Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

On 15 July, in the middle of the night, a Dodge station wagon pulled out through the high gates of
Olive Tree Ranch. To ensure it was not followed, the car showed no lights until it reached Highway
111, the main road between Indio and Palm Springs. Hubbard was slouched on the back seat of
the car, grasping his midriff and complaining of stomach pains. With him were three messengers,
Diane Reisdorf, Claire Rousseau and one of the few male messengers, Pat Broeker. They headed
north on Interstate 5, turning east at Sacramento, across the Sierra Nevada and the state line,
through Reno to Sparks, a city of low-rent houses, casinos and motels, situated on the Truckee
River. The sun was just rising when they checked into a motel under false names. Their story was
that Pat and Claire were married, Diane was their cousin and Hubbard their elderly uncle.
While Hubbard stayed in his room at the motel, Pat went out to look for an apartment. He quickly
found somewhere suitably anonymous, paid cash and equipped it with everything they would need
for an indefinite stay. The four of them moved in a few days later.
For the remainder of 1977, Hubbard stayed in hiding at Sparks. He cut off all direct
communications with the Guardian's Office and his family and relied on his three messengers to
maintain secret links with the Church hierarchy. It was not long before they began to run out of
money and elaborate arrangements were made for the transfer of cash from Clearwater. Pat
Broeker met theDCO/CMO/CW (Deputy Commanding Officer, Commodore's Messenger
Organization, Clearwater) at Los Angeles airport where they exchanged identical suitcases.
Broeker collected a case containing one million dollars in hundred-dollar bills and returned to
Sparks, frequently doubling back to ensure he was not being followed. To further launder the
money, the bills were broken down into lower denomination notes in local casinos.
For a man whose activities were under intense investigation by the FBI, Hubbard seemed
remarkably insouciant. Most mornings he took a long walk, then spent the rest of the day writing
film scripts. He had an idea for a feature film called Revolt in the Stars, a dramatization of high-level
Scientology training about events which happened seventy-five million years ago when an evil ruler
by the name of Xenu massacred the populations of seventy-six planets, transported their frozen
spirits back to earth and exploded them in volcanoes. He also wanted to make films that could be
used for recruiting and instruction within the church and the more he thought about the idea of
being a film director, the more he liked it. He was sixty-six years old and had only ever shot home
movies, but he did not consider his age or lack of experience to be any kind of drawback.
A few days after Christmas 1977, word arrived at Sparks that the Commodore was unlikely to be
indicted as a result of the FBI raid and he decided it was safe to move back to La Quinta. There was
just one problem. He suspected that Mary Sue was still under FBI surveillance, so if he returned to
Olive Tree Ranch, she would have to move out.
Hubbard arrived back at the ranch on the morning of 2 January 1978 to the ritual rapturous
welcome from his followers. He spent a number of hours with Mary Sue behind the closed doors of
his study. No one knew what passed between them, but Mary Sue left the ranch that evening at the
wheel of her BMW. Next day, Doreen Smith was sent to Los Angeles to help her look for a house.
With the Commodore's return, security was stepped up. Guards with walkie-talkies patrolled the
property day and night and were drilled on how to deal with process servers. If a visitor asked for Mr
Hubbard, they were to deny all knowledge of him; if someone tried to press papers on them, they
were to kick them away. In a real emergency, a button on every walkie-talkie would set off alarms all
around the property. At the back of Rifle, a tan-coloured Dodge Dart with a souped-up engine and a
full tank of petrol was kept ready for a getaway at all times.