Tony Ortega | The Underground Bunker

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]

Tom Cruise, John Travolta and some other rare celebs made Scientology event in Florida

[David Miscavige and his galaxy of stars]

We noted yesterday that Scientology posted images from its L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Event which was held Saturday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida. And now we’ve had a closer look at those images and found some […]

Keith Raniere: What does the smartest man in the world sound like?

[Keith Raniere and Allison Mack]

We’re still just settling in here at our new blog that will be watching the Nxivm trial unfold in the coming months. Some of our readers are asking us what this Nxivm thing is all about, not having been caught up in the fascinating coverage that’s appeared in places like Vanity […]

Like with Scientology, Russia is doing it wrong with Jehovah’s Witnesses

[Danish JW Dennis Christensen escorted into a Russian courtroom. Credit: Mladen Antonov]

We find it interesting to write about the controversies of certain unusual groups. We investigate allegations of abuse by groups like Scientology and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But that doesn’t mean we want to see any Scientologists or Jehovah’s Witnesses mistreated for their beliefs. That’s just right […]

David Miscavige presides over Scientology’s holiest annual celebration of L. Ron Hubbard

Yesterday we told you that we didn’t expect Scientology to post images from its LRH Birthday event held last Saturday in Clearwater until the rest of the orgs get to see the video this Saturday. But the church surprised us by posting photos from Saturday’s event last night, on Hubbard’s actual […]

The new Nxivm superseding indictment is here — and this is what’s new in it

[Keith Raniere]

Nxivm watchers have been anticipating this for some time, and today the new superseding indictment landed and we have a copy. One of the biggest changes from the previous indictment is that Nancy Salzman has been removed as a defendant now that she’s pled guilty. […]

Nxivm’s Scientology-like targeting of critics outlined as Nancy Salzman pleads guilty

[Nancy Salzman leaves court today. Photo by VillageDianne]

NEW: The new superseding indictment hit the court file the same day Nancy Salzman pled guilty, and we have it here.

Some additional very interesting documents have been unsealed in the Nxivm case even as one of its chief defendants, Nancy Salzman, pled guilty today in a Brooklyn court […]

Details from the judge’s ruling in Quebec affirming a class action against JW child abuse

[Judge Chantal Corriveau and the Quebec Superior Court]

Our readers know we love court documents. And so we went hunting for a recent court ruling that we’d read some news stories about. At the end of February, Quebec Superior Court Judge Chantal Corriveau authorized a class action lawsuit against three Jehovah’s Witness ruling bodies in a […]

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard is celebrating another birthday, and it’s a party!

It’s the holiest day on the Scientology calendar again, L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday! Ron is 108 today, wherever he is, and so we’re sending our annual birthday wishes to the Great Thetan while he’s researching OT levels off at Target […]

Press reactions to Nancy Salzman pleading guilty in Nxivm case

[Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman]

Hey, we just got off a long flight and saw that the Nxivm story blew up in a big way while we were in the […]

Lloyd Evans responds to our story about JWs and blood transfusions

One of the people we heard from after posting our story yesterday about the Jehovah’s Witness prohibition of blood transfusion was ex-JW activist Lloyd Evans, who complimented us on bringing up Watch Tower president Nathan Knorr’s role. We really appreciated the encouragement he gave us. […]

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