Roy Frankhouser

Roy Everett Frankhouser Jr. (also spelled Frankhauser; November 4, 1939 – May 15, 2009) was an American far-right activist, government informant, and security consultant to Lyndon LaRouche. He was a member or associate of a variety of far-right and neo-Nazi groups over several decades, including the American Nazi Party, and was a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times, and was convicted of federal crimes in at least three cases, including dealing in stolen explosives and obstruction of justice.

Author Frederick J. Simonelli noted that at "one time or another he was a member of just about every radical right-wing group in the United States". In the 1992 book Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe, authors John George and Laird Wilcox described Frankhouser as simply "a nightmare". In 2003 he told a reporter, "I'm accused of everything from the sinking of the Titanic to landing on the moon."

Early life Roy Everett Frankhouser Jr. was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on November 4, 1939. His parents divorced when he was young, resulting in him becoming the subject of a prolonged custody battle. His mother was an alcoholic. He attended Northwest Junior High School through the tenth grade, and became active in racist causes. As a teenager, he was a Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi sympathizer, and collected Nazi paraphernalia and uniforms. He joined the KKK at the age of 14. His school officials as well as his employers described him as "emotionally unstable and unreliable".

In October 1956, he joined the United States Army and served one year as a paratrooper. While in the military he was involved in what authors John George and Laird Wilcox called "a number of half-baked plots"; he had specifically volunteered for airborne duty, so he could be transferred to Germany. He then plotted to manage to have himself declared dead, where he could then become a prominent neo-Nazi. He later plotted to desert the army and join Cuban revolutionary forces; in pursuit of this, he went AWOL and fled to Miami in July 1957. He was then arrested and returned. He was discharged after being deemed unfit for service.

Political activity Frankhouser (second from left) with other ANP members at a trial for hate literature in August 1963Frankhouser was a member of a variety of different far-right groups over many decades and associated with many more. Author Frederick J. Simonelli noted that "one time or another he was a member of just about every radical right-wing group in the United States". Irwin Suall, of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), called Frankhouser "a thread that runs through the history of American hate groups." He participated in Nazi party rallies and Klan demonstrations, being arrested often for disorderly conduct. Fellow Klansmen nicknamed him "Riot Roy". He likely lost it during a fight with black people in a Reading bar. That same year, Frankhouser approached the FBI about working as an informant, offering information on groups such as black militants, the Jewish Defense League, the Irish Republican Army and Black September.

Frankhouser was reported by federal officials to have been arrested at least 142 times. He was convicted of federal crimes in at least three cases, including dealing in stolen explosives and obstruction of justice. The charges included selling explosives which were used in the bombing of a school bus in Pontiac, Michigan that killed one man. During the trial he revealed he was a government informant, saying that he was acting on behalf of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). The government denied his assertion. Though he faced up to fifty-one years in prison, he was sentenced to two concurrent five-year probation terms as part of a plea agreement. After his conviction, he was expelled from the Klan.

LaRouche movement

Frankhouser became a security consultant for political activist Lyndon LaRouche in 1979 after Frankhouser convinced LaRouche that Frankhouser was actively connected to U.S. intelligence agencies. In a 1984 deposition, LaRouche described Frankhouser as "an expert in security matters" who can "detect nasties by their wiggle". He said that he had persuaded a friend to play a former top CIA official (named "Ed" by Frankhouser, after "Mister Ed") in meetings with LaRouche.

Frankhouser claimed that on another occasion LaRouche sent him to Boston to check on the grand jury investigation. Instead of going to Boston he went to a Star Trek convention in Scranton, Pennsylvania and called to warn LaRouche that the FBI had wiretapped his phones. During the grand jury investigation, documents were presented which showed Frankhouser had advised members of the organization that unless they handled matters correctly they could "start writing a concerto for canaries in B major." When the LaRouche movement learned that Frankhouser was an informant, it saw that as evidence of the "FBI-CIA-Rockefeller-Buckley" control of the extreme Right, and an example of how government connections could immunize criminal behavior.

LaRouche was called as a defense witness in Frankhouser's trial but he refused to testify, exercising his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. Frankhouser was found guilty on December 10, 1987, of obstruction of the federal investigation into credit card fraud. He was sentenced by US District Judge Robert E. Keeton to three years and a $50,000 fine. After his conviction, he was granted immunity against further prosecution and compelled to testify against LaRouche. US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced him to 25 months in prison. On appeal, one count of obstruction of justice was overturned while another was affirmed.

Frankhouser became the pastor of the Mountain Church of Jesus Christ, an arm of Robert E. Miles' movement.

According to a 1997 complaint, Frankhouser, then Grand Dragon of the United Klans of America in Pennsylvania, had been harassing Bonnie Jouhari and her daughter. Jouhari was a white woman who worked at the Reading-Berks Human Relations Council, helping out people who had been discriminated against. she convinced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to take her case. The settlement was supported by HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo and Reverend Jesse Jackson at a press conference also attended by NAACP president Kweisi Mfume. He called himself a spokesman for the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; however, doubts were expressed in both the KKK and anti-hate communities over whether Frankhouser had any actual connection to the group.

Death Frankhouser died of natural causes on May 15, 2009, at the Spruce Manor Nursing Home in West Reading, Pennsylvania, where he had resided since 2006.