1 00:00:01,680 --> 00:00:06,519 Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media. 2 00:00:08,520 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 2: Before he left for work. On Valentine's Day, Joe Hicks 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,560 Speaker 2: set a small heart shaped box of candy, a bouquet 4 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:18,960 Speaker 2: of flowers, and a pink greeting card on his wife's dresser. 5 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,400 Speaker 2: He'd grown up dirt poor, and he was proud of 6 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 2: the life he'd built for himself and his family. His 7 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,800 Speaker 2: three children were grown now, with five children of their 8 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:34,919 Speaker 2: own between them. By all accounts, Joe loved working at 9 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:38,760 Speaker 2: Neptune Worldwide Moving. He'd been there for twenty one years, 10 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 2: working his way up from loading the trucks to driving them, 11 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,120 Speaker 2: and he loved his truck so much that he carried 12 00:00:46,120 --> 00:00:49,960 Speaker 2: a photograph of it in his wallet. He was dead 13 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 2: before eight a m. Fred Holmes and James Green were 14 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,560 Speaker 2: shot and killed two all before anyone could even comprehend 15 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 2: what was happening. Fred Cowan shot his first three victims 16 00:01:03,560 --> 00:01:06,600 Speaker 2: before he said a word. That morning, he had already 17 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,200 Speaker 2: killed three of his coworkers. When he came across a fourth, 18 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 2: he lowered the rifle and said, get out of here, 19 00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:20,279 Speaker 2: go home, and tell my mother not to come. Unlike 20 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:23,640 Speaker 2: the first three men Cowan had seen that morning, this 21 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:30,520 Speaker 2: man was white as he hunted for his intended target, 22 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:35,119 Speaker 2: A Jewish dispatcher named Norman Byng Cowen shot and killed 23 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:40,480 Speaker 2: Pariatharu Varguiese, a recent immigrant from India, and fatally wounded 24 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:45,559 Speaker 2: Joe Russo. When the police arrived, he shot and killed 25 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,720 Speaker 2: the first officer to try to approach the building. He 26 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 2: never did find Norman Bing. The standoff lasted all day. 27 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 2: At noon, he demanded the police bring him some lunch, 28 00:02:00,720 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 2: hot cocoa and potato salad. A little before three pm, 29 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:09,840 Speaker 2: he shot himself in the head. In the aftermath of 30 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 2: the shooting, reporters tried to figure out who this man 31 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,239 Speaker 2: had been. His elementary school teacher said he was bright 32 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:21,359 Speaker 2: and well behaved, and that he had excellent penmanship. He'd 33 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:25,240 Speaker 2: been a boy scout. He was quiet. His parents were 34 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,080 Speaker 2: good people. He was only joking when he said he'd 35 00:02:29,080 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 2: like to shoot up a synagogue. It was just an 36 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,359 Speaker 2: odd idiosyncrasy that sometimes, after a few drinks, he'd ask 37 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:38,080 Speaker 2: you to call him Reinhardt so he could pretend that 38 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:43,080 Speaker 2: he was his hero, Reinhardt Heidrich. He had a swastika 39 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:47,000 Speaker 2: tattoo and a massive gun collection. Neighbors said he kept 40 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,639 Speaker 2: to himself, but they sometimes saw him trudging off into 41 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:53,600 Speaker 2: the woods for target practice, wearing a Nazi stormtrooper uniform. 42 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 2: He'd been in the army briefly, but he was given 43 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 2: a general discharge after being court martialed twice. His cousin 44 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 2: said he'd always loved Hitler, but no one ever thought 45 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:09,120 Speaker 2: he'd do something like this. A search of his room 46 00:03:09,120 --> 00:03:11,720 Speaker 2: in the attic of his parents' house turned up thousands 47 00:03:11,760 --> 00:03:15,800 Speaker 2: of dollars worth of authentic Nazi memorabilia, a large cache 48 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 2: of weapons, posters of Hitler, and stacks of racist and 49 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:24,920 Speaker 2: anti Semitic books and newspapers. It's a story I've read 50 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,320 Speaker 2: plenty of times, and it would be perfectly at home 51 00:03:28,320 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 2: in a newspaper in twenty twenty six. But Fred Cowen 52 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 2: died in nineteen seventy seven. I'm Molly Conger, and this 53 00:03:41,520 --> 00:04:02,280 Speaker 2: is weird, little guys, This isn't actually an episode about 54 00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 2: Fred Cowan. There's not a lot to say. Everything anyone 55 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 2: ever committed to paper about him was about the day 56 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 2: he died. He took his own life seven hours into 57 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 2: a police stand off after he carried out a mass 58 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 2: shooting in his workplace. Reading through the reporting about his 59 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 2: final hours, it really does feel so uncomfortably modern. It 60 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,000 Speaker 2: sounds exactly like the kind of crime that could happen today, 61 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,640 Speaker 2: next week, or last month. You know, a guy who 62 00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 2: never had a girlfriend joined the military because he had 63 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 2: nothing better to do, loved Hitler, hated black people, hated 64 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:44,720 Speaker 2: Jewish people, and collected guns and Nazi memorabilia. This neighbors 65 00:04:44,720 --> 00:04:47,560 Speaker 2: say he's a nice guy. The women who knew him 66 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,560 Speaker 2: say they were afraid of him, and his parents just 67 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,960 Speaker 2: thought he was sick. I've seen dozens of this exact guy. 68 00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:59,719 Speaker 2: But circling back to what we were talking about last 69 00:04:59,720 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 2: time about lone wolves, maybe Fred Cowan is the sort 70 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 2: of mass shooter who is the only kind of person 71 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,720 Speaker 2: who could be realistically called the lone wolf. Right when 72 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:15,840 Speaker 2: he definitely acted alone. Nobody told him to shoot his boss, 73 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:20,840 Speaker 2: and that motivation is pretty personal. He was angry at 74 00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:24,200 Speaker 2: his dispatcher for suspending him over some disagreement at work. 75 00:05:25,640 --> 00:05:30,040 Speaker 2: He was looking for the guy who suspended him. That's personal, 76 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:39,440 Speaker 2: not political. It's a classic workplace rampage, right maybe, But 77 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:43,840 Speaker 2: he let his white coworkers leave. He shot his black 78 00:05:43,880 --> 00:05:47,080 Speaker 2: and Indian colleagues without saying a word to them. As 79 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 2: he moved through the building looking for his Jewish manager, 80 00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:55,599 Speaker 2: and the only white victims of that attack were the 81 00:05:55,640 --> 00:06:00,120 Speaker 2: policeman and Joe Russo, a co worker who was unfortunately 82 00:06:00,279 --> 00:06:03,839 Speaker 2: just standing in the office when Cohen burst in, already firing, 83 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:08,240 Speaker 2: thinking his manager would be in there. And when Cowen's 84 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:11,240 Speaker 2: bedroom was searched, there mixed in with the boxes of 85 00:06:11,279 --> 00:06:17,359 Speaker 2: ammunition and authentic Naziss helmets, they found a membership card. 86 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,640 Speaker 2: He'd been a dues paying member of a white supremacist 87 00:06:20,680 --> 00:06:25,560 Speaker 2: organization called the National States Rights Party. At his local bar, 88 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 2: he was known for carrying around a stack of the 89 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:31,839 Speaker 2: party's newspaper, The Thunderbolt, and trying to convince other drinkers 90 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 2: to take a copy. Reached for comment, the group's founders 91 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 2: said they'd never heard of him. Ed Field's, a chiropractor 92 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:45,920 Speaker 2: and lifelong clansman, repeatedly denied that Cowen could possibly have 93 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:49,719 Speaker 2: been a member of his organization. When he was confronted 94 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:52,680 Speaker 2: with the existence of the membership card they'd mailed to him, 95 00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 2: Fields conceded that Cowan must have been a member at large, 96 00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:01,240 Speaker 2: and he certainly never attended a convention. JB. Stoner, the 97 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 2: group's chairman and a man so racist. Even other neo 98 00:07:04,080 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 2: Nazis found him a bit abrasive. Was even less forthcoming. 99 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:11,360 Speaker 2: He claimed it was their policy not to comment on 100 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:16,320 Speaker 2: matters of membership, and both men would do much the 101 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,520 Speaker 2: same dance a few years later when another member of 102 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,200 Speaker 2: their organization was implicated in mass murder targeting black and 103 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 2: Jewish victims. Like I said, this isn't an episode about 104 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:35,440 Speaker 2: Frederick Cowen. We're still talking about Nazi serial killer Joseph 105 00:07:35,440 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 2: Paul Franklin. When we left off last time, it was 106 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 2: nineteen sixty nine and he was a young drifter living 107 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,360 Speaker 2: at the Nazi Party barracks in Virginia. By the time 108 00:07:45,400 --> 00:07:48,040 Speaker 2: he started killing eight years later in nineteen seventy seven, 109 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:52,080 Speaker 2: he had allegedly quit not only the National Socialist White 110 00:07:52,080 --> 00:07:55,840 Speaker 2: People's Party, but he'd both joined and then quit the 111 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,640 Speaker 2: Ku Klux Klan and the National States Rights Party. But 112 00:08:00,720 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 2: the details are a little vague. I did, as I 113 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:08,000 Speaker 2: typically do, quite a bit of reading about my weird 114 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:11,720 Speaker 2: little guy. I read a biography that was written about him, 115 00:08:12,160 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 2: and I browsed the news coverage in the court records 116 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 2: related to his various trials. I spent hours squinting my 117 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:21,080 Speaker 2: way through the blurry scans of his five hundred page 118 00:08:21,120 --> 00:08:25,760 Speaker 2: FBI file, But I just couldn't shake the feeling that 119 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 2: something was missing. Melayton's book about Franklin is well researched, 120 00:08:31,240 --> 00:08:33,840 Speaker 2: don't get me wrong, and I don't think that he 121 00:08:33,880 --> 00:08:36,880 Speaker 2: was so naive as to believe Joseph Paul Franklin was 122 00:08:36,920 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 2: really a reliable narrator. But for a lot of the story, 123 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:46,600 Speaker 2: Franklin is the only narrator. It was a drifter. He 124 00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 2: married twice, but he spent all of a couple of 125 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:51,200 Speaker 2: months living with either of his wives, and one of 126 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 2: them didn't even know his real name. His sisters were 127 00:08:54,760 --> 00:08:59,240 Speaker 2: reasonably forthcoming with the FBI and occasionally with journalists, but 128 00:08:59,280 --> 00:09:03,280 Speaker 2: they could only fill so much. Franklin spent a lot 129 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 2: of time out there on his own, and we only 130 00:09:05,400 --> 00:09:07,360 Speaker 2: had his word on what was going on inside of 131 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:13,200 Speaker 2: his mind during that three year killing spree. The killing 132 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:17,480 Speaker 2: started in nineteen seventy seven, and in the years after 133 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:21,160 Speaker 2: he was caught in nineteen eighty, plenty of people asked 134 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:25,280 Speaker 2: him why he killed, and they mostly seemed satisfied with 135 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 2: his answer that he believed he was on a mission 136 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,560 Speaker 2: from God to save the white race and end race 137 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 2: mixing and rid the world of black and Jewish people. 138 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:38,319 Speaker 2: He was trying to start a race war. But why 139 00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:44,080 Speaker 2: what changed? What pushed him all the way there? He 140 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,800 Speaker 2: was macing hippies with his Nazi pals in Washington, d c. 141 00:09:46,920 --> 00:09:50,240 Speaker 2: In nineteen sixty nine, So what was the progression of 142 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 2: ideas and actions that connected that to what he would 143 00:09:54,480 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 2: end up doing. In the introduction to his biography of Franklin, 144 00:10:00,120 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 2: And wrote, Franklin did not suddenly invent his mission. He 145 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:06,760 Speaker 2: was tutored in it and provoked into it through the 146 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:10,760 Speaker 2: organizations he joined and the hate literature he studied. And 147 00:10:10,880 --> 00:10:13,760 Speaker 2: Aiden says he was intrigued by what was missing from 148 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:16,960 Speaker 2: existing accounts of Franklin's life. And the book is a 149 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:23,080 Speaker 2: remarkably thorough biographical sketch of most of Franklin's life, and 150 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:25,520 Speaker 2: that didn't exist before, and it's wonderful that. 151 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:26,240 Speaker 1: We have it now. 152 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:30,640 Speaker 2: But I don't think it actually answers the question raised 153 00:10:30,640 --> 00:10:35,360 Speaker 2: by that original observation. There's just a black hole where 154 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:37,719 Speaker 2: the details of his time in those groups should be. 155 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,000 Speaker 2: It's hardly Aiden's fault. I don't think his subject was 156 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:46,360 Speaker 2: interested in discussing that. And when you're writing about a 157 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:48,480 Speaker 2: serial killer, and the serial killer is willing to talk 158 00:10:48,520 --> 00:10:51,319 Speaker 2: to you about his crimes. Why would you risk the 159 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,240 Speaker 2: rapport you've built by pressing him for details about the 160 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:57,560 Speaker 2: precise circumstances of his resignation from the Ku Klux Klan 161 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 2: book doesn't really answer my question why did the killing 162 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 2: start in nineteen seventy seven and why did he drive 163 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:11,319 Speaker 2: to Wisconsin, a state he had no clear connection to, 164 00:11:11,320 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 2: to kill his first victims. He spent close to a 165 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:21,520 Speaker 2: decade involved in organized militant neo Nazi activity, and then 166 00:11:21,679 --> 00:11:24,840 Speaker 2: suddenly he just dropped off the radar and started hunting 167 00:11:24,880 --> 00:11:29,200 Speaker 2: human beings. This is the version of the truth. It's 168 00:11:29,559 --> 00:11:34,560 Speaker 2: usually presented as unquestionably reasonable, and I was not satisfied 169 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:43,079 Speaker 2: with that. Honestly, I was very frustrated. I could tell 170 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 2: you that there was a rerun last week because I 171 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,800 Speaker 2: wasn't feeling well and we had a bad ice storm, 172 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:50,800 Speaker 2: and I spent a few days preparing for it, and 173 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:54,160 Speaker 2: I kind of assumed we would lose power. So maybe 174 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:56,680 Speaker 2: I didn't work as quickly as I could have because 175 00:11:57,280 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 2: I figured I wouldn't be able to finish anyway if 176 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:02,280 Speaker 2: the power went out of the weekend, and then it didn't. 177 00:12:02,960 --> 00:12:06,600 Speaker 2: That's true, But I probably could have made it work 178 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:10,720 Speaker 2: if I hadn't been so damn frustrated as this hole 179 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:14,640 Speaker 2: in my timeline. I always start with my timeline, and 180 00:12:14,679 --> 00:12:18,679 Speaker 2: I just couldn't work my way around this blank space. 181 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 2: There's no shortage of material about this man's life. There's 182 00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:26,880 Speaker 2: plenty of information about what he was doing once he 183 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:32,000 Speaker 2: started killing, but there's just not a lot going on 184 00:12:32,120 --> 00:12:35,320 Speaker 2: when it comes to what he was up to before that. 185 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:38,920 Speaker 2: What was he doing the day he decided he was 186 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:43,960 Speaker 2: going to be a murderer. A book about lone wolf terrorism, 187 00:12:43,960 --> 00:12:46,200 Speaker 2: written by a pair of FBI agents who helped catch 188 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 2: the Unibomber, describes Franklin as a clear example of the 189 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,480 Speaker 2: lone wolf terrorist. But if you can't tell me what 190 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:58,200 Speaker 2: he was doing for the five years before those murders started, 191 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:00,400 Speaker 2: and the last place you do have him on paper 192 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,600 Speaker 2: before that is as a member of three different extremely 193 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:09,160 Speaker 2: violent white supremacist organizations, I just I don't believe that 194 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:12,280 Speaker 2: that just can't be the answer. You can't just hand 195 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 2: wave away this mostly blank spot in his biography. In 196 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:17,959 Speaker 2: the couple of years immediately before he murdered more than 197 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:24,480 Speaker 2: twenty people. So I tried something a little different. I 198 00:13:24,520 --> 00:13:26,880 Speaker 2: have a handful of data points on the timeline during 199 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,720 Speaker 2: those years, but in trying to fill in the gaps, 200 00:13:31,200 --> 00:13:35,360 Speaker 2: instead of looking for him in the historical record, I 201 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,000 Speaker 2: tried to find what he would have been looking at 202 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:42,960 Speaker 2: during those years where I can't quite find him. I 203 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,840 Speaker 2: read more than one hundred issues of different neo Nazi 204 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:51,600 Speaker 2: newsletters from the mid nineteen seventies. In particular, I was 205 00:13:51,600 --> 00:13:54,720 Speaker 2: looking at what was going on in nineteen seventy seven 206 00:13:55,720 --> 00:13:58,960 Speaker 2: when Joseph fall Franklin, just completely out of the blue 207 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:02,280 Speaker 2: and entirely on his own, happened to be one of 208 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:07,040 Speaker 2: four American Neo Nazis who tried to start the race 209 00:14:07,080 --> 00:14:13,320 Speaker 2: war through mass murder. Maybe there were others, but I 210 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:20,120 Speaker 2: found four. First, there was Frederick Cowen. He carried out 211 00:14:20,120 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 2: a mass shooting at his workplace in New Rushelle, New York, 212 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:26,920 Speaker 2: in February, targeting black and Jewish coworkers, killing six before 213 00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:31,600 Speaker 2: taking his own life. Two months later, his photo was 214 00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:34,800 Speaker 2: on the cover of the National Socialist Bulletin, the newsletter 215 00:14:34,840 --> 00:14:40,600 Speaker 2: for the National Socialist Movement. That Nazi newsletter's editor, James Mason, 216 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:46,000 Speaker 2: praised Cowen's actions, though he lamented that Cowen hadn't actually 217 00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:50,600 Speaker 2: managed to shoot his Jewish boss. James Mason, for those 218 00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:52,760 Speaker 2: of you making your own red string boards at home, 219 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:56,600 Speaker 2: is a name worth noting here. He is best known 220 00:14:56,640 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 2: now as the author of Siege, the collected essays of 221 00:14:59,680 --> 00:15:03,880 Speaker 2: his pro terrorism Nazi newsletter from the nineteen eighties. It 222 00:15:03,960 --> 00:15:06,320 Speaker 2: became very popular again in the twenty tens, when it 223 00:15:06,320 --> 00:15:11,000 Speaker 2: was required reading for new members of Adam Waffen. In 224 00:15:11,080 --> 00:15:15,240 Speaker 2: our current story, He's still a young man. He was 225 00:15:15,280 --> 00:15:18,040 Speaker 2: the teenager that Joseph Paul Franklin lived with for several 226 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:20,640 Speaker 2: months of the National Socialist White People's Party barracks in 227 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:25,320 Speaker 2: Virginia in nineteen sixty nine. In the mid seventies, he 228 00:15:25,440 --> 00:15:27,920 Speaker 2: served a brief stint in a workhouse for macing a 229 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 2: young black girl in a dairy Queen parking lot, and 230 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:33,920 Speaker 2: when he got out he co founded his own Nazi group, 231 00:15:34,560 --> 00:15:38,720 Speaker 2: the National Socialist Movement. Mason later claimed in some of 232 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,040 Speaker 2: his personal correspondents that someone told him that Cowen had 233 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,560 Speaker 2: once visited the headquarters of the National Socialist White People's Party, 234 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:50,040 Speaker 2: but it is possible he made that up. We do 235 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,080 Speaker 2: know for certain though from police records and from reporting 236 00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 2: at the time that Cowen was a member of the 237 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:58,040 Speaker 2: National States Rights Party at the time of the murders, 238 00:15:59,000 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 2: the party's chairman, Baby Stoner denied knowing Cowen and told 239 00:16:03,040 --> 00:16:07,280 Speaker 2: reporters that his group didn't advocate violence and Cowen's actions 240 00:16:07,280 --> 00:16:13,200 Speaker 2: had been entirely independent of the group. Perhaps, but Stoner's 241 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:17,920 Speaker 2: assurances of his organization's commitment to nonviolence ring a little hollow, 242 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 2: considering he was about to be indicted for bombing a 243 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:23,600 Speaker 2: black church in Birmingham, which was just one of at 244 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,240 Speaker 2: least a dozen church and synagogue bombings he's believed to 245 00:16:26,280 --> 00:16:30,479 Speaker 2: have carried out, and even in his denial of involvement 246 00:16:30,480 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 2: in Cowen's crimes, he offered no condemnation for them. He 247 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:37,920 Speaker 2: told reporters he couldn't pass judgment on the man because 248 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:44,360 Speaker 2: he was likely provoked by his victims. A few months 249 00:16:44,400 --> 00:16:48,040 Speaker 2: after Cowen's massacre in New York, Raymond Schultz murdered a 250 00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:51,280 Speaker 2: Jewish man in Chicago in May of nineteen seventy seven. 251 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:57,160 Speaker 2: He killed Sidney Cohen using cyanide, and then used cyanide 252 00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:00,840 Speaker 2: and his own life when police caught him after his 253 00:17:00,960 --> 00:17:03,240 Speaker 2: death in the back of a police cruiser. They searched 254 00:17:03,240 --> 00:17:06,800 Speaker 2: his home and in a basement police described as a 255 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:10,600 Speaker 2: bomb factory, they found a hit list with the names 256 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:16,520 Speaker 2: of other local Jews. In that basement full of bombs 257 00:17:16,560 --> 00:17:21,200 Speaker 2: and poison, stacks of racist pamphlets, and child sexual abuse material. 258 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 2: They also found a home made dungeon, a small sound 259 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 2: proof escape proof cell with walls eight inches thick. It's 260 00:17:34,200 --> 00:17:39,200 Speaker 2: not clear what it was for. Raymond Schultz wasn't a 261 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 2: name I'd seen before, but he was apparently quite well 262 00:17:42,400 --> 00:17:45,920 Speaker 2: connected within the movement, having joined the American Nazi Party 263 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:50,240 Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty. For several years, Schultz lived the American 264 00:17:50,320 --> 00:17:53,639 Speaker 2: Nazi Party office in Chicago and ran the party's bookstore. 265 00:17:55,160 --> 00:17:57,240 Speaker 2: At some point in the mid sixties, he was roommates 266 00:17:57,240 --> 00:17:59,960 Speaker 2: with Mattias Kail, a man who would eventually take a 267 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:04,520 Speaker 2: leadership of the American Nazi Party. Later in the sixties, 268 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,720 Speaker 2: he left the American Nazi Party for the National States 269 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:09,679 Speaker 2: Rights Party, and there too, he was more than a 270 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,879 Speaker 2: rank and file member. I found an old issue of 271 00:18:12,880 --> 00:18:16,080 Speaker 2: the party's newsletter, The Thunderbolt, with a photo of Schultz 272 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,480 Speaker 2: serving as master of ceremonies for a visit from the 273 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 2: party's chairman J. B. Stoner. Later that summer, shortly after 274 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,040 Speaker 2: Schultz's death, the Nazi newsletter edited by James Mason, praised 275 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:32,080 Speaker 2: both murderers. Mason wrote that the group's publications served as 276 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:35,160 Speaker 2: a beacon for men who aspired to be like Schultz 277 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:42,560 Speaker 2: and Cowan. In September of nineteen seventy seven, in Charlotte, 278 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 2: North Carolina, members of the Jonesville African Methodist Episcopal Zion 279 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:50,240 Speaker 2: Church gathered for a Labor Day weekend picnic and softball game. 280 00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:53,840 Speaker 2: A seventeen year old boy in a Nazi uniform approached 281 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:56,359 Speaker 2: the black congregation on the lawn. During the softball game, 282 00:18:56,920 --> 00:19:00,840 Speaker 2: an opened fire, killing the pitcher, an in his twenties, 283 00:19:01,359 --> 00:19:06,240 Speaker 2: and one spectator, a recently widowed young mother, and wounded 284 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:11,439 Speaker 2: two others before turning the gun on himself. Officially, the 285 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 2: police said Kenneth Wilson had no ties to any Nazi group. Unofficially, 286 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:19,359 Speaker 2: the leader of the North Carolina chapter of the National 287 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,040 Speaker 2: Socialist Party claimed that the boy had applied for membership 288 00:19:22,400 --> 00:19:26,679 Speaker 2: but hadn't finished the process. Another member of the National 289 00:19:26,680 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 2: Socialist Party said he recalled that the boy had been 290 00:19:29,080 --> 00:19:32,760 Speaker 2: one of several high schoolers he'd met with, adding that 291 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:36,399 Speaker 2: the boy had ordered some material from their national office, 292 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:41,639 Speaker 2: though he denied attempting to recruit children. In another issue 293 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 2: of his newsletter, published in October of nineteen seventy seven, 294 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:50,480 Speaker 2: James Mason again celebrated these murderers. Now there were three, 295 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:55,159 Speaker 2: Frederick Cowen, Raymond Schultz, and Kenneth Wilson. They had killed 296 00:19:55,400 --> 00:19:58,600 Speaker 2: black and Jewish people, and they had done so while 297 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:03,679 Speaker 2: very clearly representing their neo Nazi beliefs. They killed to 298 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:08,960 Speaker 2: send a message, and they hadn't been taken alive. There 299 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:11,480 Speaker 2: was no one left a question, no case to solve, 300 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:18,000 Speaker 2: no networks to probe, just communities left in fear. There 301 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:21,040 Speaker 2: is no defense from it. It can't be stopped. These 302 00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:23,760 Speaker 2: killers cannot be detected. There is no pattern that can 303 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,800 Speaker 2: be traced, and it will continue and build. He wrote, 304 00:20:30,119 --> 00:20:33,600 Speaker 2: Each of those killers had acted alone, but Mason was 305 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,040 Speaker 2: clear that he understood that there was a kind of 306 00:20:36,119 --> 00:20:40,280 Speaker 2: symbiosis between these killers and the movements they sprang from, 307 00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:45,400 Speaker 2: writing quote, the task must be to coincide with these killings. 308 00:20:45,680 --> 00:20:47,920 Speaker 2: We must act in a manner to not only inspire 309 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:50,960 Speaker 2: these killings, but to compliment them. We must work in 310 00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,240 Speaker 2: a duet with those forces we cannot control or anticipate. 311 00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:58,600 Speaker 2: When he wrote that essay in the fall of nineteen 312 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:03,359 Speaker 2: seventy seven, James Mason didn't include the fourth Nazi who 313 00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,040 Speaker 2: had killed for the movement that year, and he couldn't have. 314 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,120 Speaker 2: He didn't know about it yet. But just a few 315 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 2: weeks after he mailed out copies of his July newsletter, 316 00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,320 Speaker 2: the one with the essay praising Cowan and Schultz and 317 00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:21,280 Speaker 2: recognizing his own role as a beacon for other aspiring killers, 318 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,919 Speaker 2: his old friend Joseph Paul Franklin, started killing two. By 319 00:21:26,960 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 2: the time the October newsletter went out, Franklin had already 320 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:50,199 Speaker 2: killed again. Not to be clear, I'm not trying to 321 00:21:50,240 --> 00:21:54,440 Speaker 2: insinuate some direct connection between any of these four killers, 322 00:21:55,440 --> 00:21:58,639 Speaker 2: or any communication between those killers and some movement leader 323 00:21:58,720 --> 00:22:03,080 Speaker 2: who explicit directly and individually told them to carry out 324 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:07,520 Speaker 2: some specific act. Aside from their friendship back in nineteen 325 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:11,320 Speaker 2: sixty nine, there's nothing that suggests that Joseph Paul Franklin 326 00:22:11,359 --> 00:22:14,879 Speaker 2: and James Mason met again, or even that they communicated 327 00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:19,040 Speaker 2: directly until Mason started writing Franklin in prison after his arrest. 328 00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:25,320 Speaker 2: That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about context. 329 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:30,280 Speaker 2: The story of Joseph Paul Franklin's murder spree is meaningless 330 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:35,840 Speaker 2: without that. A straightforward police procedural, true crime type retelling 331 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,960 Speaker 2: of his crimes is certainly an interesting story would hold 332 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:43,360 Speaker 2: your attention. There's a lot of action, but I don't 333 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:47,000 Speaker 2: think you'd learn anything from it. That is, to me, 334 00:22:47,760 --> 00:22:51,639 Speaker 2: the least interesting part of the story, because in that 335 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:56,360 Speaker 2: version of the story, he's just a lone wolf. Everybody 336 00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:03,640 Speaker 2: says so, but I just don't that explanation. If you're 337 00:23:03,640 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 2: a longtime listener, you know this term riles me up. 338 00:23:07,520 --> 00:23:10,719 Speaker 2: I hate it. I don't believe in lone wolves. It 339 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 2: doesn't mean anything. No one can agree on what this means. 340 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,240 Speaker 2: It originated in white power propaganda, and it was adopted 341 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:23,119 Speaker 2: into the academic parlance without preserving that incredibly important context. 342 00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:26,399 Speaker 2: I would spend a lot less time railing against the 343 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:28,720 Speaker 2: use and abuse of the term if I didn't see 344 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,800 Speaker 2: it everywhere. Every time a neo Nazi builds a bomb 345 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:35,760 Speaker 2: or shoots a bunch of innocent people, well, he's a 346 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:40,359 Speaker 2: lone wolf. The term emerged in clan newsletters. It was 347 00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:43,359 Speaker 2: popularized by the leader of a Nazi skinhead network. It 348 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,240 Speaker 2: migrated into academic papers by counter terrorism scholars, and now 349 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:50,000 Speaker 2: I see it in the news and in court documents 350 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:53,040 Speaker 2: and being used by the average person to describe these 351 00:23:53,160 --> 00:24:01,000 Speaker 2: unthinkable acts of violence. And I get it. I get 352 00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:05,520 Speaker 2: why people like to say it. It's very hard to comprehend, 353 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 2: let alone explain the kind of violent attack that gets 354 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 2: labeled this way. But my crusade against this term is 355 00:24:13,119 --> 00:24:16,280 Speaker 2: about more than just the fact that it doesn't mean anything. 356 00:24:16,320 --> 00:24:20,360 Speaker 2: It's about more than just pedantry. Even if academics could 357 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,840 Speaker 2: convene and settle once and for all on some kind 358 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:28,240 Speaker 2: of actual definition, I wouldn't want it. Let them write 359 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,280 Speaker 2: whatever they need to in their conference papers, But we 360 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:34,520 Speaker 2: have to stop saying it. I think we love to 361 00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:37,679 Speaker 2: call a guy alone wolf because it feels better to 362 00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 2: believe that it absolves us of the burden of finding 363 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 2: out more, or of taking any responsibility for the state 364 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:46,800 Speaker 2: of the world in which these terrible things are happening, 365 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,119 Speaker 2: or of demanding any kind of accountability from law enforcement 366 00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:55,040 Speaker 2: or the government officials or the groups these men came from. 367 00:24:55,080 --> 00:24:58,760 Speaker 2: Just a lone wolf. Nothing anybody could have done really 368 00:24:59,280 --> 00:25:02,119 Speaker 2: couldn't have seen it coming. It's basically just kind of 369 00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:03,840 Speaker 2: a freak accident at the end of the day, you know. 370 00:25:05,560 --> 00:25:08,640 Speaker 2: It lets us believe that, as awful as these things are, 371 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:15,000 Speaker 2: they're just random. Sometimes terrible things just happen. Sometimes the 372 00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:18,800 Speaker 2: guy just does something like that. Nobody really knows why. 373 00:25:19,400 --> 00:25:23,240 Speaker 2: Maybe they're crazy, Maybe some people are just born evil. 374 00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,920 Speaker 2: What can anybody do about that? It lets you avoid 375 00:25:27,040 --> 00:25:30,160 Speaker 2: asking if there's something more going on here, if there 376 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:35,640 Speaker 2: is some deeper problem. If you just have lone wolves, 377 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:39,520 Speaker 2: maybe you don't have a Nazi problem or a racism problem. 378 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:47,240 Speaker 2: Bad things just happen, sometimes really similar but surely entirely unrelated. 379 00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 2: Bad things just keep happening, and every time it happens, 380 00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:55,359 Speaker 2: it's just a fluke. When I was researching the history 381 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,639 Speaker 2: of cross burnings for an episode a while back, I 382 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:02,400 Speaker 2: read a surprising number of news stories from all over 383 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:07,040 Speaker 2: the South, spanning decades that describe a pretty straightforward act 384 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,480 Speaker 2: of racial intimidation. Across was burned on someone's property, on 385 00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,639 Speaker 2: a public roadway or on a hillside where everyone in 386 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,120 Speaker 2: town can see it. Sometimes there was even a note 387 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:22,520 Speaker 2: left or a clan newsletter. Even worse, maybe a little 388 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 2: bit of dynamite left at the base, and in small 389 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:30,960 Speaker 2: towns all over the South, newspaper editors printed some policeman's 390 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:34,520 Speaker 2: assurance that this is just some kind of joke because 391 00:26:35,280 --> 00:26:38,600 Speaker 2: we don't have the clan here. This might look like 392 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,359 Speaker 2: the kind of thing a clansman would do, but that's 393 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:45,640 Speaker 2: something that happens somewhere else. We don't have racial terror here, 394 00:26:47,040 --> 00:26:49,040 Speaker 2: and I think that's the same thing we're doing when 395 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:51,320 Speaker 2: we slap the lone wolf label on one of these 396 00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:57,000 Speaker 2: attacks to avoid asking scary follow up questions. This might 397 00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:00,000 Speaker 2: look like part of a broader project, a violently enforcement 398 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:04,359 Speaker 2: white supremacy. But don't worry. It was just some disturbed 399 00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,280 Speaker 2: young man who came up with this on his own. 400 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,440 Speaker 2: This isn't connected to anything. You don't need to worry 401 00:27:10,440 --> 00:27:14,639 Speaker 2: about it. This has become sort of a central theme 402 00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,119 Speaker 2: of the show. This is sort of part of my 403 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:20,120 Speaker 2: mission at this point that for every weird little guy 404 00:27:20,160 --> 00:27:22,320 Speaker 2: who acted alone in his plan to carry out some 405 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 2: kind of active terror, I want to peel back a 406 00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:29,800 Speaker 2: few layers and see how it connects. Who was he 407 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 2: talking to, what was he reading, what inspired him? Where 408 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:36,560 Speaker 2: did he learn to build that bomb, Where did he 409 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:38,840 Speaker 2: get that gun? Who was his mentor where did he 410 00:27:38,880 --> 00:27:43,399 Speaker 2: get those ideas? Who was he hoping to impress? It 411 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:45,760 Speaker 2: only takes one set of hands to build a pipe 412 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:49,280 Speaker 2: bomb and just one finger to pull a trigger. But 413 00:27:49,359 --> 00:27:54,639 Speaker 2: these things aren't random. They don't just happen For every 414 00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,000 Speaker 2: one man who just makes it happen, there is an 415 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:04,479 Speaker 2: entire network of people encouraging it to happen. So despite 416 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,000 Speaker 2: the abundance of existing literature describing Joseph Paul Franklin as 417 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:12,320 Speaker 2: the archetypal lone wolf, what if I told you for 418 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:13,320 Speaker 2: the hundredth. 419 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:32,560 Speaker 1: Time there are no lone wolves. Not really. 420 00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,920 Speaker 2: One of the intriguing facts about Franklin's life that I 421 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,280 Speaker 2: knew going into this was that William Luther Pierce, the 422 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:42,360 Speaker 2: author of the Turner Diaries, would later dedicate a book 423 00:28:42,440 --> 00:28:47,280 Speaker 2: to Franklin. Years after Franklin was caught, Pierce wrote his 424 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 2: second and final novel, Hunter. He denies basing the story 425 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,240 Speaker 2: on Franklin's crimes, of course, but he's a habitual liar, 426 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:01,680 Speaker 2: or he was. He's very dead now. It's almost silly 427 00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:06,000 Speaker 2: that he would even bother lying about this. Not only 428 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,520 Speaker 2: are some key elements of the plot direct retellings of 429 00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:14,400 Speaker 2: Franklin's real life crimes. He quite literally dedicated the book 430 00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:17,360 Speaker 2: to the man. His name is inside the cover. In 431 00:29:17,400 --> 00:29:22,480 Speaker 2: some editions, it says to Joseph Paul Franklin, the lone 432 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,640 Speaker 2: hunter who saw his duty as a white man and 433 00:29:25,720 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 2: did what a responsible son of his race must do. Now. 434 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:34,920 Speaker 2: His first book, The Turner Diaries, the book that inspired 435 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:39,640 Speaker 2: the Oklahoma City bombing, is about working within an organization, 436 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:45,880 Speaker 2: but Hunter is about a lone wolf. The protagonist, Oscar Yeger, 437 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,200 Speaker 2: carries out a similar string of murders to those committed 438 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:52,920 Speaker 2: by Franklin in real life, targeting interracial couples Jews, and 439 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 2: then escalating to more high profile targets, something that Franklin 440 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 2: did attempt to do but did not succeed at. From there, 441 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:06,160 Speaker 2: the fictional version drifts off into a convoluted plot involving 442 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:09,040 Speaker 2: an anti Semitic FBI agent who blackmails the killer into 443 00:30:09,040 --> 00:30:12,400 Speaker 2: helping him eliminate Jewish control of the FBI, but we 444 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 2: can set that aside for now. At the end of 445 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 2: the book, the protagonist murders the FBI agent and decides 446 00:30:18,960 --> 00:30:24,480 Speaker 2: to go back underground. It ends with the line time 447 00:30:24,560 --> 00:30:31,640 Speaker 2: to do some more hunting. The book wasn't published until 448 00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:34,640 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty nine, although Pierce claims he wrote the first 449 00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 2: chapter in nineteen eighty four, So there's no indication here 450 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:40,760 Speaker 2: that he had personal knowledge of the crimes as they 451 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:44,360 Speaker 2: were happening. By the time he started writing this, Franklin 452 00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:46,560 Speaker 2: was in prison and the details of his crimes were 453 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:52,080 Speaker 2: readily available the newspaper. But dedicating it to him seems 454 00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:59,480 Speaker 2: uncharacteristically sentimental, based on my knowledge of the man. William 455 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,480 Speaker 2: Luther peers Son Kelvin Pierce wrote in his own memoir, 456 00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,040 Speaker 2: Dad said he dedicated the book to him because quote, 457 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:09,880 Speaker 2: he is the kind of person I would like to be. 458 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:15,840 Speaker 2: But that quote has a citation. It appears that this 459 00:31:16,040 --> 00:31:19,000 Speaker 2: isn't something Kelvin is saying he heard his father say, 460 00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:22,480 Speaker 2: but rather something his father is quoted as having said 461 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:27,800 Speaker 2: to his own biographer, And Kelvin doesn't actually have the 462 00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 2: quote right in his book if you go to where 463 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,480 Speaker 2: Pierce actually said this to his biographer. In the book 464 00:31:34,560 --> 00:31:38,160 Speaker 2: Fame of a Dead Man's Deeds, Pierce said he identified 465 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,920 Speaker 2: with the novel's protagonist Oscar Yeager because he is the 466 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,040 Speaker 2: kind of person I would like to be. So he's 467 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:49,080 Speaker 2: saying he would like to be Oscar Yeger, not Joseph 468 00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:52,160 Speaker 2: Paul Franklin. And this is said in the same conversation 469 00:31:52,200 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 2: as his denial that Oscar Yeger is based on Franklin. 470 00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 2: So I wonder if Kelvin didn't actually make a mistake here. 471 00:32:01,640 --> 00:32:03,720 Speaker 2: He cited the quote down to the correct page number, 472 00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:06,640 Speaker 2: so I know he read it. I think he might 473 00:32:06,680 --> 00:32:10,760 Speaker 2: be hinting that his dad is lying, and it's clear 474 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,320 Speaker 2: to him that his father really did wish he could 475 00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,880 Speaker 2: have been the one out there shooting interracial couples and 476 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:23,120 Speaker 2: black children. So I have this black hole in my timeline, right. 477 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,480 Speaker 2: Joseph Paul Franklin was an active member of the National 478 00:32:26,520 --> 00:32:30,800 Speaker 2: Socialist White People's Party in nineteen sixty nine, he's tear 479 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 2: gassing hippies with James Mason, and there's a few hazy 480 00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:38,280 Speaker 2: scraps about his membership in the National States Rights Party 481 00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:41,640 Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy four. He told mel Ayton that he 482 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,360 Speaker 2: was only in the Klan for a couple of months 483 00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:46,360 Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy six, but I don't think he's right 484 00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:49,880 Speaker 2: about the year. And by the time he starts killing 485 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:55,320 Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven, he says he'd quit everything, and 486 00:32:55,400 --> 00:33:01,400 Speaker 2: after he's caught, no one claims him. He's largely forgotten, 487 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,600 Speaker 2: but the men who did remember him are pretty important figures. 488 00:33:08,560 --> 00:33:12,520 Speaker 2: James Mason mentions him throughout Siege. That collection of essays 489 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:17,240 Speaker 2: advocating for White revolutions through terrorism, William Luther Pierce dedicated 490 00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,400 Speaker 2: an entire novel to him, a novel clearly intended to 491 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,440 Speaker 2: serve as an endorsement of Franklin's crimes and a handbook 492 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:31,360 Speaker 2: for recreating them. He's not nobody, and his actions were 493 00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:35,160 Speaker 2: not his alone, even if he was alone when he 494 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:39,080 Speaker 2: did them. I just feel like there's something missing here. 495 00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,520 Speaker 2: There's just not a lot of clear information about when 496 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:47,160 Speaker 2: and why he joined and then left each of these 497 00:33:47,240 --> 00:33:51,200 Speaker 2: three organizations, and the accounts of his life that even 498 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,920 Speaker 2: bother to address his membership in those organizations tend to 499 00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:58,040 Speaker 2: paint his movement between them as indicative that he was 500 00:33:58,080 --> 00:34:01,920 Speaker 2: not ideologically at home, that he was joining and then 501 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:05,680 Speaker 2: quitting groups because he didn't fit in or they weren't 502 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:08,680 Speaker 2: a good fit, or he wasn't welcome, or he couldn't 503 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:13,720 Speaker 2: get along, or he needed something different, And some accounts 504 00:34:13,719 --> 00:34:16,400 Speaker 2: claimed that he was actually expelled from the National Socialist 505 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:20,880 Speaker 2: White People's Party, which I can't find any proof of. 506 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 2: One paper published in the Journal Terrorism and Political Violence 507 00:34:26,640 --> 00:34:28,960 Speaker 2: actually makes the claim that Franklin was kicked out of 508 00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:32,160 Speaker 2: the National Socialist White People's Party for killing a dog. 509 00:34:33,560 --> 00:34:36,799 Speaker 2: And that's not true. I mean, that is provably not true. 510 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 2: I can guarantee you this is false because the dog 511 00:34:40,160 --> 00:34:45,480 Speaker 2: in question was gas Chamber. The dog's name was gas Chamber. 512 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:47,920 Speaker 2: He was the mascot for the American Nazi Party in 513 00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:53,200 Speaker 2: the early sixties, and by all credible accounts, gas Chamber 514 00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 2: was hit by a truck in nineteen sixty three. Franklin 515 00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:59,560 Speaker 2: was in middle school in sixty three, and it would 516 00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:01,600 Speaker 2: be several years before he showed up at the Nazi 517 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:05,280 Speaker 2: Party barracks in Virginia. He couldn't have killed gas Chamber. 518 00:35:07,160 --> 00:35:09,759 Speaker 2: The author seems to have mixed up which former member 519 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:13,319 Speaker 2: this rumor is about, because there were allegations that the 520 00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 2: dog had been strangled to death, but that rumor was 521 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:19,879 Speaker 2: about Dan Burros, the disgraced former member who later shot 522 00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:22,440 Speaker 2: himself when The New York Times revealed his Jewish upbringing. 523 00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 2: But again, those rumors don't surface until later when people 524 00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:31,560 Speaker 2: are angry at Dan Burros. At the time of gas 525 00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:35,400 Speaker 2: Chamber's unfortunate death, he was eulogized in the party newsletter, 526 00:35:35,520 --> 00:35:40,520 Speaker 2: and his death really was an accident. So there's information missing, 527 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:48,560 Speaker 2: and some of the information provided just isn't true. Ayton's 528 00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:52,040 Speaker 2: book relies on Franklin's own account, and he says he 529 00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,759 Speaker 2: quit the National Socialist White People's Party because quote, he 530 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,520 Speaker 2: began to see the Nazis as an organization that wasn't 531 00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:02,120 Speaker 2: violent enough to assist him in what was quickly becoming 532 00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 2: his divine mission. And he later quit both the Klan 533 00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:09,400 Speaker 2: and the National States Rights Party because he felt the 534 00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:13,279 Speaker 2: other members didn't take their ideology seriously and they were 535 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:17,839 Speaker 2: afraid to take action. His time in all of these 536 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:22,279 Speaker 2: groups is implied to have been brief and of little consequence, 537 00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:25,759 Speaker 2: that he left no mark there, and he was a misfit. 538 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:29,160 Speaker 2: People didn't remember him, and the people that did said 539 00:36:29,160 --> 00:36:33,000 Speaker 2: he wasn't important. But I think this is part of 540 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:36,360 Speaker 2: why the origin of the term lone wolf is so 541 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:41,520 Speaker 2: important to keep in mind was a term invented by 542 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:47,440 Speaker 2: white supremacists by neo Nazis. By these terrorists to distance 543 00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:51,880 Speaker 2: themselves from the members of their organizations that they encourage 544 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:55,480 Speaker 2: to do acts of terrorism, so that when they go 545 00:36:55,520 --> 00:36:59,319 Speaker 2: out and do these things, you can say that wasn't us. 546 00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:02,960 Speaker 2: We don't know him. So the fact that people are 547 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:05,440 Speaker 2: claiming they don't remember him, I think is part of 548 00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:11,960 Speaker 2: this overall narrative project rather than actual historical fact. And 549 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:13,879 Speaker 2: I'll get a little bit more into the places where 550 00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:16,520 Speaker 2: I was able to pin him down in these groups. 551 00:37:16,560 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 2: Next week I started trying to fill in this timeline 552 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:26,000 Speaker 2: by working backwards, by reading the Nazi newsletters he would 553 00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:30,239 Speaker 2: have been reading in the seventies. His sister said that 554 00:37:30,280 --> 00:37:32,480 Speaker 2: he was always a big fan of William Luther Pearce, 555 00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:37,160 Speaker 2: which isn't surprising. So he was probably a subscriber to Attack, 556 00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:42,640 Speaker 2: the newspaper for Pierce's new organization, National Alliance, And if 557 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,840 Speaker 2: he was reading Attack in nineteen seventy five, he was 558 00:37:44,880 --> 00:37:47,799 Speaker 2: almost certainly following along with each new chapter of the 559 00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:52,360 Speaker 2: Turner Diaries, and maybe his old friendship with James Mason 560 00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:55,120 Speaker 2: inspired him to subscribe to the paper Mason was editing, 561 00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,480 Speaker 2: the National Socialist Bulletin, or maybe one of Mason's other 562 00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:02,879 Speaker 2: projects like the National Socialist, the Stormer or the White 563 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,680 Speaker 2: Workers Bulletin. If he was feeling a little messy and 564 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:08,799 Speaker 2: he wanted to see some drama. Maybe he was willing 565 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:10,920 Speaker 2: to pay a dollar to read the White Power Report, 566 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:13,719 Speaker 2: published by a faction that had split off during a 567 00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:18,560 Speaker 2: feud with Mason. Maybe he read Joseph Tamasi's short lived 568 00:38:18,640 --> 00:38:22,759 Speaker 2: National Socialist Review as a member of the National States 569 00:38:22,840 --> 00:38:25,000 Speaker 2: Rights Party. I know for a fact that he read 570 00:38:25,000 --> 00:38:30,920 Speaker 2: The Thunderbolt religiously by reading the things he was reading 571 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,640 Speaker 2: and making sense of the world that he lived in, 572 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:36,480 Speaker 2: consuming the information that he would have been immersed in 573 00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,200 Speaker 2: about the shifting landscape of organizations and leaders, and the 574 00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,800 Speaker 2: alliances and feuds between them, and their fixations, and the 575 00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,239 Speaker 2: kind of violence they were encouraging in the kind of 576 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:51,520 Speaker 2: innuendo they were using. His choices seem a lot less random. 577 00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:57,600 Speaker 2: In the summer of nineteen seventy seven, William Luther Pierce 578 00:38:57,800 --> 00:39:01,279 Speaker 2: penned an article in Attack about a judge in Wisconsin. 579 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,920 Speaker 2: He compared a recent ruling that the judge made to 580 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:08,440 Speaker 2: the kind of behavior that inspired the protagonist of the 581 00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:14,560 Speaker 2: Turner Diaries to enact violent retribution. A few weeks later, 582 00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:20,120 Speaker 2: Joseph Paul Franklin committed his first murder. He was on 583 00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:24,680 Speaker 2: his way to that judge's home in Madison, Wisconsin, when 584 00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 2: he got distracted by a pair of teenage girls trying 585 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:31,480 Speaker 2: to hitchhike to the mall. He picked the girls up, 586 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,920 Speaker 2: and after dropping them off at the mall, his mission 587 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:39,200 Speaker 2: to assassinate the judge just fell apart completely. He was 588 00:39:39,239 --> 00:39:41,600 Speaker 2: in a hurry to get back on the road, and 589 00:39:41,640 --> 00:39:43,080 Speaker 2: he felt like the car in front of him in 590 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:46,920 Speaker 2: the parking lot was driving slowly on purpose, surely just 591 00:39:47,080 --> 00:39:52,600 Speaker 2: to bother him. So he honked and the other car 592 00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:56,319 Speaker 2: pulled into a parking spot eventually, and as he passed it, 593 00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:00,280 Speaker 2: he saw the couple inside was a young bla black 594 00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:06,640 Speaker 2: man and his white blonde girlfriend. He was already having 595 00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:10,359 Speaker 2: a very stressful day, and now these race mixers are 596 00:40:10,440 --> 00:40:15,879 Speaker 2: antagonizing him in his mind at least, and mixed race 597 00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:17,879 Speaker 2: couples are one of his least favorite things. He has 598 00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:21,480 Speaker 2: a documented history of getting into altercations with mixed race couples. 599 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,160 Speaker 2: So it seems likely that when the man started walking 600 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:29,160 Speaker 2: towards Franklin's car, it was because he was saying something 601 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:35,560 Speaker 2: to them. He was probably shouting something gross, and maybe 602 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:40,120 Speaker 2: on a different day, in a different circumstance, he would 603 00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:44,160 Speaker 2: have just left it and shouted racial slurs. Maybe he 604 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:49,400 Speaker 2: would have maced them, he'd done that before. But sitting 605 00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:52,120 Speaker 2: there on the passenger seat was a stolen three pot 606 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:55,080 Speaker 2: fifty seven magnum, the gun he planned to use to 607 00:40:55,160 --> 00:40:58,480 Speaker 2: kill the judge. And if that man walked all the 608 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:01,040 Speaker 2: way over to the car to confront him, he would 609 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,040 Speaker 2: probably notice the bag full of cash in the back seat. 610 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:07,680 Speaker 2: Franklin had committed a bank robbery a few days earlier, 611 00:41:09,320 --> 00:41:11,600 Speaker 2: and if he saw the cash, he would definitely see 612 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:16,440 Speaker 2: the box of explosives, and he would probably call the police. 613 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:20,560 Speaker 2: Franklin couldn't risk it. He was there on a mission, 614 00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:29,080 Speaker 2: so he fired, hitting the man twice. When he eventually 615 00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,719 Speaker 2: confessed to this, it sounded like shooting the woman was 616 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:38,759 Speaker 2: just an afterthought in my frustrating quest to fill in 617 00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,760 Speaker 2: the blanks in the timeline in Franklin's life, the pieces 618 00:41:42,840 --> 00:41:45,720 Speaker 2: started to take the shape of a different sort of animal, 619 00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:52,040 Speaker 2: not a lone wolf, but some kind of poorly trained 620 00:41:52,080 --> 00:41:57,960 Speaker 2: dog that had escaped from the yard. His choices weren't random, 621 00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:04,160 Speaker 2: they were just kind of poorly thought out. He would 622 00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:06,720 Speaker 2: later claim that he felt he'd been assigned this mission 623 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:10,920 Speaker 2: by God, but I think his inspiration was from somewhere 624 00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:15,279 Speaker 2: a lot closer to home. He wanted to be an assassin, 625 00:42:16,320 --> 00:42:18,959 Speaker 2: and he ended up panicking in a mall parking lot. 626 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:24,880 Speaker 2: He never did make it to the judge's house, but 627 00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:29,920 Speaker 2: once he started killing, he didn't stop. It turned out 628 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:31,279 Speaker 2: it was a hell of a lot easier to kill 629 00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,520 Speaker 2: the enemies of the white race if he didn't worry 630 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:52,520 Speaker 2: too much about who died. Weird Little Guys It's a 631 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,840 Speaker 2: production of Cool Zone Media and iHeartRadio. It's researched, written 632 00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:59,120 Speaker 2: and recorded by me, Molly Hunger. Our executive producers are 633 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 2: Sophie Lichtermann and Robert Evans. The show is edited by 634 00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:04,719 Speaker 2: I think wildly talented Rory Gagan. The theme music was 635 00:43:04,760 --> 00:43:07,520 Speaker 2: composed by Brad Dickert. You can email me at Weird 636 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,040 Speaker 2: Little Guys podcast at gmail dot com. I will definitely 637 00:43:10,080 --> 00:43:12,240 Speaker 2: read it, but I probably won't answer, and it's nothing personal. 638 00:43:12,760 --> 00:43:15,160 Speaker 2: Who can exchange conspiracy theories about the show with other 639 00:43:15,239 --> 00:43:19,120 Speaker 2: listeners on the Weird Little Guys subreddit. Just don't post 640 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:20,520 Speaker 2: anything that's going to make you one of my Weird 641 00:43:20,520 --> 00:43:21,040 Speaker 2: Little Guys