Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

young kids who've never met Hubbard are sitting there and they obviously think that Hartwell's a liar.
One of them says, "You don't know what you're talking about. You say you actually met Ron
Hubbard . . ." Ernie says, "Yeah, I was with him down in the desert." "Well, if you met him," says the
GO guy, "how would you describe him?" I knew that what he meant was how did Hubbard look, but
Ernie says, "How would I describe him? I'd describe him as fucking nuts."
'My heart was pumping. No one talks like that about LRH. The GO people were stunned. To them it
proved that Ernie was a liar. I said, "Well, Ernie, you don't really mean that he's nuts, do you?" He
says, "Yeah!" So I asked him to give me an example, hoping to tone it down a bit. "Are you kidding?"
He says. "One day we get there and he's playing director with all these kids following him around.
He starts screaming at the wall, he says there's supposed to be shelves there and why aren't there
shelves there. So one of his people turns to me and says put some shelves there. So I say OK, I
need a hammer, nails and wood. Then this fucking kid just says to me make it go right."
'To tell someone "make it go right" was typical Scientology-speak. I knew then that he was telling
the truth.'[9]
Walters liked Ernie Hartwell and tried, over the next couple of days, to dissuade him from carrying
out his threats. 'Next thing that happens,' he said, 'was that the GO sent some people to tell me to
stay out of it. They were going to handle Hartwell. They were not going to allow Hubbard to be
exposed by this man and they insinuated they would destroy him if they had to. Ernie was just a
troubled old guy off the street who should never have been in Scientology in the first place. How
could they think of destroying someone like that? Something just went off inside me.'
Walters began telephoning his closest friends in Scientology, among them Art Maren, to tell them
he was thinking of getting out. Maren rushed to Las Vegas and begged Ed to re-consider. It
dawned on Walters, with a sense of deep shock, that his friend Artie was frightened. Next day
Walters went to the FBI.
Alarm bells were already ringing at Olive Tree Ranch, where someone had been seen taking
photographs of the property. Hubbard reacted as he always reacted in a crisis: he fled.
The chosen getaway vehicle was a white customized Dodge Ram van with darkened windows,
fitted out inside with a bed, CB radio and the latest stereo system. Hubbard had had it made so that
he could sleep on long journeys by road, but it served the purpose for which it was now needed - to
get him out of Olive Tree Ranch unseen.
Kima and Mike Douglas were again chosen to go with him. They left at nightfall, with the
Commodore in his usual state of paranoid hysteria. 'As we drove up into the San Jacinto
Mountains,' said Kima, 'he was lying on the bed in the back, alternately urging Mike to drive faster
and complaining that he was feeling sick. We were already tearing round these hairpin bends as
fast as we could, but he kept repeating, "We've got to get out of here. Go faster, Go faster."'
They checked into an isolated motel up in the mountains and Hubbard stayed in his room while the
Douglas's went out every day looking for a place where they could set up yet another secret base
for the Commodore. They eventually found several adjoining apartments for rent in new building
just off the main street in Hemet, a small town on the west side of the mountains. Hubbard moved
in at the end of March 1979, along with a slimmed-down staff of messengers and aides.
In many ways, Hemet was an ideal place to hide. It was a sleepy little farming town, surrounded by
orange groves and unremarkable in every way except perhaps for its resemblance to a Rockwell