The Lowdown | The Underground Bunker

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Scientology’s ‘Mecca’: Is this the Armageddon we were promised?

We want to thank regular reader Jeb Burton for taking the photo you see here during his adventures yesterday in downtown Clearwater. He snapped this outside the infamous “Scientology Starbucks” at the corner of Fort Harrison Boulevard and Cleveland Street, the crossroads at the very center of Scientology’s “spiritual Mecca,” the Flag Land Base in […]

Remembering a mighty hunter who became one with the animal kingdom to honor us all

This is Scott van Zyl, a South African hunter who really knew how to show off a customer’s attributes, like Mr. Lion here and his magnificent gums. […]

NXIVM: Government drops Keith Raniere’s child sex charges for Albany prosecutor to handle

[Keith Raniere]

Surprising news in a document filed yesterday by prosecutors in the Nxivm case: They have agreed with Nxivm leader Keith Raniere that the new child sex charges in a superseding indictment don’t belong in the Brooklyn trial which is scheduled to start on April 29. Instead, those charges will be considered for prosecution by […]

As Allison Mack nears guilty plea, remembering her frightening portrayal as a flight risk

[Allison Mack]

After the roller coaster week we’ve had in the Nxivm criminal prosecution, we’ve been leafing through older documents in the court file to help us understand how we got […]

Alaska father and son unfairly persecuted for bagging hibernating bear mom and her cubs

[Alaska man Andrew Renner]

Well the whole dang country is in an uproar over a viral video that shows an Alaska man named Andrew Renner and his son, Owen, dispatching a hibernating bear and her two shrieking, panicky cubs and then high-fiving each other in […]

Allison Mack wanted 30-day delay for plea; Keith Raniere opposed and judge denied

[Keith Raniere and Allison Mack]

With a little more than a week before jury selection is scheduled to begin in the Nxivm trial, defendant Allison Mack, the Smallville actress accused of running a sex-slavery ring for Nxivm leader Keith Raniere, submitted a letter to Judge Nicholas Garaufis asking for a 30-day delay so she could work […]

Witness to ex-JW activists: You say you love us, so why try to change us?

[Going door to door. Credit: JW.org]

Ex-JW activists, you have been called out! We noticed this tweet recently by a gentleman we don’t know, Floyd Butterman, and we wondered what our readers might say about his […]

And then there were four: Lauren Salzman joins her mother and pleads guilty in Nxivm case

[Lauren Salzman and her mother Nancy]

There it is in the Nxivm court file, the confirmation of what we’d heard earlier, that Lauren Salzman was among those Nxivm defendants deciding to plead guilty before trial is scheduled to begin next […]

Clare Bronfman’s attorneys want Nxivm judge to lay off about Mark Geragos and his troubles

[Clare Bronfman arriving at court yesterday. Photo by VillageDianne]

We hear that today’s hearing regarding Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman and any potential conflicts regarding her attorney, Mark Geragos, was not nearly as eventful as yesterday’s, when Clare fainted in the courtroom. She collapsed yesterday after Judge Nicholas Garaufis had brought up the stunning information that indicted […]

NXIVM CHAOS: CLARE BRONFMAN FAINTS AFTER JUDGE BRINGS UP MICHAEL AVENATTI

[Clare Bronfman leaves the courthouse with Mark Geragos. Photo by VillageDianne]

Wild times in the Nxivm case today as Clare Bronfman collapsed and paramedics were called. According to our court observer and others who were present, the Seagram heiress fainted after Judge Nicholas Garaufis asked whether disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti had secretly been negotiating a plea […]

Search