Members of the GO infiltrated and burglarized numerous government organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service.[280] After two GO agents were caught in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the IRS, the FBI carried out simultaneous raids on GO offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. on July 7, 1977. They retrieved wiretap equipment, burglary tools and some 90,000 pages of incriminating documents. Hubbard was not prosecuted, though he was labeled an "unindicted co-conspirator" by government prosecutors. His wife Mary Sue was indicted and subsequently convicted of conspiracy. She was sent to a federal prison along with ten other Scientologists.[281]
Hubbard's troubles increased in February 1978 when a French court convicted him in absentia for obtaining money under false pretenses. He was sentenced to four years in prison and a 35,000FF ($7,000) fine.[282] He went into hiding in April 1979, moving to an apartment in Hemet, California, where his only contact with the outside world was via ten trusted Messengers. He cut contact with everyone else, even his wife, whom he saw for the last time in August 1979.[283] Hubbard faced a possible indictment for his role in Operation Freakout, the GO's campaign against New York journalist Paulette Cooper, and in February 1980 he disappeared into deep cover in the company of two trusted Messengers, Pat and Anne Broeker.[284][285]
For the first few years of the 1980s, Hubbard and the Broekers lived on the move, touring the Pacific Northwest in a recreational vehicle and living for a while in apartments in Newport Beach and Los Angeles.[286] Hubbard used his time in hiding to write his first new works of science fiction for nearly thirty years – Battlefield Earth (1982) and Mission Earth, a ten-volume series published between 1985 and 1987.[287] They received mixed responses; as writer Jeff Walker puts it, they were "treated derisively by most critics but greatly admired by followers."[288] Hubbard also wrote and composed music for three of his albums, which were produced by the Church of Scientology. The Book soundtrack Space Jazz was released in 1982.[289] Mission Earth and The Road to Freedom were released posthumously in 1986.[290]
In Hubbard's absence, members of the Sea Org staged a takeover of the Church of Scientology and purged many veteran Scientologists. A young Messenger, David Miscavige, became Scientology's de facto leader. Mary Sue Hubbard was forced to resign her position and her daughter Suzette became Miscavige's personal maidbuy silver rounds vince delmonte fitness
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