An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank

by Elaine Marie Alphin

In this gripping nonfiction account, author Elaine Marie Alphin describes a 1913 murder case that spawned two organizations at the opposite ends of the political and social spectrum: the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan and the founding of the Anti-Defamation League.

Here are the facts: On April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day, 13-year-old Mary Phagan is murdered in the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Ga., after picking up her paycheck. The accusations fly. First, the police arrest the company’s African American night watchman Newt Lee. Next, they arraign the Brooklyn-raised Jewish superintendent of the company, Leo Frank. Detectives also question African American janitor Jim Conley, but Leo Frank is ultimately charged with murder (questions of sexual violation are also raised, making this book more appropriate for older teens). The author unravels the details surrounding Mary Phagan’s death and its aftermath like a mystery. She describes the mood in the South, the Southerners’ resentment toward the Northern industrialists, and the feeling that “while Atlanta’s sizable Jewish population was respected, they were still in the minority, and they were considered ‘different.’ ” Your teen will be drawn in not only by the elements of mystery but also by the fact that so many teens worked at the factory, knew Mary Phagan, and offered evidence in the case. Alphin weighs these details like an impartial judge, though there’s a great deal here that will inspire teens to passionate debate about the judicial system, individual rights and what “a fair trial” might look like—because Leo Frank’s hearing certainly touches on all of those issues. Further evidence continued to come to light into the 1980s. Anyone who reads this book will be haunted by Leo Frank, and by the suggestion that a fair trial may just require that every honest citizen come forward with the facts—no matter how young they are.