We’ve put together a list of our favorite stories that we did in previous years. Some of the stories were scoops, others were investigative features, and some of them we just really enjoyed writing. We’ve picked out stories we 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).
BEST OF THE BUNKER, 2023
20. Ramping up the podcast, with some great surprises
This year we really had fun adding podcast episodes to the written stories of this website. Some of the highlights included Fredrick Brennan, star of HBO’s Q: Into the Storm; the inimitable Mark Ebner dishing on Tom Cruise’s pal Chris McQuarrie; John Sweeney checking in while on a break from his Ukraine coverage; Steve Cannane doing the same; Jonny Jacobsen giving us an update from Paris; and maybe the most fun we had was getting to early showings of Oppenheimer so we could talk about its tenuous links to L. Ron Hubbard with former Scientologist and physics college instructor Bruce Hines!
19. Yanti Michael Greene continues to entertain us
For years, we’ve been telling you about Yanti Michael Greene, the retired NYPD detective who stalked Leah Remini and Jennifer Lopez for Scientology. This year, he tried to haul us into court for a deposition (didn’t work), but then we got video footage of his own questioning under oath. Well, you know what they say about turnabout.
18. Another disgraced journalist is taking Scientology money
This was another one that’s been building for years, but finally we got a chance to out Scientology’s latest reporter shill, a disgraced former National Enquirer reporter named John Blosser who has become the church’s go-to hack, “investigating” yours truly, Mike Rinder and Leah Remini, Graham Berry, and others.
17. The whales keeping Scientology afloat with ever-greater donations
For years we’ve enjoyed keeping tabs on the way Scientology celebrates its big donors, with giant bowling trophies and black-tie shindigs. And this year, wow, did they go all out as the IAS gala returned to England and more $1 million-plus donors were recognized than ever before. Thankfully, we got all of their pictures and names, to help spread the good word about their largesse.
16. Trish Conley comes forward from the ‘Daycare From Hell’ story
It was one of our most disturbing, and yet rewarding, pieces we had done here at the Bunker, exposing the scandal at a Scientology daycare that got swept under the rug by “Master-at-arms” Julian Swartz. One mother, however, was brave enough to defy Swartz and press charges, a woman whose name we held back. Now, with Julian Swartz’s photo become public thanks to Yashar Ali, Leah Remini’s good friend Trish Conley came forward to identify herself as the mom in the story. She also appeared twice at our podcast, one with her sister in Australia. What a lot of great material about Scientology got exposed here.
15. That time L. Ron Hubbard tried to be a bigamist, again
It was just a tantalizing mention in Lawrence Wright’s great book Going Clear: In 1949, L. Ron Hubbard (who was still married to his second wife, Sara Northrup) had taken out a marriage license to marry “Ann Jensen,” who promptly canceled the wedding. But who was she? Now, finally, with the help of a researcher we’d learned more about her, and we confirmed with a family member that we’d hit paydirt. What a fun reveal.
14. He made Scientology look good for decades, but now, not so much
One of the people who came forward for the first time this year was Mitch Brisker, who had been Scientology’s director of films for many years, and now had a lot to say about what’s been going on at some of the highest levels in the organization. He helped us with an update on Shelly Miscavige, he dished some great intel on David Miscavige and his love life, and we enjoyed very much his book, Scientology: The Big Lie.
13. The witness who helped make the Danny Masterson case happen
Once Danny Masterson was convicted, we finally had the chance to tell the story of Damian Perkins. We’ve known Damian for many years, and he’s a fascinating and talented man. But what we’d been anxious for people to know was that it was a chance conversation with one of the Jane Does in 2015 that led Damian to help these women learn about each other, and helped to get the ball rolling towards a criminal case. And for that, he’s been subjected to tremendous Scientology intimidation.
12. Another former Scientology PI comes forward
What a bombshell in May: Alanna Warren approached us and we printed her account of spying for Scientology on such figures as Mike Rinder, Christie Collbran, Amy Scobee, Mat Pesch, and others in the period after they came forward in the Tampa Bay Times. She had receipts, too, which we published in a couple of followups.
11. Another horrific case of elder abuse, with something of a happy ending
While Mike Brown came forward to speak with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder for their YouTube channel about the horrific way his elderly mother, Rosemary Chicwak, had been treated by Scientology, we got to publish the killer demand letter that her attorney, Graham Berry used to scare the church out of a significant check to make her whole. Still, her abuse is inexcusable, and we have a feeling we’ll be hearing more about her situation in the future.
10. Mike Rinder is kicking cancer’s ass
In June, we got news we really didn’t want to hear: Our friend Mike Rinder had been diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer, and he’d been having a rough go in the hospital. We couldn’t help fearing the worst, but since then, and with the amazing support of his wife Christie Collbran, they put together a great medical team and Mike is doing amazingly well. We can personally attest to that, having seen him at a screening of Geoff Levin’s documentary Brothers Broken earlier this month in New York.
9. Valerie Haney won’t back down
We’ve had quite a year talking to Valerie Haney about her lawsuit, which was forced into Scientology’s “religious arbitration” and so, naturally, has put her into one farcical situation after another. For Rolling Stone, she told us about nominating such Scientologists as Elisabeth Moss, Tom Cruise, and Shelly Miscavige for her arbitrating panel. She also helped us connect Tom Cruise to the Shelly Miscavige story. And best of all, we got to be there in Los Angeles as she was going through a ludicrous three days of “arbitrating” (which we wrote for The Daily Beast and here at the Bunker) which was just an attempt to intimidate her by the church.
8. David Miscavige officially deemed to be ducking process servers
For years we’ve watched Scientology leader David Miscavige play games with the US courts, having his attorneys make disingenuous excuses to keep him out of lawsuits. But finally, in February, a federal magistrate in Tampa declared that Miscavige has been purposely evading service, and named him an official defendant in a labor trafficking lawsuit. Huge, right? So why isn’t this higher on the list? Well, even before the ink on that decision was made, the same court derailed the lawsuit by granting Scientology’s motion to force it into “religious arbitration.” One glimmer of hope though, the same judge granted the plaintiffs the right to an interlocutory appeal, and so we await a decision of the Eleventh Circuit.
7. The Bixler lawsuit gets going again, and now adds RICO
The Jane Does actually sued Danny Masterson (and Scientology) in 2019, before he was charged criminally. But their lawsuit (‘Bixler v. Scientology’) has been on hold while his trials were going on, and now, finally, it’s active again. And whoa, Nelly. Scientology came out swinging with an attempt to gut the lawsuit. Meanwhile, one of the Jane Does, Jane Doe 1, added a dramatic new lawsuit of her own about brutal allegations of being forced into marriage as a minor in the church, and this week the Bixler case proposed adding civil RICO charges and a sixth plaintiff, actress Tricia Vessey. Now that Danny Masterson has been criminally convicted, these civil litigation issues only seem to be growing for Scientology!\
6. Dave’s back! Scientology revives its events in England and Los Angeles
When the pandemic hit, Scientology stopped holding its traditional international events and leader David Miscavige retreated to the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, where he held all events at the Fort Harrison Hotel. But this year, Dave made the move to return the fall IAS gala to England, and the New Year’s event to Los Angeles. “Apostate Alex” Barnes-Ross made sure Dave had a warm welcome in East Grinstead, and then he and the Bunker teamed up to bring you Dave’s speeches at both the IAS party and in LA.
5. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis say Danny Masterson is a great guy
After Danny Masterson was sentenced, we knew it should be possible to get copies of letters that had been written to the court asking for leniency. With Meghann Cuniff, we got those letters and then posted them on September 8, leading with letters from Masterson’s former ‘That ‘70s Show’ castmates Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. The response from the Internet was immediate and deafening. Later, we also put out more letters from Ethan Suplee and others.
4. Lisa Marie Presley on Scientology, Michael Jackson, and more
In January, we were stunned to learn of the death of Lisa Marie Presley. Just two months before, we had broken the news that she was on the witness list in the first Danny Masterson trial (she wasn’t ultimately, called to testify), and we knew she had a lot to say about Scientology. That’s because in 2015 we’d had lengthy conversations about her involvement in the church, about the way it forced her to break up with Michael Jackson, and more. We wanted the public to know what a fighter she was, how fun she was to talk to, and what she had to say about David Miscavige and his organization. Our lengthy piece about Lisa was one of the most read stories here all year.
3. Judge Olmedo catches Tom Mesereau leaking to Scientology
Separate from the Danny Masterson criminal trial itself, this was truly a stunning development: The DA’s office informed Judge Charlaine Olmedo that it learned much of the sensitive evidence in the case that it had turned over to the defense somehow ended up in the hands of Scientology’s attorney Vicki Podberesky, who was then using it to try and compromise the case by having the LAPD go after its own detectives. Say what? We were gobsmacked. After a short hearing, Judge Olmedo found that it was Masterson’s previous legal team, famous defense attorney Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum, who had leaked the material, and she sanctioned them. (They began to appeal, but then dropped their appeals.) We are sure we haven’t heard the last of this.
2. Leah Remini sues Scientology, both sides take off the gloves
Well, this was a battle a lot of us were waiting for. On August 2, Leah Remini filed a lawsuit against Scientology and leader David Miscavige, accusing them of subjecting her to years of harassment and smear campaigns, and with specific evidence of how it was affecting her ability to make a living. Scientology came back with screechy attacks that they could call Leah a bigot and racist and rape apologist all they wanted, and now we’re heading to an early showdown on January 9 that should give us some indication on where the judge is on this. We can hardly wait.
1. Danny Masterson, Scientology celebrity, sent to prison for 30 years to life
In April and May, we were in Los Angeles covering the second criminal trial against Danny Masterson after the first one the previous fall had ended in a hung jury. For the third time, (once in a 2021 prelim, and then in the first trial) the three Jane Doe victims had to testify and then endure cross-examining. But this time Judge Olmedo allowed more testimony about Scientology, including by expert Claire Headley. Also, Deputy DA Ariel Anson was especially effective in opening and closing statements, and defense attorneys Philip Cohen and Shawn Holley seemed less effective than the first time around. Still, the result stunned us: Masterson was convicted of two counts of forcible rape, he was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, and throughout it, Scientology was exposed as a totalitarian organization that punishes victims and especially rape victims. What an experience this was.
BEST OF THE BUNKER, 2022
20. Scientology ties with Satanism for worst religion in America
Like we said when we wrote about this YouGov poll, this was a great chuckle right at the end of the year. A sample of 1,000 Americans were asked about which religious groups they were favorable to, and at the very bottom of the list, tied for being the most reviled, were Scientology and Satanism! We were happy to have it confirmed that Scientology’s abuses are not being ignored by the public.
19. Hanan Islam dies at 62, Rizza Islam will face trial alone
We first broke the news in 2015 that Hanan Islam and her children were facing serious felony charges, accused of bilking the Medi-Cal insurance program in an elaborate scheme run out of a Narconon-like clinic at the World Literacy Crusade, a notorious Scientology front in Compton, California. Delay after delay has pushed trial back, and now Hanan won’t have to go through what could have been her third felony conviction: She died of cancer this year. And her son Rizza Islam, an infamous Nation of Islam/Scientology figure, will have to face trial alone in March.
18. Audio leak: David Miscavige announcing the ‘Golden Age of Admin’
For the first time in several years, we received an audio recording of Scientology leader David Miscavige. He was recorded at the L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Event held this march at the Fort Harrison Hotel, centerpiece of the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. Miscavige was announcing his latest, and dullest, new “technology” advance in several years: The Golden Age of Admin!
17. Eddie Deezen arrested and committed
One of the sadder stories that we got to break this year was that Eddie Deezen was arrested again, and now his legal troubles are even more serious. The Grease and Wargames actor has been acting more erratically than ever, and this time he ended up being committed. We can only hope he gets over his Scientology background and accepts the mental health care that he so obviously needs.
16. Dr. Eric Berg sued by former employee for forcing Scientology on her
Eric Berg is a chiropractor and major influencer on YouTube, where he’s known for dispensing medical advice. But he’s also a major Scientology donor, and we learned this year that he was being sued by a former employee for forcing Scientology on her. We notified Berg’s son, Ian Rafalko, who told us he was eager to help out the woman suing his dad. The next day after our story came out, Berg made the lawsuit go away with a settlement.
15. The shocking suicide of Whitney Mills
Just before the end of the year we got our hands on a police report about a very disturbing death in Clearwater, Florida. An OT 8 Scientologist named Whitney Mills had set herself on fire and then shot herself on May 12, resulting in her death about a day and a half later. The police report included references to Scientology and what appeared to be attempts by Mills to get help with her physical and mental health issues. Once again, Scientology turns out to be the worst thing for someone in actual need of professional help.
Those of us who keep an eye on Scientology have owed so much to Andreas Heldal-Lund over the years. The congenial Norwegian started up one of the most influential websites for exposing Scientology’s abuses, “Operation Freakout,” in 1996, and he’s long been a good friend of the Underground Bunker. But now we had sobering news about the cancer diagnosis he had revealed on social media, and he talked frankly with us about the short time that doctors tell him he has left.
13. Bruce Hines on the death of his sister, and auditing Mary Sue
Once again this year we were the beneficiaries of generous contributions from former Scientologists who wrote some dynamite narratives about their previous lives. We were especially knocked out by pieces by Bruce Hines about the death of his sister, and about auditing Mary Sue Hubbard during her years of house arrest. But we are also grateful to Louise Shekter and Sunny Pereira for their well-written pieces about Scientology life as well.
12. The Masterson accusers replace their civil attorneys, gear up for battle
You may remember that it was a vaunted national legal team based out of Philadelphia that filed the lawsuit for Masterson’s accusers in 2019, and that we documented a number of less than stellar moves by those attorneys. Well, the Jane Does themselves apparently had second thoughts about their representation, and in February Jane Doe 1 replaced the Philly team with Brad Edwards, a noted Jeffrey Epstein tormentor, and then in November Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 3 did likewise, hiring the David Boies firm. Now these women really have heavy hitters on their side.
11. Tommy Davis accosts trial witnesses on a Soho street corner
While we were in LA covering the Danny Masterson trial, we broke a bizarre story that happened on the east coast: Tommy Davis had accosted the ex-wife and daughter of Paul Haggis on a Soho street! Davis was apparently so upset about testimony about him at that Haggis trial going on there in New York, he thought a sidewalk confrontation with a couple of trial witnesses was a good idea. Oh, Tommy.
10. Scientology loses members in Australia and England census reports
England and Australia released their census numbers this year, with both countries showing large and steady overall population growth. Both countries also ask residents about their religious affiliation, and in each of these nations the number of Scientologists actually went down over the past ten years. So instead of the “expansion” that the church talks about, here again is documented proof that Scientology is steadily dwindling.
9. Scientology shows up in the Masterson criminal case
In February, as Danny Masterson’s attorneys were preparing to present a motion to dismiss the rape charges against their client, an attorney for the Church of Scientology — which is not a party in that criminal case — showed up and asked to be heard. Attorney Bill Forman informed the court that his client, the church, was very upset by things Masterson’s criminal judge, Judge Charlaine Olmedo, had said about Scientology and its policy. Forman’s whine didn’t sway the court, but just the fact that Scientology itself had showed up at a Masterson criminal matter was extraordinary, we thought. How else could it appear except for this “religious organization” showing up to support an accused serial rapist?
8. The Sirens Media series on Scientology that never aired
After we started up our podcast in June, we knew what subject we wanted to cover in a special short series: The best TV show on Scientology that never aired. For a few years we’ve been curious about the series that Sirens Media shot for the A&E network that was never shown. And now we learned so much more about it thanks to Phil Jones, Derek Bloch, Carol Nyburg, Katrina Reyes, and especially to the man who was going to be the show’s presenter and who had never spoken publicly about the before, Jamie DeWolf. What an amazing time we had speaking to him.
7. Valerie Haney nominates Elisabeth Moss and Tom Cruise in legal case
When a judge made it clear to Valerie Haney that she had to go through Scientology’s ridiculous “religious arbitration” farce or lose her lawsuit altogether, she knew she was stuck: She’d have to nominate someone as an “arbitrator.” So she registered her protest first by nominating Elisabeth Moss, and when Scientology said no, she then nominated Tom Cruise and Shelly Miscavige. Scientology whined that she wasn’t taking things seriously, but we applaud Valerie for the way she’s sticking up for herself.
6. New labor trafficking lawsuit by Valeska Paris and the Baxters
On April 28, Valeska Paris and another Australian couple, Gawain and Laura Baxter, filed a major new lawsuit against Scientology in federal court in Tampa. They allege that they were forced into the Sea Org as children and then abused horribly as children and adults as workers on the cruise ship Freewinds. Scientology has responded the way you would expect, by trying to derail the case with motions to compel arbitration, but the case has also garnered attention because of the way David Miscavige has evaded service.
5. Masterson lawsuit restored as appeals court denies Scientology ‘arbitration’
Maybe the biggest single court ruling this year was the stunning January 19 decision by a California appeals court restoring the lawsuit filed by the Danny Masterson accusers against Scientology. The church had convinced a lower court that the Masterson accusers didn’t have a right to sue since they had signed contracts as Scientologists. But the appeals court pointed out that the harm they were alleging — the surveillance, hacking, and even the poisoning of pets — was occurring after they had left the church. Scientology was livid about it and took it all the way to the US Supreme Court, which declined to get involved.
4. Mike Rinder’s book A Billion Years makes waves
In September, Mike Rinder’s book ‘A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology’ hit bookstores, and we were the first out with a full-length review. We liked the book a lot, and we marveled at how much Scientology history Mike managed to cram into this thing. We also discussed with Jon Atack where Mike’s book belonged in the pantheon, and then talked to Mike himself for a special Thanksgiving podcast.
3. Leah Remini takes on corruption at the LAPD
While we were in Los Angeles covering the Danny Masterson trial, stunning news broke about Cory Palka, a retired LAPD captain that we had long known was a Scientology shill in the Hollywood Division, which he ran. The new information showed that he’d killed a sexual assault investigation involving CBS honcho Les Moonves, someone Palka had worked for in security. The corruption was just off the charts, and Leah Remini wanted the LAPD to investigate Palka’s relationship with Scientology as well. Her tweets on it went viral, and then she talked about it to us for our most-heard podcast episode ever.
2. Kirstie Alley dies of colon cancer at 71
The stunning news that Kirstie Alley had died after a “short battle” with what turned out to be colon cancer naturally led to mass speculation about how her longtime involvement in Scientology might have affected her approach to the disease. Rolling Stone magazine asked us to review Kirstie’s Scientology career, which included her ascension to OT 8. Meanwhile, we managed to confirm that only a small private memorial was held for her at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, California, and nothing was done at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, where she had been such a fixture.
1. The Danny Masterson trial in Los Angeles, October 11 – November 30
We first broke the news that Danny Masterson was being investigated by the LAPD back in March, 2017, and we had covered every step of that investigation. So when trial finally began on October 11 in Los Angeles, we’d been preparing for a long time. And with cameras not allowed in the courtroom, we knew we had a unique opportunity: We ended up simply typing everything we could that was said in the courtroom, doing our best to put readers there. It was effective, and we had a huge audience throughout the trial. Some of the highlights: We broke the news that the prosecution was planning to call Lisa Marie Presley and Marty Singer (and then ended up calling neither of them). We spotted a known Scientology spy in the court hallway, and talking to the prosecutor, of all people. We reported on everything testified to by the three Jane Doe accusers, of course, but we also reported on, and named, Jane Doe 4, who was actress Tricia Vessey, with her approval. There was also the Breakfast Burrito Scandal, when Judge Olmedo dared to show the reporters covering jury deliberations a little consideration. And then the mistrial itself, when the jury couldn’t reach verdicts on any of the three counts. After that, we still had a few more bombshells: The police statement by Damian Perkins, an eyewitness to Jane Doe 1’s allegations who was never called. An interview, with Chris Shelton, of the jury foreman who explained how the jury was so deadlocked. And then a podcast with Jane Doe 4, Tricia Vessey, about what it was like to testify.
BEST OF THE BUNKER, 2021
20. Scientology’s ‘AtHome’ videos
In July, we caught on that Scientology, since the pandemic lockdowns had started in March 2020, had asked individual Scientologists to send in videos showing them keeping up with their L. Ron Hubbard studies while they were stuck at home. This “AtHome” feature had been going on and on, with the church posting about four new videos every day for more than a year. While a couple of thousand videos sounds like a lot, it was yet another suggestion that Scientology’s membership is in the tens of thousands overall, and nothing like the millions that it claims. But it also gave us an opportunity to get some sense of where Scientologists are actually located in 2021. We went to the trouble to record the location of every single one of the videos, more than 2,400 of them at last count, and the result suggested that today, Scientology is largely a going concern in places like Taiwan and Mexico, while it continues to shrink in its traditional strongholds of the US, Europe, the UK, Australia, and South Africa.
19. Saturday Night Live’s Scientologist
In April we revealed that Saturday Night Live’s sophomore sensation Chloe Fineman is the child of Scientology Clears, she has her own record of taking Scientology courses, and halfway through her first SNL season she provided tickets for a taping to a hardcore Scientology celebrity, actress Denice Duff. We pointed out how interesting this was because in 2015 SNL produced maybe the best parody of Scientology of all time, its brilliant music video “Neurotology.” Not only did the video poke fun at Scientology’s strange beliefs, but it also brought up the serious controversies surrounding the organization. SNL’s skewering of Scientology was both hilarious and damning. After our initial story about Fineman, we had a follow up that featured Adam Pires, a recent Scientology defector who provided a lot more detail suggesting that Chloe really is a very dedicated Scientologist.
18. Balance of Nature’s cozy relationship with Scientology
We got a lot of pushback from an attorney representing Balance of Nature who really didn’t like the story we posted in February, but we didn’t change a thing about it: We had an insider who gave us photos and documents showing not only that Scientology was being pushed on Balance of Nature’s employees, but that its headquarters literally housed a Hubbard College inside it. Since we published this kickass story, we continue to see the constant marketing that this seller of dietary supplements floods the Internet with, but no other news media organization has touched it.
17. The mysterious death of Kuba Ka
We got to like Jakub “Kuba Ka” Stepniak very much in 2017 when we heard that he had walked away from Scientology after it spent several months grooming him to become the Hollywood Celebrity’s next superstar. He told us that he planned to have his 26th birthday party at the Celebrity Centre in 2017, but officials there balked when he said he wanted to bring in sick kids from a local hospital so they could share in the festivities. Scientology, help sick kids? Was he crazy? Fast forward to this year, and we were stunned to learn that Kuba had died in April. And after we talked with his family, the mystery of what had killed him only grew. Our inquiries turned into a lengthy piece at the Daily Beast, which drew on work we had done here at the Bunker.
16. Leigh Dundas goes from antivaxx firebrand to Capitol rioter
We first noticed Leigh Dundas, a Scientology OT and “human rights attorney,” in 2020 as she made a name for herself as a firebrand anti-vaxx and anti-mask activist who had driven away an Orange County health official with her brand of political extremism. But this year she really upped her visibility with her remarkable couple of days at the US Capitol on January 5 and 6 as she took part in the speechifying and marching that ended up being a deadly insurrection. On January 5 she urged on a crowd with this rhetoric: “We would be well within our rights to take any alleged American who acted in a turncoat fashion and sold us out and committed treason, we would be well within our rights and take them out back and shoot ’em or hang ’em…” On the day of the riot, video showed that she had reached the doors of the capitol. And since then she’s seized the moment to become a barnstorming speaker on the Q-flavored political circuit. At least some on the far right, however, are not thrilled that Leigh is a Scientologist.
15. Nailing down the Mission Holder Massacre
It took a lot of work, but something we were very satisfied to put together for the Bunker this year was in regards to one of Scientology’s most important historical events. A reader had found, buried in some legal papers, a nearly complete transcript of the notorious “Mission Holder Massacre” of 1982, when the upstarts in the Commodore’s Messenger Organization, including a very young David Miscavige, delivered rebukes to what had been a relatively independent Scientology mission network. When we realized that the transcript was edited by Scientology, and that Jon Atack had (poor quality) audio recordings of the event, we did the work to correct the transcript to reflect what was on the tapes. For the first time something approaching an accurate and full record of what had happened in that fateful meeting was made available for the larger public. It provides a fascinating experience of what it was like to see these upstarts detail the new “ruthless” Scientology.
14. Rizza Islam grows as a menace
At almost the same time that Rizza Islam, a Scientology/Nation of Islam figure, was named one of the Internet’s 12 worst sources of anti-vaccination disinformation, the ABC network gave him a platform in an uncritical appearance. And after that, Rizza got another endorsement from none other than Alex Jones, who professed that he was envious that he was left off of the disinfo list. And all this while Islam is awaiting trial on felony Medi-Cal fraud charges in Los Angeles. How many times does Rizza Islam have to prove what a menace he is before the Los Angeles Times devotes even a single word to him?
13. Anti-vaxx Scientologists pay the price
Watching the social media feeds of a lot of Scientologists over the last few years, we’re very familiar with how they tend to be Alex Jones-type conspiracy obsessives with a strong anti-vaccination bent. So when the pandemic started, although the church itself was making a big show of masks, gloves and “Decon 7” decontamination, individual Scientologists often expressed antimask, antimandate and antivaccine positions. So it maybe wasn’t a huge surprise to learn that some of them paid the ultimate price for their leanings, including OT Scientologists Brian Duimovich, Sergio Rojo (pictured), and a Scientologist who moved from California to Texas in part for its anti-mask environment. Get the jab, people.
Mike Rinder had previously revealed that one of Scientology’s ‘bag men,’ as he called it, longtime dirty-tricks operators for the church, was a man named Russ Andrews. This year, we managed to find that Andrews had a hate-filled social media stream that was jammed with attacks on gay and trans people. It also contained some nice photos of him, and so we decided to put a face with a name. But beyond identifying this longtime Scientology operator, we also received some rather amazing material detailing how Andrews was used to tail individual members of Anonymous, and even some video from the operation. We have the best leakers!
11. Bruce Hines pens stunning narratives
For years we’ve had a lot of admiration for Bruce Hines, a former Sea Org Scientologist who teaches college physics. He helped us in our series exploring Scientology’s “Bridge” years ago, but this year he surprised us with a couple of great narratives about his experience in the Sea Org. First, how he escaped it, and second, how it had broken his spirit. Bruce also featured in a story we wrote for the Daily Beast about Scientology and 9-11.
10. David Miscavige’s whining wins in Clearwater
Tracey McManus has been doing an amazing job at the Tampa Bay Times exploring the way Scientology leader David Miscavige reacted to the city of Clearwater foiling his attempt to get his hands on a small 1.4-acre city plot by having his minions buy up other city properties as revenge. He also turned his back on city leaders, who were still trying to revive the downtown area. Then, late this year, city councilman Mark Bunker let us know that when Miscavige held a secret meeting with the mayor, a new city manager, and a new city attorney, the Scientology leader had turned it into a 3.5-hour bitchfest. But Dave’s whining about how the city was treating him apparently may be paying dividends: that new city manager, Jon Jennings (pictured) announced to the city council that he had held additional conversations with Miscavige and was convinced the city needs to develop a “partnership” with the church. Bunker is not amused.
9. ‘Real Water’ becomes a real nightmare
For years we had kept an eye on Brent Jones and his wife Aimee because of their involvement in Nevada politics. Brent was one of the few Scientologist elected officials in the country, and Aimee had wanted to gain office herself when they were both defeated in a 2018 primary election. And Brent’s history of questionable activities went way back, as our colleague Ron Russell explored many years ago when Brent, an attorney then, was involved in a bizarre case of a brain-damaged Scientologist being drained dry of a court settlement. Anyway, one thing that Brent and Aimee were known for was their “Real Water” scam, which had been exposed multiple times as a re-packaging of Las Vegas city water with more “electrons” added, that, no matter the debunkings, was still popular with people who maybe are easily swayed. Anyway, this year Real Water turned out to be harming people to the point that some of them had been put on short lists for liver transplants before recovering. They’re now suing, Real Water has been put out of business by the FDA, and we’re still waiting to see what the upshot is for Brent and Aimee personally. The takeaway: Never trust a Scientologist when it comes to health claims. Never.
8. Solving a mystery: L. Ron Hubbard and Leni Riefenstahl
One of the odd footnotes of Scientology history is that in 1960 L. Ron Hubbard had taken time out of his busy schedule running the organization in London to work with Leni Riefenstahl on a screenplay. It was to be a remake of ‘The Blue Light,’ an alpine fantasy that Riefenstahl had made before she became more well known as a propaganda master for Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party with her films ‘Triumph of the Will’ and ‘Olympia.’ In 1960 Riefenstahl was hoping to resurrect her career by working with Hubbard, but since then there was very little known about the collaboration. Then, we got a huge break: A reader had found a copy of their actual screenplay in a UK archive, and gave us a copy. We then tracked down the family of the person who had brought Hubbard and Riefenstahl together, and were able to tell the whole story over at the Daily Beast. At the Bunker, meanwhile, we showed a few pages of the screenplay itself. Other new finds in Hubbard history this year included some memories of him that turned up in a prohibited WW2 diary. It was great stuff.
It’s always a banner day when we get to cover a courtroom hearing live for the Underground Bunker. And this year we got to do it multiple times, and one didn’t involve travel: In April, chiropractor and Scientology donor Jay Spina was sentenced on Medicare fraud charges at the federal courthouse in White Plains, New York, and we nabbed a seat for the show. And while Spina was all smiles in the hallway outside, Judge Kenneth Karas was not in a happy mood, saying that the charges against Spina made his “blood boil.” Not only had Spina and his brother Jeff created an elaborate setup to defraud the system, but they also pushed the use of dangerous injections that had resulted in at least one death. And when the son of the woman who died tried to complain, Jay Spina went after him in a very Scientological way. When Spina was given an opportunity to make a statement, we were floored when we realized that he literally quoted L. Ron Hubbard! He got 9 years.
6. Texts reveal Scientology stalking of Leah Remini and Jennifer Lopez
A bizarre lawsuit about something completely unrelated produced a wild result for us here at the Bunker. It was a disclosure of text messages from the phone of a retired NYPD detective named Yanti Mike Greene, who, it turned out, had been hired, by Scientology he indicated, to tail Leah Remini while she was filming a movie in New York with her good friend Jennifer Lopez, ‘Second Act.’ The funny thing is, at the time that filming was going on, in 2017, Leah had told us she knew she was being stalked, and we wrote about it and had even confronted Greene in a phone call. He denied that he was following her. But now we had his texts, and we wrote it up for the Daily Beast. At the Bunker, meanwhile, we produced the texts themselves. The most startling thing in them was Greene’s frightening claim that Scientology wanted Leah dead!
This was a tough one. We knew for some time that Ron Miscavige was in failing health, and on June 24 we decided to make that public in order to help Ron raise money for his wife Becky to help with the costs she’d be facing. We had first begun communicating with Ron shortly after he made his daring escape from his son’s Scientology compound in California in 2012, and we had always enjoyed talking with him about what it was like to speak out about Scientology. Ron took the brunt of a huge smear campaign from his son, but he never complained about it. When we got the word that Ron had died on June 28, we posted a touching remembrance of him written by his “Ruthless” co-author, Dan Koon. We continue to miss Ron greatly.
4. The ‘Chase Wave’ and a new Insider
Maybe it’s a sign that Scientology really is hurting, more than a year into the pandemic, because recently the new people coming forward to leak us information have been pretty amazing. One of them brought us a document that purported to be a step-by-step set of instructions for how Scientology “registrars” were to lie to Chase Bank employees in order to take out zero-interest credit cards for Scientologists with bad credit. This “Chase Wave” would result in those low-income Scientologists obtaining large credit lines that would then be maxxed out with charges to Scientology, impoverishing the church members. Our source claimed that this became so widespread, there was a backlash and Chase cut the church off. We subsequently had multiple people come forward and, on the record, say that they had been victimized in the Chase Wave or witnessed it. And this was followed by another new source, a current insider, who, in a set of lengthy messages, spelled out how much Scientology has been damaged by the pandemic and by David Miscavige’s mismanagement. The leaks this fall have been plentiful and amazing.
3. Suing Scientology gets harder and harder
One of the major purposes of this website is to keep an eye on litigation involving Scientology, and in recent years that has largely meant one issue more than any other: “religious arbitration.” It’s a complex legal issue and one that Scientology has successfully used to derail some high-profile lawsuits against the church, in particular cases filed by former Sea Org worker Valerie Haney, and another by Danny Masterson’s rape accusers. This year, Valerie unsuccessfully took her arbitration ruling to the US Supreme Court, but the Masterson accusers have had better luck. The California Supreme Court agreed to have an appeals court review the ruling that had hobbled their lawsuit. In November, we were watching live along with our readers as that hearing was held online by the appeals court, and our experts discussed how the both sides did. (Pictured above, Marci Hamilton for the accusers, and Andrew Brettler, Danny Masterson’s attorney.) Then, in bizarre timing, a separate appeal ruling we’d long been waiting for came in, with Scientology winning another victory in the Garacia case. Now we’re still waiting for a ruling in the Masteron lawsuit, but in the meantime Scientology’s contract argument is keeping its former members from being able to sue over harm that occurs even years after they have left the church.
2. Rare video of Shelly Miscavige turns up
In a year of significant leaks, this was a striking one that yielded an even bigger result. In January, a new source had leaked to us never-before-seen photos from a 2001 Scientology mission grand opening in San Francisco. It was especially significant because it took place just a couple of weeks after 9-11 and after Tom Cruise had read the riot act to other Scientology celebrities, telling them to get on board with David Miscavige’s “wake up call.” So there was a massive turnout of Scientology celebs, especially for something as minor as a mission opening. (A mission, in fact, that changed locations just weeks later). But then, even better, we were leaked video taken at the event, and it contained something truly stunning: Some of the only footage known of David Miscavige’s missing wife, Shelly. The footage, again, is from 2001, and it shows Shelly and Dave’s “communicator” Laurisse “Lou” Stuckenbrock following Dave around as he inspects the event. Shelly looks fit and stylish, as was her reputation. Some four years after the footage was taken she disappeared. We know of only two other instances of Shelly on video: From a 2004 event in Madrid, and from the crazy music video “We Stand Tall.”
1. Danny Masterson’s preliminary hearing in Los Angeles
We want to thank the readers of the Underground Bunker for hanging out with us (virtually, at least) while we sat in the front row of Department 105, the Los Angeles courtroom of Judge Charlaine Olmedo, with famous defense attorney Tom Mesereau just feet in front of us, as we sat through the four days of the Danny Masterson preliminary hearing in May. Danny is facing 45 years to life in prison if he’s convicted of the three violent rapes he’s accused of, and the “prelim” was a big step on the way. At its conclusion, after four days of harrowing testimony by Danny’s three accusers, Judge Olmedo ruled that enough evidence had been presented to justify having a criminal trial. (Later, Danny was arraigned again — pictured — and Judge Olmedo subsequently set the date of August 29, 2022 for the trial.) We ran out to the hallway during recesses to type up our notes to our waiting audience, and only later realized what a fuss got kicked up in the comments section when we casually noted, during one of those recesses, that we’d been served a subpoena by Mesereau. Ah, the drama. (Later, our attorneys got that subpoena quashed at another hearing.) You can still experience those days in Los Angeles along with us by taking a look at our lengthy notes: Day one, day two, day three, and day four. For us, this is the kind of story that is the reason that this website exists.
BEST OF THE BUNKER, 2020
20. A new detailed look at L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘stolen valor’ by a military veteran
We thought the issue of L. Ron Hubbard’s “stolen valor” had already been examined and settled by experts. But one of our own longtime readers, PickAnotherID, revealed to us that he was a 20-year military veteran with expertise in military records and decorations, and he convinced us that in fact there was a lot lacking in the historic record. Over a three-part series, (part 1, part 2, part 3) Pick painstakingly went through the actual information in Hubbard’s military records, explaining the history and exact qualifications for each of Hubbard’s actual decorations, and debunking the ones the church has falsely claimed. What a brilliant job this was, and we were so happy to be able to post it at the Bunker.
19. Saint Hill recruiter on recorded call: Destroyed families a small price to pay
Phil Jones, like so many other former Scientologists, was being dogged by Scientology recruiters that were trying to get him back — even after the church had ripped his family apart. So he recorded a phone conversation he had with a Saint Hill recruiter, Hugh. And it turned out to be a really remarkable recording, because Hugh admitted to Phil that destroyed families is a price worth paying for the expansion of Scientology. Wow.
18. L. Ron Hubbard’s suppressed 1960 lecture on South Africa
Scientology long ago removed references to a 1960 lecture L. Ron Hubbard gave on South Africa from its catalogs. But we noticed some “independent Scientologists” praising the lecture and its pro-apartheid views and realized that copies of it were floating around online. So we posted it and pulled out key quotes that Scientology is now too embarrassed to include in its sales brochures. Gems like this, for example: “Right now you tell me, well, the government of South Africa does not permit the black man a vote. He doesn’t even know what a vote is!”
17. My mom is the auditor in the Reckless Ben Scientology infiltration videos
We’ve featured Clarissa Adams and her terrible disconnection story about being cut off by her own mother, Irmin Huber. To our surprise, Clarissa let us know that it was Irmin who had featured in one of the popular “Reckless Ben” infiltration videos as the tired looking auditor who put Ben through hours of questioning about his broken arm. We asked Clarissa to write about it for us, and the result was this moving piece about what it was like to see her mother still so dedicated to the cause, and made the butt of jokes on YouTube.
16. Scientologist chiro Dennis Nobbe charged with fraud, then drops dead
We’ve written about Dennis Nobbe for years. He was a major Scientology player in Miami, where he ran a huge chiropractic operation and repeatedly ran into trouble for forcing Scientology on his employees. But we were shocked in July when federal prosecutors charged him with insurance fraud and PPP loan abuse, and we began watching his case closely. To our further surprise, in September prosecutors wanted his bail revoked when, they said, Nobbe was caught trying to bribe witnesses. Wow! Initially, the court declined to revoke bail, settling instead for confiscating his cell phone. But prosecutors appealed that decision, and the court decided to throw Nobbe into the slammer. He had received the news of it so suddenly, he immediately got his attorney on the phone, who had heard nothing about the decision. While the attorney was checking his computer for notice of the ruling, he heard a loud sound on the other end of the line, and then learned that his client had dropped dead on the spot. And so ended the life of an ardent Scientologist who had been facing major prison time. (Strangely, although many press outlets reported on Nobbe’s criminal charges in July, the Underground Bunker is still the only news outlet to even mention his case ending with his sudden death.)
15. Scientology cruise ship commander recorded giving orders during the pandemic
Rod Keller brought us a real gem this May when he found audio of a conference call featuring Sharron Weber, the commanding officer of Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds. It was something of a textbook case of how delusional Scientology orders can be, as Weber told her listeners that Scientology’s greatest expansion was just around the corner — and at a time when the world was in lockdown. To help us put Weber’s strange harangue into perpective, we turned to experts Valeska Paris, Mat Pesch, and Chris Shelton. “All I hear is desperation,” Mat told us.
14. Jane Doe drops her Miami child abuse lawsuit against Scientology and its leader
Score another one for Miscavige. After she learned from the Clearwater police that it was dropping its criminal investigation into her child molestation claims, the woman going by Jane Doe who had filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige asked her attorneys to drop the suit. She explained to us that not only had the police let her down, but she knew that Scientology was likely to use the information to produce a smear campaign against her. She had alleged that as a child she had been molested at a Scientology kindergarten and then while she was a child employee of the church, but police were having trouble finding people who could corroborate her claims years later. Leah Remini spoke out after the case was dropped, and assured Jane Doe that she had let no one down.
13. Scientology pays its workers peanuts, but scored millions in Covid payroll bailout loans anyway
When the Trump administration gave out initial information about which businesses had scored payroll assistance loans in July, we found that the recipients included three Scientology churches, a couple of rehabs, and its most unhinged front group, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. A few days later we also found that several Scientology schools were also on the list. But then, when a more complete accounting was released this month, we got the full picture: Many more Scientology churches, rehabs and schools had received money, totaling $4.4 million in taxpayer cash for an organization that often pays its works pennies an hour when they pay them at all.
12. Cedric Bixler-Zavala blamed Scientology for poisoned dog he had to put down
Chrissie Carnell Bixler and her rocker husband, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, believe they have had to bury two dogs because of harassment from the Church of Scientology. Chrissie is one of Danny Masterson’s rape accusers, and since she came forward to the LAPD in 2016, she and Cedric say they’ve had a bizarre barrage of things happen to them. But the worst was the death of their dog Ethel in Texas, who died of a ruptured trachea, and the poisoning death of their dog Biscuit in Los Angeles. Both deaths were intentional, their vets told them. Scientology denies that it is harassing the couple. Meanwhile, Bobette Riales, another woman who accuses Masterson and who, along with Chrissie and Cedric are suing Masterson, almost lost her dog Jet when it was poisoned this year as well.
11. Boarded up orgs in the US: What gives, Dave?
Months after the summer’s street unrest had died down, some Scientology orgs around the US were boarded up. Our readers fanned out and got us photos to show that orgs this month were partially or fully sealed up in New York, DC, Mountain View, Los Gatos, Pasadena, Chicago, Detroit, Buffalo, and Sacramento. Meanwhile, we didn’t see Scientologists saying anything about it on social media. What was going on? We got a possible answer when reader Missionary Kid went by and found the San Diego org boarded up, and got a chance to ask a staffer about it. That staffer said the org was boarded up in anticipation of riots over the election. Riots over Joe Biden’s inauguration? In Los Gatos?
10. Ex-Sea Orger with ties to dark secrets ran for city council in Oregon
It’s unusual enough to find a Scientologist running for public office. But someone like Brittany Ruiz, a former Sea Org official who had been executive director at Advanced Organization of Los Angeles, where the nutty “OT” auditing levels are delivered? What was she thinking? Brittany had become known in McMinnville, Oregon as an anti-vaccination activist, and she had decided to take on a more moderate Republican for a city council seat. But we pointed out that her husband Javier Ruiz had also been a Sea Org official and played a fairly important role in the story of Leah Remini deciding to leave Scientology. And in a second piece we explained that Ruiz also played a small part in the story of Laura DeCrescenzo, and it appeared in her court papers. Did these people seriously think Brittany could run for office without their role in this abusive organization becoming known? Sheesh. Some local observers told us that they thought Brittany had a good shot at winning. But instead she was thoroughly rebuked by voters.
9. Why Scientology can worry if John Travolta and Lisa Marie Presley seek solace in each other
What a terrible double tragedy that rocked two families: John Travolta announced that his wife Kelly Preston had died of breast cancer at 57. And Lisa Marie Presley’s son, Benjamin Keough, ended his life with a firearm. He was only 27. We reported that a close friend to Benjamin told us that he had been out of Scientology for years, but “Ben had been talking about how fucked up kids get in Scientology.” We then wrote a piece pointing out that Lisa Marie and Travolta have been close, and that it makes sense these two old friends might seek solace in each other after these two terrible events. And if they did, Scientology might be the loser. We had excellent sourcing on an account of Lisa Marie trying to talk sense into Travolta about Scientology in the past. And if he can’t be convinced now that Scientology is really ineffective and its health claims are nonsense, when will he ever be?
8. Karen Bass said she attended Scientology event because it was in her district. But it wasn’t.
At the end of July the Daily Caller broke a story that quickly became the national political story of the day: Karen Bass, a Los Angeles congresswoman whom Joe Biden was purportedly considering as a running mate, had made a 2010 speech at the Scientology “Ideal Org” grand opening in L.A. We had actually had evidence of this on our website for a few years, and confirmed that the Daily Caller was correct. And we wondered if this was disqualifying for Bass to obtain such high office. But she put out a public statement saying that she only went to the event because it was in her district at the time (she was a state senator then), and anyway Leah Remini’s show has now made it public what a controversial organization Scientology is. Well, that certainly wasn’t the case: While Leah has done an amazing job of bringing Scientology’s abuses to a new audience, there had been plenty of other exposes of the church before 2010. And more importantly, we looked up the district maps that were in effect that day in 2010, and what Bass had said simply wasn’t true: The new Ideal Org was not in her district. She then had to put out a new statement, admitting that her first statement wasn’t true and that she didn’t write it anyway, an underling did. What terribly timed flubs. We don’t know if Bass really had a shot at being chosen, but this couldn’t have helped her chances, and may have also contributed to her not getting a cabinet appointment, who knows.
At the end of January, it was one of the year’s biggest shocks: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard Burdge granted Scientology’s motion and denied Valerie Haney her right to sue the church, telling her she had to take her grievances to Scientology’s internal brand of “religious arbitration.” She spent the rest of the year trying to overcome this ruling, even asking California’s state supreme court to intervene. They turned her down. She will eventually be able to appeal Burdge’s ruling, but only after she submits to Scientology’s star chamber, which she’s opposed to doing. In August, she gave us a public statement, saying that she wasn’t giving up the fight.
6. Mark Bunker elected to Clearwater city council
It might surprise some readers to know that Scientologists actually make up only a tiny percentage of the population of Clearwater, Florida, despite the church’s death-grip on property downtown. So maybe it was inevitable that at some point a candidate running on a platform of opposing Scientology expansion in the city would get elected. But it was still a stunning surprise when Mark Bunker did just that. Bunker, the well mannered and generous bloke we’ve known for many years, was in Clearwater during the Lisa McPherson Trust days and had moved back in more recent years as he struggled to produce a documentary about the church. But what better way, he said, to bring Scientology’s controversies to the public’s attention than to make sure they were considered in the local government? What a great result in such a terrible year that Bunker should win his election. We’re still beaming about it.
5. Scientology Black Ops: The spiked Aussie series that was leaked and then spiked again
We had been looking forward to Bryan Seymour’s latest investigation at 7 News in Australia since he interviewed us for it a year ago, last December. And we knew it was really going to be a big deal when we learned that he had made it a ten-parter of short episodes for the nightly news, and that 7 News even put out a trailer about it. But then, a total shock: At the last minute, the network killed the series without a word. Two of the people who were going to be featured heavily in the series, Leah Remini and Mike Rinder, told us that they believed Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis, whose secrets were going to be revealed in the program, had pressured the network through their friend billionaire James Packer, who was a very close friend to the chairman of 7 News. We didn’t know if that was true or not, but it seemed plain to us we’d never see this series. Then, another shock: The first episode of the series suddenly showed up online, and an embed link to it was sent to us. We posted the episode, along with a transcript of it. And over the next few weeks, the rest of the episodes also appeared, containing damaging information about, for example, Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis teaming up to threaten Cruise’s publicist Pat Kingsley if she ever spoke out about the actor. Davis then hired attorneys in Sydney who asked us to take down the episodes that featured him and we ignored it and published their letter. But then Davis threatened to sue 7 News, which asked us for the first time to take down the series. We don’t have the resources to take on a legal fight in Australia, so we took down the video embed links. But the transcripts are still there if you’d like to see what was in this excellent investigation by Seymour.
4. Leah Remini on Tom Cruise’s Covid rant in its Scientology context
Tom Cruise broke the Internet with his over-the-top screaming fit on the Mission: Impossible 7 set, yelling at crew members for not maintaining proper social distancing and potentially endangering the expensive enterprise. Right from the start reaction to the recording, released by the Sun, was mixed. On the one hand, people fed up with poor pandemic discipline were happy to see someone pitch a fit about it. But on the other, Cruise sounded awfully abusive to his employees, and he seemed to evoke his best pal David Miscavige in the process. While the controversy was swirling, Leah Remini gave us a lengthy statement reminding people that Cruise actually had a long record as an abusive Scientology celebrity. We posted it here at the Bunker under her byline and boom, wow, it got picked up all over the place.
3. Scientology and Covid: Leader David Miscavige’s leaked order and ‘planetary bullbait’
Naturally, one of the biggest stories we covered this year was Scientology’s response to the pandemic. And what a response! If you remember, here in the US the moment when things really reached critical mass and most places went into lockdown was Friday, March 13. Well, that just happened to be the date of L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, and one of Scientology’s most important international events was scheduled for that night in Clearwater, Florida. That event was canceled, and David Miscavige was not happy about it. We soon began to hear that church members were being called down to their local orgs to read a special document that they were not allowed to see unless they came in person. It was a special “Inspector General Network bulletin” written by Miscavige himself, and we wanted desperately to see what was in it. We were then extremely fortunate that one of our readers got their hands on a copy and leaked it to us. “IGN Bulletin No. 88” did not disappoint. In it, a livid Miscavige described the pandemic as a “planetary bullbait” — in other words, a hoax designed to test Scientology’s resolve — and instructed his followers that above all else, their job would be to “protect the orgs.” What ensued was a schizophrenic program as, on the one hand, Scientologists do not ascribe to germ theory and were more susceptible to most people to spreading nutty conspiracies about Covid, and on the other hand the church saw a public relations opportunity and went whole hog with a program of pretending to safeguard the public with sanitation teams, health booklets, and mask wearing. We covered it all as it unfolded over several months.
2. Leah Remini’s missing ‘Troublemaker’ chapter: The real Tom Cruise
When the ‘Scientology Black Ops’ series in Australia was killed, it looked like we might never get the chance to see Bryan Seymour’s investigation. One person who was very unhappy about that was Leah Remini, who featured prominently in the series, and who was very familiar with the secrets Seymour was going to spill. Convinced that Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis were behind the program being axed, Remini was determined that they not be successful burying one of the most important stories that Seymour was going to tell: The Scientology dirty tricks operation against Cruise’s former publicist, the legendary Pat Kingsley. So Leah did something extraordinary. She let us know that there was a missing chapter from her bestselling 2015 book, Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology. She had written a chapter primarily about Tom Cruise but then had decided she didn’t want it to take away attention from the rest of her memoir. In that chapter, which was partially written and partially notes, she detailed the story of Cruise and Davis using Scientology’s usual dirty tricks techniques in 2004 to keep Kingsley quiet as Cruise set out (disastrously, it turned out) to be Scientology’s ambassador. Leah stunned us by turning over that chapter to us, and we worked with her to prepare it for publication here at the Underground Bunker. It contains some of the most amazing material about Cruise and Scientology we’ve ever published, and we can’t thank Leah enough for letting us make it public.
1. Danny Masterson charged with three counts of forcible rape, faces 45 years to life in prison
On March 3, 2017, we broke one of our biggest stories ever here at the Bunker: The LAPD was investigating Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson for raping multiple women while they were Scientologists over a period between 2001 and 2004. The LAPD acknowledged the investigation later that day, but for the next three years we heard nothing from the L.A. District Attorney’s office about whether it was actually going to file criminal charges against the That ’70s Show actor. Tired of waiting, in August 2019 four of the women filed a lawsuit against Masterson and Scientology for the harassment they said they were experiencing after coming forward to the LAPD. (We reported that seven women eventually came forward to the police.) Year after year the women went through wrenching interactions with the police and prosecutors while Masterson derided them as “bitter ex-girlfriends.” And we reported in 2018 that the District Attorney’s office managers had signed off on charging Masterson under the strict “One Strike Law” that could potentially put Masterson in prison for life. But still, District Attorney Jackey Lacey said nothing. Then, on June 16, it happened. Lacey charged Masterson for three forcible rapes under the strict law, carrying a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. And since then, we’ve watched closely as Masterson has had to negotiate both the criminal case and the civil lawsuit at the same time. It has, without a doubt, been the biggest story we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker this year.
Best of the Bunker, 2019
20. Charles Barkley becomes a slam dunk photo opportunity for Scientology
One of the things we keep an eye on here at the Bunker are Scientology’s many front groups, which act in sneaky ways and try to “safepoint” Scientology with “opinion leaders” — particularly celebrities. NBA legend Charles Barkley may have had no idea that he was being gladhanded by a couple of OT Scientologists at a charity golf event in Georgia this summer, but you can bet Scientology considered this photo opportunity a big win.
19. Sword-wielding, Bentley-driving man killed by police at Scientology org identified
Several days after a man was shot and killed by police at the Inglewood, California Scientology “Ideal Org,” the county medical examiner released the man’s name, Brian Statler. That allowed us to learn a few things about this 30-year-old mixed race man who drove an expensive white Bentley automobile to the org, reportedly threatened people with a “samurai sword,” and then was shot dead by the police. We’re still trying to piece together what happened that day, no thanks to the Inglewood police, who have maintained total silence about the event. What was Statler doing there at the org, and why was he so upset?
18. Sunny Pereira once again took us into the dark depths of Scientology’s cruel family policies
Sunny had another incredible year at the Bunker, and we are so grateful to her for sharing her experiences with us as a former child Sea Org member and adult technical expert before her defection. In 2019 she took us into Scientology’s homophobia, she stunned us with a letter she had written as a prisoner in the basement of Scientology’s “Big Blue” headquarters in Los Angeles, she explained how difficult it is to leave the Sea Org, how staff members are strung along with promises of superpowers, and how Scientology created its own prison for its children workers. But the piece that affected us the most was her searing look at how disconnection in her family meant that her mother, who remains in the Sea Org, gave instructions for how to divvy up family funerals so the two of them don’t run into each other. Scientology is an abomination.
17. Scientologist says the church is telling Clearwater members not to vote for Mark Bunker
This story meant a lot to us for several different reasons, not the least of which was that it came to us from a Scientology member in Clearwater who had just begun to question their involvement in the church. And what they had to tell us was pretty spectacular: Scientologists in Clearwater were being told to get in touch with spokeswoman Pat Harney who wanted to talk to them about the upcoming March election in Clearwater, and to make sure they knew there was a “suppressive person” on the ballot, Mark Bunker. It’s actually a violation of Scientology’s tax exempt status for it to be telling its members how to vote — even in the case of telling them who not to vote for. But we expect that the IRS will ignore this report, as it has ignored so much that Scientology does which should put its tax exempt status in jeopardy.
16. Give Scientology $500 and you too could be a ‘Harlem Homie’!
We could hardly believe our eyes when we saw a spreadsheet in a recent leak of Scientology documents which suggested that donors at the Harlem org were being rewarded with statuses like “Harlem Homie” and “Harlem Globetrotter.” But there was another shock — we actually recognized one of the names in the spreadsheet, and when we contacted that person they confirmed that they had, indeed, been named a Harlem Homie for giving Scientology money. Oh, Dave. You are really too much.
15. Scientology’s biggest donors of late 2019: The whales giving millions to David Miscavige
We’ve been watching Scientology’s big donors — we call them “whales” — for years. But we’ve never seen a year like this, with more celebrations and more donors giving millions to David Miscavige in exchange for big shiny trophies. And it’s Scientology itself that puts out photos of these wealthy givers. We like to post their celebratory photos so everyone knows their names.
14. Brad Pitt’s Scientology adventure: The sauna, the auditing, the… lizard?
Another amazing account from Sunny Pereira, this time in an interview with her, when she described being assigned to be Brad Pitt’s “examiner” at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre. And she related a particularly bizarre episode when Brad may have been messing with his Scientology handlers, bringing in his pet iguana for some processing.
13. Leah Remini: Where’s the outrage about Scientology’s disappeared?
In April, Leah Remini was kind enough to share with us a shocking photo from her collection. It was taken around the year 2004, and it shows Leah with two women who were each powerful Scientology executives but were each made to vanish into thin air about a year later. On Leah’s left, that’s Shelly Miscavige, wife of church leader David Miscavige, who disappeared in the summer of 2005 and has, we think, been kept at a small mountain compound out of the public eye ever since. On Leah’s right is Barbara Ruiz, who used to run Scientology’s Writers of the Future annual gala celebration, until she too was made to vanish in 2005. Year after year, there’s no sign of several former Scientology officials, and year after year law enforcement does nothing about it. “These people have family that are out in the real world but they’re afraid to ask about their imprisoned family members for fear of retaliation from Scientology,” Leah told us.
12. Graham Berry is on a roll: The attorney Scientology hates to see knocking on its door
Attorney Graham Berry had a huge 2019. We first profiled Graham for the Phoenix New Times 20 years ago, and even then he was a veteran litigator against the Church of Scientology, having so famously served the church’s celebrities in a lawsuit that had grown out of the 1991 Time magazine cover story, “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power.” In the last couple of years, Graham has found some very smart ways to help victims, particularly the elderly, recover what they lost to Scientology’s extortionate financial scams. In 2019, we told you about an elderly woman in the Midwest who was helped by Graham. And then he generously shared with us some actual legal demand letters he had sent to Scientology on behalf of other clients who had fallen victim to Scientology’s tricks. What makes these cases so important is that they are happening now, not years ago, and law enforcement has the opportunity to see how Scientology is using financial chicanery that should get the church in a lot of trouble.
11. Michael Jackson and Scientology: When the Hollywood Celebrity Centre went on lockdown
Another surprising story out of Scientology’s past that came to us in an interview with Sunny Pereira. She described the strange three days in 1994 when Lisa Marie Presley came down to the Celebrity Centre with a special guest, her new husband Michael Jackson, and the facility shut off an entire wing to make sure the visit was as secret as possible. But if Scientology thought it was going to get its hooks into the Gloved One, he had other ideas, and soon the church’s play for him, and his marriage to Lisa Marie, was over.
10. Hubbard family member: Mary Sue griped about Scientology leader’s ‘Napoleon complex’
We’ve known Guy White for years, and we were looking forward to the day when he finally went public, bringing a new focus on the Hubbard family that’s been largely missing from Scientology coverage. Guy was married to L. Ron Hubbard’s daughter Suzette, and he’s father to three of Hubbard’s grandchildren. Guy had a front row seat for the way the Hubbard family was treated after L. Ron died in 1986 and David Miscavige began to take over. He says that Mary Sue Hubbard griped about Miscavige and he suggested that there’s little regard for the dictator among Hubbard’s descendants. But will they ever speak up for themselves?
9. How ‘The Kominsky Method’ nailed it: Writer Chuck Lorre’s secret Scientology past
Scientology is the subject of so many jabs and parodies coming out of Hollywood these days, we tend to ignore them. But then we saw an episode of the Netflix series ‘The Kominsky Method’ and we had to pay attention. The series, starring Alan Arkin and Michael Douglas, took on Scientology in a big way, with Haley Joel Osment playing a disaffected Flag registrar. And not only was the show that specific about Scientology’s setup, but the use of lingo was spot on. We wondered how the show had pulled it off, but then we got a shock: Geoff Levin revealed that writer-producer Chuck Lorre had actually come to California in the 1970s as a hardcore Scientologist, something people in Hollywood seemed not to realize today.
8. Leah Remini calls Beck’s sudden Scientology defection a ‘pussy move’
When news broke that Beck Hansen had filed for divorce from his wife Marissa Ribisi, we speculated that the singer-songwriter might be divorcing Scientology as well. He grew up in Scientology and had married into one of the strongest of celebrity clans, but we’d heard some things about Beck distancing himself from the church. In November, Beck made it official by telling an Australian reporter (and the New Yorker) that he was not a Scientologist. But Leah Remini told us she was pretty unhappy with the way Beck was pretending that he’d never been a Scientologist and that it was something the press had invented. That was certainly untrue, and Leah and her co-star Mike Rinder were both disappointed that Beck was not owning up to the truth.
7. Death in the Timor Sea: The darkest war secret of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard
Historian Chris Owen had another huge year writing for us at the Bunker, and he also put out a new version of his essential book about L. Ron Hubbard’s war years, ‘Ron the War Hero.’ As he was researching his rewrite of that work, he stumbled on an incredible new account of what may be Hubbard’s biggest blunder of what was already known to be a disastrous World War II experience: A terrible strategic decision by Hubbard was at least partly responsible for the death of a number of Australian sailors in an incident not previously reported. What a scoop by Chris.
6. Tom Cruise thanked by daughter Isabella in bizarre Scientology promo
Thanks to an anonymous London tipster, we received an email that had been sent out by the London Ideal Org with a “success story” from one of its members, extolling the benefits of Scientology auditor training. We did a real double-take when we realized that the person talking about what a worthwhile ordeal she’d been through was none other than Isabella Cruise, daughter of actor Tom Cruise. Wow! We’ve been telling tabloid reporters for years that Tom and his kids were still dedicated Scientologists, but even we were shocked to see Isabella lending herself to this kind of internal marketing material.
What an afternoon we had on May 1, scrambling along with several other news organizations to confirm what seemed too good to be true: An entire cruise ship had been quarantined in the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia because of a measles outbreak (which was bad enough), but incredibly the ship was none other than Scientology’s floating cathedral, the ‘Freewinds.’ The mainstream press gobbled it up as the thought of wealthy Scientologists shut up in a ship and unable to leave while the world was laughing was almost too much. Could there have been a more apt symbol for our dumb conspiracy-obsessed anti-vaccination times?
4. Jackie Lacey insider: Unseat her in March if you want to see Danny Masterson charged
More than three years ago three women came forward to the LAPD with allegations that they’d been violently raped by Scientologist actor Danny Masterson in incidents between 2001 and 2004. They were later joined by a fourth woman in 2017 as the case was forwarded by the LAPD to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office for prosecution. But since then, despite “overwhelming evidence” according to journalist Yashar Ali, L.A. District Attorney Jackie Lacey has said nothing about whether she plans to file charges. And now, we had a bombshell: Someone close to Lacey told us that the D.A. had no intention of charging Masterson because she doesn’t want to take on the Church of Scientology, and if Masterson’s victims want justice they’ll have to hope Lacey is unseated by former S.F. District Attorney George Gascón in the March election. Gascón himself all but confirmed that he’d charge Masterson if he was elected, and Leah Remini announced at the Bunker that she’s voting for him.
3. Here’s the lawsuit against Scientology and Danny Masterson. Let’s dive into it.
If Jackie Lacey is doing nothing about the LAPD investigation of Masterson, the actor’s victims aren’t sitting still. In a move we’d long anticipated, Chrissie Carnell Bixler, Bobette Riales, and two Jane Does filed suit against Masterson in the summer, and also named the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, for harassing them since they came forward to police. Scientology has characteristically responded in an aggressive manner, calling the service of the lawsuit “fraudulent” and asking the court for sanctions. Th church has also notified the victims that they intend to file motions forcing at least some of them into “religious arbitration” and stopping their lawsuit. Three years after these women went to the police looking for justice, they’re getting a legal mugging from Scientology for daring to speak up.
2. Valerie Haney drops ‘Jane Doe’ label in brutal amended complaint against Scientology
Scientology was rocked by three important lawsuits this summer, filed by numerous women who say they were assaulted and abused by Scientologists and the church itself, and backed by a powerful national legal team made up largely of former prosecutors who have a track record of finding justice for the people wronged by religious organizations. All three of the lawsuits have the potential to open up Scientology to legal examination and hold the church accountable for its abuses. But we are especially excited about the suit filed by David Miscavige’s former steward, Valerie Haney. A Sea Org member, Valerie served for years in the private quarters of Miscavige and his wife Shelly, and has plenty to say about the church dictator’s private life. No one who has sued Scientology has ever had a closer connection to Miscavige himself, corresponding to a stronger legal justification for subpoenaing and deposing Miscavige and his wife Shelly, who was hidden away in a mountain compound in 2005. This lawsuit, perhaps more than any other, may be a spectacular legal conflagration for the church.
1. SCIENTOLOGIST ARRESTED IN L.A. COURT: Narconon fraud defendants in wild scene
Four years ago, we broke a bizarre story out of Los Angeles. A woman named Hanan Islam and three of her children had been charged with felonies for ripping off the state Medi-Cal insurance program with the use of high school students undergoing “treatment” at their Scientology Narconon clinic in Compton. In the years since, the case moved glacially through the courts despite the severity of the charges, and finally, this year, the prosecution got going in earnest. The Islams objected and started acting bizarrely in court, lofting “sovereign citizen” defenses that only got them into more trouble. And then, thanks to Jeffrey Augustine covering a preliminary hearing for us, we had an eyewitness account when the sovereign citizen nonsense got Hanan and her son Rizza handcuffed and taken to jail. Meanwhile, the state finally put on its case and we learned just how strange and brazen this scam had been. Thanks to Jeffrey, we continue to get reports on this wild case as trial nears early in 2020.
Best of the Bunker, 2018
20. In 1949, psychiatrists wouldn’t touch Dianetics — so L. Ron Hubbard invented one who would
During research on the early history of Dianetics for his book Astounding, author Alec Nevala-Lee ran across an absolutely amazing document. It was written in 1949 when L. Ron Hubbard and his early collaborators were trying to get his new “science” of the mind endorsed by some actual, you know scientists. Unable to interest any psychologists, who wanted nothing to do with Hubbard’s crackpot ideas, Hubbard decided instead to simply make one up! Hubbard himself wrote a “rebuttal” to Dianetics from the fictional psychologist, and it is a thing of beauty. One thing it proves: Hubbard himself was fully aware of the ridiculous nature of the claims he was making in his book.
19. Scientology disconnection and the incalculable damage it does to children
Sunny Pereira’s contributions were a real highlight at the Bunker this year. Whether it was dealing with a measles outbreak, or losing a parent to disconnection, or discovering that “Clear” didn’t actually exist, when it was your job to prove that they did. What a ride Sunny took us on.
18. EXCLUSIVE: The rise and fall of the ‘Pope of Scientology’ — in his own words
Historian Chris Owen made this discovery during his research: A 30-page narrative written by John McMaster for a 1977 court case that was never made public before. In it, McMaster traces his entire history in Scientology, which at one time touted him as the worlds first true “Clear.” In the second of two parts, McMaster details how much he felt betrayed by L. Ron Hubbard, and concluded that Scientology was an elaborate trap.
17. Scientologists, gullible? Would they fall for a felon saying he’s the returned L. Ron Hubbard?
Independent Scientologists in the Pacific Northwest are putting on quite a show as they get in line to follow a 31-year-old man who claims that he’s the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard. His actual name is Justin Alan Craig, and he has a pretty impressive criminal record. We managed to have a Facebook messenger conversation with him, during which he flubbed some basic Hubbard trivia, and then he got a bit defensive with us in what turned out to be the most comical exchange we had all year.
16. FEDS CHARGE SCIENTOLOGISTS IN NEW YORK FOR $80 MILLION MEDICARE SCAM
A couple of upstate New York chiropractors were charged in an $80 million Medicare scam, but what news reports left out was that Jay and Jeff Spina were major, longtime Scientologists, and we dug into their history with the church. The Spina brothers have vowed to fight the charges and keep their practice open in the meantime.
15. Joy Villa’s ex talks about her domestic violence arrest and the child she put up for adoption
Even with all of the press that Joy Villa generates — whether it’s in fawning items that buy the line that she’s a new kind of conservative heroine, or in exposes about her Scientology involvement, which drives away many ‘MAGA’ types — we’re still the only outlet that has actually dug into Joy’s past with any real detail. We spoke with her former boyfriend and father of the child she put up for adoption, who explained why she was arrested on a domestic violence charge. And we then talked at length with Joy’s former manager, who helped her make her way into the Trump White House, only to see her plans of a Congressional campaign fall apart because of her Scientology loyalty. It kind of amazes us that these stories aren’t getting more attention as Joy continues to her pro-Trump grift.
14. See the Scientology-like ad for Scientologist-owned ABCMouse, made by Scientologists!
We’ve pointed out numerous times that the popular education program for toddlers, ABCMouse.com, is owned by wealthy Scientology donor Doug Dohring, who has given millions to the church. But in August, we learned that Dohring also contracts out to a Scientologist TV outfit to make his ads. They felt a lot like the ads we see Scientology itself put out.
13. Judge to Garcias: Scientology can lie and cheat and there’s nothing I can do about it
Since Luis and Rocio Garcia filed their lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in January 2013, we followed every twist and turn in their legal saga. Mostly, it was an exercise in frustration as federal Judge James D. Whittemore denied the Garcias their day in court because of draconian contracts they had signed as Scientologists. He forced them instead to submit to the sham of Scientology’s internal arbitration, which included some pretty shocking irregularities, including lying to the court. But when the Garcias tried to get an evidentiary hearing to raise those problems, Whittemore told them his hands were tied. Scientology simply didn’t need to satisfy a court that it wasn’t defrauding its members.
12. Fifty years later and post-Scientology, 60’s band People! aims for a comeback
It was early in May 2018 that we finally got to tell a story we’ve wanted to tell for years, about the reuniting of brothers Robbie and Geoff Levin. The two were part of the 1960’s band People! that had a single radio hit in 1968 and then partially disbanded as most of the members, including the Levin brothers, got deeply involved in Scientology and joined its Sea Org. Eventually Robbie left, causing Geoff to disconnect from him. But then Geoff had his own doubts, started reading the Underground Bunker, and quietly reached out to us. Now, finally, Geoff was going public with his own disaffection from Scientology, and even better, the reunion of People! after 50 years. What a great story.
11. Scientology spells out its crazy ideas in a video you weren’t supposed to see
Michael Chan inhabits a pretty unique place in Scientology. He’s constantly traveling around the world whipping Scientologists into a fervor over, well, Scientology. He’s one of the few people who gets to speak out on L. Ron Hubbard’s arcane “tech” and the secrets and miracles of the upper levels. His talks are top secret, so you can imagine our glee when we got our hands on a full two-hour videotaped Chan stemwinder. We pulled out the best bits about bizarre Hubbard cosmology for this piece.
10. Scientology relies heavily on Russian immigrants — and ‘disconnection’ doesn’t spare them
Some stories we wait a long time for here at the Bunker, and in January we finally got to tell a story we had first heard about some six years before — the harrowing saga of Katrina Reyes, a Russian immigrant who lost her mother to the Sea Org. Katrina is yet another example of a woman being punished by Scientology because she admitted to being a victim of sexual assault. Thankfully, despite the way she was treated in the Sea Org, and even after her mother turned her back on her, Katrina found a great husband and they now have a son. She perseveres.
In April we finally got to do a story we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Kim Poff, after winning a settlement from the state of Oklahoma, could finally speak freely about what she saw when she tried to get her bosses in state government to shut down Scientology’s flagship Narconon rehab there. But as Kim explained, although she found horrifying conditions at Narconon Arrowhead, her bosses were simply too afraid to take on Scientology, even after three patients had died at the facility in a nine-month period.
8. Captain David Miscavige’s faux-military Scientology ribbons, described and decoded!
What a treat this was. A tipster had taken the time to decode David Miscavige’s chest ribbons based on an internal Sea Org document, and the results were a lot of fun. Captain Miscavige, for example, had a commendation for “A/V Specialist” on his quasi-naval uniform. It was so precious!
7. Scientology used an ice cream ‘date’ to run up $20,000 on senior’s credit cards
In July one of our favorite stories of the year began to unfold. We had actually begun talking to Efrem Logreira, 75, some months before as he struggled to deal with crushing debts on his credit cards. He had spent only a year in Scientology, but the church had run up huge charges on his account, without his approval he claimed, and the interest charges alone neared $1,000 a month and were about to make him homeless. We always hear that law enforcement is looking for two things regarding the Church of Scientology: 1. financial crimes and 2. timely reporting. Well, here was a senior getting bilked, and it was unfolding in Present Time (as the Scientologists say). Even better, Efrem was a lovely character who had clearly been taken advantage of, including the time some young ladies at the Celebrity Centre took him out for an ice cream date to convince him to sign off on a $20,000 charge. Efrem had taken a photograph of that event, and it was one of the best Scientology-related photos we’ve ever seen. Efrem ended up talking both to federal investigators and to attorney Graham Berry. We hope to have an update from him soon about his attempts to be made whole by the church.
6. Never public: L. Ron Hubbard Jr.’s devastating 1972 takedown of his father and Scientology
In November we made public for the first time something Paulette Cooper had typed up 46 years before. In the summer of 1972, she helped L. Ron Hubbard Jr. (“Nibs”) produce a 63-page manuscript about his father and the history of Scientology. More sober and coldly factual than what Nibs would tell Penthouse magazine a decade later, “A Look Inside Scientology” is a powerful indictment of the L. Ron Hubbard myth.
5. Strange days for a woman accusing Danny Masterson of rape — and for her rocker husband
In our most-read story of April, we talked to Chrissie Carnell and her husband, rocker Cedric Bixler-Zavala, about the harassment they’ve been experiencing since Chrissie accused Scientology actor Danny Masterson of rape. The couple has been through a bewildering series of events, including the violent death of their dog. Chrissie tells us that they continue to undergo harassment, and more than two years after she and three other women came forward, LA District Attorney Jackie Lacey has yet to make a decision on whether to charge Masterson.
4. The Valerie Haney interview: Scientology smear tactics, and where Shelly Miscavige is
To start off Leah Remini’s third season of Scientology and the Aftermath, Valerie Haney, who had served David and Shelly Miscavige as a personal steward, told her incredible story of escaping from Int Base in 2016 by hiding in the back of a car. We followed up with Valerie a few days later and learned more stunning details about life with Dave and Shelly — including some very personal details about the love life of a worldwide ecclesiastical leader.
3. A private eye comes clean: ‘Scientology is a disgrace to the world’
In January we had quite a get: The testimony of Cierra Westerman, the first professional private investigator to come forward after working for the Church of Scientology. Cierra had been recruited out of a Florida trade school to infiltrate the Anonymous movement for Scientology in 2008, and then was part of a massive operation in Clearwater targeting Mike Rinder and other recently defected church officials. She had lived near Rinder, watched his house, and had even taken and sifted through his garbage. She even had receipts. We’re so glad she decided to come forward, tell her story at the Underground Bunker, and then go on to an appearance on Leah’s show.
2. Finally, L. Ron Hubbard’s first ‘Clear’ — Sonya Bianchi — found again after 68 years
Part of what motivates us to do this work day in and day out is the prospect of solving some of Scientology’s longstanding mysteries. Like tracking down Snow White spy Michael Meisner, or tracking down the detective who investigated Flo Barnett’s bizarre death. But we never thought we’d have any chance to solve one of the original mysteries of early Dianetics history — who was Sonya Bianchi, the woman L. Ron Hubbard declared the world’s first ‘Clear,’ and what had happened to her after the night of August 10, 1950, when her debut at the Shrine Auditorium had gone so wrong? Well, after 68 years, with the help of several researchers we discovered that Sonya is still alive at 92 years old and living in Massachusetts. Her son helped fill in some details about why she had vanished from Scientology history, and we’re hoping we get a chance to meet her soon. What a surprise this was for us in 2018.
1. SCIENTOLOGY CAVES: MISCAVIGE SETTLES FORCED-ABORTION CASE TO AVOID TRIAL
In 2012 we started watching Laura Decrescenzo’s court battle, and by then it was already three years old. She had filed her lawsuit in 2009 over her treatment as a child in Scientology’s Sea Org, which she joined at the age of 12. At 17, she alleged that she had been forced to have an abortion, which was policy in order to keep Sea Org women working 112-hour weeks. Scientology practiced its usual scorched-earth tactics in order to delay the case endlessly, but finally in 2018, those appeals began to run out. With just days to go before a trial would begin, David Miscavige blinked. Of course we would have liked to see a trial happen, and evidence of the abuse of children entered in court in front of a jury and the press, but we must salute Laura for sticking to her guns for nine years and outlasting Scientology’s ruthless dictator. “We must never forget the legacy of this lawsuit,” Mike Rinder said at his blog after Laura won her settlement. “Laura DeCrescenzo inflicted serious and permanent damage on Scientology.”
20. ‘God of Pop’ Kuba Ka on meeting Scientology’s David Miscavige: ‘Like an emperor or the Pope’
We could hardly believe our luck when Scientology celebrity Kuba Ka, the “God of Pop,” announced in March that he was leaving the church and his friend and adviser, actress Vikki Lizzi, told us that Kuba planned to sue. Oh, if only. The next day, we published our story about the two-hour Skype interview we did with Kuba and his mother and their entourage. After that conversation, we came away liking Kuba Ka — or rather, Jakub Stepniak, the man behind the god — more than we expected to. Sadly, not long after that interview Stepniak “retired” his pop persona, and Kuba Ka vanished into thin air.
19. Before Scientology’s Xenu was a genocidal galactic overlord, he was a … mountain?
In April we had a fun little treat that had confounded our experts — a tipster pointed out to us that L. Ron Hubbard referred to a “Mount Xenu” in an obscure lecture he recorded in 1958, some ten years before Hubbard would use the name “Xenu” in his infamous “OT III” handwritten notes. None of our experts had noticed it before, but Jon Atack pointed out that it was indeed an indication that Hubbard was simply dreaming up nonsense from a limited storehouse of ideas and notions.
Delayed a year by the presidential election, Reza Aslan’s “Believer” CNN series finally aired in 2017, and its March 26 episode about indie Scientology was as annoying as we assumed it would be. Aslan started out his show saying that Scientology “gets a bad rap,” which was pretty terribly timed after the success of Leah Remini’s first season, and then he proceeded to make all sorts of ridiculous claims about how indie Scientology might become a major world religion — without telling viewers that the two groups he interviewed had a total of about 60 and 20 members. It was a dishonest show which, like his other episodes, really only had one goal — to aggrandize Aslan himself. On the other hand, Aslan’s bad television did motivate us to write something fun about Lawrence Wright, Aslan, and L. Ron Hubbard, and Observer gave us one of our favorite illustrations of the year to adorn it, referring to Aslan’s subtle slam that if Larry had been around in Biblical times, he would have prevented Christianity from happening by grilling Jesus. And we absolutely loved Larry’s reaction, at Twitter: “A lot of what Jesus told me was off the record.”
17. Yes, L. Ron Hubbard wrote even more about children and sex, and we need to talk about it
In the mid 1980s, while he was in total seclusion hiding not only from process servers and government investigators but also from his own family and the rest of his Scientology movement, L. Ron Hubbard spent his time writing a million-word long science fiction story that the church put out as a ten-volume series. We chose one chapter from the ninth volume of the “Mission Earth” series, Villainy Victorious, to illustrate its truly sick take on sex and young boys. And we asked our readers to decide — what did it mean that near the end of his life, Hubbard was imagining this stuff?
16. Never before seen: A woman moments after achieving superhuman Scientology powers
In October, we provided an excerpt from a 1989 home video made aboard Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds. This rare footage featured the remarkable OT 8 graduation speech of a woman named Margie Zacks, a Scientologist reaching the pinnacle of achievement after years of studying L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology.” But for many of us, seeing her talk about how she got there was simply sad.
15. Is Scientology’s notorious prison detail — the ‘RPF’ — a thing of the past?
On October 4, we asked a question that caused a stir: Is Scientology’s “RPF” a thing of the past? Punishing Sea Org members with the “Rehabilitation Project Force” is legendary, and we’ve talked to people who were stuck for years on the prison-like detail. But recent defectors told us that over the past several years, Scientology leader David Miscavige systematically disbanded the RPF in places around the world, complaining that it carried too many Hubbard-era rules and regulations. Sea Org members are still being punished, we’re told, but no longer with trappings of the RPF — and we credited activists like Mike Rinder for exposing the RPF’s legacy of mistreatment.
14. DOX: The full FBI file from its 2009-2010 human trafficking investigation of Scientology
In 2011, Lawrence Wright broke the news in his New Yorker story about Paul Haggis that the FBI had investigated the Church of Scientology for human trafficking of its Sea Org workers. The church denied it. We never doubted for a moment that it was true because we spoke with numerous former Sea Org officials who had taken part in the investigation. But it was nice, finally, to get the evidence itself — in August, for the first time, we made the entire FBI file public, proving that indeed, the law enforcement agency gathered reams of evidence about the mistreatment of Scientologists at its secretive bases in California and Florida.
13. When a Scientology ‘body-router’ turns out to be the father you haven’t seen in 7 years
In May, we had a sad and surprising story. Earlier, we had posted some photos taken by a contributor outside the new Valley Org in Los Angeles which showed Scientology workers parking cars. One of them, however, turned out to be Irving Sorrentini, the father who had disconnected from his daughter, Jamie Sorrentini Lugli, someone well known to Bunker readers. She hadn’t seen her father in seven years, since he “disconnected” from her because she had left the church. Seeing her father was a punch to the gut. “Honestly, my heart is breaking. I feel like there’s no hope now. His eyes look so sad in that picture. That’s not the guy he was,” she told us.
12. Days before jumping to his death, actor Brad Bufanda credited Scientology with saving his life
Thanks to Angelo Pagan coming forward and giving us an interview, we got insights into the life of Brad Bufanda that the rest of the media overlooked. In the months before the Veronica Mars actor killed himself, he was telling friends of his commitment to Scientology, but he was also under heavy pressure because he refused church instructions to quit a movie because Pagan was also in it. His death shocked people who knew him well and who told us he had everything to live for.
11. Memories of a Scientology warrior: Marty Rathbun’s curious career as church rebel
In March, we uncorked a lengthy piece we’d put a lot of work into. We put together what we felt was a fair look at Marty Rathbun’s full trajectory, tracing the way his influential blog had changed over the years 2009-2016. Seen from that perspective, it made his evolution, from Scientology rebel to Scientology attack dog, all the more mysterious. This has now become one of the stories we direct people to most often as we are asked, constantly, what the hell happened to Marty Rathbun?
10. ‘Leah Remini’ show prompting more ‘ranch kids’ to come forward with agonizing family drama
One of the great results of Leah Remini’s TV series is that it has motivated so many more people to come forward with their stories of escaping Scientology — like Clarissa Adams, who talked to us about how Scientology had ripped her family apart. We were especially stunned when she told us about how her mother had reacted when Clarissa quit the Sea Org at 20: “Her response was, ‘Then why did you pick this body? Why did you pick this family?’ She never asked what I was going to do or where I would go. In fact, she didn’t bring it up again at all” But Clarissa still remembered it as the best day of her life. “I have never felt the same sense of freedom as I did that day. I had no idea what my future held, but I had a couple of hundred bucks to my name and I was no longer a part of the Sea Org. It was a beautiful moment.”
9. Scientology’s ultimate prize: For the first time online, the current ‘OT 8’ materials laid bare
Inspired by what Leah Remini had put on the air about the secrets of Scientology OT 8, in September we decided it was time to put the actual materials of New OT 8 online for the first time. (What Wikileaks had put online a decade earlier doesn’t reflect what former Scientologists told us they had experienced on that ultimate OT level.) So there it is, for you to see for yourself, what it can cost a Scientologist half a million to two million dollars to see. And it’s as underwhelming as you’d expect.
8. Coming to grips with Scientology’s most vile secret, which was hiding in plain sight
It still stuns us that a passage by L. Ron Hubbard endorsing pedophilia can be found in his most important book, Dianetics, and went unscrutinized for decades. Once again, we brought attention to it and Hubbard’s assertion that a 7-year-old girl should not “shudder” at an adult man’s kiss, “even a passionate one” — and this time, the Church of Scientology itself responded, through an official social media account, saying that the word “passionate” had no sexual connotation. Oh really? In that same book, Dianetics, Hubbard said this about the experience of a fetus in the womb: “Papa becomes passionate and baby has the sensation of being put into a running washing machine.” We’re pretty sure he wasn’t talking about knitting.
7. For the first time: The FBI file of Gabe Cazares, the Clearwater mayor targeted by Scientology
Thanks to the industrious R.M. Seibert, we got our hands on the FBI file of former Clearwater mayor and Congressional candidate Gabe Cazares. Here for the first time were new details on the hit-and-run plot Scientology tried to use to destroy his career in 1976, as well as some insight into why no one ever went to prison for it. This is the kind of material that current Clearwater residents and their leaders really ought to make themselves very familiar with.
6. Families of rescued patients are sharply divided on Scientologist-run Tennessee hellhole
In May we posted a story that has proved to be one we may have sent out as much as any other this year as we’ve tried to set the record straight on what was easily the most confusing reporting done on Scientology in a long, long time. It involved a facility in Tennessee that we’ve been watching for years, run by a Scientologist named Marc Vallieres, and which had a troubling past as a place where the church, we believed, sent members who had gone “Type III” — were in mental distress — for a medieval treatment known as the “Introspection Rundown.” Now, in 2017, that facility was shut down when sheriff’s deputies discovered a couple of patients being held there in cabins that were padlocked from the outside. But the press handling of the story was terribly mangled, in part because of a confusing statement put out by the local sheriff, and cries of “fake news” were heard across the land. The Underground Bunker was the only news organization that spoke to the families of the two victims and got the full story of what actually happened.
5. How Humira, the world’s best selling drug, is helping to finance Scientology into the future
In July we revealed that Jeffrey Augustine had found a document which showed that in the last week of 2015, Bob and Trish Duggan, the world’s richest Scientologists, socked away a million shares of stock from the pharmaceutical firm AbbVie in a foundation under their names. AbbVie is the maker of Humira, the rheumatoid arthritis treatment that is the biggest-selling drug in the world, and its stock was trading for just under $60 a share at that time — so the stock the Duggans set aside was worth about $60 million. (AbbVie also makes depakote, a drug for treating a bipolar diagnosis. So yes, AbbVie makes “psych” drugs.) According to the tax filing made by the Duggan Foundation, that AbbVie stock was expected to bring in revenue of about $3 million a year, and the foundation was very up front that it would only disburse that income in the way of charitable grants to the Church of Scientology or its various charitable entities. So, the upshot: Bob and Trish had socked away a big chunk of money so the Church of Scientology will reliably get a few million bucks a year into perpetuity. Later in the year, we got confirmation that Bob and Trish were splitting up, and we also got word that Bob has a new science-y girlfriend and may be stepping away from the church, so in that light we’re thinking that this gift of Humira-related revenue to Scientology may be Bob’s “leave me alone” money.
In January we posted our first big feature of the year, about Serge Gil, who appeared on ABC’s 20/20. But that television program really sort of missed the point. ABC’s Dan Harris asked Serge about sexual questions he was asked, but all Scientologists go through that. What made Serge’s story unique isn’t the questions he was asked, but what questions he was forced to ask others. We went into depth about Serge who, as a 14-year-old auditor, was tasked with interrogating older men about their sexual habits. Sometimes, he told us, that meant having to hear about the fantasies an older man was having about him. And always Serge would be forced to push for more and more detail. Talking to other former church members, we learned that this is actually a pretty common thing in Scientology, and is most likely still happening.
3. When love triumphs over Scientology: A fairy tale of New York for the holidays
After we had brought up the subject of how escaping Scientology Sea Org workers are often talked into coming back to “route out” properly in an Orwellian process that is hard to understand from the outside, we heard from a man named Chris Tringali who wanted us to know about what he and his wife Nancy had been through. The more we questioned him about his situation, the more stunned we were by what this couple had been through and had stayed together through all of it. We were pleased to present their saga as a heartwarming tale of love for the holidays.
2. Scientology’s Celebrity Whisperer: An inside account of life in the fame-obsessed church
In February we uncorked one of our longest features of the year, our look at the “celebrity whisperer,” Quailynn McDaniel, who, with her husband Paul, was trusted for years by Scientology to pamper and cater to its famous celebrities, in particular the Elfmans, Jenna and Bodhi. But when the church asked Quailynn, while she was isolated on the Freewinds, to steal from her husband’s 401K in order to donate more, she walked away from the church and all of its perks. It was especially interesting to publish the harsh disconnection letter that Bodhi sent Paul simply because he’d “liked” something Leah Remini had posted on Facebook. What a saga!
1. LAPD probing Scientology and Danny Masterson for multiple rapes, cover-up
Without a doubt, March was our biggest month of the year for significant stories, and it started off with the year’s biggest bombshell: We revealed that Scientologist and That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department on accusations of rape by three different women, who were each Scientologists at the time of their alleged attacks. We referred to them as Victim A, who had written a scathing letter of complaint to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, Victim B, who was made to do past-life auditing by the church as a bizarre kind of punishment for alleging that Masterson had raped her, and Victim C, who we interviewed, and who told us about the violent attack she went through. Since then, Yashar Ali at the Huffington Post revealed that a fourth victim had also come forward and was part of the investigation. He also reported that the District Attorney’s office had put the case on a “slow roll,” which explains why at the end of the year we were still waiting to see if charges were going to be filed.
Best of the Bunker, 2016
20. Scientology’s 20 biggest celebrities in order of those most likely to defect
Sure, you get lists of Scientology celebrities all the time. But we put this one together after Jason Lee bolted from the church because we wanted to know, from our Hollywood Celebrity Centre source, who he thought might be the next to walk. This list kicked up a lot of disagreement, and that’s what it was designed to do.
19. A Scientology spy comes forward — now he’s ready for war with David Miscavige
Skip Young had a small but significant place in Scientology history as a San Diego cop who provided a footnote to the Snow White Program. But we found out that today he’s been abandoned by his two daughters, who have “disconnected” from him in the Scientology way. From Scientology spy operative to grieving dad. His was one of the most unexpected stories we covered this year.
18. How Liz Gale came to disconnect from her own mother, Scientology style
Mark Ebner had done an amazing job telling the story of Philip Gale, a young genius who had grown up in Scientology and then had thrown himself off a building on the MIT campus on L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday in 1998. But Philip’s younger sister, Liz Gale, had a journey out of Scientology that deserved a telling of its own.
17. VIDEO: David Miscavige’s entire speech at Scientology’s Atlanta ‘Ideal Org’ opening
What a coup this was. If you know how hard it’s been just to get a decent photo of David Miscavige at his appearances opening new Scientology buildings, you know that our correspondents had finally squared the circle with this one. From a perch across the street, they managed to video the Scientology leader’s entire speech at the Atlanta ceremony in April. Sure, there’s traffic noise, but the quality of this video is really pretty good considering how difficult it was even to obtain it.
Kate Bornstein and Caitlyn Jenner, walking into the Los Angeles Org and asking to see Kate’s long-lost Sea Org daughter? And cameras weren’t rolling? We’re just fortunate that Kate told us all about it. What a scene.
15. Appeals court strikes Scientology’s $1 million judgment against Ken Dandar
This may have been the biggest surprise of the year. Scientology appeared to have attorney Ken Dandar dead to rights after winning a ruinous $1 million judgment against him. How he got there was incredibly complex, but a retired judge seemed determine to make Dandar pay for suing Scientology. Ken was appealing, but they looked like long shots. How wrong we were.
14. What’s the worst that can happen when you sue Scientology? Here’s one frightening example.
Karla Taylor believed that Scientology had misused the trademarks of her company, the National Association of Forensic Counselors, in order to hide the problems of its drug rehab network, Narconon. But after filing her lawsuit against 82 defendants, alleging a widespread conspiracy run by David Miscavige, she then found herself in the crosshairs. Eventually, a magistrate judge ordered Karla to turn over her private laptop to attorneys representing Narconon, which our legal observers told us was beyond the pale. What is it about Scientology and the courts?
13. For Scientology’s most infamous dirty trickster, retirement has a happy ending
If you study the dirty tricks played by Scientology on its perceived enemies, one name comes up as much as anyone’s: Eugene Ingram, disgraced former Los Angeles cop and chief private eye for Scientology in the 1980s and 1990s. What a treat it was, with the help of our researchers, to find Gene today, “el Jefe” of his own Mexican cantina.
12. THE BILLBOARD IS UP: Scientology’s disconnection policy on view in Los Angeles
What a day this was in the Bunker, whose readers had helped raise the lion’s share of the money Phil and Willie Jones used to post their own billboard in Los Angeles bringing attention to Scientology’s policy of “Disconnection.” After, that is, two previous billboard companies had turned them down in the face of Scientology intimidation.
11. Is Scientology using Tommy Davis to get Aussie billionaire James Packer back in the fold?
Former Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis continues to be a favorite around here at the Bunker, and so we like to keep tabs on him. And did that pay off this year. Tommy has a cool new job in Hollywood, but our experts tell us he’s still likely to be trying to get James Packer back into the Scientology fold. We’re still looking for evidence of that.
10. Scientology’s Space Man: The newest defector from church management opens up
Paul Burkhart was another key defection from Scientology’s upper ranks. He was in a unique position to watch what was happening at both Int Base and then at the Hollywood Guaranty Building in Los Angeles. And having left in August 2013, his information was years fresher than anything else we’d seen. And most shocking? His estimate, based on access he had to enrollment documents, that Scientology’s active membership worldwide has now fallen under 20,000.
9. Some churches take care of the old — Scientology instead works them to death
The story of Claire Reppen was not an easy one to read. In her late 60s and suffering the effects of advanced cancer, she was still a Sea Org member and was expected to work like one. Her son provided for us a handwritten letter Claire wrote, asking for relief from her work, and her supervisors own complaint about her tendency to slack off. The details are gruesome, and point to a larger problem: Scientology has no idea what to do with the many older members it has now, except work them to death.
8. Disconnection, neglect, and suicide: Scientology, it’s even worse than you think
More than a disconnection story, this is a saga about a Scientology family that is so disturbing, we can’t look at that photo, above, without feeling astonished that it exists. Share this story with your friends, and tell them that Scientology is always worse than you thought.
7. CLAIM: Frail looking Shelly Miscavige spotted near Scientology compound in California
After years of writing about Shelly Miscavige, the wife that Scientology leader David Miscavige made disappear more than a decade ago, we were stunned to learn that there’s a good chance she’s been spotted — and exactly where we’d been telling readers to look for her. We’ve vetted the couple that reported these sightings, and we’re taking their claim seriously. And because of that, we’re more concerned than ever about the state that Shelly is in. Much more on this is coming soon.
6. Lucia Ribisi ditches Scientology and says of famous dad Giovanni, he’s questioned it
We spent months checking our facts before revealing that Lucia Ribisi had talked publicly about ditching Scientology on a Los Angeles radio show, but under an assumed name. Her defection puts enormous pressure on her famous dad, Giovanni, who, she claims, has had his own doubts about the church. This is huge: The Ribisi clan is one of the most prominent in the church, and Giovanni’s divorced parents are among the most dedicated Scientologists still left in the organization.
It’s so fun to beat the celebrity-obsessed bigs to a story like this. Tom Cruise is having a $3 million, double-level penthouse with a private, 9-car garage with car elevator built out in a former bank building smack in the middle of Scientology’s “Flag Land Base” in Clearwater, Florida. Mom lives nearby, and son Connor is also in town, so maybe it makes sense to Tom to have a place in Clearwater. But the location at the center of Scientology’s “spiritual mecca” also says a lot, doesn’t it?
4. The fight over the secrets on a Scientology spy’s seized laptop that no one is talking about
Years of detailed information that spells out Scientology’s elaborate and possibly illegal spying operations is sitting in the evidence room of a Wisconsin town, and someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to get their hands on it. Can journalists get there first? We obtained a couple of court documents that spelled out this extraordinary situation, but then we made a call out to our fellow journalists — someone needs to get their hands on that crucial information before David Miscavige does.
3. Scientology’s secret sites: The Bunker premieres drone footage never before seen of Int Base
We never knew him. We only know that he showed up out of nowhere and gave us the links to a set of the some of the most vivid footage we’ve ever seen. Our mystery man had flown a drone equipped with a 4K camera over Scientology’s super secret compounds in California and New Mexico, giving us unprecedented looks at them, with knockout clarity. Twin Peaks, where Shelly Miscavige is most likely being held? This footage not only shows you the compound, but we pinpointed the house where Shelly probably lives, and the building where she works. Other flyovers included Int Base where David Miscavige lives, the Creston ranch were L. Ron Hubbard died, the spaceship-looking vault site on the Northern California coast, and the famous Trementina base in New Mexico.
2. How Lisa Marie Presley became Scientology leader David Miscavige’s worst nightmare
This was a two-part series in April that had taken us more than a year to put together, and coincided with the publication of Ron Miscavige’s memoir, Ruthless. Ron’s escape from Int Base and his memoir were part of an ongoing destruction of his family, orchestrated by his son, David, Scientology’s iron-fisted ruler. But what no one knew until we revealed it was that one person who was intimately involved with the Miscavige family saga was Lisa Marie Presley. She became so incensed with how Ron was being treated by his own children, she went to the Flag Land Base in Clearwater in October 2014 to have a showdown with David Miscavige. He sent his sisters in his stead to scream at Lisa Marie in what has to be the single weirdest scene we’ve written about in several years.
1. Spying, intimidation, and ruin: Two lives caught up in Scientology’s notorious ‘Fair Game’
We will probably fail at trying to impart how much this story meant to us. We knew, when Rob Ramsay first brought us his dead brother’s private papers, that we had a unique opportunity. Rob’s brother, Peter, had been a dedicated Scientologist, and he had also been a spy for the church who helped Scientology carry out its ‘Fair Game’ campaigns. And on one person in particular, a guy named Gregg Hagglund whose own history was odd and wonderful. Telling the tale of how the lives of these two men were intertwined because of Scientology’s vicious thirst for revenge was one of the most challenging and fulfilling experiences of our career.
Best of the Bunker, 2015
2. AUDIO LEAK: Hear a Scientologist being declared suppressive and facing the loss of her family
3. Jim Carrey’s Scientologist girlfriend on SRD when she killed herself: friends
Cat White’s ‘twin’ | Cat’s Hollywood clique | Scientology spied on Carrey | Cat White’s husband Mark Burton | Cat’s secret wake | The man who found Cat | Cat’s Ireland-Scientology connection
4. The shocking case of Scientology mistreatment of the mentally ill you haven’t heard
5. NY Times reports link between Scientology and hack of two who appeared in ‘Going Clear’
6. Scientology’s day care from Hell: The scandal the church managed to keep hidden, until now
7. Why Steve Fishman — of the notorious Fishman Papers — is today serving 21 years in prison
8. Hear the full police interview of Scientology spies and their stalking Ron Miscavige Sr
9. Ten year gone: Shelly Miscavige, the wife Scientology’s leader wants us to forget
10. The life and death of Scientology ‘Clear’ Lisa McPherson told in real time
11. The Leah Remini files: An exclusive look at the ‘KRs’ that inform her memoir
12. Another Scientology rehab death, and why this one is particularly bad for David Miscavige
13. Our guide to watching Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary ‘Going Clear’: Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
14. How Scientology broke up Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers: The story you haven’t heard
15. The story of Brian Sheen and his disconnected Scientology daughter you haven’t heard
16. Louis Theroux’s ‘My Scientology Movie’: A hilarious take on an unfunny bunch
17. New government release contains a surprise: L. Ron Hubbard flunked out of high school, too
18. John Coale, Greta Van Susteren, and the miracle of Scientology drug technology: A meditation
19. Listen to Jim Jones root for Scientology against Paulette Cooper in a 1978 Jonestown address
20. Reed Slatkin dies of heart attack: Scientologist served time as major Ponzi schemer
Best of the Bunker, 2014
1. A perplexing tale about Bob Duggan, the richest Scientologist in the world
2. Up the Bridge: We finally reach OT 8, but was its first version really a hoax?
3. Shock dox: Scientology’s book value for just two of its entities is $1.2 billion
4. Scientology’s disconnection policy foiled as Jeremy Powers reunites with his family
5. Rare tape reveals how L. Ron Hubbard really came up with Scientology’s space cooties
6. Monique Rathbun files for sanctions, submits Scientology leader’s foul-mouthed texts
7. Five things to watch for in today’s first Scientology wedding in the UK
8. ‘Bare-Faced Messiah’ back in print: Our interview with author Russell Miller
9. Jillian Schlesinger: How I got into Scientology and how I got out
10. We asked David Miscavige’s tailor for his exact height and here’s what he told us
11. Where is Scientology keeping Barbara Cordova Oliver?
12. Media advisory: Stop saying that Scientology is infested with big movie stars already
13. Denise Brennan, 1952-2014: A truthteller who exposed Scientology’s corporate shell game
14. Verdict: Scientology’s Quebec rehab facility violated human rights of David Love and two others
15. LAWSUIT: Oklahoma officials hid wrongdoing at Scientology drug rehab
16. The rising business star, his mother, and Scientology’s attempt to rip them apart
17. The Scientologist who wouldn’t fly: The rise and fall of insurance mogul Richie Acunto
18. Jamie DeWolf: I’ve found the last memoir of the son of Scientology’s founder
19. Scientology says it’s received $5.7 million from Google in advertising grants
20. L. Ron Hubbard explains to a friend the real reason he wrote ‘Dianetics’
Best of the Bunker, 2013
1. How Scientology coerced a child to have an abortion: The Laura DeCrescenzo files
2. Breaking the news that Leah Remini had left Scientology (July 8, 2013) And follow-up with Leah’s sister Nicole
3. Monique Rathbun files suit against Scientology over harassment
4. PZ Myers helps us plunder the riches of L. Ron Hubbard’s book of Scientology evolution!
5. LEAKED: Scripts spell out how Scientology directs the unsuspecting to its rehab network
6. The history of Scientology’s weird vaults — the bizarre ‘Battlefield Earth’ connection!
7. SCIENTOLOGY’S PRIVATE DANCER: A story of seduction, intervention, and betrayal
8. LIVE OVER CLEARWATER: Watching Scientology from an Eye in the Sky
9. Will Smith-backed school that used Scientology materials closes its doors
10. Did the Headleys and their lawsuit torpedo the FBI investigation of Scientology?
11. Leah Remini files missing-person report on Scientology leader’s wife
12. Blogging Dianetics: Vance Woodward helps us parse L. Ron Hubbard’s masterpiece (series)
13. Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: We don’t think Scientology is going to like this book much
14. Document leak: Scientology sexual histories
15. Jenna Miscavige Hill on her uncle, Scientology’s leader: A bully too afraid to show his face
16. Today you begin your training as a Scientologist
17. Former Scientology enforcer Marty Rathbun examines his past as the church’s ‘warrior’
18. SCIENTOLOGISTS AT WAR, the Channel 4 documentary (and what was left out)
19. In his new book, is Neil Gaiman exorcising his Scientology past?
20. Mary Sue Hubbard’s last will fulfilled: Her dog bereft of life, it’s time to sell her house!
Best of the Bunker, 2012
2. ‘Tom Cruise worships David Miscavige like a god’: A Scientology insider, John Brousseau, gives first full-length interview to the Voice (Part 1, Part 2)
3. Scientology abandoned by L. Ron Hubbard’s granddaughter and David Miscavige’s father
4. Scientology’s secret vaults: A rare interview With a former member of hush-hush ‘CST’
6. How Scientology spied on Tom Cruise
7. Scientology: Secrets of the Super Power Building (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
8. Scientology’s homophobia: Even the church’s token gay guy was disgusted
9. Scientology’s Writers of the Future Contest: Troubling ties to abuse in the church
10. Kate Bornstein’s amazing voyage
11. Scientology, deep in the heart of Texas: The Voice at the Debbie Cook hearing
12. Death of a Scientologist: Why Annie Broeker, Famous in the Church, Had to Die in Secret
13. Scientology and the occult: Hugh Urban’s new exploration of L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley
14. VIDEO: Proof that L. Ron Hubbard was the most awesome human being ever
15. Scientology, ‘disconnection,’ and homophobia: Derek Bloch’s story
16. Why do Scientologists accept the Xenu story?
17. Scientology’s concentration camp for its executives: The prisoners, past and present
18. The Strange Death of Flo Barnett, Mother-in-Law to Scientology Leader David Miscavige
19. Scientology in turmoil: Debbie Cook’s email, annotated
A Sample of earlier stories, 1995 – 2011
2011
Scientology’s Cruise Ship as Prison: The Voice Interviews Valeska Paris
THE TOP 25 PEOPLE CRIPPLING SCIENTOLOGY
1. L. Ron Hubbard | 2. David Miscavige | 3. Marty Rathbun | 4. Tom Cruise | 5. Joe Childs and Tom Tobin | 6. Anonymous | 7. Mark Bunker | 8. Mike Rinder | 9. Jason Beghe | 10. Lisa McPherson | 11. Nick Xenophon | 12. Tommy Davis | 13. Janet Reitman | 14. Tory Christman | 15. Andreas Heldal-Lund | 16. Marc and Claire Headley | 17. Jefferson Hawkins | 18. Amy Scobee | 19. The Squirrel Busters | 20. Trey Parker and Matt Stone | 21. Kendrick Moxon | 22. Jamie DeWolf | 23. Ken Dandar | 24. Dave Touretzky | 25. Xenu
Scientology in The New Yorker: Lawrence Wright Buries L. Ron Hubbard For Good
Tommy Davis, Scientology Spokesman, Secretly Recorded Discussing ‘Disconnection’
Scientology’s Enemies List: Are You On It?
Inside Scientology’s Labor Camp That Benefits Tom Cruise: The Photos
Daniel Montalvo Hits Scientology With Stunning Child Labor Lawsuits
‘Inside Scientology’ Promises a Lot, And Delivers: David Miscavige Has Much to Worry About
Scientology Targeted South Park’s Parker and Stone in Investigation
Scientology Hates Clean Ice: The “Fair Game” Operation That Should Turn Your Stomach
Scientology Never Forgets: A Telemarketing Holiday Miracle
LinkScientologists: How Many Of Them Are There, Anyway?
When Scientologists Attack! (First coverage of the Squirrel Busters in Texas)
More Scientology Hip Hop, Yo: The Curious Career of Chill EB
Milton Katselas Pleads With Scientology After Grant Cardone’s Attack: A Church Jihad?
Scientology Cruise Ship as Hellhole: The Ramana Dienes-Browning Story
Scientology and the Nation of Islam: A Heartwarming Independence Weekend Parable
2010
Another Ex-Scientologist Publishes Damning Tell-All (‘Counterfeit Dreams’ by Jefferson Hawkins)
Scientology “Dark Ops” Program Exposed, Says Former Top Official
Daniel Montalvo, 19, Leaves Scientology, Which Convinces LA Sheriff to Jail Him For It
Aaron Saxton, Scientology Enforcer, Stops By For a Chat
2009
‘Crash’ Director Paul Haggis Ditches Scientology
Scientology’s Leader a Sadistic Slapper, Say Top-Level Defectors: St. Pete Times
Scientology Gets Its Ass Kicked In the Desert
2008
Scientology’s Crushing Defeat (The Larry Wollersheim story)
Scientology’s First Celebrity Defector Reveals Church Secrets
Jason Beghe Turned Away at NY Scientology Building
What to Get L. Ron Hubbard for his Birthday
Nightline Swings at Scientology, Misses
Isaac Hayes Was No Expert Scientologist
2001
Sympathy for the Devil (The Tory Christman story, written for New Times Los Angeles)
2000
John Travolta won’t talk to The Finger (Written as “The Finger” for New Times Los Angeles)
1999
Double Crossed (The Graham Berry story)
Picket Fencing (The Jeff Jacobsen story)
1995
Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlatans (The Rick Ross story)
