leofrank

The name „Frank's cot“ at the state prison in Milledgeville refers to Leo Frank (according to: Milledgeville by Amy E. Clark-Davis, Arcadia Publishing, 2011, page 53 f., see books.google.ch/books?id=501B-QhtMisC&printsec=frontc...). Frank was accused to have murdered a 13 year old child and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He was arrested in Milledgeville before he was abducted and hanged by a lynch mob. „Leo Max Frank (April 17, 1884 – August 17, 1915) was a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob, planned and led by prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia, drew attention to antisemitism in the United States „ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Frank

Leo Frank:
Others involved in the Leo Frank case, from the Bain Collection:
www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=commons&q=%22leo+fr...

Leo Frank was not only accused of Murdering Mary Phagan, he was unanimously indicted for it by a Grand Jury of 21 members that included 3 Jews amongst the jurors, and convicted by a petit Trial Jury of 12 men and the presiding judge Leonard Strickland Roan. Leo Frank appealed his verdict to judge Roan who rejected it on 107 grounds. Leo Frank appealed his sentence to every level of the United States legal system from state to federal, and the majority decisions and unanimous decisions left undisturbed the verdict rendered against him by 13 men (jury + judge). Leo Frank was not arrested in Milledgeville, he was arrested in Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, April 29th 1913 at 11:30 a.m. Governor John M. Slaton owned the law firm which represented Leo Frank at his trial in the Fulton County Superior court and appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court. Governor Slaton in a gross violation of ethics and his oath of office, commuted the death sentence of his own law firm's client, Leo Frank, an undeniably unethical conflict of interest. Governor's can not commute death sentence of their own clients. If you want to learn about the Mary Phagan murder trial of which Leo Frank was the defendant, you can read the three major Atlanta newspaper accounts (Atlanta Journal, Atlanta Constitution and Atlanta Georgian from July and August, 1913) and Leo Frank Trial Brief of Evidence, 1913, by clicking on my name or search on Leo Frank case here on Flickr. I have uploaded nearly 5,000 images about the Leo Frank case, some of them are duplicates.

His wikipedia entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Slaton She was Sarah "Sally" Frances Grant; here she is elsewhere on Flickr:

Thanks so much pennylrichardsca for providing his wife's name. We'll add this information to the record the next time we update.

They had to flee Georgia after the Governor commuted the sentence of convicted murderer Leo Frank, in one of the era's most sensational cases, and a cause celebre for many. Frank was lynched by an angry mob after Gov. Slaton commuted his sentence.

Sally Frances Grant Slaton, wife of the Governor of Georgia (1913-1915). He was the governor who commuted Leo Frank's death sentence. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Marshall_Slaton

pennylrichardsca: Thanks for the additional info. We'll add it to the source data next time we update.

John Slaton, who earlier had served two months as an appointed Governor or Georgia, to fill a vacancy, was elected in his own right and took office on June 28, 1913. Two months later, on August 26, in Atlanta, Leo Frank (in an infamous miscarriage of justice blamed on racial excitement and antisemitism) was found guilty, after trial, of the murder of a young factory employee, Mary Phagan. The verdict became national and international news. Frank's attorneys requested an appeal of the verdict, and excitement was running high in October and November, when Bain's news agency circulated this photo of the new governor's wife to its subscribers. Was this the only photo Bain could locate near to hand? Why Georgia's first lady, and not the Governor? After the appeals process, which continued through 1914 and part of 1915, Governor Slaton committed political suicide by commuting Frank's sentence from death by hanging to life imprisonment. But the Georgia mob would not have it; the KKK dragged Frank out of prison and lynched him. Only in 1986 did the state of Georgia grant him a posthumous pardon.

There was no more excitement about the murder of Mary Phagan, than there was over any other grizzly murder of a child in American history. The Leo Frank case became famous, because the organized Jewish community and many of its leaders decided to embrace the case as a cause celebre of anti-Semitism. There was NO miscarriage of Justice at the Leo Frank trial, because when Leo Frank mounted the witness stand on August 18, 1913, he made an admission that amounted to a murder trial confession. The Leo Frank Admission that Amounted to a Murder Trial Confession: Now, gentlemen [of the jury], to the best of my recollection from the time the whistle blew for twelve o’clock [noon on Saturday, April 26, 1913] until after a quarter to one [12:46 pm] when I went up stairs and spoke to Arthur White and Harry Denham [on the fourth floor], to the best of my recollection, I did not stir out of the inner office [located at the front of the second floor]; but it is possible that in order to answer a call of nature or to urinate I may have gone to the toilet [in the metal room at the back of the second floor]. Those are things that a man does unconsciously and cannot tell how many times nor when he does it (Leo Frank Trial Brief of Evidence, August 18, 1913).