Neal Horsley

Neal Horsley
Born	Otis O'Neal Horsley, Jr. 1944 Bremen, Georgia
Political party	The Creator's Rights Party
Spouse	Carol Horsley

Otis O'Neal Horsley, Jr. (born 1944) is an American political figure of the far right. He is the author of a website devoted to his advocacy of militant pro-life, secessionist, and anti-gay views.

Early life

Horsley was born in Bremen, Georgia. On May 5, 2005, Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program. During that interview, and after repeated questions about his personal sinfulness, Mr. Horsley stated that when he was eleven years old he had engaged in bestiality with a mule on the farm he grew up on in Georgia. "I was a fool," Horsley told Colmes, crediting Jesus with forgiving and cleansing him of his "sin." After serving in the Air Force in the mid-1960s, Horsley traveled to San Francisco, California, where he claims to have become an anti-war advocate and hippie. Horsley did time in jail on charges of drug possession, and it was there in 1974 that he converted to Christianity.

After graduating from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1985, Horsley relocated to the Philadelphia area, but returned to Georgia in 1993, settling in the Atlanta suburb of Carrollton, where he lives today.

Later life and associations

Horsley came into contact with and befriended Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry. Through his new contacts within the anti-abortion movement, Horsley met up with Paul Jennings Hill, a former Presbyterian Church in America and Orthodox Presbyterian Church minister who, like him, was beginning to question the efficacy of peaceful civil disobedience.

This led to his belief in the possibility of selected states seceding from the Union as a means of forcing the U.S. federal government to abolish abortion nationwide. Horsley claims that in a 1994 meeting with Hill, he suspected Hill of planning an act of violence, and urged Hill to join him instead in forming a secessionist movement in the state of Georgia. Days later, Hill was arrested and charged with the murder of Florida physician John Britton and Britton's bodyguard. Hill was convicted and sentenced to death, and was later executed. He is heralded today as a martyr on Horsley's website.

Beliefs and website

Horsley is highly critical of the non-violent wing of the anti-abortion movement and openly advocates "waging war" (which many critics, such as the Anti-Defamation League, have interpreted as a potential advocacy of violence) as the only way to end abortion in the United States. Though he himself has never been charged with taking part in a violent act, he is widely thought to maintain contacts with those who have, and occasionally acts as a spokesman for the Army of God, an organization that Eric Robert Rudolph was a member of. Horsley established his own political party called the "Creator's Rights Party" and has run for governor of Georgia as its candidate on several occasions.

Horsley's website, christiangallery.com began in 1995. His postings there brought him to the attention of other radicals within the anti-abortion movement, including Paul deParrie, who had compiled a set of files of personal information on doctors in the Portland, Oregon area. DeParrie shared his information with Horsley, who posted it at his website in a section called the "Nuremberg Files," allegedly to assist in prosecution of doctors after the abolition of abortion.

Horsley has appeared on Hannity & Colmes, Alan Keyes Is Making Sense, Today and The Big Story.

The "Nuremberg Files"

The Nuremberg Files was a website that displayed the names and locations of various doctors who performed abortions throughout the United States. They came under fire as controversial because of their practice of changing the listings of those doctors who had been injured or murdered, or stopped performing abortions, usually as a result of extreme activism by anti-abortion individuals.

While shut down in 2002, it has reappeared more than once on other ISPs. The US Supreme court has twice refused to hear the case, upholding the ruling, but asking that the punitive damages be reconsidered.[1] 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.[2][3]

Some have claimed that information from de Parrie's files was used by James Charles Kopp to track down and kill Buffalo doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998. However, deParrie never had a file on Slepian. 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 25-year prison sentence.

After Slepian's murder, Planned Parenthood President Gloria Feldt denounced christiangallery.com at a press conference. The publicity generated hundreds of thousands of hits at Horsley's website (Horsley claims 400,000). Horsley was named as a co-conspirator in a successful civil suit, Planned Parenthood v. American Coalition of Life Activists, 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. 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. As part of the judgement, 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 posters 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.

Lawsuits

During an appearance on Upfront Tonight on CNBC, Geraldo Rivera accused Horsley of "aiding and abetting a homicide" in the Slepian murder. Horsely 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". Horsley also sued Glorida Feldt of Planned Parenthood and Kim Gandy of the National Organization of Women for similar statements.

External links

• 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 IMDb