Otis O'Neal Horsley, Jr. (April 15, 1944 – April 13, 2015) was a

militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

anti-abortion activist and

Christian Reconstructionist Christian reconstructionism is a fundamentalist Calvinist theonomic movement. It developed primarily under the direction of Rousas Rushdoony, Greg Bahnsen and Gary North and has had an important influence on the Christian right in the United ...

who produced a website called the Nuremberg Files, which provided the home addresses of

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

providers in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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 killed or injured by anti-abortion activists, suggesting approval for such

anti-abortion violence Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, in ...

. The name is a reference to the

Nuremberg Trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945 ...

, where

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

leadership were sentenced to death for their involvement in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

and other

Nazi war crimes The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the World War I, First and World War II, Second Wo ...

. While the original site was shut down in 2002, it has reappeared more than once on other ISPs. Horsley was forced to change his

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

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 James Charles Kopp (born August 2, 1954) is an American who was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 sniper-style murder of Barnett Slepian, an American physician from Amherst, New York who performed abortions. Prior to his capture, Kopp was on the FB ...

to track down and kill Buffalo doctor

Barnett Slepian Barnett Abba Slepian (April 23, 1946 – October 23, 1998) was an American physician and abortion provider who was assassinated in his home by James Charles Kopp, a militant member of the US anti-abortion movement. Life and career Slepian was ...

in 1998. Kopp fled the country (becoming a

fugitive A fugitive (or runaway) is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

) but allegedly maintained contact with Horsley while on the run. Kopp was later arrested in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, where he is serving a life sentence. After Slepian's murder,

Planned Parenthood The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. (PPFA), or simply Planned Parenthood, is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care in the United States and globally. It is a tax-exempt corporation under Internal Reve ...

's president

Gloria Feldt Gloria Feldt (born April 13, 1942) is a ''New York Times'' best-selling author, speaker, commentator, and feminist activist who gained national recognition as a social and political advocate of women's rights. In 2013, she and Amy Litzenberger ...

denounced Horsley's website at a

press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...

. The publicity generated hundreds of thousands of hits (Horsley claimed 400,000). Horsley was named as a co-conspirator in a successful civil suit, ''Planned Parenthood v.

American Coalition of Life Activists The American Coalition of Life Activists was an anti-abortion advocacy group that was the subject of controversy for its series of wanted-style posters. History During a 1995 meeting, the group unveiled a "wanted" poster that listed the name ...

'', 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

has twice refused to hear the case, upholding the ruling, but asking that the punitive damages be reconsidered. Punitive damages were reduced from $108 million to $4.7 million. The ruling also provides for $11 million in

treble damages In United States law, treble damages is a term that indicates that a statute permits a court to triple the amount of the actual/compensatory damages to be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff. Treble damages are a multiple of, and not an addition to ...

and $526,000 in compensatory damages. 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 In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller ...

, and the court determined that the files constituted "

true threat A true threat is a threatening communication that can be prosecuted under the law. It is distinct from a threat that is made in jest. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that true threats are not protected under the U.S. Constitution based on three jus ...

s" that are not constitutionally protected.

Karin Spaink Karin Spaink (born December 20, 1957 in Amsterdam) is a journalist, writer and feminist. Spaink is a free speech advocate and social critic. Some of her subjects are: * New-age writers who assert all diseases are only a psychological phenomen ...

ran a mirror of the site in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

for about a week after the district court decision. She later decided to take down the mirror website.

Waagner incident

In 2001, self-described militant

Clayton Waagner Clayton Lee Waagner (born August 25, 1956) is a convicted bank robber and anti-abortion terrorist. He was born Roger Waagner in North Dakota. He was an escaped fugitive during the spring, summer and fall of 2001 and was the FBI's 467th fugitiv ...

, an armed

bank robber Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tell ...

who had escaped from an

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

prison, showed up at Horsley's home brandishing a gun. Horsley alleged 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 Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

letters that had been sent to abortion clinics and elected officials. Going to the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

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."Fugitive abortion foe: I sent anthrax threats"
, ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...

'', November 25, 2001.

Lawsuits

During an appearance on ''Upfront Tonight'' on

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...

Geraldo Rivera Geraldo Rivera (born Gerald Riviera; July 4, 1943) is an American journalist, attorney, author, political commentator, and former television host. He hosted the tabloid talk show '' Geraldo'' from 1987 to 1998. He gained publicity with the liv ...

accused Horsley of "aiding and abetting a homicide" in the Slepian murder. Horsley sued Rivera for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and

slander Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

, 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".Clarkson, Frederick
"A radical antiabortionist backs down"
,

Salon Magazine ''Salon'' is an American politically progressive/liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on U.S. politics, culture, and current events. Content and coverage ''Salon'' covers a variety of topics, including rev ...

. June 21, 2002. URL accessed on 2006-03-29 Horsley also unsuccessfully sued Glorida Feldt of Planned Parenthood and Kim Gandy of the

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

for similar statements.

Run for Governor

In 2010, Horsley ran unsuccessfully for governor of Georgia, under his Creator's Rights Party, on a nullification platform.

Elton John

Horsley was arrested in 2010 for making terrorist threats, after posting a YouTube video stating: "We're here today to remind Elton John that he has to die". The charges were subsequently dropped.

Bestiality

During an interview in 2005 Horsley said that he had engaged in bestiality when he was a 'rowdy' adolescent 'in a state of perpetual confusion' pre-conversion, saying "I did everything that crossed my mind that looked like I...I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."

Death

Horsley died on April 13, 2015 in

Carrollton, Georgia Carrollton, Georgia is a city in the northwest region of Georgia, about 45 miles (72 km) west of Atlanta near the Alabama state line. It is the county seat of Carroll County, which is included in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Historically, ...

, two days before his 71st birthday.

References

External links

Hannity and Colmes interview Neal Horsley - part one
-

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, 1999
Hannity and Colmes interview Neal Horsley - part two
-

, 1999
The Propagandist
-

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...

report on Horsley *Kaminer, Wend
"The Limits of Free Speech"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Horsley, Neal 1944 births American anti-abortion activists Westminster Theological Seminary alumni People from Bremen, Georgia 2015 deaths