Weird Little Guys

Decades before he sculpted a Confederate general out of old bathtubs, Jack Kershaw briefly represented his most famous client - Martin Luther King Jr's assassin, James Earl Ray. The relationship soured after Ray discovered his lawyer had pocketed a payment from Playboy magazine.Sources:James McKinley, "Playboy Interview: James Earl Ray," Playboy Magazine, September 1977https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/09/archives/polygraph-indicates-ray-lied.html https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/25/archives/james-earl-ray-wants-mark-lane-to-replace-his-tenth-lawyer.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/sports/the-barkley-marathons-few-know-how-to-enter-fewer-finish.htmlSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Molly interviews Michael Edison Hayden about his new book, Strange People on the Hill: How Extremism Tore Apart a Small Town. The book is an intimate portrait of what happened in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia after a white nationalist group moved into the castle on the hill.Preorder the book now or buy it anywhere books are sold when it comes out on April 7, 2026 https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-edison-hayden/strange-people-on-the-hill/9781645030607/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack Kershaw created his most famous piece of art in his 80s. His lifelong passion for the arts had to take a backseat when he shifted his focus to becoming a professional racist during the fight against integration. He was doing it for his confederate ancestors, he would often say. But he was never very specific about who exactly his ancestors were...The It Could Happen Here episode mentioned, originally aired 2/22/2024 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ZQAqsxImsNGQUTzHGKhNp Sources:https://thesewaneepurple.org/2021/03/23/polk-sculpture-donated-by-white-supremacist-jack-kershaw/ https://thesewaneepurple.org/2021/03/22/polk-sculpture-removed-by-student-taken-to-archives/ https://meridiana.sewanee.edu/2022/04/30/a-year-later-a-letter-of-explanation/ https://www.moca.org/collection/work/unmanned-drone https://religiondispatches.org/2025/10/28/swords-plowshares https://www.sipcville.com/ https://www.vpm.org/news/2026-03-23/swords-into-plowshares-cville-jefferson-school-designs-hood-push-mass https://www.vpm.org/news/2024-05-23/swords-into-plowshares-robert-e-lee-statue-charlottesville-centennial https://www.npr.org/2021/02/23/970610428/nearly-100-confederate-monuments-removed-in-2020-report-says-more-than-700-remai https://segregationinamerica.eji.org/report/confederate-icongraphy.html https://wpln.org/post/even-as-statue-forrest-still-draws-fire/ https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/03/30/Ray-says-lawyer-hid-Playboy-fee/1722386312400/ The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, August 2017https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvCjM1lPwg4 Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, October 2017https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5b_-TZwQ0ISee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before we leave the novels of William Luther Pierce behind us, let's take a quick look at the real Earl Turner. The protagonist of The Turner Diaries was, like all of Pierce's characters, named after a real guy he knew.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the end of this exploration of nazi serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin and the novel loosely based on his crimes, the question remains: did any of his friends in the white power movement know what he was going to do before he did it? What clues does the novel hold? Sources:Pierce, Kelvin. Sins of My Father, Growing Up with America's Most Dangerous White Supremacist. Independently Published, 2020Griffin, R. S. (2001). The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds. 1st Books Library.Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: RoutledgeBill Simmons, "Defendants All Acquitted In Sedition Trial," AP News, April 8, 1988https://www.kcur.org/news/2024-04-12/overland-park-antisemitic-murders-jewish-community-center-shooting-survivors https://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world/article2595772.html http://www.kansas.com/2014/04/15/3406670/records-suggest-federal-authorities.html https://momentsthatsurvive.org/tribute/pierce-hastings/ https://www.wunc.org/2014-04-15/an-idiot-with-a-gun-leaves-families-in-kansas-reeling https://www.kmbc.com/article/shooting-victim-remembered-for-upbeat-attitude-work-with-kids/3681879See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A closer look at the second novel by the man who wrote The Turner Diaries reveals that it isn't just about serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin... it's the author's fantasy about the man he wishes he could have been.  Sources: Pierce, Kelvin. Sins of My Father, Growing Up with America's Most Dangerous White Supremacist. Independently Published, 2020 Thomas Martinez, Brotherhood of Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of The Order. McGraw Hill, 1988 Griffin, R. S. (2001). The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds. 1st Books Library.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As we approach the end of the series on nazi serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin, the rest of the timeline is filled in. Shortly after murdering two young men in Utah, Franklin was arrested at a motel in Kentucky after calling to complain that a police car had him double parked.Sources:Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Ralph Echols, Life Without Mercy: Jake Beard, Joseph Paul Franklin and the Rainbow Murders, Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: RoutledgeFlynn, Kevin, and Gary Gerhardt. The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground Free Press ; Collier Macmillan, 1989.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just about every source of information about nazi serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin gets the name of one of his victims wrong. In my search for information about the man who was murdered in Falls Church, Virginia in August of 1979, I came up mostly empty. We've erased a man from the story of his own murder because it's easier to tell a story about a racist than it is to talk about racism. Sources:Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Moon, V. The middleburg mystique: A peek inside the gates of Middleburg, Virginia. Waverley Lee Media, LLC. 2016Matthew Exline, We Have Been Waiting Too Long: The Struggle Against Racial Segregation in Loudoun County, Virginia. Have History Will Travel Press, 2020.Carole Townsend, Blood in the Soil. Skyhorse, 2016Douglas, John E., Ann W. Burgess, et al. Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes. John Wiley and Sons, 2006.The Study of the Operation of Segregated Schools in Loudoun County, Virginia conducted by Teachers in the Movement Oral History Project Research Team University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development https://www.loudoun.gov/DocumentCenter/View/214704/The-Study-of-the-Operation-of-Segregated-Schools-in-Loudoun-County-Virginia_FINAL https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/index.cfm?fa=newsinfo.displayContent&theFile=content/deathPenalty/trial https://www.aclunorcal.org/app/uploads/2010/03/costs_of_death_penalty_trials.pdf https://fds.duke.edu/db?attachment-34--1667-view-301 https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/259-0162-0007_ShilohBaptistChurch_2017_NRHP_FINAL.pdf https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/04/26/middleburg/74b1854a-dca2-4b45-8bc5-7999ab4e015c/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/12/05/loudoun-county-segregated-schools-reparations/ http://www.virginiaplaces.org/government/constitution1902.htmlhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1979/08/21/turner-raymond-elton/4ae0ab2f-ef82-477d-a8f8-39ababc4c72c/ https://edwinwashingtonproject.org/files/original/62047/1014789_EWP_2-5A_Yr_1930_CountyWide_on_Gibbons_Lot.pdfSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After Joseph Paul Franklin was arrested in 1980, prosecutors all over the country were waiting their turn to try him for murder. After a federal prosecutor failed to convince a jury that shooting a man just for being black was a civil rights violation, they lost their confidence. But Joseph Paul Franklin was desperate to get out of the federal prison where he was serving his first few life sentences. Sources:Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Thomas Martinez, Brotherhood of Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of The Order. McGraw Hill, 1988Jessica Mitford, Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, New York, Vintage Books, 1973Devins, Neal, "Reagan Redux: Civil Rights Under Bush" (1993). Faculty Publications. 429.https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/429https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/06/28/reynolds-nomination-voted-down/115c0520-c848-4c17-a302-209a9a9d5a4a/ https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/28/us/senate-committee-rejects-reynolds-for-justice-post.html https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/07/us/us-rights-official-discounts-tension.html https://virginiamercury.com/2019/04/22/can-a-local-prosecutor-decide-to-just-stop-prosecuting-marijuana-cases-the-va-supreme-court-will-decide/ https://www.hcpros.org/case-vault-1 https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/09/us/slayer-faces-trial-in-2-apparently-racial-killings.html https://ballotpedia.org/United_States_v._Lanza https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-5/dual-sovereignty-doctrine https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/7299259/united-states-v-fields/ https://www.washingtonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Utah-AG-Report.pdf https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4403054/mitchell-v-roberts/ https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-02-mn-747-story.html https://people.umass.edu/~kastor/ceml_articles/cu_in_us.html https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.journal.prisons.prisoners.griffin.1993.pdf https://concrim.asc41.com/wp-content/uploads/j32.pdf https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/10/23/murders-of-blacks-baffle-us-officials/f8eefeac-1ca3-48de-85a0-4b9db645b01e/ https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/24/us/study-accuses-justice-dept-of-waging-attack-on-civil-rights-laws.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/10/marion-prison-lockdown-thomas-silverstein-how-a-1983-murder-created-america-s-terrible-supermax-prison-culture.htmlSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Joseph Paul Franklin hit the road to start his killing spree, his movements seemed completely random. But what if they weren't? Sources: Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011 Fine, Morris, and Milton Himmelfard. American Jewish Year Book 1979. 1978. Frenkel, Margaret. American synagogue directory, 1963 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-25016217 https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4300634/zink-v-lombardi/ https://isthmus.com/archive/from-the-archives/in-cold-blood/ https://www.almd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2022-04/OH-transcript-baxley.pdf https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/crime/2014/04/14/timeline-hate-filled-life/7712569/ https://law.justia.com/cases/missouri/supreme-court/2000/sc-81859-1.htmlSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Last week, we looked at the nazi newletters serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin was probably reading in the leadup to his killing spree. But there is one thing we know for certain he was reading: Hustler.Sources:Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Jonathan Golomb, Regulation of Indecency in Political Broadcasting, 13 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 69 (1979).Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol13/iss1/5https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/18/justice/death-row-interview-joseph-paul-franklinhttps://www.nytimes.com/1977/12/12/archives/antiobscenity-drive-disputed-in-atlanta-prosecutors-campaign-widely.html https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/10/archives/a-bullet-paralyzed-flynt-below-waist-his-doctor-reports-operating.html https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/convicted-killer-avowed-racist-tells-of-a-life-of-rage-hatred/article_c2093272-4768-52d2-8c0b-2e0bf719c1b1.htmlSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1977, Joseph Paul Franklin started his three year killing spree, but he wasn't the only neo-nazi who murdered for the movement that summer.Sources:Sunshine, Spencer. (2024). Neo-Nazi terrorism and countercultural fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege. Taylor & Francis.Pierce, Kelvin. Sins of My Father, Growing Up with America's Most Dangerous White Supremacist. Independently Published, 2020Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011Gardell, Mattias. “Lone Wolf Race Warriors and White Genocide.” Cambridge University Press eBooks, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108609760.Bart Schuurman, Lasse Lindekilde, Stefan Malthaner, Francis O'Connor, Paul Gill & Noémie Bouhana (2017): End of the Lone Wolf: The Typology that Should Not Have Been, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2017.1419554Jeffrey Kaplan (2014) Mel Ayton. Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin , Terrorism and Political Violence, 26:5, 855-857See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Molly interviews Christopher Mathias about his new book, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right. It's a rollicking tale of infiltrating nazi groups and exposing their private communications to dox them en masse.  Preorder Chris' book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Catch-a-Fascist/Christopher-Mathias/9781668034767  The article Chris mentioned about Spit & Dan: https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/death-in-the-desert-2263332/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part One: Frank Abbott Sweeney Jr may be the Forrest Gump of American white supremacy in the 20th century. Starting with a failed bank robbery for the American Nazi Party in the 60s, Frank stumbled his way into being an inconsequential side character in major historical events for decades. Original Air Date: 8.28.24 Part Two: In part two of the life of the Forrest Gump of fascism, Frank Sweeney leads the CIA on an international goose chase, befriends and then betrays a serial killer, and just can't stop committing crimes by mail. Original Air Date: 9.5.24See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Years before he set off on his three year killing spree, Joseph Paul Franklin left his home in Alabama to attend a nazi conference in Virginia.  Sources: Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011 Belew, Kathleen. Bring the War Home : The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press, 2018. Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge Kaplan, Jeffrey. (2022). No Longer Alone: Lone Wolves, Wolf Packs, and Made for Web TV Specials. In: Perry, B., Gruenewald, J., Scrivens, R. (eds) Right-Wing Extremism in Canada and the United States . Palgrave Hate Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. Saslow, Eli. Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist. Anchor, 2018. Malthaner, Stefan, et al. “Scattered Attacks: The Collective Dynamics of Lone-Actor Terrorism.” Perspectives on Politics, vol. 22, no. 2, Dec. 2023, pp. 463–80. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592723002852. Bart Schuurman, Lasse Lindekilde, Stefan Malthaner, Francis O'Connor, Paul Gill & Noémie Bouhana (2017): End of the Lone Wolf: The Typology that Should Not Have Been, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2017.1419554 Pantucci, Rafaello. A Typology of Lone Wolves: Preliminary Analysis of Lone Islamist Terrorists. (London: International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR), 2011): 14-31. Gardell, Mattias. “Lone Wolf Race Warriors and White Genocide.” Cambridge University Press, 2021. https://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/NCITF-Final-Paper.pdf https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/movement-and-madman/#part01 https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1969/11/20/november-mobilization/ https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/nixons-secret-plan-for-ending-the-vietnam-war-nuclear-annihilation-of-vietnam/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1965, a car full of klansmen shot and killed Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit who volunteered to drive civil rights activists back to Selma after the march to Montgomery. The FBI immediately kicked into overdrive to drag her name through the mud.Sources:Stanton, Mary. From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998Mendelsohn, Jack. The martyrs : sixteen who gave their lives for racial justice. Harper & Row 1966https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/micheal-schwerner-james-chaney-andrew-goodman https://famous-trials.com/mississippi-burningtrial/1978-barnetteconfession https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/schwerner-michael/ http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/videos/7p88cm77s https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-long-not-long-speech-text/ https://www.cbc.ca/radio/sunday/the-sunday-edition-september-10-2017-1.4280530/daughter-of-civil-rights-worker-murdered-in-selma-on-racism-white-supremacy-and-her-mother-s-legacy-1.4280754 https://archive.org/details/martyrssixteenwh00mend/page/176/mode/2upSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When the man responsible for bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City was arrested, he was carrying a page of his favorite book. The book had been sold at gun shows and in ads in nazi newsletters for years, but suddenly the rest of the country was asking... can a book kill? Sources:Berger, J.M. "The Turner Legacy: The Storied Origins and Enduring Impact of White Nationalism’s Deadly Bible", The International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague 7, no. 8 (2016).Belew, Kathleen. Bring the War Home : The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press, 2018.Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: RoutledgePierce, Kelvin. Sins of My Father, Growing Up with America's Most Dangerous White Supremacist. Independently Published, 2020Martin Durham, White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics (newyork: routledge, 2007)Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham: Duke University Press.Kaplan, Jeffrey (July 2018). "America's apocalyptic literature of the radical right". International Sociology. 33 (4): 503–522Flynn, Kevin, and Gary Gerhardt. The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground Free Press ; Collier Macmillan, 1989.Michael, George(2003) 'The revolutionary model of Dr William L. Pierce', Terrorism and Political Violence, 15: 3Michael, George(2010) 'Blueprints and Fantasies: A Review and Analysis of Extremist Fiction', Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 33: 2Griffin, R. S. (2001). The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds. 1st Books Library.Cullick, Jonathan S. “The Literary Offenses of a Neo-Nazi: Narrative Voice in ‘The Turner Diaries.’” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 24, no. 3, 2002, pp. 87–99.https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/guru-white-hate-william-pierce-timothy-mcveigh-831091/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.