Justice for Mary Phagan

Mary Phagan-Kean has begun writing a documentary about what happened to little #MaryPhagan to honor her memory and ensure that #justice is served in this controversial #murder case. Please consider donating to help fund the documentary and keep the truth of what happened in 1913 from being suppressed. Purchasing the recently released second edition of Mary Phagan-Kean's book will also help. Check it out below! #leofrank #truecrime #Atlanta #history littlemaryphagan.com

Today in the Leo Frank Case: April 27th, 1913 The body of 13-year-old Mary Phagan was discovered in the dirty, dingy basement of the National Pencil Factory, early in the morning by the night watchman, Newt Lee. The watchman was shocked to find a body in the basement and almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. After the initial shock though, he went straightaway to the telephone to call his boss, #LeoFrank. There were four adults living at Frank's home, but no one answered Lee's call. He then phoned the police who arrived very quickly. What the police found was Mary's body which was dirty from being dragged around the basement floor as well as two notes next to it. They also immediately arrested Newt Lee. Leo Frank was eventually taken to the morgue that day to identify the body but acted noticeably nervous and refused to even look at the body once it was revealed. In addition, even though Frank was not even a suspect at this point in time, he went ahead and hired Georgia's best lawyer, Luther Z. Rosser AND the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The police found this to be suspicious behavior for a supposedly innocent man. leofrank.info/two-maundering… leofrank.info/detective-wagg… leofrank.info/frank-very-ner… To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com #OTD #MaryPhagan #truecrime #history #truthwins #onthisday #Georgia

Seeking Justice for Little Mary Phagan | April 26, 2026 Thank you to everyone who has supported me and my family in our mission for historical truth. We stand firm against the ADL, SPLC, activist professors, fake news journalists, media propagandists, and agitators that distort the Leo Frank trial and fabricate claims of antisemitism in their efforts to rehabilitate his image.

Today is the 113th anniversary of the sex murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan by her sweatshop boss Leo Frank. Today Jonathan Greenblatt and the ADL will be telling us that Frank was an "innocent victim of anti-Semitism." That is a lie. Simple logic and the plain facts prove it to be a lie. The #murder took place on the second floor of the National Pencil Company in #Atlanta. Besides the victim, there were only six people in the building. And five of them obviously didn’t do it. That leaves #LeoFrank. The six were: 1) Harry Denham and 2) Arthur White, machinists working up on the fourth floor, and 3) Mrs. White, who was with her husband on the fourth floor and had just brought him lunch; 4) 14-year-old Monteen Stover who had come to get her pay from Frank and found his office empty at the time of the murder; 5) the Black janitor Jim Conley, keeping watch for Frank near the building's entrance; and 6) Leo Frank in his office on the second floor about 30 feet away from Conley. The #ADL and other Frank advocates are still trying to frame Jim Conley for the crime. But Conley obviously didn't do it. Conley had just been paid more than five times what #MaryPhagan had in her purse. They want us to believe Conley killed Mary for the $1.20 she had — hardly likely. And Conley would have had to assault her right next to the unlocked front door, in the highest-traffic part of the building, where anyone could come in at any time, and where several people had walked by in just the last few minutes — and all within 30 feet and easy earshot of his boss. And all this in 1913 Atlanta, where Black men accused of attacking White girls tended to have very short life expectancies. This is not a plausible story. Leo Frank killed Mary Phagan. If the ADL gets Frank officially exonerated, as they are still trying to do today, it will be a Pyrrhic victory for them. It will be yet another reason to remember that Leo Frank, and the organized groups that defend him, are all guilty of unspeakable acts. To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com Mary Phagan-Kean's newly released second edition book: littlemaryphagan.com/my-new-book-is… Mary Phagan-Kean's, great niece of Mary Phagan, most recent newsletter: littlemaryphagan.com/.../PhaganFami…... Truth is on the March -- William J. Burns and the Great Leo Frank Case Carnival: littlemaryphagan.com/the-truth-is-o… #truthmatters #truecrime #Georgia #metoo #truthwins #murdermystery #OTD #onthisday

RIP Little Mary Phagan (June 1, 1899 - April 26, 1913). Lighting a candle for you! #LittleMaryPhagan #RIPMaryPhagan

@PhaganKean @FBIDirectorKash Anyone interested in the truth of #LeoFrank’s murder of 13 yr old Mary Phagan can examine trial transcripts, evidence, news reports, etc at LeoFrank.org: leofrank.org/trial-and-evid…

OPEN LETTER TO PBS (@PBS) (@NewsHour) ABOUT IT'S BIASED DOCUMENTARY SEGMENT ON THE LEO FRANK CASE | POSTED APRIL 26, 2026 Dear PBS Board of Directors: Paula Kerger, President Chair Catherine Robb, Co-Chair Geoff Sands and Jayme Swain Members: Delores Fernandez Alonso, Mark G. Contreras, Bob Culkeen, Mildred Garcia, Anne Gates, Susan Goldberg, Chuck Hagel, Shae Hopkins, Marvin Irby, Larry Irving, Michael Isip, Gunjan Kedia, Becky Magura, Carla McCage, Sandra Cordova Micek, Luis Patino, Greg Petrowich, Vivian Riefberg, Tina Sharkey, Amy Shaw, Holden Thorp, and Ed Ulman My name is Mary Phagan-Kean (@PhaganKean). I am the great-niece and namesake of little Mary Phagan (1899 - 1913), the thirteen-year-old girl murdered at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta on April 26, 1913. [1] I am writing to express serious concern about Episode One of Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, specifically the segment from approximately 39:36 to 46:00. [2] The program presents a highly inflammatory and contested interpretation of the Leo Frank case in a way that gives viewers the impression that key factual disputes have long been settled, when in fact some of the most important claims in that segment remain deeply disputed or are presented without necessary context. [3] One of my chief concerns is the repetition of the famous claim that crowds outside the courthouse shouted, “Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you,” at the jury. Steve Oney, whose 2003 book has often been treated as a major modern account of the case, later said plainly that this story “didn’t happen” and that it was a later embellishment that became embedded in subsequent retellings. [4] At the same time, accuracy requires another clarification as well. Frank’s lawyers did later during appeals allege hostile public sentiment and mob domination in court, but the United States Supreme Court summarized the state courts’ position as being that those allegations had been “not sustained.” [5] A documentary shown on public television should make that distinction clearly. It should not blur the line between a later allegation, a later legend, and a fact established by the official record. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the sufficiency of the evidence at Leo Frank's trial to convict him. The program also frames the undercurrent of Frank’s prosecution chiefly through antisemitism, but Frank’s own recorded statements complicate that picture and should not be omitted. In his 1914 interview with Abraham Cahan (founder of the Jewish Daily Forward), Frank said, “Anti-Semitism is absolutely not the reason for this libel that has been framed against me.” [6] That full statement matters. A fair documentary should not quote selectively in either direction, it should strive to be objective rather than an advocacy piece. It should let viewers see the complexity of the defendant’s own words rather than forcing the record into a simpler ideological paradigm. In contemporaneous reporting as well, Frank publicly blamed a Black man for the crime. [7] Leo Frank also altered Newt Lee's time card, erasing 4 timestamps to incriminate him for the Mary Phagan murder. The death notes found next to the victim, Mary Phagan, described Newt Lee physically, including a misspelled version of his job title. The legal record also deserves greater precision than the program gives it. Frank’s conviction was not left to a single unreviewed jury verdict. More than a dozen appeals and related petitions were pursued by his defense team and all failed. [8] The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his federal due process claim in Frank v. Mangum. [5] None of that, by itself, settles the historical debate for all time. But it does mean that a documentary owes viewers a careful distinction between later interpretations of the case and what the courts actually held at the time. The pardon history is also frequently misstated and should have been handled more carefully. In 1983, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to grant Frank a [full] pardon [of exoneration] because it said it was impossible to decide conclusively his guilt or innocence. [9] In 1986, the board did grant a half-pardon, but it did so “without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence.” [10] That was not a legal exoneration. [10] Any documentary that leaves viewers with the impression that innocence was officially established by the state is telling them something the pardon itself did not say. In 1995, Rabbi Steven Lebow, Philip Goldstein and others had the historical marker removed at the Phagan family grave plot because they were unhappy that the sign made clarified that Leo Frank had not been vindicated. In part 4 beginning at 20:25 of this PBS series, Mr. Gates misinformed the public about the Nation of Islam’s book series: The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews.  The Phagan family has recognized their superior scholarship with respect to the Leo Frank Case (Vol. 3) and we would challenge Mr. Gates and the producers of the PBS series to examine their 536-page work.  No other study of the case has been as comprehensive and analytical and all serious scholars of the case have acknowledged the Nation of Islam’s contribution including Dr. Jeffrey Melnick. Current efforts to revisit the case only make accuracy more important. In April 2025, a spokesperson for the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office said that the Conviction Integrity Unit had the Leo Frank case file under review and that a decision would be announced when the review was complete. If public institutions are going to revisit a 1913 conviction in 2026, then the public deserves full transparency about what new, verifiable evidence is said to justify that review. [11] My concern is not simply that your documentary took a side. My concern is that it presented a highly contested side as though it were settled history and omitted major pieces of evidence and procedure that would have helped viewers judge the matter for themselves. A PBS documentary presumably carries a high-level of public trust. That trust is weakened when a program promotes partisan advocacy and repeats disputed claims without telling viewers that even widely cited modern accounts reject some of them. When a documentary blurs the difference between allegation and proof, and when it leaves out evidence that complicates its thesis in only one favorable direction, that's propaganda, not truth seeking, that's "agitprop," not objectivity. The Leo Frank case is controversial enough without additional partisan smoothing, over simplification, or selective presentation. A public audience deserves better than a one-sided retelling dressed up as settled history. I respectfully ask that PBS and the producers correct or clarify this segment, or at minimum make room for the omitted documentary record, including the defendant’s own words, the procedural history of the appeals, and the exact language of the 1983 and 1986 pardon decisions. Thank you for your time and attention. Respectfully, Mary Phagan-Kean | Posted on X, April 26, 2026 Great-niece and namesake of Mary Phagan LittleMaryPhagan.com cc:  Mr. Henry Louis Gates Jr (@HenryLouisGate2 on X), @pbsteachers @realDonaldTrump @PressSecDOW @KingsleyCortes #LeoFrank #MaryPhagan #PBS #Atlanta #Georgia Enclosed a 1913 photo of Mary Phagan colorized with AI on April 26, 2026 References 1. HISTORY.com Editors. (2025, May 27). Murder in Atlanta pencil factory leads to lynching of Leo Frank. HISTORY. 2. Public Broadcasting Service. (2026, February 3). Let My People Go. In Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History. PBS. 3. Melnick, J. P. (2000). Black-Jewish relations on trial: Leo Frank and Jim Conley in the New South. University Press of Mississippi. @melnickjeffrey1 4. Finnigan, D. (2004, February 5). Q & A with Steve Oney. Jewish Journal. Also see Oney, S. (2013, September 24). The People v. Leo Frank. Atlanta Magazine. @steveoneywriter 5. Frank v. Mangum, 237 U.S. 309 (1915). Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. 6. Berger, P. (2013, August 30). Leo Frank case stirs debate 100 years after Jewish lynch victim’s conviction. The Forward. Also see Telling Story of Leo Frank From His Jail Cell. The Forward. 7. Mary Phagan’s Murder Was Work of a Negro Declares Leo M. Frank. (1913, May 31). The Atlanta Constitution. ProQuest Historical Newspapers reproduction surfaced via library scan. 8. Anti-Defamation League. (2009). The People v. Leo Frank teacher’s guide. Also see National Archives. (2025, May 29). Progressive Era: Leo Frank Petition. @ADL 10. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. (1986, March 12). Leo Frank is posthumously pardoned by Georgia board. Also see Leo Frank pardon denied. (1983, December 23). The Washington Post. 11. Dinnerstein, L. (2020, August 11). Leo Frank case. New Georgia Encyclopedia. 12. Quinn, P. (2025, April 3). With Broadway’s “Parade” in Atlanta, Fulton County DA says Leo Frank case is “under review”. Atlanta News First.

The sex-murder of the century happened on this day in 1913 on the second floor of the National Pencil Company building in #Atlanta, a sweatshop where child laborers, mostly young girls, spent their youth making pencils, earning only pennies an hour. 13-year-old Mary Phagan was one such girl. She came that day to the office to collect her pathetically meager $1.20 pay. There she met the sweatshop’s boss and part-owner, #LeoFrank, in his office on the second floor. Frank was also the president of the Atlanta chapter of the B’nai B’rith, a #Jewish organization that would spawn the #ADL later that same year. Yes, the same ADL we know today. It was a holiday and no one else was working on that entire floor. Frank used a pretext to lure Mary to the work area in the back. He closed the doors behind them as they walked. Near the rear wall, standing in front of a metal lathe next to the toilet entrance, Leo Frank did to Mary Phagan what he, according to numerous witnesses, had often done before with his teenage girl employees: He attempted to take sexual liberties with her. She resisted. Frank knocked her down forcibly, hitting her in the eye and striking her head against the unyielding metal lathe, opening a bloody gash. While she was stunned, he pulled her garments up above her waist and raped her right on the red-stained floor in front of the toilet, as she was lying in her own flowing blood. When he was “done,” seeing the blood and doubtlessly realizing his predicament should Mary tell others of his actions, he found a piece of the twine used to pack supplies in his factory, wound it tightly around her neck, and strangled her to death. He then tore off a piece of her lace underwear, placed it around her neck as if it were a lace necklet — making sure it covered the marks of the strangling. He then summoned the factory’s Black sweeper, Jim Conley, to enlist his aid in the moving and, he hoped, the burning of Mary Phagan’s body. Conley knew that Frank liked to “chat” in private with the prettier of his young girl employees, as he had kept watch for Frank on several occasions while such “chatting” took place. And, in fact, he was keeping watch for him near the factory’s first-floor entrance at that very moment. Frank told Conley that he had struck the girl and accidentally killed her. Frank was hoping the lace “necklet” might serve to conceal the strangling — at least conceal it from Conley. It could never fool police investigators. Conley and Frank moved Mary’s body to the basement. After Mary's body was discovered, Frank and his legal team tried to frame the Black night watchman, Newt Lee, for the murder. Among other things, they forged his time card, and planted a fake bloody shirt at his residence. When that framing attempt failed, they tried to frame Jim Conley (and, 113 years later, Frank's advocates are still trying to frame him). They planted a fake “bloody club” and a forged "Mary Phagan pay envelope" near the place where Conley kept watch for Frank that day. But that forgery was exposed, too. The true evidence kept building up, and the proof was overwhelming that Frank was the killer. He was convicted and sentenced to death. But Frank had something that ordinary defendants, Black or White, never have. He was not an “ordinary citizen.” He was an important official of the city's Jewish community — the head of the Atlanta division of the B’nai B’rith. He had the massive power, money, media ownership, and political influence of the organized Jewish community nationwide behind him. They refused to let the verdict stand. They funded a multimillion-dollar legal and PR campaign to get him a new trial, to make millions of gullible people believe he was innocent and a saint-like “victim of anti-Semitism,” and to get his sentence commuted. They were only partially successful. All his numerous and expensive appeals, which went all the way up to the US Supreme Court, failed. But they continue the propaganda campaign to this very day. Never forget the life and death of Mary Phagan. Never forget that Leo Frank abused and raped her and then ended her young life. Never forget that he tried to frame two innocent Black men for the crime. And never forget that the media and the academic establishment have lied to you about this case for 113 years. To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com Mary Phagan-Kean's newly released second edition book: littlemaryphagan.com/my-new-book-is… Mary Phagan-Kean's, great niece of Mary Phagan, most recent newsletter: littlemaryphagan.com/.../PhaganFami…... Truth is on the March -- William J. Burns and the Great Leo Frank Case Carnival: littlemaryphagan.com/the-truth-is-o… #murder #truthwins #truecrime #OTD #onthisday #metoo #Georgia

The truth is on the march...the truth of who murdered Mary Phagan in 1913. In 1914, six days short of the first #anniversary of the strangulation-murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan by #Jewish businessman and B’nai B’rith official Leo M. Frank on #Confederate Memorial Day, 1913, the Frank case entered its most frenetic public phase. A major legal decision was slated to be dropped in a few days. By then, Frank had already been convicted of the gruesome #murder of Mary. But Frank’s defense team, flush with money from a national publicity campaign, was furiously working to get witnesses to reverse their testimony, and get Frank a new trial or exonerated one way or another — an exoneration effort that still continues today, led by Jewish groups including the #ADL (Anti-Defamation League). Click here to read more of the newest article on Mary Phagan-Kean's website: littlemaryphagan.com/the-truth-is-o… #LeoFrank #MaryPhagan #truth #murdermystery #truecrime #truthmatters

Today in the Leo Frank Case: April 23rd, 1957 The widow of Leo Frank, Lucille, died in Atlanta, Georgia. If you are interested in learning more about the wife of Leo Frank, her reaction to what was taking place with her husband throughout the investigation and its aftermath, here is a biographical article: leofrank.info/dramatis-perso… It is unclear what Lucille truly thought about her husband and whether she viewed him as guilty or not. She did defend her husband very strongly throughout the trial, but it took her two weeks to even visit him in jail once he was confined. Perhaps the shock of what could be was too much for her -- or she knew, deep down, the #truth of what he did. Interestingly, in her final will, she requested to go against the #Jewish tradition of being buried next to her husband and wanted her ashes to be spread around a local park in #Atlanta -- not with her husband in the Mount Carmel Cemetery. There was also drama involving their maid, Minola McKnight, who came to the police station and stated that she overheard Lucille tell her mother that #LeoFrank confessed to Lucille that he murdered Mary Phagan and asked for a gun with which to shoot himself dead. leofrank.info/trial-and-evid… "Miss Lucile [Selig Frank] said Sunday that Mr. [Leo] Frank told her Saturday night that he was in trouble, and that he didn’t know the reason why he would murder, and he told his wife to get his pistol and let him kill himself." Minola also stated in an affidavit that when she left to go to the solicitor general's office, "they told me to mind how I talked." She also described how she was receiving increased pay after the #murder and "one week, I don't remember which one, Mrs. Selig gave me $5, but it wasn't for my work, and they didn't tell me what it was for, she just said, 'Here is $5, Minola.' I understood that it was a tip for me to keep quiet. They would tell me to mind how I talked and Miss Lucille gave me a hat." To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little #MaryPhagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com #Georgia #truecrime #history #truthwins

Mary Phagan Documentary and Second Edition of The Murder of Little Mary ... youtu.be/2Dp2eepUPQM?si… via @YouTube

Join me on Friday, April 24, 2026, for an X Spaces conversation with NightNation (@RealNightNation). Come with your best questions ready!

Why Should We Still Study the 113-Year-Old Murder of Mary Phagan? ...The Conviction Integrity Unit of Fulton County is Attempting to Exonerate Leo Frank of the Crime and is Lying to Achieve Their Goal The Conviction Integrity Unit was started in 2019 under Paul Howard, Fulton County District Attorney. Nothing about this CIU included transparency regarding the #LeoFrank trial, in which the Unit was supposed to be investigating whether or not Leo Frank should be exonerated for the #murder of Mary Phagan. (Yes, after all of these years, there is a battle continuing to be fought between people who want to clear Frank's name and people who want to see justice remain.) The Phagan family, who believe without a doubt that Leo Frank raped and murdered their loved and cherished family member, filed a Fulton County Open Records Request in 2019. The goal was to see all the records regarding the CIU and the Leo Frank case during its establishment and correspondence between Paul Howard and Roy Barnes, the governor at the time. Interestingly, the response came back as: "Unfortunately, the files you have requested have been reported as destroyed from our archives center. Fulton's County retention policy states that all files are to be destroyed after 20 years." Well, nowhere near 20 years has passed since 2019, so what exactly is going on here and what is being hidden from the public, as well as the Phagan family themselves? Roy Barnes has been working with Rabbi Steven Lebow (pictured) to get Leo Frank exonerated, but by using a multitude of lies to achieve this: Lie: Leo Frank was lynched by the "Knights of Mary Phagan" Truth: The people who lynched Leo Frank never called themselves by that name. They went by the Vigilance Committee. The #NewYorkTimes coined that name seven weeks before he was lynched. Lie: The KKK was formed from the "Knights of Mary Phagan" in 1915 Truth: The KKK did not exist during the trial of Leo Frank, and only 3 members from the Frank lynching party attended the ceremony on Stone Mountain in 1915. The highly popular film, Birth of a Nation, was the real reason for the rebirth of the KKK. Lie: Barnes recommends that law students should read And the Dead Shall Rise by Steve Oney to understand the "miscarriage of justice" that took place. Truth: Steve Oney, the ADL's top historian for the case, himself has even admitted that "there was a reasonable case against Leo Frank." In 2023, he is quoted as stating: "Jim Conley and Frank had opportunity depending on your perspective. They might each have a motive. Hard to explain all the females who testified against Leo Frank, both at the trial and the May 8, 1913 coroner's inquest." It's funny how Barnes is recommending a book by an author who has not come to the final conclusion of Leo Frank is most definitely innocent. Lie: Roy Barnes states that Trial Judge Leonard Roan believed Frank was innocent Truth: There is no evidence of this being the case, and it also makes no sense based on the fact that he presided over the entire trial of Leo Frank. He could have called a mistrial, annulled the verdict, or imposed a life sentence instead. But Judge Roan chose to give Leo Frank the worst penalty -- death by hanging. Guilty. #ADL #Atlanta #truecrime #history #law #Georgia #MaryPhagan #Lies #TruthExposed #TruthOut To read the newsletters that this post was based off of, click below: littlemaryphagan.com/.../Phagan-Fam…... littlemaryphagan.com/.../FINAL.6.7.…... To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com

Today in the Leo Frank Case: April 19th, 1915 The United States Supreme Court ruled against Leo M. Frank, and his execution was set for April 25th, 1915. This was yet another appeal by Leo Frank that was turned down by the Supreme Court of the United States. Could Leo Frank....maybe....actually be...guilty? Yes, yes, he definitely could be. Multiple appeals to various courts, and each one declaring him guilty of the crime of murder. The full list of his appeals (August 27th, 1913 to April 22, 1915): 1. An application to the Georgia Superior Court -- rejected as groundless. 2. Appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court -- rejected. 3. Second appeal to Georgia Supreme Court -- rejected as groundless. 4. Appeal to the United States Federal District Court -- found Frank's arguments unpersuasive and upheld the guilty verdict. 5. Appeal to the United States Supreme Court -- rejected. 6. Second appeal to the United States Supreme Court -- rejected again, allowing the guilty verdict to stand for the murder of Mary Phagan by strangulation. Every single level of the United States legal system was appealed to, with each one carefully reviewing the trial testimony and evidence, and all coming to the same conclusion: Leo Frank was guilty. It seems highly unlikely that every member of the coroner's jury, the grand jury, the trial jury, judges of the trial court, Georgia Superior Court, Georgia Supreme Court, United States Federal District Court, and the United States Supreme Court were all anti-Semites. #MaryPhagan #LeoFrank #Georgia #truecrime #Atlanta #law #murder #murdermystery #OTD #onthisday To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com

Today in the Leo Frank Case: April 16th, 1914 On this day, #LeoFrank and his attorneys pushed again with a move for a new trial. Frank's execution was set for the following day (April 17th, 1914), but was then postponed with this new motion. A new court date was also set for April 23rd which automatically triggered a stay of execution. This image shows Leo Frank's #lawyers, Luther Z. Rosser and Reuben Arnold. To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little #MaryPhagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com #HistoryMatters #history #georgia #truecrime #murder #atlanta #law

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Today in the Leo Frank Case: April 12th, 1913 William J. Burns, a famous private detective, offered $1,000 as a reward "for satisfactory information in connection with reports that Leo Frank is a pervert or is immoral." The story of William J. Burns and the #LeoFrank case is an interesting one. Originally hired when Frank was arrested, the Burns agency withdrew from the case due to all of the chaos surrounding the case, as well as his head detective, C. W. Tobie, stating that he was convinced that Frank was guilty: "From what I developed in my investigation, I am convinced that Frank is the guilty man. We were working on the theory that he was the murderer..." -- C. W. Tobie leofrank.info/burns-agency-q… No wonder the Burns agency was let go! However, a year went by, and William Burns came back to Atlanta, supposedly of his own accord, in order to completely exonerate Leo Frank of the crime. He was actually employed by one of Frank's friends, Albert Lasker, who worked in advertising and financed Frank's public relations campaign. What came of this second round of detective work was a pile of corruption, bribery, and lies. Things got so bad that Burns' license was revoked by the Atlanta City Council, as well as his accreditation rescinded. There were multiple attempts at bribery conducted by Burns, including: 1. The attempted bribery of Aaron Allen who was a Black man, pressured to swear that Jim Conley had confessed to Allen that he alone committed the murder. He was bribed with money but Allen refused the offer. 2. The attempted bribery of Mrs. Maggie Nash, a woman who stated that Burns wanted her to change her testimony, where she swore that she witnessed Frank going into a private room with a female employee. 3. Annie Maud Carter was used to forge evidence. She agreed to claim that she received obscene letters from Jim Conley while both were incarcerated. These letters were so explicit that this was "proof" of Conley's perversion and of his sexual abnormalities. These same terms were applied to Frank previously and now being applied to Conley, so of course, it's more likely that he would be the true murderer. It became clear that William J. Burns was hired to conduct the dirty work in obtaining false evidence that helped Leo Frank avoid being hanged. maryphagan.com/1914-05-26-cou… To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little #MaryPhagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com #truecrime #history #Georgia #murder #truth #Atlanta #WilliamBurns #detective

False. The ADL's characterization of the 1913 Leo Frank trial as having been marred by Jew-hatred is a detestable lie. Anti-Defamation League also misrepresents the circumstances and motivations behind Leo Frank's 1915 extrajudicial hanging by leading men of Georgia's civic, legal, and political establishment. Leo Frank's Pardon Is a Profound Miscarriage of Justice The ADL (@ADL) and Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) have done great harm to my family, Americans, and specifically to the people of Georgia by promoting the falsehood that religious bigotry drove Leo Frank's conviction for the strangulation-murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan. This claim is false, and the ADL's own sources confirm it. ADL's "Hang the Jew" Hoax Debunked by Steve Oney (@steveoneywriter): The ADL tweet contains several assertions that collapse under scrutiny when measured against the historical record. The trial was not "marred by antisemitism." The ADL's own Leo Frank expert, Steve Oney, told the Jewish Journal that the "hang the Jew" courtroom chanting claim is not substantiated by the evidence.[1] Debunked by Leo Frank: Leo Frank himself told a Jewish newspaper publisher that antisemitism was "absolutely not the reason" for his conviction.[2] Debunked by Atlanta Constitution, 1913 The defense's own mistrial motion cited crowd giving plaudits for the prosecutor, not antisemitic chanting.[3] None of the three Atlanta newspapers (AC, AJ & AG) covering the 25-day trial reported antisemitic crowd behavior during the proceedings.[4] ADL Weaponizing Antisemitism Hoaxes and Distorting History with Antigentile Blood Libels The ADL has published this unsupported claim across several different pages on its website over a span of more than two decades, with the wording varying from version to version, the details escalating over time, and no primary source citation ever provided.[5] Leo Frank Was Never Absolved or Exculpated of the 1913 Mary Phagan Murder A pardon was historically something granted to a living person, because the recipient held the right to accept or reject it. A dead man can neither accept nor reject anything, which raises a fundamental question about the legal validity of the 1986 posthumous pardon itself. Setting this foundational problem aside, the pardon did not officially exonerate Leo Frank. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles explicitly stated that the symbolic pardon was granted "without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence."[6] Leo Frank remains officially guilty under Georgia law to this day. The pardon was issued solely because the state failed to protect Frank in custody and failed to bring those who abducted him to justice. Framing the pardon as vindication, exculpation or absolution is a misrepresentation that the ADL's own source documents contradict. Leo Frank's Guilt Was Proven to a Near-Mathematical Certainty The coroner's inquest voted 7 to 0 against Frank. The grand jury, which included four Jewish members, voted 21 to 0 to indict him for the murder of Mary Phagan on May 24, 1913. The trial jury convicted 12 to 0 after 25 days of testimony. Judge Leonard Roan denied the motion for a new trial. The Georgia Supreme Court upheld the conviction. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 that Frank received every right guaranteed to him under the Constitution. Every level of the American judicial system sustained the verdict. The 1986 pardon left the guilty verdict undisturbed. [7] Say Her Name, ADL: Mary Anne Phagan (1899-1913) The ADL's tweet mentions Leo Frank by name and adds the Hebrew honorific "z'l" (of blessed memory). It does not mention Mary Phagan by name. A 13-year-old girl was raped and strangled in a factory by her employer, Atlanta B'nai B'rith President Leo Frank and the ADL cannot bring itself to acknowledge her. The tweet is not a memorial. It is an act of erasure. I am Asking the ADL directly: Say Her Name! What is Mary Phagan's name? Why does she not merit a blessing? The ADL has spent over a century elevating the memory of a convicted child-killer while systematically burying the child he killed. Challenging the "Hate-Filled Mob" Framing of the Vigilance Committee The men who carried out the extrajudicial hanging called themselves the Vigilance Committee. The name "Knights of Mary Phagan," which appears widely in secondary sources, was not their actual name. It was a mistake that got swept into the historical record, likely originating from New York Times coverage.[8] The Vigilance Committee included a former governor, two mayors, a judge, a state legislator, and prominent attorneys and businessmen. Their identities were known locally. No one was prosecuted. Calling them a "hate-filled mob" reduces a deliberate, organized act by the civic leadership of Atlanta and Marietta to a spontaneous eruption of religious bigotry. The ADL uses this framing because the alternative, that Georgia's leading citizens believed Leo Frank was guilty and acted on that conviction after the commutation by Georgia Governor John Slaton, is a reality they cannot accommodate. Governor Slaton's Conflict of Interest The ADL never mentions that the Georgia governor who commuted Frank's death sentence to life in prison, John M. Slaton, was a partner in the law firm that represented and defended Leo Frank at his trial and through his state appeals. Slaton joined the firm of Luther Rosser in May 1913, after Rosser had already been retained to defend Frank and had publicly taken part in his case.[9] This was a conflict of interest so brazen that it provoked the public outrage the ADL now attributes to religious bigotry and Jew-hatred. Mary Phagan-Kean Responds to the ADL's Distortions The ADL has consistently warped the facts of the Leo Frank case to serve its institutional mythology. It has misrepresented the pardon as exoneration on X by not clarifying it, promoted the unsupported courtroom chanting claim on its website, omitted the victim's name from its public statements, and suppressed Governor Slaton's conflict of interest from every account it publishes. In the words of: I am Mary Phagan-Kean, great-niece and namesake of Mary Phagan, as quoted in the Marietta Daily Journal in 2019, now restated in 2026: "The Phagan family has no objection to anyone expressing their opinions about the Frank case, but we do insist that organizations and personal campaigns not distort the truth and facts to use this case for their own political purposes. ... Driven by the need to exonerate a Jewish leader, they intend to convict an innocent African-American man. They spread fabrications, propagandize falsehoods, distort the facts and change headlines of original newspapers to promote the hoax of not guilty. The real miscarriage of justice is that in this time of the #MeToo movement, they seek to override a duly convicted murderer-pedophile's conviction."[10] No Widespread Antisemitism in Georgia in the Years Surrounding the Leo Frank Case, 1913-1915 The Jewish population of Georgia more than doubled between 1907 and 1918, the period straddling the Leo Frank case. It has grown exponentially since. The interfaith marriage rate in Georgia is high. Jewish communities are deeply assimilated into Southern culture. If antisemitism was truly rampant and pervasive enough to drive a wrongful murder conviction, why did Jews continue moving to Georgia in record numbers in the aftermath of Leo Frank's extrajudicial hanging? Why do Jews continue to intermarry with the people who supposedly despise them? Would haters of Jews go out of their way to marry Jews and raise families with them? The accusation that anti-Jewish hatred was widespread at the time and drove Leo Frank's murder conviction is a detestable distortion by those who weaponize the Leo Frank case to defame the people of Georgia and falsify their history under the pretense of moral superiority and moral courage. Historical Memory: A Blessing for Whom? The ADL closes its tweet with "May his memory be a blessing." A blessing to whom? Not to the family of Mary Phagan, whose murdered child has been written out of the ADL's narrative for over a century. Not to the people of Georgia, who have been branded as antisemitic bigots for convicting a man the evidence showed was guilty. Not to Jim Conley, the Black man the ADL's allies have spent a century trying to saddle with sole blame for a crime. Not to the child victims of predatory employers whose cases are undermined every time an organization with the ADL's reach canonizes a convicted child-killer as a holy martyr of antisemitism. Leo Frank's "memory" as constructed by the ADL is not a blessing. It is a grotesque weapon, and it has been wielded against the American people and my family for more than a hundred years. The original trial records, contemporaneous newspaper coverage, and primary source documents cited in this response are publicly accessible online. I post, repost and quote tweet about this information regularly in my X timeline. The ADL has done great harm to my family with its generational exaggerations, falsifications, obfuscations, omissions and outright lies about the Leo Frank case. Disclaimer: The Phagan family unequivocally opposes vigilante violence and extrajudicial action in all forms. The historical images, documents, and primary source materials presented herein are provided exclusively for the purposes of historical research, education, and public record. Their inclusion reflects a commitment to preserving the factual record of the Leo Frank case and does not constitute an endorsement of, or an incitement to, any unlawful action. Sources [1] Nation of Islam Research Group. (n.d.). Jewish Forward takes on Leo Frank mythology. Retrieved from noirg.org/articles/jewis… [2] Nation of Islam Historical Research Department. (2016). The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 3: The Leo Frank Case, The Lynching of a Guilty Man (p. 142). [3] Atlanta Constitution. (1913, August 26). Here is the chronological order of final day of Frank's trial. Reporting on Arnold's mistrial motion at 12:05 p.m. on the final day of trial. [4] Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Journal, and Atlanta Georgian. (1913, July 28 through August 26). Daily coverage of the Leo Frank murder trial. Transcriptions available at maryphagan.com [5] Foxman, A. H. (2005, August 18). Lessons of the Leo Frank case still relevant. Anti-Defamation League; Anti-Defamation League. (n.d.). Hang the Jew, hang the Jew. ADL History, 1913-1920; Anti-Defamation League. (2016, March 18). Seeking justice: The pardon of Leo Frank. Retrieved from adl.org/blog/seeking-j…; Anti-Defamation League. (n.d.). We must grapple with history to move forward. Retrieved from adl.org/blog/we-must-g… [6] Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles. (1986, March 11). Posthumous pardon of Leo M. Frank. Transcription available at maryphagan.com/state-board-of… [7] Phagan-Kean, M. (2025). The murder of little Mary Phagan (2nd rev. ed.). See also: Leo Frank Case Research Library, leofrank.info/trial-and-evid… [8] Phagan-Kean, M. (2025). The murder of little Mary Phagan (2nd rev. ed.), Chapter 9: Reverberations. See also: Leo Frank Case Research Library editorial note on the Vigilance Committee, leofrank.info/mary-phagan-ke… [9] Watson, T. E. (1915, August). The celebrated case of the State of Georgia vs. Leo Frank. Watson's Magazine, 21(4). Retrieved from maryphagan.com/08-tom-watson-… [10] Gillooly, J. (2019, June 14). After 106 years, Leo Frank gets another day in court. Marietta Daily Journal. Retrieved from mdjonline.com/news/after-106… #LeoFrank #TheADL #Antidefamationleague #bnaibrith #Atlanta #AlonzoMann #MaryPhagan #Georgia #Lynching #Epstein #EpsteinFiles

Why Should We Still Study the 113-Year-Old Murder of Mary Phagan? ....Because the ADL Refuses to Stop Spreading Lies! "Leo Frank raped and murdered 13-year-old Mary Phagan but he and his supporters desperately want a Black man to pay the price. We, the family of Mary Phagan, will not let that happen." -- Mary Phagan-Kean The Anti-Defamation League (#ADL) wants you to believe that Leo Frank is innocent and has also been posthumously exonerated of the crime. This is, simply, not true. In the 1980s, there was a push to have him posthumously exonerated but what came of this was just a pardon -- a pardon that was given acknowledging the fact that he was not protected by the state and could not "preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction." This pardon did not declare him innocent of the crime. But the ADL wants you to think otherwise. littlemaryphagan.com/georgia-state-… The ADL also loves to bring up this claim that there were angry mobs outside of the courthouse during Leo Frank's trial, proclaiming, "Hang the Jew! Hang the Jew!" This mob apparently played a role in the jury's verdict of guilty as well as his lynching by the people of Georgia, according to the ADL. Again, there is no evidence of this mob ever existing. Nothing in the news reports or other primary sources of the case. Yet, the ADL claims that this case was riddled with anti-Semitism, and that is why Leo Frank was found guilty and eventually hanged. Ironically, a group called the Anti-DEFAMATION League is openly lying and defaming the character of Mary Phagan, as well as the African-American men who Frank's defense team attempted to put the blame on (namely, Newt Lee and Jim Conley). They have been lying for over a century now, and it needs to stop. The truth of what actually happened to Mary Phagan and the person who did it to her needs to be known by all who study the case. Read the newsletter that this short writing was based on here: littlemaryphagan.com/wp-content/upl… To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com #history #Georgia #LeoFrank #MaryPhagan #truecrime

Why Should We Still Study the 113-Year-Old Murder of Mary Phagan? The full story of the rape and murder of Mary Phagan -- by her boss, Leo Frank -- at her workplace needs to be known. Mary Phagan's voice needs to be heard. Her story is disturbing, but it is an important warning of how the privileged and powerful often get away with horrific crimes. Leo M. Frank was a sexual predator -- in many ways, a 1913 precursor to Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein. The fact that well-funded interest groups like the ADL still defend him today is part of the lesson we must learn. There is ample evidence proving his guilt. He routinely and repeatedly used and abused teenagers who worked in his sweatshop. Twenty of his own employees came forward to testify to the repeated sexual advances he made on the young girls he employed. At one point, the testimony became so explicit that the judge cleared the room of all female spectators. Despite ample testimony of his guilt -- and of his team's efforts to frame two innocent Black men for the crime -- powerful, wealthy pressure groups spend millions today to convince the public that Leo Frank was innocent. For the sake of Mary Phagan and her family, for the sake of historical truth, and for the sake of understanding how certain groups have corrupted the judicial process and the public narrative of this terrible crime, the real story of Mary Phagan needs to be studied and understood. A little girl should not be left in her grave while her murderer is being held up as a "martyr." Today, almost unbelievably, 13-year-old Mary Phagan is being blamed for her own rape and murder! A powerful and wealthy special interest group insincerely asks us why she would even go to her workplace alone if she knew of her boss's reputation. (Of course, she had no idea she would end up alone on the second floor with him, and she had originally asked her co-worker, Helen Ferguson, to pick up her pay a day earlier, a regular work day. But Leo Frank refused to give the paycheck to Helen. Therefore, Mary was forced to go in and get it herself.) Today, organizations such as the ADL blame a 13-year-old girl for her own rape and #murder! Yes, the #ADL has been putting the blame on a little girl -- and attempting to overturn the guilty conviction of Leo Frank for over 100 years now! In 2019, a "Conviction Integrity Unit" was formed in Fulton County, #Georgia, under pressure from the ADL, with the intention of reversing the verdict and clearing Frank's name. Their pressure campaign continues. Such an injustice to little Mary Phagan should not be allowed to happen. To learn more about the #LeoFrank case and the murder of little #MaryPhagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com The Smearing of Little Mary Phagan by the Supporters of Leo Frank: littlemaryphagan.com/wp-content/upl… #murder #truecrime #history #Atlanta #MeToo

April is here, and it's the month that holds the anniversary of Mary Phagan's murder at the hands of Leo Frank. Her murder took place in 1913 -- 113 years ago, which seems like a very long time ago. Why should we still be thinking about and studying the details of this murder case? Was there really anything significant about what happened way back when horse-drawn carriages were still dominant on the streets, most people were using kerosene lamps in their homes, and women weren't able to vote yet? Yes, not only was Mary Phagan's brutal death significant to her immediate family, her descendants, and the local community at the time, but what happened afterwards has led to a long story involving injustice, lies, and corruption. A story that continues into today, the year 2026. Throughout April, I'm going to discuss this ongoing story and why the murder case remains relevant today. Stay tuned to delve further into the murder of little Mary Phagan! #murder #MaryPhagan #LeoFrank #truecrime #murdermystery #Atlanta #history #Georgia To learn more about the Leo Frank case and the murder of little Mary Phagan, please visit: littlemaryphagan.com