Eugene Herbert Clay (October 3, 1881–June 22, 1923) was the mayor of Marietta, Georgia, and one of the ringleaders in the

lynching Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

of Leo Frank.Oney, Steve ''And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank'' He was born in Marietta, Georgia to Senator

Alexander S. Clay Alexander Stephens Clay (September 25, 1853November 13, 1910) was a United States senator from Georgia. Biography Clay was born in Powder Springs, Georgia, and graduated from Hiwassee College in Tennessee in 1875. He was admitted to the bar ...

and Frances (White) Clay. Clay attended the University of Georgia and the Mercer University, graduating in from the latter with an LL.B. He was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity. He served as the mayor of Marietta, Georgia from 1911 to 1912. He was twice elected Solicitor General of the Blue Ridge Circuit and served on the State Democratic Committee. In 1915, he helped plan the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose murder conviction and extrajudicial hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob drew attention to questions of antisemitism in the United States. He married Virginia Hudson of Pocahontas, Virginia on December 27, 1919. He also had one son, Eugene Herbert Clay, Jr., by a prior marriage. In the fall of 1920, he was elected to the Georgia Senate. He was president of the Georgia Senate as of 1922. On June 22, 1923, Clay died suddenly of a heart attack in the Wilmot Hotel at Atlanta, Georgia. His youngest brother was General

Lucius D. Clay General Lucius Dubignon Clay (April 23, 1898 – April 16, 1978) was a senior officer of the United States Army who was known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II. He served as the deputy to General of the Army Dwight D ...

a senior officer of the United States Army who was later known for his administration of occupied Germany after World War II.

Notes

1881 births 1923 deaths Mayors of places in Georgia (U.S. state) Democratic Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators People from Marietta, Georgia Lynching in the United States American murderers American white supremacists 20th-century American politicians Mercer University alumni University of Georgia alumni {{US-crime-bio-stub