OMAHA, Neb.–The third season of the HBO series “True Detective” has made references to a scandal in credit unions that many would like to forget.
During the second episode of the season, the character Det. Wayne Hays (played by Mahershala Ali) discusses the decades-old case that is at the center of this year’s series, that of two missing children.
During the episode, another character asks him, “Did you know at various times since (your case), large-scale pedophile rings connected to people of influence were uncovered in the surrounding areas? Do you know about the Franklin scandal?”
The “Franklin scandal” is a reference to a bizarre allegations during the late 1980s and early 1990s involving Franklin Community FCU in Omaha, which was run by Lawrence E. King Jr., who ran the Franklin Community FCU in Omaha. At the time, in addition to other charges, there were allegations made that Franklin and/or the credit union had been involved in sending children to Satan-worshipping sex parties on the U.S. coasts. Rumors of CIA involvement and other talk drew considerable attention and media coverage for several years.
After a two-year investigation, the allegations were later dismissed by a grand jury as “a carefully crafted hoax.”
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The case against King, however, proved not to be a hoax. Although he was earning $16,200 a year as a credit union manager, King was found to have spent $10,000 a month on limousines and at one point had credit card charges that topped $1 million. He owned a four-story house on 26 acres overlooking the Missouri River, and over a 13-month period even had a floral bill that came to $146,000 in 1987-88.
King, who sang the National Anthem at the Republican convention in 1984 and served on several committees of the National Black Republican Council, was eventually convicted in 1988 of embezzling nearly $38 million from the credit union, which was shuttered by NCUA. King served 10 years in prison for the crimes.