going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

strangle him. Miscavige let him go before any real harm was done, but it was an
alarming signal. Amy Scobee, head of the Celebrity Centre at the time, also noted that
Miscavige’s personality began to shift immediately after the IRS decision, becoming
more aggressive and hostile. At the party at the Celebrity Centre following his speech,
Miscavige rudely shoved her aside as he entered. “You just want to get rid of me,” she
remembers him saying.
As far as Rathbun was concerned, it didn’t help that Miscavige scarcely acknowledged
him in the speech that night. Immediately after the event, reporters from The New York
Times and the Los Angeles Times were calling Rathbun to ask about Miscavige’s salary,
which had been disclosed in the IRS documents. Miscavige and his wife together were
making more than $100,000 a year—not an extraordinary gure by the standards of
world religious leaders, but quite a contrast to the $30 a week most of the Sea Org
members were earning. Miscavige was outraged by the impertinence of the reporters,
and Rathbun felt that he was taking it out on him. This was all coming at a time when
he had been postponing a final visit to see his father, who was dying of cancer.
The St. Petersburg Times published an editorial demanding that Congress investigate
the tax-exemption decision. Rathbun was sent to Florida to turn around the Times
editorial board, who were not at all persuaded by his arguments. Miscavige was furious
tha t Rathbun failed to handle the situation. One evening, Shelly Miscavige called
everyone in Rathbun’s oce together, and in front of his subordinates she stripped the
captain’s bars off his uniform.
The next day, Rathbun took four gold Krugerrands that he had stored in a safe, got on
his motorcycle, and drove to Yuma, Arizona. He called his father in Los Angeles from a
bar, but a church ocial answered. He was waiting there with Rathbun’s wife, Anne,
who begged him to come back. Rathbun felt guilty and conicted. Drinking steadily, he
somehow made it to San Antonio, although he was in frequent communication with
church leaders. He nally agreed to call Miscavige, who apologized for his treatment.
“You know the kind of pressure I was under. Please just see me,” the church leader said,
adding that he could be in San Antonio in a matter of hours. “No, I want to see the
Alamo,” Rathbun told him. They agreed to meet for dinner at the Marriott in New
Orleans two days later.
That evening, Miscavige showed a chastened, vulnerable side of himself that Rathbun
had never seen before. According to Rathbun, Miscavige promised to “cease acting like a
madman.” He praised Rathbun for his part in gaining the IRS exemption. “Because you
did this,” he declared, “you’re Kha-Khan.” It was a title that Hubbard had come up with
in one of his policy letters for a highly productive sta member, but in the culture it was
understood that such a person would be forgiven for misdeeds in future lifetimes.
Hubbard had awarded it to Yvonne Gillham after she died. Rathbun knew that
Miscavige was manipulating him, but he was touched nonetheless. As a further reward,
Miscavige oered Rathbun the opportunity to go to the Scientology ship, the Freewinds,
and cruise the Caribbean for two years doing nothing but studying and training to be an
auditor. Rathbun could finally obtain OT III. It was an offer he couldn’t resist.
That was a rewarding time for Rathbun. But as soon as he got o the ship after his