Arthur Dale Smothers, a 22-year-old African American man, was tragically killed on June 15, 1980, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. He and his 16-year-old white girlfriend, Kathleen Mikula, were shot by Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist, as they walked across the Washington Street Bridge in downtown Johnstown. Franklin, who was responsible for a series of racially motivated killings across the country, later confessed to the murders in 1998.
The case drew significant attention due to Fr
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