The Murder Ballad of Mary Phagan

When precocious 13-year-old Mary Phagan is murdered in the basement of an Atlanta pencil factory in 1913, the police arrest the plant’s Black watchman. Suspicion soon shifts to the factory’s Jewish superintendent, and the two men are pitted against each other, with the real murderer protected by the corrupted justice system that nevertheless demands vengeance. A muckraking media storm and rival attorneys desperate for a win further threaten to undermine the truth of what really happened on that Confederate Memorial Day. When her ghost wakes on the morning of her funeral, Mary is granted the opportunity, in death, to save two innocent lives. But to do so she must unearth a dark secret, one that will shatter her grieving family and haunt Atlanta long after a verdict is reached. Based on true events, THE MURDER BALLAD OF MARY PHAGAN reexamines a controversial mystery that forced the reckoning of a generation and even today compels us to question the biases that inform our beliefs.