Serial Killers Part 4: White Supremacist Joseph Franklin

01/14/14

Joseph Paul Franklin. Image courtesy of Missouri Department of Corrections.

It was a deadly mix: a mentally troubled man from an abusive, broken home turned radical racist and then serial killer.

His name was Joseph Paul Franklin, and he went on a horrific killing spree beginning in 1977 at the age of 27. Before his reign of murder ended in 1980, he took the lives of at least 15 men, women, and children in some 11 states. He also admitted shooting civil rights leader Vernon Jordan and paralyzing pornography publisher Larry Flynt.

Franklin—born James Clayton Vaughn, Jr. before changing his name to reflect his admiration for Benjamin Franklin and Nazi Joseph Goebbels—was drawn to white supremacist ideologies as a teen. Dropping out of high school following a severe eye injury, he got married, became an abusive husband, and began racking up minor legal violations.