Leo Frank is lynched

Leo Frank is lynched after a murder conviction that the account characterizes as dubious and in which antisemitism is believed to have played an important part. His death in August 1915 follows his imprisonment for the murder of Mary Phagan, a thirteen-year-old employee at the Atlanta pencil factory he managed.

Conviction and Imprisonment

Frank, who managed an Atlanta pencil factory, was found guilty of murdering Phagan on April 26, 1913. Phagan was thirteen and worked at the factory. The account presents the conviction as doubtful and identifies antisemitism as a factor believed to have played an important role in it.

Lynching

While Frank was in prison, he was assaulted with a knife. In August 1915, local citizens forcibly removed him from jail and lynched him. The account records the killing without describing it graphically, emphasizing the transition from imprisonment to extrajudicial violence.

Significance

Frank’s case links a disputed criminal conviction to antisemitism and a killing carried out by local citizens outside the law. The sequence—conviction in 1913, imprisonment, and lynching in 1915—makes the doubt surrounding the verdict central to the event’s significance.