PREMIERE: Lawrence Wright interview of L. Ron Hubbard's final caretaker Steve 'Sarge' Pfauth
Forty years ago today, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard left this planet.
He was 74 years old, in poor health, and his cause of death was listed as a stroke. Four years earlier, in February 1980, he had gone into a final period of seclusion with only a few of his most trusted aides. For the last couple of years, he had been living in a Bluebird motorhome on the grounds of the Whispering Winds Ranch near Creston, California in San Luis Obispo County.
During those final days, he was most closely attended by Annie Broeker. Her husband Pat was often away on various adventures. Besides Annie, another close attendant was Steve “Sarge” Pfauth (pronounced “fowt”), a Vietnam veteran who had been a close helper to Hubbard for several years.
Annie Broeker died in seclusion in 2011. Pat Broeker has never spoken out since he left Scientology after Hubbard’s death. Only Pfauth ever gave an interview about what it was like on the ranch in those weeks and months before Hubbard perished.
He gave that interview to Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright, who was gathering information for his 2013 book Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Belief.
Pfauth’s interview was a major revelation for many former Scientologists, hearing that Hubbard, at the end of his life, admitted that Scientology, his life work, was a failure, and that he never expected to return to Earth after his death. And most surprisingly, that Hubbard had attempted to end his life with electrocution.
Some footage from this interview was seen in the Alex Gibney-directed HBO documentary version of Going Clear, which came out in 2015.
But now, for the 40th anniversary of Hubbard’s death, Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney are giving us the opportunity to see the entire 1 hour and 25 minute interview with Pfauth. (We are grateful for this chance, and we want to point out that Wright still owns the copyright to this video.)
We very much look forward to hearing from you after watching this video.
0:00 How Sarge joined Scientology. He was a Vietnam veteran, looking for something special back home. Saw an ad and sent away for a book at the DC church. Eventually moved there to join in May 1975. “I sold my house and bought the Bridge. I loved it. My needle was floating.”
6:10 Sandy Wilhere told him that LRH needed his help. Joined the Sea Org, Nov 1975, and went to Clearwater. Renovating the Fort Harrison Hotel, then got on security. Sent to Dunedin, King Arthur’s Court. Met Hubbard there.
8:50 What Mary Sue was like. Warm and friendly and a lady.
10:08 First meeting with L. Ron Hubbard. Sarge was there to intercept reporters and weirdos.
12:30 How Sarge became closer with the Hubbard family. Hubbard moved to Astra in Culver City, and apartment building. La Quinta properties purchased: Palms (former Eisenhower summer home), Olives (larger building), and Rifle (walled compound, where Hubbard and family lived).
17:00 The Hubbard kids. Knew Suzette quite well. Arthur kept more to himself.
19:50 The Hubbard family lifestyle at Rifle. Seeing Star Wars in 1977.
22:30 The FBI raid in 1977, and how Sarge overslept to become a hero.
25:30 Hubbard making movies. Buying Gilman Hot Springs, selling the La Quinta properties. Mike and Kima Douglas go with Hubbard to Lake Elsinore. Becoming the courier for X, meeting Mike Douglas for “cookie drops.”
29:10 Mike and Kima blew (escaped) from X. Hubbard leaves with Pat and Annie Broeker, spent time in an apartment Newport Beach. X closed down.
32:15 Pagers and communications with Pat Broeker. Becoming the comm relay, the “rover.” Hubbard would give him assignments.
35:50 Slipping into Mexico to see if he could do it. Hubbard writing Battlefield Earth, having Sarge doing research. Buying mail drops under fake names.
38:30 Broeker asks for a fancier address, Sarge goes to Marina del Rey.
40:00 After a break, back to movies in the desert: Painting a mountain scene on plywood that Hubbard admired, and Sarge becomes to art director, making sets based on Hubbard’s sets.
43:00 Wright points out that when he was tested in the Navy, he had bad vision, but Sarge says his senses were all good.
45:15 Wright asks about Hubbard’s decline. Hubbard feeling poor at La Quinta. David Mayo with Hubbard at X, developing NOTs.
47:40 How Hubbard planned his very organized day. Auditing every day.
48:50 Wright asks about the Bluebird. Keeping away from Gerry Armstrong. Hubbard went with Annie up to buy the Sierra mine property. Early Creston days. Sending Sarge on a mission to pay the balance on the mine with a briefcase with hundreds of thousands in cash. Debriefing Hubbard on the mission in the Bluebird.
55:10 Wright asks about Hubbard’s final days. Life at Creston, Hubbard keeping busy. Summer of 1984: Hubbard not feeling well, being less active. Pat brought Dr. Gene Denk to the ranch. Then early 1985, Pat was away, Hubbard fell ill. Putting Hubbard into a Subaru.
58:15 Denk and Annie took Hubbard to a hospital in Santa Maria, where he spent a week with pancreatitis. When he came back he wasn’t 100 percent. Could still walk around on occasion. “He was sick and we all knew it.” Spent most of the time in the Bluebird.
59:50 Hubbard liked to do his own laundry. Wright: How did he have strokes and you didn’t notice? Sarge says he wasn’t around him all the time, and didn’t know the signs of a stroke. And Dr. Denk was there.
1:01:00 Day before Hubbard died, signing his will. Sarge asked to come in and witness it. Pat, Annie, Ray Mithoff in the Bluebird with Hubbard, in his nightgown. “Let’s get this over with, my head hurts.”
1:02:00 Wright asks about the shock. Sarge didn’t want to talk about it initially. About six weeks before he died, Hubbard said he was going to drop his body. People won’t understand about the machine, will think Hubbard went nuts.
1:03:30 Hubbard told Sarge that he wasn’t going to come back, and also that he failed. Sarge reacted by getting drunk. “I did not take it well.”
1:05:00 Again, Hubbard said he wasn’t coming back, and that he had failed, all the work was a failure. So he asked Sarge to build the machine. Hubbard was having problems getting rid of a body thetan, BT. Asked Sarge to create a machine that would up the voltage and chase the thetan and kill the body. A suicide machine.
1:06:30 Sarge drags his feet, but Annie tells him Hubbard keeps asking about it. Sarge instead builds a machine that would scare Hubbard but not kill him. Annie brought the machine back to him, burned up.
1:10:00 Sarge didn’t want to be thought as the person who killed Hubbard, because he didn’t. “I just hope my machine didn’t give him a stroke.” Sarge had given him the machine around Christmas, saw Hubbard after that. Hubbard warning him about rose perfume.
1:12:00 Ray Mithoff was there for a “death assist” when Hubbard died around 1 or 2 in the morning. Back to when Hubbard said he failed, talking in the Bluebird. Didn’t talk to the Broekers and compare notes after the death. Sarge heard about the death from Pat.
1:15:45 After the death. Things changed drastically. DM and lawyers came up. Pat told Sarge to go to town to get groceries for everyone. DM, Pat, and lawyers in the living room laughing and joking. It upset Sarge. Then things changed. “I was just a ranch hand.”
1:18:00 Wright says he heard Priscilla Presley came up, but Sarge says he didn’t see her and cautions him about believing that kind of claim. Another rumor he says wasn’t true, that they were buying marijuana for Hubbard. Sarge unaware of what drugs Denk had Hubbard taking.
1:20:00 How he got the name Sarge, from Sinar Parman.
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Thank you Wright and Gibney, Sarge's talk is an important part of the $cieno story.
Some slight points of confusion - the interviewer asked about a water tank that was made into a studio. Sarge was not familiar with it, probably he didn't spend enough time at the Int Base to remember it. In fact, there was a space that was originally a water reservoir, excavated into the side of the hill not too far from the new LRH mansion. Hubbard shot some scenes for films in there, then it was renovated and became the Musician's Studio. Before the LRH Music Studio was built. Later the musicians moved out. It became Studio 2, a mix line, foley and recording space for film and video sweetening.
Rose perfume - Hubbard actually thought that MKULTRA or some such invented the chemical to do mind control. Not sure if he really had enhanced olfactory abilities, unlikely given his smoking habit, or was just prone to olfactory hallucinations. It is true that department stores in the 70s had a lot more scent to them. It seemed like you were walking into a wall of smells. Unless that is just my Scientology prejudice seeping in.
Hubbard doing his own laundry - no! They set up a whole laundry and dry-cleaning setup at the Int Base just for Hubbard's laundry. Including lots of stationary tubs for hand-rinsing. This was near the original Bonny View house that was later torn down. I am sure all the equipment was just moved to the new Bonny View mansion and is ready to roll for Hubbard's return.
Sarge's story is telling in that he seems to be a sincere true believer. Obviously respecting Hubbard. Yet still willing to honestly report that Hubbard said he had failed in the end. His testimony holds a lot more weight given that he was not a bitter defrocked apostate.