The Self-Destruction of Jake Franklin
This is why you just can't trust a Viking.
Well, my friends - after what will be a full month of reporting on MrBeast month, I find that there’s really just one more thing I want to discuss surrounding the 10.0 Dramaquake that completely destabilized the very time-space fabric that compromises the BeastVerse. Honestly, if I’d known I was going to be talking about it for so long, I would have just dubbed July BeastMonth and pre-prepared some thumbnails of a monkey making the PogChamp O-Face over images of MrBeast and Kris Tyson.
In the previous piece on Jimmy Donaldson and the allegations facing both his erstwhile best friend and himself, I said the following;
And at the time, I meant it. Only hours before I pushed the send button to publish that article, the second Dogpack404 - real name Dawson - video titled, I Worked For MrBeast, He’s a Sociopath, dropped. And I was unaware of that until the article was already running free through the glens and dales of Substack. I did a lot of hasty, last minute editing, but I was taking in so much new information that it was quite literally impossible to include it all without rewriting the entire piece top-to-bottom. I’d like to go a little more in depth into perhaps the most damning revelation brought to light by this video.
First of all, I should mention that since the second Dogpack404 video has since dropped, the situation has, to a degree, stagnated. The hurricane has devolved into a tropical storm, if you will. Make no mistake - MrBeast is far from calm waters, but, for the moment, the deluge of allegations that had been raining down upon his head have stopped, and he’s left treading in the water. Now, I fully expect this to change. And soon. A lot of people, from investigative journalists to YouTube drama-leeches to angry parents and former fans, smell blood in the water. The knives are out for MrBeast, and, eventually, someone’s going to make another stab at him.
That person just might be Dawson.
Hell hath no fury like a scorned ex-employee. The allegation brought forward in his first video, in which he claims that MrBeast’s give-aways were both rigged and examples of illegal lotteries, may very well have been enough to attract the prying eyes of the dreaded IRS hyper-focused on his company. Now… I will be six-feet in the cold, hard ground before I ever condone the IRS going after anyone. But I will admit - it’s kind of funny that, of all things, Jimmy Donaldson’s world might unravel not from the allegations of fraternizing with and running cover for a child enthusiast, but rather charges of racketeering and tax fraud.
That’s gotta sting.
But, more germane to what I want to talk about today, in Dawson’s second video - the Sociopath one - he interviews another ex-employee of MrBeast’s enterprises named Jake Weddle. I will give Mr. Weddle credit for going out in front of the camera, as if I was taking a shot at the Beast, I’d only do it under conditions of anonymity and with one of those cool voice-changer effects.
Also, very brave of him to rock the greasy pro-bowler mustache/mullet power combo and a shirt that reads www.poop.com. A man’s gotta ask - where to cop?
When interviewed, Weddle dropped what might just be a thermobaric, bunker-busting M.O.A.B. right smack-dab on the heart of the (Mr)Beast; Jimmy, he says, knowingly hired a sex offender. And not just someone with allegations against them - a legitimate, convicted, and, as my friend would say, served hard time in fuck-you-in-the-ass prison sex offender. One who, as Weddle said, is on the registry and everything.
Weddle even divulged the interesting fact that the man in question had a fun little nickname with the Beast Crew - Delaware.
Because, according to Weddle, that’s where the crime he committed occurred, and it’s a place that he is not allowed to go back to. This, however, is a claim that was debunked by none other than another former MrBeast employee, Jake the Viking.
Yeah - remember him from the second installment? You might, since he was the one that immediately started spoiling for a fight the moment the allegations against Kris Tyson came to light. He was the first of those formerly under the Beast’s employ to come out. Quite infamously, now, he published this tweet only a day after he first of the allegations broke.
When this tweet dropped, people immediately started jumping on the Jake-Train, bandying about Donaldson’s friend-turned-enemy as if he were the chosen one, prophesied to slay the mighty MrBeast and lead them all to the promised land. Jake followed this tweet with several other equally succinct and ominous sequels that he parlayed into a massive wave of clout, attention, and good-will I doubt he’s enjoyed since he was either with MrBeast, or perhaps when he played with the LSU Tigers. In the early days of the storm, as it was gathering strength, it looked as if Jake Franklin was setting himself up to be the hero of the story.
But, from the word go… well, his tweets didn’t just sit right with me. Not only did he offer nothing in the way of evidence to substantiate his claims, like I mentioned when we originally discussed him, but, also… how can I put it lightly?
Okay. So, Jake and Jimmy are working together. With a convicted sex offender on payroll. If Jimmy knew… and you knew that Jimmy knew… that means you knew, too. Forget Jimmy for a moment - my brother in Christ, why did you not say anything?
Yes, yes, I know, I know - Non-Disclosure Agreements. Threats of legal reprisal. Contract stipulations. There could have been legitimate reasons that he was, legally, gagged from sharing what he knew. But, as it would turn out, Jake most likely had other reasons for not disclosing that information at the time.
Once the Delaware bombshell lit the Beast compound on fire, internet sleuths did what they did best and combed the MrBeast catalogue for any evidence of his existence. And they found it. In a previous challenge video posted by MrBeast, a mysterious masked guest star participates in the challenge alongside Donaldson and Tyson. Though this enigmatic, masked figure is only referred to as Zorro by Jimmy and company, in this video, Tyson very clearly states something along the lines of, He ate Delaware’s cracker as Jimmy, indeed, tries to swipe a cracker from the masked man’s hand while tied up with a straight-jacket.
In another video, Jimmy refers to someone who briefly appears on camera as Delaware, as well. Ironically, this video is titled, I Spent Twenty-Four Hours in Prison, which, yeah - a certain someone present on that shoot might know a lot about what that feels like.
It would later be confirmed that, yes, this was the notorious Delaware in question. It didn’t take long for his personal information to be gathered - including his entry in the national sex offender registry - and blasted across the internet.
At first, some mistook this Delaware character for Jake the Viking, as the two share a similar appearance. You know - large. Bearded. White. They assumed that it was just Jake under the mask.
It was then that Jake Franklin stepped forward to clear the air. Delaware was not referred to as Delaware because he couldn’t return to the state due to his crimes; in fact, he visited there quite frequently. It was his nickname because that’s just where he was from.
How did Franklin know this?
Well… because Delaware is his brother-in-law. And worse? Delaware was his manager.
Franklin would take to X to post a lengthy tell-all explaining the situation. In this tweet - which can be read in full here - Franklin says that Delaware was actually the entire reason that he was hired to MrBeast’s studios. In fact, Delaware was hired before him. He claims that Delaware, before being hired, sat down with both Jimmy Donaldson and Jimmy’s mother and explained to them the charges. According to Franklin, when Delaware was twenty-one years old, a sixteen year old girl accused him of sexual assault. Now, we must all admit that false rape accusations are, unfortunately, not unheard of, and can absolutely destroy lives. But, here’s the kicker. The girl accusing Delaware claimed that, when he assaulted her, the attack occurred five years prior. That would have made Delaware sixteen, and his victim eleven. Franklin states this as if it somehow exonerates Delaware of guilt, which - no. No, it doesn’t. In fact, it makes the crime even more disgusting.
And, to make matters worse, he tries to paper over the rotting, malodorous corpse of the pink polka-dot elephant moldering in the corner by claiming that Delaware never actually spent time in prison. Why? Because he took a plea deal. Which means that Delaware plead guilty to the crime.
There’s digging yourself into a hole, and then there’s whatever the fuck Jake Franklin did in this tweet, which is more like backing up an excavator, gouging out a strip-mine in the earth, and diving into the pit head first.
He goes on to say that Delaware is reformed, he’s a good man, he made a mistake when he was young and that he would be dumb enough to trust him alone with his own children (if he had any), to which I have to say… okay. Maybe. Plenty of people have done committed heinous acts and reformed later in life. I know an ex-con who’s came out of prison as one of the most generous souls I’ve ever come across. I’ll admit that people can change. But forgiveness, as they say, is in the hands of the divine. The Lord, in his infinite mercy, may offer salvation to Delaware yet… but we don’t have to.
Whether or not Delaware is reformed or repentant or secretly a paragon of virtue with the heart of a saint is ultimately a moot point. He is a registered sex offender. He plead guilty to sexually assaulting a minor. There is a world of difference between someone who was thrown in the clink for peddling hash or swiping purses and a chomo. And there is no excuse - fucking none - that he should have ever been in a position like the one he was in, in which he was frequently in contact with and had access to many, many children.
Franklin later made the argument that, Hey, a man’s gotta eat. Sex offenders have to work, too. And that’s true. They do. But do they have to be offered job opportunities that put them in a position with access to kids?
I think we all know the answer. And it’s a resounding, definitive fuck no.
Oh, and, perhaps in the most ironic twist of all, the same internet sleuths that dug up all this information on Delaware found out that this was not the first time Franklin’s ties to a sex offender were mentioned. Of all people, it was none other than Kris Tyson who let that little nugget of information drop on Twitter months before his own allegations would surface during a social media spat with Franklin.
Obviously, no one really put together the pieces until after all of them were put before us, but… well, there it is. Plain as day. Clear as crystal.
So, what does all of this mean?
Well, for one, it means that, yes - Jimmy Donaldson did knowingly hire a sex offender onto his crew. If anyone raised concerns, he clearly did not listen to them, as Delaware was ultimately let go from the company for reasons that had nothing to do with his criminal conviction. This doesn’t mean that he knew about Tyson’s bad behavior, but it does establish a rather ugly track record of gross negligence when it comes to vetting the company he keeps. In my opinion, it’s a revelation that should warrant many, many more questions about Donaldson, his conduct, his company, and who else he might have on his payroll. Frankly, the fact that Donaldson has yet to address any of these damning discoveries is suspect in and of itself.
The second, and perhaps the most important take-away from the Franklin revelations is this - when these sorts of allegations surface about people like Tyson and Donaldson, it is imperative to not only wait for information, but also evidence. As I said, Franklin immediately began casting stones at Donaldson the moment the Tyson allegations surfaced. He was posturing as the protagonist in the story. People were quick to believe him, even though he offered no evidence, either substantial or anecdotal. Now that evidence has been uncovered, it is of a sort that indicates that Franklin, perhaps more than Donaldson, was complicit in allowing a convicted predator open access to a multitude of minors. What I want to stress here is that when allegations are made, one must keep a level-head. It is imperative that emotions are kept in check and that conclusions are not rushed to.
It is perfectly acceptable to have opinions and suspicions, but until concrete evidence is provided and guilt is determined beyond reasonable doubt, the consequences of buying into baseless claims can be disastrous. We’ve seen allegations that were ultimately debunked with thorough and concrete evidence ruin the lives and careers of innocent people. And, if Jake Franklin’s gambit had paid off - and if he wasn’t so god damn stupid - it would have resulted in someone who is just as guilty as Donaldson of aiding and abetting a criminal predator play the hero in a story in which he was one of several villains.
As I said above, despite the relative lull in the narrative at the moment, Jimmy Donaldson’s troubles are far from over. Dawson claims that he has more videos to come, more information to expose, and more people with connections to him willing to talk. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Beast camp has defectors that come forward to spill even more odious tea all over his once pristine name. But, until they do, we only know what we know.
And what we know is that neither Jimmy Donaldson or Jake Franklin are to be trusted.
This will be the last piece addressing the MrBeast allegations until more information comes forward, and the last article that will be published for the next two weeks. Regular shitposting will resume upon my return.
Villains.
Villains everywhere.
Thank you for the continued documentation! I would not be able to keep up with it, because what a wild series of revelations it is. I would agree that the Beast isn’t in the clear yet, but I’d also guess his war chest should fund plenty of good lawyers.