Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives Letters to/from FBI

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

August 5, 1959

[ADDRESS BLOCK BLACKED OUT]

Dear Mrs. [BLACKED OUT]

Your letter of July 28, 1959, has been received, and I am having a
representative of our San Francisco Office contact you in the immediate
future.

I was indeed sorry to learn of the passing of your husband, and my
associates join me in extending to you our expressions of deepest
sympathy.

Sincerely yours,

[stamped] J. Edgar Hoover

2 - San Francisco - Enclosures (2)
ATTENTION SAC: An Agent of your office should call on Mrs. [BLACKED OUT]
in the very near future and inform her that the FBI has not investigated
the Hubbard Foundation.  At the time of his contact, he can call her
attention to the December 5, 1950, issue of "Look" magazine which contains
an article entitled "Dianetics - Science or Hoax?", identifying L. Ron
Hubbard as an obscure writer of pseudoscientific pulp fiction prior to the
publishing of his book entitled "Dianetics."  Hubbard's book asserts that
"the creation of dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to his
discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and the
arch...the intelligent layman can successfully and invariably treat all
psychosomatic ills and inorganic aberrations," according to Hubbard.
"These psychosomatic ills, uniformly cured by dianetic therapy, include
such varied maladies as eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, some heart
difficulties, migraine headaches and the common cold."  According to the
article, Hubbard's book has "outraged scores of
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Follow-up made for 8-14-59

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psychiatrists, biochemists, psychologists, physicians and
just-plain-ordinary scientists, who look upon the astounding claims and
the growing commercial success of this strange new phenomenon with awe,
fear and a deep disgust...Hubbard's greatest attraction to the troubled is
that his ersatz psychiatry is available to all.  It's cheap.  It's
accessible.  It's a public festival to be played at clubs and parties."

The April 24, 1951, issue of the "Times Herald," Washington, D.C.,
revealed that Hubbard's wife charged in a divorce suit that "competent
medical advisors recommended that Hubbard be committed to a private
sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment
known as paranoid schizophrenia."

Sulet when action completed under caption, "Mrs. [BLACKED OUT] Research
(Crime Reco to reach the Bureau no later than 8-12-59.

NOTE: Correspondent's husband has served on the [BLACKED OUT] as Mrs.
[BLACKED OUT] indicates, and there has been prior cordial correspondence
with him.  He was sent a letter on 12-7-45 thanking him for assistance
offered the FBI during World War II, and he was always complimentary
toward the Director and the FBI.  Mr. Closson was given an autographed
copy of "Masters of Deceit" in May, 1958 (94-1-3595-66, 62-94080,
66-9330-50 and 66-16274-639) The Hubbard Dianetic Auditors School,
Elizabeth, New Jersey, is subject of Bufile 62-94080, and frequent citizen
inquiries are received concerning its activities.  It is also known as the
Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation