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Title: And the Dead Shall Rise : The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by STEVE ONEY ISBN: 0-679-42147-5 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 07 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.36 (14 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Thrilling History
Comment: There was a time, and it was not too long ago, when lynchings were common in America. It was mostly a southern phenomenon, and it was mostly whites lynching blacks. Because its victim had become an international cause before he was killed, the most famous lynching was that of Leo Frank, not a black but a Jew, in 1915. The tale of this atrocity has been told before, but never with the detail and sweep found in _And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank_ (Pantheon) by Steve Oney. It is a huge book, a result of seventeen years of research, and provides insights into the case from sources that have previously not been consulted. Despite the detail, Oney's essentially chronological narrative maintains intensity throughout. We already know that Frank gets lynched in the end, but the events leading up to the lynching are still suspenseful, and the varied aspects of the aftermath are still surprising.
The chronology begins with Mary Phagan, thirteen years old and an employee of the National Pencil Factory in Atlanta, of which Frank was superintendent. On 27 April 1913, her body was discovered in the basement of the factory. Suspicion turned to a black janitor, Jim Conley, who gave three different contradictory versions of his story to police. His final version was that Frank tried to seduce Mary Phagan while Conley stood guard for his superintendent, and then that he and Conley disposed of the body in the basement. When Frank was interviewed, he was visibly nervous, and urged by the Atlanta papers, police arrested him. It was easy for demagogues in Atlanta to rake up the old stories about Jewish plots or financial vampires sucking hard-laboring Christians dry, and whatever Frank's chance in the courtroom, public outrage against him was constant. Convicted, he was given a last minute commutation from death sentence to life imprisonment by the outgoing governor, since his cause was internationally known. Spurred by the demagoguery of Tom Watson and his weekly _Jeffersonian_, citizens of Marietta, Phagan's family home, organized an astonishing military-like operation to break into Frank's prison, transport him to Marietta, and lynch him. The citizens trooped out to see the hanging body, and one woman said she could not stand to see a hanging, "But this - this is different. It is all right. It is - the justice of God." Crowds enjoyed hearing the hymn "That Old Time Religion."
Not a single conspirator in the lynching was prosecuted. This was partially because one of their members was put in charge of the grand jury examining the case. Some of them went on to further civic careers. The lynching was a spark in the modern revival of the Ku Klux Klan. It also sparked B'nai B'rith to found the Anti-Defamation League. Tom Watson rode his popularity into the US Senate in 1920. Oney is especially good at giving a social history of Atlanta and the relations between blacks, whites, and Jews within it. His portraits of the many individuals nationwide who were involved in the case are excellent, with the most interesting being that of lawyer William Smith. Smith, after coaching Conley and thus assisting in Frank's conviction, became convinced that the trial's outcome was wrong, and began doing his own research into the case, amassing a body of facts that should have come to light during the trial. Although Conley is now generally thought to have been the true culprit, Oney quite rightly does not come down on one side or the other. He reports the evidence as given at the trial, almost all of it circumstantial, and the contradictions, and the evidence on both sides tainted by bribery. The result is a spectacular demonstration of narrative power through intensive detail; _And the Dead Shall Rise_ is factual history written with all the dash of a thriller.
Rating: 5
Summary: Detailed, Researched, Definative Account of Frank Lynching
Comment: Steve Oney's "And the Dead Shall Rise" is the long overdue definitive account of the lynching of Leo Frank and the preceding and succeeding events. The seventeen years Oney spent researching and writing the book are extremely apparent in the painstaking, harrowing, and often excruciating detail. Oney maintains an extremely objective and historical narrative, yet is able to keep the prose lively enough to captivate the reader, as he systematically presents the thoroughly researched facts about the events that occurred almost daily from the murder of little Mary Phagan to the aftermath of the Frank lynching. The combination of Oney's use of irony and occasional analogy along with the cast of Dickensian and often sinister characters (Tom Watson, Hugh Dorsey, Jim Conley) gives the book the feeling of a novel. The title, drawn from a quote by Nietzsche, asserts that by discussing and writing about the dead, we bring them back to life. Without a doubt, the book is deserving of its title for it is exactly what Oney does. Lost in the extreme detail and caught in the emotional battles involved in the case, the reader often feels that the events described are actually occurring. "And the Dead Shall Rise" is the authoritative account of an event which captures the sheer ignorance, hatred and greed of the early twentieth century American south.
On April 26, 1913, the thirty ninth anniversary of the end of the civil war, 13 year old Mary Phagan went to collect her $1.20 in wages from Superintendent Leo M. Frank where she worked at the National Pencil factory on Forsyth Street- but she never came back. Frank who was Northern and Jewish was charged of the crime the very next day. Anti-Semitism was an ever present yet rarely spoken of theme in the two year long world famous trial. Nearly everyone involved in the case (Dorsey, Smith, Watson, Rosser, Lanford, Black, Hearst and more) seems to have a political agenda. The guilt or innocence of Leo Frank matters only to many in terms of their political careers. In many ways the authorities were after Frank from the very beginning. When Jim Conley was finally arrested, and and extremely large amount of evidence pointed towards him as the murderer, Dorsey and the Atlanta police department bent their backs to make it look like Conley was only an accomplice to the murder and Leo Frank actually committed the crime. Countless incidents show politicians hunger for power and political agendas. Not to mention the three Atlanta newspapers: the Journal, the Constitution, and the Georgian (run by William Randolph Hearst) who were all trying to make as much money as possible paying little to no heed to who they were accusing or defending. Frank was convicted for the Murder of Mary Phagan and was sentenced to death. Governor Slaton, who knew about more evidence than the public did, shortly before leaving office commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Anti-Semitism in Georgia sky-rocketed, and Frank was dragged from his prison cell by a lynch mob and hanged in Marietta. The real breakthrough of Oney's book, however, is that it was a state crime. It had to be. Frank was one of the most famous prisoners in America, and the lynch mob literally came into the heavily guarded prison and within minutes snatched Frank and left. One of the ringleaders of the lynching was former governor Joe Brown, whose statue resides today at the Georgia State capitol building. Oney produces a thoroughly researched list of names of the lynchers and organizers of the lynching of Leo Frank
The lynching of Leo Frank is a story which embodies America's fear and power and serves as an exemplar of southern hatred towards northerners and Jews.
After establishing himself as a journalist, having written articles for Esquire, GQ, and the New Yorker, Oney wrote an article about the murder of Mary Phagan for Esquire Magazine. So enthralled in the subject, he felt he had to pursue it. "And the Dead Shall Rise" is a product of seventeen years, longer than Mary Phagan lived, of extreme research. Oney, not a Jew, tried to take the most objective standpoint as possible. When starting the book he erased all previous preconceptions about the case. He dug up all of the old newspapers, affidavits, and detective work to present in the book. He interviewed many of the remaining relatives of people involved in the case, obtaining valuable information. Also, the book is filled with historical events from Atlanta and Georgia history that help the reader understand the events of the trial, providing readers not only with information about Leo Frank but about the history of Atlanta's Black and Jewish communities. The book is presented as facts, and he is able to keep the prose captivating without giving too many of his own opinions, letting readers decide. Oney remarked that he believed Frank was "Ninety-Five percent innocent" (a remark which I scoffed at due to my preconceptions of the case as a Jew) leaving the door a little bit ajar and revealing his true objectivity. Oney takes advantage of his skills as a journalist and as a historian, which is for the best unless you are opposed to stuffy writing. All in all, Oney does an incredible job with this book, establishing himself among the great historians.
"And the Dead Shall Rise" needed to be written. Our generation, and the generations to come, needs to be informed about these darker sides of history. Oney provides an extremely detailed account of an incident that may very well have been forgotten. Enthralling and informing readers, Oney has produced an astounding historical work filled with rich detail. Anyone who wants to learn more about the darker side of Georgia's (and America's) past must read this book.
Rating: 5
Summary: finally the truth
Comment: DEtailed and analytical approach to an event in history that has implications today. The history of the great southern tragedy that has stimatized the good people of Atlanta even now. It's unfortunate that so much hate still exists today because of this time in US history
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Title: The Leo Frank Case (A Brown Thrasher Book) by Leonard Dinnerstein ISBN: 0820321451 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David Von Drehle ISBN: 0871138743 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Silent and the Damned: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Robert Seitz Frey, Nancy Thompson Frey, Nancy Thompson-Frey, John Seigenthaler ISBN: 081541188X Publisher: Cooper Square Press Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza, Peter C. Whybrow ISBN: 0786712503 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander ISBN: 067003133X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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