And the Dead Shall Rise, by Steve Oney

Leo M. Frank at his trial; behind is his wife Lucille

Earlier this year I saw a production of the musical Parade at a theater in San Diego. The play tells the twisted and tormented story of Leo M. Frank and the murder he became involved with. The production was beautifully sung, danced, and acted, but the story had too many balls in the air and I'm not sure they all got caught. Now I am having the same feeling about Steve Oney's exhaustive examination of this same case, the book And the Dead Shall Rise. There are so many lenses presented through which to view this story that in the end confusion is enhanced rather than resolved. I have the ability to see the images of this compound eye, but I cannot make them make sense.

Leo M. Frank was a factory supervisor in Atlanta, Georgia, in the early years of the 20th century. In 1910, he was accused of the murder of a young woman who worked in the factory, 13-year-old Mary Phagan. Police were under pressure to find the perpetrator; prosecutors were under pressure to make charges stick. Newspapers were under pressure to fan the flames of circulation. Politicians made hay while the Georgia sun boiled it all to a breaking point. It was almost a time of wilding, when good old common sense was somehow swamped in a deluge of emotionalism, sectionalism, and craven self-interest.

My point in this post is not to re-try the Frank case, but to discuss this book And the Dead Shall Rise. I've been reading this book for months...it is about 800 pages long and slow going--at times almost a catalog of available documentation, at other times a sociological analysis. Not a page-turner. But my time with this book is well-spent. I was shocked after I saw Parade to have been ignorant of this case. Reading And the Dead was my way to keep the Frank story alive, at least in my head, if nowhere else. In light of the somewhat fevered tenor of this year's (2012) presidential campaigns, I am doubly glad I read it. I can't be reminded too often of the dangers of bigotry, and class, race, and religious hatred.

An unmentioned element of this book is that the death sentence is too severe. Oney makes clear how a totally unassailable case was made against Frank out of virtually no truth. And Frank was sentenced to death for a murder to which he was barely tangentially connected. His sentence was commuted by the governor at the last minute--but Frank's innocence remains officially unproven.

Religious hatred was inflamed by journalist/preacher/politician (oh that combo) Tom Watson, who used it as a whip to gain money and power. Frank's Jewishness became a factor in the case. Many Jews, including wealthy and influential ones, supported Frank and funded his defense, up to an including a full-out publicity campaign. Watson turned this strategy on its heels, descrying the Jews who were trying to run (and ruin) Georgia and buy its institutions.

Leo and Lucille Frank in Parade,
as the trial swirled around them

Hatred is like a cockroach--if you see one, you might as well prepare for an onslaught. Racism was an embedded feature of Georgia society in those years. The savvy witness for the defense was coached and rehearsed to sound as ignorant as possible and he never cracked. He knew he was in the catbird seat instead of in the electric chair (evidence pointed strongly to him as the killer). The jury bought the proposition that a Negro would be too ignorant to commit the crime himself.

Police and judicial corruption joined forces against Frank. Testimony was openly bought, then a recantation was purchased by the other side, and often a third round of money changed hands for an un-recanting. Key evidence was ignored or withheld. The prosecution played on the mysterious ritual (!) of circumcision to tie Frank's religious beliefs to a likelihood of sexual perversion--something that had little to do with anything at the trial but which ensured a guilty verdict.

I could go on and on. In the end, the author takes no real position. After his exhaustive re-examination of the evidence, he does not draw a conclusion. He hints that evidence is still out there somewhere and with his underlying theme that we carry the past around with us and are shaped by it minute by minute, maybe he's correct.

I don't regret the hours spent on this book. The story is a microcosm of so much that is ugly in America (not just the south). And Frank's story deserves to be told over and over. And also the story of power--when the end is power, any means will do, to the point of a noose slipped over an innocent man's head while "official" Georgia looked the other way. In the end, a group of well-known men secretly arranged the kidnapping (from a state prison) and lynching of Leo Frank. If you are squeamish, do not look at the photos still in existence of this event. They haunt me and sicken me. Not our finest hour.

An account of a film version of the Leo Frank story can be found at: http://monstermania-batcat31.blogspot.com/2011/07/story-youll-never-forget.html

Background on the musical of this story, Parade, can be found at: http://www.broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/parade.htm