Frank Collin | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Collin giving a press conference in 1978 | |
| 1st President of theNational Socialist Party of America | |
| In office 1970–1977 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Harold Covington |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1944-11-03)November 3, 1944 (age 80) Chicago, Illinois |
| Political party | National Socialist Party of America (1970–1977) |
| Other political affiliations | American Nazi Party (c. 1960s) |
| Profession | Political activist, New Age author |
Francis Joseph Collin (born November 3, 1944) is an American former political activist and Midwest coordinator with theAmerican Nazi Party, later known as the National Socialist White People's Party. After being ousted for being partly Jewish (which he denied), in 1970, Collin founded theNational Socialist Party of America. (N.S.P.A.)[1] In the late 1970s, his planned march in the predominantlyJewish suburb ofSkokie, Illinois was challenged; however, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union defended Collin's group'sfreedom of speech and assembly in a case that reached theUnited States Supreme Court to correct procedural deficiencies. Specifically, the necessity of immediate appellate review of orders restraining the exercise of First Amendment rights was strongly emphasized inNational Socialist Party v. Village of Skokie, 432 U.S. 43 (1977). Afterward, theIllinois Supreme Court held that the party had a right to march and to displayswastikas, despite local opposition, based on theFirst Amendment to the United States Constitution. Collin then offered a compromise, offering to march inChicago's Marquette Park (whereMartin Luther King had been attacked in 1966) instead of Skokie.[2][3] After Collin was convicted and sentenced in 1979 forchild molestation, he lost his position in the party.[4][5]
After being released early on parole from prison, Collin created a new career as a writer, publishing numerous books under the pen nameFrank Joseph. He wroteNew Age andhyperdiffusionist works supporting thepseudoarchaeological idea thatOld World peoples had migrated toNorth America in ancient times and created its complex societies ofindigenous peoples. This thesis is rejected by mainstream scholars.
Collin was born and raised inChicago,Illinois, where he attended local schools. His father, Max Frank Collin, was born Max Simon Cohn inMunich,Germany, on August 23, 1913,[6] the son of Jewish parents who were murdered inThe Holocaust, and was a survivor ofDachau concentration camp.[7] Frank's mother, Virginia Gertrude née Hardyman, was born in Chicago on August 18, 1920, and was Catholic.[8]
As a young man, Collin in the 1960s joinedGeorge Lincoln Rockwell'sNational Socialist White People's Party.[4] He became the Midwest coordinator.[9] He broke with the NSWPP due to a disagreement with Rockwell's successor,Matt Koehl,[4] who was elected as the party leader by popular vote after Rockwell wasassassinated on August 25, 1967. The falling out stemmed in part from published accounts by Max Collin, Frank's father, who said that he was a Jewish Holocaust survivor and had changed his name from Cohen (or Cohn) to Collin.[10][11] Frank Collin denied having Jewish roots and maintained that his father was not telling the truth.[11]
In 1970, Collin formed another organization, theNational Socialist Party of America (NSPA), later known as theAmerican Nazi Party. It attracted other disaffected members of the NSWPP,[4] as well as Michael Allen,Gary Lauck andHarold Covington.[4] Covington helped buy a building for the group which they called Rockwell Hall,[4] where Collin and some other members lived in a barracks in upper floor.[11] Collin ran foralderman of Chicago in 1975 and pulled 16% of the vote.[4]
The NSPA began holding anti-black demonstrations in Chicago'sMarquette Park.[12] The Chicago authorities became concerned about violence and passed an ordinance which required demonstrations to post large insurance bonds.[12][13] Collin went to theACLU and they filed a suit.[13] While the case was proceeding without public notice, Collin attempted to contact other cities about holding demonstrations.[13]Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, responded with a notice that the group would need to post a bond, similar to the recently enacted ordinance in Chicago.[13] Collin's plan for his neo-Nazi group to march in uniforms through Skokie, which was heavily Jewish with numerous residents who were Holocaust survivors, generated public outrage and the media attention which Collin sought.[4][12]
Also in 1977, Koehl's NSWPP began a campaign in their paperWhite Power about Collin's father being Jewish,[4] including publications of what they stated were Max Simon Cohn's naturalization records.[4] Collin and the NSPA leadership continued to deny the claim and said the images were fakes.[4]
During this time, according toJeffrey Kaplan, Covington found pictures in Frank Collin's desk that linked Collin to the sexual abuse of young boys.[14] In what Kaplan described as a play for power in the organization, Covington and the other NSPA members turned the evidence on Collin over to the police.[14] After Collin was arrested, Covington took over leadership of the NSPA and moved the headquarters from Chicago to North Carolina.[4] A 1980 article inThe New York Times reported that Frank Collin was expelled from the American Nazi Party for illicit intercourse with minors and the use of Nazi headquarters in Chicago for purposes of sodomy with children. The report indicates that the Nazis "tipped" the police who arrested Collin."[15] Collin was convicted ofchild molestation[14][16] and sentenced to seven years in prison at thePontiac Correctional Center in 1979. He served three years.[14]
Upon his release from prison, Collin "reinvented himself under the pseudonym of Frank Joseph, aNew Age writer and apagan worshiper".[16] His time in the Pontiac Correctional Facility in Illinois had coincided with the period when Russell E. Burrows worked there as a prison guard.[17] He subsequently wrote many books and articles in support ofBurrows Cave, an alleged cache of ancient treasure in an unrevealed location, supposedly discovered by Russell Burrows in southern Illinois."[18] In 1987, he had his first New Age book published,The Destruction ofAtlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the LegendaryCivilization.
He wrote articles forFate magazine, and he was also the editor ofThe Ancient American magazine.[19]The Ancient American focuses on what it says is evidence of ancient, pre-Columbian transoceanic contact between the Old World and North America, with the implication that all complex aspects of North America's indigenous cultures must have originated on other continents. The magazine's claims are similar to discredited nineteenth century theories, and as a result, they are considered dubious or exploitative by scholars.[20]
In 1979 Collin's ambition to lead a new Nazi America was thwarted when he was arrested, convicted, and sent to prison on child molestation charges.
Covington, his rival for NSPA "power", made the fortuitous discovery (while rifling through Collin's desk) that the half-Jewish fuehrer also had a weakness for pedophilia and did not hesitate to photograph his dalliances with a number of young boys. As a result, Collin was sent to prison.
