Earlier this year I woke up to the fact that our Church management has over time departed wildly from LRH policy and HCOB’s and that the entire spirit and survival of the movement is under threat
Ariel and I believe that the Church of Scientology has become a totalitarian activity dominated by RTC, where parishioners ignore policies like Safeguarding Technology and Keeping Scientology Working in the interest of avoiding trouble. There is no freedom within the Church to discuss whether or not a particular program adheres to policy. Current programs have serious flaws and will not take the Church where we want it to go.
Unquestioning acceptance and money are now the priorities in Scientology and we don’t like it.
It’s obvious that management feel free to alter successful LRH programs and come up with travesties like GAT. It feels like fingernails on a blackboard when my friends cheerfully say “Yes, but GAT 2 is going to fix that.” They are right back where I was for most of the last 35 years. I had an excuse for everything.
I have never thought it necessary to say this before. But I require my Church to be motivated by the Aims of Scientology and to adhere to LRH policy and tech. That has always been the condition of my support.
In view of the major departures we are witnessing, and the antipathy towards doing anything about it, I and my wife Ariel have decided to withdraw our support and resign from the Church.
What Now?
Although we no longer support the Church of Scientology, my wife and I are Scientologists and wish to continue practising our religion. However we know that the Church will now call us “squirrels” and say we are not allowed to practise Scientology without their permission.
In the past, I have been completely taken in by the Church appearing to strongly support Human Rights. Now I know it was just a public relations sham. In fact, there is no freedom of religion in Scientology. It’s completely authoritarian.
I would rather let bygones be bygones and leave the Church to its own devices. Live and let live.
But we all know that the Church routinely uses legal action, infiltration and public attacks to insist dissenting Scientologists either give up practising their religion or forge an alliance with Scientology critics. For Ariel and I, it’s a choice we should not be forced to make.
Ron always said that wisdom was for anyone who reached for it and that there should be no monopoly on the subject. This is just one more point where the current Church management disagrees with Ron.
To Church management we have only one thing left to say. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
When someone recommended Tom Martiniano’s (#119 on the Indie 500 list) book Vietnam – The Teenage Wasteland: A Hippie In A War Zone, I wasn’t real anxious to read it. I felt like I had had my share of woe-be-me remembrances of a pointless and desctructive conflict that I was fortunate enough by virtue of my age to have avoided. But, once I started reading, it was difficult to put it down.
Tom writes the book in speaking English. It is familiar, it is real, and it puts you right into his head as he’s being showered by AK-47 bullets, shooting dozens of combatants who are attempting to kill him, doing involuntary backflips in reaction to bomb strikes, and starving for three days while helping to lead a small, battered platoon out of a valley encircled by thousands of North Vietnamese troops closing in from all sides. Tom paints with his words a multi-dimensional moving picture of the action that in my view is far more authentic than any movie I have seen on Vietnam, drama or documentary.
This is anything but a pro-war memoir or patriotic plug. Nor is it an apologia for having had to kill fellow human beings or an anti-war rant. Tom was not in Vietnam by choice, he was drafted. Tom has viewpoints – and they are fascinating and shared – but he does not let them get in the way of putting you through what he – and presumably thousands like him – experienced. He took no satisifaction in killing others. But he had enough sense and will to survive to become better at killing than those who were there to kill him. You cannot help but feel the compassion that drove him to defend himself and his fellows who were similarly thrown into the purposeless killing fields. In the end, Vietnam – The Teenage Wasteland is an incredible commentary on human nature and character.
Some of the more troubling passages recount Tom’s return to the States where he is met with ridicule, harassment, discrimination and hate. Notwithstanding that treatment, Tom doesn’t turn the reader off – like many before him have – with self-pride, self-loathing, demands for pity or acknowledgment. Though he does not preach it, he does mention that Scientology might have had something to do with the balance and equillibrium he ultimately found.
But the book is not about Scientology. It is about an extraordinary man giving a factual account of one of the sorriest chapters in United States history. He doesn’t argue for that description, he demonstrates it for the reader.
By the end of the book I felt like smelting my own medal of valor and personally pinning it to this man’s uniform. In my book Tom Martiniano deserves a hundred hero’s welcomes. This is mine to him.
Der Spiegel magazine in Germany has published a feature article on the mysterious and heartbreaking case of Alexander Jentzsch: Der Spiegel. See the German to English translation at the end of this post.*
Karen De La Carriere and I – along with appropriate law enforcement agencies – are actively investigating the death of Alexander. There are too many unanswered questions to let this matter rest. Scientology Inc. has gone into full-scale cover-up mode in hiding the circumstances of Alexander’s untimely death. It has taken the following extraordinary measures to keep the truth hidden:
a) “OT VIII” Stan Gerson is a numbered OSA agent. He is listed in the OSA spies list maintained by OSA and published on this blog, Scientology spy network exposed. On that list, under ‘production data’ Stan is listed as ‘spokesperson at events .’ He is also listed as “trusted” by OSA. Gerson was directed by OSA Int to send out a creepy Public Relations email broadly about Alexander’s funeral event at Scientology Inc’s celebrity center. The event and email were a thinly veiled ‘proof of life’ photo op for the imprisoned president of church of Scientology International (and father of Alexander) Heber Jentzsch. The email also attempted to cover-up the plethora of questionable circumstances surrounding Alexander’s untimely death. The funeral event itself was an attempted P.R. handling after Karen publicized that Scientology Inc promised her that no such event would occur.
b) The LA County Coroner has been obstructed in his investigation by Scientology Inc arranging for the representation of the man, Jeffery Thomas Evans, in whose home Alexander’s dead body was found deceased. The lawyer Scientology assigned to Evans was the same lawyer who was retained to prosecute and silence Scientology Inc escapee Daniel Montalvo. See this video tape where private eyes, surveilling and attempting to intimidate Daniel, tell the identity of the lawyer that retained them, Vicki Podberesky:
Podberesky is now serving as a cover-up buffer between the Coroner and Scientology Inc witnesses (and persons of interest in the investigation) to the death of Alexander.
c) Scientology Inc. has brought their ace of dirty tricks out of mothballs to flank the cover up. Dave Lubow who coordinated and laundered money for the 199-day overt harassment operation against me and my wife last year has not been seen or heard from for ten months since being run out of Ingleside on the Bay on a rail. But Lubow has suddenly re-appeared on the scene attempting to intimidate investigators of Alexander’s death with creep-out ops.
Dave Lubow
The reason for this announcement here and now is to alert those fence sitters, under the radar folk, and others who might have information about Alexander’s final months that you can reach either me or Karen and have your identity protected and any chances of Scientology Inc. retaliation obliterated.
A gifted young man has been killed and Scientology Inc. is dead set on covering it up. If you have any information about Alexander over the past year you may possess a critical link to solving this crime.
You must examine your conscience before deciding to remain silent.
Alexander Jentzsch died at the age of 27 years, his last name is well known to people close to Scientology around the world.: His Father is the international spokesperson for the Scientology Organization, the mother a well know dissident of the church. The cult controlled Alexander’s life, the circumstances of his death are mysterious.
Karen de La Carriere at first did not realize what she was reading when she was casual going through her Facebook messages: “Do you know Alexander Jentzsch is dead?”
De La Carriere told us, at first she thought there was a confusion with the name. But this was not about her 75 year old former husband Heber Jentzsch, it was indeed Alexander, her son.
He became 27 years old and died in the beginning of July 2012. His death has a number: 2012-04365. This is the case number of the authorities in Los Angeles. There were no signs of physical violence, no indications for a suicide, so the coroner. A toxicology report is expected to provide more information about the cause of death.
The name Jentzsch is well known to people close to Scientology around the world. Since 1982 is Alexander’s father the international spokesperson of the Scientology organization. He was the public face of Scientology up to the early 90’s. His mother was personally recruited and trained by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard .
“He begged me to sign”
Scientology believes they already know what caused Alexander’s death. In an email broadcast a long term Church Scientologist and godfather of Alexander announced Alexander died from adverse reactions to prescription medications he was taking because of chronic back pain after a traffic accident. A surprising announcement, given the fact that medications are frowned upon in Scientology.
Alexander Jentzsch was a handsome boy with dark eyes. He was seen at galas events at the side of celebrities like John Travolta and Chick Chorea.
But his life was not glamorous at all. The family unit starts to disintegrate when Alexander was 3 years old. Karen falls into disgrace with Scientology leader David Miscavige, when she speaks her mind. So David Miscavige orders the separation of Karen and Heber. The divorce follows in 1988. Alexander lives from now on with his mother, the father is ordered to pay $280 monthly alimony for his son. “In Reality Heber never paid a dime. How could he, with an income of 12 dollar per week?” says de la Carriere.
She fights to get herself and her son through. Although the parents have shared custody, Alexander almost never sees his father, as Heber represents Scientology around the globe. Alexander suffered his whole life from the separation of his father.
At the age of 8 Alexander is recruited into the Sea Org., the lite organization of Scientology. The lure must have been irresistible for the young boy. “They told him he would be able to spend plenty of time with his father.”, remembers de la Carriere. “He begged me to sign”. Alexander goes to a boarding school outside of Los Angeles.
“Any information is controlled”
3 Years later Alexander is transferred to the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater Florida the spiritual mecca of the cult. Scientologists from all over the world come to this place to participate in expensive courses. The boy has to clean toilets and scrub the floors among other things up to 12 hours a day, so says his mother. An education? None.
Soon something happens that will burden Alexander for the rest of his life and is only years later to become known.
A 40 year old female Scientologists and coworker rapes Alexander when he is 12 years old. Not once but repeatedly is Alexander raped. When Scientology internally became aware of the situation, there was a quick response. Within 24 hours Alexander is shipped to the West Coast, to prevent authorities in Florida to get access to the boy.
During grueling hour long interrogations the message is driven home to the boy: He is never to speak about this. Only 14 years later de la Carrier learns about the rape of her son. Church dropouts who were involved in the cover-up, tell her what happened to Alexander. “I remember the moment I picked up Alexander from the airport and his inability to look me in the eyes”, says Karen. “I do not dare to imagine what they have done to him.”
The department of Scientology handling such situations is called “Office of Special Affairs” or OSA. Their primary goal is to prevent any possible damage for Scientology. The official task of OSA is public relations and legal affairs, but in reality it is kind of a private secret service.
Deported to Prison Camp
Mike Rinder knows the family Jentzsch. He worked closely with Heber Jentzsch, since Alexander was a toddler. He experienced how the President of the Church of Scientology increasingly fell out of favor with David Miscavige. “David Miscavige beat and humiliated Heber”, says Rinder. “DM could not stand the fact Heber was widely well liked and respected.” Miscavige gave less and less tasks to heber and at one point Heber was gone completely. He was transferred to the international headquarter 2 hours drive east of Los Angeles. “There he got locked up in the hole”, reports the former OSA boss.
“The hole”. 2 small office buildings retrofitted to function as a prison camp specifically for Scientology executives. This is where Heber Jentzsch lives since 2006 based on the description of Rinder under pitiful conditions. Heber Jentzsch had no free access to his son Alexander. Mike Rinder knows what he is talking about. He saw the aging President of the Church, when he himself was locked up in the hole.
Scientology objected to Rinders descriptions: Jentzsch lives and works in the church facilities. “Due to his age he rarely is seen in public compared to the past”, a church lawyer wrote in a note to SPIEGEL ONLINE. Heber was “proud at 50 years continuous service and so are we.” Incidentally Scientology does not want to make any further statements about the Jentzsch family or Alexander’s death.
Alexander was isolated in his last two years of life, not only from his father but also from his mother. She left the church in 2010 and is since then a member of the “Independent Scientologists” movement. This community still believes in Hubbard’s teachings and practiced his methods.
When de la Carriere became too critical of the organization, they declared her an enemy of Scientology. Henceforth, no Scientologist may be in contact with her, not even her own son. “Alexander called me and said that I should not call him anymore and do not send e-mails.”
Disconnection til death
In 2010 Alexander Jentzsch and his wife Andrea leave the Sea Org, but remain members of the church. Andrea is expecting a child and those are not wanted in the elite organization. The couple tries to build a new life in Texas but experience several setbacks. Andrea loses the child and Alexander gets fired from his job. They are drifting apart; “Just before his death, he changed his status on Facebook.” His mother remembers.
Alexander returns to the west coast, alone and penniless. He can’t ask his mother, by now a successful art dealer, for help. He stays with his in-laws, which live in the northern part of Los Angeles. They tell the police later, that he went to bed in the morning of July 2nd. He wasn’t feeling well and was complaining about a fever. In the evening he is still lying there the same way. Nobody calls a doctor. The next morning there is an emergency call to 911. Alexander is dead.
A couple of days later, somebody slips some pictures to the grieving mother, taken two weeks before his death. Alexander is laughing into the camera. “It looked like he was doing fine,” Karen says in despair. Why did the young man die?
Ed Winter, speaker of the Coroner’s office in Los Angeles, says that they found prescription drugs close to the body. And: “We have evidence that he was already dead for a while before the emergency call was made in the morning of July 3rd.” Die investigation continues, Alexander’s death remains a mystery.
On July 10th, there is a yacht going out to sea in Los Angeles. The sky is bright blue, the ocean quiet. There is a heat wave, the first of the summer. The thermometer is climbing up to 100 degrees. On board of the ship is the urn with Alexander’s ashes. When his remains are set free, there is no memorial.
Karen de la Carriere is organizing one three days later. She wasn’t allowed to bury her own son. “Scientology has intervened in the matter and enforced our separation even after Alexander’s death,” Karen tells. Even one last look at his body was denied by her daughter in law.
In particular see this statement by David Miscavige church of Scientology Inc. spokesperson Karin Pouw:
The Headleys asked the church to allow them to pay the fee in four monthly installments, but the church said no, they said. The church received no such proposal, Pouw said.
Now, please compare that to a letter the same Karin Pouw sent on church of Scientology Inc. letterhead to Vanity Fair a few days earlier, and particularly this passage here:
Mr. Headley claimed he was incapable of paying the court-ordered costs to the Church. Within days of losing his case, Mr. Headley’s attorney represented that his client could only pay $1,000 in total. Then he offered $1,000 a month for 30 months, reflecting Mr. Headley’s lack of funds.
Miscavige, did Marc make an installment proposal?
Or, Dave, didn’t he make an installment proposal?
As the late great Earle Cooley would say, how do you want to leave it?
As reported last month, the Marc and Claire Headley vs. Scientology Inc lawsuit dismissal was upheld on appeal, see Headley Case Dissmissal Upheld. The case however is not over.
While using the litigation process to make things as painful financially for the Headley’s as possible, Scientology Inc lawyers very carefully racked up a ‘costs bill’ designed to ruin the Headleys. A cost bill lists those costs associated with litigation (filing fees, deposition and hearing transcript orders, etc.) that a prevailing party may collect from the defeated party at the end of the case.
What some people do not know is that when the case was dismissed by the lower court in 2010, and while the Headleys were preparing their appeal, Scientology Inc took the unusual course of aggressively pursuing collection of their $40,000 plus cost bill from the Headleys. The Headleys had to prepare and argue more costly motions to stay collection pending appeal. The lower court denied their motion, but the court of appeal granted it – putting collection of costs on hold pending the appeal.
Now that the appeal has run its course, and Scientology Inc has prevailed, they have added costs associated with the appeal to their bill and threatened the Headleys with aggressive collection tactics should they not cough up $43,000 pronto.
If the Headleys did not pay within a reasonable time, Scientology Inc promised it would put liens on their property, perhaps even repossess their vehicles. With two small children, and a third one on the way, the church promised no quarter would be given.
When Marc asked for a grace period or a payment plan, he was sent the following proposal:
When Marc told me about this I suggested that based on other recent Miscavige pay outs for information on me – including one in the high six figures – Marc should take the deal, but ask for six or seven figures himself. Marc, being the man he is, would hear nothing of it. He told Miscavige to take his offer and shove it.
Marc went out and sold anything of value he owned that wasn’t absolutely esssential for the surival of his family. He scraped and I bet, though he’s not the kind of guy to ever admit it, borrowed enough to pay the cult on the barrelhead.
Though Marc clearly doesn’t see eye to eye with me on Scientology technology, there are bonds of brotherhood between former members of the cult that are a heck of a lot thicker than money. When Marc made it clear he was going to get the money to pay the bill come hell or high water, I told him I was going to recommend to the contributors to the Indie Defense Fund that we forward the balance in the fund to him to defray the hardship.
Marc was the first to expose the house of horrors that David Miscavige created, the hole at Scientology Inc headquarters outside Hemet, California. Many have validated me for having courage to stand and speak out about those same abuses. However, my decision was relatively easy compared to Marc’s and Claire’s. They preceeded me (with very little knowledge of Scientology Inc critic destruction techniques) and in fact their actions in doing so tweeked my conscience to speak out in the first place. Marc and Claire have also given their continuing support in many ways to refugees from Scientology Inc at every level.
I think Marc and Claire are worthy of and are entitled to our support.
There is an $8,500.00 balance in the Indie Defense Fund. Virtually all of it was donated for the purpose of handling Scientology Inc.’s lawsuit against Debbie Cook. In keeping with my policy on donated funds, I will give people whose money remains in the fund an opportunity to participate in decisions as to how it is expended. It is my intention to provide Marc and Claire with the $8,500 dollars remaining to help handle the hardship caused by raising the funds necessary to pay the costs bill from the litigation. If anyone who did not already receive a refund from the Debbie Cook case litigation – whose funds therefore are still in the Indies Defense Fund – does not agree with this intended disposition of the remaining funds, please write to me at casablancatx@hushmail.com. Tell Mosey how much you donated, when, and where to return the funds to. Otherwise, my intention is to write a check for $8,500 to Marc and Claire. The check will be written and sent on Monday 17 September. So, if you have an objection write to us no later than Sunday 16 September.
For those who want to contribute more directly to the Headleys, click here.
David Miscavige’s personal counsel has promised Vanity Fair:
The sting of the jury verdict will last longer still; far longer than any pleasure from racing to publish a poorly researched and sourced story.
Dave Miscavige, if you follow through on your threat, I will grant you power of forgiveness. Don’t bother retaining a process server to deliver my deposition subpoena. Save the parishioner donations, and send it FED EX cash-on-delivery. My treat.
All joking aside, the final meltdown has become divine comedy.
The ‘church’ of Scientology has proudly posted their serial threat letters to Vanity Fair on their own website. Miscavige is so out of touch he thinks people will think better of him for it…apparently.
A cursory read of the letters – a thorough read is impossible for someone with important work to do – demonstrates to me one thing and one thing alone. That is, the words of one-time popular guru gone bad da Free John, describing why he left Scientology after completing its highest level of spiritual attainment, were prophesy. He said he had to leave because the church of scientology’s:
MENTALITY OF POWER AND PARANOID, COSMIC POLITICS.
Check them out yourselves. No other seven words can possibly describe the mentality behind them:
The Tony Ortega Village Voice summary, including Claire Headley and Tom Devocht on Miscavige joking about the confessionals of Lisa Marie Presley, Kirstie Alley, and Tom Cruise. Also includes Mike Rinder’s potential quote of the year: Village Voice.
Mat Lauer of the NBC Today show went full frontal on behalf of Tom Cruise trying to put a crack in Maureen Orth’s Vanity Fair story on Nazanin Boniadi. As you can see, Maureen just decimated Cruise and Miscavige’s best shot at covering up the truth Orth reported.
Pick up your copy of the October edition of Vanity Fair tomorrow in New York and Los Angeles; and as soon as available elsewhere. You are liable to learn how storied super agent Kevin Huvane from the all-powerful Creative Artists Agency (CAA) was coopted by Tom Cruise to do the not-so-above-boards bidding of his bff and Scientology Inc. supreme leader David Miscavige. That is right, Hollywood’s biggest power brokers stifled Scientology Inc. criticism and facts of unlawful Scientology Inc. behavior from airing on at least one of the big three networks in America. In the unlikely event CAA was simply too powerful and rough for VF to handle, stay tuned here because we will run with it if they do not.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 