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The Mary Phagan murder trial: Leo Frank...



Item # 580927

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May 22, 1913

THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Georgia, May 22, 1913  In the bottom half of the front page are one column heads: "EXPERTS ARE HERE ON FINGER PRINTS" "Two Investigators Are Added to Wm. J. Burns' Forces Already in Atlanta---P.A. Flak in City" with the text beginning: "The William J. Burns forces in the investigation of the Mary Phagan mystery have been reinforced by two expert investigators who recently arrived in the city..." with more (see), with further reporting carrying over to page 16.
This is the complete issue.  It has a little spine chipping, a few small margin tears, is a bit irregular at the blank spine margin due to disbinding (but affecting no text), but is otherwise in good condition for the period. Must be handled with extreme care as issues from this period are very fragile. Terrific to have this report in an Atlanta newspaper, the city where the trial was held.
Note:  The Leo Frank case has become well known in American history for several reasons, not the least of which being the several film and television depictions of the trial, but also because Frank was a Jewish-American businessman, his case turning the spotlight on antisemitism in the United States and led to the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. There was also the element of Frank being cast as a representative of Yankee capitalism, a rich northern Jew lording it over vulnerable working women in the South.
Leo Frank was the superintendent of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, convicted on Aug. 26, 1913 of the murder of one of the factory workers, 13 year-old Mary Phagan. He would be found guilty and in 1915 sentenced to death, but the governor commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, to the great outrage of the citizenry. A mob of some 25 armed men kidnapped Frank from prison and hanged him.

Category: The 20th Century