The Lowdown | The Underground Bunker

NXIVM: Actress Allison Mack pleads guilty — ‘I was lost and wanted a community’

[Allison Mack leaves the courtroom today after pleading guilty. Photo by VillageDianne.]

Our correspondent VillageDianne was in the courtroom just now as Smallville actress Allison Mack pled guilty to two counts — racketeering and racketeering conspiracy — and broke down in tears twice as she did […]

Jehovah’s Witnesses help only their own at disasters? A Witness counters with links

We’re always very happy to receive replies to our stories from Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to present their point of view. Yesterday, we posted a story by ex-JW Michael Paddock, who talked about being instructed to sneak around Red Cross officials in order to locate and help only Jehovah’s Witnesses in the relief effort after […]

Patriot games: Killing a rhino for the good old red, white, and blue!

OK, so you’ve hunted down one of the most targeted species on earth and ended its life with some high-velocity projectiles from a safe distance. You have your trophy, and maybe you get an erection from it or […]

Jehovah’s Witnesses at natural disasters seeking only their own: A first-person report

A couple of times recently in our discussions with Lloyd Evans, the issue of Jehovah’s Witnesses and natural disasters has come up. Jehovah’s Witnesses are obsessed with the idea that a bloody, global apocalypse is imminent, and so we’ve wondered how the organization is dealing with the actual localized catastrophes that come up from time […]

Park rangers nice enough to retrieve rhino poacher’s skull for his grieving family

Family is family, and even if your family member is the lowest form of life on earth — a rhino poacher — relatives are going to want his remains, even after he was crushed by an elephant and eaten by […]

Judge grants Keith Raniere’s wish, Nxivm leader will get personal info on jurors

[Judge Nicholas Garaufis and Keith Raniere]

Now this is an interesting development. Yesterday we told you that Nxivm leader Keith Raniere had submitted an objection to Judge Nicholas Garaufis, saying that keeping the jury anonymous in the upcoming Nxivm trial not only to the public and press but also to the parties involved would harm his […]

NXIVM: Keith Raniere to judge — jury anonymous to public, but not to Vanguard!

Keith Raniere’s attorney Marc Agnifilo filed an interesting objection to Judge Nicholas Garaufis today, asking him to change his mind about the anonymity of the jury that the court will begin selecting on […]

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s father worked for Nxivm: What is it with Dem dads?

[Kirsten Gillibrand and Tulsi Gabbard]

There’s a fun report at Big League Politics today thanks to Frank Parlato, who gave the politics site a document proving that New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s father, attorney Douglas Rutnik, was paid a $100,000 retainer by Nxivm, the group whose leaders are now facing sex slavery charges in a federal […]

Can sandwich maker Jimmy John Liautaud shake off his big game past?

You probably know the backstory: Sandwich maker Jimmy John Liautaud, proprietor of the Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches chain, got a ton of heat when some photos from a 2010 African safari turned up online, showing the Chicago businessman celebrating over the carcasses of a couple of elephants, a rhino, and a […]

A Jehovah’s Witnesses official responds (unofficially) to ‘Bottlegate’

We’re still buzzing over a video that Lloyd Evans posted of Jehovah’s Witnesses Governing Body member Anthony Morris III buying a cartload of expensive hooch. […]

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