Hubbard Love

[NEON, Issue 15, March 1998]

[Spotted in a UK movie magazine.  Who's been reading ars, then?]

------------------------------

Hubbard Love
NEON, Issue 15, March 1998

When Scientologist Lisa McPherson had a minor car accident, the Church
of Scientology took her into their care. Seventeen days later she turned
up dead - starved, bruised and covered with cockroach bites.

The Church of Scientology's search for respectability has been hamstrung
by events in Florida that happened two years ago but which refuse to go
away. In November 1995, in Clearwater, Florida where the Church owns
businesses and properties - 36-year-old Scientologist Lisa McPherson
drove her Cherokee Jeep into the back of another vehicle. She then
stripped naked and wandered down the busy street looking very
disorientated. Paramedics said she wore a fixed stare and said, "I need
help. I need to talk to someone." She was taken to hospital, where it
was recommended that she be taken to a mental institution. A group of
scientologists intervened, stating that as a Church member McPherson did
not believe in psychiatry She was reluctantly released into their care,
to be treated according to the Church's tenets.

Seventeen days later McPherson - who had spent $175,000 on Scientology
courses between 1991 and 1995 - was pronounced dead on arrival at a
hospital north of Clearwater. An autopsy determined the cause of death
as an undiagnosed blood clot, but also found that she hadn't ingested
fluids or food for at least five days. Her body was bruised and covered
with cockroach bites. McPherson's family has since filed a suit against
the Church. "Not even an animal should be treated like that," said
McPherson's aunt Dell Liebriech. Police are deciding whether to press
charges of their own.

Meanwhile the three Church members who escorted McPherson to hospital
have fled the country, and police have renewed interest in other deaths
- including three suicides - connected to the Church in Clearwater since
1980. The Church's response threatens to erode their credibility
further. Clearwater police have been called liars and bigots, and anti-
Church activists smeared as child molesters, pornographers and
"druggies". Elliot J Abelson, an LA lawyer who represents the
Scientologists, launched a playground attack on the competence of Joan
Wood, the medical examiner who carried out the autopsy on McPherson:
"Liar. Liar. Hateful liar. That's what she is." 

JOHN PATTERSON

-- 
   |           Chris Owen - chriso@lutefisk.demon.co.uk            |
   |---------------------------------------------------------------|
   |          NEW! - WORLD'S BIGGEST SINCLAIR WEB ARCHIVE:         |
   |               http://www.nvg.unit.no/sinclair                 |
   | OFFLINE VERSION: http://www.nvg.unit.no/sinclair/plansinc.zip |