TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: We’re following more lawsuits and criminal prosecutions than ever before, but much of it has been mired in appeals and other delaying tactics by Scientology. Let’s go over them briefly one by one as the year’s end nears. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“A PTS person is rarely psychotic. But all psychotics are PTS if only to themselves. A PTS person may be in a state of deficiency or pathology which prevents a ready recovery, but at the same time he will not fully recover unless the PTS condition is also handled. For he became prone to deficiency or pathological illness because he was PTS. And unless the condition is relieved, no matter what medication or nutrition he may be given, he might not recover and certainly will not recover permanently.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1972
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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 [55] Mark Bunker [56] Trish and Liz Conley [57] Trish Conley [58] Alex Barnes-Ross [59] Alex Barnes-Ross [60] Alex Barnes-Ross [61] Alex Barnes-Ross [62] Alex Barnes-Ross [63] Alex Barnes-Ross [64] Tory Christman [65] Tammy Synovec [66] Dennis Erlich [67] Alex Barnes-Ross [68] Valerie Ross [69] Kat in Austin [70] Mark Bunker [71] Phil Jones
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“Now, I realize you’re very happy with the game you are playing. Cheerful game, whatever the game is. Keeps you occupied so you won’t think of other things. Games such as ‘all garbage cans must be emptied.’ You know, high-level game. Something with nobility and future. And you get so you think there’s no other game, you know. ‘Got to keep those garbage cans emptied, man. If we empty them good enough and long enough, why then we’ll get to empty more garbage cans. And maybe someday we’ll work up to only emptying garbage cans and we won’t have to do anything else. Won’t have to think of anything else. And there we are, emptying garbage cans.’ If it weren’t for Scientology, 200 trillion years in the future, there you would be emptying those garbage cans. Well, maybe you like to empty garbage cans, so Scientology isn’t for you. It’s true there have got to be hewers of wood and drawers of water and emptiers of garbage cans. That’s a stable datum for this universe.” — L. Ron Hubbard, December 30, 1961
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“PERSONNEL: Jeff Gray (Judy Ziff’s son, 9) is assigned as messenger HCO Div 1 Dept 2. His buddy and watches will be assigned by HCO. He is to attend school in HCI at the regular hours. Policy re children and their hats applies.” — The Commodore, December 30, 1970
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“We have a large Field to recover. This will take years, if not decades. But in the meantime, we who are trained are not enough, and we’re not getting younger. Sooner rather than later, we will be moving on to new bodies and new lifetimes. In the meantime, someone has to carry on our work. It’s nice to hope that the Church will get handled and all will get better. But that’s just a hope, not a predictable event on the horizon. So we need much much more training going on in the Field. Aside from emotional/spiritual cleanup, it could be said to be our most important product. (This is actually a sub-product for Clearing the planet or any other product involving auditing.) Moreover, trained people disseminate more, if I recall correctly. Another answer is (I hate to say it): sell books. This was a classic LRH solution. BUT, it is critical that the books you sell direct the reader to Field practices, not the Church of Scientology. If I had a Field practice in an area, I would have cards made up to direct readers to my practice. And then I would find every Dianetics/Scientology book I could, in a fifty mile radius, and insert the cards into each and every one of those books. This includes libraries, new and used bookstores, etc. And then purchase every LRH book I could afford to buy (E-Bay, Craig’s List, etc.) and sell those with cards in them and old lists of orgs in them crossed out.”
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1995: The newsgroup alt.binaries.scientology was created this week. It is intended as a place for uuencoded photos, sounds, and other binary files. Robert Clark reported: “since david guntner is located on netcom, i forged a newgroup message from ‘miscavige@flag.sea.org’ in honor of the original forged newgroup message from scott goehring which originally created alt.religion.scientology, which issued from ‘micaviage@flag.sea.org’ in either case, further booster newgroups for alt.binaries.scientology would be appreciated, as it is likely that, as with most new alt.* newsgroups at this stage in the history of the net, it may receive spotty propagation.”
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“When I hear Blubbard speak I can totally hear him trying to copy those old time comedians and storytellers like Will Rogers.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody. Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7, 2023. Appeal brief due by December 23.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing January 13, 2025.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, convicted of fraud, awaiting sentencing.
Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson. Judge Upindra Kalra’s ruling denying Scientology’s motion to strike is on appeal.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, gets ruling to depose Jane Doe 1.
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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] How Scientology just doubled-down on its Leah Remini ‘blood on your hands’ lie
[TWO years ago] PODCAST: Bruce Hines on what it was like to spy for Scientology
[THREE years ago] INSIDER: David Miscavige has one more trick planned to disguise Scientology’s sad state
[FOUR years ago] The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 6: The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
[FIVE years ago] BEST OF THE DECADE: Scientology watching’s biggest 2010s hits at the Underground Bunker
[SIX years ago] Scientology’s building projects & front groups under the microscope in 2018
[SEVEN years ago] While Scientology struggled, David Miscavige upped his game in 2017
[EIGHT years ago] Garcias file new motion asking judge to reject Scientology’s sham arbitration
[NINE years ago] What Scientology’s ‘social betterment’ front groups are really all about
[TEN years ago] Scientology’s 2014 in review: Our October surprise was all about the Duggans
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology’s 2013 in review: Courtroom antics reported live and on the spot!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Joe Reaiche (1958-2024) did not see his daughter Alanna Masterson in his final 6,999 days.
Tammy Synovec has not seen her daughter Julia in 3,129 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,624 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,139 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,689 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,679 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,065 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,560 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,864 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,735 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,287 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,628 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,195 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,114 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,282 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,864 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,124 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 4,160 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,876 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 3,440 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,755 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,930 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,612 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,949 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,803 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,918 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,280 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 7,583 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,689 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,087 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,963 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,528 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,039 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,295 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 15,403 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 30, 2024 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, 1995-2023 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2023), 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
