Snag An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution And Persecution Of Leo Frank Edited By Elaine Marie Alphin Available As Volume

was shocked by how much I liked this, Would be a great gift for budding truecrime fans, . . and I know whereof I speak, When I was a kid, I devoured The Stranger Beside Me and read everything I could about the Black Dahlia.
I would have LOVED this and it would have been way more educational than the dreck I was reading.
Its rigorously researched and very, very gripping, The story, in case you haven't had it drilled into your head as part of growing up Jewish and paranoid in America or in case you haven't seen the musical Parade: One spring day in Atlanta in,yearold Mary Phagan put on a pretty violet dress and went to pick up her paycheck at the National Pencil Company.
She intended to go from there to the Confederate Memorial Day parade, She never made it. Her body was found in the factory basement, a cord around her throat, her dress pushed up past her knees.
Leo Frank, the pencil factorys supervisor, who was seen as a rich, dirty Yankee Jewish interloper, was convicted of the crime in a rigged trial.
When Georgias governor commuted Franks death sentence to life imprisonment, a crowd of furious citizens kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him.
The miscarriage of justice led to the founding of the AntiDefamation League, Alphins book, chockfull of photos and newspaper clippings, tells the story in an immensely readable way, like a horrifying, absorbing mystery novel.
Alphin presents evidence about who really committed the crime, offers a picture of postReconstructionera Southern bigotry, and names the prominent citizens who led the lynching party.
I do wonder why it's not getting more buzz I see major crankiness about minor factual errors

on its Amazon page, but the larger story and conclusions are to me pretty friggin' convincing.
The book, “An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank” is about how an innocent man was wrongly accused of murder.
He was convicted of murder, merely because of intolerance of his religion, The book tells the story that began on April,, when thirteenyearold, Mary Phagan planned to meet friends that day in Atlanta, Georgia.
First, she decided to stop at the pencil factory where she worked, to pick up her paycheck.
Unfortunately, Mary never left the building alive, A black watchman found Mary's body brutally beaten and raped in the basement of the factory.
Police arrested the watchman, yet they weren't completely sure that he was the killer, Soon after, the police paid a visit to Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent, who was both a northerner and a Jew.
Influenced by the media and the prejudiced sentiments about Jews at the time, the detectives made Frank their prime suspect with no evidence.
This decision showed the impact of antiSemitism and resentment toward Northerners at this time in our nations history.
Leo Frank was on every frontpage of the newspaper for two years, He was sentenced to death, but the Governor of Georgia recognized the mockery of justice and commuted his sentence to life in prison.
Prominent members of the public refused to accept this commutation and they planned and succeeded in kidnapping Leo Frank from jail and lynching him.
Not to mention, his lynchers were not even punished! To this day it is still one of the most controversial incidents of the twentieth century.
It is quite hard to imagine that after being put on trial with no evidence against him, he was still imprisoned and hung.
It truly marks a turning point in the history of racial and religious hatred in America, leading directly to the founding of the AntiDefamation League and to the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan.
Was an innocent man wrongly accused of murder On April,, thirteenyearold Mary Phagan planned to meet friends at a parade in Atlanta, Georgia.
But first she stopped at the pencil factory where she worked to pick up her paycheck.
Mary never left the building alive, A black watchman found Mary's body brutally beaten and raped, Police arrested the watchman, but they weren't satisfied that he was the killer, Then they paid a visit to Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent, who was both a northerner and a Jew.
Spurred on by the media frenzy and prejudices of the time, the detectives made Frank their prime suspect, one whose conviction would soothe the city's anger over the death of a young white girl.
The prosecution of Leo Frank was frontpage news for two years, and Frank's lynching is still one of the most controversial incidents of the twentieth century.
It marks a turning point in the history of racial and religious hatred in America, leading directly to the founding of the AntiDefamation League and to the rebirth of the modern Ku Klux Klan.
Relying on primary source documents and painstaking research, awardwinning novelist Elaine Alphin tells the true story of justice undone in America.
An Unspeakable Crime is a nonfiction book about the murder of Mary Phagan, Mary Phagan was a thirteenyearold girl who lived in a poor part of atlanta, Georgia, She was killed on Saturday, April,, Confederate Memorial Day, Their first suspect was Newt Lee, a Black security guard who was working when Mary was killed.
But the detectives knew that the people of Atlanta wanted someone who wasn't black to be convicted because they thought if someone who was black was convicted it would just be because they were black and not because there was enough evidence.
Their next suspect was Leo Frank, The detectives who talked to him thought he seemed very suspicious, and therefore everyone Atlanta agreed.
Leo ended up being convicted because of the prejudice people of Atlanta peer pressured all judges into convicting him.
All of the judges thought that if the did anything to help Leo Frank, they would be endangered.
Leo Frank kept fighting and postponing the date execution, and because of this, on August,, a group of people decided to take matters into their own hands.
They kidnapped Leo from his cell, and hung him, Nearlyyears later, Alonzo Mann signed an affidavit saying he had seen Jim Conley carry Mary Phagan down to the basement which had proven Leo Frank innocent.
This mystery book which I thought was not very good, because there were a lot of slow parts, was divided into chapters, each titled a quote from within the chapter and also a regular title.
It also had a lot of pictures, and it was organized very well, One thing that I thought the author did really well, was not being bias, I read the whole book, without knowing who the author thought was guilty, Also, He gave a lot of information, without giving away what actually happened until the very end.
I could also tell that the author was very educated on this topic, I recommend it to anyone who is a good reader, and likes nonfiction books about crimes or mysteries.
I also would like to point out, that there are some parts explaining the crime scene that are very graphic and explicit, and may be viewed as disgusting for a certain audience.
I rate this book a five out of ten,
"Was an innocent man wrongly accused of murder" Elaine Marie Alphin raises that question in her carefully researched, wellwritten book An Unspeakable Crime, The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank.
Themurder of thirteenyearold Mary Phagan has been a controversial subject for years, In the media frenzy following the tragic incident, antisemitism clouded the investigation of the crime and the subsequent prosecution of Leo Frank, the Jewish superintendent of the plant where Mary worked.
Alphin traces this story of injustice in clear and powerful prose and with excellent visuals like old photographs, newspaper stories, facsimiles of the notes found near Mary Phagan's body, and even postcards of Frank's lynching.
Teens will be intrigued and moved by this accounting of an historical matter of conscience, It's, an innocent girl, Mary Phagan, is brutally murdered in the basement of the factory at which she worked by superintendent Leo Frank.
Or was she In the book An Unspeakable Crime, the Persecution and Prosecution of Leo Frank we hear about the case where Mary Phagan is killed.
In Atlanta, Georgia, the night watchman named Newt Lee found her bloody body in a pile of sawdust and debris like material.
Leo Frank was the superintendent at the pencil factory where Mary worked and was supposedly in his office when Mary was killed.
Being a Yankee, Leo Frank was almost instantly accused because he wasn't from Georgia and to add, he was a Jew.
People stated that he was in the building, which lead to inferring the murder was on him.
Someone even said Frank payed him to write a note to lay next to Mary's body to throw off the detectives.
People were very biased against Frank and told lies to get him arrested, During the book we follow Frank from his home, to the courts, to his jail cell, and later to the tree were he was lynched.


This book is well written and uses many good word choices, Suspense is held throughout the book, because you want to know who really killed Mary, The author, Elaine Marie Alphin, describes the scenes well and leaves no room for confusion,
Alphin uses pictures to help us better understand the location, and the look of things.
For example, she shows us a picture of a newspaper article highlighting Frank's case, this helps us because it shows the bias opinions of the people of.
Many quotes are added from the court cases, At the end, there is a time line of all the events that have occurred, If you are to do a project on a nonfiction book, I would recommend this book because there is an index, glossary of legal terminology, timeline, an author's note, further readings, major figures in Frank's case, and more.
There is a bit of gore in this book, so reading in front of small children isn't a well advised idea.
Overall, Alphin is a great author and the book is very well written and executed, I would rate this book,out of a possible. Vaya cantidad de errores y mentiras ocurrieron en el juicio del señor Frank,
Todo parece indicar era inocente pero aun a día de hoy hay muchos que se aferran a la idea él fue el asesino, pero como bien dice el autor la verdad nunca lo sabremos.


Hay cosas que me sorprenden, creí quien había linchado al señor Frank era una muchedumbre enfurecida sedienta de sangre para vengar la muerte de la niña, pero en realidad era un grupo de personas “bien” compuesta por políticos, jueces, policía y algunos civiles, una vez terminada su “justicia” llego la turba gritando vítores, cómo no se tomaron fotos y parte de la ropa del señor Frank y se vendían cual suvenir veraniego de hoy en día.
Y la otra sorpresa fue que “gracias” a la muerte de la niña surgió un grupo de “justicieros” llamados los caballeros de Mary que evolucionaron rápido a lo que ahora denominamos KKK.


Adía de hoy este tipo de linchamiento sigue existiendo, pero o son infrecuentes o no se publicitan porque sucede en algún pueblo/ciudad/estado/país nada importante, pero ahora existe otro tipo de linchamiento, el que sucede en redes sociales que puede arruinar la vida de quien está en el ojo del huracán hasta tal punto que puede ocurrir un suicidio.
A veces los medios de comunicación se unen a la “fiesta”, lamentablemente lo he visto en casos de supuesta violación donde al hombre o grupo de hombres se les dice de todo, pero días, semanas o meses después la mujer confiesa todo fue mentira solo escucho grillos.
La gente sigue teniendo sed de venganza y sentirse justiciera, solo que ahora la tecnología ayuda para linchar a las personas, tal vez algunas lo merezcan, pero cuando en realidad esa persona era inocente.
. .

Al final, transcribo las últimas palabras del libro, todo es cuestión de conciencia.


“It surely can not be long before I am free and vindicated, and right and innocence come into their own.
”
Leo Frank, parte de su respuesta a un telegrama de un niño que creía en su inocencia.
Tres semanas después de escribir esto fue linchado, .