Mariette Lindstein Confirms Her History as a Thief

Mariette Lindstein has penned a self-serving autobiography with a life history peppered with invented facts and convenient omissions.

Weaving its way through that manuscript is one thread of veracity—the inconvenient truth Lindstein couldn’t afford to leave out of her account because it had already been exposed—her long-closeted compulsion to steal.

The story covers her time at Golden Era Productions, a film studio where she worked for most of her years on staff in the Church of Scientology. This latest rendition of her life story describes it somewhat accurately: a world-class film studio with music recording, sound restoration and editing facilities, created to produce films and training materials for the Church. She described herself as “completely enchanted” with the place upon arrival.

No wonder. In addition to the production facilities, the campus includes a swimming pool, basketball courts, volleyball courts, a professional-grade soccer field, a running track and an adjoining nine-hole golf course.

Lindstein arrived with some serious baggage—antisocial traits which included covert theft. She had to steal, and liberally. Not surprisingly, this hidden criminality affected her relationships with others and her job performance.

There, Lindstein came and went as she wished. She lived in an apartment a short distance from the campus, commuted daily and traveled out of town frequently.

But Lindstein arrived with some serious baggage—antisocial traits that included covert theft. She had to steal, and liberally. Not surprisingly, this hidden criminality affected her relationships and her job performance. She had gotten by as a staff member by simply lying about her work, but her illicit lifestyle caught up with her and she was removed from her position in 2004.

In a weak attempt at honesty, Lindstein wrote in her autobiography: “I had a rule: to steal only from wallets with many notes and to just take one note. I went on for several weeks and got up to eight hundred dollars.”

“Mariette admitted to having stolen this money….She never offered to pay back what she stole from me—or make any sort of restitution. She never even gave me an apology.”—Former co-worker

Lindstein led readers to believe she regretted her actions and attempted to repay the money she stole: “Using the inherited money to repay my stealing made me ashamed as a dog. But I had no other options.”

However, a co-worker remembers it differently:

“Mariette admitted to having stolen this money. Since she admitted to taking $1,000 or more, she [must have been] doing this same kind of stealing from many more people than just me,” she said. “She never offered to pay back what she stole from me—or make any sort of restitution. She never even gave me an apology.”

When Lindstein’s immoral behavior came to light she was given an opportunity to reform, but her promise to do so was insincere. In April 2004, she walked off without a word to her family and continued an extramarital affair she’d hidden from her husband for a year.

She described the five-minute walk out the door and onto a nearby city bus like it was out of a spy novel and called it her “big escape.” She continues to spread fabrications in her “nonfiction” that sound like she thinks Big Brother is after her. She knows better.

By and large, her remembrances should be taken for what they are: pulp fiction.