On April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day, a young girl was murdered and possibly raped at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, where she worked. The manager of the factory, Leo Frank, was convicted of the murder.
On June 20, 1915, the Governor of Georgia, John M Slaton, commuted Frank's sentence of death to life in prison. A notorious journalist, Tom Watson, called for the lynching of both Slaton and Frank. A mob threatened to attack the governor at home. His life was spared by a force of Georgia National Guard reinforced by county policemen and a group of Slaton's friends.
However, on August 17, 1915, a armed group including prominent citizens of Cobb County, entered the state prison farm near Milledgeville. They removed Leo Frank and transported him across the state to Frey's Gin, 2 mi east of downtown Marietta. They hung him from a tree.
In 1982, the man who had been the 13-yr old office boy at the factory, swore in an affidavit that the janitor had killed the girl.
On March 11, 1986, Frank was issued a pardon by the Georgia pardons and paroles board. In 1983 they had denied a pardon. They did not clear him of the crime, but agreed the state had not kept him safe while in its custody.
On March 7, 2008, a
marker was placed in front of the building at 1200 Roswell Rd in Marietta, near the location where Frank was lynched.
Rabbis, news crews, local politicians and onlookers attended the unveiling of the marker. Keynote speakers included Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League; Cobb [County] Chairman Sam Olens; former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes; state Senator Steve Thompson; Rabbi Steven Lebow; Georgia Historical Society President Todd Groce; and attorney Dale Schwartz.
- Cobb Neighbor Newspaper 2008Mar13 p2A
Let us rest here a bit before going on.
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