The Ballad of Leo Frank

Danae Caspary03/15/18The Ballad of Leo Frank        The Ballad of Leo Frank is a story about a man who was accused of a killing a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagen. He was considered a pedophile by the people in his town. Leo Frank owned a pencil factory In Atlanta. Mary was found dead in the basement of the factory. The suspects who were arrested were Newt Lee, Jim Conely, and Leo Frank. Jim Conley was seen washing blood off his shirt, but the shirt was never sent to the lab. Blood was found outside of franks office, but it turned out to be paint. Finding “blood” by Franks office made the cops lose interest in Lee and focus on Frank.  The trial lasted 4 weeks, during the trial Lee ended up changing his testimony to push everything on Frank.  Frank was found guilty after 4 hours of the jury deliberating.  Frank was sentenced to hang the next day.  Instead of hanging he was sent to prison.  Conley finally confessed after a year of Frank being in prison.  Conley couldn’t be tried because it was too late.  The governor felt pressured to save Franks life that he ended up moving him to a new facility.  People were angry about it, riots broke out and the governors house was vandalized.  While Frank was in prison an inmate slit his throat, he survived. Frank was kidnapped by a mob and was hung.  Before he was hung, he managed to convince them that he was innocent, but the mob decided it was too late to tur back.  Franks last wish was that his wedding ring be returned to his wife.  The next morning people cut strips of his shirt to keep as souvenirs.