This is the second of a three-part series. If you missed part one, please find it here.

The police began speaking to witnesses and searching for clues to find out who had murdered Mary Phagan.

This is what the investigation uncovered:

On April 26, 1913, thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan had taken a trolley to Atlanta to collect her paycheck. She was excited about her day. It was Saturday and she had plans to meet with friends to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day. Today, it’s still celebrated in some Southern states.

Sometime around noon, Mary arrived at the National Pencil factory. She went to collect her check from manager Leo Frank. According to Frank, she left immediately after he paid her. He said he didn’t see her again. Authorities concluded that Leo Frank was the last person to see the teenager alive.

The crime became a media sensation. Local papers focused on the story. It enraged Atlanta residents. Who would murder an innocent 13-year-old teenager? The locals hounded the police and local politicians about the murder. The public demanded justice.

Since police thought Leo Frank was the last person to see Mary, they gave Frank a serious look as the potential killer. So who was Leo Frank? He was a 29-year-old Jewish American man from Cuero, Texas on April 17, 1884. Frank attended college at Cornell University where he studied mechanical engineering. He earned his bachelor’s degree in 1906.

In 1908, he moved to Atlanta to take a position at the National Pencil Factory. In Atlanta, he met Lucille Selig, who would become his wife in November 1910. She was also Jewish and came from a prominent family. Her family founded Atlanta’s first synagogue. Leo and Lucille lived a good life. They attended operas and played bridge.

He spent five years as a supervisor for the National Pencil Factory, He didn’t have any issues and was considered a good employee. Leo Frank certainly didn’t look like a killer. He was 5’6, thin and frail. He also wore glasses that completed his unassuming appearance.

But antisemitism would become rampant throughout Atlanta and soon change Frank’s life for the worst after Mary’s murder.

The police also questioned Newt Lee, the night watchman who found the dead girl’s body. On Sunday, April the 27th, the police arrested him for the murder. Besides Lee, the police also arrested three other men. One was Arthur Mullinax, the former street car driver who usually drove Mary to work and back.

A witness claimed to have seen Mullinax with Mary on the Saturday she went to the factory. But seeing him with Mary wasn’t unusual since he provided her transportation.

John Gantt, the former bookkeeper for the National Pencil Factory was also arrested. He had expressed an attraction to Mary which made him a suspect. The fourth suspect was an unidentified black man. Local Atlanta papers offered more than $2,000 to anyone with information leading to the capture of Mary Phagan’s killer.

During the early 1900s, racial tension was high. Once the public learned that Newt Lee, a black man, was under suspicion for killing a white teenager, the public was incensed. The police had to battle a large white mob that had gathered to deliver street justice to Newt Lee.

Although the public knew Lee was a potential suspect, they didn’t know about Leo Frank. After Lee found Mary’s body, he said he unsuccessfully tried to call Frank for several minutes. Lee found this suspicious.

On April 27th, the police knocked on Leo Frank’s door. They said he appeared nervous when the police questioned him. The police then took him to the PJ Bloomfield Mortuary to see Mary’s body. I am sure they did this to see his reaction.

Frank denied killing Mary. He said he remained in his office for about twenty minutes after Mary left. He said another woman stopped by his office for her check after Mary. However, she said he wasn’t in his office when she arrived. She waited for a few minutes and then left without her check. So there was an inconsistency between stories. The police listened to Frank’s story, but they didn’t believe him. They began to think he was the killer.

On April 29th, Mary Phagan was buried in Marietta, Georgia.

The police began to move away from Newt Lee as a suspect and focus more on Leo Frank. They arrested Frank at his office and charged him with Mary Phagan’s murder. The Atlantan Georgian’s headline read “Police have the strangler.” The public read the headline and assumed the police had captured the real killer. Both Leo Frank and Newt lee claimed their innocence. Frank even said he thought Lee had possibly killed Mary.

An inquest into the murder occurred on April 30th. George Epps, 13, was a friend and coworker of Mary’s. Young Epps testified that Mary feared Frank. Epps claimed Mary told him that Frank had made unwanted sexual advances towards her.

Newt Lee then testified that Frank acted strange on the day Mary died. Lee said Frank called him and asked him to check around the factory for anything unusual. He said Frank had never called him about anything in the past.

On May 1st, the suspect list dwindled down to Leo Frank and Newt Lee; both remained in police custody. But just when the police were sure they had their killer, they arrested Jim Conley, another factory worker. Conley was a black man with a lengthy criminal record. As a janitor, he had full access to the factory. The police knew either Frank, Conley or Lee had killed Mary Phagan, but which one?

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