Nation: The Doctor and the Moneyed Monk

A bizarre tale of hypnotism, drugs and death

A wealthy monk. A woman's ashes in the trunk of a green Cadillac. Tales of hypnotism and drug taking at a wealthy physician's Malibu house. These are all elements in a bizarre story that has been unfolding in two Southern California courts. But the tale could serve as the plot of a Dashiell Hammett mystery novel:

CHAPTER ONE. Raymond La Scola, 61, a well-to-do Malibu pediatrician and hypnotist, in 1976 buys the Los Angeles house of Buddhist Monk Ariya Dhamma Thera, 74, and his arthritic wife Georgia, 84. Thera, whose mother was Indian and father half-Scottish, was born Benjamin Martin Marshall in Bombay, but he changed his name when he became a member of a Buddhist sect. After moving to Los Angeles, he opened the American Institute of Buddhist Studies (he translates his new name as "teacher of the noble truth"). From lectures and private lessons, he amasses a small fortune.

He and his wife move permanently to Palm Springs, and Georgia becomes a patient of La Scola's. All three soon are close friends and, on Feb. 14, 1979, become even closer: the Theras adopt La Scola as their son. Two weeks later Georgia signs a will bequeathing her $1 million in real estate and personal property to La Scola "with the clear understanding that he provide and care for my husband for the rest of his life." She dies at La Scola's Malibu home on July 18,1979, of congestive heart failure, according to a death certificate signed by the doctor. He has her cremated and puts a cardboard box containing her ashes in the trunk of her car, which he has inherited.

CHAPTER TWO. Mary Steele Kaye, 57, a disciple of Thera's since 1963, becomes worried in mid-1979 because he has disappeared. For 13 years they have been lovers. As she recalls the moment when he reached across his kitchen table to touch her for the first time, "I could feel a bolt of energy pass through my body."

With the help of Shamus Clarke Schlabach, Mary Kaye in May 1980 traces Thera to a Santa Monica nursing home, where the monk has been placed by La Scola. Says she of her former lover: "I couldn't believe what I saw. He was wearing two pairs of pants, two short-sleeved shirts and a ragged sweater. He looked demented." She takes him from the nursing home and, five days later, marries him.

La Scola rushes to a Riverside County judge, charging that Mary Kaye has kidnaped Thera. The judge gives La Scola temporary custody of the monk and his money, which, according to court records, amounts to about $417,000. The monk is moved back to the nursing home.

CHAPTER THREE. In Riverside Superior Court, at a series of custody hearings in July, Mary Kaye accuses La Scola of having used hypnotism and drugs to persuade the Theras to adopt him. She charges that he has unfeelingly left Georgia's ashes for a year in the Cadillac trunk. La Scola countercharges that Mary Kaye coerced the monk into marriage for his money.