Scott Roeder: What We Know

George Tiller’s accused killer, Scott Roeder, is 51 years old, and from Merriam, Kansas. Here’s what is known about him:

• His friends say he believed killing abortion doctors was justifiable homicide.

• Roeder subscribed to Prayer and Action News, a magazine that advocated the justifiable homicide position.

• In the rear window the car he was driving when he was arrested, was a red rose, a symbol often used by abortion opponents. On the rear of the car was a Christian symbol with the word

• He worked as an assemblyman in manufacturing, and was a member of the Freeman movement, a group that believes it’s exempt from US government laws.

• In April 1996, Roeder was arrested in Topeka after Shawnee County sheriff’s deputies stopped him for not having a proper license plate. In his car, officers said they found ammunition, a blasting cap, a fuse cord, a one-pound can of gunpowder and two 9-volt batteries, with one connected to a switch that could have been used to trigger a bomb. His plate said”Sovereign private property. Immunity declared by law. Non-commercial American.” Authorities said the plate was typical of those used by Freemen.

• Roeder was arraigned on one count of criminal use of explosives and misdemeanor charges of driving on a suspended license, failure to carry a Kansas registration and failure to carry liability insurance.

• He was found guilty and sentenced in June 1996 to 24 months of probation with intensive supervision and ordered to dissociate himself from anti-government groups that advocated violence. (The conviction was overturned when a court decided his car was searched illegally).

• Roeder would remove magnetic strips out of bills so the government couldn’t track his money.

• Roeder went into a Wichita Planned Parenthood clinic in 1996 and asked to see the doctor. Robert Crist came out, Roeder stared at him for 45 seconds, then said, I’ve seen you now,” before turning around and walking away.

• In recent years, someone using the name Scott Roeder has posted anti-Tiller comments on various Internet sites. One post, dated Sept. 3, 2007 and placed on a site sponsored by Operation Rescue called chargetiller.com, said that Tiller needed to be “stopped.”  He also wrote: “It seems as though what is happening in Kansas could be compared to the ‘lawlessness’ which is spoken of in the Bible.  Tiller is the concentration camp ‘Mengele’ of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those who protect him bring judgment upon our nation.”

• His ex-wife said Roeder’s obsession about abortion led to their divorce.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.