True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII

The Crimes of Franklin Delano Floyd

Franklin Delano Floyd (June 17, 1943 – January 23, 2023) was an American murderer, rapist, and death row inmate. He was convicted of the 1989 murder of Cheryl Ann Commesso, as well as the kidnapping of 6-year-old Michael Anthony Hughes, who he claimed was his son, from his elementary school in Choctaw, Oklahoma. Floyd was also considered a person of interest in the 1990 hit-and-run death of his second wife and kidnapping victim Sharon Marshall, mother of Michael Anthony Hughes. It was later discovered that before becoming his wife, Sharon had been raised by Floyd from an early age as his daughter and was kidnapped by Floyd as a child.

Marshall's true identity remained a mystery until 2014 when she was positively identified as Suzanne Marie Sevakis, the daughter of a woman to whom Floyd was briefly married. He disappeared with Sevakis, her two sisters, and infant brother Phillip (also known as "Stevie") while her mother was serving a 30-day jail sentence in 1975. Sevakis' brother remained missing until 2019 when a man came forward believing he was Phillip; DNA tests confirmed his identity in 2020.

Early life

Franklin Delano Floyd was born in Barnesville, Georgia, the youngest of five children born to Thomas and Della Floyd. Shortly after Floyd's first birthday in 1944, his father, a cotton mill worker and alcoholic, died from kidney and liver failure at age 32. His mother, a widow at age 29, struggled to make a living independently, so she and her children lived in a small apartment with her parents. Over the next year caring for the large family became too difficult for Floyd's grandparents, and by 1946 they asked Della and her children to leave.

Floyd and his siblings were put into the care of Georgia Baptist Children's Home in Hapeville at the advice of the Lamar County child welfare agency. There, Floyd was allegedly bullied by other children for being "feminine" and later reported to have been sodomized with a broomstick when he was six years old. In his own words, he states that he was digitally penetrated by other boys in the home. He was also subjected to harsh punishments by the staff; as a teenager, his hand was dipped into hot water after being caught masturbating. Floyd often got in trouble for fighting and stealing. In 1959, having been there two years after his youngest sister left, Floyd ran away and broke into a nearby house to steal food. The Children's Home informed his sister Dorothy, who was married and living in North Carolina with two children, that criminal charges would not be pursued if she took custody of her brother.

After being kicked out of his sister's home, Floyd traveled to Indianapolis to search for his mother, Della, only to learn that she had become a prostitute. Floyd had Della help him forge legal documents allowing him to go to California to enlist in the United States Army. However, the Army discharged Floyd six months into his service after discovering that he was underage and that his papers were falsified. After being unable to find his mother again, Floyd traveled across the country as a drifter. Della died on July 2, 1968, and is buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

Early criminal history

On February 19, 1960, at age sixteen, Floyd broke into a Sears department store in Inglewood, California, to steal a gun. Police quickly responded to a burglar alarm, resulting in a shootout in which Floyd was shot in the stomach. He survived following emergency surgery. After recovering, he was sent to a youth institution for a year. In 1961, he was arrested for violating his parole by going on a fishing trip in Canada with a friend.

In May 1962, Floyd returned to Hapeville and found a job at Atlanta International Airport. The following month, he abducted a four-year-old from a local bowling alley and sexually assaulted her in the nearby woods. Floyd was convicted of kidnapping and child molestation and was sentenced to serve ten to twenty years at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. That November, he was moved to the Milledgeville State Hospital for psychiatric testing.