ABC news just announced an upcoming 20/20 interview with Ron Miscavige, the father of David Miscavige, the Scientology leader who arguably made it into the ruthless human-rights violating cult that it is today. (Of course L. Ron Hubbard founded the cult, and he was an evil bastard, but I do think Miscavige took it to the next level. See: these articles.) Ron has a book out about his son called Ruthless, it’s coming out in May, and I hope he’s been extra careful about his security because David’s wife, Shelly, kind of disappeared ten years ago. Leah Remini got in deep trouble for even asking about Shelly at a Scientology function, but I digress.

Tony Ortega, a journalist who has tirelessly exposed the cult for years, has a new post about what Ron’s book means and what we can expect it to contain. (Sidenote I read about half of The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, Ortega’s book about how Scientology harassed and sued a young journalist who did exposes on them in the 70s. It was compelling, it flowed well and was well written but it just upset me so much I had to put it down.)

Ron Miscavige’s book has a new title and a publication date. What was originally announced as “If He Dies, He Dies” has been renamed “Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me,” and St. Martin’s Press is publishing it on May 3.

Wow, we’re really looking forward to this one. In the book, Ron describes how his son David Miscavige, who had been a happy and funny child, became the ruthless and tyrannical leader of the Church of Scientology, surrounded by sycophants and living lavishly while others in the church toil in relative poverty.

What caused that transformation? The power he assumed on becoming leader of the church, Ron concludes in a book that will describe how he ultimately made his own escape from Scientology after serving it for decades.

Ron’s co-writer is Dan Koon, a former high-ranking technical expert in Scientology who has been behind several of the books written by former church members. With Koon’s help, Ron writes about the parts of Scientology that he still considers beneficial, despite his son’s dictatorial takeover of it. We have a feeling some of the readers here at the Bunker will find that part of the book less savory. But we think there will be plenty of other delicious morsels to please the book’s audience.

The original title referred to an incident in 2013 involving two private investigators who had been hired to stalk Ron in his Wisconsin town. Ron had escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2012, and the private investigators admitted in police interviews that they had been hired by David Miscavige to follow his father. At one point while they were surveilling him, Ron fumbled with a smartphone in his shirt pocket and clutched at his chest. From their vantage point, the two private eyes got the impression that Ron was having a heart attack. They told police that when they called their handler for instructions, David Miscavige came on the line and told them to do nothing. “If he dies, he dies,” Miscavige reportedly said.

[From The Underground Bunker]

How cold do you have to be to want to let your own father die of a heart attack while your goons watch? Of course most people wonder what kind of dirt Ron has on his son’s very close relationship with Tom Cruise, but I don’t care too much about that. I think we already know that they’re both abusive SOBs who use slave labor and even torture people. Cruise is complicit in all that or at the very least knows about it and ignores it, we’ve heard that for years. To me that’s a bigger story than their bromance or regular romance or whatever they have going on.