THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 3, 1994 TAG: 9410030206
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WICHITA LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
A manual dug up by authorities in the back yard of the Oregon woman convicted of trying to kill Wichita physician George Tiller describes illegal tactics that have been used to try to shut down abortion clinics nationwide.
The 125-page document, titled ``The Army of God,'' contains details ranging from how to get and use butyric acid - a liquid with a vomit-like odor that has closed clinics for days at a time - to how to make and detonate bombs.
``We, the remnant of God-fearing men and women of the United States of Amerika, do officially declare war on the entire child killing industry,'' the manual says. ``All of the options have expired. Our Most Dread Sovereign Lord God requires that whosoever sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.''
The manual, a copy of which has been obtained by The Wichita Eagle, was retrieved last year during execution of a search warrant at the Grants Pass, Ore., home of Rachelle ``Shelley'' Shannon, who is serving an 11-year sentence at the Lansing (Kan.) Correctional Facility for shooting Tiller last summer outside his clinic in Wichita, where abortions are performed.
The document is being used by federal authorities, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, looking into the possible existence of a conspiracy to shut down abortion clinics.
The investigation intensified after an abortion doctor and his escort were gunned down outside a Pensacola, Fla., clinic in July. Paul Hill, a former Presbyterian minister and a friend of Shannon's, has been charged in those killings.
``This manual confirms what we have known all along: that violence against abortion providers is not random,'' said Sylvia Stengle, executive director of the National Abortion Federation in Washington. ``It is planned, it is calculated, and it is conducted by many of those who call themselves pro-life.''
Foundation statistics indicate that since 1977, there have been three abortion-related murders, two attempted murders, 38 clinic bombings, 88 arsons and 66 attempted arsons.
In interviews with The Eagle after her arrest for the Tiller shooting, Shannon, 38, said she had three copies of the manual and provided details indicating that she might have been involved in a series of attacks against abortion clinics, including arsons.
Shannon is not the only anti-abortion activist known to have the manual. Federal authorities told The Eagle that Joshua Graff, a Louisiana protester serving a 3-year sentence for the October 1993 arson of a Houston abortion clinic, had a copy as well.
Federal grand juries have been meeting in Portland, Ore., and Sacramento, Calif., and have questioned several of Shannon's friends and fellow anti-abortion activists, as well as her daughter, Angi, 20.
KEYWORDS: ABORTION by CNB