by

Jeff Jacobsen

   Lisa McPherson was a 36 year old Scientologist who died December 5, 1995, after 17 days of mental health treatment from her own church. The story of her last days was successfully hidden from the public and even Lisa's family for almost a year. Gradually, through a thin thread of circumstances, her story has become one of the most famous events in Scientology history.
   The front page of the May 15, 1955 Arizona Republic had this story:

“A $9,000 damage suit was brought yesterday in superior court here against L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology, and others.
Mrs. Estrid Anderson Humphrey, formerly of Paradise Valley and now of Abilene, Tex. brought the suit through her attorney, George Botsford of Scottsdale. The suit contends that Mrs. Humphrey's Paradise Valley house was extensively damaged by 'persons' the suit charged 'with seriously deranged minds' who were placed there for care and treatment. It charges these deranged persons broke windows, tore out entire window casements, pulled loose electrical fixtures, tore and broke great holes in the walls and ceilings, tore and broke off doors, screen doors, and cabinets, and did other serious damage. “

   The case was settled out of court.
   In 1967 L. Ron Hubbard, science fiction writer and creator of Dianetics and Scientology, wrote a policy letter for the church called “Penalties for Lower Conditions” in which he described how to handle an “enemy:” “Fair game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.”
   In 1974 Hubbard wrote in another policy letter that he had discovered a procedure to cure psychotic people that would lead to the eradication of psychiatry. The process, called the Introspection Rundown, involved placing the psychotic person into complete isolation with as little stimulation as possible. No one was to speak to the person except the “case supervisor” who would communicate in writing only. Once the person figured out why they went crazy, the supervisor would allow the person to be let out of isolation.
   Hubbard had at this time been on board his ship the Apollo, cruising the Mediterranean for a few years. He was ready to come ashore again.
In 1975 United Churches of Florida moved into their newly purchased Ft. Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater, Florida. Gabe Cazares, the mayor of Clearwater, wanted to know more about his new constituents. But they were secretive and the group was not known to anyone in the area. The weapons being carried by security personnel around the hotel were an additional concern.
   Eventually it came out that United Churches of Florida was a front for the Church of Scientology. Why, Cazares wondered, did they feel the need to sneak into town under an assumed name?
   In 1993 Lisa McPherson, a beautiful, outgoing 34-year-old who liked country dancing and working on projects for her church, followed the company she worked for in Dallas to their new location in Clearwater, Florida. Lisa, her bosses, and most employees were Scientologists looking forward to living in Clearwater, which had become the Mecca of Scientology.
   During the summer of 1995, Lisa was having psychological problems and was put on a “watch” where fellow Scientologists would keep a close eye on her. That fall, after recovering somewhat, she went “clear” (a significant milestone in Scientology training) and looked happy at her church award ceremony.
   On November 18, 1995, while driving her Jeep Cherokee, Lisa bumped the back end of a boat being towed by a truck stopped in front of her at a stop light. A paramedic who was at the corner, seeing to a previous accident, went over to Lisa to make sure she was all right. Yes, she said, she was all right. When the paramedic walked back to her ambulance, she turned and saw Lisa walking down the street without a stitch of clothes on. She grabbed Lisa and hustled her into the back of the ambulance. “I just needed someone to talk to,” Lisa said.
   At the hospital, Lisa was checked out for any physical damage. Meanwhile, several Scientologists appeared and demanded that Lisa not be seen by a psychiatrist because that is against Scientology's belief system. A psychiatric nurse interviewed Lisa in the presence of her fellow Scientologists. The doctor on duty, despite his own reservations, let Lisa sign herself out after the Scientologists promised to care for Lisa around the clock.
   Lisa was taken directly to the Ft. Harrison Hotel only blocks north of the hospital. She was put in room 174, in the back of the hotel. Guards were placed at the door. No one spoke to Lisa for the next 17 days.
   Church logs released during civil litigation indicate what happened to Lisa during her stay at the Ft. Harrison Hotel. Her caretakers kept notes. On November 22 it was reported, “Around 1 AM [Lisa] punched out a person who was being assigned to do the watch.” Later the new watch person wrote:

“I went on this watch as I had no senior to consult with at 2 am. I went into the room & she was total Type III [Scientology's term for psychotic]. Blabbering, incoherent nonstop. Shaking, no warm clothes on -- a old top & shorts & shoes -- no socks. She fell asleep for 4 hours & got up. I finally chased her around the place 50 times & got on slacks, tee shirt, jacket, socks & shoes -- she was like an ice cube. She talked incoherently hour after hour. She refused to eat & spit out everything she took. Her breathe was foul. She looked ill like measles or chicken pox on her face. Had a fever to my touch. After 1 pm she went violent & hit me a few times telling me she was to kill me #s of times. I called in the "guard" outside -- the fellow an HCO staff member -- new one a Mexican gentleman. He stayed with me during the rage -- but she still smacked me around. (I did cover & guard myself but she was out of control). I finally got her to drink a protein shake but she wouldn't eat or sleep any further. This lasted til 4 pm. There was no post coverage for my library & it was very busy per Qual 1H In fact no one was R-factored til later per the Qual 1H. I had no food, drink or sleep the whole time. Now I'm not in uniform -- can't get back to my room; starving -- have no $ to get food, no key to my room & out of sorts from the whole ordeal.“

   On November 30 another caretaker wrote:

“She will appear to be very cooperative -- hold her mouth open, make eye contact, at as if she is there, then close the back of her throat & not swallow. Her voice becomes nasal & she mutters rather than pronounce her words properly. My idea of closing her nose so she has to swallow so she can breathe through her mouth is only marginally successful. She either swallows & breathes or she lets everything in her mouth come out. When she refuses to swallow & just spits everything out I leave her alone & try again later.”

   December 2 the caretaker wrote “She has gotten drowsy from time to time but at 3 AM is still awake and talking. We also cut her fingernails. This will reduce the risk of scratches to herself & us. She has scratches and abrasions all over her body & on elbows & knees has pressure sores. None of them are open & none of them look infected.“
   The records from the last 3 days of Lisa's stay are somehow mysteriously missing. Scientology told the judge that they looked everywhere, including in California. But they just could not be found.
   On December 5, Lisa McPherson was taken by her caretakers to a hospital 45 minutes away (passing three other hospitals) to a Scientologist doctor, Dr. David Minkoff. Upon first seeing Lisa, he later said “I was horrified, for sure.” Lisa had bruises all over her body, she was emaciated, and according to the coroner's report, she had bug bites. Minkoff pronounced Lisa dead.

   In the fall of 1995 my friends Rod, Maggie and I decided to hold a protest of Scientology at their spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. We chose March of 1996, near Hubbard's birthday, assuming that there would be a good crowd of Scientologists there at that time for us to get our message to. We had never organized a large protest like this, but it was not as difficult on the internet because it was easier to find other active critics. Scientology had created many critics on the internet by attacking the free speech on different newsgroups and web sites. They especially tried to close down alt.religion.scientology, a freewheeling newsgroup where critics would post articles, essays, and rants against Scientology.
   People from all over the United States converged on Clearwater for the protest. Eighteen of us picketed and held a press conference that Scientology officials unsuccessfully tried to disrupt.
   At this time Lisa's family only knew what Scientologists had told them about Lisa's death; that she suddenly took ill and died from a staph infection. Scientologist Brian Anderson attended Lisa's funeral and persuaded her family that Lisa wanted to be cremated, a notion that no family member had ever heard Lisa mention.
   In November of 1996 we started planning to go back to Clearwater for a second protest. I had been looking at Clearwater's city website for information, when a Clearwater detective contacted me and said I should look at a certain page on their site. It was named homicide.html and listed three separate unexplained deaths. The police were seeking the public's help in uncovering what happened to these people, one of whom was named Lisa McPherson. I had never heard of her before, but I recognized her last known residence listed, 210 S. Ft. Harrison Ave., as the address of Scientology's Ft. Harrison Hotel. I posted a message to our internet newsgroup, alt.religion.scientology, to see if anyone knew of her. No one responded. Along with a collection of other information, I sent a brief note about Lisa to Cheryl Waldrip, the Tampa Tribune reporter I was hoping would cover our protest.
   Waldrip told me later that she at first did not think anything of the Lisa McPherson information. But then she looked to see if there had been an obituary. There had not. Her interest now piqued, she contacted Lisa's family and began investigating Lisa's death. On December 15, 1996, the first story about Lisa, titled “Mystery surrounds Scientologist's death,” was published.
   The police were having trouble piecing together what happened to Lisa so they turned to the public for help. I tried to find someone who had heard of Lisa but failed. Cheryl Waldrip at first felt no reason to look into her death. Lisa's story should have fallen into the cracks of time. But somehow it came to light, also despite Scientology's attempts to stifle the story. Brian Anderson, president of Scientology in Clearwater, had threatened Waldrip about writing about Lisa being in isolation: `That's completely false and there is liability if you print that,'' he warned. ``It's not true.''
   Our second picket was planned for March of 1997. But now, knowing about Lisa's incarceration and death at the very place we were going to picket, we decided to make her story a major part of our protest. We also chose to hold a candlelight vigil in her honor the night of the picket. It was strange to think that at the time she was being held against her will, we had been planning our first protest.
   In February of 1997 after learning from Waldrip's reporting what really happened to Lisa, her family hired attorney Ken Dandar and sued Scientology for wrongful death.
   The same year, just days before we began arriving in Clearwater in March, a woman ran sprinting barefoot from the Ft. Harrison hotel, screaming and followed by a church security person. She ran down to the bay and jumped in knee deep. Police quickly appeared and took the woman, not to her church, but into state custody to be given a psychological evaluation. She was released days later alive and healthy, unlike Lisa McPherson.
   At this second protest we had about 30 people from Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the United States. Some people carried signs with bloodied handprints that said “Lisa's blood on Scieno's hands” and similar sentiments. I carried a sign with Lisa's photo. When we arrived to protest, we saw that there were probably hundreds of Scientologists already on the sidewalk with their own signs, such as “fight drugs, not religion” and “Jeff Jacobsen, porno king.” During the entire protest the Scientologists would surround us with their signs in order to hide our signs from the traffic. They would taunt us and engage in senseless conversation.
   At the candleight vigil that evening we planned to simply stand across the street from the Ft. Harrison Hotel, light our candles, and think of Lisa. The Scientologists showed up as well, en masse. They yelled at us, shoved us, blew out our candles, and even got in between a blind protester and her guide dog. The TV program Inside Edition aired video of a Scientologist blowing out a mourner's candle.
   Other media were by now picking up Lisa's story after the local Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times continued writing about it. Several web pages also sprang up regarding Lisa's story. Mine, lisamcpherson.org, was put up in January of 1997.
   At one time it appeared to many critics that my website might be attacked by Scientology's attorneys. In 1995 Scientology attorneys raided the homes of some critics based on alleged copyright violations of Scientology material. Lawsuits and threats of lawsuits had been filed. So it was no light matter that the response of the internet community to threats on my site was for many people in several countries to put up copies, or mirrors, of my site. That way, even if I did have to close my site, the material would still be publicly available.
   Our loose-knit group of Scientology critics decided the next annual Clearwater picket would be in December 1997 to coincide with the anniversary of Lisa's death on December 5.
   That year the Scientologists held a press conference in the same hotel as us at the same time, to dilute media attendance to ours. They completely shut down the Ft. Harrison Hotel during our protest and put a sign out front saying “we're out doing good.” This “good” included thousands of Scientologists circling the Clearwater Police Department and the St. Petersburg Times offices while chanting “Sid Klein, what's your crime!” Klein was then the long-time Chief of Police for Clearwater. While the Scientologists were protesting, we held our candlelight vigil unmolested.
   In September of 1998 Dr. David Minkoff settled with Lisa's estate over his role in her death. He had prescribed chloral hydrate to Lisa at her caretakers' request, even though Minkoff had never seen Lisa. In 2001 his license would be suspended for a year for his actions.
In November of 1998 The Church of Scientology was charged by the state of Florida with 2 felony counts; practicing medicine without a license, and abuse of a disabled person. Considering Lisa's tortuous death, these seemed to me to be the lightest charges the state could find. The charges somewhat dampened Scientology's groundbreaking ceremony for a new $60 million building across the street from the Ft. Harrison Hotel.
About 45 of us came to Clearwater for our December 1998 picket. That year Scientology handled our protest by getting an event permit to use the sidewalks we were intending to use. These permits would close the sidewalks for some Scientology event that never actually happened. However, Rod noticed that there was a 3 hour window of time where their permit did not apply. So I spent almost an entire day going to city and county departments to get signatures for our own permit for that 3 hour window. This was how it went each year; Scientology would do something to thwart our protest, and we had to either be prepared for such a situation or quickly do a work-around so that we could still protest.
   The St. Petersburg Times wrote of our candlelight vigil that year:

"Relatives of Lisa McPherson made a tear-filled trip Saturday night to the Scientology hotel where she spent her final days under guard and in the grips of a mental breakdown. Her aunt and uncle, Dell and Art Liebreich, and her cousin Kim Krenek led a group of about 60 anti-Scientology protesters who held candles and laid a wreath outside a privacy wall at Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel. A few feet away, just beyond the wall, was Room 174, where McPherson is said to have spent 17 days under the care of fellow Scientologists.”

   In October 1999 Scientology's attorneys filed their defense claims against the civil case filed by Lisa's estate. Their “fourth defense” blames Lisa for her own death:

“Plaintiff did not exercise ordinary care, caution or prudence for her welfare to avoid the happening of the alleged incidents, injuries or damages, if any, and by this failure to do so, Plaintiff thereby directly and proximately contributed to, or was the sole cause of the alleged injuries, losses and damages, if any. “

   In November of that year Scientology filed papers claiming that the signature of Lisa's mother on a document hiring Ken Dandar as estate attorney was a forgery. This was despite there being three witnesses who observed the signing. The forgery claim was later thrown out.
In December 1999 just before our protest, Scientology had gotten an injunction against picketer Bob Minton after a Scientologist claimed that Bob, a retired investment banker, had assaulted him with a picket sign. Bob was ordered to stay 10 feet from any Scientology property while the “victim” was ordered to stay 20 feet away from Bob.. The next day Scientology spray painted orange dots indicating the 10 foot line from their properties downtown. Apparently they assumed that the injunction applied to all of us protesters, but that wasn't the case. The city fathers got quite upset at the orange dots all over the downtown public sidewalks, so the Scientology underlings had to go out with buckets and wire brushes and scrub them off.
   While reconnoitering the night before the picket, we saw that Scientology had rented about a dozen U-haul trucks that were parked around Scientology's Sandcastle Hotel. The Sandcastle was a few blocks from the Ft. Harrison Hotel and was a secondary picketing site for us. We assumed that the trucks would be parked on the street to hide us picketers on the sidewalks. Dave Touretzky got the idea of parking a car in the parking spot right across from the entrance to the hotel parking lot, so they would not be able to block at least that parking spot. We found a willing car owner and parked right away. The next morning David rented a pickup and replaced the donated car. He was now wedged in between 2 large U-haul trucks directly across from the Sandcastle parking entrance. He and Don painted a huge sign that said “Why Are You Hiding?” and propped it against the driver's door. They then sat on lawn chairs in back of the truck, ordered pizza, and handed out drinks to us other protesters. Protesting did not have to be stressful, apparently.
   The strangest and most unexpected action in 1999 was that Scientology tore up their own sidewalks before we arrived. We had always tried to do as many “what if” questions before each protest to anticipate any obstruction they might place in front of us, but destroying the sidewalks never came up. This limited where we could protest but did not stop us. Scientology has seventeen properties in Clearwater, so there were still a variety of places to protest.
   In May of 2000 I moved to Clearwater to work as Librarian for the Lisa McPherson Trust. The Trust, with a staff of around 8, was founded by Bob Minton and was mostly funded by him. Our goal was to educate the public about the dangers of Scientology and to help ex-members in any way we could. I organized the archives, conducted research for the staff, and wrote some articles.
   The state of Florida dropped their criminal suit against Scientology in June, claiming that their case was damaged beyond repair when medical examiner Joan Wood changed her ruling on Lisa's death to “accidental.” Wood's court testimony explaining her change of opinion seemed irrational, so her validity as a witness became suspect.
   I was extremely upset at the attorney general's ruling because the suit was not about the death of Lisa anyway, but rather the abusive manner she was handled in her last days.
   The day after charges were dropped, David Miscavige, worldwide leader of Scientology, told reporters that he had offered a deal with the state in 1998 that was rejected. The St. Petersburg Times reported:

“Drop the charges, David Miscavige told State Attorney Bernie McCabe in November 1998, and the church would make a $500,000 donation to the county's EMS system. It also would pay the nearly $200,000 in expenses incurred in what then was a three-year investigation into Lisa McPherson's 1995 death while in the care of her fellow Scientologists. In addition, Miscavige offered to pay the $15,000 the church would have been fined if convicted of the charges. He also promised steps to ensure a death like McPherson's never occurred again. The church would submit to temporary monitoring under a 'pretrial intervention program.' It would have a doctor on call 24 hours a day at Scientology's Clearwater operation. And it would establish a protocol with local hospitals that detailed how Scientologists with mental problems should be cared for in light of Scientology's vigorous opposition to psychiatry.”

   One wonders why Miscavige would consider some of these steps bargaining chips instead of actions that should have been immediately implemented.
   Just before the December 2000 protest, Scientology got a temporary injunction naming members of the Trust and others. Anyone “in concert” with us was bound by the injunction as well. We were ordered to protest only in certain prescribed areas and to stay 10 feet away from any Scientologists. Scientology's private investigators were used to make sure every picketer was handed a copy of the injunction. The police had a hard time deciphering the injunction, however, as we began to picket. We eventually worked out where we could protest, and placed “minders” near areas that we were not supposed to use. And actually the injunction was helpful to us because it restricted how close Scientologists could get to us as well.
   By now both picketers and Scientology were aware of the value of videotaping, so some of us picketers mostly videotaped, and several private investigators and security staff videotaped on their side (not to mention the 100+ installed security cameras Scientology has on their Clearwater properties). One person suggested that if this keeps progressing, soon these protests will just be both sides coming and videotaping each other videotaping the other side.
   For barriers that year, Scientology purchased over 100 Christmas trees and put them side by side on a platform behind the bushes running along the sidewalk of the Sandcastle Hotel. I'm sure it was impossible for anyone in the hotel to see us protesting.
   The December 2000 picket would be our last annual protest in Clearwater.
   Around February of 2001 I ordered a brick in honor of Lisa McPherson to be placed in a city park that was being built in downtown Clearwater. The brick was to say “Remember Lisa McPherson” and would be amongst hundreds of other paving bricks purchased as a way to raise money to create the park. There was a problem, however, because several of the people on the steering committee organizing the park were Scientologists. In April, Stacy Brooks, my boss and fellow brick purchaser (hers for an ex-Scientologist friend who had died of cancer), received a letter from the Citizens for a Better Clearwater stating that our brick orders were being rejected because "We . . . do not feel that we can accept donations for a brick from you and still maintain the message of community harmony that we seek." This was quite puzzling to me as I tried to figure out what community would be disharmonized by a brick that said “Remember Lisa McPherson.”
   We were not going to stand for this censorship of our bricks, so Stacy had the Trust's attorney contact the city. I was interviewed on Tampa's WFLA talk radio about my brick. The St. Petersburg Times printed a story about it. A few weeks later we got a second letter from Citizens for a Better Clearwater, this time re-accepting the brick orders. Apparently the city put pressure on the committee based on our concerns for our rights of free speech.
   Judge Thomas Pennick of Pinellas County on July 27, 2001, issued a permanent injunction based on the previous injunction against ten named people (including me) and the Lisa McPherson Trust. This injunction applied to “those persons and entities in actual concert or participation with” the named people as well. So whenever I would picket in Florida from then on, anyone picketing with me would be covered by the injunction.    There was no evidence presented to the court that I had done anything wrong.
   The injunction contains colored maps of ten Scientology properties that mark where we are allowed to protest. On top of that, the injunction ordered us to stay ten feet away from any Scientologist. These restrictions applied to Scientologists regarding the Lisa McPherson Trust building as well.
   The Lisa McPherson Trust closed its doors October 2001. I moved back to Arizona. Everyone else scattered to the winds.
   In April of 2002, Bob Minton did the unthinkable and testified in court on Scientology's side against Ken Dandar. Minton had given Dandar over $2 million to help the Lisa McPherson civil suit against Scientology. Now Minton was claiming in court that Dandar “is a lying thief.” What had happened? No one knows for sure, but Minton had been under constant pressure from Scientology. They were trying to get him in trouble over a financial deal in Nigeria a few years before, and they had followed and harassed his family.
   Dandar surmised that Scientology was threatening Minton with a racketeering suit. Perhaps the pressure finally worked on Bob. Stacy Brooks, my boss at the Lisa McPherson Trust, had also switched sides with Bob, telling the St. Petersburg Times that “I think he was swept up in the idea he was really fighting evil. Neither he nor I feel that way anymore."
   In 2003 Dr. Touretzky posted on his web site (www.lisaclause.org) a Scientology form stating that the signer did not believe in psychiatry and that no matter what happened, he wanted to be treated for any mental infirmity by Scientology. The form states:

“I understand that the Introspection Rundown ... includes being isolated from ... family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact.... The Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated, according to the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion. I further specifically acknowledge that the duration of any such isolation is uncertain, determined only by my spiritual condition, but that such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor.”

   In May 2004 Lisa's estate settled out of court with the Church of Scientology for an undisclosed sum. Lisa's aunt stated that through the lawsuit they had achieved what they set out to do, “tell the world what happened to Lisa and obtain justice from Scientology.“
   The story of Lisa's final days almost didn't make it into history. Her death at first was not even mentioned in an obituary, but now through dozens of web sites, newspaper and magazine articles, and coverage in other media, she has become one of the most famous Scientologists ever. Lisa's story is a permanent reminder that there is a dark side to the Church of Scientology.

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