Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 21
Making Movies
'The crime committed by these defendants is of a breadth and scope previously unheard of. No
building, office, desk or file was safe from their snooping and prying. No individual or organization
was free from their despicable conspiratorial minds. The tools of their trade were miniature
transmitters, lock picks, secret codes, forged credentials, and any other device they found
necessary to carry out their conspiratorial schemes. It is interesting to note that the founder of their
organization, unindicted co-conspirator L. Ron Hubbard, wrote in his dictionary entitled Modern
Management Technology Defined that, "Truth is what is true for you." Thus, with the founder's
blessings, they could wantonly commit perjury as long as it was in the interests of Scientology.'
(Government sentencing memorandum on Mary Sue Hubbard, et al, October 1978)
• • • • •
At Olive Tree Ranch, everything changed after Quentin's death. The Commodore's all-too-brief
bonhomie disappeared and he reverted to the familiar bellowing, foul-mouthed tyrant, plagued by
phobias, surrounded by fools and besieged by enemies.
When he was in the throes of a tantrum, he often looked deranged, with his long, unkempt hair,
glaring eyes and flecks of saliva around his mouth. But no one would risk even thinking such a
thing, lest it show up during auditing. There was a particularly feared phenomenon on the E-meter
called a 'rock slam', when the needle wavered violently, apparently indicating a discreditable
thought. 'Rock slams' almost inevitably led to long periods of incarceration in an RPF, by then a
feature of most of the major orgs.
For those Scientologists who had only ever seen the dozen official pictures of L. Ron Hubbard,
seeing him for the first time at La Quinta was something of a shock, as Anne Rosenblum
discovered when she arrived to start training as a messenger: 'The first night I was there I didn't talk
to LRH since he was busy, but I saw him. He had long reddish-gray hair down past his shoulders,
rotting teeth and a really fat gut. He didn't look anything like his pictures. The next day I met him. He
was doing exercises in his courtyard and called me over. I was nervous meeting him. I was really
surprised that I didn't feel this "electric something or another" that I was told happens when you are
around him.'
Anne had been told that both Mary Sue's pet dogs were 'clear' and that they would bark at anyone
who had committed 'overts' (crimes) about the Hubbards. She was dismayed when she walked
into Rifle for the first time and one of the dogs came tearing out of Mary Sue's room, barking
furiously at her. 'I started walking around wondering what deep, dark terrible overts I had committed
on LRH or Mary Sue in this life or past lives.'[1]
Because their loyalty was unquestioned, the messengers knew more about what was going on in
Scientology than anyone other than Hubbard and Mary Sue. They knew all about Operation Snow
White, for example, because the Hubbards often discussed its Machiavellian twists and turns over
dinner. They were also privy to the family's intimate secrets. One afternoon, while Hubbard was
away from his office, Doreen Smith came across a pile of letters Quentin had written to his father.
She was surprised: she knew the Commodore had not replied to any of them because all his mail
went out via the messengers.