About Us & Mission

Preserving the record for future generations

 

My name is Mary Phagan-Kean: The Mary Phagan-Kean Legacy Project at MaryPhagan.com is one of the biggest works of my life. It represents decades of collecting, preserving, reading, comparing, transcribing, recording, and publishing the surviving historical record of Mary Phagan's 1913 murder and the investigation, trial, appeals, commutation, pardon proceedings, and more than a century of controversy surrounding Leo Max Frank.

 

This is a free historical project. There is no membership fee, no subscription, and no sign-up required to read the material we publish. I do not take the proceeds I receive from the sale of my book as personal profit. One hundred percent of those proceeds go back into the Mary Phagan-Kean Legacy Project to help continue the work.

 

The goal is much larger than any one book. I want to preserve the grand sum total of the surviving record and leave it behind for future generations.

 

More than 2,200 Atlanta newspaper posts

 

The newspaper archive is one of the largest parts of the Mary Phagan-Kean Legacy Project. As of September 3, 2026, the three principal Atlanta newspaper archives contain 2,209 published posts: 858 in the Atlanta Constitution archive,18 637 in the Atlanta Georgian archive,19 and 714 in the Atlanta Journal archive.20

 

The Atlanta Constitution archive begins with the first reports on Monday, April 28, 1913, and presently extends into December 1943. The Atlanta Georgian collection begins in April 1913 and runs into May 1914, concentrating heavily upon the murder investigation, the 1913 trial, and the early appellate period. The Atlanta Journal collection begins in April 1913 and presently extends into April 1919.

 

Hundreds of additional newspaper articles remain to be processed. By the time this part of the project is substantially completed, we could be well beyond 2,500 newspaper posts. These old newspapers have been collected in many forms over the decades, including original paper copies, microfilm, photocopies, archival scans, and Portable Document Format (PDF) collections. Our purpose is to rescue this material from difficult-to-search scans and aging microfilm and put it into forms people can actually use.

 

Transcripts, audiobooks, and clipping videos

 

We do much more than place newspaper scans online. The articles are transcribed so they can be read and searched. We make audio versions of the material. We also produce newspaper-clipping videos that allow a viewer to see the original article while hearing it read aloud.

 

By my project records, we have produced roughly 2,000 audio recordings using a computer-generated recreation of my voice and more than 1,000 newspaper-clipping videos, in addition to the thousands of transcripts and legal-record pages placed online. Between April 2026 and August 2026 alone, I published more than 1,000 newspaper transcripts or newspaper-clipping videos covering the discovery of Mary Phagan, the investigation that followed, and the progression of the case through the 1913 trial. There is still a large backlog waiting to be uploaded.

 

We are also mirroring these clipping videos and other historical material on leading video-sharing and free-speech websites. I do not want this work dependent upon one server, one domain, or one company. Websites disappear, technology changes, companies change ownership, and accounts close. Historical preservation is safer when copies exist in many different places. MaryPhagan.com is the central home of the project, but the long-range goal is to have as much of the audio and video archive as practical mirrored around the world.

 

We do not censor records that favor Leo Frank

 

One rule of this project is very simple: we preserve the record even when a document does not agree with our own conclusions. If a newspaper article favors Leo Frank, we publish it. If another article is against him, we publish it. If a contemporary account supports the prosecution, we publish it. If it criticizes the prosecution, we publish it. If a defense argument appears in the historical record, it belongs in the archive. If a document complicates something we have argued, that document still belongs there.

 

We do not want an archive in which inconvenient records quietly disappear. The interpretations can be debated. The original records should remain available. Readers should be able to examine the records themselves.

 

The collections at MaryPhagan.com

1. 1986 Posthumous Pardon — 2 posts (1)

 

Two major documents from the later pardon proceedings: the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles' December 22, 1983 decision declining the requested exoneration, and the March 11, 1986 posthumous pardon itself. The Board stated it acted without attempting to decide Leo Frank's guilt or innocence, basing the pardon instead upon Georgia's failure to protect Frank from the August 17, 1915 lynching, the resulting loss of his opportunity for further legal remedy, and the State's failure to prosecute his killers.

 

2. Alonzo Mann Claims Own Perjury — 13 entries (2)

 

Places Mann's different accounts side by side: his 1913 trial testimony, his May 1913 Pinkerton statements, his eight-page March 4, 1982 affidavit, his longer November 10, 1982 affidavit, and later exoneration-effort material. The March 1982 affidavit appears both as one combined transcription and as eight individual pages, and Mann's 1913 trial testimony is the identical post that also appears in the Brief of Evidence category, so 13 is not 13 unique documents.

 

3. American State Trials, Volume X, 1918 — 938 posts (3)

 

A slide-by-slide digitization of the 1918 legal reference work edited by John D. Lawson. The site's slide numbering eventually reaches 947, but there are 938 actual posts because several slide numbers are absent, so 938 is the correct count, not 947.

 

4. Appeals Georgia Supreme Court — 1,818 posts (4)

 

Presently the largest individual category on the site, spanning 61 archive pages. A page-by-page and slide-by-slide presentation of the surviving Georgia Supreme Court case file on Leo Frank's appellate litigation: affidavits, motions, portions of the record, legal pleadings, bills of exceptions, and other documents from the long post-conviction litigation.

 

5. Blog — 27 posts (5)

 

Modern research, commentary, documentary criticism, open letters, historical anniversary pieces, and discussions of books and films connected to the case. This is the part of the site where contemporary analysis and argument are most clearly separated from the large primary-source archives.

 

6. Brief of Evidence Leo Frank Trial 1913 — 204 posts (6)

 

Follows the official 1913 Brief of Evidence through 200 numbered witness or testimony entries, plus Leo Frank's oral statement, his additional statement, his April 28, 1913 deposition tied to State's Exhibit B, and an introductory post. Many entries are paired with audio and video so readers can move through the trial testimony in sequence rather than relying on isolated quotations.

 

7. Congressman Tom Watson on the Leo Frank Case — 5 posts (7)

 

Five major installments of Thomas E. Watson's 1915 writing on the case, from January, March, August, September, and October 1915.

 

8. Interview Videos — 4 posts (8)

 

Four 2025 interviews with Mary Phagan-Kean, including appearances with Ryan Dawson, RationalKeith, the Stew Peters Network, and Jake Shields' Fight Back program.

 

9. Jeffersonian Weekly — 1 post (9)

 

The letter from Mary Phagan's mother, Fannie Phagan Coleman, and stepfather, J. W. Coleman, to Thomas E. Watson following Governor Slaton's June 1915 commutation, published in July 1915.

 

10. John Slaton, Governor of Georgia — 43 entries (10)

 

Centers on Slaton's June 23, 1915 message to the Georgia General Assembly explaining his June 21, 1915 commutation decision. The 43 posts do not mean 43 different documents; the category contains a complete presentation of the message together with individual page-level presentations of the same text.

 

11. Leo Frank Trial — 15 posts (11)

 

The American Mercury's centennial presentation of the 1913 trial: "100 Years Ago Today," Week One through Week Four, Frank's August 18, 1913 statement, the closing arguments, Solicitor General Hugh M. Dorsey's closing argument, Judge Leonard Strickland Roan's charge to the jury, and related material.

 

12. Nation of Islam — 29 posts (12)

 

Philip St. Raymond's 29-part American Mercury series, The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, including his criticism of writings on the case tied to the Nation of Islam's Historical Research Department. These 29 posts are the same ones filed under category 17 below, not a second set of 29.

 

13. New York Sun — 1 post (13)

 

The October 12, 1913 article "Jews Fight to Save Leo Frank," useful for comparing national reporting against the three Atlanta papers.

 

14. Pinkerton Detective Agency vs. National Pencil Company — 29 posts (14)

 

Combines the later civil litigation between Pinkerton's National Detective Agency and the National Pencil Company over investigative fees with material from the original 1913 investigation itself, including Pinkerton reports, witness statements, and Jim Conley material.

 

15. Seeking Justice for Little Mary Phagan — 19 posts (15)

 

The fifteen-part Phagan Family Newsletter series together with later project announcements, open letters, and commentary, keeping Mary and her family's continuing involvement at the center of the archive.

 

16. Songs — 1 post (16)

 

Fiddlin' John Carson's "The Grave of Little Mary Phagan," an example of how the murder entered American folk culture.

 

17. The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man — 29 posts (17)

 

The same 29-part St. Raymond series as category 12. For any site-wide count, these two categories together represent 29 posts, not 58; the duplication comes from applying two category labels to the same material.

 

18. Transcripts: Atlanta Constitution — 858 posts (18)

 

The largest of the three newspaper archives, beginning Monday, April 28, 1913, immediately after Mary Phagan's body was discovered, and presently extending through later retrospective coverage into December 1943.

 

19. Transcripts: Atlanta Georgian — 637 posts (19)

 

April 1913 through May 1914, concentrated on the murder investigation, Frank's arrest and indictment, the month-long trial, and the start of the post-trial litigation.

 

20. Transcripts: Atlanta Journal — 714 posts (20)

 

April 1913 through April 1919, giving substantial Journal coverage extending past the 1915 commutation and lynching into later reporting on people connected to the case.

 

21. Watson's Magazine, September 1915 — 6 posts (21)

 

Watson's September 1915 writing on the case as a six-part transcription and video series. These derive from the same September 1915 material already counted once in the five-post Tom Watson collection above, so they are not six additional historical articles.

 

What the numbers actually tell us

 

The 21 category counts above add up to 5,393 category assignments. That number should not be advertised as 5,393 unique posts.

 

At least 30 duplicate category assignments can already be identified. Twenty-nine arise because the entire Philip St. Raymond series is filed under two category names. The thirtieth is Alonzo Mann's 1913 trial testimony, which is the identical post in both the Alonzo Mann and Brief of Evidence collections. Removing those 30 known duplicate assignments leaves an upper limit of 5,363 distinct posts among these categories. I would not advertise 5,363 as a final certified count, however, until every post URL in all 21 categories has been compared against every other category.

 

There is another distinction that matters. A unique post is not necessarily a unique historical document. Governor Slaton's message appears as a complete presentation and as individual page posts. Alonzo Mann's March 1982 affidavit appears as one combined transcription and as eight separate page posts. Watson's September 1915 article has been divided into a six-part presentation while also appearing in the larger Watson collection. These are legitimate ways of making old material easier to read, search, cite, hear, and watch. They should simply be described accurately.

 

What makes this project different

 

The real measure of this project is not one enormous number. It is the range of the record being preserved: 2,209 newspaper posts from the three main Atlanta papers, 1,818 posts presenting the Georgia Supreme Court appellate files, 938 posts from American State Trials Volume X, 204 posts devoted to the official Brief of Evidence, and collections devoted to Governor Slaton, Pinkerton, Alonzo Mann, the 1983 and 1986 pardon proceedings, Thomas E. Watson, national newspaper reporting, later historical arguments, interviews, family newsletters, music, and the continuing public debate over the case.

 

The project lets a reader move from an Atlanta newspaper published in April 1913 to the sworn trial record, from the trial record to the Georgia Supreme Court files, from those records to Governor Slaton's 1915 decision, and from the commutation to the pardon proceedings seventy years later. That is what I want MaryPhagan.com to become: a place where people do not have to depend entirely upon whatever author, documentary, newspaper article, professor, advocacy group, or popular interpretation happens to be telling the story at a particular moment. They can go back to the record.

 

A record for future generations

 

They can read material favorable to Leo Frank. They can read material against him. They can read the prosecution's evidence and the defense's answer. They can examine later claims against what was recorded in 1913. They can listen to the testimony, watch the newspaper-clipping videos, compare dates and statements, and make up their own minds.

 

This is one of the biggest works of my life, and there is still a tremendous amount left to do. I want the work to outlive me. I want someone researching Mary Phagan twenty-five, fifty, or one hundred years from now to inherit a historical archive instead of having to spend decades rebuilding one. That is the purpose of the Mary Phagan-Kean Legacy Project.