(What should have been the)

End of the saga by Yolanda Howell (June '98)

Updated July 2000

Introductie: Yolanda Howell lost her five year old son Jed while
he crossed a busy street "protected by postulates."  This was
because some scientologists place Scientology before their families.
In this case a former Salt Lake Mission E.D.  One of her daughters was
also hit by a car but luckily not killed. Although one of her eyes was
permanently damaged when she was two because a scientologist in another
house, who was a beautician, had left her supplies lying around and the
little girl had rubbed hair dye into her eye.

You can read more about this sad story in her letter to Dennis Erlich

Yolanda Howell on 30 Aug 1989 in what looks like a declaration
aff_yh89.html

The same in French
http://www.antisectes.net/enfaffidav.htm


A couple of days ago she contacted me over a posting of mine and since
then we exchanged some e-mail. Yolanda has given permission to post
those togheter with her e-mail address. She mentions also some deaths
which I hadn't heard of. One note though, this has nothing to do with 
a possible lawsuit between me and the cult. As far as I know she wasn't
even aware of it until the 10th of June. At one place I've snipped in the
text, because that's too personal imo. That'll be indicated by the [...]

To not put her name on spamlists I've put a "+" in her e-mail address
below, remove that if you want to mail her.


====

From: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 03:12:47 EDT
To: mike_gormez@wxs.nl
Subject: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 60

I saw a posting about my heinous cult activities on Deja News, but I don't
remember your name.  What were you doing there at the time I was there?
Recently my daughter graduated law school and I met with Pat and Kirk at
her graduation.  We pulled off the PR move of the century on that
one--considering I and my spouse are no doubt massively big SPs at this
time.  But Kirk and chatted quite a bit about "old times" (avoiding
certain topics of course).  He caught me up on news about certain
individuals you probably recall: Joy McBride, Lyndsay Duncansan
(sp)[that's "sp" for spelling, not the scio interpretation], etc.

Well, let me know if you want to get in touch.

Yolanda Howell [...]

====


To: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
From: Michael 'Mike' Gormez <mike_gormez@wxs.nl>
Subject: Re: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
In-Reply-To: <48e168c4.35779a70@aol.com>

Hi Yolanda,

At 03:12 5-06-98 EDT, you wrote:

>I saw a posting about my heinous cult activities on Deja News, but I don't
>remember your name.

I'm sorry if my postings about you came across that way. I was never a
member so we've never met. I was caught by the story of your children and
that is what started my interest. If you want I can post a message stating
so. It wasn't meant to reflect badly on you, quite the contrary. I admire
you for speaking up the way you did.

It's great to hear that your daughter graduated. I hope she is doing fine
and will succeed in whatever it is she desires. Nice to hear, too, that
you and Kirk get along. The other names you wrote don't sound familiar to
me. 

Take care and please let me know if you want me to post that message.

Best,
   Mike


====

From: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 01:06:55 EDT
To: mike_gormez@wxs.nl
Subject: Re: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 60

LOL!  Oh, I was joking--tongue-in-cheek (something I relearned it was o.k.
to do outside of scio).  Your postings didn't come across any way
negative. (Actually, I didn't read all of them, just the most recent).
But I thought that you said you knew me at the Salt Lake mission??  Guess
I was confused. too many late nights, I suppose.

Thanks for the compliment.  Actually, I was astounded that my "stuff" was
on the web, having put scio and the entire nightmare behind me (and
tromped on it, I might add!).  The kids and I are doing fine now (yes,
there IS life after scio--just none while you're in it!).  It took quite a
few years to work out the bugs, and K (my oldest) and I are still working
on our relationship. It was the kids who were most hurt by my/our
involvement.  Kirk and Pat are still in, which makes me feel really badly.
I finally got him in, and now I can't get him out.  It really bugs me to
listen to him --that once wild and wooly guy, a true individualist--and
hear the scio platitudes, the LRonHubbardisms come out of his mouth, and
him thinking the whole time that he is being witty or wise.  Yikes.  Thats
just another thing I have to deal with for my "overt" of getting involved
with a cult.

By the way.  I don't remember putting THAT many exclamation marks in my
writings as showed im the text on the net!!!  You can post me if you want.
Some folks may want to know the "end" of the saga....

Oh yeah, the names I mentioned are two of eight people in their forties
that Kirk told me about who are, sadly, dead.  Both were great people, if
a bit misguided (as we all were) by their cult involvement.  Joy's body
was found washed up on a beach in L.A. right after she received some award
for a great achievement as an auditor, and Linsday died of cancer.  She
declined treatment, believing auditing would fix it.

--Yolanda

====

To: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
From: Michael 'Mike' Gormez <mike_gormez@wxs.nl>
Subject: Re: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
In-Reply-To: <453aa025.3578ce70@aol.com>


Hiya,

At 01:06 6-06-98 EDT, you wrote:

>LOL!  Oh, I was joking--tongue-in-cheek (something I relearned it was o.k. to
>do outside of scio). 

How suppressive! Please don't J&D me, I'm just a low SP! :8)

> Your postings didn't come across any way negative.
>(Actually, I didn't read all of them, just the most recent).  But I thought
>that you said you knew me at the Salt Lake mission??  Guess I was confused.
>too many late nights, I suppose.

Pfew.. I'd started rereading those messages to see what it was that I had
posted negatively about you. Okay, so that clears matters.  Re: Salt Lake.
No I was never their and didn't write so. It was a quote out of a Factnet
file I had posted. I live in Amsterdam the Netherlands and that is far
away of the mission in SL.

>Thanks for the compliment.  Actually, I was astounded that my "stuff" was on
>the web, having put scio and the entire nightmare behind me (and tromped on
>it, I might add!). 

Good for you!  You're btw not the only one who is surprised to find their
stuff on the web. I don't know if you've heard of Fishman?  He didn't know
what to think of it that his affidavit containing "upper level" stuff was
on more than 100 webpages when he finally hit the Net.

> The kids and I are doing fine now (yes, there IS life
>after scio--just none while you're in it!).  It took quite a few years to work
>out the bugs, and K (my oldest) and I are still working on our relationship.
>It was the kids who were most hurt by my/our involvement.  Kirk and Pat are
>still in, which makes me feel really badly.  I finally got him in, and now I
>can't get him out.  It really bugs me to listen to him --that once wild and
>wooly guy, a true individualist--and hear the scio platitudes, the
>LRonHubbardisms come out of his mouth, and him thinking the whole time that he
>is being witty or wise.  Yikes.  Thats just another thing I have to deal with
>for my "overt" of getting involved with a cult.

I can understand that you feel bad about getting him in, but at the time
you'd no malicious intentions behind it I am sure. You probably wanted him
to experience the wonderful "tech" too. Don't blame yourself, as you write
below, you were misguided. Scn is equally if not more responsible, they
aren't honest when recruiting new people.


>By the way.  I don't remember putting THAT many exclamation marks in my
>writings as showed im the text on the net!!!  You can post me if you want.
>Some folks may want to know the "end" of the saga....

As a matter of fact I would very much like to post your mails on the
web/newsgoup with your permission but I don't know what you want in it and
what not and if you want your e-mail address in it so that old timers who
knew you can contact you. I'm sure people want to know how you're doing
these days. I know I was.

>Oh yeah, the names I mentioned are two of eight people in their forties that
>Kirk told me about who are, sadly, dead.  Both were great people, if a bit
>misguided (as we all were) by their cult involvement.  Joy's body was found
>washed up on a beach in L.A. right after she received some award for a great
>achievement as an auditor, and Linsday died of cancer.  She declined
>treatment, believing auditing would fix it.

Sorry to hear that. Especially of Lindsday. More people have died because
they thought auditing would fix it all.  It's a same.  Therefore I've made
a memorial page of persons who died and were associated in anyway with the
cult. It's on 

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/9169/index.html

I don't know if you should read it because I also mention your story on
it. That I had included before you mailed me. 

Anyway take care and it's nice talking to you!

Best,
  Mike

====

From: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 20:53:47 EDT
To: mike_gormez@wxs.nl
Subject: Re: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 60

Mike, your page is astounding.  It's totally all right that you have Jed's
story on it as well.  Fact is, he wouldn't be dead were it not for scio.
I'll ask my current husband (former Senior CS of LA Org) about more purif
deaths. I believe he knew of some.  Also, I sat in on a comm ev for
somebody whose pc died of cancer after auditing.  I'll see if I can get
you some more information.  Also, there was a man in Utah a few years back
who killed his father saying scio drove him crazy.  He was in the Utah
pen.  I'll see if I can dig up the article.

I am sorry to say I have not yet achieved my SP 8 status.  Perhaps if I
continue going up the ridge?  From the sounds of your web page, the bridge
seems to be a great jumping off place.

Question:  With Janet Reno so anti-cult, why isn't more being done about
scio? Also, do you know if anything came of the recent investigations into
the IRS? I was hoping that those investigations would reveal something
along the line of scio manipulation to achieve tax-exempt status.

No, I haven't heard of "Fishman."  I actually began looking up this stuff
after my daughter (the attorney) read some things on the web site.  She
thought it was great!  This is the first contact she's had with other cult
children, and I think it was really good for her to realize that she's not
alone with weird parents and a weird past.

You may post my letters if you want.  It is all right for people to e-mail
me at this address.

I now read your mail with a Dutch accent.  Is that the correct one?
--Yolanda

====

From: <HowellYF+@aol.com>
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 21:36:30 EDT
To: mike_gormez@wxs.nl
Subject: Re: Hi Mike.  Do I know you?
X-Mailer: AOL 3.0 16-bit for Windows sub 60

Hi MIke,

Tim (my husband) says Kirk had mentioned Gary Ross, who had been in scio
over 25 years, drank himself to death.  Also, he noted that Lindy (not
Lindsay as formerly written), had achieved OT8 before dying of cancer.
Tim didn't know the others (nor did I), so didn't take note of their
names.

Tim knows of a girl who went blind on the purif, but she wasn't his pc so
he doesn't recall her name.  I knew of a man in his 70s who was taken off
his high-blood pressure medicine to do the purif (this was when I was
working in the HGC and interviewing him, so I had first-hand knowledge of
his condition). He passed out in the elevator at ASHO (I happened to be
there and caught him as he went down). The CS put him back on his
medication.  One day shortly after he "disappeared" and we never heard
from him again, nor were we able to contact him.  He was an old (1950's)
pc, whose wife had been declared sp way back when.  He had waited all
those years for her to die so he could get some
auditing.

By the way, do you know what happened to Lizbeth Obregon?  I believe she
was living in Oregon, but was from a prominent Dutch family.
--Yoee

=====

May be continued...

Mike

I lied: It WAS NOT The End of the Saga

Update of 2 July 2000

I saw my article posted on your site and I need to provide an
update (you have my permission to reprint). Again I was fooled into
thinking that because I had a pleasant family experience with my scio ex
and his wife at my daughter's graduation, that my ordeal with scio was
mostly buried.
Subsequent to that meeting, however, (see your article "The End of
the Saga") I was bombarded with phone calls for several weeks from
my ex in his attempt to get me to pull my story from the net. When I
refused, I received a disconnect letter from him (weird, as I had had no
connection other than his harassing phone calls). Today [1 July - MG]
two scientologists showed up at my home in an attempt to get me to pull
my articles from the net. I physically pushed them off my porch when
they refused to leave after being repeatedly told. I filed criminal
trespass charges against them. I guess it never really is over, is it?
Thank you for carrying my story. I hope it has spared someone the pain
my children and I have suffered from my stupidity in believing that this
rotten cult would help people.
Yolanda Howell
howellyf+@aol.com

I lied: It WAS NOT The End of the Saga

Update of 12 July 2000

Ironically, after you put out that End of the Saga, my exhusband got
wind of the stuff on the internet.  He called my daughters saying that
he wanted to call me about my terminally ill father and got my unlisted
phone number from them.  He then phoned me several times trying to
entice me to remove my tale from the net.  I let him know in no
uncertain terms that I wouldn't if I could.  After a phone call from him
every Monday for weeks, finally, I received a disconnect letter from
him.  This occurred a little over a year ago.

A week ago Saturday two people from the Org here in Portland showed up
at my door.  I had moved since my ex had my phone number, and I now have
a new unlisted one.  The Org here had to have performed an investigation
to learn of my whereabouts as I am in contact with noone from their
organization who would have had casual access to my new  information.
They said they were here on a "project to clean up the
internet."  My husband asked them if this was [connected to]
Scientology and one said "Sort of.  We're here on behalf of [my
exhusband]."  They were ordered numerous times to leave by my
husband and didn't.  I ordered them to leave and they wouldn't at which
point I physically escorted them off my porch.  I got their license
number and phoned for police.  I filed criminal trespass charges.

I called my daughters and asked them to call their father and tell him
to leave me alone.  He said he had no knowledge or involvement in this
event, and they had no right to use his name.  According to my daughter,
he said he had tried at their request to get me to get my episode off
the internet, and when he didn't succeed, he considered the matter
finished.  He then called the Org here (according to my daughter) and
spoke to "Glen" and told them to leave me alone.  They
admitted to him having come here and apologized for using his name.

A few days later I received a letter from Celebrity Center, which I have
not opened and am saving as evidence if they continue to mess with me.
I had not heard from them in 18 years, and I have strong feelings about
being investigated, my home and privacy invaded, and my past stirred up.
The complete arrogance of this organization is beyond belief.  Just
because I was stupid enough once to be their puppet doesn't imply I
would ever be that dense again--in this or any other lifetime.  Their
complete insane belief that they can, to this day, convince me of what
to think, do, and say is evidence that they need to actually READ my
story, and take it to heart. Maybe they ("they" being the
persons who plan and carry out these maneuvers) could learn something.  I
did.  And now, thanks to their reminding me of their nasty ways, my last
idealistic thread is gone.  I now know there is no such thing as
"friendship" with this organization or its members.  They live
to manipulate and control to their own ends. Period.

--Yolanda Howell