Summary
Overview
This episode covers the tragic 1913 murder of 13-year-old Mary Fagan at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Georgia, and the subsequent wrongful conviction and lynching of factory superintendent Leo Frank. The case exposes widespread corruption, racism, and anti-Semitism in the Atlanta justice system, with police fabricating evidence and manipulating witnesses to convict an innocent man while ignoring the actual killer.
Mary Fagan's Life and Murder
Mary Fagan was a 13-year-old factory worker who had to drop out of school at age nine to help support her widowed mother and siblings. On April 26, 1913, Confederate Day, she stopped by the National Pencil Company to collect her small paycheck of $1.20. She was later found brutally murdered in the factory basement, having been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled. The discovery of her body set off a media frenzy and a deeply flawed investigation.
- Mary was born in 1899 to a widowed mother and had to drop out of school at age nine to work in factories
- She worked at the National Pencil Company making 10 cents an hour running the knurling machine for pencil erasers
- Mary stopped at the factory on April 26, 1913 to pick up her $1.20 paycheck before attending Confederate Day festivities
- Night watchman Newt Lee discovered her brutally murdered body in the basement around 3:30 a.m. the next morning
" a white woman has been killed up here "
The Incompetent and Racist Investigation
The Atlanta police investigation was plagued by incompetence, racism, and corruption from the start. Despite having no evidence, police immediately arrested night watchman Newt Lee, a Black man, based solely on racist assumptions. Investigators found two poorly written notes near the body supposedly written by Mary implicating a Black man, but the handwriting didn't match Mary's and she wouldn't have made such grammatical errors. The investigation focused on framing suspects rather than finding the actual killer.
- Police immediately suspected Newt Lee despite him being the one who called them and had no evidence against him
- Two suspicious notes were found near the body, supposedly written by Mary, claiming a 'long tall black' man did it, but they didn't match her handwriting
- Detective Boots Rogers said Newt Lee's questions were 'jumpy' and he had a 'ladylike voice,' using this as evidence of guilt
- Police held Newt Lee in custody for months despite no evidence connecting him to the crime
" you did this or you know who did it "
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