Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Chapter 22
Missing, Presumed Dead
'I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false.' (Ron DeWolf,
formerly L. Ron Hubbard Junior, May 1982)
• • • • •
Under a portrait of a benign L. Ron Hubbard, an officer of the Sea Org hands out certificates at
Gilman Hot Springs in 1981. The founder of Scientology had already gone to ground.
For nearly six years, no one knew where L. Ron Hubbard was hiding or whether he was dead or
alive. He was hunted high and low by television and newspaper reporters, federal investigators and
law officers: none of them unearthed a single clue to his whereabouts. Mary Sue, his loyal and
loving wife for more than twenty-five years, did not know where her husband was, neither did their
children. The Commodore had effectively vanished.
After Hubbard skipped from Hemet with the Broekers, the apartments were closed. Once all the
papers and personal effects had been packed and moved out, a working party cleaned each
apartment with an alcohol solution to remove fingerprints, carefully wiping down all the walls,
fixtures, door knobs, shelves, windows and mirrors. Pat Broeker, acting on Ron's orders,
supervised the operation.