Anti-Abortion Extremists Auction Lurid Prison Art On eBay To Raise Money For Tiller Murder Suspect Justin Elliott | November 2, 2009, 9:51AM

Anti-Abortion Extremists Auction Lurid Prison Art On eBay To Raise Money For Tiller Murder Suspect

Art for sale on eBay for Scott Roeder's legal defense

Supporters of the man charged with the May killing of Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller are raising money for his legal defense through an eBay auction on items including prison art glorifying the murder and a commissary cookbook by the woman who is serving time for shooting Tiller in both arms in the early 1990s.

Allies of Scott Roeder want to hire a private lawyer who will use a so-called "necessity defense," arguing that the killing was justified.

(See a slideshow of the now-scrubbed items here.)

Auction organizer Dave Leach told the Kansas City Star, which first reported the auction, "I really am hopeful that eBay can see that once this is up, that it is not a glorification of violence."

But the items, like illustrations produced by a fellow inmate and signed by Roeder, do just that. One David-and-Goliath drawing shows a figure with a sling holding up a severed head labeled "Tiller" standing over a bloodied body labeled "Child Murdering Industry."

In a note on the eBay listing, Roeder wrote:

His name is Jason Dubrowski and is one of the best artists I've seen in here. The drawing of the man and woman at Tiller's tombstone was done in response to the opinion page depiction which I included. The drawing of the field of babies tombstones with the newspaper headline comments of Obama was done after a Christian newsletter printed this illustration which a lady in Valley Center sent to me. The David and Goliath depiction was my idea. I hope they help get the message out there.

There is currently one bid of $50 on the three drawings. A note handwritten by Roeder on the David illustration reads: "To all you precious prolifers, Thank you for all your support!"

An eBay official told the Star that the listings would violate its policy against "listings that benefit someone charged with or convicted of a crime," but the auction has gone ahead anyways. The seller of the items is listed as mission.of.life, who joined the service October 30.

Also for sale: a Prayer and Action News Army of God Edition, which is a handbook for shutting down abortion clinics.

The description of the manual's author -- auction organizer Leach -- boasts that he is "publisher of The Partnership Machine and Prayer & Action News, a newsletter Scott Roeder subscribed to prior to the shooting of George Tiller."

Another item is Shelley Shannon's Prison Cookbook -- yours for $15. As the item description notes, Shannon "has 9 more years ahead of her for shooting George Tiller in both arms in 1993." It description reads in part:

Try to imagine a whole building of women who are not allowed in any kitchen! Never ever, for years! So what do they do when someone has a birthday or is celebrating leaving? They can't order a cake at Piggly Wiggly! So they get creative.

Stay tuned, we're digging more into this and will have more today.

Late Update: Leach tells TPMmuckraker in a phone interview that he has put up a "prolife bible" and any proceeds will go to benefit Roeder, but he's not sure how yet. A description with the Bible explains: "Therefore when people want to censor only that "vio-lence glor-ifying" speech which God justifies, it should be obvious that their real target is that speech which glor-ifies God."

He says he was aware that other items -- like the David and Goliath illustration -- were sent to anti-abortion activist Regina Dinwiddie, but he had not realized that they were being auctioned. Dinwiddie previously told the Kansas City Star she intended to auction the items we described above.

Late Late Update: eBay has not responded to our request for comment, but the items have now been pulled from the site.

Even Later Update: Anti-abortion activist Dinwiddie explains her thinking to TPMmuckraker. And we post eBay's enumeration of violations.