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/ 

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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 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvCjM1lPwg4

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, October 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5b_-TZwQ0I

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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.

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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, 2020

Griffin, 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., 2011

Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi Terrorism and Countercultural Fascism: The Origins and Afterlife of James Mason’s Siege (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge

Bill Simmons, "Defendants All Acquitted In Sedition Trial," AP News, April 8, 1988

https://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/3681879

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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.

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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., 2011

Ralph 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: Routledge

Flynn, Kevin, and Gary Gerhardt. The Silent Brotherhood: Inside America's Racist Underground Free Press ; Collier Macmillan, 1989.

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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., 2011

Moon, V. The middleburg mystique: A peek inside the gates of Middleburg, Virginia. Waverley Lee Media, LLC. 2016

Matthew 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, 2016

Douglas, 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.html
https://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.pdf

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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., 2011

Thomas Martinez, Brotherhood of Murder: The Shocking Inside Story of The Order. McGraw Hill, 1988

Jessica Mitford, Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, New York, Vintage Books, 1973

Devins, Neal, "Reagan Redux: Civil Rights Under Bush" (1993). Faculty Publications. 429.
https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/facpubs/429

https://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.html

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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.html

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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., 2011

Jonathan Golomb, Regulation of Indecency in Political Broadcasting, 13 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 69 (1979).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol13/iss1/5

https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/18/justice/death-row-interview-joseph-paul-franklin

https://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.html

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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, 2020

Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011

Gardell, 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.2017.1419554

Jeffrey 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, 855-857

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