Lynching Pictures
When Leo Frank was murdered on 17 August, 1915, his killers and their collaborators took photographs of their crime. It was nothing extraordinary to take photograpphs of lynchings, and the pictures were often sold after the murder. There is an excellent (albeit very sobering) collection of such postcard-pictures here. No one was ever arrested for Mr Frank's murder, despite the many photographs of the body and the killers that common stores sold.
This murder- and many like it- happened in our own country, the "land of the free and the home of the brave." It's not just in Germany, Kosovo, and Rwanda. Our ancestors committed these crimes, and the only way we can attempt at atonement is to accept what they did and make certain it never happens again. Education is the best- and in this case, only- defense.
You've been warned... these pictures are pretty brutal...
An artist's impression of the lynching...