In September and October 2015, we found ourselves at the Underground Bunker scrambling to keep up with a major national story that we’d helped to break: Actor Jim Carrey’s girlfriend, Cathriona “Cat” White, had been found dead of an apparent suicide at 30. We were the first to add the detail that Cat, an immigrant [...]]]>

 
In September and October 2015, we found ourselves at the Underground Bunker scrambling to keep up with a major national story that we’d helped to break: Actor Jim Carrey’s girlfriend, Cathriona “Cat” White, had been found dead of an apparent suicide at 30. We were the first to add the detail that Cat, an immigrant from Ireland, had become involved in Scientology in Hollywood and was doing its “Survival Rundown” when she ended her life.

Carrey’s history of outspoken jabs at Scientology helped make this a sensational story, and the press was thirsty for any detail about the young Irish woman. Some of those details were supplied by her good friend, a fellow Scientologist and struggling actor named Jenny Burpee.

Jenny described finding Cat’s body in interviews she gave tabloids, and we later learned that it was a friend of hers named Den Bradshaw who had actually found Cat’s lifeless body.

But there was no question that Jenny and Cat were tight and had been for years. Jenny was one of the first friends that Cat made when she came to the U.S., and helped her find a place in Hollywood’s young Scientologist set.

Jenny Burpee was from a deeply involved Scientology family from Ottawa, and she had even served a stint in the Sea Org. But by the time she became close to Cat White, Jenny was following her own Hollywood dreams as a hopeful actor, producer, and event planner.

And even after leaving the Sea Org, she remained active in Scientology’s “The Way to Happiness” Foundation, and had marched with the foundation’s float in the Hollywood Christmas Parade, among other activities and fundraisers.

On September 28, 2015, Jenny and her friend Den headed over to the house where Cat had been staying after Jenny became concerned that Cat hadn’t been answering her texts.

A couple of years after Cat’s death, Jenny began making bizarre and disturbing statements on social media, which suggested she was going through her own difficult emotional time. We reached out to her, and it began a conversation that lasted, off and on, for a couple of years.

We told Jenny that we worried her lengthy involvement in Scientology would prevent her from getting proper care for her emotional problems. Scientology hates the mental health industry with a passion, and demonizes all things related to psychiatry or psychology. Even former members of the organization can find it very difficult to overcome that conditioning and seek professional help for emotional issues.

Sadly, Jenny’s communications to us only became more incoherent over time. Our last email from her was in 2019.

Last Monday, on February 27, Jenny Burpee was found in her residence according to the LA County Coroner, which has deferred her cause of death pending further investigation.

“Jenny was one of my close friends while in the Sea Org,” says Clarissa Adams. “She and two other friends and I all stayed in the same room at ‘The Complex’ in Los Angeles for a period of time. Our married friend’s husband was sent out of town on a ‘mission’ or something so we all stayed in their room while he was gone. It was a bright spot in my time there. It was basically a slumber party with good friends every night for a few months, so Jenny and the other two girls made my days way more bearable.

“Jenny was a light. She was silly and fun and she was kind and caring. Before her mental decline she seemed poised to do great things.

“Writing this, I have no idea what actually happened to her or how she passed, but she will always hold a special place in my heart and I can only hope that she’s found peace.”

 
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Technology Cocktail

“We can be assured on the score of fallout — it isn’t dangerous at this time. It does not compare to the amount of ‘natural radiation’ with which we are being bombarded. If you went down to Florida to live you would increase your radiation count much more than it would be increased if you stayed well North and the government blew off ten thousand more test bombs…The reaction to radiation is thus entirely, completely, and wholly mental!” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1957

 
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

 
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane

 
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Source Code

“Always had a lot of fun riding motorcycles, it’s something I shouldn’t do, not in America. Motorcycles are ridden by delivery boys. They’re ridden by admirals and members of parliament over in England so I always have to ride motorcycles with an English accent anyway, to keep up my social caste, you know, it’s very important.” — L. Ron Hubbard, March 6, 1957

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“It should be made known that there has never been ANY order from the Commodore to have Dining Room windows left open so people freeze as they eat. There is an order to Chief Steward to handle cooking smells.” — OOD, March 6, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“LRH wrote up an assist process that helps a Being leave their body when they are ready. There’s no need to dramatically kill their body. I assisted my 90-year-old parent, successfully to cross over with this assist. The Being let me know all was OK in a dream. And I was honored to become a godmother.”

Past is Prologue

2002: Former Scientologist Caroline Letkeman reported that she received her Suppressive Person declare from Scientology. “Caroline Letkeman, of Chilliwack, British Columbia, is hereby declared a Suppressive Person. Caroline Letkeman, in November 2001, formally resigned from the Church of Scientology by means of a public declaration. In addition to this, she demanded full refund of all funds donated to the Church. In the year 2000, Caroline wrote an essay against Scientology which contained defamatory statements and black propaganda; this was written for a known suppressive group and was published through a broad communication medium. Attempts have been made by Church staff to assist Caroline to come to her
senses, however, she refused these efforts to help her and has continued to commit suppressive acts. Caroline has committed the following suppressive acts: VIOLATION OR NEGLECT OF ANY OF THE TEN POINTS OF KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING. PUBLIC DISAVOWAL OF SCIENTOLOGY OR SCIENTOLOGISTS IN GOOD STANDING WITH SCIENTOLOGY ORGANIZATIONS. PUBLIC STATEMENTS AGAINST SCIENTOLOGY OR SCIENTOLOGISTS BUT NOT TO COMMITTEES OF EVIDENCE DULY CONVENED. DEMANDING THE RETURN OF ANY OR ALL FEES PAID FOR STANDARD TRAINING OR PROCESSING ACTUALLY RECEIVED OR RECEIVED IN PART AND STILL AVAILABLE BUT UNDELIVERED ONLY BECAUSE OF DEPARTURE OF THE PERSON DEMANDING. It is hoped that Caroline comes to her senses and recants.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“Hubbard was definitely trolling people on some level. You can see it in that cartoon lupine grin he was always sporting.”

 
——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Mistrial declared November 30. Retrial scheduled, jury selection begins March 29. Next pretrial hearing: Feb 16.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing Feb 13.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for March 1 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next status conference Feb 13.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2. Hearing November 17 to argue the arbitration motions, awaiting ruling.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: March 15, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through February 7.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

 
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SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Never before published: Jane Doe 1’s plea to Scientology to report rape by Danny Masterson
[TWO years ago] When Rinder met Hubbard: A Scientology story for the ages
[THREE years ago] Riffer madness: Scientology in a tizzy days before next week’s hearing in Masterson suit
[FOUR years ago] When Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ is forever, and other developments
[FIVE years ago] What Scientology TV should be about — but won’t dare to put on the air
[SIX years ago] Scientology caught in a lie to federal court — but will the judge care?
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology snags a TV news host, and other social media finds around the world
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology posts the (nearly) full deposition of reclusive ‘Justice Chief’ Mike Ellis
[NINE years ago] Scientology gets the ‘America’s Book of Secrets’ treatment soon!
[TEN years ago] Scientology Response to Federal Lawsuit: Force The Garcias to Use Church Arbitration
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology, Deposed? Debbie Cook Goes on the Offensive

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 6, 2023 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

 

Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast

 Yesterday, a story ping-ponged around the usual media locations, indicating that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had decided not to dismiss two wrongful death lawsuits against actor Jim Carrey that grew out of the suicide of his Irish on-again, off-again girlfriend, Cathriona White, who died in September 2015 at the age of 30.

Carrey is [...]]]>

 
Yesterday, a story ping-ponged around the usual media locations, indicating that a Los Angeles Superior Court judge had decided not to dismiss two wrongful death lawsuits against actor Jim Carrey that grew out of the suicide of his Irish on-again, off-again girlfriend, Cathriona White, who died in September 2015 at the age of 30.

Carrey is being sued by Cat White’s husband, a man named Mark Burton, and by Cat’s mother, Brigid Sweetman, who each blame Carrey after Cat overdosed on drugs that had been prescribed to Carrey and that she had apparently taken from his apartment.

None of the stories mentioned the detail we discovered, that Cat White was a Scientologist who had been stalled on the “Survival Rundown” when she took her life, and that Burton is also a Scientologist who, Cat’s friends say, married her out of convenience so she could get a green card and stay in the country after Carrey refused to marry her.

We had been driving between Portland and Seattle on a leg of our book tour that summer when we first got a message from one of our best, most trusted sources, who told us that the young woman in the news for killing herself had actually been a Scientologist. We confirmed it with another of our sources later in the day, and on the morning of September 30, we broke the news, and tabloid reporters from both sides of the Atlantic started ringing us. Pete Griffiths helped us nail the next detail, the identity of Cat’s SRD and Purification Rundown “twin,” an actor named Travis Case, who works as Ashton Kutcher’s stand-in. (Scientology often has members pair up to get through courses together, and the Purif and the SRD are both physically and mentally grueling.) We also started to learn something about the young Scientology Hollywood types that Cat had been involved with.

One of the things making Scientology’s involvement interesting was that Jim Carrey had made fun of Scientology numerous times, and seemed to want nothing to do with it. Former Scientology official Claire Headley provided us with our next scoop: That Carrey had, in fact, been the focus of an intense effort by the church to bring him in and get him on the “Purif,” spearheaded by Shelly Miscavige, wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige. (Yes, the same Shelly who vanished a few years later, in 2005.) Claire suggested that Scientology would still consider Carrey a prize, and would not have hesitated to use a Scientologist like Cat White to work on bringing him in. “They tried it in the past, and they would do it again,” she told us.

And then came the bombshell. The Daily Mail discovered from the Los Angeles coroner that Cat was actually married. Even some of her close friends had no idea and were stunned at the news. A marriage certificate was quickly located for Cat and Mark Burton in Clark County, Nevada, but who was Mark Burton? We managed to locate a couple of photos of him from friends who had been involved in the small-time video shoots where Cat had been a make-up artist. We also began to learn more about Cat’s past in Ireland and how she had first run into Scientology — through a famous Austrian family of artists who lived in a castle in Tipperary.

We also learned something fascinating about Burton’s past — he was the stepson of Duke Snider, one of Scientology’s most notorious spies who had helped run the church’s infiltration of the US federal government in the 1970s, the “Snow White Program.” Snider was among 11 top Scientology officials convicted and sent to prison for the Snow White operation.

And then came a stunning detail that we hate for the rest of the media to forget already. Not only had Cat engaged in a secret wedding with a fellow Scientologist in order to avoid going back to Ireland, but it wasn’t her first time!

In fact, marrying a friend for immigration status was something Cat White had talked about for years, even before she began dating Carrey. In 2010, two years before she started up with the actor, Cat and her friends staged a fake wedding with one of her fellow Scientologists in order to produce wedding photos that could be used to fool immigration authorities. Cat ultimately didn’t go through with marrying that man, but a photo from the event exists, and we have a copy.

 
Since that report, things turned very ugly in the litigation between the parties. Burton apparently had obtained Cat’s smartphone after her death, and sordid messages from it began leaking to the press which indicated that she and Carrey had fought over her allegation that she had become infected with venereal diseases from him. There had even been a court settlement between them about it.

Burton’s attorney very effectively dragged Carrey through the mud over the revelations from Cat’s phone, but Carrey was defiant, saying that he had no interest in working out a settlement in what he characterized as an extortion attempt.

Now, the lawsuits have survived dismissal, and a trial has been set for April 26, 2018. It would be extremely unusual for such a trial to take place. More likely, some agreement will be hashed out, but not, perhaps, without more salacious revelations.

We think that Scientology’s involvement, however, is not one that should be forgotten.

For a young woman who had had a history of struggling with depression, turning to Scientology was perhaps the worst thing she could have done. Scientology demonizes mental health care, and would have convinced her that it was a betrayal to seek proper counseling or medication. And the grueling nature of the SRD could not have helped.

It’s a shame that this beautiful young woman ever went near Scientology. Perhaps the court ought to keep that in mind.

 
——————–

Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 2, 2017 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 We spoke to actor Jim Carrey’s attorney Marty Singer today, who told us he was very interested in our morning story about Mark Burton, the man who is suing his client over Cathriona White’s 2015 suicide.

Burton filed his lawsuit yesterday, claiming that Carrey obtained prescription medicines under a fake name so he could give them [...]]]>

 
We spoke to actor Jim Carrey’s attorney Marty Singer today, who told us he was very interested in our morning story about Mark Burton, the man who is suing his client over Cathriona White’s 2015 suicide.

Burton filed his lawsuit yesterday, claiming that Carrey obtained prescription medicines under a fake name so he could give them to White, his on-again-off-again girlfriend who had moved to Los Angeles from Ireland in 2009. She and Carrey began dating around March 2012 and broke up for the first time several months later. They had resumed dating in 2015, before breaking up again that September. On September 28, 2015, Cat White was found dead, having apparently killed herself with medications that Carrey procured under the name “Arthur King.” Carrey maintains that she took the medicines without his knowledge, and he didn’t notice they were missing until it was too late.

After White’s death, L.A. Coroner Ed Winter shocked even Cat’s close friends by revealing that she was married to a man named Mark Burton. This morning, we reported that Cat told a few close personal friends that the January 2013 marriage to Burton was a sham that was intended to fool immigration officials so she could stay in the country. Her friends say that Cat, who had met a family of Scientologists in Ireland before emigrating and had become involved in Scientology in Los Angeles, had asked several of her male Scientology friends if they would be willing to enter a fake marriage with her. She had even, in 2010, held a fake wedding with a fellow Scientologist in order to get photos to throw off immigration officials, but had changed her mind about that match. After her break-up with Carrey in 2012, she approached Burton, also a Scientologist, and they went to Las Vegas to get married and told very few of their friends.

Now, Marty Singer had a new surprise for us.

“I’ll let you know something that hasn’t broken yet. She asked Jim to marry her, right after they first started dating. He said no. That’s not public information yet, but it was going to come out in the lawsuit,” he said.

 
We checked in with our two sources from this morning’s story, both women who knew Cat White well. Our first source tells us that she was aware that Cat had proposed to Carrey, and that he had turned her down. Our second source was not aware of it, but she didn’t doubt it.

“She was a beautiful, sweet little Irish flower, and she was obviously really in love with Jim Carrey. So she was really bummed out about it,” says our first source.

“She was such a sweet and open person, and she would have been very upfront with Jim about wanting to marry him so she could stay,” she says, explaining that Cat’s immigration status would have complicated a real relationship that might eventually have included marriage and children.

“You have to keep in mind, her father was very ill and she was trying to get back to Ireland,” says our second source. Cat’s father, Pat White, died in 2012. Cat would be unable to fly to Ireland and then return to the U.S. until her visa situation was sorted out. “That’s why she was desperate to get married. I told her, you’re a winner and a beautiful girl. Get a real marriage. And I think that’s what she wanted to do. With Jim it was real, she really wanted to marry him. But with a high-level celebrity, that’s a whole other deal.”

Both of our sources say that the situation was tough for both of them — Cat, because her real feelings for Jim were mixed with her desperation to get home, and Carrey because he wouldn’t have wanted to rush into something simply to help someone get a green card.

“I didn’t know that she asked him, but it rings true. She wanted a real marriage. She didn’t want a fake one. She wanted to find her partner in America,” says our second source.

Both of our sources, who helped us understand Cat’s attempts to get sham marriages with fellow Scientologists, emphasized that they saw Cat as a victim, not as a schemer. She was pushed into a desperate situation, and was doing what she could to pursue her new life in Los Angeles.

“When she lost that, her chance to marry Jim, and she was still stuck in this manipulative group of Scientology, she lost it. She probably didn’t even know who to trust anymore. All she had were Scientologists in her life,” says our first source. “Cat would be so disappointed with this lawsuit. A good friend of hers suing the man she loved? This is the last thing she would want.”

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on September 20, 2016 at 17:10

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

A man named Mark Burton filed a wrongful death lawsuit yesterday in Los Angeles against comedian Jim Carrey, claiming that the actor should be held liable in last year’s apparent suicide of a 30-year-old woman from Ireland named Cathriona White.

Cat White was Jim Carrey’s on-again-off-again Scientologist girlfriend, and a suicide note she [...]]]>

A man named Mark Burton filed a wrongful death lawsuit yesterday in Los Angeles against comedian Jim Carrey, claiming that the actor should be held liable in last year’s apparent suicide of a 30-year-old woman from Ireland named Cathriona White.

Cat White was Jim Carrey’s on-again-off-again Scientologist girlfriend, and a suicide note she left behind suggested that she killed herself because she was distraught over Carrey breaking up with her. But she was also married to Burton, who is accusing Carrey of illegally obtaining prescription medicines under a fake name in order to supply them to Cat, who used them to end her life. Carrey has maintained that the medicines were stolen from him, and he didn’t notice they were missing until it was too late. He expressed great distress at her death, and attended her funeral in Ireland. But Burton claims in his lawsuit that Carrey reneged on an agreement to help pay for the funeral’s costs. Burton’s attorney, Michael Avenatti, used Twitter yesterday to claim that Carrey’s involvement in his former girlfriend’s death is so suspicious, it warrants a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

Media outlets are eating up the story, naturally, but few reports are asking any questions at all about who Mark Burton is, or are bothering to remind readers that last year it came as a huge shock even to some of Cat White’s closest friends when the L.A. Coroner revealed that she was a married woman.

Today, we have new information that should put Mark Burton’s lawsuit, and Michael Avenatti’s statements about it, in perhaps a different light.

Two independent witnesses, both personal friends of Cat White, tell the Underground Bunker that Cat made it crystal clear to them that her quick marriage to Mark Burton was one of convenience only, and was intended to fool immigration officials so Cat could gain the legal status she needed to remain in the United States. Additionally, both of our witnesses say they are so certain of their information, they are each willing to speak with law enforcement officials about the fraudulent nature of the Burton-White marriage.

After Carrey and Cat broke up in 2012, Cat was desperate to find someone who would marry her so she could stay in the country, and she approached multiple Scientologist friends about helping her out with fake marriages before she quietly went to Las Vegas in January 2013 to marry Burton. (When she died last year, Cat had been living for three months in a Sherman Oaks home, and Burton lived hundreds of miles away in Oregon.)

In fact, marrying a friend for immigration status was something Cat White had talked about for years, even before she began dating Carrey. In 2010, two years before she started up with the actor, Cat and her friends staged a fake wedding with one of her fellow Scientologists in order to produce wedding photos that could be used to fool immigration authorities. Cat ultimately didn’t go through with marrying that man, but a photo from the event exists, and we have a copy.

We asked Burton’s attorney, Avenatti, for a statement about Burton’s marriage to White and whether it was legitimate. He told us that all that mattered was that Cat’s death certificate named Burton as her husband. He then sent us a generic statement about the “Carrey spin team” that didn’t address the Burton-White marriage.

Carrey, meanwhile, put out a strong statement characterizing the lawsuit as a shakedown attempt: “There are moments in life when you have to stand up and defend your honor against the evil in this world. I will not tolerate this heartless attempt to exploit me or the woman I loved,” he said in a prepared statement. “Cat’s troubles were born long before I met her and sadly her tragic end was beyond anyone’s control. I really hope someday soon people will stop trying to profit from this and let her rest in peace.”

Cat White grew up in Ireland, and began her journey to Hollywood and Scientology when she met an Austrian photographer’s family who lived in a castle in Tipperary. We’ve written before about how Gottfried Helnwein’s family, particularly his son Cyril, befriended Cat and impressed her with their connections in Scientology. The Helnweins were connected to musician Beck Hansen and the Ribisi clan, who seemed to have a pipeline of young Scientology talent making its way in Hollywood.

Cat moved to Los Angeles in 2009, and began chasing Hollywood success while she also began her journey in Scientology. Thanks to the Helnweins, she did fall in with the Ribisi clan’s peripheral members, and soon found herself dating a Scientologist named Tiber McCormick, followed by another Scientologist, Tyler Hynes, who were both part of the young Hollywood crowd she was hanging with.

But one of her close friends tells us that Cat was also very aware that she was in the country illegally after her tourist visa ran out.

“She was looking for someone to marry so she could stay in the country. She was trying to get Tiber to marry her,” our source says. (She asked not to be named in this story but says she will soon be going public when a documentary she’s involved in gets released.) “We were all really close. Tiber, and Mark Burton, and other Scientologists, we were all best friends.”

Our source says Cat was open about the fact that she was in the country illegally and needed to do something about it. And Cat was counting on one of her male Scientologist friends to help her out.

“In fact, Cat had a fake wedding. At somebody’s house up in the hills,” our source says.

One of Cat’s male Scientologist friends agreed to go through with a sham marriage, but they knew they’d be quizzed by immigration officials to find out if it was a real relationship. So in the spring of 2010 they decided to stage a fake wedding so they’d have photographs to show.

Our source shared with us a photo from the wedding party, showing Cat in her white wedding gown. Unfortunately, it’s not a high resolution shot. But if you know Cat, it’s unmistakably her in the gown.

 
Our source says the fake wedding ended up being for nothing after Cat and her friend decided not to marry. Instead, two years later, she met Jim Carrey and began dating him. The two seemed genuinely interested in each other, but our source says that Cat definitely had in mind marrying Carrey so she could stay in the country. Instead, after dating him for several months, they separated

“She was devastated when they broke up,” our source tells us. And suddenly, her immigration status took on even more importance.

“She asked like five other Scientologist dudes to marry her so she could get a green card before Mark said yes,” our source says. “They were not married for anything else but for her to get that green card.”

They had met on the set of low-budget film sets where Mark was a cameraman and Cat did makeup and hair. Our source says Mark agreed to the sham marriage in part because he’d long had a crush on Cat. But it wasn’t something she felt in return. “Cat was not into Mark like that. They were really close, but not like that.”

Records show that on January 15, 2013, Burton and Cat were married in Las Vegas. This time, unlike the sham wedding in 2010, other friends weren’t involved. Very few of Cat’s friends knew about the marriage at all.

“I saw her after she and Jim broke up, and she said she got her green card. I said, ‘How’d you swing that?'” says our second source, another close friend of Cat’s who came to us independently of the first.

The second source says Cat told her about the marriage to Mark Burton several weeks after she got back from Las Vegas. “She got an apartment with him, but it was for show. She moved back with Jim after she started dating him again. There was no real relationship with Mark as a husband.”

It’s believed Cat and Carrey were on and off again until they were spotted dating in March 2015. Then they broke up again a year ago, in September 2015. That breakup apparently fueled Cat’s decision to end her life, and she made use of Carrey’s prescription drugs, which he’d obtained under the fake name “Arthur King.”

Now, Cat’s former friends say, they’re disgusted that Mark Burton is suing Jim Carrey and claiming that he was responsible for Cat taking her life.

“The guy’s crazy,” says our second source. “Everyone knows it was a set-up marriage.”

“He’s such a fucking retard, he’s so stupid. It’s unbelievable that he’s suing,” says our first source. She has no doubt that Burton is listening to people in his life who see things in stark terms of the hunter and the hunted.

“Mark used to tell me that the insurance company his parents worked for could spy on anybody,” she says, referring to David Morse Associates, a notorious insurance investigations company that became a haven for former Scientology spies, including the company’s CEO Duke Snider, Mark Burton’s stepfather.

As we pointed out in an earlier story, Burton’s stepdad is a former Scientology spy who was convicted of felony conspiracy and sentenced to prison as part of the largest infiltration of the U.S. federal government in history, Scientology’s “Snow White Program” that broke into and burglarized federal offices from 1974 to 1977.

In other words, Mark Burton was raised in Scientology, and with ruthless role models. He’s hired Avenatti, a high-profile attorney who’s tangled multiple times with the NFL and, before he became a lawyer, worked in a consulting firm run by Rahm Emanuel.

Avenatti’s complaint on behalf of Burton accuses Carrey of being unforgivably at fault for Cat White’s death:

— Carrey could monitor surveillance cameras outside the home that showed Cat had entered the house but not left for more than a day, and yet he didn’t make an attempt to check on her, the complaint alleges.

— Cat’s lifeless body was discovered on September 28, and an autopsy showed she died from ingesting Ambien, Propranolol, and Percocets, all of which had been prescribed to Jim Carrey under the name Arthur King.

— The lawsuit accuses that Carrey “marketed” and “distributed” the drugs to Cat on September 21.

— Cat likely overdosed on September 24, though she wasn’t discovered until September 28.

— On September 27, Carrey sent Cat a text saying that his drugs were missing, and the lawsuit alleges that Carrey did this as a ruse to cover up that he had voluntarily given the drugs days earlier to Cat. He continued his ruse as “a good guy” by offering to help pay for funeral expenses — but later reneged on it.

Burton is suing Carrey for wrongful death as well as violating drug handling laws. The lawsuit asks for an “ex parte prejudgment writ of attachment” so Carrey’s assets can be seized, “including his Gulfstream V private jet” in advance of what’s likely to be a large award.

Well, it’s certainly worth asking, at least.

“I think it’s so selfish, and it’s really sad. Mark is so disrespectful for bringing this all up again and suing Jim,” says our first source. “Jim Carrey was so sweet to her. He had nothing to do with her killing herself.”

She says she’s sure that Burton is being manipulated as a Scientologist to make the play for a big settlement from Carrey. “Mark actually has a big heart. But this is something Scientology does to manipulate people to do its work for them. It’s selfish, and it’s hardcore manipulation by the church.”

 
OUR CATHRIONA WHITE COVERAGE

Sept 30, 2015: Jim Carrey’s Scientologist girlfriend on ‘SRD’ when she killed herself: Friends
Oct 1, 2015: Cathriona White’s Scientology ‘twin’ on grueling courses was an actor named Travis Case
Oct 4, 2015: Meet the young Hollywood types who introduced Cathriona White to Scientology
Oct 6, 2015: Scientology spied on Jim Carrey to get him on ‘Purif,’ says former exec
Oct 6, 2015: Cathriona White was married to Scientologist Mark Burton
Oct 7, 2015: A secret Scientology wake, a ‘Snow White’ link, & more odd twists emerge in the Cat White story
Oct 8, 2015: For some reason, news sites are keeping quiet about who found Cat White’s body. So here he is.
Oct 9, 2015: The Scientology-Ireland connection that propelled Cathriona White to Hollywood

 
And here’s the court complaint…

Mark Burton v. Jim Carrey, Complaint

 
——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 20, 2016 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 In 2009, Cathriona White emigrated from Ireland to Los Angeles. We’ve reported that once she was there, a group of young Scientologists welcomed her into the fold and encouraged her to [...]]]>

 
In 2009, Cathriona White emigrated from Ireland to Los Angeles. We’ve reported that once she was there, a group of young Scientologists welcomed her into the fold and encouraged her to begin courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

But from the beginning, our sources were telling us that it wasn’t an accident that Cat fell in with the Hollywood group. Something had happened in Ireland that convinced her to go, and helped her gain entrée to the California clique.

We should have known the reason sooner, because we’ve written about Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein and his family in the past. But this week, a couple of our readers reminded us that the Helnweins own a castle in County Tipperary, where Cat herself was from. And photographs and online writings by Cat and the Helnweins make it clear: It was the Helnweins, in particular Gottfried’s son Cyril Helnwein, who form the connection between Ireland, Cathriona White, Hollywood, and Scientology.

Last December, the New York Times fashion magazine, T, ran a feature about Gottfried and his clan, calling them the “real-life Addams family” because they’re morbid and weird (but adorable, at least to the Times). There was no mention of Scientology in the article. But in 2011, we provided a different look at the Helnweins in a story for The Village Voice, and it wasn’t so heartwarming.

In 1997, Gottfried moved to Ireland after spending some years in Germany. He was originally from Austria, where he’d got his start as an internationally successful artist, known for his hyper-realistic portraits and disturbing subjects. His portrait of John F. Kennedy showed up on the cover of Time magazine in 1983, and he’s gained notoriety for portraits that have ended up as album art.

 
He’s also been a Scientologist since about 1972, but that’s something he doesn’t want well known. In the 1990s in Germany, he sued a woman, a former Scientologist, who had publicized Gottfried’s involvement in the church. Six years after he first filed suit, in 2000, he dropped the matter.

But not only was Gottfried a longtime member of Scientology, his son Cyril had spent time in the Sea Org in England, and in 1996 when he was about 18, Cyril told his father that he wanted to marry a 16-year-old Sea Org worker named Melissa Paris.

As Melissa told us for our Voice story…

Melissa says she was given an ultimatum: Marry Cyril Helnwein, or get kicked out of the Sea Org. “I was told that the only way I would be able to stay would be if I married him. I’d actually broken up with him right before that and…a high level executive told me that I needed to get back together with him ASAP. I was threatened with being dropped off in the middle of East Grinstead (England)….The guy’s father was pretty famous, and he wanted to marry me.”

Feeling that she had no choice, Melissa agreed to marry Cyril, but then got a concession out of him: She asked him to use some of his father’s wealth to fly them to the Caribbean for a honeymoon aboard Scientology’s private cruise ship the Freewinds. She knew that her older sister, Valeska Paris, was working on the ship and was being held there as a virtual prisoner. (Valeska believes it was because her mother had sued Scientology, and church leader David Miscavige wanted to keep the girl away from her mom. Valeska says she was kept on the ship for 11 years, unable to go ashore without an escort, before she finally was transferred to Australia and later left the Sea Org. She and Melissa didn’t see each other again after that 1996 honeymoon until they were reunited in 2009.)

Melissa’s marriage to Cyril lasted only a couple of years, and her involvement in the Sea Org also ended in 1998. But she told us that during the entire time she was in the Sea Org — from 1994 to 1998, working long hours in menial labor, she was paid a total of about $40, another reason she had little choice when she was forced into marrying.

Cyril’s own involvement in the Sea Org was reportedly a short one, and instead of sticking to the billion-year contract he’d signed, he followed in his father’s footsteps to become an artist, just like his other siblings Wolfgang Amadeus, Ali Elvis, and Mercedes.

According to the Times profile, it’s Cyril and his own family (he has three children) who today live in the County Tipperary castle that the entire family once called home. The Gurteen Castle, built in 1866, lies across the River Suir from the Tipperary town of Kilsheelan. About an hour away to the northwest, in the village of Cappawhite, is where Cathriona White grew up. She’s returning to Cappawhite this Saturday, when she’ll be laid to rest next to her father, Pat, who died from brain cancer in 2012.

As we’ve tried to learn more about Cathriona and her life, we’ve been poring over the traces she left on social media, and we’ve received help from numerous readers. And they helped us find that Cathriona’s friendship with Cyril Helnwein might have begun through the castle’s pets.

Both Cat and Cyril made references, in their Instagram accounts, to Cathriona taking care of dogs. In this photo Cyril posted a week ago, he remembers Cat and “all the doggy-sitting”…

 
In 2012, when her father had died, Cat had been unable to attend his funeral because she was living in the US illegally. But on January 15, 2013, she married Mark Damian Burton, a Scientologist and cameraman she had met on the set of a web TV show, “The Online Gamer.” She didn’t tell her other friends about the marriage, but it gave her the ability to travel more freely, and in 2014 she returned to Ireland to be in her sister Lisa’s wedding. When she posted a photo from the ceremony, Cyril Helnwein asked if she’d have time to get together…

 
However her friendship with Cyril began, getting to know the Helnweins gave Cat access to a new world. In 2005, for example, Gottfried let Marilyn Manson and Dita Von Teese hold their wedding at Gurteen Castle. And also that year, Manson attended Cyril’s art show in Los Angeles, where the three of them — Cyril, Manson, and Gottfried — were photographed…

 
That show was hosted by actor Danny Masterson, and also attracted other Scientology celebrities, including Jason Lee. The My Name is Earl star is also a collector of Cyril’s photographs, along with Scientology actors Christopher and Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, Jenna Elfman, and Michael Peña.

Cat White couldn’t help but be impressed by the sheer number of Scientology stars that Cyril knew and who supported his work.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Cyril’s sister Mercedes was also finding success as a writer and an artist, and it had helped her befriend another Scientology celebrity: musician Beck Hansen. Mercedes had appeared with Beck in the video for his 2008 song “Gamma Ray”…

 
In 2010, Beck had hosted a reception for an art show by Mercedes…

 
And at an earlier Mercedes art show, in 2004, a photographer captured Marissa Ribisi, Beck, Mercedes Helnwein, and Beth Reisgraf (Photo by J. Sciulli/WireImage)…

 
When Beck came to Dublin this summer for a concert, his friend Cyril Helnwein was on stage, taking dramatic photos…

 
Here then was the connection to Beck that our sources originally told us about. They told us that Cathriona had first heard about Scientology from Beck’s circle of friends, and it had motivated her to move to Los Angeles and make her own foray into the entertainment industry. One of the first people she got to know — and reportedly dated — was a Scientologist artist named Tiber McCormick. In 2003, McCormick and Cyril Helnwein had put on a joint art show in Los Angeles that was hosted by Christopher and Danny Masterson at Jason Lee’s loft.

Cat was on her way. She had local contacts, and they steered her not only to work in Hollywood, but also to courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

Cat also met former Sea Org worker Jenny Burpee, who told a reporter she took Cat under her wing. But even with the entrée she had managed by knowing the Helnweins back in Tipperary, Cat still struggled to find work as an actress and then as a make-up artist.

But then, in 2012, she met Jim Carrey and everything changed.

 
UPDATE: These photos just came in from a tipster who attended tonight’s wake for Cathriona White in the Tipperary village of Cappawhite. They capture the press photographers waiting outside White’s Funeral Home for a chance to shoot a celebrity…

 
OUR CAT WHITE COVERAGE:

Sept 30: Jim Carrey’s Scientologist girlfriend on ‘SRD’ when she killed herself: Friends
Oct 1: Cathriona White’s Scientology ‘twin’ on grueling courses was an actor named Travis Case
Oct 4: Meet the young Hollywood types who introduced Cathriona White to Scientology
Oct 6: Scientology spied on Jim Carrey to get him on the ‘Purif,’ says former exec
Oct 6: Cathriona White was married to Scientologist Mark Burton
Oct 7: A secret Scientology wake, a ‘Snow White’ link, & more odd twists emerge in the Cat White story
Oct 8: For some reason, news sites are keeping quiet about who found Cat White’s body. So here he is.

 
——————–

Your proprietor on Media Mayhem

It’s always a treat to be on “Media Mayhem” with Allison Hope Weiner. She asks your proprietor about Cathriona White, Leah Remini’s book, Bella Cruise’s wedding, and more…

 
——————–

BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, 3 pm, free but reservations recommended (with Steve Cannane)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth, Collins Street Centre, Collins St and Shaftesbury St, South Perth, 7 pm

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 9, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 We have just a minor update on the Cathriona White story today, but it’s something we haven’t seen anyone else report despite the feeding frenzy of news about the 30-year-old woman’s suicide.

Sometime between Thursday, September 24 when actor Jim Carrey reportedly broke up with her, and Monday night [...]]]>

 
We have just a minor update on the Cathriona White story today, but it’s something we haven’t seen anyone else report despite the feeding frenzy of news about the 30-year-old woman’s suicide.

Sometime between Thursday, September 24 when actor Jim Carrey reportedly broke up with her, and Monday night September 28 when her body was found, Cat White reportedly ended her life with a drug overdose. There are some lingering questions, at least in our estimation, about how Cat’s body was found, so we thought it made sense to at least identify the person who first found her that night. It was her friend Den Bradshaw, a corporate trainer.

We’ve told you about Cathriona’s friend Jenny Burpee, a former Scientology Sea Org worker and lifelong church member who was one of the people who reportedly encouraged Cathriona to take courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre. And Jenny has spoken to the press about finding Cat’s body. But she’s been pretty explicit that it was her friend Den who actually first found Cat and saved the others — Den’s wife Lena, Jenny, and Jenny’s niece — from stumbling on the tragic scene themselves.

This is how Burpee described the scene to an Irish newspaper: “We checked her bedroom, which is quite open with a large window and she wasn’t there. Then Den checked the second bedroom and she was there, on the bed. My niece had been running down the hall shouting ‘Cat, Cat!’ Thank God we were behind him [Den] and didn’t see.”

For some reason, the newspaper held back Den’s full name. But we called him last night to see if he wanted to provide some further details and corroborate what Jenny has been saying.

We wanted to know if it was true that when the four of them arrived at the house, the front door was open. We also wondered if Jenny did call the police right away, as she said. And we wondered about Jenny’s claims about checking days of footage on Cat’s security system. When did that occur?

Jenny hasn’t answered our messages to her. And we told Den that we had heard that he wasn’t a Scientologist, and so he might be interested in talking to us.

“I’m not a Scientologist, but I’m still not interested in discussing this,” he said to us before hanging up. Well, that’s a shame. As we said yesterday, there are some very odd things about the investigation into Cat White’s suicide that we’d like to get cleared up. We’ll just have to find another way.

OUR CAT WHITE COVERAGE:

Sept 30: Jim Carrey’s Scientologist girlfriend on ‘SRD’ when she killed herself: Friends
Oct 1: Cathriona White’s Scientology ‘twin’ on grueling courses was an actor named Travis Case
Oct 4: Meet the young Hollywood types who introduced Cathriona White to Scientology
Oct 6: Scientology spied on Jim Carrey to get him on the ‘Purif,’ says former exec
Oct 6: Cathriona White was married to Scientologist Mark Burton
Oct 7: A secret Scientology wake, a ‘Snow White’ link, & more odd twists emerge in the Cat White story

 
——————–

Chris Shelton finishes his great series on Robyn Capella

Underground Bunker contributor Chris Shelton comes to the end of his terrific six-part interview with former Sea Org worker Robyn Capella. Here’s the description that Chris sent over…

This is the final episode in my 6-part series with Robyn Capella, which I’ve called The Scientology Experience because it details Robyn’s time from when she was 15 years old and first recruited into Scientology and the Sea Org, through her time in management and eventually working for the Office of Special Affairs. This has given us a unique insight into what goes on at every level of Scientology and what a “normal” Sea Org existence entails. Nothing that Robyn encountered in her time there was at all unusual, strange, or unique in terms of the crazy schedule and work loads, the financial travails and problems of eking out a living and of course, getting pregnant and being treated as a second-class citizen before finally being kicked to the curb because she wanted to have the same rights that everyone else outside of Scientology has: freedom to think and act and just live her life on her own terms. That sort of thing is completely unacceptable in the Scientology world, especially for someone who was once a part of the Sea Organization.

In this episode, we cover what happened to Robyn after that first court case she was involved in, what sorts of things she had to do as a DSA in the San Jose, California area in the mid-to-late 1990s. We talked about another court case against a Church critic, stalking and instigating local black ops against that critic and others, as well as the routine paranoid nonsense that OSA International makes its DSAs do in their ever-present fear of the Church being criticized in the media. In the end, Robyn finally ran into a level of evil within the Church that she wasn’t prepared for, even after all of the things she had seen and done as a DSA and this is what got her on the road out of the cult forever.

I want to thank Tony for publishing all of this on his blog and Robyn for her courage and determination to make her story known. it was a lot of fun and very interesting doing this interview, and hers is but one of thousands of similar stories out there waiting to be told. Every one of them are unique and valuable. It’s no longer a matter of wondering if Scientology is going down, it’s just a matter of when. The more of these stories we make known, the more of the truth we expose about the cult of Scientology, the faster this organization will reach its End of Days. And that will be a very happy day indeed.

 
——————–

Bonus photos from our tipsters

Starting them young in Old Mexico!

 
From Tampa, actual caption: “Registration success! Mary Corbell is one happy public! Her success- “I haven’t moved on the Bridge in a really long time and didn’t think it was possible (but I always wanted to) and then my Tampa Registrar called me in and said she had found a solution. I showed up the next day and worked with the Reg and she helped me and my boyfriend work out both our Purif and Survival Rundowns and now I couldn’t be happier!”

 
In case you didn’t catch this clever retort last night to Karin Pouw’s latest ridiculous Baghdad Bob moment, we’ve preserved it for you. What it’s about: Karin is denying that Scientology’s latest creepy operation involves using a Freedom magazine reporter to contact Oscar voters and poison them against Gibney’s film “Going Clear,” and she piled on the stupidity by claiming that the story was manufactured by Gibney, who is obsessed with winning awards.

 
Hey, girl. Let’s talk about my Survival Rundown cert under a crisp Odessa night.

 
——————–

BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, 3 pm, free but reservations recommended (with Steve Cannane)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth, Collins Street Centre, Collins St and Shaftesbury St, South Perth, 7 pm

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 8, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 The gathering featured a large poster of a black and white headshot of the 30-year-old woman whose face has become so familiar (pictured, above). Memorial brochures were printed up, but they were careful not to mention the location. Guests were asked to rsvp, but weren’t told where [...]]]>

 
The gathering featured a large poster of a black and white headshot of the 30-year-old woman whose face has become so familiar (pictured, above). Memorial brochures were printed up, but they were careful not to mention the location. Guests were asked to rsvp, but weren’t told where to go until the last minute.

As much secrecy as possible was maintained so that only a vetted guest list of people were invited to last night’s secret Scientology wake held for Cathriona White at the eccentric and legendary Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, California.

Jenny Burpee was there. And Tiber McCormick and his sister, Tama Leia Stewart. So was Cyril Helnwein and others in the social group of young Scientologists we told you about on Sunday, who had befriended Cathriona White after she emigrated from Ireland to California in 2009 and then encouraged her to begin taking Scientology courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

We sent an email to Burpee last night, asking her if Mark Burton attended the gathering. Burton, a Scientologist who was also part of the Hollywood clique, married Cat White on January 15, 2013 in Las Vegas, after, apparently, her five-month relationship with comedian Jim Carrey had initially ended. She and Carrey took up again this year, after she and Burton, 38, separated. But when Carrey reportedly broke up with her on September 24, Cathriona apparently took her own life and was discovered by Burpee on September 28.

 
As Cat’s husband, Burton by law was in control of her remains, but he reportedly released her to her family to be taken back to Ireland for burial. Jim Carrey met with Cathriona’s sister Lisa, who flew to Los Angeles, and he is expected to fly to Ireland for the ceremony.

But in the meantime, the Scientologists who had encouraged Cat to take her own journey on the “Bridge to Total Freedom” gathered to have their own secret ceremony last night. We asked Burpee if words by L. Ron Hubbard, who wrote ceremonies for Scientology funerals, were read aloud. We’ll let you know if she gets back to us.

Meanwhile, we’re hearing other odd things from our Los Angeles sources. For the past week, for example, private security men have kept watch at Cathriona’s house, and when they’ve been asked who they are or who they work for, they’ve refused to answer. Are they there at Carrey’s request? Scientology’s? We don’t know. One local reporter told us they found it odd that the coroner’s blue tape sealing the house was broken after three days, and not by police.

That also could have an innocent explanation, but we can say that we’ve never talked to so many spooked reporters — from around the world — who are calling us and saying they keep running into strange problems reporting this story.

In the meantime, we keep running into some strange things ourselves, things that the Underground Bunker community may understand the significance of better than just about anyone else.

Take Mark Burton’s family, for example. Mark Damian Burton’s mother is Paula Marie Burton, 61, and for many years she’s worked at David Morse and Associates (DMA), a Glendale, California insurance investigations firm. In a brochure put out by DMA in 2005, there’s a photo of Paula, and her last name reflects that she’d remarried after a divorce…

 
We called DMA yesterday and were told that Paula was in a meeting. We left her a message and we hope she gets back to us. We want to ask her about DMA’s CEO, whom she married, and who is the stepfather to her son, Mark. Here’s her husband’s photo from the same 2005 brochure put out by the company…

 
As you can see, DMA’s CEO, who happens to be Mark Damian Burton’s stepfather, is a man named Duke (Wake) Snider, 68, and he’s a very familiar face, at least to some longtime Scientologists.

Mike Rinder, Scientology’s former spokesman, told us that he had met Snider in Scientology, and positively identified him from this photograph. So did former longtime Scientologist Karen de la Carriere. They both told us that, without question, this Duke Snider is the same Duke Snider who was among the eleven Guardian’s Office Scientologists who were prosecuted and sent to prison as part of the notorious “Snow White Program” of the 1970s.

Maybe it means nothing, but it sure seems odd that the mysterious young man who married Cathriona White was not only a Scientologist who had grown up in the church, but one whose stepfather was one of Scientology’s most legendary spies, a man who had gone to prison for being part of Scientology’s yearslong conspiracy to infiltrate and burglarize federal agencies.

We couldn’t help feeling it was no accident yesterday that news organizations around the world were having so much trouble finding information about Burton, with some of them mistakenly chasing a 51-year old man with a similar name. (We were fortunate. Our source knew both Cathriona and Burton and was present when they met. We posted Burton’s photos knowing we had the right guy, but most news outlets are still not posting photos, and they’ve called us in frustration about it. The stepson of the Guardian’s Office spy is proving to be very slippery.)

We can’t help wondering if Cat White knew about the fascinating past of her husband’s family, or that her famous boyfriend, Jim Carrey, had been the subject of Scientology spying himself. Was she in over her head, both from what her Scientologist friends were getting her into, as well as the on-again, off-again nature of her relationship with Carrey? More than a week now after her death, it feels like we’re still far from getting any satisfactory answers about Cat White’s life and demise.

 
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BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, 3 pm, free but reservations recommended (with Steve Cannane)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 7, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 The Daily Mail today reported that Cathriona White had been married to a man named Mark Burton after the two met on the set of a web TV series.

Our sources tell us that the series was “The Online Gamer,” part of the “Reckless Tortuga” web channel, and that the show was largely made by young [...]]]>

 
The Daily Mail today reported that Cathriona White had been married to a man named Mark Burton after the two met on the set of a web TV series.

Our sources tell us that the series was “The Online Gamer,” part of the “Reckless Tortuga” web channel, and that the show was largely made by young Scientologists, including Burton.

Cathriona — Cat to her friends — moved to California from Ireland in 2009. She then met a group of young Scientologists who got her to start taking courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre beginning in 2010 or 2011. Then, in 2012, she met comedian Jim Carrey and began dating him, but the relationship ended about five months later.

Also that year, Cat’s father died in Ireland, but she was unable to go to the funeral because, reportedly, she was in the US illegally. That year, 2012, Cathriona also worked on The Online Gamer and played a zombie. We caught a quick glimpse of her in a making-of video about the series…

 
Our sources tell us that after meeting on the set, Cat and Mark Burton got married. But they apparently kept very quiet about it, because after Cat was found dead on September 28, apparently at her own hand, some of her friends were stunned to hear that she had been married.

But our sources say they are sure: Cat met Mark Burton on the Reckless Tortuga set, and they were both Scientologists.

According to Clark County records, Mark Damian Burton and Cathriona Anne White were married on January 15, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Burton has reportedly told Cat’s family that he will release Cat’s remains to them for her burial in Ireland.

A little more than a year ago, Cat posted this photo of Burton, who is second from the left…

 
Here’s another photo of him posted by his Reckless Tortuga friends…

 
There is a Mark D. Burton in the Scientology completions database, but we have not yet confirmed if these records pertain to the Mark Burton that married Cat. There is a Mark Damian Burton listed in Los Angeles of about the correct age, but when we called him he denied that he was the person we were looking for. We will bring you more information when we get it.

 
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BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, 3 pm, free but reservations recommended (with Steve Cannane)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 6, 2015 at 13:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 One of our most reliable sources, former Scientology executive Claire Headley, tells the Underground Bunker that in 2001 she was personally involved in a high-level project to entice actor Jim Carrey to begin taking Scientology courses, a project that not only involved the now-disappeared wife [...]]]>

 
One of our most reliable sources, former Scientology executive Claire Headley, tells the Underground Bunker that in 2001 she was personally involved in a high-level project to entice actor Jim Carrey to begin taking Scientology courses, a project that not only involved the now-disappeared wife of Scientology’s leader, but it also made use of a spy in Carrey’s personal life.

Scientology and Jim Carrey are currently in the news after we broke a story on Wednesday that Carrey’s girlfriend Cathriona White, who took her own life last week, had been a Scientologist. According to one report, her involvement in the controversial organization had become an issue in her relationship with the actor.

White left Ireland for California in 2009 and about a year later became involved in Scientology through its Hollywood Celebrity Centre. In 2012, she met Jim Carrey and began dating him, and her friends tell us that Carrey was aware of her involvement in the church. After about five months they broke up, but then earlier this year they started dating again. By then, our sources say, Cathriona had been paired with a Scientology actor, Travis Case, as her “twin,” and she had completed Scientology’s grueling “Purification Rundown” and had begun her “objectives,” part of a course called the “Survival Rundown.” She stalled on the course, we’re told, and then, after Carrey reportedly broke up with her on September 24, she took her own life, and was discovered on September 28 by friends.

On Sunday, we described the group of young Scientologists who had befriended Cathriona after she arrived in California and encouraged her to begin taking courses at the Celebrity Centre. After we published that story, we heard from numerous former Scientologists who had known Jenny Burpee, Josh Shultz, and the other young church members. Burpee, they pointed out, spent several years as a Sea Org member at Scientology’s Advanced Organization Los Angeles (AOLA), and would have been thoroughly trained in Scientology’s many policies regarding membership and outsiders.

 
At the minimum, former Scientology’s former spokesman Mike Rinder tells us, Cathriona would have been called down to be questioned by Scientology ethics officers once it became known that she was dating Carrey, a comedian who had ridiculed Scientology in the 1990s.

And now, Claire Headley says that Scientology’s interest in Jim Carrey was even more overt. She says that in 2001, Scientology launched a major effort to get him in, fueled by the news that Carrey was thinking seriously of trying out the Purification Rundown.

Despite his earlier jokes about Scientology, by 2001 Carrey had become interested in what the “Purif” — Scientology’s vaunted “detoxification” program of sauna use and massive niacin intake — might do for him. Headley says Scientology knew this because it had someone very close to Carrey who was feeding the church information, a standard Scientology method.

Claire says she found out about it from Shelly Miscavige, wife to the leader of Scientology, David Miscavige. Shelly was a hard-as-nails executive in her own right, and had the power, as an officer in the Religious Technology Center, the nominally controlling entity of the church, to run complex operations. Claire also worked in RTC, an elite inner group in Scientology’s “Sea Organization” that worked out of the secretive international base near Hemet, California, about 90 miles east of Los Angeles.

“Shelly said that Jim Carrey was considering doing the Purif, but she’d been told by the inside source feeding them info that there was a problem,” Claire tells us. We asked her how Shelly described the problem.

“Jim Carrey’s interested in doing the Purif, but he’s on psych drugs,” she remembers Shelly saying.

Scientology demonizes psychiatry and, in particular, anti-depressants and other “psych drugs,” and it would be forbidden for someone taking such drugs to participate in any Scientology course, let alone the “Purif,” which supposedly cleanses the body of such substances.

But Claire says that Shelly was so interested in convincing Carrey to start the sauna regimen, she charged Claire with researching everything Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had said about the process, hoping to find a loophole.

 
“Shelly had me do a big research project, and it was all about the Purif and psych drugs. I was looking through Hubbard’s ‘advices’ on the Purif, sending Shelly quotes. I got the impression that she was looking for a justification to allow Jim Carrey to keep taking drugs while he started the Purif, just so they could hook him in,” she says.

Claire says she was surprised that Shelly had such detailed inside information about Carrey. “That’s pretty private stuff. So I knew that someone pretty close to him was getting information out to us. I don’t know who that was,” she says.

Later, Carrey would go public with his dissatisfaction with Prozac, a drug he said he’d been on for years to treat depression. He told 60 Minutes in 2004 that he’d weaned himself off of the drug and was able to replace it with “spirituality.”

That might explain why, in 2001, Carrey was thinking of trying out Scientology’s methods, but wasn’t ready yet to stop taking meds altogether.

Claire Headley says that at the time, Shelly Miscavige was focused on bringing two big stars into Scientology’s celebrity-hungry culture: Carrey, and Nicolas Cage.

“I knew Shelly was also working with [Scientology executive] Greg Wilhere on Nicolas Cage. She was trying to arrange for Greg to do some auditing with Jim Carrey. I don’t know if that ever happened, but I do know they were very actively trying to get him hooked in,” she says. “I know that Cage did a bunch of auditing with Greg. I don’t know just how far they got, but I do know that Greg would go off base for a while, and it was all a mystery, and we’d get small bits of information. But I know that Cage was getting auditing.”

A year later, in 2002, Nicolas Cage married Lisa Marie Presley, who was then an active member of Scientology. They filed for divorce just three months later. Viewers of the movie Going Clear will remember Wilhere as the Sea Org official who in late 2004 prepared Nazanin Boniadi for her role as Tom Cruise’s girlfriend.

 
Carrey, however, remained a fish that got away. And within a few years, things changed in a big way for Claire and her boss.

Early in 2005, Claire escaped from the base after her husband, Marc Headley, made his own mad dash for freedom, which he describes in his 2009 book Blown for Good. Then, in late August or early September, according to our eyewitnesses at Int Base, Shelly herself suddenly left.

It’s now been ten years since Shelly suddenly disappeared, banished to an even more secretive Scientology compound in the mountains above Los Angeles after she apparently fell out of favor with her own husband. Except for a couple of days in the summer of 2007 to attend the funeral of her father, Shelly Miscavige has not been seen in public or at Int Base or other less secret Scientology facilities or events. Multiple lines of evidence convince us that she’s been held for the past decade at the small Church of Spiritual Technology headquarters compound near Lake Arrowhead, California. CST is the most secretive of Scientology’s many entities, and the one that’s charged with digging bomb-proof vaults for storing L. Ron Hubbard’s words and lectures so that they can survive a nuclear holocaust. Shelly has been reportedly working on the project ever since, and is likely resigned to her fate.

We asked Claire if, based on Scientology’s efforts to bring Jim Carrey in more than a decade ago, the church might have considered using Cathriona White to make another attempt at landing him.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t put anything past them in that regards,” she says. “We know that they’re getting desperate, and one of the few things they can do is get some more celebrities in. That’s always been one of their massive hooks to get people in. They tried it in the past, and they would do it again,” she says.

 
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Melbourne venue announced, and tickets going FAST

Hey, our Australia events are coming up quickly, and we’re getting pretty excited about it. Yesterday, our Melbourne venue was finally revealed when the Wheeler Centre announced that it was hosting our talk on October 25, and with ABC journalist Steve Cannane. The Wheeler Centre is at 176 Little Lonsdale Street, our event will take place at 3 pm (it’s a Sunday) and tickets are free. But grab them quick. Steve emailed us last night and said 250 seats are already spoken for!

We’re starting our tour in Sydney on Friday night October 23 at the Giant Dwarf Theater, a premiere venue that will be filming us, so there’s a door charge. Kickass Australian TV journalists Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour will both join us on stage. (Unfortunately, Senator Nick Xenophon’s schedule prevents him from attending, but he’ll join us in his home district in Adelaide on October 28.)

Now, if we could just get some word of what’s happening in Perth. We think a venue is close to being secured!

 
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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Hanging with Ronaldo in Mexico…

 
Bodhi Elfman posted this, calling his wife Jenna and mother Rhonda his “power chicas.” So it doesn’t look like the rumor that he’d disconnected from his mother turned out to be true. Any of our insiders know the full story?

 
Get a load of this poster in the Bogotá Ideal Org: “What can Scientology do for you?” Ha, ha! What can Scientology do for YOU? You mean, how many more toilets can you clean with your tongue and then thank Scientology for taking in your miserable thetan ass for the next billion years? Start writing that check, you pathetic worm!

 
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BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, 3 pm, free but reservations recommended (with Steve Cannane)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 6, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield

 In 2009, Cathriona White moved from Ireland to California. That same year, this photograph was taken. It was posted by celebrity photographer Joshua Shultz, who is sitting at the right. Next to him is a small-time actor named Tyler Hynes (in the red cap). Next to him is a man who is labeled “shmayle,” then [...]]]>

 
In 2009, Cathriona White moved from Ireland to California. That same year, this photograph was taken. It was posted by celebrity photographer Joshua Shultz, who is sitting at the right. Next to him is a small-time actor named Tyler Hynes (in the red cap). Next to him is a man who is labeled “shmayle,” then actress Erika Christensen, Tama Leia (McCormick) Stewart, and Tama’s husband, Taylor Newton Stewart.

They are young Scientologists, and soon most of them will become part of Cat White’s life.

Cathriona is famous now because on Monday she was discovered dead, apparently at her own hand, four days after her boyfriend, comedian Jim Carrey, reportedly broke up with her. On Wednesday morning, we broke the news that Cathriona — known as “Cat” to her friends — had been a Scientologist, and that Carrey was aware of that fact.

We found that surprising because Carrey had openly mocked Scientology in years past. The church likely considered Carrey “PTS” — a “potential trouble source” or even an “SP” — a “suppressive person” — and it seemed unusual that he would date someone in Scientology, and that Scientology would allow it to happen.

On Thursday, we reported another finding — that when she had done Scientology’s “Purification Rundown,” and then had started in on her “objectives” in a course known as the “Survival Rundown,” Cat had been paired with actor and professional poker player Travis Case, who became her Scientology “twin.” Our sources told us that Cat had stalled on the Survival Rundown in the last six months or so. We don’t know why she struggled with the course. Case did not respond to a message we left him.

In this article, we’re going to look at the beginning of Cat’s Scientology involvement and the people she met who encouraged her to start courses.

Previously, we said that our sources — friends of Cathriona — had told us that Cat had been introduced to Scientology by people in musician Beck’s social circle. Researching the actual people Cat befriended and talking with our sources further, we find that the situation was both less definite and more complex.

Unlike Scientology’s more well known celebrities — Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley — who were recruited by the church in the 1970s and 1980s, Scientology’s young celebrities today tend to have grown up in the organization. And many of them form a large, loose social group that includes Beck but also the Masterson clan, the Ribisis, as well as Jason Lee, and Erika Christensen.

In 2003, for example, when a young artist and Scientologist named Tiber McCormick had a joint art show with a fellow church member named Cyril Helnwein, the show was hosted by Christopher and Danny Masterson at Jason’s Lee’s loft, and photographs show that Laura Prepon also made the scene. (We’ve written about Helnwein before, and his famous father.)

For years, Scientology has recruited young aspiring actors and other creatives wanting to break into Hollywood by holding out the prospect of becoming part of such an in-crowd. In 1955, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard first announced “Project Celebrity,” and offered a bounty to church members who could bring in famous actors and other artists. Ever since then, Scientology has played on the hopes of young Hollywood types and catered to them with its “Celebrity Centres.” As author Lawrence Wright has explained, one of the things that makes the Celebrity Centres so appealing is that any Scientologist can take courses there and feel like a big shot.

And it was in 2010 or 2011 that Cathriona White, trying to make her own foray into the entertainment industry, began taking courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

Our sources say that the people who encouraged her were actor Tyler Hynes, artist Tiber McCormick, and actress Jenny Burpee. McCormick’s sister, Tama Leia Stewart, was also an influence, as well as photographer Joshua Shultz.

 
Cat dated Tiber McCormick, our sources tell us, and through him met Beck. McCormick’s sister Tama and her husband, Taylor Newton Stewart of the film scoring duo The Newton Brothers, also had some connection to Beck, our sources say, but we’ve been unable to find such a connection online.

Cathriona also dated Hynes, our sources say, but it was Jenny Burpee who appeared to remain a presence in Cat’s life for a longer time.

 
Burpee, 32, has appeared in four films. Her credits include “Woman in bed,” “Girl on TV,” “Party girl,” and “Hot-tub girl.” She has also appeared on the stage, as an assistant to illusionist Joseph Reohm. About a year ago, Reohm performed a show at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California with three stage assistants — two of whom were Jenny Burpee and Cathriona White…

 
We left a phone message and emailed Burpee. We’ll let you know if she gets back to us. Burpee is active in Scientology’s “The Way to Happiness” Foundation, and has marched with the foundation’s float in the Hollywood Christmas Parade, among other activities and fundraisers. Nora Crest says that she remembers Burpee serving a stint in Scientology’s Sea Org, the hard-core inner elite who sign billion-year contracts and work 112-hour weeks at pennies an hour.

Burpee’s connection to Cat and another friend was so tight, at one point the three of them got “X” tattoos made up of crossed arrows on their necks…

 
But Cathriona later regretted it, and just weeks ago was going through a lengthy process to have the tattoo removed…

 
Although she didn’t like the tattoo, Cat’s friendship with Jenny was apparently unaffected. Jenny posted this photo around the same time Cat was getting her tattoo removed…

 
And it was Jenny who discovered Cat’s body on Monday after she noticed that her texts to Cat weren’t being answered. Jenny is now getting publicity as the “best friend” who took Cat under her wing — but without any mention that becoming part of Jenny’s circle included the Hollywood Celebrity Centre.

The other member of the group, Joshua Shultz, is becoming known as something of an in-house Scientology portrait photographer…

 
A few months ago, Shultz included Cathriona in a shoot for a Bellus magazine spread that featured David Hasselhoff…

 
Shultz also appeared numerous times in photos on Cat’s Instagram account. We called Shultz, explained who we were and why we were calling, and he said “goodbye” and hung up.

Shortly after Cathriona arrived in California in 2009, she began taking acting classes. But she had more success doing make-up for a few small productions through 2013. In 2012, in one of her last credited jobs as a make-up artist, she worked on a short film titled Firefly. It was co-written and directed by Tyler Hynes, who was also its lead actor. Joshua Shultz was one of the producers, the soundtrack was by the Newton Brothers, and Jenny Burpee was the production coordinator. (Christopher and Danny Masterson made the premiere, along with Erika Christensen and Jason Dohring.)

Cathriona, in other words, had found her way into a working group of young Scientologists in Hollywood trying to get more famous. But also that year, she met and began dating Jim Carrey. Suddenly, she had found a portal into another world.

As we reported on Wednesday, our sources told us that Carrey was aware of Cathriona’s involvement in Scientology. Mike Rinder, Scientology’s former spokesman, tells us that there’s little question that Scientology would hear about the relationship and then call Cat down for questioning about it.

The relationship was reportedly not a very stable one, and the couple broke up about five months later. They started dating again earlier this year. Both Cathriona White and Jim Carrey had histories of depression. White’s mother Brigid also battled depression in her life. Did Cat get proper care for it? Scientology demonizes the psychiatric industry and anti-depressant drugs in particular.

EOnline is reporting that it talked to a friend of Cathriona’s who says that Scientology was a big part of Cat’s life, and that it was an issue between her and Carrey: “She was very involved and Jim wasn’t so sure about the whole thing.” Cathriona “really wanted to marry Jim. It was a point of contention between them. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to get married and the role that Scientology was playing in her life.”

Scientology itself has accused us of “bigotry” for even reporting on this story, and claimed that no one would be curious whether someone who committed suicide had been reading the Bible.

That’s an interesting comparison, because Scientology itself does have a Bible of sorts. It’s Dianetics, the book that founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote in 1950 and to this day is still pushed by church members as “Book One” and the start of their movement.

Dianetics has a subtitle. It is “The Modern Science of Mental Health.” In fact, the entire basis of Dianetics, and Scientology, is that Hubbard was the first person in history to discover the true nature of the human mind, and then developed the only reliable processes for good mental health. In order to get newer members to commit to Scientology’s ideas about mental health, it puts them through grueling courses that are more like hazing rituals. Remembering her ordeal on the Purification Rundown, a regimen of five-hour days in a sauna and ingesting dangerous levels of niacin and other vitamins, Cathriona used the hashtags #run #sweat #puke #repeat #day29icantfeelmylegs.

 
In the last photograph Cathriona posted to her Instagram account, after her breakup with Carrey but before she killed herself, she included the hashtags #endless #search and #californiadreaming.

 
Cathriona had gone to California with a dream, but instead got caught up in one of its oddest products, the Scientology movement, and then found herself on a huge stage as the companion of Jim Carrey. Sadly, it left her feeling that she was still in an endless search for something she could never find.

 
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Jeffrey Augustine interviews Aaron Smith-Levin

A summary from Jeff: “What is the ‘Clear Cognition’ and why is it so confidential in the Church of Scientology? In this wide-ranging podcast, former Sea Org member Aaron Smith-Levin discusses Scientology’s controversial Freeloader bills, the confidential Clear Cognition, and the fact that all Scientologists are taught to unquestionably believe that L. Ron Hubbard was the reincarnation of Buddha come back to finish his work. This podcast has two companion documents: 1. Aaron and his wife’s Freeloader Bill totaling $129,344.27 itemized on an Excel spreadsheet. This documents offers a fascinating look at some of the odd courses for which the Church charges Sea Org members. Examples: $500 each for the Sea Org etiquette course and the Sea Org grooming course. 2. Aaron’s petition to reduce his wife’s Freeloader Debt by deducting Non-Bridge courses.”

 
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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Fellow Ukrainians! We are scholars from the future and we will teach you how to use a dictionary!

 
Hey, girl. Denver can be lonely without some L. Ron Hubbard to curl up to.

 
Time for the Australian Football League’s championship — and Scientology was ready! Did you pick up a booklet?

 
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BOOK NOTES

We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.

Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…

 
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Steve Cannane and Bryan Seymour)

Oct 25: Melbourne, venue secured (announcement coming later)

Oct 28: Adelaide, Wheatsheaf Hotel, (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)

Oct 30: Perth

Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24), Phoenix (9/15), Cleveland (9/23), Minneapolis (9/24), Portland (9/27), Seattle (9/28), Vancouver BC (9/29)

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 4, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield