Paulette Marcia Cooper (born July 26, 1942) is an
American author who is best known for her activism against the
Church of Scientology and the subsequent harassment she suffered from Scientologists. Cooper's books have sold close to half a million copies.
[1]
Early life[edit]
Cooper was born in
Belgium to parents who died at Auschwitz concentration camp. After the war, she spent years in various orphanages in Belgium, until she was adopted by the Cooper family and moved to the
United States at age 6. She became an American citizen when she was 8.
[2]
She began her freelance writing career in 1968, after completing a
master's degree in
psychology. As a result of her earlier study of
comparative religion at
Harvard University for a summer, she became interested in
new religious movements and began studying the
Church of Scientology in 1968 in order to write about it.
Cooper has written a total of 20 books on a variety of subjects.
Conflict with Scientology[edit]
Cooper's conflict with Scientology began in 1970 when the Church of Scientology filed suit against her in a British court for a critical article she wrote that was published in London's
Queen magazine. Her 1971 book,
The Scandal of Scientology, was an expansion of the work she had begun with the article.
The book earned her more negative attention from members of Scientology, and that same year the Church filed a second lawsuit against her in
Los Angeles Superior Court.
[3] In the years to come, Scientology instituted a total of nineteen lawsuits against Cooper from all over the world; she counter-sued them three times.
[4]
As she continued to investigate Scientology over the years, Cooper became the target of several harassment campaigns, including a Scientology campaign known as
Operation Freakout, the goal of which was to deter Cooper from criticizing Scientology by having her "incarcerated in a
mental institution or
jail or at least to hit her so hard that she drops her attacks."
[5] In another campaign titled "Operation Dynamite,"
[6] the Church of Scientology sent itself forged bomb threats, purportedly from Cooper, using her stationery with her fingerprints on it; it also planned to send bomb threats to
Henry Kissinger, among others. The campaign was discovered when the
FBI raided Scientology offices in 1977 and recovered documents relating to the operation.
[7] Sometime in 1977, Cooper's assassination was possibly planned, along with another murder, but it is unknown whether or not it was attempted.
[8]
The Church of Scientology finally agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Cooper in 1985.
[9]
Biography[edit]
In May 2015,
Tony Ortega released a book about Cooper, entitled
The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.
[10][11][12]
Personal life[edit]
She is married to television producer Paul Noble. They live in
Palm Beach, Florida. The couple have authored four books together.
[13]
In 1992, the
American Society of Journalists and Authors awarded her their highest honor, the prestigious
Conscience-in-Media Award. She has also won five other writing awards for her other books and numerous articles on a variety of subjects unrelated to cults.
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