Alonzo M. Mann, age 83, gives this sworn affidavit in 1982 to reveal information he withheld as a 14-year-old office boy at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta in 1913, the year Leo Frank was tried for the murder of Mary Phagan. Mann states that if he had told the truth then, Frank would have been cleared and his life spared. Mann explains he stayed silent because Jim Conley, the factory’s janitor and the prosecution’s key witness, threatened to kill him if he spoke, and because his parents—especially his mother—insisted he keep quiet to protect himself and the family.
Mann describes working in Frank’s office on the morning of Confederate Memorial Day. When he arrived around 8 a.m., Conley was drunk and sitting near the first-floor stairwell, asking him for money. Mann left the building just before noon to meet his mother for the parade, passing Conley still sitting below the stairs. His mother did not arrive, so he returned to the factory after no more than half an hour.
Upon entering, Mann witnessed Conley carrying an unconscious or dead girl—whom he later understood to be Mary Phagan—near the trapdoor to the basement. Her clothing appeared neat, she was limp, and Conley seemed prepared to dump her body down the trapdoor or elevator shaft. When Conley saw him, he threatened to kill him if he ever spoke. Terrified, Mann fled home and told his parents, who ordered him never to reveal what he had seen. He avoided Conley thereafter.
During the police investigation and Frank’s trial, Mann testified only about the morning hours, withholding his return to the building and his encounter with Conley. He says he would have told the truth if directly asked, but no one knew to question him about it. Looking back, he realizes that his silence contributed to Frank’s wrongful conviction and later lynching.
Mann expresses certainty that Conley—not Frank—killed Mary Phagan, likely for her pay money, which was never recovered. He states that Conley’s testimony at trial about assisting Frank in moving the body was entirely false and inconsistent with what Mann witnessed. He also rejects stories that Frank behaved immorally with female workers or took women to the basement, describing the cellar as filthy and unsuitable for such acts.
Over the decades Mann confided his secret to various people, including fellow soldiers, relatives, and a reporter, but was repeatedly discouraged from going public. Only late in life, suffering from heart problems and wanting to clear his conscience, did he decide to make a full sworn statement. He believes revealing the truth is important for history and as a reminder that courts can make grave mistakes. Mann acknowledges that some may blame him or his mother for remaining silent, but hopes that God will understand his reasons.
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