POLICE OFFER $5,000 REWARD FOR RIFLE INFORMATION IN SNIPING: THE HERALD, OCTOBER 3, 1980

Six weeks after two young men were shot down while jogging near Liberty Park, the police chief of Salt Lake City stood in front of reporters waving a flyer with a face on it and asked the public to help him find a gun. On Thursday, October 2, 1980, Chief E. L. Willoughby offered $5,000 for the 30-30 rifle that killed Ted Fields, 20, and David Martin, 18, on the night of August 20. The face on the flyer was Joseph Paul Franklin's. He was 30, he had been born James Clayton Vaughn and changed his name in 1976, and about a week earlier he had slipped away from police in Florence, Kentucky, who were holding him over a report that his car was stolen.

Willoughby's reasoning was practical. Franklin bought and sold guns wherever he went, and the weapons found in his brown 1975 Camaro, two .30-06 rifles, a .44-caliber Ruger revolver and a .357 pistol, had all failed the ballistics tests. So the flyers would go out across an 850-mile radius. "We don't want to be looking all over the U.S.," the chief said, "if the weapon is right here in our back yard." Detectives had placed Franklin in the city from August 10 to August 21 and placed the car at the scene, and Willoughby thought he might have come back in the confusion afterward to watch, though he admitted that was not certain.

Then the chief came as close as he would go to the reason. "A motive is starting to develop," he said. "There is some reason to believe that he (Franklin) hates blacks." He would not say more. Cincinnati police wanted Franklin over the June 8 sniper killings of two Black boys, and the FBI, Willoughby said, was plainly interested in him over the shooting of Vernon Jordan. The manhunt was at its height. It ended on October 28, 1980, in Lakeland, Florida, where a blood bank worker recognized his tattoos and called the FBI.

This is United Press International copy built on one police press conference, filed while Franklin was a fugitive and charged with nothing in Utah, so the chief's theories are suspicion spoken aloud, not findings. Other accounts say the Kentucky officers stopped and questioned him over a gun in the car rather than a stolen-car report. The paper's "Ted Fields" and "David Martin" were Theodore Fields and David Martin III. Franklin was later tried in Utah on state murder and federal civil rights charges, convicted of both killings and sentenced to life. He was convicted in 1998 of murdering the Cincinnati boys, Darrell Lane, 14, and Dante Brown, 13. Tried for shooting Vernon Jordan, who survived, he was acquitted, and confessed to it only years later.

The story ran without a staff byline in The Herald of Provo, Utah, on October 3, 1980, credited to UPI. The scan comes from Utah Digital Newspapers, held by the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, which rates this issue "In Copyright"; a paper published in 1980 falls under the 1976 Copyright Act. No copyright notice appears on the article or on the masthead. The full citation and the library's rights statement are under the scan.

The transcription follows the scan word for word, and the single clipping holds the whole story, with nothing illegible. The paper's small slips are left alone: no comma after "Joseph Paul Franklin" in the second paragraph, none between "David Martin" and his age, and ".357 magnum" set in lower case.

Transcription

Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.

Police Offer $5,000 Reward For Rifle Information in Sniping

SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) — Salt Lake City Police Chief E. L. Willoughby offered a $5,000 reward Thursday for information leading to the recovery of a 30-30 rifle used in the sniper slayings of two young black men near a city park last August.

Willoughby said information from Cincinnati and other police departments has led detectives to believe that the prime suspect in the crime, Joseph Paul Franklin may have bought and sold the murder weapon in the Salt Lake area.

"We want to know if anyone has sold or bought weapons from this man," Willoughby said while brandishing a flyer featuring Franklin's photograph. "We know he does buy and sell guns in areas where he travels, and he may have sold the weapon we are seeking."

Willoughby said the flyers will be distributed within an 850-mile radius of Salt Lake City.

"We don't want to be looking all over the U.S.," Willoughby explained, "if the weapon is right here in our back yard."

Franklin became the object of a massive manhunt in the Cincinnati area after he escaped police in nearby Florence, Ky. The 30-year-old Franklin, who changed his name from James Clayton Vaughn in 1976, was being held in the Florence police station for questioning involving a report that the car he was driving was stolen.

Police said two .30-06 rifles and a .44-caliber Magnum single-action Ruger revolver and a .357 magnum pistol were found in the brown 1975 Camaro Franklin was driving.

Ballistics tests revealed none of the weapons were used in the Salt Lake City killings, Willoughby said.

Willoughby said Salt Lake City detectives have confirmed Franklin was in the city from Aug. 10 to Aug. 21. The car confiscated in Kentucky has been placed at the shooting scene, he added.

"We have reason to believe he (Franklin) may have returned to the scene during the confusion after the shootings to see what was going on," Willoughby said, "but that is not certain."

Investigators have talked with Franklin's father James Vaughn of Mobile, Ala. Willoughby said, and are now developing a personality profile of the suspect.

"A motive is starting to develop," Willoughby said. "There is some reason to believe that he (Franklin) hates blacks." But he refused to elaborate.

Willoughby said recovering the weapon used to kill Ted Fields, 20, and David Martin 18, would be a major step toward solution of the shootings. Both men were gunned down while jogging near a Salt Lake City park the night of Aug. 20.

Cincinnati police want Franklin for questioning in the sniping slayings of two black youths who were killed with a .44-caliber Magnum rifle June 8.

Willoughby said federal investigators also want to question Franklin in connection with the sniper shooting of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.

"I don't know if they want him for shooting Jordan," Willoughby said, "but the things that they (the FBI) are doing would certainly indicate they are interested in the man."

Notes: Kept as printed: no comma after "Joseph Paul Franklin"; "David Martin 18," with no comma; ".357 magnum" lower-case. The Thursday press conference was in Salt Lake City, where Franklin was later convicted of these two murders. No words were illegible.