WEBVTT - Disorganized Crime, Pt. 3 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:06.560 Col Zone Media. 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:11.399 At two forty six pm on March first, nineteen sixty seven, 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.760 a baby girl was born at a small hospital in Maine. 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.000 Her mother had been admitted to the maternity ward under 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.799 a fake name, and the man in the waiting room 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:27.800 knew he wasn't the father. The baby seemed healthy, and 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.639 when the woman felt confident that her daughter was free 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.559 from the mysterious affliction that had claimed the life of 0:00:33.600 --> 0:00:38.279 her first child, she revealed the baby's existence to her 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:44.760 real father. For a brief moment that summer, they were 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:49.599 a family. A man who had abandoned an entire family 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:54.480 twice over already now seemed overjoyed to have this baby 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.800 in his life. But the summer of nineteen sixty seven 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.880 had a series of unhapp be endings for George Lincoln Rockwell. 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.959 He spent the last week of his own life mourning 0:01:06.000 --> 0:01:09.960 the death of his infant daughter, and after his assassination, 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.880 his mistress burned all the evidence that their daughter had 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:19.920 ever existed, including the birth certificate signed by her dead 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:28.760 lover's closest friend, Frank Smith. I'm Molly Conger, and this 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:49.680 is where little guys. Early on in this roundabout process 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.560 of figuring out who Frank Smith was. I was reading 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:58.600 the transcript of his testimony at John Patler's trial. In 0:01:58.640 --> 0:02:02.760 those rambling pages, he told the court that he was 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:09.600 the closest friend Commander Rockwell had. That's a pretty bold 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:13.200 statement from a guy whose name really only appears in 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:19.600 passing and even the most comprehensive biographies of George Lincoln Rockwell. 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.120 But like I said earlier in this series, it was 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.680 Frank's testimony at that trial that got me interested in 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.000 his story in the first place, because he had a 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:35.520 way of speaking that I've heard before. He testified like 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:39.440 a man with a lot of practice lying to the cops. 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.600 So I read his testimony with interest, but not necessarily 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:49.800 for the truth. And then I found a pair of recordings. 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:53.800 It's always such an incredible treasure to have actual audio 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.400 of my weird little guy. I don't always get that, 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.560 especially when it comes to stories that are further in 0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:05.240 the past or stories about more obscure figures, and Frank 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.720 is both. But I lucked into more than two hours 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:13.280 of actual audio of Frank talking to a reporter back 0:03:13.280 --> 0:03:16.960 in nineteen sixty eight, and I found another hour from 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:20.120 a conversation he had with a Nazi podcaster in twenty sixteen. 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:27.600 In that pair of interviews, nearly fifty years apart, he 0:03:27.720 --> 0:03:32.600 describes himself again as the best friend Rockwell had during 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.800 the two years they knew each other from nineteen sixty 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:40.320 five until Rockwell's death in August of nineteen sixty seven. 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.360 Repeating the same claim over and over again doesn't make 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:48.800 it any truer, obviously, But what an odd thing to 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.960 insist upon for decades, isn't it. Male friendship can be 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:59.040 a tricky thing to understand, even under normal circumstances, but 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.960 the brief, tragic life of Rockwell's infant daughter points to 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:07.400 the possibility that Frank really was one of George Lincoln 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:11.680 Rockwell's closest friends in the final years of his life. 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.520 Not many men would sign their name on the birth 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.440 certificate of someone else's illegitimate child just to ease their 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:25.080 emotional burden. I don't think so anyway, And we'll get 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:27.880 to the secret pregnancy of Rockwell's mistress in a bit, 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.799 But I think this idea sort of sets the stage 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:36.039 for the kind of relationship these men had. There's so 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.320 little evidence of it that survives on paper, and Frank 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.720 is an unreliable narrator, but I think the bond they 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:48.279 formed over the course of those two years must have 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:55.120 been real. When we left off last week, Frank Smith 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:59.000 was in the hospital in March of nineteen sixty five. 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.360 He was shot five to by two men who were 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:07.080 never identified. The shooting was never officially soft and Frank's 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.760 version of events varies depending on his mood, but he 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:14.479 was almost certainly an attempted hit carried out by associates 0:05:14.520 --> 0:05:18.920 of the Patriarcha crime family. There was an ongoing gang 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.160 war in Boston and Frank had gotten in over his head. 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:27.799 Just days before Frank was shot, a wire tap captured 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:31.240 Raymond Patriarcha in a rage after he found out that 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:37.000 Frank had been sanctioning hits without his permission. Frank barely 0:05:37.040 --> 0:05:40.280 survived the shooting, and he spent a month in the hospital. 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:43.880 When he was finally well enough to appear in court, 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.080 he had to answer for the loaded revolver and brass knuckles. 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.120 Police founded his car on the night of the shooting. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.080 At his arraignment, a Boston Globe reporter saw him having 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:59.200 a whispered conversation with an unnamed man described only as 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:04.440 his business partner in a land deal in Maine. This 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:06.640 has to be the land that he had just promised 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:09.599 to the American Nazi Party for their whites only church, 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.800 But the paper doesn't offer any hint as to who 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:18.120 that man might have been. I don't think it could 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:23.080 have been George Lincoln Rockwell, though for one thing, the 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:27.720 reporter would have recognized him. But even if that particular 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.599 journalist didn't know what the famous Nazi looked like, George 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:35.400 Lincoln Rockwell was a famous enough man that he usually 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.440 ended up in the newspaper wherever he went, so it's 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.440 almost possible to put together a day by day accounting 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:46.479 of his whereabouts if you're willing to pick through enough 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:53.080 local newspapers. On the day of Frank's hearing, April sixteenth, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:58.120 nineteen sixty five, I can't tell you exactly where Rockwell was, 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.080 but I can play him elsewhere. In the days before 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:08.440 and after, newspapers in Ohio reported that an auditorium full 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:12.560 of college students laughed at him on April fourteenth when 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:14.560 he announced for the first time that he planned to 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:19.880 run for governor of Virginia, and reporters in Virginia photographed 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.080 him on April nineteenth when he marched into an office 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:27.480 in Richmond to file paperwork for his campaign. So it 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:32.920 wasn't rockwell, but whoever it was. Despite his bullet wounds, 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.400 Frank was still trying to move forward with the plan 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.560 to start a Nazi church on his property in Maine. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.040 A few days after his arraignment, Frank was convicted on 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:47.600 the pair of weapons charges in Massachusetts. The Boston Globe 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:52.360 described him looking pale and weak in the courtroom, obviously 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.840 still recovering from his brush with death. During the hearing, 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:01.000 his attorney yanked the shirt right off Frank's back to 0:08:01.120 --> 0:08:04.840 show the judge how serious his injuries were, and pleading 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.600 with the judge to go easy on him. They weren't 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:12.480 arguing his innocence at that point. They were begging for 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:18.160 his life. If he stayed in Massachusetts, the people who 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.400 shot him would try again, and he wouldn't survive a 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:25.240 second hit. His lawyer told the court that if they 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.960 let him walk free, he would quote leave the state 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.960 to protect himself and society. If there is another attempt 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.800 on his life, we don't want it in mis jurisdiction. 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:44.920 This worked, apparently, despite finding him guilty on both charges, 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.240 the judge suspended the two years sentence, and Frank was 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:53.760 free to go. Pulling his clients shirt off in the 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:57.640 middle of the courtroom was a little dramatic, but I 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:01.280 don't think his attorney was lying. Frank had to get 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:05.920 out of town. The Boston gang war wasn't over, and 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:11.720 somebody obviously wanted him dead. He'd lost his right eye 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:16.559 entirely several years earlier in some unspecified accident, and the 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:20.240 shooting had left him half blind in his remaining eye. 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.800 He wouldn't regain full use of his left arm for 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:28.800 another two years. He was weak, wounded, and he didn't 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:34.920 know who his friends were anymore. Now I know. I 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:39.920 said the shooting was never solved, and it wasn't not technically. 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:44.800 Nobody was ever arrested, charged, tried, or convicted for it. 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:50.600 But two months after Frank was shot, an FBI wiretap 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:56.880 recorded a conversation about shooting him again. In May of 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.880 nineteen sixty five, a hit man named Jimmy Flemy told 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:04.520 Providence mob boss Raymond Patriarcha that if he ever saw 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:10.360 Frank again, he would finish him. Patriarcha gave Flemy his 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:14.440 blessing in part because he was very upset to hear 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.800 that Frank had been referring to made men as guineas, 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:21.199 an anti Italian slur that he seems to have been 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:25.720 pretty sensitive about. You might remember that this is the 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:29.320 same Jimmy Flemy who was recorded meeting with Patriarcha a 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.480 few days before Frank was shot, and that conversation had 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:39.520 been about how Frank was becoming a problem. It seems 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:43.120 pretty clear to me, at least, that there's a strong 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:48.880 case to be made that Jimmy Flemy shot Frank shortly 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:53.040 after their first conversation about killing Frank and before their 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:59.160 second conversation about killing Frank. Jimmy Flemy became an FBI informant, 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.760 and that could explain why there was no real investigation 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.880 into who shot Frank. We know, beyond a shadow of 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:16.199 a doubt that Jimmy Flemy's handler was protecting him. That happens. 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.440 We don't usually find out the nitty gritty details, but 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:24.040 the FBI does have a pretty messy history when it 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:26.679 comes to looking the other way when their informants commit 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:31.959 crimes and the agent handling Jimmy Flemy knew he was 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:36.959 a hitman. That is sometimes the cost of doing business. 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.120 When you're trying to flip mobsters, you have to make 0:11:40.120 --> 0:11:43.080 a deal with the devil, so to speak, if you 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:46.480 want to catch the guy further up the chain. But 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:51.440 Agent Paul Rico very famously took this way too far. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.120 In a memo dated June of nineteen sixty five, j 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.640 Edgar Hoover was informed that Lemmy had the tential to 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:05.120 be an excellent informant in building a case against Raymond Patriarca. 0:12:06.840 --> 0:12:11.120 The same memo notes that Jimmy Flemy is known to 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:16.880 have committed at least seven murders and quote from all indications, 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:24.439 he is going to continue to commit murder. There were 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:30.040 allegations for decades there was a lot of rot, and 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:34.000 a lot of people could smell it. There were dirty 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:41.640 cops and protected informants. The corruption ran deep. It wasn't 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.160 until decades later that there was proof of just how deep. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.120 In two thousand and three, the House Committee on Government 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:57.640 Reform adopted a report called Everything Secret Degenerates the FBI's 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:03.400 Use of murderers as informants. This report is about Jimmy 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:09.480 Flemy mostly. Its specific focus is the murder of a 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.920 man named Teddy Degan in March of nineteen sixty five. 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:18.079 But because Teddy Degan was murdered three days before Frank 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.320 was shot, Frank's name pops up a few times in 0:13:21.360 --> 0:13:25.920 this report. The exhibits that were preserved in the Congressional 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.840 Record are some of the only unredacted pages of those 0:13:29.920 --> 0:13:33.560 FBI files, so it offered me some more insight into 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:39.080 the events surrounding the shooting. The whole story is much 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.440 more than we can get into here, but it's pretty shocking. 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:48.720 Teddy Degan was murdered the same day that agent Rico 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:53.040 started developing Jimmy Flemy as an informant, which was several 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:58.160 days after the FBI overheard him planning Deagan's murder on 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:04.480 that wiretap. Agent Rico didn't just look the other way 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:11.120 while his informant went about his business. No, he actively 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.319 covered up a murder committed by his informant, and then 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.120 he arranged for innocent men to be framed for that 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:24.800 murder by coaching other informants to provide false testimony at trial. 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:31.320 He paid people to perjure themselves, and people died in 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.920 prison so the FBI could keep this informant on the streets. 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.600 When Rico was called before Congress more than thirty years 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.520 later to testify about his role in this cover up. 0:14:43.640 --> 0:14:47.240 He had no remorse when he was asked about the 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:49.360 four men he'd sent to prison for a murder he 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:54.640 knew they didn't commit, He said, what do you want tears? 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:00.880 By the time Rico was sitting in front of Congress 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:04.400 testifying about it, two of those four men he framed 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:08.320 had already died in prison. The other two were released 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:13.240 in two thousand one when they won their wrongful conviction lawsuits. 0:15:13.240 --> 0:15:17.480 In two thousand seven, the one hundred million dollar payout 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:21.360 was the largest sum ever awarded under the Federal Tort 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:24.000 Claims Act, which is the law that allows you to 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:28.480 sue the federal government. That record has since been broken. 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.720 In twenty twenty one, the Department of Defense was ordered 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:34.680 to pay two hundred and thirty million dollars to the 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:38.160 families and survivors of a mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.920 The Air Force failed to report a court martial conviction 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.480 that would have prevented the shooter from purchasing the gun 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.520 that he used to murder twenty six people. In two 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.680 thousand three, former FBI agent Paul Rico was indicted on 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:58.120 murder charges for asking Whitey Bulger to arrange the death 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:02.840 of the owner of the World Highlyily Rigo was beaten 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.480 to death in prison three months later before he could 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:11.240 face trial. I know this is pretty far afield of 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:16.480 our main storyline, even for me, But the Congressional report 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:20.200 on the FBI's misconduct in New England in the nineteen sixties, 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.280 it's kind of unique. You don't usually get this kind 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:30.000 of peak behind the curtain, this kind of granular deconstruction, 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:34.200 this moment by moment chronology of the way the FBI 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:39.600 is actively involved in not just shaping the narrative about 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:45.400 the crimes they're investigating, but involved in the crimes themselves. 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:51.800 The report is unique, but I'm not sure the underlying 0:16:51.840 --> 0:16:57.680 conduct is the fact that this report exists just raises 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:02.040 more questions about how the FBI was handling their informants 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.040 in other areas during that same time period. You know, 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.680 maybe the Mafia wasn't the only group whose members were 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:16.840 both under investigation by and sometimes under the direction and 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:24.240 protection of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It reminds me 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:28.720 a little bit of the Greensboro massacre in nineteen seventy nine, 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.639 a group of Nazis and klansmen murdered five communist organizers 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:38.560 in North Carolina. An undercover atf agent was at the 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:42.639 meeting where the attack was planned, and he failed to 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:48.439 report that klansmen had discussed making bombs. The man leading 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:54.639 the Nazi caravan had been an FBI informant for a decade. 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:59.160 The local police and the FBI knew what was going 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:04.280 to happen, and cesar cause. James Waller, William E. Fan Simpson, 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:11.560 Sandra Neelie Smith, and Michael Nathan were murdered. Anyway, one 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.640 of these days, I'll finally get around telling you about 0:18:14.680 --> 0:18:19.240 a very modern day example of exactly this sort of thing. 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:22.960 It's been weighing heavily on my mind for a couple 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.639 of years now, but I keep putting off going to 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:27.679 the post office so I can get a PO box, 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.760 so I can write the man in prison. It's only 0:18:31.800 --> 0:18:34.800 fair in this case to ask him for his side 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:41.840 of things. But we were talking about Frank Smith. Personally, 0:18:42.560 --> 0:18:46.160 I think Jimmy Flemy shot him, but I guess we'll 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:51.760 never know. In late April of nineteen sixty five, Frank 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:54.520 was released from jail and he went up to Maine 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:58.800 to lay low. When Jimmy Flemy asked for permission to 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.800 finish him off in May, he mentioned to Patriarca that 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.720 Frank had been seen up in Maine in the company 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:12.000 of someone he identifies only as the Colonel. Okay, now 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.800 we're back in my territory. Because it doesn't sound like 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:20.680 the mafia guys know who the Colonel is, but I do. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:27.920 That's American Nazi Party member Alan welsh Well. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:33.080 The Commander sent his deputy, Alan welsh up to Island Falls. 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:39.480 Maine, to meet me and to drive this automobile and 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:45.280 myself down to Arlington, Virginia, approximately at the middle of 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:47.560 the month of September nineteen sixty five. 0:19:51.600 --> 0:19:54.520 By his own telling, Frank was home in Maine licking 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:58.040 his wounds all summer in nineteen sixty five, and he 0:19:58.080 --> 0:20:00.800 didn't have much contact during that time with the American 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:05.919 Nazi Party. Rockwell was busy running for governor, Frank was 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.440 busy hiding from the mafia, but they did exchange a 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:14.359 couple of letters. Frank claims he wrote to Rockwell saying 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:17.200 he couldn't really be of much help on the campaign 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.639 trail because of his injuries, but he offered the use 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:25.960 of his car. The American Nazi Party was most of 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.280 the time dead broke, nobody had a nice car that 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.480 would look slick pulling up to a campaign stop. But 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.680 Frank owned a Lincoln Continental, a black convertible with a 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:42.520 white top, which he describes as just like the one 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:46.399 JFK was riding in when he got assassinated, and he 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:51.480 thought that would look good at campaign stops. Being nearly blind, though, 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.520 he couldn't very well drive it down to Virginia from Maine, 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.679 so Rockwell sent a stormtrooper up to bring Frank and 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:02.920 the Lincoln down to the Nazi Party barracks in Arlington 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.320 in September. That's what Frank told the reporter. That's what 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:12.160 he testified to at Patler's trial. And I can't actually 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:18.399 place Frank in Virginia any earlier than September, but that 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:24.040 FBI memo places Alan Welch in Maine with Frank on 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.760 May first, barely a week after Frank got out of 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:32.119 jail and headed north. And I know Welch didn't spend 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.080 all summer in Maine because I have him in the 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:39.080 newspaper talking to reporters in June and July and he's 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:43.720 in Virginia, so he must have made multiple trips up 0:21:43.760 --> 0:21:48.120 to Maine that summer, a curious omission from Frank's version 0:21:48.119 --> 0:22:06.760 of events. When Frank Welsh and the convertible finally did 0:22:06.800 --> 0:22:10.040 make it down to Virginia in September, they stopped off 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:13.360 at the Nazi head quarters in Arlington and then continued 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:19.280 to their final destination, Richmond. The election was just two 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.200 months away, and George Lincoln Rockwell had set up a 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.879 campaign headquarters in downtown Richmond, just a few blocks from 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:30.639 the capitol. I found an old newspaper ad that the 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:34.199 campaign ran in the Richmond Times Dispatch to announce the 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:38.600 grand opening of that office in August. The ad read 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.399 the only party and the only candidate not afraid to 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:45.760 deal forthrightly with the race problem and the Communist subversion 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:50.399 of our Christian constitutional Republic. One hundred percent for segregation, 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.439 States rights, anti communism. Get your free copy of the 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:58.520 inspiring program that will insure White Christian supremacy in Virginia. 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:05.040 The address listed for the office doesn't exist anymore. I 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:09.480 think they've renumbered the street in the intervening decades, and 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:12.240 the photos of the office don't match any of the 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.840 buildings on the block where it used to be, but 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.920 based on a description of the cross streets nearest the office, 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.240 I know that I have gotten my credit card stuck 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:25.560 in the payment machine at the parking garage built on 0:23:25.640 --> 0:23:29.399 top of what used to be George Lincoln Rockwall's campaign headquarters. 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:34.960 What a small world it was at the Richmond campaign 0:23:34.960 --> 0:23:39.359 office where Frank Smith first met Claudia mccullors, a woman 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:41.960 half his age who'd come up from Alabama to volunteer 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:48.040 as a secretary for Rockwall's campaign. Again, he was nearly blind, 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.240 so he depended heavily on Allan Welsh to get around, 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:54.560 and he later said that when he first saw Claudia, 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:57.440 he thought he might prefer the idea of a pretty 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:02.480 young lady driving him around. Told her as much, He said, 0:24:02.520 --> 0:24:06.520 if she would be his secretary, his driver and his eyes, 0:24:07.680 --> 0:24:12.000 he'd buy her a new car. They married a year later. 0:24:15.880 --> 0:24:20.399 George Lincoln Rockwell's campaign for Governor of Virginia was mercifully short. 0:24:21.720 --> 0:24:24.520 He only announced that he was running in April, barely 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:27.720 six months before the election, and he didn't set up 0:24:27.760 --> 0:24:32.159 the office until August. In those short couple of months, 0:24:32.760 --> 0:24:37.920 he pulled all manner of grotesque little racist stunts. He 0:24:38.040 --> 0:24:42.560 criss crossed the state giving racist stump speeches. At a 0:24:42.560 --> 0:24:47.119 speech in a public park in Fredericksburg, one so laden 0:24:47.200 --> 0:24:50.119 with racial slurs that I couldn't cut an acceptable clip 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:53.159 of it. He reached under the lectern as he was 0:24:53.160 --> 0:24:57.160 speaking and pulled out a rifle, waving it around as 0:24:57.160 --> 0:24:59.720 he ranted about the need to arm white men to 0:24:59.800 --> 0:25:04.199 keep the black population under control. In the lead up 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:08.479 to the election, Nazi stormtroopers disrupted his opponent's campaign events. 0:25:09.880 --> 0:25:13.679 When Republican candidate Lynwood Houlton held a black tie fundraiser 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:17.520 in DC, Alan Welch interrupted a speech to demand that 0:25:17.600 --> 0:25:23.320 Holton debate Rockwell. The record indicates that Richard Nixon was 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:26.600 in attendance, but doesn't say what he thought of this. 0:25:28.760 --> 0:25:31.760 When Democratic candidate Mills Godwin held a similar event a 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:35.000 few days later, this time it was Matius Cole who 0:25:35.040 --> 0:25:39.720 interrupted the speeches, asking Godwin, if you believe in equality, 0:25:39.880 --> 0:25:44.720 would you debate mister Rockwell. There's an undated photo in 0:25:44.760 --> 0:25:48.840 an issue of Stormtrooper magazine that shows Frank sitting in 0:25:48.840 --> 0:25:52.040 the backseat of his Lincoln convertible next to a man 0:25:52.080 --> 0:25:56.800 in blackface. They were probably on their way to crash 0:25:56.800 --> 0:26:00.800 a press conference. There were several incidents in a Nazi 0:26:00.840 --> 0:26:05.159 stormtrooper in blackface confronting one of the other candidates or 0:26:05.200 --> 0:26:09.600 a TV news camera. One of Rockwell's supporters was arrested 0:26:09.600 --> 0:26:12.600 in Washington, d C. After bursting into the House chambers 0:26:12.600 --> 0:26:16.600 while Congress was in session. He unfurled a Nazi banner, 0:26:16.800 --> 0:26:22.600 shouting Siegile and long live Rockwell. And in the several 0:26:22.760 --> 0:26:25.520 minutes that it took for Capital Security to get him 0:26:25.560 --> 0:26:29.360 under control, he managed to throw hundreds of little flyers 0:26:29.400 --> 0:26:32.240 over the railing so that they rained down on the congressman. 0:26:33.840 --> 0:26:37.800 And as these little handbills settled onto the floor, members 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:39.960 of Congress saw that they were made up to look 0:26:40.040 --> 0:26:44.680 like boat tickets. The text is too crude to repeat, 0:26:44.840 --> 0:26:49.960 but these novelty tickets claimed to offer any black person 0:26:50.480 --> 0:26:55.159 a one way boat ride back to Africa. As if 0:26:55.200 --> 0:26:58.040 there was any doubt about who was behind the stunt, 0:26:58.760 --> 0:27:02.520 each flyer sat at the bottom and fine print copyright 0:27:02.600 --> 0:27:09.359 nineteen sixty five, Lincoln Rockwell. A few weeks after the 0:27:09.400 --> 0:27:12.800 incident at the Capitol, another member pulled the same stunt 0:27:13.320 --> 0:27:16.720 racist boat tickets and all, but this time at the 0:27:16.840 --> 0:27:23.120 NAACP state convention in Roanoke. The newspaper reports about both 0:27:23.160 --> 0:27:30.560 incidents described the tickets, but not in great detail. An 0:27:30.640 --> 0:27:34.800 issue of Stormtrooper magazine reproduced the entire image and it 0:27:34.880 --> 0:27:39.160 is I mean, it's really something. I don't think it's 0:27:39.200 --> 0:27:42.280 possible to pack in any more racist and per square inch. 0:27:42.440 --> 0:27:47.280 I mean, these guys were professionals. After the success of 0:27:47.320 --> 0:27:50.560 those stunts, some members wrote in to ask if the 0:27:50.600 --> 0:27:53.240 party would mail them a batch so they could hand 0:27:53.240 --> 0:27:55.720 them out to black people on the street for their 0:27:55.720 --> 0:28:00.840 own racist amusement. Subsequent issues of the party's magazine offered 0:28:00.840 --> 0:28:03.199 the tickets for sale on the back page, where they 0:28:03.240 --> 0:28:09.680 sold racist literature fifty for a dollar and through it all. 0:28:10.240 --> 0:28:14.679 Frank Smith was Rockwell's shadow. He says that he was 0:28:14.720 --> 0:28:19.359 acting as Rockwell's bodyguard, but that seems like an awful idea. 0:28:20.600 --> 0:28:22.439 He may have been a boxer in his youth, but 0:28:23.280 --> 0:28:26.320 he's in his mid forties now, I mean, that's not 0:28:26.400 --> 0:28:30.640 so old. But he's also recovering from multiple gunshot wounds, 0:28:31.520 --> 0:28:35.439 and he's had heart surgery, and he has very limited 0:28:35.560 --> 0:28:39.160 use of his left hand and arm. So not only 0:28:39.240 --> 0:28:40.680 was he not going to be of any use in 0:28:40.680 --> 0:28:44.160 a physical fight. He wasn't even going to see a 0:28:44.200 --> 0:28:45.320 potential threat coming. 0:28:49.520 --> 0:28:53.920 I acted as a bodyguid for him. And this is 0:28:53.960 --> 0:28:56.600 the humor's part about it. I used to stride a 0:28:56.640 --> 0:28:58.640 side of him with the most determined air, and I 0:28:58.720 --> 0:29:01.680 used to look people right in the face. And the 0:29:01.720 --> 0:29:04.000 only thing was that I had to watch. I didn't 0:29:04.000 --> 0:29:06.360 stumble over the stairs and the people I are looking at. 0:29:06.680 --> 0:29:08.440 The only thing I could say was the shape of 0:29:08.560 --> 0:29:11.760 the form. That's how I was actually literally blind twenty 0:29:11.800 --> 0:29:12.280 two hundred. 0:29:17.120 --> 0:29:22.440 But everywhere Rockwell went, Frank Smith went too. In September, 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:24.320 the Nazis paid to have a booth at the State 0:29:24.360 --> 0:29:30.040 Fair outside of Richmond. By all accounts, the display was obscene. 0:29:31.800 --> 0:29:35.800 They had their usual racist flyers, of course, but the 0:29:35.840 --> 0:29:40.000 booth also featured a live monkey. The sign on the 0:29:40.000 --> 0:29:43.640 monkey's cage bore a derogatory remark about Martin Luther King Junior. 0:29:45.600 --> 0:29:47.760 In the lead up to the State Fair, the local 0:29:47.920 --> 0:29:51.760