Weird Little Guys
Weird Little Guys is a weekly show about the worst people you’ve never heard of, taking you beyond the headlines to get to know the race warriors and aspiring terrorists trying to unravel the fabric of our society. Weaving together the origin stories of modern American white supremacist groups and the crimes that land their members in court, independent journalist Molly Conger exposes the monsters for what they really are - some weird guy. Whether they’re conspiring to build bombs or serving swastika shaped cookies at a dinner party, the weird little guys trying to destroy America are a little less scary with their masks off.
Episodes
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 - ...
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.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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....
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. ...
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 ...
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 So...
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.
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
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...
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 ...
Molly interviews Christopher Mathias about his new book, To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right. It's a rollicking tale of infiltrating nazi groups and exposing their private communications to dox them en masse.
Preorder Chris' book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/To-Catch-a-Fascist/Christopher-Mathias/9781668034767
The article Chris mentioned about Spit & Dan: https://www.orland...
Part One: Frank Abbott Sweeney Jr may be the Forrest Gump of American white supremacy in the 20th century. Starting with a failed bank robbery for the American Nazi Party in the 60s, Frank stumbled his way into being an inconsequential side character in major historical events for decades.
Original Air Date: 8.28.24
Part Two: In part two of the life of the Forrest Gump of fascism, Frank Sweeney leads the CIA on an interna...
Years before he set off on his three year killing spree, Joseph Paul Franklin left his home in Alabama to attend a nazi conference in Virginia.
Sources:
Mel Ayton, Dark Soul of the South: The Life and Crimes of Racist Killer Joseph Paul Franklin, Potomac Press, Inc., 2011
Belew, Kathleen. Bring the War Home : The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America. Harvard University Press, 2018.
Sunshine, Spencer (2024). Neo-Nazi ...
In 1965, a car full of klansmen shot and killed Viola Liuzzo, a white woman from Detroit who volunteered to drive civil rights activists back to Selma after the march to Montgomery. The FBI immediately kicked into overdrive to drag her name through the mud.
Sources:
Stanton, Mary. From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998
Mendelsohn, Jack. The martyrs : ...
When the man responsible for bombing a federal building in Oklahoma City was arrested, he was carrying a page of his favorite book. The book had been sold at gun shows and in ads in nazi newsletters for years, but suddenly the rest of the country was asking... can a book kill?
Sources:
Berger, J.M. "The Turner Legacy: The Storied Origins and Enduring Impact of White Nationalism’s Deadly Bible", The Internationa...
Parts 7 & 8 of the South Africa arc.
Blood River
Original Air Date: 4.17.25
In 2002, a terrorist group failed to assassinate Nelson Mandela. In 2012, a plot to assassinate Jacob Zuma was foiled. Both plots were attempts to fulfill a prophecy and renew a bloody covenant with God.
Sources:
Thompson, Leonard L. The Political Mythology of Apartheid. Yale University Press, 1986.
FA Mouton (1995) F A van Jaarsveld (1922&ndas...
Parts 5 & 6 of the South Africa arc.
The Whites' Last Stand
Original Air Date: 4.3.25
In the final days of apartheid, white extremists were getting desperate. That desperation contributed to one of the strangest political crises of the late 20th century.
Sources:
https://dcist.com/story/12/09/24/aryan-nations/
https://archive.idavox.com/index.php/2012/09/24/the-aryan-nations-show-of-farce-in-dc/
Parts 3 & 4 of the South Africa arc.
The White Wolf
Original Air Date: 3.2.25
In 1989, four Afrikaner nationalists and one German mercenary killed a security guard at a United Nations outpost in Namibia. After escaping from custody, they fled home to South Africa. A possibly non-existent group called The White Wolves took credit for the wave of bombings that followed.
Sources:
Du Preez, M. (2010). Pale native: Memories of...
For the end of the year reruns, Weird Little Guys is revisiting the longest, strangest story of 2025 - the South Africa arc. Those eight episodes tell the strange story of how one little skinhead rally in California in 2012 connects to a vast international conspiracy to stop the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994.
----
The White House Weighs in on White Genocide
Original Air Date: 2.27.25
In February of 2012, racist ...
In this minisode, Molly highlights a couple of listener answers to questions raised on the show. Most importantly, we finally find out what Dan Burros was watching on TV on November 10, 1962.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Host
Molly Conger