by Susan Murphy-MilanoEach morning from her home in Richmond, Virgina, Polly Franks begins her day by answering calls and personally responding to the dozens of emails she receives from strangers asking for advice and information on serial sexual predators.
In 1983, "ski-mask rapist" Joseph Frank Smith was convicted twice of raping a woman
in San Antonio,Texas.Instead of being sent to prison, a judge released Smith on probation. Smith's attorney convinced the court that he was a candidate for a new procedure called "chemical castration" with the stipulation that he take the drug Depo-Provera and attend weekly counseling sessions for the next ten years. His lawyer argued if his client received regular injections that it would reduce his testosterone level and he would no longer have a desire to rape women and children.
Following his 30 days' in-patient treatment at John Hopkins Hospital, Smith was free to move to Richmond, Virginia to start his new life.
Three years into his castration injections, he met, and fell in love with his treatment nurse, Barbara. The couple married and began a family.
Somehow, with six years left of his court-ordered treatment, Smith was dismissed from the program and instructed to report to the Texas courts by mail until the end of his parole. Frank and Barbara appeared to be your average couple. Smith was an over-the-road truck driver and Barbara a registered nurse.
When Polly Franks and her family moved next-door to the couple she was thrilled. The families spent time together at each other homes. Their children became best friends.
In the early 1990s police received reports from 83 pre-teen-aged girls who had either been raped or molested by a man who would break into home while the children were sleeping. Police were left scratching their heads. This person was not in their database and matched no one currently in their system.
In 1995, while Polly's girls, ages 8 and 9, were at a sleep-over, Barbara Smith caught her husband, naked and masturbating in front of their eight-year-old daughter and the neighbors' kids. Police were contacted. They ran Smith's DNA through a state-wide database. It came back positive for the rape of a five-year girl. Smith was arrested.
When Frank Joseph Smith only received a suspended sentence, Polly Franks was furious. She decided to keep an eye on him, following him each time he moved into a new neighborhood. Undeterred by a childhood disease that had left her dependent on a wheelchair and crutches for mobility, Polly Franks moved with the ease and art of a veteran twenty-year law enforcement officer.
In 1997, Polly Franks got her private investigator license with the sole purpose of bringing Smith to justice. And it was also a way to legally follow Smith. She was determined to learn within the law how to get him off the streets. In 1998, Smith was finally sentenced to 40 years in prison. In 1999, he was sentenced to life plus 20 years after pleading guilty to the rape of a five-year-old and the confession to 83 other sexual assaults with children.
Polly Franks has testified before Congress and lobbied on Capital Hill for tougher sex offender laws.
In 2006, she created the Franks Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting kids from sexual predators. And she provides a rather unique service to young victims of sexual abuse who are treated at hospitals called "Operation Fuzzy." The kits provide a tremendous comfort to the children after a trauma.
"Smith did not get to my children or anyone else's because of parental neglect. Smith's crime spree was a smashing success because repeatedly he was put back onto the streets, 286 victims (that we know of) later."
By his own admission, he was a sex offender from the age of eleven.
He did not go to prison until he was forty-six years of age.
When a child is violated, we are all violated.
Polly Franks will also be a guest on Justice Interrupted radio, Tuesday, October 21, 2008.
