Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (65 page)

In an attempt to discredit Armstrong’s testimony, the Church
produced surreptitiously made videotapes. One of Armstrong’s former friends had
been ordered to see him, claiming to have left the Church. He encouraged
Armstrong to talk about potential methods of taking over and reforming the
Scientology Church. The conversations were recorded. Judge Donald Londer
refused to admit them as evidence, and said, “I think they are devastating,
devastating against the church.” He expressed doubts that the tapes were made
with proper legal authority, and added that the method used to make the tapes
“borders more on entrapment than anything else.”
⁹

However, a few days later, Londer allowed the jury to see
the entire 108 minutes of videotape, so the context could be seen, rather than
allowing cross-examination based upon excerpts. He overruled Titchbourne’s
attorney, Garry McMurry, who said the tapes had been made in violation of civil
and criminal laws in both Oregon and California (where they were actually
recorded). During the taped conversations Armstrong had admitted that he was
capable of “creating documents” relating to the actions of the current
management, and placing them in Church files. There was no evidence that he had
ever undertaken such a project.
¹⁰

Three more hours of tape were submitted by the Church, and
viewed by the jury. In a twist of fate, the day after the last tape was played,
the Internal Revenue Service was given authorization to use the tapes in its
case against Scientology.
¹¹

Martin Samuels gave devastating testimony. As the head of
the Mission involved in the case, he had been a principal witness in the
earlier trial. His life had been torn apart after the San Francisco Mission Holders’
Conference in 1982. By the time of the new trial, he had brought his own case
against Hubbard, also in Portland, for $72 million. Before testifying, he was
denied immunity from criminal prosecution for committing perjury at the 1979
Christofferson trial. On the stand, he said representations made by him that
his Portland Mission had not been connected to the national Scientology organization
were false. He also said that Scientology witnesses had been coached to lie
before the original trial, in what he called a “witness college.” In the
original trial, the Church had carefully constructed a fabric of lies, just as
they had proposed to do in the Guardian’s Office trial before Meisner’s surrender
to the FBI.
¹²

Defense witnesses testified to the benefits of Scientology
on their lives. The Church claimed that their First Amendment rights were being
violated, and that religion was being put on trial. On May 18, 1985, after two
days of deliberation, the jury awarded $39 million dollars in damages: $20
million against Hubbard, $17.5 million against the Church of Scientology of
California, and $1.5 million against the Church of Scientology Mission of
Davis.

During the trial, the Scientologists had waged an
advertising blitz in newspapers and on local radio and television stations and
this continued with the “Crusade for Religious Freedom.” Two jurors told the
press that the advertising had not influenced their decision. Jurors also
claimed that they had not been influenced by threatening phone calls they had
received during the trial from callers claiming to be Scientologists.

A Church spokeswoman told the press, “This is a bizarre plot
to destroy the Church. They [the jurors] decided that religion as practiced by
Scientology is not protected by the Constitution. Throughout the case we
demonstrated beyond a doubt the government’s involvement in a conspiracy
against the Church.”
¹³

Scientology attorneys immediately moved for a mistrial.
Within a few days, bus-loads of Scientologists were arriving in Portland to
protest the decision. A candlelit parade was arranged, and Scientologist celebrities,
including John Travolta, gave talks. A Church spokesman’s estimate that half a
million protesters would turn up proved to be grossly exaggerated: Chick Corea
performed to a crowd of about 2,000 Scientologists in Portland. For weeks,
protesters marched in front of the Courthouse, calling themselves the “Crusade
for Religious Freedom,” and carrying banners proclaiming “Save Freedom of
Religion” and “Restore the Bill of Rights.” The protesters listened to vehement
speeches given by Scientology officials, and punctuated them with choruses of
“We shall overcome.” The rhetoric of Church spokespeople was strident: “This is
akin to burning a witch, to nailing somebody to a cross - an outright attempt
to exterminate a religious group,” for example. It was said that deprogrammers
had turned Julie Christofferson-Titchbourne into a “mindless robot.”
¹⁴

The Scientologists kept up what seemed to be senseless
pressure. Nonetheless, trial Judge Donald Londer’s decision, given two months
after the jury ruling, came as a surprise. He declared a mistrial, on the
grounds that he had failed to strike remarks made by
Christofferson-Titchbourne’s attorney that Scientology was not a religion from
the record. Consequently, it had been represented to the jury that they could
punish Scientology for purely religious beliefs. He also criticized the
attorney’s characterization of Scientology as a terrorist group and of Hubbard
as a sociopath.
¹⁵

The Church was triumphant. In October 1985, the
International Association of Scientologists (IAS) celebrated its first
anniversary with a rally in Copenhagen. It was announced that the Church had an
international staff of over 8,500, many of whom were members of the Association;
the Association’s total membership numbered 12,000. Even before the rift the
Church probably had less than 50,000 members, despite its claims of six
million. As membership of the IAS is the official membership of the Church of
Scientology, the figures are very revealing. They had probably lost half of their
membership in the schism.
¹⁶

In November, the Scientologists named David Mayo in another
suit. Larry Wollersheim, a former member, had brought litigation against the
Church in Los Angeles. In the case, the Judge had ruled that the OT3 materials
should go into evidence. In the United States, documents put into evidence
generally become publicly available, and on the morning of November 4, about
1,500 Church Scientologists crammed three floors of the Courthouse in an
attempt to block public access to their confidential “scriptures.” The
Los
Angeles Times
managed to thwart the blockade, obtained the materials, and
published a brief account of OT3, which was enthusiastically taken up by
newspapers throughout the US. A long account of Scientology, including information
about the Guardian’s Office and the OT levels was distributed anonymously at
about the same time. The Church filed suit against Wollersheim and Mayo in the
US District Court to prevent further distribution of “confidential” materials.

On November 23, 1985, to the amazement of many, the Court
issued a temporary injunction enjoining defendants from the use or distribution
of any of the OT levels beyond OT3, in any way whatsoever. It meant little to
Larry Wollersheim, who had no use for materials which he claimed were
brainwashing, but Mayo’s Advanced Ability Center relied upon his version of
these levels for a fair proportion of its income. The Santa Barbara AAC was
thus prevented from practicing what the Church had insisted was the “religion
of Scientology.” Ironically, Mayo had pioneered the development of these
particular forbidden scriptures in an attempt to save Hubbard’s life. It took almost
a year for the injunction to be removed, by which time Mayo’s group had been
driven out of business. In Hubbard’s words, “the purpose of the suit is to
harass and discourage rather than to win.”
¹⁷
When the injunction was
finally overturned, the Appeal Judges ruled that “the Church’s contention that
the disputed materials are ‘religious scripture’ was not reconciled with the
California statute’s reference to ‘economic value’ as an element of a protectable
trade secret.”
¹⁸
In other words, the Church could not have it both
ways, religious scriptures are not business trade secrets. Subsequently,
however, a judge has ruled that this issue is triable.

1.
   
HCOB “False Purpose Rundown series 1”, 5 June 1984.

2.
   
Office of Special Affairs Executive Directive 19, 20 September 1984.

3.
   
Church of Scientology of California v Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
docket no. 3352-78, decision of 24 September 1984.

4.
   
Los Angeles Times
, 19 May 1985.

5.
   
The Oregon Journal
, 3 May 1982.

6.
   
The Oregonian
, 12 March 1985.

7.
   
The Oregonian
, 21 & 22 March 1985.

8.
   
The Oregonian
, 18 May 1985.

9.
   
The Oregonian
, 5 April 1985.

10.
 
The
Oregonian
, 11 & 13 April 1985.

11.
 
The
Oregonian
, 17 & 20 April 1985.

12.
 
The
Oregonian
, 23 April 1985.

13.
 
Los
Angeles Times
, 19 May 1985.

14.
 
The
Oregonian
, 20 May 1985.

15.
 
The
Clearwater Sun
, 17 July 1985.

16.
 
Impact
issue 4, p.12; Impact issue 13. A 1987 International Association of
Scientologists promotional booklet says that there were only 24,000 paid up
members.

17.
 
Technical
Bulletins
, vol.2, p.157.

18.
 
Opinion
of 8 August 1986.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“We will meet again later”

—L.
Ron Hubbard, Flag Order 3879,
The Sea Org and the Future
,

19
January 1986

The Independent Scientology movement owed its origins in
part to the uncertainty surrounding Hubbard’s disappearance in 1980. There was
an unwillingness to ascribe the bizarre actions of Church management to the
Founder. Many Independents thought Hubbard had died, or even been murdered, and
that his name was being used to maintain the authority of the young rulers. It
was the new management’s apparent betrayal of Hubbard’s principles that
persuaded many to leave the Church, so that they could better realize what they
considered to be Hubbard’s aims. Conversely, many of those who stayed in the
Church must have believed that the new management really did represent Hubbard.
They were almost certainly right.

Rumors of Hubbard’s whereabouts circulated freely. He was on
Catalina Island, or in Missouri; he had taken to the sea again, or was in
Ireland. News of repeated applications for entry to Britain (which were always
turned down) led to the belief that he was trying to return to Saint Hill. In
1985, two
Los Angeles Times
journalists bruited it about that Hubbard
was just north of Santa Barbara. They came closer than anyone else.

Hubbard died at 8:00 PM on Friday, January 24, at his ranch
near Creston, in California.
¹
He was attended by his doctor, Eugene
Denk, and at least two other Scientologists. Church attorney Earle Cooley, who
had defended against the Christofferson-Titchbourne suit, was informed. He
advised that nothing be done before his arrival from Los Angeles, when he took
charge. Cooley was with Hubbard’s body from that moment until the ashes were
scattered at sea.

The body was kept at the ranch for over 11 hours before
being collected by Reis Chapel mortuary in San Luis Obispo on Saturday morning.
The mortuary notified the coroner’s office, concerned that Cooley had made a
request for immediate cremation. Dr. Denk reported that Hubbard had died
“several days” after suffering a brain hemorrhage, and indicated on the death
certificate that the cause of death was a “cerebral vascular accident,” a
stroke.

George Whiting, the county coroner, said that in such a
“straightforward case” there would not normally have been any investigation,
but because of the delay in notification, Chief Deputy Coroner Don Hines
photographed the body, and took fingerprints. He was accompanied by pathologist
Karl Kirschner, who examined the body for marks, and found none. He accompanied
Hubbard’s physician, Dr. Denk, to a laboratory to test blood samples.

Whiting has said that although the evidence supported a
finding of death by natural causes, he would like to have performed an autopsy.
He claimed to be prevented from doing so under California law, because four
days before his death Hubbard had signed a legal document saying an autopsy
would be against his religious beliefs. A will, written the day before he died,
was also presented, and the district attorney was consulted, as one of the
chapel employees put it, “They wanted to make sure this wasn’t a scam.”

The blood samples showed acceptable levels of anti-stroke
medication, but no “harmful” levels of drugs. Coroner Whiting said the fingerprints
were matched with sets obtained from the Department of Justice and the FBI, and
concluded: “The person we fingerprinted was Hubbard.”

The Coroner’s office released the body to Denk and Cooley,
who attended the cremation. Cooley said that the ashes had been scattered at
sea by 3.40pm that day, Saturday, January 25.

Church officials claimed that although Hubbard had suffered
a stroke the week before his death, he was lucid when he amended his will the
day before he died. The change was allegedly in favor of members of his family.
Cooley told the press that Hubbard had left a “very generous provision” for his
wife Mary Sue, and for “certain of his children.” He said that the remaining
“tens of millions of dollars” would go to the Church of Scientology.