Author: Research Librarian Simon Pauling

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Statement of James Conley: May 18, 1913

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Statement of James Conley, of Atlanta, Georgia made to John R. Black and H. S. at Police Barracks, Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday, May 18th, 1913. My full name is James Conley. I reside at 172 Rhodes St. with Lorena Jones, who claims to be from Marietta, Georgia This woman is not my wife, and I have been living with her a little over two years. I have been having intercourse with Lorena Jones. I have been employed as elevator man and roust about at the National Pencil Co. factory in Atlanta for the past two years. Before going to the Read More ...

Statement of James Conley: May 24, 1913

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Statement of James Conley of May 24, 1913. State of Georgia, County of Fulton. Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, a Notary Public, in and for the above stated and county, James Conley, who being sworn on oath says: On Friday evening before the holiday, about four minutes to one o'clock, Mr. Frank came up the aisle and asked me to come to his office. That was the aisle on the fourth floor where I was working, and when I went down to the office he asked me could I write and I told him yes I could write a Read More ...

Statement of Jim Conley: May 28, 1913

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State of Jim Conley, May 28, 1913. State of Georgia, County of Fulton. Personally appeared before me, a Notary Public, in and for the above State and County, James Conley, who being duly sworn on oath says: I make this statement, my second statement, in regard to the murder of Mary Phagan at the National Pencil Factory. In my first statement I made the statement that I went to the pencil factory on Friday, April 25, 1913, and went to Frank's office at four minutes to one, which is a mistake. I made this statement in regard to Friday in Read More ...

Statement of Jim Conley: May 29, 1913

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I discontinued at 6:00 P. M. Reported. Atlanta 5/31/13. Conley's Statement of May 29, 1913. Atlanta, Georgia May 29, 1913. On Saturday April 26, 1913, when I come back to the pencil factory with Mr. Frank I waited for him downstairs like he told me, and when he whistled for me I went upstairs and he asked me if I wanted to make some money right quick and I told him "Yes", sir", and he told me that he had picked up a girl back there and had let her fall and that he head hit against something he didn't Read More ...

Testimony of Helen Kerns

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Testimony of Helen Kerns, at trial of Leo M. Frank. Direct. I work for the Dodson Medicine Company as stenographer. My father works for Montag. I took shorthand under Professor Briscoe last winter. I have seen Mr. Frank in his factory. I went there with Professor Briscoe to get a job, I didn't get the position. I was working on the 26th day of April for Bennett Printing Company. That day I got off about 12 o'clock. I then went around in town to the different stores and did some trading. I had an appointment to meet a girl at Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Introduction

The Frank Case was the first book ever written about the murder of Mary Phagan, a young worker at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta in 1913. The fascinating case includes murder, bribery, legal wrangling, prejudice, and the planting of evidence. Whenever possible I have included photographs to bring the story to life. The complete audio book is available at: archive.org/details/LeoFrankCaseAtlantaGeorgiaGreatestMurderMystery1913_201503

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 1

Our telling of the events that occurred after the death of Mary Phagan, a 13 year old worker at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta Georgia, 1913 begins with Newt Lee, the night watchman doing his rounds. It was the early morning of April 27, 1913 and all was quiet, as usual, until Newt found something that frightened him and caused him to scurry up a ladder.

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 2

The Atlanta police received a shaky phone call from the night watchman at the National Pencil company at 3 in the morning on April 27, 1913. He found the body of a young factory worker who was molested and mutilated and dumped in the basement. You can find more information in these two books: The Murder of Little Mary Phagan by Mary Kean (Published in the late 1980s) by the great niece of the rape/slaying victim Little Mary Phagan (June 1, 1899 - April 26, 1913). Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Volume 3, The Leo Frank Case, The Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 3

in Chapter 3 the police arrive and tell Leo about the murder of one of his young female factory workers. At first Leo denies knowing her, but then knows that she was having a romantic relationship with a man that he fired a few weeks ago. Newt Lee, the night watchman who discovered the body, was arrested as an early suspect. The police and Leo investigate the scene of the crime. Another young factory girl (listen to the story to find out who) identifies the body.

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 4

Chapter 4 of The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery: To put the story in context make sure, you watch the Table of Contents, Chronology and Chapters 1 to 3 before you watch this episode. This chapter relays the events that occurred following the murder. We begin with the worries of Mary’s mother when she did not come home as expected and end with the gathering of evidence for a conviction. DownLoad Chapter 4 of The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery (Size: 804MB)

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 5

Chapter 5 of The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery: Chapter 5 of the Leo Frank Case, written anonymously in 1915, Atlanta is beginning to become aware of the heinous crime inflicted upon the body of a 13 year old factory girl. The city became fascinated and extra after extra was printed to keep the citizens informed. There were other murders and events at the time, but the murder of Mary Phagan took precedence. The reasons were clear. This case had many facets, including bribery, planting evidence, conflicting witness testimony and much, much more. I Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 6

1913 was a time of transition for our country with horses and automobiles sharing the streets. A murder mystery focused attention away from the disruptions in daily life to a puzzle, whose solution wasn’t immediately gleaned. The complexities of the Mary Phagan murder case were apparent from the beginning. The newspapers took advantage of the controversy to get the public hooked on the story. Extra after extra were published to keep the public informed. Rumors abounded. Speculation was rife. The Leo Frank Case was a book, published anonymously in 1913, relaying the facts. Margaret Huffstickler created the voiceover to Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery – Part 7

Atlanta newspapers are following the murder of Mary Phagan on April 26, 1913 very closely. There are other deaths at the time, but this story captured the imaginations of the people of Atlanta. Extra after extra kept the people informed as the events unfolded. This chapter describes the first two days of the inquest with highlights from the newspapers and the testimony of local witnesses. This case has many twists and turns and the audiobook presents many of them. The author has a nonjudgemental style and describes much of what went on in vivid detail. The illustrations are created Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story of Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery 1913 – Part 8

Chapter 8 of The Leo Frank Case focuses on the testimony of the witnesses at the Coroner Paul Donehoo's inquest on May 5 and 8th, 1913. Included are the findings of the tribunal jury. Leo Frank explains, in detail, his activities on the day of the murder, but there are already inconsistencies. How does he hear her footsteps receding when she was wearing soft-soled shoes? He doesn't know her, but he knows the hue of the dress she was wearing. He identified her by her employee number but he doesn't know her employee number. Keep watching these installments of Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia’s Greatest Murder Mystery, Full Series.

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Please watch the full series, herewithin. Introduction to The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery: The Frank Case was the first book ever written about the murder of Mary Phagan, a young worker at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta in 1913. The fascinating case includes murder, bribery, legal wrangling, prejudice, and the planting of evidence. Whenever possible I have included photographs to bring the story to life. The complete audio book is available at: archive.org/details/LeoFrankCaseAtlantaGeorgiaGreatestMurderMystery1913_201503 Download An Introduction to The Leo Frank Case, Inside Story to Atlanta Georgia's Greatest Murder Mystery (Size: 1.6GB) Chapter Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 2

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury LOOK AT THE headline and lead article in the Atlanta Georgian newspaper of April 29, 1913, we have illustrated above. Click on this link to see a large and easy-to-read version. "LEE'S GUILT PROVED, Detectives Assert" — "SUSPICION LIFTS FROM FRANK" — "We Have Sufficient Evidence Now to Convict Negro Nightwatchman of Killing Mary Phagan" — "Additional clews furnished by the head of the pencil factory were responsible for the closing net around the negro watchman" — "what suspicion had rested on Frank was being rapidly swept away by the damaging evidence Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 3

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE JEWISH Anti-Defamation League (or ADL) — back in the days when they and their allies had a near-monopoly on public discussion of the Leo Frank case — once made the claim that Leo Frank was arrested and indicted and convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan "without evidence." Listen to this audio book and learn of the vast amount of evidence amassed during four separate investigations into the case — evidence that strongly indicates Frank's guilt — evidence that convinced the coroner's jury, the grand jury, the trial jury — and Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 4

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHEN LEO FRANK was first arrested for the murder of Mary Phagan, his and his defense team's major focus was placing the blame on Newt Lee, the Black night watchman who discovered the murdered girl's body. They were so eager to avoid any attention being given to another Black man, Jim Conley, the factory sweeper who later was shown to be Frank's accessory after the fact — that they totally ignored the sighting of Conley by a witness on the day of the murder. This was a most unusual and revealing omission, Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 5

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury JIM Conley's testimony in the Leo Frank case riveted the attention of not only all those present in the courtroom, but the entire state of Georgia and beyond hung on his words as they were reported. Despite being a member of a disparaged minority, Conley's word was given respectful attention — and ultimately was even believed over the word of Leo Frank, an elite Jewish man considered white by the standards of the American South. This was unprecedented, but it was also inevitable given the detail, plausibility, and unshakable nature of Conley's Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 6

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury PARTISANS OF Leo Frank have often tried to discredit Jim Conley's testimony by pointing out that his account of the visit of Corinthia Hall and Emma Clark to the pencil factory where the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan took place was off by more than an hour. But these Frank partisans fail to note that Conley never stated that he saw the two young woman at all — he was merely told that they were there by Leo Frank, who had hustled him into a dark, locked closet after Frank announced the Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 7

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WE HEAR A LOT today about people "playing the race card" — using race unjustly in a dispute, or as a moral bludgeon to obscure the facts. In 1913 Atlanta, the Leo Frank defense team played the race card — and in a very big way. Interestingly, the pro-Frank forces used race in a way that most people would find grossly unacceptable today: crudely attacking prosecution witness James Conley, a black man, in open court and on the record as a "dirty," "lying," "thieving" "nigger" — and characterizing the sex killing of Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 8

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE PROSECUTION in the Leo Frank case never mentioned the word "Jew" until it was brought up by the defense — and lead prosecutor Hugh Dorsey had a long history of friendly relations and close collaboration with Jews throughout his life and career. So the accusation, common today among pro-Frank partisans, that the indictment and prosecution of Leo Max Frank was motivated by "anti-Semitism" simply doesn't stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. In this, the eighth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam — part Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 9

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury JEWISH WRITERS on the Leo Frank case have made some astounding claims about the "atmosphere of anti-Semitism" during the trial of B'nai B'rith official Leo Frank for the strangulation sex murder of his 13-year-old employee, Mary Phagan, in 1913 Atlanta. There were, we are told, "anti-Semitic" mobs (yes, plural) on the streets, some right outside the open courtroom windows, openly threatening the judge and the jury, screaming "crack the Jew's neck!" and "hang the Jew or we'll hang you!" and the like. It is even claimed that Jew-haters with rifles stood almost Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 10

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE "Hang the Jew" hoax — the claim that "anti-Semitic mobs" stood outside the courtroom during the 1913 Atlanta murder trial of Leo Frank, shouting "hang the Jew or we'll hang you" or the like and thereby intimidating the jury — was demolished during our audio book segment last week, and shown to be an invention totally unsupported by the facts. This week we hear in detail how that hoax has been cut and pasted, repeated, amplified, mangled, and embellished by lazy, sloppy, and partisan academics, writers, and journalists over the years. Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 11

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ALMOST THE ENTIRE pro-Leo Frank narrative is dependent on one claim: that Prosecutor Hugh Dorsey fabricated James Conley's story (or edited and embellished a story made up by Conley) and then coached him to deliver it skillfully on the witness stand. If Conley's story was not fiction, and not the result of conspiracy, collusion, and coaching; then it must be true — and Leo Frank must be guilty. Thus everything depends on the "coaching" allegation. In this week's audio book section, we'll see how untenable is the "coaching" claim. Why would Dorsey Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 12

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury TO HEAR the attacks made on the character of James Conley — a major witness against Leo Frank when Frank was tried for murdering a 13-year-old girl in his employ, Mary Phagan — you could easily be forgiven for assuming that you were hearing a speech from a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan instead of the words of B'nai B'rith-associated Frank and his defenders, so harsh were the racial attacks and epithets used against the Black man. Such was the race-baiting nature of the immense nationwide publicity campaign waged by Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 13

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE CRIMINAL ACTS of the Leo Frank forces as they attempted to get a new trial for their client — or invalidate the results of the original trial — are so numerous, so outrageous, so obvious, and so egregious that — once you hear about them in this new audio book — you will be outraged at how academia and the media have kept these facts from you. Did you know an attempt was made to pay an inmate to poison one of the state's main witnesses, James Conley? In fact, it's Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 14

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WAS THERE REALLY an anti-Jewish and anti-Frank "mob atmosphere" at Leo Frank's trial, as Frank partisans have alleged? If there was, then how did Mrs. Frank get away with calling Prosecutor Dorsey a "Gentile dog" in open court, and then suffer no consequences whatever? Why did such a provocation result in zero retaliation by anyone, much less a "mob," and zero repercussions for any Jew or the Jewish community as a whole? In fact, Jewish businessmen in Atlanta continued to advertise and sell and prosper just as they had before, and Mrs. Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 15

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHO LYNCHED Leo Frank? The culpability is often laid at the feet of a "mob" in the popular literature that promotes the Establishment's narrative of the case. But was it a mob? How many "mobs" consist of the leading citizens of the community? How many "mobs" have as their leaders no fewer than two Superior Court judges? A very curious mob indeed! (ILLUSTRATION: On the day after the lynching of Leo Frank, a crowd gathered at the site, where Frank's body still hung for some hours.) In this, the fifteenth audio segment Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 16

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury IS IT POSSIBLE that the Jewish community — namely, the same forces that launched the massive public relations campaign portraying Leo Frank as an innocent victim of "anti-Semitism" — had a hand in murdering him? If not, then why did the Jewish-owned New York Times (the flagship of the Frank publicity machine) create the evidently fictional "Knights of Mary Phagan" and position them as wanting to lynch Frank some months before the actual lynching? Was one motivation their fear that the repellent and perverse personality of a released Frank would undo all Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 17

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHILE THE supposedly angelic and innocent Leo Frank and his alleged persecution at the hands of "anti-Semites" was a propaganda asset to the Jewish establishment, did it eventually dawn on Jewish leadership that the real Leo Frank, during any possible new trial they might obtain for him with all its inevitable revelations, might be a disaster for Jewish interests? (ILLUSTRATION: Albert Lasker, Jewish advertising wizard and kingpin of the Leo Frank PR campaign; despite his efforts for Frank, he said Frank impressed him "as a sexual pervert.") In this, the seventeenth audio Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 18

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury WHICH GETS MORE coverage in the media: the singular instance of one solitary Jew, Leo Frank (who was duly convicted of the sex murder of a young girl), being lynched — or the literally hundreds of Black men lynched around the same time in the South without even the pretense of a trial, and often for such insubstantial and unsupportable accusations as "wild talk" or "pay dispute"? You may be sure that throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, it is the single case of a Jew being lynched that receives Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 19

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE TESTIMONY of Black men and women was pivotal in the trial of Leo M. Frank for the murder of Mary Phagan, and was so regarded by both the prosecution and defense. But little-heralded then, or now, is the horribly bad treatment these Black witnesses repeatedly received. The prosecution often "sweated" or gave Black witnesses "the Third Degree" — which meant physically or verbally threatening or abusing them, with the idea being that only under such severe fear would Black people tell the truth. Even the man on trial, the man the Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 20

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ONE OF the most mysterious aspects of the Leo Frank case is the series of "death notes," four of which were written, according to testimony, but only two of which were ever found. They were discovered right next to the dead body of Frank's victim, 13-year-old Mary Phagan. If taken at face value, they appear as though they were written by Mary while she was being assaulted. But they also are written in an approximation of the African-American vernacular of that time and in a semi-literate style that Mary Phagan would have been Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 21

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE "death notes" left beside Mary Phagan's body when she was murdered in 1913 have been the subject of endless speculation. Were the notes written by James Conley at the direction of Mary's convicted killer, Leo Frank? — or were they Conley's creation alone? — or were they purpose-written by Frank, using Conley's writing as a guide, in order to throw suspicion away from the real killer and onto a Black man?   In this, the twenty-first audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 22

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ONE OF the weirdest aspects of the Leo Frank case was the — shall we say — strained effort of the Frank team to make some human excrement found in the National Pencil Company elevator shaft into a "proof" that Leo Frank was innocent of murdering Mary Phagan. This so-called "shit in the shaft" theory was based on the overwhelming fear of the Frank defense that the use of that elevator to move Mary's body — evidenced by dragging marks in the basement's dirt floor leading from the elevator to precisely where Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 23

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury ATTORNEY WILLIAM SMITH traded his "free" services as a lawyer for James Conley for the influence of an agent of the William Burns detective agency, Dan Lehon, in an unrelated abduction case — illustrating either extreme naïveté or weak legal ethics on Smith's part. Smith's defection from advocate for Conley to accusing him of murder is a very strange about-face. But sudden about-faces abound in the Leo Frank case, especially involving people 1) who had strong evidence against Leo Frank, and 2) who subsequently had close contact with agents of the William Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 24

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THERE HAS NEVER been a better refutation of the 1982 supposed testimony of Alonzo Mann "exonerating" Leo Frank of the charge of murder than in this book by the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam. They bring up the points that writers for the Mercury have brought up casting considerable doubt on Mann's story, but add new information that, to this writer's knowledge, has never been published before. It is the definitive deconstruction of the Mann fable, which was used in the 1980s as a bludgeon by the ADL — Read More ...

The Leo Frank Case: The Lynching of a Guilty Man, part 25

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by Philip St. Raymond for The American Mercury THE PROPAGANDA DISGUISED as journalism put forth by the partisans of Leo Frank has been ongoing for more than a century now. But for pure bluster, shallowness, self-promotion, and incompetence, there is none as egregious as the Nashville Tennessean's money-fueled subsidy and promotion of the Alonzo Mann hoax in 1982. (ILLUSTRATION: The cartoonish illustration for the Nashville Tennessean's publication of Alonzo Mann's "revelations" was an apt harbinger of the bad journalism to follow.)   In this, the twenty-fifth audio segment of this ground-breaking work originally published by the Nation of Islam, part of Read More ...

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