Some background on Flo Barnett's death From: tilman@berlin.snafu.de (Tilman Hausherr)

Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

Subject: Re: Flo Barnett's "suicide"

Date: Mon, 02 Oct 1995 11:37:10 GMT

Here is a repost of some materials I have on the death of Flo Barnett. Don't expect to know who suicided her by reading it :-) ======================================================================== From RVY: Another mysterious but key death was that of Flo Barnett, Miscavige's mother-in-law. She died in 1985 of three shots to the chest and one to the temple from a semi-automatic rifle. Two suicide notes were found. Although she was only 5'3" tall (and weighed only 114 pounds), the examiner determined she shot herself three times in the chest (with a rifle) before shooting herself through the head. (See coroner's report attached as Exhibit V.) 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. [RVY here states an *lay opinion* (that the suicide is suspicious), and a *fact* (that she was squirrelling)] ======================================================================== Vicki Aznaran #1: THE DEATH OF FLO BARNETT 11. Flo Barnett's suicide was a scandal within the inner circles of Scientology. This was not due to the fact that she supposedly committed suicide, but due to the f act that she had become a member of a declared. enemy group, 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 (secret upper level auditing procedures) which were believed to have come from David Mayo's group. Flo Barnett's membership in this group made her a suppressive person as she was actively "squirreling" and a member of a suppressive group. The fact that David Miscavige was linked to her by familial ties was extremely repugnant to him and to his wife, Michelle Miscavige. David Miscavige's comment upon her death was that "the bitch got what she deserved." His wife Shelly, did not appear to feel any different about it than David. I 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 NED for OTs 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". The circumstances of the deaths of both Flo Barnett and Yvonne Jentzsch are very relevant to the issues in this case, as I understand them to be. ======================================================================= Vicki Aznaran #2 (in which she accused Graham Berry of having written her affidavit himself, after she settled with the co$): b) The statements in the filed declaration concerning the death of Michelle Miscavige's mother were added to without authorization by me. This included mention of the death of Heber Jentzsch's wife which is not something I had ever spoken to Mr. Berry about, and I have no knowledge and never heard anything that indicated there was anything unusual about Mr. Jentzsch's wife death. She died of natural causes. The statement concerning Flo Barnett's death were not put in context and were not meant to imply that there was any wrongdoing surrounding her death. In approximately September 1985, when I was the Deputy Inspector General of Religious Technology Center ("RTC"), I learned that Mary Florence Barnett, Mrs. Miscavige's mother, had committed suicide. She had been involved with a group of disaffected former Scientologists who practiced altered versions of Scientology. I only know that after hearing about her death both David and Shelly Miscavige were very upset over the fact that Flo Barnett had killed herself. I also wish to make known that I have seen mention in an affidavit by Vaughn Young that David Miscavige ordered the matter "hushed up." This was stated in the context of indicating wrongdoing on Mr. Miscavige's part and insinuating he had some participation in the matter. A careful and literal reading of the statment shows that Mr. Young never actually says he knows Mr. Miscavige was involved in this suicide, or that there was any evidence of such, but by innuendo his statement still leaves this impression. To my knowledge there was never any order by David Miscavige or anyone else to keep the matter quiet. If any such order existed it would most likely have been given to me. And since I took actions to make the matter quite well known and never heard anybody, let alone David Miscavige, ask for the matter to be hushed up, I know this statement and the innuendo to be false; [My comment: note that she said that "She died under natural causes" (haha) and that she does not specifically recant her allegations. Instead, she says that "she didn't talk about it" or "it was not unusual"] =========================================================================== From Miscavige: 19. Exemplifying the unsupportable, irrelevant and malicious nature of Vaughn Young's personal assault on me is his false and repugnant insinuation that I was involved with the death of my mother-in-law, Mary Florence Barnett. 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 taken by Geertz's counsel at hand -- 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. My only association with this tragedy was to console my wife who was understandably emotionally traumatized and grief stricken. Vaughn Young's effort to exploit this tragedy is malicious in and of itself, but his innuendo and attempts to recast the incident, despite the uncontroverted evidence as to the true cause of Ms. Barnett's death, show the depths to which he is willing to sink. [Miscavige's affidavit is misleading (what else would you expect) - RVY did not allege that Miscavige was involved, that was Vicki - RVY did allege that Miscavige was angry about her squirrelling - Miscavige and Vicki#2 use the word "hushed up". - Miscavige does not comment Vicki#1 - Miscavige does not deny that Flo was squirrelling, and that he was angry about it - the rest is just blabla] =========================================================================== From FACTNet: ????? Barnett, Flo murder Flo Barnett a.k.a. Miller died from several gunshot wounds. She was David Miscavige's mother- in-law. Just before her death she was reported to have had an argument with David Miscavige and threatened to go public and sue Scientology ========================================================================== Fishman press release 28.4.94: David Miscavige's mother-in-law, Mary Florence "Flo" Barnett, died from four rifle shots, three to the chest and one to the head. Originally classified as a "suicide", upon closer inspection it was determined from the ballistics and the height of Ms. Barnett that the wounds could not have been self-inflicted. Evidence was collected that just one week prior to her death, Ms. Barnett had threatened to sue the Church, and was in contact with David Mayo, a former member who was an avowed enemy of David Miscavige. ========================================================================= Fishman 10.12.93 letter to IRS about Miscavige: Yet nowhere does his name show up as either a director or a trustee. This may have something to do with a multitude of bad acts for which he is being investigated, including the murder of his mother-in-law, Mary Florence Barnett in 1985, whose death was ruled a suicide until recently, when the Medical Examiner in Los Angeles gave the opinion that she could not have committed suicide, from the ballistics, as she would have had to shoot herself four times with a shotgun. Her death is being referred over to the Sheriff's Office for investigation as a homicide. Several days before her death, she threatened to sue Miscavige and the Church of Scientology International. (See Exhibit B). ======================================================================== Milne DA vs. FACTNet: From: milne@crl.com (Andrew Milne) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Flo Barnett's death Date: 25 Apr 1995 23:49:05 -0700 The source of the false allegation about Mr. Miscavige's mother-in-law is FACTNET. This is a pernicious effort by Wollersheim to exploit a family tragedy. As reflected in the medical examiner's records and sworn testimony (which Wollersheim has), Ms. Barnett was despondent after failing to fully recover from a brain operation, and she took her own life. The Autopsy Report dated September 11, 1985, concluded: "The case is that of a 52-year old woman who died as the result of multiple gunshot wounds which were self-inflicted. The gunshot wound of the head was immediately fatal and occurred following the 3 gunshot wounds to the chest which had produced a very small left hemothorax. In addition there were 2 recent incised wounds that involved the right and left wrists. Two suicide notes were left and the decedent had become depressed following surgical intervention for an aneurysm of the carotid artery." Contrary to Factnet's lies, the December 1993 deposition testimony of the Chief Medical Examiner of Los Angeles County confirmed that "the cause of death and the manner of death was suicide." Factnet's allegation that the deposition of the Los Angeles County Coroner "cast doubt upon whether such a set of facts could possibly be a suicide" is completely false. Mr. Miscavige had nothing to do with Flo Barnett's death and it did not occur while she was receiving "Scientology services." There was no argument between Flo Barnett and Mr. Miscavige. In fact, Mr. Miscavige had not been in communication with his mother-in-law for some years prior to her tragic death. [Notice this: - he has not denied Miscavige's (David and Shelly) reaction to the suicide. - no one alleges that Flo was getting "scientology sevices", since she was "squirrelling" :-) - *both* FACTNet's claim and Milne's claim (that there was an argument) are nothing more than allegations (sorry FACTNet) - Both Fishman and Milne fail to provide meaningful excerpts of the depo. I hope this will be resolved soon. - Saying "had not been in communication" means nothing from a scieno. Does this mean they didn't audit each other ? That they didn't write each other ? Scienos redefine words all the time. Even if it was true, it doesn't matter, since Miscavige could be mad on Flo without "being in communication" with her.] --- Tilman Hausherr [KoX; awards: DB, SP decl. by Koos] biz: <tilman@sietec.de> <URL:http://www.sietec.de/> (company page) home: <tilman@berlin.snafu.de> <URL:http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/> Resistance is futile. You will be enturbulated. Xenu always prevails. 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