1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: Col Zone Media. On March sixth, nineteen seventy eight, Larry 2 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: Flint had jellow salad and grapefruit juice for lunch. He'd 3 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:18,919 Speaker 1: had lunch at the V and J Cafeteria in Lawrenceville, Georgia, 4 00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,919 Speaker 1: every day since his trial began the week prior. A 5 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,720 Speaker 1: little afternoon he started to walk the three blocks back 6 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,600 Speaker 1: to the courthouse. He never made it, and he never 7 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: walked again. Larry Flint was no stranger to controversy. He 8 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,479 Speaker 1: courted it, reveled at it. Even It was no accident 9 00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:42,520 Speaker 1: that he was on trial in Georgia, though this wasn't 10 00:00:42,560 --> 00:00:47,120 Speaker 1: exactly the venue he'd had in mind. Prosecutors in Georgia 11 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: were waging a war on pornography in the mid nineteen seventies, 12 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: and the publisher of Hustler magazine was eager to fight 13 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: on the front line. When the prosecutor in Fulton County 14 00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:00,240 Speaker 1: started rounding up the proprietors of adult bookstore as an 15 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:04,959 Speaker 1: X rated movie theaters on obscenity charges, Flint took notice. 16 00:01:05,080 --> 00:01:07,800 Speaker 1: When a newsstand owner in Atlanta was arrested for selling 17 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,400 Speaker 1: issues of Hustler, Flint flew down to Georgia and leased 18 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,039 Speaker 1: a storefront on Peachtree Street, right in downtown Atlanta. He 19 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,480 Speaker 1: stood behind the counter himself, personally selling copies of his 20 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,440 Speaker 1: pornographic magazine to customers and issuing a public challenge to 21 00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:28,960 Speaker 1: the Fulton County prosecutor, come and get me. He was 22 00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 1: trying to pick a fight in Atlanta. He wanted to 23 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,840 Speaker 1: go to court. He didn't even really care if he 24 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:40,000 Speaker 1: got convicted. He wanted to challenge the state's obscenity laws. 25 00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:44,480 Speaker 1: And he did get arrested, but it was nearby Gwinnett 26 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: County that managed to get him into court first. When 27 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:51,440 Speaker 1: he got to Lawrenceville for the trial, he found it 28 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:54,920 Speaker 1: was a small town and the people were friendly. He 29 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,720 Speaker 1: hadn't even brought along his usual retinue of bodyguards. He 30 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: didn't think he needed them. He got death threats and 31 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: bomb threats, threatening letters and phone calls. Those were a 32 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:10,720 Speaker 1: dime a dozen. He even had to get a zoning 33 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,000 Speaker 1: variants to construct a massive privacy fence around his home 34 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:20,839 Speaker 1: in Ohio. But here in Lawrenceville, he felt safe. As 35 00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:23,640 Speaker 1: he stepped out of the restaurant after lunch, he was 36 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:26,760 Speaker 1: even feeling pretty optimistic about getting a not guilty verdict 37 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: from this jury, no one could quite agree where the 38 00:02:31,200 --> 00:02:34,760 Speaker 1: shots came from. It was initially reported that they'd been 39 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: fired from a passing car, but that wasn't right. One 40 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,080 Speaker 1: account incorrectly claimed witnesses saw a man run up to 41 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:45,880 Speaker 1: Flint and press a gun right into his stomach, but 42 00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: a forty four caliber shell casing was found in an 43 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:52,400 Speaker 1: abandoned building across the street. That's where the would be 44 00:02:52,440 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: assassin had been lying in wait with his rifle. Larry 45 00:02:57,080 --> 00:02:59,920 Speaker 1: Flint was hit twice in the stomach, leaving him peril 46 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: lies from the waist down. The shot that hit his attorney, 47 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,960 Speaker 1: Jeene Reeves, bounced around inside of his abdomen rupturing several 48 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,280 Speaker 1: vital organs and leaving him in a coma for weeks. 49 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,960 Speaker 1: As the two men lay bleeding on the ground, the 50 00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:18,760 Speaker 1: killer quietly slipped away, leaving nothing but a single shell 51 00:03:18,800 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: casing and a few conflicting eyewitness accounts. But who could 52 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,640 Speaker 1: have done it? Maybe it was the mafia. There's a 53 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:31,000 Speaker 1: lot of money in pornography, and maybe the mafia thought 54 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: he was encroaching on their business. Maybe it was someone 55 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,000 Speaker 1: who took the law into their own hands, some kind 56 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:40,480 Speaker 1: of anti pornography crusader, who was unwilling to wait for 57 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 1: the Georgia courts to punish Flint for publishing smut. Flint's 58 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,360 Speaker 1: wife told reporters she knew exactly who shot her husband. 59 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:54,520 Speaker 1: It was the Central Intelligence Agency carrying out the hit. 60 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:57,000 Speaker 1: In the Bible belt was the perfect cover. She thought. 61 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: It was made to look like some religion just nut 62 00:04:00,640 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: did this, but really the government was trying to silence him. 63 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,560 Speaker 1: Hustler magazine was offering a one million dollar cash reward 64 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:11,839 Speaker 1: for proof that the CIA was behind the jfk assassination, 65 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: and he'd obviously been shot because he was getting too 66 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:21,039 Speaker 1: close to the truth. Police questioned hundreds of people and 67 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: spent thousands of hours investigating, but they came up with nothing. 68 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 1: Larry Flint spent years fully convinced he'd been the victim 69 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:36,240 Speaker 1: of a botched government hit before the real shooter got 70 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:39,440 Speaker 1: bored in prison and decided he wanted credit for his work. 71 00:04:42,800 --> 00:05:04,839 Speaker 1: I'm Molly Conger, and this is weird, little guys. Joseph 72 00:05:04,880 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: Paul Franklin did not kill Larry Flint. But that's only 73 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: because Larry Flint didn't die, not from the gunshot wound. Anyway. 74 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: He lived to the ripe old age of seventy eight, 75 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:20,839 Speaker 1: dying of heart failure in twenty twenty one. By the 76 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 1: time Franklin took that shot at Flint in Georgia in 77 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:26,720 Speaker 1: March of nineteen seventy eight, he'd already committed at least 78 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:29,200 Speaker 1: two bank robberies, bombed the home of the head of 79 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:32,800 Speaker 1: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, bombed a synagogue in Tennessee, 80 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,960 Speaker 1: murdered an interracial couple in Wisconsin, killed a man outside 81 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,760 Speaker 1: a synagogue in Missouri, and shot a second interracial couple 82 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:43,520 Speaker 1: in Georgia, killing one victim and paralyzing the other. He 83 00:05:43,640 --> 00:05:47,359 Speaker 1: was eight months into a three year killing spree, and 84 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 1: he was starting to settle into his new life as 85 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:54,440 Speaker 1: a sniper killer. Maybe it's a fool's errand to try 86 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 1: to answer questions like why or to try to sort 87 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:03,039 Speaker 1: out what my actually be true in his decades of 88 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,880 Speaker 1: self serving interviews with curious journalists, psychologists, detectives, and prosecutors. 89 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: But I think you know by now that I just 90 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,960 Speaker 1: can't help it. Because this should have been such an 91 00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: easy story to write two episodes in and out. The 92 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,160 Speaker 1: details of the crime are very well established. It didn't 93 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: need to be complicated. I should be grateful no one 94 00:06:25,320 --> 00:06:28,240 Speaker 1: in the marketing department listens to my show, because they'd 95 00:06:28,279 --> 00:06:31,000 Speaker 1: probably be tearing their hair out and demanding to know 96 00:06:31,040 --> 00:06:34,239 Speaker 1: why I'm just talking in circles about this true crime 97 00:06:34,279 --> 00:06:39,320 Speaker 1: story without actually getting to the damn crimes. And I'm sorry, 98 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: I'm trying. God knows this would be less stressful if 99 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:44,359 Speaker 1: I had the discipline to get to the point. But 100 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:49,360 Speaker 1: I don't, and I have this intractable compulsion to try 101 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 1: to figure out why this dead Nazi is lying to 102 00:06:52,960 --> 00:06:57,279 Speaker 1: me from these old newspaper clippings. Because he was, of 103 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:03,880 Speaker 1: course a liar, maybe he didn't think he was lying. 104 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: The details of the crimes he starts confessing to once 105 00:07:07,760 --> 00:07:12,640 Speaker 1: he's in prison are true, but the mythology he created 106 00:07:12,680 --> 00:07:16,880 Speaker 1: around them was reported alongside those facts, as though this 107 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: were just as unquestionably true as the caliber of weapon 108 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,040 Speaker 1: he used or the kind of car he was driving. 109 00:07:22,080 --> 00:07:27,400 Speaker 1: And I just can't abide by repeating Nazi lore, So 110 00:07:27,440 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: we have to go back to my timeline. As much 111 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,080 Speaker 1: as he loved being interviewed about his crimes, he never 112 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: gave much detail about the years leading up to them, 113 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: which is why I'm so insatiably curious about what he 114 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 1: doesn't want to talk about. We know he attended the 115 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:49,360 Speaker 1: National Socialist White People's Party convention in the fall of 116 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:53,240 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. We covered that he had so much 117 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:55,520 Speaker 1: fun with the Nazis in Virginia that he stuck around 118 00:07:56,120 --> 00:07:58,040 Speaker 1: and he lived for a while in the party barracks 119 00:07:58,040 --> 00:08:03,240 Speaker 1: in Arlington. The September nineteen seventy issue of the party's newsletter, 120 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: the National Socialist Bulletin, features a story about the group's 121 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,400 Speaker 1: protest of Israeli Prime Minister Goldenmeyer's visit to the White House. 122 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 1: His name isn't in that article, but it wasn't keyword searching. 123 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: I told you I read every issue of the National 124 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:23,800 Speaker 1: Socialist Bulletin from the nineteen seventies, so his name's not there, 125 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: but his picture is. Those thick glasses are hard to miss. 126 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:33,079 Speaker 1: He's wearing a little storm trooper uniform with a swastika 127 00:08:33,200 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: arm band, but it's him handing out anti Semitic leaflets 128 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,839 Speaker 1: to people passing by this little demonstration outside the White House. 129 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,080 Speaker 1: And he was so pleased with this picture that he 130 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,199 Speaker 1: cut it out and he mailed it to his sister 131 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: A few weeks later, those same Nazis were back at 132 00:08:49,920 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 1: the White House. This time they were protesting about the 133 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:56,760 Speaker 1: Vietnam War, not in the way you might be thinking. 134 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:02,160 Speaker 1: They weren't protesting against the war, be hippy nonsense communism 135 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:08,559 Speaker 1: or something right now. They were protesting Richard Nixon's refusal 136 00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:13,680 Speaker 1: to win the war. Nixon had recently proposed a plan 137 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:16,559 Speaker 1: for a ceasefire and a gradual draw down of US 138 00:09:16,679 --> 00:09:22,400 Speaker 1: troops in Vietnam, which they found unacceptable. The Nazis march 139 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:27,040 Speaker 1: with banners that read drop Nixon on Hanoi and Nixon 140 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:32,040 Speaker 1: is a no win swine. Their tiny march of two 141 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:34,680 Speaker 1: dozen or so storm troopers was a little bit of 142 00:09:34,679 --> 00:09:37,600 Speaker 1: a side show next to a much larger pro war 143 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,480 Speaker 1: march that was happening that day in DC. So the 144 00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: new stories I could find just say that fifty two 145 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:46,320 Speaker 1: people in total were arrested that day. It doesn't list 146 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 1: their names, or their charges, or which groups they were with, 147 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:55,280 Speaker 1: but the National Socialist Bulletin does name their members who 148 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,960 Speaker 1: were arrested. Several stormtroopers were involved in scuffles with the police, 149 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:04,240 Speaker 1: including one they claim was injured when a black police 150 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:08,120 Speaker 1: officer quote deliberately gunned his scooter into him while he 151 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: was crossing the street. The young Nazi who bravely skinned 152 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,480 Speaker 1: his knees in the crosswalk was listed in the newsletter 153 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:21,319 Speaker 1: as James Vaughan, which was Franklin's name until he had 154 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:25,840 Speaker 1: it legally changed in nineteen seventy six. The newsletter says 155 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:28,520 Speaker 1: that the party paid for his legal defense, and later 156 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:30,719 Speaker 1: reporting shows that he was acquitted on a charge of 157 00:10:30,720 --> 00:10:36,200 Speaker 1: assault the following year. And this is where I kind 158 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: of lose him again for a year or two. His 159 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: sister once showed a reporter a photo that he'd mailed 160 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:47,280 Speaker 1: to her from California. In the picture, he's standing outside 161 00:10:47,280 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 1: of the National Socialist White People's Party office in Los Angeles. 162 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: She couldn't remember exactly when he'd sent it to her, 163 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,679 Speaker 1: and he would often send her things without any accompanying note, 164 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:03,200 Speaker 1: just the f in an envelope, but she guessed it 165 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,560 Speaker 1: was probably nineteen seventy one. And if he did visit 166 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:11,559 Speaker 1: California in nineteen seventy one, it seems likely that he 167 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:14,319 Speaker 1: would have been one of the stormtroopers chosen to accompany 168 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:16,959 Speaker 1: their leader on his official visit to the California chapter 169 00:11:17,000 --> 00:11:20,959 Speaker 1: in February manteus Kale always traveled with a retinue of 170 00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:25,280 Speaker 1: uniform stormtroopers, and the party's ranks weren't exactly swollen with 171 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:30,280 Speaker 1: members who could travel at a moment's notice. Franklin's FBI 172 00:11:30,360 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 1: file has a vague note in it that in March 173 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy one he was formally disciplined by the party. 174 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:41,240 Speaker 1: Whoever typed this memo left out a word, though, so 175 00:11:41,320 --> 00:11:44,839 Speaker 1: it just reads that he was disciplined for quote supposedly 176 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:48,439 Speaker 1: the founder of the party, George Rockwell. So I think 177 00:11:48,480 --> 00:11:53,960 Speaker 1: he supposedly somethinged the founder. There's a handwritten notation above 178 00:11:54,000 --> 00:11:56,760 Speaker 1: the line where they tried to write in the missing word, 179 00:11:57,360 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: but it's illegible. I think it says defaming or disparaging. 180 00:12:03,400 --> 00:12:05,800 Speaker 1: I mean, he can't have done anything to Rockwell. Rockwell 181 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,280 Speaker 1: have been dead for four years, but it would make 182 00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:12,440 Speaker 1: sense that he'll be disciplined for saying something disparaging about Rockwell. 183 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:15,600 Speaker 1: I can't find any mention of any kind of party 184 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:18,800 Speaker 1: discipline in the newsletter, but the FBI says that he 185 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:23,280 Speaker 1: was suspended for six months, which again makes sense. The 186 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:26,439 Speaker 1: memo continues saying that he was investigated by the police 187 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,160 Speaker 1: in December of nineteen seventy one for some kind of 188 00:12:29,240 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: racial assault that occurred in connection with party activities. It 189 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: doesn't say what happened or where, or if there was 190 00:12:36,280 --> 00:12:40,400 Speaker 1: any kind of arrest. It just says he was investigated. So, 191 00:12:40,559 --> 00:12:42,560 Speaker 1: at least as far as the FBI knows, he was 192 00:12:42,679 --> 00:12:46,280 Speaker 1: actively involved in the National Socialist White People's Party at 193 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:50,640 Speaker 1: least as late as the end of seventy one. Mel 194 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:53,680 Speaker 1: Ayton's biography of Franklin is unable to pin him down 195 00:12:53,679 --> 00:12:58,560 Speaker 1: here too. After those demonstrations in nineteen seventy the book 196 00:12:58,640 --> 00:13:01,320 Speaker 1: just has a line that skips ahead to nineteen seventy three, 197 00:13:02,200 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: saying that during those three years he was involved in 198 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:09,200 Speaker 1: several racial incidents and occasionally arrested, including once in nineteen 199 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:14,240 Speaker 1: seventy two for carrying a concealed firearm. Throughout their correspondence, 200 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:16,800 Speaker 1: while Eaton was writing the book, Franklin said that he 201 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:20,080 Speaker 1: left the National Socialist White People's Party because they weren't 202 00:13:20,200 --> 00:13:26,120 Speaker 1: violent enough, and that might actually be true. Matias Keil's 203 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,240 Speaker 1: newsletters show a leader who was very focused on running 204 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:35,520 Speaker 1: a respectable Nazi organization. Dues, paid uniforms, pressed, marching in formation, 205 00:13:35,720 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 1: hair neatly trimmed and a well run annual convention, and 206 00:13:40,679 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: not much else. If Franklin quit the party because Cale 207 00:13:44,960 --> 00:13:48,880 Speaker 1: wasn't the fearer he wanted, he wasn't the only one. 208 00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:52,640 Speaker 1: Cale was wildly unpopular in the years after Rockwell's death, 209 00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: and there were a lot of high profile defections and 210 00:13:55,640 --> 00:14:01,719 Speaker 1: schisms in the early nineteen seventies. In nineteen seventy three, 211 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,760 Speaker 1: Franklin tried to go home. He went back to Alabama, 212 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:07,880 Speaker 1: and he knocked on the door of his mother's house, 213 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: but the stranger who answered told him she'd been dead 214 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:16,240 Speaker 1: for a year. Was around this time that he first 215 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:19,120 Speaker 1: met J. B. Stoner, the chairman of the National States 216 00:14:19,200 --> 00:14:23,520 Speaker 1: Rights Party. In one of the letters to his biographer, 217 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:26,920 Speaker 1: Franklin said that it was in nineteen seventy three that 218 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: he met J. B. Stoner quote and Jerry too. The 219 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,800 Speaker 1: full text of the letter isn't reproduced in the book, 220 00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: But it struck me as awfully casual to say Jerry, 221 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:48,360 Speaker 1: just Jerry, He met J. B. Stoner and Jerry. That 222 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:50,280 Speaker 1: seems like the way you'd refer to someone you had 223 00:14:50,280 --> 00:14:54,200 Speaker 1: a fairly cordial relationship with, doesn't it. I mean J. B. 224 00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:59,920 Speaker 1: Stoner was a superior, a mentor, a hero. And there's Jerry. 225 00:15:00,200 --> 00:15:02,040 Speaker 1: Of course, if you spent any time with J. B. 226 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,920 Speaker 1: Stoner in the nineteen seventies, you would have met Jerry, 227 00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:09,960 Speaker 1: because that's Jerry Ray, the youngest brother of James Earl Ray, 228 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:16,040 Speaker 1: the man who assassinated Martin Luther King Junior. When Stoner 229 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:19,000 Speaker 1: volunteered to assist with James Earl Ray's defense in nineteen 230 00:15:19,040 --> 00:15:24,080 Speaker 1: sixty nine, his brother Jerry became Stoner's bodyguard. Even after 231 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,800 Speaker 1: Stoner's legal services were no longer needed, Jerry Ray remained 232 00:15:27,840 --> 00:15:33,680 Speaker 1: Stoner's shadow everywhere he went for years. There's a lot 233 00:15:33,760 --> 00:15:35,360 Speaker 1: going on here that we're going to have to come 234 00:15:35,400 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: back to. I think JB. Stoner is going to have 235 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:40,720 Speaker 1: to move up the list of my weird little guys 236 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:45,520 Speaker 1: of interest. He pops up here and there, But I 237 00:15:45,560 --> 00:15:47,880 Speaker 1: think he may be a real dark horse candidate for 238 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:52,560 Speaker 1: most influential Racist of the era. There's no time for 239 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:56,960 Speaker 1: a sidebar. This complicated, but he has some really intriguing 240 00:15:57,040 --> 00:16:02,000 Speaker 1: international connections. If you recently listened to the South Africa 241 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,320 Speaker 1: episodes I re ran over the holidays, it might pique 242 00:16:05,360 --> 00:16:09,680 Speaker 1: your interest to know that JB. Stoner traveled abroad a 243 00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 1: lot to do things like meet with the League of 244 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:16,080 Speaker 1: Saint George in the United Kingdom and speak at the 245 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:20,560 Speaker 1: annual Nazi gathering at Dixmude in Belgium, two things that 246 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:24,120 Speaker 1: would have put him in close contact with just about 247 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:26,840 Speaker 1: everybody who was involved in that plot to smuggle guns 248 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,520 Speaker 1: and mercenaries into South Africa so that African internationalist could 249 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: start a race war to preserve apartheid. I'll put a 250 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:52,440 Speaker 1: pin in that. As far as JB. Stoner's public image 251 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventy though, I don't think anybody knew 252 00:16:55,680 --> 00:16:58,840 Speaker 1: that he was meeting with Belgian Nazis about international terrorism 253 00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: and gun running. But he was quite famous for being 254 00:17:02,200 --> 00:17:07,720 Speaker 1: a raging anti Semite and a vicious racist. He ran 255 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:11,639 Speaker 1: for office in Georgia repeatedly. It was a great way 256 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:15,640 Speaker 1: to get attention. White supremacists have long mastered the art 257 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,639 Speaker 1: of pulling hideous little stunts in public to generate publicity, 258 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:22,640 Speaker 1: but there was a growing movement to encourage reporters to 259 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,160 Speaker 1: starve them out and to refuse to run thousand word 260 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:31,240 Speaker 1: pieces breathlessly repeating their message. Stoner found a way to 261 00:17:31,240 --> 00:17:34,800 Speaker 1: take advantage of a different kind of attention as a 262 00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: candidate for office. TV and radio stations couldn't lock him out. 263 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,240 Speaker 1: They were legally required to play his campaign hats. He 264 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: ran for governor of Georgia in nineteen seventy, Senate in 265 00:17:47,800 --> 00:17:51,280 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, lieutenant governor nineteen seventy four, governor again 266 00:17:51,359 --> 00:17:55,760 Speaker 1: in seventy eight, and Senate in nineteen eighty. He never 267 00:17:55,760 --> 00:17:58,600 Speaker 1: did well. He never been came close to winning a primary, 268 00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:02,439 Speaker 1: but that wasn't the point. The point was forcing the 269 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:06,280 Speaker 1: Federal Communications Commission to issue a formal ruling that it 270 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:09,359 Speaker 1: was illegal to stop him from saying the N word 271 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:14,760 Speaker 1: on TV. There's another funny little connection here between our 272 00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:18,560 Speaker 1: side characters. This isn't directly pertinent to the story at hand, 273 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:23,879 Speaker 1: but everything's connected right During JB. Stoner's campaign for governor 274 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:28,320 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy, a teenage Don Black traveled to Atlanta 275 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:33,080 Speaker 1: to volunteer. If you're updating your red string board, remember 276 00:18:33,160 --> 00:18:35,200 Speaker 1: Don Black would go on to start the Nazi forum 277 00:18:35,280 --> 00:18:38,479 Speaker 1: Stormfront in the nineties, But in nineteen sixty nine, when 278 00:18:38,520 --> 00:18:40,600 Speaker 1: he was still in high school, his parents led him 279 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:44,320 Speaker 1: carpool to the Nazi conference with two strangers who turned 280 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:48,600 Speaker 1: out to be David Duke and Joseph Paul Franklin. So 281 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,600 Speaker 1: the following summer, Don Black travels to Atlanta to work 282 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:54,119 Speaker 1: on this campaign. And he's still a member of the 283 00:18:54,160 --> 00:18:58,879 Speaker 1: National Socialist White People's Party, and as such, a ranking 284 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,520 Speaker 1: member of that group told Don Black to steal a 285 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:07,320 Speaker 1: copy of J. B. Stoner's mailing list. It would have 286 00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:10,399 Speaker 1: been worth its weight in I don't want to say gold, 287 00:19:10,480 --> 00:19:14,960 Speaker 1: it's not that valuable, but worth its weight in Nazi 288 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:20,880 Speaker 1: armbands or something, because there were allegedly more than fifteen 289 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: thousand names and addresses of people who had, at some 290 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:29,800 Speaker 1: point or another subscribed to J. B. Stoner's racist newspaper. 291 00:19:30,960 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: And if you could get your newspaper into the hands 292 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:35,720 Speaker 1: of that many people, maybe some of them would buy 293 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:39,840 Speaker 1: something from you. Don Black was caught in the act, 294 00:19:39,880 --> 00:19:44,800 Speaker 1: though Stoner's assistant Jerry Ray, walked in on him rifling 295 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:47,879 Speaker 1: through papers in Stoner's office and shot him in the chest. 296 00:19:49,760 --> 00:19:55,159 Speaker 1: He survived, obviously, and Don Black turned seventeen in the 297 00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: hospital a few days later. So before he was even 298 00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:02,320 Speaker 1: old enough to vote, he met David Duke, befriended a 299 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:05,560 Speaker 1: future serial killer, and was shot in the chest by 300 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:07,720 Speaker 1: the little brother of the man who killed Martin Luther 301 00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:14,960 Speaker 1: King Junior. He's had an odd life. It was in 302 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,600 Speaker 1: the midst of Stoner's campaign for lieutenant governor in nineteen 303 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:21,360 Speaker 1: seventy four, though, that Joseph Paul Franklin moved to Atlanta 304 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: to help out. When Franklin was finally arrested in nineteen eighty, J. B. 305 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:31,040 Speaker 1: Stoner told reporters he was quite sure that Franklin had 306 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:36,000 Speaker 1: never been a member of his organization. He'd met him, perhaps, 307 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:39,720 Speaker 1: but they certainly weren't associates, And as a matter of fact, 308 00:20:39,800 --> 00:20:41,720 Speaker 1: he was sure he didn't even know any one who 309 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:45,960 Speaker 1: ever had associated with him. When he was confronted with 310 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:49,119 Speaker 1: newspaper clippings that proved Franklin had been a member of 311 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:52,560 Speaker 1: the National States Rights Party, he said he didn't recall 312 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:57,600 Speaker 1: any such thing, But there he was in one of 313 00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:01,040 Speaker 1: those old articles. He's mentioned by name, his old name, 314 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,920 Speaker 1: Jim Vaughan, and he's proudly announcing to the chapter meeting 315 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 1: that street sales of the party's newspaper are way up. 316 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: He was in charge of organizing other members of the 317 00:21:12,040 --> 00:21:17,040 Speaker 1: chapter to assist in the sales campaign. That reporting from 318 00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:20,320 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty describes one of the articles that they showed 319 00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:22,439 Speaker 1: to Stoner, and I was able to track down the 320 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:26,280 Speaker 1: article I think they're talking about, and it doesn't actually 321 00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:30,800 Speaker 1: name Jim Vaughan or Joseph Paul Franklin as we know him, 322 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:35,400 Speaker 1: but I think it's him. In April of nineteen seventy four, 323 00:21:35,480 --> 00:21:39,480 Speaker 1: The Atlantic Constitution ran a piece about Stoner's campaign, sort 324 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:42,879 Speaker 1: of highlighting his decade's long career as a professional racist 325 00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:45,720 Speaker 1: and anti Semite and taking a look at the kinds 326 00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:49,959 Speaker 1: of people he's surrounding himself with in the campaign. So 327 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:53,000 Speaker 1: the article opens with a description of one of these 328 00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:57,200 Speaker 1: campaign workers, these young racists who stand on street corners 329 00:21:57,240 --> 00:21:59,159 Speaker 1: and try to convince people to pay a quarter for 330 00:21:59,200 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: a copy of The thunder Bolt, the racist newspaper published 331 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:06,200 Speaker 1: by the National States Rights Party. And again this young 332 00:22:06,240 --> 00:22:11,080 Speaker 1: man is not named, but he's in his twenties. NEA's long, 333 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: messy brown hair, which is unusual for a member of 334 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 1: a fascist movement. In the seventies, long hair was for hippies, 335 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:22,879 Speaker 1: but it was Franklin's trademark. And he's a bit unkempt, 336 00:22:23,359 --> 00:22:28,120 Speaker 1: heavily tattooed, and wearing a black t shirt, and after 337 00:22:28,200 --> 00:22:31,159 Speaker 1: explaining that integration is a communist plot to turn us 338 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,159 Speaker 1: into a nation of mongrels, he tells the reporter that 339 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,560 Speaker 1: he'd recently quit the American Nazi Party to join the 340 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: National States Rights Party because quote, they're the same thing, 341 00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,320 Speaker 1: only we don't use the swastika. We're looking for a 342 00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:48,160 Speaker 1: new symbol. And just a quick note in case there's 343 00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:52,639 Speaker 1: confusion here, the National Socialist White People's Party was the 344 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:56,960 Speaker 1: official name that the American Nazi Party started using in 345 00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:01,320 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, so you'll see them use interchangeably sometimes 346 00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:04,639 Speaker 1: in the late sixties early seventies because they were the 347 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:08,000 Speaker 1: same organization. But officially it's the National Socialist White People's Party. 348 00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: He's just calling it the American Nazi Party because that's 349 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:17,120 Speaker 1: its legacy name. When reporters reached the group's other co founder, 350 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,360 Speaker 1: Ed Fields, after Franklin's arrest, he said he only vaguely 351 00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,040 Speaker 1: recalled meeting Franklin, maybe just a couple of times, but 352 00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: it would have been a long time ago, considering he's 353 00:23:29,640 --> 00:23:33,440 Speaker 1: claiming to have met this man only in passing, probably 354 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:37,720 Speaker 1: eight years ago. He then offered up several very specific 355 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,760 Speaker 1: memories about how this poor guy was just so broke, 356 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:43,080 Speaker 1: and nobody liked him, and he didn't have a car, 357 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: and sometimes he worked odd jobs at the temp agency downtown, 358 00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:49,600 Speaker 1: and Field said he felt bad for this guy, so 359 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:51,600 Speaker 1: he would give him a stack of party newspapers for 360 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:53,840 Speaker 1: free so he could make some pocket money selling them. 361 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,520 Speaker 1: But he didn't know him, and like Stoner, Fields was 362 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:01,879 Speaker 1: quite sure that Franklin had never been a member of 363 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:06,159 Speaker 1: the National States Rights Party. But he also expressed doubt 364 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:09,520 Speaker 1: about Franklin's guilt. When a reporter asked him what he 365 00:24:09,560 --> 00:24:13,679 Speaker 1: thought about the murders. He must have an incredible memory 366 00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:18,040 Speaker 1: for names and faces, because somehow he remembered eight years 367 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:21,600 Speaker 1: later that this man he never knew had terrible eyesight, 368 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,080 Speaker 1: and those thick glasses he wore were only any good 369 00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:27,679 Speaker 1: for one of his eyes. And how could a man 370 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,720 Speaker 1: who's blind in one eye be a sniper. A few 371 00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:35,359 Speaker 1: days after that first conversation, a reporter called ed Fields again. 372 00:24:36,800 --> 00:24:41,280 Speaker 1: Joseph Paul, Franklin's sister had produced a photograph taken on 373 00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:45,199 Speaker 1: her front porch and mobile, Alabama. It had been a 374 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 1: memorable occasion. Her brother's visit in nineteen seventy four was 375 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,000 Speaker 1: the last time she saw him, and they'd gotten into 376 00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: a screaming argument when he found out that she'd hired 377 00:24:54,760 --> 00:24:57,880 Speaker 1: a black maid to clean her house. He didn't want 378 00:24:57,880 --> 00:24:59,640 Speaker 1: to be in a house where a black person had been. 379 00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:04,840 Speaker 1: The photo must have been taken before the argument, but 380 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: she held on to it all those years because it 381 00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:10,000 Speaker 1: was all she had left of him. And in the 382 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,480 Speaker 1: photo there she is standing on her porch with her brother, 383 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:19,400 Speaker 1: and next to him is the couple he showed up with. 384 00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:26,240 Speaker 1: It's Ed Fields and his wife. Fields offered no explanation 385 00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:28,040 Speaker 1: for how he ended up on a road trip with 386 00:25:28,080 --> 00:25:31,199 Speaker 1: a man he'd never met, eating lunch at this stranger's 387 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:35,920 Speaker 1: sister's house two years after they never met. He maintained 388 00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:39,560 Speaker 1: that Franklin was never a member and he didn't know him. 389 00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:43,440 Speaker 1: I wish someone had called Ed Fields back again fifteen 390 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,640 Speaker 1: years ago when Franklin told his prison pen pal that 391 00:25:46,680 --> 00:25:50,119 Speaker 1: he and Fields had taken karate lessons together every week 392 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,919 Speaker 1: for a year and a half in nineteen seventy three, 393 00:25:54,000 --> 00:25:59,399 Speaker 1: but he probably would have denied that to In August 394 00:25:59,440 --> 00:26:02,600 Speaker 1: of nineteen seven, twenty four, JB. Stoner lost the primary 395 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:07,520 Speaker 1: in the Lieutenant governor's race. Obviously, Franklin finished up his 396 00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,520 Speaker 1: ged and started attending classes at a community college in Marietta, Georgia, 397 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:15,800 Speaker 1: but he didn't stay long. By the end of nineteen 398 00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:20,080 Speaker 1: seventy five, he'd moved on again, returning to the DC suburbs. 399 00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:25,080 Speaker 1: Last week we focused just on the summer of nineteen 400 00:26:25,119 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: seventy seven. In the months before Joseph Paul Franklin started killing, 401 00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:35,040 Speaker 1: Nazi newsletters were full of stories celebrating other men who 402 00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:39,399 Speaker 1: killed for the movement that year, white supremacist newsletters and 403 00:26:39,520 --> 00:26:44,399 Speaker 1: broadcasts thinks he was almost certainly consuming were full of 404 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:48,000 Speaker 1: extreme rhetoric about the threat posed to the white race 405 00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:53,200 Speaker 1: by the evils of race mixing. Pornography is a Jewish 406 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: plot to destroy the white race. Black people are outbreeding whites. 407 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,640 Speaker 1: Puerto Ricans are destroying New York. The Jews are behind 408 00:26:59,640 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: a new line of black baby dolls designed if fuel 409 00:27:02,080 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 1: self hatred in little white girls. Integration is destroying education, 410 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,040 Speaker 1: Affirmative action is destroying Schlit's beer. White birth rates are falling, 411 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:12,360 Speaker 1: White women are being raped and murdered by black men. 412 00:27:12,400 --> 00:27:14,880 Speaker 1: White women are being tricked by the Jewish controlled media 413 00:27:14,920 --> 00:27:18,520 Speaker 1: into marrying black men, and on and on. From all 414 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:22,679 Speaker 1: angles was trying to build a little bit of context 415 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:24,480 Speaker 1: for what might have been going on in his mind 416 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,879 Speaker 1: the first time he murdered an interracial couple in August 417 00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:32,840 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy seven. Now, of course, I'm only making 418 00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:35,479 Speaker 1: an informed guess about what he was reading that summer, 419 00:27:36,280 --> 00:27:38,439 Speaker 1: based on the groups he had joined, and the friends 420 00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,480 Speaker 1: that he had made, and the circles he was running in, 421 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:44,120 Speaker 1: and the kinds of things he was saying. I think 422 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:48,360 Speaker 1: that's what he was reading. And while the earliest confirmed 423 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,720 Speaker 1: murder was in August of nineteen seventy seven, he would 424 00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 1: later claim that the idea first came to him two 425 00:27:55,119 --> 00:28:00,560 Speaker 1: years earlier, in December of nineteen seventy five. That was 426 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,879 Speaker 1: when he moved back to the Washington, DC area and 427 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,919 Speaker 1: was renting a room at a boarding house in Maryland. 428 00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,959 Speaker 1: When he failed to pay his rent, they gave him 429 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: the boot. According to the version of events he told 430 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:16,800 Speaker 1: forensic psychologist doctor Chris Mohundi in nineteen ninety nine, it 431 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:22,680 Speaker 1: happened on Christmas Eve. Quote, I just got really pissed off. 432 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,119 Speaker 1: I just thought, I'm not gonna put up with this 433 00:28:25,160 --> 00:28:28,679 Speaker 1: shit anymore. I'm gonna start doing some killing. I blamed 434 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,920 Speaker 1: the Jews on everything that happened to me typical Nazi belief. 435 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,000 Speaker 1: I figured I'm going to get some of them here. 436 00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:37,520 Speaker 1: I was an intelligent man and I couldn't hold a job. Well, 437 00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: they got people a lot dumber than me with really 438 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:47,360 Speaker 1: good jobs. I decided that wasn't fair. That does sound 439 00:28:47,440 --> 00:28:49,239 Speaker 1: like the kind of thing a Nazi who'd never had 440 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:54,640 Speaker 1: a real job besides selling racist newspapers would think. This 441 00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:59,120 Speaker 1: version of events, though, leaves out the one periodical I 442 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:05,000 Speaker 1: can actually guarantee you that he absolutely read in December 443 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:11,600 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy five, and that's Hustler. I think that 444 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:13,800 Speaker 1: magazine down on a camp table and thought, I'm gonna 445 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:20,840 Speaker 1: kill that guy. You hear me? Hear me? Now, of course, 446 00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: a fine upstanding white American neo Nazi doesn't look at porn. 447 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:33,680 Speaker 1: Pornography is degenerate, a tool of Jewish subversion, or something 448 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:37,560 Speaker 1: like that. The first time he told a reporter about 449 00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 1: the outrage he felt when he opened that December nineteen 450 00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:44,760 Speaker 1: seventy five issue of Hustler, he claimed he'd never purchased 451 00:29:44,800 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: an issue of that magazine. He must have seen it 452 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:53,400 Speaker 1: on a newsstand. But what did he just say? Newstands 453 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:55,560 Speaker 1: don't usually let you sit down in a chair next 454 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:59,640 Speaker 1: to a coffee table and peruse the centerfolds so color 455 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: mESC and as scandalized as he claims to have been 456 00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,840 Speaker 1: by the sight of hardcore pornography, I did find a 457 00:30:07,960 --> 00:30:10,360 Speaker 1: mention in his FBI file that he was alleged to 458 00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 1: have kept a personal photo album containing nude pictures of 459 00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:18,120 Speaker 1: the many, many sex workers he paid for their time 460 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: over the years. Point being he was reading Hustler at 461 00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,440 Speaker 1: the boarding house the week before Christmas in nineteen seventy five, 462 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:31,240 Speaker 1: and what he saw in that issue pushed him over 463 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:35,080 Speaker 1: the edge. I mean, he couldn't have known what horrors 464 00:30:35,080 --> 00:30:37,959 Speaker 1: he was about to see. The cover had no warning. 465 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,080 Speaker 1: A pretty white woman nude and sitting with her knees 466 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,440 Speaker 1: drawn into her chest filled out most of the cover, 467 00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:49,960 Speaker 1: and the cover lines promised articles about seducing virgins and 468 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: having threesomes, and teased an erotic short story about rape fantasies. 469 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,400 Speaker 1: He must have been totally blindsided when he got to 470 00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:02,960 Speaker 1: page thirty nine. I read a lot of source material 471 00:31:03,320 --> 00:31:08,080 Speaker 1: about this. It's abundantly clear from the secondary sources that 472 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,680 Speaker 1: what he found was interracial pornography. And that was very 473 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,480 Speaker 1: upsetting to him. But if I'm going to spend several 474 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,600 Speaker 1: ten hour days finding and reading one hundred issues of 475 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,920 Speaker 1: old Nazi newsletters, the least I could do was try 476 00:31:21,960 --> 00:31:27,320 Speaker 1: to find a single ancient issue of Hustler. I found 477 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,040 Speaker 1: a surprisingly massive catalog of old porno mags that have 478 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:34,960 Speaker 1: been digitalized and uploaded to the Internet for free, but 479 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:38,160 Speaker 1: this one was kind of tricky to find. So I 480 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,800 Speaker 1: really hope I don't end up regretting using my credit 481 00:31:40,840 --> 00:31:45,120 Speaker 1: card to purchase vintage pornography online, and I hope there 482 00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: isn't some sort of HR violation in explaining why I 483 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:52,040 Speaker 1: need to expense that. Now I'm hesitant to say that 484 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:56,440 Speaker 1: I'm glad that I spent money to purchase vintage hardcore 485 00:31:56,480 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: pornography for work, but I am glad I saw the 486 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:04,880 Speaker 1: actual pictures. The ten page photo spread in question was 487 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:10,960 Speaker 1: called Butch a Black stud and his Georgia Peach. Hustler 488 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:13,880 Speaker 1: isn't really my cup of tea, but as far as 489 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:17,280 Speaker 1: these things go, I have to say the pictures are 490 00:32:17,880 --> 00:32:21,560 Speaker 1: kind of tasteful. I think, I mean, I know that 491 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,880 Speaker 1: sounds like a wild descriptor for an issue of Hustler. 492 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: But I thought it would be really horrifying or degrading 493 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:35,640 Speaker 1: or graphic, and it isn't. Butch Williams, a black male 494 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,120 Speaker 1: performer at an adult club in Hawaii who was known 495 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:42,160 Speaker 1: for his naked waiter act, and a white woman referred 496 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:47,040 Speaker 1: to only as peaches, are just embracing in a grove 497 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:50,120 Speaker 1: of palm trees and lying nude side by side on 498 00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:54,720 Speaker 1: a sandy beach. It's still hustler, so the pictures do 499 00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:58,840 Speaker 1: get a little more explicit, but again, it's not degrading. 500 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:01,880 Speaker 1: He just looks like she's having a fine time on 501 00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:04,440 Speaker 1: the beach getting railed bent over on a palm tree stump. 502 00:33:05,680 --> 00:33:08,640 Speaker 1: I've looked at way worse stuff in my research for 503 00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:12,680 Speaker 1: this show. I guess, for as much research as I've 504 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:16,640 Speaker 1: done about how racist people are and what people's racial 505 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,080 Speaker 1: attitudes were like in the seventies, and how it was 506 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:22,720 Speaker 1: only eight years after the Supreme Court legalized in a 507 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:26,680 Speaker 1: racial marriage nationwide, I guess I was just kind of 508 00:33:26,720 --> 00:33:30,880 Speaker 1: surprised that these pictures of a black man and a 509 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:35,440 Speaker 1: white woman nude together were so shocking, because it wasn't 510 00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:39,720 Speaker 1: just Franklin who was shocked by this. This was outrageous stuff. 511 00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: I don't know. Some of the photos look like something 512 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,040 Speaker 1: you might hang in your living room if you're a 513 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:51,520 Speaker 1: little bit freaky. But that's what the catalyst was. And 514 00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:54,560 Speaker 1: he would tell both of those stories many times, but 515 00:33:54,640 --> 00:33:57,719 Speaker 1: never together. Right. He would say that he got this 516 00:33:57,800 --> 00:33:59,880 Speaker 1: mission from God to kill Jews after he was evicted 517 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:03,520 Speaker 1: on Christmas Eve in nineteen seventy five. And he would 518 00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:05,960 Speaker 1: say that he decided to kill Larry Flint after he 519 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: saw this interracial pornography in December of nineteen seventy five. 520 00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:14,360 Speaker 1: Both of these versions of the truth are things he 521 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,400 Speaker 1: never walked back and would retell multiple times over many years. 522 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:22,880 Speaker 1: But I couldn't find any interview that contains both elements. 523 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:26,359 Speaker 1: He's never telling both of these things in the same context, 524 00:34:27,640 --> 00:34:30,160 Speaker 1: and I wonder if that's because sometimes he's remembering an 525 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:34,480 Speaker 1: actual event and sometimes he's imagining that he is the 526 00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:40,040 Speaker 1: fictional version of himself in William Luther Pierce's novel. Sometimes 527 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:44,919 Speaker 1: he believes the mythology he invented. But God didn't speak 528 00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:50,360 Speaker 1: to Joseph Paul Franklin, who's broke. He's mad at his landlord, 529 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:54,920 Speaker 1: and he saw some pornography that hurt his feelings. And 530 00:34:55,000 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 1: in every version that he tells, this is the moment 531 00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:02,960 Speaker 1: that he decided, whatever it was in December of nineteen 532 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 1: seventy five, this is when he decided he had to 533 00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:27,360 Speaker 1: do something. Somebody had to die. Ayton's book says that 534 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:31,080 Speaker 1: Franklin joined the Ku Klux Klan a few months after this, 535 00:35:32,680 --> 00:35:35,799 Speaker 1: and it says that he joined specifically because he intended 536 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:37,560 Speaker 1: to learn what he was going to need to know 537 00:35:38,200 --> 00:35:41,399 Speaker 1: to carry out his plan. He wanted to learn from 538 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,800 Speaker 1: members of the clan. He knew the clan could provide 539 00:35:44,880 --> 00:35:49,760 Speaker 1: him with paramilitary type training, instructions on bomb making, access 540 00:35:49,800 --> 00:35:53,719 Speaker 1: to caches of weapons. This is what he's saying. That 541 00:35:53,760 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: he joined the Klan as part of his plan to 542 00:35:57,120 --> 00:35:59,520 Speaker 1: carry out an attack that he had already come up with, 543 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,480 Speaker 1: and the Klan was a great place to learn how 544 00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:06,000 Speaker 1: to build a bomb. And I have no doubt that 545 00:36:06,040 --> 00:36:10,640 Speaker 1: whoever taught him the basics of bomb making absolutely had 546 00:36:10,640 --> 00:36:14,080 Speaker 1: been in the Klan at some point. But I can't 547 00:36:14,120 --> 00:36:17,800 Speaker 1: make the timeline make sense here. He says he was 548 00:36:17,840 --> 00:36:20,399 Speaker 1: a member of the Klan for about six months from 549 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:24,719 Speaker 1: spring through fall, and Aton is quite clear that it 550 00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:27,720 Speaker 1: was the Atlanta chapter of the United Clans of America, 551 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:31,000 Speaker 1: and he was quickly promoted to the position of klegel, 552 00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 1: a ridiculous sounding term you might remember from the Very 553 00:36:34,239 --> 00:36:38,960 Speaker 1: Black episodes a while back. A kleegel is a regional recruiter, 554 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,279 Speaker 1: so he would have been responsible for recruiting and organizing 555 00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:48,640 Speaker 1: new members of the chapter in Atlanta, and Ayton's book 556 00:36:48,680 --> 00:36:50,960 Speaker 1: says that this would have been from spring through fall 557 00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:55,120 Speaker 1: of seventy six, so a few months after this Christmas 558 00:36:55,160 --> 00:36:59,680 Speaker 1: epiphany about murder. But I'm wondering if it's not a mistake, 559 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 1: if maybe those six months in the Klan were in 560 00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:08,040 Speaker 1: seventy five not seventy six, because that would line up 561 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,160 Speaker 1: with his decision to leave Atlanta in November of seventy five. 562 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: If that's when he quit the Klan makes sense because 563 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:18,520 Speaker 1: he couldn't have been running Klan recruitment meetings in Atlanta 564 00:37:18,560 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six because he didn't live there. This 565 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,120 Speaker 1: is where we do have some firm points back on 566 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:28,759 Speaker 1: our timeline. The Secret Service knows exactly where Franklin was 567 00:37:28,800 --> 00:37:30,759 Speaker 1: living in the spring of nineteen seventy six, and it 568 00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:34,640 Speaker 1: wasn't Atlanta, and whether or not he was in the 569 00:37:34,719 --> 00:37:38,759 Speaker 1: clan in seventy five or seventy six would matter a 570 00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,680 Speaker 1: lot less if we weren't arguing about just how much 571 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,560 Speaker 1: these groups he was involved with influenced his motive and 572 00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,640 Speaker 1: means to commit those murders. Did he join the Klan 573 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:54,759 Speaker 1: after making up his mind to kill? And he only 574 00:37:54,880 --> 00:37:56,640 Speaker 1: joined because he thought they could teach him how to 575 00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:58,680 Speaker 1: do this thing he'd already come up with on his 576 00:37:58,719 --> 00:38:01,960 Speaker 1: own and never told them about. Or did you start 577 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,000 Speaker 1: thinking that God was telling him to blow up a 578 00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:08,840 Speaker 1: synagogue after he spent six months attending a clan training 579 00:38:08,880 --> 00:38:11,279 Speaker 1: camp where they taught him how to blow up synagogues? 580 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:19,560 Speaker 1: Hard to say, I think it matters. So I don't 581 00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,200 Speaker 1: know when he joined the clan or why, but I 582 00:38:23,280 --> 00:38:26,360 Speaker 1: do know that in February of nineteen seventy six, he 583 00:38:26,440 --> 00:38:30,200 Speaker 1: was living in a trailer park in Hyattsville, Maryland. The 584 00:38:30,239 --> 00:38:33,239 Speaker 1: Secret Service tracked down his address after he sent a 585 00:38:33,360 --> 00:38:38,080 Speaker 1: vaguely threatening letter to presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, accusing him 586 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:41,200 Speaker 1: of selling out white people and pandering to black voters. 587 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:45,120 Speaker 1: The exact language of the letter isn't reproduced in the 588 00:38:45,200 --> 00:38:48,880 Speaker 1: articles I could find, but it was described as a 589 00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:52,359 Speaker 1: veiled threat, and I have to imagine it used some 590 00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:58,120 Speaker 1: much coarser racial language. By the time the Secret Service 591 00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: showed up in Maryland, he'd been evicted again for not 592 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:04,919 Speaker 1: paying his rent, and the landlord of the trailer park 593 00:39:04,920 --> 00:39:09,000 Speaker 1: didn't have a forwarding address. The letter must not have 594 00:39:09,040 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 1: been that serious, because this minor roadblock was enough trouble 595 00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:16,880 Speaker 1: that the Secret Service just dropped it and closed the case. 596 00:39:18,600 --> 00:39:21,840 Speaker 1: And they must not have looked that hard, because Franklin 597 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:25,280 Speaker 1: hadn't even left the county. Just a few months later, 598 00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,840 Speaker 1: he filed a petition in Prince George's county court to 599 00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:33,200 Speaker 1: legally change his name. I've been calling him Franklin all 600 00:39:33,239 --> 00:39:36,840 Speaker 1: this time for simplicity's sake, but up until this moment, 601 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:41,239 Speaker 1: he's actually been James Clayton Vaughan Junior. That's the name 602 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:44,880 Speaker 1: he was born with. Me hated his father, who was 603 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:46,920 Speaker 1: an abusive drunk who'd abandoned the family when he was 604 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,120 Speaker 1: a child. But it wasn't his father's namesake he was 605 00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:54,920 Speaker 1: trying to get rid of. It was his criminal record. 606 00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:58,400 Speaker 1: A legal name change wouldn't actually protect him from a 607 00:39:58,440 --> 00:40:01,040 Speaker 1: proper background check if he came up under intense scrutiny 608 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,480 Speaker 1: for another crime in the United States, but he was 609 00:40:04,800 --> 00:40:08,800 Speaker 1: probably correct in assuming the Rhodesian government would be fooled 610 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:14,040 Speaker 1: by it. He had a plan a few quick targeted 611 00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,919 Speaker 1: terrorist acts here in the United States, and then before 612 00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:21,600 Speaker 1: anyone could catch him, he'd flee the country. He'd been 613 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:25,719 Speaker 1: reading about this war in Rhodesia. They needed white mercenaries 614 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:29,080 Speaker 1: to fight for their white eth no state. It's a 615 00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:33,120 Speaker 1: perfect plan. What better place were an aspiring race warrior 616 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,600 Speaker 1: than this faraway land where there was a war already happening, 617 00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:39,239 Speaker 1: where he could fight in an army that would pay 618 00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:45,359 Speaker 1: him to shoot black people. Rhodesia is something of a 619 00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:48,880 Speaker 1: recurring theme on the show, but I guess any episode 620 00:40:48,880 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: could be someone's first. And I can't remember if Rhodesia 621 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,719 Speaker 1: is a concept we're all familiar with, or if my 622 00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,880 Speaker 1: frame of reference is broken because I've read too many manifestos. 623 00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:04,840 Speaker 1: But Rhodesia was never real. The Rhodesian Bushwar was real, 624 00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:06,719 Speaker 1: and a lot of people were killed in the name 625 00:41:06,719 --> 00:41:10,440 Speaker 1: of Rhodesia, but it was never internationally recognized as a 626 00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:15,520 Speaker 1: sovereign nation. The area was a British colony until white 627 00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:19,640 Speaker 1: minority leader Ian Smith illegally declared independence in nineteen sixty five, 628 00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:24,960 Speaker 1: and Rhodesia pretended to exist until nineteen seventy nine when 629 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:28,880 Speaker 1: it became Zimbabwe. If you hear someone referring to a 630 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:33,439 Speaker 1: physical place called Rhodesia, or referring to a person as 631 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:38,000 Speaker 1: being Rhodesian, you can be very confident in assuming that 632 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:44,080 Speaker 1: person is a rabid white supremacist, because there is no Rhodesha. 633 00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,360 Speaker 1: I discussed the historical reality of Rhodesian mercenaries during the 634 00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,960 Speaker 1: Bush War a little bit in the Frank Sweeney episodes. 635 00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,440 Speaker 1: Those originally aired back in twenty twenty four, but I 636 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:56,319 Speaker 1: re ran them on the Feed a few weeks ago. 637 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:01,680 Speaker 1: But generally speaking, it's it seems like being a Rhodesian 638 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:06,720 Speaker 1: mercenary is something a lot of racists love thinking about, 639 00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:11,560 Speaker 1: but very few actually did. Franklin was one of many 640 00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:14,920 Speaker 1: American racists who saw ads in places like Soldier of 641 00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:17,880 Speaker 1: Fortune magazine and thought it would be the adventure of 642 00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:21,520 Speaker 1: a lifetime to go to darkest Africa to kill black 643 00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,480 Speaker 1: Africans for sport. The fact that it would be in 644 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:28,319 Speaker 1: service of violently maintaining a white ethno state made it 645 00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:33,120 Speaker 1: even more appealing. Articles intended to entice would be mercenaries 646 00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:35,640 Speaker 1: promised that when the war was over, they could live 647 00:42:35,680 --> 00:42:37,880 Speaker 1: in this new white paradise and there would be plenty 648 00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,120 Speaker 1: of beautiful white wives for them to stay and marry. 649 00:42:41,880 --> 00:42:46,879 Speaker 1: That didn't happen. There is no Rhodesia. But even now, 650 00:42:47,080 --> 00:42:50,520 Speaker 1: decades after the Bush War is over, this idea of 651 00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,719 Speaker 1: the white warrior fighting for a white homeland in Rhodesia 652 00:42:54,200 --> 00:42:58,560 Speaker 1: has a sort of mythic status in certain circles, so 653 00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:01,200 Speaker 1: it's not surprising that's where Franklin wanted to go in 654 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:08,520 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six. Unfortunately for him, though, this illegal ethno 655 00:43:08,560 --> 00:43:13,040 Speaker 1: state waging a brutal war against black Africans didn't accept 656 00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:18,239 Speaker 1: murdered tourists who had criminal records for some reason, and 657 00:43:18,719 --> 00:43:21,480 Speaker 1: James Clayton Vaughan Junior had been arrested quite a few times, 658 00:43:22,080 --> 00:43:24,279 Speaker 1: mostly in connection with Nazi rallies. They got a little 659 00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,680 Speaker 1: too rowdy, and he had a conviction for illegally carrying 660 00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:33,160 Speaker 1: a concealed firearm. Honestly, he probably shouldn't have worried so 661 00:43:33,239 --> 00:43:37,560 Speaker 1: much about it. I mean, yes, the recruiter would have 662 00:43:37,600 --> 00:43:40,920 Speaker 1: said they only take mercenaries of upstanding moral character with 663 00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:45,040 Speaker 1: no criminal records, But I don't think they actually checked. 664 00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:49,360 Speaker 1: Frank Sweeney managed to make it into the Rhodesian Light Infantry, 665 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:52,760 Speaker 1: and he'd been to prison for bank robbery and shooting 666 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:56,719 Speaker 1: a policeman with a machine gun. When he confessed to 667 00:43:56,800 --> 00:43:59,960 Speaker 1: having that criminal record to his superior officer in Rhodesia 668 00:44:00,239 --> 00:44:03,720 Speaker 1: because he wanted them to send him home, they didn't 669 00:44:03,760 --> 00:44:07,440 Speaker 1: believe him. They claimed they looked into it, and they 670 00:44:07,480 --> 00:44:10,200 Speaker 1: determined that he was lying because he wanted to go home, 671 00:44:10,800 --> 00:44:13,320 Speaker 1: because they couldn't find any record of him committing a crime. 672 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:18,440 Speaker 1: The imaginary government of Rhodesia couldn't find an American criminal 673 00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:22,239 Speaker 1: record if you told them exactly what you did and 674 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:25,000 Speaker 1: what county you did it in. I don't think they 675 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,839 Speaker 1: were going to run a full background check and find 676 00:44:26,840 --> 00:44:32,400 Speaker 1: an old weapons charge, but Franklin obviously believed they would, 677 00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:36,400 Speaker 1: so in July nineteen seventy six, he asked a judge 678 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:40,720 Speaker 1: in Maryland to grant him a name change. James Clayton 679 00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:44,719 Speaker 1: Vaughan Junior wanted to be known as Joseph Paul Franklin. 680 00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:48,600 Speaker 1: He said he put a lot of thought into choosing 681 00:44:48,640 --> 00:44:51,840 Speaker 1: this new name. He wanted to honor both the heroes 682 00:44:51,880 --> 00:44:56,960 Speaker 1: of the American Revolution at Nazi Germany, he settled on 683 00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:02,160 Speaker 1: Franklin out of admiration for Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Paul 684 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:07,440 Speaker 1: is a little twist on Gebels's name. Hitler's propaganda minister 685 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,440 Speaker 1: was born Paul Joseph Gebels, though he was addressed informally 686 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:15,960 Speaker 1: only by his middle name, Joseph. Franklin said he wanted 687 00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:18,480 Speaker 1: to honor Gebels, but he swapped the order of the 688 00:45:18,560 --> 00:45:22,560 Speaker 1: names because Joseph Paul made him sound more like an 689 00:45:22,560 --> 00:45:31,560 Speaker 1: English person, whatever that means. His new name was supposed 690 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:34,680 Speaker 1: to be his ticket to a clean criminal record, but 691 00:45:34,760 --> 00:45:39,960 Speaker 1: he got in his own way immediately. It was September 692 00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:43,480 Speaker 1: when his petition for a name change was granted. That 693 00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: same month, he was arrested for attacking an interracial couple. 694 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,920 Speaker 1: He was out late at night when he spotted Aaron Miles, 695 00:45:51,200 --> 00:45:53,640 Speaker 1: a young black man who was driving his white girlfriend, 696 00:45:53,719 --> 00:45:58,319 Speaker 1: Carol Eastwood, home from their date. He followed them aggressively 697 00:45:58,520 --> 00:46:01,880 Speaker 1: for about fifteen minutes before Myles took a wrong turn 698 00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,640 Speaker 1: and accidentally ended up down a dead end. Franklin caught 699 00:46:05,719 --> 00:46:08,360 Speaker 1: up to them and swung around, cutting them off, and 700 00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:11,759 Speaker 1: he confronted the couple, calling Myles a racial slur, and 701 00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:16,440 Speaker 1: then sprang them both with chemical mace. So now with 702 00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:21,120 Speaker 1: this new arrest, his new name is tainted too. He 703 00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:23,759 Speaker 1: would later claim that he'd actually changed his mind about 704 00:46:23,800 --> 00:46:26,839 Speaker 1: becoming a mercenary when he read that Rhodesian leader Ian 705 00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:29,799 Speaker 1: Smith had agreed some time in late nineteen seventy six 706 00:46:29,880 --> 00:46:33,360 Speaker 1: to a compromise proposed by Henry Kissinger that would eventually 707 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:38,080 Speaker 1: introduce black majority rule. It's hard to say if he 708 00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:41,840 Speaker 1: actually had any kind of complex understanding of the political 709 00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:45,800 Speaker 1: realities of the war, considering he also seemed to believe 710 00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:48,479 Speaker 1: that by signing up to be a mercenary he could 711 00:46:48,560 --> 00:46:53,160 Speaker 1: just walk around Southern Africa shooting anyone he wanted without 712 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:59,440 Speaker 1: any sort of structure or responsibilities. But either way, Rhodesia 713 00:46:59,480 --> 00:47:03,440 Speaker 1: was off the tape. He welcomed the new year as 714 00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:08,200 Speaker 1: a new man. In nineteen seventy seven, James Clayton Vaughan 715 00:47:08,280 --> 00:47:13,839 Speaker 1: Junior was gone, and Joseph Paul Franklin was desperate to 716 00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:19,279 Speaker 1: do something. He'd been dreaming of his first explosive act 717 00:47:19,320 --> 00:47:23,000 Speaker 1: of violence for more than a year, and before he 718 00:47:23,040 --> 00:47:26,640 Speaker 1: started stalking Larry Flint before he drove to Wisconsin to 719 00:47:26,640 --> 00:47:29,239 Speaker 1: try to shoot a judge before he murdered a young 720 00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:32,800 Speaker 1: couple in a mall parking lot. He tried to emulate 721 00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:39,920 Speaker 1: his hero, and he built a bomb. In the summer 722 00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:43,560 Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy seven, the FEDS were taking a hard 723 00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:48,120 Speaker 1: look at JB. Stoner. There were rumors of an upcoming 724 00:47:48,120 --> 00:47:51,560 Speaker 1: congressional inquiry to explore the possibility that he'd been a 725 00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:54,560 Speaker 1: co conspirator in the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior. 726 00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:57,120 Speaker 1: He was about to be arrested for one of the 727 00:47:57,200 --> 00:47:59,719 Speaker 1: more than a dozen church and synagogue bombings he'd been 728 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:04,400 Speaker 1: linked to more than a decade earlier. As speculation raged 729 00:48:04,400 --> 00:48:07,319 Speaker 1: about JB. Stoner's involvement behind the scenes in some of 730 00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:11,359 Speaker 1: the ugliest Rachel terror of the mid twentieth century, the 731 00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,240 Speaker 1: man who actually killed Martin Luther King escaped from prison, 732 00:48:17,160 --> 00:48:21,400 Speaker 1: James Earl Ray, was recaptured three days later, but tensions 733 00:48:21,400 --> 00:48:26,760 Speaker 1: were high. Maybe it's a coincidence that Joseph Paul Franklin 734 00:48:26,840 --> 00:48:32,680 Speaker 1: robbed his first bank that week. Suddenly he needed money 735 00:48:32,719 --> 00:48:52,160 Speaker 1: to buy dynamite. Weird Little Guys as a production of 736 00:48:52,200 --> 00:48:54,920 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media and iHeart Radio it's research, written and 737 00:48:54,960 --> 00:48:58,160 Speaker 1: recorded by me, Molly Conger. Our executive producers are Sophia 738 00:48:58,200 --> 00:49:01,040 Speaker 1: Lagerman and Robert Evans. The show edited by the wildly 739 00:49:01,080 --> 00:49:04,240 Speaker 1: talented Rory Gacon. The theme music was composed by Brad Dickert. 740 00:49:04,760 --> 00:49:06,880 Speaker 1: You can email me at Weird Little Guys podcast at 741 00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:08,799 Speaker 1: gmail dot com. I will definitely read it, but I 742 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:12,400 Speaker 1: probably won't answer. It's nothing personal. You can exchange conspiracy 743 00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:14,399 Speaker 1: theories about the show with other listeners on the Weird 744 00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:17,560 Speaker 1: Little Guys subreddit. Just don't post anything that's going to 745 00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:18,800 Speaker 1: make you one of my Weird Little Guys