I am of the opinion that the only way to best understand what Scientology is, is by having an accurate and as complete as possible historical record of all things related to Scientology and affiliated organizations.
In that spirit, I will collect here questions which I believe should be answered by Mark “Marty” Rathbun in order to help adding to the historical record.
I will update this entry as new questions arise from reading historical archives related to Scientology. Hopefully, key historical information re. the Church of Scientology will not be lost to the memory hole.
Re. Margery Wakefield
Excerpts from the St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 21, 2009, “Chased by their church”:
Morehead said he worked with Rathbun to develop a “blow drill,” a plan the church followed when someone left without permission, which he said happened maybe once a month.
… Rathbun oversaw and participated in staff recovery missions.“It all had to do with the hierarchy of how close you were to Miscavige, how much you knew about him and how damaging what you knew might be,” Rathbun said.
From the Orlando Sentinel, August 2, 1989, “Ex-Scientologist risks jail to speak against church”:
Scientology leaders feared that she was a suicide risk, Wakefield said, and feared she could bring bad publicity.
They locked her in a room for two weeks, she said, with guards outside the door at all times. Finally, they took her to the airport, told her to pick a destination and put her on a plane. She went back to her family in Madison, Wis.
In 1981 three Scientologists tracked her down. They took her to a motel and held her there for three days, she said, forcing her to sign an agreement promising not to sue the church in exchange for a $16,000 check. She used the money to repay her father, who had lent her money for “auditing” sessions. …
… However, she now says that she believed the money was for damages, not for her silence.
Question: Were you one of these “three Scientologists” who tracked down Margery Wakefield? If not, did you oversee the operation to coerce Margery Wakefield into signing an ‘agreement’ to not sue and keep silent regarding Scientology?
Re. Digital Lightwave’s stock fraud
In mid-July of 2010, a Declaration of Mark “Marty” Rathbun, in the case of Claire Headley v. CSI, RTC, was released on the internet. Paragraph 27:
… RTC in fact serves to cover up the criminal activity of David Miscavige. For example, Miscavige once ordered me to keep his sister’s involvement in a stock market fraud out of the press. Miscavige’s sister, Denise, had partnered with a Scientologist named Brian Zwan in a company called Digital Lightwave in Clearwater Florida. A whistleblower from the company disclosed to the media and SEC that Denise Miscavige and Brian Zwan conspired to defraud the public by falsely reporting Digital’s production on Wall Street. Zwan made hundreds of millions of dollars by manipulating the stock in that wise. When I investigated and briefed Miscavige on these facts, he ordered that I keep his sister out of the way of SEC subpoenas. I complied. A year later, having successfully evaded SEC prosecution because of his own perjury and because of my work on behalf of David Miscavige, Brian Zwan …
Question: You say accountability — that is, “SEC prosecution” — was successfully averted thanks to Bryan Zwan’s “perjury”, and thanks to your “work on behalf of David Miscavige.” Given that this “work” of your contributed to evade “SEC prosecution” and consequently to have justice being served for the sake of all the investors in DL’s stocks, I am really curious: What were the details of that “work”?
Re. The 1982 plot to entrap Judge Krentzman
In your July 2010 declaration submitted in the case of Claire Headley v. CSI, RTC, you state (my emphasis in bold):
… in summer of 1981 I was appointed to an operation called Special Project. Headed by David Miscavige, our job was to attain an “All Clear” for Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. An All Clear was defined as a state of legal affairs wherein it was safe for L. Ron Hubbard to return to the International Management Base near Hemet, California with no danger of being dragged into ongoing litigation. For the next five and one half years I worked around the clock coordinating the defense of litigation across the United States and world. The successful termination of said litigation would amount to an All Clear. …
As per the above statement, between the Summer 1981 and Winter of 1986, you worked around the clock to shield Hubbard from being accountable in the courts.
On January 22th, 1984, a news article was published in the Clearwater Sun, detailing a plot to “entrap and compromise a Tampa federal judge”, Judge Krentzman.
Selected excerpts from the article (my emphasis in bold):
… [the 1982 plot] involved an attempt to lure U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman aboard a boat off the Pinellas Suncoast where prostitutes and drugs were to be used to put the judge in a compromising position …
… confidential sources have told the Sun that federal investigators have been in contact in recent weeks with a former high-ranking Scientologist, a witness whose identity is a tightly guarded secret. …
The witness reportedly was ordered by Hubbard — through another sect official — to use $250,000 to execute the plan to compromise Krentzman because Scientology officials anticipated an unfavorable ruling in the trial, according to sources. …
… One of Krentzman’s more controversial cases was Tonja C. Burden vs. the Church of Scientology, a long and complicated trial which began in July 1980
Miss Burden, then 20, filed a $ million suit against the sect to compensate her for alleged mental abuse, brainwashing, imprisonment and fraud, according to public records. Miss Burden said she entered the Church of Scientology with her parents at age 13 and was for a time a “personal slave” to former pulp science fiction writer and Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. …
… During the trial, Krentzman ordered the sect to reveal the whereabouts of the reclusive Hubbard, who had not been seen in a number of years.
Question: Do you know anything about this alleged plot to “entrap and corrupt” Judge Krentzman? If yes, who was involved in it? Who planned it? Who relayed orders? Who participated in it? All the details would be appreciated in order to ensure an accurate historical record of Scientology.
More from Scientology library: Judge Ben Krentzman.
Re. The missing Lisa McPherson logs
On June 22, 2009, the St. Petersburg Times published an article entitled, “Death in slow motion”, regarding Lisa McPherson’s death. The article contains this passage:
In early 1997 as investigators closed in, Rathbun met with church staff at Scientology offices in Hollywood, Calif. They combed the daily logs that McPherson’s caretakers kept during her 17 days at the Fort Harrison.
Three entries particularly troubled Rathbun.
One contained a bizarre sexual reference McPherson had made. Another revealed that no one thought to remove the mirror from the room of a psychotic woman bent on harming herself. The third was one caretaker’s opinion that the situation was out of control and that McPherson needed to see a doctor.
Rathbun concluded the notes had to go.
“I said, ‘Lose ’em’ and walked out of the room,” he recalled, adding that the decision to destroy the records was his own.
Question: Did the logs contain any information indicating that Lisa McPherson was dead hours prior to be transported to New Port Richey Hospital?
Re. “drugs on them that had been planted”
On May 30, 2010, Steven Hassan posted a video entitled, “Megaraid 5-30-10 Hotel meeting”. The video features Larry Brennan, Nancy Many and Steven Hassan talking freely about Scientology, the Moonies, and mechanisms used by cults in general.
At the 17-minute, 20-second mark, Nancy Many says (while reminiscing of her days in Scientology):
… there was a conjunction, in which one of the groups I was spying on, was run by a European group, and Marty did set up some [?] various stings to be done across the border, get people stopped at the borders with drugs on them that had been planted, other nasty things, but he would never listen to my information …
Question: Did you really entrap, or participate in plot(s) to entrap people, by planting drugs on them, so that they would be busted on drug possession charges?
If yes, I am curious about:
- The names of people who were entrapped;
- Time of events;
- Location(s);
- All people involved in the plot(s) to entrap (Who ordered whom? Who designed? Who executed? Etc.)
What happened to Ed Brewer?
First from an anonymous source:
Ed Brewer is involved in a car accident. Several other Sea Organization or Scientology staff members are in the car with him. He is left in the car, bleeding, while the others go back to the Scientology building to talk to the people in the intelligence division, because they don’t know what to do. They “didn’t want to create a public relations flap for Scientology”. They fail to call for medical help. Brewer literally bled to death pinned in his car.
Second, from Jesse Prince (my emphasis):
What I heard about Ed Brewer was he was out ethics, and he was with some car accidents and bled to death. It was a problem that he bled death. They didn’t believe he bled to death or something. I know it came up as a big problem when Ed Brewer died. It’s really bad that he died, the guy bled to death, he was in a car, people walked away from him. I remember hearing this story, the Ed Brewer story. I remember hearing Marty talk about it.
Question: What really happened to Ed Brewer?
June 11, 2010 at 17:49
Thanks R Hill,
Here’s an important question, which I think Marty WILL answer.
“Marty, when you were ASI staff, there was a very unfortunate incident, where not only David Miscavige and Norman Starkey, spat on Homer Schomer, then the former Treasury Secretary ASI, but apparantly almost ALL of ASI staff in turn, were urged or goaded by group pressure to spit on Homer and hurl verbal invalidative questions at him.
“Did you Marty, witness, and participate in this incident?”
“Have you considered apologizing, or have you apologized to Homer?”
“Or, were you luckily not there at the moment when the ASI staff all as a group, almost ALL of them, spat on Homer, each taking turns?”
Question from Chuck Beatty
Ex Sea Org member 1975-2003
June 12, 2010 at 13:15
He already openly admitted being part of the culture of violence in Scientology, but yes, it might be interesting to know when it did start.
As for the apologies, my stance is that public apologies are the best option when the abuses have been leveled in the name of Scientology or Scientology, Inc. Otherwise, in my opinion it’s a private thing, it’s up to the abuser to go public or not.
According to a June 1984 court transcript, all the staff participated in the “gang bang sec check” against Homer Schomer, except for Lyman Spurlock:
“[Lyman Spurlock] never actually came close to me and fired questions like the rest of the staff were doing and told to do and blaming me”
Ref.: http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/legal/a1/trial-trans-schomer-4498-4515.html
My question to him would be: Why did he go along with the abuses?
August 3, 2010 at 12:49
Great insight from Zinj at the Ex-Scientologists Message Board, reproduced here for the benefit of the reader:
>>>>>>>>>>
One question you have listed strikes at the heart of why I *don’t* think we’re going to get any honest answers from Marty Rathbun.
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In early 1997 as investigators closed in, Rathbun met with church staff at Scientology offices in Hollywood, Calif. They combed the daily logs that McPherson’s caretakers kept during her 17 days at the Fort Harrison.
Three entries particularly troubled Rathbun.
One contained a bizarre sexual reference McPherson had made. Another revealed that no one thought to remove the mirror from the room of a psychotic woman bent on harming herself. The third was one caretaker’s opinion that the situation was out of control and that McPherson needed to see a doctor.
Rathbun concluded the notes had to go.
“I said, ‘Lose ’em’ and walked out of the room,” he recalled, adding that the decision to destroy the records was his own.
Question: Did the logs contain any information indicating that Lisa McPherson was dead hours prior to be transported to New Port Richey Hospital?
———————————————————————–
That’s a good question, but it’s *this* part that triggers my suspicion:
Rathbun concluded the notes had to go.
“I said, ‘Lose ’em’ and walked out of the room,” he recalled, adding that the decision to destroy the records was his own.
——————————————————————–
On its face it would seem particularly ‘candid’ and that Marty Rathbun is ‘manning up’ and taking responsibility for his Obstruction of Justice.
But, I’m not believing it. I’m not believing that Marty Rathbun would order such a blatantly illegal act *without* consultation or direction. Even going by his own other testimony, it’s clear that David Miscavige is a micro-manager and, especially in the McPherson case, was *personally* involved at every level, including the original ‘ordering Lisa McPherson declared ‘Clear’ prior to her breakdown. That’s according to Marty’s own story.
So, why would he lie? Why would he even add this ‘added that the decision to destroy the records was his own’?
I think the reason is hidden in Marty’s further statements in the SPTimes article; he claims that this obstruction of justice is now *past the statute of limitations*.
But, that would be the case only if it was *only* his crime, unrelated to his job in Scientology; unrelated to acting for the ‘Church’ and operating solely on his own. Because, any collusion with others; any reporting to others about the crime; any direction from others to commit the crime would move the Obstruction of Justice out of the realm of individual crime and into the area of Conspiracy to Obstruct Justice, and the rules on statute of limitation are very different there, both in Federal and Florida State Law. An *ongoing* conspiracy has no statute of limitations.
So, why did he ‘confess’ in the first place? It seems clear to me that he did so to sell his credibility. ‘Look! I’m confessing to a crime! I’m honest and above board. Since I told you this you can be sure that I would have told you anything else too, and, since I didn’t, you know there *is* nothing else.’
For me, the more likely reason was that he considered this crime harmless to him and the ‘Church’, as long as he could maintain sole ‘responsibility’ for it, the ‘Church’ was insulated and, thanks to the statute of limitations he claims, he was immune.
However, even ignoring for the moment the high likelihood that Marty *was* getting orders from above and reporting back to his ‘senior’, there *is* a conspiracy here, since he didn’t destroy the evidence himself; he *ordered* it done and he does not specify *whom* he ordered to do it, how, where etc. Even his wording is unclear; what does ‘lose it’ mean? Would the people he ordered to ‘lose’ the evidence destroy it on their own ‘determination’? Or, would they quite literally ‘lose’ it by moving it to a safe place? That seems far more likely to me. Scientology is nothing if not fanatical about records; even incriminating ones, as the FBI raids of the ’70s show.
Anyway, my point is that Marty’s ‘confession’ isn’t and is instead a self and ‘Church’ serving juggling act that has a bonus of bolstering his own credibility at no actual cost or danger.
What’s really needed is a prosecutor and under oath testimony and seizure of the actual records. Whom did Marty order to destroy this evidence? Get *them* on the witness stand too.
Zinj
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