Susan Meister - Death and Cover-up On The High Seas

In the Fall of 1970, Susan Meister was young, full of life and had everything going for her.  She left her home town of Greeley, Colorado and headed off for new and exciting experiences in San Francisco, California. Then she met Scientology.  By November, 1970 she had fallen in love with the Church of Science Fiction and had joined staff at the San Francisco Org.  In February, 1971 she felt a need to be closer to L. Ron Hubbard and his goal of "clearing the planet", so she joined the Sea Org and joined him on the Scientology Flagship Apollo.  She tried several times to get her parents interested in Scientology, to no avail.  In her letters home, you can see her indoctrination was taking effect, controlling her life and thoughts more and more:


May 8, 1971

Mother,

Do you recall talking to me about WW III - and where it would start if it were to start - father and most everyone else maintained that it would start in either China or Russia vs. U.S. and you said - oh no- it would originate in Germany - that the Nazis hadn't given up yet - ? Well babe, you were right - there is a new Nazi resurgence taking place in Germany - so now it's a race between the good guys in the white hats (Scientologists) and the Leipzig death camp (Nazis) the bad guys in the black hats - we'll win of course - but the game is exciting. Truth is stranger than fiction. As Alice [in Wonderland] says "Things get curiouser and curiouser!" Get into Scientology now. It's fantastic.     - Love, Susan

And deeper down the rabbit hole:


May 12, 1971

Dear Family,
I just had a session, an auditing session (Scientology's hypnotic brain washing) I feel great!  Great GREAT! and my life is EXPANDING EXPANDING - and it's all SCIENTOLOGY Hurry up! Hurry, Hurry Be a friend to yourselves - Get into this stuff NOW - It's more precious than gold it's the best thing that's ever ever ever ever come along.  Love, Susan.

In June of 1971, Susan sent her family a letter expressing thanks for her birthday card and some gifts including a new dress her mother had made for her.  She once again expressed her desire for her mother to read Hubbard's books and to try some Scientology courses.  In this letter, she also shows how far down the rabbit hole she had fallen, to the point of having been infected by Hubbard's paranoia:


I can't tell you exactly where we are. We have enemies who are profiting from peoples' ignorance and lack of self-determinism and do not wish to see us succeed in restoring freedom and self-determinism to this planet's people. If these people were to find out where we are located - they would attempt to destroy us. Therefore, we are not allowed to say where this ship is located.

Ten days later, Susan was dead and that is where things get very strange.  Her father, George, was out of town when he received a phone call from his younger daughter telling him that there was a minister from the Church of Scientology at the home to inform them that Susan had died.  The minister's name was Artie Maren who was actually a public relations person from Scientology's Guardians Office (legal and strong arm division now known as the Office of Special Affairs).  George called a cousin who was an attorney and asked him to meet him in Greeley so they could find out what had happened.

They arrived and spoke to Rev Maren at length.  Basically, all the Maren could tell them was that Susan had been found dead in her berth aboard the Apollo of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound to the forehead. Near the end of the conversation, George asked that his daughter's body be shipped back home for burial.  A few days later, he received a letter from Bob Thomas at the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles explaining that the "Panamanian" owners of the Apollo were not obliged to give information to the Church of Scientology. However, the Apollo's captain, Norman Starkey, had offered to pay for a Christian burial in Morocco, but regretted that they would not pay for the body to be returned to the United States.  This, of course, set George off, and he decided to go to Morocco, to see if he could find out exactly what had happened.

Mr. Meister was met at Casablanca by Sea Org member Peter Warren.  When he arrived at his hotel he met with American Vice-Consul Jack Galbraith.  As he had been promised that he could see his daughter's body, they left the next morning for Safi, Morocco.  When he had spoken to police officials earlier, they showed him a picture of Susan that had been taken how she had been found.  In her dress that her mother had made for her.  Hands crossed over her chest with the Colt .22 caliber long barreled revolver lying on her chest  underneath her hands.  The police refused to give him copied of the reports, or even the picture.  When they arrived at Safi, they went to the morgue.  The attendant could not find the body.  From the reports, there was no trace of gunpowder residue on her forehead and no stippling around the wound. (Later forensic analysis would show that from the size and shape of the wound, the shot would have had to come from at least 16 feet away.) Peter Warren had to admit to George that he had requested and been granted Susan's brains and intestines (because the paperwork said he had).  When asked why, he said they wanted them for testing because the suspected she had been on drugs.

George arranged to have his daughter's body shipped back home.  As he was in the same port as Apollo, he asked to see the ship.  He was allowed on board.  He asked Warren if he could see Hubbard, on a father to father basis.  Hubbard, the humanitarian, declined the meeting.  By this time, George was feeling a bit threatened and decided to arrange an earlier flight home.  As he was preparing to leave his hotel, he discovered that all 32 rolls of film that he had shot were missing, including the two rolls he had shot aboard Apollo.  When he arrived at the airport, he was confronted by a very large man who told him that "they" were watching him and so were the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. (a typical Scientology caper).  The Scientologists even went as far as blackmail"

"the Apollo's port captain threatened in the presence of the American Vice Counsel from Casablanca, William Galbraith, that he had enough material, including illicit photographs of Miss Meister, to smear Miss Meister." 

After George had arrived home, he was contacted by a woman who worked for the Well County Health department.  They had received a letter from a "concerned citizen".  The letter is as follows:

"Sirs, Recently this reporter had disclosed to him some rather alarming news. I once had to cover a story in a small town such as Greeley, which had a rather primitive but nevertheless adequate health facilities. They chose to ignore a cholera warning from the World Health organization and, believe me, the results are not pleasant. "There has been a cholera epidemic in Morocco, and everyone leaving the country is required to have a cholera shot before leaving, and there is a public health campaign to get all citizens vaccinated. However, there is a shortage of vaccine. There have been a recorded two to three hundred deaths. And it's been brought to my attention that the daughter of one, George Meister, died in Morocco, either by accident or from cholera, probably the latter. Meister either already has or is in the process of bringing back the body to Greeley, and an epidemiologist that I have talked to concerning this said that this was pure insanity and that he knew of one exact such case that caused an outbreak of cholera. And I urge you to handle this health threat to all Greeley citizens. Everybody can be affected by this, and we cannot be.complacent with such a danger. "My informant believes the funeral home where the body is shipped is The Masons in Greeley. Please act quickly as lives could very well hang in the balance. I'm sending copies of this letter to most health official in the entire State of Colorado. My attorney has advise me not to reveal my name due to possible legal hazards, but if necessary I will do so to the press for my children live here and I have seen a cholera epidemic. Very sincerely, a citizen."


Fortunately, the lady knew George and was already aware that the actual cause of Susan's death was by gunshot.  This was just another example of the intimidation tactics that the "church" of Scientology uses to harass people, who they perceive are against them.  George and his family had been threatened and harassed  long before he ever testified to this, even to the point of tapping his telephones, and death threats.  All he ever wanted was to facts concerning his daughter's death.  Why did Scientology consider this a threat?

If you have time, please listen to George's testimony before the Clearwater, Florida Commission, for his full story.  I am sorry, it is a heart breaker.  It is below.

Thanks to Arnie Lerma once again for keeping much of this data safe and available at his web site.  

Thank you for being here and reading my posts.  I know that is is a sad one, but the data must get out to the broad public if we are ever to stop the insanity of the "church" of Scientology.