The People v. Leo Frank

The People v. Leo Frank. Dir. by Ben Loererman. Prod, by Laura Longsworrh. Ben Loererman Producrions, 2009. 75 mins. (http://leofrankfilm.com)

The Leo Frank case of 1913-1915 provides incredibly fertile material for dramarizarion: after all, it was not every day, even early in the twentieth century, that a Brooklyn-raised Jewish Atlanra facrory supervisor (Frank) could be convicted for the murder of a thirteen-yearold girl (Mary Phagan) in his employ by an all-white jury on the basis of highly circumstantial evidence. Ir was even more unlikely rhar the key wirness against the Jew accused was a black southern male also in his employ (Jim Conley); given the time and place, Conley should have been the chief suspect, convicted and executed, if not lynched, but for his unrecognized intelligence, some corrupr and sloppy police work, and rhe machinations of a careerist but clumsy prosecutor for whom the Frank case was a last chance ar redemption. There was also the competition of three daily newspapers unconcerned with verifying rumors fed to them by the police. It is also rare across the entire century that a state governor (here Georgia's John M. Slaton) would sacrifice a promising political career to commute Frank's sentence to life imprisonment in the waning days of his term in office. And it was unique, even in the state of Georgia at that time, for a lynch mob to abduct and successfully murder a white man - an atrocity strategized by leading political figures and executed by otherwise mostly upright citizens. They were urged on by a former populist statesman and vice presidential candidate, Tom Watson.

The Leo Frank...