Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives Dear Styles

From the files of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

February 28, 1957

PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL [last word crossed out]

Honorable Styles Bridges
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.

Dear Styles:

Your letter of February 22, 1957, with enclosure, has been referred to
me by Mr. Nichols, and I appreciate your interest in bringing this matter
to our attention.  For your personal information, the FBI has received
numerous inquiries concerning Lafayette Ron Hubbard and the system of
"dianetics" which he apparently originated, but no allegation of a
violation within the jurisdiction of this Bureau has been received and,
consequently, no investigation of this matter has been conducted by the
FBI.

Corporation records for the State of New Jersey show that the Hubbard
Dianetic Research Foundation, Inc., was incorporated on June 1, 1950,
for the alleged purpose of furthering the work of Hubbard, whose book
entitled "Dianetics" had been published in 1948.  The Foundation has
reportedly encountered difficulty with police authorities in New Jersey,
Michigan and Washington, D.C., for allegedly conducting schools in those
areas, in which a branch of medicine and surgery was taught without a
license.

"The Washington Times Herald" for April 24, 1951, carried an article
captioned "Wife Accuses Mental' Expert of Torturing Her."  According to
this article, Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, age twenty-five, filed a suit
for divorce against L. Ron Hubbard in which

NOTE: See Jones to Nichols memorandum dated February 27, 1957, captioned
"Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation, Lafayette Ron Hubbard, Request
for Information by Senator Styles Bridges, " RGE:lmh

RGE:lmh

[page 2]

Honorable Styles Bridges

she claimed he had subjected her to "scientific torture experiments."
She claimed that he had tortured her through denial of sleep, beatings,
strangulations and suggestions that she kill herself.  As a consequence,
she stated that she considered Hubbard, then forty years of age,
"hopelessly insane."  According to the article, "Competent medical
advisers recommended that Hubbard be committed to a private sanitarium
for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as
paranoid schizophrenia."  It was also alleged that the Hubbard Dianetic
Research Foundation, which dealt with the "modern science of mental
health, " did more than one million dollar business in 1950.

I am returning [BLACKED OUT] letter which you enclosed since you may
have
further use for it, and I hope the above will be of some assistance to
you in this connection.

Sincerely,


Edgar


Enclosure