Leo Frank

THIS WEEK we present the sixth and last audio book installment of prosecutor Hugh Dorsey’s closing arguments in the 1913 trial of Leo M. Frank (pictured) for the strangling and sex murder of his 13-year-old sweatshop employee Mary Phagan. In this dramatic conclusion, you hear the words that the jury heard, the words that would lead them, a short time later, to find Leo Frank guilty of murder.

Even more than 100 years later, we are still feeling the repercussions of this case — which led to the founding of the prominent Jewish pressure group, the ADL, and which profoundly influenced the course of Jewish-Gentile relations in the United States.

This new audio book series encompasses the American Mercury’s extensive coverage of the 1913 Frank trial. We are presenting the extensive arguments, both for the defense and the prosecution, in order and in full — a monumental, book-length project. Today’s presentation is the sixth and last section of Hugh Dorsey’s final statement.

Click on the “play” button to listen to the audio book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Mr. Dorsey powerfully recounts all the evidence in the case that sustains Jim Conley’s version of events (the Frank forces were, by this time, attempting to frame Conley for the crime):

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The jury listens attentively in the Leo Frank trial

THIS WEEK we present the fifth and next-to-last audio book installment of prosecutor Hugh Dorsey’s closing arguments in the 1913 trial of Leo M. Frank for the strangling and sex murder of his 13-year-old sweatshop employee Mary Phagan. Even more than 100 years later, we are still feeling the repercussions of this case — which led to the founding of the prominent Jewish pressure group, the ADL, and which profoundly influenced the course of Jewish-Gentile relations in the United States.

This new audio book series encompasses the American Mercury’s extensive coverage of the 1913 Frank trial. We are presenting the extensive arguments, both for the defense and the prosecution, in order and in full — a monumental, book-length project. Today’s presentation is the fifth section (of six) of Hugh Dorsey’s final statement.

Click on the “play” button to listen to the audio book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Mr. Dorsey argues that the proposition of the defense (after they gave up on framing night watchman Newt Lee) that Jim Conley was the real murderer was a preposterous one, and one tainted with the fake “bloody club” that someone among the pro-Frank forces had planted — weeks after the murder — near the place where Conley was keeping watch for Frank on the fatal day:

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Lucille Selig and Leo Frank

VANESSA NEUBAUER’S audio book reading from the 1913 Leo Frank case this week is the fourth part of prosecutor Hugh Dorsey’s closing arguments. Leo Max Frank (pictured with his wife Lucille in happier times) was ultimately convicted of murdering his 13-year-old pencil factory employee, Mary Phagan, in a case which set the stage for Jewish-Gentile distrust and recriminations for a century and more afterward. Frank was the president of the Atlanta, Georgia B’nai B’rith and the Frank case was a major factor in the establishment of the Jewish pressure group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), over 100 years ago.

This new audio book series encompasses the American Mercury’s extensive coverage of the 1913 Frank trial. We are presenting the extensive arguments, both for the defense and the prosecution, in order and in full — a monumental, book-length project. Today’s presentation is the fourth section (of six) of Hugh Dorsey’s final statement.

Click on the “play” button to listen to the audio book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Mr. Dorsey argues that there was something strange about the fact that Mrs. Leo Frank didn’t visit her husband in jail for some time after his arrest:

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Solicitor Dorsey in his office; a snapshot of the Phagan case prosecutor taken by a Georgian photographer.

THIS WEEK’S audio book presentation on the 1913 Leo Frank case is the third (of six) parts of prosecutor Hugh Dorsey’s closing arguments. His arguments, along with the evidence in this case, were ultimately successful — and Jewish pencil factory superintendent Leo Frank was convicted of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan, his sweatshop employee.

Frank was the president of the Atlanta, Georgia B’nai B’rith and the Frank case was a major factor in the establishment of the Jewish “anti-hate” group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), over 100 years ago.

This new audio book series encompasses the American Mercury’s extensive coverage of the 1913 Frank trial. We are presenting the extensive arguments, both for the defense and the prosecution, in order and in full — a monumental, book-length project. Today’s presentation is the second section (of six) of Hugh Dorsey’s final statement.

Click on the “play” button to listen to the audio book, read by Vanessa Neubauer.

Mr. Dorsey dismisses the defense’s contention that the blood stains found were not Mary Phagan’s blood:

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Jim Conley on the witness stand; prosecutor Hugh Dorsey; ladies in the audience

THIS WEEK WE present the second part of the closing arguments of Solicitor Hugh Dorsey (pictured in a  contemporary newspaper illustration), the prosecutor in the 1913 murder trial of Leo Frank for the slaying of his sweatshop employee Mary Phagan. This prosecution has been presented in the major media as a case of “anti-Semitism” — but a reading of the evidence and Dorsey’s closing arguments casts that allegation into the realm of the ridiculous. The Frank case was a major factor in the establishment of the Jewish “anti-hate” group, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), over 100 years ago.

This new audio book series encompasses the American Mercury’s extensive coverage of the 1913 Frank trial. We are presenting the extensive arguments, both for the defense and the prosecution, in order and in full — a monumental, book-length project. Today’s presentation is the second section (of six) of Hugh Dorsey’s final statement.

Continue Reading →