Neal Horsley

Otis O'Neal Horsley, Jr. (born 1944) is a militant anti-abortionist known for producing a website which provided the home addresses of abortion providers in the United States, for admitting on Fox News to practising bestiality in his youth,^[1][2][3] and for being arrested on charges of terroristic threats against singer Elton John.

The "Nuremberg Files"

The Nuremberg Files is a website that displays the names and locations of various doctors who perform abortions throughout the United States. They came under fire as controversial because they provided photos, addresses, and other personal data of abortion providers. They also updated the listings of those doctors who had been injured or murdered by "pro-life" individuals, indicating their approval for the elimination of the provider.

While the original site was shut down in 2002, it has reappeared more than once on other ISPs. Horsley has been forced to change his Internet service provider numerous times due to the site's content, and his website has been hacked on several occasions.

It has been stated that information from the Nuremberg Files site was used by James Charles Kopp to track down and kill Buffalo doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998. ^[4] Kopp fled the country (becoming a fugitive in Canada) but allegedly maintained contact with Horsley while on the run. Kopp was later arrested in France and extradited to New York, where he is serving a life sentence.

After Slepian's murder, Planned Parenthood's president Gloria Feldt denounced Horsley's website at a press conference. The publicity generated hundreds of thousands of hits (Horsley claims 400,000). Horsley was named as a co-conspirator in a successful civil suit, Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists,^[5] filed by Planned Parenthood over the information compiled by him and "Unwanted Posters" of doctors, which was judged by the court to constitute a threat of violence, even without an explicit call to violence. The U.S. Supreme court has twice refused to hear the case, upholding the ruling, but asking that the punitive damages be reconsidered.^[6] Punitive damages were reduced from $108 million to $4.7 million. The ruling also provides for $11 million in treble damages and $526,000 in compensatory damages.^[7][8]

As part of the judgment, Horsley was to take down the "Nuremberg Files" section of his website. The verdict was later overturned on appeal, and the files returned. The case was reheard en banc, and the court determined that the files constituted constitutionally unprotected "true threats". Karin Spaink ran a mirror of the site in the Netherlands for about a week after the district court decision. She ultimately decided to remove the mirror.

Waagner incident

In 2001, self-described militant Clayton Waagner, an armed bank robber who had escaped from an Illinois prison, showed up at Horsley's home brandishing a gun. Horsley alleges that Waagner told him that he was stalking and planned to kill 42 abortion clinic workers who were profiled on the website, and presented evidence that he was the author of hundreds of phony anthrax letters that had been sent to abortion clinics and elected officials. Going to the media after his meeting with Waagner brought more attention to Horsley and his website. Waagner was arrested in December 2001, and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence.^[9]

Although Horsley claims he advocated an alternative route of campaigning for secession, he does not doubt that many of those in his circle who resorted to violence were led by God to do so to show it was not an effective means for bringing about an end to Roe v. Wade. He calls those who engaged in violence terrorists, but also says that terrorism is a sanctioned means of achieving God's law, and a tactic explicitly supported in scripture.

Lawsuits

During an appearance on Upfront Tonight on CNBC, Geraldo Rivera accused Horsley of "aiding and abetting a homicide" in the Slepian murder. Horsley sued Rivera for libel and slander, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found against Horsley, concluding that Rivera was merely "expressing his belief that Horsley shared in the moral culpability for Dr. Slepian's death".^[10] Horsley also unsuccessfully sued Glorida Feldt of Planned Parenthood and Kim Gandy of the National Organization for Women for similar statements.^[11]

Secession and run for Governor

In 2010, Horsley ran unsuccessfully for governor under his Creator's Rights Party on a nullification platform. He said he was willing to kill his own son, who is a Sergeant in the Army, if he were sent to Georgia to stop him from seceding, and admitted to nearly killing his son once before.^[12]

Elton John incident

Horsley was arrested in Carrollton, Georgia on March 12, 2010 by police on charges of terroristic threats, making criminal defamation and using the Internet to disseminate threats in relation to a February 28, 2010 video^[13] which he had posted on his YouTube account; the video showed him holding a sign saying "Elton John must die" and him saying that "What Elton John has done is desecrated the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, blasphemed the Lord Jesus Christ," in relation to John's public comment that Jesus was a "compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems." The video showed Horsley holding the sign in front of what he believed to be John's condo in Buckhead, although John's publicist refused to confirm the exact location of his house in the Atlanta metropolitan area.^[14][15]

References

External links

• Christian Gallery - Personal website
• Seybert, Adrien. "Anti-abortion activist aims to shock Web users for his cause", Court TV. July 3, 2001. URL accessed on 2006-03-29
• Macavinta, Courtney. "Anti-abortion sites vs. free speech", CNET. March 12, 1999. URL accessed on 2006-03-29.
• The Propagandist - Southern Poverty Law Center report on Horsley
• Terrorism Knowledge Base profile of Horsley
• Kaminer, Wendy "The Limits of Free Speech"
• Neal Horsley at the Internet Movie Database