Mary Phagan, age 13Mary Phagan (June 1, 1900 - April 26, 1913), born in Marietta, Georgia was an employee of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, on the premises of which she was raped and strangled on April 26, 1913.
A Jewish-American manager of the factory, Leo Frank, was accused of the crime, based largely on circumstantial evidence and possibly perjured testimony. He was tried, convicted, and sentenced to hang. Shortly before the execution was to take place, the governor of Georgia commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. A mob fetched Frank from prison and lynched him.
Evidence surfaced in 1982 tending to exonerate Frank; but the state still was not able to make a determination of his guilt or innocence. He was pardoned by the State of Georgia in 1986 on the grounds that the state did not do enough to provide him safety during his incarceration.
The episode marked a revival of the Ku Klux Klan in the United States.
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