Leo Max Frank Lynching by Ku Klux Klan

leo-max-frank-potrait Leo Max Frank was an American man who became the only known Jew to be lynched on American soil. He was lynched by Ku Klux Klan (KKK), informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation.

A group calling itself the “Knights of Mary Phagan” began openly organizing a plan to kidnap Frank from the state prison farm and take him to Marietta, 240 miles (386 km) away, to lynch him. They recruited between 25 and 28 men with the necessary skills.

leo max frank lynching by ku klux klan

The ringleaders were :

Joseph Mackey Brown, The former governor
Judge Newton (Newt) Morris
Eugene Herbert Clay, Former mayor of Marietta
John Tucker Dorsey, a lawyer and state legislator
Fred Morris, a lawyer
Bolan Glover Brumby, owner of a furniture factory

Among the participants in Frank’s lynching, the Washington Post reported, ‘Herbert Clay, son of a U.S. senator,… was perhaps the most prominent person on the list. He was identified as one of the lynching’s ‘planners,’ as were Moultrie McKinney Sessions, a lawyer and banker, and John Tucker Dorsey, a Georgia legislator and prosecutor. Others named as among the lynchers were Gordon Baxter Gann, later mayor of Marietta and a state legislator; … In all, 26 names were on the list, some of whom may never be adequately identified.

In addition to these leaders, the group also included a doctor, another lawyer, and the former sheriff of Cobb County. John Tucker Dorsey was also the solicitor general for the Blue Ridge Circuit and would theoretically have been in charge of prosecuting the lynchers, none of whom were indicted.

On August 17, the Knights of Mary Phagan kidnapped Frank from the prison farm. The kidnapping was highly organized. They forced their way into the prison with a display of their weapons, and took Frank. The lynching site at Frey’s Gin, two miles (3 km) west of Marietta, had already been prepared, complete with a rope and table supplied by conspirator Sheriff William Frey. Frank’s only requests were that they allow him to write a note to his wife, that they return his wedding ring to her, and that they cover his lower body before hanging him, since he was wearing nothing but a nightshirt. Frank’s last words were, “I think more of my wife and my mother than I do of my own life.”

Frank’s body was eventually transferred to an undertaker and buried in the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing New York.

Tags: kkk, knights of mary phagan, leo frank, leo frank lynching, leo max frank, lynching, mary phagan

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