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Goodbye to a Scientology watcher we will dearly miss: Molly Kell, 1960-2021

 We’ve lost another treasured member of the Bunker.

This week we learned that Molly Kell, known as “Puget Buckeye” here in our comments section, died last Friday after her long battle with breast cancer. []

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Izzy Chait, renowned art dealer and major Scientology figure, dead at 74

[Chait in 2011 during the LAX ambush]

Isadore M. “Izzy” Chait, the well known dealer in Asian art and Scientologist OT 8 who fiercely defended the organization, died this morning of kidney failure at a Los Angeles hospital. He was []

Scientology icon and double OT 8 Chick Corea dies at 79 of cancer

[Corea at the Scientology 1977 ‘OT Summit’]

Chick Corea’s Facebook account announced this afternoon that the legendary jazz artist died Tuesday of a “rare form of cancer which was only discovered []

Sonya Bianchi, 1927-2020: Hubbard’s first ‘Clear’ who vanished from Scientology history

 Sonya Adelaide Bianchi Hulswit, a woman L. Ron Hubbard presented at an August 1950 presentation at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles as the first example of a Scientology “Clear,” died last night in Northampton, Massachusetts. Her son Chris Hulswit tells us that she was 92. []

Henning Heldt, 1945-2020: Scientology’s 1970s spymaster went to prison for L. Ron Hubbard

 The Underground Bunker has learned that 1970s Scientology spymaster Henning Heldt, the target of one of the largest raids in FBI history, died Sunday of cancer. He was []

Bernie Headley, 1952-2019: A man who fought against Scientology’s ‘disconnection’

 Bernie Headley died today, aged 67. Here’s what Marc Headley posted this evening at his Facebook []

Pete Combs, 1959-2019: A reporter who believed in the power of digging for the truth

 We have interacted with many journalists around the world doing our work here at the Underground Bunker covering Scientology stories. Journalists who have come to get their questions answered, and others who have generously helped us with tips or documents, or just story suggestions. Scientology is an arcane and difficult subject to cover, and in []

Nan McLean, 1923-2019: One of the bravest women who ever exposed Scientology’s abuses

[Nan with Jon Atack in Toronto in 2015]

Last night, we learned from Nan McLean’s granddaughter Phaedra Fairwell that Nan, a veteran of vicious Fair Game attacks after leaving Scientology and going public in the 1970s, died yesterday at Southlake Regional Hospital in Newmarket, Ontario. She was 96 years []

Adam Holland, Scientology whistle-blower who exposed Sea Org conditions, 1988-2019

 We heard from a family member last night that Adam Holland, a former Canadian Sea Org member who went public about the Sea Org’s degrading conditions after leaving the organization in 2009, took his own life on February 17. He was only 30 years []

Tony Ortega: Musician, songwriter, and steel executive, 1938-2019

 Yesterday morning, the Underground Bunker lost one of its most loyal and longtime readers. A resident of Redlands, California, he was fighting a recurrence of cancer after twice surviving the disease. His name was Tony Ortega. He was 80 years old. And he was my []