More than a year after an anti-Israel arsonist attacked the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, Pa., while Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family were there on April 13, 2025, a resident of suburban Philadelphia was arrested for threatening the state’s Jewish chief executive and using antisemitic slurs in doing so.
Richard John Franklin, 65, of Delaware County in the Philadelphia area, was arrested Wednesday and charged with making threats in a state representative’s district office.

According to Pennsylvania State Police, Franklin had gone to Leanne Krueger’s office on a tax issue on July 7 and while talking to one of her aides, used an “antisemitic ethnic slur” against Shapiro while threatening to set the governor’s mansion on fire.

“It is our duty to uphold the sanctity of the law and to protect the commonwealth,” Sgt. Logan Brouse, communications director of the state police, told JNS, responding on behalf of the governor’s office.

The state police “takes threats against the lives of public officials seriously. That’s why the department has formed a dedicated unit to address the growing amount of ideologically motivated violence against elected officials,” Brouse told JNS. “PSP will continue to ensure the safety of public officials in Pennsylvania.”

When members of the state police’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,” per an incident report from the police.

Franklin 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,” per the incident report.

He was taken into custody without incident, police said.

Franklin was charged with making terror threats, ethnic intimidation, political threats, harassment and disorderly conduct.

Marcia Bronstein, regional director for the American Jewish Committee, praised the state police for its actions.

“Words matter, especially when antisemitism has reached record levels in this nation,” she stated. “The Jewish community doesn’t have the luxury of assessing whether someone is making idle threats, especially when Gov. Shapiro and his family were forced from their residence last year when someone tried to burn it down.”

“We thank the state police for their swift and thorough investigation of this incident,” she said.

The person in the earlier arson case, Cody A. Ballmer, 38, said he was upset about Shapiro’s position in the Israel-Hamas war. The governor and his family had held a Passover seder hours before the attack.

Ballmer pleaded guilty and was sentenced, in October, to between 25 and 50 years in prison.

The attack against Shapiro was one of three violent antisemitic incidents in 2025, and was cited by the Anti-Defamation League in its annual audit.

The others were the murder of two Israeli embassy staff members in Washington, D.C., and firebombs thrown at peaceful demonstrators in Boulder, Colo., who were supporting hostages held in Gaza. The firebomber killed one of the demonstrators. JNS

{Matzav.com}