In 2011 we spent the month of August counting down a list of the “Top 25 People Crippling Scientology.” Nine years later, Scientology is still hurting, but church leader David Miscavige learned long ago that paid membership was only one resource that kept him in business. He also relies on a small army of enablers, some paid, some not, who help him stay in business even though they aren’t Scientologists themselves. So we thought we’d recognize them with this countdown.
We’re very glad that Leah Remini and Mike Rinder last week finally got to tell the story of Tammy Clark, who tried, in the summer of 2018, to check on the welfare of her uncle, “retired” Scientology president Heber Jentzsch.
Mike and Leah went with Tammy to try and see Heber at Gold Base, Scientology’s secretive international management compound near Hemet, California, and they turned it into an episode of “Scientology and the Aftermath” that was one of the best they ever filmed. We count ourselves very fortunate that we got to see it in preview, because the episode never actually aired.
Scientology reacted to the checking of Heber’s welfare with aggressive legal threats and a characteristic “noisy investigation” that was intended to frighten Tammy and other people. And it worked. We remember Tammy sounding terrified in phone calls to Mike Rinder, which became part of the unaired episode.
To intimidate people who have dared to expose Scientology’s controversies, the church often relies on low-level private investigators who are sent around the country to make unannounced visits.
In Tammy’s case, she was followed to Utah by a private investigator by the name of Rebecca Dobkin.
“Soon after Tammy returned to her home in Utah, Scientology did what it is prone to do: Keep proving the contributors to ‘Scientology and The Aftermath’ right,” Rinder wrote at his blog. “They do exactly the things that confirm what everyone keeps saying they do. They launched a ‘noisy investigation’ and flew two private investigators to Tammy’s home to threaten her pursuant to Hubbard’s words of wisdom about investigating noisily.”
Dobkin also showed up at the house of Karen de la Carriere and Jeffrey Augustine. “She said that she was investigating an incident that had happened at Int Base,” Jeffrey wrote about the incident for this website. “Apparently, someone had asked law enforcement to make a welfare check on Heber at the base. I knew nothing about it, I told her. She claimed that Heber had been thrown into the back of a police car during the welfare check, which I found hard to believe.”
Now that Mike has released records of the incident, we can see that nothing of the sort happened to Heber. Dobkin simply lied to Augustine, as Scientology’s PIs are instructed to do.
We looked up Dobkin’s website, and found to our disappointment that before becoming a low-level PI intimidator for the Church of Scientology, she had done honorable work as an investigator for a Federal Public Defenders’ Capital Habeas Unit. We have good friends who have worked in one of those offices, and we can tell you that it is difficult and thankless work, gathering information that can be tough to get in order to make sure inmates facing capital punishment get fair appeals.
Imagine going from that kind of meaningful work to intimidating a Utah grandmother on behalf of David Miscavige.
Other private investigators doing this kind of grunt work include John Hernandez, who Leah Remini called out for trying to intimidate the mother of one of the behind-the-scenes members of the “Scientology and the Aftermath” crew…
Another figure that comes to mind is former cop Ralph Gomez, who was the local guide who was used by the Squirrel Busters, the infamous group of clownish Scientologist goons who were sent to Ingleside, Texas, to harass Marty and Monique Rathbun in the spring and summer of 2011.
While the Squirrel Busters were trying to make Marty’s life a “living hell,” a stone-faced Gomez could be seen driving them around in a golf cart, looking like it was the last place he wanted to be.
And we can imagine that none of these grunts really enjoys harassing and intimidating people on behalf of Scientology. They aren’t true believers. They aren’t Hubbardists. They’re just getting a paycheck, and that’s more important to them than having a conscience about what they’ve been asked to do.
The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology
3: The judges
4: The LAPD
5: The dirty tricks private eyes
6: The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
7: The litigators
8: The ghost private eyes
9: The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office
10: Political shills
11: Gary Soter
13: Google and other tech titans
14: The Los Angeles Times
15: Jeffrey Riffer
16: James Packer
17: Louis Farrakhan
18: Mark “Marty” Rathbun
19: Wally Pope
20: Gensler
21: Parents who subscribe to ABCMouse
22: Graham Norton and other celebrity strokers
23: The apologist academics
24: Rebecca Dobkin and other low-level PI grunts
25: DirecTV and filmmakers buffing Dave’s channel
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“The results with psychotics at the present time are pretty fair. Of course, psychotics are definitely in the hands of psychiatry — they are actually wards of the state — and we are trying very hard to keep those psychotics in the hands of psychiatry where they belong. After all, psychiatry is organized to handle that problem. Psychiatrists have been open-minded about Dianetics for quite a while, but recently I was over at the state institution in St. Louis and the chief of the institution was running a young lady. I pitched in and gave him a hand. She had been schizophrenic for a number of years and she lay down on the couch insane; we worked on her for about two hours, hit the key engram in the case and she got off the couch sane. So the psychiatrists are no longer open-minded at Missouri State.” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 10, 1950
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“Personally I always thought that Mary Sue should have thrown the three stooges Jane, Mo, and Mike under the bus and denied any knowledge of their actions. This would have saved us from the CMOI Junta that followed, but as anyone there knows there was so much confusion being generated at that time aside from Smersh and rogue Government Agencies including the ‘White Elephant’ no one on the Hill talked about until the Church Committee was an effort to go after Ron’s estate launched by Flynn and Assoc. with St. Gerry of Armstrong (another mole who told the LAPD’s CID ‘all ya gotta do is allege’) leading the charge being assisted by Ron’s estranged son who was a poster child for MK-Ultra Mind Control. As far as I’m concerned one of the key reasons Miscavige is where he is (aside from him being supported by rogue factions of ‘our’ Government and Smersh) is that he has become a fixed aberrated stable datum. In other words a walking, talking Ser Fac who has become a stable datum to anyone who can’t confront the prior confusion. That is my opinion and is the reason why I never bought into the ‘lone Miscavige theory’.”
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“People spend years, decades, stuck on OT 7. It drives them insane, like George Baillie or poor Biggi Reichert.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Arraignment scheduled for September 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing is set for August 27 in White Plains, NY
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Next pretrial conference set for Jan 12 in Los Angeles
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Hearing on motion for reconsideration set for August 11
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Sept 4 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 7-19 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach bankruptcy appeal: Oral arguments were heard on March 11 in Jacksonville
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!
We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!
Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Scientology in a nutshell: The lights are on, but nobody’s home
[TWO years ago] Colombian senator asks defense minister to investigate Scientology over medal scandal
[THREE years ago] Bogus court documents, compliant search engines, and Scientology-style rehabs
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s richest couple buys ‘Holy City,’ a California ghost town and former cult site
[FIVE years ago] EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cruise Scientology video shows the actor praising the church — in Spanish!
[SIX years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: The Sea Org full regalia edition!
[SEVEN years ago] Jon Atack and a Special Guest Wrestle with Gerry Armstrong’s Legal Scientology Nightmare
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology’s Idea of a Rollicking Sermon: Watch This Gem From 1984
[NINE years ago] Londoners See a Disaster, But Scientology Sees an Opportunity!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,025 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,529 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,049 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,069 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 960 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,267 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,135 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,909 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,713 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,029 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,595 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,514 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,682 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,263 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,524 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,562 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,275 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,800 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,330 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,890 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,030 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,350 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,205 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,324 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,680 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,983 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,089 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,491 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,363 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,946 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,441 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,695 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,804 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 10, 2020 at 06:00
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Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | 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 | Shelly Miscavige, 14 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 | 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
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
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Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
