"No one can touch me"

"No one can touch me", Paul Shanley, a founding member of Nambla (North American Man/Boy Love Association) once said.

But today this fallen priest lost his appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Court. I imagine his good friend Paul Shannon, Richard Pillard and the Reform Sex Offender Laws Campaign will go into deep mourning and further lashing out at victims of child sexual abuse.

Regardless of the fact that there were documented accusations of abuse against Shanley in his file going back to 1967, and another documented complaint from as early as 1961 - and the Catholic Church subsequent cover-up at the hands of Bernard Law - the same Cardinal Bernard Law who first referred to the attempt to stop baby-raping pedophile priests as

"This is the closest thing I've seen to a lynch mob since my days in Mississippi."

Of course that was before it was revealed that Law had covered up for those same baby-raping pedophile priests for years and years. And years. Paul Shannon and RSOL/Nambla associates still refer to it as a witch hunt. In denial of things like this:

"The documents released by court order revealed both the horrifying details of abuse and the church's cavalier response to victims and others concerned about the ongoing abuse. The revelations were dramatically at odds with years of protestations by church leaders, including Law, blaming the media for exaggerating the scandal's extent."

Shanley's defense was that the victim should not be believed because of the "junk science'' of "repressed memory".

The prosecution maintained that "the emotional trauma [the victim] suffered created a 'disassociative amnesia,' which is recognized by the mental health profession as a legitimate psychiatric disorder."

Paul Shanley's own 'expert' witness whose purpose was to prove that Shanley's victim could not have repressed a memory of abuse and later remembered it (Abuse that occured over a 7 year period) also admitted during testimony:

"Oh yeah, people can forget traumatic experiences that happened to them, and they can later remember them."

"And if something happens to you over and over again, you remember it even better."

Especially interesting to me that Shanley would have the nerve to appeal his sentence when you consider the notes of his own psychiatrist in which Shanley admitted to molesting children.....TEN years before he ever made it into a courtroom. Raped and molested children that Paul Shannon of the RSOL refers to as "LIARS".


Paul Shanley was just one of the reasons for the existence of the Reform Sex Offender Laws Campaign as we've discussed before. But let us keep a few comments in mind as the discussion of Paul Shanley, Paul Shannon, Nambla, RSOL and other pedophile supporters continue:

Dr. Richard Pillard: Organizer - Reform Sex Offender Law Campaign and Nambla said at the founding meeting of Nambla

"Men and boys who love each other are engaging in a social experiment."

Paul Shanley: Defrocked priest and convicted child molester:

"People shouldn't put such hope in a mere man, any man. It's almost sacrilegious. If they knew the madness in me, festering below the surface, they would join the ranks of my accusers."

Paul Shannon - Organizer - Reform Sex Offender Law Campaign

"All I know is that Paul Shanley did not rape these four boys"

I'm guessing that Shanley forgot to tell his good friend about his confessions.....and the TWENTY SIX known victims.

Paul Shanley:

"We have our convictions upside down if we are truly concerned with boys...the 'cure' does far more damage."

Dr. Richard Pillard and Tom Reeves - Nambla Steering Committee member, were both original founding members of Nambla along with Father Paul Shanley. Years later when Shanley was under investigation for multiple child rapes, the RSOL was formed by Dr. Richard Pillard and Tom Reeves. Along with other Nambla members like Bill Andriette. Recently when sex offender activists have questioned the RSOL about their affiliation with Nambla "Alex Marbury" stated that they should not let "Petty Differences" interfere with their attempt to abolish sex offender laws. In other words - their drive to make the world a safer place for predators.


The good news is however, that today the world is a safer place from THAT child predator: Paul Shanley. May he serve every second of his sentence and die of old age in prison.

"But I think we have to say it"

"On December 2, 1978, Tom Reeves of the Boston-Boise Committee convened a meeting called "Man/Boy Love and the Age of Consent." Approximately 150 interested people attended. At the meeting's conclusion, about thirty men and youths decided to form an organization which they called the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA for short."

Bill Andriette in The Guide, the Nambla Bulletin and IPCE - or 'International Pedophile and Child Emancipation' all report that Paul Shanley was not at the meeting that spawned Nambla.

In fact, many pedophiles report that Shanley wasn't there. And yet, Bill Andriette says he was at the meeting on December 2, 1978. And Daniel Tsang reported the December 2, 1978 meeting is the one that spawned Nambla.

Bruce Steele says he's not sure which meeting Shanley attended but it wasn't THAT one. He says Shanley didn't promote pedophilia just simply the liberation of children.

And it was [that] group of people, including Daniel Tsang, who were the founders of NAMBLA. Shanley didn't attend that side meeting.

We don't know whether he was quoted accurately; we do know the article was written by Daniel Tsang, who was a proponent of intergenerational sex. The quotes were shocking, but he wasn't advocating the molestation of children.

Let's look at what he said. Along with a few other familiar names that were in attendance.

[Speech by Father Paul Shanley to the Psychological Panel at the Boston/Boise Committee conference on "Legal, Psychological, and Ethical Issues of Intergenerational Relationships," Community Church, Boston, December 2, 1978]

Dr. Richard Pillard: Organizer - Reform Sex Offender Law Campaign

"Just to keep there from being too much agreement on this panel, let me ask a devil's advocate question. Children are naturally obliging and want to do what older people expect of them. How can you keep a child from feeling exploited, or from being exploited, by an older person, particularly if he's quite young?"

Paul Shanley: Convicted child molester

"Just two brief reflections. Very often I find it's the man who is being exploited by the boy, and sometimes I think we have to help adult males to learn how to handle that situation. I think it was mentioned before that many kids in fact, most kids are very capable of handling themselves and they don't get exploited as often as we would like to think."

Paul Shanley: Defrocked priest

"That word exploitative has been used. I would like to define that as using without caring. That's my understanding of "exploitative" sex. I think a lot of straight sex is exploitative. I think a lot of sex between parents is exploitative. And I think an awful lot of parents are predators. But whatever criteria you arrive at in deciding what sex between men and boys is exploitative, I think you could balance that against parents. You know, you can't abolish parenthood, and neither should you abolish man-boy sex simply because it might not live up to the highest ideal."

Tom Reeves: Pedophile Activist

"They are teachers and boy scout leaders and boys' clubs leaders!" he shouted pounding the podium with both hands. "The men who work with boys **** many of them, and thus obviously can be used against everybody but I think we have to say
it - the motivation behind that work (has) a sexual and erotic element."

David Thorstad: Nambla Steering Committee

Said he was retracting his earlier statement.... that he was not a pederast. "I am very happy to say that over the summer that has changed and it wasn't due to my own initiative either. But just as it is with many men, I was seduced and picked up by a boy and I'm very glad he did it."

David Thorstad, founding member of Nambla. His free speech rights to promote baby raping were defended by John Reinstein (we spoke of here), of the ACLU - after a Nambla member raped and murdered Jeffrey Curley in Cambridge Massachusetts in 1997 after reading Nambla material. A few of the other men named in the lawsuit include Tom Reeves, Joe Power, Roy Radow, Tecumseh Brown, Bill Andriette, Jonathon Tampico, Chris Farrell, Dennis Bejin, Robert Rhodes, Peter Melzer, Rennato Corazza, Chuck Dodson and Leland Stevenson.

Richard Hoffman says:

"NAMBLA claims that it has never advocated violence. Their denial, however, relies on an overly narrow definition. The cognitive and emotional violence done to a child's psyche has consequences more lasting than the tearing of bodily tissue. To a child, an adult's wiles can be more coercive than muscular force."

David Thorstad said:

"To be an active pederast in the United States today is like being a Jew in Nazi Germany. The United States is becoming - perhaps already has become - a police state. "

- pederast -

A man who engages in anal intercourse with boys.

Dr. Judith Reisman:

It seems to me that just as we face the reality of a coterie of closet pederast priests and even bishops we need to face the reality of a coterie of closet pederast therapists and even psychiatrists. For example, the Chairperson of the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University Hospital, Dr. Richard Pillard attended the nascent North American Man-Boy-Love Association (NAMBLA) conference on "Man-Boy-Love."

Pillard, famous for his twin study that claimed to prove a genetic basis for homosexuality, urged his fellow NAMBLAlike delegates to welcome pederasty since, said Pillard, "Men and boys who love each other are engaging in a social experiment."

I could list criminal records of various Nambla members, including the defrocked and convicted priest Paul Shanley - crimes committed by men who claim to just love children and who don't believe it should be a crime to exploit and abuse a child for their own selfish twisted desires. But that would take too long. Instead I'll focus on Leland Stevenson who was released from prison in 1989 for a child pornography conviction, appeared in the ChickenHawk Nambla documentary in 1994 and was then convicted again in 1997 in Florida for possession of child pornography which included pictures of boys aged 8 to 10 years old.

It appears that they LIE when they say they "only" like teenagers. And it appears that they LIE when they say they aren't actually active. Who in their right mind would have believed that in the first place?

Leland Stevenson:

Dear Mr. Love,

At its 16th membership conference, held in Chicago, August 7-9-1992, the North American Man/Boy Love Association unanimously adopted the following resolution:

“NAMBLA calls on the Boy Scouts of America to cease its discrimination against openly gay or lesbian persons in the appointment of its scout masters. This will permit scouts to be exposed to a variety of life styles and will permit more of those individuals who genuinely wish to serve boys to do so.”

I feel especially honored to have been asked to alert you of this resolution...I have also been a scout and a scout leader and share with so many in NAMBLA affection for the movement. We recognize, of course, that the action for which we call is inevitable. What a great added contribution your organization will make possible to all the boys and girls who participate in it when you take this step. May it be taken in the near future.

We share a common mission — to bring greater understanding and light and purpose to the young as they grow. We invite you to join with us in cherishing individual integrity, and in seeking the opportunity for every boy and girl in our country to find their own truth. We encourage you to help every person associated with your organization to be able to express those values from themselves which to them represent for themselves the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. As we work together toward these ends Light will guide our way. We express these sentiments most respectfully,

Very Cordially,
Leland Stevenson
Co-Recording Secretary, NAMBLA

(NAMBLA Bulletin, November 1992)

Tom Reeves:

"(1)The North American Man/Boy Love Association calls for the abolition of age-of-consent and all other laws which prevent men and boys from freely enjoying their bodies. (2) We call for the release of all men and boys imprisoned by such laws."

"If you tell, no one will believe you"

"If you tell, no one will believe you", whispered Father Paul Shanley into the 6 year old boy's ear as he proceeded to sodomize the child. An act he would continue to inflict on this child for the next 6 years.

The child did exactly what the hippie priest expected him to do. He kept silent. For 20 years.

One day he did tell. In a court of law. Despite what the priest had told him, a jury of 12 men and women believed him.

Rumors had circulated about Paul Shanley for decades. Multiple complaints had been made about him molesting young boys and promoting pedophilia,bestiality and incest as normal - complaints which were made to church officials who responded the way they always did when they discovered a pedophile priest in their midst - A brief apology to the family along with a statement that God wanted us to forgive. Then they transferred Paul to another unsuspecting Parish. The first incident dates back to the 1960's. He's had at least 40 victims.

As a young priest Paul was known as the "hippie priest" or "The Pied Piper". He belonged to the streets and alleys of Boston, walking the night looking for young boys he could "help". He had style, he had carisma and people adored him even as they suspected that there was something not quite right about this man who was willing to take on all the troubled youths who didn't fit in. And yet, that's how it usually is with sexual predators. The vulnerable make the easiest targets....and they are the least likely to tell - from a 6 year old boy to a 15 year old runaway. THAT is the number one requirement to prey on children, being able to recognize which ones are susceptible to manipulation.

Paul's crimes finally caught up with him in a Boston court room where his lawyers argued that he was a victim of a false recovered memory. A jury of 12 men and women didn't believe him. I read the transcripts - I don't believe him either. Amazingly enough there are those who do support Shanley.

Among them are Bob Chatelle, an original signatory on the RSOL campaign, a long time Nambla apologist, pedophile defender and activist for legalized possession of child pornography under the guise of free speech....... and nonexistence. He claims child pornography laws are unconstitutional.

There's Yasmin Nair, a gay rights activist and pedophile apologist.

It’s true that sexual assault can have shattering effects on people, but not always. And it’s not impossible to learn to live with the memories of trauma.

How can we live with ourselves, with our betrayal of Paul Shanley?

Then there's Bill Andriette, Nambla Steering Committee member, editor of The Nambla Bulletin, and Gayme magazine, recently removed from distribution at Amazon.com. As editor of The Guide he's published pro bestiality articles and descriptions of the eroticism of eating feces. Oh and of course pro Paul Shanley articles of course. He described in an interview the horrors of Megan's Law.

Before the Massachusetts version of the law took effect, a NAMBLA member drafted an "open letter" to the state's high court, likening the measure to rights abuses in the McCarthy era and asking for a postponement of its enforcement. In addition to John Reinstein, legal director of ACLUM, those who agreed to sign the letter included Paul Shannon of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Cathy Hoffman, peace commissioner for the city of Cambridge.

Tom Reeves, Nambla Steering Committee member and original signatory on the RSOL. Tom drafted a resolution which Nambla adopted

"(1) The North American Man/Boy Love Association calls for the abolition of age-of-consent and all other laws which prevent men and boys from freely enjoying their bodies. (2) We call for the release of all men and boys imprisoned by such laws."

And then

On December 2, 1978, Tom Reeves of the Boston-Boise Committee convened a meeting called "Man/Boy Love and the Age of Consent." Approximately 150 people attended. At the meeting's conclusion, about thirty men and youths decided to form an organization which they called the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA for short.

And then of course there is Paul Shannon. The coordinator for the RSOL and long time friend of Paul Shanley. Despite the multitude of victims and despite the 1600 pages of Church documentation, despite the proven knowledge that for four decades Paul Shanley was abusing children....and the Church was complicit with their failure to act. Despite the victims heart rending stories, despite one of Paul's victims who committed suicide. Despite all that Mr. Shannon defends him blindly. Here

"How a jury in any objective sense based on that evidence could convict a person of those charges is beyond me"

And Here

Paul Shannon, a longtime friend, said he felt "complete devastation" over the verdict. He called the accusations a "preposterous story" that he said was "mathematically impossible for Shanley to have done."

And Here

"The fact is," says Paul Shannon, one of Shanley's key supporters, "Coakley is a very dishonest person who has done tremendous grandstanding on this case. As a DA, she's been despicable."

And Here

Mr. Shannon called the verdict “a catastrophe for me personally, for Paul Shanley certainly, and for everyone who is concerned about justice.”

And Here

"All I know is that Paul Shanley did not rape these four boys," Shanley's friend Paul Shannon said.

And Here

His friend Paul Shannon called the sentence and the conviction a travesty and defended the former priest to reporters afterward.

"My life is better because I knew Paul Shanley," he said.

And Here

"In the present climate," says Paul Shannon, "a jury would convict him on the testimony of a ham sandwich."

And of course Here

When people who were sexually violated by priests began coming forward, the opportunity existed for a thoughtful public discussion on matters that routinely elude reason. Instead the media decided that the priests crisis would be viewed within the framework of an inquisition.

To paraphrase the past president of the Brooklyn Sisters of Mercy (Camille D'Arienzo), is it really just to judge another human being by the worst thing he has done in his life, as if it were the only thing he has done? How would any of us fare were someone to broadcast the worst thing we have done - as if it were the solitary expression of our life on earth? Isn't what's required for healing repentance, a sincere apology, appropriate restitution and rebirth - not demonization?

Now Paul Shannon is actively supporting protecting children from sexual abuse by removing virtually all restrictions and penalties on abusers. Ex-Father Paul Shanley must be so proud.

We'll be talking more soon about the history of the RSOL and the people involved with it. For now know that Paul Shanley is taking his case before the Massachusetts Supreme Court, because it's a witch hunt you see. Yes, poor defenseless Paul Shanley was "railroaded" and it's just not FAIR. And yet this question remains - what possible motive could someone have to witch hunt a 71 year old defrocked priest? What could be the motive to lie and somehow manufacture 1600 incriminating church documents?

If, as Paul Shanley claims, his victim had a false recovered memory, how did they ALL have similar memories of him? Reported long before they were repressed and then remembered? Paul Shanley wrote:

"People shouldn't put such hope in a mere man, any man. It's almost sacrilegious. If they knew the madness in me, festering below the surface, they would join the ranks of my accusers.''

Some people said they were afraid of Shanley, but others confronted him on some of his behaviors to which he replied

"No one can touch me"

But they could. Unfortunately it took 40 years.

The Church settled with multiple Shanley victims prior to him ever stepping into a court of law. What possible motive could his victim have for lying? Certainly not money. He already had that. Perhaps the better way to put the question would be "Who had more at stake?"

"No one will believe you if you tell." But a jury of 12 did.

"No one can touch me" And yet someone did. Paul Shanley made a tragic error. He forgot that scared little 6 year old boys grow up to be men.

HT to Mr. Leaves