Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Photo evidence which suggests, sadly, that Riley Keough has slipped back into Scientology

[Lisa Marie Presley and her three daughters]

In 2016, we had a wild story to tell you about Lisa Marie Presley. Through excellent sourcing, we learned that not only had Lisa Marie distanced herself from the Scientology she had grown up in, but she attempted to have a personal showdown with Scientology leader David Miscavige in []

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NXIVM: Expert testimony on the myths and misconceptions of sexual assault

[Dr. Dawn Hughes]

Dianne Lipson is out from the morning session in the Nxivm trial, and has this report for []

‘Scientology is Security for South Africa’: How L. Ron Hubbard sought to prop up apartheid

[Hubbard and his Rhodesian staff]

South Africa is a country of extraordinary contrasts: Fertile savannahs and teeming cities, immense wealth and terrible poverty, multiracial idealism and ethnic violence. It’s also a place of striking contrasts in Scientology’s history. In the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling in this vast country and consulting state archives to piece []

NXIVM chat logs: Keith Raniere’s penis envy and narcissism: ‘I suspect I’m a pretty sellable guy’

[Keith Raniere]

The Nxivm trial resumed Wednesday after a holiday break. Our Dianne Lipson was on the scene and has this incredible report…

We are in cross-examination of James Loperfido, who had created multiple companies for Nxivm, conducted by Mark Agnifilo. []

Scientology survey for its members: Why aren’t you giving us more money?

 On Wednesday, we told you that the Hollywood Celebrity Centre had sent out a questionnaire to its members which suggested that a new series of Scientology books for children may be []

Amber Scorah talks to Lloyd Evans about her ex-JW testament, ‘Leaving the Witness’

[Amber Scorah]

Lloyd Evans talks to Amber Scorah, whose book about leaving JW, “Leaving the Witness,” is getting major media treatment. Not only is she with a major publisher, but she’s getting interviews at places like The Daily Show and NPR. Nevertheless, it’s still good to see her talk with someone who deals with this subject []

Why is the YMCA helping spread Scientology to kids?

[The Speer Academy]

On Sunday, Mike Rinder posed a great question about the ongoing relationship between Scientology (which pretends it’s a force for human rights) and the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist movement whose leader, Louis Farrakhan, isn’t shy about demonizing whites and Jewish people. []

Reader, can you help this father who wants to keep his son out of Scientology?

 We get a lot of inquiries about Scientology here at the Bunker, but this one was different from any that we’d previously received. It’s a delicate situation, and rather than make our own suggestions, we proposed presenting this reader’s questions to our commenting community for feedback. He agreed to that []

Jehovah’s Witness elder faces trial on sexual assault of 4 minors: What did Watchtower know?

[Roderick Watkins]

At JWSurvey, Ex-JW activist Mark O’Donnell digs into an upcoming trial of a former Jehovah’s Witnesses elder in Arkansas who is accused of the sexual assault of at least four minor victims.

Roderick G. Watkins, 56, goes to trial in July after being arrested last November. All four of his known victims, aged 6 []

Having conquered QR codes, Scientology goes all in on WhatsApp

 Scientology is moving towards modern communications technology. We have seen how they use Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media to communicate with non-staff members (known as “publics”) and to spread PR messages. []