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The Atlanta Journal

Monday, April 28th, 1913

(Page 2, Column 3)

Six thousand people, according to reliable estimates, visited P. J. Bloomfield's undertaking parlors Monday morning to see the body of Mary Phagan.

It was the largest crowd, police say, that had ever viewed a murder victim's body in Atlanta. Scores of friends, hundreds of acquaintances and fellow-workers in the pencil factory and thousands of simply curious walked around the bier between 7 o'clock and noon. So far as known, no relatives appeared. The mother of the girl is ill at her home as a consequence of her daughter's death and other members of the family are at her bedside.

In the endless line in and out of the undertaker's establishment were old men and young men and old women and young women. There were women with babes in their arms and fathers with their sons. And there were dozens of girls who worked in the pencil factory.

"It's Mary, O it's Mary," sobbed one girl as she clasped the lifeless face of her former companion in her arms. She had heard of her friends' death, but was overcome with grief when she looked on the lifeless body of the pretty fourteen-year-old girl.

There was little emotion displayed on the faces of most of those who called, though. Apparently they had come just out of curiosity.

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Atlanta Journal, April 28th 1913, "Thousands Visit Morgue to View Girl's Body," Leo Frank case newspaper article series
atlanta-journal-042813-april-28-1913

Download PDF document here: atlanta-journal-042813-april-28-1913

Appendix:

https://www.newspapers.com/image/970064459/

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-atlanta-journal-thousands-visit-morg/133963604/

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