nThe definitive account of one of American historys most repellent and most fascinating moments, combining investigative journalism and sweeping social history nYears later, the tale of murder and revenge in Georgia still has the power to fascinate...Intense, suspenseful. --The Washington Post Book World n nIn 1913, 13-year-old Mary Phagan was found brutally murdered in the basement of the Atlanta pencil factory where she worked. The factory manager, a college-educated Jew named Leo Frank, was arrested, tried, and convicted in a trial that seized national headlines. When the governor commuted his death sentence, Frank was kidnapped and lynched by a group of prominent local citizens. n n Steve Oneys acclaimed account re-creates the entire story for the first time, from the police investigations to the gripping trial to the brutal lynching and its aftermath. Oney vividly renders Atlanta, a city enjoying newfound prosperity a half-century after the Civil War, but still rife with barely hidden prejudices and resentments. He introduces a Dickensian pageant of characters, including zealous policemen, intrepid reporters, Franks martyred wife, and a fiery populist who manipulated local anger at Northern newspapers that pushed for Franks exoneration.n