Joseph Paul Franklin

Serial Killer

Joseph Paul Franklin: Serial Killer and White Supremacist

Background and Motive

Joseph Paul Franklin was an American serial killer and white supremacist whose crimes were driven largely by racism and antisemitism. He was born James Clayton Vaughn Jr. on April 13, 1950, in Mobile, Alabama. As a young man he became involved with extremist racist organizations and adopted increasingly violent beliefs. In 1976 he changed his name to Joseph Paul Franklin, choosing a name that reflected his admiration for Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels as well as American statesman Benjamin Franklin. Between 1977 and 1980, Franklin traveled across the United States carrying out shootings, bombings, robberies, and attempted assassinations. Black people, Jewish people, interracial couples, and people he associated with racial integration became his principal targets. He frequently attacked strangers who had no previous connection to him. Investigators eventually determined that many apparently unrelated shootings in different states had been committed by the same traveling gunman. Franklin was convicted of eight murders, although he confessed to or was suspected in numerous additional killings. Estimates of his total number of murder victims vary because many of his later confessions were never tested in court.

The Beginning of the Violence

Franklin's violence escalated sharply during 1977. On July 25, he bombed the Maryland home of Jewish political activist Morris Amitay. Four days later, on July 29, Franklin bombed the Beth Sholom synagogue in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The building was seriously damaged, but no one was killed. These attacks demonstrated the antisemitic motivation that would later lead Franklin to attack people leaving a synagogue in Missouri. On August 7, 1977, Franklin committed the first murders for which he would later be convicted. In Madison, Wisconsin, he encountered Alphonse Manning Jr., a Black man, and Toni Schwenn, a white woman, in the parking lot of East Towne Mall. Both were 23 years old. Franklin shot and killed them. Nearly nine years later, in February 1986, a Wisconsin jury convicted him of both murders and he received consecutive life sentences. Franklin often prepared carefully for his attacks. He selected concealed firing positions, used rifles to shoot from a distance, altered his appearance, changed vehicles, and used false identities while traveling from state to state. Bank robberies helped finance his movements. The geographical distance between crimes initially made it difficult for local police departments to recognize that the same offender was responsible. ...

Confirmed Victims: (14)

Alphonse Manning Age: (23), Date of Death: August 7, 1977

Survivors:

Steven Goldman , Date of Attack: October 8, 1977

William Ash , Date of Attack: October 8, 1977

Larry Flynt , Date of Attack: March 6, 1978

Gene Reeves , Date of Attack: March 6, 1978

Nancy Hilton , Date of Attack: July 29, 1978

Vernon Jordan , Date of Attack: May 29, 1980

Joseph Paul Franklin - Wikipedia