The Other Side of Claire Headley: A Record of Theft, Lies & Betrayal

Behind the well-crafted public image, Claire Headley left a trail of deceit—stolen property, missing money and betrayed friends. Her husband’s criminal behavior is well known. Hers deserves just as much scrutiny.

Claire Headley has cultivated a public image of integrity and victimhood. But behind that façade lies a pattern of dishonesty that rivals—and in some cases mirrors—that of her husband, Marc.

While Marc’s theft, embezzlement and misconduct are a matter of well-established record, Claire’s involvement in stealing and financial deceit has been quietly buried—a fact not lost on former friends like Tammy, who described Claire as “a very dishonest person—but...quite deceptively dishonest.”

Claire and Marc Headley were members of the Church’s religious order when, in 2005, Marc was caught having embezzled $15,000 in Church audiovisual equipment, selling it and funneling the proceeds into his personal PayPal account. The day after an internal investigation began, and unwilling to take responsibility for what he’d done, Marc abandoned his job, his friends, and his wife.

An internal audit conducted after Marc Headley was discovered to be illicitly selling off Church equipment on eBay found he deposited $15,490 of proceeds in his personal PayPal account.

Marc had long been steeped in petty crime. He’d admitted to hundreds of thefts in his youth, including stealing cash and merchandise from vending machines, newspaper stands, supermarkets, and liquor stores. He once stole a bag of money from the owner of a small business, and later bragged about it to colleagues.

As Marc himself wrote: “[I stole] candy, cards, dice, poker chips, pens, pencils, toys, gum, super glue, magazines—anything I wanted and things for other people too!”

Marc Headley in Los Angeles, 1989. “I used to steal things from the supermarket,” he wrote of his shoplifting sprees. “This included candy, cards, dice, poker chips, pens, pencils, toys, gum, super glue, magazines, anything I wanted & things for other people too!” A friend at the time wrote how Headley also “likes to destroy things...smash things, burn them, blow them up, etc.”

But Marc’s theft didn’t stop in adolescence. Former colleagues—and Marc’s own writings—describe stolen parts from a working truck, a pilfered hand radio, computer monitor, electronics, and a television and VCR set that he took for his personal use.

One member of the Church’s accounting staff described Marc’s conduct as “plain THEFT.”

After Claire left to join Marc, co- workers discovered she had ripped off and sold dresses from the film studio’s costume department, pocketing the money—items such as this evening gown.

Yet while Marc’s dishonesty was evident during his time in the Church, it wasn’t until after Claire left that her own duplicity came to light.

When colleagues were left to sort through the “personal” items the Headleys abandoned, they found more than a dozen high-end garments Claire and Marc had used—but didn’t own. The clothing belonged to the costumes department of the Church’s film studio. They had stolen them.

Soon after, a close friend of Claire’s revealed she had purchased “hundreds of dollars” worth of dresses from Claire—only to later learn they, too, were stolen property.

The reports kept coming. Several women who had shared an office with Claire recalled cash mysteriously vanishing from purses and desks. Claire’s own sister-in-law, Stephanie, stated that Claire “borrowed” money just before she disappeared—money that was never repaid.

The stories are consistent: theft, betrayal, silence.

The most fitting judgment comes not from a critic, but from Claire’s own husband: “A dishonest person should be confronted with his crimes and forced to confront and handle them.”

He may have been talking about himself. He may also have been talking about his wife.

But what’s clear is that their dishonesty didn’t end there. There was far more to be discovered…