Your proprietor is a bit under the weather, and we’re traveling, but we didn’t want to leave you without something to chew on today. Luckily our source came through again and pointed us in the direction of yet another Scientology video gem that has previously been unseen outside of the church.
It’s night three of the Maiden Voyage event that took place on Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds, in June 2006. Recently, we brought you videos of the first two nights, and explained how rare it was to get a glimpse of a Maiden Voyage shindig.
Now, we get to see night three, which was dedicated to the International Association of Scientologists and its campaigns for 2006. And in this case, it’s not just an hour-plus of Captain David Miscavige droning on and on. To present Scientology’s anti-drug and human rights campaigns, Miscavige brings on a couple of other people to drone on and on. He has Gail Armstrong handle the drug program, and we’d enjoy hearing from our insiders what they know about her. But it’s the next person that we’re really interested in.
Miscavige has Church of Scientology International president Heber Jentzsch talk about Youth for Human Rights, and it’s the longest we’ve ever seen of Heber, who was once a major presence in the organization.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Heber was the face of Scientology as far as the press was concerned. He was an excellent spokesman for the organization, fostering good relationships with individual reporters and making some really effective television appearances. But at some point in the later 1990s, Heber’s role began to diminish. He held on to his title as president of CSI (and still does, as far as we know), but more and more he was kept out of the public eye by David Miscavige.
Mike Rinder was surprised to hear that Heber had been brought to Maiden Voyage 2006. Miscavige, Rinder told us, was banishing top executives to “the Hole” and otherwise punishing his lieutenants, and raved that he was going to have to do everything at Maiden Voyage that year. But apparently, he relented enough to have Heber read his lines (which are clearly written by Miscavige’s own speech writer, Dan Sherman — you can tell by the diction).
From 1978 to 1988 Heber was married to Karen de la Carriere, a frequent contributor here at the Underground Bunker. We asked her about the timing of the event and Heber’s appearance.
“The punishments on Heber really started in 2007, that’s what I’ve always been told,” Karen tells us. “Heber got summoned to Int Base, and after 2007 he was cut off from the outside world in the Hole.”
We also have eyewitnesses who placed Heber in the Hole. Mike Rinder was a prisoner in the Hole in 2007 with Heber, and John Brousseau, who put the bars and windows on the office-prison at Miscavige’s request, says that when he left the base in 2010, Heber was still a prisoner.
So this video might be the last time Heber Jentzsch was still allowed to be among the general public of Scientology, and did his best to recite his speech, all about how Scientology was promoting human rights around the world.
Think about it.
In 2012, we reported that Heber’s older brother, David Jentzsch, had tried to get access to Heber but was told by employees at the base that he couldn’t even talk to his brother by telephone. In their last conversation, David said that he had implored Heber to get out of Scientology and its secretive base. The last thing Heber told him, David claimed, was “I’ll never get out of here alive.” After our story appeared, Heber called up his brother David for the first time in three years and berated him about talking to a reporter. A few days earlier, Heber had been let out of Int Base to attend the funeral of his son, Alexander. But we’ve heard no reports of any other Heber sightings since then.
Let us know what other interesting things you spot in this latest leak of a rare Maiden Voyage video…
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Bonus photos from our tipsters
The St. Petersburg Life Improvement Center gets busy at a local college with personality tests. Gosh, you might think that college kids who grew up around Scientology might be wary of the personality-test come on? Or are we just assuming too much about the intelligence of college kids these days?
We hear this was posted in our comments section yesterday. It’s a shot Nancy Cartwright took of her pedicure, saying that she’s getting ready for the opening of the Ojai “Ideal Narconon” that was planned for the old Larry Hagman estate. That suggests the opening is imminent, right? How long does toenail polish last, anyway?
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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.
Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…
Sept 15: Phoenix, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, 555 N. Central Ave in downtown Phoenix, Cronkite Theater on 2nd floor, 5:30 pm, sponsored by ASU’s Barrett Honors College
Sept 23: Cleveland, Parma Heights Library, 7pm sponsored by Center for Inquiry – Northeast Ohio
Sept 24: Minneapolis, Grumpy’s Bar & Grill, 2801 Snelling Ave, Roseville, 7 pm, sponsored by Minnesota Atheists
Sept 27: Portland, Friendly House, 1737 NW 26th Ave, 12:45 pm, sponsored by Humanists of Portland
Sept 28: Seattle, Razzi’s Pizzeria, 7 pm, with Seattle Skeptics and Seattle Atheists
Sept 29: Vancouver, BC, Seven Dining Lounge, 7 pm
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 25: Melbourne, venue secured (announcement coming later)
Oct 28: Adelaide (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 30: Perth
Past dates: 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)
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 14, 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
