Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin (April 13, 1950 - November 20, 2013) was an American serial killer who may have killed as many as 20 people between 1977 and 1980. He had been convicted of several murders, and had 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. Franklin however was never tried or convicted for either of these crimes. Franklin had changed his story about some cases; the full extent of his crimes is uncertain.
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 US founding father, Benjamin Franklin.
As early as high school he had become very interested in Hitler and National Socialism and later held membership in the National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) previously known as the American Nazi Party. He also has one daughter from a 1968 marriage.
His scheduled execution date is November 20, 2013.[1]
Criminal Career
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. 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 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 several escape routes and anti-forensic techniques in advance.
Franklin's level of violence continuously escalated; before he committed his first known murder, he fire-bombed a synagogue and threw 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".
Franklin killed at random, and may have begun in Madison, Wisconsin. His target of choice 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 colour, 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'd also intended to shoot Jesse Jackson, but Jackson's security detail made this impossible; he changed his target to Vernon Jordan in lieu of Jackson. An escape artist, he managed to elude 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, 6 aggravated assaults, 16 bank robberies and 2 bombings. He has confessed to 8 murders, and has received several life sentences or capital punishment for others. He made several confessions in the late 1990's on the condition that he confessed to "an attractive white female investigator."
Repentance and execution
During his last days Franklin said he was sorry for his crimes and no longer had hatred toward Jews and Blacks. He was executed via lethal injection on November 20, 2013.[2]
Trivia
White nationalist leader William Pierce knew Franklin from his association with the NSWPP and dedicated his novel Hunter to him. Hunter is the story of an assassin that targets interracial couples.
- Dedicated to Joseph Paul Franklin, the Lone Hunter, who saw his duty as a White man and did what a responsible son of his race must do, to the best of his ability and without regard for the personal consequences.
