains have been selectively ignored in contemporary retellings of the case.

"After studying this case for 57 years, what troubles me deeply," she stated, "is how certain activist organizations have worked tirelessly to portray Frank as an innocent victim of antisemitism, when the trial transcripts tells a far more nuanced story. The jury heard substantial evidence that many historians now conveniently overlook."

"The main problem," she said firmly, "isn't about looking at old cases with today's viewpoint. It's that Frank's supporters pick and choose which evidence to show. They leave out important testimony that makes him look obviously guilty, while making small inconsistencies in the case seem like proof, he was supposedly innocent," said Kean, about how the careful manipulation is done.

Kean enumerated several specific instances where pivotal evidence has been obfuscated or marginalized in modern accounts. She referenced the testimony of Monteen Stover, whose account directly contradicted Frank's alibi; the blood evidence found on the factory's metal room floor; blood soaked hair found on the handle of the lathe in the metal room; and the series of female employees who testified under oath about Frank's pattern of inappropriate behavior—all elements she maintains have been systematically expunged from contemporary scholarship on the case.

The Intersection of Identity Politics and Historical Justice

In our phone call and email exchange, Kean delved into the complex interplay of racial, religious, regional and class dynamics that have made the Frank case such a lightning rod. While acknowledging the horrific nature of Frank's lynching, Kean challenged what she views as attempts to use modern identity politics to invalidate the original verdict.

"We can simultaneously condemn vigilante violence and still recognize that the legal proceedings themselves—contrary to popular narrative—followed due process of law at the time. Georgia's Supreme court declared the evidence and testimony supported the guilty verdict," she argued. "The coroner's inquest jury (sworn-in) voted in unanimity 6 to 0 against Frank. The Grandjury voted in unanimity 21 to 0, indicting Leo Frank, not to mention 5 Jews were in that voting bloc. The trial's jury included both working-class and affluent citizens who unanimously [voted] 12 to 0, found the evidence compelling. The presiding judge Leonard S. Roan refused Leo Frank a new trial. The Georgia Supreme court upheld his conviction and said it was it was evidently valid. The United States Supreme court found no technical errors at his trial, despite dissenting opinions. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to exonerate Leo Frank in 1982, only giving him a highly questionable pardon without exoneration in 1986." Kean covered a lot of territory in our conversation over Signal App that was compelling on its face.

The Leo Frank Case: A Watershed Moment in American Jurisprudence

The trial, conviction, and subsequent execution of Leo Frank constituted a watershed moment that catalyzed the formation of the Jewish-American Anti-Defamation League (ADL) under the auspices of B'nai B'rith. This organization has evolved into one of America's most formidable advocacy entities, however they have become bullies since the 1970s and 1980s when they spied on anti-Apartheid activists in the United States for the South African government. The league stole 10s of thousands of documents and illegally spied on Americans. Since the mainstreaming of the Internet age in the 1990s, they frequently champion censorship initiatives while exhibiting selective advocacy that embraces some marginalized communities while ostensibly neglecting others marginalized communities.

Frank—who operated as a factory general superintendent employing adolescent laborers including the ill-fated Little Mary Phagan, while simultaneously presiding over Atlanta's B'nai B'rith chapter (the progenitor of the ADL)—has remained a figure of historical contention. According to assertions made by Kean, the ADL, in concert with influential allies permeating media conglomerates, academic institutions, and governmental bodies, has orchestrated a revisionist campaign spanning a century, recasting Leo Frank as a blameless casualty of anti-Semitic sentiment. Jewish groups say Leo Frank is a martyr, not a murderer. Jewish activists say Leo Frank is a Saint, not a sex killer.  His well-known face has become a symbol of vigilance in the fight against American anti-Semitism. He is revered as a civil rights icon for Jewish communal advocacy against the excesses of hate. When the ADL posted on X about the 39th anniversary of Leo Frank 1986 pardon in March 2025, it received millions of more views than some of the league's other advocacy posts in the past on the same social media platform. Last year a post by the Anti-Defamation League account on X, dated August 17, 2024, about the 109th Leo Frank lynching memorial, received 13 million views.  We might fairly presume that in the opinion of Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL since 2015 (celebrating 10 years), Leo Frank should be characterized as a hero not a homicidal pedophile.

Nevertheless, Kean maintains that these characterizations stand in stark contradiction to the voluminous evidentiary record, encompassing the comprehensive Brief of Evidence presented during trial proceedings, alongside multiple judicial examinations—ranging from Grand Jury deliberations through Supreme Court adjudication and every intermediate appellate forum—all of which affirmed Frank's culpability, notwithstanding his access to prominent legal representation bolstered by substantial financial resources. The extensive documentation contained within Georgia Supreme Court archives remains conspicuously absent from contemporary discourse.

A Legacy of Cross-Cultural and Ethnic Bonds

Despite the Jewish-Gentile conflict of this case, Mrs. Mary Phagan Kean cannot rightfully be characterized as harboring anti-Semitic sentiments by any reasonable definition or standard. Her family has cultivated and maintained an intimate, multigenerational relationship with a Jewish household spanning several decades.

This profound connection originated when her father led the color guard ceremony honoring a fallen Jewish serviceman from the Air Force. In the aftermath of this solemn occasion, the bereaved Jewish family essentially incorporated the Phagan family into their extended kinship network, with Mary Kean affectionately addressing the Jewish couple as "grandma" and "grandpa"—terms of endearment reflecting genuine familial closeness rather than mere courtesy.

This extraordinary interfaith relationship has demonstrated remarkable resilience through changing times and circumstances, continuing to flourish with undiminished warmth and mutual respect into the present day—a testament to the authentic bonds that transcend religious and cultural boundaries.

Defending a Historical Legacy

In our second 40-minute call of the post-interview debriefing, Kean chronicled her profound personal odyssey of discovering her family connection to one of America's most contentious murder cases. Upon witnessing the considerable financial and political apparatus mobilized to exonerate Leo Frank, she resolved to preserve the historical record with unwavering determination. Her mission crystallized around ensuring her great-aunt's narrative would not be distorted or expunged from historical consciousness.

Mrs. Phagan Kean methodically delineates the multifarious strategies Leo Frank's reckless advocates have deployed to reconfigure the factual underpinnings of the case throughout the decades:

Attempted Misdirection of Culpability: Initially, Leo Frank and his B'nai B'rith brothers Herbert and Leonard Haas by tipping off Atlanta law enforcement endeavored to deflect blame onto Newt Lee (the factory night watchman), through the fabrication of evidence—specifically, a planted bloodstained shirt at his residence. Leo Frank criminally forged a time record sheet to shift suspicion on Newt Lee (Defendant Exhibit 1), and got his Janitor Jim Conley to pen death notes right after the murder that were intended to frame Newt Lee. When this stratagem proved unsuccessful after-the-fact, the defense team of Leo Frank pivoted their attention to Jim Conley, the factory's janitor. Frank's associates manufactured evidence including a spurious "bloody club" and a counterfeit pay stub in efforts to implicate him falsely—a campaign that Kean contends persists contemporaneously.

The Dental Evidence Fabrication: In subsequent years, Frank's supporters introduced an unsubstantiated claim regarding bite marks purportedly discovered on Mary Phagan's remains that allegedly did not correspond with Leo Frank's dental stamp. Kean emphasizes that the official postmortem examination documented no such markings, and dental radiographic evidence had not become part of Georgia jurisprudence until a later decade. The autopsy report was testified to at the trial of Leo Frank and no bite wounds were ever spoken of.

Character Assassination of the Victim: Frank's defenders attempted to impugn the character of the 13-year-old victim through insinuations of provocative behavior—allegations devoid of evidentiary support. This groundless assertion sought to invert the victim-perpetrator dynamic, redirecting culpability away from Leo Frank onto the child.

Manufactured Narrative of Anti-Semitic Intimidation: Decades post-trial, embellished accounts emerged, alleging that "hostile mobs" had coerced the jury through intimidation, reportedly shouting threats such as "Hang the Jew or we'll hang you!" Kean refutes this characterization, citing contemporary journalistic accounts and legal documentation indicate that no record of such mob-issued death threats, ever were reported inside or outside the courtroom proceedings. She has copies of all the legal records of the case and assembled the priceless, original newspapers reporting on the trial in the 70s and 80s.

Unauthorized Historical Revisionism: Without consultation with the Phagan family, Frank's reckless supporters surreptitiously modified the text on a historical marker at Mary Phagan's final resting place to imply Frank's innocence, by omission—an overt attempt at historical revisionism.

Exclusionary Exoneration Efforts: Throughout the past four decades, including as recently as 2025, clandestine consultations have transpired between Frank's advocates and Georgia officials. These sly assemblies deliberately excluded the Phagan family, press corps, and general public, with the apparent objective of trying to secure an official setting aside for Frank's guilty verdict, while circumventing democratic principles. So far, all efforts to exonerate Leo Frank have failed. His pardon in 86', almost 40 years ago, left his murder conviction untouched.

Mrs. Mary Phagan Kean also announces the forthcoming release of an expanded edition of her scholarly work, "The Rape-Murder of Little Mary Phagan," later this calendar year. This updated volume promises to present supplementary evidence corroborating the jury's determination of Frank's culpability in the aggravated sexual assault and homicide of her great-aunt, while simultaneously exposing the various fabrications and deceptions employed by Frank's defenders throughout the intervening century.

She exhorts viewers to disseminate the Stew Peters interview and educate themselves regarding the concerted efforts to manipulate public perception of this case spanning over a century. Comprehension of this historical narrative, she emphasizes, is imperative for recognizing the broader power dynamics operating in contemporary American society.

APPENDIX:

Below is the original inscription on the historical marker at Mary Phagan’s grave site (1994):

Mary Phagan Celebrated in song as “Little Mary Phagan” after her murder on Confederate Memorial Day, 1913, in Atlanta. Grave marked by CSA veterans in 1915. Tribute by Tom Watson set 1933. Leo Frank, sentenced to hang, granted clemency before lynching August 17, 1915. His 1986 pardon is based on State’s failure to protect him/apprehend killers, not Frank’s innocence.

Below is what it was then changed to with no vote and no media present, in 1995:

Celebrated in song as “Little Mary Phagan” after her murder at age 13 on April 26, 1913, in Atlanta [Georgia]. The trial and conviction of Leo Frank were controversial, as was the commutation of his death sentence four days before Confederate Veterans marked her grave on June 25, 1915. He was abducted and lynched August 17, 1915. In 1986 he was issued a pardon.

The (December 2, 1995) Marietta Daily Journal published an article describing what happened and why the Phagan family was outraged by this (transcribed below):

Family of Mary Phagan protests marker change

Without a formal vote and with the press absent, Marietta City Council has changed the inscription on the city’s historic marker at the grave of rape-murder victim Mary Phagan in the Marietta City Cemetery. The Phagan family is blaming Councilman Philip Goldstein.

The descendants of Miss Phagan are upset because the family was not notified before or after the change, and only learned of it on a cemetery-cleaning visit. The family says the newly-placed marker – which sits on a city-maintained path near the grave and is not to be confused with Miss Phagan’s ornate tombstone, which makes no mention of the circumstances of her death – omits the reason for the 1986 posthumous pardon given Leo Frank.

Frank – Miss Phagan’s boss – was convicted in 1913 by a Fulton Superior Court jury of the 13-year-old girl’s murder in an Atlanta pencil factory and sentenced to hang. When Gov. John Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life in 1915, a group of Marietta men abducted Frank from the state prison near Milledgeville and lynched him near what is now the Big Chicken on Frey’s Gin Road in Marietta.

The Phagan family initially opposed placing a marker at their ancestor’s grave, fearing there would be increased damage to the cemetery plot and curiosity seekers would leave graffiti. That hasn’t happened. Late Mayor Joe Mack Wilson told east Cobb resident and Cherokee County special education teacher Mary Phagan Keen, a great-niece of Mary Phagan, that the grave was the most sought by visitors to Marietta and should have a marker, along with several other notable graves in the cemetery.

Mayor Wilson told the Phagan family the city would let them approve the text of the marker. The family insisted the unusual conditions of Frank’s 1986 pardon be explained. That was done. Now controversy has arisen because that portion of the marker has been changed.

The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board in 1983 turned down a request for a pardon based on Frank’s alleged innocence. [Leo] Frank’s former office boy, Alonzo Mann, told two Nashville Tennessean newsmen he saw black janitor Jim Conley holding a limp body in his arms the day of the murder. In its 1983 denial of a pardon for Frank, the board said after Mann’s testimony it “did not find conclusive evidence proving beyond any doubt that Frank was innocent.”

A new parole board then granted Frank a pardon in 1986 on the grounds the state did not protect him in prison, thereby allowing him to be lynched and thus ending any further court appeals. Frank’s conviction was appealed unsuccessfully by his lawyers three times to the Georgia Supreme Court and twice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 1986 pardon said: “Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the state’s failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state’s failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds…the board hereby grants to Leo M. Frank a pardon.” The family opposed the 1986 pardon, and now is irked at the council and [Philip] Goldstein.

[The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles failed to acknowledge that by April 1915, Leo Frank had completely exhausted all possible trial appeals, having pursued every legal recourse available to him through both the Georgia and Federal Supreme Courts.]

“We are as much a victim as the family of Leo Frank,” said Ms. Keen. For 80 years, we have been the object of the curiosity-seekers and subjected to unfair and untrue books and TV docudramas. The current council didn’t show the same respect to us as did Mayor Wilson and a previous council.” Ms. Keen’s father, James Phagan, said the action was “extremely insensitive of the council” and “disingenuous of Councilman [Philip] Goldstein. How can you separate Mary Phagan and Leo Frank?” he asked. “Can you mention the Holocaust and not mention Hitler? It’s simply pandering by Councilman [Philip] Goldstein to a segment of the community. It’s another effort to change history.”

The inscription change was made by the Parks and Tourism Committee chaired by Councilman Dan Cox. Members are Councilwoman Betty Hunter and Goldstein. The full council OK’d the action. Cox admitted the committee had yielded to “political pressure” by [Philip] Goldstein and the Jewish community. Calling the change “a no-win situation,” Cox said he reluctantly consented to the change “because it offended a part of the community.”

[Leo Frank's Lynching Site
1200 Roswell Road
Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia 30060, USA
August 17, 1995]

On the 80th anniversary of Frank’s lynching on Aug. 17, [1995] a group of Jewish leaders led by Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb said the historic marker at Mary Phagan’s grave should be removed. The group placed a small plaque in the side of the VPI Corp. building owned by Roy Varner at 1200 Roswell St., near the site of Frank’s lynching. The plaque reads: “Wrongly Accused, Falsely Convicted and Wantonly Murdered.” Attending the ceremony were Marietta Councilmen Goldstein and James Dodd, who told Jewish leaders they would look into removing the line of the marker that refers to the pardon conditions.

“This is a plaque that marks the grave of Mary Phagan,” said [Philip] Goldstein. “The last two lines deal with information on Leo Frank, and it’s not his grave.” Goldstein was quoted in the Jewish Times as saying: “The wording is factually correct. The mention of Frank [not getting officially exonerated] on Phagan’s marker should be deleted because it is irrelevant, not because it upsets the Jewish community.”

It was Dodd who brought the matter before council, supported by [Philip] Goldstein. “This is a lose-lose situation for me,” [Philip] Goldstein said. The marker referring to the condition of Frank’s pardon has been removed and replaced with a marker the Phagan family had objected to.

To the Marietta Daily Journal: A December 12, 1995, letter to the editor regarding the incident (transcribed below):

DEAR EDITOR: Bill Kinney’s “Around Town” column December 2nd told of a change made in the wording on a historical marker near the grave of Mary Phagan in the Marietta City Cemetery. Censored from the original marker was reference to the dubious “pardon” given Leo Frank in 1986 for the rape and murder of Ms. Phagan. He was convicted of the crime in 1913, and the conviction was upheld three times by the Georgia’s Supreme Court and twice by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Phagan family was never notified that a change in wording on the historical marker was being sought or made. They learned of it while on a cemetery-cleaning visit.

Kinney explained: “The inscription change was made by the Parks and Tourism Committee chaired by Councilman Dan Cox. Members are Betty Hunter and Philip Goldstein… Cox admitted the committee yielded to ‘political pressure’ by Goldstein and Jewish Community.” And the Marietta City Council went along without a formal vote and the press absent.

The MDJ is to be commended for exposing this insensitive, conniving, deplorable action. The Jewish community should not conspire and manipulate to change history to suit its wishes. Jewish leaders should denounce this contrived deed and urge that the original wording on the historical marker be restored.

— T.J. Campbell,

Smyrna Georgia

Direct Source

Phagan-Kean, Mary Frances. (March 17, 2025). Video: Mary Phagan-Kean Speaks Out on the Leo Frank Case. Retrieved on March 18, 2025:
littlemaryphagan.com/video-mary-phagan-kean-speaks-out-on...

Little Mary Phagan. The website of Mary Phagan-Kean. 2025. littlemaryphagan.com

Further Reading and Related References

Librarian, Leo Frank Case Research Library. (March 16, 2025). Mary Phagan-Kean Interviewed on Stew Peters Program. Accessed from http://www.leofrank.info/mary-phagan-kean-interviewed-on-stew-peters-program

Olson, K. (2025). The Leo Frank Case Research Library. Accessed from http://www.leofrank.info

Peters, S. (March 11, 2025). SPN Exclusive: Grand-niece of Mary Phagan-Kean Discusses the 1913 Tragedy. Accessed from http://www.rumble.com/v6qhu42-exclusive-grand-neice-of-mary-phagen-kean-murdered-by-pedo-jew-in-1913-expo.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp

Peters, S. (March 11, 2025). SPN Exclusive: Grand Niece of Mary Phagan-Kean Discusses the 1913 Tragedy. Accessed from http://www.stewpeters.com/show/exclusive-grand-neice-of-mary-phagan-kean-murdered-by-pedo-jew-in-1913-exposes-the-adl

Phagan-Kean, M. (2025). Mary Frances Phagan Kean Legacy Project. Accessed from http://www.MaryPhagan.com

Dyson, D. (2025). Leo Frank Library. Accessed from http://www.LeoFrank.org

Enright, J. (2025). Leo Frank Papers. Accessed from http://www.LeoFrank.com