One of the funniest episodes ever.
Posted on 07/19/2008 6:20:36 AM PDT by paltz
Six years ago, when I was a reporter at New Times LA, I’d written several stories about Scientology (Los Angeles is one of its headquarters), and I was about to uncork the longest one yet—a 7,000 word piece about an embarrassing, $8 million defeat Scientology had just suffered, when the weekly paper suddenly folded.
That unpublished story has been sitting in storage ever since. Fast forward to 2008, and the world of reporting on Scientology has changed radically, thanks in part to the lunacy of Tom Cruise, but also in part to a worldwide, leaderless movement that calls itself Anonymous. Ravenous for any information about L. Ron Hubbard’s strange organization, Anonymous scours the world for the least tidbit about Scientology.
Well, here was a pretty meaty morsel just sitting in my hard drive. It’s still a substantial bit of reporting, and it fills in some gaps in the historical record of one of the most humiliating court losses Scientology has ever suffered.
Originally scheduled to be printed in October 2002, the piece follows. (It’s unchanged except for updates in [brackets].) This material may come as a revelation to some readers, but even for the know-it-alls at Anonymous, there are juicy bites.—Tony Ortega
(Prepared for publication in October, 2002)
by Tony Ortega
Even before it started, the 1986 trial of Lawrence Wollersheim v. the Church of Scientology of California caused a mob scene at L.A.’s downtown superior court.
When a judge decided during pretrial motions that documents describing confidential Scientology beliefs should be put in a file open to the public, 1,500 Scientologists swamped the court clerk’s office to keep anyone else from requesting them. The next day, the judge resealed those records. But an L.A. Times reporter managed to get past the crush of Scientologists and copy the file. Newspapers around the country had a field day with what the Times reported: the documents showed that high-level Scientologists are taught that each human contains the souls of alien creatures banished to Earth 75 million years ago by a galactic overlord named Xenu.
Scientology’s process of “dianetics,” developed by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard over a period beginning in the late 1940s, was supposed to rid the body of those alien creatures. But Lawrence Wollersheim, who had defected from Scientology after serving 11 years and making about $50,000 in payments, claimed that the organization’s pricey rituals instead had made him insane and drove him to the brink of suicide. He filed suit in 1980, and six years later his trial was a sensation. Still the most expensive civil trial in L.A. court history, [This was true even in 2002, post-Simpson—T.O.] it made headlines almost daily in the spring and summer of 1986 as Scientologists jammed the courtroom and protested outside of it, complaining that their religious freedoms were being trampled on. For many in the public, reports of the trial gave them their first detailed description of Scientology, which today counts such celebrities as John Travolta and Tom Cruise among its members. Travolta himself made a visit to the trial that May which was widely reported.
In the lawsuit, Wollersheim claimed that after he left Scientology in 1979 the organization retaliated by destroying his business and attempting to destroy him. In five months of testimony, Wollersheim, his psychologist, and former Scientologists described the coercion he was subjected to, sacrifices he was expected to make, and bizarre teachings he was fed, which made Hubbard’s outfit sound more like a mind control cabal out of The Manchurian Candidate than the mainstream faith it claimed to be. Scientology’s attorneys countered that Wollersheim had come to the organization with a preexisting mental condition and was a drug user. Wollersheim was seeking $25 million in damages.
The jury awarded him $30 million.
It was a stunning blow to Scientology, but probably the most lasting impression that many took from the trial was the reaction of Scientologists themselves, who continued to protest at the courthouse day after day for more than a month after the verdict. Staging their demonstrations from a tent city set up across the street, the members wore pins made from ten cent coins and chanted over and over: “Not one thin dime for Wollersheim!”
It was a vow that Scientology kept for 16 years.
they have a movie studio where they produce all of their propaganda
over north of hemet and san jacinto, north of the indian res that had the gun shootout with the sheriffs.
it’s hidden in a cluster of trees along the river bed on a 2-lane road.
Is this the old farm that Charles Manson and his gang lived on?
i have no idea; it’s before my move to california.
it’s not a farm.
it looks like a mansion, but much is hidden from the road.
never see anyone coming or going.
the los angeles times within the last 5 years or so had a story on it.
the story was about how scientology uses the property to make movies and tom cruise goes there.
that’s how i found out that scientology owned the property. i had driven by and wondered what it was.
Might be worth remembering that the Clinton administration surrendered the fight against recognizing Scientology as a legitimate tax free religion; that after Travolta’s meeting with Clinton the US stepped up pressure on Germany to recognize Scientology and the movie “Primary Colors” changed the story from that of a child molesting southern governor and his lesbian wife to two lovable rogues; that Richard Armitage’s last appointment before seeing Robert Novak and spilling the beans on Plame was with Scientology reps; and that Congressman Foley hid out from the Page Scandal in a rehab center in the Florida town controlled by Scientology.
There is a lot more to the Scientology story that hasn’t been yet written.
Ping to read the full article later
thanks!
if i remember the los angeles times article correctly,
i think it said they took tom cruise over and back in a helicopter.
Can you/could you Google Earth it for us? Pretty please? :)
Or one could watch the movie “Bowfinger”.
Clarifications:
The building mentioned is “Gold Base”.. it is their major RPF (”Rehabilitation” Project Force) camp in the U.S.
It’s purpose, besides propaganda and a hideout for little Davey, their leader, is to house “suppressive” members(critics, people thinking of “blowing” or merely those they want to milk for labor) and make them to work against their will to “KSW” (keep scientology working). Those members are housed inside “SP Hall”.
During our campaign, it has been flooded with cards to people locked inside. Those cards contained a phone number that will give you help to leave (included legal advice and Underground Railroad style safehouses until said legal protections have arrived) — 1-866-EXSE-AORG, if I remember right.
- a member of Anonymous
Actually, it wasn’t Clintons administration, it was during Bush Sr.; it was in 1993 after documented legal strong arm tactics.. a couple thousand suing the IRS for “religous” discrimination and such to secret meetings until a deal was arrived that gave them greater tax exmpt status then any actual religon.
this is an interesting article.
i’ve scanned through a large part of it and found this, that i didn’t know:
“The IRS found that Scientology was more than they could handle,” Streckfus says. “We think of the IRS as so powerful, but by 1991, the commissioner of the time, Fred Goldberg, decided that the case was tying up the IRS. Scientology seemed to have limitless money, so I think Goldberg decided he wanted to get rid of the case and to hell with it. He directed his people to get the best deal that they could.”
Yep. It givesitself away by the 4 masted sailing ship on the hillside, some 70miles from the ocean at the base of the San Jacinto Mtns. There’s a public golf course just on the other side of the road from it, which turns out i think to be one of their possessions.
ok.
looks like i have to download the free version first?
be a minute, i’ve got to take a ted kennedy.
ping fer later
ok.
you obviously know a lot about this.
thanks.
why don’t you google earth it for
#10?
i’ve never google-earthed before,
and i’ve got to run an errand . i’ll be back.
I seem to recall that Hubbard stated that he could create a religion and get all the tax perks available. Also, I read that his son committed suicide.
Oh, don’t worry about it if it’s any effort. Seriously. It’s Saturday! Relax.
Read the Tom Cruise bio by the English guy. If only 1/2 of that is true, Scientology has DEEP tongs into many in Hollywood. (In fairness, I have a friend who is a producer at Fox, and who not a Scientologist, who says that much of that book is hype, and that Scientology isn’t quite as omnipresent as the book makes it sound).
One of the funniest episodes ever.
Not as evil as MindHead!
No, the Spahn ranch is completely separate and is non-operational as a studio.
That said, there is evidence that Manson was exposed to Scientology. Of course his criminal record indicates he was pretty messed up long before he ever heard about Hubbard.
This Xenu/volcano spirits/Dianetics stuff was well documented in William Poundstone’s book, “Bigger Secrets”
http://www.amazon.com/Bigger-Secrets-Things-Prayed-Never/dp/0395530083/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product
His son wrote a good book highly critical of his father and scientology.If your interested,I believe the title is”LRon Hubbard-Madman or Messiah?”.
Bump for later.
The psychiatrist with who I studied, who had a fairly sizeable group of his own was once asked, “What constitutes a cult?” His response was that in a group that is NOT a cult, when someone wants to leave they are welcome to do so, and if they want to return later they are welcomed back without any recrimination.
It amazes me that people/Scientologists who proclaim the importance of being CLEAR could have such a rigid and dogmatic leadership. Something is clearly not working, although they do have some useful and valuable methodologies, which is why people get sucked in so successfully.
Bookmarked.
coming from the north intersection of the four-lane 79 intersection of sanderson and gilman springs road.
go south on the two-lane gilman springs road,
along the base of the mountains.
it’s along the yellow green unmarked patch of color.
the road curves because of the river and trees.
it’s before the state street intersection and soboda springs.
i downloaded the software.
that’s fun.
it’s at 33 degrees 50’ 02.03” N 116 degrees 59’ 20.45” west
there’s a series of blue-roofed buildings on either side of the road.
There has been a mysterious death there, and they persuaded the County of Riverside to reroute Hwy 74 so that it does not border the property.
A number of years ago, they were under investigation for building most of the structures onsite without permits, and there was a lot of unpermitted activtes taking place in site.
Typical of Scientologists, they think all that stuff is just for the little guys.
L. Ron Hubbard was a weird guy, connected with Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons of Jet Propulsion Lab, and both were deeply into the occult in ways that were disturbing.
Oh absolutely.
Clinton's Executive Order, deeming Scientology a religion for tax purposes was one of his first acts. One of Madeline Albright's first ventures as Secretary of State was to pressure Germany to back off from its ban of Scientology.
Anonymous are my heroes
Yes, I was going to post this.. I also recall reading articles from the 1950's where this man made a bet that he could start up a religion that would be as popular as Christianity... Something to that effect.
He never took it as more than a bet..
Charles Manson was in Death Valley. This is closer to Riverside. The Scientology place is a complex of buildings and dorms with blue tile roofs around a golf course. I think there is a sign that reads Golden Era golf Club. It has no sign that connect it to Scientology. Personally I think L Ron Huber was one of the world greatest practical jokers.
Scientology retaliated in an extraordinary way. With Hubbard’s knowledge and direction, agents of his intelligence unit, the Guardian’s Office, began infiltrating IRS and other government offices in the mid 1970s. Dubbed Operation Snow White by Hubbard, the illegal operation netted stolen government documents by the yard, and went undiscovered until a 1977 raid of Scientology offices by the FBI. Eleven Scientologists, including Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue, were sentenced to prison. Hubbard himself was named an unindicted co-conspirator.
Scientology subsequently disbanded the Guardian’s Office, claiming that it was a rogue outfit. But its war with the IRS did not stop.
Even after Hubbard’s death in 1986, the IRS continued to deny the organization tax-exempt status, and Scientology fought back by siccing personal investigators on individual IRS employees and filing more than 2,000 separate lawsuits against the agency.
Despite the harassment, however, the IRS continued to win victories against Scientology in court. In 1992, A United States Claims Court upheld the IRS denial, citing “the commercial character of much of Scientology” and its “scripturally based hostility to taxation.” Tax exempt organizations, the claims court wrote, “simply do not exhibit the financial complexity or the phenomenal preoccupation with money displayed by Scientology’s management churches and organizers.”
By then, however, the IRS had already, secretly, caved. In 1991, under the first George Bush presidency, the IRS had reversed itself and began a process that wasn’t made public until 1993, under the Clinton administration, when the IRS revealed that it was giving nearly every Scientology entity the tax exempt status it coveted.
It was a stunning turnaround and one that, [more than] a decade later, still has tax experts shaking their heads.
Former IRS exempt organizations specialist and tax journalist Paul Streckfus says that the IRS simply cracked from the pressure Scientology had been applying for so many years.
“The IRS found that Scientology was more than they could handle,” Streckfus says. “We think of the IRS as so powerful, but by 1991, the commissioner of the time, Fred Goldberg, decided that the case was tying up the IRS. Scientology seemed to have limitless money, so I think Goldberg decided he wanted to get rid of the case and to hell with it. He directed his people to get the best deal that they could.”
Unbelievable.
“To them, it was a pittance,” Streckfus says.
Goldberg has refused to discuss the matter since he left the IRS. A New York Times analysis of the affair estimated that Scientology saved tens of millions of dollars in taxes.
“The war is OVER!” Miscavige said in his Los Angeles speech, and at one point referred to a “billion dollar tax bill” that Scientology would not have to pay.
“It’s a sad commentary,” says Streckfus about the IRS cave-in. “You or I would have been sent up the river. But if you have enough resources, you can beat off the IRS.”
The IRS no longer describes Scientology as a money-making dictatorship headed by one man, but a religion which contains many separate, legally distinct entities, each with its own board of directors and corporate officers.
For tax reasons, in other words, it is important for Scientology that David Miscavige, Hubbard’s successor, describe himself merely as the chairman of the board of one particular entity, RTC, and not, as Wollersheim labels him, the iron-fisted ruler of a vast empire mixing tax and non-tax exempt purposes.
“They caved because we had the goods on these guys in direct contravention to their tax exempt status. Miscavige has been running the church since 1986,” says Wollersheim attorney Dan Leipold. And it was one declaration in particular, penned by a dying man, that Leipold believes scared Scientology the most.
Looks like the Scientology beat the IRS at the game the IRS invented.
Here you go. Thanks for digging this up.
there you are.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_T._Goldberg,_Jr.
Allegedly, Church officials, including David Miscavige, paid private investigators to acquire some unspecified compromising information on Goldberg during his time as commissioner, and then strode into his office without an appointment one day to demand terms.[1][2] The meeting was not listed on Goldberg's appointment calendar, which was obtained by The New York Times through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
While details are not known, it was under Goldberg's administration that the long running IRS/Scientology legal conflict ended, though it took two years (under two other Commissioners) to work out the details. Scientology received a unique tax exemption in 1993 and the IRS has refused to release the agreement, even after a FOIA request by the NYT and when requested by the court in the Sklar case.[3] (The agreement or a draft of it was leaked to the WSJ and published late in 1997.)[4]
In early 2002, Judge Silverman, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote the following:
"If the IRS does, in fact, give preferential treatment to members of the Church of Scientology -- allowing them a special right to claim deductions that are contrary to law and rightly disallowed to everybody else -- then the proper course of action is a lawsuit to stop to that policy. The remedy is not to require the IRS to let others claim the improper deduction, too."[5]
so is this what you thought it would be?
(that’s the base of a mountain, a humongous mountain at the top of the pic, 10,800 ft—large for socal.)
Definitely. I just wanted to see a visual of it. Thanks again!
They're doing what the mob has done but much better.
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