Roy Everett Frankhouser, Jr. (also spelled "Frankhauser"; November 4, 1939 – May 15, 2009) was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, a member of the American Nazi Party, a government informant, and a security consultant to Lyndon LaRouche. Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times. In 2003 he told a reporter, "I'm accused of everything from the sinking of the Titanic to landing on the moon." He was convicted of federal crimes in at least three cases, including dealing in stolen explosives and obstruction of justice. Irwin Suall, of the Anti-Defamation League, called Frankhouser "a thread that runs through the history of American hate groups."
Biography
Early years
Frankhouser was born in Reading, Pennsylvania. He attended Northwest Junior High School through the tenth grade, and became active in racist causes. As a teenager, he collected Nazi paraphernalia and uniforms. He joined the United States Army and served one year as a paratrooper before receiving an honorable discharge. He joined the American Nazi Party in 1960.
When he was 19 he met George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party. He was later described as a protege of Rockwell's. His first recorded arrest occurred at age 22, when he kicked a policeman in the shins during a 1961 protest in Atlanta. He participated in Nazi party rallies and Klan demonstrations, being arrested often for disorderly conduct. Fellow Klansmen nicknamed him "Riot Roy". According to Frankhouser, he lost his eye in an attack by pipe-wielding Jews. In another version, he lost it during a fight with blacks in a Reading bar. A third story is that he lost it during the Bay of Pigs invasion. At a fundraising auction for the Klan, one of his glass eyes sold for $5. He also had a scar on his head which he said was from a brick thrown by a counter-demonstrator.
Dan Burros, a prominent member of the American Nazi Party, committed suicide in Frankhouser's apartment in 1965 upon seeing the headline of a New York Times article revealing Burros's Jewish background.
Frankhouser became the Grand Dragon of Pennsylvania in 1965. The following year he appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee as part of its investigation of the Ku Klux Klan. He reportedly pleaded the Fifth more than 30 times rather than answer their questions.
In 1972, he marched down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan wearing a black storm trooper's uniform to defy a city ban on wearing Nazi outfits in public. That same year, Frankhouser approached the FBI about working as an informant, offering information on groups such as black militants, the Jewish Defense League, the Irish Republican Army and Black September. The National Security Council approved a mission in which he was sent to Canada to infiltrate Black September, but he was unsuccessful. Frankhouser was also an organizer of the Minutemen and a member of the National States' Rights Party, the National Renaissance Party, the Liberty Lobby, and the White Citizens Council.
Frankhouser was convicted of conspiring to sell 240 pounds (110 kg) of stolen dynamite in 1975. The charges included selling explosives which were used in the bombing of a school bus in Pontiac, Michigan that killed one man. During the trial he revealed he was a government informant, saying that he was acting on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The government denied his assertion. Though he faced up to fifty-one years in prison, he was sentenced to two concurrent five-year probation terms as part of a plea agreement. Lyndon LaRouche initiated a legal defense on behalf of Frankhouser. When the LaRouche movement learned that Frankhouser was an informant, it saw that as evidence of the "FBI-CIA-Rockefeller-Buckley" control of the extreme Right, and an example of how government connections could immunize criminal behavior.
LaRouche trial
Frankhouser became a security consultant for political activist Lyndon LaRouche in 1979 after Frankhouser convinced LaRouche that Frankhouser was actively connected to U.S. intelligence agencies. In a 1984 deposition, LaRouche described Frankhouser as "an expert in security matters" who can "detect nasties by their wiggle". In U.S. v. Frankhauser, Frankhouser testified that he and LaRouche security employee Forrest Lee Fick had invented a connection to the CIA in order to justify his $700 a week salary as a security consultant. He said that he had persuaded a friend to play a former top CIA official (named "Ed" by Frankhouser, after "Mister Ed") in meetings with LaRouche. When LaRouche found out about a grand jury investigation, he reportedly told Frankhouser to get the CIA to quash it. Frankhouser told LaRouche that the CIA wanted him to destroy evidence and hide witnesses. Frankhouser claimed that on another occasion LaRouche sent him to Boston to check on the grand jury investigation. Instead of going to Boston he went to a Star Trek convention in Scranton, Pennsylvania and called to warn LaRouche that the FBI had wiretapped his phones. During the grand jury investigation, documents were presented which showed Frankhouser had advised members of the organization that unless they handled matters correctly they could "start writing a concerto for canaries in B major." He suggested destroying records, writing in a letter to LaRouche that "paper burns at 451 degrees Fahrenheit, a scientific fact." As soon as he was arrested, he began cooperating with federal prosecutors. He testified that members of LaRouche's organization had asked him to assassinate former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an enemy of the LaRouche movement. He also said that he had been ordered by Jeffrey Steinberg, LaRouche's head of counterintelligence, to organize pickets to disrupt the grand jury proceedings.
LaRouche was called as a defense witness in Frankhouser's trial but he refused to testify, exercising his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Frankhouser was found guilty on December 10, 1987, of obstruction of the federal investigation into credit card fraud. He was sentenced by US District Judge Robert E. Keeton to three years and a $50,000 fine. After his conviction, he was granted immunity against further prosecution and compelled to testify against LaRouche. Frankhouser appealed his conviction on April 3, 1989, arguing that his case should not have been severed from the main case, that his counsel had inadequate time to prepare, and that he was not provided with allegedly exculpatory evidence. The appeal was rejected in July.
Clayton trial
Starting in the 1980s he appeared regularly on Berks County public-access television with his white supremacist shows "Race and Reason" and "White Forum".
He was arrested April 28, 1993, for stabbing a KKK guard at a Klan convention. He testified that he was ambushed by the guard and several skinheads, and that he defended himself with his Swiss Army knife. He was acquitted of the crime due to self-defense.
In 1995 he was convicted in a federal court in Boston of advising the mother of Brian Clayton, the white supremacist head of the "New Dawn Hammerskins" gang, to destroy evidence linking her son to the desecration of synagogues and to attacks on black residents. Frankhouser had been harboring Clayton, who was sought by the FBI, for nine months. At the time, Frankhouser was described by the U.S. Attorney as the leader of the Pale Riders faction of the KKK. US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced him to 25 months in prison. On appeal, one count of obstruction of justice was overturned while another was affirmed.
Jouhari trial
According to a 1997 complaint, Frankhouser, then Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America in Pennsylvania, had been harassing Bonnie Jouhari and her daughter. Jouhari was a white woman who worked at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council, helping out people who had been discriminated against. After many unsuccessful attempts by Jouhari to get government agencies to act, she convinced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to take her case. Frankhouser eventually settled the case with terms set by the judge. Frankhouser had to complete 1000 hours of community service, make public apologies to Jouhari and her daughter on his "White Forum" TV show and local newspapers, pay them 10% of his income for a decade, and undergo "sensitivity training". The settlement was supported by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Reverend Jesse Jackson at a press conference also attended by NAACP president Kweisi Mfume.
Later years
Frankhouser became the pastor of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ, an arm of Robert E. Miles' movement. Frankhouser held services in his home, and sought a property tax exemption for the row house. The house reportedly had a small worship room with a makeshift altar, Klan flags, and pictures of Adolf Hitler and cross burnings. In 1998, Berks County tax officials refused to recognize it as a legitimate church on the grounds that Frankhouser could not provide adequate proof that he was an ordained minister.
Frankhouser fought with Lancaster, Pennsylvania, officials in 2001 over their restrictions on demonstrations by the KKK. He called himself a spokesman for the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; however, doubts were expressed in both the KKK and anti-hate communities over whether Frankhouser had any actual connection to the group.
Death
Frankhouser died of a heart attack at the Spruce Manor Nursing Home in West Reading, Pennsylvania, where he had resided since 2006. He had no known survivors. There was a parade in Reading, PA a few days later.
References
- ^ "From Jew to Jew-hater: the curious life (and death) of Daniel Burros" Archived 2008-10-16 at the Wayback Machine by William Bryk in New York Press, February 25, 2003
- ^ HOLMES, STEVEN A. (May 12, 2000). "White Supremacist Agrees to Make a Public Apology to Victim". New York Times.
- SULOK, NANCY J. (July 28, 2003). "Goal is to avoid confrontations at White Pride Fest". South Bend Tribune. South Bend, Ind. p. 1.
- ^ SHENON, PHILIP (October 8, 1986). "LAROUCHE WARNS U.S. ON ANY MOVE TO ARREST HIM". New York Times.
- ^ Gemperlein, Joyce (November 10, 1986). "LAROUCHE PROBE SNARES MAN WITH A PAST OF HATE". Philadelphia Inquirer. p. A.1.
- NELSON, JACK (September 25, 1975). "Moore Case May Stir Probe of FBI Tipsters". Los Angeles Times. p. A1.
- RANALLI, RALPH (November 29, 1994). "Pa. man denies he hindered rights probe". Boston Herald. p. 026.
- ^ Kelly, Dan (May 16, 2009). "Longtime Klansman from Reading dies in nursing home". Reading Eagle.
- ^ Levenda, Peter (2002). Unholy alliance. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 333. ISBN 978-0-8264-1409-0.
- Newton, Michael (2005). The FBI and the KKK. McFarland & Company. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-7864-2254-8.
- ^ King, Dennis (1989). Lyndon LaRouche and the new American fascism, Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23880-9
- ^ Sims, Patsy (1996). The Klan. University Press of Kentucky. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-8131-0887-2.
- Jenkins, Philip (1997). Hoods and shirts. UNC Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-8078-2316-3.
- Blum, Howard (1979). "U.S. Labor Party: Cult Surrounded by Controversy", New York Times, October 7, 1979.
- Marable, Manning (Spring 1998). "Black fundamentalism". Dissent. Vol. 45, no. 2. New York. p. 69.
- Rose, Gregory F. (1979). "The Swarmy Life and Times of the NCLC", National Review, March 30, 1979.
- ^ Mintz, John (December 18, 1987). "Defense Calls LaRouche, Followers 'Most Annoying'; Trial Begins for Leesburg Group Accused of Obstructing Probe Into Its Fund-Raising". The Washington Post. p. A18.
- Clark, John; Mike Weibel (January 18, 1987). "Frankhouser 'Broken' By Arrest In LaRouche Probe". The Morning Call.
- Mintz, John (October 21, 1987). "Judge Delays Trials of LaRouche, Six Associates; Case of Former Ku Klux Klan Leader Frankhouser Is Severed and Will Be Tried First". The Washington Post. p. A10.
- Wald, Matthew (December 10, 1987). "LaRouche Taken In By Aide, Trial Told". The New York Times. p. B17.
- OSTROW, RONALD J.; KEVIN RODERICK (October 10, 1986). "Extremist's Ex-Aide Disclosed Alleged Statement FBI Tells of Threat by LaRouche;". Los Angeles Times. p. 19.
- Doherty, William F. (November 17, 1987). "LaRouche Takes Fifth At Former Aide's Trial Probe Of Credit Scheme Prompted Charges". The Boston Globe. p. 67.
- "Aide To LaRouche Guilty In A Plot". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 11, 1987. p. A30.
- "Frankhouser Seized By FBI In Reading On Firearms Charges Police". The Morning Call. October 6, 1988.
- U.S. v. Frankhauser, 878 F.2d 1571 (4th Cir. July 4, 1989).
- "KKK leader from Reading is sentenced". Lancaster New Era. May 20, 1995. p. A.2.
- Murray, Frank J. (August 21, 1998). "Vague federal obstruction laws create legal headaches;". Washington Times. p. A.7.
- ^ "Jouhari/Horton v. United Klans of America/Frankhouser". Southern Poverty Law Center. 1988. Archived from the original on 26 June 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2008.
- David Bernstein. You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws. Cato Institute, 2003. page 74
- ^ "Klansman must pay 10% of his income and apologize to housing worker in bias lawsuit settlement". Jet. May 29, 2000. p. 9.
- "White supremacist plans appeal for church". York Daily Record. York, Pa. Associated Press. December 4, 1998. p. C.04.
- Lardner, Charles (September 8, 2001). "City, uncertain what to expect, braces for KKK rally". Intelligencer Journal. Lancaster, Pa. p. A.1.
- Spidaliere., John M. (September 8, 2001). "We can come together' Over 100 men gather on courthouse steps in stance against racism Several Klan members reportedly seen in cars". Lancaster New Era. Lancaster, Pa. p. A.1.
External links
Roy Frankhouser's FBI files, obtained under the FOIA and hosted at the Internet Archive
- FBI headquarters file:
- Philadelphia FBI office file:
- part 1
- part 2
- part 3
- part 4
- part 5
- part 6
- part 7
- part 8
- part 9
- part 10
- part 11
- part 12
- part 13
- part 14
- part 15
- part 16
- part 17
- part 18
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- 1939 births
- 2009 deaths
- People from Reading, Pennsylvania
- American Ku Klux Klan members convicted of crimes
- American neo-Nazis convicted of crimes
- American Nazi Party members
- American people convicted of obstruction of justice
- American prisoners and detainees
- Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragons
- LaRouche movement
- United States Army soldiers
- Citizens' Councils members
- Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
- Military personnel from Pennsylvania