Raising Hell: Chapter One - Once Upon a Time in Omaha

Raising Hell: Chapter One - Once Upon a Time in Omaha

From QAA Podcast by Julian Feeld, Travis View & Jake Rockatansky

September 8, 2026 · 1h 18m

About this episode

The episode explores the origins of the Franklin scandal, focusing on the vulnerable children and troubled households involved.

Today the QAA crew is taking a small rest day from their melted algorithms but have no fear dear listener, we won't leave you hanging. Last week Jack and Julian began releasing their new Cursed Media mini series and today, in lieu of a usual main episode, we would like to share the first episode of what they have been cooking up. Raising Hell. In 1988, federal regulators closed Omaha’s Franklin Community Federal Credit Union after discovering that nearly $40 million had disappeared. The institution’s manager, Lawrence E. “Larry” King Jr., was a charismatic civic leader and political operator who had cultivated relationships far beyond Nebraska. King’s public image, and the astonishing scale of the missing money, made the collapse a major scandal. But as investigators began following the financial trail, an even more disturbing story took shape. In Chapter One of Raising Hell, “Once Upon a Time in Omaha,” Jack LaRoche and Julian Feeld return to the origins of the Franklin story: not the lurid mythology that later grew around it, but the vulnerable children, troubled households, foster-care placements, and child-welfare institutions from which the first allegations emerged. The…

People in this episode

Hosts: Julian Feeld, Travis View, Jake Rockatansky

Topics covered

  • Franklin scandal
  • child welfare
  • foster care
  • Omaha
  • financial crime
  • historical investigation

Keywords

  • Franklin scandal
  • Omaha
  • Larry King
  • child welfare
  • foster care
  • financial crime
  • 1988

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Franklin Community Federal Credit Union, Boys Town

Places: Omaha, Nebraska

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