Tiller’s Unheeded Warning The Shelley Shannon Story By Michael and Jayne Bray

© January, 2009, All Rights Reserved

Tiller’s Unheeded Warning
The Shelley Shannon Story

By Michael and Jayne Bray


The Historical Event

It was a .25 caliber handgun. In order to kill a man, the shooter had to put the barrel right
next to the victim’s head, she was told. She didn’t necessarily want to terminate the man;
wounding him sufficiently to stop him from killing would be good enough. The first priority was
the rescue of the innocents; the life of the killer was a secondary concern. Ideally, she would
disable him so that he would murder no more and yet spare his life. In the woods near home in
Grants Pass, Oregon, Shelley practiced shooting from a short distance during the summer of 1993.

Then she headed off to Wichita.

Famous as a cow-town of the Old West, Wichita hosted Wyatt Earp as a police officer for a
just a year a century ago. (Earp was fired for getting into a fist fight with the campaigning
opponent of his boss and friend, Mike Meagher. Marshal Meagher liked Earp, but such a display
of zeal by an officer of law was just bad politics.) In due time, Earp would be brought up on
murder charges for his role in the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Letters of
support from Dodge City and Wichita poured in to Judge Wells Spicer in behalf of Earp as they
have poured in to D.C. in behalf of Shannon. In another hundred years from now, perhaps there
will be no names associated notoriously with this town greater than Wyatt Earp and Shelley
Shannon. There is one name, however, that will bring lasting shame upon it.
Shelley’s husband did not know that she had arranged a trip from Oregon to Oklahoma.
The bus arrived in Oklahoma City on August 18. 1993. Shelley rented a car for the remaining
two-and-one-half hour’s drive. She spent the night at a rest stop along the road allowing herself
plenty of time for prayer and concentration. A note to her daughter was necessary in the event of her capture. At eighteen, Angi was a fellow anti-abortionist as well as a daughter. She had
become a friend, competent and trustworthy to share in her work for the little ones. She would
faithfully convey Shelley’s sentiments and her doctrine should the need arise.

On many occasions, Shelley had handed performed other deeds. She had handed out
literature, held signs outside the “death camps,” publicly blocked doors in concert with others, and covertly damaged the facilities. This time, her act of grace for little ones might well cost her nearly everything; her freedom; her family; her home; the outdoors she so loved. This time, if something went wrong, she might not be able to explain her actions.

The note was short and simple: “I am not denying I shot Tiller. But I deny that it was
wrong. It was the most holy, most righteous thing I’ve ever done. I have no regrets.”
In the morning she drove to Tiller’s abortion clinic with the hand gun in her purse. She
would enter this facility, as she had many others, posing as a patient. She walked through the
office door and looked around. He was not there; at least, she did not see him. Leaving the
building, she drove away. But, determined to do what she had come to do, she changed her
appearance, returned, and joined other activists outside the clinic who were protesting and
persuading women to spare their children.

When Tiller departed the building and was driving out of the parking lot, Shelley walked
up to the driver’s side of the window. Thinking she was approaching him to hand him literature,
he “gave her the finger” as she shot him, putting a bullet in each of his arms from two to three feet away.


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Locked away for fifteen years distributed between “I-max,” the most secure wing of the
Topeka Correctional Facility, and two Federal Correctional Institutions – FCI Ft. Carswell, Texas
and FCI Dublin, California, Shelley Shannon is half way through her thirty-one-year sentence.
(Tampering with a woman’s right to abort her child is a serious offense in America.) She is
waiting patiently, as she always has, for a second eye surgery. The first eye is much improved after a remedial operation for glaucoma.

Like most inmates, Shelley has a job in prison and, fortunately, hers depends more upon
her hearing than her eyesight. She is a directory assistance telephone operator. Up from one of
twenty-three in 2003, she is now one of 1600 inmates working in five prison call centers in the
country. Her employment with UNICOR (Federal Prisons Industry, Inc.) keeps
telecommunications jobs from going over seas to the poor of Malaysia and India. American
federal prisoners are paid $.23 to $1.15 per hour (some state prisons pay as low as $.12).
Ever thankful in all things, and reflecting upon her job in 2008, she contemplates the hand
of God in her life in an uncommonly optimistic way. Living in various regions of the country as a
child, she was exposed to different manners of speech. The benefit is simple: she does not stumble over the various accents as easily as do other operators.


Shelley counts her blessings.

Beginnings

Rachelle Ranae Pauli was born on 31 March, 1956 in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to two
teenage parents who had dropped out of high school and married upon discovery of pregnancy.
Their son died at birth. Rachelle, who came to be called Shelley, was born the next year.
Starting out with a tight budget, Bob and Tudy Pauli moved often. Bob’s construction
work took him and the family to many different places in Washington, South Dakota, Indiana, and West Virginia. Eventually Bob became a superintendent for a company which built bridges and dams. Shelley remembers the familiar sight of blue prints around the house. And she counts her life with her family a good one with many fond memories. These were enriched by the addition of five more children – two boys and three girls before her parents divorced.
There was much good in life in those early years, when the family was intact. Shelley
remembers her father taking the kids fishing, playing ball, and teaching them about plants.

When the summer garden was in progress, each child had a row for which he was responsible: no weeds. He spent time with the children both individually and in groups. Moving around had its
difficulties, “but it was better than not having a dad with us.” Indeed, “There were other kids,”
Shelley recalls from her high school days, “whose dads worked construction. There was one
family which never relocated, but they did not see much of their father.” She was (and is) glad she saw more of hers. But there some particular advantages of moving around that she would not realize until decades later when she would be imprisoned. Unable to travel, she would be confined among people from all over the country – and the world. She was equipped – skilled - by such a background to fit in right well with others.

Grandpa Pauli’s farm was a fount of warm memories of loving grandparents and outdoor
frolicking shared with happy and healthy siblings. The day she broke the double-yolker comes
readily to mind as she reflects from jail upon her earliest memories. Smiling Grandma Pauli had
allowed Shelley to carry a special chicken egg back to the house. It was larger than usual and
would have been a special surprise for Grandpa to examine. Excited, she hurried too fast, fell, and crashed the egg along with herself onto the ground outside. At two years of age, she cried,
overpowered by those puerile feelings of failure which easily vanquish the spirit of a fledgling
human being – and because her knee hurt.

3

Grandma continued to be Shelley’s “favorite person” even after the elder Paulis moved to
Florida where they bought and operated a hotel. While keeping up with all the routine hotel work, Grandma washed the linens in a wringer washer, ironed them with a “big machine” and made time to bathe the kids and make pumpkin pies – “from scratch and without a recipe.” Grandpa was the more mischievous of the two. Less industrious in appearance, he would be found in the motel front office which he had filled with cigarette smoke. “We’d sit on his lap. I remember his whiskers growing out white and black. I’d hold a finger up to his mouth, and he’s growl like he was going to bite,” she recalls from prison four decades later, in 2009.

In Florida, Shelley’s love for the outdoors, already well established by exposure to farm
life in Wisconsin, grew more intense. She caught chameleons, toads, and fireflies as she explored
the foliage and climbed available citrus trees. Although they had sharp thorns, she enjoyed scaling them and plucking and eating their desirable juicy ornaments.

Other singular events impressed themselves among the memories of Florida. It was during
a visit there during one of several Christmas visits that Shelley saw her first TV program in color.
Grandpa and Grandma took the children to the neighbor’s house to see this new dazzling display
of Gilligan’s Island.
A quarter of a century later, another singular event would take place in Florida impressing
upon her mind something more sublime than blinking lights carried by flies, fruit growing on trees, or multi-colored whiskers on a grandpa in a smoke-filled office.

Advance, Indiana, home from 1965 to 1968, provided more of the desired outdoor activity.
Whenever her father took his children fishing, he made sure that each one caught a “special fish” –
“whether it was the biggest fish, the prettiest fish, the most fish.” Fishing with her brother, Randy,
and friend, Kenny Raines, provided entertainment for the summer months. Kenny was the best
friend of both brother and sister. Shelley might well have been labeled in those days a tomboy and
she wouldn’t particularly have cared to deny it. She and her pals would pack up some sandwiches
and carrots, ride their bicycles into the country, and fish in the streams they would find. Added to
the joy of fishing were forays into the wild which allowed more immediate gratification: climbing,
eating mulberries, and chasing water moccasins as the creatures swam along the surface of the
shallow waters.
Shelley had the ordinary little adventures of a child in that time and place, and even early
on, her plucky spirit was evident. On one day, when she and her two comrades were fishing, a
tornado appeared. The three decided to hole up under a bridge eating mulberries until the storm
passed and they returned to no-longer-worried and grateful parents. On another occasion she and
some friend spied a bunch of bees as they strolled along their way. Barefoot, they engaged in “bee
stomping.” If a person stepped full force upon them, he could avoid getting stung. It was a kill-orbe-
killed kind of thrill. There is something challenging about engaging a threat rather than
avoiding it. At that age, moccasins and bees were the greatest threats a young girl could encounter.
And so is the human spirit satisfied more in victory than it is in détente.
School Days and Broken Families
In smaller Midwestern towns of the late sixties, teachers were not too shy to speak to
personal matters and even invoke the common ethical standards when correcting a student’s
behavior. In fact a teacher might even intrude into the personal affairs of students when he might
judge it to be best for the child’s interests as well as those of the school’s standards. On one
occasion in junior high, Mr. Corrall intercepted a note which Shelley was passing to another
student - Joe. Well, the content was nothing scandalous or even a bit salacious, but the teacher
presumed that taking such a risk at such forbidden modes of covert communication in class was
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born from adolescent romance and he determined to offer her some candid and well-meaning
counsel. When he found a moment to speak to her, away from the presence of Joe, he offered that
“he did not think Joe was really my type,” Shelley recalls.
Dad enjoyed himself on the matter of boys and Shelley. This budding romance appeared to
mom and dad to be nothing to fear at the junior high level and provided an occasion for some
parent-to-child teasing. When Joe would call asking for Shelley, Dad would answer, “Is this Bill?
(or “Tom,” or “Harry,” or anyone but “Joe”).
Well, there was nothing to fear. She had not quite passed completely through the tomboy
phase as evidenced by her response to Joe’s overtures at the Jamestown Fair. Shelley recalls that
the couple went to the Fair together and were riding the Ferris Wheel. As they were revolving
over the top, down, and up again, Joe pointed upward and advised, “There’s my cousin and his
girlfriend up there kissing. Sure looks like fun.”
She did not take the hint, “having no interest in that sort of thing yet.” But things did
change. And as she developed into adulthood with the attendant normal desires for a mate and the
establishment of her own family, her parents divorced. The change to come was a big
“adjustment” (as it is popularly described by psycho- and sociologists). The subsequent redistribution
of the family members and relocations of the household had their usual ill-effects and
Shelley missed the stable life which she had enjoyed as a child. And at the tender and formative
age of thirteen, she missed her dad. It helped to spend a few months with the Florida grandparents.
Grandpa Pauli had died and Grandma needed some help at the motel.
Meanwhile, Shelley’s mother “got together” with Leonard, a full-blooded Cherokee.
Assimilated to modern hedonistic culture, he had a problem with alcohol, but the mother of his
five children must have had worse problems as he ended up with custody of them. (Shelley has no
recollection as to whether or not his wife was deceased.) The single parents came together and
made a go of it. Indeed, Tudy became pregnant with her own seventh child.
They would separate before the child was born. But in that short period, Leonard took
some time to teach Shelley how to catch some big catfish in a very small creek. He also taught
Shelley some skills passed down from his wilderness-wise ancestors. She learned to detect the
presence of animals in the vicinity by means of olfactory senses. As she puts it, she can still
“smell snakes, deer and some other animals if they are around.”
The couple moved to Indianapolis in May of 1968 where she attended “School #13.”
Leonard might more easily get work there as a plumber. The short time there held no special
memories other than a Polaroid Swinger camera which she acquired as a Christmas present. It
really was “quite an amazing thing back then, though the photos had to have a smelly chemical
rubbed on them in order to develop,” she notes. Mischief making and frolicking in the
countryside were adventures less available than they had been in Advance. The family lived near
the center of the city. But Shelley had plenty of comrades in the newly formulated bi-family
association.
The pursuit of amusement led some of the home-bound step-siblings to make some oldfashioned
prank phone calls. “One time we called the Green Acres Hotel and sang the song from
the TV show, Green Acres.” Well, the fellow on the other end of the line struck Shelley as a good
hearted proprietor. He advised his pranksters: “Y’all got the wrong tune. It goes, ‘Green Acres is
the place to be . . .’” And so he trailed off having kindly corrected his maybe-someday customers.
Another form of entertainment in the new environment – absent creeks and trees and animals –
was the riding of elevators in tall buildings. A trip to the White Castle for hamburgers was a
favorite snack event and would have to take the place of a climb into the mulberry trees.
Washington State
5
Tudy Pauli and Leonard had satisfied themselves with their romance along with the
conjoining of their children into a family unit. But it was temporary. When they separated, Tudy
decided to go back to live closer to her mother, Grandma Saulsbury, and other relatives in the
vicinity of Bellingham, Washington. They settled, however, a four-hour drive from Grandma in
Chelan. It was a very small town but Shelley met a few other teenagers and joined them in
drinking alcohol, smoking dope, tampering with sex and all that goes with the general exploration
of “adult” activities. Shelley, her sister, and a friend known as “Cheetoh,” had much fun “singing,
swimming, climbing, and riding in the back of pick-up trucks.”
She began her freshman year with Grandma Saulsbury while the family moved to Chelan
but joined them at the end of that school year in 1971 and remained with her family in Chelan until
graduation. From her perspective at the time, the life of restrictions imposed by Grandma
contrasted unfavorably with the lesser supervised life in Chelan. Another negative contrast was
the dearth of familial fellowship while Shelley was alone with Grandma; she missed her siblings.
And she missed adventure.
There is a place where the water flows into a gorge from Lake Chelan to the Columbia
River under the railroad bridge supported by three trestles. Sitting atop the middle one which
“stuck up out of the water” was the goal of Shelley and her friends. They would walk out on the
tracks over the river, climb down onto the supporting concrete trestle, and sit high over the water
some thirty feet below to enjoy the scenery, sing, and sometimes watch a train pass by.
Mischievous high school life in Chelan would afford even more excitement and quickly
occupy her attention ahead of family life. School activities included a trip to another city to
participate in a state bowling tournament in 1972. While at the lanes, Shelley and a girl friend
managed to be noticed by some older boys who were in the Army. The young men gained contact
information and visited them later in Chelan. Soon, they all began to run around together. They
had a car! Driving around with these older boys, listening to eight-track tapes, swimming in the
rivers – and camping with them – eventually yielded the conception of Angela Dawn. She was
conceived in April of her junior year.
It was the portentous year of our Lord 1973, the very year that men on the opposite end
of the country sitting in hallowed halls, would determine to overturn the laws of every state with
the Roe v. Wade decision. She was seventeen. A few months after the young men visited them in
Chelan, the girls had decided to run away to Ft. Lewis, near Tacoma. The army post, named after
the Lewis of the pair of famed expeditionary travelers, is host to the premier military installation in
the Northwest. Shelley and her adventuresome friend decided to hitchhike. 1973 was perhaps the
apex of the teenage hitchhiking phenomenon which had been born of the sixties counter-culture.
Singer-songwriter Carol King had released in 1971 that ode to road wandering with the lyrics:
“Meet me on the highway; meet me on the road. Long as you got to travel, don’t you want
someone to help you carry your load?” For several summers over the years following the
Woodstock Festival in 1969 the nation’s highway ramps were lines with hippies heading out -
often to Colorado (John Denver’s lauded “Rocky Mountain High”) or “the coast” or just
“anywhere” and “nowhere.” The girls were not an unusual sight as hitchhikers, and did not have
to wait long for rides, a regular benefit to any young woman attempting that mode of travel in any
state in the country (as long as she was not happened upon by a Ted Bundy). Shelley recalls one
occasion when two cars stopped rapidly, one after the other, and one driver yelled to the other, “I
saw them first!”
The stay was a short one, lasting but a few days before the mother of her school mate called
the police. The enjoyable - and lascivious - excursion came to an end. Shelley called home. Her
stepfather, Gene, drove out to recover the girls.
An Awakening
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Nile, the father of Angela, was a man who proved himself to be yet less noble than what
has already been revealed by the story to this point. He was already married. Reckoning with the
impregnation of Shelley, he admitted his marital state and declared to Shelley that he preferred her
to his wife and desired to divorce the latter. He picked up the phone and proceeded to called her in
front of Shelley with the apparent purpose of making his intentions known to the soon-to-beabandoned
wife. And upon making the connection, he handed the phone to Shelley.
A light went on. Epiphanies sometimes come to us in the strangest times and places.
Shelley’s recounting of the story begins with a disclosure: she “was never impressed with
cowards.” Conclusively, she “would not marry this person” with or without his child. And he
proved her decision to be a wise one when he suggested that she “could get rid of it by eating
turpentine.” Curiously, Shelley’s female sidekick recommended the same solution for the
problem/child. It was a distasteful irony, as if a mismatch were being righted before her eyes.
Nile and the sidekick, Shelley imagined, might make a more fitting couple. This man did not share
some basic ethics that were necessary to harmony in a relationship. There were some things that
were simply and absolutely wrong. She wasn’t sure why it was this way because she did not
believe that God (whoever He was) had given mankind a standard for behavior. But the truth was
thrusting itself into her mind as she considered the profound predicament she was in and the utter
failure of these friends to see this truth.
Her recollection of her mindset and her situation thirty years afterward is this: “Abortion
had just been turned loose on America by the Supreme Court, but it wasn’t too widespread and not
really accepted by most decent people.” Although she was “an atheist at the time,” there were
parts of God’s law which she had not suppressed. She did know – certainly – that she “wouldn’t
kill my baby.” Pre-marital sexual intercourse might be okay, as she reckoned it at the time, but
killing a child was patently unconscionable.
Reflecting upon her God consciousness in those adolescent years, she also recalls making
fun of a boy who was reading the Bible. And she remembers “taking the name of the Lord in
vain” - along with the crowd. Once only she did this and her conscience railed against the
utterance. It was wrong. She knew it and would not do it again. But whence this revulsion? Her
personal resolution was fixed, yet she could not reconcile her reaction to such speech with her
disbelief in God. There was nothing to account for such sentiment other than an innate God
consciousness out of which a conscience operated. The presence of this consciousness pointed to
its source: God (With no exposure at all to formal philosophical arguments for the existence of
God, Shelley had discovered this classic axiological argument on her own.).
She carried Angela to term, withdrawing from high school and doing school work at home,
and then returned to complete high school and graduate with her class of 1974. It was a new life.
She was now disengaged from her former social life. But she did not miss it. It was Angela she
missed when she left her with Mom while attending school. “Angela Dawn was a beautiful baby
and a great blessing” who gave Shelley “a sense of responsibility” that she had not had before.
Life became fully occupied with the study of baby care and child rearing books. And there were
more meditations and epiphanies.
Some of the friends with whom she had formerly run and caroused suffered tragedies
which she by some product of fate had escaped. Or was it really by some design of God that she
avoided miseries which she might have shared with her friends? One of these seemed stuck on a
path of repeated trips to the emergency room for drug overdoses. Another drowned in a river.
Others continued on a dangerous course, driving drunk or “high” on steep mountain roads with
long deadly falls awaiting those who veered off the edge. Yet her course of relative safety had
been secured, it seemed, by all the built-in changes in her life which came with little Angela Dawn.
How accurate and true was the name she had given the little angel girl! There seemed to be a new
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hope emerging as a new day rises with the sun. Shelley did not know why some died and others
were spared death or injury for their adolescent buffoonery. But she had Angela Dawn and this
was a good thing for which she was thankful.
Marriage and Faith
David Shannon married Shelley Pauli in December of 1974. By September of the next
year, David II was born to the newlyweds. As love and marriage had preceded a career, David
found it necessary to seek a livelihood in the Army. He would soon move on with additional
college education and training, but for the moment, the needs of the new family were met.
But there was light: another epiphany. David was given a Gideon’s Bible and Shelley read
it occasionally. She never liked fiction and as she read the stories and message of the prophets and
apostles, she knew she was not reading fairy tales. When the couple visited David’s grandparents
in Kohomo, Indiana, the Scriptures were preached from the pulpit of the local Nazarene church.
The light continued to shine and the epiphany of God’s written word was dawning.
Church life for the family did not begin to develop for another five years. It was not until
the Shannons moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1980 that Shelley (without David) joined the
local Nazarene church and later visited the local Wesleyan. At the time of her arrest she was
attending a Nazarene church in Grants Pass, Oregon which she had not formally joined. The
pastor there would later visit her in jail in Wichita and would report to investigators in 1994 a high
opinion of Shelley and state that she would have been welcome to join.
When David got out of the military in 1979, the Shannons moved to Yreka, California
where David worked for the Forest Service and went to college. Shelley worked at the Siskiyou
County Juvenile Hall and Probation Department. Yreka1 is an historic town built during a gold
rush of 1851 when the metal was discovered on the flats near a ravine called Black Gulch. Over
seventy-five homes were built in the latter part of that century and the town is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in Washington D.C. Visitors may engage in alpine and crosscountry
skiing, or biking, or hiking to the waterfalls, streams and lakes. Nearby are the Falls of the
McCloud River, Burney Falls, Mossbrae Falls, Lake Siskiyou, Castle Lake and Shasta Lake. Like
Eureka, Yreka is set in the region of the redwoods.
One of Shelley’s favorite places was along Shackleford Creek. “Out past Ft. Jones, not too
far from Yreka, is one of the most beautiful places in the country. It’s Shackleford Falls. And in
the summer you can slide off the top of the falls into the pool below,” Shelley recalls. But in the
spring, they are rough. They drop fifteen feet and serve as a challenge to expert kayakers. Indeed,
twenty-three-year-old kayaker Jeffery David Ellis drowned there in 2003, caught in an eddy,
unable to be rescued by several fellow kayakers.
It wasn’t long before Shelley was able to stay home with the children. A little
supplemental income was made by managing the apartments among which they lived and by
taking care of the children of a church friend. Her reflection upon those days was simply: “we
weren’t rich, but life was good.” They enjoyed taking the kids camping, usually in the company of
other families. David took an interest in gold panning. It was difficult to resist and not wrong to
yield to the call of the Northwest wilderness.
On the livelihood front, David wanted to advance his career and determined to go to the
Oregon Institute of Technology to study “computer systems engineering technology.” So the
family moved to Klamath Falls in 1980. It was only a couple hours’ drive through rolling
countryside, past small towns Grenada, Weed, Bray, and Mount Hebron, through the Shasta-
Trinity National Forest, all of which granted a final look at snow-capped Mt. Shasta which, like
nearby Mt. Shastina, stands alone. It would be a new adventure and like the mountain they were
passing, Shelley would become well practiced in the art of standing alone.
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In Oregon, the Shannons found it easy to home school their children and that was the
choice they made in Klamath Falls where they lived for eight years. But when the G.I. Bill
benefits ran out, Shelley had to go to work so that David could remain in school. She picked up
part-time jobs – janitorial work for two churches and Jefferson State Janitorial service – and
continued working them for several years. (That she did well is evidenced by the fact that
Jefferson State Janitorial service called her and asked her to return to work a year after she quit the
job.) She also worked as a hotel desk clerk and picked up some secretarial work for a church, a
pre-school, and OIT students. It was a busy time, but Shelley, following the tradition of her own
upbringing, continued her love for fishing and took her own kids along with a few of their friends
as often as possible.
A few blocks from home a Wesleyan church met where Shelley joined a women’s study
group. Sometime in 1987 the ladies were studying a book about women and rotating the teaching
responsibilities among themselves. A chapter on abortion fell to Shelley on her turn. She
presented the lesson after doing additional research. Her studies would be resumed after yet
another re-location.
A Peculiar Institution
Money was tight and school was expensive, so the couple opted to look for another path.
They settled on a move to Grants Pass in 1988 where David was able to get into a good job which
paid enough to enable a more comfortable life in a beautiful part of Oregon. But a seed had been
planted back in Klamath Falls during the time of studying the Scriptures with the women. The
hours of meditation and discussion of God’s word developed a desire in Shelley to “seek first the
Kingdom of God” and make Him first in her life.
In Grants Pass Shelley told God something. She doesn’t recall what prompted her to
declare her fervent desire to serve Him. But she told the Almighty that she “wanted Him to get the
most possible use out of my life.” At that time, she recalls, “Angi was 13 and David II was 11.” It
was “shortly after that prayer” that she read an article in the Americans Against Abortion
newsletter2 about a film called Silent Scream. It was a pictorial presentation of the child in the
womb, produced by state-of-the-art ultrasound technology. But it also featured a child undergoing
death by abortion. It was produced by an abortionist, Dr. Bernard Nathanson,3 and by it new life
was breathed into a drowsy anti-abortion movement. Many of the ranks were expressing the hope
and expectation that once such a horrible truth became visible to their benighted fellow “prochoice”
citizens, the newly enlightened would surely come to their senses and oppose this modern
barbarism. (The naïve human mind sometimes does not recognize the depths of ignorance and evil
to which mankind is capable of sinking and in which it will happily wallow.)
The realization of a profound truth struck deeply: “Real people were really being killed by
abortion and it was a terrible thing.” This conviction would lead to her inevitable involvement in
stopping this evil with direct intervention. In the meantime, she looked around and followed the
example of those in her circle of Christians who shared an awareness of the active presence of a
profound evil.
She called Right to Life, the first organization discoverable which was doing anything.
Well, she could write Congressmen and express her disapproval about it and “help out with
educating” others, she was told. A more direct response was encouraged by the local chapter
leader who showed an Operation Rescue recruiting video at the very first meeting she attended.
She could go to the places where the killing was happening and protest or “rescue” by blocking the
doors of the “clinics” in the fashion of the civil rights “sit-ins.” The latter seemed to be a more
appropriate response to the life-taking reality of abortion. She could get involved with rescuing
the innocent children. The local RTL leader suggested to his listeners that they keep track of their
actions because they were historic.4
9
Shelley determined to engage in blockades around the country as they were scheduled by
various local anti-abortion groups. She traveled to Portland, Oregon for her first of many
interventions. It was February of 1988. Mother and daughter (14-year-old Angi), were arrested
for the first time at an abortuary5 called the Lovejoy Surgicenter.6 The same year the local antiabortion
group, led by Andrew Burnett, conducted several rescues. His magazine reported on the
“30 plus people” blocking doors in June of that year.7 The newsletter listed Rachelle Shannon
among those arrested along with other encouraging news: “We had our first pastor and we had
more than the customary twelve sit-in.” Shelley continued to participate in “rescues” in the
Portland area and around the country for the next four years. The tactic of blockading abortuaries
by sitting in front of entrances until being arrested by police was spreading. Burnett reported them
in Philadelphia, Dobbs Ferry, New York, and Pittsburg with plans for Chicago in August. He also
reported that the National Organization of Women was bringing a lawsuit against Randall Terry,8
founder of Operation Rescue, for his role in the organization of the blockade in New York City on
May 6 of that year.
The Rise of “Rescue”
This resolution to address sacrificially what was nothing less than a true Holocaust was
expressed by pacifist John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe in this way in 1985: “Going back to political
action of the ’70s is not an option. At this stage, the alternative to sit-ins is bombing.”9 It was not
only the sensitized activists without connection to institutions of government who believed that the
state of the nation was dire. There were sheriffs, lawyers, professors, doctors and judges who
believed in the legitimacy of and need for direct action which they hoped to inspire by publicizing
this new Holocaust via the circulation of pictures of children killed by abortion. Corpus Christi,
Texas Sheriff James Hickey, for example, “vowed to put up posters of the photos in department
buildings, and told the local press if called to a pro-life rescue, he would not send his men. But, he
allowed, he might go himself, as a prayer supporter to the rescuers.” He further stated in early
1990, “I cannot assist the abortionist and his personnel and the client to get through a rescue line
because . . . I would be abetting a murder.”10
Chief of Police Michael Gerrety Bedford Falls, Minnesota was another example. The
chief traveled to Fargo, North Dakota in 1991 to join anti-abortionists for a blockade on the last
day of May. He was arrested along with 23 others for chaining themselves to the Women’s Health
Organization the sole abortuary in the town and kept in the Cass County jail where he refused
to speak at his arraignment. He was fired after six weeks of imprisonment. A news report
recorded his reasons in his own words: “I’ve spent 22 years in law enforcement . . . During that
time I’ve dedicated my life to protecting innocent people. This is a continuation of that, only these
are small people.”11
Las Vegas motorcycle policeman Chet Gallagher, was an officer on duty during a blockade
in Las Vegas, Nevada. He turned in his badge and joined others who had gathered in front of an
abortuary. He explained very simply his duty “to protect human life” as an officer of the law in
this way:
It alone is the highest call and most important duty of every commissioned peace officer. The protecting of
human life is the priority that must be considered over less significant property and personal rights of others.
Therefore I exercised my discretion as a commissioned law enforcement officer, choosing not to arrest these
rescuers but standing with them in their attempt to prevent certain death to unborn children.12
In Jackson, Mississippi the same situation resulted in the end of a job for another
policeman. He refused to arrest people who were blocking access to a place where children would
10
otherwise be killed. Joe Daniels, a 10-year veteran police officer, quit after arresting rescuers for
two days in March of 1989. He explained: “I came to the realization that what is lawful is not
necessarily good and righteous.” On the way to the police station, people he had arrested accused
him of culpability. Since he had removed them, they explained, he was actively allowing
abortions to go on which otherwise would have been halted. They began praying aloud for him,
and as he heard them “he realized that he had compromised his Christian beliefs.”
“I argued with myself that I’ve always taken pleasure in arresting the bad guys. I prided
myself in my ability to bring the scales of justice to balance,” he said.
“But in this case, I have confused the good guys with the bad guys. And I have made a
grievous error,” he told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. 13
A movement of several thousands of such persons began to take national shape in
Operation Rescue under the leadership of Randall Terry following the inspiration of John
Cavanaugh-O’Keefe (JCOK). His arguments were very simple. JCOK wrote in his 1984
pamphlet:
IF IT WERE TEENS
Imagine a society that has decided to get rid of the grave problems of adolescence, and has set about
doing so quite firmly by grading all children as they reach the twelfth birthday. Each month, on a specific
day, everybody with a twelfth birthday in that month reports to the town hall, where the child’s grades from
school, evaluations from social workers, and medical reports from doctors are all collated, and each child is
given an overall rating. The purpose of the scientifically designed rating is to predict which children are
likely to cause trouble during their adolescent years. Three children out of ten each month are discovered as
potential delinquents – and they are executed.
In this society, many of the problems of adolescence could be eliminated effectively.
Imagine further in this society that a group of people meet to discuss what to do about this appalling
slaughter. Some of them say, “We should try to work through the system.” (And later they do enter into the
political process and work hard to put together a campaign to bring the percentage of the destroyed down
from 30 percent. They set a reasonable goal, 25 percent, and they bicker back and forth in the parliament,
eventually compromising on 27 percent, thereby saving a substantial number of lives.) Other people say,
“We really should launch a large educational campaign. If people saw the terror on the faces of these twelveyear-
olds who are being led off to die, they would pause and rethink this whole thing.” (And the educators go
to work, bringing new recruits to the life movement ever day.) Yet another group of people proposes to set
up programs whereby parents, if they choose, can have their children exiled instead of having them executed.
(And later they do so.)
Then someone in the back of the meeting stands up and says, “The great majority of us oppose this
incredible slaughter. Why don’t we simply go down to the Town Hall on execution day and stop it?”
But the people respond to this simple idea by saying, “Well, you know, you have to respect the law,
you don’t want to break the law,” or “Well you know, you have to be prudent. What are the police going to
do, what’s the army going to do, if we act so rashly?”14
The simple case was made by JCOK to assemble people for citizen group action in which
direct intervention to stop the murder was enacted.
Terry had been able to recruit a particularly able associate of JCOK, Michael McMonagle,
a United States Naval Academy graduate, as one of his lieutenants. A resident of Philadelphia, “he
sponsored the group’s first major act of civil disobedience for OR, a sit-in outside an abortion
clinic in the Philadelphia suburb of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, in November 1987.”15 Progress
continued over the next ten months, with the movement spreading all over the nation. As OR
chroniclers Jim Risen and Judy Thomas observed:
By the end of August, 753 arrests had been made by the Atlanta police. More important, Pat Robertson and
Jerry Falwell were now solidly behind Terry, and their televised appeals were leading to both increased
visibility for Operation Rescue within the fundamentalist community and a surge of new donations.16
A Matter of Stewardship
11
The “non-violent” direct action movement which Shelley had entered was to reach its apex
in 1988 with the Atlanta “siege.” She became a subscriber to Capitol Area Christian News and
paid attention to its reports. She was, eventually, to be responsible – as was soon revealed – for
some of the deeds reported in the clippings of news accounts she sent by mail to CACN. But for
four years she pressed onward with “non-violent” rescue efforts which became increasingly
ineffectual and costly in terms of both actual lives saved and the expenditure of personal time and
money. How could she most effectively and successfully use her life for the cause of the
innocents?
Shelley Shannon’s “rap sheet” reveals a lengthy “criminal history” of “trespassing” at
abortion facilities. In Portland she was sentenced to 24 hours community service on June 29,
1988. On October 23, 1988, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail in Atlanta along with hundreds of
others. On April 7, 1989, in Seattle she was sentenced to $50 in court costs and commanded to
perform community service along with 58 others. Trespassing violations from March and May
were reduced to Attempted Criminal Trespass with fines of $100 each. Two months later in
Portland on July 15, she was fined $100 (which was converted to two days in jail). On March 29,
1990, she and 28 others were sentenced to 30 hours of community service in Portland. On June
14, 1990, she and 17 others were sentenced to fifteen days in jail in Redding, California. On
September 25, 1990, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail along with nine others in Portland. She
“trespassed” in San Francisco on March 29, 1991 and never went back to court. An outstanding
warrant dated September 16, 1991 has bail for her set at $10,00017 (This biographer has not
pursued the question as to whether the San Francisco County Municipal Court has filed a writ of
habeas corpus to have her sent there for trial when she is released on November 7, 2018, Anno
Domini.) And in Fargo, North Dakota on November 18, 1991, she was sent to jail for nineteen
days along with 12 others.
The effectiveness so few devoted to blocking doors for a few minutes and then paying out
fines or doing a few weeks in jail was certainly a matter of doubt. And while remaining a willing
supporter of those who were persevering in the effort, she continued with them while she keeping
her eyes and ears open to other more effective methods of intervention without the restraints of
“non-violence.” To what end was she sacrificing her family life by paying fines and sitting in jail?
Was the sacrifice worth it? Were there results which could justify her actions?
As the rescue movement grew OR leaders including McMonagle, Jeff White, Joseph
Foreman, Gary Lieber, Pat Mahony, Keith Tucci, and Art Tomlinson along with two women –
Jayne Bray and Susan Odom wanted to come to D.C. for what eventually became the D.C. Project
II (November16 to 18, 1989). The local organizer of blockades was I.R.S. attorney Clifford “Kip”
Gannett who headed Project Rescue in Bowie, Maryland. Kip was a member of Reformation
Lutheran Church18 and supported OR’s plans to come to D.C. and draw out-of-towners to the
political center of the nation and conduct “rescues” on a larger scale. Gannett had organized in the
fall of 1988 for his first of what eventually became many D.C./Maryland/Virginia protests as well
as monthly “rescues” reported by Capitol Area Christian News.19 He had organized the first D.C.
Project20 the previous year (November 10-22, 1988). His organization would be counted upon to
supply the local personnel and housing that OR needed for the event to occur in D.C.
McMonagle, the lone Roman Catholic among OR leaders, respected JCOK, a fellow
member of the Roman Catholic Communion, who was (post-facto properly crowned) the “Father
of Rescue”21 for his early involvement in and advocacy for direct action.22 And he sought to enlist
the support of D.C. area resident. McMonagle arranged for a meeting in the home of Jayne Bray
in the Spring of 1989. The letter of request from McMonagle to Cavanaugh-O’Keefe reflects the
optimism which the upsurge in the numbers of participants in blockades had stimulated:
12
John, I believe that you, I, Randy and the other leaders of OR would all agree that the most
significant and heart-warming event of 1988 was not Atlanta, or Philadelphia, or New York City, but rather
the National Day of Rescue on October 29. 1988. On that day, 4,000 pro-life Americans (and Canadians)
stood up in 32 cities and stood between the abortionist killers and their victims with the support on the scene
of 7,000 other pro-life citizens in a total of 43 cities. John, that day, God please, was a very small example of
the “rescue movement” in action. I believe most strongly that Operation Rescue made possible this day with
its ongoing efforts from its “central bureaucracy” and the fruit of its activities in New York City, Philadelphia
and especially Atlanta.23
Indeed, as Risen and Thomas observe, “Operation Rescue eventually became the biggest social
protest movement since the antiwar and civil rights campaigns of the 1960s, accomplishing more
than sixty thousand arrests at protests across the nation before it collapsed in the 1990s.”24
Nevertheless, Atlanta signified the limitations of the masses conducting blockades and
doing jail time. The city of Atlanta found extra space to house prisoners and prepared to break the
will of hundreds of rescuers. The city police had promised the local abortuaries that they “would
not allow them to be shut down.” Operation Rescue encountered “a hostile police force
determined to stop it in its tracks.”25 Terry had urged the participants to refrain from giving their
names and seeking release. But his instructions were too much for his own constitution. He bailed
out and went home to his wife after confessing with tears to his fellow leaders, “They broke me!”
But Atlanta – the largest and most significant of OR blockades by the summer of 1988 –
provided encouragement to Shelley. She was exposed to the idea of forceful methods. “The first
mention of it was in Atlanta,” she recalls. It was “during the Second Siege, when Jayne Bray came
into the City Prison where pro-lifers were being held. A lady mentioned that that was the lady
whose husband went to prison for bombing abortion places.” This “wife of a bomber” was also a
leader among the Operation Rescue organizers and Shelley “was very impressed”26 with her. She
recalls her first contact with Jayne:
Officer Terry had ordered that there would be no singing, praying or gathering in groups. Nearly all
felt they should obey the officer. I didn’t, nor did Ginny Dyer or Regina Dinwiddie. Ginny and I didn’t say
anything, except to each other, but I found Regina upstairs singing, praying, and inviting others to gather with
her. . . Then Jayne arrived. She gathered the 135 together and said, “We will sing and pray and gather
together.” And we did, every day after that.
Her favorable impression of those who sympathized with force was repeated on many other
occasions where she participated with others in “rescues.” At one site, nearly all the women
blockaders in jail with her were young – under 30. Shelley’s opinion about the use of force,
however, was still unclear. When discussions of the subject occurred it was the young ones who
favored it while Shelley and the two “older women” expressed disapprobation. But she continued
to learn about others as she read about them in a very few publications.27 Their tactics were
certainly cost effective.
The conclusion of the matter was simple: Shelley’s life was not her own. She was a
Christian and she wanted to use her life for others. It belonged to God, but it was still in her hands.
How would she spend it for him effectively?
To Be or Not to Be – a User of Force
Was it ever right to use force to oppose abortion? The answer depended upon the context.
From a political movement perspective, the question was answered in the negative as it would
(arguably) diminish the image of the movement in the eyes of the average American and retard
popular support for political change. From the point of view of the leadership, OR was (and
should remain) simply a mechanism for a specific non-forceful intervention tactic – blocking
13
access via the time-honored Gandhi-like sit-ins. Whether the child was saved from death by
abortion for a few hours, days, or indefinitely would not be known. But a “rescue” of some sort
was accomplished in the eyes of the participants. Such direct action served to bring the
seriousness of the matter to the attention of those heretofore indifferent and to open the eyes of the
simple American who had never given the matter a thought. But the opinion of the OR activists
regarding the use of force was not sought out. Members or participants were not interrogated as to
their personal convictions regarding the ethics of using force.
From the perspective of the child in the womb and as a fundamental matter of ethics, there
could be no denying the justifiability of the use of force. To condemn it would be to deny the
humanity of the child. This “defensive action” truth was essential to maintaining the doctrine of
the imago Dei – the very “image of God” – inherent in the child in the womb.
This principle was easy to embrace as a matter of theory and ethics, but much harder to
espouse or to act upon given the consequences which civil authorities would bring to bear. OR
leaders did not condemn the use of force, but also did not embrace it as a tactic which they
employed or advocated for other anti-abortionists or their organizations. This was most easily
evidenced by the following facts: 1) OR included Jayne Bray among its leadership with specific
duties including A) the development of a statement of philosophy and policy regarding behavior
expected of participants in OR events and B) leadership of the women incarcerated at OR events
(e.g. Atlanta); 2) the Chicago meeting of OR activists which addressed the issue of force as a new
point of internal contention did not occur until 30 April, 1994.28 That meeting was attended by OR
activists as well as other “prolifers” including Fr. Frank Pavone (subsequent founder of Priests for
Life), Paul Hill and Michael Bray. Paul Hill had been in the news for a year since the shooting of
abortionist David Gunn on 13 May, 1993 by Michael Griffin. He had spoken on countless news
stations in defense of Griffin and his views, at this time, were simply that such action could not be
condemned. (He did not advocate that others follow the example of Griffin until he himself did.)
Shelley was not the only person to be deeply affected by the sight of children being
murdered by abortion. Some of those other persons’ paths would ultimately cross Shelley’s. A few
years before Shelley had her big epiphany as to the full horror of abortion, a man named John
Brockhoeft in Kentucky underwent something similar. He was a Viet Nam veteran from Kentucky
who saw the same display in Cincinnati three years earlier. On December 28, 1985 when Melody
Green and Americans Against Abortion displayed outside Planned Parenthood the bodies of seven
children in seven tiny caskets killed by abortion, Brockhoeft was awakened. The realization of the
horror taking place under the watchful protection of the government and with the indifferent
toleration of the citizenry demanded some effective and direct intervention – whether in the
company of others or solitarily. John Brockhoeft responded and burned down two abortuaries in
his neighborhood in 1986.29
In due time, Shelley would learn of him. She would read about people who had intervened
forcefully and began to correspond with prisoners, especially John Brockhoeft who had been jailed
since 1986 for burning down the Cincinnati Planned Parenthood. She collected his handwritten,
folksy writings, typed them, and published them to a list of about 200 addresses in a series of
jocular, country-Kentuckian flavored stories and reflections under the title, Brockhoeft Report.
Among the recipients was Dave Leach, who produced his own newsletter.30 He would later take
up the same sympathy for Shelley after her imprisonment that she had had for Brockhoeft. He
published a newsletter monthly and included her prison diaries as she wrote them.
It turned out that she kept a diary before prison as well. The FBI discovered it along with
three copies of the anonymously authored Army of God manual during search of her home after her
arrest.31 But for now, she would act with “moderation” against a “holocaust” – an incongruity
which prevailed among fellow citizens and Christians all around her who shared the same beliefs
and sentiments.
14
Shelley was a thoughtful reader and communicator. It was no great intellectual feat for her
to realize that there was a time when laws might be broken, especially illegitimate laws which
preserved injustice. And this was not just any injustice. This was true infanticide, even genocide;
applied systematically against and one-half million children per year in our nation. She learned
about Curt Beseda, who had set four fires at two abortuaries, including one in Bellingham, the
domicile of Grandma Saulsbury. He set the other three at the same abortuary in Everett,
Washington. Beseda had been so fastidious in limiting the magnitude of the conflagrations he
ignited to keep them within the measure of destruction intended, he twice called the fire
department prematurely as he watched the progress of the flames!
There were flames in Wichita, too. There was a particular abortionist who remained in
Shelley’s mind simply by virtue of his infamy. George Tiller was a late-term terminator operating
in the heartland. He operated his very own furnace by which to dispose of the resulting remains
from busy work days: his own Warsaw-simulating Wichita crematorium. In Shelley’s view,
force – even lethal force – was justified to stop him. But there were plenty of other actions she
could take which served the same goal – saving innocent lives.
In her conversations with journalist Judy Thomas, Shelley said that as early as summer
1991, during the Summer of Mercy in Wichita, “she was convinced that violence was the way to
further her goals. The sentencing report stated Ms. Shannon had the will, but not the way until she
read two books, When Bricks Bleed, I'll Cry by convicted arsonist Michael Bray of Maryland, and
an early version of the Army of God, the Anarchist's Cookbook for the anti-abortion radical
fringe.”32
Actors in the Kingdom, a collection of essays written while he was in prison, was
published by Bray and advertised in Life Advocate magazine, Capitol Area Christian News, and
other anti-abortion and Christian media. The essays covered Christianity and its proper influence
upon culture, the failure of churches in that ministry, sound teaching regarding the use of force
versus pacifism, the nature of patriotism, and commentaries on the Operation Rescue movement
along with religious and political responses to it. One essay carrying the same title as the
collection commends Curt Beseda as follows:
There are some who are seeing the evil of our time and acting. But there are precious few. One thinks of
those who are regularly intervening at the child-slaughter houses: Joan Andrews, Joe Wall, John Ryan, John
Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, Tom Herlihy, Harry Hand, Marjorie Reed, and several hundred others who have
attempted rescues on occasion. But one should also think of those such as Curt Beseda who destroyed the
facilities of murder.33
Shelley was well-pleased to read about the Bellingham, Washington man. She had lived
there for only a few weeks before moving to Chelan Falls twenty years prior in 1970, back when
abortion had still been a criminal act throughout most of the land. And it was some fourteen years
later, in 1984, that Beseda burned the Bellingham abortuary. Still, she felt a sense of kinship as
she considered doing the same thing. And it did not take Shelley long to consider it, believe it, and
then to act upon it.
She was reading radical anti-abortion literature and corresponding with those who were
imprisoned with lengthy sentences. In addition to John Brockhoeft, Curt Beseda and Bray, her
correspondents included Marjorie Reed and Don Anderson. Shelley’s unsympathetic researcher,
Anne Bower, writes:
In the beginning, Shelley Shannon was content to perform civil disobedience with Operation Rescue.
According to her own records, she engaged in 35 different actions beginning in June 1988 in Portland at the
Lovejoy Surgical Center. Ms. Shannon kept track of her "rescues" and her jail time in a computer file titled
Mom's Jail Time Total which, by her count, was 98 days.
15
However, during 1991 according to the sentencing report, Ms. Shannon was undergoing a
transformation from civil disobedience to violence.34
And why did she move from non-violent sit-ins to “violence”?
It was not difficult to understand the rationale of those who forcefully intervene. Either
abortion is the murder of innocent children or it is not. Shelley Shannon could find no ethical
grounds to deny the legitimacy of using force to stop that which all the states of the United States
had always outlawed as a crime and that which she knew to be murder. There were other sane
voices and publications where the otherwise smothered truth was to be found. Additionally, there
were people in prison under judicial condemnation who believed that God called them to perform
the very deeds which brought them to prison: bombing abortion clinics. She had no intellectual,
moral, or legal grounds to contradict them.
In fact, she recounts a particular moment – an epiphany – while watering her garden. She
had been praying about whether or not her efforts ought to be restricted to non-forceful
intervention. It was a beautiful day and she asked herself the question: What would Jesus do about
abortion?
“What came to my mind was His using the whip in the temple, turning over tables.” And
the many other examples of those who used force came flooding to mind: Samson, Abraham,
Joshua, Gideon, David, Elijah, Jael, Deborah, and on and on. These servants of God were good
examples for Christians! It was as if her prayer had been answered. The reality suddenly struck
her: it was not contrary to the nature of Jesus to exert force to show mercy. “Every argument
raised against the use of force falls before Scripture . . . It was right, not wrong, to use force to save
the lives of pre-born babies. In fact, burning down an abortion mill actually saved a lot more lives
than did blocking doors.” 35
Added to this ethical and practical realization was the fact that Oregon passed a law
allowing a five-year prison sentence for those who blocked doors. Thus were there practical
(economic) as well as biblical and ethical arguments to be made in favor of the use of force.
(Might as well get some “bang” for her buck!”)
The circulation of Portland’s own Life Advocate published by Andrew Burnett was
widespread among the nation’s anti-abortion activists. It supplied Shelley with sound doctrine,
reports of activist examples, and inspiration. The magazine, unlike any other on the pro-life
literature landscape, featured articles on both sides of the use-of-force discussion. The June 1992
issue which Shelley had read just prior to embarking upon her mission to disable the abortuaries
included a book review of Actors in the Kingdom. The issue centered on the subject of apologetics
for the use of force for the rescue of womb children. Shelley was able to read reviews of Actors to
check her own thinking. John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe (“Father of Non-violence”36) reviewed
negatively the particular tenets adduced in defense of the use of force, while Joseph Foreman, an
Operation Rescue leader, gave a positive review.
Another essay made a simple distinction between force and violence and argued for the
legitimate use of the former in particular contexts and circumstances:
It seems to me that we have failed to separate force from violence in our labeling of rescue methods.
Violence is often associated with immoral uses of force. But force is simply the exertion of power. And such
exertions may be applied morally or immorally. Moreover, force may be used indiscriminately and without
restraint or with specific design and measure. Force can be used in dynamiting stumps out of the ground to
build a house or to destroy an old building to put up a new one. Force can be used against enemies at war,
armed criminals, and against governments which put Jews, handicapped people, and babies to death. These
would be regarded as moral uses. (We normally speak of military might or power, not violence.)37
16
Simple enough. And the “practical advantages of the use of force” were summarized in
five points: 1) it combines protest with successful rescue. 2) It is the most effective method of
accomplishing the urgent goal of saving children threatened with imminent death. 3) Forceful and
certain rescue expresses the very highest regard for the safety of the child/victim. 4) From the
perspective of the threatened child, the most effective and certain means of rescue is the best. 5)
The covert use of force is particularly advantageous as it permits the shortage in numbers of
rescuers to execute a greater number of missions.38
So there were, truly, children being killed. And the use of force to defend them could not
be judged wrong and on the contrary was a right and good thing. And those with the legal power
to do justice were not to be depended upon. In fact they perpetuated evil, legalizing that which
was evil and then punishing (with unjust lawsuits) those who attempted to defend the helpless.
They were as those addressed by the prophet Micah (and others):
Is it not for you to know justice?
You who hate good and love evil,
Who tear off their skin from them
And their flesh from their bones,
And who eat the flesh of my people,
Strip off their skin from them,
Break their bones,
And chop them up as for the pot
And as meat in the kettle. (Micah 3:1-3)
Rather than seek to do justice, the judges of her country, like those of Micah’s, “abhor justice and
twist everything that is straight” (3:9)
In her account Shelley provided for Don Spitz’s “Army of God” web site, she recalls:
I listened to a Skip Robokoff tape where he first prayed that God would speak through him. He talked about
the high places mentioned in the Bible, altars of pagans where children were sacrificed to satan and much
innocent blood was shed. He compared it to abortion facilities. He said those high places had to be torn down
. . . 39
There was plenty of evidence in support her impression that most of the nation’s judicial
leadership seemed to have lost their minds and that the nation’s legal system had been subverted.
Even when judges recognized that justice was no longer being served, they did not have the
courage or the love of justice to do right. Shelley had read six months ago in the December, 1991
issue of Burnett’s magazine40 the report on a judge in Blooming Grove, New York who had
recused himself from court because he could not judge “impartially.” On October, 17, 1991, 17
anti-abortion activists charged with blocking access to abortuary doors were brought before Justice
James Kenealy. Rather than acquit the rescuers in accordance with what he believed to be justice,
he allowed them to be turned over to another judge who would treat them – well, unjustly! He said
to a local Blooming Grove reporter, “I feel these people are doing the same thing as Martin Luther
King did. I don’t think you want me to sit on this case with that attitude.”
But King’s choice will be remembered and revered in history. Though bound by unjust
law, he chose the high road of disobedience, while Justice Kenealy chose the low road of
compliance. The judge said: “I think abortion is murder and therefore I would be very partial to
handling this case” and threw away an opportunity to do justice. He just blew his fellow
Christians a kiss as he had them to be dragged off to jail.
17
Some are remembered in life for that one right decision, and others are forgotten as just
unremarkable citizens indistinguishable amidst the mass of conformists.
It was the same sin of omission repeated daily throughout the land. People had abandoned
the duty to speak for the voiceless, to act for the helpless, and to rescue the innocent. Judges and
churches would fail to defend the children, but their sins must not be hers. Those who were
responsible for proclaiming and administering justice would have to answer for their own sins.
Prayerfully, Shelley came to the firm conviction that she “should set fire to the abortion
facility in Ashland, Oregon, which was the only murder mill in a large two-county area.” Perhaps
this was the answer from the Almighty to Shelley’s prayer that He “get the most possible out of
my life.”
Another Beginning: Smashing the Institution
On April 11, 1992, Shelley took forceful action for the first time. She burned down the socalled
Catalina Medical Center in Ashland, Oregon causing damages of about $379,000.41 She
recalls her decision:
I knew exactly how I would do it: by tossing a mayonnaise jar of gas through their big front window,
followed by some plastic milk cartons of gas, which I’d planned to remove the lids from before tossing them
in, and then lighting it. I knew how and where and was waiting to know when. One evening as I was
walking across the kitchen floor, I felt strongly impressed that, “It’s time.” I went out that night and totally
destroyed the Ashland mill. The abortionist couldn’t get his insurance renewed and claimed that a white male
called him saying if he re-opened, he would kill him. He decided to retire.42
Shelley sent a clipping from the local paper to Capitol Area Christian News (CACN) for
use in the “Radical Fringe” section of the quarterly. Attached to the clipping from a local paper
was a yellow stick-on note which began, “Great News!” and then included some bad news:
“Notice RTL only made one remote reference to the ‘violence’ of abortion. Their concern isn’t the
babies or God, it’s their own SELVES and their cause, their image, what people think . . .”
Her reference of disappointment was to the comments made by a regular anti-abortion
picketer, one Vicki Plankenhorn of nearby Phoenix, Oregon, who said:
I’m kind of stunned – I still can’t believe this . . . You don’t do things like this. It’s negative. If anything it
only hurts our cause.
Somebody who would do something like that definitely has emotional problems and needs help.43
Similarly (and typically) Myrna Shaneyfelt of Grants Pass and the director of Jesephine
County Right to Life who was also a regular participant in witnessing for life outside the abortuary
was quoted as follows:
Here we always have been in a non-violent manner to remind people of the violence inside . . . It just would
be detrimental to all of us who are working hard in this effort to have something like that happen.
“It is counter-productive to our efforts to get people to picket. Nobody is going to want to come out and have
the finger pointed at them if they think they’re going to be involved in something like that.44
The local authorities also failed to properly judge the reasonableness of the drastic action
taken. The Ashland City Council passed a resolution to create a Reward Fund to entice citizens to
help “catch and convict” the “persons responsible.” The Council decided against having donations
– should there be no convictions in two years – diverted toward restoring the abortuary. The
18
reason was simple. As Councilman Don Laws observed, “I think people who would want to see
the perpetrators apprehended wouldn’t necessarily want to see the money go to build a new
office.”45
An accurate assessment, indeed. There was more in the clipping which Shelley sent to
CACN. Mike Bianca, of the Ashland Police Department, addressed a gathering of abortuary
supporters at the local Unitarian Universalist Fellowship whom he assured “police are doing
everything they could to find suspects.” And, according to The Tiding,”Bianca added he was
shocked to hear many Ashlanders say they were not sorry the fire had occurred.”46
There would be no public acknowledgement by any pro-life organizations of the goodness
of this radical action. However, CACN included a report on the event in the “A Little National
News . . . for the Radical Fringe” section. With his characteristically satirical criticism of those
who condemned such “violence” while tolerating the violence of abortion, Bray wrote:
The Catalina Medical Building was destroyed. Abortionist Willard Brown, addressing 100
sympathetic Unitarian Universalists, valiantly urged his audience not to feel sorry for his loss of business, but
to feel sorry for the women who had had their right to abort denied. The city of Ashland polluted itself via its
city Council which set up a “Reward Fund’ to help catch the heroes . . .
Mike Bianca of the local police department said he was shocked to hear many Ashlanders “who
were not sorry the fire had occurred.”
Meanwhile the official, local right-to-life spokespeople all duly deplored and condemned the life
saving activity.
We have an editorial comment: We condemn two-faced “prolifers” and “right-to-lifers” who
condemn the forceful rescue of innocent children. Such hypocrites who pander to public opinion do the real
harm to the movement’s image. They deceive themselves and confuse their listeners by condemning abortion
as murder and then condemning effective methods of preventing murder. Does such a “prolife movement”
expect anyone to take it seriously? May the righteous rescuers of the innocents escape misguided pursuers.
(News from the Mail Tribune and The Tidings, of Medford, OR.)47
Thus, were the deeds of Shelley praised.
CACN included other encouraging news on “determined rescues”48 in the “A Little
National News . . . for the Radical Fringe” section. There were four more bulleted reports. The
first was Founders Clinic of Columbus, Ohio which “suffered $1000 in damages from a Molotov
cocktail.”
Another was that of December 28 in Springfield, Missouri: “a man entered an abortuary
with a sawed-off shotgun, opened fire, and wounded two people seriously.” (Bray quipped:
“Police declined to identify the victims, therefore we don’t know whether or not they were
innocent.”)
In Fargo, North Dakota there appeared a brief and negligible fire on April 24 around
midnight. “Clinic director, Jane Bovard, was angry at the investigators. They were questioning
the pro-aborts, rather than the bad guys [read: good guys]. Seems it was an inside job. (Too much
hassle, business falling off, etc. Might as well collect some insurance along with notoriety and
maybe some talk show money). Off course if it was a good guy, we must pray that our Lord raises
up more competent specialists for His good work,” opined the CACN editor.
“At the time the fire was set” reported CACN, “30 local activists were at the local
restaurant drinking coffee and enjoying the company of Gianna Jessen (a.k.a. “The Survivor” – the
14-year-old girl who survived abortion and now sings and speaks to Christian audiences).” There
were signs of life in Fargo. There were people publicly standing against the holocaust. Were they
praying? It is a fair assumption that they were. Indeed, it was quite possible that these Christians
had their prayers answered that night in Fargo. (Many more prayers would be answered by
Shelley’s instrumentality.)
19
The last report was of damage inflicted at an abortuary in Canada on May 18:
The infamous Morganthaler clinic was totally destroyed at about 3:30 a.m. The front of the two story death
camp was ripped off. $600.000 in damage. No injuries. Same abortuary suffered $5,000 in damages in
January. . . Mob hit not ruled out, since owners of the buildings are known to have Mafiosi connections.
Abortionist Morganthaler claims to have committed 40,000 abortions personally, Presently owns 7 clinics
which kill a total of 10,000 per year. Morganthaler blames the event on “reactionary, religious bigots and
fanatics.” Local Rev. Ken Campbell reckons it “an act of God.” 49
Within four months of burning the Ashland abortuary, she covertly visited the Lovejoy
Surgicenter in Portland on August 1, 1992, the very facility where she had participated in her first
non-forceful “rescue” with Operation Rescue fours years earlier. The damage was reported to be
only a $2500. Shelley’s “Pre-sentence Report” to the court said:
Investigators revealed gasoline had been spread on the roof of the building and ignited. Three lit fireworks
were found on the roof. A plastic container, which had contained gasoline, was also found on the roof wall in
the center of the burned area.50
(It was not the first nor the last time that Lovejoy would be damaged. Daniel James
Carver, 41, had set the first fire in 1990 causing $15,000 in damage. The last burning occurred on
Friday, May 23, 1997 at 3 a.m. The pro-abortion Feminist Majority Foundation’s monthly “Antiabortion
Violence Watch” blithely reported in the July, 1997, “The Lovejoy Surgicenter, a
frequent target of anti-abortion protests, was set on fire suffering $250,000 in damage.”)
Shelley had some special inspiration for the Lovejoy attack. She received a letter dated
June 10, 1992 from the law firm representing Lovejoy Surgicenter advising that she was party to a
law suit following her participation in Operation Rescue blockades. The letter stated that she was
required to “pay $504,486.43 plus attorney fees and costs” by 12 July or else “legal action for
collection” would be “initiated.”51
Such absurdity was more evidence of the same: the nation was morally insane. The whole
world was profoundly off track. Those who were sounding an alarm for the innocent were right;
those on the other side were wrong. Her decision to use force seemed all the more obviously
correct to her.
It did not matter whether or not they took her money, her freedom, or her life. She had
resolved to live for Truth and for Justice and that resolve was hereby renewed.
Shelley’s husband was working in California for six weeks in August and September. The
car was available for her to use, and there was much to be done. The third conflagration was set
two weeks later on August 18. She targeted the Feminist Women's Health Center in Sacramento
(resulting in a $20,000 loss) but regretfully brought $5,000 in collateral damage to the adjacent
office of the California Board of Chiropractic Examiners. (War is hell.)
The fourth effort to disable abortion facilities was executed on that same night, but in Reno,
Nevada, just a two-hour drive away. And this time, Shelley had a new weapon in her arsenal to try
out. Thwarted by the plexiglassed East End Women’s Health Group, she caused only minor
damage to the abortuary but befouled it with (extraordinarily odoriferous) butyric acid garnering a
$1500 divestment.52
A month later on September 16 while David was still away, Shelley traveled two and onehalf
hours north to Eugene, Oregon. She visited the Feminist Women’s Health Center at 2:00 a.m.
but did not achieve the desired disablement of the facility. That same night she drove eight hours
to Reno. This time she entered the West End Women’s Health Center posing as a patient during
business hours. She walked into the facility, went to a bathroom, and injected butyric acid into a
20
wall with a horse syringe. The putrid fumes emitted by the acid resulted in a divestment of $1,000
(damages) and, more importantly, the closing of the abortuary for a few days.
She spent the night at a rest stop and continued the three-hour drive to Chico, California,
where she performed a similar operation with the acid at a similarly named Feminine Women’s
Health Center on September 17. This time, Shelley was pleased by damages which amounted to a
nearly $24,000 divestment and the closing of the abortuary for several days.
Within five weeks she had disrupted seven abortuaries. She went home. And she knew
that she had done well.
The news of only two of her six attacks reached the office of CACN in time for the winter
report. And the praise of the two, though unattributed, was enjoyable. She could delight in the
reports of the similar deeds of others. From January until the end of September of 1992 there were
39 “chemical attacks” according to the pro-abortion National Abortion Federation. Various
newspaper accounts described the butyric acid attacks as “horrific,” “horrid,” “offensive,”
“stench,” and “vomit.” There was much to be thankful for and the CACN editor gleefully reprinted
a report from the Detroit Free Press (September 25) on putrid attacks in Michigan during
September:
The butyric acid is so potent that in some cases it stripped finish from wood floors and wallpaper from the
walls. Carpets and drapes must be replaced. Employees exposed to the smell even briefly had to shower
several times and rinse their hair with vinegar.
And to this news, CACN added, “Let us pray that God uses the blessing of these trials to soften the
hearts of abortuary employees. May the stripping of wood finish call to mind the stripping of
babies’ flesh which they regularly witness.”53
Shelley’s Chico assault was reported with one error by CACN. It stated that the damages
were $5,000 rather than $23,831.10.54 It is reprinted here in full:
September 17 – Chico California. “Chico” (young boy) – an appropriate town in
which to save young boys and girls from death. Damages amounted to $5,000.
The stink bomber deftly struck on Thursday at 11 p.m., entering a bathroom and
injecting the butyric acid into the wall with a syringe. The abortuary closed for the day.
“Terrorism,” said director Penny Bertsch, nevertheless assuring the community that her
abortuary would be open the next day. A special clean up crew was fired to work through
the night in order to open Friday at 9 a.m.
Nope. ’Twas not to be. Two days later the local Enterprise-Record story was
entitled “Stench from stink attack forces abortion clinic to stay closed.” The facility was to
remain so until at LEAST Tuesday (to the praise and glory of God). The story was
reported in part thusly:
“You can smell it driving by on the street.” Police Officer Dave Richardson said, “It’s
really nasty” . . . The odor, so strong inside the building at 33 Flume that it made the officer’s eyes
burn, closely resembles that of vomit, he said.
The smell comes from a noxious chemical that was injected into a bathroom wall Thursday
morning, allegedly by a female who entered the clinic saying she wanted an abortion.
The bathroom will have to be removed to eliminate the stench, police said . . .
Bertsch said she expects it will cost “Thousands” to replace the wall and repair or replace
damage from the smell.
Pray, of course, that the doers of good avoid capture by misguided authorities and deluded
Christian collaborators.55
21
It was always good to hear of others who believed in the same sense of urgency to
effectively rescue the innocent. But to stand for the truth is sometimes to stand in the company of
the few, if not alone. Sandwiched between the CACN report on her Chico and Eugene visitations
was the story of the arrest of Michael Fix. He had been arrested following five occasions in
August and September in which Eugene Glick’s abortuary in Reno was afflicted in various ways
including “small fires, broken circuit speakers, broken windows.” Fix was despised and rejected
by local Christian leadership. Rev. Don Nelson, the President of the local anti-abortion Christian
Action Council shunned him: “We deplore violence. We believe this (abortion protests) should be
handled through the courts and the legislature and by convincing people.” Additionally, as if
public opinion were a guide post, he proposed: “I don’t think anybody is buying the idea that this
represents the pro-life people.”
This became a familiar pattern. Someone solitarily goes out as one to virtual selfimmolation,
given the risks of getting locked away for years, and he is rejected by those who ought
to praise him and at least recognize his efforts on behalf of the helpless.
Shelley’s mind was fixed. She had counted the cost. She was not serving the opinion of
pro-life leaders.
Shelley returned to Sacramento for her eighth (and what turned out to be her final) attack
on November 28. This time, her reconnaissance and demolition skills improved, she burned the
Pregnancy Consultation Center for a $175,000 divestment. Well satisfied, she wrote in her diary:
Didn't even care if I made it back, or care so much about getting caught or killed, just
wanted to close the place good. It was supposed to be a birthday present to Jesus, early for
expediency, but I found it was He who gave me a gift. From Him and to Him and through
Him. What could I do for Him or give Him? Trip was so good. Fresh batteries, so I listened
to White Cross a lot. Someone was definitely praying for me, and I expect that Curt
[Beseda] was probably even fasting for me . . .56
Her “biographer” (U.S. Probation officer Crocker) described her work as follows:
The fire department responded to the report [of a fire] and found the building to be on fire. Officers observed
flames burning through the floor level and a broken window on the westside [sic] of the singe story building.
The fire moved swiftly through one room and went through the ventilation system which rapidly spread
throughout the attic of the building. The fire caused extensive damage to the attic and roof and heavy water
damage inside. . . Fire investigators determined the fire was arson-caused and noted the point of origin to be a
broken window on the westside [sic] of the building where a quart-size jar of gasoline was thrown into the
room.57
Retaliation against the Local Church
At the time of Shelley’s destruction of the “Pregnancy Consultation Center,” a local church
in Sacramento was actively and publicly opposing abortion. Trinity Christian Church had
sponsored several “rescue rallies” where activists gathered before proceeding to preach and (in the
case of some attendants) to block access to the “death chambers.”
Following the destruction of the abortuary, a local association of “escorts”58 calling
themselves the Sacramento Area Coalition for Reproductive Rights (SACORR) determined to take
out their anger on the Trinity Christian Church. They blocked access by members to their services
on Sunday morning on two occasions, one of which lasted for about one and one-half hours
without police removing the blockaders. “We’re really p----d off,” said Karen Guchert [of
SACORR] . . . We are going to tell those religious bigots we’re not going to tolerate it.”59
22
All the members of the body of Christ participate in different ways in the work of His
kingdom. Some receive the “credit” for what others have done, but all the pious serve the same
God, advocate the same Law and seek justice for the weak. Whether praise or shame was
received in this life, the glory of God would be shared by all those who lived for Him. The church
was suffering a little abuse because of Shelley’s actions, but it was not much of a price to pay. She
would soon pay a price far above what that church would suffer for their protests for the sake of
the womb children.
Who Inspired Shelley to Shoot Tiller?
John Burt: Semper Fi
John Burt of Pensacola was a man in the thick of things. Some of those things turned out
to be more significant than what they might first have appeared. How profound is the influence
people can have upon one another! Henry James said, “Ideas are, in truth, forces. Infinite, too, is
the power of personality. A union of the two always makes history.” And the force is especially
potent when the idea is, in fact, the Truth. So it was in the life of John Burt. He was not a man of
erudition, but he believed in the Truth and lived it both with eloquence and bold persistence.
While we might trace the influences upon Shelley’s shooting of Tiller and find a number of trails,
the most evident is this one: Burt (along with Matthew Goldsby and Gene Simmons) to Griffin to
Shannon. And conspiracy, if only by simple definition – breathing together the same Truth – was
clearly at play in these circumstances.
Converted to Christianity as an adult, he had been a Marine, a Klansman, a drunkard, and a
divorcé. He became a Christian in 1976, married to a Christian woman, Linda, and involved
himself in active opposition to abortion in 1981. By 1983 he was opposing abortion on two fronts:
he founded a home for unwed mothers, Our Father’s House, and organized pickets at the local
abortuary, The Ladies Center. In March, fourteen picketers were arrested and charged with
“trespassing.” Burt’s own Brownsville Assembly of God along with other AOG churches in the
area began to arouse the people from their involvement in the national slumber. The showing of
Silent Scream in Pensacola helped inform viewers and galvanize them to action. Among those
awakened were two twenty-one-year-old men from First Assembly of God, Matthew Goldsby and
James Simmons along with their mates – a fiancée and a wife. They conducted the “Christmas
bombings” in 1984 of three Pensacola abortuaries, for a $500,000 divestment. At the trial opening
of 15 April, 1985, defense attorney Thomas Monaghan told the jury that the men were “knights in
shining armor” saving children from death and suggested that “perhaps God is speaking to
America.” Federal Prosecutor Thomas Dillard called the men “terrorists.”60
During the trial, John Burt refused to abandon the men whom he judged to be faithful
martyrs. He had never seen them before their national exposure, but he knew they had acted
courageously and righteously. (Goldsby’s mother had joined Burt in protests, but her son thought
such efforts to be an impotent response to the “issue” of real time child slaughter.) Burt
demonstrated in support of the young men outside the courthouse during the trial displaying a jar
with a “dead fetus” whom he called “Baby Charlie,” a child of 18 to 20 weeks, killed by saline
abortion. He hoped to show the public the truth and the reason for the use of such drastic measures
by the defendants. And he hanged two local abortionists in effigy to indicate whom the law ought
to be punishing: local abortionists Linda Taggert and Bo Bagenholm. Penny Lea, a country singer
whom Burt had encouraged into action, organized an anti-abortion march outside The Ladies
Center a month before the trial. They marched with about 4,000 protestors around one of the
restored abortuaries. Imitating the story of the destruction of Jericho they prayed and blew
“trumpets and shouted in unison several times, ‘Let my children go.’”61
23
The two young knights had read the Biblical story of Gideon about the little babies being
laid on the altars of Baal and how God had told Gideon to tear down the altars. They had believed
that story just as they had believed the story in the Gospel of Luke about John the Baptist who,
when an unborn child, leaped in his mother’s womb upon coming in close proximity to the
pregnant Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:41). They called their plans to bomb the “clinics” the
Gideon Project.62
When the jury convicted the two and sent them off to prison, Burt continued the effort to
stop the killing. He was joined by Joan Andrews and Joe Scheidler in March of 1986. A small
cadre entered the abortuary during business hours and “trashed” the offices. Joan ended up with a
five-year sentence, double what she would otherwise have gotten because of her refusal to cooperate
with the court which required signs of remorse, deference, and cooperation, earning the
sympathy and respect of many. Joe Scheidler continued advocating for the womb children, never
shying away from those who used force but stopping short of defending those who maimed or
terminated abortionists. Burt abided by the conditions of probation for two years which Andrews
had refused.
Burt continued his anti-abortion activism and was arrested in connection with John
Brockhoeft’s possession of explosives in the vicinity of The Ladies Center in 1988.63 Restricted
by the court from abortuary oratory, he was able to continue service in other ways, especially the
ministry of Our Father’s House. By 1993, he was preparing to protest a new abortuary in town
operated by David Gunn. Newly in attendance in his church, the Whitefield Assembly of God,
was Michael Griffin who prayed publicly for Gunn in church on March 7 before shooting him
dead four days later.
Michael Griffin’s Deed
Until March of 1993, no anti-abortion activist had shot an abortionist; accordingly, the
subject had not been publicly discussed.64 But certainly the principles of defensive action, which
permitted the destruction of property for the sake of the life of the innocent child, allowed for the
maiming or (albeit less desirably) even the termination of an (assailant) abortionist. There was
nothing strange here. The case was neatly set forth by Michael Bray at the 1990 meeting of the
Evangelical Theological Society:
The fact that the authority to enforce the law of God has been delegated to the state does not
invalidate en toto the use of force by private citizens. A citizen may act with force in self-defense and not
thereby usurp the duty of the state. Christians who rescue innocents from child-slaughter houses are simply
extending mercy: they are not acting as police, enforcing the law of God.
When a rapist/murderer attempts to practice evil upon my family, I may employ force to rescue my
family. In doing so, I may slay the attacker. My own intentions in saving my family would be eleemosynary.
One may well interpret the act, however, as one by which a practicing capital offender suffered just
retribution. The morality of the slaying can be examined from the perspective of justice or mercy even
though my role as rescuer would simply be merciful intervention in behalf of beloved victims. The only
inculpating factor would be my heart condition. Was I revengeful or loving (1 Cor. 13:1-3)? The forceful
act, itself, would be good and right.65
Although public discussion of the ethics of such a lethal deed was lacking, it was not too difficult
to figure out.
In late 1992, Griffin watched the graphic abortion exposé film, The Hard Truth, in
supplement to other, educational, and polemical writings. Among the many pieces of literature he
24
read, there was one which most directly urged intervention. Burt produced a monthly newsletter to
inform people of local effort in the anti-abortion cause. The February issue contained a story (or
was it a parable?) about a “prophet” who is inspired to put an end to the killing. Michael Griffin
has not commented upon its influence upon his deeds. It is reprinted here in part for the reader’s
own consideration:66
“The Prophet of Life”
He is symbolic of the pro-life movement. In particular, the men and fathers of the church of Jesus
Christ . . . Strong, vigorous, well-armed spiritually, but until now hesitant and unresolved. For so long the
Jesus that many Christians had imagined was a total pacifist. He would never have overturned the moneychangers’
tables in the temple. Neither would he have made a scourge of cords - that would have been “too
violent.” Think about this: Jesus said that man was more important to God than was the Sabbath, more
important than the Temple as well. So if Jesus would become violent over the misuse of the temple, a stone
building, how much more so with the abuse of an innocent unborn child, designed to be the living temple of
the Holy Spirit? Much, much more, I say.
The Prophet wears a pendant bearing the numbers one and six, representing the first and sixth
commandments: “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before Me,” and “You shall not
commit murder.” These are clearly the most prominent violations of God’s word committed by abortion
practitioners, but they’re not the only violations. In fact, all Ten Commandments come to mind, except the
Fourth, “Keep the Sabbath Day holy.” Although some abortionists work seven days a week, at least one that
I know of goes to church every Sunday. He belongs to a mainline denomination that officially opposes
abortion, but his priest “feels sorry” for him. His fourteen million dollar per year income is also no doubt
very pitiful in his priest’s eyes. Yes, the prophet’s necklace is a weighty reminder of his task, but is nothing
in comparison to the millstones that the abortionists are hanging around their own necks by harming these
little ones.
The children cry, mourning for their little brothers and sisters who are slaughtered, wanting so badly
for their rescuer to protect them all. With their tears, they beg the Prophet to take action before their blood,
too, is added to the some three million gallons that has already been spilled from the bodies of their little
friends. The River of Blood flowing past bears them witness.
All around is deep darkness, caused by the silence of so many. Silence aids the progress of darkness
and it has no intent of slowing its advances, though a single shout can slow its progress and a loud rebuke can
begin to cause a retreat of the darkness.
The source of the darkness, the Evil One’s temple, proudly announces it dedication to “Self.” But,
obscured in the shadows, the real god of that temple shows his name. The sacrificers claim that the deeds are
done for “self,” which is certainly bad enough; but some don’t realize, though many purposefully do, that the
blood is spilled ultimately to please the devil: Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and his will
shall you perform.” There is no truer statement that can be made of those who kill the innocents and of those
who protect those who kill them.
Those who kill, that is the “priests” of this evil temple, are . . . holding the green close to their eyes
so that they won’t see the red. But now the Prophet is seeing red. What will he do?
The guardians and lauders of the self temple . . . all march and dance triumphantly, though
temporarily, around the bonfire at the base of their temple . . .
The cloud of smoke that arises vaguely forms a face. Only a moment ago that face had a diabolical
grin of laughter . . . the devil laughing at the perpetrators whom he has duped and intends to take with him to
the pit, laughing at the churches who are fumbling and indecisive, laughing at the helpless victims¾their
lives crushed before they have the chance to see the light of day; and, worst of all, laughing at God, whose
heart weeps with unbelievable pain at the death of each and every innocent child. But now the facial
expression has changed, contorted, to a look of fear and uncertainty. “Who woke the Prophet?!” the face
seems to say. . .
At the top of the temple rests the hideous altar overflowing with the bodies of the children. Most
have been ripped apart - limbs, head, bowels - not after death; this violence was the cause of death. Some are
intact bodily, killed by salt poisoning . . . or the subsequent exposure, smothering, starvation and
strangulation for those who have lived through saline. The killers and their supporters count these children to
be so much dung, but God has made these babies in His own image. And so they add another charge,
blasphemy, to their list of offenses . . .
The Prophet strongly grasps the handle of his weapon, a sword called justice. Is the sword
figurative or physical? We pray and hope that the figurative will suffice¾that words will be heeded. But we
25
remember our own history, our national beginnings. The physical sword had to be drawn at that time, drawn
by Godly Christian men and fathers, not to be returned to its scabbard until freedom was secured. In truth,
the Prophet hasn’t handled his weapon in some time . . . except in church. But, familiar with the sword’s use
or not, the time has come, and he begins to draw it out slowly and deliberately.
His heart is broken by the suffering of the unborn children, beyond mere tears of mourning. Now
the Prophet sheds a tear of fury, of righteous indignation. He stares momentarily at the river of blood racing
past his feet . . . “Not even one more,” he vows, through pursed lips. The sweat breaks on his brow. He
knows the Lord has sent him to stop them.
In your mercy, Lord, help us to bring an end to abortion here, rather than force you to come
Yourself to end it by judgment. Amen.
One might well conclude that Burt and his newsletter influenced, even inspired, Michael
Griffin. It is a fair inference whether or not Griffin would acknowledge it. (Who can know which
of the many media of the Truth influences a given human action more directly than another?
Perhaps he was reading Homer’s Iliad – “’Tis man’s to fight, but Heaven’s to give success.”)
It was not difficult to accept philosophically the principle of justifiable homicide. There
were times when a person could kill another person. Homicide was not always murder. Everyone
knew this. Yet in the arena of the abortion war or – more pointedly – the War of Society upon
Children Yet in the Womb of their Mothers, the idea of abortion as murder was still some faded
religious theory of the past. It was little more than polemical and alarmist rhetoric. The
protestations over the humanity of the child rang out as nothing larger than surreal noise until
Michael Griffin shot David Gunn on March 10, 1993. In that event, the truth was demonstrated to
a lying nation. Its bluff (all are “endowed by their creator. . .”) was called. All the cards were laid
on the table. The winning hand only needed to be acknowledged by the rest of the players. Griffin
treated Abortionist David Gunn like a surreptitious serial murderer whose cover was now blown.
Caught, as it were, in broad daylight, Gunn was shot dead in Pensacola by a faithful, vigilant
citizen-soldier. The innocent children of the day, targets of commercial traders in flesh, were
rescued.
A few days prior, Shelley and Angi had sent an anonymous note to an abortionist in
Milwaukee, one George Woodward, warning that she was coming to Milwaukee and that he must
quit killing babies or face death. She sought no vengeance for the children he had already killed.
The threat to terminate him was designed to frighten him out of the killing business and interrupt
his practice of serial killing. She wrote, “I will hunt you down like any other wild beast and kill
you.”67 Such threats are not immoral and are certainly more merciful (vís a vís the offender’s well
being) than terminating the life of the offender (if such concern is worthy of consideration after the
interests of the innocent victim are sufficiently addressed). Accordingly, Shelley’s subsequent
shooting of Tiller was quite evidently intended to be non-lethal.
Nevertheless, she was invigorated by the truth which was proclaimed in Griffin’s deed. He
had acted quite consistently with the message which she had been hearing for five years. How
refreshing. The truth was being proclaimed in deeds and not just words! The truth was vindicated.
Michael Griffin, by his deed, had borne witness to the truth about which she, to that point, had
only heard impotent rhetoric and to which she had seen only feeble interventions.
Shelley wrote to Griffin in prison immediately and sent $160 to a defense fund organized
by John Burt of Pensacola. “I know you did the right thing. It was not murder. It was more like
anti-murder. I believe in you and what you did, and really want to help if possible. I wish I could
trade places with you,” she wrote on April 10.68
Along with writing Griffin, Shelley continued her correspondence with Brockhoeft and
began editing his biographical anecdotes and commentaries and in March sending the simple
26
“Brockhoeft Report” out to about 120 readers who were correspondents of Brockhoeft along with
other activists. In July, she traveled to Ashland, Kentucky to visit him along with another antiabortion
prisoner, Roy Streicher, in Chilicothe, Ohio. When Shelley left the Ashland prison, “she
broke down in tears.” And “upon returning to Grants Pass on August 2,” she began to make her
plans to visit Tiller.69
By drawing nearer to prisoners, Shelley was getting closer to the heart beat of those who
truly believed the rhetoric of the “pro-life movement.” The words spoken by pastors and
organization leaders were all true enough, but there was an incongruity. Few lived as if what they
said were really true. The incidents were seldom and precious few were the persons who rose up
and took action.
Targeting Tiller
The January, 1993 issue of Life Advocate contained a submission entitled “Acting in the
Will of God.” It turned out to be an auspicious “letter to the editor” from Shelley Shannon of
Grants Pass, Oregon:
I’m enjoying all the radical news and comments, and I agree with nearly all of it. However, is it fair to say,
“Bombing or burning a death camp is a very serious tactic. To fall in line with our principles, it must be 100%
safe (i.e. absolutely no chance whatsoever that anyone could get hurt)”? That’s quite a yoke to put on
someone! Many have been hurt blocking doors, bones have been broken, police officers have complained
about their backs, and at least one preborn child was killed when the mother rescued. I’m sure the bombers
are acting in the will of God, and doubt they would or should stop if a guilty bystander or innocent person is
hurt. If they don’t act, a lot of people will be killed. Let’s pray no one gets hurt, but this is a war and we
have to be realistic.70
Conspiracy theorists may delight to consider her prescient reference to the possibility that
someone “could get hurt” and that one must be “realistic” about what happens in “war.” But she is
only stating the obvious.
The ironies of history are sometimes beyond what can be imagined. Shelley was
responding to a letter to Life Advocate from Joanne Phimester who would later marry John
Brockhoeft upon his release from prison and bear him a child whom they would name Rachelle
Shannon Brockhoeft. (The Brockhoefts would also name a child after Paul Hill, displaying
Joanne’s growth in thinking concerning the propriety of using lethal force in defense of the
innocent.)
And do those who believe the same God and the same Law think alike and “breathe
together” the same thoughts as they share the same “world view,” the same revelation, the same
Scriptures? “Conspiracy” indeed!
Shelley had been to George Tiller’s “clinic” in Wichita two years earlier, among the 2,657
people who were arrested during 45 days of protests and blockades beginning in July 15, 1991 –
the “Summer of Mercy,” although she herself did not get arrested. The main target of that event
was Tiller’s abortuary. She read an article by Cathy Ramey on Tiller in the September, 1991 issue
of Life Advocate: “The Wichita Killer.” Ramey was responding to a praiseful Judy Thomas article
in The Wichita Eagle with sarcastic disdain:
In addition to purchasing skiing and tennis equipment – Judy points out that he’s a well-rounded guy
who loves both sports – Tiller enjoys investing in real estate and galvanized sheet metal. It takes both to run
a million dollar baby burner. Judy’s hero just happens to own and operate the only furnace in Wichita that is
devoted entirely to human flesh.
The Rev. George Gardner of College Hill United Methodist Church is a Tiller fan. If you can’t rely
on the personal recommendation of a minister, who is there left to trust? But Gardner is part of the Tiller
27
extermination team. It seems that some women have a problem with killing their six, seven, eight and even
nine month old unborn children. Gardner visits them . . . “We even had a baptism service for the aborted
fetuses. I think anyone who is that sensitive to people’s needs is not without compassion.” Tiller can afford a
bit of institutionalized compassion, and it probably hasn’t hurt the coin box at College Hill United Methodist
Church either.”71
Yes, for a number of years Tiller had his very own pastor employed in the service of
providing comfort and consolation ceremonies for those who, having disposed of their children,
might be in need of some “closure.” The more she contemplated the horrific regularity,
expansiveness, and normalization of abortion in America, the more bizarre seemed the ongoing
toleration of it. How could so many people do nothing? Especially about a monster displaying
this depth of depravity?
Tiller had expressed himself in a 1991 an interview, offering a philosophical apology for
his “medical practice.” In classic euphemistic style, he said:
The fundamental question that society has to ask itself is, who is the patient? Is the woman the
patient, or is the fetus the patient, or is the fertilized zygote the patient?
I believe that the woman is the patient, not the fetus, until natural survivalhood develops.72
There was certainly nothing new about Tiller’s devaluation of a particular class of human
beings; it is a mental exercise commonly carried out by mass murderers and their apologists.
Whether one calls the degraded class “untermenschen” or “niggers” or “fertilized zygotes,” the
detractor degrades a particular class of human beings to facilitate toleration of their destruction.
Tiller’s lust for killing human beings is so insatiable that he has managed to accomplish
what is nearly impossible in the United States: he was charged in 2008 by the civil authorities with
19 abortion-related criminal offenses. In the course of the prosecution of these crimes, many new
details of his depraved practice were revealed, edifying Shelley’s selection of him as a target
fifteen years prior. In 2008, Tiller was charged with 19 misdemeanors. At the November, 2008
hearings in Sedgwick County, Kansas, Tiller’s half-dozen defense attorneys were arguing for
dismissal. At the center of the prosecutor’s argument before the court in support of continuing
with the case was the abortion of a child carried by a 10-year-old woman, uh, girl. The child was
an obvious rape victim but the case was not reported to the authorities. This was one of many such
cases and it indicates the denigration not only of womb children but of their mothers (“Who cares
if she was raped? We must protect the ‘woman’s right to choose’!”).73
Aborting the babies of 10-year-old girls is not the kind of “therapeutic abortion” that Tiller
likes to represent that he “performs.” Playing to the sympathies of his local literary fan, Judy
Thomas of the Wichita Eagle in the September 1991 interview, he rattled off the old standard
polemic for “terminating pregnancies” –viz., those “severe abnormalities”:
''These are the things we do," he said, pointing to color snapshots of aborted fetuses.
“Hydrocephalus, spina bifida, fused legs, open spine, lethal chromosome abnormality.
Nature makes mistakes."74
He omits mention of the number of healthy babies he has “terminated” or how many rapists
escaped prosecution because he chose not to report them. (Can’t do business with them if you
scare them off with the threat of jail! No. Mum is the word when you find out a rapist is bringing
in his 10-year-old human sex toy for a crime-concealing abortion.)
And Judy Thomas really doesn’t like this very unpleasant event either, but hey, we must
protect a “woman’s right to choose” even if it means overlooking rape.
To witness the smoke stack and the smell from the outside is not as bad as it is for those
working inside. What the mind ponders as it contemplates the nature of the gruesome horror it
28
has been aroused to oppose exactly do the workers do with the remains of the children? (It is,
indeed, a practical matter regarding even those corpses which came to death naturally. What
respect, if any, are they to be shown?) Numerous ex-abortionists or their assistants have spoken on
the manner in which the remains of aborted children are treated:
Debra Henry, who once worked in a Michigan clinic, said that if a woman had insurance coverage for a
suction abortion, the fetal remains were sent to a laboratory. But if she had no insurance, the remains were
"put down the garbage disposal." As they prepared to open their second Texas clinic, Carol Everett reported
to her abortionist business partner that it would have an "industrial-strength disposal-a double-action one that
chops forward, reverses itself, and chops again as it reverses." Their first clinic's disposal had proved unable
to handle the body of a child aborted at about thirty-two weeks. In the Illinois clinic where she once worked,
Kathy Sparks found that remains of children aborted in the second trimester were put down "a continually
flushing toilet." Late-term abortionist George Tiller of Wichita, Kansas, had his own crematorium to deal
with fetal remains. Luhra Tivis, once a medical secretary at his clinic, recalled a day when Tiller was carrying
"a particularly heavy load of dead babies" into the crematorium. He asked her to help him with the door. She
did so, then returned to her desk nearby. "I heard him fire it up . . . And the most horrible thing was: I could
smell those babies burning, because I was just around the corner." Tivis later exposed Tiller's practices in a
letter to members of the Wichita City Council and in testimony before a state legislative committee.”75
Two decades later, the fires still burn. Two of those in attendance at the November, 2008
hearing at Sedgwick County District Court were anti-abortion activists Jennifer McCoy and
another friend, Brandi, who stand regularly outside Tiller’s abortuary on Mondays. Jennifer drives
an hour from the west side of the city. She has chosen Mondays because it is the day when out of
state women come in to be prepared for their late term abortion which is to take place the next day.
It is on Mondays, rather then Tuesdays when the women (and some very young girls) are most
likely to listen. Both Jennifer and Brandi have witnessed the incinerator in operation and testify to
the unusual smell as well as the ashes which blow into the air and occasionally descend upon them.
It was this kind of brazen destruction of human beings that Shelley had observed in the
summer of 1991 in Wichita. Even though she was thoroughly disgusted, she did not need to return
to Kansas to save babies at that time; there were plenty to be saved back in her part of the country.
She recalls that while participating in a few days of the six weeks of protests, an offering was taken
up for a pregnant woman in need of some help. “I prayed,” Shelley remembers. “God told me to
put in $20 and go home, so I did.”76 Back on the west coast she engaged in various efforts to save
some babies for two years. And then she returned.
It was a hot and still August day. As she approached Tiller’s work place, “two sidewalk
counselors and a picketer manned the walkway outside and occasionally came together to spritz
each other from a spray bottle of water to cool off.”77 Ron Progar was on the street conducting his
thrice weekly vigil, carrying his sign to announce Tiller’s deeds to passersby.
The counselors, Terry Adelson and Paul Krause had arrived at 3:00 p.m. and were
stationed, as was their custom, at either side of the entrance to the death camp where they could
warn those entering and advise them of alternatives.
When “Ann” arrived, she spoke to the counselor as they engaged her in conversation and
revealed that she was “not pro-life.” They noted nothing more as she went in and later exited.
A few hours later Adelson would see flashes coming from a car by which Ann was
standing. It was Tiller’s Suburban that he recognized, but he did not realize that bullets were being
fired into it. He thought the oft-rude abortionist was throwing fire crackers out of his window.
But the signals entering his brain were quickly reassessed and it came clear – Tiller, the
abortionist, was being shot.
Ann ran southward on the main road with Tiller wrecklessly in pursuit with his Suburban.
According to Adelson, “He was wavering and screeching down the street” as one abortuary
“escort” chased Ann on foot but returned unable to catch up with her.
29
Tiller, also unable to catch Ann, drove back to his abortuary where as it seemed to Adelson,
“it looked like he was aiming his Suburban at me as he came back in the driveway” and stopped a
few feet short of him. He then “cursed at Adelson saying it was all his fault.”78
Hours later, Shelley was picked up by police at the airport in Oklahoma City as she
returned her rental car.
In her own words, indited from memory through prison pen sixteen years she recalls:
I hung out outside Tiller’s trying to get other pro-lifers to leave. When a lady left from the mill,
Tiller was right behind her. He slowed at the end of the driveway and was sitting erect, looking straight
ahead, like he was trying to ignore me. Both of his arms were in view across the window, and I was just a
couple or a few feet away. I took a little pistol out of my purse and fired four shots. He jerked the steering
wheel, and I took off running. He drove after me, even up on the curve. A lady pro-abort was running after
me, about a block away.
I was strongly impressed with “Run for your life, Shelley!” (from God or an angel, I did not know).
But I didn’t. I turned around and aimed the gun at the pro-abort, but she didn’t stop, just kept
running toward me. So I ran down into a ditch and back upo the other side, onth the street where the rental
car was. I had locked it, so it took a bit to get in and leave.
She got most of the license number, but not all (as I found out later). I went to a mall and changed
clothes. Then I drove to Wichita.
“I’m caught. Aren’t I!”I told God,
I sensed a sadness, but it wasn’t for me.
I thought of going to Iowa and visiting the Leaches79 and got lost driving around. Then I stopped
some place and put the gun in a trash can and it sank down into the garbage.
I drove back to Will Rogers Airpor in Oklahoma and turned in the car. The employees were acting
strange, so I went into the bathroom. Soon some policemen came and took me somewhere saying that I was
not under arrest.
I’ve often (figuratively) kicked myself for my lack of obedience. Perhaps if I had “run for my life,”
I might not have been caught. 80
The “Pro-life” Reply
The nationwide news featured “instant condemnations of the shooting by pro-abort and
pro-life groups,” reported Life Advocate.81 Burnett was one of the very few who upheld a
consistent view of the reality of those lives saved by Shannon’s deed as well as the consequences
that can be expected to befall those who openly threaten innocent lives. Burnett’s Advocates for
Life Ministries published a press release which noted that “Tiller is only reaping a very minute
amount of the suffering and death he has sown over the years.” The October issue of Life
Advocate included a report on Fr. David Trosch, an outspoken pastor of St. John the Baptist
Catholic church in Magnolia Springs, Alabama. Fr. Trosch drove himself to Mobile and walked
into the offices of the Mobile Press Register seeking to purchase an ad. “The crudely drawn ad,
that depicted a man pointing a gun at an abortionist about to kill a baby” and included a simple
caption, “Justifiable Homicide?” was rejected. In an interview following the ad rejection, Trosch
candidly declared, “If 100 doctors need to die to save over one million babies a year, I see that as a
fair trade.”
That kind of talk could not be tolerated by the religious establishment. The Archbishop,
one Oscar Lipscomb, recently returned from receiving the Pope’s visit in Denver, found turmoil in
Mobile over this unconventionally straight-talking priest and muzzled him. He ordered Trosch to
cease from sharing such views publicly.82
A handful of others spoke publicly in defense of Shannon’s actions. Paul Hill, having
already published a “Defensive Action” statement in behalf of Michael Griffin, produced another
statement for the sake of Shelley. On August 20, Hill faxed a press release titled, “Use of Deadly
Force is Justifiable” to Bray and Burnett for editing:
30
“The use of deadly force is justifiable when defending someone from death who is unable to defend
themselves.” This logic is the basis for an association of Christian pro-life leaders and pastors who will be in
Pensacola for the trial of Michael F. Griffin. Mr. Griffin will stand trial on September 20, 1993 for the
shooting of a Pensacola abortionist.
Now Rochelle Shannon has been arrested for the shooting of abortionist George Tiller. If indeed she shot
Tiller, we will defend her actions as well.
“To defend a Jew in Nazi Germany or a black from a slave hunter in the antebellum south with deadly force
was illegal, yet it was justifiable. How the “movement” was affected was of little concern to the individual
who was about to be captured or killed.” Rev. Michael Bray
“George Tiller kills preborn children despite their viability, even into the third trimester. The force used
against Tiller in the defense of these innocent children is honorable.” Rev. Paul Hill
“Whoopie, [Insert quote here]” Andrew Burnett, Life Advocate Ministries83
Operation Rescue “disavowed any knowledge of her though she had rescued with them in
many national events – including Wichita’s Summer of Mercy.”84
In its September issue Capitol Area Christian News noted that Operation Rescue’s Randall
Terry had called Griffin’s action “reprehensible” – the same term used by Dee Dee Myers,
Clinton’s White House spokesman. CACN went on to opine in support of Shelley and noted that
condemnation of her deeds by pro-life advocates was much diminished compared to that which
was heard when Michael Griffin terminated abortionist Gunn:
Responses from conventional prolife groups, such as NRTL, were predictable: condemnation of Mrs.
Shannon. However, we did not see as many listed by name in the major papers this time, as we saw
following the Gunn slaying in Florida. We think to remain mum is better than to condemn a righteous
woman when you cannot support her life-saving direct action.85
CACN offered a succinct evaluation of her deed which addressed the moral and legal issues
directly:
It is our reasoned assumption that Shelley Shannon believed in the ethics of forceful defense of innocent
babies and that she acted upon that belief on Augusts 19. In accordance with her ethical orientation, it would
be right to apply a level of force, even lethal force, to prevent an imminent murder from taking place;
homicide in such a case is justifiable. What might puzzle the observer, then, is why Mrs. Shannon used such
excessive restraint. She simply, almost surgically, hampered the killer by shooting him in both arms as he sat
in his car. She did him negligible bodily harm; he returned purportedly to “work” in 2 hours.
Excessive and erroneous is the criminal charge of “attempted murder.” If she had attempted to slay the
murderer, the charge ought to have read, “attempted manslaughter.” But no homicide was attempted. At
most, Mrs. Shannon assaulted Mr. Tiller. Liberally, she might be charged with “attempted maiming.” But, of
course, when it should be proven that Dr. Tiller is really Abortionist Tiller, charges ought to be dropped.86
The winter 1993 issue of the quarterly was sparse, a mere four pages of print with no
photographs or cartoons. It commended under “Congratulations” two men arrested for damaging
abortion facilities: Joshua Graff in Texas and Al Morley in Colorado. Graff, at nineteen, was the
youngest of all to go to jail for abortuary demolitions. Morley, at fifty, was among the oldest
arrested for such efforts. His efforts were also among the most amusing.87 Morely . . .
was arrested in September in connection with a butyric acid attack upon a local abortuary, shutting the
chambers down for a few days. If Alan is accurately credited, it appears he is lacking a criminal mind. His
car, bespeckled with sundry anti-abortion bumper stickers was discovered parked outside the abortuary hours
after the salvific event occurred.88
31
Shelley Shannon’s actions, so quickly following the drastic deed of Michael Griffin had
forced the pro-life movement to re-examine its own rhetoric. A challenge perhaps inadvertently
issued by Ms magazine in its October, 1984 edition was being answered:
If [prolifers] really believe that stopping abortion is the same as stopping child murders, the question arises,
why aren’t they more violent?89
And there was much discussion that followed, if not in church Bible study sessions, in the major
media. Bray and the other handful of public apologists for “defensive action” answered calls by
hundreds of media outlets for interviews in the ensuing several years. A D.C. radio station hosted
Bray and Robert Schenk, President of the “National Clergy Council” (which, he averred,
represented “thousands” of churches) to discuss their differences regarding the use of force in the
“prolife movement.” Schenk attempted to split the hairs of ethical procedures as well as the best
of the Rabbis of Judea two millennia ago. He agreed that since the child in the womb was a child,
he deserved protection, but that the least amount of force ought to be used as was necessary.
Michael Griffin, he asserted, had used lethal force and had exceeded proper bounds. Lesser force
used to save innocent children, even to the point of maiming the aggressor, would be tolerable.
He was then asked pointedly by Bray whether, then, he would approve the action of
Shelley Shannon, who had used such a lesser force than that lethal forced used by Griffin. To this,
he answered assuredly that he approved Shannon’s actions. He was then asked by Bray if he had
publicly commended her as he had publicly condemned Griffin.
The reply was a sheepish, “No.”
And understandably so. It was Bray, not the President of the National Clergy Council
insulated by his thousands, who was subsequently isolated with a dozen others and sued for his
candid declarations and made a judgment debtor for $1 million.90 It was he and the few who spoke
publicly in defense of those who wielded force for the sake of the lives the innocents who suffered
ostracism and loss of property from law suits. To speak the truth in the arena where the Devil is
attacking is the essence of living out the Christian life as a “real time” Christian.
Shelley Shannon’s deed spurred on the discussion that most of American Christians did not
want to have: Just how human were these womb children? Did they deserve the same protection
as that deserved by any other human? Or were they “untermenschen”?
Andrew Burnett had thrown his hat into the ring. He determined to apply the resources of
Advocates for Life Ministries to the airing that question. He and his editors, Paul DeParrie and
Cathy Ramey enlisted Bray to research and write a book on the use of force which they edited.
Shelley’s deed heightened the need for the discussion. CACN reported:
Dear Blessed Subscriber,
We are happy to fulfill our obligation and produce (however scantily) this sixteenth issue. But let
not your heart be troubled! Lord willing, we shall resume our customary 12-page format with the March
edition. In this short letter, we want to pass some personal information to you.\
First of all- the occasion for this letter’s tardiness and brevity. Last spring, Michael Bray was
contracted by Advocates for Life Ministries to write a book which by God’s grace shall soon be published. In
the wake of the shooting of abortionists in Pensacola and Wichita, Christians have been abuzz with discussion
about the legitimacy of applying lethal force in defense of fetuses (a.k.a. people). All the establishment
prolife organizations condemned Michael Griffin (Pensacola) and Shelley Shannon (Wichita) as might have
been expected. Additionally “rescue” luminaries like Randall Terry called Griffin’s deed “an inappropriate
and repulsive act”; and prominent apologists of blockade tactics, like Chuck Colson, declared “Dr. Gunn’s
murder” to be “a horrid, senseless act.” A more thorough examination of the subject was needed in the face
32
of the mindless condemnation of what seemed to be a rational way of following the Operation Rescue dictum:
“If you believe that abortion is murder, then act like it.” And so, we propose A TIME TO KILL (or some
such title) to answer the need for such an investigation.
LIFE ADVOCATE took the lead in providing an honest discussion of the subject. Several issues of
the monthly were devoted to publishing pro and con articles. The book will treat the issue of terminating
serial killers. While we incline toward a prochoice position on this subject, we understand that there are
many thorny issues in need of examination. Accordingly, we have probed the Scriptures and addressed the
issue in the light of historical theology, case law, and church history. We expect you will benefit by this
work. Keep in touch with LIFE ADVOCATE for information on obtaining a copy.
Immediately, upon completing the first draft, the Brays were immersed in the chore of building an
addition (inspired by the arrival of twins last spring and the expectation of that that prevailing mode of divine
blessing could result in yet further additions to the present brood of seven). Alas, these events have conspired
to prevent the production of the usual mini-magazine. But we shall overcome in March.
In other personal news, we would report the following on our church. We celebrate this spring out
tenth anniversary. Your editors, Michael Bray and Michael Colvin, are co-pastors of Reformation Lutheran
Church. We are a small church of ten families including a few singles. Our origins hark back to the merging
process of the three major Lutheran denominations a decade ago. Michael Bray was an assistant to the pastor
of an American Lutheran Church congregation where he took issue with the low view of Scripture being
espoused by the denomination’s theologians. (Member churches in the newly formed denomination of 6
million people have recently been in the news following ordination of homosexual pastors.) The ensuing
conflict resulted in a local church split and the establishment of a new local church, Reformation Lutheran
Church, in Bowie, Maryland in 1984. Pastor Michael Bray holds an M.A. from Denver Seminary. Pastor
Michael Colvin has a Ph.D. in classical studies from Indiana University . . .91
Near the end of January, Hill faxed a letter to the thirty-some signatories of the Griffin
“Defensive Action” statement. He appealed to them to sign the same statement, modified by
Shelley’s name replacing Griffin’s. The Shannon trial was scheduled for February 7 and Paul Hill
was hurriedly asking the signatories to phone and confirm their permission to include their names
under the short statement:
We, the undersigned, declare the justice of taking all godly action necessary to defend innocent human life
including the use of force. We proclaim that whatever force is legitimate to defend the life of a born child is
legitimate to defend the life an unborn child.
We assert that if Shelley Shannon did in fact shoot George Tiller, her use of force was justifiable provided it
was carried out for the purpose of defending the lives of unborn children. Therefore, she ought to be acquitted
of the charges against her.92
Lovejoy: An Enemy’s View of Shelley
On 27 May, 1997, Lovejoy suffered its third and most devastating fire ($250,000 in
damages). This last blow occurred a year after Peter Korn’s Lovejoy: A Year in the life of an
Abortion Clinic was published.93 His account which began in March of 1995 and went through
November of that year purports, according the book’s cover, to give “voice to all points of view –
from Allene Klass, the founder and administrator of Lovejoy, to Shelley Shannon, a small-town
housewife now in prison for shooting a Kansas abortion doctor” and “puts a dramatically human
face on the moral debate that continues to rip apart the American social fabric.”
Korn rattles off the fact that there had been shootings of abortionists in North America in
“the last five years” and these assailants were “all men” as if to imply some sinister male
33
chauvinist spirit behind the terminations.94 But “then there is Shelley Shannon. Andrew Burnett
is Allene Klass’s enemy, but Shelley Shannon is her nightmare, a woman over the edge for whom
violence is the only justifiable option.”95
In June of 1995, Cheryl Glenn, a special agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms was sitting in the offices of Lovejoy talking with the staff. She “has made Shannon the
focus of her career.”96 The staff, including Carye Ortman (Klass’s likely replacement administrator
in due time), is “aware that Shannon was frequently in the company of Burnett outside Lovejoy
before and possibly during the period she committed her crimes. But nine months of investigation
and two grand juries leave that an open question, Glenn confesses.”97
At the time of this visit, Shelley is about to be sentenced for the abortuary attacks. Agent
Glenn confidently tells Klass and Ortman that Shelley is not expected to reveal the names of
anyone who might have “mentored [her] in the ways of violence.”98 Glenn “has spent countless
hours talking with Shelley” and says “Shelley is not your average criminal. . . She wouldn’t give
up anyone. . . For her, it’s not ratting off her friends, it’s ratting off God, and she’s not going to do
that.”99
Agent Glenn has a kind of jaded respect for Shelley. “She’s the mad Oregon housewife,”
says Glenn playing upon the characters found in the Army of God manual “The Mad Gluer” and
“The Mad Bomber.” Glenn (a feminist upbraider of homemakers?) continues “painting a picture
of a shy and bored small-town homemaker with children soon to leave home, a woman ripe for a
cause, for something to lend purpose to her life. Her husband had no idea Shelley was torching
buildings and shooting doctors.”100
Whether as a cordial and cooperative interlocutor or a fellow ideologue, “Carye wonders
out loud if Shelley was motivated to take the plea bargain by a desire to stay in prison, to play out
a role that she perceived as her destiny all along.”
Imaginably, “Glenn has been thinking along the same lines. ‘Life in prison for a martyr for
the cause is not significantly different from being a bored Grants Pass housewife,’ she says.”
Even as her enemies and captors recognize her extraordinary character, they are unable to
leave it untarnished. She must be disparaged in someway, lest they leave themselves open to
condemnation for seeking and applauding the prosecution of one of such a surpassing virtue as
Shelley Shannon.
One may fairly suppose that feminist Agent Cheryl Glenn is not happily married, in
contrast to Shelley, whose husband at her sentencing is described by Korn as a man who kept his
head down sorrowfully during the sentencing proceedings. But he gets his opportunity to speak:
When he approaches the judge he finds it difficult to speak. Eventually the words do come, slowly and in a
hushed tone. “Your honor, Shelley’s been my wife for twenty years,” he says. “She is a kind and loving
person. She has been a wonderful mother. She has been active in the community. She takes responsibility
for her actions. I’d like to have her back.”101
Burnett and Shelley
Andrew Burnett is portrayed by Korn as a possible accomplice to Shelley. “Maybe, Allene
is thinking, they’ve missed their chance to get Andrew Burnett. Shannon was with him shortly
before she went to Wichita, after all.”102 Agent Glenn says, “I think he’s a person who could snap
. . . He’s wound pretty tight. But I think we have at least fifteen years before his kids are grown
and gone, before Andrew picks up a gun.”103
It is in the nature and strategy of warfare, as Sun Tzu would say, to demonize one’s
enemies. The propaganda which can arouse opposition to one’s opponent is an aspect of war. It is
34
no different in the current “culture war.” Ideally, the truth without slander is sufficient to motivate
warriors on to combat and victory. Andrew Burnett’s magazine and the truth it published were
recognized by abortion practitioners as the greatest threat to their business. Advocates for Life, by
its unabashed presentation of truth and sound doctrine, preached an implicit call to arms that
needed no propaganda or demonization of enemies in order to motivate troops. The unvarnished
truth was clear enough.
Arguably there might have been no activist known as Shelley Shannon without Andrew
Burnett. Korn says that according to Steve Walters, a Planned Parenthood attorney in Portland,
“Shelley Shannon would not have shot Tiller if Burnett hadn’t been encouraging her for years. . .
Shelley Shannon would not have shot Tiller without Life Advocate supplying detailed information
about the doctor and his habits.”104
It is clear that abortionists regarded Life Advocate magazine to be the primary threat against
their abortion deeds.
But it isn’t the names and addresses of abortionists which is so fearsome. (Those are often
in the phone books.) It is the irrefutable presentation in the magazine of a consistent life ethic that
is threatening to the guilty abortionist: 1) Human life is sacred (created in the very image of God).
2) Innocent human life is worthy of protection. 3) Womb children are innocent human beings.
THEREFORE . . . (What? Fill in your own blank.)
It is this truth which, in contrast to other anti-abortion organizations, Burnett’s magazine
did not fail to proclaim. And it is this truth, acted upon by Shelley, which Lovejoy as well as
Planned Parenthood had to silence. It really wasn’t the money that Klass wanted out of Andrew
Burnet’s pocket in the $8.2 million surprise punitive judgment she was awarded by a left-wing
kook on the court after bringing a civil lawsuit against the protestors outside her abortuary. No. As
Korn declares:
It’s his magazine.
Burnett is one of about six national leaders of the arm of the anti-abortion movement that advocates the use of
force against doctors, even to the point of shooting them. But Life Advocate is the only established means
the movement has of getting the word out to its members and prospective members.105
No. Neither Burnett nor any other of “the six,” nor any of the putative “Army of God”
soldiers has ever “advocated” the use of force against any abortionists. All such apologists,
including the author of the foremost and systematic treatise on the ethics of the use of force
(Bray’s A Time to Kill), have simply declared that such use of force as is justified to defend those
outside the womb is equally justified to defend those inside. Affirmation of the humanity of the
child requires this doctrine to be affirmed. 106
The deft statement of this fact – that it is not a mandatory but indeed ethical to defend a
particular child at a particular place – may seem awkward if not disingenuous. But no one, to this
writer’s knowledge, has ever put to any apologist for defensive action the following question:
“Would you denounce anyone who publicly or privately advocates by any or all citizens anywhere
or everywhere to defend children by terminating abortionists?”
All apologists for the use of force would view the ethics of such personally costly risky
action as similar to, say, being a missionary to Muslims in Iran. It is a costly but Lawful vocation.
It is not recommended or urged upon anyone, but it is Lawful.
President Reagan?
He had come a long way since the 1970s when as Governor of California he signed
legislation before Roe v. Wade which decriminalization abortion. How enlightened had he become
35
during the quindecennial of national abortion decriminalization? As the premiere anti-abortion
President, what regrets did he have for signing the death warrants of thousands in California as its
Governor? Can men of power sustain the weight of their own thoughts when they contemplate the
consequences of their decisions when the effect the lives of millions of people? The matter is
sublime..
At the Goldsby-Simmons trial, defense attorney John Monaghan made arguments under the
principle of “cognitive dissonance” that the defendants were influenced by the very father of the
country, the commander in chief, Ronald Reagan.
Huh?
Goldsby had seen a certain pamphlet which reported on a dumpster in Los Angeles
containing 16,000 aborted children. In the pamphlet were not only pictures of the babies, but
letters from government officials. State Senator Alex Garcia, representing the district where the
dumpster was found, had filed a written request on February 6, 1982 to claim the bodies for burial.
A letter from President Reagan, which Goldsby saw, was surrounded in the pamphlet with color
photos of some of the 193 children who were well into their existence as “fetuses.” The letter to
Philip Dreisbach, M.D. (May 5, 1982) references the president’s own “horror and sadness” and is
reproduced in part as follows:
When all is said and done, being confronted with the reality of abortion and its consequences removes all
trace of doubt and hesitation. The terrible irony about this sudden discovery is not that so many human lives
were legally aborted, but that they are only a tiny proportion of the 1.5 million unborn children quietly
destroyed in our nation each year. This is the truth many would rather not face.
Your decision to hold a memorial service for these children is most fitting and proper. On such an occasion
we must strengthen our resolve to end this national tragedy. I am hopeful that evidence like that found in
California will move those who have thus far preferred silence or inaction and encourage them to agree that
something must be done.107
Was the President actually wishing for citizens to do more? What did he mean when he
said that “something must be done”? And what was “inaction” but doing nothing? How could
complaining, protesting and educating be a sufficient response to what was clearly a holocaust?
What was the commander in chief saying?
Behind POTUS is the Declaration of Independence which says that “all men are created”
and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.” Among the rights
given by God to all mankind is the “right to life.”
And behind the Declaration are the Scriptures which the founding Fathers of the United
States and their colonial forefathers revered as the Word of God. In that Message in the book of
Genesis (9:6) the endowment of man with the “image of God” is declared. The imago Dei in man
is the basis for the prohibition against the abuse or killing of an innocent man – a man who has
committed no capital crime. This doctrine is also the basis for the inverse – lethal punishment for
those who deliberately kill an innocent person, the very definition of murder. The just penalty for
murderers is prescribed by the Scriptures and was illustrated by John Burt when he hanged
Abortionist David Gunn in effigy outside The Ladies Center with Genesis 9:6 inscribed on the
body.
Earthly Judgment
The Kansas Trial
36
The decision to devote oneself wholly to Truth and Justice is a radical one. It is
fundamental to honesty and integrity in the soul and yet the temptation to abandon their high
claims upon the human spirit and embrace bodily comfort is strong. Shelley shot Tiller with
confidence and at trial would testify with certain assurance concerning the moral integrity of the
deed.
The prosecutor, Nola Foulson, served as a dramatic antagonist to anyone with an
appreciation for theater in a court room. A full-fledged feminist, she had pursued her career and
forsaken childbearing to the point that, childless, she enlisted Tiller to hold back a child from
destruction and arrange for her to adopt him. Any personal vengeance she might have for the
woman who had assaulted her friend, the “father” of her child, and any malfeasance that might
ensue would have to be considered by the judge.
Jury selection did not occur until March 21, 1994 and only lasted one and one-half days –
an extraordinarily short time for a murder trial. There were very few facts in dispute. The trial
would center on whether Shelley’s intent was to kill or to wound Tiller. Judge Gregory Waller did
not address the obvious issue which underlay the cause for the whole affair – whether or not there
was just cause in the shooting – other than to directly exclude any juror who might give the
underlying cause for the shooting – the aborting of children – consideration in weighing Shannon’s
deed. In voir dire (jury selection), Waller would allow no inquiry into the views of the potential
jurors regarding abortion. He also instructed the panel “that abortion would not be an issue at
trial.”108 The prosecutor reiterated the instruction asking each juror if he disagreed with her
statement: “Dr. Tiller performed abortions, but this case is not about that.”109
Besides engineering the trial against Shannon by excluding any consideration of the
motive, Judge Waller sent a signal –whether intentional or inadvertent, we do not say – that
Shelley must be a bad person. This is implication of the judge’s precautionary action taken for the
safety of the jury. Although he permitted the public to know the break down by sex of the jurors
finally empanelled – eight men and four women – he would not allow their pictures to be taken.
The message to the public and to the jurors? The jury might be in danger from her
associates; Shelley Shannon must be a criminal.
On both of the two days preceding the trial, the local Life Legal Defense group ran halfpage
ads in the Wichita Eagle featuring the legal principle of “jury nullification” – i.e. that jurors
have the lawful power not only to weigh the facts of the case, but also the legitimacy of the law.
Literature produced by the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) was referenced in the ad and
passed out to the public by three members who traveled from California.
The trial was simple as to the presentation of the facts. There was no disputing that she
shot Tiller. At issue for Shelley’s attorney was whether he could demonstrate that Shelley had
attempted to maim him but not murder him. But this did not sit well with his client. While it was
true that she only intended to wound him, it did not matter whether she wanted to wound or kill
him. She wanted that made clear. Either action would have been legitimate and ought to be judged
by the court to be justifiable. She was at odds with her attorney on this. Her public defender, Jay
Greeno, would do the best he could for her.
Statements she had made to Detective Mitch Mervosh were misconstrued. When
Mervosh arrested her at the airport, she acknowledged that she had disposed of her gun and said,
"I shot Tiller. If ever there was a justifiable homicide, this is it."110
She made no admission of intent to kill. It was simply a reference to the principle: force
was permitted to defend children. “Justifiable Homicide” or “JH” and the derivative “JHers”
referred the doctrine and its adherents. Shelley was simply declaring this doctrine to be applicable
in the case of Tiller. It would be tantamount to a soldier declaring his belief in the legitimacy of a
given war. She believed in the legitimacy of defending children with force. Tiller was a murderer
37
of children and those children could be protected even to the point of scaring, threatening,
maiming, or killing Tiller.
The use of the term among anti-abortion activists was familiar to people like Shelley
Shannon who read avante-guard anti-abortion literature. An example, albeit from two years later
in CACN will illustrate the point. A report by CACN on the first of three grand juries
VAAPCON111 investigations conducted by Janet Reno’s Justice Department held in Alexandria,
Virgina included the following:
The 19 December hearing in Alexandria featured only Denise Billings, to our knowledge. (There may have
been others brought secretly into the star chamber.) Mrs. Billings signed the Defensive Action statement,
helped organize OR’s Summer of Mercy in Wichita, and formerly hosted a local radio show. She was denied
legal assistance from John Whitehead’s Ghandi Institute when they learned that she was on the JH side of the
abortion issue.112
The meaning of the statement, “the JH side of the abortion issue” is simply that this radio
host affirmed the doctrine of the use of force to save a child threatened by abortion. Negatively,
the expression is essentially a rejection doctrinaire non-violence and a full affirmation of the
humanity of the child.
The prosecution rested its case on March 24 after making much ado of her “justifiable
homicide” statement. Greeno put Shelley on the stand the next day. She was the only witness,
speaking softly and at times inaudibly, and she chose to be dressed in her orange prison jump suit.
That Shelley made no confession of intent to kill Tiller is evident in the simple words she
spoke to the jury in reminder: “He tried to run me down with his truck.”113 It was very simple:
She knew that Tiller was alive; obviously she did not believe a homicide had resulted by her
actions. “Justifiable homicide” was simply a reference to the legitimacy of her action in shooting
Tiller.
But she was not interested in diverting the jury’s attention to this exercise in discovering
her mens rea and have them avoid facing the greater truth: Tiller was a baby killer. Shelley
wanted to assert that she ought to have been acquitted regardless of her intent either to kill or to
wound him.
The conflict between Shannon and Greeno on how best to present her defense, unseen
Now, surfaced when he asked if she had intended to kill Tiller.
After acknowledging that she only intended to “stop” Tiller, she added, “Let’s not get into whether I
wanted to kill him, Jay. It’s not relevant whether I wanted to kill him or not – it would have been right either
way.”
She further explained, “I’m not being accused of trying to kill George Tiller, but of trying to murder
him.”114
Shelley’s point was that her intent was irrelevant. Tiller’s extermination of the innocents
was the criminal issue her countrymen on the jury ought to be addressing. If his actions were
murderous, then her actions were ethical (and ought to be judged legal by the jury). If his actions
were ethical, then her actions were unethical (and murderous) and ought to be judged criminal.
But this kind of talk was apparently not helpful to the method that her defense attorney thought
best to defend her. He had hoped to reduce her exposure to punishment by establishing her intent
to harm but not to kill Tiller.
An apparently frustrated Greeno eventually relinquished the questioning to the prosecutor. . .
Foulson had Shannon reiterate that she had indeed shot Tiller and that she had made the now famous
“justifiable homicide” comment. Shannon made a distinction between homicide and murder and admitted
that she thought Michael Griffin was a hero.115
38
Foulson went on to ask about how Shelley came to possess the gun. After repeated
questioning and offering of the name of Howard Romano to her. She answered, “No” refusing to
provide information and was held in contempt by Judge Waller.
The questioning continued and she said that whether she intended to kill Tiller or not was
“irrelevant.”
“Sorry, Jay,” she murmured looking at her public defender who had hoped to make this very point in her
defense.116
When a righteous person sits sublimely before the powers of this world with the
opportunity to declare the truth for the record in the halls of those courts with their ministers
ordained by God to do justice, he does not have in own well being foremost in mind. A sense of
mission arises in the heart of the witness. The Truth will be told, even if facts harmful to the
innocents are suppressed. And God’s judges, those divine ministers which He Himself put into
power, will be indicted on Judgment Day by the very statements uttered by defendants in their
courtrooms as they are “replayed” in the Court Room of Heaven on Judgment Day.
Continuing a probe for conspiracy while she had the opportunity, Foulson asked about
Shannon’s intentions had she made bail:
“So while you were here in jail you wanted to get out and work on Dr. Tiller a little bit
more?” Foulson asked.
“Well, actually, I might have been thinking along those lines, but I had more in mind, of
something else,” Shannon replied.
“What else were you thinking?”
“Um, uh, doing something else.”
“What was the something else you were thinking of?”
“Of closing the facility.”
“What were you thinking about doing to that?”
“Bombing it.”
Jay Greeno believed that his client did not stand a chance. He gave his closing argument
extemporaneously, casting aside his prepared statement. Shelley as a “true believer” who was out
to save babies.
The jury met for less than an hour, interrupting themselves once to view a surveillance
tape to help themselves decide on one of the three counts as to whether there was true “aggravated
assault.” They concluded that she was guilty of attempted murder and only one count of
aggravated assault. If run consecutively that would make it ten years and ten months.
Nola Foulson’s promise to seek to have the sentence doubled was rejected by the judge.
The Portland Plea Bargain
After six months in jail, she would be tempted to seek some relief from jail life, especially
as she was facing yet more time - a veritable life sentence. Letters and diaries were found in plastic
bags buried near a stump in the Shannon back yard including “a diary with pro-life activity
information and a manual on bomb-making,” reported the Grants Pass Daily Courier (2 October,
1993). Authorities used the diary to bring multiple charges in 1994 after she had been in prison for
shooting Tiller on August 19, 1993. Her description of her own deeds incriminated herself and
jeopardized the freedom of others whom she mentioned by name.
39
Among those investigated by the authorities regarding the Chico demolition were two antiabortion
friends of Shelley: John and Elaine Bell. Elaine was being investigated as the prime
suspect but testimony from Shelley would be necessary to secure convictions. Shelley spoke to
John and got his permission to write the Bells’ attorney and professed that she had done the deed.
She “took the rap,” but there were others the government wanted. John Bell cooperated with the
investigation and spoke freely about others, escaping deeper trouble for himself. Continued
investigations and “roll-overs” by activists eventually yielded the conviction of Richard Andrews
in 1997 for setting three fires at the abortuaries in Redding and Chico. He was sentenced to 81
months in prison.
Shelley was tempted by the leniency she might have gained in exchange for testifying to
the “truth” against fellow Christian activists. She did not yield and her faithfulness was rewarded
with a harsh twenty years attached consecutively to the eleven-year sentence she was already
serving for wounding Tiller. 117 From her Sedgwick County Jail in Kansas, Shelley wrote in
exoneration of Elaine Bell of Redding, California: "I did that stink attack, and would be willing to
take a lie detector test and describe the details of it to prove it. The shirt I wore that day is hanging
in my closet at home." She noted that there was evidence in the property seized from her back
yard by the police which proved that Elaine Bell did not putrefy the abortuary with butyric acid,
and she offered to take a lie detector test to confirm herself as the sole actor against the Chico
abortuary.118
The destruction of what might be called demonic strongholds – abortion chambers – in the
land was a great offense to those who hold to the unqualified “freedom to choose . . .” (Such an
infinitive phrase is in need of an object in order to prevent deception. And by omitting such an
object, the proponents of abortion as a “right” continue to delude people and prevail in politics.) In
order to perpetuate the myth that abortion harms no one and that those who interfere with “choice”
are interfering with fundamental freedoms, those who attacked such “choice” had to be punished
as though they were the modern version of a blasphemer or a traitor. Severe punishment had to be
meted out to foster and uphold the notion that the crime was seriousness and that the violated
“right” which had been assailed by Mrs. Shannon was sacred.
The government does not like to lose. When authorities charge a defendant with a crime,
they want neither to go to trial (and both risk a loss and bear the expense) nor to offer a plea
bargain with a punishment too comparably small. The “time” in prison must be commensurate
with what others have received when they enter pleas for the same offenses with the exception of
those who cooperate with authorities, providing testimony serving the government’s purpose of
indicting other suspects. The “snitch” is rewarded with a lesser sentence than the one who has
nothing to offer the government in their investigations. Plea bargaining is the solution for 90% of
indictments for felony crimes. Those who opt for jury trial can expect a harsher sentence.
In the case of Shelley Shannon, the government wanted information on other antiabortionists
in order to convict abortuary bombers and stop more of the same actions.
Specifically, they induced her with a plea agreement providing for a lesser amount of prison time
in exchange for information on the culprits in the destruction of the Redding, California abortuary
and another in Texas. During this process, federal agents “harassed my family.” They showed up
at David’s workplace. (The appearance of federal agents at one’s place of employment tends to
pressure the contacted person into cooperation. No business wants federal agents snooping around
and the target does not want to lose his job. Showing up at the work place of one someone the feds
want information from is a standard procedure.) Agents also showed up at Angi’s home
unexpectedly. She was working two jobs at the time and had just cleaned up her apartment.
“Right after that,” Shelley recounts, “they went in and tore it all up.” And in Shelley’s
view,
40
To get me to take the plea deal, they promised to leave my family alone and not go after Angi. My attorney
didn’t have that in writing, so they went back on their word. While I was at I-Max [Kansas], they came and
said if I didn’t tell them who did Redding and [Texas] . . . they would put Angi in prison. I didn’t think they
could. After they did, they contacted me again and said they would let Angi out if I’d tell them. I said I
needed to talk to Angi. They arranged a phone call. She told me not to tell them. I was proud of her for that,
and for never telling them who actually typed the threat letter, as well as many other things.119
On September 8, 1995, federal Judge James A. Redden sentenced Shelley to twenty years
consecutive to the eleven years to which the Kansas state court had sentenced her. "Though I am
loath to call anyone a terrorist,” Redden declared, “you are a terrorist." Locked up since August of
1993, her state sentence (with “good time” deducted) was completed on June 5, 2001. The twentyyear
federal time began on June 6, 2001 and is projected to be completed on November 7, 2018
Anno Domini – her release date. That is 25 years in real time.
We may wax philosophical in speaking about spending the better part of a life-time in
prison and we may discourse loftily about the pursuit of justice which comes at times with great
sacrifice. Such reflections are as old as literature. The Greek stoic philosopher, Epictetus, a
contemporary of St. Paul born in the very regions of Asia Minor where the Apostle preached,
wrote words which mimicked those in the Epistle to the Philippians:
Is kinship with Caesar or with any other of the powerful in Rome sufficient to enable us to
live in safety, and above contempt and without any fear at all? And to have God for your
maker and father and guardian, shall not this release us from sorrows and fears? . . . And I
on my part would say, "Friends, wait for God; when He shall give the signal and release
you from this service, then go to Him; but for the present endure to dwell in this place
where He has put you: short indeed is this time of your dwelling here, and easy to bear for
those who are so disposed: for what tyrant or what thief, or what courts of justice, are
formidable to those who have thus considered as things of no value the body and the
possessions of the body?”120
Shelley’s stoicism has not ebbed with time as evidenced not only in her thousands of
correspondences with hundreds of supporters but in her formal “Petition for Commutation of
Sentence.”121 In that document where the convict is instructed to “Provide a complete and detailed
account of the offense for which you seek commutation, including the full extent of your
involvement,” Shelley maintains her integrity and states candidly the nature and purpose of her
deeds:
I set fire to six abortion facilities and stunk out two others with butyric acid which resulted in many
lives being saved. I had very little human help – a can of gas and some maps from someone the government
is aware of.
The fires were done by throwing mayonnaise jars and milk cartons of gasoline at the buildings where
babies were killed, then lighting them with kitchen matches. Most of the fires weren’t very productive, but
the abortion facility that used to be on Alhambra Street in Sacramento, CA, closed while relocating, and the
one in Ashland, OR, closed permanently, and serial murderer Willard Brown was inspired to retire from his
grisly occupation.
For the butyric acid attacks, I posed as a pregnant mother seeking an abortion, went inside the
abortion facilities, asked to use the bathroom, and injected the butyric acid into their walls. The smell caused
the facility in Chico, CA to close, but the other stayed open.
There is no conciliation, no deference to the powers which have abused her with the foul
and cruel imprisonment as they have continued to perpetuate four decades of real holocaust.
Neither is there mono-maniacal intransigence on the part of Shelley. Under the “Reasons for
Seeking Clemency” portion of her petition, she says in conclusion: “I do not plan to be involved in
41
the abortion battle when I get out, and certainly wouldn’t set any more fires.” And as if to enhance
her credibility without signifying repentance, she wryly adds, “In fact, I’m allergic to petroleum
products now. I also have glaucoma, and don’t plan to drive again.” Such a declaration of
restraint in no way expressed a change of mind. The action she had taken was morally
permissible, but not specifically demanded by the law of God. One is free to rescue the innocent
(in this case at great personal cost to self, relatives, and friends) or to engage in some other
righteous endeavors.
While Shelley Shannon has earned the admiration of any stoic and has certainly deserved
the respect and adoration of abortion abolitionists around the world, she ought not to be forgotten
and left without advocacy on her behalf. Nor ought those in possession of power on earth to
imprison or to free her be forgotten for their misdeeds. Judge Redden, at 79 years of age in 2009
might well reflect upon his long career in politics and expect to be remembered as Oregon’s state
legislator (1963), state Treasurer (1972), state attorney general (1976), and Carter appointee to a
the federal bench. Instead, he will be remembered for his failed race for governor in 1974.
He will be known as another deluded activist environmentalist judge who, like his fellow
activist Ninth Circuit Judge Robert Jones, championed salmon and wolves over human beings.122
Judge Redden is to be remembered as a common tyrant who abused a disfavored champion
of justice. Historians will view him with the more same disdain than what thy show a Theophilus
Eugene "Bull" Connor – a champion of “the law” – or Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who presided
over the Dred Scott decision and whose name adorned a D.C. elementary school until the turn of
the twenty-first century when it was scorned and removed. At least those men enforced the laws
of the people. There was a Fugitive Slave Law, an authentic piece of legislation which was in
accordance with the U.S. Constitution which permitted slavery and the recovery runaway slaves by
statute and which Taney upheld as he rendered his judicial opinion. He, though disgraced now, at
least did not run afoul of good law. His sin was his submission to bad law.
Redden’s abuse of Shelley, sentencing her more harshly even than what the federal court
system demanded, was based not upon an authentic statute, but a judicial opinion which had been
written a mere two decades ago; this opinion overturned the laws of each of the sovereign states of
the union. And Judge Redden, acting as if the opinion were as reliable as the laws Moses brought
down from the mountain, brutally enforced the laws which were brought to bear upon one who
resisted such an evil opinion for the unselfish purpose of saving innocent lives.
As Pilate delivered the judgment demanded by the ravenous crowd of the moment, Judge
Redden bowed to the political exigencies of the time and went out of his way to sentence Shannon
severely. He pleased the mixed crowd of pro-aborts who hated her and the pro-lifers who were
embarrassed by her “extreme” measures to save the innocents. Such a man-pleaser has his
momentary reward and his temporal comfort even as Shelley enjoys the eternal life she has as a
follower of the One who died for her and was raised everlastingly.
The Fruit of Her Labors
Nothing is more satisfying to the “clinic bomber” than a leisurely reading of the “Victim
Impact” portion of his sentencing memorandum. Whether from behind bars or in the comfort of
his home or lawyer’s office, the reading of that document leads him to sublime and satisfying
meditations. I am told that an excellent mode for taking in the savory read is the conjoining of the
experience with the slow inhalation of a quality cigar. The smoke, rolling about the tongue and
nose as it is emitted by puffs into a room empty of any company kindles rousing aromatic
memories of grander deeds. In addition to the simple visible grandeur of a demolished death camp,
there is the profound knowledge of lives saved which feeds the convict’s soul. There is no end to
42
the possibilities that come from saving a human life. Contemplations over the number of children
saved are multiplied by imagining their progeny.123 What contributions might they make to
society? What inventions, service, leadership, discoveries?
Since the abortuaries were truly nothing more than death camps, how satisfying it is to
reflect upon the damages inflicted upon America’s Auschwitzes. In the case of Catalina Medical
Center, the first abortuary she fire bombed, Shelley read the report on her work. “The damage was
estimated to be $379,853 to the building and its contents.”124 The abortionist, reports the U.S.
probation officer, “reveals he was unable to return to his medical practice, received a death threat
soon after the arson if he rebuilt his practice and was also cancelled by his insurance company. Dr.
Brown reveals he was forced to leave the area to work and eventually into early retirement.”125
The fact that such demolition discourages insurance companies from covering abortion
“clinics” in noteworthy. The report continues:
Case reports reveal that Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance company paid out a claim of $151,965.13 to Dr.
Brown as a result of the arson. Records reveal a second insurance company named Pollard and Cossa paid
out a claim pf $121,298.34 to the owner of the Catalina Medical Center.126
Insurances increases are mentioned in the next item of the “Victim Impact” statement the
August 1, 1992 damage inflicted upon the “Lovejoy Surgicenter”:
Monetary damage totaled $10,000, which included $2,700 for repair of the physical damage. The director
indicated . . . additional clean-up and security were needed. The director confirms this arson, the second of
four arsons at the clinic, also caused insurance rates to increase.
This report was an encouraging improvement upon the initial news reports in which damages were
reported to be only $2500.127
The West End Women’s Health Group (Reno) “Victim Impact” report indicated no
damages beyond that announced in the newspapers but did note that the $1500 in expenses were
borne by “clinic director, Dr. Damon Stute” and that “he has put considerable money into
upgrading security measures at his clinic at a personal cost to himself.”128
And the Feminist Women’s Health Center located in Eugene reported to the court twice the
damage which they had announced to the media. “Loss totaled approximately $2,000 and was
borne by the clinic.” The Impact statement notes other factors not reflected in monetary damage
claims:
Two other workers at the clinic submitted written statements describing the emotional effect the arson had on
clinic workers and clients. Both employees describe the emotional impact of the crime as increasing anxiety
and fear for their safety.129
It was especially pleasing to read the report on the Feminist Women’s Health Center in
Sacramento. Reports in the media of that 18 August, 1992 visitation had noted only the collateral
damage of a chiropractic office next to the targeted abortuary. But the Victim Impact statement
disclosed the following:
It was estimated the loss to the clinic was approximately $20,000. The clinic suffered fire and smoke damage
and had to close down for two days. The fire also had a dramatic effect upon employees, increasing their
sense of fear and vulnerability.130
Indeed, the notion of psychological warfare often came into play. The visit to the Feminist
Women’s Health Center in Chico amounted not to $20,000, but to $23,831.10, not counting all the
immeasurable factors:
43
The director also reported emotional damage from the act causing increased feeling of being unsafe and
vulnerable.131
Finally, the report on the Pregnancy Consultation Center in Sacramento, though the last of
the Victim Impact report, was one of the most heartening to read. As had been reported in the
news, the loss to the abortuary was $175,000, but the $400,000 loss to the building owner was
another news item to savor (why should those who rent their building to abortionists do so with
impunity?). The report further stated:
The clinic director at the time of the arson has since moved to a new city and the operations of the clinic,
which had been at the same location for 21 years, was forced to move to a new location. A number of
patients were lost as a result. The arson also increased anxiety for clinic workers and caused the clinic to
provide 24 hours a day security. The director indicates they would like to be notified upon Shannon’s release
from prison.132
The effectiveness of Shelley’s deeds measured by the outcry of the abortionists can also be
seen in the sentencing hearing before Judge Redden. The federal prosecutor, one Stephen F.
Peifer, brought three “witnesses” to cry before the court. The first was Laurie Blue, “the clinic
manager” of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Eugene. She inveighed as follows:
Your Honor, I strongly recommend that Shelly Shannon be given the maximum sentence for her violent acts
of terrorism against abortion providers . . .
I think most people would agree that Shelly Shannon is an extremely dangerous role mode, and I ask the
Court to do everything in its power to prevent her from acting as a mentor to others in the anti-abortion
movement.133
The second was Jude Hanzo, “Executive Director” of both the Surgicenter in Portland and the
Feminist Women’s Health Center in Eugene. The abortion administrator had this to say:
After Shannon was arrested for the attempted murder of a fellow provider, Dr. Tiller, I learned that
she was responsible for the arson at our Eugene facility.
Shannon has damaged and endangered many people’s lives across the country and learned from
convicted arsonists and murderers how to commit the same crimes. Her crimes have escalated over the years
with absolute disregard of the law or the court orders.
Her current activities continue while she remains under custody as she urges others to commit
violent acts against abortion providers.
I ask this Court to issue the maximum penalty under the law for these serious crimes.
In addition, in order to protect the safety of the abortion providers, she should not be allowed to
communicate with anti-abortion activists.
Clearly, in order for this national terrorist activity to end, we cannot allow the conspirators to meet in
prison. This Court should send a loud message across the nation that conspiracy to shut down clinics, set
facilities on fire and murder providers have no place in our community.134
Finally, Peifer brought to the stand Katrina Cantrell, the “Clinic Director” of the Chico
abortuary, the Feminist Health Center, who was also introduced as “affiliated with two of the
victim clinics in Northern California; the Women’s Health Center in Sacramento, and the
Women’s Health Center in Chico”:
Shannon’s actions have forever changed the way our facility provides health care for women. She has been
responsible for severe financial setbacks and expenses to our organization. We have been forced to put
security measure into place; and they are costly. She has created an environment of strews that continues to
this day to affect the staff, doctors and patients we serve, as well as neighboring business and citizens.
44
We firmly believe that she is a threat to society and shows no remorse for the crimes she has committed.135
It is difficult, then, to assess the salutary work accomplished by Shelley Shannon. She
punctuated with her deeds the rhetoric of those who cried “murder” with an exclamation point.
The $906,594 number given as the “total loss to the victim” is a manful effort of the U.S.
Probation Office to give a dollar number to the damages she inflicted upon the abortion
industry.136 But the value of Rachelle Shannon’s deeds must be measured by other standards. The
failure of a recumbent “pro-life community” to awaken and stand up for the truth is not an
indicator of any fault in her actions. Rather, the failure to affirm the righteousness of her deeds is
yet another testimony against this generation which shares guilt for the continuation of this
holocaust.
Shelley’s actions accomplished several things: 1) the direct rescue of children who were
scheduled to die in the facilities she destroyed or temporarily disabled; 2) the discouragement of
abortionists from continuing in the “business” and of insurance companies from doing business
with abortionists - thereby indirectly saving children; 3) the inspiration of others, such as Paul Hill,
to take similar redemptive action; 4) the demonstrative education of the public regarding the true
humanity (and therefore legitimate forceful defensibleness) of womb children.
Arousing the Earth Worshipers?
One hundred years before Shelley blocked a door of an abortuary, the Secretary of the
Interior received a report from a Presbyterian Pastor on the progress of education of Indians in
Alaska. Secretary L.Q.C. Lamar had been directed by U.S. Senate to provide the report. Rev.
Sheldon Jackson who was the government’s General Agent of Education in Alaska, delivered it on
February 1, 1886.137 The report assumes the association between “civilization” and
“Christianization” and the desirability of both as a goal of the United States for recently acquired
Alaska. The assumption is undisputed.
The popular American belief of the time was that savage peoples could undergo a gradual
(evolutionary) process of development through which they would arrive through education to
civilization (i.e. Christianization). The expectations for the Indians were a manifestation of both
Christian and Enlightenment thought. It is the same philosophy that produced the ideas central to
our national documents – the Declaration and the U.S. Constitution – in which fundamental human
rights and liberties are set forth on the ground that certain rights are given by God (the “Creator”)
and are therefore “inalienable.” Progress is expected as mankind engages in the “pursuit of
happiness.” Provision of amendments to the Constitution anticipates this development. Every
society has the potential to climb the ladder from savagery through barbarism to, at last,
civilization. Under that model Indians would become civilized and assimilated once they learned
to read, write, speak English, (and, essentially, became Christians).
How appropriate it is that in a region of our country where the renunciation of Christianity
and the embrace of Godless naturalism is the strongest (and where some of the most “progressive”
developments in “right to die,” animal rights and “tree hugger” activism have taken place) there
occurred the most radical eco-terrorist activity in the world. Even more ironic is the fact that as
Shelley was being prosecuted for her violent “crimes” and the Truth regarding the dignity of
mankind was being suppressed in her very prosecution, radicals in the opposite ideological camp
45
rose up as with zealous inspiration for their pagan cause for which they employed all manner of
violence and destruction.
On Oct. 28, 1996, a year after Shelley was sentenced in the Oregon court, eco-terrorists
calling themselves members of Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
began a string of 600 attacks upon government facilities, logging companies, horse farms, etc.,
which occurred primarily in the Northwest – in fact near some of the same towns where Shelley
and had attacked abortion facilities - Eugene and Portland. In fact this “cell” of ELF and ALF was
known as “The Family” and was based in Eugene. Over $43 million in damages were caused by a
dozen people over five years in five states until ten of their members were captured in 2001. (The
same kinds of attacks continued from 2001 into 2005 by persons claiming to be with ELF and
ALF, most recently at construction sites in Pennsylvania, Virginia, California, Utah, and
Washington costing private business millions in damages.)
Government officials have a curious take on such actions, confused as to whether this is to
be categorized as “right-wing” or “left-wing” radicalism. James F. Jarboe,138 testifying before the
House Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health, put anti-abortionists in
the same category with zealots for animals and the environment.
During the past decade we have witnessed dramatic changes in the nature of the terrorist threat. In the 1990s,
right-wing extremism overtook left-wing terrorism as the most dangerous domestic terrorist threat to the
country. During the past several years, special interest extremism, as characterized by the Animal Liberation
Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), has emerged as a serious terrorist threat . . .
These groups occupy the extreme fringes of animal rights, pro-life, environmental, anti-nuclear, and other
movements. Some special interest extremists -- most notably within the animal rights and environmental
movements -- have turned increasingly toward vandalism and terrorist activity in attempts to further their
causes.
A government and a culture which rejects the Creator, says the ancient sage, embraces and
worships the creation in His place. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator,” said the Apostle Paul (Epistle to the Romans, 1:25).
Along with such an inordinate affection for the creation, they pervert normal sexual attractions and
turn to homosexual lusts (vv. 26, 27). The fundamental problem is described in the doctrine stated
on the Animal Liberation Front web site: "the philosophy of allowing nonhuman animals to have
the basic rights that all sentient beings desire; freedom to live a natural life, free from human
exploitation, unnecessary pain and suffering, and premature death." As human beings are demoted
from their standard place as the crown of God’s creation over which mankind is given dominion
and placed on the same level as animals, the latter are exalted to a position not equal to but greater
than mankind. Since mankind is judged to be the despoiler of the planet and “other animals,” he as
a sinner against the environment is to be restrained in his “assault” upon nature. This takes the
shape of restricting his use of the creation and denying him the traditional (and biblical) mandate
to “be fruitful and multiply.”
Since those with such ideological energy to protect the environment are ideologically in
direct opposition to the standard Christian doctrine of the dignity of man and his mandate to
exercise “dominion” over the earth, it is of interest to note disparate sentencing. Our God-rejecting
federal government treats the one “religious” group which shares its essential Godlessness (the
ELF and ALF defendants) quite differently from how it treats the other, which holds humanity as
sacred - bearing the “image of God.”
46
Most of the sentences meted out to the ELF and ALF members ranged from 3 years to 7
years and 8 months (for two non-cooperatives). The harshest sentence was meted out to Stanilas
Meyerhoff -13 years in prison. He was the first to be sentenced to prison and admitted to
fashioning the devices to start the fires. He confessed to arson charges in 7 fires including toppling
a high-tension power line and the 1998 fire at the Vail ski resort in Colorado.
His is the closet to Shelley’s in terms of numbers of personal targets, but her acts resulted
in not nearly the same amount of dollar damage. Meyerhoff and company were responsible for 45
times the dollar amount and there was no human live being saved by Meyerhoff. On the contrary,
he endangered humans to save animals.
How did he get 13 years while Shelley got 20?
Curiously, the same U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Shelley also prosecuted this group.
And this prosecutor noted – ever so slightly, as if a distant message was pricking his conscience –
a difference. In a hearing on May 15, 1997 before Judge Ann Aiken in U.S Court, District of
Oregon, U.S. Attorney Peifer said to Court:
And while we are discussing proportionality, let's not forget the case of Rachelle "Shelley" Shannon, a case I
prosecuted in the mid-1990s. Shelley Shannon is serving a 20-year sentence, 240 months, for six arsons and
attempted arsons in Oregon, California, and Nevada. She wanted to save unborn babies. These defendants
wanted to save animals and trees. The only person hurt in any of Shelley Shannon's arsons was a firefighter in
Sacramento, and it was a minor injury.
139
After Thoughts
Inspiration, then, for the shooting of Tiller was surely polygenetic as to the personal
purveyors of ideas and example, but all influences originated from a singular Truth: man created in
God’s image and therefore worthy of protection. That truth, proclaimed in our national civil
documents – “All men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . .” –
hearkened back to the Scriptures upon which the colonies had established their respective
constitutions. There was no doubt in Shelley’s mind about the goal or the means she appropriated
to accomplish it.
The mercy shown by Shelley to Tiller by her choice of a handgun of a smaller caliber over
what was accessible along with the choice of shooting his elbows rather than head or body ought to
have been the occasion for sharpening ethical discussions. If Griffin had “gone too far” in
protecting the innocent, had Shannon “fallen short”? The fact of this extraordinary mercy shown
by Shelley to one whom she regarded as a murderous aggressor ought to have moved even a
doctrinaire pro-abortion judge to give more lenient concern to such a defendant.
Most in the “movement” were still unprepared to publicly discuss the issue of forceful
defensive action even when it was rubbed in their faces. Twenty years into the holocaust, abortion
was treated as a “topic” as if the nation were in the throes of embryonic discussion of social theory
and anthropology conducted in the privacy of some law clerk’s office in 1972, rather than fully
immersed in the shedding of the real blood of thousands every day. Few were prepared to engage
the issue of the use of force as if it really were a legitimate issue. Half of the reality of abortion in
1993 was that 20 million American lives had been taken methodically in yellow-page-advertised
“clinics” across the land. The other half of reality of abortion was that there had been only one
termination of an abortionist up to that time.
47
After fifteen years of imprisonment, in 2009, Shelley is settling into her fourth prison
location in Waseca, Minnesota. She wrote in her general Christmas letter that her Dublin,
California Federal Correction Institute had beautiful Christmas lights up to the joy of many an
inmate but then took them down after 24 hours. It seems the Christmas lights constituted a
Constitution-violating act which required immediate correction. The state must not force the
worship of Christ upon its citizens as this display of Christmas lights was judged to have done.
Neither may it acknowledge Messiah’s laws. Indeed, such laws are flagrantly flouted in a land
where the blood of innocents continues to be shed and their defenders are jailed.
1 The town’s name is not a phonetic adaptation of the familiar Greek “Eureka!”, Archimedes’ famous exclamation
upon discovery of a formula. There is a town by that name located 180 miles to the southwest on the coast. Rather,
the “Y” in Yreka is pronounced “wa” as in “warrior” and is reckoned to be a Shasta Indian word meaning "north
mountain."
2 This organization, founded by Christian singer Keith Green in 1977 was continued by his wife Melody Green after
his untimely death in 1982. It was a sub-organization of their Last Days Ministries, which produced reports and
literature on Christian social and political activism from 1977 until 1991. The impact of the publication can be
illustrated in the ministry of Julio Severo, the Brazilian profamily and anti-sodomy advocate who has been described
by the Brazilian philosopher and political commentator Olavo de Carvalho as "the most discriminated against and
persecuted of Brazilians.” See http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/messages/22219.html. Severo has became active in
Brazil after coming in contact with the pro-life message through publications from Last Days Ministries in 1986. He
continues to resist efforts to de-criminalize abortion in Brazil. See
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07082810.html [retrieved on 20 August, 2008]. Green’s album, No
Compromise also provided inspiration for the spiritual life of abortionist slayer James Kopp. From 1979 until 1991
LDM distributed 19 million pieces of anti-abortion literature.
3 Bernard Nathanson, a licensed OB/GYN was a pioneer of abortion decriminalization in New York and the United
States. He worked with Betty Friedan and others for the legalization of abortion in the United States establishing
NARAL, then the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws. He repented of his general involvement with
abortion including personal responsibility for committing 60,000 abortions as described in his book, Aborting America
(1979), and the Silent Scream documentary (1984).
4 James Risen and Judy Thomas, Wrath of Angels, (New York: Basic Books, 1988), p. 351. A box full of diaries and
letters belonging to Shelley Shannon were seized from her Oregon home by federal authorities and kept under seal in a
federal court. Contents, though made inaccessible to Shannon, were examined and information used for the
production of Risen and Thomas’s book.
5 The term is common parlance among anti-abortion activists and is an appropriate term of abbreviation for what must
most accurately and appropriately be denoted an “abortion facility.”
6 Ibid., Risen, p. 350
7 Dawn Stover, “Portland’s Largest Rescue To-Date,” The Advocate, August, 1988, pp. 1,3,4. The magazine,
published by Advocates for Life Ministries in Portland, changed its name to Life Advocate to avoid confusion with the
publication by the same name which serves the advancement of sodomy and its decriminalization. AFLM upgraded to
glossy magazine status in 1992 and became the flagship magazine of the activist anti-abortion movement until AFLM
owner, Andrew Burnett, a defendant in the lawsuit, was sued and the magazine litigated out of existence by the local
Planned Parenthood with evident cooperation from Judge Robert Jones (Planned Parenthood v. ACLA, 1995).
8 The suit eventually was resolved by Terry making for his own relief an agreement with NOW never to block doors
again. Terry continued in blunderful leadership by 1) abandoning his pledge to stay in the Atlanta jail indefinitely by
refusing to give his name, 2) denouncing the use of force in a Chicago gathering in 1989 which resulted in the
fracturing of OR and the establishment of the American Coalition of Life Activists who refused to condemn the use of
48
force, 3) denouncing apologists for the use of force, viz. Michael Bray on 60 Minutes, and 4) abandoning his wife for
his youthful secretary.
9 Rochelle Sharpe, “‘You Do Not Stop a Holocaust by Writing Letters,’ ” in “America’s Holy War” (second of four
articles), Evening Journal, Wilmington, Delaware, December, 1985.
10 Pete Kelly, ed., “Texas Sheriff Says It’s Murder,” All News, (American Life Lobby, Inc.), Jan., 19, 1990.
11 Pam Schmid, “Chief Jailed in Anti-abortion Demonstration,” AP in Washington Times, July 1, 1991.
12 Jay Rogers, ed., “Violence on Pro-lifers: Operation Rescue Testimonies,” The Frontrunner, March, 1989 retrieved
on April 1, 2009 at http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0431_Dawn_Stover_Portland.html.
13 Ibid.
14 John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, No Cheap Solutions, (Prolife Nonviolent Action Project, Gaithersburng, Maryland,
1984), pp. 9,10.
15 Ibid., Risen, p. 67
16 Ibid., Risen, p. 276.
17John Crocker, “Presentence Report,” USA v. Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon, (“Sentencing Recommendation,” U.S.
District Court, U.S. Probation Office) District of Oregon, July 27, 1995, p. 18.
18 Reformation Lutheran Church was founded by and composed primarily of remonstrating members of Grace
Lutheran Church in the Spring of 1988 under the pastoral leadership of Dr. Michael Colvin and Michael Bray.
19 By December of 1991, Capitol Area Christian News reported that he had organized “about 20 rescues and as many
rallies.” He was named along with Jayne Bray in three injunctions filed by the National Organization of Women
against activists in anticipation of D.C. Projects and was an appellant in the prevailing Bray v. Alexandria case before
the U.S. Supreme Court. CACN, a quarterly newsletter published by Michael Bray’s Reformation Press. The
newsletter served to support the work of Project Rescue as Gannett’s work was deemed to be an extension of the
Church’s ministry. Indeed, during the course of Project Rescue’s activism almost all adult members of the church
were arrested at local “rescues.” Apart from reporting on local Christian activism, CACN sported a “Radical Fringe”
page which featured news reports of forceful action from around the country taken from the D.C. area regular news or
mailed or faxed in by subscribers. The typical reports of local pro-life organizations which condemned the bombings
or other attacks on abortion facilities were treated with amusement and chided with sarcastic disdain.
20 The name was taken from Gannett’s organization, Project Rescue, which in turn was derived from JCOK’s Pro-life
Non-Violent Action Project.
21 Ibid., Risen, title of chapter 3, p. 43.
22 Ibid., Risen, pp. 43ff.
23 Michael McMonagle, letter from Philadelphia to Cavanaugh-O’Keefe, April 5, 1989. They subsequently met with
Pat Mahoney and others in the Bray home.
24 Ibid., Risen, p. 220.
25 Ibid., Risen, p. 272.
26 Shelley Shannon, letter to Michael Bray (Summer, 2008).
27 Life Advocate, (Portland, Oregon: Advocates for Life Ministries); Capitol Area Christian News (Bowie, Maryland:
Reformation Press), and Actors in the Kingdom Not Clappers in the Audience (Bowie, Maryland: Michael Bray, 1990)
28 This meeting was not, as Risen and Thomas state (pp. 360 f.), focused upon new tactics to expose abortionists and
generate harassment of them. (Such was always a given by-product of the effort to save children.) The purpose of the
meeting of ACLA members was to address the question of force and the proper response to its use outside of ORsponsored
activities. Flip Benham, the heir of OR leadership as it had been passed from Keith Tucci following a handoff
from Terry in the midst of his moral failures, was resolute about upholding the condemnation of the use of force by
those outside of OR’s province and membership. The cause for the split from OR and the consequent establishment
of the ACLA grew from the doctrinal necessity to avoid compromising the doctrine of the humanity of the child by
condemning forceful methods used to save him. To condemn the use of force on the part of those outside the nonviolent
OR members would be a de facto denial of the humanity of the child in the womb.
29 John Brockhoeft burned two abortuaries in Cincinnati and Kentucky in December, 1985. Jailed in 1986, he was
released in 1994.
30 David Leach, Prayer and Action News, The Partnership Machine, 137 E. Leach, Des Moines, Iowa
31 When Life Hurts We Can Help . . . The Army of God, anonymous and without a publisher listed, the pamphlet was
produced in three editions and was in circulation among anti-abortion activists from the late 1980s until its suppression
by federal grand juries which demanded from hundreds of witnesses that they bring any copies they had in their
possession. Such grand juries were conducted in Melbourne, Florida, Alexandria Virginia, Norfolk, and other venues.
32 Anne Bower, Body Politic Vol. 5, No. 11, (December 1995), p. 14, retrieved on 5 Sept., 2008 from
http://www.publiceye.org/body_politic/mag/back/art/0511pg04.htm. When Bricks Bleed, I’ll Cry is as alternative title
given to a pirated version of Bray’s Actors in the Kingdom Not Clappers in the Audience, (Bowie, Maryland: Michael
Bray, 1990). No publisher is identified.
49
33 Michael Bray, Actors in the Kingdom Not Clappers in the Audience (Bowie, Maryland: Michael Bray, 1990), p. 136.
The book is a collection of essays written from prison between 1985 and 1989.
34 Ibid., Bower.
35 Ibid., Shelley Shannon, Letter.
36 John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe is featured as the “Father of Non-Violence” in Wrath of Angels opposite Michael Bray
who is named the “Father of Violence.”
37 Ibid., Michael Bray, Actors, p. 17.
38 Ibid., pp. 32,33 ( The principles are abridged herein.)
39 Shannon’s account posted by Donald Spitz at http://www.armyofgod.com/ShelleyForce.html
40 Reprinted from The Times Herald Record in Blooming Grove, NY (18 October, 1991) in Life Advocate (December,
1991), p. 18.
41 Ibid., Risen, p. 351.
42 Ibid.
43 Peter Wong, “Fire Guts Abortion Office,” Mail Tribune (Medford, Oregon), April 12, 1992.
44 Ibid.
45 Doug O’Laughlin, “Ashlanders Share Feelings of Shock, Anger at Clinic Fire,” TheDaily Tidings (Ashland,
Oregon), April 15, 1992.
46 Ibid.
47 Michael Bray, ed., Capitol Area Christian News, vol. 2, no. 2 ( Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press), June, 1992,
p. 6
48 Abbreviated by “d.r.” by Shannon in correspondence and conversation to distinguish forceful from non-forceful
interventions; i.e. clinic bombings, burnings, acid attacks, etc.
49 Ibid., Bray, p. 11.
50 Ibid., Crocker, p. 6.
51 Jeffrey Kaplan, “Absolute Rescue: Absolutism, Defensive Action and the Resort to Force,” (research paper at Arctic
Sivunmum Ilisagvik College, Barrow, Alaska, 1995), p. 18.
52 Ibid., p. 10.
53Ibid., Michael Bray Capitol Area Christian News, vol. 2, no. 4, Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press December,
1992, p. 6.
54 Ibid., Crocker, p. 8.
55 Ibid., pp. 6,7.
56 Anne Bower, “Shelley Shannon: A Soldier in The Army of God - Part I,” Body Politic, Vol. 5, No. 11, December
1995, p.14. Bower has taken the statement from Shelley Shannon’s computer file, “cristadvent 2.”
57 Ibid., Crocker, p. 9.
58 The term applied to themselves by pro-abortionists who accompany women from their cars to the abortion facility
affecting the impression that the women seeking abortions would otherwise be harassed or impeded from gaining entry
into the abortuary.
59 Life Advocate, “Abortion facility burns in Sacramento,” (Portland, Oregon: Advocates for Life Ministries), January,
1993, p. 13.
60 “2 Convicted of Bombings,” (Washington Post, April 25, 1985, p. A7).
61 E. Michael Jones, “America Goes on Trial in Pensacola,” Fidelity, vol. 4, no. 7 (June, 1985), p. 11.
62 Ibid., p. 18.
63 Burt denied any knowledge of the explosives but acknowledged his association with Brockhoeft who had traveled
from Hebron, Kentucky and was later convicted of unsolved abortuaries bombings in Ohio.
64 One rare instance occurred briefly at the1990 annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society held at
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans. Among the many papers presented was one by Michael
Bray entitled “The Ethics of Operation Rescue.” After critiquing the position taken by Ken Myers at a forum
sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center in D.C. where Bray and Myers had debated the ethics of blockading
abortion clinic doors in Washington D.C. in October 1989, one member of the audience asked Bray specifically
whether or not he could deny the applicability of the “rescue” or “defensive action” principles to the one who opted to
protect innocent children by physically stopping the assailant (abortionist) by doing him bodily harm. Bray’s answer
in the negative went without rebuttal or comment.
65 Michael Bray, “The Ethics of Operation Rescue,” paper delivered before the Evangelical Theological Society in
New Orleans (1990), p. 2
66 The story was reprinted in part (“mildly redacted”) and published in a calendar and made available for attendants of
the White Rose Banquet of the year 2000.
67 Ibid., Risen, p. 354.
50
68 Ibid., Risen, p. 355
69 Ibid.
70 Life Advocate, (Portland, Oregon: Advocates for Life Ministries), January, 1993, p. 3.
71 Cathy Ramey, “The Wichita Killer,” (Portland, Oregon: Life Advocate Magazine) September, 1991, p. 6.
72 Judy Thomas, “Tiller: Tired but Determined,” Wichita Eagle, September 8, 1991.
73 Unfortunately, the local Wichita Eagle cannot be trusted to report the news without a pro-abortion bias. The very
opening line of its report read: “A 10-year-old girl who received an abortion . . .” How is this? Is an abortion a gift?
How does a woman “receive” such a thing? Does a person “receive” . . . an amputation? Such euphemistic distortion
is a standard propaganda technique, the goal of which is to make something evil look the good.
74 Ibid., Thomas
75 Mary Meehan, “The Ex-abortionists: Why They Quit,” Human Life Review, (New York: Human Life Foundation),
Spring, 2000. http://www.humanlifereview.com/2000_summer/meehan_s2000.php
76 From a personal letter of recollection from Shannon in January, 2009.
77 Life Advocate, “Tiller Shot: Oregon Woman Accused,” (Advocates for Life Ministries: Portland, Oregon), October,
1993, p. 10.
78 Ibid.
79 David and Dorothy Leach, supra, published the Brockhoeft Report, a collection of jocular biographical anecdotes of
Brockhoeft collected by Shelley Shannon; When Shannon went to prison, they published her “diaries”; when the grand
jury in Virginia was seeking conspiracies to “commit violence” by asking anti-abortionist “witnesses” (subpoenaed for
interrogation) to bring with them any copies of the anonymous Army of God pamphlet (deemed by federal
investigators to be a tool of terrorism, Leach reprinted the sought after book and make it available for anyone
interested in knowing what was contained in such a sought-after document.
80 Letter to Bray family on April 15, 2009.
81 Ibid.
82 Ibid., p. 11.
83 Fax copy located in the files of Michael Bray at 308 High Street, Wilmington, Ohio.
84 Ibid., p. 12.
85 “Due Respects to Shelley Shannon along with Due Disrespects for Her Vichy Prolife Detractors, Capitol Area
Christian News, vol. 3, no. 3, (Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press), September, 1993, p. 2
86 Ibid.
87 At the White Rose Banquet held in Washington, D.C. in January, an annual event (1994 until 2001) sponsored by
Reformation Lutheran Church in honor of prisoners who had taken forceful action in defense of the womb children,
Master of Ceremonies, Dr. Michael Colvin, reported on the comedic way some of “our brethren” had undertaken the
task of “criminal” actions for the sake of the preborn. He noted that Joshua Graff had left his wallet on the roof of a
facility he had burned.
88 Capitol Area Christian News, Issue no. 16, (Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press), December, 1993, p. 4.
89 Quoted in Michael Bray, Actors in the Kingdom Not Clappers in the Audience (Bowie, Maryland: Michael Bray,
1990), p. 13.
90 Planned Parenthood v. ACLA (1995)
91 Ibid., Capitol Area Christian News, Issue no. 16, (Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press), December, 1993, p. 1
92 Fax copy located in the files of Michael Bray at 308 High Street, Wilmington, Ohio.
93 Peter Korn, Lovejoy: A Year in the life of an Abortion Clinic, (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1996)
94 This is so commonly asinine as to require additional notation to drive a point home. Does the same “chauvinist”
charge apply to the fact that most abortionists are male, including all those at Lovejoy? The simple truth is that
abortionists – male and female – abort children who are both male and female. But if a sexist charges are to be made,
they certainly do not help the polemicists for abortion. Most abortionist are male as are most forceful defenders of
womb children. So what?
95 Ibid., p. 95.
96 Ibid., p. 96.
97 Ibid., p. 97.
98 Ibid., p. 98.
99 Ibid., p. 97. We may presume that either Agent Glenn or Peter Korn are unfamiliar with the expression “ratting out”
(not “off”), which is colloquial and prison language for “testify against.”
100 Ibid., p. 99.
101 Ibid., p. 187
102 Ibid., p. 98.
103 Ibid., p. 100.
104 Ibid., p. 287.
51
105 Ibid., p. 16.
106 This is in contrast to the misrepresentations presented by Rizen and Thomas where they describe Bray’s book as “a
book advocating the murder of doctors.” (see Wrath of Angels, p. 344)
107 Ibid., Jones, p. 22.
108 Dave Leach and Paul DeParrie “Unrepentant: Guilty Verdict Leaves Shannon Unshaken,” (Portland, Oregon: Life
Advocate Magazine) May, 1994, p. 12.
109 Ibid.
110 Wichita Eagle, March 9, 1994.
111 VAAPCON, i.e. Violence Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy, was an investigation commissioned by Janet
Reno which sought to discover a conspiracy among anti-abortionists to destroy property or shoot abortionists. Those
subpoenaed observed that questioning was generally oriented around “The Army of God Manual.”
112 Capitol Area Christian News, Issue no. (Bowie, Maryland: Reformation Press), 21, Spring, 1996, p. 5.
113 Ibid., Leach, p. 13.
114 Ibid.
115 Ibid.
116 Ibid., p. 14.
117 Tiller returned to “work” the next day. Similarly, such announcements of recovery and rapid return to work after
attacks on abortuaries are typical. The speedy issuance of press releases regularly and quickly by National Abortion
Federation-associated facilities declaring “all is well” suggests a propaganda interest in discounting violence as having
diminutive effect. Exaggerations for psychological warfare not withstanding, the fact remains that Tiller’s injuries
were minor.
118 Judy Thomas, Wichita Eagle, February 17, 1994.
119 Letter from Shannon to Michael Bray, dated February 1, 2009.
120 Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chap. 9, http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.1.one.html
121 Filed with the United States Department of Justice Office of the Pardon Attorney on February 28, 2007
122 Redden and Judge Robert Jones (friends and ideological twins in the Ninth Circuit) have issued rulings against the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and various public utility services in separate cases involving salmon, bull trout and
gray wolves in the name of the Endangered Species Act forcing the government agencies to put the welfare of animals
above that of humans. This is in contrast with the harsh treatment Jones meted out to anti-abortion activists in the
Planned Parenthood v. ACLA (1995) case in which Jones found new meaning to the traditional legal understanding of
a “threat” and determined that anti-abortion activists were liable for $1.4 billion for circulating classic wanted posters
regarding local abortionists. The case was reversed on appeal 3-0 and then affirmed 6-5 and denied a hearing by the
U.S. Supreme Court. In the course of appeals, the fines were reduced to $8 million for the dozen anti-abortion
defendants.
123 Curt Beseda was named in 1989 in a RICO suit by the owners three years after he closed down the Everett,
Washington abortuary. The owners wanted $1,500,000 basing this amount upon the loss of income projected from the
fees they would have earned from the 10,000 to 12,000 children they could have aborted. See Paulette Likoudis, “Prolife
Prisoners of Conscience Offer Severe Sentences as Sacrifice,” (The Wanderer, July 23, 1992, p. 7).
124 Ibid., John Crocker, p. 5
125 Ibid., p. 9
126 Ibid. p. 10.
127 See report above on Lovejoy under “Another Beginning: Smashing the Institution” which represents the figure
given by available news reports.
128 Ibid., Crocker, p. 10.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
131 Ibid.
132 Ibid., p. 11.
133 Transcript of sentencing hearing before Judge Redden., August, 31, 1995, p. 48.
134 Ibid. p. 50.
135 Ibid. pp. 50,51.
136 John Crocker, “Impact of Plea Agreement,” USA v. Rachelle “Shelley” Shannon, (“Sentencing Recommendation,”
U.S. District Court, U.S. Probation Office) District of Oregon, July 27, 1995, p. 2.
137 Sheldon Jackson, “Report on Education in Alaska (1886),” (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office),
University of California Libraries.
138 James F. Jarboe, Domestic Terrorism Section Chief of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, testified on February
12, 2002. See http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress02/jarboe021202.htm.
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139 United States of America v. Darren Todd Thurston et al, transcript of proceedings, Eugene, Oregon, May 15, 2007,
p. 15 (1 – 158).