We’ve all been whispering about Scientology for years. We’ve all witnessed Tom Cruise slowly and then abruptly lose his sanity. We watched Katie Holmes turn into a mannequin overnight. We heard rumors about strange and mysterious things going on in Cruise’s home that were Scientology-related “rituals.” We imagined chickens and space suits and helmets with antennas and more chickens. All that aside, have you ever really sat there and gone, ‘it’s a real place… a real religion that…really exists?’ Me, neither. It just seems too far fetched–like one of those urban legends created by pesky paparazzi. However, it has now officially entered the legal world and fiction is about to become fact.
An ex-member, Peter Letterese, has allegedly filed a $250 million suit against the Church in Florida, invoking federal racketeering statutes that are usually reserved for the Mafia and other big crime groups. And guess who is reportedly named as a primary conspirator? Yep, none other than Tom Cruise!
Calling the church a “crime syndicate” and asking that it get broken up under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization [RICO] law, Letterese stated that the Scientology head, David Miscavage is “aided and abetted by the actions of Tom Cruise, his right-hand man for foreign and domestic promotion, as well as for foreign and domestic lobbying. He has assisted the syndicated in acquiring funds and [made] his own donations of money believed to be in the multiple tens of millions of dollars.” Also, Letterese claimed that the “church” uses a business book, Effective Sales and Closing Techniques, as part of their teachings.
So, there you have it, folks! Scientology is seeping into our real world and as hard as it is to believe, the organization really does exist. And the men in spacesuits (or so I picture) are about to see their day in court. Is it possible to take down an allegedly “corrupt” big business? It’s hard. Very hard. But somebody’s got to do it. Man, this is going to get interesting. Whatever happens, I just hope the judge doesn’t use the word “Prozac” or things may get ugly.
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