Mother to Shelly Miscavige, Mother-in-law to Scientology Leader David Miscavige.
Original Article by Tony Ortega
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Flo Barnett is a name you won’t hear listed when it comes to popularly known Scientologists. Flo Barnett was the mother to Shelly Miscavige, who was / is married to present day Scientology leader, David Miscavige.
Shelly Miscavige became a name of interest when actor Leah Remini blew the whistle on Scientology. Remini had been questioning the whereabouts of Shelly Miscavige. Due to a prolongated absence of Miscavige, from their usual events that she would typically attend.
Shelly Miscavige hasn’t been seen in public for over 15 years now. While it has been stated that Shelly Miscavige is known to be alive and well, other’s seem to question this as fact..due to the secrecy surrounding anything Scientology related.
If you thought the story about Shelly Miscavige was unusual, wait till you hear about her mother.
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Episode Credits
Hosted By Mark Tauriello, Jen Wilson, & Mark Tauriello.
Original Story / Episode Concept By Marc Bluestein.
Link’s To Refrenced Material.
http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/www.whyaretheydead.net/index.html
http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/www.whyaretheydead.net/flo_barnett/background.html
Audio / Visual Production By Marc Bluestein.
Edited / Shortened audio snippets VIA YouTube. (Creative Commons)
Reference / Show Notes By Marc Bluestein
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Episode Show Notes
SCIENTOLOGY MYSTERY HOUR: FLO BARNETT
QUESTION: What is that’s so appealing about unsolved mysteries, mysterious deaths, etc ? In your own opinion?
INTRO:
I just wanna start off by saying that I promised myself I wouldn’t do an episode on this topic….And I’m not…But, also, I am.
I’m gonna give you guy’s and our listeners a clue….Here we go !
(INSERT AUDIO) “ We Stand Tall “
SCIENTOLOGY, BUT NOT…
This episode is in fact in the Scientology universe, but we’re not talking about the usual things, or the common topics that are generally discussed.
A good example of those topics would be the following: Leah Remini, Tom Cruise, John Travolta….Or even the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige. Shelly is the wife of David Miscavige, who is the current leader of the pack.
RIP L. RON HUBBARD
While it’s fucking bizarre that Shelly hasn’t been seen in public since 2007, and no one seem’s to know what the fuck the deal is there….There’s a lesser known story that I think is almost more creepy.
It’s worth mentioning that there is a connection to Shelly Miscavige, but it’s not about Shelly.
Before We Get Into It
Before we get into it, I’d like to list some Scientology term’s that will help anyone listening who may be unfamiliar with some of these important aspects of Scientology, and why they matter for this story.
Suppressive Person
Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP, is a term used in Scientology to describe the “antisocial personalities” who, according to Scientology’s founder L. Ron Hubbard, make up about 2.5% of the population. A Suppressive Person in the Scientology world is a person that Scientologists would encourage you to disconnect from, which brings us to the next word.
Disconnection
Disconnection is the severance of all ties between a Scientologist and a friend, colleague, or family member deemed to be antagonistic towards Scientology. The practice of disconnection is a form of shunning.
“ Squirrels “
Preface: Not squirrel the animal*
The Church of Scientology hates “squirrels.”
That is the scornful word L. Ron Hubbard used to describe non-church members who offer his teachings, sometimes at cut-rate prices. Most are ex-Scientologists who say they believe in Hubbard’s gospel but left the church because its hierarchy was too oppressive.
“We call them squirrels,” Hubbard once wrote, “because they are so nutty.”
Hubbard contended that only church members are qualified to administer his self-improvement-type courses. Outsiders, he said, inevitably misapply the teachings, wreaking spiritual harm on their subjects.
But those who have launched “independent” Scientology-style centers say Hubbard concocted this as an excuse to eliminate competition so he could charge exorbitant prices for his courses.
As far back as 1965, Hubbard demonstrated his disdain for breakaway groups, ordering his followers to “tear up” the meetings of one such organization and “harass these persons in any possible way.”
The intolerance still exists.
Flo Barnett
I’d like to introduce everyone to a woman named Flo Barnett. This name may be unfamiliar to you, it was a to me until recently. Flo was considered to be a squirrel in the eyes of Scientology.
Mary Florence Fike Barnett, she’s the mother of Michelle “ Shelly “ Barnett, otherwise known by her married name; Shelly Miscavige. The same Shelly Miscavige that hasn’t been seen in public since 2007.
Let’s talk about being a SQUIRREL SCIENTOLOGIST for a moment.
With this existing knowledge of what having a “ squirrel “ status means in the land of Scientology, I feel as though it would be a safe bet to assume you’re not particularly favored by the Scientology community. Especially when your son in law is David Miscavige, it’s leader.
Flo Barnett – Suicide
So, when Flo was found with three shotgun wounds to the chest, as well as one to her head, the most logical explanation would be what, exactly?
SUICIDE, OBVIOUSLY! OF COURSE!
I dont know about you all, but I feel like this story is just a little extra insane simply because her daughter has been “ in hiding “ for the last 15 years, and theres still no real conclusion to that story either.
THANKS FOR TRYING LEAH REMINI!
Should we get into this ?….
Let’s Talk About Flo Barnett’s Suicide
Debrah Kitchings was the investigator on this case, she was working for the Los Angeles County Coroner.
In an interview with The Village Voice for an article called ” The Strange Death of Flo Barnett, Mother-in-Law to Scientology Leader David Miscavige” By Tony Ortega, Kitching’s shared some of her thoughts about the case.
She said “ in the 26 years since she investigated the odd death of Mary Florence “Flo” Barnett for the Los Angeles County Coroner, she has not once been asked by a reporter about what she remembers of the case.
“I think her daughter or a relative sent a letter, an inquiry, I think,” Kitchings says.
The Investigation
On September 8th, 1985, the investigator was called to the Dominguez Valley Hospital in Compton to conduct a gunshot residue test on the hands of the dead woman, Flo Barnett.
As quoted from Tony Ortega who spoke with Kitching’s, he said the following:
“ Quite a few of us, I explained to her, wonder how Barnett managed to shoot herself three times in the chest and once in the head — with a long rifle — in what the County Medical Examiner ruled was a suicide.”
“It is very unusual,” Kitchings told him when they talked by telephone.
Kitching’s said that she didn’t respond to the scene of the incident, but was called by Sheriff’s Office personnel to the hospital, where Barnett had already been pronounced dead.
Kitchings wanted to make it clear as to why this makes a difference. Normally, if death is pronounced at a hospital, it’s not of great concern. Instead, in this case, Kitchings was personally called down to the hospital the same night Barnett’s body was taken there.
“The detective must have had some concern. We respond because they have a question,” she said.
Kitching’s made it a point to mention in her report that the detectives on the case felt as though this could be a homicide case, specifically due to the number of shot gun wounds.
Makes sense to me !
The Medical Examiner
Joan Shipley was the medical examiner who deemed Flo’s death a suicide.
The report said: “The case is that of a 52-year-old woman who died as the result of multiple gunshot wounds which were self-inflicted,”
From that same article by Tony Ortega, when investigator Kitching’s was asked how the medical examiner came to this conclusion of suicide, she said the following:
“I’ll tell you how. It doesn’t mean it was a suicide, but I’ll tell you how they came to that conclusion,” Kitchings answered. “It’s real easy to get away with murder anyway. It’s only as good as the investigator.”
She explained that a medical examiner could describe wounds and other conditions of a corpse, but she couldn’t tell by looking how a wound came to happen.
She gave me a hypothetical example of a man with a gunshot wound to the head. “A doctor has no clue whether the man shot his head off, which is a suicide; or died playing Russian Roulette, which is an accident; or if somebody shot him, which is homicide. The doctor cannot tell you whether it was accidental or on purpose. They have to rely on the investigator.”
She pointed that what killed Barnett was the shot to the head: “The gunshot wound of the head was immediately fatal and occurred following the 3 gunshot wounds to the chest,” reads the autopsy report.
Why Suicide Could Be Plausible
In term’s of the potential for suicide in this particular case, Kitching’s said
“Here you’ve got what appears to be a homicide. But you run into these other factors,” she said. “The hesitation marks on the wrists, for example. Were they fresh or were they healing?”
This is another example of a truly bizarre aspect of the case, Barnett not only had four bullet wounds, her wrists also showed evidence that they had been slashed.
However, According to the coroner, Barnett’s wrists had likely been sliced days before:
The coroner noted that “The wounds are consistent with those of several days’ age but are extremely superficial and may be more acute,” the autopsy report reads, suggesting a possible suicide attempt a few days prior to Barnett’s actual death.
Detective Bob Havercroft
From the same article for the Village Voice by Tony Ortega, Tony tracked down the lead detective on the case to pick his brain about “how he had come to the conclusion that a small, frail woman could kill herself with four rifle shots.”
“Very easily,” Havercroft answered.
“We reconstructed the scene. My lieutenant was there. It was fairly simple to do. The way she was positioned on her bed, the way the rifle was in her hand. I think we even recovered a bullet from next door — this was a trailer park,” he said.
“It was obvious what she was doing, which was typical of some women. She was trying to shoot herself in the chest, and in a critical area. There was a gunshot wound to a breast,” he said.
“When we finished the investigation I was absolutely convinced it was a suicide. There was no question,” he said, adding that he remembered a suicide note being found. In fact, two notes were found.”
He acknowledged that the situation was extremely unusual, and that on its surface, it seemed to suggest a different conclusion.
Hey, I can tell you my patrol deputy who was there was ready to take the husband to jail for murder. I had to cool him off. I walked him through it,” he said, and explained that eventually, his deputy came to the same conclusion.
ARE YA FUCKING KIDDING ME !?
“There’s no question,” he added. “It’s never a murder until it’s a murder. We never got beyond suicide. It was easy to reconstruct with the body and the position of the gun and so on. There was no cover-up. It was a suicide. It was not a murder,” he said. “It was one of those very, very interesting cases.”
Tony asked detective Havercroft:
” How does a 5-foot-3, 114-pound, 52-year-old woman with physical issues manage to shoot herself three times with a long gun into and through her chest, and still have the ability to finish herself off with a shot to the head?”
“Yes, they were through-and-through, but I think one was through the breast. And if I remember, there were implants. So how does that become a critical injury?” he asked.
The autopsy report does describe the shots as somewhat superficial: “The course of the 3 projectiles is through skin and soft tissue. One projectile does pass through the breast implant,” the report reads. But one bullet passed through Barnett’s left lung, and fractured ribs. If it was a suicide, that injury was apparently not something that could keep Barnett from continuing to fire at herself.
The Family Thinks It was Suicide
I’ll quickly mention that the family believes it was suicide. That hold’s no value to me personally, simply because Scientology is involved…but I digress.
There had been family members who mentioned Flo being depressed and attempting suicide at some point before he death as well.
I’d put more weight in her being murdered than taking their word or assessment for it, though.
Vicki Aznaran
According to a 1994 affidavit in a court case following a 1991 cover story by Time magazine called “ Scientology: The Cult of Greed “, a former high-ranking member within Scientology, a church executive to be exact, by the name of Vicki Aznaran, testified to the following:
Flo Barnett had become part of an embarrassing splinter group that had rejected David Miscavige’s leadership of Scientology. The group was David Mayo’s Advanced Ability Center.
She was receiving auditing and assistance from this group and at the time of her
death, possessed a pack of the NED for OTS which are (secret upper level auditing
procedures) which were believed to have come from David Mayo’s group.
What Is Auditing In Scientology
Let me just explain what auditing is just to clarify.
Auditing is a process whereby the ‘auditor’ takes an individual through times in their current or past lives with the purpose of ridding the individual of negative influences from past events or behaviors.
Vicki Aznaran ( CONT)
It’s also noted that Shelly Miscavige ( Her Daughter ), did not appear to feel any different about
the situation involving her mothers death than David.
Vicki asked Shelly if she was doing alright since receiving
this bad news. She said that personally she was doing just fine and
that this was an excellent opportunity to find out where the auditing
materials had come from and to use it as leverage against Mayo.
She also stated that it was not surprising that this happened to her mother
since she had been “squirelling”.
“Flo Barnett’s membership in this group made her a suppressive person as she was actively ‘squirreling’ and a member of a suppressive group,” Aznaran testified, referring to Scientology’s word for heretic — squirrel. “The fact that David Miscavige was linked to her by familial ties was extremely repugnant to him and to his wife, Michelle Miscavige.”
Aznaran testified that she witnessed Miscavige comment on Barnett’s death, “the bitch got what she deserved.”
Robert Vaughn Young
Another former church executive, Robert Vaughn Young, in his own court declaration, spoke about the irregularities in Flo’s death, and what investigators might not have considered:
“What the authorities didn’t know was that she had left Scientology and was associating with apostates, to the anger of her son-in- law Miscavige.”
Closing
In closing, heres a quote from David Miscavige from his own affidavit in the same case.
“ Not only is there no evidence to support this claim by Young, but there is clear evidence to the contrary. With the reports of the coroner and the medical examiner’s investigator, and with the deposition of the medical examiner…all to the unanimous, unequivocal conclusion that Ms. Barnett died from self-inflicted gunshots — Young has the temerity to suggest that I should be investigated to determine what he calls my role in that tragic suicide. With complete disdain for the facts and no regard whatsoever for any sense of decency, Young has taken a personal tragedy in my family’s life, the suicide of my mother-in-law, and attempted to make this an issue in this lawsuit by twisting it to imply non-existent wrongdoing on my part. I not only had nothing to do with this tragic incident, but Vaughn Young’s gratuitous embellishment that I ordered the matter “hushed up” is equally false.”
Miscavige quite obviously denies that he had anything to do with Barnett’s death.
And just so we have this on record, we are accusing no one of killing Flo Barnett. As far as public record is concerned, Flo Barnett died by suicide….
And Shelly Miscavige is voluntarily in hiding……..
Make sure to check out our post for this episode on our website! There you can find links to the material used for this episode, as well as a link to some other mysterious deaths from Scientology Land !
http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/www.whyaretheydead.net/index.html
http://www.xenu-directory.net/mirrors/www.whyaretheydead.net/flo_barnett/background.html
Visuals Made For This Episode
