Leo Frank and the Murder of Mary Phagan

Leo Frank Born

Apr 17, 1884

Leo Frank born Cureo, Texas

Mary Phagan Born

Jun 1, 1900

Mary Phagan born, Marietta, GA

Mary Phagan is murdered

Apr 26, 1913

Mary Phagan 13 years old goes to work at the National Pencil Factory. She is murdered at the National Pencil Company in Fulton County, GA.

Mary Phagan is found

Apr 27, 1913

The body of Mary Phagan, bloody, broken, possibly sexually assaulted, was found in the basement of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta. Newt Lee, who found the body, is arrested.

Jim Conley

May 1, 1913

Jim Conley, a black janitor, is arrested when he is discovered rinsing blood off a shirt in the basement of the National Pencil Company.

Leo Frank and Newt Lee Summoned

May 8, 1913

Leo Frank and Newt Lee are ordered to be held in the murder of Mary Phagan

Leo Frank indicted

May 23, 1913

Leo Frank is indicted in the murder of Mary Phagan

Jim Conley admits involvement in murder

May 28, 1913

Jim Conley admits his involvement with the murder. He claims Leo Frank ordered him to write the murder notes, and that Frank had killed Mary Phagan and had Conley carry her downstairs.

Trial Begins

Jul 28, 1913

Leo Franks Trail Begins

Jim Conley testifies at Trial

Aug 4, 1913

Jim Crow testifies at trail of Leo Frank, claiming that Frank had gotten his help in moving Mary Phagan's body to the cellar

Found Guilty

Aug 25, 1913

Leo Frank is found guilty of the murder of Mary Phagan

Conley Sentenced

Feb 14, 1914

Jim Conley, self-professed accomplice to the murder of Mary Phagan, is sentenced to a year of hard labor for his role in the crime.

Leo Frank Transfered

Jun 21, 1915

Leo Frank is transferred from Fulton County prison to the State Penitentiary at Milledgeville

Leo Frank Life in Prison

Jun 21, 1915

Governor, John Slaton commutes Leo Frank's death sentence to a lifetime prison sentence.

Leo Frank Assaulted

Jul 18, 1915

Leo Frank is assaulted by an inmate of the prison. His throat is slashed.

Leo Frank's Death

Aug 17, 1915

A lynch mob hangs Leo Frank

Klu Klux Klan Reborn

Nov 25, 1915

William Simmons, along with some of the men who lynched Leo Frank, and others burn a cross at Stone Mountain, signaling the rebirth of the KKK

Alonzo Mann Accuses Conley

Mar 4, 1982

Alonzo Mann, a teen helper at the National Pencil Factory, admits that he saw Jim Conley carrying the body of Mary Phagan by himself, implicating Conley's testimony.

Leo Frank Pardoned

Mar 11, 1986

Georgia pardons Leo Frank, not because of new evidence in the murder of Mary Phagan, but because the state failed to provide protection while Frank was in custody.