Clearwater Hearings
The Clearwater Hearings were a 1982 Clearwater, Florida commission that investigated the Church of Scientology and Project Normandy. Among the witnesses who testified were Ron DeWolf and various ex-Scientologists. The commission uncovered a number of illegal activities committed by the church, including:
- murder of Susan Meister
- having Tonja Burden, as a minor, sign promissory notes to the church
- negligence and abuse of children
- theft of government documents
- forging of government ID cards
- giving money to its founder, L. Ron Hubbard
- harassment of reporters and alleged attackers
- harboring of fugitive Mike Meisner
- perjury in federal courts
The commission likewise found unethical activities committed by the church, including:
- lying about the ends and benefits of auditing
- fabrication of L. Ron Hubbard's life
- forging of evidence for Hubbard's life
- unsanitary living conditions for Scientologists
- abortions by beating women in the stomach
- using a front to buy Fort Harrison
- false witness against alleged attackers
- "widespread, intercontinental espionage"
- justifying all the aforementioned as religion
Finally, the commission found the following about L. Ron Hubbard:
- had suicidal thoughts after leaving the Navy
- continuously wrote to the FBI about alleged Communist plots against him
- refused to get help for his mental illness
- wrote to a magazine posing as a woman
- married three times, and one time practiced polygamy
- abused and performed pseudoscientific experiments on Sara Hubbard
- performed abortions by beating women in their stomachs
- surrounded himself with very young girls who did his every whim
- founded Scientology to make money for himself
- made extravagant purchases and lacked personal management
- was obsessed with blood while making movies
