Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives Another classic Hubbard Letter to FBI

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

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #110

[typed, but badly xeroxed]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH [?]-2951

211 W. Douglas St.
Wichita, Kansas
May 14, 1951

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Washington, D.C.

Dear Sir:

You will find that I have reported some of these matters to the FBI
in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. before but this is
getting to a point where the mere delivery of facts into files is
pointless.

It is more than a belief on my part that the Communist Party or
members of the Communist Party have in the past year wiped out a
half a million operation for me, have cost me my health and have
considerably retarded material of interest to the United States
Government.

I am, basically, a scientist in the field of atomic and molecular
phenomena. At least, that was my course in college. I followed this
into the fields of human thought, identified an energy and produced
through twenty years of research, a science of thought known
popularly as dianetics.

Although this story starts earlier, when I left the Navy in which I
served as an officer during the war, I found myself associated with
a woman known as Sara Elizabeth Northrup. I met her in Pasadena in
late 1945. [illegible words] considerable interest in my scientific
researches.

In 1949, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, I formed an organization known
as the American Institute of Advanced Therapy. Miss Northrup, whom
I believed to by my wife, having married her and then, after some
mix-up about a divorce, believed her to be my wife in common law,
was instrumental in breaking up this organization. In 1950 I wrote
a book called DIANETICS and formed the HUBBARD DIANETIC RESEARCH
FOUNDATION in New Jersey.

From the first this organization, quite unlike my naval commands,
was a source of great turbulence to me. Strange things were done
for which I had no accounting. Orders were rarely carried out.
Research was held to zero. Funds were spent in unproductive ways.

In August of that year I had reason to believe my wife was
unfaithful and went to California. I was afraid of publicity and
did nothing about this. By October, things

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The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

had come to such a pass in terms of organizational enturbulence
that C. Parker Morgan, a member of the Foundation board of trustees
told me he believed subversion was taking place. He asked the FBI
to make an investigation. I know nothing further of this
investigation. However, investigating on my own, I found that the
publisher of the book, Arthur Ceppos, Hermitage House, was failing
to distribute the book and was actually upsetting the organization
by invalidating me and the science. I challenged Ceppos with this
and forced him to resign from the board of trustees of the
Foundation. At this time I learned also that Ceppos was "formerly"
a member of the Communist Party. Resigning with Ceppos and hand in
glove with him, evidently, was J.A. Winter, MD, medical director of
the Foundation. I discovered then that Winter was a psycho-neurotic
discharged officer of the US Army Medical Corps and that Winter
seemed to have Communist connections. I was not alert still any
belief that this strange upset in the organization was Communist
inspired.

In early October my alleged wife, who a few months later would be
claiming we were not married, caused me to make out a will to her
via attorney Milt Davis of Los Angeles, leaving her shares in the
copyrights and Foundations. I returned to Rahway New Jersey and in
late October, while asleep in my home, was slugged. I had no proof
of this and so I wisely or unwisely sheered away from publicity for
something for which I had no witnesses and tried to carry on.
However I was thereafter in poor health.

I returned to Los Angeles. On my first day in town Sara Northrup
left our baby in a car and I was arrested for it. I could never
understand why the police insisted it was I, but it is a matter of
court record that the act was done by Sara.

On December the 5th, while asleep in my apartment, on North
Rossmore in Los Angeles I was again attacked and knocked out. When
I woke I debated considerably going to the police but was again
afraid of publicity for again I did not know who might have done
this. It never occured [sic] to me to suspect that my wife had any
part in this.

I had become so ill by January 1st and was so long overdue in
writing my second book that I went to Palm Springs. I returned from
Palm Springs in late February to find my wife apparently ill, in
bad mental condition, and my baby more or less forgotten in a back
room of the Los Angeles Foundation. I instantly took steps, what
steps I could, to give my wife help. She seemed to recover.

[page 3]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

I was in my apartment on February 23rd, about two or three o'clock
in the morning when the apartment was entered, I was knocked out,
had a needle thrust into my heart to give it a jet of air to
produce "coronary thrombosis" and was given an electric shock with
a 110 volt current. This is all very blurred to me. I had no
witnesses. But only one person had another key to that apartment
and that was Sara.

Further, earlier in the week, I had found letters in a "love nest"
she had had with a Miles Hollister, an employee of the Foundation.
These letters contained, with their love language, also enormous
amounts of data on the Foundation and my activities. Further there
was a telegram which came from Hollister containing the phrase,
"Lombardo should live so long" Lombardo being a name she sometimes
called me.

I learned of this quickly by phone from New Jersey and my orders
from my eastern Foundation were to get out. I went back to the
apartment that night however and found my "wife" had returned but
seemed drugged. I found two strange men watching the apartment. I
got her out, she consenting, and took her to Palm Springs.
Hollister instantly had warrants issued for my arrest for
"abducting" my wife and gave the Beverly Hills police a false
address for himself. Further, I had put my baby safely in a nursing
home and Hollister issued a compalint [sic] against me in Los
Angeles for kidnapping my own baby. I tried to get Sara out of
California, knowing her to be under terrific duress of some kind.
She however would not further accompany me than the Arizona border.
I have her signed statement, requested of her by me before the
border guard that she was under her own power and was with me by
full consent. At the moment she demanded to go back I could not
deter her naturally without using force and so I let her go.

I went east. My baby was delivered to me there. The child was ill
and I took her south to get her some sunshine. I wrote my second
book in Havana. I returned here to Wichita.

Meanwhile I was able to integrate this matter and obtained more
data from friends. There are many witnesses to these things, Frank
Dressler, A.E. van Vogt, Mrs. Fay Clauson,

[page 4]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

Richard de Mille, and others.

Sara was associating exclusively and using her position to support
a group consisting of Miles Hollister, Gene [?]ent[?], (an alias,
his real name being Weinberger), Peggy [?]enton, Roger Starr, Lyn
Hite, Henry [?]nter, Marge Hunter and Gregory Hemmingway. In the
east she was closely and exclusively associated with Dr. Winter,
Arthur Ceppos and a Nancy Roodenburg. Using a Foundation position
as Executive vice-president, she provided this group with funds.
Handling my own accounts she neglected to pay many debts. She was
closely connected as well with H[?] [?]oon, a "pastor" in Monrovia
or some such town in California. Also she was associated, as a part
of this group, with Mar[?] Lawrence, the actor, and via Benton,
Stan [?]enton, the orchestra leader seems also associated with this
group and also with a [?]ill Graff or Graph. Also connected here is
Edward [?]uhl or [illegible word] Universal Pictures but in what
way I am not certain.

Gene and Peggy Benton confessed to our general manager that they
had been members of the Young Communists. Henry Hunter and Marge
Hunter are alleged to have been connected with Communism. Marc
Lawrence [this name is nearly illegible and may be incorrect], very
active in this group, is supposed to have been (admitted in the
House to have been) a member of the Communist Party. Hollister
stated to me that he had been a member of the Young Communists and
is associated with Dr. Werner Wolfe of Bard College.

In November the Medical Director of the Foundation Dr. Rowland
Walker died very suddenly, in Winter's House [sic], of "coronary
thrombosis", after a siege of terrible nerves. In late January or
early February, an instructor of the Los Angeles Foundation, on the
verge of important research data, was shot to death by his wife who
then committed suicide - out of which Hollister and Benton seemed
to have attempted to make anti-dianetic publicity. Earlier, in New
York, a young patient, after an interview with Gene Benton
committed suicide and an effort had been made to publicize t[?]

The group above named has produced remarkable turbulence in our
organization so that the organization has collapsed and another has
had to be set up to replace it. Their removal from dianetics has
been attended by a most remarkable smear campaign in California.

In February in Chicago I took tests at the Chicago Psychological
Institute to guarantee the fact that I am sane. This talk of
insanity and other matters in the press have behind them a
remarkable clause in the "divorce" petition leveled by Sara
"Hubbard" - a receivership for the Foundation and turning it all
over to her. She was aware of

[page 5]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

that my will had been changed.

Many offers of peace were extended to her before this strange
attack was launched. I have been called a "dope fiend" by her. I
have been called "insane". Every effort is being made to get
dianetics.

This is data: in August 1950 I found out a method the Russians use
on such people as Vogeler, Min[?]nty and others to obtain
confessions. I could undo that method. My second book was to have
shown how the Communists used narcosynthesis and physical torture
and why it worked as it did. Further, I was working on a technology
of psychological war[?] to present it to the Defense Department.
All that work was interrupted. Each time I tried to write, a new
attack was launched.

As a one-time officer of ONI[?]I I try not to see Indians behind
every bush. I have not the use of your files. I find out, suddenly,
that a Leo West, in charge of our office is a Communist and so
discharge him and close that o[?] But I could not discover these
things until damage has been done.

I enclose a validation pamphlet of dianetics. It is not a
psychotherapy but a study of the energy of thought. It is important
technology. The proof of it in the field of psychotherapy is
indicated in this pamphlet.

Those ex-Communists or current Communists "helped me". They stayed
close to me. They shut me off from Communication. I did not realize
that my wife was one until this spring. Only then could I separate
myself.

While my proof may be slight, it is strange that turbulence in the
new Foundation ceased the moment I began to use only personnel
screened by a "lie detector". This present organization is secure
as well as I can make it. But the old Foundations have been thrust
into oblivion.

Dianetics is important politically. It indicates way [?] of
controling [sic] people or de-controling [sic] them and of handling
groups which is good technology. It is an American science. Arthur
Ceppos sat on the press side of dianetics and we have received
since the publication of the book a most rabid anti-dianetic press.

The field of Group Dianetics could become an ideology if anyone let
it. Who controls dianetics, its techniques and researches can be a
menace to the security of this country.

[page 6]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

It may be that this is wildcat party activity. It may be that these
members are simply ex- Communists. But an Alastair Kyle, stated by
Parker Morgan to be a Communist, tried long and hard from New York
to get our mailing list.

I only know these things - while I let them, unsuspected, cluster
around me, these people stopped dianetics in its tracks. With them
gone we can run an organization. But once ejected they began,
evidently, through Sara, these remarkable attacks. I believe this
woman to be under heavy duress. She was born into a criminal
atmosphere, her father having a criminal record. Her half sister
was an inmate of an insane asylum. She was part of a free love
colony in Pasadena. She had attached herself to a Jack Parsons, the
rocket expert, during the war and when she left him he was a wreck.
Further, through Parsons, she was strangely intimate with many
scientists of Los Alamos Gordos. I did not know or realize these
things until I myself investigated the matter. She may have a
record.

My plea is simply this: security in which science can work. Why do
these people remain at large, free of our press[?] destructive of
our efforts? I have been developing, in spite of these
enturbulences, data of some value as this rudimentary pamphlet
proves. Dianetics and the Foundation, potent forces, almost fell
into complete Communist control or the control of ex-Communists
whichever it is. I cannot fight the battle of Communist vs the
world as the only opponent or threat. Certainly some one else must
be at least faintly interested. My life has been in danger, my work
has suffered, my life is still in danger. My reputation is almost
ruined so these vermin Communists or ex-Communists whatever they
are can take over a piece of society and a technology.

If Russia possessed the notes I have on psychological warfare, she
would be that much more potent.

Further, I do not believe these people meant to destroy dianetics
but to drive it underground. They "helped" me with radio programs
which did not get played, by pamphlets which did not give the whole
story (like this validation pamphlet and by "advice" which
attempted to knock every loyal American out of dianetics.

What can one do in the face of this? When, when, when will we have
a round-up?

Please compare these notes with your central files. I am certain
you will find these names repeated there connect [?]

[page 7]

The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.
275 MORRIS AVENUE
P.O. BOX 502, ELIZABETH, N.J.
ELIZABETH 3-2951

with Communist activities. Perhaps in your criminal files or on the
police blotter of Pasadena you will find Sara Elizabeth Northrup,
age about 26, born April 8, 19[?] about 5'9", blonde-brown hair,
slender. My own investigation seems to indicate that possibility.
Her residence from 42 to 45 was 1003 South Orange Grove, Pasadena,
Calif. I have no revenge motive nor am I trying to angle this
broader than it is. I believe she is under duress, that they have
something on her and I believe that under a grilling she would talk
and turn StateIs [sic] evidence.

I am unsure of Edward [?]uhl and Stan Benton as connected but
merely mention them as associated vaguely with this group. I am
very sure of the politics or ex-politics of other members of the
group. Gregory Hemmingway is the son of Ernest Hemmingway [sic] and
is employed at Douglas Aircraft in California. He may be a dupe but
he has taken a solid role in this group. Roger Starr is probably a
dupe. Lyn Hite is not known to be a Communist but associated
solidly with Communists. Marc Lawrence was definitely aiding Sara
in January 1950 in her efforts to stop the second boo[?]

All these matters are, of course, confidential. I do not wish them
to be published in any way. I am not trying to regain a reputation
by blaming Communism. But I am trying hard to understand how it is
that these persons, all so solidly _ex_-affiliated or currently
affiliated, as a group, work in such close partnership against a
technology they know would hurt Communism and yet remain at
liberty.

I am applying to the Department of Defense for [?]ermi[?] to
deliver to them my work on psychological warfare. I hope this new
Foundation can operate. Frankly, from what has happened, I am not
certain I will live through this. If I do not, know that I have
only these enemies in the entire world.

May I respectfully request, sir, your assistance in rendering
America a trifle safer for new sciences. I wish I could ask you to
extend that clause in the charter of the FBI about persons in
distress.

Sincerely,

L. Ron Hubbard