The Murder of Mary Phagan
This is a difficult blog to title. One has to wonder if the bigger crime was the murder of the young 13 year old girl or the lynching of the probable innocent man two years later. Once again however, much like the case I blogged of previously, Laura D. Fair, the media and their coverage played a large role in this case. The difference here is that a likely innocent man lost his life. Of course the media was not completely at fault. Much like cases we hear of today, this case was full of speculation, recantations, as well as allegations of police and prosecution corruption and misconduct. In the early morning of April 27, 1913 the body of young National Pencil Company employee, Mary Phagan was found in the basement of the factory by the nightwatchman, Newt Lee in Atlanta Georgia. There are a few things that we have to remember about this time. First you have an issue of the "deep" south. There was a lot of antisemitism going on. The ...