When I was a teenager, I worked at a local fast food restaurant. The work wasn’t great, but it gave me an opportunity to make a few bucks and keep my gas tank filled. Even as a teenager, I had bigger aspirations and wanted to either attend college or trade school after high school. Knowing I wasn’t going to spend my entire life working in a fast food restaurant made the job much easier to tolerate.

Today, child labor laws only allow teenagers to work a limited schedule. However, before 1938, society didn’t know such boundaries. Instead of attending school, many kids worked long hours in hot factories alongside adults. For many children, school wasn’t a reality.

Fortunately, society has evolved and the government realized children should be attending school instead of operating machinery in a factory. The government passed the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. This law ensured youngsters worked in safe environments while focusing more on their education.

Had this law existed in 1913, a 13-year-old teenager named Mary Phagan might have lived to become an adult.

During the early 1900s, the National Pencil Company sat in the heart of Atlanta. It was a Jewish owned pencil manufacturer. The company employed just under 200 employees. Most of the workers were preteen and teenage girls who worked five- and- a- half days per week. Although most workers were between eleven and sixteen, the factory hired children as young as eight.

On Sunday, April 27, 1913 just a little after 3 a.m., a black night watchman named Newt Lee was making his rounds. After a call to nature, he went into the basement to use the designated blacks only restroom. During the early 1900s, segregation existed. Blacks and whites had separate restrooms and drinking fountains. While headed to the restroom, Lee saw something unusual on the ground. Upon taking a closer look, he realized it was a dead girl. He went for help.

After locating a phone, Lee called the police and then led them into the basement. It was 200 feet long on an earthen floor; trash, coal dust and other filth littered the floor. The dead girl’s body lay near the incinerator. There was also an elevator shaft about 136 feet away. Her body was face down. Someone had beaten the young girl to death. Her face had bruising, cuts, soot on her face, and dirt in her hair and eyes.

Moreover, her clothing was torn and her dress was pulled up to her waist. It appeared someone may have sexually assaulted her. She also had an undergarment and long cord tied around her neck. The killer wanted to make sure she was dead.

Police also found two notes near the body. The notes were illegible and difficult to understand. One note stated:

“He said he wood love me land down play like the night witch did it but that long tall black Negro did boy his slef.”

The second note said: “Mam that negro hire down here did this i went to make water and he push me down that hole a long tall negro black that hoo it wase long sleam tall negro I wright while play with me.”

The Police didn’t understand the cryptic notes. They assumed the notes were meant to contaminate the murder scene. Police also noticed someone had used a sliding door by the service ramp. The door opened into an alley. The police also observed bloody fingerprints on the door and a metal pipe laying on the dead girl’s jacket.

After approaching the elevator, the police found an unusual clue. Inside the elevator shaft was a pile of human feces. The next time the elevator came down, it smashed the feces into the ground. So did the killer relieve himself after killing the girl or had he done so before? This evidence would later hold significant value.

The police found a coworker who identified the dead girl as 13-year-old Mary Phagan. It was also noted that her purse and paycheck were missing.

So who was Mary Phagan and how did she end up face down on a grimy basement floor? The answer would lead to one of the most controversial murder trials in Atlanta’s history. This case involved anti-Semitism, racism, murder, and a high probability that an innocent man was convicted of killing Mary Phagan.

Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe