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Securities Broker/Dealers 356-2600 Open daily, evenings, weekends Leo Frank Letter to A Classmate (Editor's note: The cur- rent issue of Jewish Cur- rents reconstructs the tragedy of Leo Frank in an article by the maga- zine's editor, Morris U. Schappes, entitled "Leo Frank's Letter From Prison, 1914, to a Classmate at Cornell." The letter referred to was written by John H. Gould of Detroit. To trace the identity of John Gould, The Jewish News con- tacted his niece, Mrs. Orilla Winfield of Ojai, Calif., who sent the origi- nal letter to Dr. Schap- pes. Her explanatory let- ter is attached to the Shappes article re- printed here with his permission.) Shortly after the Nashville Tennessean March 7, 1982 broke its story corroborating the in- nocence of Leo Frank, who was lynched Aug. 17, 1915, in Marietta, Ga., we re- ceived a letter from a long- time subscriber in Ojai, Calif., Mrs. Orilla Winfield. Enclosing a clipping about the story from the Quincy, Ill., Herald-Whig of March 8, she wrote to us March 24: ". . . I come from a Protes- tant, Midwestern farming family. Our uncle went to Cornell with Leo Frank and we have in our possession a letter written to our uncle while Frank was either awaiting trial or in jail. And as children we were raised on the injustice and horrors of this event: "I never heard the word anti-Semitism until I went away to college. Consider- ing the rise of anti- Semitism in this country, I think the story should be told again." It is with Mrs. Win- field's kind permission that we publish the letter sent from prison in At- lanta on Oct. 29, 1914 to John Gould (1879-1929), an Illinois farm boy edu- cated in local schools until he went to Cornell, majoring in engineering. There he met Leo Frank who got his degree of mechanical engineering in 1906. and the only incriminating witness introduced, (a per- jurer and jail-bird). Frank was now incarcer- ated in the Fulton Tower, Cell 2 of the South Corridor, where he read in the eve- nings by candlelight plus the light from the single electric bulb in the outside corridor. He was allowed visitors daily (and eve- nings) and sometimes played chess with them. One such visitor was Anne Carroll Moore, a lib- rarian at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn that Frank had frequented as a high school boy. She saw him every day for eight days in June 1915, found him "always cheerful, serene and hopeful. as ready to listen to others as to talk himself but with a fund of conversation as rich and in- exhaustible as it was varied and interesting." When the letter to Gould was written Oct. 29, 1914, Frank had already endured a terrible ordeal. Arrested April 29, 1913, Frank, the superintendent of the pencil factory in which he was al- leged to have murdered 13- year-old Mary Phagan, a worker in the factory, was tried July 26 to Aug. 25 in a lynch atmosphere both in- side and outside the cour- troom. Smith's declaration aroused a storm of disap- proval and lynching threats. However Smith ap- pears to have backbone and is not to be scared off. I will send you his statement as it appeared in the local news- paper, in a day or two. I am enclosing you some of my leaflets covering vital points of the trial, that have not appeared in the public prints and upon which the public does not seem to be intelligently enlightened. I will be glad to hear from you at any time and will give you any information you may desire. With best wishes and warm personal regards, I am, He had been found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging — by a judge who did not himself believe Frank was guilty! On Oct. 31 the same judge has denied a retrial and Feb. 17, 1914, the Georgia Supreme Court had af- firmed the lower court decision. Frank's case was again on appeal to the Georgia Sup- reme Court. Frank was permitted to receive and send letters freely, and to use his own office station- ery. The letter from Frank to his classmate Gould follows: * * * An Officer and A Gentleman The Road Warrior Lady .Chatterly's Lover Yes, Giorgio Blade Runner My dear Gould: Your letter was to me like a "voice from the long ago." Just to think that it is now over eight years since I have heard from or seen you. I certainly appreciated your words of cheer and confi- dence. Since graduation, the years have been good to me. In Atlanta, since August 1908, I have held a nice position with the above firm, a position of trust and responsibility. $2.50 overnight $5, 4 days $35 membership fee VIDEO PLUS VIDEO PLUS AUDIO 19739 EVERGREEN ROAD (at 12 Mile) SOUTHFIELD, MI 569-2330 6641 ORCHARD LAKE RD. (Old Orchard Mall) WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI 855-4070 Open 7 Days Gift Certificates Available! • 4, • k In November 1910 I mar- ried a lovely, beautiful girl, with whom I was very happy. It was while I was in pur- suit of my happy life and along its even tenor, that in April 1913, this most unjust and outrageous trouble overtook me like a bolt from the blue. The charge was so prepos- terous, that at first, I treated the matter disdain- fully, it was all so foreign and far removed froin" my Mr. Smith states that Conley is guilty, and that I am innocent and that he will prove it! LEO FRANK - -most fantastic conception or thought. Still the public, so easily aroused here in the South, conceived a vicious animosity and vindictive hatred toward me, aided and abetted by racial prej- udice and getting the man higher up. Discretion and intelli- gence was thrown to the winds and unreasoning mob rule took its place. A dwarfed and cowardly judiciary, in spite of the truth and the facts, lent its ear to the popular out- cry; hence my present predicament. - In spite of it all, however, I am still fighting and must win in the end. Of the- ulti- mate happy outcome, I have never been in doubt. We are still before the state courts, and will fight to Washing- ton if we have to do it. The best of brain and heart has been enlisted in my defense. Doubtless, you have read various accounts of my trial in August 1913, the condi- tions surrounding it, and subsequent developments. One of the most startling recent developments was the declaration of attorney William M. Smith, counsel for Jim Conley, the star negro witness against me, Cordially yours, Leo M. Frank * * * Frank's letter to Gould was sent to Detroit. In a let- ter to The Jewish News Mrs. Winfield explained: "John Gould (1879-1929) was born into a farming family which settled in western Illinois in 1943. After finishing the rural schools he attended Carth- age College and Cornell University where he was graduated from the mechanical engineering department in 1906. "He was a member of the Society of Automobile Engineers and worked in both Detroit and Lansing, Mich. "Leo Frank and John Gould became friends at Cornell. The -letter from Leo Frank and his defense pap- ers were kept in the family file . ." Georgia State Senate Res. 423, Adopted 1982 Whereas, Leo Frank was tried in the Superior Court of Fulton County in 1913 for the murder of Mary Phagan; and Whereas, he was convicted in an atmosphere charged with prejudice and hysteria; and Whereas, he was sentenced to death but his sentence was communted by Governdr John Marshall Slaton; and Whereas, in August of 1915, he was taken by a mob from the state institution in Milledgeville and carried to Cobb County where he was lynched; and Whereas, Alonzo Mann, a 14-year-old witness at the Frank trial, was threatened with death and was not asked specific questions which could have cleared Frank; and Whereas, Mr. Mann has come forward to clear his con- science before his death and claims that Leo Frank did not commit the murder of Mary Phagan; and Whereas, if Leo Frank was not guilty of such crime, it is only fitting and proper that his name be cleared, even after his death. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Senate that this body strongly requests that the State Board of Pardons and Paroles conduct an investigation into the Leo Frank case; and, if the evidence indicates that Leo Frank was not guilty, the board should give serious consideration to granting a pardon to Leo Frank post- humously. Be it further resolved that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed to transmit an appropriate copy of this resolution to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.