Ron Miscavige escaped from the Church of Scientology’s international headquarters outside Hemet, California, on March 25, 2012. Shortly thereafter, his son and current Scientology leader David Miscavige allegedly hired private investigators to follow Ron and file reports each day about his activities: where he went, what he did, and who he spoke to. In early August 2013, after nearly a year and a half, the PIs slipped up and one was arrested, at which point they confessed the sordid details of what they had been hired to do. When the story was printed in the Los Angeles Times in April 2015 the country was aghast and shock waves spread internationally.

Ron did not especially care for the publicity. His aim after leaving Scientology was simply to get on with his life, play his horn in Dixieland bands and sell Exer-Genies, an exercise device he had been using since the 1960s.

The other thing he did not care for was the situation that his two daughters had cut off contact with him owing to the Church of Scientology’s policy of “disconnection,” whereby church members are forced to cut all communication with anyone who they deem has been critical of the church. Ron’s departure from Scientology two years earlier placed him in bad stead with the church, and his son David prevailed upon his two sisters to sever the connection with their father. Now, having been separated from his daughters as well as his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Ron made the decision to stand up against the church’s practice of tearing families apart and strike a blow to end the abuse. The result was his book Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige and Me published by St. Martins Press.

Growing up in the rough and tumble Pennsylvania coal region during World War II and being a Marine veteran, Ron knows never to back down in the face of injustice and never to observe abuse without speaking out. Despite pushback from his son David and the church’s army of lawyers, Ron has joined the growing chorus calling for an end to disconnection by an organization that forces families apart while hiding behind protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Ron Miscavige was born in January 1936 in Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania and has written two self-published books, humorous collections of stories about life in the coal region and the characters he grew up with entitled, True Confessions of a Kid and Hideouts for Midgets on the Lam.

Ron lives in West Allis, Wisconsin, with his wife Becky and continues to sell Exer-Genies as well as play with several Milwaukee-area Dixieland bands while also doing solo performances of old-time standards from the “Golden Age of Songwriting.”