Bare-Faced Messiah, FBI Archives Letter to FBI about frauds

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

[BLACKED OUT]
Jan 10/63

The Federal Bureau of Investigation,
WASHINGTON, D.C.

_Re: Investigation of Scientologists_

Gentlemen :

A news item on a [BLACKED OUT] radio station came on the air last Saturday
Jan 5th, with an item of interest to me.  I am at the present time in the
process of getting some Washington papers to read about this particular
item, which mentioned at the time, that The Scientologists, who are
located in Washington and elsewhere, are being investigated and have their
machines taken from them and this news item went on to say that they
claimed they could cure people, and that Ron Hubbard, who is at the head
of this crackpot organization was not available for comment at that
time.

I would like to state to you my past experience with this racket and it is
that my husband (who has since disappeared), took this course for three
months from July till [sic] October of 1958, and I myself did visit him in
Washington for a week end during that time, and as you probably know are
located in Central Washington just off the main street.  I knew at that
time they were a fraud.  My former husband took this course to the tune
[BLACKED OUT] for which courses he had to borrow the money, because they
had to have the money for this course in advance : and which debt was left
for me to pay because after taking this course, he deserted me the
following year and during the time since he had taken the course he had
kept in touch with them and also bought one of their machines with which
they work.  Do not underestimate my former husbands [sic] mentality,
because he was extremely clever and thought that this had something to
offer.  He has not been seen or heard of since, altho [sic] he cashed a
[BLACKED OUT] cheque in Mexico somewhere, as the company he was working
for let me know when it was cashed and if he is in the States with this
outfit of Scientologists, he is there illegally.  My lawyer wrote to both
Washington and New York, to these people at the time to get some papers
signed from him, with no reply and we have not persued [sic] it any
further, because I certainly do not wish to bother with him.

I know if I recall correctly that they had on the back of their
literature, that in a case of emergency - that they are located

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in Maryland.  I am only mentioning these things to you to help you know
just what a racket this thing is and Ron Hubbard in it should be exposed,
and I know there were others taken for a ride like myself in Canada, and I
have had to work since he disappeared to pay of this [BLACKED OUT] debt he
left and it has taken nearly everything I had to keep up to it.  I have
long since disgarded [sic] all their literature, but I do recall them
mentioning in their literature that they had been sued before but were not
worried, but believe me these people do need investigating because they
[?]ck up peoples [sic] home and take money that people cannot afford and
have people going around in a trance.  In fact one of their sneaky
representatives came up here to [BLACKED OUT] once a [BLACKED OUT] so she
called herself) supposedly married to a [BLACKED OUT] in their New York
office, drumming up business for further courses!  You may find some of
these people who take this course at The Elmwood House if it is still
there - for your information my former husbands [sic] name is [BLACKED
OUT] not unless he has changed it and is living under an alias in the
States.

I did not mean this to be a long epistle, but I had to do some explaining
and was quite pleased when I heard this on the news--for at last someone
has got wise to them and felt that I had to write and hope I have been
of some service.

Yours sincerely,

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