Video: Mary Phagan-Kean Interviewed

On March 11, 2025, Mary Phagan-Kean—great-niece of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, who was murdered by Jewish sex killer Leo Frank in 1913—appeared on the Stew Peters television program. In this interview, she discusses her lifelong mission to bring the truth to light about the case that led to one of the most controversial legal battles in American history. You can watch the full interview by clicking the video link above.

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The trial, conviction, and execution of Leo Frank played a central role in the formation of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that has since become one of the most influential pro-censorship and minority pressure groups in America. (Frank, in addition to being a sweatshop boss who employed child laborers like Mary Phagan, was the head of the B’nai B’rith in Atlanta, and the B’nai B’rith was the parent organization of the ADL.) Mrs. Phagan-Kean tells us that, for more than a century, the ADL and its allies in media, academia, and government have worked to rewrite history by portraying Frank as an innocent victim of anti-Semitism. She argues that this narrative is contradicted by extensive evidence, including the more than one-thousand-page Brief of Evidence from the trial, as well as multiple judicial reviews—from the Grand Jury to the U.S. Supreme Court and every level in between—all of which upheld Frank’s conviction despite his high-profile and well-funded defense team.

(In no way can Mary Phagan-Kean be called an “anti-Semite”—in fact, after her father was the leader of the color guard who honored a fallen Jewish airman, the airman’s Jewish family unofficially adopted the Phagans, and Mary always knew them affectionately as “grandma” and “grandpa.” This relationship continues to this day.)

In the interview, Mrs. Phagan-Kean shares the deeply personal story of how she discovered her connection to one of America’s most well-known murder cases. She describes how, after seeing the vast financial and political influence behind efforts to exonerate Frank, she dedicated herself to preserving the historical record and ensuring that her great-aunt’s story was not distorted or forgotten.

She also details the many ways in which Frank’s defenders have worked over the decades to obscure the facts of the case. Their tactics include:

• Attempting to frame innocent Black men. Initially, Frank’s team sought to blame night watchman Newt Lee by planting a fake bloody shirt at his home. When that failed, efforts shifted to implicating janitor Jim Conley with fabricated evidence (a fake planted “bloody club” and pay stub)—a campaign to falsely blame Conley that, as Mrs. Phagan-Kean states, continues to this day.
• Promoting a false “bite mark” theory. Years after the trial, Frank’s supporters claimed that Mary Phagan’s body bore bite marks that did not match Frank’s dental records. However, Phagan-Kean points out that the official autopsy recorded no such marks and that dental X-rays were not used in Georgia courts until decades later.
• Slandering Mary Phagan. Frank’s defenders attempted to smear the 13-year-old victim’s reputation by implying she was a seductress—a claim wholly unsupported by any evidence and an attempt to shift blame away from her killer, literally reversing the roles of victim and killer.
• Falsely alleging an anti-Semitic trial mob. Long after the trial, stories emerged claiming that an enraged crowd had intimidated the jury, shouting threats of violence such as “Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you!” Mrs. Phagan-Kean shows that contemporary newspaper accounts and photographs absolutely refute this claim, showing no such mob ever existed.
• Altering historical records. Without notifying the Phagan family, Frank’s supporters secretly modified the text on a historical marker at Mary Phagan’s gravesite to suggest Frank’s innocence.
• Holding closed-door meetings to seek exoneration. Over the last four decaees, and as recently as 2025, secret meetings between Frank’s advocates and Georgia officials have taken place, deliberately excluding the Phagan family and the general public, all in an effort to obtain an official exoneration of Frank.

Mary Phagan-Kean also announces in this interview that a newly expanded edition of her book, The Murder of Little Mary Phagan, will be released later this year. She states that this updated version will provide even more evidence showing that Leo Frank was rightfully found guilty of her great-aunt’s murder, and also illustrating the multiple frauds and hoaxes used by Frank’s defenders.

Mrs. Phagan-Kean encourages viewers to share this interview and learn more about the forces that have attempted to propagandize the public about this case for over a hundred years. Understanding this history, she tells us, is essential to grasping the broader power dynamics at play in America today.

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ADL’s Greenblatt Gets “Community-Noted” on X

The humiliation of Jonathan Greenblatt, boss at the Jewish pressure/censorship group, the ADL (which was founded in large part to defend sex murderer Leo Frank), continues on the leading social media platform, X.

Every August 17, Greenblatt posts a commemoration of Leo Frank’s hanging, falsely claiming that Frank was innocent and also falsely claiming that Frank was convicted based on “anti-Semitism.” But, due to increasing awareness of the facts of the Leo Frank case, and the rise of truth-telling Web sites like littlemaryphagan.com and theamericanmercury.org and leofrank.info and others, the experience has not been one that is likely to please Greenblatt. Gone are the days when the ADL and other Jewish groups, with their strong allies in all major media corporations, could suppress free speech on the case.

We reported (see below) on the hiding Greenblatt got at the hands of Twitter users (Twitter has been renamed X by its new owner, Elon Musk) back in 2021. The vast majority of the hundreds of comments Greenblatt received were from users outraged that he was “celebrating the legacy” of a sick child abuser and murderer. The same thing happened on a larger scale in 2022, but Greenblatt was somehow able to pressure pre-Musk Twitter into deleting most of the critical comments.

But with Musk at the helm — and after Musk declared himself to be in favor of free speech on the platform — Greenblatt decided not to take any chances and himself turned off comments on his own post! That’s humiliation number one.

Then came humiliation number two — the semi-official volunteer fact-checkers at X added what is called a Community Note to Greenblatt’s pro-Frank posting, factually stating that Leo Frank had been duly convicted and still stands adjudged guilty of murdering 13-year-old Mary Phagan, and giving links to their sources for those facts. Here’s one of the links; quite worthwhile: https://moejacobs.medium.com/the-leo-frank-case-in-the-midst-of-a-jewish-gentile-culture-war-2027700a3be8

It’s likely that Greenblatt and the ADL then applied pressure to have the Community Note removed, and this has caused internal strife at X, since the Note disappeared, then reappeared again a few hours later, then disappeared again. Regardless of whether the Note comes back or not, Greenblatt’s — and the ADL’s — humiliation is complete. The truth is out there now. The people know. Greenblatt’s promotion of the ADL’s fake news about the Leo Frank case will not be allowed to continue without vigorous public critique and opposition.

My name is Mary Phagan-Kean, and I live to tell the story that I know.

Little Mary Phagan Case History

SINCE THE “Conviction Integrity Unit” was recently established to “review” the Leo Frank Case, books have been banned, court records have been taken offline, YouTube videos on the Leo Frank case have been removed, and many original newspaper archives are “no longer available”! Why? To silence opposing views.

What is the truth about the Leo Frank Case? Truth is now called “inappropriate” or “offensive” or “objectionable” and is deemed “hate speech” in order to impose censorship. Facts, however, are not hateful!

MY NAME is Mary Phagan-Kean and I am the great-niece and namesake of “Little Mary Phagan,” the thirteen-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by B’nai B’rith leader Leo Max Frank on April 26, 1913.

Leo Frank, who admitted he was the last person to see Mary alive, was the factory manager at the National Pencil Company, which then stood where the Sam Nunn federal building stands today, and where Mary worked — and was killed.

On August 25, 1913, after a month-long trial, Leo Frank was found guilty by a jury of his peers, and on the next day, he was sentenced to hang for the murder of his young employee.

The Frank case is no “cold case.” Mary’s killer was not James Conley, the state’s star witness against Frank. The State of Georgia proved beyond any reasonable doubt that Leo Frank alone murdered Little Mary Phagan.

Where the Phagan Family Stands

The Phagan family has no objection to anyone expressing their opinions about the Frank case, but we do insist that organizations and personal campaigns not distort the truth and facts to use this case for their own political purposes. For over 100 years, each passing decade brought with it “new historical evidence” falsely claiming to exonerate Leo Frank. The Phagan family has stated since 1982 that if there were clear-cut evidence to clear Frank of this heinous crime, we would come forward and ask for exoneration. However, such historical evidence has never come to light. Rather, there are considerable data, extensive documentation, revealing archival material, and legal, court, and government records that only support and even strengthen the guilty verdict.

Phagan Position Paper UPDATED 2021 version!

Facts of the Case

The fact is that Leo M. Frank was found guilty under Georgia law with facts and evidence, not with political bullying. The good people of Georgia can make up their own minds about Leo Frank’s innocence or guilt by delving into the historical records themselves.

Having researched the Frank case, including spending thousands of hours examining court records, newspaper reports, and private and public archives, I ask you to please consider the following facts:

The Crime and the Evidence

On Saturday April 26, 1913, Frank used the opportunity of a deserted factory and his power as the company boss to lure Little Mary Phagan to a back area of the factory and attempt to sexually assault her. Mary resisted and in the struggle Frank struck her and knocked her unconscious, and then strangled her to death. He left a trail of clues leading to him, so within a few days of the murder he was arrested. Evidence showed that the murder was sexually motivated, and many of Leo Frank’s own female employees testified to Frank’s history of sexual harassment. They testified that he “got too familiar,” “put his hands on” them, tried to corner them, and proposed sexual acts in exchange for money to them. These teenagers bravely took the witness stand and spoke of Leo Frank’s lewd behavior.

Witness Accounts

Sixteen-year-old Nellie Wood told the court how Frank had pushed himself against her and touched her breast. Fourteen-year-old Nellie Pettis, a witness for the defense, recounted how Frank had propositioned her for sex. Twenty girls in all gave similar testimony about Frank’s improprieties. Several male employees described how they had witnessed Frank “rub up against” young female workers “a little too much.” The testimony was so explicit that the judge had to clear the courtroom of women.

Racism

At trial Frank’s attorneys castigated the white jurors for even considering the testimony of the black witnesses: “They would rather believe the Negro’s word…. Oh, how times have changed. I hope to God I die before they change any worse than this….” Leo Frank’s lawyers argued to the jury of twelve white men that murder, rape, and robbery were “negro crimes” and thus Frank, a white man, could not have committed the murder of Mary Phagan. One defense attorney said that “the murder was the unreasoning crime of a negro,” that “It isn’t a white man’s crime.” Frank’s own racist thinking is reflected in an Atlanta Constitution front-page headline on May 31, 1913: “Mary Phagan’s Murder Was Work of a Negro, Declares Leo M. Frank.” The newspaper quoted Frank: “Here is a Negro, not alone with the shiftless and lying habits of an element of his race, that is common to the South…. No white man killed Mary Phagan. It’s a Negro’s crime, through and through. No man with common sense would even suspect I did it.”

Jim Conley’s Role

Leo Frank tried to pin his crime on two innocent black men. Leo Frank’s supporters, then and now, falsely represent an African-American man as the “real killer.” For over 100 years James “Jim” Conley has been scapegoated in nearly all the literature on the case. He was a sweeper in the factory on the day of the murder, and he was ordered by his boss Leo Frank to help move the dead body of Mary Phagan. When Conley confessed to his accessory-after-the-fact role, Frank and his supporters tried to pin Frank’s heinous crime on Conley. Frank’s supporters continue to this day to smear Conley as a devious criminal who got away with murder. However, Conley’s very detailed confession, corroborated by the physical evidence at the crime scene, was so convincing that it became central to the prosecution’s case. At trial, Leo Frank refused to be cross-examined by prosecutors, but James Conley withstood 16 hours of cross-examination, under oath.

Alonzo Mann’s Role

Alonzo Mann, the man that is supposed to have exonerated Frank in 1982, would have convicted him in 1913. I, Mary Phagan-Kean, examined in detail the dubious claims of Alonzo Mann, who came forward in 1982, after 69 years of silence, to say he saw Conley with the body of Mary Phagan. It turns out that his new statements hurt Leo Frank far more than they help him. Alonzo Mann has given many conflicting stories that are irreconcilable with the known facts. In May 1913 as a young teenager, Mann told detectives three different stories in three separate interviews and gave yet another story in his sworn testimony at trial in August. In those interviews and in his trial testimony Mann never mentioned seeing James Conley at all on the day of the murder. At age 83, in his 1982 videotaped session before the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, he gave still more conflicting versions that contradict the testimony of Leo Frank himself! My blog has the latest developments in this case.

My name is Mary Phagan-Kean, and I live to tell the story that I know.

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