Joseph Paul Franklin

Joseph Paul Franklin
Background information
Birth name James Clayton Vaughn, Jr.
Also known as Joseph Paul Franklin
Born April 13, 1950 (1950-04-13) (age 61)
Mobile, Alabama
Killings
Number of victims: 7-20+
Span of killings August 7, 1977–August 20, 1980
Country U.S.
State(s) Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Utah
Date apprehended 1980

Joseph Paul Franklin (born April 13, 1950) is an American serial killer. He has been convicted of several murders, and has confessed to the attempted assassinations of two prominent people: the 1978 shooting of magazine publisher Larry Flynt and Flynt's attorney, and the 1980 shooting of Vernon Jordan, Jr. Franklin has not been convicted in either of those cases. Because Franklin has changed his story about some cases, the full extent of his crimes is uncertain, although both Larry Flynt and the law enforcement agents actively investigating the attempt on Flynt's life all seem to agree on Franklin as the shooter in that case.

Contents

Early life

He was born James Clayton Vaughn in Mobile, Alabama, to a poor family. In 1976 he changed his name to Joseph Paul Franklin. He selected Joseph Paul in honor of Paul Joseph Goebbels and Franklin after Benjamin Franklin.

As early as high school he had become very interested first in evangelical Christianity, then Nazism, and later held memberships in both the National Socialist White People's Party and the Ku Klux Klan.[1] He also has one daughter from a 1979 marriage.

Franklin was a drifter, roaming up and down the East Coast, always looking for chances to "cleanse the world" of people he considered inferior, especially blacks and Jews. He sustained himself by robbing banks and often sold or traded the guns he used to kill others. Despite being partially blind in his left eye and completely blind in his right eye, Franklin was a proficient marksman, and killed most of his victims from over 100 feet (30 m) away. He did not touch or try to contact the majority of victims, instead assassinating them from a distance, thereby falling into the category of a mission oriented serial killer. He was a highly organized killer who would plan in advance several escape routes and techniques in which to leave no evidence.

Criminal history

Franklin's level of violence continuously escalated; before he committed his first known murder, he fire-bombed a synagogue and sprayed mace at a racially mixed couple. Starting in 1977, he went on a continual murder spree, supporting himself by robbing banks. He admitted his racist ideology; God, he said, wanted him to start a race war.

His target of choice for murders were mixed-race couples, which he called "MRCs." In interviews, he explained that he planned the murders and his exit in advance, often changing his hair style and color, as well as changing clothes and vehicles often. He would listen to a police scanner during his escapes.

On one occasion, he threatened to kill President Jimmy Carter for his pro-civil rights views. He had also intended to shoot Jesse Jackson, but Jackson's security detail made an assassination attempt impossible; he changed his target to Vernon Jordan. An escape artist, he eluded law enforcement for years. He was eventually caught, however, when a nurse in Florida taking the blood he was selling recognized a bald eagle tattoo on his arm.

Arrested in 1980, Franklin provided detailed confessions. He has been tried in several states and, in Missouri in 1997, he was sentenced to death.

Franklin has been linked by either indictment or confession to 20 murders, six aggravated assaults, 16 bank robberies and two bombings. He has confessed to eight murders, and has received several life sentences or death sentences for others. He made several confessions in the late 1990s on the condition that he confessed to "an attractive white female investigator."

List of crimes

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

Conviction and imprisonment

Franklin claimed after trial (for the murder of Gerald Gordon) that his only regret was that killing Jews was not legal. He made an escape attempt during a judgment. He made a reference to his escape attempts during the trial, thanking the jury for a fair trial and commending them on their verdict, claiming that if he had not been given the death penalty, he would probably escape again. Franklin is held on death row at the Potosi Correctional Center near Mineral Point, Missouri.

Influence

In 1989, National Alliance founder William L. Pierce published his novel, Hunter, under the pseudonym "Andrew MacDonald".[4] The book was dedicated to Joseph Paul Franklin.[5]

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ ""Racist Rifleman," Time Magazine, Monday, Nov. 10, 1980". November 10, 1980. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,949029,00.html. Retrieved May 7, 2010. 
  2. ^ Court TV Online - Ohio v. Joseph Paul Franklin Updates
  3. ^ "AROUND THE NATION; Judge Denies Trial Request For Suspect in Iowa Deaths". The New York Times. January 6, 1981. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D05EEDE173BF935A35752C0A967948260&n=Top%2fNews%2fNational%2fU%2eS%2e%20States%2c%20Territories%20and%20Possessions%2fUtah. Retrieved May 7, 2010. 
  4. ^ http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937944092 Amazon Books. "Hunter (paperback)," (retrieved on January 8th, 2009).
  5. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E5DC1238F937A15754C0A9649C8B63 The New York Times. "William Pierce, 69, Neo-Nazi Leader, Dies," (July 24th, 2002).