Once again, the very reason for the Underground Bunker’s existence is here again, as we celebrate Paulette Cooper’s birthday on July 26. It was while working on our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, that we created our website back in 2012 to keep in touch with our audience so they’d know when the book was ready.
We admired Paulette right from the beginning of our introduction of Scientology studies, way back in the mid-1990s, and that admiration only grew as we got to know her personally and then spent a couple of years on the book project. Since then, we’ve written a second book with her, she’s come out with a memoir, and we’ve loved keeping up on all the things she and her husband, Paul Noble, have been up to. So we asked her what was the latest in her world, and she told us a shaggy dog story. Ha!
I purchased a dog on Facebook that didn’t exist and the scam cost me $4,000. So, I turned around and wrote a story about it (“I was Puppy Scammed on the Internet”) to warn others about this fraud. I sold my article to Newsweek, and then posted it to Facebook when it came out.
I got an immediate email from an animal rescue site that they had an adorable 5-pound, 5-year-old Maltese/Shih Tzu for me that they had rescued from a puppy mill.
The next day Paul and I adopted Peaches, a loveable pup who had spent five sad years in a cage until we saved her. She is now living a happy and wonderful life with us and our other dog, Piki.
(I donated the payment for the Newsweek article to the rescue site to help other pets get adopted.)
Here’s Peaches the first day we adopted her — when she saw grass for the first time.
Another photo of Paul and Piki and Peaches.
Congratulations on another trip around the sun, Paulette! And we hope Paul can keep up with those cute pups.
Tell us, Bunker denizens, what is your favorite part of Paulette’s story? Her survival as a child during the Holocaust? Her years as a glamorous magazine journalist in Manhattan in the swinging 60s? Her daring exploit to smuggle herself onboard a cruise ship for a magazine story? Her exposure of L. Ron Hubbard with her 1971 book, ‘The Scandal of Scientology’? The years of harassment she went through, with Hubbard and the Guardian’s Office going so far as to recruit lookalikes and soundalikes to impersonate her, and eventually to get her framed for a crime she didn’t commit, facing 15 years in federal prison? And so much more?
This woman is simply amazing.
Want to help?
You can support the Underground Bunker with a Paypal contribution to bunkerfund@tonyortega.org, an account administered by the Bunker’s attorney, Scott Pilutik. And by request, this is our Venmo link, and for Zelle, please use (tonyo94 AT gmail).
Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:
Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain
Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org
And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning.
Paid subscribers get access to two special podcast series every week…
Up the Bridge: A weekly journey through Scientology’s actual “technology”
Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news
I mean... how could you possibly ask us to name a favorite part of Paulette's story and not expect us to answer getting Peaches?
Obviously her whole life is filled with wonderful choices for answers, but you kind of rigged the game after you shared the adorable picture of Peaches first seeing grass! ♡
Paulette is the heros hero ❤️
Here is her website where you can read The Scandal of Scientology or download the pdf.
http://www.paulettecooper.com/