Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of researcher R.M. Seibert, we have more government documents about Scientology that have never seen the light of day.

Last time, you may remember that Seibert found a stunning document written in 1983 by Stanley S. Harris, who was then Washington DC’s US Attorney before he went [...]]]>

Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of researcher R.M. Seibert, we have more government documents about Scientology that have never seen the light of day.

Last time, you may remember that Seibert found a stunning document written in 1983 by Stanley S. Harris, who was then Washington DC’s US Attorney before he went on to a long and illustrious career as a federal judge. (He’s retired now and 91 years old.)

At the time, various government agencies were contemplating a massive legal settlement that the Church of Scientology was pushing. But Harris had the good sense to speak up and say, based on Scientology’s horrendous history of behavior, the government shouldn’t contemplate for a moment adopting such a surrender, the effect of which would be to bury a lot of what the government had dug up on the church.

“The history of Scientology has been that truth is its enemy, and that it is opposed to the accuracy of information where correct information may hurt Scientology,” Harris wrote in his memo.

At the end of that story, we weren’t sure what happened to the proposed settlement. But Seibert kept digging with the help of Muckrock and found an answer to that question along with another trove of fun documents.

First, to answer the question, after Harris’s knockout memo the government agencies decided not to fall into the trap of settling with Scientology in 1983, as this 1986 memo proves…

 
But as you can tell from the language in that first paragraph, in 1986 the Church of Scientology was once again trying what had failed three years before, and asked to meet with the Justice Department to complain about all of the negative information about Scientology that the government had in its files.

On September 23, 1986, Scientology’s attorney Lawrence Hoffheimer sat down with Randy Levine, the US Associate Deputy Attorney General, who asked Hoffheimer to put into a document what it was the church wanted. The seven-page letter Hoffheimer sent on October 6 is really a classic of the kind, a perfect example of how the Church of Scientology tries to convince governments that it is misunderstood and victimized by “vested interests.” We’ll post the entire letter at the end of the story, but here are a few highlights to give you the flavor of it.

The letter starts out with Hoffheimer extolling the virtues of Scientology, which has attracted nefarious enemies that want to see it torn down…

 
Those vested interests, Hoffheimer continues, made sure that a lot of untrue garbage about Hubbard got into government files beginning in the early 1950s, and that those poisonous documents have been reported in the press.

And why was Hubbard the target of such unfair attacks? Well, obviously, because he was so effective.

 
And also that Dianetics was curing people of psychosomatic ills, that the Scientology religion promotes “high ethical and moral standards,” and that the church is such a strong advocate against drug abuse. But despite all of those good works, Scientology was being harmed by negative information in government files that had spread around the world.

Hoffheimer also bemoaned the great costs involved in litigation between the church and the government, and money wasted on government investigations that never went anywhere.

Hoffheimer then anticipates that the government will bring up all of that, you know, stuff about infiltration and burglarizing that Scientology’s Guardian’s Office was doing in the 1970s in its Snow White Program, which resulted in 11 top church officials going to prison, including Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue.

But hey, can’t we let bygones by bygones?

 
That’s a pretty stunning paragraph, don’t you think? Hoffheimer wants the government to forget about a few years of Scientology espionage because really, the church is the victim here.

But hey, if the government isn’t interested in stopping the “war” going on between it and Scientology, the church can always “escalate” matters…

 
How’s that for a threat?

Hoffheimer then makes his pitch for what the church would like to see done.

1. A court settlement that would involve purging negative info about the church in government files.
2. An end to “discriminatory treatment” by the IRS.
3. More streamlined handling of Scientology immigration procedures on the part of the INS.
4. A special relationship with a Department of Justice official for quick handling of issues.

On October 24, Levine sent Hoffheimer his reply, denying that the government harbored any bias against Scientology, and characterizing the church’s proposals as unrealistic.

Levine’s letter was polite, but it was a firm no.

And once again, we can see that in the 1980s, the US government had all it needed to know about what kind of organization Scientology was. Despite the costs involved in litigation, Levine wasn’t about to give in to Scientology’s dishonest attempts to pretend that it wasn’t still the same nefarious organization that had infiltrated the government a decade earlier.

Also, it shows just how stunningly craven it was for the IRS, seven years later, to capitulate fully to Scientology and give it everything it wanted.

Still, we think it’s a good idea to remember that at one time, government officials like Stan Harris and Randy Levine had the backbone to tell Scientology where to get off, and we’re grateful to R.M. Seibert for discovering these documents so that we even had the chance to learn their names.

Today, by the way, Lawrence Hoffheimer lives in Florida and raises money for research into Parkinson’s disease and macular degeneration.

Randy Levine, meanwhile, went on to a fascinating career in private practice and in government.

Today, he’s the president of the New York Yankees.

The Hoffheimer-Levine corre… by on Scribd

 
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HowdyCon 2019 in Los Angeles

This year’s HowdyCon is in Los Angeles. People tend to come in starting on Thursday, and that evening we will have a casual get-together at a watering hole. We have something in mind, but for now we’re not giving out information about it.

Friday night we will be having an event in a theater (like we did on Saturday night last year in Chicago). There will not be a charge to attend this event, but if you want to attend, you need to RSVP with your proprietor at tonyo94 AT gmail.

On Saturday, we are joining forces with Janis Gillham Grady, who is having a reunion in honor of the late Bill Franks. Originally, we thought this event might take place in Riverside, but instead it’s in the Los Angeles area. If you wish to attend the reunion, you will need to RSVP with Janis (janisgrady AT gmail), and there will be a small contribution she’s asking for in order to help cover her costs.

HOTEL: Janis tells us she’s worked out a deal with Hampton Inn and Suites, at 7501 North Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank, (818) 768-1106. We have a $159 nightly rate for June 19 to 22.

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

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 our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology TV goes live tomorrow at 8 pm Eastern on app, DirecTV
[TWO years ago] Scientology made Danny Masterson’s Victim B search past lives to explain being raped
[THREE years ago] Belgian judge throws entire case against Scientology out of court on technicality
[FOUR years ago] The ‘Going Clear’ screening in Austin, featuring Marty Rathbun and other familiar faces
[FIVE years ago] Judge in Laura DeCrescenzo’s case retires, Scientology objects to his replacement
[SIX years ago] LEAKED: Scripts Spell Out How Scientology Directs the Unsuspecting to Its Rehab Network
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Countdown to LRH’s Birthday!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 11, 2019 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, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), 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, 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 | 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

We’re curious to see how today’s document hits you. You may cheer at the sight of a top US government lawyer putting the word “church” in quote marks when he refers to Scientology, but when we finished reading this letter, we were angry.

This is a letter written in 1966 — more than fifty years [...]]]>

We’re curious to see how today’s document hits you. You may cheer at the sight of a top US government lawyer putting the word “church” in quote marks when he refers to Scientology, but when we finished reading this letter, we were angry.

This is a letter written in 1966 — more than fifty years ago — from Mitchell Rogovin, an assistant US Attorney General, to the IRS, asking for the agency’s help as the US government was about to go to war with Scientology over its tax exempt status. A year later, the government won that battle, and Scientology was stripped of church status, and would spend the next 26 years fighting to get it back. (The letter ended up in the FDA’s files as part of its own investigation of Scientology which was happening at the same time, and was found for us by the indefatigable R.M. Seibert.)

What angered us was to see Rogovin, a lawyer in the top law enforcement agency in the country, describing so clearly what a sham Scientology was, that it was pretending to be a church so unqualified people could practice unlicensed psychiatric processes on victims at an hourly rate, and while claiming that it had unlocked the secrets of the universe.

There are plenty of other problems with Scientology but that, folks, is a pretty good basic description of why Scientology is a menace, and it was spelled out cold in a letter from this country’s highest law enforcement authority. Fifty-two years ago.

That’s how long the highest levels of the US government have known why Scientology is a danger to the public. That’s how long the US government has known about Scientology’s essential scam, and yet in 1993 — after raiding Scientology in 1977 and sending 11 of its top officials to prison — it gave tax exempt status back to the Church of Scientology, and has been largely hands off since then.

Think about the energy exerted, year after year, by former Scientologists, journalists, and activists trying to raise awareness about Scientology’s abuses, and trying to get the US government to care. And yet, for half a century, the government has known. Why does it fail to act? That’s something we wonder about every day of the week.

Here’s the letter.

September 22, 1966

Honorable Lester R. Uretz
Chief Counsel
Internal Revenue Service
Washington D.C. 20224

Re: Founding Church of Scientology v. United States

Dear Mr. Uretz:

The principal issue in the above-stated case is whether the alleged church is exempt from federal income taxation as a religious organization within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. As we view it, there are essentially two questions involved in our case. The first is whether scientology is a “religion.” The second is whether the alleged church is really a profit-making organization for certain individuals.

This organization was founded by L. Ron Hubbard, a science-fiction writer in 1955, as an outgrowth of an earlier movement called “Dianetics.” The alleged church is located at 1812-19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., with branches in almost every major city in the United States. It is part of an international organization with headquarters in England, and branches in France; West Germany; Australia; New Zealand; and South Africa.

L. Ron Hubbard who is still the leader of scientology explains in his literature that it was established as a church in order to be protected from medical practice laws and to provide the practitioners with an avenue of access as ministers into hospitals, insane asylums, penitentiaries and other restricted places. The church organization has also been described to individuals by its members to be a “tax dodge.” Consequently, many individuals untrained in psychiatry have become practitioners of the organization and have made their activities a means of livelihood.

During the taxable years in issue, the organization promoted and sold an electrical device called the “E-Meter” for the auditing of individuals, who paid $22 an hour for this service; an electric current was passed through the subject as in a lie-detector causing certain neurophysical effects. It marketed a pill called “Dianezene” which it claimed could prevent the radiation effects resulting from atomic bomb testing.

Moreover, it appears that the Founding Church claims the ability to cure diseases, including cancer, having discovered the ultimate secrets of life and the universe. On January 4, 1963, approximately 14 deputy marshals and several Food and Drug Administration inspectors seized at least 100 packages and boxes of pamphlets and several dozen boxes of electrical gadgets as the Government moved against its Washington headquarters. This action has resulted in a considerable amount of publicity and congressional inquiry, since the “church” argues that the gadgets are religious instruments for use as part of its “confessional.” Additional complaints regarding the Founding Church’s operations have been made to local police stations, medical associations, psychiatric associations, better business bureaus and state welfare departments.

In the preparation for our defense of this case, we desire certain information concerning the various scientological organizations and individuals connected therewith. We are especially interested in developing evidence and witnesses knowledgeable in the background and operations of this organization and its affiliates. Accordingly, we have attached a list of known scientological groups and affiliates, individuals active in the movement, and public and private organizations which have received serious complaints regarding scientology operations.

We are also interested in substantiating the validity of L. Ron Hubbard’s academic and professional background.

We, therefore, request that a supplemental investigation be instituted in order to ascertain in detail the specified information. If any of the individuals interviewed might be usable as witnesses in this case, it would be most helpful if you could indicate their names and business addresses. Copies of correspondence, books, accounts or other tangible things relevant to the above-mentioned issues should also be made.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely yours,

Mitchell Rogovin
Assistant Attorney General
Tax Division

 
Rogovin was an interesting figure. He was known as a civil rights lawyer of the highest caliber in Washington, and was hired by New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan to defend him when the government sued him over publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Rogovin’s clients also included Common Cause, the Wilderness Society, the CIA, the IRS, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

And in 1967, he helped take Scientology’s tax exempt status away because he could see so clearly the threat it posed. Where are the Mitchell Rogovins in US government today?

 
Here’s the document itself, with attached lists…

Mitchell Rogovin Letter to the IRS by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 7, 2018 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 can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), 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 | 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 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

In 1958, the Food and Drug Administration raided Scientology’s Washington DC org in an investigation of health claims that the church was making with its “E-meter.” Over the next several years, the FDA conducted an intense and widespread investigation of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology [...]]]>

In 1958, the Food and Drug Administration raided Scientology’s Washington DC org in an investigation of health claims that the church was making with its “E-meter.” Over the next several years, the FDA conducted an intense and widespread investigation of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology before ultimately settling the matter in 1971.

Our dogged researcher R.M. Seibert has been pulling amazing documents out of the FDA files for us, and in them we found such things as L. Ron Hubbard’s high school grades, which had never been published before, as well as a lot of other gems.

There was so much in the pile, we literally haven’t had time to get to it all. Today, we’re going to present some brief snapshots from the investigation that we didn’t want to get overlooked. After going through them, we’re struck by how much the FDA inspectors of the 1960s were running into the same things we’re seeing emerge today, on Leah Remini’s series, for example.

We hope you find these small peeks into what it was like to build a case against Scientology as interesting as we do.

In 1962, the FDA approached a man named Robert Wingate, who had manufactured Hubbard’s E-meter in Tucson during the late 1950s. By 1962 he had stopped doing so after a disagreement with Hubbard that he refused to go into.

“He stated that Hubbard is now manufacturing and importing the devices from London, England. They have to be purchased from the two schools, ‘Hubbard’s Association of Scientologists International,’ one in Los Angeles and one in Washington, D.C.” a report reads.

But Wingate would tell them little else.

The following summer, however, his wife volunteered a lot more information.

Evelyn Wingate went to the Denver district FDA office in July 1963 saying that her marriage was in trouble, and she suspected her husband was “engrossed in L. Ron Hubbard’s Founding Church of Scientology again and their pseudo religious teachings have no morals or ethics which could only cause more problems for her and her husband.”

She told the FDA that her husband had manufactured about 300 E-meters for Hubbard from October 1958 to March 1960, all of which were sold in the US for between $76.50 and $89.50 each, with 10 percent of each sale going to Hubbard directly.

She said that Hubbard had not been in the US since January 1952 and “he remains in England except for an occasional visit to the United States.”

She gave the FDA L. Ron Hubbard Jr’s address in Bell, California, saying that he had had a falling out with his father.

She also turned over a list of other people who had become embittered with Hubbard and Scientology.

Gladys Carlson of Denver… “very bitter”

Jean Thomason Voris of Denver… “has become disillusioned”

Refa Pastel of Detroit… “has been badly mistreated by members of L. Ron Hubbard’s organization. She reportedly was drugged and forced to make out a new will leaving all her property and belongings to the L. Ron Hubbard Foundation.”

Maxine Farnum of Tucson… “wrote a book titled ‘Promiscuity for [the] Housewife’ from a Scientological viewpoint. Mrs. Wingate stated that this book was widely read among members of L. Ron Hubbard’s organization; that the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard and his Founding Church of Scientology encourages promiscuity among married copules.”

Mrs. Wingate also turned over copies of Scientology literature and lecture tapes, including a “tape in a cellophane bag which is known as the ‘miracle’ tape, also made by L. Ron Hubbard in Phoenix, in 1954.”

Evelyn Wingate said she would be glad to help the FDA in any way she could.

 
2. Ever-vigilant state agencies

During their investigation, the FDA learned that in 1951 the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners had acted on a complaint and found that the Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth was “conducting a school and college within the state of New Jersey for the purpose of training and qualifying its students to practice medicine, without first obtaining… a license authorizing such school.”

Before a trial started, however, the state agreed to drop the matter because the defendants agreed to remove themselves from New Jersey and never try to engage in that activity there again — which was about the time the first foundations were going broke anyway.

“If you have any evidence that Hubbard has re-engaged in these practices here in the State of New Jersey, you are instructed to immediately contact the State Board of Medical Examiners and present your evidence to them so that they may proceed against Hubbard or his representatives,” wrote Deputy Attorney General Remo M. Croce to the FDA in 1962.

The state had no idea that Scientology was back, and growing.

 
3. LAPD not curious about a Scientology death? Shocking.

In 1970, a Kansas City bank executive called the FDA to see if anything could be done about his brother’s suicide.

Wayne Prewitt was 35 when he killed himself, and his brother Gary told FDA inspector Frank A. Mosebar that he believed the suicide was “directly related” to Wayne’s involvement in Scientology.

“[Wayne] has been deeply involved with the Church of Scientology for some time. He had, in fact, recently been traveling to St. Louis and Minneapolis working to set up satellite churches in those areas. In addition, he had been deeply involved in trying to set up a church in Kansas City,” Mosebar wrote in his report of his conversation with Gary.

In October 1970, Wayne went to Los Angeles for “treatment.” While there, he committed suicide in MacArthur Park.

Gary told the FDA that Wayne had been using the E-meter (which was the subject of the FDA’s investigation), and that Wayne’s wife had a machine that had been in Wayne’s possession. Although Wayne’s wife was also a Scientologist, “she may break and disclose important information about the church if questioned.”

Gary himself offered to help with the FDA investigation in any way he could.

“He was considerably discouraged that the Los Angeles Police Department did not conduct any real investigation. He feels strongly that the Church of Scientology is responsible for his brother’s death. He further feels that the church should be stopped from capturing other innocent people. He said that the church drains a person emotionally, physically, and financially with resulting emotional breakdown.”

 
4. The upstate New York woman floating on the ceiling of Grand Central

In 1963, the FDA was contacted by Dorothy Waller of Elmira, New York, who wanted the agency to know about her husband’s problems and how Scientology was exacerbating them.

First, she told about her own involvement in the organization. She had read Dianetics when it was new, in 1950, and by 1954 she was taking courses in Yonkers, where she lived then.

Mrs. Waller indicated that she had received some benefits from the practices as for example, when on a co-auditing tour of Grand Central Station in New York she exteriorized and her thetan found itself near the ceiling of the Grand Concourse from which vantage point she could look down and see the entire activities of Grand Central Station and hear the sounds, smell the smells, etc. Another such experience involved bringing a flowering tree into bloom when it apparently had no intention of doing so otherwise. In this first among other discussions she later described how she learned why “she always had to have dirty clothes.” It developed that she never finished with all of the laundrying tasks of the household, but that she had through Scientology procedures, discovered that in one of her past lives, she had been a professional laundress and found it necessary to always have dirty clothes ahead of her to be washed… Touching more intimately on the trouble between herself and her husband, she explained that in another past life she had been engaged in the sale of sexual favors as a means of support and livelihood for her family for an entire lifetime, with resulted effects on the interpersonal relationships between herself and her husband which apparently involved some rejections of his advances.

She met her husband Robert while auditing at the Washington DC org, and they got married in an Episcopal church in Yonkers, where Dorothy was a member and where she had practiced some Scientology techniques on the young people there.

Robert said he had first encountered Dianetics in Peoria in 1950 before coming to the DC org and meeting Dorothy. His reason for going there was to rid himself of “a disabling set of pains in his back, shoulder, and neck and severe headache attacks.” But the Scientology courses he took didn’t help, and “Mr. Waller characterized the whole matter on which he had expended several thousand dollars as being nothing more than a good parlor game.”

The couple had then moved to Elmira, but Robert had been unable to work because of his debilitating pain and his consumption of alcohol to deal with it. Robert had spent some time in a state mental hospital for treatment, and the couple’s two young children were taken from them and put in foster care.

“Mr. Waller inquired if there was any possibility of the government ordering restitution of the money expended with the Scientology outfit for no good purpose.”

The FDA let him know it wasn’t in a position to do that.

The conversation then began to deteriorate. “Mrs. Waller seemed to get more vehement and somewhat incoherent as the conference wore on…”

After talking to this unfortunate couple, the FDA concluded that it might make sense to use them in trial as examples of the sort of people drawn to Scientology.

With some background investigation the presentation of these two individuals as witnesses in the eventual trial of the action would be very interesting as examples of the sort of personality that is produced by the Personal Efficiency Course and other courses of the Scientology organization. Mrs. Waller is a compulsive talker and impresses one as being on the verge of living in a sort of fantasy while Mr. Waller seems like a more stable and restrained sort of person who apparently has had considerable difficulties by reason of his involvement in the organization. On the other hand, it does not seem likely that the government would want to be bound by statements made by Mrs. Waller.

Brutal.

 
5. Mildred and Elmo

From at least 1962 through 1964, Mildred Troup of Miami was trying to get the government to do something about her husband Elmo and his involvement in Scientology.

“Mr. Troup to date has spent $70,000 on Scientology. In addition, he is lending money to students and auditors. To date he has lent $34,000 in quantities ranging from $3,000 to $8,000. He still has not received his auditor’s license but plans to go to St. Hill, England, to become a qualified auditor,” states a report written in 1964.

Mildred told the FDA that she believed that individuals at the Founding Church in DC were pressuring her husband to divorce her.

She was taping her phone calls with her husband and offered to turn them over to the FDA, and in a 1962 handwritten note she gave the government permission to use her apartment to record him. There’s no indication in the file if the government took her up on those offers.

In 1966, an FDA inspector visited Mildred again, and at first she refused to let him in. Eventually, she spoke to the inspector, saying that her husband had been at Saint Hill for the last year.

“Mr. Troup had visited her in Florida last year and a young man was with him and kept an eagle eye on him at all times; therefore, she did not have an opportunity to talk with Mr. Troup concerning any necessary matters.”

Over the past year, Elmo Troup had given Scientology $100,000 — worth about $775,000 today — but his problems with Parkinson’s disease were no better after his time at Saint Hill.

“She felt that Mr. Troup would return to their home when he realized that the Scientology was for the birds. Mrs. Troup said that she would greet Mr. Troup as if nothing had ever happened and try to make a home that she would be proud of.”

Damn. That’s some statement. We needed a moment after that one.

The FDA was also impressed with Mrs. Mildred Troup.

“It is the opinion of this Inspector that Mrs. Troup would make the Government a rather good witness. She appears to be familiar with the whole operation of the Church of Scientology.”

It’s a shame the FDA never got the chance to put her on the stand.

 
THE DOCUMENTS:

1. Robert and Evelyn Wingate
2. New Jersey state board
3. The Prewitt suicide
4. The Wallers
5. Mildred and Elmo

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Remember the kid who started the petition to have Leah’s show cancelled? You’ll be happy to hear that he’s found his purpose in life.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 2, 2018 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 can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), 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 | 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 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

After we got a fun new look at the early days of Dianetics through the never-before-published letters of Don Rogers recently, it motivated us to dive back into some similar documents that our fearless researcher, R.M. Seibert, located for us.

If you remember, Seibert scored a treasure trove of documents [...]]]>

After we got a fun new look at the early days of Dianetics through the never-before-published letters of Don Rogers recently, it motivated us to dive back into some similar documents that our fearless researcher, R.M. Seibert, located for us.

If you remember, Seibert scored a treasure trove of documents from the Food and Drug Adminstration stemming from its early 1960s investigation of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard. That’s how we got our hands on Hubbard’s high school grades for the first time, for example, and evidence that Hubbard used the threat of the ‘R2-45 method’ to intimidate early followers.

Looking through other documents that Seibert sent us, we realized that there was an interesting description of a fairly notorious incident in early Scientology history — famous enough that Paul Thomas Anderson riffed on it for his film The Master.

If you remember the movie, Anderson was dramatizing the period around 1952 when Hubbard was trying to regroup after his Dianetics movement had fizzled into bankruptcy, promoting his new effort he called Scientology with the help of a few wealthy followers. In the movie, Laura Dern plays a wealthy Philadelphia woman who is helping Hubbard get past his legal problems, but she has misgivings that the “science” of Dianetics was moving into the “past lives” science fiction nuttiness of Scientology.

In real life, it was Helen O’Brien who was the eager Philadelphia adherent, and who convinced Hubbard to leave London long enough to hold his “Philadelphia Doctorate Course” (PDC) in December 1952 at a house owned by O’Brien’s husband, John Neugebauer.

As Jon Atack has told us many times, this was at a time when Hubbard’s movement was precariously small. Only about 35 people signed up for the PDC in Philly at about $500 each. And on the afternoon of December 16, 1952, there were only about 20 students present as Hubbard was giving an afternoon lecture.

We know what he was lecturing about that afternoon, and we even have a short segment in the name of Fair Use to share with you. In the first afternoon lecture that day, Hubbard was explaining that we’ve all been conditioned — in part through art — to believe that we are merely our bodies and nothing more. In Scientology, we are immortal beings called thetans that live countless times, and if you can get past the idea that you’re just a body, Hubbard explains, you can not only become a disembodied spirit, but you can regain godlike powers.

In this short excerpt (one among many), Hubbard is encouraging his believers that he can help them attain godhood, if they would only throw off their conditioning…

 
Hubbard gave two hour-long lectures that afternoon. At some point during that time, a couple of U.S. marshals showed up to serve Hubbard with a warrant regarding one of his bankruptcies back in Kansas.

Here’s what the FDA investigation in 1963 found about that 1952 incident…

On the afternoon of December 16, 1952, two Deputy U.S. Marshals, Mr. John J. Gericke and Mr. Levi P. Gordon, were given a warrant, issued at the direction of Judge Alan K. Grim, for the production of Mr. L. Ron Hubbard in order that he might be examined in connection with a bankruptcy matter (Bankruptcy Case #23747 – Hubbard Dianetic Foundation).

The two Deputy Marshals went to the address given for the Hubbard Foundation at 122 N. Mole St., Phila. to serve this warrant. After reaching this address and receiving no response to their ringing of the doorbell, they noticed a card on the door stating “Hubbard Foundation, 237 N. 16th St.” and proceeded to that address. The two Deputy Marshals noticed a woman enter this same property and followed her into a room on the first floor. They asked this lady (later identified as Mrs. Alice Thomason) if Mr. L. Ron Hubbard was present and she indicated that he was on the second floor of the building giving a lecture at that time.

As the Marshals started up the steps to the lecture room, another woman appeared on the steps leading to the second floor (later identified as Mrs. Helen O’Brien [Mrs. Neugebauer]) and asked what their business was. The Marshals indicated that they had a warrant for Mr. Hubbard’s arrest and Helen O’Brien requested identification from the gentlemen and to see the warrant. During the ensuing conversation, several people left the lecture and came to Helen O’Brien’s assistance, namely Mr. Neugebauer and Mr. Ernest Leo Kish. Further conversation brought Mr. Kish down the steps, he apparently struck Gordon and grabbed him by the lapel of the coat and the shirt and forced him back down the steps. At the same time, Mr. John Neugebauer apparently struck Deputy Marshal Gericke. After this struggle, one of the Marshals backed off and pulled out his revolver and told the crowd not to come any closer while the other U.S. Marshal went to secure the assistance of a passing Philadelphia policeman. With the assistance of the policeman, the warrant was served on Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, and Mr. Kish and Mr. & Mrs. Neugebauer were arrested by the Marshals. These three people were taken to the Court House at 9th and Chestnut Sts. and taken before the U.S. Commissioner, Henry P. Carr, who held Mr. Kish on $2500 bail, Mr. John Neugebauer on $1500 bail, and Mrs. Helen O’Brien on $1000 bail. The names of the three defendants were checked with the Philadelphia Police records section, however, there was no police record for these three people.

It appears in all these records that Mr. L. Ron Hubbard was not involved in any contact with the Marshals, and is therefore not involved in this criminal case in any way.

On 2/18/53, Federal Grand Jury returned a true bill against the three defendants involved and trial was held 6/15/53. Sentence was passed on 11/2/53 by Judge Welsh granting the acquittal of Mrs. Helen O’Brien but fined Mr. Kish and Mr. Neugebauer $200 each.

…Note that Mr. and Mrs. Neugebauer had purchased the property at 237 N. 16th St. especially for this series of lectures which were given by Mr. L. Ron Hubbard. They indicated in the defendant’s brief…that Mr. Hubbard had come from London especially for these lectures which were given for a period of 3 week to approx. 35 people each of whom paid $500 for the course.

The incident also made the local newspaper…

However, this is all Helen O’Brien herself said about the incident in her 1966 book, Dianetics in Limbo… “And when Hubbard was nearing the end of a lecture series which he came to Philadelphia to deliver in December of that year, a pair of U.S. marshals showed up with a civil warrant for him, inspired by Purcell in connection with disputed assets in the bankruptcy.”

Nothing about her husband decking a cop and her getting hauled to jail. You’d think she’d remember that part.

Anyway, Helen went on to another special place in Scientology history. In 1953, she received a letter from Hubbard saying that things were so bad, perhaps it was time to try “the religion angle.” Later that year, Hubbard did create the first “Church of Scientology” corporation in Camden, New Jersey, but by that time Helen herself had become disillusioned and had left the movement.

As for Hubbard, he seems to have been relatively unfazed by the incident when his followers got into fisticuffs with US Marshals. After being served with a warrant, he went on to give two more lectures that evening. We even know what he sketched on a chart while he was giving the second lecture of the night, for example…

 
How’s that for shaking off a federal raid?

 
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Chris Shelton on whether Scientology “works”

Says Chris: “This week, I thought I’d had enough of Scientologists (indie’s and church goers) challenging me about how “Scientology works” and how I’m such a rotten person for criticizing it. This video is a review of some of Hubbard’s claims about what Dianetics and Scientology can do (including the superpowers you’re supposed to get from them) and my challenge to them to shut me down. Let me know what you think. I feel pretty safe that, like James Randi’s million dollar psychic challenge, no one is going to come close to taking me up on this.”

 
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Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Hey, we’re only a month away from this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee Chalker is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 24, 2018 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 can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), 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 | 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 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

On August 3, 1976, Gabe Cazares, the Texas-born mayor of Clearwater, Florida, contacted the FBI with a complaint about a letter that had been mailed to several Florida Democratic Party officials.

By the summer of 1976, Cazares had been putting up with several months of intense harassment by the Church of Scientology, and [...]]]>

On August 3, 1976, Gabe Cazares, the Texas-born mayor of Clearwater, Florida, contacted the FBI with a complaint about a letter that had been mailed to several Florida Democratic Party officials.

By the summer of 1976, Cazares had been putting up with several months of intense harassment by the Church of Scientology, and he knew immediately that the letter was just the latest “operation” being run against him.

The letter accused him of being a passenger in a car that had been in a hit-and-run accident in Washington DC and had possibly killed someone. The letter writer claimed that she was behind the wheel during the accident, and that Cazares had been “a good guy” about it, but she worried that their secret was going to ruin his political career. The letter hinted that Cazares had been in the car for illicit reasons, which is why he had asked the driver to keep the accident quiet.

When Cazares heard about the letter from a local newspaper reporter, he knew he had to act, and fast.

The FBI investigation which then took place turned out to be a pretty interesting study in chasing down bad leads and then getting stunning information from a key Church of Scientology defector.

And now, for the first time, we have the full story of that investigation — as well as some evidence for why it never resulted in criminal charges being filed.

Thanks to our dogged researcher, R.M. Seibert and her use of the MuckRock website, we now have the Gabe Cazares FBI file, and we’re making it public today.

 
When Cazares died in 2006, this is how the St. Petersburg Times remembered his early life…

Gabriel “Gabe” Cazares was born on Jan. 31, 1920, in Alpine, Texas, one of nine children, and reared in Los Angeles, where he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps. At Los Angeles City College, which he attended on a track scholarship, he set a record for the junior college 2-mile run that stood for 11 years. He also studied at Fresno State College and Texas Christian University, were he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology, and the University of Maryland. He received a master’s degree in business management from Jackson College in Honolulu. Much of his college work was done in the military. He joined the Army Air Forces in 1941 and rose to lieutenant colonel, retiring from service in 1966 to become a stockbroker. He moved to Clearwater a short time later when, as he once said, “you could count the number of Hispanics on one hand.”

Cazares ran successfully for mayor of Clearwater in 1975, but was already preparing for a run for Congress in 1976 when, early that year, the truth finally came out about a mysterious group that was buying up properties in town.

Calling itself “United Churches of Florida” and “Southern Land Development,” the shadowy group had purchased one of Clearwater’s most well-known landmarks, the Fort Harrison Hotel. The group also bought up the Clearwater Bank building a few blocks away, and other properties.

On a January 26, 1976 radio program, Mayor Cazares wondered why the hotel’s mysterious owners were having it patrolled by security men carrying billy clubs.

Two days later, Scientology finally owned up to being the mysterious group behind “United Churches of Florida” that had purchased the hotel. And its spy wing, the “Guardian’s Office,” began investigating how to smear Cazares with an invented sex scandal.

Details of that plot, named “Operation Italian Fog,” came out in Scientology documents that were seized by the FBI in a 1977 raid. Said one Scientology memo, “The purpose of this op is to actually get real documentation into the files of Mexican license bureau or bureaux stating that the mayor got married in Mexico to some Mexican gal 25 years ago who is not his wife, so puts the mayor in a position of bigamy. This can be accomplished either by a bribe or a covert action. Once the docs are planted it is cleverly exposed that the mayor is promiscuous and a bigamist.”

It’s pretty rich that Scientology dreamed up a plan to frame Gabe Cazares with false documents suggesting that he was a bigamist, since Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was an actual bigamist: He married his second wife, Sara Northrup, in 1946, a year before he obtained a divorce from his first wife, Polly Grubb.

The Guardian’s Office planned other schemes to ruin Cazares, with names like “Operation Cazares Handling,” “Operation Speedy Gonzales,” and “Project Taco-Less.” But its plan to involve him in a hit-and-run accident was perhaps its most elaborate.

Let’s examine it by starting where the FBI file does, and that’s with Cazares making his report to law enforcement.

“On August 3, 1976, victim, who is a Democratic candidate for Florida’s 6th Congressional District, made a personal complaint alleging that an unknown number of letters postmarked July 28, 1976 from Washington D.C., had been mailed to various executives of the Democratic Party in Florida. Cazares furnished a copy of these letters to the FBI.”

The letter ended up in the hands of reporters, who asked Cazares about it. Here’s that letter…

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

I am writing this letter in an attempt to resolve a serious problem I am faced with, and am hoping I can count on you for help. I am sending this letter to other Democratic organizations in the Clearwater area as I’m not sure which Congressional district Gabe Cazares is running in.

In March of this year, I met Gabe while he was here in Washington for a convention. We spent most of a very enjoyable evening together, dining and talking.

I am not going to get into a big thing here about the morality of whether or not my relationship with a married man is right or wrong, as I know only that I enjoyed myself with him. This is not the main issue but has some bearing on it.

While driving around that night sightseeing with Gabe, we had an accident. We hit a man going around a sharp curve in the road, and did not stop to see if he was hurt or even dead. I don’t know why, I only know that I was scared to death, and panicked — I guess we both did.

Now, Gabe has been very good about this. He did not turn me in to the police, and when I called him later to talk about the accident, he advised me to get a lawyer and said that he would back up me totally.

Since the accident, however, I have had constant nightmares which are horrible, and I’m a nervous wreck. I do not eat well and have lost almost 20 pounds. I decided to go to an analyst about this as I couldn’t live with myself, nor could I face the publicity and degradation of turning myself into the police. With the help of my analyst, I have finally decided that the best action is to turn myself into the police and rid myself of the self reciminations and guilt, but this is where my problem comes in.

I hold a sensitive government position which is obviously jeopardized by this situation. I realize that going to the police will also mean the end of my job. As you may know, the newspapers are going crazy here in D.C. with sex scandals and other kinds of scandals with government officials. I wouldn’t want this to come out as a scandal in the press. I certainly do not want to involve Gabe in a thing like this as it would only be trouble for him as Mayor and I now understand he is running for Congress. Just what the press wants is another Congressional scandal. Gabe doesn’t deserve this, and I don’t think I could go through one if it occurred. I’d rather die.

Gabe is such a good guy and so straight-forward that I know that he’ll tell me to just do what I have to and he’ll back me up, but I can’t face being smeared in the press. He is much stronger than I am. That is why I’m writing to you. I don’t think Gabe would bother to protect himself. He’d take it on the chin and fight hard, but the press in D.C. is vicious.

Maybe if you got together with Gabe and he told you the whole story you could figure out a way to prevent this possible catastrophe. I don’t know if there is anything that you can do to protect both of us in this matter, but I know that political people can often help or come up with some kind of strategy to figure out a way out of this kind of predicament. Gabe’s a good man and he doesn’t deserve to have his political career put in jeopardy or ruined because of one stupid mistake, and I would die if I were in the press like some of the Capitol Hill girls are.

Gabe knows who I am and I’m sure he’d appreciate knowing that things were alright before I go to the police. I will contact Gabe to find out what I should do after you’ve had some time to discuss this with him.

Advertisement

Sharon T.

The FBI met with Cazares to get his version of the story. According to the FBI file, here’s what Cazares told them.

He had flown from Tampa to DC on a red eye that had arrived at Friendship Airport at 4 am on Sunday, March 14. He took a cab to the Dupont Circle Motel as he prepared to attend a national mayors’ conference.

Later that day, he got a call from a reporter, asking to interview him as a “minority” mayor at the conference. Cazares agreed to meet him in the motel lobby at 4 pm.

When the reporter arrived, Cazares asked him for his credentials, but the “reporter” said he had left them at home. While they were talking, a woman approached them and joined in the conversation. Then the reporter left and Gabe continued to talk to the woman before he went back to his room, alone.

He returned to the motel lobby later, between 6 and 7 pm, and saw that the woman was still in the lobby, using a telephone. He described the woman as about 5-foot-5, with brown hair and grey streaks.

She offered to give him a ride to the conference at the Continental Hilton Hotel, and to show him around the city on the way. During the tour, they stopped in Arlington to have dinner and then ended up back at Gabe’s motel, where the woman made a phone call. Then she continued to drive him, and this time went through Rock Creek Park.

As they rounded a bend in the road, “Cazares heard a thump in the vicinity of the rear of the driver’s side of the car.”

The woman said she had hit something, and Cazares said he told her to stop the car. But she worried about losing her license, and said for the first time that she worked at the Pentagon. She then drove back to his motel.

They talked about whether she had actually hit something or someone, but she said that she wasn’t going to take any chances, and would not be reporting it to the police.

Cazares flew back to Tampa the next afternoon.

Three days later, a woman called Clearwater City Hall and at Cazares’s house, asking for him. She eventually reached him while he was at a friend’s house. She asked him if he had gone to the police about the accident. When he asked her for her phone number, she refused, saying, “The man I live with would kill me.”

Cazares later got a call from Clearwater Sun reporter Steve Advokat that he had received the strange July 28 letter from “Sharon T.”

Cazares told the FBI that he didn’t suspect that his Republican opponent, Congressman C.W. “Bill” Young, had anything to do with the letter, and he assumed that it was a frame job by the Church of Scientology.

The FBI, after deciding that the case fell under its jurisdiction because Cazares was a Congressional candidate, began trying to figure out who was “Sharon T.”

Based on a tip that Cazares got from an attorney, the FBI started to build a complex case against a woman named Sharon Tuttle, whom they believed might have been put up to the job by a man named Patrick Buckley, described in the file as “a radical member of the Church of Scientology.”

But after expending significant resources exploring that theory, the FBI had little solid evidence to back it up.

And that’s because they were looking in the wrong place.

In June 1977, a Guardian’s Office spy named Michael Meisner escaped from his Scientology handlers and turned himself over to the FBI. What he revealed resulted in what became the largest FBI raid in the agency’s history, which took place on July 8, 1977. (For much more about Meisner and the massive operation to infiltrate the federal government he helped run, the Snow White Program, see our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.)

On August 4, Meisner got around to telling the FBI about the hit-and-run scheme against Gabe Cazares.

[Michael Meisner], who is undergoing intensive debriefing by the Los Angeles Division, advised on August 4, 1977, that in March 1976, he was involved in a Scientology covert operation to discredit Mayor Gabriel Cazares of Clearwater, Florida. He advised that Sharon Thomas, who was operating as a Scientology plant in the office of Paul Figley, [assistant US Attorney], Washington, D.C., was to arrange to be “picked up” by Cazares when the latter attended a mayor’s conference in Washington D.C. Thomas was to have dinner with Cazares and thereafter drive aimlessly around D.C., supposedly showing Cazares the sights. Thomas was then to drive through a darkened area where he, Meisner, was to be stationed and upon signal, he would stage being hit by Thomas’ car. Thomas would flee the scene and thereafter was to telephonically contact Cazares to remind him of the accident and the “handle” that Thomas had on him. [Meisner] stated that the operation went off exactly as planned with Thomas utilizing a red sportscar owned by Pat Weisner, Scientology secretary in D.C. as the hit and run vehicle with the “accident” taking place in an unrecalled D.C. park area. [Meisner] advised that he is not aware of any letters having been sent to the Pinellas County Democratic Party concerning the “accident,” however, he advised that he was not privy to the entire Cazares program, only that portion which was to take place in Washington, D.C. [Meisner] concluded by stating that the Cazares program was drafted by Mitchell Herman[n], Scientologist and southeast directorate and approved by Dick Weigand, Deputy Guardian for Information US. For the information of WFO, Meisner advised that Sharon Thomas, prior to her employment by the U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C., worked for the U.S. Coast Guard in their intelligence office in D.C. as a secretary and utilized the code name Ursula. [Meisner] stated that to the best of his knowledge, Thomas commenced employment at the Coast Guard in December 1974.

“Sharon T.” turned out to be a Scientology spy, Sharon Thomas, who had obtained positions at both the US Coast Guard and the US Attorney’s office in Washington in these heady days when Scientology’s ambition for infiltrating the federal government knew no bounds.

Two weeks later, on August 19, 1977, Meisner was interviewed again about the Cazares incident.

He said that he had received a call from Guardian’s Office executive Mitchell Hermann in March 1976, and that Hermann had told him to call back from a pay phone.

The original plan, Meisner said, was to put together a child-sized dummy for the car to hit. Then they would torment Cazares about running over a child with phone calls.

Meisner talked over the plan with another operative, Rick Kimmel, and they decided it would be hard to make a convincing child dummy. They decided to use a live person, and they looked for a spot to do it.

Meisner and Kimmel rehearsed the accident several times, with Kimmel driving and Meisner stepping out in front of the car. Then they called Hermann, who approved the new plan.

Hermann suggested using Sharon Thomas for the driver of the car. Kimmel borrowed a sports car from Pat Weisner and paid her $10.

Then they got operatives Bruce Ullman and Joe Alesi involved. Ullman would park in a certain spot, and when Sharon passed him, he would speed up and overtake her, driving by the spot where Meisner was waiting in the park. When he saw Ullman drive by, Meisner would know that he had a few seconds for Sharon’s car to arrive.

After the fake accident, it was Ullman who would pick up Meisner, and they would follow Sharon back to Cazares’s motel.

It was another Guardian’s Office operative, Joe Lisa, who obtained Cazares’s flight information, and Meisner and Kimmel kept him under tight surveillance to find out where he was staying.

It was Joe Alesi who called and pretended to be a reporter, asking Cazares for an interview.

Sharon Thomas was given money to purchase some “sexy” clothes for the operation. And she made sure to be in the motel’s lobby bar before Cazares and Alesi met at 4 pm. Meisner said it was Cazares who invited Thomas to join them. He also claimed that Cazares had invited Thomas up to his room, but she declined.

When it came time for the accident, “Meisner stepped onto the road from the shoulder and leaned into the sports car, screaming and hitting it with his forearm. Upon making impact, Meisner spun around and fell to the road screaming.”

He cut his knee and was bleeding.

They all met up afterward. Thomas claimed that Cazares had been making advances before the accident but not afterward.

Alesi wrote under the name “Joe Harris” for a small newspaper called the Washington Informer, and he wrote a column complaining about people who travel on the taxpayer dime and then don’t do their work. He wrote that he had looked for Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares, but couldn’t find him at the conference.

Hermann sent copies of the article to reporters at the Clearwater Sun, the St. Petersburg Times, and the Tampa Tribune, Meisner said.

And with Meisner present and taping, Thomas made the numerous phone calls to Cazares’s office and home.

Several months after the interview with Meisner, in a memo dated January 4, 1978, the FBI was attempting to gather more evidence about Joe Alesi and the other participants in the scheme, but warned that “all of the above deals with sensitive information concerning the COS [Church of Scientology], which has in the past attempted to infiltrate the FBI.”

Meanwhile, Sharon Thomas was one of nine defendants who were being prosecuted by the Justice Department for their roles in Scientology’s “Snow White Program,” and which focused on Guardian’s Office activity in the nation’s capital. One of those defendants was L. Ron Hubbard’s own wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. (Two more defendants were extradited from England.) From 1974 to the raid in 1977, Guardian’s Office spies had been infiltrating and breaking into federal agencies in DC, pulling out documents about Scientology by the yard, a complex operation that L. Ron Hubbard himself had dreamed up while he was hiding out in a Queens apartment in 1973.

Documents in the Cazares file indicate that the Snow White prosecution took precedence and was eating up an enormous amount of resources and legal work — the lead prosecutor in Washington, Ray Banoun, kept canceling scheduled trips to Tampa to work with the prosecutors there who were trying to build a separate case against Thomas and others in the hit-and-run operation.

Also, the file suggests, the FBI was a little freaked out as the investigations dragged on. A September 1979 memo lists a number of incidents suggesting that more than two years after the big raid, Scientology was still burglarizing and surveilling, and possibly trying to sabotage the FBI and Justice Department:

— A source told Tampa FBI agents that Scientology kept sensitive documents in Clearwater, but were planning to move them to Los Angeles in anticipation of another raid.

— The New York FBI office reported “several unauthorized entrances or break-ins” as it was trying to put together its own case against the Guardian’s Office, presumably regarding the treatment of author Paulette Cooper. Confidential information about a prosecutor working that case was obtained from Columbia University, and the FBI didn’t know why.

— Documents that Cooper had given a New York Times reporter went missing, even after the reporter stored them in a locked cabinet at the newspaper. The reporter’s apartment had also been broken into.

— The FBI was tipped to a particular safety deposit box at the Tampa airport, and when they picked up a Scientologist, Douglas Rehm, who retrieved something from it, it turned out to be what appeared to be a burglary kit.

— Firefighters who responded to a small blaze at the Fort Harrison Hotel found “sophisticated communications equipment in the area of the fire.”

— A Motorola employee in Phoenix reported to the FBI that Clearwater Scientologists were inquiring about commercial “data encryption equipment,” asking to lease six units of the equipment at $3,500 each.

The memo concludes, “The above information has been furnished because there seems to be a number of indications that Church of Scientology personnel may very well be continuing to commit burglaries and, most particularly, continuing the theft of Government documents, possibly including classified military documents. Additionally, for whatever reason, they appear to have embraced sophisticataed communications technology to render their activities more secure.”

While the Snow White defendants were being prosecuted, a number of others were named as unindicted co-conspirators — including L. Ron Hubbard himself.

In Cazares’s file, however, there’s a suggestion that direct evidence of Hubbard’s involvement in the Cazares operation might make him vulnerable to charges. And that involved testimony from a young former Sea Org “Messenger,” Tonja Burden.

“[Tonja] Burden was reportedly privy to the conversation in which COS founder L. Ron Hubbard attempted to secure the services of a private detective agency to surveil Cazares as part of their plan to discredit their most outspoken critic in Clearwater,” the file says.

Another case the Tampa FBI and prosecutors wanted to put before a grand jury involved Scientology spy Merrell Vannier.

At one point Cazares hired Vannier, who was a lawyer, to represent him in a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, not realizing that Vannier had actually been volunteering as a Guardian’s Office spy for several years.

As Vannier himself pointed out in his 2015 book, Arrows in the Dark, he used his position as Cazares’s attorney to wreak havoc on Scientology’s other enemies, including Toronto grandmother Nan McLean, who entrusted a document trove to Vannier that then mysteriously went missing.

Once the truth was revealed shortly after the 1977 raid that Vannier was actually the Scientology spy code named “Ritz,” he ditched Clearwater for Los Angeles, and Tampa prosecutors began putting together a criminal case against him.

While investigating Vannier, they learned that he had applied to work for the FBI on March 21, 1975. But his background check revealed that his brother, Harold Jr., was a member of the Communist Party, and so they figured Merrell would be a “potential security problem” and didn’t hire him.

Vannier refused to testify to a Tampa grand jury that was empaneled to investigate Scientology’s various Florida schemes. His wife, Francine, and Mitchell Hermann were charged with contempt when they refused to answer the grand jury’s questions, and it was upheld all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Ultimately, Merrell Vannier was not indicted by the grand jury for working as Cazares’s attorney while he was spying for the church. He was disbarred for it, however.

(We were critical of Vannier’s book, which tried to make the case that Cazares was working with the FBI all along in order to entrap Merrell — an astounding claim that came with no evidence. The book also didn’t mention the verdict of the Florida Bar, which disbarred Vannier. And we don’t remember him mentioning that he failed to infiltrate the FBI because of his brother’s association with the Communist Party. We sent him an email asking about that, but he didn’t get back to us.)

While the prosecution against Vannier foundered, the hit-and-run case was also running into more delays.

“Prosecution of this case has been stymied by jurisdictional problems and turnover in Justice Department personnel. USA, Tampa, however, vitally interested in this case,” the file says.

Ultimately, no one faced criminal charges over the hit-and-run plot. Why? The file suggests that Michael Meisner insisted that Ray Banoun, the Snow White prosecutor, had told him he wouldn’t have to testify in any other case after the Snow White trial was over. And Meisner held them to that. And so as long as Meisner wouldn’t testify in Tampa, they couldn’t bring additional charges against Sharon Thomas or the others who had helped target the Clearwater mayor.

For her part in the Snow White Program itself, Thomas was found guilty and was sentenced to one year in prison and served six months. The ten other defendants were also found guilty, and received sentences of four to five years and served prison time. Mary Sue Hubbard served a year of her five-year sentence at a federal penitentiary.

Cazares lost his run for Congress in 1976 and then resigned as mayor in 1978. But he served as a county commissioner from 1980 to 1984 and then ran unsuccessfully one more time for Congress in 1986. He was involved in several lawsuits against the Church of Scientology, and the last of them was settled in 1986.

He continued to speak out about Scientology for the rest of his life.

In 2000, Cazares addressed the Clearwater City Commission as a private citizen, responding to a suggestion that people who opposed the Church of Scientology were out-of-towners who were not good for the city.

I remember standing before the City Hall flag pole in 1979 proclaiming that Clearwater was not for sale at any price. I was wrong. As of last October the Scientologists own more than 37 properties in Clearwater….The long-existing coalition of Scientologists, City of Clearwater officials, zoning lawyers and the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce has now been confirmed without commission or media objection. Only…the true citizens in Clearwater can put an end to this unholy alliance.

“Scientology didn’t give up on Gabe at any time even when they were done with the litigation,” says Robert Peterson, who got to know Cazares through the Lisa McPherson Trust at the turn of the century. “While many have been persecuted by Scientology, few had received their attention for a longer period of time. As Ray Emmons observed, as we were watching Gabe get into his car after a meeting, ‘He’s an old war-horse, he’ll never give up.’ I think Gabe would have agreed with that as his epitaph.”

 
Here’s the FBI file itself. Happy hunting…

Gabe Cazares FBI File by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 12, 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 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

 Last year in January we reported on some stunning new data that researcher R.M. Seibert managed to pry out of the US government with help from the MuckRock website. For years, Scientology watchers like Jeff Jacobsen had noticed that Scientology seemed to rely on foreign workers at its major bases, and that they were being [...]]]>

 
Last year in January we reported on some stunning new data that researcher R.M. Seibert managed to pry out of the US government with help from the MuckRock website. For years, Scientology watchers like Jeff Jacobsen had noticed that Scientology seemed to rely on foreign workers at its major bases, and that they were being brought in under a “religious worker” visa, also known as R-1.

But rather than do “religious” work, these foreigners were brought in to labor in Scientology’s “Sea Organization,” where workers sign billion-year contracts, work 112-hour weeks for only about $50 a week when they’re paid at all, and often do only manual or administrative work. With fewer Americans interested in joining Scientology’s hard-core Sea Org and its ascetic lifestyle, the church seemed to be turning to people from other countries who perhaps didn’t know what they were getting into.

But how many of them were there?

Seibert noticed that a change in the law that occurred in 2009 made it possible to obtain records of how many R-1 visas were being applied for and granted. So she convinced the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to fork over actual numbers, and they were pretty startling. In the period from 2009 to 2015, various entities of the Church of Scientology had received a total of 3,447 visas for foreign workers, with the single largest source coming from Russia (17 percent) and the single most frequent place they were going to the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida (75 percent).

“Those numbers are outrageous. It’s outrageous for an organization that is so small,” former top Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder told us last year. “Even if you take seriously the number they advertise for the size of staff at Flag — two thousand people — those visa numbers suggest that since 2009 they’ve had a complete turnover of that many people.”

Now, Seibert has badgered the government into sending us new numbers that show the church continues to rely on these visas to fill Sea Org jobs at their major bases, and again primarily at Flag.

She found that in 2016, Scientology entities arranged for 564 new R-1 visas, and that so far in 2017, there have been another 301. So the new total since 2009, when these numbers first became public because of a change in the law, Scientology has brought in 4,158 “religious” workers to get paid about 40 cents an hour at its major bases.

To get some idea how significant these numbers are, it’s important to note that Scientology has never had the “millions” of members that it has claimed for many years. At its greatest extent, around the year 1990, former top officials tell is there were about 100,000 active Scientologists around the world. By 2008, those officials were telling us that number was down to only 40,000. And now, based on new defectors and other lines of evidence, we believe that the global number of active church members is fewer than 20,000. So bringing in more than 4,000 foreign workers to staff bases is really a significant development, and helps explain how Scientology keeps those bases running even as its overall numbers dwindle.

We have a couple of breakdowns of the data. First, here’s the number of visas that were approved, and the small number not approved, by year:

 
And here’s the list of places which applied for those visas (including those that were denied):

 
And which country the workers originated from:

 
And Seibert had one more revelation. As of April 2017, despite the large number of visas requested by the Church of Scientology, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not performed a single site inspection of the church to make sure that its requests are on the up and up. Not one!

 
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What Scientology sounds like

Thank you to Rod Keller for finding this gem, a woman who is planning the “Ideal Org” in Austin, Texas. Just let this religious fervor wash over you.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 23, 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 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

One of Scientology’s early run-ins with the law resulted in a remarkable letter by L. Ron Hubbard that has previously never seen the light of day — in it, Hubbard claimed to be a psychologist, and proposed that a vast conspiracy had been aimed at his Phoenix, Arizona operation. It’s a [...]]]>

One of Scientology’s early run-ins with the law resulted in a remarkable letter by L. Ron Hubbard that has previously never seen the light of day — in it, Hubbard claimed to be a psychologist, and proposed that a vast conspiracy had been aimed at his Phoenix, Arizona operation. It’s a remarkable letter, and we have our friend and researcher R.M. Seibert to thank for bringing it to us after she managed to pry it out of the possession of the Food and Drug Administration with the help of the MuckRock website.

From 1958 to 1971, the FDA investigated Hubbard and Scientology, including a raid of the Washington DC Scientology church in January 1963. For more than a year, we’ve been posting remarkable documents from the FDA files, some of which have never been posted online before.

This time, we have documents that the FDA obtained from the files of officials in Phoenix, where Scientology faced one of its early legal challenges. L. Ron Hubbard had published Dianetics in 1950 while he was living in New Jersey, and that’s where the first Dianetics “foundation” was formed following the book’s surprising popularity. He also promoted Dianetics in Los Angeles, where another foundation was formed. But Dianetics proved to be a passing fad, and by 1951 Hubbard was in financial trouble and his foundations were bankrupt. He regrouped in Wichita with the help of an oilman millionaire there, and then moved to Phoenix in 1952, coming up then with his new idea he called “Scientology” and creating the “Hubbard Association of Scientologists International,” HASI.

Then, in September 1955, there was an interesting arrest in Phoenix of a Scientologist for practicing, well, Scientology. His name was Edd Clark, 56, and he had come to Phoenix to join HASI after he had received training in Scientology at another HASI branch near Seattle. He was arrested after he practiced Scientology techniques on two women, taking payments of $55 after helping them with complaints they had of headaches and other ailments. It turned out, however, that the women were actually working a sting — one was a police detective, the other worked in the office of county prosecutor William P. Mahoney Jr.

Clark was charged with practicing medicine without a license, and the case made the local newspapers.

By then, Hubbard himself had moved on from Phoenix to Washington DC, where he opened the “Founding” Church of Scientology that July. Two days after the news of Edd Clark’s arrest was made public, Hubbard sat down and wrote a really remarkable letter to Mahoney, the prosecutor, explaining that he was a scientist and psychologist, a war veteran, and that what Mahoney should really be investigating is an obviously well-funded and shadowy effort to send people with “records of insanity” to infiltrate Scientology in order to discredit it. Here, see for yourself…

L. Ron Hubbard, D.D. Ph.D.

1826 F. St. NW
Washington, D.C.
Sept. 6, 1955

County Attorney,
Phoenix, Arizona

My dear Sir;

You have expressed a desire to “get to the bottom of Scientology and Hubbard.” May I suggest that you write a letter to me, setting forth the various things you want to know.

May I also direct your attention to your public library where in “Who’s Who in the East” and “Who Knows and What”, the standard American reference of technical experts, you will find my background. You might also write the U.S. Navy in which I served as an officer throughout the war. The books will inform you that I am a writer, a scientist, and a psychologist and the Navy will inform you of an honorable record, an American record.

As for Scientology I invite your attention to the library or to whatever books you may have to hand.

Now in your turn I would like some information. I would like to know who complained to you about the various organizations and myself and exactly what was said to you to cause you to take the course and action which you did. If you do not care to give me this information, please give it to the F.B.I. when they request it. It would assist me considerably if you would be very specific as we are having for the moment a small amount of trouble running down the exact instigators of the lies and defamations which were spread in Phoenix. We are engaged at the moment in collecting enough funds to continue this matter as long as is necessary to discover why the only entirely American development in the field of the mind should be so attacked.

May I request that you dismiss the charges against Mr. Edd Clark and cooperate with us in following up this situation. It may interest you that in five years of Dianetics and Scientology in every quarter of the world there has never been a similar charge or arrest of any of thousands upon thousands of practitioners and that having been suffered and condoned for many years by any and all authorities and even healing interests and having for a very long time existed in Arizona that the practice of Scientology has become by this face acceptable.

May I also have your cooperation in discovering and naming the persons who sent individuals with pre-Scientology records of insanity into the area to harass us and in naming the persons who offered the bribes in return for evidence or complaints against Scientology and its organizations. The huge sums of money must have had an important source.

In that Mr. Edd Clark did not contravene any law of the State of Arizona, may we have your assistance in locating rather larger game, much more interesting to the Federal government than Mr. Clark.

Sincerely,

L. Ron Hubbard

Later that month, Hubbard explained to his followers who was behind the nefarious plot to send crazies to Scientology in order to discredit it. Of course, it was the evil psychs…

Nearly all the backlash in society against Dianetics and Scientology has a common source — the psychiatrist-​psychologist-​psychoanalyst clique … I could tell you about three actual murders. I could tell you about long strings of psychotics run in on the Foundation and the Association, sent in to us by psychiatrists who then, using LSD and pain-​drug-​hypnosis, spun them and told everyone Dianetics and Scientology drove people insane … The public utterly LOATHES psychiatry. You waste time if you try to defame psychiatry to the public … Psychiatry stands in the public mind for ineffectiveness, lies and inhuman brutality.

— from Professional Auditor’s Bulletin no. 62, “Psychiatrists”, 30 September 1955

That loathing for the psychiatric profession did not prevent Hubbard from claiming to be a psychologist himself when he wanted to impress the Phoenix county attorney. Interesting, isn’t it?

Clark’s trial was set for January 1956, but we haven’t been able to find a record of its result. The prosecutor, however, did have a noteworthy later chapter. William P. Mahoney Jr. was county attorney in Phoenix from 1953 to 1956 after he had been a Trial Judge Advocate in the Pacific presiding over war crimes trials following WWII. And then, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy appointed Mahoney to be the country’s ambassador to Ghana. Here they are in June of that year, discussing Mahoney’s new job…

 
Three years later, after Kennedy’s death and under the Johnson administration, unclassified documents show, Mahoney discussed with CIA director John A. McCone that Ghana’s president, Kwame Nkrumah, would likely soon be deposed in a coup. The following year, in 1966, Nkrumah, a pan-African activist who had led Ghana to independence from Britain, was in fact deposed, and the US was probably complicit in it. We don’t know if Mahoney could be personally blamed for that bit of international skullduggery, but on the positive side of his ledger he did go after and obtained convictions of Japanese war criminals who had executed 102 American prisoners of war at Wake Island.

And in 1955, he came up with the audacious idea of sending in undercover agents to expose Scientology practicing medicine without a license. The very idea!

The FDA files on Clark and Mahoney also include an early Scientology pamphlet from the Phoenix foundation that we found interesting for how it talks about its status as a church and relationship to Christianity…

The Church of Scientology and its ministers are closely interested in your good health.

Devotedly, the practitioners of this Church visit hundreds of people who are ill and hungry.

The ministers and practitioners of this Church go further than simple comfort and prayer. Their activities are dedicated to being effective.

Christ set three goals for Man: Wisdom, Good Health, and Immortality.

The Church of Scientology believes deeply that these goals are worthwhile, that they should be accomplished.

By Divine and earthly authority, we of the Church can apply effective skills to the mind and spirit, and can bring them greater freedom, rest, and peace.

The brothers of this Church are not zealots or bigots. They do not demand that you believe. They are highly skilled and degreed experts in the alleviation of suffering. They are long-trained and practiced in the handling and relief of the ills of mind and spirit.

Our way of carrying out the goals of Christ is to bring about Wisdom, Good Health, and Immortality in the individual man…

Scientology, in the hands of a practitioner, can accomplish for Man the goals which have been set. Our practitioners are skilled as well in Freudian Analysis, and in Dianetics…

The Church of Scientology does not, in any way, conflict with, practice, or discourage medical science. Our sole concern is with the hastening of recovery from accident or shock, the eradication of psychosomatic relapses, or the alleviation of conditions of ill health stemming from the mind and spirit.

Now that’s a fascinating document. Our thanks again to the indefatigable R.M. Seibert!

DOCUMENTS
Edd Clark investigation 1955

 
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Ross & Carrie continue their exploration into Scientology

We enjoyed Ross & Carrie’s first episode, but we don’t know if we’ll have time to listen to Part 2 today. Can someone summarize what’s in it?

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 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

For more than a year now we’ve been bringing you previously unseen and often startling documents that our friend and researcher R.M. Seibert managed, with the help of the MuckRock website, to pry out of the hands of the Food and Drug Administration in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The FDA investigated L. Ron [...]]]>

For more than a year now we’ve been bringing you previously unseen and often startling documents that our friend and researcher R.M. Seibert managed, with the help of the MuckRock website, to pry out of the hands of the Food and Drug Administration in a Freedom of Information Act request.

The FDA investigated L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology from about 1958 to 1971, and raided the Washington DC church in 1963. The documents we’ve recovered have ranged from Hubbard’s high school grades to interviews with family members, former church members, and even some major science fiction figures.

Last January, we told you about a really odd little nugget that turned up in the pile. FDA inspectors became interested in a man named Joseph Ettelmann who had a business dispute with Hubbard. According to the FDA files, Ettelmann and Hubbard had become “close friends” and had gone into business together, becoming partners in a jewelry plant that manufactured Zodiac pendants for use in Hubbard’s church. Then they had a falling out, leading to a lawsuit and a wild scene when Ettelmann tried to serve the suit on Hubbard.

At the time, we noted how crazy that sounded. Hubbard and astrology? That’s not a connection we’d ever heard before. Well, now we have even stranger stuff to fill out that tale a bit. It turns out that in February 1963, the FDA tracked down Ettelmann and interviewed him, and we thought you’d want to see what the man said. Some of it is just plain weird.

On February 12, 1963, FDA inspector George D. Tilroe visited with Ettelmann at the office of his attorney. Ettelmann at the time lived in Kensington, Maryland.

Arrangements were made with Mr. Malcolm Houston, 1010 Vermont Ave. Washington, D.C., to interview his client, Mr. Joseph C. Ettelmann. Mr. Houston is currently involved in a civil action against Mr. L. Ron Hubbard on a charge of false arrest of Mr. Joseph Ettelmann, which was brought about following the acquittal of Mr. Ettelmann in a Civil Action No. 14-60, entered in the District of Columbia, June 14, 1962. Information concerning this particular court action was previously submitted in a memorandum to the Division of Regulatory Management.

Mr. Ettelmann, during 1957 and 1958, was involved in the sale of property to Mr. L. Ron Hubbard. In order to consummate this sale, Mr. Hubbard required Mr. Ettelmann to take courses in the Founding Church of Scientology. Mr. Ettelmann took courses in processing, and actually completed only four sessions. The civil action interrupted additional sessions which Mr. Ettelmann was planning on taking at the Founding Church of Scientology. Mr. Ettelmann supplied the following information. Most of the information which he supplied cannot be documented and is his personal opinion.

Hubbard had created Dianetics (1950) and then Scientology (1952) claiming that both of them were based in science, not religion. But after an initial boom had gone bust, in 1953 he admitted to close follower Helen O’Brien in a letter that things really couldn’t get any worse. They were being investigated and harassed by the government, the press was brutal, and they were having a hard time attracting new people. So, he told her, they might as well try “the religion angle.” On December 18, 1953, Hubbard and his son, L. Ron Hubbard Jr., and their wives signed incorporation papers in Camden, New Jersey forming the first “Church of Scientology,” as well as two other entities, the Church of American Science and the Church of Spiritual Engineering. A couple of months later, in February 1954, one of his followers started a Church of Scientology in Los Angeles that would eventually become the “mother church.” Hubbard didn’t start the “Founding” Church of Scientology in Washington DC until July 1955, but then it became his chief location until he left the United States a few years later and moved to England.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that during 1957 and 1958, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. and Mr. Glenn Elliot were ministers of the church who presided over the religious sessions. Miss Marilyn Routsong was, at that time, treasurer of the various organizations. He stated that until October 1958 Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, Sr. was present full time at the Washington facilities. In 1958 Hubbard left to reside in England. Mr. Ettelmann indicated that several meetings were held by Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, Sr. during which he attempted to alleviate the fear of the members of the church about the use of the atomic bomb. To do this he indicated that clearing of the various individuals would protect them from atomic fall-out. Mr. Ettelmann described Dianetics as the bible of the organization and Scientology as the practice.

Yeah, that sure sounds like Hubbard. It’s sometimes hard to remember that for much of the early history of Scientology, Hubbard used the fear of atomic annihilation as a strong motivating force. Even into the 1990s, we’ve been told by former members, young people would be told that they needed to give up their regular lives to become Sea Org members because a nuclear holocaust was on the horizon. Imagine how much stronger that fear was in the 1950s.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that during his business dealings with Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, Mr. Hubbard indicated to him that the church had been set up as a means of eliminating tax payments, as the church is a tax free organization. He indicated that Hubbard told him, that through his church affiliation much of the businesses handled by L. Ron Hubbard could be handled through this tax free organization. During 1957 and 1958, Mr. Ettelmann received many checks from Mr. Hubbard, all of which were signed by L. Ron Hubbard. Most of the checks received were also countersigned by Marilyn Routsong and/or Mary Sue Hubbard. Mr. Ettelmann indicated that most of these checks were drawn on the Lincoln National Bank of Washington, D.C.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that “processing” was definitely indicated as a means of eliminating various physical afflictions. He stated that they indicated that after one was processed and had become clear, that these physical ailments would be eliminated. He further indicated that one can be audited without the use of an E Meter, but that an individual cannot be cleared without the use of an E Meter. He then went on to say, however, that the practice of Scientology was indicated as a cure for various ailments even though the E meter was not used.

The Food and Drug Administration was the federal agency investigating Scientology because, at least back then, the federal government was more vigilant about its role as a watchdog concerning bogus health claims. In Dianetics, Hubbard had claimed that nearly all of mankind’s physical ailments are actually psychosomatic and could be eliminated with his counseling techniques. In practice, this led to claims that he could cure just about anything with Scientology, and that had aroused the interest of the FDA.

An individual interested in being processed or becoming an auditor would go through a series of several sessions learning this practice. At the time of the first session, the E Meter would not be used. However, during the second and/or third sessions of processing, the E Meter would be an essential component. He indicated that the beds located in the various rooms of the building are used in the processing procedure when the E Meter is used. The patient being placed in a reclining position at the time of the processing.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that he could definitely testify to the fact that Dianetics was promised as a cure for physical ailments. He stated that he knew this by overhearing a conversation between an auditor (name unknown) and a female patient who had lesions on her legs. He also recalled another incident where an individual with lung trouble was promised help by the use of the Scientology practices. He stated that his only knowledge of the use of the E Meter and the attempted cure of a patient was with regard to a female who suffered from “female trouble.” He stated that he could not remember the patient’s name or the exact details, except that the auditor had inserted the cord of the E Meter into the vaginal opening to obtain his E Meter readings and that complications (believed to be an infection) had resulted.

We hadn’t heard this one before. Perhaps one of our oldtimers could expound on the notion of one of the E-meter cans being used in such a way. And yeah, those things are filthy.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that the organization freely practiced “free love.” He indicated that Mr. L. Ron Hubbard continually philosophized that “what the body is capable of the body shall do.” He further indicated that most of the rooms in the various buildings had tape recorders hidden beneath the beds and/or under various pieces of furniture. He felt certain that this information, obtained on the recorders, was used in a mild form of blackmail. Mr. Ettelmann stated that he, himself had been blackmailed by Hubbard when he was hesitating about the signing over of a piece of property to Mr. Hubbard. He stated that Hubbard had indicated to him that it would be wise for him to sign over the property if he did not want information concerning a previous divorce of Mr. Ettelmann to come out into the public. Mr. Hubbard indicated that the divorce action was not legal. Mr. Ettelmann stated that he had checked into this and as far as he could tell it was a legal divorce, however, he would not take the chance that it was legal, knowing of Hubbard’s ways and means of obtaining information. He also stated that Hubbard let him know that he knew of an arrest that had been made in Georgia on charges that Mr. Ettelmann had committed armed robbery and rape. Mr. Ettelmann had been acquitted of these charges. The information concerning this robbery and rape charge was obtained by Mr. Hubbard from the security check list which Mr. Ettelmann had filled out.

Wow, there’s a lot to unpack here. First, we have to admire the Crowleyesque nature of Hubbard’s edict, “What the body is capable of the body shall do.” We can totally see him saying that. Anyone know if he said something similar in a recorded lecture? As for Ettelmann’s claims that Hubbard had investigated him and was threatening to blackmail him — while we can’t check out Ettelmann’s claims, this follows precisely the practices that Hubbard described in the Manual of Justice (1955) and later policies of how to investigate and threaten someone Hubbard considered an enemy. While David Miscavige and his private investigators get all the ink today, there’s little doubt that Hubbard was ruthless with the dirt-digging even in the 1950s. And one of the chief tools used by both Hubbard and Miscavige is the “security check,” when Scientologists are compelled to spill their guts about their most private affairs while hooked to an E-meter. For 60 years, Scientologists have been handing over to the church the material that can then later be used against them.

Mr. Ettelmann was questioned as to his knowledge of various individuals who have been connected with the organization. He stated that Mr. Richard Steves did auditing during 1958, as well as Mildred Dean Galusha. Mr. John Galusha was said to have been in charge of all auditors, with particular emphasis on those auditors who traveled throughout the country. Mr. Ettelmann also indicated that Mr. Bonnie B. Turner had made several advances toward Mr. Ettelmann and on one occasion had been “slugged.” He also stated that Mr. George T. Elliott performed marriages at the church.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that he recalled hearing of a 13 or 14 year old girl, who had resided at the Academy of Scientology for over one year. He indicated that this girl had been classed as mentally retarded (this individual may be the Helene Mason referred to in my previous memo). Mr. Ettelmann stated that Mr. Brinkman (the attorney presently handling the FDA seizure action) was, at one time, a member of the Founding Church of Scientology and a close associate of L. Ron Hubbard. Mr. Brinkman is said to be in constant personal contact with Mr. L. Ron Hubbard and was believed to have been connected with Dianetics during its reign in Kansas.

Mr. Ettelmann was questioned as to his knowledge of the reasons for the change of name from “The Church of Man’s Religion” to the Founding Church of Scientology. He indicated that L. Ron Hubbard had informed him that this change was made due to tax implications. Hubbard had indicated that the New York Founding Church of Scientology was a tax free organization, whereas the Washington Church was not. The change of name was brought about to facilitate the purchase of equipment, supplies, etc. through the New York City church on a tax free basis. The equipment then was turned over to the Washington church by means which lower the tax rates.

We hadn’t heard this one before. “The Church of Man’s Religion”? Does that ring a bell for anyone? Also, we can’t find any reference online to a “New York Founding Church of Scientology.” Ettelmann may be mistaken, or it’s possible he’s passing on things Hubbard told him that were not true. But we love the idea that Hubbard had at one time called his outfit The Church of Man’s Religion, and we wonder if that can be corroborated.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that members of the church and auditors may buy E Meters. He further indicated, however, that auditors don’t have to be members of the church. Concerning the church, he indicated that he believed the membership fee was $25.00 a year and that in addition to this fee, donations were collected during the church services. He also recalled that a building fund drive was instituted sometime around 1958.

Mr. Ettelmann was questioned as to his personal knowledge of any immoral acts performed on the premises of the Founding Church of Scientology. He indicated that he had no direct knowledge, however, the female associates of the church congregated at a small restaurant on the downtown side of the Conn. Ave. and R St. interchange (across the street from Empire Drugs), between the hours of 9:30 and 11:00 PM. He stated that these women spoke freely and loudly of their relationships with Mr. L. Ron Hubbard and other individuals connected with the Founding Church of Scientology. He stated that this restaurant is still used as a hangout for the members of these organizations.

This is kind of the best thing ever. The Scientology gals hanging out at the corner drugstore each night, swapping stories about their exploits with Lafayette Ron in the sack. Observer, this scene sounds ripe for shooping.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that he had been requested to design and build a “memorial for the living.” This memorial was to be hung in the Founding Church of Scientology. He described the memorial as a large brass plaque with a light behind it, and a means of cutting script names into the plaque. Each name would be for an individual who was willing to pay $400.00 to have his name placed on this “memorial for the living.” Due to the court action, this plaque was not finished. He also indicates that he had manufactured bracelets with a small emblem on the top. This emblem consisted of a triangle with two S’s embossed on top. On the back of the emblem were the following letters:

AD 8
John Doe
Scientology clear
LRH

Mr. Ettelmann stated that the “AD 8” indicated 8 years after the founding of Dianetics (After Dianetics 8). These bracelets were presented in January of 1959 to some 350 individuals who attended a Scientology Congress at the Shoreham Hotel. Mr. Ettelmann stated that most of these individuals were from foreign countries.

Mr. Ettelmann stated that he would be more than willing to be a witness at any trial, or to help us in any way that he could.

George D. Tilroe

We don’t know if Ettelmann was ever called to testify in the litigation that followed the 1963 FDA raid and that dragged on into 1971. Eventually, the two sides settled, and Scientology was required to put a disclaimer on all of its E-meters that it was not a device for medical diagnosis. But thanks to R.M. Seibert, we’re finding that the FDA’s investigation resulted in so many great documents. Isn’t this fun?

Here’s the document itself…

FDA 1963 interview of Joseph Ettelmann

 
——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on February 19, 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

 Thirty years ago today, this planet lost a singular individual to parts unknown. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard had lived one of the most unique lives in history. He had literally created his own personal navy from crew members who signed pledges to serve him for a billion years. He convinced thousands of people that they could [...]]]>

 
Thirty years ago today, this planet lost a singular individual to parts unknown. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard had lived one of the most unique lives in history. He had literally created his own personal navy from crew members who signed pledges to serve him for a billion years. He convinced thousands of people that they could become gods by paying him large sums of money and ridding themselves of invisible sentient entities. He had become fabulously rich at the same time that he had spent the last ten years of his life mostly in hiding and fearing that he’d be arrested or sued.

And finally, on January 24, 1986, he left us. Thirty years later, we still marvel at what L. Ron Hubbard convinced people to do and say. At least there’s that, whatever else you might say about a man with enormous problems telling the truth and who often treated other people as less than human beings.

How to sum up a life like L. Ron Hubbard’s? We still struggle with it three decades after his death, even though we write about the creation he left behind every single day. But we take solace that the people who knew him best also found it wasn’t easy to summarize Hubbard after he was gone, and today we have a special example of that.

Once again, we’re indebted to researcher R.M. Seibert, who pounced when she realized that something really unique was on sale recently at eBay. It was the April 1986 edition of Science Fiction Chronicle, a monthly publication edited by Sci Fi superfan Andrew Porter (who happens to be a regular reader of this website). Seibert knew its significance and purchased the artifact before anyone else could.

The Chronicle was concerned that month with all of the recent deaths that had hit the science fiction field so hard. The beginning months of 1986 were, Porter noted, the worst for losing figures in the field since the dismal years of 1958 and 1968. The front page of the publication was dominated by the grim news: On February 11, Dune author Frank Herbert had died, and 1986 had also taken away agent Robert Mills and publisher Judy-Lynn Del Rey. Inside, back on page 26, lost a bit in all the more important news, there was also an obituary for Hubbard. It was written by his old friend and former literary agent, Forrest Ackerman.

Last year, we brought to your attention a rather amazing letter written to Ackerman by Hubbard in 1949, as Hubbard prepared to unleash Dianetics on the world the next year. Hubbard told Ackerman that he planned to send him a pre-publication version of the book, “Then you can rape women without their knowing it, communicate suicide messages to your enemies as they sleep, sell the Arroyo Seco parkway to the mayor for cash, evolve the best way of protecting or destroying communism, and other handy house hold hints. If you go crazy, remember you were warned.”

Hubbard went on to explain that he had “not decided whether to destroy the Catholic church or merely start a new one” with the book. Considering what came afterward, it’s not so easy to say that he was entirely joking.

Anyway, when Hubbard died, Ackerman was called upon to write an obituary of the man he had known so well. The title, we have found, is referenced pretty often in publications about Ackerman and Hubbard, complete with its unique spelling, “L. Ron Hubbard: Fond Rememberance — With Warts.” But we could not find a copy of it anywhere online. So we thank R.M. Seibert for once again bringing us something to post on this website that will likely be new for most of our readers.

Here, then, is how an expert in the field of science fiction, a lifelong fan who had known Hubbard quite well, summed him up for his fellow science fiction enthusiasts.

L. RON HUBBARD: FOND REMEMBERANCE — WITH WARTS

As far as I know I was the first science fiction person to meet Lafayette Ron Hubbard. It was in the now non-existent “Shep’s Shop” on Hollywood Blvd., the nearest thing to A Change of Hobbit in its day, and the day was one night in 1937. I believe I was the catalyst that started him writing science fiction: on the spot, when I discovered he was a pulp writer and asked if he’d ever written any science fiction. (I think we were still calling it that then), he began spinning a yarn about a new Ice Age 25,000 years hence in California. If such a story was ever written it was never published that I am aware of, but if for nothing else you can perhaps thank me that he gave the field “Final Blackout”, “Fear” and the Ole Doc Methuselah series.

One memorable night LRH came to the LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) and hypnotized just about everybody in the club except me and my wife. One fan, with cupped hands, came to me and showed me the little kangaroo hopping about which Ron had induced in his mind. Arthur Jean Cox’s brother Bill was given a post-hypnotic suggestion: when Ron would casually rub his nose, Bill would instantly fall asleep. A cluster of fans had surrounded Ron when his nose actually itched; he scratched and fortunately I was directly behind Bill because he slumped dead to the world backward into my arms.

During the hypnosis demonstration a forgotten fan was told that a few minutes after he was brought out of his trance he would hear the phone on the clubroom wall ring, he would answer it and the (imaginary) voice on the other end of the line would make him a fantastic offer on an automobile. But no matter how great the deal he would come up with some reason to refuse it. The monolog went something like this:

“A brand new Cadillac? Only $500? Well, gee, yes, that is a bargain, but I only have $400. Oh, you’d take $400? But, you see, I have bills to pay and half that money is already spoken for. — You’d let me have it for $200? My Mother told me…” And so it went. Even when he offered it free he came up with some excuse to turn it down.

Several years later Ron recommended people not play around with hypnotism.

Early in my agentorial career I was both fortunate and unfortunate in acquiring LRH as a client. He was the only Big Name Author from whom I deliberately divorced myself because I felt he was more trouble than he was worth. The problem was, I was supposed to be his exclusive agent but he would be having dinner with a Dutch agent in Washington, DC, and the Dutchman over drinks would excite Ron with promises of how he could sell his work in the Netherlands and the next thing I’d know I’d hear a yelp from my subagent saying, “Do we or don’t we represent Ron Hubbard? I walked into a publisher’s office the other day and there sat an agent with a lapful of Hubbard’s books — !” Double agents (no pun intended) could obviously cause considerable confusion. I explained to Ron why he couldn’t do that and he said he got carried away and he understood and he wouldn’t do it again. And the next thing I knew he’d done it again. I tried patiently to point out to him that such actions were fraught with danger — unbeknownst to each other some day two publishers might print the same book and then he’d be in hot water.

Result: solemn oath not to break the rules.

Reality: he broke ’em.

Consequence: I broke with him.

About the early 70s we got back together again. He made a generous offer I couldn’t refuse: “Just get me in print. Forry, I don’t care about the money: you keep half of it.” He caused me no further trouble but half of nothing was nothing in the case of one anthologist who justified using a Hubbard story without paying because he considered LRH in the same class with Hitler and Satan (not necessarily in that order).

About LRH, Dianeticist & Scientologist. I prefer to say very little, except that I saw some small wonders worked by early Dianetics and, as a secular humanist, I have no belief in past lives, especially lives contactable millions of years ago when one saw Flying Saucer people land on Earth or one was a primordial clam lying on a prehistoric seashore being irritated by a grain of sand, end result, a pearl.

I’m told that 1500 L.A. acolytes were assembled to receive the news that Ron had decided to “drop his body.” He didn’t die. I heard further from an inside source that several days before his demise he told his closest associates that his work in this lifetime was complete and a few nights later he went to bed, voluntarily shut off the flow of oxygen to his brain and shrugged off this mortal coil. The newspapers reported that he died of a stroke. Take your choice. Scientologists may not be too pleased with my attitude; science fiction fans — who knows?

His charismatic daughter Diana and dynamic son Arthur I like a lot. Ditto Scientologists Virgil Wilhite (Hollywood) and Irene Thrupp (England).

In summation:

He was one of the consistently entertaining writers of SF’s Golden Age.

He was a controversial character to the mundane world (and to a certain extent the supermundane world of Sci-Fi) but through all a good friend to me.

As a human being I regarded him as neither saint nor devil but an extraordinarily complex unique individual whom I would rank in the “odd genre”, with Eric Frank Russsell, Ralph Milne Farley, Manly Wade Wellman, Leo Zagat, George Allen England, Victor Rousseau, Otis Adalbert Kline, and Jack Williamson.

You were perhaps the world’s fastest typist Ron: Keep that Typewriter in the Sky blazing!

— Forrest Ackerman

 
Well, there you have it from someone who knew Hubbard best. Not exactly “Mankind’s Greatest Friend,” or a “humanitarian,” or the Great Thetan. Hubbard was, as Ackerman remembered him, a master hypnotist, a bit of a con artist even with his friends, and an “extraordinarily complex unique individual.”

He was also a recluse, and his demise was a special challenge for the young Scientology executives who were tasked with dealing with it. Russell Miller, Jon Atack, and Lawrence Wright have each written in depth about Hubbard’s final days and the mad dash by his followers to have him cremated as soon as possible (his remains were scattered at sea). They then had the enormous task of breaking the news to his congregation, which was made up of people who had considered Hubbard something more than human, the homo novus who had unlocked the secrets of the universe. How would they react at news of his death?

That episode came three days later, on January 27, so on that day, Wednesday, we’re going to bring you remembrances of the event from people who were there, and we’ll look once again at the video of the announcement by a young David Miscavige. We think you’ll find the things we’ve been told about it really interesting.

In the meantime, here’s that copy of Science Fiction Chronicle…

Science Fiction Chronicle, April 1986

 
——————–

Bonus photos from our tipsters

Pete Griffiths found this image posted by the Portland org with the caption: “Getting ready for some life changing wins!”

 
Another shot from the Portland folks, who are not doing their impression of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, we swear.

 
While he awaits felony charges on Medi-Cal fraud, Rizza Islam (second from left) still made the scene with rap mogul Russell Simmons (center). Says Rizza: “Bro. Simmons called me over when he was signing some of his books and asked me if he could ‘take my picture’? I said: ‘Sure’. He then said: ‘I want to show the people that the F.O.I and the Nation Of Islam take care of me’.”

 
——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 24, 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

 We’re getting yet closer to that big anniversary — 30 years since L. Ron Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil to surf the galaxy in thetan form — and so we’re still looking back through our files to remember the Great Thetan in his time.

Once again, we have a fun document for you that researcher [...]]]>

 
We’re getting yet closer to that big anniversary — 30 years since L. Ron Hubbard shuffled off this mortal coil to surf the galaxy in thetan form — and so we’re still looking back through our files to remember the Great Thetan in his time.

Once again, we have a fun document for you that researcher R.M. Seibert managed to pry out of the FDA as part of its 1960s investigation of Hubbard and Scientology. And this one gives us a nice peek at Hubbard’s days before he absconded from the US.

To put this in context, remember that Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in May, 1950, which set off a brief national craze, with Dianetics clubs setting up around the country. Hubbard cashed in by setting up “foundations” in places like New Jersey and California, but soon enough the craze subsided, and Hubbard’s nightmare year of 1951 had him mired in a nasty divorce with his second wife, Sara Northrup. With the help of a rich Kansas oilman, Hubbard regrouped and went to Phoenix to start over, coming up with something called “Scientology” because, for a short time, he couldn’t use the name “Dianetics.” By 1952, he was married to his third wife, Mary Sue Whipp, and he was still struggling to get Scientology hitting on all cylinders. When he did have success, it tended to attract the attention of the government, which was more vigilant then about people making outlandish health claims. So, in 1953 Hubbard proposed to his loyal follower Helen O’Brien that they try out “the religion angle” to throw the government off, and in December of that year Hubbard created the first “Church of Scientology” corporation in Camden, New Jersey. A second Church corporation followed a few months later in Los Angeles.

Then, in 1955, Hubbard opened his “Founding” Church of Scientology in Washington DC, and made it his headquarters. Things started to pick up, and the money was really starting to come in. But there were still problems. Hubbard and Scientology were always fending off complaints about the nature of what they were up to.

So, on November 16, 1957, Hubbard wrote an interesting letter. He addressed it to Leland S. McCarthy, the managing director of the local Better Business Bureau. It was Hubbard’s attempt to convince the BBB that Scientology was on the up and up — and that it was a thriving concern. Note how Hubbard lays it on thick about his association with Washington, where he had actually only spent time sporadically over the years.

L. Ron Hubbard

November 16, 1957
1812 19th Street, N. W.
Washington 9, D.C.

Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Washington
507 Perpetual Building
Washington 4, D.C.

Attn: Mr. Leland S. McCarthy
Managing Director

Dear Mr. McCarthy:

Included are proper resumes of all organizations which I have managed or operated and financial statements to demonstrate their activity. I include the Distribution Center, Inc., although I do not manage it but since my wife is a member of its board.

None of these organizations has any debts of magnitude and have a good reputation for paying their bills when due.

I am married and have three small children. I am a member of the Explorer’s Club and Capital Yacht Club. Washington, D.C. has been my home since boyhood. I served as an officer in the Navy during the war and was honorably discharged. I attended high school at Woodward Prep here in D.C., and studied nuclear physics at George Washington University. After the war on the G.I. Bill I attended school in California and received a Ph.D. from Sequoia University, an adult education school of the City of Los Angeles. I am primarily a writer of science fiction and technical material on the mind and am a registered minister with the government.

While companies using my name and work have existed in many states and may have good or bad credit, I have had no business connection with them. They have often conceived it to be to their advantage to represent such connection and I have had to take severe action from time to time to deny that connection. I have found myself powerless to prevent the use of my name and work in many cases. I am not financially situated so as to bear the vast legal expenses necessary to such denial.

The policy of the Founding Church in business matters is to refund all donations or charges to anyone who believes he has chosen wrongly in joining the Church. This has no exceptions.

The principal business of the Church, beyond its services each Sunday and its Thursday night meeting, is the training of persons to handle people and congregations and to communicate better. The ministers of all allied state churches are trained by us. They are further trained and usually ordained by their state churches. We ordain locally only those we need in our work and only after a severe training program and thorough examination on St. John and other religious matters. We charge about $1.00 per hour for coaching and ordinarily contract for many hours at a time. The usual total fees charged persons for this training average out at less than $500 over long time periods. Counseling of private individuals is done by ministers for $10 per hour. All counseling is aimed at bettering their social responses.

Our goal as an organization is to increase Man’s socialness, to improved his awareness and better his social conduct.

As in any Church our beliefs are quite definite but unlike many, we force them on none.

I trust, Mr. McCarthy, that this will improve your understanding of our activities and business standing.

We spend $100,000 a year with local businessmen and any will tell you we are good credit and prompt pay.

It would be disturbing if the BBB of my own city, Washington, had only a vague notion of my activities after nearly half a century of good citizenship on my part.

Sincerely,

L. Ron Hubbard

Hubbard was apparently so concerned about getting the BBB on his side, he turned over very detailed information about the financials of Scientology. And considering how secretive Scientology has been over its history, that makes this a pretty unusual document.

Hubbard disclosed that the Founding Church of Scientology in DC had, for the fiscal year 1956, taken in $101,254.35. That, Seibert reminds us, is worth about $883,500 today.

The Hubbard Association of Scientologists, International, meanwhile, was also bringing in a nice flow of cash. HASI was the original membership organization which has since been supplanted by the International Association of Scientologists (IAS).

Hubbard gives a couple of different amounts for HASI revenue in 1956, one for Arizona ($44,049.08) and the rest ($22,759.84) for what is about $580,000 today.

Here’s the document in full, which also includes an inquiry from the BBB in 1961…

L. Ron Hubbard 1957 letter to BBB of DC

The same year Hubbard sent this letter, Scientology was first granted tax exempt status by the government. But soon enough, there was trouble. The next year, in 1958, the FDA would begin its investigation of the Washington church, concerned about claims being made about the miraculous curing properties of the e-meter. The FDA raided the church in 1963, but by then Hubbard was long gone, having left the US for England in 1959. And then, in 1967, Scientology lost its tax exemption, and years of litigation ensued.

In 1969, the US Court of Claims found that the DC Church was not entitled to recover federal income taxes, and it specifically referred to the same 1956 income that Hubbard had outlined in his letter to the BBB, as well as revenue from 1958 and 1959.

The court found that the DC church didn’t deserve to be tax exempt simply because it was a business that benefited one man, L. Ron Hubbard.

According to the trial commissioner’s findings, L. Ron Hubbard received over $108,000 from plaintiff and related Scientology sources during the 4-year period June 1955 through June 1959. This figure represents $77,460 in fees, commissions, royalties, and compensation for services, plus $13,538 in payment for expenses incurred in connection with his services, as well as a total of $17,586 in reimbursement for expenditures made in plaintiff’s behalf, in repayment of loans made to plaintiff and the New York organization, and as a loan from plaintiff to Hubbard. As the commissioner found, and we agree, the precise nature of the loans and reimbursed expenditures does not appear in the record. Nor do we find any explanation for most of the expenses paid. The portion of the $77,460 actually paid by plaintiff amounted to approximately $6,000 in 1955-56, more than $11,550 in 1956-57, approximately $18,000 in 1957-58, and over $22,000 in 1958-59. Hubbard also had the use of an automobile at plaintiff’s expense. During plaintiff’s taxable years ending in 1958 and 1959, the organization provided and maintained a personal residence for Hubbard and his family. Moreover, in addition to all the foregoing, Hubbard received a percentage (usually 10 percent) of the gross income of affiliated Scientology organizations.

The IRS and the courts remained resolute in that conclusion for decades more, repeatedly fending off further attempts by Scientology to seek tax exempt status through the 1980s. Scientology, the government believed, was a business operated to benefit the person at the top. But then, in 1991, IRS commissioner Fred Goldberg threw in the towel and began the process that would lead to Scientology getting its tax exempt status in 1993.

Hubbard would have been thrilled, of course. But today, we can’t see church leader David Miscavige sucking up to the Better Business Bureau by opening up his books.

 
——————–

LA Weekly still wasting its opportunity to dig into Scientology

Back on January 4, when LA Weekly writer Art Tavana sent us an email saying that he wanted to go against the grain and report something positive about Scientology by looking for what other journalists had missed, we immediately responded by sending our phone number, hoping he’d call.

We were going to tell him that what he was proposing was just good journalism. Of course he should look at everything he could, including what Scientology has to say about itself.

Sadly, we didn’t hear from Tavana, and he went on to write a silly piece that we hope won’t be taken very seriously.

As a piece of performance art, Tavana’s article has its moments. But it only reminds us that once again, LA Weekly is squandering an opportunity to do something worthwhile on Scientology in the area with more Scientologists than anywhere else in the world.

The Los Angeles Times was once the most dominant investigative news organization when it came to Scientology, and its epic 1990 series by Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos is still talked about. But since then, it’s become embarrassingly bad on Scientology. There was a glimmer of hope with a great piece from Kim Christensen last April, but the paper went right back to totally ignoring anything to do with the story going on in its own backyard. So much so that one of the most important stories involving Scientology — and felony charges! — was broken by this website right under the nose of the LA Times. Shameful.

And speaking as someone who came from the alt-weeklies, a sleeping daily is exactly what the LA Weekly should take advantage of, rather than running interference for Tom Cruise.

What a waste of time.

 
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Chris Shelton interviews Tim DeWall, part 3

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 21, 2016 at 07:00

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