Joseph Paul Franklin
Joseph Paul Franklin (born James Clayton Vaughn Jr.; April 13, 1950 – November 20, 2013) was an American serial killer, white supremacist, and domestic terrorist who engaged in a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Joseph Paul Franklin | |
|---|---|
MODOC mugshot | |
| Born | James Clayton Vaughn Jr. April 13, 1950 Mobile, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | November 20, 2013 (aged 63) |
| Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
| Other names | The Racist Killer |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Motive | Desire to incite a race war |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment x4 (March 23, 1981 & September 1986) Death (July 17, 1984 & February 27, 1997) |
| Details | |
| Victims | 8 convicted, 21 confirmed, 6 wounded |
Span of crimes | August 7, 1977 – August 20, 1980 |
| Country | United States |
| State(s) | Missouri, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Utah |
Date apprehended | October 28, 1980 |
Franklin was convicted of several murders and received four life sentences, as well as two death sentences. He also confessed to the attempted murders of magazine publisher and pornographer Larry Flynt in 1978 and civil rights activist Vernon Jordan in 1980. Both survived their injuries, but Flynt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Franklin was not convicted in either of those highly publicized cases, and he made his confessions years after the crimes had occurred.
Franklin was on Missouri's death row for 15 years awaiting execution for the 1977 murder of Gerald Gordon. He was executed by lethal injection on November 20, 2013.