White Men Fined in War on Negro Dives

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 15, 1913

A crusade against white men frequenting negro dives has been started by Recorder Nash Broyles. He fined three men, who gave their names as Kirk, Smith and Little and A.B. Arnold, of Macon, who forfeited $50.75.

The five white men were arrested in a raid on a place at 76 Chestnut street, early Sunday morning. Helen Lester, who runs the dive, was held for the higher courts in bonds of $500.

“The mingling of whites and blacks does more to stir up race trouble than anything else,” declared the Recorder.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 15th 1913, “White Men Fined in War on Negro Dives,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Holloway Corroborates Mincey’s Affidavit

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 15, 1913

RECALLS HE WAS TOLD STORY OF CONLEY

Watchman Remembers of Visit of Witness to Factory on Day of Crime.

Further corroboration of several of the important details in the remarkable affidavit of W.H. Mincey, insurance agent and teacher, who swore he heard Jim Conley confess killing a girl, came Tuesday in a statement by E.F. Holloway, day watchman at the National Pencil Factory.

Holloway substantiated in every particular the story of Mincey’s visit to the factory the Tuesday following the crime and recalled the general trend of the conversation, which was practically as Mincey related it in his signed statement published exclusively in The Georgian Monday. The defense has obtained an affidavit from Holloway as to the circumstances of the day.

“I remember Mincey coming here Tuesday,” said Holloway. “He was a quiet, retiring fellow, and I guess we scared him out. There were a lot of people in the factory, and the excitement after the murder was at its height. Several detectives were there and there were a score of people bothering the detectives and the factory authorities with their theories on the killing.

Wanted Negroes Arrested.

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Police Close 2 Rooming Houses

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Tuesday, July 15, 1913

Chief Beavers Opens Real Fight on Doubtful Places—Several Under Watch.

Active steps against doubtful rooming and boarding houses were taken by Chief of Police Beavers Tuesday morning. He declared that he intends to close every “shady” rooming house in the city against which he can obtain evidence.

He intimated that he has the addresses of a number of boarding houses where, it is alleged, young girls and men visit and where the roomers are in reality inmates of the place, and his campaign is to be directed especially against these.

They will be thoroughly investigated, and if evidence is found to sustain the action, will be closed and the Council asked to revoke the licenses of the persons who operate the places.

Orders closing two boarding houses were issued from headquarters this morning. Mrs. Lulu Bell, whose hotel at Fair and Peters streets was raided last week, resulting in the arrest of half a dozen persons and the telling of a white slave story by Effie Drummond, was ordered to vacate the place and close it up.

The Bell place, Chief Beavers firmly believes, is one of those under the control of the “higher-ups” in the vice ring, against whom he is now obtaining evidence, and he regards the arrest of the Bell woman and the closing of the place as one of the significant steps of the campaign he is waging against vice.

The negro joint at 76 Chestnut street, which was raided by the police Sunday morning, was also ordered closed by Chief Beavers Tuesday. Sev-eral [sic] white men were arrested when this raid was made, and evidence has been obtained that the place was one of the most vicious in the city.

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The Atlanta Georgian, July 15th 1913, “Police Close 2 Rooming Houses,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 11

Jewish attorney Louis Marshall

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

ALMOST THE ENTIRE pro-Leo Frank narrative is dependent on one claim: that Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey fabricated James Conley’s story (or edited and embellished a story made up by Conley) and then coached him to deliver it skillfully on the witness stand. If Conley’s story was not fiction, and not the result of conspiracy, collusion, and coaching; then it must be true — and Leo Frank must be guilty. Thus everything depends on the “coaching” allegation. In this week’s audio book section, we’ll see how untenable is the “coaching” claim. Why would Dorsey and Conley let stand a fiction that included so many checkable facts? — such as people he and Frank had met on the street on the way to the pencil factory — such as the one-hour time discrepancy between Conley’s version of the visit of Emma Clark and Corinthia Hall, and the time the girls themselves gave — and many other items which were totally unnecessary to establishing Frank’s guilt.

In this, the eleventh 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 about the massive public relations campaign by leaders of the Jewish community — men such as Albert Lasker, Louis Marshall, and Adolf Ochs — designed to build a sense of outrage in the minds of Americans that an innocent man had been ruthlessly framed by “anti-Semites.”

 

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 11 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 11 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.

 

Mincey’s Own Story

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 14, 1913

*Editor’s Note: This article also appeared in the Night Edition under the headline “Mincey Tells of Confession.”

Tells How Conley Confessed Killing Girl

‘I AM SEEKING ONLY TO DO MY DUTY FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE’

The Georgian Secures Remarkable Statement From Chief Witness for Defense in the Trial of Frank. Declares Belief in Conley’s Guilt.

On Thursday, July 10, The Georgian published the exclusive story of an affidavit in the possession of the lawyers for Leo M. Frank, accused of the murder of Mary Phagan, made by W.H. Mincey, an insurance agent, the substance of which was to the effect that Jim Conley, the negro sweeper at the pencil factory, had confessed that he killed the little girl.

In his affidavit, Mincey declared that he met the negro Conley at Electric avenue and Carter street on the afternoon of the murder; that Conley was intoxicated and when approached by Mincey for insurance became angry and exclaimed, threateningly: “I have killed a girl to-day; I don’t want to kill nobody else.”

The Georgian has now secured from Mincey a complete statement of his connection with the Phagan case. It is as follows:

By W.H. MINCEY

Continue Reading →

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 10

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THE “Hang the Jew” hoax — the claim that “anti-Semitic mobs” stood outside the courtroom during the 1913 Atlanta murder trial of Leo Frank, shouting “hang the Jew or we’ll hang you” or the like and thereby intimidating the jury — was demolished during our audio book segment last week, and shown to be an invention totally unsupported by the facts. This week we hear in detail how that hoax has been cut and pasted, repeated, amplified, mangled, and embellished by lazy, sloppy, and partisan academics, writers, and journalists over the years. One source even claimed that the “anti-Semitic mobs” that surrounded the courtroom were “inflamed” by the anti-Jewish rhetoric of populist writer Tom Watson — though it is common knowledge that Watson never wrote about the case until well after the trial. It’s an amazing litany of incompetence and deception by both Jewish and non-Jewish leaders in the American media, educational, and cultural establishment.

In this, the tenth 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 see the evidence that — far from being a “persecuted minority” — Jews in the South were very much accepted as a welcomed and even elite part of the white community, and that Jews in turn accepted and supported the supremacist racial hierarchy system there. Their attitude toward black people, the real persecuted minority, was completely the opposite of how the Jewish organizations like to portray it today: Jews fully supported a system in which black men and women constantly lived in fear of losing their lives for the slightest real or imagined infraction. We’ll learn that Leo Frank himself once even stated that black people had “no value.”

 

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 10 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 10 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.

 

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 9

This view and diagram of the courthouse and the crowd outside, published in the August 3, 1913 issue of the Atlanta Journal, gives the lie to the claims of pro-Frank writers. The crowd is described as patiently waiting for spectators to depart so they, too, could get a seat in the courtroom, and they are lined up at the court’s entrance, nowhere near the windows. The caption reads: “Photo diagram of court room in old city hall building, where Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil factory, is on trial for his life charged with the murder of Mary Phagan. Although the available seats are taken soon after court convenes, the crowd waits without all day for some weary spectator to give up a seat. On the second floor the many witnesses await their turn for a gruelling examination by attorneys on either side.”

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

JEWISH WRITERS on the Leo Frank case have made some astounding claims about the “atmosphere of anti-Semitism” during the trial of B’nai B’rith official Leo Frank for the strangulation sex murder of his 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in 1913 Atlanta. There were, we are told, “anti-Semitic” mobs (yes, plural) on the streets, some right outside the open courtroom windows, openly threatening the judge and the jury, screaming “crack the Jew’s neck!” and “hang the Jew or we’ll hang you!” and the like.

It is even claimed that Jew-haters with rifles stood almost on the window sills during the trial, aiming at the trial participants just a few feet away. This doesn’t comport well with the contemporary accounts of the trial from Atlanta’s three daily newspapers of the time, the Constitution,  the Journal, and the Georgian — none of which reported any such outrages, despite the fact that they took a generally pro-Frank tone throughout the trial — despite the fact that all three employed Jewish editors — and despite the fact that Leo Frank and his defense team praised the newspaper coverage they received. All contemporary accounts show that the trial proceeded with dignity, fairness, proper procedure, and decent composure throughout. The judge wouldn’t even tolerate applause when court was in session.

(ILLUSTRATION: click here for a large version, showing detail; This view and diagram of the courthouse and the crowd outside, published in the August 3, 1913 issue of the Atlanta Journal, gives the lie to the claims of pro-Frank writers. The crowd is described as patiently waiting for spectators to depart so they, too, could get a seat in the courtroom, and they are lined up at the court’s entrance, nowhere near the windows. The caption reads: “Photo diagram of court room in old city hall building, where Leo M. Frank, superintendent of the National Pencil factory, is on trial for his life charged with the murder of Mary Phagan. Although the available seats are taken soon after court convenes, the crowd waits without all day for some weary spectator to give up a seat. On the second floor the many witnesses await their turn for a gruelling examination by attorneys on either side.”)

In this, the ninth 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 large Jewish advertisers — even the major shareholders in Leo Frank’s place of business, the National Pencil Company, in whose factory the murder took place — were also satisfied with the trial coverage given by the Atlanta dailies, and maintained their significant spending on ad space before, during, and after the trial.

 

The two versions of the trial — the calm and serious one reported by every reporter who was there, and the one featuring near-rabid anti-Jewish mobs making violent threats — are very different. They are mutually contradictory. They can’t both be true. Perhaps it is telling that, in very recent years, some Jewish writers (not including the ADL) have quietly dropped the lurid tales of “anti-Semitic” mobs from their version of events.

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 9 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 9 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.

 

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 8

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

THE PROSECUTION in the Leo Frank case never mentioned the word “Jew” until it was brought up by the defense — and lead prosecutor Hugh Dorsey had a long history of friendly relations and close collaboration with Jews throughout his life and career. So the accusation, common today among pro-Frank partisans, that the indictment and prosecution of Leo Max Frank was motivated by “anti-Semitism” simply doesn’t stand up to even the slightest scrutiny.

In this, the eighth 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 Frank himself denied that anti-Jewish feelings played any part in his arrest and trial.

 

Thomas B. Felder, and his expansive smile.

In this section of the book, we also learn of the amazing, blustering, and mysterious entry into the case of prominent Atlanta lawyer — shyster, really — “Colonel” Thomas B. Felder. Felder tried to present himself as a merely a public-spirited attorney, working for the Phagan family to “get to the bottom” of the mystery of Mary Phagan’s death. But when he was caught trying to bribe police officials to illegally obtain original documents related to the case — and when the Phagan family denied any connection with him — he beat a hasty retreat while loudly proclaiming his belief in Leo Frank’s guilt and claiming that “Jew money” was causing the authorities to “shield Frank.” Despite his strident attacks on Frank after he was discredited, the evidence is very strong that Felder was actually in Frank’s employ.

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 8 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 8 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.

 

Girl Bares New Vice System

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 14, 1913

Young Woman From the Country Says She Was Lured to Resort on Peters Street.

Raid Frees Victim of Alleged Gang From a Resort on Peters Street.

Five White Men and Dozen Negroes Arrested in Raid Are Convicted in Court.

*Editor’s Note: This article was also published under the headlines “Police Hunt Vice Band’s Leader” and “17 Caught in Vice Drag Fined,” the latter article containing the following six paragraphs in brackets. The sub-headlines for each article are listed above in the same order. There is also a continuation of the article on a second page, which does not show on the scanned source text.

[The police crusade against vice resulted Monday afternoon in the conviction and fining of five white men and twelve negroes who were caught in a raid on a negro dive at 76 Chestnut avenue early Sunday morning.

Judge Broyles sharply scored the existence of such alleged dives, and declared every effort must be put forth to close them. Chief Beavers has ordered the house closed immediately.

The trial created a stir in police court, as eight of the negroes were chauffeurs for some of the most prominent men in Atlanta, who were on hand to make bond for them.

The white men, who were fined $15.75 each, are C.F. Smith, clerk, of 54 Angler avenue; S.B. Moore, clerk, of 131 South Pryor street; A.B. Arnold, of Macon; J.W. Little, of Macon, and C.D. Kirk, of 348 North Jackson street.

Eight of the negro men were fined $10.75 each.

Eilene Lester, who, it is alleged, runs the place; Henry Lester, her husband, and Theresa Gilbert and Minnie Jones, two other negro women implicated, were bound over to the Superior Court under $500 bond each.]

General Order Issued.

Continue Reading →

Vice Pickets Posted at Hotels

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 14, 1913

Revocation of License Will Be Asked if Law Is Violated. Girl Sentenced.

The vice inquiry Monday morning resulted in a close surveillance of hotels which, it is alleged, harbor young girls for immoral purposes. If the law is violated, the police authorities say, the police committee of Council will be requested to revoke the license of the hotel involved.

Chief Beavers has detailed men to watch for violations of the law following information given by Corinne Wilson and Dora Rosthstein [sic], sentenced to the Reform School Saturday afternoon.

The new information, it is understood, involves one more well-known downtown hotel and several other parties, one of whom is said to be prominent. Developments are expected to-day as a result of work along this line.

In the meantime five cases, made out against four women and one man following a raid Saturday on the home of Mrs. Lula Bell on Peters Street have been set on the Recorder’s docket for trial Monday morning.

One of Saturday’s victims, Corinne Wilson, has called upon her husband, who resides in Marietta, to come to her.

“I love him,” said the girl, “and I believe he loves me. If he only will come to me and keep me out of the Reform School, I will be straight.”

Dora Rothstein probably will be sent to the Reform School the latter part of the week.

* * *

The Atlanta Georgian, July 14th 1913, “Vice Pickets Posted at Hotels,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 7

Leo Frank’s lead attorney, Luther Z. Rosser, who, along with Reuben Arnold and other members of the Frank defense team, played the 1913 version of the “race card” with vigor, attacking James Conley in particular and, in his words, “niggers” in general.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

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. 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 Atlanta B’nai B’rith, would be — they insinuated — “incapable.”

In this, the seventh 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 Frank defense promoted the idea that there was a separate category of testimony — “Negro testimony” — which wise jurors ought to ignore or regard as false. Nevertheless, the race-baiting strategy failed and the all-white jury believed the black man.

 

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. Frank spoke for hours on end, and almost all of that time was spent telling the jury about the intricacies of managing the accounts of the pencil factory where he was superintendent — presumably to give the impression that he would have been so busy with his books on that fatal day that he simply wouldn’t have had time to commit the murder and move the body to the basement. It was ultimately unconvincing.

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 7 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 7 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.

 

Prosecution Attacks Mincey’s Affidavit

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Monday, July 14, 1913

MRS. CRAWFORD BEGINS FIGHT FOR HER FREEDOM

STATE STILL CONFIDENT OF CASE

Story of Negro Who Says He Was Eyewitness of Slaying Disbelieved by Solicitor.

Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey and Attorney Frank A. Hooper, engaged in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank, were induced Monday to break the silence they have maintained grilling the negro Jim Conley last week. They made their first public comments on the sensational developments of the last few days in the Phagan murder mystery.

Both declared emphatically that neither the affidavit of W. H. Mincey, insurance solicitor, nor the reported confession of the negro Will Green, who is said to have been an eyewitness of the attack upon Mary Phagan, gave evidence sufficient to shake their conviction of Leo Frank’s guilt.

Rumors that the State was preparing to change its theory and to ask for the indictment of Jim Conley were laughed at.

Mincey Affidavit Discounted.

Continue Reading →

Indictment of Conley Puzzle for Grand Jury

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 13, 1913

*Editor’s Note: Some text is blurred in the original document, and illegible text is marked by “[…]”. The text box insert is transcribed at the bottom of this post.

Old Police Reporter Declares True Bill Against Negro Might Alter Entire Frank Prosecution.

RULES OF EVIDENCE CITED

Mincey Affidavit May Have Important Bearing on Defense of Pencil Factory Manager.

By An Old Police Reporter.

Persistent rumors have been abroad of late that the present Grand Jury may indict James Conley for the murder of Mary Phagan.

This is interesting, for if the Grand Jury should indict Conley it would set up a situation immediately possible of most decided results.

Frank already has been indicted, for reasons presumably sufficient to the Grand Jury then acting upon his case.

Would the present Grand Jury be justified in proceeding to the indictment of Conley, notwithstanding the former Frank indictment?

Unquestionably it would, if the circumstances of the case warranted it—indeed, there are many who will think it should proceed to that, if in that way justice seemed more likely to be established.

In getting a point of view in this matter, I have found it necessary to go back to the beginning, and to ask myself this:

Would the Grand Jury, in possession of all the present facts and circumstances pointing toward either Conley or Frank as the guilty man, have indicted Frank or Conley, as a primary proposition?

Much Room for Speculation.

Continue Reading →

Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 6

Testimony indicated that Leo M. Frank, shown, led a secret sexual life at the factory where he supervised dozens of teenage girls.

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

PARTISANS OF Leo Frank have often tried to discredit Jim Conley’s testimony by pointing out that his account of the visit of Corinthia Hall and Emma Clark to the pencil factory where the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan took place was off by more than an hour. But these Frank partisans fail to note that Conley never stated that he saw the two young woman at all — he was merely told that they were there by Leo Frank, who had hustled him into a dark, locked closet after Frank announced the two were coming. Could it be that Frank was making preparations for murdering Conley — the only man on Earth, besides himself, who knew about Mary Phagan’s murder?

In this, the sixth 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 hear the words of James Conley, and also the testimony of the many girls and women who were witnesses to Frank’s sexual behavior.

 

Leo Frank’s lead attorney, the famous Luther Z. Rosser, known for his ferocious cross-examinations, could not break James Conley and his story of a panicked Leo Frank employing him to move Mary Phagan’s body and write the deceptive “death notes” — and, in attempting to break him, actually succeeded in eliciting far more information injurious to Frank, such as details about his illicit sexual escapades with young girls — than even the police and the Pinkertons had uncovered.

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 6 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 6 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.

 

Seek Negro Who Says He Was Eye-Witness to Phagan Murder

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 13, 1913

Fugitive, Reported to Have Been Traced to Birmingham, Declares That He Witnessed the Attack on the Girl Slain in the Pencil Plant.

LAYS CRIME TO BLACK WITH WHOM HE HAD GAMBLED

Loser at Dice, He Declares, Planned to Rob Victim as She Came From Getting Pay—Tried to Prevent the Crime and, Failing, Fled.

Report that a negro who has declared that he witnessed the attack by another negro upon Mary Phagan, which resulted in her death in the National Pencil Factory on the afternoon of April 26, has been apprehended in Birmingham, became known Saturday night.

If this information is substantiated, its substance is of such startling character as to revolutionize the present status of the Phagan case, casting down practically every bulwark which has been erected in the prosecution of Leo M. Frank for the murder.

In its present form, however, The Sunday American does not vouch for the correctness of the report. Only the fact that it comes from a source which is so near the defense of the pencil factory head as to make it authoritative and the admission by those connected with the actual legal defense of Frank, prompts this newspaper to present the sensational story, asking that it be taken for what, on its face, it is shown to be worth.

Negro Hunted Since May.

Continue Reading →

Detective Harry Scott’s Hunch — Thrilling Story of How it Secured James Conley’s Confession

Caption reads: Detective Harry Scott (in Panama hat), of the Pinkertons, who played the hunch that Jim Conley, the negro, knew something of the girl’s murder. The accompanying figure is Detective John Black, of police headquarters, whose work in co-operation with the Pinkerton man did much to solve the crime. Great dependence will be put in their testimony at the coming trial of Leo Frank, charged with the murder of Mary Phagan.

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, July 13, 1913

By Britt Craig.

Have you ever had a hunch that there wasn’t anybody around the table that held a higher hand than your Jacks over tens and consequently you shoved a ‘blue’ to the mahogany with the result that every hostile hand went to the discard?

Have you ever had a hunch that it was going to rain and you pulled in the rugs and took the clothes off the line and let down the windows just in time to see the elements express themselves in a downpour?

Have you ever had a hunch of any kind—one of those real, undeniable inner promptings that chases round and round in your bonnet and worries the life out of you and invariably forces you to do something that you really intended doing but about which you were sorely undecided?

If you’re human, you have.

Detective Harry Scott had one about Jim Conley, the negro sweeper in the Phagan mystery. It was one of those irresistible hunches that buzzes about like a June bug. He took it for its word with the result that he found the key that is predicted to unlock the secret of Atlanta’s most hideous murder.

Detectives are very normal beings. They have hunches like the weakest of us. They’re superstitious, too. You can’t find a single one that will walk under a ladder or fail to knock wood when he brags about himself.

A hunch is one of the most common of human afflictions. It is the very essence of a frailty that affects every normal somebody. The very fact that it is a weakness requires a nerve of steel and backbone of similar fortitude to play one to the limit like Detective Scott played his.

Good detectives, like genius, are utterly human. Genius frequently stalks about in its shirt sleeves without a shave and wearing suspenders. It has been known to chew tobacco and cuss volubly. Sometimes, it has a red nose and a thirst. It can sleep as contentedly on Decatur street as on Peachtree.

Detectives Very Human.

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Affidavits to Back Mincey Story Found

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Georgian

Sunday, July 13, 1913

Attorney Leavitt Declares Tale That Conley Admitted Killing Girl Will Stand Test.

NEWT LEE STILL HELD IN JAIL

Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey Promises to Present a Bill Against Him as Suspect.

That several negro women overheard Jim Conley when he ran the insurance agent, Mincey, away with the alleged statement that he had just killed a girl and didn’t want to kill anyone else, and that the affidavits from the women are in the hands of the attorneys for the defense, was stated Saturday by Attorney J.H. Leavitt, who aided in obtaining the sensational affidavit from Mincey.

Attorney Leavitt defended the character of the man who made the affidavit and denied emphatically that Mincey even asked about the money he would receive as a witness, except whether his railroad fare would be paid if he were out of the city.

Explains Dukes’ Doubts.

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Parents Are Blamed for Daughters’ Fall

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, July 13, 1913

Girls of Fourteen and Sixteen Tell Recorder Revolting Stories of Vice.

After relating a revolting tale of a career of vice on the streets and in the suburbs of Atlanta, Dora Rothstein and Corinne Wilson, two girls aged 14 and 16 years, stood unabashed in the recorder’s court Saturday afternoon.

Recorder Pro Tem Preston, shocked by their testimony, called for the parents of the prisoners.

Two aged men and a woman stepped forward and stood before the judge. They were Mr. and Mrs. A. Rothstein, parents of the younger girl, and W.B. Engesser, father of the Wilson girl.

Parents Asked to Explain.

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Audio Book – The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 5

Jim Conley, who gave history-making testimony in the Leo Frank case

by Philip St. Raymond
for The American Mercury

JIM Conley’s testimony in the Leo Frank case riveted the attention of not only all those present in the courtroom, but the entire state of Georgia and beyond hung on his words as they were reported. Despite being a member of a disparaged minority, Conley’s word was given respectful attention — and ultimately was even believed over the word of Leo Frank, an elite Jewish man considered white by the standards of the American South. This was unprecedented, but it was also inevitable given the detail, plausibility, and unshakable nature of Conley’s evidence. Even the best legal minds in the state, led by Luther Rosser, widely acknowledged to be the toughest cross-examiner in the business, could not discredit the “ignorant” Black man, no matter how hard they tried. (ILLUSTRATION: Jim Conley, who gave history-making testimony in the Leo Frank case)

In this, the fifth audio segment of this truly indispensable work originally published by the Nation of Islam — part of their series called The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews — we hear the words of James Conley as he actually spoke them on the stand as that all-White 1913 jury leaned forward and strained to hear.

And that Black man — a man who admitted helping Leo Frank move Mary Phagan’s body, but who ultimately failed to return and destroy it as Leo Frank wished — set in motion a chain of events that would lead to the solution of the mystery and a verdict of guilty in the case. The detectives, the police, the prosecution, the jury, and the vast majority of the people believed that the well-connected businessman — Leo Frank — was a liar and a murderer; and they believed that the lowly factory sweeper, Jim Conley, was telling the truth.

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 5 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 5 of the book.

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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.

Lee Must Remain Behind the Bars

Another in our series of new transcriptions of contemporary articles on the Leo Frank case.

The Atlanta Constitution

Sunday, July 13, 1913

Solicitor Dorsey Does Not Believe the Negro Guilty of Any Part in Crime.

That Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey does not believe that Newt Lee, negro night watchman at the National Pencil factory, who was bound over by the grand jury with Superintendent Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, is guilty, was the only matter of importance brought out yesterday at the hearing of the habeas corpus before Judge W.D. Ellis by which Lee’s attorneys, Graham & Chappell, sought to free him.

Judge Ellis denied the motion for habeas corpus and remanded Lee back to the custody of the sheriff to await the outcome of Frank’s trial. Attorneys L.Z. Rosser and Reuben Arnold were also successful in their fight to prevent Frank being brought into court to testify.

Solicitor Dorsey declared that he had not brought a bill against Lee before the grand jury because he believed he had no evidence which would indict Lee.

The negro’s attorneys secured from the sheriff a statement that Lee would be given more eexrcise [sic], as the darkey declared that this was all that was troubling him. He said he was getting stiff from staying in his cell.

“Frank has the entire freedom of the jail whenever he wants it,” declared Attorney Chappell, “and Lee ought to be allowed some chance to take exercise.”

The character of the darkey and his love for the juicy fruit of a Georgia watermelon came out when Lee was being taken back to jail in charge of Deputy Plennie Miner.

“Why don’t you get Mr. Miner to buy you a nigh beer, Newt?” said a bystander.

“Ah don’t want no beer; all Ah wants is er watermelon,” replied the negro, and his large eyes rolled hopefully in his head.

“Ah ain’t had er melon this summer, and it’s the fust time that July ever come ’round without me having er melon.”

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The Atlanta Constitution, July 13th 1913, “Lee Must Remain Behind the Bars,” Leo Frank case newspaper article series (Original PDF)