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.

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.

* * *

Below is the original inscription on the historical marker at Mary Phagan’s grave site:

Below is what it was then changed to with no vote and no media present, in 1995:

The Marietta Daily Journal published an article describing what happened and why the Phagan family was outraged by this (transcribed below):

Family of Mary Phagan protests marker change

Without a formal vote and with the press absent, Marietta City Council has changed the inscription on the city’s historic marker at the grave of rape-murder victim Mary Phagan in the Marietta City Cemetery. The Phagan family is blaming Councilman Philip Goldstein.

The descendants of Miss Phagan are upset because the family was not notified before or after the change, and only learned of it on a cemetery-cleaning visit. The family says the newly-placed marker – which sits on a city-maintained path near the grave and is not to be confused with Miss Phagan’s ornate tombstone, which makes no mention of the circumstances of her death – omits the reason for the 1986 posthumous pardon given Leo Frank.

Frank – Miss Phagan’s boss – was convicted in 1913 by a Fulton Superior Court jury of the 13-year-old girl’s murder in an Atlanta pencil factory and sentenced to hang. When Gov. John Slaton commuted Frank’s sentence to life in 1915, a group of Marietta men abducted Frank from the state prison near Milledgeville and lynched him near what is now the Big Chicken on Frey’s Gin Road in Marietta.

[Years later, an unknown person defaced the graceful white marble flowerpot at the base of the epitaph slab and took the broken fragment.]

The Phagan family initially opposed placing a marker at their ancestor’s grave, fearing there would be increased damage to the cemetery plot and curiosity seekers would leave graffiti. That hasn’t happened. Late Mayor Joe Mack Wilson told east Cobb resident and Cherokee County special education teacher Mary Phagan Keen, a great-niece of Mary Phagan, that the grave was the most sought by visitors to Marietta and should have a marker, along with several other notable graves in the cemetery.

[Now keeping the fact hidden that Leo Frank was not officially exonerated.]

Mayor Wilson told the Phagan family the city would let them approve the text of the marker. The family insisted the unusual conditions of Frank’s 1986 pardon be explained. That was done. Now controversy has arisen because that portion of the marker has been changed.

The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board in 1983 turned down a request for a pardon based on Frank’s alleged innocence. [Leo] Frank’s former office boy, Alonzo Mann, told two Nashville Tennessean newsmen he saw black janitor Jim Conley holding a limp body in his arms the day of the murder. In its 1983 denial of a pardon for Frank, the board said after Mann’s testimony it “did not find conclusive evidence proving beyond any doubt that Frank was innocent.”

A new parole board then granted Frank a pardon in 1986 on the grounds the state did not protect him in prison, thereby allowing him to be lynched and thus ending any further court appeals. Frank’s conviction was appealed unsuccessfully by his lawyers three times to the Georgia Supreme Court and twice to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The 1986 pardon said: “Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the state’s failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the state’s failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds…the board hereby grants to Leo M. Frank a pardon.” The family opposed the 1986 pardon, and now is irked at the council and [Philip] Goldstein.

[The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles neglected to mention that Leo Frank had completely exhausted all of his trial appeals at both the Georgia and Federal Supreme Courts by April 1915.]

“We are as much a victim as the family of Leo Frank,” said Ms. Keen. For 80 years, we have been the object of the curiosity-seekers and subjected to unfair and untrue books and TV docudramas. The current council didn’t show the same respect to us as did Mayor Wilson and a previous council.” Ms. Keen’s father, James Phagan, said the action was “extremely insensitive of the council” and “disingenuous of Councilman [Philip] Goldstein. How can you separate Mary Phagan and Leo Frank?” he asked. “Can you mention the Holocaust and not mention Hitler? It’s simply pandering by Councilman [Philip] Goldstein to a segment of the community. It’s another effort to change history.”

The inscription change was made by the Parks and Tourism Committee chaired by Councilman Dan Cox. Members are Councilwoman Betty Hunter and Goldstein. The full council OK’d the action. Cox admitted the committee had yielded to “political pressure” by [Philip] Goldstein and the Jewish community. Calling the change “a no-win situation,” Cox said he reluctantly consented to the change “because it offended a part of the community.”

[August 17, 1995. Leo Frank’s Lynching Site, 1200 Roswell Road, Marietta, Cobb County, Georgia]

On the 80th anniversary of Frank’s lynching on Aug. 17, [1995] a group of Jewish leaders led by Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb said the historic marker at Mary Phagan’s grave should be removed. The group placed a small plaque in the side of the VPI Corp. building owned by Roy Varner at 1200 Roswell St., near the site of Frank’s lynching. The plaque reads: “Wrongly Accused, Falsely Convicted and Wantonly Murdered.” Attending the ceremony were Marietta Councilmen Goldstein and James Dodd, who told Jewish leaders they would look into removing the line of the marker that refers to the pardon conditions.

“This is a plaque that marks the grave of Mary Phagan,” said [Philip] Goldstein. “The last two lines deal with information on Leo Frank, and it’s not his grave.” Goldstein was quoted in the Jewish Times as saying: “The wording is factually correct. The mention of Frank [not getting officially exonerated] on Phagan’s marker should be deleted because it is irrelevant, not because it upsets the Jewish community.”

It was Dodd who brought the matter before council, supported by [Philip] Goldstein. “This is a lose-lose situation for me,” [Philip] Goldstein said. The marker referring to the condition of Frank’s pardon has been removed and replaced with a marker the Phagan family had objected to.

A letter to the editor regarding the incident (transcribed below):

DEAR EDITOR: Bill Kinney’s “Around Town” column December 2nd told of a change made in the wording on a historical marker near the grave of Mary Phagan in the Marietta City Cemetery. Censored from the original marker was reference to the dubious “pardon” given Leo Frank in 1986 for the rape and murder of Ms. Phagan. He was convicted of the crime in 1913, and the conviction was upheld three times by the Georgia’s Supreme Court and twice by the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Phagan family was never notified that a change in wording on the historical marker was being sought or made. They learned of it while on a cemetery-cleaning visit.

Kinney explained: “The inscription change was made by the Parks and Tourism Committee chaired by Councilman Dan Cox. Members are Betty Hunter and Philip Goldstein… Cox admitted the committee yielded to ‘political pressure’ by Goldstein and Jewish Community.” And the Marietta City Council went along without a formal vote and the press absent.

The MDJ is to be commended for exposing this insensitive, conniving, deplorable action. The Jewish community should not conspire and manipulate to change history to suit its wishes. Jewish leaders should denounce this contrived deed and urge that the original wording on the historical marker be restored.
— TJ Campbell, Smyrna