The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-08-25
LYNCH LEO FRANK
MOB TAKES CONVICT FROM
GEORGIA PENAL FARM
HUNG Up At MARIETTA

R2OlVU ~ IA HkIEAAAA
Five Autos Garry Frank One Hun
dred Miles in Dead Of Night
Prison Guards are Handcuffed
While Victim is Secured-Body
Not Mutilated and no Shots Fired.
Leo NJ. Frank, serving life term
at the Georgia state farm at Mil
ledgeville for the murder of Mary
Phagan, and who was only saved
from the gallows by Gov. Slaton COM
muting his sentence, was taken from
the farm at Has o'clock Monday
night by party Of twenty-five un-
identified men, who hurried him
away in an automobile in the direc-
ton of Eatonton.
Shortly before seven o'clock Tues
day morning he was hanged to an
oak tree in a woods two miles east of
Marietta, Ca, after having been re-
moved from the prison farm one hun
dred miles away late Monday night
by band of about twenty-five men.
Thus ended the career of the man
who for two years had maintained
his innocence of the murder Of Mary
Phagan.
Frank, on his ride to death, was
clothed in silk night shirt, with the
letters "L. NJ. F." embroidered over
his heart. When found Tuesday a
white handkerchief had been proceed
over his face and piece of brown
cloth bound around his limbs. His
hands were bracketed before him
and his feet were bound with a piece
of rope. The hangman's knot lay
against his right jaw.
Discovery of the body was made
at eight-thirty Tuesday morning by
searching parties, which had been or
ganized after Franks removal from
the prison farm became known. The
news spread with ightning-like rap
idity and within half an hour hun
dreds of people, including scores of
women and children, from Marietta
and the surrounding countryside be-
gan to arrive to view it.
The scene of the hanging was with
in two hundred feet of the roadway
in few hundred yards Of two farm
houses. Occupants of both said they
had noticed nothing unusual during
the early morning hours. However,
William J. Frey, a former sheriff, in
whose woods Frank was hanged, iv-
ing half mile further east, said four
automobiles passed his house shortly
before seven o'clock Tuesday morn
ing, each containing six or seven
men.
'I paid no particular attention to
them,'' MIR. Frey added, "and the
possibility of a lynching did not oc'
cur to me-"
The mob apparently planned their
work well, for they carried it through
without a hitch. Between Milledge'
vile and the state farm and between
Milledgeville and Macon they cut the
telephone wires and it was fully an
hour or more after they had secured
their man and hastened on their way
before the news came out.
As far as could be learned none Of
the members of the mob were recog'
nized. All of them are said to have
worn masks and all were heavily
armed. Not a shot was fired and nc
one was injured, as far as known.
When the mob first reached the
state farm they separated into three
groups. One went to the home Of
Captain Burke, the farm superln'
tendent, and after calling him from
the house they covered him witt
their guns and slipped the handcuff:
on him. This group took Captain
Burke to the prison farm dormitor!
and forced him to open the door.
Another group secured and hand
cuffed Warden Smith in the same
manner as the other he'd done Cap
tain Burke. Two guards sleeping on
the front porch were overpowerec
and handcuffed also.
Warden Smith and Captain Burke
both declared they failed to recog
nize any of the members of the mob
but one of the convlcts overheard
remark dropped by one of the moi
that they intended to take Frank te
Marietta.
Practically every other member OF
the mob then rushed to the stockade
gate nearest the dormitory where
Frank was being housed. Only
Tuesday did the physicians discharge
him from the hospital where he hao
been since being murderously as
saulted in the dormitory.
Only one member of that part o1
the mob that went to the dormitorJ
talked. He gave the commands tc
the guards which were backed up BY
the arms of the other members OF tho
mob.
The body of Frank, under a heavy
police guard, was placed aboard
train, which departed from Atlanta
at 1901 o'clock Wednesday morning
The funeral party including Mrs
Frank and several Atlanta friends OF
the family, who will accompany the
body to Brooklyn, also was guarded
carefully by the police until the train
left the terminal station.
Gov. Nat E. Harris of Georgia has
announced that he will return to At
lanta for the purpose of aiding the
prison commission in an investiga-
ton of the lynching of Frank. 1.-The
people are entitled to all the facts in
the case," said the governor, "and
propose to see that they shall have
them" He said that thorough in
quiry will be made.
for the purpose of establishing a
paper in New York which would be