Slog - Comments on Scientology, Insanity, David Letterman: A Foray into Madness! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f This morning’s post by Jen Graves about the poor, confused couple who killed themselves because they thought Scientologists were hunting them gives me, as they say, much pause. And then even more much pause. And then maybe even a little more. Much pause. But even more importantly than all the pausing, the story puts its finger quite firmly upon a bizarre seeming Scientology-and-crazy-people connection that has truly puzzled me for centuries. Is there some unfathomable connection between Scientology and the paranoiac ravings of the mentally ill? Is there? Let me paint a picture: Me, bright and bubbly and fresh from... Copyright 2008 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:26:51 -0800 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:47:04 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by Mr. Poe You keep spelling Scientologists incorrectly, but I still love you!

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770756 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770756 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:57:45 -0800 Comment by I Put the Cruise in Cruise Director Mr. Ryan, please accept my invitation to join me on a Sea-Org cruise. I really can't take no for an answer.

Sincerely,
Tom

]]> I Put the Cruise in Cruise Director http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770758 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770758 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:58:37 -0800 Comment by wisepunk Adrian, this post only confirms that you are now my favorite stranger writer. Sorry David.

]]> wisepunk http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770762 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770762 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:00:29 -0800 Comment by adrian! poe: i do that on purpose so it is harder for them to trace my posts.

]]> adrian! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770774 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770774 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:08:24 -0800 Comment by Matthew Too much font bolding, didn't read.

]]> Matthew http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770780 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770780 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:15:45 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe Adrian! The trickery! The brilliance!

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770781 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770781 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:15:49 -0800 Comment by Will in Seattle Adrian, Adrian,

they probably were trying to kill them.

]]> Will in Seattle http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770795 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770795 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:29:00 -0800 Comment by In Oz @5

It is curious that you would choose to write in a post that you didn't read.

]]> In Oz http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770799 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770799 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:30:26 -0800 Comment by Callie Adrian,

Unfortunately for both of us, I just fell in love with you a little bit.

]]> Callie http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770811 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770811 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:40:49 -0800 Comment by fun shaped We want to know more about this purported sex summer!

]]> fun shaped http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770813 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770813 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:41:20 -0800 Comment by David in Wedgwood According to IMDB.com, David Letterman was married once, divorcing in 1977.

I wonder if this woman's marriage to Letterman was part of her delusions?

]]> David in Wedgwood http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770817 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770817 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:44:44 -0800 Comment by Dianna So John Travolta's face really bothers me. Ever since it got really wide.

]]> Dianna http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770821 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770821 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:48:01 -0800 Comment by I Put the Cruise in Cruise Director I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...Adrian, if you don't come on a Sea-Org Cruise. Join us.

Love,
Tom

]]> I Put the Cruise in Cruise Director http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770822 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770822 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:48:25 -0800 Comment by adrian! david in wedgewood: INDEED! you are on to something. a billion years ago, a famous schizophrenic got media attention for insisting that she was mrs david letterman, and moving into his house (sans his permission, express wishes and utter knowledge) to prove her point. she stalked his forever and she was arrested, i think? i have always wondered, WAS THIS THE SAME WOMAN? it had to be! i hope so. if not...well. david letterman, scientology, crazy....WHAT????

]]> adrian! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770824 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770824 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:49:31 -0800 Comment by Original Andrew Was the second woman the magical Faye Dunaway?

C'mon, Adrian please, the "lifted her shirt, exposed her pendulous and un-bra-ed boobs, and screamed, “I FUCKED JESUS CHRIST! THE SCIENTOLOGISTS ARE TRYING TO KILL ME!!!” and rushed out the front door" part totally gave it away.

]]> Original Andrew http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770827 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770827 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 14:55:56 -0800 Comment by Fnarf Rich people get mental illnesses too.

Adrian, it's GOT to be the same woman, doesn't it?

]]> Fnarf http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770852 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770852 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:12:29 -0800 Comment by dirge The fact is that members of Scientology under the Fair Game doctrine have indeed conspired to destroy people, usually ex-members and journalists, using various tactics including intimidation, blackmail and allegedly murder made to look like suicides/ODs. They even broke into IRS offices to steal government files. This must provide a great alternative source of peril for paranoid people to draw from when they get tired of their cliched struggles against the worldwide CIA/Alien/Jewish Conspiracy.

Of course just because these people were crazy doesn't mean that the Scientologists weren't out to get them. Rich unstable women seem like just the sort of rubes that Dianetics might suck in and then alienate.

]]> dirge http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770854 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770854 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:14:44 -0800 Comment by Mr. Poe 5 + 2 + 7 = 14

Minus 1 for no apparent reason = 13.

COINCIDENCE?!?!11

]]> Mr. Poe http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770863 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770863 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:27:22 -0800 Comment by jzilla wasn't Letterman being stalked by a scientologist-obsessed woman in the mid-90s?

]]> jzilla http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770870 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770870 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:30:27 -0800 Comment by jzilla oops, the answer apparently, is yes.

]]> jzilla http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770876 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770876 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:32:32 -0800 Comment by Geni OK, two things: first, the unstable are often attracted to things like Scientology that promise calmness will be yours if only you drink the Kool-aid. The Scientologists also like their converts to be well-off and to will them all their money. I find it not entirely inconceivable that many inherently unstable people have been harassed upon leaving the cult, and have interpreted such harassment as attempts to kill them.

Second, I have to know the Whitney Houston hairball story. You can't just drop that into the conversation and then not reveal the details.

]]> Geni http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770879 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770879 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:35:57 -0800 Comment by adrian! a few things. tom...WHAT? please to be emailing my people at mypeople@adrianryan.com.

@21: the rumors of whitney houston's hairball go all the way back to HERE...http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=4451, and if you google adrian ryan whitney houston's hair" or something...i'm sure something will pop up.

i love you all.

]]> adrian! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770886 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770886 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:41:12 -0800 Comment by Jason Josephes Dave's been through this before. From Wikipedia:

In 1988, Margaret Mary Ray was arrested while driving Letterman's Porsche near the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City. Ray claimed to be Letterman's wife, and was repeatedly arrested in subsequent years for trespassing and other charges. In one instance, police found her sleeping on Letterman's private tennis court at his home in New Canaan, Connecticut. Ray spent nearly ten months in prison and 14 months in a state mental institution for her various trespassing convictions. On October 7, 1998, Ray was struck and killed by a train in an apparent suicide in Colorado. Letterman issued a statement expressing sadness for all of Ray's sufferings.

In December 2005, a fan named Colleen Nestler (whom Letterman claimed he had never met) sought a temporary restraining order in a Santa Fe, New Mexico court against Letterman, claiming he used code words and gestures on television broadcasts to convey romantic feelings toward her. She claims that the incidents caused her "mental cruelty." After a judge granted the order, Letterman's lawyer declared the order "absurd and frivolous" and filed a motion to end it. At a December 26 hearing, the order was lifted.[9] As usual, Letterman was able to make fun out of the situation: during one of his monologues soon after the story broke, he told the audience after they laughed at a joke he had made: "That wasn't a joke, that was a coded message."

And let's not forget the people who tried to kidnap his son. To help us forget, here's my letter on Viewer Mail from 1991:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr3M_VW8IK8

(Letter #3, 4:25 in.)

]]> Jason Josephes http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770891 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770891 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:45:00 -0800 Comment by Dress Yo Zwinky! Rich people go insane best! Check out the Northern regions of L.A. It's replete with reclusive, eccentric has-beens who think it's just fine to eat at Denny's on PCH in their robe, mumbling to themselves about he Getty's and then crescendoing into a screaming, "Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!"

I worked in th call center of a ginormous lender back in the 90s. Best call I ever got was some rich old bag who lived in Bel Air and had a $6k per month mortgage that had never gone delinquent once in it's 12 year history.

The payment was late because her movie man husband was out of town, she went off her meds and spaced it. She immediately paid the bill over the phone but she wouldn't hang up. All she wanted to do was talk about how Musad was out to kill her because she knew where the Ark Of The Covenant was hidden but that she was protected by Hamas and Hezbollah so she had a shot at staying out of their clutches if she was dilligent.

True story.

I told her that I was hiding out at the Nolte Compound under the name Manolo and that I was under the protecton of Captain Lou Albano of The World Wrestling Federation because Nambla and Pflag had a price on my head for dissemminating the true location of Jim Hensons grave to The Police (the rock band, not the law enforcement apparatus).

]]> Dress Yo Zwinky! http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770892 http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/07/scientology_insanity_david_letterman_a_f#c770892 Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:47:04 -0800