Last night, more than a hundred former Church of Scientology members gathered for a birthday party and reunion at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
And waiting for them, as they began walking into the rented hall for the event, were a couple of men filming them.
“They were right next door to the banquet hall. Two gentlemen sitting on a sofa near the door,” Marc Headley tells us.
Headley, who escaped from Scientology’s secretive International Base in 2005 and later wrote a book about his experiences, Blown For Good, was one of the well-known former church members who were invited to the event.
“It was like a who’s who of the Underground Bunker,” Headley told us by telephone last night. And at Facebook, familiar faces like Karen de la Carriere and Mark Fisher have been posting photos from the shindig that feature people like Camilla Andersson, Jesse Prince, and Jim Jackson.
The event was intended to be a birthday party for several people, including Peter Gillham, 87, and his daughter Terri, who, along with her sister Janis, was one of the original four “Commodore’s Messengers” on the yacht Apollo with L. Ron Hubbard. (See the amazing 2009 story by Joe Childs and Tom Tobin about Scientology’s efforts to keep tabs on the Gillham sisters in Las Vegas after they left the church.)
The Gillham sisters left the Church of Scientology nearly a quarter century ago, but keeping tabs on their party guests were two men surreptitiously filming the event.
“One had an iPhone, the other guy had a pen camera. They were both pointing them at the door as everyone was walking in,” Headley tells us. “You would think a hundred paranoid ex-church members would notice they were being filmed, but they didn’t.”
It was Headley himself who realized what was going on. “I walked over and confronted the guy with the iPhone. ‘Really? this is a birthday party.’ He had headphones on, but he had his iPhone resting on his knee, and he was filming everyone going in.”
Headley is very experienced at spotting when he’s being watched. His family came under heavy surveillance after he and his wife Claire both escaped their jobs as Sea Org workers and then sued the church. Many of the other guests at the party have been subjected to intense campaigns of surveillance and “noisy investigations” by the church — and the church has admitted to the activity in official court documents in an ongoing Texas lawsuit. Scientology characterizes the hiring of private eyes and attorneys to monitor former members as an expression of its free speech and religious rights.
Headley confronted the man with the iPhone. “I told him, ‘You’re done. Pack it up. This is a private party.’ He stood there, and then he finally put the phone in his backpack and walked out.”
Headley followed him out, and then noticed the man who had been sitting next to him. He hadn’t moved, which Headley found suspicious. “A normal person would react,” he says.
He decided to videotape the second person, and then noticed that the man was also filming the crowd with a pen camera — its LED gave it away.
“I recognized it immediately as Claire bought me the exact same pen last year for Christmas. It is a working pen that has a covert camera inside of it. Now the only bummer about this pen is that it has a tiny blue LED light near the top of the pen that makes it slightly less covert. These pens run anywhere from 5 to 25 dollars. If you pop for 50 dollars you can have one that has no LED and is more stealth,” he says. “I went to grab the pen from him, and he finally packed up his stuff. I followed him down the escalator.”
Headley then spotted a third person who seemed to be with the other two, but he didn’t capture any images of him.
“The people having a birthday party left the church more than 20 years ago. But Scientology wants to know who’s going to the birthday party,” Headley says with a laugh. He notes that after chasing off the two spies, the party went off without a hitch.
And now, we turn to our regular weekly feature, Sunday Funnies!
Hey, look who’s doing a Christmas broadcast from Flag! With all the money Bob Duggan and his wife Trish have given to Scientology (somewhere north of $50 million, we estimate), it’s about time he got some of the limelight. And speaking of Bob’s largesse, a tipster tells us that in the latest copy of Impact magazine, Bob and Trish are featured from the recent IAS gala in England, where they received yet another new status for their IAS donations — now, they’re “Patron Invictus.” Isn’t that cool! We’re pretty sure that means they had to pony up another three to five million. It’s getting tough to keep track of how much cheddar this moneybags is unloading into Scientology leader David Miscavige’s pet projects!
Hey, girl. Please join me. I know exactly where I’m going. Right into your whole track with a postulate for hot steamy love.
Brian Cotter, what a mark. Super Power, Clear, L’s, and from Patron Meritorious to Gold Meritorious in a single year. What’s that, about $2 million in just twelve months? And as he says, “the end is near.” We sure hope this idiot doesn’t have kids whose future is being pissed down the drain. This guy needs serious help.
Jumping tech!
Wow, has it been a year already since Golden Age of Tech II was released? And look, the planet’s nearly cleared!
Nancy Cartwright, voice of Bart Simpson whose codename in Scientology is “Her Royal Governor of the Vast Valley Territory” has forked over yet another big donation to get the Valley Ideal Org done. “Idea Civilization Builder With Honors” — what’s that mean, $2 million or something? It’s hard to keep track of all the status names. Also, note how Bob and Trish Duggan are being credited multiple times for what was probably one big lump sum…
Hey, this Ideal Org in South Africa will hardly take any fundraising, right?
Will Meghan Fialkoff be handing out booklets with Miss New York? We can only hope so!
Fearless Leader, Braveheart, the Cause Resurgence and Super Power — we’re getting lightheaded with excitement!
These folks are busy as bees!
Hey kids, instead of presents this year, mommy and daddy are getting a month in the sauna!
Mike Rinder posted this one at his blog and noted its significance — more than a year after Portland opened its Ideal Org to much fanfare, it’s still sending its people down to Sacramento to go Clear? That’s a troubling sign.
Stan Gerson, magician, jumps into the fray for the restaffed ASHO!
Ray loved the KSW section of his Student Hat…
Renovations ballpark? What does that even mean? But congrats just the same, Silicon Valley…
We bet this was a hoot. If you went, let us know how it went down.
And finally, who could resist this pitch?
——————–
Scientology’s troubles in California
Karen de la Carriere with another illuminating video, this time on Scientology’s difficulties in the Los Angeles area…
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on November 23, 2014 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25
UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
