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O Canada! All eyes in the Scientology-watching world will be looking north next week

canadaHey, this really sneaked up on us. After a stop in Chicago on Saturday, we’re going to the great white north next week! Oh, Canada!

We just wanted to remind you that we’ll be crossing the border next week, and helping Jon Atack by participating in his swan song, a weeklong conference that should be a blockbuster.

Continue reading O Canada! All eyes in the Scientology-watching world will be looking north next week

The Scientology spy who came in from the cold: Len Zinberg, who apologized to Paulette Cooper

Len_Zinberg

One of the things that made The Unbreakable Miss Lovely more than Paulette Cooper’s account of her years being harassed by Scientology were some of the other people who provided their own narratives of those events. And none of them provided quite so much impact as Len Zinberg.

Continue reading The Scientology spy who came in from the cold: Len Zinberg, who apologized to Paulette Cooper

Good morning, New York! Paulette Cooper is dishing on Scientology in the Big Apple today

PIXpicOn Wednesday, Paulette Cooper and your proprietor sat down with local New York TV legend Marvin Scott to record a show about our book that will be running this morning on WPIX 11.

Continue reading Good morning, New York! Paulette Cooper is dishing on Scientology in the Big Apple today

Google helps Scientology billionaire Bob Duggan hide a dark family secret

Bob_Duggan_illoRecently, we told you that California pharmaceuticals entrepreneur Bob Duggan — a man currently worth $2.3 billion — had, through an agent, complained to Google about a story we wrote about him.

Duggan didn’t complain directly to us, but then he must have known that the facts in the story we wrote are rock solid. We relied on first-hand accounts, court records, and photographic evidence to show that in 2013, at the same time that Duggan and his wife, Trish, were propping up failing Scientology facilities in South Africa with large donations, two of their six adopted children suddenly showed up in that country, and were being cared for by South African Scientology families.

Continue reading Google helps Scientology billionaire Bob Duggan hide a dark family secret

Jon Atack: Scientology’s early history is something most members don’t actually know

Jon_AtackJon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. He was kind enough to send us a new post.

Jon, these previews you’re giving us, setting things up for the “Getting Clear” conference in Toronto, are really well put together. Once again, you’ve woven together several strands of Scientology history to make us think of things in a new light. Lay it on us…

Continue reading Jon Atack: Scientology’s early history is something most members don’t actually know

Augustine: How L. Ron Hubbard devised Scientology’s most diabolical legal mechanisms

HubbardSmileUnderground Bunker contributor Jeffrey Augustine continues his dynamite series excavating Scientology’s hidden structure. This week, he puts together several lines of evidence to show L. Ron Hubbard was responsible for the church’s most nefarious plots against is own members…

As a dishonest, misleading, and predatory organization, the Church of Scientology operates successfully only because it has manipulated Western legal systems and contract law in order to gain unfair advantages for itself.

Continue reading Augustine: How L. Ron Hubbard devised Scientology’s most diabolical legal mechanisms

Garcias file notice of appeal with the Eleventh Circuit, take on two more specialist attorneys

Luis_Rocio_Garcia3After Judge James Whittemore granted the Church of Scientology’s motion to compel Luis and Rocio Garcia to take their complaints to the church’s internal arbitration, we wondered — would they really go through with Scientology arbitration, or would they appeal?

The Garcias are former longtime Scientologists who filed their fraud lawsuit against Scientology in January 2013, alleging that they had been lied to, for example, about how money they donated would be used.

Continue reading Garcias file notice of appeal with the Eleventh Circuit, take on two more specialist attorneys

When the FDA interviewed L. Ron Hubbard’s first family about Scientology

HubbardDeskOver the last few months, we’ve been publishing documents that a researcher has been able to pry out of the Food and Drug Administration regarding its 1960s investigation of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.

Using the MuckRock website, researcher R.M. Seibert has tracked down some real gems for us, including the first glimpse of Hubbard’s high school grades. (They weren’t good.)

Continue reading When the FDA interviewed L. Ron Hubbard’s first family about Scientology

Westward, Ho! Hey, Bunkerites, we need your help, and fast

UnbreakableCoverHey, we need your help, Bunkerites. We had an opportunity suddenly come up, and decided to take it.

Although it’s a bit last-minute, we realized that we had an open window for travel to some of the cities we want to visit on our book tour. So we grabbed it. Here are the dates and locations:

July 17: Denver

July 20: Dallas

July 22: Houston

July 24: San Antonio

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July 25: Austin

Continue reading Westward, Ho! Hey, Bunkerites, we need your help, and fast

When Tom Cruise was one of Scientology’s biggest donors: A look back

CruiseLauerKaren de la Carriere and Jeffrey Augustine shared a fun piece of history with us, and we thought you might be interested in seeing it. It’s a page from a 2005 copy of Impact magazine, the publication Scientology uses to name and congratulate its biggest donors.

Continue reading When Tom Cruise was one of Scientology’s biggest donors: A look back