Franklin Mansfield

Franklin Mansfield along with his business partner Titus Hackett were printers in New Liverpool. The previous year, the two had been charged with printing and distributing an obscene publication: a lampoon of the marital troubles of the grandchildren of George, Duke of Kent, the younger brother of King Edward VIII. However, a jury had acquitted the two of the charges.

Colonel Thomas Bushell reviewed their file after the theft of The Two Georges. He found it interesting that they had managed to afford to print a large number of pamphlets and distribute them widely because they had a goodly supply of Russian gold roubles. At the time Hackett and Mansfield had been charged, the Russian gold meant little since it was not illegal to possess it. Putting it together with a Russian rifle killing "Honest" Dick, Bushell thought the two should be investigated.

The next day Bushell, along with a warrant and two squads of RAMs arrived at Mansfield's establishment. He was a beefy white man with curly black hair and bushy side whiskers. He stated he would watch closely as the RAM searched his establishment to make certain they did not plant anything incriminating.

While the RAMs found salacious material on the estranged wives of two princes indicating a follow-up lampoon, Bushell concluded that the previous acquittal showed that any new charges were unlikely to lead to a conviction. Hence Bushell and the other RAMs reluctantly left the printers without charging them with any crimes but suspicious that the two were Sons of Liberty.