Shawn Lonsdale

Shawn Lonsdale was a devout anti-Scientologist who stood outside the Co$ building in Clearwater, Florida for almost a half a year, filming a documentary. During this process and for some time afterwards, Shawn was repeatedly attacked and defamed by the Co$. He was found dead in his rented home on February 17, a week after the IRL launch of PROJECT_CHANOLOGY.


Shawn Lonsdale seemed like an unlikely person to dedicate his life to fighting the Scientologists. His gripe with them stemmed out of an argument Lonsdale had with a Scientologist at a Clearwater City Council meeting. Lonsdale got pissed when the Scientologist in question proceeded to stalk him home after the meeting. The next day, a van was parked right outside his house. It remained there for two days.
Far from scaring Lonsdale away, this only served to make him more curious. He made his way online and discovered that a whole hell of a lot of people had some major league bones to pick with Scientology.

Armed with a new knowledge of Scientology's crimes, a camcorder, a bottle of mace, some water, and a whiteboard with "Cult Watch" written on it Lonsdale marched out to his local Scientology chapter and proceeded to set up shop across the street. There he remained, ten hours a day, for almost a half a year, always filming, waiting for someone to make a mistake.
This took a grand total of two weeks.
A newly indoctrinated scientologist, Michael Fitzgerald, was coming out of a corner coffeshop when he noticed this film maker. A confrontation ensued, and the police were called. Upon arrival, they proceeded to take a statement from a witness:

“ [when asked who was at fault] That's hard to say. Obviously, you can film. It's your right to film, but the first swing was by Shawn. „
— Drew Sweet

Fortunately, the police were intelligent enough to see that the witness might not be the most credible of sources when they figured out he was a OT IV Scientologist. What apparently happened was the Scientologist attempted to hit Lonsdale only to be directed headfirst towards the nearest plate glass door. The charges of assault against Fitzgerald were later dropped.
What made Lonsdale untouchable for such a long time was the fact that he really didn't have anything to lose. At all. He survived on the fringes, a man with nothing better to do than stand outside the Scientologist HQ all day with a camcorder

The Scientologists were more than pissed at Lonsdale, and proceeded to begin a campaign to destroy him. This was most famously documented in the BBC Panorama Documentary "Scientology and Me." Lonsdale was doing an interview in a safe location with the BBC crew when a Scifag showed up waving proof that Lonsdale was a twisted sexual deviant who should never be trusted. Actually, Lonsdale had turned tricks with men in the past so he could stay afloat. This is kind of weird, but not as bad as starting a religion to get rich.
This managed to backfire right into the face of the Scientologists.The BBC managed to capture this entire event and show it to the public, making the Scientolgist hitman look like a petulant little piece of garbage.

However, the zerg rush of scientology hatemail, death threats, and other assorted bullshit took its tole on Lonsdale. He started to slowly back off, posting less and less to anti-Scientologist websites while managing to retain his status as a freedom fighter all the way up till...

The body of Shawn Lonsdale was found dead in his home on February 17th. Reportedly he had used a garden hose to fill his room with suffocating gasses from his car. It's debatable whether or not Shawn killed himself for obvious reasons, but a suicide note has helped convince police that this was indeed a suicide. Besides, we all know that "Scientology is totally incapable of hurting anybody. "
So did the COS kill Shawn?

“ It is the logical consequence of Co$’s actions that whenever someone they consider a suppressive person appears to have committed suicide, they are immediately suspect. „
— The Under Toad on Xenu TV

Before we start: Shawn Lonsdale probably killed himself. He wasn't exactly the most stable of persons. Standing outside a CoS headquarters for as long as he did doesn't exactly count as a ringing endorsement of one's mental health. However, it's also important to point out that Scientology critics seem to commit suicide in awful large numbers. However, this case is quickly disintegrating into twists of JFK sized proportions.

First, it's interesting to note that Shawn had released a simple cut of his documentary to local public access television. It's a possibility that Shawn was working on a more epic version of the documentary, one that could have been considered a threat to Scientology. This seems a little far-fetched, but those Scientologists are some paranoid people.

Second, Clearwater, FL is a Scientology mecca. Scientologists hold some major sway in this town, and L. Ron himself praised the progress the town had made. Scientologists have exerted some sway over Clearwater's police force in the past and this may help to explain why the investigation has remained so closed to the public eye.

Third, this suicide looks a lot like the suicide of Quentin Hubbard, the son of L. Ron. Quentin was found in a car with a tube hooked up to the exhaust. However, when the medical examiner assigned to the case performed the autopsy he found no evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning. Rather, they found track marks on his arms.

Fourth, according to most recent accounts, Shawn was trying to get his life on track, considering going back to school and getting a steady job. While it isn't unheard of for people trying to change their life to kill themselves, it's still fishy.

Fifth, Scientology, Shawn's greatest enemy, had just suffered the opening shots of one of the greatest protest movements ever organized against it. Why would a person kill himself right after experiencing such a glorious victory?
So, did Shawn commit suicide? Chances are, yeah. But those Scientologists have a tendancy to leave bodies in their wake. This should at least serve as an example that Scientologists can't be trusted. And if the conspiracy theorists are right, then Scientology has added another kill to their scoreboard.