A standing-room-only crowd packed the Earl Smith Strand Theatre on the Marietta Square Thursday night to hear author Steve Oney and historian Stan Deaton discuss one of the darkest moments in Georgia history: the lynching of Leo Frank.
"One hundred years ago, a stone's throw from where we are gathered, the best men of Marietta were putting the final touches on a bold and damnable plot," said Oney, author of “And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank.”
"These men came from Marietta's finest families," Oney continued. "Their ghosts are here tonight. Also here is Mary Phagan, the 13-year-old child laborer whose murder Marietta sought to avenge."
MORE COVERAGE: Events explore resonance of Leo Frank case
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
"Marietta, not surprisingly, has had a difficult relationship with Leo Frank but Leo Frank will forever be a resident of Marietta," Oney said. "His ghost is here, too."
Frank, who was Jewish, was the superintendent of the factory where Mary worked and where her body was discovered. Convicted on circumstantial evidence following a shoddy investigation, amid a sea of anti-Semitic rhetoric, Frank was sentenced to die. Gov. John Slaton commuted his sentence after thoroughly reviewing the case, so enraging some Georgians that the governor was hanged in effigy and had to declare martial law for a time.
A cabal of prominent Marietta residents broke into the prison and lynched Frank near the site of where the "Big Chicken" stands today. No one was ever charged.
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Credit: Jennifer Brett
Thursday's discussion, hosted by the Georgia Historical Society in partnership with the Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society and the Marietta Museum of History, kicked of a series of commemorative events to mark the grim centennial.
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