“Hurricane Leah,” former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder has dubbed it, and as the Leah Remini media storm continues, we’re just trying to keep up with all of the reactions to her landmark book, Troublemaker.
Fortunately for us, our readers are up to the task and the comments section of this website has been the best place to keep up on all of the latest developments. We thank you for keeping so vigilant with links and videos.
Yesterday, something came up that we had been preparing for. When we read Leah’s book several weeks ago, we realized that she was going to be making a claim about Shelly Miscavige that we find problematic. To prepare for it, last week we spelled out again the step-by-step developments that occurred in July and August 2013 when we first broke news of Leah’s defection and then, a month later, broke news of her reporting Shelly missing to the LAPD. Troublemaker makes several errors about this period, which, in the overall scheme of things, doesn’t make a lot of difference. But one claim made by Leah we wanted to address. She now says that a lawyer told her the LAPD never actually made contact with Shelly Miscavige after Leah filed her missing-person report on August 5, 2013, but simply marked the report “unfounded” after hearing from the church.
Leah may have heard that from an attorney, but we wanted to make it clear: Two different LAPD officials each told us that two LAPD detectives met with Shelly Miscavige after Leah filed her report. Lt. Andre Dawson told us that his two detectives met her, saw that she was in fact alive, and Shelly declined to make a public statement. When we asked Lt. Dawson if other church officials were present during this conversation with his detectives, he quickly said to us, “That’s classified.” We have also pointed out that, since we had that conversation with him in 2013, Lt. Dawson has been listed as a featured speaker at multiple Scientology events.
We’ll say it again: Shelly Miscavige has never been missing. Scientology leader David Miscavige knows perfectly well where he stashed his wife after sending her from the International Base near Hemet in late August or early September 2005 — to the Church of Spiritual Technology headquarters, a secretive compound in the mountains above Los Angeles. Multiple lines of evidence tell us that she’s been there ever since, let out only for a couple of days in the summer of 2007 to attend the funeral of her father.
And, for the many people just now learning about this stuff: No, Shelly was never a prisoner in “the Hole.” (And it bewilders us that Leah raises this possibility in her book.) The Hole was a special and bizarre office-prison that David Miscavige created from a couple of double-wide trailers at the International Base near Hemet. It’s not a secret who were the many prisoners there, in a base that has had numerous defectors who brought out information about it. There is no possible way that Shelly could have been a prisoner in “The Hole” without it being well known. Shelly was shipped instead to an entirely different facility, a super-secret compound near Lake Arrowhead, California that almost no Scientology executives ever stepped foot in, let alone knew where it was. This was the headquarters of CST, the most secretive of Scientology’s many entities. Shelly is there with only a dozen or so other CST employees, and she has almost no contact with the outside world, even her own family.
Is she resigned to her fate? Would she leave if given the chance? With Remini making this such a worldwide issue — just take a look at this story in Australia, for example — David Miscavige is going to be under considerable pressure to produce his wife. Will he?
We really don’t know. But we can’t wait to find out.
In the meantime, Miscavige has put out an almost unbelievable slam on Remini that news organizations have been posting as a legitimate response to her book. Keep in mind, the following passage was put out by the man who banished his wife to a life behind walls topped with razor-wire:
Ms. Remini also continues her bizarre efforts to harass the Church of Scientology’s leader and his wife, whom Ms. Remini has been obsessed with and has stalked for years. This culminated in her dishonest, fraudulent report filed in 2013 with the Los Angeles Police Department that was declared “unfounded” and closed within hours of it becoming public. Ms. Remini even admits in her book that the police report she filed was insincere. When a person admits to making disingenuous false reports to law enforcement—wasting valuable resources needed to protect the public—they are irresponsible and untrustworthy.
Can David Miscavige really get away with this for as long as he wants? It’s a pretty neat trick. Imprison your wife for a decade after having a fight with her, and then call someone who cared enough to inquire about her welfare “disingenuous.”
Scientology. It really is amazing.
Now, on to our other goodies today. Two years ago, when we first talked about Leah leaving Scientology and learned that she’d been put through the “Truth Rundown,” we included a video shot by Mark Bunker that featured Bruce Hines explaining what the rundown was all about. Now, former Sea Org worker and frequent contributor Chris Shelton has put together his own video explaining the Orwellian practice, which convinces Scientologists to doubt what they saw with their own eyes…
Meanwhile, Jenna Miscavige Hill wanted us to know that she has her own thoughts about Troublemaker posted at her blog. Make sure and give her fascinating review a look.
A couple of weeks after visiting The Morning Show in Sydney, the program had us back on yesterday to talk about Leah and her book. We think it went pretty well…
And there are actually things happening in Scientology that have nothing to do with Leah Remini. Laura DeCrescenzo’s trial, for example, has been moved back. The hearing to consider Scientology’s latest motion for summary judgment has been scheduled for December 15, and if the motion is denied, then a new trial date will be scheduled in 2016.
Derek Bloch tells us that he’s going to be part of an interesting event taking place on November 18. He’ll be one of the storytellers taking part in “Taboo Tales” at the Macha Theater in West Hollywood. Break a leg, Derek.
And finally, yesterday we asked Mark Bunker if there was a way to help him make progress on his documentary “Knowledge Report” other than to send money. He tells us there is something he’d like help with. In 1999, during a demonstration outside the Hollywood Celebrity Centre on L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, picketers were watched and photographed by these two men. Bunker assumes they were private investigators working for the church, but he’d like to know if anyone recognizes them…
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BOOK NOTES
We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.
Our book tour is concluded for now. We’ll let you know about future appearances. Previous events: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29), Sydney (10/23), Melbourne (10/25), Adelaide (10/28), Perth (10/30)
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 5, 2015 at 07:00
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Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
