It was pretty big news around here last month when “Ellen,” the woman who we featured in our 2015 story about a Scientology “Daycare from Hell,” decided to come forward and identify herself publicly.
She was Trish Conley, a close friend to Leah Remini and someone who grew up a third-generation Scientologist. Originally from Australia, she and her sister Liz decided to speak out about what it’s been like to leave the church while their parents insist on staying behind.
Now they’re taking the even bigger step of appearing in our podcast, and we’re honored that they’ve decided to take on the abuses of Scientology right here at the Bunker.
Imagine, losing access to your parents because of their regard for Tom Cruise and their hopes for the (nonexistent) expansion of Scientology to take over the world. These women have been through so much.
Go here to listen to the podcast.
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Technology Cocktail
“Don’t Tone 40 ack items or goals a pc gives you. It stops the pc by completing the cycle. Just murmur at him or her when you get a goal or item. Ask the question that is getting items only as a prompt when pc runs down. Not while a pc is talking goals or items. Try to get several goals or items for one question. Coax the pc. Keep the missed withholds picked up.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1962
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON
We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?
[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH
— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see
[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf
— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond
[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney [43] Tory Christman [44] Kate Bornstein [45] Christian Stolte [46] Mark Bunker [47] Jon Atack [48] Luke Y. Thompson [49] Mark Ebner [50] Bruce Hines [51] Spanky Taylor and Karen Pressley [51] Geoff and Robbie Levin [52] Sands Hall [53] Jonny Jacobsen [54] Sandy Holeman
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“How do you run a grief charge? Take him to the beginning of the moment when the incident first occurred….This goes way back on the track to a thing called, evidently, the Weeper — salt water. And for about half a million years man was having a hell of a time trying to rush into the waves long enough to get some food and rush back to get some air. And he didn’t have anything with which to rush. And it was, and it was very frustrating. So frustration winds up in spilling salt water. He had a couple of little tubes and he pushed these out of the shell and he’d pump like mad trying to pump out all the salt water. You run a preclear on this and it’s just fabulous.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 7, 1953
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“Persons on Festival posts must report back to former status and post. They will be assigned further by the ED 140 FAO Mission, Ens David Mayo in some instances. This mission, David Mayo and Andrea Sibirsky, has the job of phaseover. Help him all you can.” — The Commodore, October 7, 1971
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“At OT 34-40 (Games Master) = Games, one of the abilities is to get out of MEST Universe and appear at another time and space of MEST Universe at will.”
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2000: Kristi Wachter reported a protest this week in San Francisco. “Date: Saturday, October 7, 2000. Start and End Times: 11:55 – 2:00 pm. Picketers: Peaches, Kristi Wachter. Handlers: Craig (photos and DA fliers). Number of Handouts given away: 156. “This was a fairly uneventful picket; just lots of strolling, waving, fliering, and chatting. The biggest news is that we saw no sign of Jeff Quiros. Instead, we had a new handler – Craig. Craig is a good-looking, tall black man who is best known to faithful readers of ars for having regularly revenge-picketed Peaches and me. Craig emerged with a camera and began taking pictures. He talked to Peaches, who has told him before that she’s not interested in talking with him. While snapping pictures, he told Peaches that, when she was picketed, it was HIM doing the picketing, and she better talk to her neighbors and tell them to ‘cut it out’. He said he’d talked to the police and if they didn’t cut it out, they would be arrested. Peaches, sensibly, made no response other than to tell him, AGAIN, that she didn’t want to talk to him. Craig had a stack of DA fliers – some with my name and photo, and others showing Peaches. The one given out today calls me a bigot, not a religious bigot, leaves out the ‘Your neighbor’ part, and has the parishioners.org URL at the bottom. Craig made a half-hearted attempt to give a DA flier to everyone who took a flier from me. When we happened to be standing near one another, I would occasionally explain that he thought I was a bigot because I wanted the organization to stop breaking the law. Once, I told a passerby that Lisa had been held against her will for 17 days until she was dead, and that was why I was out picketing, he said, ‘That’s a lie.’ Late in the picket, Peaches and I spotted Craig, half a block away, heading for his car with his picket signs in his hand. He was off to
picket one of us – me, as it turned out. I arrived home about 3:30, and he was there in front of my apartment building. I greeted him, took a few pictures, told him I’d forgotten to mention how happy I was to see him again, wished him a good rest of the weekend, took the DA flier out of the gate, and went inside. He may well have put in two hours at my place.”
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“I had a dream I was L. Ron Hubbard and I was wearing a cape, sitting on a throne, with a bevy of teenage beauties sitting at my feet.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Trial scheduled for August 15.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.
Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Complaint filed August 2, first hearing set for Dec 4.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through sentencing of Masterson on Sep 7. Next hearing set for Sept 26.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Next hearing Nov 6.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.
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After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. 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 a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Olmedo Rules: Details of the court’s decision on Scientology in Danny Masterson’s case
[TWO years ago] Scientology OT, after having scam shut down, tests the waters for a comeback
[THREE years ago] First look at ‘Brothers Broken,’ a Scientology documentary that features the Bunker
[FOUR years ago] As Scientologists face another day in L.A. court, we have a bizarre twist to the case
[FIVE years ago] Exploiting Tony Bourdain’s suicide or giving out weird massages, Scientology never rests
[SIX years ago] Scientology is hacked off that Luis Garcia and attorney will appear on ‘Leah Remini’
[SEVEN years ago] What’s the worst that can happen when you sue Scientology? Here’s one frightening example.
[EIGHT years ago] A secret Scientology wake, a ‘Snow White’ link, & more odd twists emerge in the Cat White story
[NINE years ago] Comedy gold: Mark Ebner catches Scientology cheating with Sarah Silverman
[TEN years ago] U.S. SUPREME COURT DENIES SCIENTOLOGY IN FORCED-ABORTION LAWSUIT
[ELEVEN years ago] How You Can Help Raise Money for Narconon’s Legal Defense!
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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 3,175 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,690 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,240 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,230 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,111 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,415 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,286 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,391 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,838 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,180 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,746 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,665 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,832 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,414 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,675 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,711 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,427 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,991 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,306 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,481 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 7,032 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,163 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,501 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,356 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,475 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,831 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,134 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,240 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,638 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,514 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,079 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,592 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,846 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,955 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 7, 2023 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post 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 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, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), 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, 15 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…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
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
Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast
