Steve Brackett, Scientology Super Power Building Donor

We are still trying to piece together the events that led to the death of construction mogul and former beau of Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson) Steve Brackett’s suicide — and even more intriguing — why Scientologist associates were covering up the truth about his death.

The super-sleuths over at WWP discovered and made the connections between Brackett’s apparent suicide and his Scientology connections. As we stated here before at Glosslip, Scientology, statistically, has a high number of suicides within its membership, as well as, a number of unexplained deaths. Here are some details about the discovery of Brackett’s body back in May from the Monterey Herald:

Los Angeles man dies after fall from bridge

The body of a Los Angeles man, who apparently leaped to his death from the Highway 1 Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur Coast, was discovered Thursday.

A hiker found Stephen Brackett, 54, about 5:30a.m., said Dan Robison, a detective with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Coroner division.

Brackett, who was supposed to be visiting friends, disappeared Sunday. Robison said Brackett died from injuries suffered after the nearly 200-foot fall from the bridge.

There are no indications of foul play, and friends and relatives of Brackett said he was despondent because of financial troubles with his business, Robison said.

In this economy, it’s hard to not find sad stories like this of economic hardship taking its toll on a person’s mental state, so this story could have been swept up in the tide of bad news we are becoming all too accustomed to, were it not for the intriguing details that WWP were able to piece together after coming across this blog entry at the Bluemel Reader (writer Dan Bluemel) about Brackett’s death:

I had worked for Brackett for two years starting in 2000. He was a Scientology OT, which is to say in Scientology parlance, he was a “knowing and willing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time.” [2] Since I had left his Los Angeles based construction company, Brackett Construction, Brackett had become a multi-million dollar contributor to Scientology. For a time, he courted Scientology celebrity, Nancy Cartwright, who is the voice of the cartoon character Bart Simpson.

Unfortunately, according to my sources, Brackett had run into trouble on various construction projects and recently lost several arbitration settlements, one of which cost him $300,000. He was scheduled to go to Flag, Scientology’s top church, soon, as a plane ticket had been purchased. More than likely, this visit was intended to help him sort out his recent woes using Scientology’s expensive psuedo-science counseling techniques.

The fascinating thing about Brackett’s death is that a Brackett Construction executive, who is a Scientologist, has been telling people for days that Brackett died in a head-on collision. My sources reveal that the cover story is even being told to Brackett’s children and mother. The reason for this lie is to protect the image of Scientology’s exalted state of OT, whom Scientologists believe to have supernatural powers giving them a near, full control over life.

It is truly sad when one considers that Brackett would not have had anyone, such as a relative or close friend, with whom he could have discussed his depression with. In the Scientology belief system, one’s “case” cannot be discussed with anyone other than their counselor, especially if they are an OT. That means Brackett could only talk about his issues with strangers or acquaintances at Flag, which is located across the country in Florida. Furthermore, OT’s are expected to embody the best of Scientology. So Brackett would have gone through this experience while feeling he must convey to those around him an aura of happiness and control. Also, considering Brackett’s money trouble juxtaposed against Scientologist’s belief that wealth is a sign of spiritual superiority, the pressure on Brackett must have been overwhelming.

Rather than take this time to question their false belief system, Scientologists who knew Brackett are going along with this crude attempt at public relations by continuing the cover story about his death. Although in private, they are talking about what really happened. But these Scientologists will not question their belief system. Instead, as church founder, L. Ron Hubbard would have them believe, Scientologists will wonder what Brackett had done to cause him to sink into spiritual degradation. Perhaps “there were errors in his counseling” or maybe “he had been weakened by a lack of morality,” they will wonder. Not once will these Scientologists realize that their belief system is a fraud.

So in the last couple of weeks we’ve had two Scientology-affiliated deaths (David Carradine being the other) and both have something in common besides Scientology: the media glossing over both deceased parties association with a cult which considers mental illness a false ailment and expressly forbids its members from seeking treatment outside of its own “cures.”

Brackett was set to wed fellow Scientologist Nancy Cartwright who does the voice of Bart Simpson, and who famously was outed in the media last year for donating $10 million dollars to the “church.” According to Variety.com, Nancy and Steve were to be married in the spring of 2008, but that union was canceled.

Next spring, Cartwright will wed high-end general contractor Steve Brackett. The only two words she revealed about the wedding ceremony: “MARCHING BANDS.

Steve had been affiliated with the Church of Scientology since as far back as 1979, when he is listed as having reached “clear” status. Brackett is also listed as a Gold Meritorious IAS member, which signifies he’s contributed at least a $1 million to the CoS. Another interesting tidbit posted at WWP, was a “leaked” email about Steve’s death to Scientology members:

Steve Bracket departed his body last week.

Many of us knew Steve as an LA Org OTC Member who not only contributed to our projects through his work and financially, but brought many people into the LA Org for services. He’s a great guy and will be missed.

Steve’s memorial service will be held at Celebrity Centre this coming Saturday at 1:00 PM. Please feel free to let others know who may want to wish him a fond farewell and new beginning.

ML,
Betsy

Read into all that Scientology mumbo jumbo what you will. For additional information on this, please visit the WWP forum, where they have all the source data used in this story. Many thanks to all those folks who contributed in providing info on Steve’s death at WWP.

Of course, Jackson’s camp and his “official one and only spokeperson”, a Dr. Tohme Tohme (seriously?) have emphatically denied these claims as “a total fabrication” and claim that in fact, Jackson is great health and pursuing many lucrative and fancy business deal.

The National Enquirer (hey don’t laugh, they’ve gotten some big stories right lately) is also corroborating Jackson illness, and cite painkillers as a source of much of Jackson physical deterioration over the years:

A source close to the star divulged: “It’s tragic. His condition is just so far gone, I’d be surprised if he lasts six months.

“Painkillers and booze have caught up with him. The only way he was able to cope with the stress of sex scandals and his roller-coaster life was to mask the pain with substance abuse.

“But the end result is an addiction that will kill him.”

Halperin, with his reputation and book on the line, isn’t backing down and is willing to stand by his story, and like the old saying goes, he’s putting his money where his mouth is.

Insiders close to the author have told Glosslip that Ian’s team have sent word to Michael Jackson that they are willing to pay the full expense of flying Jackson to one of the leading lung clinics in the world — The Cleveland Clinic (or any of the other top-notch clinics of Jackson’s choosing) and pay for a full medical examination of the ailing star. From Halperin’s perspective, this would clear up any misinformation and if the author is wrong, and Jackson IS healthy, Halperin will hold a press conference and tell the world he was wrong and retract his statement. Our insiders said Ian is hoping he is wrong, as he wishes the star nothing but good health.

We await word on the outcome of this challenge. One final caveat to this mystery of he said/he said, is why Jackson’s own spokesperson claimed Jackson was too ill to travel to Bahrain and testify in the lawsuit pending against him, and why has he been photographed several times wheelchair bound and wearing a surgical mask?

Clearly, something isn’t right.

As we all know, the latest Batman film, The Dark Knight, which has made close to $400M in the three weeks since it opened, features an amazing performance by the late Heath Ledger who died this past January from an accidental prescription drug overdose. Ledger, haunted by his work in the film, had suffered from chronic insomnia and seemed to be medicating his way through a dark period sparked by his role as the homicidal Joker character. Ledger admitted in interviews that he had tapped into some very disturbing elements of his psyche to play such an intense role. The wake of his death left many unanswered questions and a grieving family to ponder what might have been for the talented star.

While many have been drawn to the film to watch what was Ledger’s final completed project, another brooding character from the film, British actor Christian Bale resurrected his tortured role as Batman in this new film, only to have a decades old unresolved family feud boil over into his on-screen life. Bale, an intensely private star has made it clear to the press his private life is off-limits, this however, did not stop his estranged mother and sister from making a private altercation public when they filed assault charges. Anyone would question the timing of the events, which occurred on the eve of London premiere of the much anticipated film.

While details are sketchy, we do know the charge was serious enough to have resulted in Bale having to report to the London police to give a statement about the “assault” immediately following the premiere. Bale’s mother, Jenny and older sister Sharon, allege Bale verbally and physically assaulted them, but according to most reports, the incident stemmed from Christian’s mother and sister asking the star for $200K for his sister to use in “helping her raise her children”. Things were said to have escalated when Bale’s wife Sibi was insulted by his mother and sister, including a possible shove/push of some sort.

Considering what we do know about his family history, with his parents being divorced in 1987, and Christian going to live with his father who became his manager, reports suggest Christian and his mother grew apart during that time.

Since this is a private family matter, that his sister and mother made public, and an apparent shakedown was at the center, I will give Christian the benefit of the doubt, with again, the timing being the key to all of this. It seems that as headlines of the film shattering box office records were being splashed all over the media, Bale’s sister and mother saw a golden opportunity as it were. Very sad.

And now we have news of a very serious car accident involving another star from the hugely successful film, Morgan Freeman, who starred with Christian Bale in the previous Batman film, Batman Begins.

Freeman, who reprises his role as inventor Lucius Fox is the latest star to suffer from what is becoming the Dark Knight curse. While none of these stars prior to the recent events have ever had a hint of controversy in their lives, which is notably strange in the entertainment world, it makes you wonder what forces are at work in these sad events. From my experiences, the universe is in a constant struggle to maintain a balance, or equilibrium if you will. If you follow the yin and yang theory, the wildly successful film, could in turn spawn a negative reaction to counter balance the outrageous money the Dark Knight has made in such a short period of time.

Perhaps Warner Brothers, who’ve been widely accused of trying to profit off of the tragedy of Heath Ledger’s untimely passing are to blame for this? Or perhaps, it’s just an odd, but unfortunate series of events.

Hey, what do I know? I write a celeb gossip site.

Almost a year after taking a break from his Broadway hit musical 27 Heaven, bestselling multi media artist His Highness Ian Halperin has confirmed in an exclusive interview with Glosslip that he intends to take Broadway by storm this Fall, producing and directing two plays in the same night by a writer he says will make a ton of noise this year.

He’d only give her name to us as J.K., saying he’s been collaborating with her for months and described her as being the “new Jackie Collins” of Broadway. The only other details Halperin divulged was that legendary Broadway composer/guitarist Laurent Medelgi (Hairspray, Spring Awakening, Rent) has agreed to write the score. He will also perform in the show.

Halperin said the concept of having two short plays in the same night, by the same writer will change the way theatergoers see plays from now on.

“People are tired of sitting through a three hour play. The idea of two shorts, similar subject matter by the same writer, with the same cast in both will be a first. People will beat down doors to see this.”

After pressing Halperin he agreed to reveal the names of the plays – “Subconsciously Single” and “An Affairytale”. Sounds like his writer J.K.’s timing is perfect for New York in light of all the Spitzer and governor cheating scandals earlier this year.

In our continued coverage of the astounding interview we did with ex-Scientologist and Sea Org member Marc Headley, he revealed David Miscavige, RTC President and head of the Church, was directly involved in the cover-up of Lisa McPherson’s death. Lisa, a young and pretty Scientologist whose death in 1995 rocked the Church of Scientology, has since become the poster child for the alleged abuses leveled at the Church.

The story of Lisa’s death is incredibly tragic. Not simply because we see the face of vibrant, beautiful young woman cut down it the prime of her life, but because for all intents and purposes, her death was completely preventable. Here’s a very brief summary in the interest of time, but I encourage anyone interested to do more research about the events surrounding Lisa’s death:

Police say McPherson, 36, entered the Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s Clearwater headquarters, in November 1995. They say she was physically healthy but psychologically disturbed. Seventeen days later she died. An autopsy determined her death was due to a blood clot brought on by “severe dehydration” and “bed rest.” Pinellas-Pasco Medical Examiner Joan Wood has said the medical evidence indicates McPherson went without fluids for five to 10 days, possibly longer, and was comatose for at least 24 hours before she died. Bites on her hands were most likely made by cockroaches, Wood has said. (Tampa Tribune, June 1, 1997)

The Church of Scientology pulled out ALL the stops on this case to disassociate themselves with Lisa’s death, in the end the criminal charges of “homicide” were dropped and the case was settled out of court in a civil trial. But apparently, there’s more to this story than what we been led to believe. From Marc Headley’s interview:

DO: Do you think if enough Scientologists got together, I mean you and the staff and whoever, and came up with a Class Action Suit, do you think that would be an effective means, or do you think it’s still too crazy to do something like that?

MH: I don’t know, you gotta dig that the Church of Scientology, International Management sends about a hundred thousand dollars a week to the Office of Special Affairs to conduct legal battles, that is in-house attorneys, private investigators, whatever. That’s a lot of money. A hundred thousand dollars a week, so, that’s the kind of thing that I myself, when I hear people saying like that, “We’re gonna get a bunch of people together and we’re gonna do this”, I kind of think, ok, it seems plausible, if you had enough people, and it was an open and shut case, then maybe that would work. But at the same time, they killed a woman and got away with it.

DO: You’re talking about Lisa McPherson?

MH:Yeah, that’s a whole ‘nother interview. And I’ll probably have somebody call you. But I know people that were there in Clearwater that cleaned out different offices or rooms where she was in after that incident happened, so there would be zero evidence left behind on what happened. When that case was going on, David Miscavige was up day and night reading through medical books trying to come up with some way that the condition she had was totally disrelated to what they were subjecting her to. I mean, he was up day and night. He had medical books. He was on the internet. He wasn’t sleeping for weeks, trying to figure this out. He HIMSELF was doing that, because it was looking really, really bleak that this thing was not going to go their way. But somehow they managed to do whatever they did and settle, or whatever happened, and it went away.

DO: I heard a rumor Marc, and I don’t know… and I would love to have you back. Believe me.
We’ve got people clamoring for the information and they really want to know it and you seem to
have it. But I heard a rumor about Lisa, Lisa’s case, that people were speculating that she wasn’t
even actually held at Fort Harrison and maybe she was held at … I don’t know if it’s a Best Western
or at some other building that is kinda off-site there in Clearwater. And there’s rumors about a
locker or whatever that means. It’s obviously a rumor.

But they thought it was really odd that she had cockroach bites on her and this was supposed
to be like, a Five-Star hotel. There were no cockroaches in any of the other rooms. Why is it that
she’s in this Five-star whatever, it’s the mecca of Scientology, this high-end place for worldwide
people to come visit. She’s been bitten by bugs and she’s been dehydrated. And this whole
embolism thing sounds like … probably came from not being moved enough if you’re in a
vegetative, comatose state. Do you think there’s more to this story of legal actions than what we
heard in the news?

MH: Oh absolutely. Absolutely. Not to go off on a total wild thing but all of the people that were involved in that from RTC to the Flag Land Base Staff, the people that were auditing her, the people that were overseeing her auditing, every single one of those people that was anywhere involved with that: as soon as that case was settled, they were whisked off and made to disappear. The girl that was in Religious Technology Center in Clearwater was sent to Australia to do the Rehabilitation Project Force there. Australia! Because they wanted her far, far, far away, never to be seen or heard from again, because she had involvement and knew information regarding the Lisa McPherson case. Her name is Ricky Yensen, by the way. Or Ricky Galviotti, or Ricky Drake, whichever name she uses now.

There’s absolutely more than has been told and more that’s been heard that went on. I’ll have
this other fella that I know contact you, who was there in Clearwater and was working with Marty
Rathbun when this was going down. Marty Rathbun was in Religious Technology Center at the
time as well, he was like David’s henchman. Cleaning up all this messy stuff. So there’s absolutely
more more to this story.

DO: Do you think this case could be re-opened if somebody would be willing to come forward with
new details that there was a cover up involved?

MH: Well, it’s the same type of thing. You’ve got to get enough people that all know the same thing that are all willing to put their neck on the line and persevere through whatever the church is gonna throw at them. It’s that same kind of scenario.

Here’s an interesting story about Marty Rathbun and how his first assignment in the Sea Org was to protect a woman named Diane Colletto from her husband who she’d disconnected from. Diane’s husband, John Colletto had been forcibly sent to the RPF, or the Scientology prison work force, and he escaped because he wanted to see his wife. Due the disconnection policy of the Church, they were forbidden from speaking and John tracked down Diane who was with Marty Rathbun at the time and he watched her get shot down in cold blood. John tried to shoot Marty too, but was out of bullets. John Colletto was later found dead, having shot himself with the same gun.

After witnessing an incident like that, handling the Lisa McPherson case for David Miscavige must have been a trip down tulip lane.

Radar Online, have gotten an answer back from Church of Scientology spokeswhores on the Freewinds cruise ship asbestos story (which we broke first thanks to Anonymous sources) and as expected, their response is full of lies and prevarication, and even Radar, a reputable news outlet casts doubts on the veracity of those speaking on behalf of the dissembling Church of Scientology:

First, however, it needs saying that the church has issued misleading, though technically true statements about its actions in the past. When Radar last asked about the church hand-delivering legal threats to members of Scientology antagonists Anonymous, the spokeswoman below denied that lawyers were delivering legal threats. But someone representing the firms hired by the church was delivering DVDs and legal letters. This time, Radar e-mailed the spokeswoman as soon as we learned of the report of the Freewinds being locked up. Karin Pouw objected to the lack of time we gave her to respond and to the nature of the questions. She went on to say that Freewinds inspects its air quality but does not say government authorities performed these inspectors. We’ve asked for clarification and proof of the inspection results and will report on the response.

Tyler Gray
Radar Magazine
Email: tgraydar@gmail.com

Dear Mr. Gray, Your questions contained allegations that are offensive and plain wrong. Further, you provided a one-hour deadline to answer your questions–a deadline which passed before your questions were even received by us.
_______________

The Freewinds regularly inspects the air quality on board and always meets or exceeds US standards. Inspections done on April 15, 2008 and April 28, 2008 again confirmed that the air quality is safe, in accordance with the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Clean Air Act.

The Freewinds is currently undergoing a complete refit, including renovations of all cabins and accommodations facilities as well as upgrading all navigational and nautical safety equipment to meet or exceed future maritime codes scheduled for implementation in the year 2010.

The true and accurate story is that the Freewinds is being restored to better than new condition and no expense has ever been spared in meeting the highest safety standards of any seagoing vessel.

The Captain of the Freewinds is a highly respected officer who is known for his competence and for his dedication to safety at sea. He and the Freewinds have received numerous commendations from port authorities and other ships for the help they extended to the islands in ports of call, as well as the training of maritime students in maritime safety for which the Freewinds is renowned.

The Freewinds will be completing its refit on schedule.

Regards,

Karin Pouw

The truth is, Lawrence Woodcraft (who we are setting up an interview with for our Glosslip Radio show along with his daughter Astra) has been warning about the deadly, cancer-causing blue asbestos for seven years. If the CoS continues to use this ship, knowing full well they have exposed their members and those using the cruise line to a known deadly substance, then this clearly opens them up to a vast array of legal actions, including an almost iron-clad class-action suit.

Scientology has hidden behind their litigious threats for years and we encourage any and all news agencies to pursue this story to get a full and comprehensive answer about this cover-up.

Sunday’s two-hour Glosslip Radio program was FANTASTIC and if you missed you can catch it here (look over to the right at the little BLOGTALKRADIO widget). We had two great guests, ex-Scientologists Michael Pattison and Chuck Beatty. More on these two gentlemen here.

During the show, NYT best-selling author, Ian Halperin, who featured interviews with Michael Pattinson for his film His Highness Hollywoodcalled in to the show and relayed his experiences at his film screening three weeks ago. As we reported exclusively on Glosslip, Ian’s film premiere was sabotaged and despite valiant efforts by his crew and the fine folks at the National Arts Club, those in attendance never saw the finished film.

While investigating the technical glitches, the NAC tech folks discovered someone had tampered with the settings on the film equipment and somehow 12 (two more were found after our previous report) viruses had been downloaded on the laptop used to play the film. Ian asked Michael his thoughts on this sabotage, and about the warnings Pattinson had issued about the Church of Scientology to Halperin the summer before when they were making the film. Pattison said:

“It could very well have been sabotage by Scientology’s covert operations divison known as the Office of Special Affairs (OSA). They could very well have done something like that. I’m not saying that they did it, but it’s something that would be typical them [CoS]…I did warn you.”

I was also informed that Halperin had received another threatening phone call yesterday and several hang ups over the last week. Halperin is considering hiring private security. Might be a good idea. I bet OSA is working overtime these days.

I am still working on part two of a theory about the death of L. Ron Hubbard. But there are many people who have differing views on what happened in the last days before Scientology founder and spiritual leader L. Ron Hubbard was found dead on January 24, 1986. We do know an anti-psychotic drug was found in his system, but no autopsy was done on “religious” grounds and the circumstanced prior to his death and what happened afterwards are very suspicious (his will was changed just prior to his death, Hubbard was extremely anti-pysch drug, his attending doctor, Gene Denk who never left his side disappeared two weeks before his death to go on a gambling trip with current RTC leader David Miscavige in Vegas, and Dr. Denk disappeared for an entire year after Hubbard’s death). So, before I draw my own conclusions I want to hear from the public their opinions.

Clip from “His Highness Hollywood” interview with ex-Scienologist Michael Pattinson

After an exhaustive investigation into the tech nightmare author Ian Halperin endured on the opening of his new film, “His Highness Hollywood,” a representative from the National Arts Club, Greg Singer confirmed the film’s equipment was tampered with just prior to the opening of the movie.

Singer, the tech official on duty that evening for the NAC, had this to say about the circumstances which led to the final version film being scrapped after three failed attempts:

“It [the tampering] was a professional job. Someone tampered with the screen projection system. All the settings were changed and the laptop was inspected before the screening. There was a system check for viruses, and the computer came back 100% clean. When we investigated the laptop after the screening, there was a virus infecting the laptop. Someone was definitely out to sabotage the evening.”

I asked Ian how many people he invited to the premiere and he estimated about 30, including select members of the media. Ian said he was keeping the numbers small and exclusive out of concern for any possible attempts by groups targeted in the film, namely the Church of Scientology, from preventing the screening of the film.

As stated in Glosslip’s earlier post on the event, there were 200 people at the screening, with at least 70 turned away. Ian said he didn’t know how word got out, but was initially thrilled at the turn out. I did some checking on my own and saw on the NAC’s website the event listed on their calendar of events. So really, anyone in the public could have been privy to this information.

Prior to the book’s release Ian did some publicity for his projects, plus there are several excerpts of the film available on YouTube with Ian going in undercover at the ScientologyCelebrity Center in, and the most damaging part is Ian’s interviews with ex-Scientologist Michael Pattinson. Pattinson has attempted to sue the Church for damages related to spending close to $500,000 on auditing and spiritual training to cure him of his “homosexuality.

Scientologists believe “homosexuality” to be an aberration within humans. L. Ron Hubbard spoke specifically of it within his writings, especially in his popular book Dianetics.

“The sexual pervert (and by this term Dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II [i.e. sexuality] such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc., and all down the catalog of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically… he is very far from culpable for his condition, but he is also far from normal and extremely dangerous to society…

On something called the “tone scale,” homosexuality is at the top of the undesirable chart at -40 -1.1, referred to as “total failure.”,

“At 1.1 on the tone scale we enter the area of the most vicious reversal of the second dynamic. Here we have promiscuity, perversion, sadism, and irregular practices.”

I give Hubbard credit for suggesting homosexuals weren’t completely “culpable” for their condition. In some ways that’s quite generous to most other religious opinions. But most religions don’t sue people for leaving, threaten and harass their critics, have special arrangements with the IRS, or tell their members who they can or can’t have in their lives.

Between my interview, Ian’s threatening phone calls, Defamer’s and Queerty’s publicizing the details and the general air of hostility between the Church of Scientology and the public, anything is possible.

We have no way of knowing who was involved, all that remains clear is someone did not want Ian’s film watched that evening.

[Editor's note: correction made to tone scale rating on homosexuality]

It’s long, but certainly telling. Also, here’s a complete transcript of the event, including color commentary.

Parts 2 – 5 after the jump: