Early Life
He was born James Clayton Vaughn in Mobile, Alabama, to a poor family. He suffered severe physical abuse as a child. As early as high school, he had become interested first in evangelical Christianity, and Nazism, and later held memberships in both the National Socialist White People's Party and the Ku Klux Klan.
In 1976 at the age of 26, he changed his name to Joseph Paul Franklin. He selected Joseph Paul in honor of Paul Joseph Goebbels and Franklin after Benjamin Franklin.
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