August 17, 1915: Leo Frank is murdered, for a murder he probably didn't commit. Even if he did do it, two wrongs don't make a right.
Cuero was born on April 17, 1884 in Cuero, Texas, outside Houston, and grew up in New York. He graduated from Cornell University with an engineering degree, and moved to Atlanta in 1908. In 1912, there were growing concerns regarding child labor at factories. One of these children was Mary Phagan, who worked at the National Pencil Company, where Frank was director.
She was strangled on April 26, 1913, and found dead in the factory's cellar the next morning. Two notes, made to look as if she had written them, were found beside her body. Based on the mention of a "night witch," they implicated the night watchman, Newt Lee. Over the course of their investigations, the police arrested several men, including Lee, Frank, and Jim Conley, a janitor at the factory.
On May 24, Frank was indicted for the murder. The trial began on July 28. The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Conley, who described himself as an accomplice in the aftermath of the murder, and who the defense at the trial argued was, in fact, the perpetrator of the murder. Frank was found guilty on August 25.
Appeals were made, including to the U.S. Supreme Court, but all failed. Considering arguments from both sides, as well as evidence not available at trial, Governor John M. Slaton commuted Frank's sentence from capital punishment to life imprisonment on June 21, 1915.
This being Georgia, only half a century after the end of the American Civil War, anti-Semitism ran rampant, and Frank was denounced in every media outlet available. If the 1988 NBC miniseries The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Kevin Spacey as Frank and Jack Lemmon as Slaton, is to be believed, Slaton couldn't leave his house without "Christians" hissing at him, and he and his wife left the State when his term ran out, and they didn't return for 10 years.
On August 16, 1915, Frank was kidnapped from prison by a group of armed men, and taken to Mary's hometown of Marietta, where he was lynched the next day. He was 31 years old. Nathaniel Harris, who took office as Governor 5 days after Slaton's commutation order, vowed to punish the lynchers, who included prominent Marietta citizens, but nobody was charged.
Slaton lived until 1955. In 1986, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a pardon in recognition of the State's failures, including to protect Frank and preserve his opportunity to appeal, but took no stance on Frank's guilt or innocence.
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August 17, 1915 was a Tuesday. There were then 3 leagues in what would later be called Major League Baseball. The only games in the American League were a doubleheader at League Park in Cleveland. The Detroit Tigers swept the Cleveland Indians, 10-3 and 7-3. Ty Cobb went 5-for-10 with 3 stolen bases and an RBI. Shoeless Joe Jackson went 1-for-8 with a walk.
There were 3 games in the National League:
* The Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were known during Wilbert Robinson's managing from 1914 to 1931) beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Jack Coombs outpitched Christy Mathewson.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-0 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia. Fred Toney pitched a 4-hit shutout, to beat Grover Cleveland Alexander.
* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI.
And the entire Federal League was in action:
* The Brooklyn Tip-Tops lost to the Pittsburgh Rebels, 5-2 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh.
* The Newark Peppers beat the St. Louis Maroons, 14-4 at Harrison Park in Harrison, New Jersey.
* The Chicago Whales beat the Baltimore Terrapins, 4-0 at Terrapin Park in Baltimore. Addison "Ad" Brennan pitched a 4-hit shutout.
* And the Kansas City Packers beat the Buffalo Blues, 3-2 at the International Fair Association Grounds in Buffalo.
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