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St. Petersburg Times - Special Report on Scientology

ABOUT THIS SPECIAL REPORT ON SCIENTOLOGY: Mark C. “Marty” Rathbun left the Church of Scientology staff in late 2004, ending a 27-year career that saw him rise to be a top lieutenant to Miscavige in the organization. For the past four years, he has lived a low-profile life in Texas. Some speculated he had died.

In February, Rathbun posted an Internet message announcing he was available to counsel other disaffected Scientologists.

“Having dug myself out of the dark pit where many who leave the church land,” he wrote, “I began lending a hand to others similarly situated.”

Contacted by the St. Petersburg Times, Rathbun agreed to tell the story of his years in Scientology and what led to his leaving. The Times interviewed him at his home in Texas, and he came to Clearwater to revisit some of the scenes he described.

…

The reporters interviewed the four defectors multiple times, and met with church spokesmen and lawyers for 25 hours.

Joe Childs, Managing Editor/Tampa Bay, ran the Times Clearwater operation dating to 1993 and supervised the newspaper’s Scientology coverage. He can be reached at childs@sptimes.com

Thomas C. Tobin has covered the Church of Scientology off and on for 20 years. He can be reached at tobin@sptimes.com

The result of the Times’ reporting is this multi-part special report, the latest in a long history of Scientology coverage by the Times. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize for a 1979 report on Scientology. And in the years since, with the church’s Clearwater headquarters in the Times’ prime coverage area, the in-depth reporting has continued. This project, as you will see, features the three days of in-depth reports from the St. Petersburg Times, as well as additional content for this Web presentation. Those additional pieces include video; a photo gallery; and links to previous coverage in the Times, including the Pulitzer-winning coverage.

This is the sort of investigative journalism we must support and protect. This report is available for purchase in electronic form; click through for the “free sample” of the electronic edition.

Part Three of this superb report was expanded recently, including new video interviews.

The video interviews with four Scientology defectors are very informative. Rathbun corroborates the other three authoritatively, because he was in charge of internal Scientology surveillance and intelligence, taking orders directly from and reporting to David Miscavige.

Once the No. 2 church officer in Clearwater, Don Jason ran and wound up in a locked cabin aboard the church cruise ship, the Freewinds.

Rathbun tells the other side of Don Jason’s story - the response to Jason’s escape.

For years, the Church of Scientology chased down and brought back staff members who tried to leave.

Ex-staffers describe being pursued by their church and detained, cut off from family and friends and subjected to months of interrogation, humiliation and manual labor.

Jackie Wolff - Joined Scientology: at age 25, in 1980; joined Sea Org in 1982. Age: 54
Left Sea Org: 2004

Career highlights: Personal steward to Miscavige and his wife, personnel director, supervisor of E-meter assembly line.

Now: Single, marketing director for California construction and grading company.
“We didn’t want them to find us. We wanted to just kind of disappear into the woodwork.”

Rathbun on how to hande a “blow drill” - a codified series of steps to get someone “back to the base”

Mark Fisher on being attacked by Miscavige - “the last straw”

Here is my complete set of videos tagged “Scientology”

Betsy Perkins: “I just want to get on with my life” after Scientology

 

Sixteen years later, Betsy Perkins is sobbing as she talks about the day she ran away from Scientology.

 

“I thought I was handing in my ticket to eternity,” she says.

Now 56, a graphic artist in Dallas, she says she is going public to offer her own “first-hand account of what happened to a person who was in there.”

She spent 17 years in Scientology’s work force, the Sea Org, moved by the church’s mantra that Scientologists held the future of the planet in their hands…

 

Click through for the latest internal Scientology document leaked: “Treason”

From the Times archives: More on Scientology, David Miscavige and Lisa McPherson

St Petersburg Times: Scientology Special Report (Sample)