This has been a great week for tipsters here at the Underground Bunker. We’re very fortunate that so many people think of us when they find interesting news and documents about Scientology. In today’s case, however, it was something a photographer had been holding on to for more than 30 years.
He goes by the handle Ronnos, and he lives in the Netherlands. And it was at a Scientology event in Amsterdam on June 6, 1982, when he captured an image of Diana while she was sitting at a piano, preparing to perform. Ronnos tells us that he left Scientology in 1986, and it was only a few weeks ago when he was digging through some of his things that he found the photograph again. He wanted the readers of the Underground Bunker to see it, and we’re grateful.
Diana Hubbard, 64, is the last member of founder L. Ron Hubbard’s family who is still involved with the Church of Scientology. She’s a member of the Sea Organization, and spends most of her time at Scientology’s International Base, near Hemet, California. But our sources who know her tell us that she does have more freedom than a typical Sea Org member, and can come and go on occasion. When she would come into Los Angeles, she would sometimes stay at her mother’s former house on Chislehurst Drive in Los Feliz, until it was sold in 2014.
Her younger sister and brother, Suzette and Arthur, we’re told both live in the Los Angeles area, but neither of them are involved in Scientology anymore. Meanwhile, any evidence that L. Ron Hubbard ever had any family at all — including the detail that he had seven children by three different wives — has been completely erased from Scientology’s website today.
In 2012, Diana’s only child, her daughter Roanne Horwich, 38, escaped from Scientology when she bolted from Int Base within a few months of Ron Miscavige’s escape. Roanne still isn’t talking publicly, but since she got away from Int Base, we’ve learned a few things about her.
Our sources tell us that she was never close to her mother because Diana left the Sea Org when Roanne was an infant. Roanne was primarily raised by her father, Jonathan Horwich, with help from other Sea Org members at Int Base. When Diana returned to the Sea Org, Roanne had already been forced to join it herself, and they never really connected as mother and child — the Sea Org teaches that family connections are a weakness that only get in the way of “clearing the planet.”
Today, four years after escaping Int Base, Roanne is working in Los Angeles as a scenic painter in the film union, and she’s reportedly very happy to be out of the Sea Org and out of Scientology.
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Chris Shelton on ‘Scientology,’ Chapter 2
Chris continues to take apart an academic book about Scientology…
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Bonus items from our tipsters
Hey, what’s inside that thing?
Yesterday we had another fun appearance at KABC 790 radio in Los Angeles with John Phillips and Jillian Barberie…
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 11, 2016 at 07:00
E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. 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
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | 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 | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | 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
