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DOCUMENT TITLE: L. Ron Hubbard disappears suddenly
SUBJECT: Abrupt disappearance of L. Ron Hubbard, purportedly for ten months, but possibly for good.
PARTIES: L. Ron Hubbard; Jim Dincalci, male nurse; Paul Preston, former Green Beret

BACKGROUND AND NOTES

Just a little over two months after the secret contract between CIA and Scientology OT VII and former NSA employee Hal Puthoff et al., L. Ron Hubbard purportedly boards a plane in Madrid, Spain, bound for Chicago, Illinois based on a rumor of possible criminal charges being filed on him in France. He never arrives in Chicago, purportedly deplaning instead in New York City. His whereabouts will be unknown for over 10 months. Many people now believe he was taken into permanent custody by agents of the United States government or was murdered.

The only thing that can be said with certainty is that he was gone for at least 10 months, and when "he" returned to the Flag ship Apollo, berthed at Lisbon, Portugal, neither he nor Scientology were ever the same again. His "return" in approximately September of 1973 was actually the beginning of a series of strange shorter-term disappearances where only a small handful of the same few people were allegedly in his company. He was always more or less secluded after that, and some have characterized the rest of his life has one long form of disappearance. It's also known that he never gave another public recorded lecture, having given over 3,000 prior to his 1972 disappearance. And at least one old friend, Pam Kemp, who encountered "Hubbard" on the ship reported that he was hardly recognizable, and that he didn't seem to recognize her (see "Epilogue" at end of the document below).

The changes that soon followed in his organizations were no less dramatic: The infamous "Snow White" programs and projects suddenly appeared, allegedly written by Hubbard himself while he was missing for ten months as a plan for purging government agencies of "false reports" about him and Scientology. These "Snow White" orders purportedly are what later bring about the destruction of the Guardian Office. The oppressive "Rehabilitation Project Force" is also soon created in Hubbard's name, but all issues ("Flag Orders" and policy letters) on the subject are written by someone else. At almost the same time, a storm of other works not authored by Hubbard--called "Board Technical Bulletins" (BTBs) and "Board Policy Letters" (BPLs)--are issued in the organizations. (These later will be used, in an "assignment" of BTBs and BPLs to the Hubbard estate, as camouflage for transferring all of Hubbard's copyrighted policies back to his estate from where he had long ago assigned them.) Hubbard also never personally produced another actual Scientology book, all subsequent Scientology publications being "based on the works of" compilations, or works written by others.

The one and only account that exists about this "missing ten months," including the assertion that Hubbard wrote the "Snow White" material, is a completely uncorroborated story from male nurse Jim Dincalci, who claims to have been with "Hubbard." Dincalci also claims that a former Special Forces officer named Paul Preston was with them, but no record can be found in any Special Forces alumni rolls or elsewhere of Preston.

Within one month of this sudden disappearance by Hubbard, Meade Emory's tenure with the Joint Committee on Taxation will end, and hardly more than a month later, the IRS will issue an Adminsistrative Summons on one of the most senior officials of the Guardian Office, Deputy Guardian Finance Henning Heldt, and on the Church of Scientology of California--which, as a part of HASI, Inc. owned all of L. Ron Hubbard's intellectual property. Whether or not the sudden Hubbard disappearance is related, the summons is part of a plan devised by Meade Emory and IRS to bring down the Guardian Office and HASI, Inc. in order that IRS can take over Scientology.

We can provide no documentation regarding this disappearance by Hubbard, because there is none, and the only testimony about it--Dincalci's--is entirely unsupported and uncorroborated. All we can do is make this notation about the disappearance here, in it's proper time frame and relationship to other events.

That done, we've also elected to present, for entertainment purposes only, a timeline of other events pursuant to Hubbard's disappearance, one posted anonymously in the usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology. Whether the author's conclusions about what happened are correct or incorrect, and though the timeline in the message wanders afield from the focus of our reports, the timeline itself includes well-researched, if sarcastic, accounts of related events, some of which we have included in our own chronological index of Documents.

Here is the message, called "The Missing Ten Months":



Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: The Missing Ten Months
Date: 12 Feb 1998
Message-ID: <f3e4012c03679bd619d147d5ec34dea5@anonymous.poster>


L. RON HUBBARD--THE MISSING TEN MONTHS

In the next paragraph below is a shocking allegation. You will scoff--at first. You are welcome to scoff. But please read to the end of the document, even if only to prove how righteous you are in scoffing:

On 4 December 1972, L. Ron Hubbard was abducted by agents of the United States government when the plane he was traveling on from Lisbon landed in New York City. Jim Dincalci--a former nurse--and Paul Preston--a former Green Beret--were the only two people with him when it occurred.

LRH was "gone" for ten months, until mid-September 1973 when he "returned" to Flag.

It is Dincalci's testimony that during this MISSING TEN MONTHS, LRH was "hiding out" in Queens, New York--with only Dincalci and Preston as witnesses--and that during this period LRH purportedly wrote the project that launched "Snow White."

It is unknown whether LRH was replaced by a "ringer" during that ten months, or was PDHed and made dependent on pharmaceuticals. What is known is that after his "return," he was never remotely the same, that he never again gave another extemporaneous lecture (which he had done for the twenty-two years prior), and that he never personally wrote another Scientology book.

But here is a sequence of things that DID happen WITHIN JUST OVER A YEAR after the MISSING TEN MONTHS:

MID-SEPTEMBER 1973
"L. Ron Hubbard" returns(?) to the Apollo.

EARLY OCTOBER 1973
Robert Vaughn Young is promoted to the USGO.

EARLY NOVEMBER 1973
Michael Meisner arrives in Washington DC as Director of the Information Bureau in the DC GO

EARLY DECEMBER 1973
Robert Vaughn Young is "assigned to the PR section of the most secret and largest program in the Guardian's Office--the Snow White Program" (his own words).

EARLY DECEMBER 1973
"LRH" has a motorcycle accident on Tenarife in which he breaks an arm and several ribs, is massively bruised, and is put on pain-killers. Dincalci is his medical officer, but the wand then gets passed to Kima Douglas--another former nurse.

EARLY JANUARY 1974
Gerry Armstrong is in place as the Port Captain for the Apollo.

EARLY JANUARY 1974
Michael Meisner is promoted to Assistant Guardian for Information, District of Columbia (A/GI DC)

7 JANUARY 1974
Flag Order 3434 is issued, creating the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF). The Flag Order is not written by LRH, but refers to "The Commodore" having created the RPF. (The subsequent defining issues regarding RPF are not written by LRH either.)

17 JANUARY 1974
First Board Policy Letter (BPL) is issued, establishing those types of issues, and establishing Board Technical Bulletins (BTBs). This is in utter contradiction to long-standing policy on types of issues, and introduces a tremendous confusion as to Source.

EARLY MARCH 1974
Assistant Guardian DC Duke Snider becomes Assistant Guardian for Information for the United States, relocating to Los Angeles (where Robert Vaughn Young is working).

MID SEPTEMBER 1974
Cindy Raymond, Collections Officer for GO US (also in Los Angeles), informs Michael Meisner that she has selected Gerald Wolfe to "infiltrate IRS." (There is absolutely no background given on Wolfe, where he came from, what his qualifications are, what his Scientology credentials are--nothing.)

EARLY OCTOBER 1974
Gerald Wolfe arrives in DC from LA for the express purpose of infiltrating IRS.

7-9 OCTOBER 1974 Jim Dincalci is running a port office in Funchal, Madeira (which should be handling local Public Relations for the Apollo). The Apollo arrives there, and is subsequently driven out of the port by a mob that attacks the ship, believing it is a CIA operation.

10-18 OCTOBER 1974
The Apollo sails to Bermuda for refueling and supplies, and then sails for Charleston, South Carolina. Just off the coast of South Carolina, a coded radio message "from the Guardian's Office" warns "the Commodore" that the FBI are waiting on the dock to meet the ship, so the ship turns back for the Caribbean. (But WHO in the Guardian's Office did the message come from? HOW did they know FBI agents were congregating at Charleston? HOW did the FBI know that the Apollo was headed for Charleston in the first place? None of these obvious questions have been answered. The obvious answer is one or more double agents.)

21 OCTOBER 1974
Guardian Order 1361 is issued, ostensibly by Jane Kember, Guardian WW. According to Michael Meisner, certain targets (target number 10, 16 and 17), were specifically assigned to him to carry out in the District of Columbia. Those targets say:
"10. Immediately get an agent into DC IRS to obtain files on LRH, Scientology, etc. in the Chief Council's [sic] office, the Special Services staff, the intelligence division, Audit Division, and any other areas."
"16. Collect data on the Justice Dept. Tax Division for the org board, the current terminals, and the people handling Scientology.
"17. When the correct areas are isolated, infiltrate and get the files."
(The outpoints in this are legion, but this question begs to be asked: WHY is this Guardian Order issued, put in writing, by Jane Kember AFTER Wolfe has already been selected to infiltrate IRS, and has already been sent to D.C. for this express purpose? Why? WHY? Is anybody, anywhere, REALLY this stupid? [And does Jane Kember, The Guardian WorldWide, REALLY not know how to spell "counsel?" Please!] We're also supposed to believe that Jane Kember, Mary Sue's immediate junior, issued this within three or four days of Mary Sue being on the Apollo during the FBI scare.)

C. 27 OCTOBER 1974
The government's version is: A few days before November 1, 1974, Don Alverzo, Deputy Information Branch I Director US, telephones Michael Meisner from Los Angeles, California, to say that he is coming to the District of Columbia to place an electronic bugging device in the Chief Counsel's conference room at the Internal Revenue Service where a major meeting concerning Scientology is going to be held. (Well, this entry certainly rings true. If you were going to bug the IRS's Chief Counsel's conference room, wouldn't you place a long distance telephone call on open lines to announce it in advance? Well, wouldn't you?)

30 OCTOBER 1974
The government's version is: Michael Meisner meets Don Alverzo at the Guardian's Office located at 2125 S Street, Northwest, in the District of Columbia. Also present at this meeting are Mitchell Hermann and Bruce Ullman (Information Branch II Director DC). Alverzo shows Meisner the bugging device he has brought with him from Los Angeles--a multiple electric outlet containing a transmitting device. In the late afternoon, Meisner and Mitchell Hermann enter the main IRS building located at 1111 Constitution Avenue, Northwest, for the purpose of locating the conference room of the Chief Counsel's office where the meeting is to be held on November 1, 1974. (Why, sure, they just stroll right into the IRS building and snoop around. You believe it. You do. You are getting sleepy, sle-e-e-epy... .)

1 NOVEMBER 1974
Mitchell Hermann enters the main IRS building in the morning, goes to the fourth-floor conference room where the meeting on Scientology is to be held, and places the bugging device (FM transmitter) in a wall socket. Hermann leaves the building and waits in a car with Don Alverzo and Carla Moxon (Assistant Guardian Communicator DC) and overhears and tapes the entire meeting over the FM radio of the car. Following the meeting, Hermann re-enters the building, removes the bug, and takes various papers, including the agenda for the meeting, which had been left by the participants. In the evening, Hermann meets with Meisner and describes what had taken place. (Because of other "pressing business," Meisner hadn't gone with them to the bugging.) (PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN! OR TO THE FACT THAT MITCHELL HERMANN IS ABLE TO GO ANYWHERE HE WANTS TO IN THE IRS BUILDING AND PLANT BUGS WITHOUT ANY PROBLEM! OR TO THE INCORRECTLY-INCLUDED-MOXON! PAY NO ATTENTION!)

11 NOVEMBER 1974
A telex is purportedly sent from AGI DC Michael Meisner to DGI US Duke Snider, via DG US Henning Heldt stating that Gerald Wolfe, the "FSM," has apparently passed the hiring freeze and that they "will know for sure" whether he has received employment by November 18 at the latest. A notation on the telex indicates that it was received on "11.11.74" at "2000" hours (8:00 p.m.). (How did Wolfe get past a hiring freeze? Inside help? There is no explanation for this. Another oddity: November 18 is the exact date that Wolfe is actually hired--according to the government's Stipulation of Evidence. But see also the next entry: a telex purportedly stating that Wolfe has "accepted employment" at IRS.)

14 NOVEMBER 1974
According to the Stipulation of Evidence, a telex is purportedly sent by DGI US Duke Snider to DGI WW Mo Budlong, "Re: GO 1361 Tar [target] 10," saying that despite the national hiring freeze defendant Gerald Wolfe has "accepted employment" at the IRS. (This is odd, because the same Stipulation of Evidence says that Gerald Wolfe got hired at IRS on 18 November. One of these "facts," or both, must be false. The language of the Stipulation is also odd: it says Wolfe "accepted employment," as though it were offered to him, yet there is purportedly a hiring freeze at IRS. It seems that it would say Wolfe was "accepted for employment." A further oddity is that a hiring freeze was violated to take Wolfe on--not as some high-powered specialist who would warrant violating the freeze, but as a clerk typist!)

15 NOVEMBER 1974
A telex received "15.11.74" (November 15, 1974) at "2000" hours (8:00 P.M.) is purportedly sent from Mo Budlong to Duke Snider, the DGI US, congratulating him on the placement of a covert agent [Gerald Wolfe] at IRS.

18 NOVEMBER 1974
Gerald Wolfe gets employed at the IRS as a clerk typist. (For some reason, IRS saw fit to violate its hiring freeze in order to take on...a clerk typist. Go figure. By the way, wonder why all the congratulations were flying back and forth before he actually got hired.)

26 NOVEMBER 1974
CSC files a complaint against Internal Revenue Service, Donald C. Alexander (Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Department of the Treasury of the United States), and William Simon, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, entitled, "Verified Complaint for Injunction Against the Unlawful Withholding of Records and for Order for Production of Records Pursuant to Section 552 of Title 5, United States Code, the Freedom of Information Act." CSC also files a motion for an order to show cause re: preliminary injunction to enjoin withholding of records and compel production of records, with supporting memorandum of points and authorities, and affidavit of the Reverend James C. Mulligan. (Uh, they just got Gerald Wolfe in place inside IRS to get them everything their hearts desire, and they file a COMPLAINT against the COMMISSIONER of IRS and the SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY! Why...oh, never mind.)

C. 2 DECEMBER 1974
Government version: Michael Meisner and Mitchell Hermann enter the IRS building and remain inside until sometime after 7:00 p.m. They then enter offices of the Exempt Organization Division on the seventh floor, remove from the building one file relating to Scientology, and take it to the Guardian's Office and photocopy it. The purpose is "to show Gerald Wolfe that documents can easily be taken from IRS offices." Meisner then calls Duke Snider in Los Angeles and tells him what he and Hermann have accomplished, what documents have been stolen. He tells Snider that this proves conclusively the ease with which documents can be taken from the IRS. (No exact date for this incident; just "During the first week of December 1974." The date almost HAS to be 2 December, which is a Monday. It can't be 1 December, which is a Sunday, and by Wednesday, 4 December, copies of whatever were taken are allegedly already in Los Angeles! If it was so easy for them to get documents, why did they need Wolfe employed there? Also, the entry for 4 December 1974 says Wolfe was with them on this trip; this just names Meisner and Hermann as going.)

C. 3 DECEMBER 1974
Government version: Mitchell Hermann returns the file on Scientology--which he and Michael Meisner had stolen the day before--to the IRS files. (Ri-i-i-i-ght. Just strolled in, slipped it back into a filing cabinet, and strolled back out. The Stipulation of Evidence doesn't say ANYTHING about HOW Hermann did this; uh, he just, uh, DID--that's all! One small problem, though, is that according to the 4 December 1974 entry, he had to stroll in with a file that was at LEAST TEN INCHES THICK!)

4 DECEMBER 1974
A telex purportedly is sent on December 4, 1974 at "2200" hours by DGI US Duke Snider to DGI WW Mo Budlong regarding "GO 1361 TAR 10." The telex informs Mr. Budlong that Snider has received "two shipments from DC...about ten inches" thick containing documents which "Mitchell Hermann, Gerald Wolfe and Michael Meisner" had stolen from the IRS. (The Stipulation of Evidence says only Hermann and Meisner--not Wolfe--had entered the IRS building, and they had only taken "one file" [see entry for 2 December 1974]. That file, then, had to have been AT LEAST TEN INCHES THICK--MAYBE EVEN TWENTY [depending on how you interpret the telex]! This means that on 3 December, Hermann had to just stroll back into the IRS building with a file TEN INCHES THICK, and unobtrusively put it back into the file cabinet from which it had been stolen! Right!)

12 DECEMBER 1974
District Judge KELLEHER, in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, issues an adverse ruling against CSC's 26 November 1974 filings, denying release of documents by IRS. (Well, isn't that special! And WHAT a coincidence!)

C. 17 DECEMBER 1974
Government version: Mitchell Hermann is going on vacation, and Meisner is "taking over supervision" of Gerald Wolfe. Hermann "arranges for Meisner to meet Wolfe" in an Arlington, Virginia, parking lot and bring him over to Hermann's house on Fessenden Street, Northwest, to coordinate. Meisner "introduces himself (sic--see below) to Wolfe" using his real name; Wolfe reportedly feels more comfortable being called "Kelly." During the half-hour meeting at Hermann's house, Meisner and Wolfe discuss Wolfe's job and background. Wolfe is told that he can call Meisner any time at his office at 2125 S Street, Northwest, or at his home in Arlington. Hermann instructs Wolfe to "continue" (sic) obtaining all documents related to Scientology from the IRS office of Barbara Bird, an attorney in Refund Litigation Service. (There is NO previous indication of Wolfe having taken ANYTHING from Bird's office. Also, what about Meisner's 2 December escapade to "show Wolfe" how "easy" it is to take documents from IRS? Now this entry alleges they had never met!)

C. 27 DECEMBER 1974
Government version: "A few days prior to December 30, 1974," Gerald Wolfe allegedly enters the office of Barbara Bird in the main building of the IRS and takes from her files "many documents" related to Scientology. He photocopies them on a machine in the IRS Building, then returns the documents to Ms. Bird's office. (NOTE: Must be 27 December, as 28 and 29 December are Saturday and Sunday. Now, WHY does this one related incident of something being taken from Bird's office come AFTER Wolfe being admonished by Mitchell Hermann to "continue" taking documents from her office?)

30 DECEMBER 1974
A memorandum from Michael Meisner to Cindy Raymond entitled "Raw Data Report Re: IRS-Charlotte Murphy Scientology File." It summarizes documents purportedly taken by Gerald Wolfe from the offices of Barbara Bird at the IRS. Meisner appends at least ninety-eight pages of documents taken from the IRS.

C. EARLY JANUARY 1975
Meade Emory, co-founder of Church of Spiritual Technology, which now owns all of L. Ron Hubbard's copyrights, and which has the power to seize all rights to all trademarks and Advanced Technology, is appointed by Donald C. Alexander as Assistant to the Commissioner of IRS.

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There you have it, boys and girls: all the above occurred within ONE YEAR AND THREE MONTHS after LRH was MISSING FOR TEN MONTHS--allegedly holed up in a flat in Queens with a former male nurse and a former Green Beret, where he allegedly dreamed up the project that ultimately led to the utter destruction of his wife, his reputation, and the GO.

Now you can re-read the second paragraph of this message, and scoff all you want. Or don't even bother--just go on believing the official version. Only don't pay very close attention to it. And don't ever get it all plotted in sequence.

EPILOGUE: C. EARLY JUNE 1975 Pam Kemp, LRH's old friend from Saint Hill days, arrives at the Apollo for courses. She is shocked to see how much he has aged. "I saw this figure coming on board in a big hat and red-lined Navy Cloak and I thought if I'm not mistaken that's LRH, although he was very slow and old looking. I went up to him and said, 'Hi, Ron.' He looked through me like he didn't know who I was. I thought maybe he was a little deaf so I went around another way and as he was coming towards me I said, 'Hi, Ron. How are you?' He didn't recognize me, didn't know who I was. I thought, how weird. Later I discovered he probably didn't see me properly because he needed glasses, but would never wear them."


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