Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Scientology to Clearwater: $1.3 million? We’re taking your street and you get bupkis

[Dave’s keeping his eyes on the prize]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Scientology has notified Clearwater, Florida, that it will be re-applying to take over a downtown street as part of its ‘L. Ron Hubbard Hall’ project. And this time, []

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The Tribunal: How Scientology puts its members in bad spots

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: An employment tribunal in the UK has posted a decision which involved the Church of Scientology. A man there claimed he had been fired for religious discrimination. The tribunal didn’t buy it, and it []

As Maga erupts over Epstein, will Scientology fuel a split in Trump support?

[Laura Loomer, Pam Bondi]

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Laura Loomer is so angry with Pam Bondi over the Epstein mess, she targeted President Trump’s attorney general yesterday with perhaps the ultimate diss. Loomer resorted to the S word. And []

Scientology, the graphic novel? French team explores Hubbard history

 TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: It’s always a great day when we hear from our old friend in Paris, British journalist Jonny Jacobsen. He thought we’d all want to hear about a recent discovery he made there as a []

Scientology sells spirituality, but delivers crushing debt: A case study

[So you want to go OT?]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Patty Moher is a great addition to our Group Therapy podcast, and we’ve dived into her history as a Scientology spy. But she also was lured into the church’s []

Scientology opens shrine to L. Ron Hubbard in country he wanted to take over

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Scientology completed its triple-play of grand openings it planned this year for new holy shrines to its god, er, founder L. Ron Hubbard. This time a house in a country (which no longer exists) []

Scientology grifters defy court and find themselves in a lot more trouble

[Pains in the neck: Peyroux, left, and Detelich]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: One thing we have learned is that there are two words you never want to see one after the other: ‘Scientologist’ and ‘chiropractor.’ Now, two Scientology chiro []

Independence Day 2025: Tell us about your fight for freedom from Scientology

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: As usual, we mark Independence Day here at the Underground Bunker by asking readers to tell us about their own declarations of freedom from Scientology indoctrination. What led you to dissolve the political bands []

The David Miscavige deposition, in all of its surprising (and infuriating) detail

[Bent Corydon and David Miscavige]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Although Scientology expends enormous effort to keep leader David Miscavige out of court, he did have to sit for depositions at least twice in 1990s lawsuits. We obtained a full []

Really understanding Scientology requires a descent into the very strange

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: We asked former Scientology Sea Org member Chris Shelton what he’s been looking into recently, and wow, did he have a fascinating and really weird response. Even after all that Chris has written and []