Better or Worse: The New South
Have they advanced or still behind?
Are they still behind?
New Businesse(s): Coco-Cola
Little Mary Phagan's Murder
Based mainly on the testimony of the janitor, who had been held in containment for six weeks before the trial on orders from Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey, the jury convicted the defendant. Frank's attorneys were unable to break Conley's testimony on the stand. They also allowed evidence to be introduced suggesting that Frank had many dalliances with girls, and perhaps boys, in his employ.
The people of Atlanta hoped for a conviction. They surrounded the courthouse, cheered the prosecutor as he entered and exited the building each day, and celebrated wildly when the jurors, after twenty-five days of trial, found Frank guilty. Frank's stay at the prison farm in Milledgeville was cut short on the night of August 16, 1915, when some of the famous citizens of Marietta, Phagan's hometown, took Frank from his cell and drove him back to Marietta. They hanged him from an oak tree the next morning.