Alphonse “Alphonce” Manning Jr., a 23-year-old Black/African American man, was killed on August 7, 1977, in the parking lot of East Towne Mall in Madison, Wisconsin. He was with his companion, Toni Schwenn, when an encounter in the parking lot suddenly turned deadly. The shootings initially left investigators with no clear understanding of who was responsible or why the pair had been targeted.
Years later, investigators learned that the gunman was Joseph Paul Franklin, a violent white supremacist who traveled throughout the United States committing murders, shootings, bombings, and robberies motivated largely by racial and antisemitic hatred. According to the account Franklin eventually gave investigators, he had traveled to Madison intending to assassinate Dane County Judge Archie Simonson because of Franklin's anger over the judge's handling of a highly publicized criminal case. Franklin mistakenly believed Simonson was Jewish and viewed the matter through his extremist ideology.
Franklin said he stopped at East Towne Mall after arriving in Madison. He was carrying stolen firearms and had explosives in his vehicle, items connected with crimes he had recently committed. As he was preparing to leave the parking lot, Manning's Toronado backed into his path. Franklin became angry and sounded his horn. Manning eventually stopped and got out of his vehicle, apparently approaching Franklin's car. Franklin later said he noticed a police officer nearby and feared that any confrontation could lead to his arrest and discovery of the weapons and explosives he was carrying.
Instead of attempting to leave, Franklin drew a. 357 Magnum and opened fire. He shot Manning from inside his vehicle, then got out and fired at him again when the first shot did not bring him down. Manning collapsed in the parking lot. Franklin then went to the Toronado and fired through its window at Schwenn. She managed to get out of the vehicle but was also shot again. Witnesses scattered or hid among parked cars as Franklin returned to his vehicle and fled East Towne Mall. Manning was still able to call for help as witnesses approached, but he died from his wounds. Schwenn also died in the attack.
The killings initially proved difficult to solve. Investigators considered other possibilities, including one of Schwenn's former boyfriends, who became a significant early suspect. He maintained that he had been aboard an airplane when the shootings occurred. Years later, investigators tracked down other people who had been on the flight and confirmed his alibi, eliminating him as the killer. With no identified gunman in the immediate aftermath, the double homicide eventually became a cold case.
The breakthrough came in 1984. By then Franklin was already imprisoned at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, after convictions connected to the murders of two men in Utah. Franklin contacted Madison authorities and indicated that he wanted to discuss the unresolved East Towne Mall killings. Two Madison detectives traveled to the prison, where Franklin gave a detailed, tape-recorded confession describing how Manning and Schwenn had been killed. His account contained information investigators believed went beyond what had been publicly reported.
Prosecutors did not rely on the confession alone. Investigators reopened the old case and began reconstructing Franklin's movements and the physical evidence. Federal authorities assisted Madison investigators. A sporting-goods store in Alabama was located where Franklin said he had stolen the weapon he used, and investigators confirmed that a firearm fitting his description had disappeared from the store's inventory. Ballistics examination determined that such a gun could have produced the markings found on bullets recovered from the victims.
Investigators also found an important eyewitness who had been a teenager when the murders occurred. Vicky Johnson had heard the gunfire and approached the scene, coming within roughly 30 feet of the gunman. She saw him holding a firearm and encountered Manning as he lay mortally wounded. Although she had provided her information to police in 1977, she had not been fully interviewed during the original investigation. When detectives located her seven years later, she identified Franklin as the shooter.
Additional evidence placed Franklin in the region. A bank teller identified him as the man who had robbed a bank while traveling toward Madison, corroborating portions of his confession about his activities before the murders. A handwriting expert also connected Franklin to a Madison motel registration made under an alias around the time of the shootings. Investigators and prosecutors believed these independent details supported Franklin's account and tied him directly to the East Towne Mall killings.
Dane County prosecutors charged Franklin with two counts of first-degree murder. He was transferred from federal custody to Dane County in November 1985. Franklin pleaded not guilty and received permission to represent himself, with an attorney appointed as standby counsel. By the time his trial began on February 10, 1986, Franklin had withdrawn his confession and claimed he had fabricated it in an effort to obtain a transfer away from the federal penitentiary at Marion. He argued that he had learned details of the murders from newspaper reports.
During the five-day trial, prosecutors presented the eyewitness identification, forensic evidence, evidence of Franklin's movements, and an edited recording of his confession. They argued that Franklin knew details of the crime that had not appeared in public accounts, including information concerning the victims' wounds. Franklin called no witnesses in his defense. Prosecutors also presented the killings as consistent with Franklin's established pattern of racially motivated violence.
The Dane County jury rejected Franklin's claim that his confession had been invented and found him guilty of both first-degree murders in February 1986. Judge William D. Byrne immediately sentenced Franklin to two consecutive life terms, adding them to life sentences Franklin was already serving for other killings. The convictions finally resolved a double homicide that had remained unexplained for nearly nine years.
Franklin was ultimately connected to numerous racially and religiously motivated attacks across the country. He remained imprisoned for the remainder of his life and was executed by the State of Missouri in November 2013 for an unrelated 1977 murder outside a synagogue near St. Louis. The Madison convictions, however, permanently established his responsibility for the killings of Manning and Schwenn and brought a long-delayed conclusion to one of Madison's most disturbing unsolved homicide cases.
