On Thursday, August 20, 1998, I attended a hearing at 8:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado. I had been in deposition all day the day before. Scientology was deposing me, supposedly concerning the declaration I had filed in the FACTNet case, but in fact I had been asked very few questions that related in any way to the FACTNet copyright case. Most of the deposition had concerned my personal history, much of which had been culled from my pc folders. It was obvious to me that they were using the deposition to gather intelligence information about me, which they would then use to discredit me. But I remained courteous and answered all of their questions as well as I could. I have nothing to hide. I am not ashamed of anything I"ve done in my life.

The issues before the magistrate were twofold. One was a letter which Lawrence Wollersheim"s attorney Dan Leipold had sent to Scientology attorney Samuel Rosen, in which Dan promised to turn the entire transcript of my deposition over to Ken Dandar, the attorney for Lisa McPherson"s estate, if Rosen dared to bring up any information from my confidential pc folders. The other issue was the length of time Scientology would be allowed to keep me in deposition. Dan and my attorney Ford Greene wanted to limit the amount of time they could keep me; Scientology wanted unlimited access to me.

So I am sitting in the courtroom next to my friend Stacy Young, who is there as a director of FACTNet. Suddenly I hear Samuel Rosen say: "Your honor, the witness they are bringing into this case, Jesse Prince, was second in command of the Church of Scientology. He signed a confidential non-discolosure agreement not to divulge any information he obtained as a result of his being second in command of Scientology."

Rosen continued to do his best to persuade the magistrate not to allow Dan to send the deposition transcript to the McPherson case (the outcome was that the magistrate told Dan not to send the transcripts without getting his OK first, and, by the way, we convinced the magistrate not to allow them to depose me past noon of the following day).

But I sat there stunned that I had just heard Scientology admit, on the record, that I was second in command of Scientology. For me, that was the high point of the entire deposition experience.

Now let"s go back in time to an afternoon in the late summer of 1984. I am sitting in one of many legal/litigation meetings at Author Services, Inc., or ASI. I am in RTC, a nonprofit religious corporation which ostensibly has absolutely nothing to do wth ASI, a for-profit corporation. But David Miscavige finds it convenient at the moment to be the Chairman of the Board of ASI, and, since David Miscavige runs Scientology (no matter where he places himself corporately), he can order all of us to meet wherever and whenever he wants us to.

The subject of this particular meeting concerns the LRH probate case in Riverside, California, and, as always, more corporate "sort-out." Lawyers have advised that there is still too much evidence to prove that LRH is incompetent to manage his own affairs. This is crucial, since the case has been brought by LRH"s son Nibbs, who has claimed that LRH is incompetent to manage his own affairs and that his estate is being stolen by the Church of Scientology under David Miscavige"s leadership. Nibbs is hoping to take over LRH"s assets if he can prove that LRH is incompetent. So this is a very serious threat.

LRH has repeatedly said he wants different lawyers to represent him, and that he wants different legal advice on how to win this case against Nibbs. But DM has decided that the lawyers LRH already has (and who were chosen, of course, by DM) are the best possible legal counsel. LRH specifically doesn"t like the fact that these attorneys are advising him to back away from managing Scientology"s affairs. Part of the reason for this is that DM feels (and has told the attorneys) that LRH is losing his grip on reality.

In truth, DM was not the only one who knew that LRH was an old man past his prime, with no real "new ideas" or "brilliant revelations" for quite some time. All he could do was say the same thing, over and over: "There are more BTs! Many more than people realize!" Hubbard really was a bit senile at the end there - his brain pretty well fried by a wide range of drugs which he used for his "research" -- and this scared the hell out of his top messengers and others near him.

For many years, LRH's top aide, Pat Broeker, and his wife, Annie Broeker, looked after the daily care of LRH. Pat was the financial conduit between LRH and the vast reserves of liquid cash mounting in the multiple corporations of Scientology which LRH always had at his disposal. David Miscavige would be called by Pat to bring hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in cash in briefcases to cover "basic expenses" for LRH and his small crew of four staff. Often the prearranged meeting place was near Las Vegas. On many of these occasions, Pat and Dave would go to a casino and gamble away thousands of dollars of LRH's money, just hanging out having a good time together.

But as LRH felt his grasp on the Scientology empire weakening, he became extremely suspicious of Dave and ordered me to give him a security check to see if Dave was trying to prevent LRH from having his way with the church as he was used to having. Basically, LRH was upset that he could not simply romp from one fake corporation to another, wreaking havoc in his wake, as he had always done. And he was being advised by attorneys whom Dave had hired that in order to protect his money, he should disappear for a while. All of these circumstances added up for LRH, and he was not at all sure he could trust DM. He was afraid DM was trying to take over. Sure, he had practically raised Dave from a pup, but still, who could be trusted in this business?

So I was ordered to sec check DM to determine his real motives for passing along legal advice that he back off from his own church. When I walked into Dave"s office he was crying like a child who had taken a crap in his pants and now stank to high heaven. Dave swore up and down to me that he was only following LRH"s own orders to get an "All Clear" -- meaning to get LRH dismissed from all the outstanding litigation -- so that LRH could travel freely again, without fear of subpoenas or worse.

LRH had been in hiding, not only from the public but also from 95 percent of all his staff, for the last fifteen to twenty years anyway. Dave was extremely indignant at being asked such incriminating questions, but because of the questions I was asking him, he was fairly certain that LRH would soon assign him to the RPF (the Rehabilitation Project Force, Scientology"s political prison).

In the security check Dave made sure he told me about the trips to the casinoes, the heavy drinking and the women he and Pat had enjoyed together. Dave freely confessed his sins and Pat Broeker"s sins as well. He said if he was going to go down, he was going to make sure Pat Broeker went down as well. He was very critical of Pat, saying he had a long history of alcohol abuse and recklessly spending LRH's money. Of course, the person who received the report of Dave"s sec check was Pat Broeker. So it didn"t surprise me a bit when Dave and Pat suddenly became best buddies again. I seriously doubt that anything but reports full of glowing praise for Dave ever went to LRH. In retrospect I realize both Pat Broeker and David Miscavige had an interest in keeping the status quo with LRH, since both of them had dreams of one day being the new dictator of Scientology once the current Ding Dong king was dead.

LRH went on spending his millions freely on property and "research" (all this really meant was that he was buying more and more drugs for himself) and buying exotic animals like buffalo, llamas, swans and peacocks at the ranch at Creston.

LRH seemed resigned to follow the legal advice of Dave"s lawyers and stayed away from Scientology. However, he made it known that he was still very salty about the whole deal and refused to make contact as he had done in the past.

About a year and a half later he became very ill.

I will continue this story very soon. It is not my intention to post a book on this newsgroup all at one time. However, I will say this: What I am relating to you here will never cost you a dime. It will always be free on the internet. I am not a writer, nor am I trying to be. (And here is a good place to say thanks to Stacy for being my editor -- she"s making sure my posts to you are readable!) If I could have anything I wanted in return for exposing the true nature of the inner workings of Scientology, I would ask its current members and staff to run away as fast as possible to recover their lives. That"s all I want.

Part of the agreement we all made when we became cult slaves was to turn our backs on our friends and family, so I know that many people literally have no place to go if they leave Scientology, particularly the Sea Org. But there are people working to resolve this problem. This will change soon.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jesse Prince