Addicted To Hate

By Jon Michael Bell

I found this article a number of years ago, around 2006, and mirrored it on my website. Its truth is the subject of some debate, and I personally make no representations one way or another, aside from a personal belief that, if nothing else, it was largely inspired by true events. Whether you choose to believe it or not, it's certainly interesting reading about a disturbingly fascinating person.

Every chapter has a link to the PDF, DVI, and PostScript versions of this article as well, feel free to download and share it. The LaTeX source code I used to compile those formats is freely available as well, click here to download it. For those unfamiliar with the format, .tex files are in plain text, but use command structures and syntax from the LaTeX typesetting language, and can be compiled into a variety of formats using it. By converting the original document to this format, it should be easier to distribute in an easy-to-read format.

IMPORTANT NOTES FROM THE ANTI-PHELPS UNDERGROUND

PLEASE MAKE 10 COPIES OF THIS THIS FILE AND GIVE THEM TO THOSE WHO FIND THE ACTIVITIES OF FRED PHELPS UNCONSCIONABLE.

On June 29, 1994 Jon Michael Bell, a former reporter hired to investigate Fred Phelps and Westboro Baptist Church by Stauffer Communications, Inc., filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court in Topeka, Kansas against Stauffer Communications alleging the Topeka Capital-Journal owed him compensation for overtime and to clarify ownership of his notes and work product. The work product in question, "Addicted to Hate" chronicling the life and times of Fred Phelps, was attached to the lawsuit as Exhibit A making it, therefore, a public document. Learning of the suit, members of Topeka's anti-Phelps underground delivered a certified copy of the lawsuit to a copy shop near the courthouse.

Within 48 hours, Stauffer Communications had written all area media outlets and issued veiled warnings about using the information contained in "Addicted to Hate". A rival Topeka newspaper, the Metro News, announced it was considering publishing the lawsuit in it entirety. The Kansas City Star abided by Stauffer Communication's wishes, but several other media outlets aired or printed portions of the manuscript. Within 48 hours of the filing, Stauffer Communications persuaded a judge to seal the suit so the Clerk of the District Court could no longer make copies for the public. No matter - no such order was issued to the copy shop or to the hundreds of citizens that already had copies.

On July 8 the Capital-Journal, which had deep-sixed the Phelps project and fired the publisher who authorized it when it was completed last fall, suddenly began its watered-down, copyrighted series on Phelps that they had earlier claimed they wouldn't print. Bell also withdrew his suit the same day.

By this time, however, TV networks, wire services, and eastern newspapers had obtained copies of the manuscript, and Stauffer's unprecedented attempt to suppress media discussion of the document attracted the interest of several major East Coast newspapers on First Amendment grounds.

Phelps, a self-proclaimed advocate of the First Amendment, whose 'free speech activities include libel, slander defamation of character, intimidation, obscene language, battery, promptly denounced Stauffer Communications and denied the allegations of child abuse, spouse abuse, and other illegal activities. Anyone familiar with Phelps and his children who remain loyal to him, however, can clearly see these adult children and his wife suffer from the grotesque and obvious behaviors symptomatic of severe, long-term abuse. Where and how the twisted saga of Fred Phelps will end is anyone's guess.

DISCLAIMER

The volunteer distributors of this file wish to emphatically state that Jon Michael Bell did not suggest, encourage, or take part in the transfer or distribution of his typewritten manuscript (Exhibit A) to ASCII format. Volunteer distributors make no guarantees either expressed or implied and cannot be responsible in the use of this file.

Jon Michael Bell, one of the authors of "Addicted to Hate", seeks no compensation for his work. If, however, after reading "Addicted to Hate", you would like to make a contribution in his name to organizations in Topeka assisting AIDS victims, abused children and battered women, please send your donations to:

1. Hospice for AIDS Victims
c/o Topeka AIDS Project
1915 S. W. 6th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66606

2. Project Safe Talk
200 S.E. 7th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66603

3. Battered Women Task Force
225 S.W. 12th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66612

Let the word go forth that the overwhelmingly vast majority of Topekans and Kansans DO NOT support Westboro Baptist Cult and Fred Phelps' hate campaigns against all who disagree with him. The District Attorney in Shawnee County (Topeka) has filed several criminal cases against members of the Westboro Cult ranging from disorderly conduct and battery to felony charges of aggravated intimidations of victims and witnesses. Prosecution of these cases are delayed pending the outcome of the second of the lawsuits filed in federal court by Phelps Chartered. There will probably be more. Fred and his lawyer offspring and in-laws continue to abuse the judicial system much as Fred did before his state and federal disbarments. The case is expected to be heard in federal court in early fall, but few expect that this will be the end.

Please let Topeka officials and Federal Judge Sam Crow know that many of Fred Phelps' and WBC activities (as outlined in the above paragraph and documented by both "Addicted to Hate" and the Capital-Journal series) are NOT protected by the First Amendment and encourage them to take whatever steps are necessary to prosecute Phelps for those activities which are clearly crimes to the fullest extent of the law. Please do it today!

The Hon. Sam A. Crow
Frank Carlson Federal Courthouse
444 S.E. Quincy
Topeka, Kansas 66603
(913) 295-2626

Joan M. Hamilton
Shawnee County District Attorney
200 S.E. 7th Street Suite 214
Topeka, Kansas 66603
(913) 233-8200 Ext. 4330

Commissioner Don Cooper
Chairman, Board of Commissioners
200 S.E. 7th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66603
(913) 233-8200 Ext. 4040

The Hon. Butch Felker
Office of the Mayor
215 S.E. 7th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66603
(913) 295-3895

Chief Gerald Beavers
Topeka Police Deaprtment
204 S.W. 5th Street
Topeka, Kansas 66603
(913) 354-9551

Writing

Addicted to Hate: Introduction
Posted: June 29, 1994, 10:53 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell EXHIBIT A ADDICTED TO HATE By Jon Michael Bell with Joe Taschler and Steve Fry (Note: The contents of the following document shows the time stamp of the Clerk of the District Court, Shawnee County, Kansas and shows that...
Addicted to Hate: Preface
Posted: June 29, 1994, 9:57 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Preface He rang the doorbell. It was winter, and with his thick gloves he could barely feel the button. No answer. He waited. A cat, caught like him on this cold night outside, walked along the porch rail. Toward him....
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 1
Posted: June 29, 1994, 8:59 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Introductions All Around A TIME magazine article from 1950 hangs framed on the wall. It's about a college student's crusade against necking on a campus in Southern California. That student's office in Kansas today is...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 2
Posted: June 29, 1994, 7:02 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Daddy's Hands Mark Phelps feels nauseated whenever he remembers that night. He was hit over 60 times and his brother, Nate, over 200 with a mattock handle. Nate went into shock. Mark didn't. A boy who became a compulsive...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 8
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Over the Wall at Westboro Listening to Fred Jr. pretend he doesn't remember a girl named Debbie Valgos is an eerie experience. It's as if one were listening to a teenager deny he borrowed the car while his parents were gone. ...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 4
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Dog Days for the Pastor Before greatness could be thrust upon him, however, this new John Brown would suffer his dog days. At first, the new arrivals sailed smoothly into the Eastside Baptist community. Fred was roundly...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 3
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell God's Left Hook The air hangs heavy, torpid, and hot. Pulling the warm steam into one's lungs leaves only a disturbing sense of slow suffocation. Under the harsh subtropic sun, the magnolia blossoms slip from the black-green...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 9
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The False Prophet Sometime around 1975, Phelps began to find his option to beat his family restricted. By then, Mark and Kathy had already rebelled and left, and the other children were fast becoming adults of not...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 5
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The Children's Crusade The pastor's heavy drug use continued from 1962 until late 1967 or early 1968, according to Mark Phelps. Confined to itself and tormented by an increasingly explosive, abusive, and erratic father, the...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 6
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell The Law of Wrath Nowhere was the volatile and abusive nature of Fred Phelps more visible than in the law courts. Six years before the bar, the ill-tempered reverend had already discovered the law was a perfect mattock-handle...
Addicted to Hate: Chapter 7
Posted: June 29, 1994, 6:04 p.m. By Jon Michael Bell Nightmare of Twelfth Street "Since no one else would join, my father sired us for congregations," observes Mark. "We were the only members because we had no choice. When we got old enough to make our own decisions, choose our...