Richard John Franklin, 65, of Delaware County in the Philadelphia area was arrested on Wednesday and charged with making an antisemitic terror threat against Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat.
A Pennsylvania State Police incident report listed Shapiro, state representative Leanne Krueger and one of the latter’s staff members as victims.
Franklin allegedly threatened Shapiro on July 7 at Krueger’s office in Brookhaven Borough, where he had gone to “contest or seek assistance regarding his outstanding taxes,” state police said.
“While in contact with a staff member who attempted to assist Franklin, Franklin used an antisemitic ethnic slur while he communicated a threat of arson to the governor’s mansion,” according to the incident report.
When members of the police department’s political violence threat unit went to Franklin’s house on Wednesday, the accused " provided multiple, inconsistent accounts of what occurred at the district office,” including admitting “to using the ethnic slur,” the report states. He claimed that his statements “about the governor’s mansion were sympathetic and positive in nature, because the governor and his family survived the previous arson.”
Cody A. Ballmer pleaded guilty and was sentenced in October to decades in jail for an arson attack on the governor’s mansion Harrisburg, Pa., on April 13, 2025.
The state police said that Franklin was arrested and charged with making terror threats, ethnic intimidation, making a political threat, harassment and disorderly conduct.
