I knew Franz's resignation and the announcement of "apostasy" were connected. I had worked at Bethel earlier (1973-1976) and I received a collect phone call one night from a Bethel friend who told me things were shaking in Brooklyn. My Bethelite friend was very pro-Governing Body. I did not let on to him that I was having my own doubts at the time. He wanted me to know the latest news of what was happening there. He did not know that at that time I was in contact with some anti-Watchtower ministries, so I was passing on this info to them. In fact, one night I got a call from one of the main anti-WT ministries of that era...and I was still officially a JW and my wife did not know that I was in contact with such groups. He was trying to confirm the story about Franz and the purge going on in Brooklyn at the time. I had to hang up on him and then called him later from a payphone to answer his questions. (These were the days when you wrote hard copy letters...no emails, no cell phones...and long distance phone calls cost were a budgetary item then.)
I went to the assembly that year and met some friends from Bethel and they told me more of what was happening. We were in shock as Ray Franz was a highly regarded member of the Governing Body. Still, these Bethel friends took refuge in the fact that Franz was not disfellowshipped at the time. There was a strong (the first of many) "anti-apostasy" talk at that assembly. The program title was something like "Whom Jehovah Loves He Disciplines," but the talk was published in an August 1980 WT with a direct title on Apostasy. The original talk had been pulled to put in this screed on "apostasy."
Right after the assembly I went back to my local congregation and I met a brother there who was currently at Brooklyn Bethel in the recording studio. The Presiding Overseer was handing out this KM and I mentioned the stuff on Franz and the "apostasy" to this Bethel brother. He told me how he had been asked to re-do all the tapes for the Spanish assembly drama that year. The original voice for one of the main characters was one of the "apostates" (I believe it was Rene Vazquez) and so they were quick to replace his voice on the tapes with someone else. So, the recording department worked feverishly to re-do all the tapes so that the assembly that year would not have an apostate's voice on the assembly drama.
It was literally less than 2 weeks later that I sent in my disassociation letter. I believe I dated it August 5, 1980.
