The gun story - Riverside Mission Saga
First, I wish to down play this a bit.
Because the story was told to me, and as such is hearsay, but knowing the person involved, I did not doubt it.
Some back ground.
Nadia was a pretty Norwegian blond between 18 and 20 at the time with normal proportions for her age and female stature.
She was married to a young man like herself, but she was the definite strength of the couple.
I sometimes thought that her smaller stature hid a person who thought she was much larger.
They started in the Communications Course under Debbie Butler and Susie Strickland.
I do not remember for sure, but I think Nadia joined staff first and her husband waited for a little while.
Nadia was posted as the Comm Course Administrator.
This was while I was on the Comm Course myself.
When I completed the Comm Course, Sue and Debbie good cop / bad cop regged me for staff and I ended up replacing Nadia as the Comm Course Admin.
The first day, Nadia slammed me (yelling with full intention) for something I did or did not do.
This set my relationship with her as an enemy to be avoided when ever possible, and from then on I only spoke to her if I had to.
Nadia was going to be an auditor
omg: ) so she needed me to take her position and she was not going to have anyone stand in her way.
(Mr. Rogers voice) Can you say ANGER ISSUES? I knew you could.
Suffice to say Nadia did not work out as an auditor and via an ethics route ended up in Div 6.
She bounced around at different positions and ethics sessions over the next 6 or so months (maybe a year).
Her husband at first seemed to grow and be happy but later became sullen and withdrawn.
He was an ethics officer (Sea Org Master At Arms) after his first shot at being an auditor.
The next major incident was when there was an event in Los Angeles.
The Mission had 2 or three full size vans and the few cars that staff owned.
I was in one of the vans, and Nadia was our driver for the return trip.
We were packed into the van sitting on top of each other.
The event was good and we were a happy group climbing back into the van at about 11pm.
I think that one of Nadia's friends was driving another of the vans.
As soon as we got on the freeway Nadia accelerated to 85 miles per hour (140 KPH?).
Back then, California had a "Basic Speed Law" which was an Autobahn type of law, where you could go as fast as conditions allowed if the cops did not disagree.
A few of us in the van started a discussion and soon after Nadia sped up to 100mph.
I and a couple of others objected with her, asking her to slow down or pull over.
I thinks she was racing the other van, but I do not remember for sure.
She reacted by flooring the gas pedal.
I think someone said it was 120 mph.
We were being jostled in the seats and I was afraid that the van would loose traction, so I moved off the seat to the floor between the middle seat and the side door to brace myself.
The others in the back, behind the rear seat, and those without seat belts were bumped around as the van took curves and made lane changes.
At this time of night back then, the trip would have taken about an hour an a half to an hour and 45 minutes.
We made it back in close to an hour of terror, bumps, bruises and giddy laughter.
Nadia was elated that we had come home so fast and thought that we should all thank her for the speedy return.
She was upset that we did not.
She was also clueless as to why she was sent to ethics the next day.
After she completed her ethics program for that, she was put one of the body routing teams (or returned, I am not sure).
There were 5 or 6 teams of 4 or 5 body routers who went our 2 times a day to the surrounding cities and locations around Riverside to bring in the public to the Introductory Lecture (starring Joe Yazbeck) where they would be signed up for the Comm Course or for auditing.
We also had the Bent Corydon PTS/SP course which was labeled the Way to Happiness course taken from LRH lectures and earlier documents.
This was also as popular as the Comm Course and became an additional way that the public would tend to stay on lines.
So Nadia kept her nose clean for a month or more and was producing good stats when one day the atmosphere went sour.
I was on reception, and the phone calls started coming in from Nadia's team.
The team returned early, and everyone was bouncing off the walls in a negative way.
Nadia was body routed by 2 guys on her team, one on each arm, down to ethics.
Bobby Mongiello came flying down from his office upstairs, down to ethics.
Sue Ammons, Bent's Admin also went down there for a little bit.
Then the whispers came and the yelling and screaming could be heard from the Gymnasium area.
Nadia had pulled a gun on a WOG in San Bernardino!
The questions came.
Why did she have a gun?
What was the gun?
Did anyone on her team know she had it?
The WOG reported it to the police?
Why did she pull it on a WOG?
Some of the answers I heard:
She had shown it to one of her team who told her to put it back in her purse and never bring it again.
She was cocky that day and needed a couple of bodies to get her stats up.
She was alone with the WOG at the time, but her buddy was half a block or so away (maybe out of sight?).
The WOG reported it to the police who came to investigate but she had stashed the gun.
The WOG was a homeless type.
It was reported in the news papers and caused a huge PR flap.
I think that it precipitated the G.O. investigation of the Riverside Mission where all the 190 plus staff were Sec Checked.
It also may have been a starter for the SMI era.
Read Bent's book for his take on that time period.
Nadia was labeled PTS/SP and placed on a very long ethics cycle that included some high auditing point before she could return to staff or Scientology.
I heard later that she was a drug user before the Comm Course and her husband wanted her sober.
I also heard later that she was seen high on drugs by one of the body routers.
Fortunately Bent had standards.
People could yell, but the physical threat or actual physical abuse was not tolerated or encouraged.
Much different than other areas of Scientology at that time or NOW.
Shawn
I will take the story with a grain of salt, given that part of it is passed on, not personal experience. What a loose cannon she was!
