Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Hubbard told Alexis that her mother had been a Nazi spy during the Second World War and
suggested that the divorce action was a spurious ploy on her part to win control of Scientology -
'They [Sara and Miles Hollister] obtained considerable newspaper publicity, none of it true, and
employed the highest priced divorce attorney in the US to sue me for divorce and get the foundation
in Los Angeles in settlement. This proved a puzzle since where there is no legal marriage, there
can't be any divorce.'
When the agent had finished reading, he asked Alexis if she had any questions. She asked in a
small voice if she could sec the statement. He refused. Mustering what composure she could, she
said that what she had heard was self-explanatory and asked him to leave. Alexis made no further
attempts to see her father.[11]
At around this time, another young woman began causing problems for the Commodore. Susan
Meister, a twenty-three-year-old from Colorado, had joined the crew of the Apollo in February 1971,
having been introduced to Scientology by friends while she was working in San Francisco. When
she arrived on the ship she was a typically eager and optimistic convert and wrote home frequently,
urging her family to 'get into' Scientology. 'I just had an auditing session,' she wrote on 5 May. 'I feel
great, great, great and my life is expanding, expanding and it's all Scientology. Hurry up! Hurry,
hurry. Be a friend to yourselves - get into this stuff now. It's more precious than gold, it's the best
thing that's ever ever ever ever come along. Love, Susan.'
By the time of her next letter, on 15 June, the Commodore's conspiracy theories had clearly made
an impression. 'I can't tell you exactly where we are. We have enemies who . . . do not wish to see
us succeed in restoring freedom and self-determination to this planet's people. If these people
were to find out where we were located they would attempt to destroy us . . .'
Ten days later, when the Apollo was docked in the Moroccan port of Safi, Susan Meister locked
herself in a cabin, put a .22 target revolver to her forehead and pulled the trigger. She was found at
7.35 pm lying across a bunk, wearing the dress her mother had sent her for her birthday, with her
arms crossed and the revolver on her chest. A suicide note was on the floor.
Local police were called, but the death of an American citizen inevitably alerted US consular
officials and exposed the Apollo to the kind of attention that Hubbard had been trying to avoid for
years. Following the Commodore's oft-repeated doctrine, the Sea Org went on to the attack. Susan
Meister, who had seemed a rather quiet and reserved young woman to her friends, was portrayed
as an unstable former drug addict who had made previous attempts at suicide; Peter Warren, the
Apollo's port Captain, hinted that compromising photographs of her had been found.
These smear tactics were soon extended to embrace William Galbraith, the US vice-consul in
Casablanca, who had driven to Safi to make inquiries into the incident. On 13 July, he had lunch
with Warren and Joni Chiriasi, another member of the crew, at the Sidi Bouzid restaurant in Safi
before being taken to look round the ship. Afterwards, Warren and Chiriasi both signed affidavits
accusing Galbraith of threatening the ship - 'He said that if the ship became an embarrassment to
the United States, Nixon would order the CIA to sink or sabotage it.' Galbraith also allegedly
referred to the Church of Scientology as a 'bunch of kooks' and speculated that the ship was being
used as a brothel or a casino or for drug-trafficking.
Next day, Norman Starkey, captain of the Apollo, forwarded copies of the affidavits to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, with a covering letter complaining that Galbraith had
threatened 'to murder the vessel's company of 380 men, women and children, many of whom are
Americans'. Letters were also sent to John Mitchell, the Attorney General, and to the Secret Service,