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.
Victims and Fatal Attacks
The following deaths include murders for which Franklin was convicted as well as killings that he later confessed to or was strongly linked to. Because several confessions were made years after the crimes and were never prosecuted, the legal status of the cases differs.
- August 7, 1977 — Madison, Wisconsin: Alphonse Manning Jr., 23, and Toni Schwenn, 23, were shot and killed in the parking lot of East Towne Mall. Franklin was convicted of both murders in 1986.
- October 8, 1977 — Richmond Heights, Missouri: Gerald C. Gordon, 42, was killed as people were leaving a bar mitzvah at Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel Congregation in suburban St. Louis. Franklin had hidden near the synagogue and fired on the departing guests from a concealed position. Steven Goldman and William Ash were also wounded. Franklin confessed years later, was convicted in 1997, and received the death sentence that was eventually carried out.
- February 2, 1978 — Atlanta, Georgia: Johnny Brookshire, 22, was fatally shot during an attack in which his companion, Joy Williams, was seriously wounded. Franklin later confessed to the shooting, but the case was not one of his murder convictions.
- July 29, 1978 — Chattanooga, Tennessee: William Bryant Tatum was killed near a Pizza Hut. His girlfriend, Nancy Hilton, 18, was also shot but survived. Franklin later confessed and pleaded guilty to Tatum's murder, receiving a life sentence.
- July 12, 1979 — Doraville, Georgia: Harold McIver, a Black manager at a Taco Bell restaurant, was fatally shot through a window from a concealed position some distance away. Franklin eventually admitted responsibility for the killing.
- August 18, 1979 — Falls Church, Virginia: Raymond Turner, 28, was shot and killed while working at a Burger King. Older accounts frequently identified the victim incorrectly as Raymond Taylor. Franklin later confessed to the restaurant shooting.
- October 21, 1979 — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: Jesse Eugene Taylor, 42, and Marion Vera Bresette, 31, were killed in a supermarket parking lot. The two had been loading groceries into a car when shots were fired from a concealed position across the street. Franklin was charged in connection with the killings, although the case was later dropped.
- December 5, 1979 — DeKalb County, Georgia: Mercedes Lynn Masters, 15, was killed. Franklin later confessed to her murder. His account indicated that his racist obsession with her previous associations was a motive for the killing.
- January 12, 1980 — Indianapolis, Indiana: Lawrence E. Reese, 22, was fatally shot in a sniper-style attack near a fast-food restaurant. The killing was among the Indianapolis shootings attributed to Franklin.
- January 14, 1980 — Indianapolis, Indiana: Leo Thomas Watkins, 19, was fatally shot only two days after Reese's death. The similarities between the Indianapolis attacks later contributed to investigators' efforts to connect Franklin with a larger series of racially motivated shootings.
- May 2, 1980 — Mill Bluff State Park near Tomah, Wisconsin: Rebecca Bergstrom, 20, was killed after Franklin encountered her while she was hitchhiking. Her body was discovered on May 3. Franklin confessed to killing Bergstrom several years later.
- June 8, 1980 — Cincinnati, Ohio: Cousins Darrell Lane, 14, and Dante Evans Brown, 13, were shot and killed while walking toward a neighborhood store in the Bond Hill area. Franklin fired from the area of a railroad trestle above Reading Road. The murders remained unsolved for years until Franklin confessed. He was convicted of both killings in 1998 and received two life sentences.
- June 15, 1980 — Johnstown, Pennsylvania: Arthur Smothers, 22, and Kathleen Mikula, 16, were shot and killed while crossing the Washington Street Bridge. Franklin later admitted that he had positioned himself on elevated wooded ground overlooking the area before firing at them. He was not prosecuted for these murders.
- June 25, 1980 — Pocahontas County, West Virginia: Nancy Santomero, 19, and Vicki Durian, 26, were killed while traveling through West Virginia. Franklin later confessed to their murders. Another man, Jacob Beard, had been convicted of the killings before Franklin's confession became important evidence in reopening the case. Beard eventually received a new trial and was acquitted.
- August 20, 1980 — Salt Lake City, Utah: Theodore "Ted" Fields, 20, and David Martin, 18, were shot and killed near Liberty Park after jogging with white female friends. Franklin had concealed himself near the area and opened fire as the group passed. These murders became crucial in bringing Franklin's traveling crime spree to an end. He was convicted in both federal and Utah state proceedings and received multiple life sentences.
Other Major Shooting Victims
Not everyone targeted by Franklin was killed. Several surviving victims became among the most widely known people associated with his crimes. On October 8, 1977, Steven Goldman and William Ash survived the same Missouri synagogue attack that killed Gerald Gordon. In Atlanta in February 1978, Joy Williams survived the attack that killed Johnny Brookshire.
On March 6, 1978, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt and attorney Gene Reeves were shot outside a courthouse in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Flynt suffered permanent paralysis as a result of his injuries. Franklin later admitted that he had carried out the shooting because he was angered by the magazine's depiction of interracial sexual relationships. Franklin was never convicted for the Flynt shooting.
Another prominent target was civil rights leader Vernon Jordan, then president of the National Urban League. On May 29, 1980, Jordan was shot and seriously wounded outside a hotel in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Franklin was prosecuted in federal court for the attack but was acquitted in 1982. Years later, he nevertheless admitted that he had been the shooter.
Capture and Investigation
By 1980, investigators had begun to recognize connections between racially motivated sniper attacks occurring hundreds of miles apart. Franklin's constant movement, use of different vehicles and identities, and practice of attacking strangers had helped him avoid identification. In September 1980, police in Kentucky detained him after an officer noticed suspicious circumstances involving his vehicle and discovered an outstanding warrant. Franklin escaped custody only hours later, beginning a nationwide search.
The FBI circulated information about his physical appearance, racist tattoos, habits, vehicles, and suspected crimes. Franklin frequently obtained money by donating blood while traveling. That habit contributed directly to his capture. A blood-bank employee in Florida recognized a man matching the wanted description and contacted authorities. FBI agents arrested Franklin in Lakeland, Florida, on October 28, 1980.
Convictions and Death Sentence
Franklin's arrest did not immediately resolve the enormous number of cases associated with him. Trials, confessions, interviews, and investigations continued for almost two decades. He received life sentences for the murders of Fields and Martin in Utah, Manning and Schwenn in Wisconsin, Tatum in Tennessee, and Lane and Brown in Ohio.
The Missouri prosecution for Gerald Gordon's murder ultimately determined Franklin's fate. The synagogue shooting had remained unsolved for many years before Franklin confessed in 1994. Prosecutors demonstrated that on October 8, 1977, Franklin had prepared an ambush near Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel Congregation, waited for people to leave the building, and fired several shots toward them. A Missouri jury convicted him of Gordon's murder in 1997 and sentenced him to death.
Execution and Legacy
Joseph Paul Franklin remained imprisoned for more than three decades. In the final period of his life, he made statements claiming that he had abandoned some of his earlier racist and antisemitic beliefs and expressed regret for his crimes. Those statements did not change his death sentence.
Franklin was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri, on November 20, 2013. He was 63 years old and was pronounced dead at 6:17 a.m. His execution was specifically for the murder of Gerald Gordon in the 1977 synagogue attack.
Franklin's crimes remain notable for their geographic range and their explicitly racist motivation. Rather than killing because of personal disputes with his victims, he repeatedly selected strangers because of their race, religion, relationships, or perceived support for racial equality. The murders left families in numerous states without answers for years, and several cases were not connected to Franklin until long after he had been imprisoned. His case also demonstrated the difficulties investigators faced before modern nationwide crime databases made it easier to compare similar offenses committed across different jurisdictions.
