Arthur Worsley - I think he was still living into the '80's, as I heard his name bandied about during that time. I forget the details.
#11
https://i.redd.it/x58rf4ldn8r71.jpg
The Olin Moyle Lawsuit
In the Legal Department’s library, I found two volumes containing the transcript of record of a libel lawsuit filed in October of 1940 by Olin R. Moyle against twelve Watchtower executives and Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Inc. of Pennsylvania and Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., of New York. As I perused the books, I saw that Moyle won his lawsuit with the court awarding him $30,000 in damages. Not familiar with the lawsuit, I brought the volumes to Karl Adams who expressed surprise at what I handed him. He said he also had no knowledge of the Moyle lawsuit which went to trial in 1943. I still find it difficult to believe Karl knew nothing about the case because Karl was fourteen when the trial took place and he joined the Watch Tower staff just a few years later when the Moyle verdict was still a well-known sore subject among the Witnesses.
As important as the Olin Moyle trial was in the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and why it was not included in the Witnesses’ history book, I can’t answer. After I left Bethel, I was asked this same question by two prominent Witness elders and their wives in 1994 when I was visiting Burbank, California. It was my work as the major researcher for the history book which fascinated them, and the reason they accepted a dinner invitation from my hosts.
George Kelly, one long-time Witness whom I met that evening, had been the personal secretary in Bethel to well-known Witness attorney, Hayden C. Covington. (In 138 of the cases presented to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Covington had served as the attorney for 111 of them.) Olin Moyle was the Watchtower Society’s attorney from 1935 until Rutherford ousted him in 1939. His replacement was Covington who took over as attorney representing the Society in the 1940 compulsory flag saluting in public schools lawsuit, Minersville School District v. Gobitis.
The other man accompanying Kelly to the prominent Burbank, California, elder’s home where I was staying was Lyle Reusch, a long-time special representative of the Watchtower Society in the United States who began his full-time ministry in June 1935 when he entered Bethel. Both men declared their astonishment and displeasure that the Moyle trial was not mentioned in the 1993 history book. Before and during the time of the Moyle trial, Kelly and Reusch were closely associated with the Watchtower Society. They told me they had been curious to see how the author of the history book would present this most egregious episode where Watchtower leaders, specifically Rutherford, libeled their own in-house Witness attorney in the Watchtower magazine.
According to the trial transcript, Moyle’s problems began after he wrote a personal letter to Rutherford in which he expressed his aversion to Rutherford’s excessive drinking and extremely abusive behavior to others, behavior which he personally observed and heard complaints about. And Arthur Worsley, a long-time Bethel staff member well-known to Kelly and Reusch, was one of the people who complained to Moyle about the indignities heaped upon him by Rutherford. Rutherford was so incensed by Moyle’s criticisms he dismissed Moyle and his wife from Bethel and placed their personal effects out on the sidewalk. Moyle was shocked by the treatment but the facts show he did not retaliate in any way. Not content with throwing Moyle out of Bethel, Rutherford and his associates viciously maligned the man’s character in the Watchtower magazine, leading Moyle to file a libel complaint against all parties responsible.
I brought up the name of Arthur Worsley to Kelly and Reusch. We discussed Arthur’s part in the Moyle trial and both men agreed Arthur testified falsely during direct examination. I told them, after reading the Moyle transcript, I spoke with Arthur, a good friend, about his testimony for the Watchtower defense. Olin Moyle alleged that one morning in the Bethel dining room Arthur had been unjustifiably publicly denounced without cause by Rutherford. Arthur complained to Moyle how humiliating the incident had been. However, in court Arthur said he thought Rutherford was justified in denouncing him for his actions. He said the scolding wasn’t out of order and, much to Moyle’s amazement, Arthur said he did not complain to anybody.
Yet, Arthur told us about the dining room incident and condemned Rutherford for humiliating him. We also discussed why he testified under oath that he never heard any filthy language at the Bethel table, or why he denied that liquor was glorified at the table, when, in fact, he told us the opposite. Clearly upset, Arthur sadly replied that Rutherford would have dismissed him from Bethel if his testimony had substantiated Moyle’s allegations. And because he had nowhere else to go, he lied to the court.
No matter, after listening to extensive testimony, the court decided Rutherford and other Watchtower officials were guilty of libel. Arthur told us that Watchtower officials were so angry with Moyle they paid him the $30,000 damages he was awarded in silver coin, thereby labeling him a “Judas.”
By ignoring the Moyle story, Watchtower omitted a particularly offensive and unpleasant episode that could not be whitewashed, one that would soil the rather unsullied image of the organization which the history book was endeavoring to project. In no uncertain terms, these Witnesses that evening made clear their displeasure with the Moyle lawsuit omission, and, also, with the obvious historical revisionism by Watchtower leaders to present, for the most part, an untarnished, fault-free history and not, as its foreword suggests, one that was truthfully “objective and … candid.”
https://watchtowerdocuments.org/barbara-andersons-profile/life-discoveries-barbara-anderson/
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1986166
