In a sworn affidavit dated March 4, 1982, Alonzo McClendon Mann, then 83 years old, stated that he had withheld critical information during the 1913 trial of Leo Frank due to fear and family pressure. Mann explained that he was fourteen years old at the time of Mary Phagan’s murder and worked as the office boy at the National Pencil Company under Leo Frank. Although he testified at trial, he claimed he was never asked questions that would have prompted him to reveal what he later said he witnessed.
Mann asserted that on Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1913, he briefly left the factory near noon and then returned after failing to meet his mother for a parade. Upon reentering the building, he claimed he encountered janitor Jim Conley on the first floor holding the limp body of a young girl, whom he later believed to be Mary Phagan. Mann stated that Conley threatened to kill him if he ever spoke of what he had seen, causing him to flee the building in fear.
According to Mann, he immediately told his mother what he had witnessed. She, fearing for his safety and the family’s reputation, instructed him never to repeat the story. His father supported this decision. Mann said he followed their instructions, remained silent during police questioning, and later testified at trial without revealing the alleged encounter.
Mann maintained that Jim Conley’s trial testimony implicating Leo Frank was false and that Conley alone was responsible for handling Mary Phagan’s body. He expressed lifelong remorse, stating that his silence contributed to Frank’s conviction and eventual lynching. In closing, Mann said he made the affidavit due to declining health and a desire to clear his conscience, believing it important for history to reflect what he claimed was the truth, even decades later.
Two books deconstruct this narrative, first, the Murder of Little Mary Phagan (2025) by Mary Phagan Kean, and secondly, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews (2016), Volume 3, by the NOI Research Group.
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