Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

Racist Killer: Joseph Paul Franklin

Joseph Paul Franklin (born JamesClayton Vaughn Jr.; April 13, 1950 – November 20, 2013) was anAmerican white supremacist and serial killer who engaged in a murderspree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Franklin was convicted of severalmurders and received six life sentences, as well as two deathsentences. He also confessed to the attempted murders of magazinepublisher and pornographer Larry Flynt in 1978 and civil rightsactivist Vernon Jordan in 1980. Both survived their injuries, butFlynt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Franklinwas not convicted in either of those highly publicized cases, and hemade his confessions years after the crimes had occurred.

Because he repeatedly changed hisaccounts of some crimes, and was not charged in some of the cases inwhich he was suspected, officials cannot determine the full extent ofFranklin's crimes. His claims of racial motivation were offset by adefense expert witness who testified in 1997 that Franklin hadparanoid schizophrenia and was not fit to stand trial.

Franklin was on Missouri's death rowfor 15 years awaiting execution for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon. He was executed by lethal injection on November 20, 2013.

Early life

James Clayton Vaughn Jr. wasborn in Mobile, Alabama, on April 13, 1950, the eldest son of JamesClayton Vaughn Sr. and Helen Rau Vaughn, and brother to Carolyn,Marilyn and Gordon. Vaughn's father was a World War II veteran andbutcher who left the family when Vaughn was aged eight. His sisterCarolyn recalled, "Whenever [Vaughn Sr.] came to visit he'dbeat us," and their mother had Vaughn Sr. jailed twice forpublic drunkenness. Vaughn's mother was described by a family friendas "a full-blooded German, a real strict, perfectionist lady.I never saw her beat any of [her children], but they told mestories."

Vaughn later stated that he was rarelygiven enough to eat and suffered severe physical abuse as a child,and that his mother "didn't care about [him and hissiblings]". He claimed that these factors stunted hisemotional development, and said he had "always been least tenyears or more behind other people in their maturity."

As early as high school, Vaughndeveloped an interest in evangelical Christianity, then in Nazism,and later held memberships in both the National Socialist WhitePeople's Party and the Ku Klux Klan. He eventually changed his nameto "Joseph Paul Franklin" in honor of Paul JosephGoebbels and Benjamin Franklin. In the 1960s, Franklin was inspiredto start a race war after reading Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. "I'venever felt that way about any other book that I read," hewould reflect later. "It was something weird about thatbook."

In the early 1970s, Joseph PaulFranklin traveled on a road trip to an American Nazi Party conferencein Virginia with David Duke (then a student) and Don Black.

Crimes

For much of his life, Franklin was adrifter, roaming the East Coast seeking chances to "cleansethe world" of people he considered inferior, especiallyblacks and Jews. His primary source of financial support appears tohave been bank robberies. Franklin supplemented his income fromcriminal acts with paid blood bank donations, which eventually led tohis subsequent capture by the FBI.