Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Camelot Drive is a middle-class neighborhood in
Huntsville, alabama, where lawnsare kept well manicured and
people leave bicycles on frontlawns without fearing that they
will be stolen.
In 1998, however, this quaintneighborhood was the scene of a
brutal murder.
On the 10th of March 1998,17-year-old Jeffrey Franklin
attacked his family in theirhome at 1-3005 Camelot Drive.
(00:22):
At 1305 Camelot Drive, armedwith a hatchet, a two-pound
sledgehammer, a rat tail fileand a butcher's knife, he
attacked his mother, cynthia,and his father, gerald.
He also attacked his youngersiblings, 14 year old Sarah,
eight-year-old Timmy andsix-year-old Christopher.
Welcome to this episode ofHuman Wreckage.
Please like and subscribe.
In this episode, we look at thecase of 17 year old Jeffrey
(00:45):
Franklin.
What makes a child kill hisfamily?
What drove him to this horrificact?
Let's get into it.
So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,so, so, so, so so.
(01:26):
Police were alerted to the scenewhen a neighbor noticed one of
the children laying outside thehome in a puddle of blood.
When they arrived, they hadonly come with one ambulance and
one urban responder car,believing that they were
responding to one injured child.
What they found inside, however, distressed even the most
seasoned officers.
After 16 years, this is theworst I've seen, said one of the
(01:47):
officers.
By this point Jeffrey hadalready fled from the scene, but
police issued an all-pointsbulletin after discovering that
he had fled in a blue Geo Metro.
He would lead police on a carchase throughout the
neighborhoods of southeastHuntsville.
During the chase, jeffrey triedto run officers off the road
and succeeded once on BaileyCove Road where he forced a
(02:07):
patrol car onto the curb infront of Hope Presbyterian
Church.
The chase came to a halt whenJeffrey crashed into a fence.
As he was being arrested helaughed and taunted onlookers
and spat on a photographer.
Despite the cold weather,jeffrey was shirtless and a
pitchfork and pentagram had beenscratched into his chest.
Cynthia and Gerald were bothpronounced dead at the scene,
(02:29):
while Sarah, timothy andChristopher were rushed to
Huntsville Hospital where theywere in critical condition.
The children all had veryserious head and face injuries
from what looked like an axe andsome sort of large blunt force
object, said hospitalspokeswoman Terry Bryson.
Miraculously all three siblingswould survive, although with
life-altering injuries.
(02:49):
Jeffrey's other sister,11-year-old Stacey, was
thankfully not at home at thetime of the attack, but in the
aftermath she would receivecounseling for post-traumatic
stress syndrome.
According to their aunt, donnaMaddy, they are doing pretty
good.
Actually, I decided early onthat we would not talk about
what happened unless they wantedto.
Then it would be on their terms.
(03:10):
Based on the crime scene,jeffrey had murdered his mother
first by stabbing her with a rattail file.
He then attacked his sisterwith a hatchet, slashing her
throat and clubbing her.
Jeffrey then killed his fatherwith a sledgehammer as he
entered the house before turninghis attention on his younger
brothers.
They had both been attackedwith a hatchet.
According to neighbors andfellow students at Grissom High
(03:32):
School, where Jeffrey was astudent, he was involved in
devil worship.
According to 17-year-old JennySmith, he was really smart, a
nice person up until two yearsago.
He just changed into adifferent person.
I don't know why His attitudewas different.
He was always in a bad mood andhe had a really short temper.
She described an incidentduring a discussion about God in
(03:56):
their government class whichhad convinced her that he
worshipped the devil.
Another student, mark Dunham,said that Jeffrey often
threatened to put spells onpeople, while Adam Salyer said
that he frequently spoke abouttaking drugs, mainly Ritalin.
A number of Cynthia's colleaguesat Valley View Nursing Home and
Rehabilitation Center said thatJeffrey had been causing his
(04:16):
family problems for over a yearand a half, according to one
colleague, paul Knoll.
She told me it was out of hand.
Cynthia told her concernedcolleagues that a pastor had
told her that Jeffrey was in apassing phase.
In his notebook police foundthat he had been planning on
killing his parents for a while.
He also wrote of satanicrituals and sexual torture and
(04:37):
his belief that Satan wanted himto kill his family.
He wrote I know Dad will behome at this time and I'm going
to be.
I'll wait by the front doorbehind the little hutch and I'll
hit him with a hammer.
Mom will be out on a walk.
When she comes back I'll havethe radio playing loudly.
I'll call mom in the room andask her what's on the agenda for
today.
Then I'll kill her.
(04:58):
And what about the brothers andsisters?
Well, I'll take them.
I'll strangle my little brotherin his room and I'll lure my
other little brother into thisroom and strangle him, then my
sister.
I will rape her, then I willfinish her off.
Before the murders, jeffrey hadbeen visiting a psychiatrist for
attention deficit disorder anddepression.
He was prescribed Ritalin,prozac and Klonopin.
(05:20):
Jeffrey had been awake forthree days straight before the
killings and was said to abuseRitalin and was snorting three
or four pills at a time.
Cynthia had kept the pills in alockbox, but Jeffrey had
figured out how to take out thehinge pins, remove the pills and
then replace them withsaccharin tablets without her
noticing.
The abuse pushed him into atotal psychosis.
(05:41):
He was crazy, said RobertTootin, jeffrey's representative
.
Jeffrey's defense attorneydescribed his behavior as
deranged.
Jeffrey told police that he wasat the house but didn't admit
to attacking his family.
He said it was like some evilbeing had taken over his body.
Jeffrey was arraigned inMadison County District Court on
charges of capital murder andattempted murder.
(06:02):
He entered a not guilty pleathrough his defense lawyer, roy
Miller.
In 2001, jeffrey avoided a trialby pleading guilty to two
murder charges and three countsof attempted murder.
He was sentenced to three lifesentences that were to be served
consecutively.
In a statement, jeffrey said Ihope and pray that one day my
family can forgive me for thethings that I have done, and I
(06:25):
know that may take a long time.
I know that God has alreadyforgiven me.
In the statement, jeffreyadditionally warned others about
the dangers of abusing Ritalin.
I told my doctor I was abusingRitalin, but he continued to
prescribe it to me inincreasingly high doses and I,
in return, abused it in higherand higher doses.
According to Jeffrey's attorneys, robert Tootin, patrick Tootin
(06:47):
and Leon Johnson, their defensewould have hung on the
psychiatrist's determinationthat Jeffrey was insane when he
attacked his family.
They said that they took theplea deal because it was the
best outcome.
Just because he can stand upthere in front of a judge and
say yes does not mean he is allright now, said Patrick Tootin.
Under Alabama law, a personsentenced to life in prison is
(07:08):
eligible for parole afterserving 15 years.
In September of 2016, jeffreywas denied parole.
Thanks for joining me.
That brings to end thishorrible case.
Please be safe and take care ofyourselves.
The Thank you you.
Camelot Drive is a middle-class neighborhood in
Huntsville, alabama, where lawnsare kept well manicured and
people leave bicycles on frontlawns without fearing that they
will be stolen.
In 1998, however, this quaintneighborhood was the scene of a
brutal murder.
On the 10th of March 1998,17-year-old Jeffrey Franklin
attacked his family in theirhome at 1-3005 Camelot Drive.
(00:22):
At 1305 Camelot Drive, armedwith a hatchet, a two-pound
sledgehammer, a rat tail fileand a butcher's knife, he
attacked his mother, cynthia,and his father, gerald.
He also attacked his youngersiblings, 14 year old Sarah,
eight-year-old Timmy andsix-year-old Christopher.
Welcome to this episode ofHuman Wreckage.
Please like and subscribe.
In this episode, we look at thecase of 17 year old Jeffrey
(00:45):
Franklin.
What makes a child kill hisfamily?
What drove him to this horrificact?
Let's get into it.
So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,so, so, so, so so.
(01:26):
Police were alerted to the scenewhen a neighbor noticed one of
the children laying outside thehome in a puddle of blood.
When they arrived, they hadonly come with one ambulance and
one urban responder car,believing that they were
responding to one injured child.
What they found inside, however, distressed even the most
seasoned officers.
After 16 years, this is theworst I've seen, said one of the
(01:47):
officers.
By this point Jeffrey hadalready fled from the scene, but
police issued an all-pointsbulletin after discovering that
he had fled in a blue Geo Metro.
He would lead police on a carchase throughout the
neighborhoods of southeastHuntsville.
During the chase, jeffrey triedto run officers off the road
and succeeded once on BaileyCove Road where he forced a
(02:07):
patrol car onto the curb infront of Hope Presbyterian
Church.
The chase came to a halt whenJeffrey crashed into a fence.
As he was being arrested helaughed and taunted onlookers
and spat on a photographer.
Despite the cold weather,jeffrey was shirtless and a
pitchfork and pentagram had beenscratched into his chest.
Cynthia and Gerald were bothpronounced dead at the scene,
(02:29):
while Sarah, timothy andChristopher were rushed to
Huntsville Hospital where theywere in critical condition.
The children all had veryserious head and face injuries
from what looked like an axe andsome sort of large blunt force
object, said hospitalspokeswoman Terry Bryson.
Miraculously all three siblingswould survive, although with
life-altering injuries.
(02:49):
Jeffrey's other sister,11-year-old Stacey, was
thankfully not at home at thetime of the attack, but in the
aftermath she would receivecounseling for post-traumatic
stress syndrome.
According to their aunt, donnaMaddy, they are doing pretty
good.
Actually, I decided early onthat we would not talk about
what happened unless they wantedto.
Then it would be on their terms.
(03:10):
Based on the crime scene,jeffrey had murdered his mother
first by stabbing her with a rattail file.
He then attacked his sisterwith a hatchet, slashing her
throat and clubbing her.
Jeffrey then killed his fatherwith a sledgehammer as he
entered the house before turninghis attention on his younger
brothers.
They had both been attackedwith a hatchet.
According to neighbors andfellow students at Grissom High
(03:32):
School, where Jeffrey was astudent, he was involved in
devil worship.
According to 17-year-old JennySmith, he was really smart, a
nice person up until two yearsago.
He just changed into adifferent person.
I don't know why His attitudewas different.
He was always in a bad mood andhe had a really short temper.
She described an incidentduring a discussion about God in
(03:56):
their government class whichhad convinced her that he
worshipped the devil.
Another student, mark Dunham,said that Jeffrey often
threatened to put spells onpeople, while Adam Salyer said
that he frequently spoke abouttaking drugs, mainly Ritalin.
A number of Cynthia's colleaguesat Valley View Nursing Home and
Rehabilitation Center said thatJeffrey had been causing his
(04:16):
family problems for over a yearand a half, according to one
colleague, paul Knoll.
She told me it was out of hand.
Cynthia told her concernedcolleagues that a pastor had
told her that Jeffrey was in apassing phase.
In his notebook police foundthat he had been planning on
killing his parents for a while.
He also wrote of satanicrituals and sexual torture and
(04:37):
his belief that Satan wanted himto kill his family.
He wrote I know Dad will behome at this time and I'm going
to be.
I'll wait by the front doorbehind the little hutch and I'll
hit him with a hammer.
Mom will be out on a walk.
When she comes back I'll havethe radio playing loudly.
I'll call mom in the room andask her what's on the agenda for
today.
Then I'll kill her.
(04:58):
And what about the brothers andsisters?
Well, I'll take them.
I'll strangle my little brotherin his room and I'll lure my
other little brother into thisroom and strangle him, then my
sister.
I will rape her, then I willfinish her off.
Before the murders, jeffrey hadbeen visiting a psychiatrist for
attention deficit disorder anddepression.
He was prescribed Ritalin,prozac and Klonopin.
(05:20):
Jeffrey had been awake forthree days straight before the
killings and was said to abuseRitalin and was snorting three
or four pills at a time.
Cynthia had kept the pills in alockbox, but Jeffrey had
figured out how to take out thehinge pins, remove the pills and
then replace them withsaccharin tablets without her
noticing.
The abuse pushed him into atotal psychosis.
(05:41):
He was crazy, said RobertTootin, jeffrey's representative
.
Jeffrey's defense attorneydescribed his behavior as
deranged.
Jeffrey told police that he wasat the house but didn't admit
to attacking his family.
He said it was like some evilbeing had taken over his body.
Jeffrey was arraigned inMadison County District Court on
charges of capital murder andattempted murder.
(06:02):
He entered a not guilty pleathrough his defense lawyer, roy
Miller.
In 2001, jeffrey avoided a trialby pleading guilty to two
murder charges and three countsof attempted murder.
He was sentenced to three lifesentences that were to be served
consecutively.
In a statement, jeffrey said Ihope and pray that one day my
family can forgive me for thethings that I have done, and I
(06:25):
know that may take a long time.
I know that God has alreadyforgiven me.
In the statement, jeffreyadditionally warned others about
the dangers of abusing Ritalin.
I told my doctor I was abusingRitalin, but he continued to
prescribe it to me inincreasingly high doses and I,
in return, abused it in higherand higher doses.
According to Jeffrey's attorneys, robert Tootin, patrick Tootin
(06:47):
and Leon Johnson, their defensewould have hung on the
psychiatrist's determinationthat Jeffrey was insane when he
attacked his family.
They said that they took theplea deal because it was the
best outcome.
Just because he can stand upthere in front of a judge and
say yes does not mean he is allright now, said Patrick Tootin.
Under Alabama law, a personsentenced to life in prison is
(07:08):
eligible for parole afterserving 15 years.
In September of 2016, jeffreywas denied parole.
Thanks for joining me.
That brings to end thishorrible case.
Please be safe and take care ofyourselves.
The Thank you you.
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