in the leo frank case, an attorney who knew the real killer flashcard

Why was Leo Frank suspected of murder?

Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was an American factory superintendent who was convicted in 1913 of the murder of a 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in Atlanta, Georgia.His trial, conviction, and appeals attracted national attention. His lynching two years later, in response to the commutation of his death sentence, became the focus of social, regional, …

What did Leo Frank do?

Jun 07, 2018 · 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 Phagan as a “Negro crime” of which “white man” Leo Frank, president of the …

Why did the authorities believe that Frank was the culprit?

Oct 05, 2012 · by Elliot Dashfield. a review of The Leo Frank Case by Leonard Dinnerstein, University of Georgia Press. IN 1963, nearly a half century after the sensational trial and lynching of Leo Frank become a national cause célèbre, a graduate student named Leonard Dinnerstein (pictured) decided to make the Frank case the subject of his PhD thesis.

Did Leo Frank kill John Phagan?

Feb 23, 2018 · The crucial role of the janitor Jim Conley has come under particular scrutiny - the bloody shirt, his lies to the police, his admission that he wrote the so-called murder notes, and his rehearsed testimony at the trial make Conley stand out as the likely real murderer for many advocates of Frank's innocence. The unsettling case of Leo Frank had largely been forgotten by …

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Convinced grand jury not to indict. Defense attorney for Leo Frank. Luther Rosser. Public perception going into the trial. Prosecution focused so much time on a rich, white, successful male when there was a possibility of a black man being the guilty party, therefore Frank HAD to be guilty. Strengths of the prosecution's case (5):

Who was Leo Frank quizlet?

Leo Frank - He was the owner of a factory, a Cornell graduate, and most importantly, Jewish.

Who is Alonzo Mann?

Alonzo Mann, who broke a 69- year silence to say the wrong man was convicted of a notorious killing and hanged by a lynch mob that led to a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, died Monday from pneumonia at the age of 87.Mar 20, 1985

Who was Mary Phagan in Georgia's history quizlet?

Mary Phagan was an employee of the Atlanta pencil factory. She was murdered.

Is Mary Phagan a true story?

Summary. Dramatizing the true story of Leo Frank, a factory manager who was convicted of the murder a 13-year-old girl, a factory worker named Mary Phagan, in Atlanta in 1913. His trial was sensational and controversial and at its end, Frank was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan and sentenced to death by hanging.

What happened Mary Phagan?

On April 26, 1913, at about noon, Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old employee of the National Pencil Company, went to the factory to collect her pay, which Frank gave to her. Soon after, she was sexually assaulted and brutally murdered.Apr 13, 2022

Why did police arrive at Frank Phagan's house?

Because eyewitness accounts placed both Frank and Phagan at the factory prior to her death, police arrived at Frank's home early on April 27 for questioning. Frank denied knowing Phagan by name, but police reported that he seemed nervous.

Why did they take Frank to the morgue?

Frank denied knowing Phagan by name, but police reported that he seemed nervous. Detectives then took Frank to the morgue to view Phagan's body and to the scene of the crime, where they observed his behavior, before concluding, for the time being, that he was not likely the murderer.

Where was Frank Slaton interned?

After Slaton's commutation, Frank was interned at a prison farm in Milledgeville for just under two months. During his internment, a fellow prisoner slashed Frank's throat with a knife, though he survived. Frank's stay at the prison farm was cut short on the night of August 16, 1915, when twenty-five prominent citizens of Marietta , identifying themselves as the Knights of Mary Phagan, caravanned to Milledgeville, took Frank from his cell, and drove him back to Marietta, Phagan's hometown, where they hanged him from an oak tree. Only months later, many of these same men would take part in the nighttime ceremony at Stone Mountain that established the modern Ku Klux Klan.

What was the Leo Frank case?

The Leo Frank case is one of the most notorious and highly publicized cases in the legal annals of Georgia. A Jewish man in Atlanta was placed on trial and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for the National Pencil Company, which he managed. Before the lynching of Frank two years later, ...

What was the significance of the Frank case?

Frank case not only was a miscarriage of justice but also symbolized many of the South's fears at that time. Workers resented being exploited by northern factory owners who had come south to reorganize a declining agrarian economy. Frank's Jewish identity compounded southern resentment toward him, as latent anti-Semitic sentiments, inflamed by Tom Watson, became more pronounced. Editorials and commentaries in newspapers all over the United States supporting a new trial for Frank and/or claiming his innocence reinforced the beliefs of many outraged Georgians, who saw in them the attempt of Jews to use their money and influence to undermine justice.

Who was the last person to see Mary Phagan alive?

On April 26, 1913, Mary Phagan, the child of tenant farmers who had moved to Atlanta for financial gain, went to the pencil factory to collect her week's wages. Leo Frank, the superintendent of the factory, paid her. He was the last person to acknowledge having seen Phagan alive.

When was Leo Frank arrested?

Leo Frank. Frank was not arrested until April 29, the evening of Phagan's funeral, when public outrage regarding her murder reached a fever-pitch. Under pressure to solve the case, detectives re-examined information they had been given earlier.

What is the Leo Frank case?

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 7. 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.

When did Leo Frank play the race card?

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” — ...

Did Leo Frank cross-examine?

We also hear about Leo Frank’s own statement to the court. We can’t really call it testimony, because under Georgia law at the time, the defendant had the right to make an unsworn statement and deny the prosecution the right to cross-examine him on it — which is exactly what Leo Frank did.

What is Leonard Dinnerstein's lack of candor?

In his book, Dinnerstein completely fails to mention the well-known strategy of Leo Frank’s defense team to play on the racial conflicts present in 1913 Georgia and pin the murder of Mary Phagan on, successively, two different African-American men.

What is Dinnerstein's claim?

Dinnerstein knowingly references claims that do not stand up to even minimal scrutiny. For example, he uncritically accepts the 1964 hoax by hack writer and self-promoter Pierre van Paassen, who claimed that there were in existence in 1922 X-ray photographs at the Fulton County Courthouse, taken in 1913, of Leo Frank’s teeth, and also X-ray photographs of bite marks on Mary Phagan’s neck and shoulder – and that anti-Semites had suppressed this evidence.. Van Paassen further alleged – and Dinnerstein repeated – that the dimensions of Frank’s teeth did not match the “bite marks,” thereby exonerating Frank.

Who was Leonard Dinnerstein interviewed for?

Leonard Dinnerstein was interviewed for the video documentary The People vs. Leo Frank (2009) . In that interview, he makes statements that he must know to be untrue about the death notes found on Mary Phagan’s body.

Who said "I have no doubts that Frank was innocent"?

Leonard Dinnerstein writes in his 2008 preface, “I have no doubts: Frank was innocent.” This statement, which sets the dominant tone of his book, goes against the majority decisions of every single level of the United States legal system. More than a dozen experienced judges – incomparably more qualified than Dinnerstein to sift the evidence – reviewed the evidence and arguments put forth by Frank’s own legal team, along with the Leo Frank trial testimony, affidavits, facts, and law pertaining to the case – and all came to the same conclusion: They sustained the guilty verdict of the jury.

Who studied the Leo Frank case?

Given the many decades Leonard Dinnerstein has spent studying the Leo Frank case, and assuming Dinnerstein is a scholar, I find it almost impossible to understand the sheer number of conspicuous errors, misquotes, fabrications, misrepresentations, and shameless omissions made in every edition of this book from 1968 to 2008.

What was Leo Frank's behavior?

In the aftermath of the murder, numerous witnesses testified that Leo Frank was behaving in an odd manner, unusually edgy and nervous to the extent that he was unable to perform simple tasks like unlocking a door or operating the factory time clock.

Why did the defense not pursue this angle at the trial?

The defence did not pursue this angle at the trial, perhaps because of its distasteful nature. It did, however, become a large part of subsequent attempts to posthumously clear Frank's name. Indeed, for some innocence advocates, the fecal matter in the elevator shaft is symbolic of the entire case against Leo Frank.

What was found in the metal room near Frank's office?

A coroners jury, accompanied by several Atlanta policeman, had re-examined the factory crime scene and found blond hairs and blood in the metal room near to Frank's office.

Why was Frank arrested?

On the basis of this evidence, and his nervy demeanour, Frank was arrested on suspicion of the murder. Another man, the factory's black janitor Jim Conley, was also arrested after witnesses saw him washing red stains out of a shirt in a faucet behind the factory.

How old was Alonzo Mann in The Janitor and the Office Boy?

The Janitor and the Office-boy. As he approached the end of his life, 83-year-old Alonzo Mann decided to unburden himself of a dark secret that had haunted him for nearly 70 years. As Leo Frank's 14-year-old office boy in 1913, Mann had actually witnessed a co-worker trying to dispose of the body of Mary Phagan.

What happened to Leo Frank?

Leo Frank took his terrible fate with a quiet dignity. As the blind-fold was placed over his eyes he asked only that his wedding ring be given to his wife. Watched on by Atlanta's great and good, he was then hung to death from the branch of a tree.

Why did Frank paint Mary's supporters?

Those who believed Frank had murdered Mary painted his supporters as part of an insidious Jewish conspiracy to help one of their own escape justice, tapping into the wider and more sinister beliefs of the time that a Jewish cabal of industrialists and bankers was taking over America.

When was Leo Frank on trial?

Leo Frank on trial in August 1913. Photograph by Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP Images. In early May, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced that he will reopen one of the most notorious criminal proceedings in American history: the trial of National Pencil Company superintendent Leo M.

Who was the lawyer that swore Frank dictated the notes to him?

There is, however, one promising source: a study conducted by Conley ’s lawyer, William M. Smith. The morning after Phagan’s murder, the police found two strange notes by her body. Conley swore that Frank dictated the notes to him in hopes of directing suspicion at another black factory worker.

What did the board feel Conley may have lied about?

The board felt Conley may simply have lied about the route he took to get the body to the basement and that Frank could still have committed the murder. In 1986, Wittenstein and Schwartz reapplied to the board.

Why did Wittenstein and Schwartz reapply to the Georgia factory board?

In 1986, Wittenstein and Schwartz reapplied to the board. This time, they sought an apology from Georgia for its failure to protect Frank from the lynch party. The board agreed, but the factory superintendent’s conviction remained intact. Other efforts to vindicate Frank have proven just as futile.

What was the impact of the Frank case on the Ku Klux Klan?

The Frank case opened a deep vein of anti-Semitism in America, unleashing furies that remain part of the national psyche. (The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 to combat those furies.)

Who commuted Frank's death sentence?

Following extensive coverage in the press and appeals that ran all the way to the United States Supreme Court, Governor John Slaton commuted Frank’s death sentence in June 1915. Shortly thereafter, a group of men from Marietta, Phagan’s hometown, abducted Frank from the Georgia prison farm in Milledgeville, drove him to Marietta, and lynched him.

Did Smith examine Conley's notes?

The story was improbable, but in the heat of the moment, the jury and most Georgians believed it. Following the trial, Smith examined the notes, comparing them to other written and spoken remarks by Conley. He determined that the notes, contrary to Conley’s testimony, were not dictated by Frank.

Why did John Carson write Dear Old Oak in Georgia?

During the trial, musician and millworker Fiddlin' John Carson composed the song 'Dear Old Oak in Georgia' (which was never recorded), to create public sympathy for Frank and to oppose his hanging.

When was Mary Phagan laid off?

Mary Phagan (born on June 1, 1899) worked as a minor employee at the 'National Pencil Company.' She was laid off on April 21, 1913. Hence, on April 26, 1913, she went to the factory to collect her last paycheck from Frank.

Where was Leo Max Frank born?

Leo Max Frank was born on April 17, 1884, in Cuero, Texas, U.S., to Rudolph Frank and Rachel "Rae" Jacobs. He studied at various public schools of New York and graduated from the 'Pratt Institute' in 1902. He then completed his mechanical engineering from 'Cornell University' in 1906.

Who kidnapped Leo Frank?

A group of prominent men in Georgia organized themselves into a group called the “Knight of Mary Phagan ”. The men recruited 25 to 28 other men, who possessed necessary skills, to effectively kidnap Leo Frank from prison in hopes of lynching him.

Who was the murderer in the 1913 murder trial?

The prosecution’s predominant theory cited that Leo Frank was the murdered and the murder notes were dictated by Frank to an African-American janitor to effectively pin the crime on the man. The janitor, who was kept in custody and questioned by police, changed his story multiple times but finally claimed that Leo Frank promised him $200 dollars to write the notes.

The Murder

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The Evidence

The Trial

The Appeals

The Governor’s Decision

The Lynching

Conclusion