FULTON COBB COUNTY, GA - Mary Phagan-Leo Frank Tragedy ***************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm *********************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: http://www.angelfire.com/weird2/georgia/page4.html page007655@cs.com Jan Page THE OTHER VICTIMS OF THE MARY PHAGAN/LEO FRANK TRAGEDY The tragedy of Mary Phagan and Leo Frank are widespread on the internet. Many books, articles, a mini series and even a musical have been written about the story. I will tell this story in a nutshell. My main purpose is to tell the story of the other victims of this tragedy. The ones who did not die in a factory or hanging from a tree. The ones who lived out this tragedy until their deaths many years later. Mary Phagan was a 13 year old girl working at the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta. Leo Frank was a Jewish man born in Texas and raised in New York. He was the manager of the factory. On a Saturday in 1913, Mary left her home and went to pick up her pay at the factory and stay and see a parade. Mary's body was found hours later in the basement of the factory. She had been murdered and possibly raped. The 2 main suspects were Jim Conley, a black man who also worked at the factory, and Leo Frank the manager. The trial gained quite a bit of notoriety for the fact the trial used the word of a black man to convict a white man. Leo Frank was found guilty and sentenced to be executed. Frank's widow worked as hard as she could to help prove her husband's innocence. Eventually Governor John Slaton read and studied the case and as he was leaving the office of Governor decided to commute Frank's sentence to life in Prison. He was not convinced of Frank's guilt. While in Milledgeville Prison a group of men from Marietta, Mary's home town, stormed the prison, kidnapped Frank , and took him to Frey's Gin in Marietta and hung him. In the 1980's Frank was given a posthumous pardon. Leo Frank's widow was named Lucille. Lucille was from Atlanta and part of the Selig family. Her parents were Emil and Josephine Selig. Lucille's cousin Simon founded the Selig Chemical Company in Atlanta. This Company was sold to National Service Company which was once National Linen service, and is still around today. Lucille moved from Atlanta after the Lynching and returned about 6 years later, in around 1922. She went to work in the J P Allen Dept store as a sales person. Her Brother In Law was a manager there. When Lucille returned to Atlanta she lived with her Sister and Brother In law. She never remarried. I read where the famous writer, Alfred Uhry remembers Lucille as being one of the older women who was friends with his Grandmother. He is the writer of Driving Miss Daisy and is from Atlanta himself. I doubt Lucille ever got over the violent loss of her husband. She died in 1957. She was cremated and her ashes were carried around in the trunk of a relatives car until 1964. Even at the time of her death in 1957, they were afraid to give her a public funeral. Her ashes are buried in an unmarked space btween her parents headstones in Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. Another victim in this tragedy was Governor John Slaton. After Commuting Leo's sentence he left Georgia in disgrace, never to be in politics again. Gov Slaton died in 1955 and was interred in the Grant Mausoleum at Oakland Cemetery. Even forty years later the safety and security of his final resting place was a concern.