Phagan Family Newsletter #Fifteen

SHAME ON GEORGIA for the Generations of Political Corruption, Opaque Secrecy, and Deceitful Revisionism Surrounding the 1913 Sexual Assault and Strangulation of Little Mary Phagan by Convicted Homicidal Rapist-Pedophile Leo Frank.

Dear Governor Brian Kemp, Attorney General Christopher Carr, Senator Bill Cowsert:

The state of Georgia has been mired in a deeply troubling saga of political corruption, intransigent secrecy, and manipulative historical revisionism concerning the brutal murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan by B’nai B’rith leader Leo Frank in 1913. This case, already steeped in tragedy due to the violent death of a young girl, has been compounded by decades of underhanded efforts to rewrite history, obscure the truth, and manipulate public perception. These actions, driven by political pressures and secretive agendas, have dishonored the memory of Little Mary Phagan and denied justice to her family, who continue to fight for transparency and accountability in the face of ongoing attempts to exonerate a duly convicted murderer.

In April 2025, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced that the Leo Frank case would be reviewed by the Innocence Project, reigniting the controversy. On July 10, 2025, at the Atlanta History Center forum “Legacy of a Lynching: Why the Leo Frank Case is still relevant today,” former governor Roy Barnes confirmed that the case is to be reviewed.

An open records request submitted on April 4, 2025, seeking all public records related to the case including documents, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, and computer-generated data—was met with a response on April 24, 2025, claiming that the records were exempt under O.C.G.A. §50-18-72(a)(4). This statute exempts records related to ongoing law enforcement investigations, a justification that the Phagan family deemed absurd given that the case is 112 years old and Leo Frank was convicted in 1913. The family argued that this refusal constituted a violation of open records laws, especially in light of Fani Willis’s office having been found guilty of similar violations in the Trump RICO case, setting a precedent for accountability.

The Phagan family and their supporters contend that no legal justification exists for re-investigating a case that was thoroughly adjudicated, with Frank’s conviction upheld through several state appeals and a 7-2 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1915. They point to false claims by Roy Barnes and Rabbi Lebow, such as the assertion that two Supreme Court justices found Frank’s trial unfair. In reality, Justices Holmes and Hughes, in their dissent, only expressed general concerns about trials conducted under mob influence, without reviewing the specifics of Frank’s case. Moreover, Governor John Slaton’s 1915 commutation order and contemporary accounts, including those by Anti-Defamation League expert Steve Oney, confirm that no anti-Semitic mobs dominated the 1913 trial, debunking the narrative of a “mob-dominated” proceeding. Barnes’s claim that crowds shouted “Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you!” at the jury every morning has been disproven as a fabrication by an overzealous activist, yet Barnes and Lebow continue to perpetuate this falsehood.

The Phagan family believes that Fani Willis, the ADL, Roy Barnes, Rabbi Lebow, and others are engaging in political corruption, unethical behavior, and conflicts of interest, particularly given Barnes’s role as Willis’s attorney in a Georgia Senate Committee investigation. The family maintains that the refusal to release supposed exonerating evidence is proof that no such evidence exists, and that these efforts represent a misuse of public funds and an attempt to rewrite history for political gain. The continued push to exonerate Leo Frank, despite the lack of new evidence and the overwhelming judicial affirmation of his guilt, is seen as a profound injustice to the memory of Little Mary Phagan and a betrayal of Georgia’s commitment to truth and transparency.

2019: Fulton County’s Conviction Integrity Unit, Obstruction of Justice, and alleged Political Bullying

On April 26, 2019—ironically, the 106th anniversary of Mary Phagan’s murder—Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard announced the creation of a Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU) with the explicit goal of re-examining Leo Frank’s case to pursue his exoneration. The Phagan family condemned this initiative as a politically motivated scheme orchestrated by Frank’s advocates, including former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, Rabbi Steven Lebow, the late attorney Dale Schwartz, Melissa D. Redmon (director of the University of Georgia Law School’s Prosecutorial Justice Program), former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Leah Ward Sears, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia Norman Fletcher, former Cobb County Superior Court Chief Judge J. Stephen Schuster, and the late Deputy Attorney General Van Pearlberg. The Phagan family accused these individuals of colluding since August 2018 to vacate Frank’s murder conviction through a campaign of “political bullying.” According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (May 7, 2019), Howard admitted that “The Frank Case helped inspire the creation of the new unit,” and Barnes confirmed that he had lobbied Howard to re-examine the case, stating, “There is no doubt in my mind, and we’ll prove it at the appropriate time, that Frank was not guilty.”

The Phagan family viewed the CIU as a blatant attempt to subvert justice, arguing that it was established solely to exonerate Frank under the guise of addressing historical wrongs. They pointed to past efforts in 1914, when attempts to exonerate Frank with “new evidence” were later revealed to involve forged witness affidavits and bribery, as reported in the Atlanta Constitution (May 5, 1914). The family’s concerns were compounded by the systematic removal of books, videos, articles, and court documents providing a balanced view of the case from the internet following the CIU’s announcement, suggesting a deliberate effort to censor dissenting perspectives and label them as “hate speech.” The new narrative by Jewish groups and activists in recent years has been to label anyone who studies the trial and appeals records, and comes to believe Leo Frank was guilty, as a Nazi and anti-Semite.

An open records request submitted to Fulton County on May 21, 2019, seeking documentation on the CIU’s establishment, yielded no responsive records. A subsequent request to the University of Georgia on September 11, 2019, for emails related to the CIU from August 23, 2018, to April 26, 2019, initially identified 70 responsive emails, with an estimated cost of $123.50 for retrieval and redaction. However, on November 8, 2019, UGA reported that no documents were responsive to the request, raising suspicions of obstruction or suppression of information.

2020: Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles Denies Declassification Request

In 2020, a request was submitted to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to declassify confidential state records related to the Leo Frank case, in hopes of shedding light on the secretive processes surrounding the 1986 “pardon.” On December 4, 2020, the board denied this request, further fueling accusations of a cover-up and a refusal to allow public scrutiny of the case’s handling. This denial reinforced the perception that Georgia’s institutions were complicit in maintaining a veil of secrecy around the case, protecting the interests of those advocating for Frank’s exoneration while ignoring the Phagan family’s pleas for transparency.

Dear Secretary Hegseth:

My name is Mary Phagan-Kean and I am the great-niece and namesake of “Little Mary Phagan,” who was brutally raped and murdered by B’nai B’rith leader Leo Frank on April 26, 1913. At the time, Leo Frank was the superintendent of the National Pencil Company, an Atlanta sweatshop using child labor that existed from 1908 to 1916.

On behalf of my family and our ancestors, many of whom served honorably in the armed forces, I express our gratitude for your support.of Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson. Secretary Wilson has faced accusations of posting "antisemitic rhetoric" online. On August 16, 2024, she tweeted:

"Leo Frank raped and murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime. The ADL turned off the comments because they want to gaslight you."

I urge you not to accept the deceitful tactics displayed in the June 24, 2025 letter sent to you by the Congressional Jewish Caucus which suggests that anyone who believes Leo Frank is guilty of the murder of my Great Aunt is a "neo-Nazi." Such tactics are used by the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League to promote their underhanded revisionism of the case even today.

The facts of the case paint a clear picture that is fully aligned with Ms. Wilson's point of view:

First, Ms. Wilson is factually correct in that Leo Frank was duly convicted of murder in a court of law on August 25, 1913—a verdict upheld through at least a dozen appeals and ultimately by the U.S. Supreme Court.

And second, Leo Frank actually tried to frame TWO black men, both employees at the factory, even planting evidence to try to instigate their lynching. The details of these racist acts by Frank can be provided if requested.

And here are a few other facts that Frank's defenders want us to ignore:

• The 21-member grand jury voted unanimously to indict Leo Frank—a grand jury that included five Jewish members.

• There is absolutely no evidence that the trial contained any "anti-Semitism" at all, and claims of "mob dominance" have been thoroughly debunked.

• At Leo Frank's murder trial, ten girls employed at the factory testified under oath that Frank sexually harassed them, and two teenage girls stated that he made indecent proposals to them.

• The two private detective firms hired by Frank concluded and stated publicly that Leo Frank was the murderer.

And this is only a small sample of the overwhelming evidence that convinced the jurors, the judge, the citizens of Georgia, and Ms. Kingsley Wilson that Frank murdered my Great Aunt Mary Phagan.... The Phagan family has stated that if there existed any clear-cut evidence that clears Leo Frank, we would support the reversal of his murder conviction. No such evidence has ever been presented.

Finally, Secretary Hegseth, please be assured that the statement made by Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson is fully backed by the facts and that you've rightly characterized the attack against Ms. Wilson in your testimony before Congress as "a mischaracterization attempting to win political points."

Thank you.

Mary Phagan-Kean

Cc: The President, The White House
Ms. Kingsley Wilson, United States Department of Defense Press Secretary

Atlanta History Center: "Expert Panel" of Pro-Frank Propaganda

Phagan Family members attended the Leo Frank propaganda event on July 10, 2025, that included panelists former Georgia governor Roy E. Barnes, Breman Center archivist Sandy Berman, film professor Matthew H. Bernstein, and author of a book on Leo Frank, Steve Oney. Barnes stated that the Leo Frank Case is "under review" for exoneration by Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis.

Wikipedia Censors Truth

The "Leo Frank" entry on Wikipedia is locked down by the Truth Deficient cult of Leo Frank. Pro-Frank activists won't allow any of the 2,500 pages of legal records to be added into the article because they are frightened that ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS might convince people Leo Frank is guilty.

TRUTH Available on X

Keep up to date: https://x.com/PhaganKean

Largest Teachers' Union REJECTS ADL

On July 6, 2025, the U.S. Teachers' Union National Education Association, which represents nearly 3 million educators, announced it "will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the ADL such as its curricular materials or statistics."

The move is significant considering the influence the ADL has had over curriculum related to Israel in U.S. schools for decades. The NEA's 7,000-member Representative Assembly found that "despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be."

Will Georgia continue using the ADL's "Leo Frank Curriculum" for eighth-grade Georgia History?