Ruthless: Ron Miscavige’s Literary Forgery

Ronald Miscavige’s maudlin book Ruthless is falsely represented as a “memoir” when it’s a literary forgery. It is unconscionable that a father would seek to capitalize on the good name and fame of his son by publishing provable lies for cash. It is even more reprehensible that a publisher offered him a platform despite having received an abundance of evidence establishing that Ronald is lying about what he knows of his son David. (See Bert H. Deixler letters to publisher of March 28, 2016, April 11, 2016 and April 15, 2016.)

Ronald has virtually no firsthand knowledge of his son’s leadership of the Church, and he knows absolutely nothing about his son's ascent. While Mr. Miscavige was busy leading the religion and caring for Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s personal affairs, Ronald remained thousands of miles away, busy selling pots and pans when not beating his wife in Pennsylvania. Ronald failed to include the truth about David Miscavige's ascent in the Church because he was oblivious to the truth: That David Miscavige was personally chosen by L. Ron Hubbard, rose to the level of religious leader through merit, character and accomplishment and he did not seek the position. The position of religious leader sought him.

Ronald's statements about his son are invariably false and are contradicted by accurate information on the Church and David Miscavige from the very people who have intimate and firsthand knowledge. They know that Mr. Miscavige’s character and unparalleled accomplishments in guiding the religion after the passing of the Founder speaks for itself. (See videos by Mr. Norman Starkey, Executor and Trustee of the Estate of L. Ron Hubbard and Mr. Eric Lieberman, Attorney representing the Church for 40 years.)

Besides spinning yarns about his son, Ronald tells false Dickensian tales of his life in the Sea Organization, the Church’s religious order. Ronald was not “imprisoned,” he was not “starved,” he had time off, he did not “escape.” He drove the car his son David and his sisters gifted him to a new life enabled by David’s gift of $100,000 to buy a home, and on top of that David paid his father’s medical insurance premiums annually. What kind of a father betrays a son who helped support him throughout his life by writing a book that falsely portrays his son?

Ronald claims that he wrote this book because his daughters stopped speaking with him, falsely blaming the Church. In truth, they disowned their father because he went to live with their older brother Ronnie, who sexually abused them as children, ignoring their explicit pleas not to move in with him. In addition, he aided and befriended anti-Scientologists who were suing one of his daughters and her husband.

• After leaving the Sea Org, Ronald's daughters encouraged him to improve his life. But Ronald decided to move in with his namesake son, Ronnie. When Ronald told his daughters that he would be doing so, they insisted that Ronald not move in with him and that he knew why: Ronnie sexually abused them when they were children. Ronald ignored their protest.



• Not surprisingly, within weeks of Ronald’s arrival at Ronnie’s house, Ronnie was arrested for a sex crime as part of an FBI sting of a drug and prostitution ring. The woman whose sexual services Ronnie paid for was reportedly a victim of human trafficking and addicted to heroin supplied by her pimp.
• Perhaps the one true thing Ronald said in his book is that “[A]s adults, Ronnie and David couldn’t be more different.” Indeed, the very day Ronnie was arrested for his sex crime, David Miscavige was opening a Church in Israel, the Holy Land. Ronald Miscavige chose to support the son arrested for solicitation of prostitution, showing he has no moral code.
• Ronald fails to mention in his book that Ronnie—his host for almost a year—was arrested for a sex crime involving a virtual sex-slave. Shortly after that, his wife left him. But Ronald’s book ignores the facts altogether. Instead, his book describes this time at Ronnie’s home as idyllic: “At any rate, down in Virginia, Becky and I got along great with Ronnie and Bitty, and life was good. But Ronnie's daughter, Jenna, and grandkids were out in San Diego. Bitty had been spending a lot of time there, and, I wondered, what if he decides to move out there with them?” Right. Ronald is an apologist for his deviant namesake. Ronald’s account is a lie because he was well aware that Ronnie’s wife left him in the wake of the arrest.
• Ronald never told his daughters that their older brother and abuser was arrested for a sex crime. Nor did he tell his daughters that he was befriending the very people who not only were attacking the Church but who were behind frivolous litigation against one of his daughters and her husband. The lawsuit was ultimately thrown out as being meritless, but not before befriending and supporting the people who put his own daughter and son-in-law through the anguish, time and costs of having to fight frivolous litigation.
• That Ronald blames the Church for his daughters' decision to disown him is preposterous given his actions. This is the real story of why Ronald’s daughters are estranged from him as revealed in a statement sent by their attorney to ABC, “How dare anyone accuse us of acting inappropriately. We don’t need anyone to tell us what to do or how to act. We know what is right and moral, and what is evil. Evil is Ronald T. Miscavige. We reject him.”    

Plagiarism

There is not a single original thought in Ronald Miscavige's poorly written and plagiarized book. Most of the provable lies and myths are straight from the fringes of the Internet or other publications. Numerous false allegations were pointed out to the book's publisher prior to the publication. In its haste to cash in on the popularity of the Scientology religion and the success of its leadership in propagating the faith, the publisher ignored Ronald Miscavige's plagiarism and instead is hawking the provably false and tired allegations as original. (See Bert H. Deixler letters to publisher of March 28, 2016, April 11, 2016 and April 15, 2016.)

The assertions that underlie most of Ronald’s book concern matters he has no personal knowledge of: He was not there to observe them when or if the events he described actually occurred. He had absolutely nothing to do with them. He even admits he did not observe events, but merely heard about them second hand from unidentified people. What kind of memoir is that? Ronald and his ghostwriter scoured the grassy knoll of cyberspace to regurgitate every false allegation they could find, put forward by hatemongers and disgruntled former Scientologists removed from the Church for malfeasance, many as long as thirty years ago. Ronald’s book might masquerade as a “memoir,” but in reality it is pure fiction designed to make a quick buck.

The Real Story

Ronald Miscavige failed to include in Ruthless the real story of his life and how he treated his family—the family which disowned him due to his behavior. The true facts about Ronald paint a very different picture and undermine his fake self-portrait of a moral authority and kindly patriarch in an Ozzie & Harriet fantasyland.

Ronald regularly and brutally beat his wife Loretta and daughters

In addition to regularly cheating on his wife Loretta, Ronald brutally and repeatedly beat her and their daughters, a truth that he waters down in his book. As with most men who inflict domestic violence, he seeks to blame the victim, in this case using his book as a cowardly tool to shift fault to his late wife and two daughters. His own admissions, made contemporaneous to his beatings, belie his statement in Ruthless that “It pains me to admit it now, and I regret ever doing it, but there were times when I punched Loretta. I never slapped or hit her in the face but, still, sometimes I did strike her. I might punch her in the arm or push her away when she was getting on me…”

Ronald's and his family's Knowledge Reports and Ethics Reports (which are part of Scientology ecclesiastical ethics and justice to aid spiritual progress and maintain harmony within the religious community) were written decades ago, shortly after some of the described attacks:

• On September 26, 1972, Ronald wrote, “I used to beat Loretta up prior to Scientology and have punched her several times since… I used to hit the kids a lot before Scientology. Now if I see it’s the only thing that I can do, I’ll give them a punch. (Very infrequently)” Click here to see the handwritten document.





• After David Miscavige joined the religious order and moved a thousand miles from home to live in Clearwater, Florida, Ronald expanded upon those statements in another self-generated write-up of February 27, 1977, “I hit Loretta and lose control of myself at times (this was reported before but I have done this again since reporting it) 4 or 5 times. Also, have choked her at times when I can’t get her to ack [acknowledge] my originations [ideas].” Ronald just lied to ABC when he said “I’d hit her in the arm, or something like that.” Click here to see the handwritten document.

It isn’t only Ronald’s words that confirm he underplays his history of domestic violence. Numerous reports from family members provided to the Church also confirm it:

• From his wife Loretta, “One time last weekend he hit one of the kids for answering him back.” Click here to see the handwritten document.



• From his eldest son Ronnie, Jr., “My father, Ron Miscavige […] beat Denise up with a belt buckle recently, a couple times. I don’t know the exact number… Loretta has told me that she thinks Ron is insane, and that he causes ‘bad scenes’ when friends of my sisters are around. She also told me that recently she was ready to call the police on Ron because of some scene. (I don’t know what.)” Click here to see the original document.



• From one of his daughters, “My dad picked me up and on the way home he said ‘Denise if there was any f***en way to get rid of you I would if I knew you wouldn’t come back.’ Took me up, beat me with a strap, bruised my whole back and sent me to bed…This morning again he hit me again, I can’t remember for what reason… We are (I am) afraid my dad will hit us…” Click here to see the handwritten document.

Ronald was arrested for attempted rape and other crimes

• In 1985, Ronald was accused of criminal attempt of rape, indecent assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering, criminal trespass and burglary in Pennsylvania. He was arrested and booked on these charges.
• Ronald had no one to turn to in order to help him after being accused of a serious crime other than the son he now falsely vilifies. David Miscavige did what any family member would do, he helped Ronald.



• David Miscavige retained top lawyers to defend Ronald. While the Church will not debate Ronald’s guilt or innocence regarding these charges, the police report regarding the attempted rape undermines Ronald’s attempt in his book to whitewash this horrific incident by claiming that the matter was merely a case of mistaken identity. The police report details evidence showing that Ronald admitted to being on the premises on the occasion of the crime, that Ronald matched the description of the assailant and further that Ronald's car was identified by a witness. Despite Ronald’s claim that a judge eventually dismissed the charges, the actual reason the case was resolved cannot be verified as no records relating to the case beyond the police report are available.
• As a condition for helping him, David Miscavige insisted that Ronald agree to join the Church’s religious order to straighten out his life and stay out of trouble. Ronald joined the religious order, the Sea Organization, working as a trumpet player at the Church’s Golden Era Productions, where he remained for 27 years and, for the most part, kept out of trouble.
• A true memoir by Ronald would have been about what it is like to play trumpet for 27 years in a Church backup band. It would have been a book about the musicians that he worked with daily, that he travelled the world with as a trumpet player and that he lived a full and enjoyable life. Ronald’s band mates are the ones who knew him best. These people worked with him every day, every week, every year for 27 years. They gave their stories on video and wrote letters to the publisher to make known their own view as each is an individual that dealt with Ronald day in and day out.
• The other people who worked most closely with Ronald Miscavige are also upset and outraged about the false story in his memoir. They include executives and human resources staff, who worked with him for nearly three decades. They unequivocally refute Ronald’s complaints of poor treatment. In fact, they all verify that it was the opposite. They, too, tell the truth on video and wrote letters to the publisher.

Ronald Miscavige did not “escape” from the Sea Org

• In late 2011, a Philadelphia newspaper started digging into Ronald's 1985 arrest. It clearly struck a nerve with Ronald, who started acting irrationally. One day, out of the blue, he took off. He did not “escape” because he simply drove the car his son David and daughters gifted him off the property filled with a lifetime of gifts from his son. And he drove through the gate just as he had done thousands of times before—as he did virtually every single day. Nobody tried to stop him and nobody chased after him. Instead of his regular destination, the music studio across the street, he drove to Wisconsin with his younger wife, without the courtesy of telling anyone that he was leaving. That’s it.
• Ronald’s tale of sending possessions to Wisconsin in advance of his departure, by disguising his possessions as birthday presents to his mother-in-law, is ludicrous. After he left Golden Era Productions, Ronald sent written lists, specifying in great detail the possessions he left behind, and requested that the Church send them to him. The Church did so. These personal possessions amounted to more than two pallets of boxes (approximately 40 boxes), which the Church shipped to him at a cost to the Church of approximately $3,000. Ronald and his current wife, Becky, had email, text and phone conversations with Marion Pouw about the items sent and thanked her for doing so. In other words, while Ronald’s myth that he sneaked his possessions out through the mail to his mother-in-law may make for an entertaining tale, everything from shipping invoices to emails from Ronald and his wife expose the lie.
  
• There are precise procedures providing for justice and recourse in Scientology when one wishes to leave the religious order. Ronald, to this very day, has never availed himself of these steps. Ronald has not written a single communication to the Church concerning his departure from the Sea Org. Ronald should have known that his relationship to the leader of the Church would not give him special dispensation to be unethical. Rather, that relationship requires an even higher responsibility. His bitterness about not being afforded special favors and being held to the same standards as all members of the Sea Org has fueled the resentment against his son that permeates his false “memoir.”

David Miscavige bought his father a house after he left the Sea Org and bought him health insurance

• While living with his namesake son after Ronnie’s arrest for soliciting prostitution, Ronald asked David Miscavige for “a little help.” He said he wanted to move away from Ronnie and get a home of his own in Wisconsin. He received $100,000 tax-free that he used to buy a house—the first ever that Ronald owned free and clear of a mortgage. The gift represented roughly David Miscavige’s entire inheritance from his mother, and David Miscavige made the gift in hopes that his father would live his life out in peace.

• At the same time, David Miscavige found medical and dental insurance for his father, and paid the annual $5,000 premium for several years, even while Ronald was secretly writing a vitriolic book attacking him.
• Ronald had a conversation with an attorney about the book, wherein Ronald stated he was not writing a book about his son and such a claim was “nuts.” In the words of the attorney who spoke with Ronald, “During our conversation Ronald Miscavige emphatically and repeatedly denied rumors that he was writing a book about his son, David. He used profanity in disclaiming such an intention, calling the notion ‘complete horseshit’ and stressing that he never had any intention of going to any media or writing a ‘fucking book’ or ‘throwing Dave under the bus.’ He said the very idea was ‘nuts’ and asked me My Son David ‘where the fuck do you get this [idea] from?’”
• The attorney also remembers that “Ronald even observed that it was an ‘absolute disgrace’ that his granddaughter, Jenna Miscavige, had written a book that had attacked David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology. Indeed, Ronald offered that to him Jenna was a ‘suppressive person,’ that he does not speak with her, and condemned her for airing family laundry in public by including in her book a derogatory story about her own mother.
• It soon became apparent that Ronald was not living his life out in peace. He involved himself in the activities of a small group of anti-Scientologists who were engaging in extortion against Ronald’s own family. They wanted to use him in their campaign. To make a buck Ronald turned his back on his family and willingly went along with the scheme.

Ruthless Ignores the Truth about the Church and David Miscavige’s Three Decades of Accomplishments

Ronald’s false “memoir” tellingly omits any and all accomplishments of his son. Of course, having never participated in any of these accomplishments and having no personal knowledge of them, he left them out of his book. Yet, he saw fit to include in Ruthless fictional events he found on the Internet. Had he properly researched his topic, he would have included the following undisputed facts:

• The true test of a religion is whether it survives the passing of its founder. Scientology has emerged as a world religion with David Miscavige at the helm. His unparalleled accomplishments include the fact that he has achieved an unprecedented level of expansion of the Scientology religion in the 21st century, including some 11,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups across 175 nations.
• Under David Miscavige’s stewardship, Scientology-supported social betterment and humanitarian programs have touched the lives of millions. Mr. Hubbard’s religious works are more widely available than ever and the Church has achieved unprecedented growth both in physical size and in the reach of its ministry. (A more complete description of Mr. Miscavige’s role as religious leader and accomplishments is available at www.scientology.org/David Miscavige.)