In the PAC area, Bill Franks was widely "known" by public (after he was persona non grata) to have been a terrible creature. I also heard the CIA plant story.
I have never been involved in any culture or enterprise or organization in which I swallowed more rumors and bullshit as gospel. I look back and can't believe I was so fucking gullible.
Scientologists today are no different than I was when I was a cult member.
If you had just continued your involvement with the planet-clearers a little longer, you would have eventually & successfully reached the advanced levels
beyond gullibility.
That's where you not only believe vicious lies about evil top level (blown/declared) executives who were "run in" as plants to sabotage Scientology--but, you begin to suspect or believe those things about yourself.
The Cycle of Scientology: You pay all your money to
find the SP that prevents you from being gloriously OT, exterior and happy. When that doesn't work, you are r-factored that
it was you all along and you then are charged even greater sums and penalized for having been so unethical that you tried to withhold and hide that fact. Eventually, the tech helps you disconnect from yourself and you experience a big relief--that's when you can be entrusted by senior Scientology management to join OT attack packs that go into crowded airports and snarl crazy lies and accusations at innocent people.
HELPFUL TIP: After reading the above, one should not focus on the negativity about Scientology. There is a very positive side to the Bridge--if you pay for enough of it in advance, there is a very generous sliding scale discount.