In the defense’s opening gambit, Reuben Arnold stated that Leo Frank was the victim of prejudice.  “I’ll tell you right now,” Arnold asserted, “if Frank hadn’t been a Jew there would never have been any prosecution against him. I’m asking my own people to turn him loose, asking them to do justice to a Jew, and I’m […]

Featured image, clockwise from top left: Luther Rosser, Reuben Arnold, Leo Frank, Rhea Frank, Lucile Frank image from Atlanta Constitution, July 30, 1913 Defense Whatever else may be said about Leo Frank’s trial, it is difficult to deny that Frank had a spirited, aggressive and (for the most part) thorough defense team.  Luther Rosser and […]

Prosecution Leo Frank’s trial began on July 28, the hottest part of a steamy Georgia 1913 summer. Irritable but still peaceable crowds gathered outside the courthouse: those fortunate enough to gain access to one of the 250 spectator’s seats sat patiently if uncomfortably in the sweltering courtroom as the prosecution called Fannie Coleman, Mary Phagan’s […]

Holmgang The British judicial tradition from whence Georgia law derives hearkens back to the Germanic Holmgang, trial by combat.  Champions for each side present their case.  Rules determine what modes of combat are permitted and which forbidden, just as a knight battling for his client’s honor would be expected to avoid chicanery like poisoned blades.  Much […]

The Stains on the Metal Room Floor From the beginning Newt Lee seemed an unlikely suspect: why would the killer call police to report a murder?  After a forensic investigation of Mary Phagan’s stomach contents, Dr. Henry Harris concluded that Phagan had died between 30 and 45 minutes after eating her lunch of cabbage and […]

The Body in the Basement In the predawn hours of April 27, 1913 Newt Lee stumbled over Mary Phagan’s body when leaving the Colored toilet in the National Pencil Company’s basement.  The frightened night watchmen called the Atlanta police at 3:25am. Upon their arrival detectives found the corpse laying face down before the furnace.  At […]

Featured Image: Manisa Relief, Akpinar, Turkey: app. 1,400 BCE. Considered in Classical times to be the first statue of Cybele Rediscovered in a cave outside Schelklingen in Germany’s Swabian Jura, the 35,000 – 40,000 year old Venus vom Hohlen Fels (Venus of Hohle Fels) is one of the two oldest known pieces of figurative art. (The other, […]

“Erzulie Dantor” by Nadine Fortius, 2005: at Indigo Arts Gallery Les noirs, dont les pères sont en Afrique, n’auront-ils rien? (The Blacks, whose fathers are in Africa, will they have nothing?) Jean-Jacques Dessalines A recent commenter on my blog noted: I discovered this article and you while looking into Voodoo studies. I was curious after […]

When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality; of second-hand truth, objectivity and authenticity. There is an escalation of the true, of the lived experience; a resurrection of the figurative where the object and substance […]

A few days ago I was booted from a Facebook group after being declared an “out and out Nazi.”  I considered defending myself when the allegation arose but realized that would be pointless.  Rejecting open borders is enough to make one a Nazi nowadays: throw in an open love of European culture and you have […]