Would that it were.  Instead, for the last quarter of a century, it has been the home of the Northern Illinois Women’s Clinic—the antiseptic-sounding name for Rockford’s only abortuary.

It has another name, too.  The building’s current owner, Wayne Webster, dubbed it “Fort Turner,” but its walls offer no protection—certainly not to the children whose lives end there, but neither to the mothers who may spend the rest of their lives in regret over having sacrificed their daughters on the altar of “women’s rights,” nor to the fathers who pay for the ritual murder of their sons.

And if the antics of Wayne Webster over the years—dressing up like the devil to harass pro-lifers praying the rosary on the sidewalk outside the clinic; trying to drown out their prayers by shouting obscenities over loudspeakers he has mounted on the exterior walls; hanging rubber chickens (including one mounted on a crucifix) and obscene signs and pictures in the windows—are any indication, the walls of Fort Turner (where Webster also lives) have not protected him from spiritual attack.  But then demons, like vampires, are always looking for an invitation to enter in, and they may well have taken up residence inside Fort Turner when the first abortion was performed there a quarter-century ago.

As if providing a location for an average of 35 murders each week is not enough, over the years Webster has hung signs in the windows of Fort Turner mocking the Christian beliefs of the pro-lifers: “Jesus loves these braindead a—holes,” “These Bible-thumpers suffer from lack-o-nookie,” “God bless these horny old sweat-hogs,” “NIWC 50,000, JC 50” (that is, by the time the abortuary reached 50,000 children killed, Jesus Christ had saved only 50).  But Webster’s latest outrage crossed from mockery into blasphemy, when, in late summer, he hung up a sign with the inscription “Even Jesus Hates You,” under an image of Christ extending the middle finger of His right hand.

The Rockford Pro-Life Initiative, a coalition of pro-life activists founded in 2008 to “eliminate abortion in the Rockford area through Christian, non-confrontational means,” including “Prayer, Fasting, Education and Personal Sacrifice,” asked Rockford police to enforce city ordinances against the offensive use of property by ordering Webster to remove the image.  When a police sergeant refused, saying that the sign was not offensive, a veteran pro-life activist, Kevin Rilott, received permission to address the Rockford City Council.  Pro-lifers showed up at the meeting with small devotional pictures of Christ, and Rilott implored the council to take action—to no avail.

The Rockford ordinances state that it is illegal to “disturb or destroy the peace of the neighborhood in which such building or premises are situated.”  While it is by no means certain that a court would agree that Webster’s blasphemous sign violates the ordinances, many of his other actions—especially the blasting of rock music and the shouting of obscenities over the loudspeakers mounted on the outside of Fort Turner—clearly do.  Yet there is no record of Webster or the clinic being issued a citation.

A few weeks after Webster hung the “Even Jesus Hates You” sign, Rilott was praying outside of Fort Turner, in the same spot where he has stood for a decade.  Webster’s security guard asked him to move, and when Rilott refused, he called in the police.  An officer on the scene asked Rilott to pick up a large painting of Christ that he had propped up next to him; when Rilott refused, the officer called in the same police sergeant who had refused to take action on Webster’s sign.  After ordering the pro-life protesters to turn off their video cameras, the sergeant confiscated the painting on the grounds that it was “unattended” and threw it in the back of his squad car.

So, pictures of Our Lord giving the finger to faithful Christians are acceptable; “unattended” paintings of Christ are not.  (As video footage of the incident shows, Rilott was never more than two or three feet away from the painting at any time.)

When pro-lifers use graphic images of aborted children in their protests, the media views such actions as provocation (which, in some cases, such as that of the recently murdered James Pouillon, it may well be).  But you will look in vain for equivalent treatment of Webster’s blasphemy (or similar actions at abortuaries around the country).

Pro-lifers’ use of graphic images, I have argued, is counterproductive at best; but while they do not show us the truth, they at least portray reality.  Webster’s sign does neither—though it may give us a glimpse into the depths of his soul and of the sleepless nights he spends guarding the gates of Hell.

“The true meaning of Christmas gets lost when we believe contrary worldviews,” the prisoner writes.  “Our beliefs determine our views in a world where absolutes are fading away.”  The prisoner is dictating this for his newsletter.

Come-to-Jesus (or -Allah) experiences abound in prisons, so it’s always wise to take conversion stories with a grain of salt.  Most of us will look for certain signs: Is the guilty man able to articulate his repentance in something other than self-serving terms?  With God’s help I have been able to forgive myself just doesn’t cut it.  Also, has the guilty man embraced the justice meted out by the court system?  Or does his conversion conveniently coincide with an appeal?  Furthermore, is the guilty man faithful, both in his confession and his conduct, and for how long?

This will be the prisoner’s 38th Christmas behind bars.  In 1975 he became a Christian, and in 1980 he founded Abounding Love Ministries, preaching the Gospel on the inside and sharing his faith through books and his monthly newsletter.

“If justice would’ve been served, I would’ve gotten the death penalty,” says the prisoner.  “I hope that in no way have I ever given the impression that I blame anything on my parents or drugs . . . I take full responsibility.”

Over the years, the prisoner has received stacks of mail from women—some curious, some bizarre, some out of Christian love.  Some 20 years ago, he began corresponding with a woman named Susan LaBerge.  She identified herself as a new Christian who was reaching out to him with the love and forgiveness of Christ.  He began sending her his newsletter and personal letters of thanks for her encouragement.  Susan said that as she read his letters her chest pounded, and she “cried and cried, realizing he’d come to the Lord, and I’ve come to the Lord.”

After a year of correspondence, the prisoner was surprised to read that Susan wanted to visit him in person.  Letters are one thing, but you just never know what sort of person you’re going to find in the visiting room.  Anyone can fake the lingo of Christianity in a letter.  What was she up to?

When Susan arrived at the Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, California, she seemed pleasant, peaceful.  They talked for some time, sharing with each other about their faith, how it was that they had become Christians.  As it turned out, Susan had grown up in the area where the prisoner had committed his crimes at age 23.  She had been 21 years old at the time.

There was more.  She hadn’t been sure whether she would say it, but his faith seemed genuine.  “There’s something I want to tell you,” she said, and he braced himself.  Was this the moment he’d dreaded?  Or worse, was she a member of the Family, come to try to work some sort of spell on him?

“My mother was Rosemary LaBianca,” she said.

“You’re kidding,” he said, stunned.

“I’m not kidding.”

They sat and wept.  In fact, he weeps again, retelling the story.

On August 10, 1969, Charles “Tex” Watson, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel stabbed Susan’s mother 41 times in her bedroom.  They killed her stepfather, Leno, in the living room in a similarly gruesome manner and, on the orders of Charles Manson, “left something witchy” behind: the words “Death to pigs” and “Rise” written in Leno’s blood on the wall, and “War” carved into his abdomen.  The night before, the man who claimed to be Jesus Christ had told Tex to round up the girls and begin “Helter Skelter,” an apocalyptic black uprising against whites.  Manson thought “blackie was too ignorant” to get the ball rolling, so he sent out his drug-addled apostles.  Before butchering a pregnant Sharon Tate and her friends, Watson told them, “I am the devil, and I’m here to do the devil’s business.”

Charles Watson was, in fact, given the death penalty, along with Manson and all of the women who participated in those crimes, but the state of California outlawed the death penalty in 1972, which commuted all of their sentences to life in prison.

On the evening of August 10, 1969, Susan, her boyfriend, and her 15-year-old brother entered the kitchen of the LaBianca residence and were greeted by the words “Healter [sic] Skelter” written in blood on the refrigerator.

“All I felt from Susan,” said the prisoner, “was love.”  He calls it a miracle.

Susan LaBerge testified at a parole hearing that Charles Watson had changed.  This enraged Sharon Tate’s mother, nerves still raw, and she called Susan a “stupid sh-t.”  Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi commented that, when it comes to parole, it doesn’t matter whether Watson has changed.  To let him out would be a miscarriage of justice.  Indeed, as Bugliosi and Watson have both said, justice requires the death penalty.  Watson knows he’ll never be a free man, not in this life.

Another Manson Family member will spend this Christmas free for the first time in 34 years.  Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, convicted in 1975 of attempting to assassinate President Ford, was released from prison in August.  In interviews over the years, she maintained her love for the Jesus-of-Death-Valley, who “gave me everything.”

Back in Mule Creek, the prisoner will be celebrating the birth of the Child Who gave him everything, including forgiveness undeserved.

This article first appeared in the December 2009 issue of Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.

Going Through the Motions
by Thomas Fleming

VIEWS

Recovering the Dignity of Truth
by William Murchison
Episcopalians and/or Anglicans.

Fighting for Orthodoxy Among the Methodists
by Mark Tooley
Some good news.

A Tale of Two Subversives
by Srdja Trifkovic
Battling Christophobia in California and Serbia.

NEWS

Government-Managed Business
by Stephen B. Presser
As Silent Cal spins . . .

REVIEWS

Waiting for Charles the Second
by Matthew A. Roberts

Christopher Caldwell: Reflections on the Revolution in Europe

plus

W. James Antle III on William Murchison’s Mortal Follies: Episcopalians and the Crisis of Mainline Christianity

Andrei Navrozov on Józef Mackiewicz’s The Triumph 
of Provocation

CORRESPONDENCE

Letter From the Upper Midwest: Forgotten Corners
by Sean Scallon

VITAL SIGNS

The New Republic: Fairabia
by R. Cort Kirkwood

Film: Twice-Baked and Twice as Bad
by Robert Dean Lurie

COLUMNS

Growing Up in America
by Paul Craig Roberts

Under the Black Flag
by Taki Theodoracopulos

Heresies
by Aaron D. Wolf

The Rockford Files
by Scott P. Richert

Between the Lines
by Justin Raimondo

In the Dark
A Serious Man
by George McCartney

What’s Wrong With the World
by Chilton Williamson, Jr.

DEPARTMENTS

Polemics & Exchanges
AMERICAN PROSCENIUM
CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS
CONTRASTS

POETRY
An Inmate Gang and
Green Water
by Jack Butler

ON THE COVER

Cover photo by the monks of Clear Creek.
Inside illustrations by Melanie Anderson.