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1986 - 1989
I have relatives and friends that
live in Florida, one of them is in Clearwater, so I decided in the summer of 1986 to get a place
to live there and a job and go to Flag.
I had never been to Flag before
and didn't know I knew anyone there yet to my knowledge. Flag resembles a business resort and not a church.
Scientologists refer to it as the Flag Service Organization {FSO}. It is a Class XII church
meaning one where all of the materials of Scientology are learned in one place. A big hotel called the Fort
Harrison is part of it and Scientologists from all over the world stay there when getting services at Flag.
The Fort Harrison Hotel - Clearwater, Florida
I worked
across the street from the Fort Harrison at a place called the Gray Moss Inn and could see and hear many activities
going on at the hotel from the door of inn.
The Gray Moss Inn - Clearwater, Florida
The Gray Moss Inn has since been demolished
and replaced with a Scientology museum and training academy.
Scientology Museum & School
{On the site of the former Gray Moss Inn}
I made friends with two neighbors
my age named Thomas Cracolicci and Christine Faun. They both worked in a Scientologist owned diner around the corner called
Boston Ronnie's. Thomas was a short order cook and Christine was a waitress. Unlike me they had never had
any involvement in Scientology other than to be employed by a Scientologist. Christine said the owner of the
diner and his wife were fanatical at pressuring her to take vitamins and a mineral tonic called Cal-Mag
formula that the church recommended. Thomas said he just liked getting paid. I took a walk one day over to the Fort
Harrison and went in. A receptionist at the front desk sent me to the registrar's office.
At the registrar's office I saw Kitti Kahn Georgius sitting at a desk staring at me. A girl named Kate
took me to a registrar named Christian. I bought and did some training that took a couple of weeks to finish. I saw
Anna Balash and Bruce Dobin at Flag but never spoke to them. And, just to mention it, there is a sign in the lobby
of the Fort Harrison hotel where there is a lounge. The lounge area sign says "No Food or Drinks Allowed" yet I saw Anna Balash
in there drinking a soda and Bruce Dobin walking around eating a bag of peanuts.
After I was
on course a few days I was approached by a Flag recruiter. She was a Greek citizen and Sea Org member, transferred
from Greece to Canada, then transferred from Canada to Flag. She was in charge of the Fort Harrison Estates
Project. This project consisted of public Scientologists temporarily contracted as full time staff for 6 weeks during
which time they renovated the hotel. They were given room and board and a small salary during that time and when their 6
weeks were up $3,200.00 was credited to their Flag account. I looked into it and she said I was not what they
were looking for. She took me for a walk holding my arm saying she was in charge of the project because
she was Clear. She said her original passport had expired while she was working at Flag and OSA was
now fighting with the United States to recertify her to stay at Flag. I didn't think people came that dumb.
The New
York Foundation org had rendered all of my folders there of any kind inaccurate so the C/S at Flag decided
not to ask for them. One of the Flag C/S's ran around me a lot talking like I should be a little nuts to think
the "Flag people were about to crack my case". It is a laugh.
The whole time I was on
training courses, the supervisor {a guy named Mike} kept interrupting me in the middle of study
to ask "Could you do Book One auditing with a student?" "Would you mind an exchange by dynamics with
an intern?" "Can you get a session with a Class VIII intern?" "Would you do some TR's with a student?" I didn't
want to. This went on for days. I finally said very loud "I just want to do what is on this course, is that OK with you?"
People heard me. I didn't care. He left me alone after that.
I finished my
courses and wound up writing letters for a lady in the registrar's office named Leah Gilbert Wise. I got some
free intern auditing but I never finished it because I didn't trust the guy that was assigned to audit
me. I was in the auditorium at Flag writing letters for Leah one afternoon and Kitti Kahn Georgius came in and sat
down to talk to another lady about something at a table in front of me. The lady she spoke to, her picture appears in
a book by L. Ron Hubbard called the Volunteer Minister's Handbook. I recognized her right away because I have read that book.
As I was writing I could overhear Kitti getting off her O/W's on me "unofficially" to this lady and the lady was just looking
at me.
In Scientology a Sea Org member's living quarters are called berths. They are always
substandard in nature even though Scientologists can be seen around the clock renovating everywhere the church owns in town.
Late one morning Kate, the receptionist in the registrar's office said she had left something in her berth by mistake, gave
me the key and said to go there and get it off of her dresser which was about 3 blocks away, so I said OK.
Inside her berth was a dirty mattress on a filthy floor with no sheets or pillow, no fan or air conditioning in
90ºF heat with clothes and shoes everywhere just to be brief. About 3:00 p.m. that day I went to go home and
stopped by another registrar's desk named Paul Miller to pick up my personal stuff I usually brought with me. I had a notebook
that I kept notes, business cards from Scientologists, an appointments list, a letter from my parents or a job lead in. I
left it by his desk before I went to Kate's berth, but it was gone when I went to get it. The Sea Org
in the office seemed as though they didn't know anything about it when I asked one or two of them if they had moved these
things. So I asked a Security Guard about it, and he checked the Lost & Found and said no one had turned in my things. I
realized one of them had stolen my things and was probably reading my parent's personal letter to me.
For the next couple of days that I was at Flag, I just wrote letters and kept quiet, waiting to see what was going to happen
next. That day came when Kitti started to recite out loud the personal things I had written in a notebook that was
taken with the rest of the things. She just sat waiting to see what my response was going to be. When I would walk to somewhere
in the church or outside it on the streets, she would be somewhere nearby saying to people in reference to me "I am afraid
of him" "That guy's a queer" "He's on his way to a Security Check" "He's here unauthorized from the church in New
York". I wasn't gay or anything she said, but even if I had been it would not have been any of her business anyway. She was
pointing me out to people in town I didn't even know and asking them "Is that the guy?" "Is that who you mean?" "Is that
him?" "Is that the one?". She went up to a Sea Org recruiter and told him she did not want him talking to me. She
was standing outside in the back of the Fort Harrison one time when I happened to walk by laughing out loud to herself privately
with her hands over her mouth like a lunatic. There was no one there but her when she looked straight at me. It would
not surprise me if she had also urinated in her panties privately with a smile on her face over fear of
being discovered for having already denied me Flag services unjustly in New York in the first place. A
C/S guy at the church that was friends with her began talking about me to other people like her telling
them "I'm not gay! He is!" and "He's not the C/S! I am!". The environment at Flag was hostile and I started
avoiding the church.
On my way to work one day a Scientologist with real long
black hippie hair walked up to me on the sidewalk and punched me in the stomach and told me I make him nervous. I went
down to the Fort Harrison hotel and told them I wanted a refund of my money. A security guard gave me forms I filled out
but they would not give me my money back because I had donated it over 30 days before and after 30 days you can't have
it back. I never went back in the hotel and made plans to go back to New Jersey to my family.
I ate in the diner Christine and Thomas
worked at and after about my fourth visit the Scientologists talked about me out loud and sat at my table
uninvited and stared without ordering anything. So, I started sitting at the counter instead. Christine was serving
me coffee on one of Thomas's days off and the Scientologist cook came up to me at the counter and said "We're
not waiting on you anymore because we don't want you in here" and told Christine not to serve me anything else. I paid my
bill and left. About a week later I was walking downtown on my day off and as I approached Boston Ronnie's the
owner was standing in the center of the sidewalk in front of the place with his arms folded over his chest watching me
approach. When I got close he walked up to me and said "Hey! You don't like Scientologists do you punk?" and
poked me in my chest hard enough so that I was off balance for a second. I decided to punch him in the mouth.
His wife came running out of the diner screaming. The Scientologist cook came running out of the diner to help the
owner attack me but he tripped and fell on his apron strings in the diner doorway and banged his face on the sidewalk. Christine
and Thomas quit Boston Ronnie's and got new jobs. Conrado Martan owned a restaurant next door to Boston Ronnie's
and was my friend who was always very nice to the Scientologists. He would say "Good Morning" and "How Are You?" to
them. After the attack every time he saw one of them come out of the diner he would say "What the fuck are
you looking at stupid?". Or if the two of us were seated talking on the sidewalk bench near his restaurant and a Scientologist walked
past he would jump up and run up to them and shout something and go back to his seat.
I bought Christine lunch one time after and we were talking about the day at Boston Ronnie's because they never
even apologized to me. She told me what they said about me inside the diner and said she will never
work for a Scientologist again. While we were talking a Sea Org member came up to our table out of the blue and interrupted
us. Christine said he was sitting a few tables back with other Sea Org members watching us. He said "Excuse
me. Did I just hear you saying something about Scientology?" I said "Is that your business?" He said he was
from the church's public relations department and did not want to hear anyone saying anything bad about Scientology. I
said "If you don't eavesdrop you won't!' He stood staring at us and then very reluctantly went back to his table.
I was crossing the street one night by work and a Scientologist came racing towards me in the crosswalk with his arms swinging
in a very precise angry manner. He walked right into me, jabbed me with his elbow and grumbled something at
me and continued walking away. I walked after him and asked "Excuse me Sir, did you not see me or something?" He
responded "What did you do that made me do that to you?". Was it worth tackling him on? No, it wasn't. So, if a Scientologist in
Clearwater walks up to your sister and kicks her in the ass, overlook it, because they're church type people.
I
was sitting in front of the Gray Moss Inn where I worked reading a novel called IT by Stephen King one night on
the sidewalk bench that faced the Fort Harrison. All of a sudden a car screeched to a halt in front of me in the
middle of the street. A guy got out and ran up to the door of the Fort Harrison and punched this Scientologist in
the head about 5 times. The Scientologist had the door partially open, and it was the big wooden doors that used to be on
the front of the hotel, not the ones that they have now. His head banged into the thin part of the door as it was ajar
and he looked dazed. The driver got back into his car and left. Now that I think about it, I saw a Scientologist one
time arguing with a motorist in the middle of the crosswalk that was sitting in his car by Pierce Street right by the church.
It was not the same guy that got punched that night but another Scientologist.
I was deep
in thought walking home from downtown one night on Drew Street behind the post office. Out of the blue a car sped past me
with no lights on about 75 m.p.h. missing me by about 8 inches. That area of Drew Street does not have curbs,
the sidewalk flows right into the street and it was kind of dark so I don't think he even saw me. I turned my head to
see a car racing across Drew Street at the Garden Street intersection trying to outrun the speeder to the other
side. He was not successful. The speeder crashed right into him. Driving the car that was hit was a Sea Org member from
Flag named Bill Bragg. I called the police. They asked me if I saw anything and I said yes. I said this guy was driving down
the street past me and when I turned I saw Bill Bragg trying to beat him through the intersection and the guy hit
him. The speeder was elated. The police summoned me as a witness for the hearing that both of the drivers received
summonses for themselves because I was standing right there when the officer handed both of them their tickets. On the day
of the trial the speeder came to court, but Bill Bragg never showed up. The judge apologized to me and said I did not
need to come back as a witness and the trial would be postponed until both parties were available.
Or
the time a Scientologist came out of the Fort Harrison and pulled his pants down in front of me? Or the time
a Scientologist standing near me in a store downtown started screaming on the top of his lungs at the store cashier and refused
to be quiet?
A security guard at the church called the police on me one time and
said that I was a suspicious person parishioners had reported instances of being harassed by. The officer
said to just avoid the Scientologists. I was not happy with that so I went to the Chamber of Commerce to report
that cars, motorcycles, bicycles, jeeps and vans block the sidewalk in front of the Fort Harrison every
day for hours so only Scientologists can walk on that side of the street. The Chamber Deputy said "There is a loading zone
there". I mentioned the 4 story garage built into the Fort Harrison because hardly anyone that works at the church owns
cars. Sea Org members are provided transportation to and from Flag and where they live. The loading zone is for church
public coming and going to and from the airport. He said "This is not a police state is it?". It was hard to
imagine that only I could have been aware of this issue. Scientologists never got tickets either but anybody else
in town would. I also mentioned the Boston Ronnie's incident. I knew I was leaving for New Jersey so I gave
him my address there to write me and shortly after this in 1989 I left Clearwater. He eventually wrote
me a letter of apology saying he was sorry about the Scientologists conduct towards me. I have never gone back to
Clearwater or made any effort to keep in touch with anyone at Flag.
© 2009 Lawrence Toomajan
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