The death notes found near Mary Phagan’s body – click for high resolution

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 unlikely to use. Were they written by a Black killer, in a hopelessly botched attempt to throw investigators off the trail? Or were they created by a clever killer to make us think that the murderer was a Black man? Were they perhaps even dictated by the killer to a compliant Black man to write, who would thereby impose his genuine style — and handwriting — on them? (ILLUSTRATION: Two of the four murder notes — the other two were never found.)

In this, the twentieth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn that the latter scenario — with Leo Frank dictating the notes to James Conley — is exactly what Conley said actually happened. Much has been made by Frank partisans of the fact that Conley’s language on the stand more or less matched the style and usage of the notes, claiming that this rules out Frank having dictated them. But that claim has little merit, for it seems very unlikely that Frank would want to dictate the notes word for word: Allowing Conley to put them in his own words and style would have served Frank’s purpose much better. We’ll also learn of the glaring weaknesses of Frank’s other alibis, many of which appear to have been hastily and sloppily cobbled together at the last minute.

Continue Reading →

James Conley

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 said was guilty of murder, Leo M. Frank, never received treatment even remotely like this from the police, the detectives, or the prosecutor’s office. Leo Frank partisans, for their part, strove mightily to frame two Black men, Newt Lee and Jim Conley, with planted “evidence” and hired perjury, and at one point even solicited the murder of James Conley, the Black man whose testimony against Frank was among the most important in the case.

In this, the nineteenth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn of the highly improbable claims of the Frank defense, including Leo Frank’s bizarre claim on the stand that he had “unconsciously” used the toilet at the very location and time at which Mary Phagan was being strangled to death — incidentally leaving his valuable papers and payroll unguarded in an unlocked, open office in an unlocked building.

This new audio book, based on the Nation of Islam’s The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, the best investigative effort made on the Leo Frank case in the last 100 years, will take you on a trip into the past — to the greatest American murder mystery of all time; a mystery that will reveal to you the hidden forces that shape our world even today.

To read all the chapters we’ve published so far, simply click on this link.

We at The American Mercury are now proud to present part 19 of our audio version of this very important book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Simply press “play” on the player embedded above — or at the end of this article — to hear part 19 of the book.

* * *

Click here to obtain a print or e-book copy of this important work, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 3; The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man.

For further information on the Nation of Islam Historical Research Group, readers are encouraged to visit their Web site, noirg.org.

Lynching in Lee County, Georgia, January, 1916, based on an actual photograph

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 lion’s share of publicity, the many hundreds of Black lynching victims getting next to none. This tells us a great deal about who runs the media, and about the real power dynamics in today’s America.

In this, the eighteenth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn of the almost unbelievable disregard for the legal and civil rights of Black people in Georgia’s courts of that time, and the near-impossibility of Black men and women obtaining even the most rudimentary legal representation, to say nothing of anything remotely resembling the gold-plated legal defense and investigative teams marshaled by the Jewish community for Leo Frank, including the full support of many major daily newspapers, periodicals, and New York publishing houses.

Continue Reading →

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.”

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?

In this, the seventeenth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn that the claim that Jews fled Atlanta (in some accounts, fled the South generally) in large numbers is an utter falsehood. Jews greatly increased their presence in Atlanta and the South during the period of Leo Frank’s trial, appeals, lynching, and aftermath.

Continue Reading →

This color portrait of Leo Frank — with a depiction of the National Pencil Company building in the background — was commissioned especially for this book, published by the Nation of Islam.

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 was in court the very next day after her outburst, with no reprisals or even threats of reprisals against her. Neither she nor any of her friends or associates in Atlanta’s Jewish community evidently took — or even remarked about the possibility of taking — any special precautions whatsoever.

In this, the fourteenth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, we also learn of the almost incredibly corrupt acts of Governor John Marshall Slaton, usually portrayed as a hero in biased “mainstream” accounts of the case. It was Slaton who made a deal to commute Frank’s death sentence to life in prison — and it was also Slaton who was quietly made a partner in the law firm defending Leo Frank, just a few weeks after Frank was indicted for murdering Mary Phagan. Thus Slaton was literally commuting the death sentence of his own client, an egregiously unethical act. And there’s much more to learn in this audio presentation, too.

This new audio book, based on the Nation of Islam’s The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, the best investigative effort made on the Leo Frank case in the last 100 years, will take you on a trip into the past — to the greatest American murder mystery of all time; a mystery that will reveal to you the hidden forces that shape our world even today.

To read all the chapters we’ve published so far, simply click on this link.

We at The American Mercury are now proud to present part 14 of our audio version of this very important book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Simply press “play” on the player embedded above — or at the end of this article — to hear part 14 of the book.

* * *

Click here to obtain a print or e-book copy of this important work, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 3; The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man.

For further information on the Nation of Islam Historical Research Group, readers are encouraged to visit their Web site, noirg.org.