Anti-Abortion Shooter Warns Cohorts Of Fbi

A letter written to an anti-abortion newsletter by a woman convicted of shooting a Kansas doctor indicates she may not have acted alone in setting fires at clinics in Oregon, Nevada and California.

Shelley Shannon’s letter appeared in the April edition of the Prayer & Action Weekly News, based in Des Moines, Iowa. In it, Shannon warns fellow abortion foes that she may have given FBI investigators enough information to track them down.

“If anyone reads this who ever sent me anything, please assume the Feds have it,” Shannon wrote from her jail cell in Portland. “They are working on a lot of different puzzles. If they put together enough pieces, they will be able to see the picture.”

She also said federal authorities read her diary and detailed notes that she took during “rescues,” abortion opponents’ attempts to close clinics and prevent abortions.

Shannon, 39, of Grants Pass, is convicted of shooting a Wichita, Kan., abortion doctor. At a June 7 hearing in Portland, she admitted setting fires at six abortion clinics including one in Idaho.

Shannon originally was charged with 30 counts involving attacks on clinics in four states. But after she provided authorities with information, 20 counts were dropped. Sentencing is scheduled Aug. 24.

She could have bargained away all but five years, she said in the letter. But she had a change of heart and stopped cooperating with authorities after she failed a lie-detector test.

“When I tried to deal, I had no peace,” Shannon wrote, adding that she had considered suicide for cooperating with authorities.

Shannon’s attorney, Andrew Bates, did not return phone calls Friday. But after the hearing earlier this month, he maintained that she acted alone.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen F. Peifer said whether Shannon did, indeed, act alone could be an issue at her sentencing.

Peifer said defense attorneys plan to call witnesses to prove that she had no partners. Prosecutors also may call witnesses to indicate otherwise, though Peifer declined specifics.

In her letter, Shannon said she told authorities she did not set fires at clinics in Redding, Calif., in June 1992 and Boise in May 1993. Charges connecting her to those fires were dropped.

She said that the FBI is most interested in finding members of the Army of God, a group known for its violent tactics that use the Army of God Book, an instruction manual of sorts for terrorism.

Shannon made vague references to people known as Atomic Dog, Mad Gluer and Baby Huey in the letter. She made coded references to “kryptonite locks” and a place called Limpy Creek, where anti-abortion materials are stashed.

Shannon also warned a man who had planned to shoot David Allred, a Los Angeles doctor who has been targeted by abortion foes.

Paul DeParrie, an outspoken abortion foe and editor of Portland’s Life Advocate magazine, laughed when asked if there is an underground conspiracy to perform extreme acts of violence against abortionists and clinics.

DeParrie said there’s little doubt that “two or three people” have considered more violent acts to fight abortion.

“A national conspiracy?” he said. “It’s ludicrous.”

But Dianne Alves, a spokesman for All Women’s Health Services, a Portland clinic where abortions are performed, said she is certain that an underground network exists.

And she said DeParrie and Andrew Burnett of Advocates for Life Ministries in Portland are visible national leaders who encourage covert violent acts. Burnett was at Shannon’s hearing.

“There definitely is (a movement), and they are very organized,” Alves said. “Obviously, if Shelley Shannon were a lone person, she wouldn’t know what other people were doing.”

Meanwhile, DeParrie said that a toughened terrorism law, resulting from the Oklahoma City bombing, could incite more abortion opponents to violence.