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Paulette Cooper

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Nationality
  
American

Website
  
www.paulettecooper.com

Occupation
  
Author and journalist

Name
  
Paulette Cooper


Religion
  
Judaism

Role
  
Author

Spouse(s)
  
Paul Noble

Education
  
Harvard University

Paulette Cooper wwwlermanetcompaulettecooperpaulettecooper1

Born
  
July 26, 1942 (age 81) (
1942-07-26
)

Nominations
  
Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime, Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year

Books
  
The Scandal of Scientology, Let's find out about Halloween, Growing up Puerto Rican, That's Disgusting!: An Adult, 277 Secrets Your Dog

The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper (w/ Q&A)


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.

Contents

Paulette Cooper Paulette Cooper Exposes for the World the Darkest Secrets

Early life

Paulette Cooper Looking over my shoulder The Inside Account of the Story

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.

Paulette Cooper Paulette Coopercom

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.

Career

Paulette Cooper Knowledge Report Paulette Cooper YouTube

Cooper has written a total of 20 books on a variety of subjects.

Conflict with Scientology

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. 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.

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." In another campaign titled "Operation Dynamite," 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. Sometime in 1977, Cooper's assassination was possibly planned, along with another murder, but it is unknown whether or not it was attempted.

The Church of Scientology finally agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Cooper in 1985.

Biography

In May 2015, Tony Ortega released a book about Cooper, entitled The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.

Personal life

She is married to television producer Paul Noble. They live in Palm Beach, Florida. The couple have authored four books together.

Awards

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.

References

Paulette Cooper Wikipedia