"The Case of Mary Phagan,'A Story About the Story of a Murder': Constructing a Crime"

dc.contributor.authorShelton, Regan Virginiaen
dc.contributor.committeechairJones, Kathleen W.en
dc.contributor.committeememberBunch-Lyons, Beverlyen
dc.contributor.committeememberShumsky, Neil Larryen
dc.contributor.departmentHistoryen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T21:34:54Zen
dc.date.adate2000-04-28en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T21:34:54Zen
dc.date.issued1999-12-13en
dc.date.rdate2001-04-28en
dc.date.sdate2000-04-27en
dc.description.abstractOn April 27, 1913, the body of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan was discovered in the basement of her workplace in Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of the following two years, her employer, Leo Frank, would be tried and convicted for her murder. Another employee, Jim Conley, a black janitor originally implicated in the crime, provided the evidence used to convict Frank. In my thesis, I explain the multiple identities created to describe the victim and her accused murderer(s). Press reports, trial records, and secondary historical accounts of the crime all reveal a fascination with the young female victim and a desire to solve the mystery of her death. By examining personal identity as a cultural construction, I re-evaluate the manner in which we define and describe crime. Phagan's murder became a cautionary tale, a narrative of sexual danger within the model city of the New South. My thesis illustrates the importance of understanding murder as an event occurring within and shaped by a social context. The murder of Mary Phagan and the Frank case demonstrate how we ascribe meaning to tragic events and how variables such as race, class, gender, and age affect the outcome of criminal procedures.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Artsen
dc.identifier.otheretd-04272000-09560004en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272000-09560004/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/42295en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartetd.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectJim Conleyen
dc.subjectLeo Franken
dc.subjectMary Phaganen
dc.subjectgender and crimeen
dc.subjecthomicideen
dc.title"The Case of Mary Phagan,'A Story About the Story of a Murder': Constructing a Crime"en
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineHistoryen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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