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Tom Klemesrud


The Church of Scientology vs. Dennis Erlich, Tom Klemesrud and Netcom
[...] The same day they wrote to Erilch, lawyers for the Church of Scientology also sent a letter to Netcom, a service provider which provides Internet connections to small bulletin board systems (BBS's) such as the one Dennis Erlich was using, Tom Klemesrud's support.com.

Two days later, on December 30, 1994, Helena Kobrin telephoned Tom Klemesrud to complain about Erlich's Usenet postings. Klemesrud told Kobrin not to call him again, said he considered the phone call to be harassment, and hung up on her. A few hours later, Klemesrud received e-mail from Helena Kobrin, demanding that Klemesrud either stop Erlich from posting copyrighted Church materials, or else cut off Erlich's access to Klemesrud's BBS. Klemesrud replied to Kobrin a few hours later, asking that Kobrin provide written proof that the materials are actually copyrighted, including actual copies of the writings in question. Klemesrud likened his situation to that of a news dealer or bookstore. Kobrin sent more e-mail on January 1, and Klemesrud Klemesrud replied the next day, asking Kobrin to try obtaining a court order from a Los Angeles judge.

On January 5, Helena Kobrin wrote again to Netcom, demanding that Netcom cut off Internet access to Tom Klemesrud's BBS. Netcom refused. [...]

Hollywood, Interrupted: "An Open Letter to Sumner Redstone" by Tom Klemesrud

A guest blog for Hollywood, Interrupted by Tom Klemesrud

"Mark, it great to see my favorite journalist keeping doing what he does.

Since we met and got our photo taken together at L. Ron Hubbard Way at a protest, I myself have been moved off my position of power at the ABC-TV network.

Do I suspect the cult? You bet.

Of course scientology tried to sue me out of existence in 1995 (RTC v. Netcom) ... but all of this is blood under the bridge. [...]

Keith Henson: "Ms Blood story again, thanks to Bill Yaude (Parker)"

What bothers me is that people in US government law enforcement had detailed knowledge in 1995 about scientology's attempt to frame Tom Klemesrud for murder just like scientology had successfully framed Paulette Cooper for bomb threats back in the 70s. I get a shrug when I express amazement at this. Maybe it is not a Federal crime.

Scientology did get Tom falsely arrested and later manipulated (or outright corrupted) a small claims court to provide Ms Blood with a cover justification and manipulated a Federal court (Judge Whyte's) so scientology's operation against Tom was not exposed.

Wired (1995): "alt.scientology.war"

The sysop of support.com, Tom Klemesrud, says that in early January, Helena Kobrin requested he delete Erlich's Internet account, which he refused to do because the church could not provide him with specific proof of copyright infringement. What follows sounds like a rerun of The Outer Limits. In mid-January, Klemesrud reported a truly bizarre incident: he claimed his apartment was smeared with blood by a woman he'd met in a bar. In Klemesrud's version, this attack was meant to frighten him into closing Erlich's account.
BBC 2 (May 1995): "The Net"
Skeptic vol. 3, no. 3, 1995: "Scientology v. the Internet - The 'Miss Blood' Incident" by Jim Lippard and Jeff Jacobsen
[...] On January 14, Tom Klemesrud visited a Los Angeles bar after returning from a convention of BBS sysops in Denver. According to Klemesrud, a woman came up to him at the bar, they began conversing, and then they went to another bar. At the second bar the woman allegedly told him that she was an IRS agent, showing him a laminated ID card with the letters "IRS" in blue. The subject of Scientology came up, and she mentioned the names of IRS agents who had been involved with the investigation of Scientology's tax-exempt status in the 1980s. Eventually, says Klemesrud, they ended up at his home where he says she asked to see his BBS because she was supposedly investigating Scientology's tax-exempt status. After asking a few questions about users of the L.A. Valley College BBS, the woman excused herself to use the bathroom. When she did not return immediately, Klemesrud says he went to check on her and saw blood on the floor through the partially opened doorway. The woman spread blood around Klemesrud's bathroom, carpets, chairs, and bed, and police were called to the scene. According to the police report, the apartment was quiet, there were bloody jeans on the hall floor, and blood was smeared in the bathroom and on the bed. Klemesrud was sitting in a chair and the woman was sitting on the bed. Klemesrud told the officers that his shotgun was in the kitchen, and they retrieved it from a closet in the kitchen area. The police report states that Klemesrud said he let her into his apartment because she claimed to be an IRS agent, and that she went into the bathroom and began cutting herself. He also reported that she was trying to frame him in an attempt to silence Church of Scientology critic Dennis Erlich (the police report confusedly states that Klemesrud was a "critic for" Scientology). The woman's account in the police report, on the other hand, stated that they had met in a bar the previous week and she came to his apartment that evening. She stated that he loaded his shotgun when she entered the bedroom, pointed it at her, and stated, "How do you like that, I can kill anybody I want." She explained the blood as the result of a medical problem with rectal bleeding and hemorrhoids aggravated by alcohol and stress, and denied any involvement with Scientology or acquaintance with anyone in Scientology. Klemesrud says that while he originally was under the impression that she was cutting herself in the bathroom, he is now convinced that she was cutting open "a bag, bladder, or balloon nestled in her crotch" which was filled with blood and which he both saw and poked when she turned to sit on his bed and spread blood on it. He maintains that "if this is a medical problem, then she has an intestine or artery running outside her body filled with cold almost coagulated blood."

Klemesrud was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon and released on $30,000 bail the next morning, while the woman was allowed to leave the scene without any examination. A police detective was subsequently unable to contact her. The District Attorney rejected the charges, refusing to prosecute.

Dennis Erlich posted a short account of the incident to a.r.s on January 15, 1995, while another version of what happened was anonymously posted on January 23 by "-AB-." The latter posting claimed that its author "called in a very big favor owed me" to obtain the name and telephone number of the woman involved in the incident with Klemesrud, and sent "a trusted friend (aspiring investigative reporter)" to interview her. This version of the story agreed with Klemesrud's account that they had only met the evening of the incident, rather than the week before. It then goes on to claim that Klemesrud had accused her of being in the CIA, threatened her with a shotgun, demanded that she have sex with him, and repeatedly telephoned the Church of Scientology until she called 911. Klemesrud says that he called the FBI and 911 as she single-mindedly moved repeatedly between the bathroom and the bedroom and spread blood around. He grabbed his shotgun from the corner of his bedroom and placed it in the kitchen, then hid it in the closet. He says that he never mentioned the CIA, and believed her to be an IRS agent until he first saw the blood.

On January 24, the Los Angeles Times contacted Scientology for comment on the story, but the request was declined. That evening, however, the Church of Scientology's OSA faxed what was apparently a signed declaration by the woman involved to the Times. This declaration gives an account of the incident which is virtually identical to that posted by "-AB-," including the erroneous detail that Klemesrud had a 10-gauge shotgun (it was a 12-gauge, as described in the police report). No newspaper article on the incident was published.

This incident raises numerous unanswered questions: Who is "-AB-"? Where did he obtain his information? Why did the Church of Scientology later fax almost exactly the same information to the Los Angeles Times? Why did the Church of Scientology take such extreme measures to obtain "-AB-"s identity? Why would a woman with no connections to Scientology give her declaration to the Church of Scientology rather than the police? [...]

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