1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:09,479 Speaker 1: Col Zone media. It was already dark when the marcher 2 00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:14,320 Speaker 1: set off. On November thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine. Thousands of 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,240 Speaker 1: people had gathered just outside the gates of Arlington National 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: Cemetery outside of Washington, d C. Each marcher carried a 5 00:00:22,160 --> 00:00:26,320 Speaker 1: candle and a small placard. At the head of the march, 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:29,680 Speaker 1: Judy Draws cupped her hands around the flame to shield 7 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:33,240 Speaker 1: it from the freezing wind. The sign she carried said 8 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:39,880 Speaker 1: only Donald Glen Draws, Missouri. At twenty three years old, 9 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: she'd been a mother for ten months and a widow 10 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:49,080 Speaker 1: for seven. For the next thirty nine hours, nearly fifty 11 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:53,680 Speaker 1: thousand people walked from Arlington National Cemetery to the White House. 12 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: Each marcher carried with them the name of a United 13 00:00:57,760 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: States service member killed in the warren vying noam. They 14 00:01:02,400 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: didn't chant or saying. The only sound came from the 15 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: six drummers slowly tapping out a funeral cadence. Inside the 16 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:20,440 Speaker 1: White House, Richard Nixon fumed as peace activists marched overnight 17 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:23,600 Speaker 1: in the freezing rain. He joked about sending a low 18 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:29,160 Speaker 1: flying helicopter to blow out their candles. By Saturday morning, 19 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: half a million people were in Washington, d c. Demanding 20 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,280 Speaker 1: an end to the war. It's easy to say now 21 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: that they were right, but in nineteen sixty nine, the 22 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 1: widows and clergy and students who opposed the war were 23 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:52,800 Speaker 1: beaten and tearcast. They were sneered at and called hippies 24 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: and communists and traders. It wasn't just Richard Nixon who 25 00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: was upset by the demonstration. The night before the Three 26 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:05,040 Speaker 1: Day March against the War was scheduled to begin, a 27 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: small group of neo Nazis snuck into the DC offices 28 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: of the New Mobilization Committee to end the war in Vietnam, 29 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: one of the groups organizing the event. Whatever happened on 30 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: the ninth floor of that office building on Vermont Avenue 31 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: barely made the news, but it left a lasting impression 32 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 1: on two teenage Nazis. James Mason would go on to 33 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: tell that story for years, including it several times in 34 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:36,760 Speaker 1: his book of essays extolling the Virtues of Terrorism. For 35 00:02:36,880 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: Joseph Paul Franklin, it was an introduction to a thrilling possibility. 36 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:46,920 Speaker 1: If someone is doing something you don't like, you can 37 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:54,040 Speaker 1: hunt them down and hurt them. I'm Molly Conger and 38 00:02:54,160 --> 00:03:14,520 Speaker 1: this is We're little guides. This is a story about 39 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:20,000 Speaker 1: a serial killer, part of it anyway. I'll be honest 40 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,040 Speaker 1: with you. I had a hard time concentrating this week, 41 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: and when I ran out of time and sat down 42 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,440 Speaker 1: to write, I felt like I was out of words. Actually, 43 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:33,400 Speaker 1: I got bogged down in the details and my heart 44 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: wasn't quite in it. But I did promise you and 45 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:39,360 Speaker 1: not see serial killer. So we will start the story 46 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: and get through as much of it as I can 47 00:03:41,240 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: get onto the page before Rory starts asking where the 48 00:03:43,440 --> 00:03:50,320 Speaker 1: file is. Joseph Paul Franklin was a murderer. I've written 49 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: about murderers before, but this one's different. He's not a 50 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: mass shooter or a terrorist with a single mass casualty event, 51 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: or some guy who snapped and drove his car into 52 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: a crowd. This is a serial killer. This is the 53 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:10,160 Speaker 1: first time that our weird little guy has been the 54 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:15,360 Speaker 1: subject of TV true crime documentary shows like Criminal, Mindscape, 55 00:04:15,400 --> 00:04:21,119 Speaker 1: FBI Files, and Mugshots. He's been covered by true crime 56 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:26,839 Speaker 1: podcasts with names like Murder in America, Death Cast, True Murder, 57 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 1: True Crime, All the Time, Killer Stories, Murder Files, Unsealed, 58 00:04:31,080 --> 00:04:38,080 Speaker 1: Crime in Comedy, Serial chillers, mamicide, and something called tequila. 59 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:43,480 Speaker 1: She wrote Limes, crimes, and murder times. I mean, there 60 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:45,520 Speaker 1: are a lot of true crime podcasts out there. I 61 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,440 Speaker 1: don't know what's going on here, and I didn't actually 62 00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: listen to any of those. I'm sure they're all perfectly fine. 63 00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:58,920 Speaker 1: This is, technically, I guess, a true crime podcast. I mean, 64 00:04:58,960 --> 00:05:02,680 Speaker 1: look at your podcast app. That's where the show's categorized. 65 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: That's not how I would describe my work, but I 66 00:05:07,279 --> 00:05:11,560 Speaker 1: can understand how that decision was made. These stories are 67 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:16,800 Speaker 1: true and there's usually a lot of crime. I'm not 68 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: trying to pick a fight with the marketing department or 69 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,560 Speaker 1: the true crime girlies, don't get me wrong. I just 70 00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: think this show occupies a slightly different place in the 71 00:05:25,920 --> 00:05:30,000 Speaker 1: information ecosystem. But that's something I learned while I was 72 00:05:30,040 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: writing it. I didn't know what I was writing until 73 00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:39,080 Speaker 1: I had been writing it for a few months a 74 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:41,400 Speaker 1: year and a half ago, when I suddenly found myself 75 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: responsible for writing a weekly podcast. I didn't know what 76 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,719 Speaker 1: it was about. I mean, I had a general concept. 77 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:52,960 Speaker 1: I wrote some pitch notes that someone approved. The bones 78 00:05:52,960 --> 00:05:56,719 Speaker 1: were there, the idea was solid. I loved telling a 79 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:01,560 Speaker 1: story about a weird little guy. That's why it's called that. Sophie, 80 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: our eternally patient executive producer, jotted that phrase down on 81 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,080 Speaker 1: a notepad during a meeting months before I had any 82 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,360 Speaker 1: plans of hosting my own show, because she noticed how 83 00:06:12,400 --> 00:06:16,320 Speaker 1: often I used that particular phrase to describe some awful 84 00:06:16,360 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: extremists whose life and crimes I'm excited to dig into. 85 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: She knew it was a good idea, and I knew 86 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,080 Speaker 1: she'd produced enough podcasts to know what she was talking about. 87 00:06:27,200 --> 00:06:29,359 Speaker 1: So I dove right into the deep end and committed 88 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: to a production schedule that meant coming up with an 89 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:36,240 Speaker 1: exciting new idea every week. I mean, how hard could 90 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:41,800 Speaker 1: it be. I'd never done this before. I have no 91 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,720 Speaker 1: idea what people want. I wasn't sure what the tone 92 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,400 Speaker 1: was supposed to be, or how to make coherent, interesting 93 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: narratives out of my own peculiar and intense obsessions. The 94 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:58,280 Speaker 1: first episode aired on August eighth, twenty twenty four, and 95 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:02,640 Speaker 1: it was fine. The second episode was already done and 96 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:04,920 Speaker 1: I was struggling that week to write the third one. 97 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:08,560 Speaker 1: I actually don't care for the way that one came out, 98 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:11,160 Speaker 1: If we're being honest, but it was a learning curve 99 00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: and I was starting to panic. Not even three episodes 100 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:18,320 Speaker 1: into this thing I had committed to, and I'd hit 101 00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:21,240 Speaker 1: a brick wall. How was I supposed to come up 102 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:25,080 Speaker 1: with a new good idea every week? But I'm a 103 00:07:25,080 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: white woman in my thirties. I've listened to true crime podcasts, 104 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:32,040 Speaker 1: and if that's what the network thought the show was, 105 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 1: then maybe that's what it was supposed to be. Looking 106 00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,640 Speaker 1: at the version history now on a Google document that's 107 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,200 Speaker 1: just called ideas, the very first bullet point I typed 108 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:49,200 Speaker 1: on August ninth, twenty twenty four, just says Joseph Paul Franklin, 109 00:07:50,080 --> 00:07:54,240 Speaker 1: Nazi serial killer. I ordered a used copy of a 110 00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 1: book about him that afternoon, and I started reading it 111 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 1: the day it arrived. I felt a little defeated, but 112 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: maybe there's no shame in reading a book and then 113 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,120 Speaker 1: finding a way to repackage it in an interesting way. 114 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,559 Speaker 1: Plenty of people do it. A lot of shows don't 115 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,400 Speaker 1: cite their sources, but if you've read the book they're summarizing, 116 00:08:15,960 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: you can spot it. I got thirty nine pages in 117 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: before I put the book down on the floor near 118 00:08:23,760 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 1: the laundry pile in my office, and I left it 119 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:32,120 Speaker 1: there for sixteen months because on page thirty nine of 120 00:08:32,160 --> 00:08:35,320 Speaker 1: mel Aton's book Dark Soul of the South, The Life 121 00:08:35,360 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: and Crimes of racist killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Ayton describes 122 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:43,760 Speaker 1: a conversation Franklin had with another inmate at the federal 123 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:47,880 Speaker 1: prison where he was being held in nineteen eighty one. 124 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:50,240 Speaker 1: After I closed the book, I added a new bullet 125 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:56,240 Speaker 1: point to the list, Frank Abbott Sweeney. This offhand mention 126 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: of a conversation between a serial killer and a con 127 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: man in the prison yard had potential. I needed to 128 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:06,600 Speaker 1: find out more about the guy bragging to the serial 129 00:09:06,679 --> 00:09:11,720 Speaker 1: killer about his time as a Rhodesian mercenary. I think 130 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:15,480 Speaker 1: that's when I realized that this could be fun. I 131 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:19,040 Speaker 1: don't have to write stories I already know, or stories 132 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,000 Speaker 1: whose details all already exist in a book someone else 133 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,000 Speaker 1: already wrote, or are spread across filings in a single 134 00:09:25,040 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: docket in a single court case. I can write stories 135 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:32,680 Speaker 1: that don't exist yet. I can do my own original 136 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:36,000 Speaker 1: research and run headlong down every single rabbit holes days 137 00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:40,800 Speaker 1: reading old Nazi newsletters pieced together painstakingly detailed timelines, and 138 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:44,679 Speaker 1: follow my curiosity wherever it takes us, no matter how 139 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:48,840 Speaker 1: long it takes to finish the story. Yeah, it's a 140 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:52,000 Speaker 1: true crime show, I guess, but that doesn't mean I'm 141 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: beholden to the conventions of the genre. I'm not interested 142 00:09:56,280 --> 00:09:59,520 Speaker 1: in breathlessly recounting the details of every single murder and 143 00:09:59,559 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: the trial as they were presented in the newspaper. I 144 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:05,079 Speaker 1: want to find out about that failed mercenary who was 145 00:10:05,080 --> 00:10:10,720 Speaker 1: addicted to mail fraud. So now, almost half a million 146 00:10:10,760 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 1: words into what, I didn't realize that the outset was 147 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: going to be a convoluted attempt at a comprehensive history 148 00:10:16,800 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 1: of the American far right. I want to come back 149 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:23,240 Speaker 1: to that first bullet point on my list of ideas. 150 00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:27,360 Speaker 1: Not because I'm suddenly interested this week in telling you 151 00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:31,840 Speaker 1: a straightforward true crime story about a serial killer, but 152 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:35,800 Speaker 1: because I see something else there now, because what have 153 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:39,920 Speaker 1: I been telling you all this time? Everything is connected 154 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:49,559 Speaker 1: and there are no lone wolves. Joseph Paul Franklin was 155 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:54,280 Speaker 1: a murderer and he was a racist, and those two 156 00:10:54,320 --> 00:11:00,240 Speaker 1: things cannot be disentangled. He killed because he was trying 157 00:11:00,320 --> 00:11:06,960 Speaker 1: to start a race war. Officially, he was only convicted 158 00:11:06,960 --> 00:11:11,840 Speaker 1: of eight murders Tony Schenn and Alphonse Manning, an interracial 159 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: couple in Madison, Wisconsin, in nineteen seventy seven. Gerald Gordon 160 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:19,040 Speaker 1: as he was leaving a bar mitzvah at a synagogue 161 00:11:19,040 --> 00:11:23,440 Speaker 1: in Saint Louis, Missouri in nineteen seventy seven. William Bryant Tatum, 162 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,160 Speaker 1: a black man who was out to dinner with his 163 00:11:25,200 --> 00:11:29,280 Speaker 1: white girlfriend in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in nineteen seventy eight. Daryl 164 00:11:29,360 --> 00:11:32,520 Speaker 1: Lane and Dante Evans Brown, two young black boys who 165 00:11:32,520 --> 00:11:34,600 Speaker 1: snuck out of their grandmother's house to buy candy at 166 00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,440 Speaker 1: the corner store in Cincinnati, Ohio, in nineteen eighty. And 167 00:11:38,520 --> 00:11:42,559 Speaker 1: Theodore Fields Junior and David Martin, young black men who 168 00:11:42,559 --> 00:11:44,720 Speaker 1: were jogging with their white female friends at a park 169 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,400 Speaker 1: in Salt Lake City in nineteen eighty. He was never 170 00:11:49,440 --> 00:11:52,040 Speaker 1: prosecuted for more than a dozen other murders he either 171 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:56,600 Speaker 1: confessed to or was credibly linked to. In the last 172 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,920 Speaker 1: eight months alone, right before his capture. Outside of Blood 173 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:07,440 Speaker 1: in Florida, he murdered eleven people across six states. For 174 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:13,439 Speaker 1: three years, he roamed the country, robbing banks, building bombs, 175 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:17,680 Speaker 1: and shooting the enemies of the white race. Interracial couples, 176 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:23,480 Speaker 1: Jewish people, black men and boys, and white women who 177 00:12:23,520 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 1: dated black men. He hunted them, preferring to shoot his 178 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: victims from a distance. Two of the men he shot 179 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:38,800 Speaker 1: but failed to kill, were planned assassination attempts, pornographer Larry 180 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: Flint and civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. But for the 181 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: most part, he just found parking lots to sit in 182 00:12:46,720 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 1: and wait, hoping to spot an interracial couple. And he 183 00:12:53,440 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: acted alone. That part's true. He killed alone. By the 184 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,160 Speaker 1: time he started killing, he was out there on the 185 00:13:03,240 --> 00:13:07,360 Speaker 1: road on his own. He wasn't part of an organized 186 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:10,880 Speaker 1: terror cell. He wasn't taking orders, he wasn't getting outside funding. 187 00:13:12,360 --> 00:13:16,520 Speaker 1: If anyone could be called a lone wolf, I guess 188 00:13:16,520 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 1: it's him, And you'll certainly find both journalists and academics 189 00:13:21,679 --> 00:13:26,760 Speaker 1: who do call him that. I can't blame them for it. 190 00:13:26,760 --> 00:13:29,840 Speaker 1: It makes sense depending on what you think that means. 191 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:35,880 Speaker 1: The problem is, no one knows what it means, or 192 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:40,319 Speaker 1: if it means anything. Academics in the field of terrorism 193 00:13:40,400 --> 00:13:45,000 Speaker 1: studies have been using the phrase lone wolf for thirty years, 194 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: but it made its way into the scholarly lexicon by 195 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:52,960 Speaker 1: way of Tom Metzger the leader of White Arian Resistance. 196 00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:57,640 Speaker 1: Metzger was the one who popularized the term in the nineties, 197 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:02,400 Speaker 1: and if you read what Metzker actually wrote about the idea, 198 00:14:03,520 --> 00:14:05,960 Speaker 1: I don't understand why you would try to repurpose the 199 00:14:06,040 --> 00:14:11,600 Speaker 1: term into something sincere. He was pleading for plausible deniability. 200 00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:16,400 Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety, Tom Metzger was found civilly liable for 201 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,600 Speaker 1: inciting one of his followers to commit a hate crime murder. 202 00:14:20,880 --> 00:14:25,080 Speaker 1: He lost his house when he told the racists to 203 00:14:25,200 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: read his newsletter to work alone, say nothing, don't join 204 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:30,960 Speaker 1: a group or go to meetings, and for God's sake, 205 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 1: don't keep any records of your actions. He was trying 206 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:37,480 Speaker 1: to avoid going back to court the next time a 207 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:41,400 Speaker 1: skinhead murdered someone after being trained and directed by top 208 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:46,480 Speaker 1: ranking members of the organization, he led be a lone 209 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 1: wolf just meant keep killing, but keep me out of it. 210 00:14:52,400 --> 00:14:54,520 Speaker 1: And in the thirty years since the term first showed 211 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,600 Speaker 1: up in an academic journal, no one can actually agree 212 00:14:58,640 --> 00:15:02,400 Speaker 1: on what they mean by it. A twenty fifteen report 213 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 1: called lone wolf Terrorism from the National Security Critical Issue 214 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:11,320 Speaker 1: Task Force at Georgetown University has eight findings, and finding 215 00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:14,440 Speaker 1: number one is that there is no single definition of 216 00:15:14,440 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: what the term means. A twenty eleven paper in a 217 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: Journal for the Study of Political Violence proposes four subcategories 218 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:28,920 Speaker 1: of the lone wolf, the loner, the lone wolf, the 219 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:35,440 Speaker 1: lone wolf pack, and the lone attacker. Of those four categories, 220 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:41,520 Speaker 1: only the loaner is described as actually acting alone. The 221 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:44,320 Speaker 1: other three subtypes are either acting in concert with a 222 00:15:44,360 --> 00:15:48,040 Speaker 1: small group or are an individual who is in direct 223 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: contact with a larger group while carrying out a physical 224 00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:57,280 Speaker 1: act alone. If three of the four subtypes of lone 225 00:15:57,320 --> 00:16:01,720 Speaker 1: wolves are not alone at all, well what are we 226 00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:07,840 Speaker 1: talking about. A twenty seventeen paper in Studies in Conflict 227 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:12,400 Speaker 1: and Terrorism suggests that maybe it's time to reconsider the 228 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:17,800 Speaker 1: usefulness of the concept entirely. Obviously, that is also my position, 229 00:16:19,480 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: because somewhere in between completely isolated individual acts entirely on 230 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,680 Speaker 1: his own with no outside influence of any kind, and 231 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: organized networked group with a hierarchical structure and detailed written 232 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:33,960 Speaker 1: plans directs individual duce paying members to carry out specific acts, 233 00:16:35,520 --> 00:16:42,480 Speaker 1: there lies the vast majority of actual political violence. This 234 00:16:42,520 --> 00:16:45,080 Speaker 1: is an idea we've bumped up against a few times 235 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:48,560 Speaker 1: on the show, but revisiting the story of Joseph Paul 236 00:16:48,560 --> 00:16:51,440 Speaker 1: Franklin really sent me back to the academic literature on 237 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:54,840 Speaker 1: the subject, and it's something we'll talk more about next week. 238 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:01,800 Speaker 1: He acted alone, I don't dispute that, but he could 239 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,720 Speaker 1: not have acted in this way without the earlier influence 240 00:17:05,760 --> 00:17:08,960 Speaker 1: of these groups that he was a member of. And 241 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:13,320 Speaker 1: after those actions, the ones he did take alone, he 242 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:18,160 Speaker 1: became a symbol within those same groups, inspiring other men 243 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:23,760 Speaker 1: to do as he'd done and act alone. You can 244 00:17:23,800 --> 00:17:26,960 Speaker 1: call him a lone wolf if you want, but he's 245 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: in conversation with the pack. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 246 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: I ended up digging mel Aiden's biography of Franklin back 247 00:17:36,600 --> 00:17:39,040 Speaker 1: out of that pile of sweaters under my office chair, 248 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 1: because over the year I spent writing about other things, 249 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,159 Speaker 1: I kept coming across his name more often than I 250 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:50,320 Speaker 1: would have expected to, given the initial presentation of him 251 00:17:50,359 --> 00:17:54,439 Speaker 1: as a pretty bog standard serial killer who just happened 252 00:17:54,480 --> 00:18:00,080 Speaker 1: to also be a Nazi. The man who would be 253 00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:04,320 Speaker 1: come serial killer. Joseph Paul Franklin was born James Clayton 254 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: Vaughan Junior in Mobile, Alabama on April thirteenth, nineteen fifty. 255 00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:15,240 Speaker 1: He had a terrible childhood with abusive alcoholic parents, But 256 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:17,560 Speaker 1: that's a chunk of this story usually trotted out to 257 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:21,239 Speaker 1: illicit sympathy from jurors or try to explain to you 258 00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:25,399 Speaker 1: how someone could become so violent. It's well covered in 259 00:18:25,440 --> 00:18:27,959 Speaker 1: Aiden's book, and that is probably the source for this 260 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,640 Speaker 1: section of his biography. In most of the true crime 261 00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:34,919 Speaker 1: podcast episodes about him, I don't usually waste time on 262 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,560 Speaker 1: a nazi's childhood sob story, but it does seem to 263 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:42,240 Speaker 1: be fairly well corroborated that he had a miserable time 264 00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:47,560 Speaker 1: growing up. Trying to make sense of Franklin's life is 265 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:52,119 Speaker 1: a minefield. The most thorough account is mel Aiden's book. 266 00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:55,760 Speaker 1: He spent years writing it, and he corresponded with Franklin 267 00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:59,960 Speaker 1: and interviewed him multiple times. In any piece of media 268 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,240 Speaker 1: about Franklin produced after the book was published after twenty eleven, 269 00:19:04,119 --> 00:19:07,080 Speaker 1: a surprising number of the quotes they use are pulled 270 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:12,520 Speaker 1: directly from Aiden's book, from the recorded interviews between them. 271 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,960 Speaker 1: In his introduction, Aiden cautions the reader up front that 272 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,879 Speaker 1: he was able to access a lot of primary source 273 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:24,880 Speaker 1: material police files, trial transcripts, prison records, interviews with people, 274 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:29,120 Speaker 1: who knew Franklin. But the best source of information about 275 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,760 Speaker 1: what Franklin did when he was alone is Franklin himself, 276 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:42,280 Speaker 1: and Ayton calls him a notorious fabricator and manipulator. This 277 00:19:42,320 --> 00:19:44,440 Speaker 1: is something I see in a lot of material produced 278 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:49,240 Speaker 1: by or about Nazis. He's lying on purpose, and the 279 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:54,720 Speaker 1: lies he's telling don't necessarily stay consistent over time. He's 280 00:19:54,800 --> 00:19:57,920 Speaker 1: just saying whatever feels good or whatever he thinks will 281 00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:00,440 Speaker 1: get him what he wants in the moment where he's 282 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:05,480 Speaker 1: saying it, and other times the person relaying the information 283 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:11,880 Speaker 1: is wrong by accident. People get confused, they forget, They 284 00:20:12,080 --> 00:20:15,680 Speaker 1: confidently say things that were never true, just because there's 285 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,040 Speaker 1: an FBI agent sitting in a chair in their living room, 286 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 1: drinking a cup of coffee asking them for details about 287 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:22,320 Speaker 1: things they didn't think were important at the time, and 288 00:20:22,359 --> 00:20:26,000 Speaker 1: now they're just talking nonsense. When his sisters were questioned 289 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,119 Speaker 1: about his whereabouts in the weeks before his arrest in 290 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, one of them told the FBI she was 291 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:33,639 Speaker 1: quite sure he'd moved away to Washington, d C. In 292 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:37,399 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty five, and he'd been seventeen or eighteen at 293 00:20:37,440 --> 00:20:41,359 Speaker 1: the time, and he'd joined the Klan before he left. 294 00:20:42,200 --> 00:20:44,320 Speaker 1: None of those things are true, and some of them 295 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:49,160 Speaker 1: aren't even possible. She wasn't being malicious. She was just wrong, 296 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:54,720 Speaker 1: and you can sort of untangle things like that. You 297 00:20:54,760 --> 00:20:57,280 Speaker 1: can give her a pass on the year. It had 298 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:01,720 Speaker 1: been more than a decade. Probably moved from Alabama to 299 00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:06,560 Speaker 1: the DC area in nineteen sixty eight, not nineteen sixty five. 300 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:09,760 Speaker 1: And in nineteen sixty eight he would have been eighteen, 301 00:21:10,960 --> 00:21:13,920 Speaker 1: And by nineteen sixty eight he was already a card 302 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:18,040 Speaker 1: carrying member of a hate group. But it wasn't the Klan. 303 00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,800 Speaker 1: If I had to guess, I think she probably had 304 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:27,360 Speaker 1: some vague understanding at the time that her brother had 305 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,520 Speaker 1: joined some kind of unsavory organization, some kind of hate group, 306 00:21:32,440 --> 00:21:35,680 Speaker 1: and she probably learned later on that he did join 307 00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: the Klan, and being from Alabama, she would have had 308 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,359 Speaker 1: some general knowledge about the Clan. That is probably the 309 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:46,280 Speaker 1: hate group that would come first to her mind, so 310 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:50,080 Speaker 1: she just assumed that was the one he'd joined first. 311 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,159 Speaker 1: The organization he joined around the time he dropped out 312 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:57,800 Speaker 1: of high school wasn't the Klan. It was the National 313 00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,560 Speaker 1: Socialist White People's Party. The name of the newly rebranded 314 00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:06,159 Speaker 1: American Nazi Party. In nineteen sixty eight, just before he 315 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,199 Speaker 1: turned eighteen, he married a sixteen year old girl he'd 316 00:22:09,240 --> 00:22:13,240 Speaker 1: gotten pregnant in the four months they lived together. After 317 00:22:13,240 --> 00:22:17,639 Speaker 1: their shotgun wedding, he beat her mercilessly and started bringing 318 00:22:17,640 --> 00:22:21,879 Speaker 1: home Nazi pamphlets. By spring, he'd left her behind in 319 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 1: Alabama and moved to Virginia to become an active member 320 00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,720 Speaker 1: of the party. He was gone before his daughter was 321 00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:47,200 Speaker 1: even born. One of the frustrating things about my insatiable 322 00:22:47,359 --> 00:22:51,119 Speaker 1: need to create the perfect timeline of a weird little 323 00:22:51,119 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 1: guy's life isn't just that he's a forgetful liar. He 324 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:01,080 Speaker 1: was a drifter. I'm used of my weird little guys 325 00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,680 Speaker 1: telling their self serving lies or mixing up the details 326 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,120 Speaker 1: of some event that was years ago. But usually when 327 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:11,560 Speaker 1: things don't line up, you can tell there's a piece missing, 328 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,240 Speaker 1: you know, where you need to start digging around to 329 00:23:15,280 --> 00:23:18,240 Speaker 1: try to find an explanation, to find some other source 330 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,160 Speaker 1: to compare it to, and then weigh those competing truths. 331 00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:24,560 Speaker 1: But for some of the gaps in the narrative of 332 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:29,400 Speaker 1: Franklin's life, some of these completely illogical sequences of events 333 00:23:30,520 --> 00:23:34,440 Speaker 1: it's not because the facts we have are wrong. They're right. 334 00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,159 Speaker 1: They just don't make sense because the way he was 335 00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,480 Speaker 1: living didn't make sense. He bought cars out of newspaper 336 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:45,920 Speaker 1: classified ads using stolen cash and registered them with a 337 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: rotating list of aliases. He lived in motels under fake names. 338 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:53,800 Speaker 1: His family didn't know where he was. He moved constantly 339 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,080 Speaker 1: and for no discernible reason. He went years without having 340 00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:01,560 Speaker 1: a fixed address or a job. His second wife didn't 341 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,280 Speaker 1: even know that he'd somehow managed to legally marry and 342 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:09,760 Speaker 1: divorce her using an entirely fictitious identity. She and her 343 00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: daughter lived with a last name that he'd printed on 344 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,720 Speaker 1: a fake ID. He would take off for weeks at 345 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,679 Speaker 1: a time to rob banks and murder teenagers, and she 346 00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: thought he was a plumber named Jim Cooper. She didn't 347 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:25,919 Speaker 1: find out his real name until the FBI took him 348 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,359 Speaker 1: into custody, when he called her from jail to let 349 00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,000 Speaker 1: her know where he was, and then he broke the 350 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:36,199 Speaker 1: news about who he was, and he told her he 351 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:38,760 Speaker 1: really had committed all twelve of the murders they were 352 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:44,119 Speaker 1: accusing him of. All that to say, I don't know 353 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,359 Speaker 1: why he was living in Birmingham in August of nineteen 354 00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:49,040 Speaker 1: sixty nine, or if he was living in Birmingham in 355 00:24:49,080 --> 00:24:53,800 Speaker 1: August of nineteen sixty nine. He really did abandon his 356 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:56,960 Speaker 1: first wife and mobile in the middle of nineteen sixty eight, 357 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:00,360 Speaker 1: and he does seem to have moved to Virginia at 358 00:25:00,359 --> 00:25:07,119 Speaker 1: that time, but he must not have stayed. He was 359 00:25:07,119 --> 00:25:09,560 Speaker 1: back in Alabama to signed divorce papers in January of 360 00:25:09,640 --> 00:25:12,680 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, and in June he was arrested in 361 00:25:12,760 --> 00:25:17,439 Speaker 1: Mobile for disorderly conduct. In all the interviews I found, 362 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:22,320 Speaker 1: all the articles and recollections from other people, I couldn't 363 00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:27,480 Speaker 1: find anyone asking him directly, what were you doing that year? 364 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:34,080 Speaker 1: I mean, why would they write true crime stories? Are 365 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,960 Speaker 1: concerned with the crimes, and he didn't start killing until 366 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,080 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven. His FBI file doesn't seem to have 367 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:47,000 Speaker 1: been concerned about where he lived in nineteen sixty nine. 368 00:25:47,359 --> 00:25:49,119 Speaker 1: I know how much he paid for a hat he 369 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:51,520 Speaker 1: bought at a country Western wear store in Virginia in 370 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,199 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, because a decade later, a detective in 371 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,200 Speaker 1: Wisconsin tracked down the store clerk who worked there that year, 372 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:03,200 Speaker 1: and she remembered having it in but five hundred pages 373 00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:07,560 Speaker 1: of reports and memos show a remarkable lack of curiosity 374 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:11,280 Speaker 1: about what he was doing during his first year as 375 00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:16,159 Speaker 1: a Nazi. But either way, at the end of the 376 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:20,440 Speaker 1: summer of nineteen sixty nine, he was in Birmingham, Alabama, 377 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,679 Speaker 1: and he must not have had a car because he 378 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 1: needed a ride back to Virginia, and the man who 379 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:33,000 Speaker 1: gave it to him was David Duke. In nineteen sixty nine, 380 00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,720 Speaker 1: the National Socialist White People's Party was struggling to forge 381 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,600 Speaker 1: ahead after the death of George Lincoln Rockwell two years earlier. 382 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,240 Speaker 1: They'd already been in the process of rebranding from the 383 00:26:43,280 --> 00:26:46,919 Speaker 1: American Nazi Party before Rockwell was assassinated by a former member, 384 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,520 Speaker 1: and there was some splitting in the aftermath of his death. 385 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,240 Speaker 1: The party's new leader, Mattias Kale, announced in early nineteen 386 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:57,320 Speaker 1: sixty nine that they would be holding the first ever 387 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:04,040 Speaker 1: party congress that fall. Attendance would be required. They needed 388 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:08,200 Speaker 1: to tighten up. Local chapters were ordered to start submitting 389 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:11,439 Speaker 1: reports of their activities. New members would have to be 390 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:16,040 Speaker 1: interviewed in person at headquarters in Virginia, and everyone needed 391 00:27:16,040 --> 00:27:19,720 Speaker 1: to get up to date on their dues cale. Needed 392 00:27:19,720 --> 00:27:23,520 Speaker 1: to consolidate power and try to gain some momentum if 393 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,800 Speaker 1: the party hoped to outlive its founder. In nineteen sixty 394 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,160 Speaker 1: nine was the same year that they formed the youth 395 00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:34,399 Speaker 1: wing called the National Socialist Liberation Front under the guidance 396 00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:40,639 Speaker 1: of Wily Luther Pierce. He was very focused on recruiting 397 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,800 Speaker 1: eager teenage boys, and his messaging in those days was 398 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:48,720 Speaker 1: far more explicitly violent than the kind of messaging he 399 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 1: would claim later in life when some of those young 400 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:57,399 Speaker 1: men had grown into terrorists. I found old copies of 401 00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:01,040 Speaker 1: the National Socialist Bulletin, the party news letter that were 402 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: published that year. In issues published every two weeks from 403 00:28:05,800 --> 00:28:08,760 Speaker 1: May until August. The bulletin reminded members that if there 404 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:12,080 Speaker 1: was any way they could possibly get to Virginia on 405 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: Labor Day weekend, there was no excuse not to attend 406 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:20,120 Speaker 1: the party congress. Registration was just two dollars or one 407 00:28:20,160 --> 00:28:22,960 Speaker 1: dollar for students, and there would be floor space for 408 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:26,520 Speaker 1: sleeping bags. If he couldn't afford a motel. The party 409 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:31,800 Speaker 1: office would coordinate with attendees to arrange for carpooling down 410 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:34,840 Speaker 1: in Alabama. There were at least two members who needed 411 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:41,360 Speaker 1: a ride. Don Black was newly sixteen, and he'd just 412 00:28:41,400 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: finished his junior year of high school. He was still 413 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,120 Speaker 1: years away from trying to coop the government of an 414 00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:51,760 Speaker 1: island nation or founding Stormfront, but he was already pretty 415 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:54,200 Speaker 1: far along in his journey to becoming a full fledged 416 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:58,800 Speaker 1: neo Nazi. Two years earlier, he found a racist book 417 00:28:58,840 --> 00:29:02,239 Speaker 1: by a Christian identity presecut in his local library, and 418 00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:05,720 Speaker 1: he wrote to the publisher to request more books. He 419 00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: got newsletters. He ended up on mailing lists, and one 420 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 1: of the groups that showered him with buttons and flyers 421 00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:18,760 Speaker 1: and newsletters was the National Socialist White People's Party. He 422 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:21,240 Speaker 1: joined the party as a youth member by mail when 423 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 1: he was just fifteen years old. When he got the 424 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:27,080 Speaker 1: newsletter in the spring of nineteen sixty nine announcing the 425 00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:33,320 Speaker 1: party congress, he was desperate to attend. His parents were 426 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:36,680 Speaker 1: a little uneasy about it, but they said he could go. 427 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:43,640 Speaker 1: They did draw the line at hitchhiking, though Don Black's 428 00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:45,520 Speaker 1: parents waited with him in the parking lot at the 429 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:50,000 Speaker 1: bus station in Birmingham. He'd done just as the newsletter asked. 430 00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,920 Speaker 1: He submitted his RSVP and one dollar registration feed by mail, 431 00:29:55,520 --> 00:29:57,920 Speaker 1: and he requested to be connected with another member he 432 00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:06,000 Speaker 1: could corporal with. Franklin arrived first decades later. A few 433 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:08,960 Speaker 1: weeks before Franklin was executed by the state of Missouri, 434 00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: Don Black posted on Stormfront that Nazi forum he founded 435 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,480 Speaker 1: in the nineties. He said that Joseph Paul Franklin was 436 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,760 Speaker 1: the first white nationalist he ever actually met, but only 437 00:30:21,800 --> 00:30:26,120 Speaker 1: by a few minutes. Had it been much longer, he wrote, 438 00:30:26,520 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: I probably would have gone home with my parents, who 439 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 1: had driven me to the Birmingham bus station to meet 440 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:34,320 Speaker 1: up with my ride to Arlington. They hadn't wanted me 441 00:30:34,400 --> 00:30:36,440 Speaker 1: to go, but they at least wanted to meet these 442 00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:40,480 Speaker 1: scary people I was going with. Had they talked to 443 00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: Franklin those first few minutes, their worst fears would have 444 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:46,040 Speaker 1: been confirmed, and they'd have made me go back home 445 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:52,840 Speaker 1: with them. So luckily for Don Black and terribly unlucky 446 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:56,480 Speaker 1: for the world, Don Black's parents didn't have much time 447 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 1: to chat with Joseph Paul Franklin because David Duke arrived 448 00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:04,920 Speaker 1: few minutes later. In the late summer of nineteen sixty nine. 449 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:10,160 Speaker 1: David Duke and Joseph Paul Franklin were both nineteen years old, Franklin, 450 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:12,920 Speaker 1: who was still using his birth name James Vaughan, was 451 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:16,000 Speaker 1: a high school dropout who had abandoned his pregnant sixteen 452 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,360 Speaker 1: year old wife. David Duke was about to start his 453 00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: sophomore year at Louisiana State University. Don Black claims he 454 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:30,320 Speaker 1: remembers being appalled by a quote crudely drawn swastika tattoo 455 00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: on Franklin's arm, but I wasn't able to find any 456 00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:37,880 Speaker 1: source that confirms he would have had that tattoo at 457 00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 1: that time. Memory is more about vibes than facts, though, 458 00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:47,560 Speaker 1: as uneasy as that makes us to admit, so, even 459 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,760 Speaker 1: if Franklin didn't have a swastika tattoo on his arm 460 00:31:50,840 --> 00:31:56,400 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, he definitely already had swastika tattoo 461 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:01,440 Speaker 1: energy The sixteen year old old wife he'd abandoned a 462 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,160 Speaker 1: year earlier, said he started sewing swastika patches onto his 463 00:32:05,280 --> 00:32:10,760 Speaker 1: jackets in nineteen sixty eight. He was crude and loud, 464 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,920 Speaker 1: and he leered at women and girls, and he swore, 465 00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,600 Speaker 1: and he spat, and half of what he said was 466 00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:22,440 Speaker 1: weighed down with racial slurs. He was gross. He wasn't 467 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:24,120 Speaker 1: the kind of guy you would let drive your son 468 00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:28,040 Speaker 1: to a Nazi conference, even if you were for some 469 00:32:28,200 --> 00:32:31,280 Speaker 1: reason letting someone drive your son to a Nazi conference. 470 00:32:32,960 --> 00:32:36,080 Speaker 1: But David Duke was a clean cut, well spoken, young 471 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:41,120 Speaker 1: college student driving his family car, and Eli Saslow's twenty 472 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:45,200 Speaker 1: eighteen book Rising out of Hatred, he frames this fourteen 473 00:32:45,240 --> 00:32:50,240 Speaker 1: hour car ride as pretty formative for Don Black. These 474 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: were the first Nazis he'd ever met. Before he even 475 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:57,920 Speaker 1: turned sixteen. He'd been ostracized at school and interviewed by 476 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:01,800 Speaker 1: the FBI for his involvement in the party, but he'd 477 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:05,080 Speaker 1: never had a chance to actually talk about his views 478 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 1: with anyone who agreed with him, let alone these kind 479 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: of cool guys who were just a little bit older 480 00:33:12,160 --> 00:33:17,880 Speaker 1: than him. Asasla wrote, by the time the three teenagers 481 00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: finally arrived in Arlington for the conference, a transformation had 482 00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 1: taken place. Don no longer felt like a lone extremist 483 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:31,160 Speaker 1: searching for answers. He was part of a movement, a 484 00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:49,160 Speaker 1: soldier for the cause. According to the National Socialist Bulletin 485 00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,520 Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty three members of the National Socialist 486 00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:56,880 Speaker 1: White People's Party attended the party congress. I don't know 487 00:33:56,880 --> 00:34:00,200 Speaker 1: if that's true. There are some pictures in an other 488 00:34:00,280 --> 00:34:03,640 Speaker 1: newsletter that show a conference room full of chairs facing 489 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 1: a speaker at electron. A good number of the chairs 490 00:34:07,680 --> 00:34:10,319 Speaker 1: are empty, and the room doesn't look like it could 491 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,680 Speaker 1: have held more than fifty people. But maybe the rest 492 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: of their friends were there just out of frame. The 493 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:20,920 Speaker 1: descriptions of the speeches that ran in the newsletter sound 494 00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:25,160 Speaker 1: pretty dull, but I really would have loved to have 495 00:34:25,160 --> 00:34:29,200 Speaker 1: been a fly on the wall while the attendees socialized. Right, 496 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,000 Speaker 1: We've got Don Black at his first ever Nazi event, 497 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:38,280 Speaker 1: teenage David Duke, a budding serial killer. William Luther Pierce 498 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:42,880 Speaker 1: gave a speech, of course, as did Matius Kale. Frank Colin, 499 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,360 Speaker 1: who was still serving as Midwest Party coordinator, gave a 500 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,279 Speaker 1: report about Nazi activity in Chicago. It would be about 501 00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,840 Speaker 1: another year or so before he was ousted over rumors 502 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:55,799 Speaker 1: that he was Jewish, and a few more years before 503 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:57,719 Speaker 1: he would kick off the controversy that led to the 504 00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: Skokie Supreme Court decision and inspire the FAI same as 505 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:05,239 Speaker 1: Blues Brother's line, I Hate Illinois Nazis, And another few 506 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,080 Speaker 1: years before it was revealed that the rumors were true, 507 00:35:09,040 --> 00:35:13,279 Speaker 1: he had in fact been raised Jewish. He was later 508 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:19,320 Speaker 1: convicted of child molestation, and regardless of the actual attendance numbers, 509 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:23,640 Speaker 1: people did come in from all over. John Beatty was 510 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:27,840 Speaker 1: there from Canada, where he led the Canadian National Socialist Party. 511 00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:33,359 Speaker 1: Joseph Thomassi, one of William Luther Pierce's teenage revolutionaries, gave 512 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,719 Speaker 1: a report on his work running the racist hotline over 513 00:35:35,760 --> 00:35:39,920 Speaker 1: on the West Coast, and this is where James Mason 514 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 1: first met several of the men who would shape the 515 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:47,480 Speaker 1: worldview he laid out in the siege years later, in 516 00:35:47,560 --> 00:35:52,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, James Mason was a teenager too, like 517 00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,240 Speaker 1: Don Black, he'd joined the party as a youth member 518 00:35:55,280 --> 00:35:59,479 Speaker 1: by mail while still in high school. A year before 519 00:35:59,480 --> 00:36:02,520 Speaker 1: this conference, he'd written to the party headquarters to say 520 00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,920 Speaker 1: that he was planning to murder his high school principal. 521 00:36:06,600 --> 00:36:10,960 Speaker 1: William Luther Peers read his letter and offered him an alternative. 522 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,080 Speaker 1: He invited this seventeen year old to leave Ohio and 523 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:22,560 Speaker 1: come live at the party office in Virginia. The newsletters 524 00:36:22,600 --> 00:36:25,160 Speaker 1: don't give much detail about the content of the speeches, 525 00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:28,520 Speaker 1: but years later, when James Mason sat down on his 526 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,080 Speaker 1: typewriter to tap out the newsletters that would eventually be 527 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:35,240 Speaker 1: collected into siege, that favorite tome of acceleration as neo Nazis. 528 00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:38,600 Speaker 1: In the twenty tens, he recalled a scene from the 529 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:44,200 Speaker 1: room that weekend after William Luther Peers's speech, he opened 530 00:36:44,200 --> 00:36:50,320 Speaker 1: the floor to questions. According to mason quote, one naive 531 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:53,200 Speaker 1: delegate asked what we should do with the white race traders. 532 00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:57,440 Speaker 1: He spoke, not a word, but gesturing with thumb and 533 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 1: index finger forming the barrel and hammer of a histole 534 00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,520 Speaker 1: being fired. Brought the entire assembly to its feet, and 535 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,279 Speaker 1: the loudest outburst of cheering an applause heard during that 536 00:37:06,320 --> 00:37:12,440 Speaker 1: three day gathering. So all the way back in nineteen 537 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,560 Speaker 1: eighty three, James Mason is doing the and everybody clapped 538 00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:23,040 Speaker 1: bit right, But more importantly, amidst all this propaganda that 539 00:37:23,080 --> 00:37:26,160 Speaker 1: we know they're being inundated with about killing black people, 540 00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:30,839 Speaker 1: about killing Jewish people, somebody raised their hand and asked, 541 00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:35,479 Speaker 1: what about the race traders? What do we do about them? 542 00:37:36,560 --> 00:37:39,359 Speaker 1: What do we do about the white people who work 543 00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:44,239 Speaker 1: against us? Are they fair game? And in front of 544 00:37:44,239 --> 00:37:46,839 Speaker 1: this room of mostly very young men that he had 545 00:37:46,880 --> 00:37:52,680 Speaker 1: personally recruited and groomed, for violence. William Luther Pierce pantomimed 546 00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:59,600 Speaker 1: firing a gun. Pierce would later deny inspiring Franklin or 547 00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,200 Speaker 1: being an inspired by him to write his novel Hunter. 548 00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:07,880 Speaker 1: And I'm sure Franklin heard plenty of other Nazis advocate 549 00:38:07,960 --> 00:38:11,520 Speaker 1: for murdering race traders in the years between this meeting 550 00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,880 Speaker 1: and the first time he did it. But there in 551 00:38:15,920 --> 00:38:20,400 Speaker 1: that room in nineteen sixty nine, his leader put the 552 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 1: idea in his head, maybe for the first time. When 553 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:30,040 Speaker 1: the conference was over after the long weekend, Don Black 554 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,920 Speaker 1: had to go home. He had to go back to 555 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,399 Speaker 1: high school, but David Duke and Joseph Paul Franklin wanted 556 00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:40,000 Speaker 1: to stick around for a bit, so Don's parents bought 557 00:38:40,040 --> 00:38:45,160 Speaker 1: him a plane ticket home. James Mason stuck around two obviously, 558 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:50,440 Speaker 1: he lived there and for a few months James Mason 559 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,560 Speaker 1: and Joseph Paul Franklin lived together in the Party barracks 560 00:38:54,560 --> 00:39:01,360 Speaker 1: in Northern Virginia. The incident I described the opening. That 561 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,400 Speaker 1: attack on the new Mobilization office in November of nineteen 562 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:10,560 Speaker 1: sixty nine is so strange to me. I spent hours 563 00:39:11,040 --> 00:39:15,239 Speaker 1: combing through newspaper archives trying to prove it happened at all. 564 00:39:16,760 --> 00:39:20,200 Speaker 1: I scrounged around for Marxist papers that would have been 565 00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:22,760 Speaker 1: published during that time period. I dug up old anti 566 00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:30,759 Speaker 1: war newsletters, student activist publications. I looked hard, because something 567 00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:36,720 Speaker 1: must have happened. There are multiple essays in Siege about 568 00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:41,200 Speaker 1: the attack on the anti war protesters. James Mason recalls 569 00:39:41,239 --> 00:39:47,360 Speaker 1: this as his favorite demonstration years later as he's writing Siege, 570 00:39:47,440 --> 00:39:50,920 Speaker 1: as he's collecting his thoughts and formulating this strategy for 571 00:39:50,960 --> 00:39:56,200 Speaker 1: white revolution, Gassing those hippies in nineteen sixty nine is 572 00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:59,840 Speaker 1: one of his fondest memories, and even when he's not 573 00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:03,280 Speaker 1: a describing that particular incident, he writes often of Franklin, 574 00:40:03,760 --> 00:40:06,479 Speaker 1: praising him as a man of action and something others 575 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:11,320 Speaker 1: should aspire to. He mentions him for the first time 576 00:40:11,480 --> 00:40:14,399 Speaker 1: in November of nineteen eighty, just a few days after 577 00:40:14,400 --> 00:40:19,720 Speaker 1: Franklin was arrested. In that first essay about Franklin, Mason 578 00:40:19,760 --> 00:40:24,640 Speaker 1: described the early days of their friendship, writing, I mainly 579 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:27,000 Speaker 1: recall the time in November of nineteen sixty nine when 580 00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,440 Speaker 1: we decided to put the Reds of DC under siege 581 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,600 Speaker 1: during their massive treason orgy known as the Moratorium against 582 00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:35,799 Speaker 1: the Vietnam War effort. It was Vaughn, because of his 583 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,359 Speaker 1: non fascist appearance, who went into the high rise New 584 00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,839 Speaker 1: Mobe headquarters on Vermont Avenue alone and caused the place 585 00:40:41,880 --> 00:40:45,400 Speaker 1: to be evacuated three times using gas bombs without being caught. 586 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:48,799 Speaker 1: No One then guessed that we might be reading about 587 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:51,640 Speaker 1: him eleven years hence in such a manner, may his 588 00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:57,520 Speaker 1: luck hold now. A year later, in another essay, he 589 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,000 Speaker 1: described the same incident, again referring to Franklin using the 590 00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:05,480 Speaker 1: name he'd known him by, Vaughn. I recall the night 591 00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:07,320 Speaker 1: one of the most important missions of the year was 592 00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:09,680 Speaker 1: in jeopardy because some of the men chosen to go 593 00:41:09,760 --> 00:41:11,919 Speaker 1: out on it were refusing to be accompanied by Vaughn 594 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:13,600 Speaker 1: as part of the team that attacked the New Mobe 595 00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,719 Speaker 1: headquarters in Washington, d C. I was forced to call 596 00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:19,960 Speaker 1: each one up individually and beg and plead, shame and 597 00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:21,879 Speaker 1: cajole until I could get them to come to their 598 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,120 Speaker 1: senses and perform their duty. More than once I was 599 00:41:25,160 --> 00:41:27,080 Speaker 1: hung up on and had to dial them right back up. 600 00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,120 Speaker 1: In the end, while the rest of us provided escort 601 00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:32,839 Speaker 1: and the backup, it was Vaughn who caused the place 602 00:41:32,880 --> 00:41:38,920 Speaker 1: to be evacuated and closed. The essay attributes both Franklin's 603 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:42,880 Speaker 1: success and the other member's wariness of him to the 604 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:47,440 Speaker 1: same thing. He didn't fit in. He didn't have a 605 00:41:47,480 --> 00:41:53,080 Speaker 1: regulation haircut or a party uniform, wasn't playing by the rules. 606 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:59,840 Speaker 1: And this is foundational Amazon's ideology. Get out there and 607 00:42:00,120 --> 00:42:05,960 Speaker 1: do terrorism. Prioritize action over all else, action over organization, 608 00:42:06,239 --> 00:42:10,319 Speaker 1: action over doctrine. Get out there and do something. Just 609 00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:17,240 Speaker 1: break something, just kill someone. Watching this long haired weirdo 610 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:19,680 Speaker 1: throw tear gas grenades into an office building while the 611 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:22,800 Speaker 1: stormtroopers waited in the car seems to have laid the 612 00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:25,800 Speaker 1: groundwork for the kind of terror Mason encouraged for decades. 613 00:42:27,719 --> 00:42:32,080 Speaker 1: Just get out there and do it. But did it 614 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:37,520 Speaker 1: actually happen. I can't prove it, and normally that would 615 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:41,759 Speaker 1: lead me to believe he's making it up. But for 616 00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:46,640 Speaker 1: some reason, I think something had to have happened. This 617 00:42:46,719 --> 00:42:49,600 Speaker 1: seems too central to Mason's worldview to be made up. 618 00:42:51,239 --> 00:42:56,000 Speaker 1: And I did find one single newspaper article that does 619 00:42:56,080 --> 00:43:00,080 Speaker 1: describe members of the National Socialist White People's Party storming 620 00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:02,320 Speaker 1: into the new Mob offices the night before the march, 621 00:43:03,800 --> 00:43:09,439 Speaker 1: So something happened. But that article describes Nazis who looked 622 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:14,799 Speaker 1: like Nazis, not one lone long haired weirdo, but big 623 00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:18,040 Speaker 1: guys and matching coats and short hair and swastik lapel pins. 624 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:22,839 Speaker 1: And it doesn't mention a gas attack or an evacuation 625 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:28,279 Speaker 1: or shutting the building down or three incursions. It just 626 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:32,239 Speaker 1: describes one instance of a couple of guys coming in, 627 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:36,240 Speaker 1: handing out flyers and intimidating some of the women before 628 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:41,440 Speaker 1: they were escorted out. Now, I do have to leave 629 00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:45,080 Speaker 1: open the possibility that I can't find an article about 630 00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:49,520 Speaker 1: anti war activists getting tear gased, because there are thousands 631 00:43:49,600 --> 00:43:53,160 Speaker 1: of articles about the cops tear gassing that same group 632 00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 1: that same week. The keywords are pulling up a lot 633 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,640 Speaker 1: of unrelated content, so maybe it's there and it's just 634 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:07,600 Speaker 1: buried in that one article I did find. They actually 635 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:11,000 Speaker 1: name the student activist who firmly asked the Nazis to leave, 636 00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:17,040 Speaker 1: and he's still alive and I found him online, So 637 00:44:17,080 --> 00:44:18,839 Speaker 1: I think I'm going to write to him and ask 638 00:44:18,960 --> 00:44:26,439 Speaker 1: him if he remembers this happening. Fingers crossed, But whether 639 00:44:26,560 --> 00:44:28,759 Speaker 1: or not an eighty year old man remembers getting tear 640 00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:31,439 Speaker 1: gassed by a Nazi serial killer in nineteen sixty nine. 641 00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:35,520 Speaker 1: We'll pick back up next week with a Nazi adrift 642 00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:39,719 Speaker 1: joining different hate groups throughout the nineteen seventies before waking 643 00:44:39,800 --> 00:44:43,080 Speaker 1: up one Christmas morning and deciding it was time to 644 00:44:43,080 --> 00:45:02,480 Speaker 1: start his one man race war. Weird Little Guys is 645 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:05,200 Speaker 1: a production of Pools One Media and iHeartRadio. It's research, 646 00:45:05,239 --> 00:45:08,520 Speaker 1: written and recorded by me Mollie Kunger. Our executive producers 647 00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:11,439 Speaker 1: are Sophie Litterman and Robert Evans. The show is edited 648 00:45:11,480 --> 00:45:14,360 Speaker 1: by themes wildly talented Rory Gagan. The theme music was 649 00:45:14,360 --> 00:45:17,160 Speaker 1: composed by Brad Dickert. You can email me at Weird 650 00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:19,720 Speaker 1: Little Guys podcast at gmail dot com. I will definitely 651 00:45:19,760 --> 00:45:21,880 Speaker 1: read it, but I probably won't answer. It's nothing personal. 652 00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:24,919 Speaker 1: You can exchange conspiracy theories about the show with other 653 00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:28,359 Speaker 1: listeners on the Weird Little Guys subreddit. Just don't post 654 00:45:28,400 --> 00:45:30,280 Speaker 1: anything that's going to make you away Weird Little Guys