Frank Collin

Frank Joseph Collin or Francis Joseph Collin nee' "Joseph Cohen" (born November 3, 1944) is the former leader of the National Socialist Party of America, whose plan to march in the predominantly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois was the centerpiece of a major First Amendment decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, "National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie".

Life

Frank Collin joined George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazi Party in the 1960s, but broke with the ANP due to a disagreement with Rockwell's successor, Matt Koehl, who had assumed the leadership role by popular vote after Rockwell's August 25, 1967 assassination by a disgruntled member, John Patsalos, who used the name "John Patler" during his tenure in the ANP.

Collin's organization, the National Socialist Party of America, remained relatively obscure until 1977, when it announced plans to march through the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois in retaliation for the City of Chicago banning the NSPA from speaking publicly in Marquette Park. It prompted a landmark legal battle. At the time, Skokie had the largest Jewish population per-capita in the United States, and many residents were Holocaust survivors. It was widely presumed that this is why Skokie was chosen. Ultimately, the NSPA won the right to march, but without their swastika armbands (yet with their Nazi military uniforms). However, the Skokie march was called off when the city of Chicago, at the behest of Skokie's Jewish leaders and residents, decided to allow Collin to speak in the city.

"Skokie", a 1981 made-for-television film, dramatized the events. George Dzundza portrayed Frank Collin.

Downfall

The downfall of Frank Collin began with the discovery that his father was surnamed, "Cohen". Cohen Sr. claimed to have been a prisoner at the Dachau concentration camp where Cohen/Collin had allegedly been conceived, hence Collin was, in fact, Jewish. It was also discovered that Collin was a pederast when he was arrested while having sex with two ten year old boys. These revelations led to his dismissal from the neo-Nazi movement. A psychiatrist who interviewed Collin concluded that he was consumed by hatred for his father which may have influenced him to reject him "in extremis" by becoming a neo-Nazi and adopting and publicly espousing antisemitic beliefs.

Collin was convicted of the sexual molestation of young boys and sent to Pontiac prison in 1979. [“Hate Groups, Racial Tension and Ethnoviolence in an Integrating Chicago Neighborhood 1976-1988,” by Chip Berlet; in Betty A. Dobratz, Lisa K. Walder, and Timothy Buzzell, eds., Research in Political Sociology, Vol.9: The Politics of Social Inequality, 2001, pp. 117–163.] On his release from prison, after serving three years of a seven year sentence, Collin re-invented himself as an author, "Frank Joseph" and in 1987 had a book published, "The Destruction of Atlantis: Compelling Evidence of the Sudden Fall of the Legendary Civilization". Cohen/Collin/Joseph is now a self-described neo-pagan and edits "The Ancient American" magazine, which promotes the theory of diffusion of peoples in and out of the Americas during ancient eons.

The American Nazi Party organization led by Matt Koehl would change into the National Socialist White People's Party, and later the esoteric New Order. Other elements would become the underground organization called The Order.

Notes

Books

*"Survivors of Atlantis: Their Impact on World Culture", 2004, ISBN 1591430402
*"The Atlantis Encyclopedia", 2005, ISBN 1-56414-795-9
*"The Lost Civilization of Lemuria: The Rise and Fall of the Worlds Oldest Culture", 2006, ISBN 1591430607

External links

* [http://www.flavinscorner.com/collin.htm Frank Collin: From Neo-Nazi to Hyper-Diffusionist]