Grand Jury Indictment of Leo M. Frank, Saturday May 24, 1913, in the Superior Court of Atlanta, GA.

Judge W. D. Ellis of the Superior Court on Monday, May 5, 1913, ordered the May Grand Jury to investigate the Mary Phagan Murder Mystery

Grand Jury: A Decisive Moment, to Try or Not to Try

On May 24th 1913, the day the Grand Jury of twenty three men were to vote after a long, grueling and exhaustive review of testimony and evidence concerning the Mary Phagan Murder Mystery presented to them from Monday, May 5, 1913, to Saturday, May 24, 1913. But Two Grand Jurors where not present on the day of the vote, one a Jewish member went to New York City and M. Beutell, a Gentile, had an important event he was unable to miss, and as these two men were out of town, they were not permitted to vote by absentee ballets, it therefore reduced the Grand Jury from 23 to 21 voting men. The importance of this reduction was that only a majority of 11 instead of the former 12 votes were necessary to indict Leo Frank in this nail biting moment for the police and prosecution that had tirelessly spent a month building their case for the Grand Jury.

Even though Leo Frank was a businessman partly responsible for hiring more than a hundred people, they were not sympathetic, because primarily the evidence was solid and overwhelmingly strong against him. With twenty-one men remaining, some close observers may have wondered if the vote was straddling the fence in either direction, and questioned whether the majority of 11 out of 21 would come forward and vote for an indictment or not.

A Close Call?

In a result that set another powerful tone for the future of the case, just as the Coroner’s Inquest Jury vote had done, the Grand Jury voted unanimously 21 to 0 in favor of indicting Leo M. Frank for the murder of little Mary Phagan. With four Jews voting unanimously with seventeen other Gentile men to Indict Frank, it puts serious doubts about the veracity of the Jewish Communities historical and contemporary race-baiting hatred claims over the last 100 years that Leo Frank went to trial because he was Jewish; an innocent Jew railroaded and framed collectively by European-Americans who are innately anti-Jewish and the whole Leo Frank affair was a widespread anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic conspiracy. Countering the Jewish position, Southerners are wondering why Frank supporters must resort to making false, bigoted and racist blood-libel smears against them for the last 100 years, when the evidence against Frank is solid, and every level of the U.S. legal system sided with the Jury that they were not mob terrorized and Leo Frank had a fair trial. The indictment read… In the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia, charge and accuse Leo M. Frank, of the [Fulton] County and State [of Georgia] aforesaid, with the offense of Murder, for that the said Leo M. Frank in the County aforesaid on the 26th day of April in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred and thirteen, with force and arms did unlawfully and with malice aforethought kill and murder one Mary Phagan by then and there choking her, the said Mary Phagan, with a cord place around her neck contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof. The Frankites, like Steve Oney and Dinnerstein, would claim the outlandish claim the entire Leo Frank case can be reduced to the word of Jim Conley vs. Leo Frank. Though the indictment had absolutely nothing to do with Jim Conley, and after powerful and compelling evidence (without Jim Conley) was presented to the Grand Juryman, the following 21 Grand Jurymen of which four were Jews unanimously signed the bill of indict against Leo Frank (Bill of Indictment, 1913, Atlanta Publishing Company, The Frank Case, 1913; and Mary Phagan Kean, 1987).

The 21 Members of the Grand Jury Unanimously Voting to Indict Leo Frank are:

1. J.H. Beck, Foreman,

2. A.D. Adair, Sr.,

3. F.P.H. Akers,

4. B.F. Bell,

5. J.G. Bell,

6. Col. Benjamin,

7. Wm. E. Besser,

8. C.M. Brown,

9. C.A. Cowles,

10. Walker Danson,

11. G. A. Gershon,

12. S.C. Glass,

13. A.L. Guthman,

14. Chas. Heinz,

15. H.G. Hubbard,

16. R. R. Nash,

17. W.L. Percy,

18. R. A. Redding,

19. R.F. Sams,

20. John D. Wing,

21. Albert Boylston

After the twenty one Grand Jurymen unanimously signed the murder indictment of Leo M. Frank, he would be scheduled to be put on trial before a cohort of 13 men, a judge and a petite Jury of 12 men, to decide his ultimate fate.

Next: Leo Frank Trial Admission Equaling Murder Confession

References:

The Murder of Little Mary Phagan by Mary Phagan Kean

The Frank Case, Inside Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery by Anonymous

Grand Jury indictment of Leo Frank, Saturday, May 24, 1913

Last updated: May 24, 2012