An Unspeakable Crime: The Prosecution and Persecution of Leo Frank by Elaine Marie Alphin (Carolrhoda/Lerner, $22.95, 9780822589440/0822589443, 152 pp., ages 14-up, March 2010)
On April 26, 1913, Confederate Memorial Day, 13-year-old Mary Phagan is murdered in the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, Ga., after picking up her paycheck. The accusations fly. First, the police arrest the company's African-American night watchman, Newt Lee. Next, they arraign the Brooklyn-raised Jewish superintendent of the company, Leo Frank. Detectives also question African-American janitor Jim Conley, but Leo Frank is ultimately charged with murder (questions of sexual violation are also raised, making this book more appropriate for older teens). Author Elaine Marie Alphin, who won an Edgar Award for her novel Counterfeit Son, unravels the details surrounding Mary Phagan's death and its aftermath like a mystery. She describes the mood in the South, the Southerners' resentment toward the Northern industrialists, and the feeling that "while Atlanta's sizable Jewish population was respected, they were still in the minority, and they were considered 'different.' " The appeal to teen readers will be not only the mystery element but also that so many teens worked at the factory, knew Mary Phagan and offered evidence in the case.
Add into the mix the politically ambitious Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey (Atlanta's prosecutor), former presidential candidate Tom Watson (who also owned a magazine) and the media extravaganza that erupted around the murder, and the chance for a fair trial became ever smaller. The one powerful man of conscience in the state turns out to be Georgia's governor, John Slaton. Alphin draws from a wealth of primary source material--personal letters, archival photos, newspaper accounts and Hugh Dorsey's published "Argument... at the Trial of Leo M. Frank." The original trial transcript "mysteriously disappeared from the courthouse," Alphin writes in an author's note. She weighs these details like an impartial judge, though there's a great deal here that will inspire teens to passionate debate about the judicial system, individual rights and what "a fair trial" might look like--because Leo Frank's hearing certainly touches on all of those issues. Alphin's account continues to build suspense about whether Frank will receive a fair hearing, especially considering the emotional and financial support he attracted from outside of Georgia. Because this tale is structured like a mystery, our review won't give away the ending (even if you know the outcome, this is riveting reading)--but suffice it to say that the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan and the founding of the Anti-Defamation League directly resulted from the prosecution of Leo Frank and its aftermath, and details of the case continued to come to light into the 1980s. Alphin used the Leo Frank case as a catalyst for the hero to take action in her novel The Perfect Shot (Carolrhoda/Lerner, 2005), but says she "couldn't forget about Leo Frank." Anyone who reads this book will also be haunted by him and by the suggestion that a fair trial may just require that every honest citizen come forward with the facts.--Jennifer M. Brown