Ariya Dhamma Thera

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Lifestyle

Family

His date of order of admission to the United States was July 10, 1958. East Indian "guru" in Southern California, prominent in the news in the late '70s when he began to show signs of senility and a complicated story broke. Headlines read "Witch, Women and Hypnotist Fight Over Fragile Old Man." Thera and his first wife, Georgia, adopted Dr. Raymond La Scola, age 62, as their son in 1978. When Georgia died five months later, on 7/17/1979, Mary Kay accused La Scola of murdering his adopted mother to bring him closer to Thera's $3 million estate. Mary claimed that he used hypnosis and drugs to get the couple to adopt him. She testified that that she had met Thera at the American Institute of Buddhists in Los Angeles, that she was one of his chelas and that, in 1963, they had had an affair that lasted eight years. She was then 57 and he, 79. She said that she rented a room in his home and he would visit her at night when his wife slept. After Georgia died, Mary spent nine months tracing Thera, "rescued" him from a care facility and married him on 5/19/1980. She was accused by La Scola of kidnapping the old boy and trying to get control of his considerable estate. There was a home in Los Angeles and one in Palm Springs, art works, gold and jewelry. The case was big news in the National Enquirer and other scandal rags for some months with even an article in Time magazine 9/15/1980. When the case went to court, the marriage was annulled. The murder charge against La Scola led to two counts of murder in the first degree; a prior case turned up of a similar situation. Raymond La Scola was born 5/11/1915, New Orleans.