On March 6, 1978, as I stood on the steps of the Georgia courthouse where I was fighting obscenity charges, a series of gunshots rang out. I remember nothing that happened after that until I woke up in the intensive care unit. The damage to my central nervous system was severe, and it took several weeks before doctors could stabilize me. From then on, I was paralyzed from the waist down, and have been confined to a wheelchair ever since.
Years later, a white supremacist named Joseph Paul Franklin was arrested for shooting and killing an interracial couple. He soon began confessing to other crimes, and that’s when he admitted to having shot me. He said he'd targeted me because of a photo spread I ran in Hustler magazine featuring a black man and a white woman. He had bombed several synagogues. He had shot Vernon Jordan Jr., the civil rights activist. He hated blacks, he hated Jews, he hated all minorities. He went around the country committing all these crimes. I think somebody had to have been financing him, but nothing ever turned up on who that somebody may have been.
In all the years since the shooting, I have never come face-to-face with Franklin. I would love an hour in a room with him and a pair of wire-cutters and pliers, so I could inflict the same damage on him that he inflicted on me. But, I do not want to kill him, nor do I want to see him die.
Supporters of capital punishment argue that it is a deterrent which prevents potential murderers from committing future crimes, but research has failed to provide a shred of valid scientific proof to that effect whatsoever. In 18th century England, pickpocketing was a capital offense. Once a week, crowds would gather in a public square to observe public hangings of convicted pickpockets, unaware that their own pockets were being emptied by thieves moving among them. That’s a true story, and, if you’re ever trying to convince somebody of why the death penalty is not a deterrent, that’s a good example.
As far as the severity of punishment is concerned, to me, a life spent in a 3-by-6-foot cell is far harsher than the quick release of a lethal injection. And costs to the taxpayer? Execution has been proven to be far more expensive for the state than a conviction of life without parole, due to the long and complex judicial process required for capital cases.
Franklin has been sentenced by the Missouri Supreme Court to death by legal injection on Nov. 20. I have every reason to be overjoyed with this decision, but I am not. I have had many years in this wheelchair to think about this very topic. As I see it, the sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.
Larry Flynt Shooting
Introduction
Larry Flynt had been defending himself against obscenity charges since the first copy of Hustler magazine rolled off the presses in 1974. In early 1978 Gwinnett County decided to press obscenity charges against the publisher when a local market began distributing the magazine. In March, 1978 trial began in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
The Arrest
Fulton County prosecutor Hinson McAuliff targeted Larry Flynt in 1978 when he sold personally autographed copies of Hustler and Chic Magazine at an Atlanta bookstore. Flynt was arrested and charged in Fulton County. As he posted bond, a warrant arrived on an unrelated charge for the sale of a copy of Hustler in Gwinnett County.
The Trial
Originally slated to end on Friday, March 3, 1978, testimony had run long. On the morning of March 6, Larry Flynt took the stand and began to testify in defense of his magazine. He called it a "satire" and said it was "one big put-on." After what most people describe as a good performance by the publisher, Flynt and his legal team opted to return to V&J Cafeteria, on Perry Street on the west side of the courthouse. Flynt, 35, was joined by Paul Cambria, Price Fahringer, and Gene Reeves, just as they had done each day of the trial.
The shooting
At 11:55am Eastern Standard Time, two or three shots rang out, striking both Gene Reeves and Larry Flynt. Falling forward, Flynt fell facedown on a concrete driveway while Reeves took a few steps before collapsing on the sidewalk. Reeves had been struck in the arm and chest while Flynt had been hit twice in the abdomen.
At 12:20 pm a call came into the courthouse switchboard where Sara Hutchins, a part-time clerk answered.
"Tell (Solicitor) Gary Davis he doesn't have to worry about Larry Flynt anymore." Hutchins believed her caller and stood up to find Davis or his secretary. She heard the ambulances not far from the courthouse.
Early eyewitness reports had two men speeding off in a car, but no one actually saw a gunmen. One early clue was a spent .44 magnum cartridge near the crime scene, probably from a Martin deer rifle. A reporter for a Lawrenceville paper (The Dispatch) said he barely heard the gunshots. Investigators concentrated on an abandoned hotel across the street from the shooting. The hotel had a door to a parking lot in the rear of the building, making for an easy getaway.
The injured men were taken to Button Gwinnett Hospital on Scenic Highway in Lawrenceville. Surgeons worked on Flynt in two separate operations. In the first they removed much of the lower intestine which had been damaged by the bullets. In a second operation, Flynt's spleen was removed. Flynt and Reeves were moved to Emory Hospital for continued care.
Lawrenceville Mayor Rhodes Jordan was quoted in Time Magazine, "Somebody was sending Flynt a message, that they don't want his type of filth around."
The Gwinnett County case ended in a mistrial.
The manhunt
State and local authorities had little to go on. No eyewitness description of the assailant, no fingerprints in the casing or in the vicinity of the hotel where they thought the assailant had waited. Originally, the police looked for a silver Camaro, which eyewitnesses reported seeing fleeing the scene. Then came a drawing of a couple wanted for questioning, not because they were involved in the shooting but because police felt they might have seen something. Then police looked into Flynt's business dealings for a motive.
Half a dozen requests to interview Flynt about the shooting were denied. He may have been afraid because he believed the shooting was part of an FBI or CIA plot to kill him.
Confession
During his years of incarceration Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility for many crimes. For example, he claimed to have killed two black men in Atlanta, one in 1977 the other in 1978. Atlanta Police found one case that closely matched the details he gave, but had no idea about the second confession. Franklin also claimed to have shot Vernon Jordan because Franklin saw him with a white woman (Jordan's wife Shirley was white).
When Franklin confessed to shooting Larry Flynt, he claimed that it was because of an interracial photo shoot that appeared in the pornographic magazine. Franklin is currently on death row in Missouri.
No additional trial
Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter received a letter from Franklin in 1984, while he was in prison in Marion, Illinois. In the letter Franklin stated "My name is Joseph Paul Franklin. I shot Larry Flynt. If you bring me to Gwinnett County, I'll tell you about it."
When police arrived to discuss the letter Franklin had a change of heart, claiming the letter was a hoax. Finally, after 2 interviews, Franklin admitted he shot Flynt. Franklin was able to describe the building where the shots came from, his route of escape, and the vehicle he used. The detectives from Georgia felt certain enough of his involvement to recommend his indictment for assault and in 1984 the county filed charges.
Unfortunately, the string of murders in which Franklin had been involved took priority. In 1997 Franklin was convicted of murdering a man outside a Jewish Synagogue in St. Louis in 1977 and sentenced to death. Porter decided not to pursue the charges against Franklin filed in 1984.