Scientology Critical Information Directory

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Paulette Cooper

Paulette Cooper was the target of Scientology's Dead Agenting and Fair Game practices.
Paulette Cooper's web site: paulettecooper.com.
Selected excerpts below, or consult the library for more materials regarding Scientology's “Paulette Cooper.”


«Paulette Cooper. Journalist and author of The Scandal of Scientology written in 1971 who was targeted by Operation Freakout by Scientology. She was framed with making bomb threats for which she was arrested and indicted on three counts, and faced up to fifteen years in jail if convicted. She was one of the chief enemies of Scientology and was high in the damages stakes with a suit for $55 million when Flynn became her attorney.

In 1982 she participated as one of his star witnesses in the Clearwater hearings. Flynn, she now says, persuaded her that she should name Hubbard in her suit since he would not appear and therefore she would win by default or because the Church of Scientology would pay up rather than produce Hubbard. But in a reconciliation with her in 1985 the Church of Scientology announced that it had settled all cases for and against Ms Cooper and brandished an affidavit in which she says Flynn misled her into thinking Hubbard was still in charge of the Church of Scientology and had used her in a strategic campaign. — Lamont.»

[Source: "Who's Who in Scientology" by Martin Hunt]
 

Lermanet (June 2007): "Looking over my shoulder: The Inside Account of the Story That Almost Killed Me"
You may not believe this, but you can write something that someone doesn’t approve of and then—with the help of the government—be bankrupted and have a quarter of your life almost ruined. And you don’t have to live in China or Russia. It can happen right here in New York. I know because it happened to me. I haven’t previously written about this from beginning to end because it’s still painful, but here goes.

In 1968, I was a struggling New York freelance writer, searching for an investigative story that would make a difference. By choosing to expose a then relatively unknown organization called Scientology (and Scientology’s companion, Dianetics), I ended up facing fifteen years in jail, had nineteen lawsuits filed against me, did fifty days of depositions, was the almost victim of a murder, the subject of five anonymous smear letters and endured almost constant and continual harassment for more than a dozen years.

[...]

Harassment Diary: Paulette Cooper, 1982

When Joy opened the door, he unwrapped the "flowers" — which were just a few twigs on top to hide a gun.

He put the gun at her head, cocked the trigger, and the gun was either empty or misfired. He then began choking her, but she managed to break away and start screaming so he fled. The attack was reported to the police (who commented on its mysteriousness). When I heard about it later, I was almost as frightened about it as Joy was (although incredibly, Bob didn't understand why I should be upset over it.)

 
From Margery Wakefield affidavit (13 April 1990): «The second murder that I heard planned was of Paulette Cooper, who had written a book critical of Scientology, and they were planning to shoot her.  To my knowledge this murder was not carried out, but at this meeting it was planned.»
 

City of Clearwater Commission Hearing: The Church of Scientology - Day 4, Paulette Cooper

Well, about October of 1972, they started a big campaign to finally silence me or attempt to stop me. The — that month I received the second of what was ultimately to be five anonymous, absolutely disgusting smear letters about me. This particular one called me a part-time prostitute, and you can imagine how upsetting it is to open up something like that and read it.

During this same period of time, there were a large number of attempts to get into my apartment, which was on the ground floor of the building that I lived in at the time; it was not well guarded, and I was quite concerned. I received a tremendous number of really disgusting calls, and I remember one day counting eleven calls.

Remember that I work as a freelance writer. That means that if I get upsetting calls and I'm unhappy, it's very hard to just pick up and to write what you were working on. A lot of abusive calls then and over the years, just the sort of — you pick up the phone and somebody says, "Oh, what are you doing?" And they'd hang up and call back, so you have to take the phone off the hook. And if you're trying to reach somebody, they can't call you back.

Well, I finally decided that I was going to move to a higher-security apartment, even though I really could not afford to do so at the time. I moved on December 15th. On December — the person who took over the apartment was my second cousin. We bore a physical resemblance, but — basically, because we're about the same age and she was very petite and we both had short, brown hair at the time.

And a series of mysterious circumstances occurred. The important thing was that she opened up the door to someone who had flowers and rang my bell. And I was no longer living there, although, my name was still on the door. And so, Eddie Walters told you about R2-45, and you've heard the policy. When Joy opened the door to get, these flowers, he unwrapped the gun — he unwrapped the flowers and there was a gun in it. And he took the gun and he put it at Joy's temple and he cocked the gun, and we don't know whether it misfired, whether it was empty and it was a scare technique, what happened, but, somehow, the gun did not go off. And the — he started choking her, and she was able to break away and she started to scream. And the person ran away.

Affidavit of John McLean (15 May 1975)

This conversation dealt with one Paulette Cooper, the authoress of an anti-Scientology book, "The Scandal of Scientology". Mary Sue was telling Ron of the fact that Paulette Cooper would be hit from all fronts with lawsuits from Scientology. Mary Sue stated that she felt that Paulette Cooper talked and wrote too much about Scientology. Mary Sue stated that she would totally destroy her credibility and that no publisher would ever touch her again, and resultantly, she would never get another book published. It was also stated by her Scientology would sue, and keep suing Paulette, until she broke.
The Guardian (Feb. 1980): "Sect framed journalist over 'bomb threats'" by David Beresford
The seized Scientology documents show that in the course of their campaign of vilification against Ms Cooper the Scientologists:

1. Framed her on the bomb-threat charges, stealing stationery front her apartment to forge the threatening letter.

2. Sued her 14 times, at one stage themselves importing copies of her book to the UK to take advantage of Britain's notoriously tough libel laws.

3. Put her name on pornographic mailing lists.

4. Stole a legal note from her lawyer to gain an advantage in litigation.

5. Made spurious allegations to the internal revenue service about her father's tax affairs.

6. Sent agents to befriend her date her and spy on her.

7. Wrote graffiti in public places giving her telephone number and address. [...]

Bomb Threats forged by the Church of Scientology

When the first two bomb threat letters failed to produce a satisfactory result, Scientology planned a new death threat letter to Sec. of State Henry Kissinger which has become known as "Operation Freak Out".

Operation Freakout

These planning documents for "Operation Freakout" were captured by the FBI when they raided several Scientology offices in 1977, after the infiltration of the Justice Department during "Snow White" was discovered.

Copies were entered into evidence during the Clearwater Hearings, marked as "Exhibit 49" on 8 May 1982, prior to the testimony of Paulette Cooper.

The Scandal of Scientology

In addition to suing those who attack them, Scientologists have subjected their enemies to a campaign of vilification.{7} Members of Parliament who have spoken out against them have been accused by the Scientologists of bribery, corruption, and even "of following the order of a hidden foreign group that ... has as its purpose seizing any being whom they dislike or who will not agree and permanently disabling and killing them." And to support their suspicions about people who attack them, the Scientologists have hired detectives to investigate these people.

Declaration of Tonja Burden (7 November 1983)

8. Prior to February - April, 1976, when Hubbard left Clearwater, Florida, I carried numerous messages between Hubbard and others concerning Paulette Cooper. These messages concerned operations to attack and destroy Paulette Cooper.

Paulette Cooper's home page

Paulette Cooper has written 15 books, approximately 1000 articles, and has won 6 writing awards. She has co-authored a few of the books with her husband, Paul Noble. For more information about Paulette Cooper, click here.

Affidavit of Robert Dardano (1 July 1981)

11. In February - March 1975, Gary Brown, Peter Marquez, Bill Foster and I were assigned to break into the offices of Stanley Cath, M.D. in Belmont, Massachusetts, for the purpose of stealing Paulette Cooper's medical records. Foster and I waited in a nearby restaurant while Brown and Marquez went in and stole the file.

Affidavit of Vicki Aznaran (7 March 1994)

31. While involved in Scientology I became aware of various operations directed against an author who had written a negative book about Scientology. The author, Paulette Cooper, was subjected to various forms of harassment. One operation included an attempt to frame her. A false bomb threat was written on her stationery. Ms. Cooper was subjected to an investigation and was not cleared until an FBI raid resulted in the seizure of Scientology documents that exposed the operation as a frame-up. There was at least one other operation directed against Ms. Cooper. The substance of it was to plant a boyfriend to reinforce and play upon her suicidal tendencies in the hopes that she would commit suicide.

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