Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Broeker also directed, apparently at the behest of the absent Commodore, a massive corporate
reorganization of the Church of Scientology, ostensibly designed to further shield Hubbard from
legal liabilities and to ensure that the income flowing to him from the church, then running at about
$1 million a week, could never be traced.[1] He was assisted by his friend and fellow messenger
David Miscavige, a ruthless and ambitious nineteen-year-old who had learned management
technique at the Commodore's knee, as a cameraman in the Cine Org. Miscavige was small, slight
and asthmatic, but his lack of stature did not prevent him from adopting Hubbard's principle that the
way to get things done was to browbeat subordinates by bellowing and threatening. His strutting
figure became widely feared at Gilman Hot Springs and at the former Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
in Los Angeles, recently purchased by the church for its new headquarters.
Many long-serving senior Scientologists were purged during the re-structuring and none had
redress to Hubbard, for the messengers controlled his communication lines. Apart from the
Broekers, Miscavige was said to be the only other Scientologist privy to the Commodore's location,
although most of the staff at Gilman knew that Ron could not be far away because it only took Pat
Broeker four or five hours to make the round trip from Gilman to Ron's hide-out.
During this upheaval, no one could be sure if it was really Hubbard who was issuing the orders or,
indeed, if it was his ultimate intention that the messengers should take over control. In letters to
those who had formerly been close to him, he gave no hint that he was juggling with the massive
and complex structure of Scientology. 'Dearest Do,' he wrote to Doreen Smith in June 1980, 'life is a
bit dull for me . . . I'll have to get up and get my wits to work to find something advantageous to do,
so this is just a hello really. I hope you and the others are well and doing well . . .'[2]
David Mayo also received a number of letters from Hubbard and began to worry about his state of
mind. 'In the first paragraph of one letter he said something like, "You might think I've gone crazy,
but I'm still OK, just believe what I say is true." I remember thinking, God, whatever's coming must
be pretty weird. It was real demented stuff, berating psychiatrists and claiming they were the root of
all evil, not just on this planet but since time immemorial. He had it figured out that back in the
beginning of the universe, psychiatrists created evil on a particular star system. When I read it I
thought my God, he is crazy! He can exhort me not to think he's crazy, but this letter belies it.'[3]
In May 1981, when the purge was well under way and the messengers were consolidating their
power, Miscavige moved to oust Mary Sue as Controller. He first chipped away at her position by
making it known among her friends that Ron wanted her out. Then, at a stormy meeting in Mary
Sue's office, Miscavige told the Commodore's wife that she was an embarrassment to the church,
that she was certain to lose the appeal against her prison sentence and that it was important for
the public image of the church that she be disciplined. Mary Sue lost her temper, screamed and
raged at the upstart messenger and at one point threw an ashtray at him. But Miscavige stood his
ground in the full knowledge that Mary Sue's position was hopeless. Without being able to count on
her husband's support, she had no alternative but to step down. Afterwards she wrote bitter letters
of complaint to Ron, but she suspected they were never delivered.[4] Miscavige would later
complete his humiliation of the Hubbard family by having Arthur and Suzette ejected from Gilman
Hot Springs as 'security risks' and appointing Suzette as his personal maid at the Cedars
complex.[5]
Mary Sue's resignation as Controller was not announced until September, when the church issued
a press release piously justifying the 'shake-up' as a reaction to the indictments resulting from
Operation Snow White and admitting that the Guardian's Office 'went adrift' by engaging in a battle
with the federal government.