206: ALABAMA - The RACIST Serial Killer: Joseph Paul Franklin
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In the late 70s and early 80s, people all over America were dropping dead in the streets. Some were just walking with friends or leaving church. Others were shopping or grabbing a bite to eat.

And then out of nowhere, with no dispute or provocation, bullets started flying in their direction. Most of the victims were either Jewish, black men, or white women who were dating black men. And their killer, a man named Joseph Paul Franklin, was motivated by pure hatred. He was a violent racist who was inspired by Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson,

in the Ku Klux Klan. Joseph's hatred ran so deep, he made it his life's mission to kill as many of these people as he possibly could. His methods of murder included shooting people from afar, making it easy for him to escape.

But he also bombed synagogues and he targeted civil rights leaders. Over the years, he became one of the most chilling serial killers in America, taking the lives of at least 20 people, all in the name of hatred. So this is the story of the racist serial killer, Joseph Paul Franklin. I'm Courtney Browen. And I'm Colin Browen. And you're listening to Murder in America. ♪♪

Our story starts in Mobile, Alabama in the year 1950. At the time, it was a bustling city of around 129,000 residents. Jobs were plentiful and people were happy to settle down and raise their families there. Downtown Mobile was lined with department stores, theaters, and small businesses.

And at certain parts of the year, there were huge Mardi Gras parades. Mobile was your quintessential southern town. It had its own sense of southern charm. But beneath the surface, Jim Crow laws had poisoned the city. Black residents weren't allowed near any of the white people's schools, buses, restaurants, and even water fountains. And a lot of people in Mobile did not want that to change.

Sadly, the Ku Klux Klan also had a huge influence in this city. So when the nation started talking about desegregation, a lot of its white residents were angry. The thought of black people entering their sacred white spaces infuriated them. Some even protested with violence, like cross burnings, racial attacks, and even murders. And this was the world that Joseph Paul Franklin was born into.

Joseph Paul Franklin was born on April 13th, 1950, right in the heart of Mobile, Alabama. Joseph's mother, Helen, actually came from a family of immigrants. Her parents immigrated to the United States from Germany after World War II. But during the war, they were proud Nazis with a deep hatred of

of Jews, ideologies that were taught to their children. Now as for Joseph's father James, he actually fought in the United States Navy during World War II. During his service, he suffered from battle shock epilepsy, so for the rest of his life he had to use a cane. But together, James and Helen would go on to have four children, Carolyn, Marilyn, Gordon, and finally Joseph.

but their family was very dysfunctional. The father, James, was a drunk who would beat his wife and kids. He would often leave for weeks at a time, going on alcohol benders, spending all of his family's money. And things were honestly better when he was away. His kids would later say that they witnessed their father's abuse on the regular. One time when Helen was pregnant,

He beat her so hard she lost the baby. Now because of James's alcohol abuse, it was hard for him to hold down a job. So growing up, Joseph and his siblings lived in poverty. They settled into a poor all white housing project called Birdville. The six of them were crammed into a small apartment

barely making enough to get by. But the children would later say that church members and welfare workers would often help them by buying them clothes and toys.

According to Joseph's siblings, they had a volatile upbringing. Both of their parents were quick to hand down severe beatings any time the children misbehaved. Carolyn would later say, "...it was torture to live at home. It was pure hell. Wake up in the middle of the night, someone gets you out of bed and just beat the hell out of you. We just have bad memories of my mother, because she fussed a lot and she hit a lot. My father, he had a cane. I know he hit Jimmy."

he used to hit him with it all the time according to carolyn joseph received the brunt of their parents rage now by 1958 james and helen would separate with james finally moving out of the house but even with their father gone the abuse continued with helen being a single mother she was even more stressed than before and she often took that out on her children eventually she started babysitting children in the neighborhood to help make ends meet

but that only seemed to make her more stressed. She was even known to abuse the kids she was babysitting. But even with this extra job, Helen had a hard time supporting her family, and she relied heavily on social security checks.

Around this time, Joseph was just 8 years old, and with his parents now divorced, his entire world had turned upside down. In order to escape the chaos at home, he became an avid reader. He would later say, "I guess you'd call me a bookworm. When I was 9, 10, and 11, I was living in those fantasies all the time." Joseph's teachers would later say that he was an ideal student.

He was quiet and could take direction. However, over time his grades started to decline. Joseph didn't care much about school. He also had a hard time making friends and was considered weird and a loner. And it's around this time when his violent tendencies began. Trigger warning: This next part includes really, really sad instances of animal cruelty. So if you're like me and can't handle that, just skip forward about 15 seconds.

Around high school, Joseph started abusing animals. He and his brother Gordon would find cats around Birdville and string them up on the clotheslines by their tails. Even Helen hated stray animals and if one showed up on their doorstep, she would beat it. Joseph later stated, "My mom once poured hot scalding water on a stray dog. That's cruel. Sadistic, isn't it?"

In addition to animal cruelty, they were also racist. Across the train tracks from their housing project was a predominantly black neighborhood. And as we know, racism is not in our blood, it's taught.

Ever since he was a little boy, Joseph overheard how his parents and other white people in his neighborhood talked about the black people across the tracks. When a black person would walk by, Joseph watched as people gave them dirty looks, called them horrible names, and judged them simply because of the color of their skin. So ever since he could remember, that's how he viewed them

as well as less than. When talks of desegregation started to take place in America, Joseph's family and neighbors were angry. There was a lot of racial tension in the area, something he witnessed nearly every day. He would later say, quote, "Just about everybody in Mobile at the time during the '50s and '60s when I was growing up used the N-word. It was kind of common then.

Matter of fact, it was uncommon to hear anyone use the word "Negro." End quote. As Joseph grew older, his violent tendencies grew stronger. During his teenage years, he was obsessed with guns, and he would practice shooting those guns in his own bedroom.

There was a wall in his room that was full of bullet holes. And by the age of 16, he never left the house without a gun. Now, Joseph actually had pretty bad eyesight. When he was 7 years old, he had a bike accident that left him blind in his right eye. But his eyesight wouldn't hinder his ability to shoot with pristine accuracy.

It's also around this time when Joseph developed a germ phobia and wouldn't drink out of the same glass his siblings had used even after it had been washed. When he would sit down, he was so scared of sitting on germs, he started laying a towel down. He also had obsessive-compulsive tendencies where he would constantly check things that he had already checked, a characteristic that would help him out later in life when committing crimes.

By 1964, Joseph was attending Murphy High School, and the older he got, the more racist he became. Now, 10 years prior to this in 1954, Brown versus the Board of Education ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional, but the city of Mobile, Alabama had resisted desegregation for as long as it could. In fact, the governor of Alabama at the time, George C. Wallace,

physically tried to block black students from entering the University of Alabama. Sadly, many people in Alabama at the time shared his beliefs and a lot of these people were Christian. By the

By the time Joseph was in high school, he had become a lot more religious. He would read the Bible, desperately searching its pages for meaning, and he would often twist the scriptures so they would align with his own beliefs. For instance, he believed that God saw white people as the superior race.

So by September of 1963, when black students were attending previously all white schools and universities, Joseph, along with many others in town, were angry. But his racism wasn't just for African Americans. In fact, in high school, Joseph read a copy of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf."

Joseph was fascinated with Hitler and his hatred of Jews, whom he blamed for Germany's economic and social problems. But he was particularly interested in his ideas on how to create an Aryan race. Joseph's younger sister, Marilyn, would later say, quote, "'He worshipped Hitler. When I was a little girl, he would tell me stories of the different ways they killed Jews, because this was one of his obsessions, the Nazis, the Klan, and all.'"

End quote.

By 1967, Joseph dropped out of high school after his junior year. But it's also around this time when he met a girl. It was 16-year-old Bobbi Louise Dorman. The two fell for each other quickly, and after just two weeks of dating, they got married. Likely because Bobbi found out she was pregnant. Now, at first, Bobbi said the relationship was healthy and normal. Joseph was a doting husband to his new bride. However, it was short-lived.

Soon enough, when the two really settled down, Joseph started showing his true colors. Bobby quickly learned that he was a hothead who was quick to beat her when he got angry. The beating became so frequent that Bobby began to fear for her life. She said the change in him was like night and day. Bobby also got to witness just how dysfunctional Joseph was. He often complained of headaches and cried about his father.

He fantasized about living his life as a motorcycle gang member and even started dressing the part. Joseph bought a biker vest and put a swastika on it. He would stand in the mirror while wearing it and shout, "Heil Hitler!" Bobby stated, "He used to fantasize that he was a Hell's Angel. You know, he had the jeans and the jacket and he carried a knife. But he never owned a bike. It was like

It was like Joseph just wanted something to belong to. I guess the Nazis were about as different as you could get. It wouldn't take Bobby long to realize that the man she married was not a good person. Now, the couple would have a daughter together, but the relationship wouldn't last. After only four months of marriage, they divorced. After his separation, Joseph leaned even further into racist literature.

At the time, African Americans were integrating into white society and it made Joseph's blood boil. So to confirm his biases, he read books of like-minded people. He would later say, quote, "'Once you consciously go over the stuff, Nazi hate literature, over and over again, it just goes down in your conscience and you begin to think that blacks and Jews aren't even people at all.'" End quote.

Joseph also started surrounding himself with like-minded people. In 1968, he moved to Arlington, Virginia and joined the Arlington American Nazi Party, which would only make him more hateful. Joseph was often seen protesting with his fellow Nazi Party members. In 1970, he was photographed in full Nazi attire outside the White House.

protesting a visit from the Israeli prime minister. But believe it or not, Joseph was kind of disappointed by how tame the Nazi group was. He would later say that most of the group was all talk.

They basically sat around chatting about how much they hated black people and Jews, which is pretty much exactly what things were like back in Alabama. Joseph joined the group hoping to commit acts of violence against these groups. In his own words, he said he wanted to quote, "Clean up America," end quote. He didn't wanna just gossip about them. He also found it disappointing that he had a hard time fitting in with the group. Throughout his life, he never had a lot of friends,

But he was hoping that when he joined the Nazi party, they would welcome him with open arms. However, even they didn't like him much. Do you know how horrible of a person you have to be for the Nazis to not even like you? Another part of Joseph's deep hatred was interracial couples.

And he got this idea to try and start a race war. Now, in 1969, he came up with this idea after learning about Charles Manson. In August of 1969, Manson and his group of followers murdered Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Wojciech Frykowski, and Abigail Folger at Sharon's home. After murdering them, Manson's followers wrote "Pig" and "Helter Skelter" in blood in an attempt to frame black radicals and ignite a race war.

And Joseph was drawn to this idea. He would later say,

it was the logical conclusion to race mixing and that's when he decided that he was going to assassinate as many black and jewish people as he could when he spoke about his plan to other nazi party members no one took him seriously but he would go on to do just that

- Back in Mobile, Alabama, Joseph's family members had no idea where he had gone. No one had spoken to him or heard from him in years. He was too busy mingling with the Nazis. When his mother, Helen, passed away in October of 1972, no one had any way of contacting him to let him know. The following year, Joseph finally made his way back home. But when he pulled up to his house and knocked on the front door, a new family was living there.

So Joseph truly had no one, no family, no friends. The only people in his life were members of the Nazi party and they didn't really like him either. So in 1974, Joseph decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia. Once there, he immediately joined the white supremacist political party, the National States Rights Party.

The leader of the organization at the time, Jesse Benjamin or JB Stoner, was extremely racist, especially when it came to Jews. He idolized Hitler and once said, "Being a Jew should be a crime punishable by death." In his own twisted mind, he believed that Hitler had been too moderate and said,

"The only thing I find wrong with Hitler is that he didn't exterminate all the six million Jews he's credited with." He also compared blacks to apes and Jews he claimed were "vipers of hell." J.B. Stoner had earned his law degree from Atlanta Law School and joined the team of attorneys to represent James Earl Ray, Martin Luther King's assassin, in 1969. He frequently referred to King as "Martin Lucifer King." Of course, Joseph was welcomed by J.B. with open arms.

Upon joining the group, Joseph was given the task of selling the NSRP newspaper titled The Thunderbolt, The White Man's Viewpoint. The newspaper was appalling. It featured articles and cartoons demonizing African-Americans, Jews, and civil rights activists.

They glorified the Ku Klux Klan and they celebrated acts of violence against minorities. But Joseph felt at home here. If anything, it made him more racist than ever before. When he eventually saw his family again, they were shocked at how hateful he had become. His sister Marilyn noticed that Joseph wouldn't even touch a door handle if it had been used by an African American. If a restaurant had a black server, he would walk out

refusing to eat there. His sister was so disgusted by him,

She cut off all contact with him after that. She could sense that he was on a downward spiral of violence. And she was right. Remember earlier how I mentioned Joseph hated interracial couples? Well, on September 6th, 1976, Joseph was walking around Atlanta when he spotted a black man with a white woman. Their names were Aaron Miles and Carol Eastwood. Upon seeing the couple, Joseph became enraged

So much so he followed them for a whole 10 miles. Eventually there was a verbal altercation that ended with Joseph spraying the couple with mace and Joseph would be arrested for this, but there was no trial, no consequences for his actions. - Later that same year, Joseph joined the United Clans of America. He heard that unlike the Nazi party, they would commit violence, which made him excited.

In fact, by the mid-1960s, the KKK was responsible for numerous bombings and murders in the South, including a church bombing in 1963 that claimed the lives of four young girls. Ultimately, Joseph was promoted to "Kliegel" within the Klan and became responsible for recruiting new members.

During his time with the Klan, Joseph was particularly fascinated with their huge arsenal of weapons. Hand grenades, machine guns, bazookas, and dynamite. He was also given a book called We Will Survive. A book that had detailed instructions on how to successfully make a bomb and use various weapons. But, once again, Joseph still didn't really feel like he belonged.

So, in 1976, he decided to leave the Klan. And although he was no longer a member, he was grateful for his time there. He learned a lot about explosives, guns, and how to get away with killing people. And from there, he would take that knowledge and use it to commit violence all on his own.

Now that he wasn't tied to any particular organization, Joseph started building his own arsenal of weapons. In his free time, he practiced his sniping skills. You see, if he was going to kill as many minorities as possible, he couldn't be up close and personal. He would have to do it from afar so he could get away before the police came.

But he was also interested in killing a lot of people at once. So he started researching how to make bombs. Those would end up being his two favorite methods of violence, snipe shooting and explosives. One day while he was walking down the street,

He passed a synagogue and that's when he knew it was time to start his killings. He would later say, "It was my mission. I just felt like I was engaged in a war with the world. My mission was to get rid of as many evil doers as I could. If I did not, then I would be punished.

I felt that God instructed me to kill people." Now in order to carry out his mission, he needed to make sure that he had enough money so he could buy supplies. So that's when he decided he was going to rob a bank. He carried out that robbery on June 16th, 1977. And surprisingly,

He got away with it. Afterwards, he dyed his hair to avoid suspicion and he used the money to buy explosives from a Charleston, South Carolina distributor. Over the next month, he made his homemade bomb and soon enough, he'd be ready to use it.

It was July 25th, 1977 when he picked his first Jewish target, Morris Amite. Morris was the executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vice chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. He lived with his wife and three children at 4710 Sunflower Drive in Rockville, Maryland. Around 3:00 AM, Joseph parked his car on nearby Bittersweet Lane and snuck up to the house with his homemade explosive.

He placed it outside near the family room as the family of five slept in the home. At 3:20 am the bomb ignited, shaking the entire neighborhood. There were homes that were blocks away that had broken windows from the glass. As for the Amite house, one of their walls had completely blown out, but fortunately the entire family emerged without injury. Well, everyone sadly, except for their beagle puppy Bingo.

The family dog was found beneath the rubble inside the family room. When investigators arrived on scene, they were absolutely shocked that the family had survived the blast. But unfortunately, they had no idea who was responsible for it. Joseph Paul Franklin had gotten away with the crime. After the bombing, Joseph left town and drove to Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was disappointed that the bomb didn't kill anyone, but he had no plans to slow down or

or lay low. Now that he was in a new city, he would have to try again. And this time he wanted to target a synagogue. After driving around Chattanooga, Joseph checked into the airport and motel and directly behind this hotel was exactly what he was looking for. It was the Beth Shalom synagogue. Over the next few days, he went to work making another explosive. And on July 29th, just four days after the previous bombing,

Joseph made his way over, excited to kill as many Jews as he could. Now at the time, there were eight people inside the synagogue. No one noticed that a man was crawling through the crawl space, placing a bomb directly under where they were sitting. But by the time Joseph got back to his hotel to ignite the bomb, those people had already left the building.

Luckily, there were no injuries and no deaths, but there was extensive damage to the synagogue. The walls had completely collapsed, the roof caved in, and pretty much everything inside was destroyed. The rabbi would later say, quote, "'There had been no threats, nothing of the kind. "'I just don't understand it.'"

I have no idea what caused it. One minute there's a synagogue and then boom, it is no more." At first, investigators thought that this was some kind of accident, but then they found an extension cord. As they followed the cord, they saw that it was plugged into an outlet at the airport inn. And that's when they knew that this was a planned attack.

From here, ATF started making connections to the bombing in Maryland that occurred just days earlier, but with no fingerprints or no eyewitnesses, they had no idea who was responsible. However, they did figure that whoever it was, was clearly targeting Jews.

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Now, after two bombings with no casualties, Joseph was angry. He decided that in his next attack, he would use a gun, and that day would come about a week later. In August of 1977, Joseph made the drive to Wisconsin. He had read about a judge who was known to give lenient sentences to black people. So, that week,

The judge was his target. Once in town, Joseph checked into a hotel under the name John Wesley Harden. But before he could cross paths with the judge, he came across an interracial couple. Both 23 years old, Alphonse Manning Jr. and his white girlfriend, Toni Schween, were out shopping at the East Town Mall when they encountered Joseph at an intersection. While at a light, Joseph started screaming at the couple.

Alphonse got out of his car to see what was going on and when he did, Joseph grabbed his gun and fired off several shots. Alphonse immediately collapsed on the street. But Joseph wasn't finished just yet. Because not only did he hate black people, but he hated anyone who was attracted to them. So even though Alphonse's girlfriend Toni was white, Joseph walked right over to her and shot her point blank. Both were killed instantly.

After murdering two innocent people, Joseph sped off in his dark green 1972 GM Capri, but he left behind one crucial piece of evidence, his cowboy hat, although it wouldn't lead to his capture. This time around, he was pleased with his work. He would later say of this shooting, quote, "'It just so happened to be two people that I totally hated, so I didn't dislike it.'"

"Once whites began having sex with blacks, "in my mind, as steeped as I was in that, "they weren't even human." Joseph was convinced that once a white woman slept with a black man, their physical appearance changed, saying, "Like their ass gets real saggy "and their boobs get different." But this event seemed to be a turning point in Joseph's life. For decades, he had been spewing hatred,

harassing, and even assaulting black people. But now he had escalated to murder and there was no turning back.

after the shooting deaths of alphonse manning jr and tony schween joseph left the state of wisconsin now he obviously didn't have a job at the time which gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted wherever he wanted and he eventually found himself in little rock arkansas but he wasn't there to kill anyone instead he decided he was going to rob another bank that robbery took place on september 7 1977.

And surprisingly, he was successful yet again. After the robbery, Joseph changed his appearance and drove to Dallas, Texas. He already had an arsenal of weapons at the time, but he wanted to buy a new gun for his next attack. While in Dallas, he saw in the newspaper that someone was selling a rifle, so he bought it from the man for $200. That week, Joseph spent all of his time perfecting his shot.

and even though he was partially blind in his right eye, he was still very skilled.

From here, Joseph made his way to St. Louis, Missouri, due to the large number of synagogues in the area. And eventually, he spotted the Brith Shalom Israel congregation located at 1107 Linden Avenue. This time, instead of using a bomb, Joseph was going to wait outside of the synagogue and kill off the Jews one by one. And he planned it out meticulously. He purchased a guitar case to conceal his rifle and bullets.

He wore gloves. And he even wiped down each of the bullets so there were no fingerprints on them. Then on Saturday, October 8th, 1977, Joseph made his way over and parked his car near some bushes across the street from the synagogue.

With him, he had a CB radio so he could hear all police activity. But with that, Joseph got his rifle ready and he waited. Around 1:00 PM, the service had ended and people started piling out of the synagogue doors. From across the street, Joseph steadied his rifle, aimed and fired.

At first, people thought the sound was from fireworks, but once they looked around, they realized they were mistaken. Connie Lincolns would later say, "It sounded like a cannon was going off. I saw one man fall, then another. People were dropping to the ground and screaming. It was terrible."

End quote. As bullets whizzed through the air, 42-year-old Gerald Gordon tried to get into his car. He was there that day with his two daughters and they watched in horror as he dropped to the ground with a bullet wound to his chest. Sadly, Gerald would be pronounced dead at 3:00 PM. Another young man named William Lee Ash lost his pinky finger in the blast, but he would survive. Across the street,

Joseph Paul Franklin watched as people dropped to the ground. More than anything, he wanted to sit there and continue firing, killing off as many Jews as he could. But in that moment, he heard on his radio that the police were already on their way. So with that, he threw his gun in his car and he fled the scene. - From there, he immediately fled St. Louis and made his way to Memphis, Tennessee. But he made one crucial mistake.

He left the rifle behind. Now, he had already scratched off the serial number and he was wearing gloves so there would be no fingerprints, but this was a rookie mistake. Eventually, investigators were able to retrieve the serial number from the gun using a chemical solution and they traced it back to the man in Dallas who sold Joseph the gun. But when the police spoke to the seller, they reached a dead end.

As it turned out, Joseph had used an alias when buying the weapon, so all they had was a physical description of him. A $4,000 reward was put out for his capture, but there was no luck in finding the identity of the shooter. Now, Joseph knew that this was a close call, and from there, he decided he wouldn't target any more synagogues.

Instead, he would refocus on interracial couples. He believed that if he switched up his tactics, it would be harder for the police to find him, and he was still hungry for more victims. In February of 1978, Joseph found himself in Atlanta, Georgia.

And one day, while he was driving down the suburban streets, he spotted another interracial couple: a 22-year-old black man named Johnny Brookshire and his white girlfriend, 23-year-old Joy Williams. Once again, when Joseph saw them, he became filled with rage. So, he pulled out his rifle and immediately shot Johnny. Sadly, he would die instantly in front of his girlfriend. And seconds later, Joseph would fire another shot into Joy's stomach.

Luckily, she would survive, but she would end up paralyzed from the waist down. Once again, Joseph escaped and there were no eyewitnesses or evidence tying him to the crime. And by now, he had murdered four people. Joseph's next victim would be Larry Claxton Flint Jr.,

He was a controversial publisher who started the Hustler magazine in 1974. At the time, Hustler was much more raunchy than even Playboy and Penthouse. It featured explicit photographs of women. In some photos, they were being raped, beaten, chained. Others showed close-ups of women's genitalia, something that had never been done in mainstream pornography before.

by april of 1975 larry flint had created an empire he also liked to feature black men and white women having sex one title stated butch a black stud in his georgia peach apparently joseph had browsed through the magazine and when he saw the interracial couple he was once again enraged

And that's when he decided to target him. On March 6, 1978, Larry Flint was in court in Lawrenceville, Georgia on obscenity charges. So, Joseph Paul Franklin checked into a hotel near the courthouse and planned his attack. He believed that if he killed Larry Flint, the entire Hustler empire would collapse. Joseph would later speak with reporter Clarion Ledger, and here's what he told him about this shooting. I looked on the coffee table and there was a

a hustle magazine on it, you know? So I'd seen it before in Atlanta, but I didn't really know that much about it. So seeing it was a girl's magazine, I picked it up and started thumbing through it. And then I see this picture of some broad having sex with a black, you know? And I got so outraged, I closed the book up, closed the magazine up, set it on the...

uh back on the coffee table and thought to myself i'm gonna kill that guy watching the news and it said larry flint was in town so all i had to do is stay at a motel there in atlanta and i could go out there for the trial every day which i did just looking around trying to case the whole area you know case the streets there you know trying to find a good place to ambush him you know larry flint used to go down to this cafeteria every day and eat lunch

The reporter happened to mention that. I said, oh, yeah, good. So I went and found that cafeteria and walked that path, you know, from the courthouse to the cafeteria one evening and, you know, just looking around.

trying to visualize a good place for sniping. So, as luck would have it, there was an empty building there. And so I went over there and I saw the building. I went over there. It was so old and run down, there wasn't even any windows there, just blank spaces. So I crawled in the window one night and looked around and sure enough, it was a good place for an ambush. I could just shoot out the back of the front door.

So that's how it, you know, wound up shooting Larry Flann. On the afternoon of March 6th, 1978, Larry and his attorney, Gene, had just finished their lunch at V&J Cafeteria and were on their way back to the courthouse when shots rang out.

Larry Flint was struck twice, once in the stomach and once in the side, and he quickly collapsed on the sidewalk. Gene tried to run from the scene, but he too was shot in the stomach and arm. Across the street in an abandoned hotel, Joseph put his gun down, pleased with his aim.

Lawrenceville attorney Gene Reeves was on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Ambulance crews had picked up Flint moments earlier. He had been shot once in the stomach. The bullet which hit Reeves had apparently gone through an arm and slammed into his side. Flint had spent all morning on the witness stand and was due up again in a few minutes until the shots rang out. Even people who were only a few feet away weren't positive what had happened.

I saw Mr. Reeves, who's my next-door neighbor, and

I tried to see his condition. Mr. Couch assured me that his condition was not serious. All I seen was one man, he was hauling help me and then a friend of mine that was standing that was gone, my girl, said that there was another one shot and I told him to get back in the house because they might shoot him. Did you see anybody running away like it might have been the gunman? I seen one person running around the corner.

and he was going to fight you couldn't really tell what he looked like. Flint and Reeves were rushed into the emergency room at Button Gwinnett Hospital. Flint was conscious but barely. Well he had just taken off his clothing and I saw the wound it was a terrible ugly hole on the one side of his stomach and an opening on the other side the left side appearing as though the bullet had gone in one side and gone out the other side. Was he conscious? Yes he was but he was in somewhat of a coma and I

I said, "Larry, we're here. We're here with you." And he looked up, but I sensed that he didn't hear me or didn't know because he just mumbled something and I couldn't make out what it was.

Larry's attorney, Gene, would go on to make a full recovery, but Larry Flint would be confined to a wheelchair. He believed he had been attacked by the CIA or the FBI due to his extensive coverage of the Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. assassinations.

But as for the actual shooter, no one had any idea. And as the months continued, there was absolutely no evidence as to who shot them. Eventually, there would be a $1 million reward for information on the shooter, but it would never be claimed. Meanwhile, when Joseph realized that he hadn't killed his victims, he was upset.

Like most of the attacks, it hadn't gone as planned, but he was determined to continue on with his mission. On July 29th, 1978, he found himself driving through Chattanooga, Tennessee once again. And this time he had a 12 gauge shotgun sitting next to him. Eventually he passed a local pizza hut

And there, sitting out front, was another interracial couple, Bryant Tatum and his 18-year-old white girlfriend, Nancy Diane Hilton. Upon seeing him, Joseph immediately pulled out his gun and fired a shot at Bryant, killing him instantly. Then he shot Nancy too, but she would survive her injuries. Disturbingly, Joseph would later say that he always shot the man first.

saying, "If you shot the black man first, the woman would just stay by his side like a dumb fucking idiot. It's the funniest thing. It happened every time." After shooting the couple, Joseph fled the scene. Once again, there were no eyewitnesses or evidence.

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Now, Joseph drove to his home state of Alabama, and he decided to stay there for a while, even renting out an apartment on Clanton Street in Montgomery. While there, he met a 16-year-old girl named Anita Carden and the two started dating, but he introduced himself as James Cooper. He even had a driver's license with that name and his picture on it. Now, Anita clearly had no idea who this man was.

She would later say that he was gone a lot, and when he would come home, he'd have a lot of money with him. Little did she know, he was out robbing banks. But being a 16-year-old, she didn't ask a lot of questions. All she knew was that he said he was a plumber, and that January, the two got married.

About a month into their marriage, Anita got pregnant. But like in his previous marriage, Joseph was violent towards her. By July of 1979, Joseph hadn't killed anyone in nearly a year, and he took all that anger out on his teenaged wife. However, that would only satisfy him for so long. So that summer, he decided to drive around Georgia in search of another victim.

Joseph found himself driving around Doraville, Georgia with his rifle right there in the passenger seat and eventually he passed a Taco Bell. Outside was the manager of the establishment, a black man named Harold McIver. He and a white female employee were on their lunch break that day when Joseph drove past

And as we know, interracial couples infuriated Joseph, but these two weren't even dating. They were just coworkers. But seeing them talking to each other was enough to make them his next victims. So Joseph parked his car across the street and grabbed his gun. While Harold stood by his car, Joseph steadied his rifle, aimed, and fired.

Harold was shot twice and immediately died. Once again, there was no evidence, no eyewitnesses, and for years, the case would go cold. Now from here, instead of going back home to his pregnant wife, Joseph decided to take a road trip

this time to Falls Church, Virginia. It was August 8th as Joseph drove through town looking for his next victim and once again he spotted someone outside the fast food restaurant Burger King. It was an African-American male named Raymond Taylor. Now Raymond was sitting inside the restaurant eating his lunch but this didn't deter Joseph. Parked across the street

He aimed his rifle at Raymond and pulled the trigger. In an instant, the large plate glass window shattered. When the patrons of the restaurant looked to see what was going on, they saw Raymond Taylor dead on the ground with a gunshot wound. But when they looked outside to see who shot him, no one was there.

Joseph had already fled the scene. He would later say that he was extremely proud of this kill. Raymond hadn't even done anything to upset Joseph. He wasn't flirting with a white woman. He didn't say anything to his killer to upset him. He was simply sitting there, all by himself, eating lunch. Joseph wanted him dead simply because of the color of his skin.

Meanwhile, back in Montgomery, Anita had given birth to their first child, a daughter, on August 25th, 1979. But Joseph had missed the birth. He had been too busy killing people at the time. He didn't even know his daughter was born until he got a call from Anita telling him the news. It soon became clear to her that Joseph had no desire to be a husband or a father, and like his previous marriage, this one too would end in divorce.

On October 21st, 1979, Joseph drove to an Oklahoma City shopping center in search of more victims. And he parked his car across the street behind a row of trees.

With his gun ready, he watched as people walked around. At 5pm, he saw a 42-year-old African American man named Jesse Taylor. With him was his white wife, 31-year-old Marion. Horrifically, they were also with their three young children, aged 9, 10, and 12. After spending the day shopping, the family walked back to their car.

having no idea that a rifle was pointed in their direction. As the father of three loaded their bags into the trunk of the car, Joseph pulled the trigger, striking him three times. When he collapsed to the ground, his wife, Marianne, rushed to his side, screaming at the top of her lungs. But now she was a target. Joseph fired his rifle twice,

hitting her directly in the chest. And right there in front of their three children, both Jesse and Marion bled out and died. Oklahoma City police responded to the scene only four minutes after the shots rang out. But

But at that point, Joseph was already gone. After a brief sweep around the area, police located five spent shell casings behind the row of trees. But other than that, there was no evidence. No one could identify the shooter and Joseph Paul Franklin was able to continue on with his life and his mission.

On his way back to the Atlanta, Georgia area, Joseph picked up a 15-year-old sex worker named Mercedes Lynn Masters. Over the next few weeks, their friendship turned romantic and Joseph often stayed at her apartment.

However, it should be clearly stated here that this isn't actually romance. If you're underage, any relationship is non-consensual, and this is child rape that we're discussing here. However, over time, as the two grew closer, they started opening up with each other more and more. On December 5th, 1979, Joseph and Mercedes were driving along a desolate road when Joseph turned to her and asked,

"Have you ever slept with a black man?" Mercedes answered truthfully, she had slept with a black man. But as soon as the words came out of her mouth, a darkness fell over Joseph Paul Franklin. He would later say that her admission made him physically sick. Little did Mercedes know that this man had killed white women who had relations with black men.

But the fact that he had slept with Mercedes without knowing this information made him more angry than ever before. Without warning, Joseph suddenly grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun and shot Mercedes in the face. After his arrest, he would say, maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had sex with her first. And when she told me she had sex with a black dude, then things changed. Then I decided to kill her. If I found any woman who had dated blacks, I would want to kill them.

You know, if I had any woman in the car who told me she had dated blacks, she was history. From there, he would dispose of her body and flee the area. By January of 1980, Joseph made his way to Indianapolis, Indiana in search of more victims. By then, he had not only dyed his hair, but he also painted his truck black.

After all of these killings, he didn't want police departments noticing the same car was at all of these crime scenes. But on the night of January 12th, Joseph was driving around town when he spotted a black teenager who was working at a church's fried chicken. It was 19-year-old Lawrence Reese. Sadly, Lawrence was mentally handicapped. He had been hired at the restaurant to do custodial work.

At around 11:10 PM, as the restaurant closed for the night, Lawrence was getting ready to mop the floors while Joseph carefully watched from across the street. After a few minutes, Joseph steadied his rifle, aimed, and fired one shot through the plate glass window. Lawrence was immediately struck in the chest

and died instantly. Directly next to the restaurant was a busy highway. So immediately after the shooting, Joseph took off without anyone noticing. And just two days later, he was ready for another kill. This time he drove by a Quick Pick Market convenience store. It was late at night, so there was barely anyone out.

And inside this convenience store was a 19-year-old black man named Leo Thomas Watkins and his father Tom. Both Leo and Tom worked as exterminators and had been hired to do some work there. But as they did, Joseph Paul Franklin sat across the street watching them. A few minutes later, he pulled out his rifle and fired one round through the plate glass window.

Once again, the shot ended up hitting 19-year-old Leo directly in his chest. His father, Tom, would later say, quote, I just stood there and watched my boy die, end quote. And again, before the police could arrive, Joseph sped away.

By May of 1980, Joseph decided to drive back to Wisconsin where he had committed his first murders only a few years prior. And while there, he crossed paths with a 20-year-old woman named Rebecca Bergstrom. At the time, she was a student in Madison, Wisconsin. Having grown up in a small town on her parents' farm, she had big dreams for her future. But all of that was about to change. On the morning of May 2nd, 1980, Rebecca had plans to hang out with her friend Linda.

but the only problem was she didn't have a way to get there so Rebecca did what a lot of young women did back then she stood on the side of the road hoping to get a ride hitchhiking was pretty common and she had never had any issues with it in the past so that morning when a young man pulled his truck up on the side of the road Rebecca had no worries but little did she know that

that that man was a crazed serial killer. Joseph Paul Franklin didn't plan on killing Rebecca when he pulled over that day, but along their drive, they got to know each other a bit. At some point, Rebecca started talking about a vacation she took to Jamaica. So Joseph asked her,

Did you date any Jamaican men while you were over there? And Rebecca admitted that she had. The same darkness fell over Joseph's face. The same look that sex worker Mercedes Masters saw when she was in the car with him. After sharing her story, Joseph pulled the car over. He then shot Rebecca point blank three times. Once in the back, once in the shoulder, and once in the head. From there, he fled the scene.

On May 3rd, the following afternoon, two hikers at the Mill Bluff State Park would stumble upon her dead body face down on one of the trails. She was fully clothed and the $300 she had been carrying was scattered on the ground around her. They were able to identify who she was because she had been wearing her passport around her neck. An autopsy determined that she had not been sexually assaulted and she

and she was not beaten either, which was confusing for investigators. Clearly, this wasn't sexually motivated. It also wasn't a robbery due to the money at the scene. And it wouldn't be until years later when Joseph Paul Franklin confessed that he was the one who killed her.

As the months progressed, Joseph wasn't satisfied with the murders he had committed. His original mission had been to incite a race war, but so far he had been unsuccessful. For many of the murders, the authorities didn't even know that it was a hate crime.

So for his next murder, he wanted to make sure to send a message. And that's when he decided to target someone with the civil rights movement. Specifically, a man named Vernon Julian Jordan Jr. Born on August 15th, 1935, Vernon was a prominent civil rights leader, lawyer, and business executive who dedicated his life to fight for racial equality.

He served as a field director for the NAACP and then went on to lead the United Negro College Fund. In 1971, he was the president of the National Urban League, who advocated for economic and social justice for African Americans. In late May of 1980, Joseph learned that Vernon would be in Fort Wayne to speak at the Urban League's Equal Opportunity Dinner.

So, Joseph drove to the area and went to book a room at the same hotel Vernon was staying at. But while he was at the front desk, he spotted Vernon at the hotel's bar. At the time, he was chatting with a white woman named Martha Coleman.

So, from there, Joseph made his way outside to wait for him. Joseph snuck to an area across the street and ducked behind some tall grass. Finally, at around 2pm, Joseph spotted both Vernon and Martha outside of the hotel. So, he pointed his rifle at him and pulled the trigger. Suddenly, without warning, a gunshot roared through the city streets. And Vernon collapsed on the pavement. He had been shot in the left side of his back.

the bullet pierced his intestines and exited through his chest he began screaming that he had been shot as martha rushed over to his side he thought he was going to die there but fortunately paramedics arrived just in time and vernon was rushed to parkview hospital african-american surgeon dr jeffrey towels performed five surgeries on vernon to save his life he would later say there was an explosive effect like nothing i've ever seen before

When I was at Detroit General and in Louisville, I saw all kinds of wounds. I've never seen a wound like Jordan's. And based on what I saw, Jordan was not supposed to make it.

Family and friends of Vernon Jordan were jolted awake early this morning to the news that he had been shot and critically wounded. His mother, other family members, and longtime friend and associate Lyndon Wade, head of Atlanta's Urban League, left Hartfield Airport at 10 o'clock this morning. They were under control emotionally based on doctors' reports that Jordan had stabilized and appeared to have the strength required to come back from such a devastating wound. And it is a wound that has physicians puzzled.

we do not know whether one or two bullets struck jordan whether they were from a rifle or pistol we do not know who did it according to hospital spokesman the bullet or bullets was a rare fragmenting type and the placement of the shot was well aimed leading to speculation that the shooting was more than just a random incident beyond that we do not know

Senator Edward Kennedy came. President Carter is supposedly on his way. And civil rights leaders from all over the country are in Fort Wayne standing vigil. They talk of Miami and Wrightsville and now Fort Wayne in the same breath. And they wonder if the racial ugliness of the 60s is resurfacing in the 80s.

From Parkview Memorial Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Mark Picard, Action News. Investigators, Fort Wayne police, and the FBI were immediately at the crime scene after the shooting. Across the street, they located an impression in the tall grass, and they located one spent shell casing. And just like Joseph had hoped, they knew that Vernon's assassination attempt was

was most likely racially motivated however they thought it was the work of the kkk now fortunately vernon jordan would go on to make a full recovery but like every time before nobody had any clue who the suspect was and joseph paul franklin continued to walk around like a free man a man whose main goal in life was to kill as many black people as possible

- After the shooting of Vernon Jordan, Joseph changed his hair color yet again. In an early June, 1980, he found himself in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the time, he had rented out a hotel room under the alias Eddie R. Logan. And while there, he drove around looking for another victim. He was specifically looking for an interracial couple, but after driving around for hours, he wasn't having any luck.

At some point that night, he pulled up to an area called Reading Lane. And while there, he saw two young African-American boys. It was 14 year old Darrell Lane and his 13 year old cousin, Dante Brown.

The two had snuck out of their grandmother's house so they could walk to the convenience store to buy candy. Joseph could tell that they were children, and although he set out to kill an interracial couple that night, he decided that these boys would do. So he aimed his gun at Darryl and fired. Immediately, Darryl fell to the sidewalk and his cousin Dante sprinted down the road, terrified.

but soon enough Joseph would turn the gun on him as well. After firing, Dante was hit in the back and collapsed to the pavement. And just to make sure they were dead, Joseph fired another round into both of their bodies. Both boys were shot twice, Darrell once in the chest and another through his spine. Dante suffered a bullet to his back and right knee. The four gunshots had woken up the neighborhood,

including the boy's grandmother, Carol Brown. Upon hearing the shots, she ran to their room and saw that it was empty. From there, she ran outside and soon enough,

She found them. Darryl was still clutching the $1 bill that he was going to use to buy the candy. And sadly, both boys would lose their lives. Over the next few months, detectives would investigate the crime. They took soil samples, collected shell casings, and interviewed people in the area. But with no leads, the case would go cold.

After the shootings, Joseph fled the scene and returned to his hotel room. While there, he got rid of the murder weapon piece by piece, dismantling it and putting parts inside dumpsters around the city. Then, he fled to another random town. This time around, he was driving through Johnstown, Pennsylvania. It was June 15th, 1980. On that day, Joseph had been driving near the Washington Street Bridge in town when he saw another interracial couple.

it was 22 year old african-american arthur smothers and his white 16 year old girlfriend kathleen mccullough joseph quickly pulled over and hid behind a row of trees grabbing his gun and as the two casually strolled over the bridge joseph fired around into arthur's body he quickly dropped to the ground as his girlfriend kathleen screamed for help she was trying to flag down a passing car when more shots started flying in her direction

Kathleen was paralyzed with fear, and because she was on a bridge, she didn't know where to go. Then suddenly she felt a deep pressure within her chest. She had been shot. Both Arthur and Kathleen would lose their lives that day. Joseph would later say, "Once I saw I got both of them, I just started running. I just took off trucking, jumped in my car, you know. I had an escape route already planned, so I took that right out and left."

From here, Joseph left Pennsylvania. On June 25th, he was driving through Pocahontas County, West Virginia, when he spotted two hitchhikers, 19-year-old Nancy Santomero and 26-year-old Vicki Durian. The two women were on their way to the Rainbow Festival, and soon after he picked them up,

the conversation turned to African-American men. One of the girls stated that she had dated a black man and the other said she was open to it. And as soon as Joseph heard this, he knew he was going to kill them. He ended up driving his car to a secluded area outside Droop Mountain Battlefield State Park. When he stopped the car, he immediately pulled out his gun and fired a shot directly into Vicki's chest. Without a second thought,

He then turned the gun on Nancy in the back seat, shooting her in the head. He then proceeded to fire several more rounds to make sure the women were dead. Vicky was shot two times in the chest and Nancy suffered three gunshot wounds, two in the chest and one in the head. Once they were dead, Joseph dragged their bodies out of his car and laid them on the side of the dirt road.

When the police eventually found their bodies, they were once again puzzled

the only thing they knew for sure was that the women were shot at close range now as for joseph he figured that there would be a lot of forensic evidence inside his car so he cleaned it out and on june 27th he sold it from there he purchased a 1975 brown chevrolet camaro under the alias edward o garland eventually he would have the car repainted

But by August of 1980, Joseph was ready to kill again. And this time, he found himself in Salt Lake City, Utah. Using the alias Joseph Hart, he checked into various hotel rooms around the city, making sure not to stay too long in one place. He now had long curly blonde hair and thick tinted eyeglasses.

On August 17th, Joseph cruised around the streets of Salt Lake City and spotted an 18-year-old prostitute named Nikki McHenry. When he pulled over, she informed him that she charged $40 for sexual favors, and Joseph agreed to pay it. Oh.

On their date, Joseph took Mickey to a Whataburger fast food restaurant. When they got back into his car, he immediately asked if she had ever been with an African-American man. She told him that she hadn't.

Little did she know that saved her life. She would later say that from there, he went on a tirade about how much he hated black people. He said that he wished all of them could be killed. He even admitted to Mickey that he had killed them before and he gave her details. She would later say, quote, "He said you could follow them, pick out the right time, even in a crowd. And if there are enough cars and stuff around,

You can get away with it." Joseph then told her that he was a hit man for the Ku Klux Klan and that if she wanted, he would kill all of the black pimps in her area. Later that evening, Joseph and Mickey returned to their hotel and had sex. He also made her pose naked with a few of his guns.

Mickey would later say that the entire ordeal made her feel very uneasy, but she had been down on her luck and needed the money. However, to Joseph's dismay, he would be a customer of hers that she would never forget.

A few days later, on August 20th, Joseph was driving near Liberty Park when he spotted a group of people walking together. It was 20-year-old Theodore T. Fields, 18-year-old David L. Martin, 15-year-old Karma Ingersoll, and 15-year-old Terry Elrod. Theodore and David were black, and Karma and Terry were white.

but they were all just friends. Now that evening, the four decided to go on a jog together in Liberty Park. The four of them were laughing as they crossed over an intersection, but that's when Joseph spotted them. He immediately pulled over and positioned himself in a vacant field across the street. Karma would later say that as they were walking, there was a loud boom that sounded like a firecracker, but they all realized that it wasn't a firecracker when they saw David hit the ground.

terry felt something whiz past her arm and she looked down to see she was bleeding as the three tried to move david's body off the pavement ted turned to the girls and told them to run

And so they did. Karma and Terry took off running as fast as they could, while Ted stayed behind to help his friend. He was trying to pull David's body into the grass away from the gunfire, but as he did, more bullets started flying in their direction. Soon enough, Ted collapsed to the ground as well. In total, six shots were fired. David suffered three gunshot wounds to his arm, chest, and back, while Ted was shot twice. Once in the chest,

and once in the shoulder. - As the two young men bled out, Joseph jumped up and rushed back to his Camaro. But things were much different for him this time around. You see, Liberty Park was filled with people.

Surrounding it were homes and apartment complexes. So after the shots rang out, many people rushed to their windows to see what happened, including a 12 year old girl. After hearing the gunshots, she looked out of her window to see Joseph stand up from a crouched position in the field. Another man in a nearby complex named Gary Spicer said that shortly before the shooting,

he saw that same man in the Camaro use his driveway to make a U-turn. Then a short while later, after the shots rang out, he saw that man throw a rifle into the truck of his car before speeding off. So immediately, many people in the area called the police. However, when they would get there, the shooter was already gone. But as for the victims,

Ted Field was dead on arrival. David Martin was still clinging onto life, but sadly he too would pass away a few hours later. Detective Don Bell would later say, quote, "These were two young boys. They'd never been in trouble with the police. We didn't have an outstanding motive.

We didn't know whether it was something related to the boys or simply just a case of mistaken identity. We never had a homicide like this in Salt Lake City. We never had people just gunned down, especially young people gunned down in the middle of an intersection."

If you love Murder in America, you love mysteries, you love true crime, you love murder stories and the unknown, then I have a new show for you. It's called The Conspiracy Files, and it's hosted by me, Colin Brown, from Murder in America and The Paranormal Files.

On The Conspiracy Files, we explore everything from bizarre deaths to freak paranormal events, pedophile rings, government corruption, ritual sacrifice. No topic is untouched on this show. Everything that we talk about on The Conspiracy Files is backed up with fact. I release...

reference sheets with every single episode that we do so you guys know everything we're talking about is confirmed to have happened and be real. It's a completely different type of show than anything else you've ever seen about conspiracy theories. Instead of a bunch of conjecture and theories, we're presenting you people with facts, telling you the story, walking you through the story just as detailed as we do with Murder in America, and then letting the listener decide what they think.

Anyways, you should definitely give it a listen. It's called The Conspiracy Files. The links are in the description of this show and you can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And now let's get back to our story.

Early the next morning, investigators returned to the crime scene and took photographs and measurements of tire tracks in the field. Six bullet casings were discovered, and forensic experts analyzed the casings and the bullets retrieved from both Ted and David. They sent the evidence to the ATF laboratory in San Francisco to determine the weapon used.

But with no other leads, investigators returned to the Liberty Park area and started speaking with people who lived near the crime scene. Gary Spicer told Salt Lake City police about what he had witnessed on the night of the murders. The brown Camaro with mag wheels and the man who threw a rifle into the trunk.

Gary described the man as tall, slender, and white. He also said that the man was wearing a flat-rimmed, wide-rimmed hat and a waist-length jacket. But sadly, after a few days, investigators were still no closer to solving the murders. This shooting caused a lot of fear throughout Salt Lake City.

especially in the african-american communities people feared that the crime was race-related and that there would be no rest until the suspect was caught the u.s department of justice in washington d.c believed that civil rights violations had been committed and they assigned assistant attorney steve snarr to monitor the case

FBI Special Agent Curtis Jensen was also assigned to assist the Salt Lake City PD. And together, Agent Jensen and the local police determined that whoever was responsible had already fled the area.

From there, they informed other local and federal agencies around the country, and a $50,000 reward was offered to assist in the capture of the murderer. Meanwhile, the ballistics lab in San Francisco determined that the weapon used was a six-shot rifle, either a Marlin or a Glenfield.

Now the police had identified the weapon, they turned to local gun shops and classified ads to find out if anyone had recently sold a similar weapon. Ultimately, they tested 150 guns that matched the description, but none of them were determined to have fired the bullets found at the scene. They also set up a tip line, and soon enough hundreds of tips rolled in. Most led to a dead end.

But there was one that detectives were interested in. It was a tip received from a Salt Lake City sex worker named Mickey, the same woman who had spent the night with Joseph on August 17th. Now at first, Mickey was reluctant to come forward because of her profession, but Detective Dawn Bell persuaded her to tell them what happened.

While at the police station, Mickey told investigators about the racist man she encountered who picked her up in a brown Camaro. According to Mickey, the man had a Southern accent and when they went back to his hotel room that night, she noticed two rifles in the corner of the room and a silver handgun on the table. She also mentioned that the man had tattoos, an eagle on his left forearm and a grim reaper on his right.

But when Mickey told them all about the racist rants, this man went on, they had a deep suspicion that this could be their guy. But still, they didn't have a name. Because Joseph often used aliases to check into hotels, they were no closer to finding his identity. And by that point, he was long gone. After leaving Salt Lake City, Joseph made his way around the country.

first to Ogden, then Reno, and eventually he ended up in San Francisco. While there, he sold the murder weapon at a flea market and officially cleaned his hands of the crime. But it's around this time when law enforcement agencies around the U.S. began making connections. Remember Daryl Lane and Dante Brown?

The two young boys in Cincinnati who had been murdered on their way to buy candy. Well, when the Cincinnati Homicide Unit heard about the murders in Salt Lake City, they couldn't help but think that the crimes may be connected. In both cases, the victims were black males shot from far away in the middle of the street. Both appeared to be random. So that month,

the detectives from both agencies decided to meet up. During their meeting, they theorized that they were dealing with not only a serial killer, but a traveling serial killer, one that drove around the country and killed black men at random.

Meanwhile, back in Salt Lake City, Detective Don Bell followed up on a lead. By this point, they were sure that the man Mickey had stayed with that night was their shooter, but he rented the hotel room using the name Bill Hagman.

There was also a registration card with his signature. So Detective Bell took that card and sent it to the lab in Washington, DC. He was hoping that there would be fingerprints on it, but unfortunately there wasn't. So in a last ditch effort,

a team of detectives decided to spread out and go speak with other motels in the area. They conducted a search of all motel rooms from Ogden, which is 30 miles north of Salt Lake, to Provo, which is 30 miles south. And they located about eight motels where this individual had stayed using...

false names, each one different, using phony addresses and using false license numbers for his car. Throughout their search, they discovered that the suspect had been staying in several hotels around the area. It was his exact same description, exact same brown Camaro, but the only problem was he wasn't using his real name. He also wasn't writing down his correct license plate. So

So once again, they had no way of figuring out his identity. Now, eventually detectives went to another motel in the area called the Sandman. And that's when they learned that he had rented a room there as well. And luckily for detectives, one of the workers there had actually stepped outside

and wrote down his license plate number. The employee's name was Reed Neuberger. He was an elderly man who took his job very seriously, and he had the habit of going out into the parking lot every morning to make sure that the guests' registration cards matched their license plates.

Mr. Reed quickly found out that the man who had just checked in in the Brown Camaro, well, he wrote down the incorrect license on his registration card. So when the police came by their motel that day, they finally had a license plate number. They searched the DMV where they found the Camaro was registered to the Embry family in Lexington, Kentucky. So from there,

detectives obtained William Embry's information and they contacted the Lexington Police Department. When they finally spoke with William, he admitted that he had sold the car a few months prior, but clearly when buying it,

Joseph had used a fake name. However, William was able to help them build a composite sketch. And when they compared that sketch to Mickey's composite sketch, the sex worker Joseph had hired, the similarities were striking. Immediately, Salt Lake City authorities put a bee on the lookout with the two sketches

and description of the killer. They now believe that the man they were looking for was a serial killer responsible for the murders of at least four innocent people. Little did they know their suspect had killed far more than that.

Detective Don Bell had no physical evidence tying the man to the crime scenes, but when he learned that he had fled one of the motels in Salt Lake City without paying, Detective Bell issued a warrant for his arrest on failure to pay. Without knowing his real name, they issued the warrant under every alias he had used in the city and the license plate of his brown Camaro.

The information was entered into the FBI database, the National Crime Information Center, and distributed across the country to over 57,000 police agencies. And luckily, their hard work paid off.

And the story of his capture is pretty hard to believe. On September 23rd, 1980, Joseph had checked into the Scottish Inn in Florence, Kentucky, but he actually used his real name, not one of his aliases, so no one was on to him. That night, another criminal had checked into the hotel as well. It was a known jewelry thief, 19-year-old Gary Kirk.

When Gary checked into the hotel that day, the staff immediately recognized him and called the police. And soon enough, the hotel was swarming with cops. With all of the commotion going on outside, Joseph called the front desk complaining about the lights and the noise. He told the manager that if the police didn't leave soon, he was going to check out.

But of course, they didn't listen to him. Joseph actually spent the whole night complaining to the front desk. He was mad because he wanted to leave, but the police cars were blocking his vehicle in. Now, at some point, the manager was so tired of him complaining, they actually went up to one of the officers outside and

and told them about the angry man in room 138. They told him that he was pissed because his car was blocked in. The manager pointed over to Joseph's brown Camaro and randomly the officer decided to look up the license plate. When he did,

he saw a hit on the FBI database. They learned that the person complaining had a warrant out in Salt Lake City. So from there, Boone County police officers went to room 138 and they arrested Joseph Paul Franklin. Apparently he did not resist. - Inside the motel room, they discovered two shotguns on the bed and multiple identification cards.

From there, he was taken to the Boone County Police Department for questioning. When law enforcement in Florence contacted Salt Lake City authorities, Detective Bell hopped on the first flight out. Meanwhile, at the police station, Joseph denied ever being in Salt Lake City. But finally, after a while, he admitted that he had visited in August. It was apparent that Joseph was anxious.

The detectives could tell he was hiding something. When asked about his involvement in a double homicide in Utah, he flat out denied it, even though his Camaro had been seen leaving the scene of the crime. The detectives also couldn't help but notice how similar he looked to the composite sketches. But again, Joseph continued to deny any involvement. - At one point in the interrogation, one of the detectives stepped out of the room. Joseph was in there all by himself,

and he knew that the walls were closing in. So he glanced around the room, and there beside him was a window. Joseph stood up and he walked over to it. Somehow the window was unlocked. So right there in the middle of the police station, he opened it up, jumped out, and he ran as fast as he could. Joseph would later credit God for his escape.

saying, "The Lord didn't think my time had come to be caught. I was handcuffed to a chair. I prayed to the Lord. An hour later, this blonde guy took the handcuffs off and left the room." Minutes later, the detectives would come back into the interrogation room to find it empty, the window still wide open. Horrifically, their serial killer had escaped.

Over the course of the next few days, Joseph hitchhiked to Ohio where he bought new clothes at the Western Hills shopping mall and dyed his hair at Asimus Hair Center. From the mall, Joseph took a bus to Columbus and spent one day sightseeing at Ohio State University. He then took another bus to West Virginia, North Carolina, and then finally to Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the FBI and law enforcement agencies all around the U.S. were scrambling to find him. But luckily, this time around, they knew his name. They also still had his wallet, guns, and his brown Camaro. Now, because Joseph had escaped from the police department, the FBI had issued a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. And Joseph's name and description were plastered all over the media.

There was now a nationwide manhunt to locate the serial killer, and investigators warned the public that he would likely strike again. At the time, Joseph Paul Franklin was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.

With Joseph on the run, detectives decided to use the evidence they had to build their case against him. For instance, they compared the tire impressions from Joseph's Camaro to the tire impressions found at the Salt Lake City crime scene. And what do you know? It was a match. They also compared the guns that were found in Joseph's hotel room to the bullet casings found at the Salt Lake City crime scene, but they were not a match.

However, as we know, Joseph usually bought new guns for each of his murders. Now they also looked into Joseph's past and what they found was concerning to say the least. With his face plastered all over the media,

Different banks around the United States started coming forward saying that he was the man responsible for bank robberies. They also learned that he had a long history with all of these hate groups like the American Nazi Party and the Ku Klux Klan. The more they learned about him, the more they realized just how hateful and racist he truly was.

And the FBI even started to worry that Joseph would try to assassinate Jimmy Carter. Now, the reason they feared this is because Joseph had actually written a letter to Jimmy Carter threatening him over his civil rights beliefs. The letter said that Carter, quote, "'Wasn't worth the cost of rope it would take to hang you with,' end quote."

Now around this time, Jimmy Carter was traveling around the United States for his presidential campaigns. And they were worried that Joseph would show up and try to assassinate him. So the FBI went to all of these cities around America where Carter was supposed to campaign and they passed around Joseph's picture.

warning everyone to be on the lookout. But even then, no one knew where Joseph Paul Franklin was located. During his time on the run, Joseph was running out of money. He obviously couldn't get an honest job, and with the FBI looking for him, he couldn't rob banks either. He needed to lay low for a while. But to make some extra money, Joseph decided to donate blood. At the time, he was in Tampa, Florida.

That day, he walked into a clinic using the alias Thomas Allen Bonert. When a technician brought him back, he instructed Joseph to pull up his sleeve so that they could take his blood. But when he did, the technician saw something familiar. It was Joseph's tattoos of an eagle and the Grim Reaper. As it turns out, the FBI had just visited the clinic and handed out Joseph's information. It even appeared as if Joseph had tried to distort the tattoos.

because they were all scratched up. But at that moment, the technician knew that this was him, Joseph Paul Franklin. He did his best to remain calm. He took Joseph's blood and told him, "Wait here for a minute. We like people to rest for about 15 minutes after getting their blood drawn." - From there, the technician ran to the back and phoned the police. But as they made their way over, Joseph got up and started to leave. The employees at the clinic grew anxious.

They tried to stall time waiting for the police to come. And luckily, just as Joseph was about to walk out the door, they got him. He was arrested and once again, he put up no resistance. They then took Joseph to the FBI office in Tampa. At first, he denied that he was Joseph Paul Franklin,

But eventually, he confessed. Now during his time in jail, he also made a phone call to his ex-wife, Anita. During the taped conversation, Anita learned the truth about the man she had been married to, a man who she thought was named Jim Anthony Cooper. He also confessed to her over the phone, saying, quote, "'They got me for 12 homicides down here and four bank robberies.'"

And the funny thing is, it's true. Have you heard about the two joggers in Salt Lake City? I did that." Over the next five hours, Joseph was interviewed by the FBI and the secret service. He did not admit to any murders, but he did confess that he was a racist. He told them that he hated race mixing and that he held a deep hatred for black people and Jews. When asked if he was hungry,

He told investigators that he wanted a hamburger, but he refused to eat it if it was prepared by N-words. Ultimately, Joseph was held in Tampa on a $1 million bond. At his first court appearance, he told the media, quote, "'I'm innocent. "'The charges are all trumped up "'because of my white racist views,' end quote."

But, sadly, they would eventually run into some problems when it came to the Salt Lake City murders. Even though investigators were sure that he was their guy, they were worried about the trial. All of the evidence they had against him was circumstantial, and they feared that a jury wouldn't convict him. So, the DA actually refused to bring him to trial. This was incredibly hard for the families of Ted Fields and David Martin, especially when everyone knew that he was guilty.

So, instead, they decided to bring it to civil court. To build their case, the attorneys had to produce enough evidence that showed just how racist Joseph was, and how that hatred motivated him to commit the murders. In order to get this evidence, investigators started interviewing people in Joseph's past, like his two ex-wives, friends, and family members.

And boy, did they find a lot of evidence of his racist past. One of the people they found actually worked at a motel he was staying at during his crime spree. The manager told investigators that Joseph complained to her that he had found inward hairs after he pulled down his bed sheet.

He even screamed at the staff and then quickly checked out, refusing to stay there. Other people who knew Joseph said he was the most racist man they ever knew. And sadly, Joseph would even brag to people about how he killed black people. Believe it or not, shortly before his trial for the murders of the Salt Lake City men, Joseph told a reporter, quote, "'I didn't do it.'"

but whoever did it was justified. Ted Fields and Dave Martin were race mixing.

and that should be punishable by death. Race mixing should be a capital crime." Now, before his trial, Joseph started talking to other inmates, including a 19-year-old named Robert Lee Herrera. Now, Robert had gotten into a fight with a black inmate, and even though it wasn't racially motivated, Joseph believed that Robert was racist just like him. So he started opening up to Robert,

talking to him about all of these black men he had murdered around the United States. At one point, Joseph admitted that it made no difference to him who he killed as long as they were black.

He told Robert that he had murdered Ted Fields and Dave Martin while they were jogging in Salt Lake City. He also admitted to killing two black boys in Cincinnati and how he tried to kill Larry Flint, who started the Hustler magazine, and Vernon Jordan, the civil rights activist. He also went into detail about how he obtained his weapons and cars, making sure to always cover his tracks.

So, Robert Herrera got in contact with the FBI and told them everything. They even made him take a polygraph to make sure he wasn't lying, and Robert passed it.

So from there, he agreed to become a federal witness against Joseph in exchange for an earlier release. And luckily, Robert was able to give specific information that would help seal Joseph's fate in court. Now, Joseph's federal civil rights trial began on February 23rd, 1981. The prosecution argued that Joseph was a fanatical racist

who was motivated to kill by his hatred of blacks and whites who associated with blacks. Throughout the trial, they called 65 witnesses, including multiple people who placed Joseph in the Liberty Park vicinity during the time of the murders. One of their star witnesses was Gary Spicer, the man who lived near Liberty Park and spotted Joseph park his Camaro near his house. They also called inmate Robert Herrera and Joseph's ex-wife, Anita.

Now Joseph's behavior at trial was horrific. When his ex-wife took the stand, he shouted from the defense table that she was a liar and a snitch. He also had a similar outburst when the prosecution delivered their closing arguments. But after five and a half days, the jury left for deliberation. And on March 4th, 1981,

they found Joseph Paul Franklin liable for violating Ted Fields and David Martin's civil rights. Joseph was furious at the outcome and even more so because one of the prosecutors was an African-American man. When the verdict was read,

He even grabbed a pitcher of water and threw it at the prosecution. Now after his civil trial, the state of Utah was confident that they could now get a criminal conviction. That trial began on August 31st, 1981. And by September, that jury found him guilty. During the sentencing phase of that trial, Joseph was being held in a back room unattended. And within the few minutes he was in there by himself,

he decided he was going to try and escape again. So he actually climbed up into the air vents of the courthouse. Luckily, they were able to capture him this time around. And from there, he was sentenced to life in prison. And of course, he shouted obscenities as he was being escorted out of the courtroom. Finally, there was a sense of relief that this monster would never be able to hurt anyone else.

But there were still agencies all over the United States that believed he was responsible for more murders and attempted murders. For instance, the FBI was able to prove that Joseph was in Fort Wayne during the assassination attempt of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.

So, they started building that case. In the meantime, while Joseph was serving out his life sentence, he soon became a target for African American prisoners. After learning about his racially motivated crimes, a group of black inmates cornered him and stabbed him 15 times in the neck and abdomen.

Ultimately, sadly, he would go on to make a full recovery. But justice wasn't served just yet. By August 9th, 1982, Joseph was back on trial for violating the civil rights of Vernon Jordan.

In his own defense, Joseph took the stand and admitted that he was a racist who hated interracial couples, but he denied firing the weapon that shot Vernon. And sadly, because there wasn't any physical evidence, the jury could not find him liable for violating Vernon's civil rights. One of the jurors later admitted, "I think most of us, our gut feeling was that he did it. But we could not go by gut feeling.

we had to go on evidence and there really wasn't enough evidence to prove his guilt sadly there were agencies all over the united states that suspected joseph of murder but because of the lack of evidence they couldn't move forward with the trial

including investigators in Oklahoma City. They were confident that Joseph was responsible for killing Jesse Taylor and Marion Brissett, the couple that was killed at that shopping center in front of their three children. But because of the lack of evidence, they couldn't bring it to trial. However, while in prison, Joseph would eventually start confessing. In 1983 and 1984, he confessed to the shooting of Larry Flint,

Rebecca Bergstrom, the bombing of Morris Amatay's house in Washington, the Chattanooga synagogue bombing, the murders of Nancy Santomero and Vicky Durian, and the shooting of Alphonse Manning Jr. and Tony Schwenn. In July 1984, Joseph was convicted for the synagogue bombing in Chattanooga and ultimately sentenced to 15 to 21 years and another 6 to 10 years for being in possession of explosives.

on monday february 10 1986 joseph went on trial for the murder of alphonse manning and tony schween in madison wisconsin

The prosecutors played a taped confession where Joseph could be heard saying that he checked into a Madison motel under the name John Wesley Harden. He admitted that he had been in the area to murder that judge, who he believed had been lenient when it came to sentencing black criminals. He also stated that the murder had happened by chance when he completely randomly crossed paths with Alphonse and his girlfriend in their car.

after only four days on Valentine's Day 1986 Joseph was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to another two consecutive life terms

In 1994, Joseph also confessed to the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon, the man who was murdered right in front of his children while leaving the synagogue in St. Missouri. During the confession, Joseph gave a detailed account on how he purchased a rifle and hid out in the bushes as the service led out.

He told investigators that he didn't confess to this beforehand because he feared he would get the death penalty. However, that year, he claimed he had a dream where God told him to confess. The trial for that murder started in January of 1997 with the prosecutor stating that Joseph was, quote, on a campaign to kill Jews, end quote.

However, this time around, Joseph actually wanted to be executed. Apparently he had assaulted a guard in prison and he was scared that they were going to target him for the rest of his life. So he wished for death and the jury would grant him that wish. After finding him guilty, they sentenced him to death. And in response, Joseph announced, quote, "'I'd just like to thank the court for a fair trial,'

I just felt safe when I got the death penalty. I just feel really secure now." However, he would later regret this decision. Later on, he wished he had gotten life in prison instead.

Over the years, Joseph would admit to other murders around the United States. During a taped interview, he confessed to murdering Raymond Taylor at a Burger King restaurant in Falls Church, Virginia in 1979. Authorities decided not to bring him to trial for the murder because he was already on death row.

In early 1997, Joseph confessed to the murder of Arthur Smothers and Kathleen McCullough in Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1980. According to Cambria County Assistant Prosecutor David Tulewitzki, Joseph got really excited when he described how he sniped out the interracial couple on the Washington Street Bridge. Then that April, he finally confessed to murdering Daryl Lane and Daunte Brown, the two teenaged boys in Cincinnati

who were on their way to buy candy. And the prosecutors there didn't care that he was already on death row. They wanted a conviction. On October 19th, 1997, Joseph went on trial once again for the murders of Dante Brown and Daryl Lane. The prosecution did not have any eyewitnesses or the murder weapon, but they did have a taped confession. The trial was short, only lasting two days.

and the jury deliberated for only 40 minutes. Ultimately, Joseph was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison. At his sentencing, Judge Winkler told Joseph, quote, "'I look at you and I see the face of evil,' end quote."

Now, like we mentioned earlier, Joseph had also confessed to the murders of the two women in West Virginia, Vicky Durian and Nanti Santomero, the girls that were hitchhiking on the way to the Rainbow Festival. Joseph admitted that he had picked them up and shot them after they confessed to sleeping with black men. He even gave specific locations of where he dumped their bodies. But by that point, prosecutors had already convicted someone of their murders.

It was a man named Jacob Beard. In his trial, someone had come forward claiming to have witnessed him murdering the girls. But shockingly, Jacob had an alibi on the day of the murders

and he passed a polygraph exam. But despite this, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In the years after, Joseph Paul Franklin was adamant that he was the one who killed the girls. He even told a reporter, quote, "'I've become kind of obsessed about it,'

I don't want it to ruin my reputation, but West Virginia has got an innocent man." Now, luckily in 1999, Jacob Beard was granted a new trial. And in this one, after only two and a half hours of deliberations, the jury found him not guilty. Jacob Beard was not their killer.

And even though everyone knew it was Joseph Paul Franklin, he would never go to trial for their murders since he was already on death row. Vicki and Nancy never got the justice they deserved. - As the years went on, Joseph's behavior on death row was bizarre.

prison guards would later say that he was always stroking his penis vigorously other times he would yell and scream at staff complained about his treatment threatened guards and complained that people were always stealing his things fortunately joseph was not enjoying his time there

But that would soon come to an end, because in 2013, his execution was scheduled for November 20th. And as that date neared closer and closer, Joseph continued to speak with the media, and he told reporters that he was no longer a racist, and now he was a born-again Christian. In early November, he spoke with CNN's Kyung Law, condemning his violent past, and admitted that, at the time, he believed he was doing the will of God.

Do you know how many people you murdered? Yeah, but I'd rather not mention it. By my count, it's 22 people. Is that the same number that you have? That's approximately it. I wished I could go back and change things, but there's no way I can do it, so I'll try to make the best of it. If I had some way to make amends to them, I would try to do that. Being locked up in here on death row,

With an execution date a week away, I can't really do a whole lot for them. - Joseph admitted that he doesn't think about his victims. He said he had too much going on in his own life to give them any thought. A horrible man through and through. On November 20th, 2013, the day of his execution, Joseph refused a last meal. Instead, he requested ice water. When they brought him into the execution room,

He had no last words. At 6:07 AM, he was strapped to the gurney and 10 minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

With no final words and no remorse for his actions, Joseph's death closed a grim chapter in American history. Several of his victim's family members witnessed the execution, including Gerald Gordon's widow, Ellen, who told the Post-Dispatch, Justice has been served. Dante Brown's younger brother, who was only seven years old when Dante was shot, was relieved to know that he was gone. He said, The devil has finally gone home. It's over with.

It's finally over with. I done waited, what, 33 years or something like that for this to happen. It was, I mean, it's over with. My mama can, you know, the cloud, it's over with now. They can rest in peace now.

I'd like to believe that when Joseph Paul Franklin took his last breath, the world became a better place. Because there's no room for people like him in this world. People that are so driven by hatred. After Joseph's death, there was a sense of relief, especially among his surviving victims and their family members. But to this day, the effects of his murders are still felt.

So many people lost their lives for nothing simply because of the color of their skin.

or because of who they chose to love. And they should all still be here. So today we will honor and remember them. For today's episode, we will be making a donation to Color of Change, an organization that fights for racial justice through advocacy and campaigning. We would also like to thank author Mel Ayton for her research on this story, as the main source for this episode was her book titled Dark Soul of the South,

The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin. Courtney and I both can enthusiastically endorse that book, and we encourage our listeners to check it out if you want to find out more about this case. Hey, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode of Murder in America. I know that this was a story that I came across a long time ago, and I have had this on our list of stories that I wanted to cover for a long time because

because I feel like this is a crime spree that's just so horrendous and it's just shocking that I've really never seen or heard somebody talking about these crimes and trying to tell the stories of these victims and point out the flaws that society has

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