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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A Scientologist is brutally murdered in Peoria, but you didn’t hear it from Scientology

[Jose Ramirez and his parents, Susan Brill de Ramirez and Antonio Ramirez Barron]

It was a gruesome crime that shocked a university community. On the night of October 25, two employees of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, were in bed in their home when they were awakened to be pepper-sprayed, stabbed, and bludgeoned to []

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Lauren Salzman testimony: Keith Raniere wanted thousands, even millions, of sex slaves

[Lauren Salzman and Allison Mack]

Our correspondent Dianne Lipson is out of the courtroom after the Monday morning session in the Nxivm trial, during which former Nxivm defendant Lauren Salzman continued her testimony.

Here are Dianne’s []

A paradox of apathy and zealotry: What props up Scientology, from within and without

[Ruben Celiberti]

When you think about it, the amount of information that has come out about Scientology and its abuses in the last decade is simply stunning. From the “Truth Rundown” by the Tampa Bay Times in 2009, to Lawrence Wright’s killer 2011 New Yorker article, subsequent book, and then his 2015 HBO film with Alex []

Free of measles, Scientology’s cruise ship gets back to separating OTs from their money

[Freewinds in Aruba, May 17th]

The Scientology ship Freewinds was released from quarantine in Willemstad in Curaçao and arrived on Friday at the port of Oranjestad, Aruba. The scare when a passenger was diagnosed with measles is over, and Scientology is anxious to get the ship back to normal. The ship is the only place Scientology []

Here’s the judge who just fed an anonymous critic to JW’s Watchtower on a platter

[Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim]

It’s a happy headline at the San Francisco Chronicle: “Jehovah’s Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules.” But dig into the story and you find that the result is actually almost opposite of that headline, and it also reflects a judge who truly doesn’t understand who she’s dealing []

Graham Berry does it again: More Scientology financial fraud spelled out in legal demand

[Attorney Graham Berry]

Once again, Graham Berry has helped a victim of Scientology in desperate straits. Like others we’ve told you about recently, Louis Stephen, 69, was targeted by Church of Scientology employees who ran up stunning debts on credit cards he didn’t even want to open in order to purchase expensive Scientology courses he had []

Nxivm defendant turned witness: Lauren Salzman on being Keith Raniere’s ‘slave’

[Lauren Salzman and Keith Raniere]

Our correspondent Dianne Lipson was again in court today, and gave us a riveting account of defendant-turned-witness Lauren Salzman as she described being Keith Raniere’s slave — while Raniere never took his eyes off of []

Once again, Scientology celebrates a Nation of Islam bigot tonight in Los Angeles

 Scientology is very quick to label those of us who have exposed their controversies and abuses with the word “bigot.” You’ve seen them call us that countless times. They throw it at Leah Remini and Mike Rinder and so many others. So for that reason this flier for tonight’s “graduation” celebration at the Hollywood Celebrity []

More Nxivm witness testimony: Keith Raniere’s solution for a doubter? Lick a puddle.

[Mark Vicente and Bonnie Piesse]

Dianne Lipson reached us between court sessions this afternoon, and we have her latest updates from the cross-examination and redirect testimony of filmmaker Mark Vicente at the Nxivm trial. []

Beyond the quarantine: Signs that Scientology is getting involved in anti-vaxx panic

[Scientologists Lucy Cole and Rizza Islam, and anti-vaxx activist Michelle Ford]

When the quarantined cruise ship in St. Lucia turned out to be Scientology’s floating cathedral, we got a lot of people asking the same question: Is the Church of Scientology []