Who Is Joseph Paul Franklin? Age, Biography, and Wiki
Joseph Paul Franklin was an American serial killer born on April 13, 1950. He gained infamy for a series of racially motivated murders across the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Franklin claimed responsibility for numerous violent crimes, which led to his capture and eventual incarceration. After years of legal battles, he was executed by lethal injection on November 20, 2013, in Missouri. For more in-depth knowledge, you can visit Joseph Paul Franklin's Wikipedia page.
| Occupation | Serial Killers |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | April 13, 1950 |
| Age | 63 Years |
| Birth Place | Mobile, Alabama, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aries |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 20 November, 2013 |
| Died Place | N/A |
Popularity
Joseph Paul Franklin's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
While specific details about Joseph Paul Franklin's height and weight are not widely documented, individuals involved in law enforcement have described him as having an average build during his active years of criminal activity. His physical appearance played a role in his varied personas as he attempted to evade capture.
Franklin was convicted of several murders and received seven life sentences, as well as one death sentence. 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.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Joseph Paul Franklin's personal life was marked by significant turbulence. He had several relationships throughout his life, but details about his dating and romantic endeavors remain limited due to his criminal background and the focus on his inhumane actions. Franklin was married multiple times, but his relationships often faced turmoil, influenced heavily by his criminality.
James Clayton Vaughn Jr. and Helen Rau Vaughn. He had two sisters and a brother. Vaughn's father was a World War II veteran and butcher who left the family when Vaughn was aged eight. His sister Carolyn recalled, "Whenever [Vaughn Sr.] came to visit he'd beat us," and their mother had Vaughn Sr. jailed twice for public drunkenness.
Vaughn's mother was described by a family friend as "a full-blooded German, a real strict, perfectionist lady. I never saw her beat any of [her children], but they told me stories."
Net Worth and Salary
During his lifetime, Joseph Paul Franklin's financial status was deeply affected by his criminal activities. While exact figures on his net worth are not available, it is known that he did not accumulate significant wealth through legitimate means. Instead, his life was riddled with crime and incarceration, leading to a lack of stable income or assets.
For much of his life, Franklin was a drifter, roaming the East Coast seeking chances to "cleanse the world" of people he considered inferior, especially black and Jewish people. His primary source of financial support appears to have been bank robberies. Franklin supplemented his income from criminal acts with paid blood bank donations, which eventually led to his capture by the FBI.
Career, Business, and Investments
Franklin's "career" cannot be regarded in traditional terms due to his notorious criminal history. He is classified as a serial killer and engaged primarily in illegal activities. His crimes were racially motivated and included a series of murders, armed robberies, and assaults. Franklin did not hold a conventional job and lived a transient lifestyle, often relocating to evade law enforcement.
* June 15, 1980: Franklin shot and killed Arthur Smothers (22) and Kathleen Mikula (16) with a high-powered rifle as the couple walked across the Washington Street Bridge in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Smothers was black; Mikula was white.
On the day of the murder, Franklin took a concealed position on a wooded hillside overlooking downtown Johnstown and waited for potential targets to enter his line of sight. He was never arrested for these murders, but he confessed to them during a jailhouse interview after he was apprehended.
Social Network
Given the nature of his crimes, Joseph Paul Franklin did not maintain a public social network in the way contemporary figures do today. Most of his interactions were linked to his criminal activities, and during his time in prison, he had limited contact with the outside world. His notoriety has led to discussions about him on various platforms, including crime documentaries, podcasts, and writings exploring the psychology of serial killers.
In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper published on November 17, 2013, Franklin said he had renounced his racist views. He said his motivation had been "illogical" and was partly a consequence of an abusive upbringing. He said he had interacted with black people in prison, adding: "I saw they were people just like us."
Education
Details regarding Joseph Paul Franklin’s educational background are largely sparse. It is known that he had an unstable childhood and faced numerous challenges that likely inhibited his educational opportunities. Although some reports suggest he had minimal formal education, it remains unclear how much schooling he may have completed before his criminal life overtook him.
As early as high school, Vaughn developed an interest in evangelical Christianity, then in Nazism, and later held memberships in both the National Socialist White People's Party and the Ku Klux Klan. He eventually changed his name to "Joseph Paul Franklin" in honor of Paul Joseph Goebbels and Benjamin Franklin.
In the 1960s, Franklin was inspired to start a race war after reading Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf. "I've never felt that way about any other book that I read," he later reflected. "It was something weird about that book."
