by Sands Hall
The loss of nameless things
91.The title of Bill Rose’s documentary is a line in Oakley’s play Grinder’s Stand. Meriwether Lewis is speaking with the recently widowed Mrs. Grinder. The play is written in blank verse.
lewis: I’ll toast, ma’am. But I do not drink strong liquor.
It affects me strangely, and quite fast.
mrs. g: You are no gentleman if you condemn
a lady to drink whiskey by herself.
lewis: In that case, ma’am, I’ll risk embarrassment.
But if I start to weep, please understand:
I am in mourning, too.
mrs. g: Have you lost someone?
lewis: Some thing, although I’m not sure what it was.
I had it, on the trail to Oregon,
but sometime after that, it disappeared.
mrs. g: I’ll drink to that: the loss of nameless things.
Pilgrimage Season
92.That David Miscavige catapulted to the top of the Church so immediately and unexpectedly after Hubbard “dropped his body” was part of what led me to follow link after link regarding that death. Most of the following is based on Robert Vaughn Young’s description of what happened during the days surrounding Hubbard’s death, which is available on the website Operation Clambake, a site set up in 1996 by Andreas Heldal-Lund to debunk Scientology. Also on this site is the link to the coroner’s report from which I quote below, as well as information about the drug Vistaril, an antipsychotic given to Hubbard in the days before he died. Heldal-Lund, Andreas. (n.d.) www.xenu.net/archive/hubbardcoroner (accessed July 31, 2017).
Lawrence Wright substantiates these and gives further sad details in Going Clear.
Some of the details surrounding Hubbard’s death seem suspicious, many pathetic. It almost made me weep, that this supposed Operating Thetan of all Operating Thetans, with his vaunted power over Matter, Energy, Space, and Time, who created a religion designed to let its practitioners live “at cause” for all eternity, spent his last years hiding out in a motorhome. The Blue Bird was tucked behind the stables at Star Ranch, 160 acres near San Luis Obispo. Loyal Pat and Annie Broeker attended to housekeeping tasks. They served Hubbard well, but he lived in that trailer all alone.
The week before he died, Hubbard appears to have suffered a stroke. Perhaps because of this, his personal physician, Dr. Gene Denk, injected him with Vistaril. Used to relieve nausea and insomnia, Vistaril is also known to calm the “acutely disturbed or hysterical patient.” Some ex-Scientologists find it the highest of ironies that at the end of his life Hubbard would rely on a “psychiatric” drug. Others argue that the drug was used merely to help him sleep.
Whatever the case, the night Hubbard died, less than a week after that stroke, Dr. Denk was nowhere near his patient. He was in Lake Tahoe, having been taken there for a weekend of fun and gambling by David Miscavige. The timing of this vacation is, at the very least, interesting. The coroner’s report can be found at the abovementioned link and is a public document, available from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office. Coroner’s file #8936.
The report states that L. Ron Hubbard was seventy-four when he died, on January 24, 1986.
. . . The body shows abundant reddish-white facial hair and eyebrows of reddish-white color. Scalp hair is long, thinning, receding at the forehead and of greyish-white color. Reddish-white body hair is present on the surface. Fingernails are long, unkempt. Nail beds are of bluish-red discoloration. Toenails are long, unkempt, and there is a bluish-red cyanosis present. The back is covered by livores. There is a bandaide [sic] affixed to the right gluteal area where 10 recent needle marks are recognized of 5–8 cm. There are no abnormalities upon inspection of the back. The body is without bruises or injuries or palpable masses.
The toenails—“long, unkempt”—particularly sadden me. Not long before Dad died, Brett realized that when rolling over in the night, he sometimes scratched open his own parchment-thin skin with the jagged edges of his toenails. On the porch of their house, she arranged a chair and a bowl of warm water in which to soak his feet, and she sawed away at those thick nails as he stared out over the lawn and sipped a glass of wine. It was a most loving act. I was struck that no matter the care Hubbard might have been provided, or the money he could have lavished on that care, that act of intimate affection was simply not available to him.
Because Scientologists view the body as a kind of “shell,” of no use without the spirit/thetan activating it, the next sentence in the coroner’s report strikes me as peculiar:
Post mortem examination was refused because of religious reasons.
Details such as this one, and quite a number of others found in the coroner’s report and other legal documents describing the circumstances surrounding Hubbard’s death, make it hard for me not to imagine foul play—if not connected to the death itself, then in what was done regarding his body.
And especially in regards to his will, which was altered twenty-four hours before his death.
Also, although he died at 8:00 p.m., it was not until the following morning that an attorney, Mr. Cooley, reported it. It’s easy to imagine the scurrying that may have taken place during those hours: Cooley zipping down to Star Ranch from Los Angeles, Dr. Denk and Miscavige hustling back from Tahoe.
The author of the coroner’s report certainly appears to feel something is amiss. He refers to himself as Writer—as in, “Writer asked Mr. Cooley if the decedent had executed a Last Will and Testament.”
Mr. Cooley stated that he had the decedent’s will in his possession. That a Mr. Norman F. Starke . . . was named as executor.
Writer telephones the sheriff’s department and gets a deputy (Deputy Gasset, whose own report makes for interesting reading) to head out to Star Ranch; he asks another deputy to telephone Starke and “obtain his permission to release custody of the ranch to Mr. Cooley.”
Upon completion of the assignment Deputy telephoned writer to report his observations. Deputy Gassett reported that there was nothing suspicious about the scene but that the copy of the Last Will and Testament revealed that the Will was dated January 23, 1986, one day prior to decedent’s death.
Curiouser and curiouser. At this point,
Writer decided to reconsider the matter and instead of permitting the doctor to certify the cause of death, writer ordered an autopsy performed. The decision was not based on whether or not Dr. Denk has properly diagnosed the immediate cause of death, but to avoid possible questions pertaining to the cause of death and whether or not the decedent was of sound mind when he signed his Last Will and Testament, should this be challenged in a civil court.
One thinks Writer is thinking clearly, and is grateful to him.
In addition to the reason Writer decides to “reconsider the matter”—that is, the recently dated will—one could also have misgivings about the motivation behind that other document, signed and witnessed January 20, just four days before Hubbard’s death, attesting to his spiritual beliefs regarding autopsy.
The attorneys—there are two of them by the time Hubbard’s body arrives at the mortuary—present that document, but agree to a toxicology test. This test, completed, indicates that while trace amounts of Vistriol can be noted, there is nothing to indicate suicide or foul play.
Nevertheless, a whole lot of things certainly changed quickly and without explanation. After years of being named as executor in Hubbard’s will, Norman Starke doesn’t wind up in that position. Pat Broeker and his wife, Annie—Loyal Officers #1 and #2—are mysteriously whisked out of sight. Pat leaves the Church altogether. Annie finds herself in the RPF, where she is sighted looking hollow-eyed and “broken,” and is never again seen outside of Scientology’s desert compound near Hemet, California. (For more on what happened to Annie Broeker, see Note 93.)
A dozen more troubling, suspicious matters unfold on the way to you
ng Miscavige being named, just a week later, leader of the Church of Scientology.
However, far more knowledgeable people than I have sifted through these and many other documents and have been unable to substantiate foul play.
The last paragraph of the coroner’s report reads:
Writer, accompanied by Dr. Denk, took the specimen to the Sierra Vista Hospital where the toxicology studies were performed. The results of the toxicology studies revealed no presence of any substance that would be contributory to the decedent’s death. Dr. Denk accompanied writer back to the mortuary where writer thanked the attorneys for their understanding and cooperation. The body was released to their custody.
One can imagine the scene: Writer—who signs this fascinating document Jon Hines, Chief Deputy Coroner—intent on making absolutely sure nothing untoward has gone on; the attorneys and Dr. Denk hoping to God nothing has (or, if it has, that they waited long enough before reporting the death to have it disappear). Disappointment and relief in equal measure at the benign toxicology reports. Shaking of hands, tense and male. Writer wondering if perhaps he imagined something, maybe worried about what he may have missed; attorney and doctor scurrying back to the mortuary to see to the immediate cremation of Hubbard’s body.
93.See Tony Ortega’s excellent piece of investigative journalism in The Village Voice: www.villagevoice.com/2012/01/30/death-of-a-scientologist-why-annie-broeker-famous-in-the-church-had-to-die-in-secret (accessed July 31, 2017).
94.Many have described disturbing incidents that characterize Miscavige’s abusive nature: Lawrence Wright’s well-documented and clear-eyed Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, as well as Tony Ortega in his blog, The Underground Bunker; Mark Headley, in his memoir, Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology; Marty Rathbun, in his blog, Moving On Up a Little Higher, as well as in several of his books; Mike Rinder in his blog, Something Can Be Done About It. The Church denies all these allegations.
Who never left her brother for dead
95.Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library. Novato, CA. 2008.
In this seminal volume, first published in 1949, Campbell describes the basic pattern of the “hero’s journey”: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”
96.Campbell, Joseph. “The Self as Hero.” Pathways to Bliss. New World Library. Novato, CA. 2004.
Treasure
97.See notes 54 and 61.
98.See notes 56, 57, and 58.
99.There are numerous reports of the tactics Church management employed to accomplish this, including ones found in Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, and in the documentary based on Wright’s book, Going Clear, directed by Alex Gibney.
100.squander. As the meaning seemed quite clear from context, it took a long time before I looked it up: “To spend or use money or time extravagantly or wastefully; to use up needlessly or foolishly, to lose. Thought to be an obsolete form of scatter.” Also, Tony Ortega’s terrific piece of journalistic investigation, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology Tried to Destroy Paulette Cooper. In the process of revealing the lengths to which the Church is willing to go to harass and terrify its critics, Ortega also lays out the timeline of Scientology’s infiltration of the IRS. A chilling and compelling read.
Afterword: Disconnection
101.In 2016, Leah Remini launched a television show on A&E called Scientology and the Aftermath, in which, as its website states, “along with high-level former Scientology executives and members, [she] relates shocking stories of abuse and harassment alleged by ex-practitioners who claim their lives have been affected even well after they left the organization.” In September 2017, Scientology and the Aftermath’s first season won an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Series.
102.Mark “Marty” Rathbun’s memoir is called Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. A former senior executive in the Church, he left Scientology in 2004 and for years was an Independent Scientologist. His blog, Moving On Up a Little Higher, which for more than a decade was committed to attacking the Church, now addresses broader issues of communication and information. Tony Ortega writes about what may be, in fact, Rathbun’s intriguing about-face: Ortega, Tony. “Memories of a Scientology Warrior: Marty Rathbun’s Curious Career as a Church Rebel.” March 14, 2017. www.tonyortega.org/2017/03/14/memories-of-a-scientology-warrior-marty-rathbuns-curious-career-as-church-rebel/ (accessed November 21, 2017).
103.Mike Rinder, in his blog, Something Can Be Done About It, offers a thorough discussion of the Church’s contradictory policies regarding disconnection: Rinder, Mark. February 28, 2017. www.mikerindersblog.org/scientology-disconnection-policy-exposed (accessed July 31, 2017).
104.The Greek word for spirit, psyche, descends, ultimately, from the idea of breath, as does its word for soul, pneuma.
105.liberal: www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=liberal (accessed September 14, 2017).
© Graham Hayes
about the author
sands hall is the author of the novel Catching Heaven, a Willa Award Finalist for Best Contemporary Fiction, and a Random House Reader’s Circle selection; and of a book of craft essays and writing exercises, Tools of the Writer’s Craft. She teaches at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, and is an associate teaching professor at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Sands lives in Nevada City.