White House Christmas tree the White House of President William McKinley received letters urging the president to forgo participation in the "Christmas tree habit". The letter writers, which the "Chicago Daily Tribune" noted had taken up the "forestry fad", referred to "arboreal infanticide", according to the "Tribune". Those opposed to a tree in the White House that year also termed Christmas trees "un-American" because it was a historically German tradition. At least one tree was displayed in the White House that year, in the kitchen department, for the maids. The Nixon administration's choice of tree topper, the atomic symbol of peace rather than a
Joseph Paul Franklin Joseph Paul Franklin Joseph Paul Franklin (born James Clayton Vaughn Jr.; April 13, 1950 – November 20, 2013) was an American white supremacist serial killer who gained notoriety for a murder spree spanning the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was the subject of the novel "Hunter" by white supremacist William L. Pierce, who said of Franklin that "he saw his duty as a white man and did what a responsible son of his race must do." Franklin was convicted of several murders and received six life sentences, as well as the death sentence. He confessed to the attempted murders