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---
category: "Religious Figures"
tags:
- Person
- Scientology
- Dianetics
- NavalIntelligence
- NavalReserve
- GuardiansOffice
- SeaOrganization
- OperationSnowWhite
- StargateProject
- FBI
- IRS
- Thelema
- BabalonWorking
- JackParsons
- RemoteViewing
- SRI
aliases:
- L. Ron Hubbard
- L Ron Hubbard
- Ron Hubbard
- LRH
- Lafayette Ronald Hubbard
- La Fayette Ron Hubbard
- Lafayette R. Hubbard
- Commodore Hubbard
- Elron
summary: "Pulp author and Naval Reserve lieutenant who partnered with Jack Parsons in the 1946 Babalon Working, published Dianetics in 1950, founded Scientology, and whose Guardian's Office officials were convicted of infiltrating federal agencies."
born: 1911-03-13
died: 1986-01-24
location: "Tilden, Nebraska"
relations:
- type: member_of
with: "[[United States Marine Corps Reserve]]"
start: 1930-05-01
end: 1931-10-22
role: "enlisted reservist, discharged by order of the Major General Commandant as a first sergeant, character Excellent"
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[United States Navy]]"
start: 1941
end: 1946-02-16
role: "Naval Reserve lieutenant (junior grade), class I-V(S) under the Office of Naval Intelligence's reserve section from 1941; District Intelligence Office, Twelfth Naval District, December 1941; later commanding officer of USS YP-422 and USS PC-815; released from active duty February 16, 1946"
fn: 3
- type: informant_for
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
start: 1951-03-01
role: "told the Internal Security Section on March 1, 1951 that he had given the Los Angeles office the names of suspected Communists in his Foundation, and wrote to the Attorney General in May 1951 on the same subject"
fn: 19
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
start: 1951-03-01
role: "subject of FBI headquarters file 62-HQ-94080 and later Church of Scientology files; Los Angeles office checked his 1948 arrest record in April 1967"
fn: 19
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Jack Parsons]]"
start: 1946-01
end: 1946-07
role: "partner (with Sara Northrup) in Allied Enterprises, a yacht-purchase partnership; scribe and seer in the Babalon Working; Parsons recovered a yacht in Miami in July 1946"
fn: 12
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Babalon Working]]"
start: 1946-01-04
end: 1946-03-04
role: "scribe and seer for Parsons's Enochian invocations and the sexual-magic operation"
fn: 14
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Sara Northrup]]"
start: 1946-08-10
end: 1951
role: "husband (marriage at Chestertown, Maryland, as she stated in her 1951 complaint; she alleged his divorce from his first wife was not obtained until December 1947)"
fn: 17
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Margaret Grubb Hubbard]]"
end: 1947-12
role: "husband (first wife, recorded in Navy files as Louise Grubb Hubbard; divorce at Port Orchard, Washington, in December 1947 according to Sara Northrup's 1951 complaint)"
fn: 17
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Mary Sue Hubbard]]"
role: "husband; she held the titles Controller and Commodore Staff Guardian"
fn: 26
- type: founded
with: "[[Scientology]]"
start: 1954
role: "founder; Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, Phoenix, was on his letterhead by 1954"
fn: 24
- type: head_of
with: "[[Sea Organization]]"
role: "Commodore; the 1984 Los Angeles Superior Court found he ran the Church through the Sea Organization, the title of Commodore and the Commodore's Messengers"
fn: 30
- type: head_of
with: "[[Guardian's Office]]"
start: 1973-11-21
end: 1977-06-20
role: "described in the August 15, 1978 indictment as holding the title Commodore and exercising overall supervision of the Guardian's Office; not charged"
fn: 26
- type: investigated
with: "[[Board of Inquiry into Scientology]]"
reverse: true
start: 1963-11-27
end: 1965
role: "Victorian board under Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C., reported in 1965"
fn: 23
- type: investigated
with: "[[Foster Enquiry]]"
reverse: true
start: 1969
end: 1971-12-21
role: "Sir John G. Foster's inquiry into the practice and effects of Scientology, printed by the House of Commons December 21, 1971"
fn: 22
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Operation Snow White]]"
start: 1977-07-07
role: "founder of the organization whose Guardian's Office was the subject of the FBI searches of July 7, 1977 and the 1978 indictment"
fn: 27
- type: subject_of
with: "[[Internal Revenue Service]]"
start: 1967
end: 1993
role: "tax-exemption dispute with the Church he founded, ended by the 1993 closing agreement"
fn: 24
created: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
---
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born at [[Tilden, Nebraska]], on March 13, 1911, according to a [[San Luis Obispo County]] Sheriff's record that the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s [[Los Angeles]] office transcribed in April 1967.[^1] The [[United States Navy]]'s personnel file on him, released from the [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]], begins with a [[United States Marine Corps Reserve|Marine Corps Reserve]] certificate: he enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on May 1, 1930, was transferred to inactive status the same day, and was discharged by special order of the [[Commandant of the Marine Corps|Major General Commandant]] on October 22, 1931 as a first sergeant with character "Excellent."[^2]
### Naval Intelligence reserve commission, 1941 to 1942
In 1941 Hubbard applied for a commission in the [[United States Naval Reserve|Naval Reserve]] at the [[Washington Navy Yard|Navy Yard]] in Washington. A letter in his file from Arthur F. Johnson, Ph.D., a professor under whom he had studied engineering, recommended him "for a commission in the United States Naval Reserve, for duty in Naval Intelligence."[^3] A memorandum of the [[Chief of Naval Operations]] (Op-16-C) dated April 21, 1941 told the Reserve Section of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]] that he was applying for assignment to the Public Relations Office and recommended the rank of lieutenant. On June 4, 1941 the Intelligence Officer of the Navy Yard, after interviewing him, recommended appointment as lieutenant (junior grade) in class I-V(S), found him "deficient in academic educational background," and wrote that he "appears to possess qualifications for assignment to the Public Relations Branch, or Foreign Intelligence Branch with particular reference to his familiarity with countries of the Caribbean Area."[^3]
On December 15, 1941 the District Intelligence Officer of the [[Twelfth Naval District]] in [[San Francisco]] ordered him to temporary duty at the Zone III office at [[Vallejo]], in addition to his regular duties; he reported on December 16 and was detached on December 17.[^4] He then went to [[Australia]]. A report to the Commandant of the Twelfth Naval District signed L. D. Causey records that he reached [[Brisbane]] on the [[SS President Polk]] on his way to [[Manila]], was allowed to stay there for onward transport, and "by assuming unauthorized authority and attempting to perform duties for which he has no qualification he became the source of much trouble." Causey wrote that he was "garrulous and tries to give impressions of his importance" and "will require close supervision for satisfactory performance of any intelligence duty," and that he was sent orders in February 1942 to return to the United States on [[USS Chaumont]].[^5] In his own letter of October 19, 1943 requesting orders to landing vessels, Hubbard listed among his qualifications "Service in South West Pacific (ONI) Dec. 41 to March 42."[^6]
On April 16, 1942 the [[Office of the Cable Censor|Chief Cable Censor]] asked that he be detached from intelligence duties in the Twelfth Naval District and ordered to the Office of the Cable Censor in New York. The Chief of Naval Operations endorsement of April 18, 1942 recommended approval and, because the Censorship Organization "is no longer under the cognizance of the Director of Naval Intelligence," that he be transferred out of class I-V(S).[^7]
### Commands, the Coronado Islands board and release from active duty
Hubbard's own summary lists command of [[USS YP-422]] from June to October 1942 and of [[USS PC-815]] from January to July 1943.[^6] The file contains a board of investigation convened by the Commander, [[Fleet Operational Training Command, Pacific]], which sat from June 30 to July 3, 1943 on the firing of three shots from PC-815 and the anchoring of the vessel near the [[Coronado Islands]] (Mexican territory) on June 28, 1943. The board found that no Navy directive authorized the ship to anchor there on June 27 and 28, and Hubbard's fitness report records a letter of admonition from the Commander, Fleet Operational Training Command.[^8] He was hospitalized at the Naval hospital in [[San Diego]] on July 16, 1943 with a duodenal ulcer and returned to duty on October 8, 1943. He later attended the Navy's school of military government at [[Princeton University]] and was admitted to [[Oak Knoll Naval Hospital]] in Oakland on April 10, 1945 from the Naval Civil Affairs Staging Area at the [[Presidio of Monterey]]. A Board of Medical Survey recommended that he appear before a retiring board; the [[Bureau of Naval Personnel]] instead directed his release from active duty, which took effect on February 16, 1946.[^9]
On November 14, 1947, writing from [[North Hollywood]], he tendered his resignation from the Naval Reserve, citing "my bad health for which I was separated from the Navy." The Chief of Naval Personnel replied on December 13, 1947 that the resignation would be held in abeyance and warned that it would end all benefits; Hubbard then asked that it be disregarded. On May 12, 1950 the [[Secretary of the Navy]] approved a Physical Evaluation Board finding that he was fit for the duties of his rank at the time of his release, and his resignation of May 27, 1950 was accepted under honorable conditions.[^10] The separation form in the file lists the American Defense, Asiatic-Pacific and Victory medals and the expert rifle and pistol badges.[^10] On September 28, 1972 and again in 1974 the [[Scientology|Church of Scientology]] wrote to the Navy's [[National Personnel Records Center]] in St. Louis: the Navy declined on November 14, 1972 to release the file to Russell Salamon, and a May 28, 1974 letter from the Church's [[Flag Operations Liaison Office]], Eastern United States, in New York, enclosing a letter from Hubbard, stated that he was commissioned in 1941, "served in the South Pacific" and "was relieved by fifteen officers of rank," and listed fifteen decorations including a Purple Heart.[^11] A Navy memorandum for the record of December 17, 1984 directed that no action be taken on the file "without the specific knowledge of the Navy Liaison Office."[^11]
### Pasadena, Parsons and Allied Enterprises, 1945 to 1946
According to the scholar Henrik Bogdan, Hubbard first visited the house at 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue in [[Pasadena]] on August 1, 1945 with the illustrator [[Lou Goldstone]], then moved in and began a relationship with [[Jack Parsons]]'s sister-in-law and companion [[Sara Northrup]], called Betty.[^12] On January 23, 1946 the [[Agape Lodge]] member [[Jane Wolfe]] wrote to [[Karl Germer]] that Betty "has transferred her emotional life into the hands of one Ron Hubbard, a very likeable Irishman, who lives there."[^13] Parsons wrote to [[Aleister Crowley]] that he had "met Capt. L. Ron Hubbard a writer and explorer," that Hubbard "has no formal training in Magick" but "an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field," and that "We are pooling our resources in a partnership which will act as a parent company to control our business ventures."[^14] Between January 4 and March 4, 1946 Hubbard acted as scribe and seer in the [[Babalon Working]], and on March 6 Parsons reported: "First instructions were received through Ron the seer. I have followed them to the letter."[^14]
On May 12, 1946 the Agape Lodge member [[Louis Culling]] wrote to Germer that Parsons "signed a partnership agreement with this Ron and Betty whereby all money earned by the three for life is equally divided between the three," that Parsons "has put in all of his money," and that Hubbard and Northrup "have bought a boat for themselves in [[Miami]] for about $10,000."[^15] Bogdan names the partnership Allied Enterprises, formed in January 1946 to buy yachts on the East Coast, sail them to California and sell them, and gives Parsons's investment as $20,970.80 against Hubbard's $1,183.91.[^12] Germer wrote to [[Grady McMurtry]] on May 24, 1946 that Crowley's cable reply read "SUSPECT RON PLAYING CONFIDENCE TRICK JACK EVIDENTLY WEAK FOOL OBVIOUS VICTIM PROWLING SWINDLERS."[^16] On July 5, 1946 Parsons wrote from Miami: "I have them well tied up: they cannot move without going to jail," and described Hubbard sailing at 5 p.m. and a squall that forced the boat back, "where I took the boat in custody."[^14] On August 10, 1946, according to the complaint Sara Northrup filed in 1951, she and Hubbard married at [[Chestertown, Maryland]]; she stated that Hubbard's divorce from his first wife, [[Margaret Grubb Hubbard]], was obtained at [[Port Orchard, Washington]], in December 1947.[^17]
On October 5, 1969 [[The Sunday Times]] of London published an account by [[Alexander Mitchell]] of Hubbard's dealings with Parsons, drawn from papers held by "a former admirer of Crowley"; it quoted Hubbard's statement in Scientology publications that "Crippled and blinded at the end of the war I resumed studies of philosophy and by my discoveries recovered so fully that I was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty."[^18] A clipping of the article is in the FBI's Church of Scientology file: the Washington Field Office sent it to the Bureau in June 1974 after the legal attache in London made a request dated May 10, 1974, saying it had been obtained on June 7, 1974 from the State Department's Passport Office, from a passport file the FBI attributed to Hubbard.[^18] Bogdan reports that the Church paid the newspaper a settlement; its statement of December 28, 1969 said the [[Ordo Templi Orientis]] group practiced "savage and bestial rites" and that Hubbard had been "sent in to handle the situation" at 1003 Orange Grove, adding: "Hubbard's mission was successful far beyond anyone's expectations. The house was torn down. Hubbard rescued a girl they were using."[^12] Bogdan observes that Hubbard never spoke publicly about Parsons or the Babalon Working.[^12]
### Dianetics, the FBI and the 1951 letters
In 1948 the [[San Luis Obispo]] County Sheriff arrested Hubbard on August 17 on a charge of petty theft (checks) from Los Angeles County; he posted $500 bail and the San Gabriel Justice Court disposed of the case on August 31, 1948 on payment of a $25 fine. The FBI's Los Angeles office reported this by teletype addressed to the Liaison Section on April 12, 1967.[^1] His book [[Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health]] was published in 1950 by [[Hermitage House]], and the [[Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation]] was chartered in New Jersey with offices in Elizabeth, New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu.[^19]
The FBI's Internal Security Section interviewed Hubbard on March 1, 1951. The memorandum records that he said he believed Communists inside the Foundation were undermining it, that he had turned the names of several suspected Communists over to the FBI office in Los Angeles, and that an individual whose name is redacted in the release had been instrumental in driving his wife, Sara Northrup, "to the point of insanity."[^19] On February 23, 1951, he wrote later, his apartment was entered and he was injected and given an electric shock.[^20] In a letter of May 1951 on Foundation letterhead from [[Wichita, Kansas]], addressed to the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]], he wrote that "the Communist Party or members of the Communist Party have in the past year wiped out a half a million dollar operation for me" and that he had written to the FBI in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. He wrote that Sara Northrup "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 Alamo Gordos [sic]," and he asked why "these people remain at large, free of our press, destructive of our efforts."[^20] A statement dated June 11, 1951 over the name Sara Northrup Hubbard, preserved in the FBI's headquarters file, said that what she had said of Hubbard "in courts and the public prints" had been "grossly exaggerated or entirely false."[^20] In a June 12, 1954 letter to the Phoenix [[Better Business Bureau]] on [[Hubbard Association of Scientologists International]] letterhead, the organization wrote that Hubbard "served with distinction as a naval officer and was selected to Naval Civil Affairs by reason of his knowledge of the Oriental psychology."[^19]
The FBI's file also holds a text of psychopolitics lectures attributed to Beria ("You must dominate the hospitals and universities"). Foster's 1971 report quotes the same "Address by Beria" from the booklet "Brain-washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics," describes it as disseminated by the Scientology leadership, and adds that "Its style resembles more that of Mr. Hubbard than that of the Marxist-Leninist phraseology standard in Soviet official literature."[^21][^22]
### Scientology, the Sea Organization and the official inquiries
Hubbard is the founder of Scientology; the Associated Press gave the founding year of the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles as 1954.[^23] The [[Board of Inquiry into Scientology]], appointed by the State of Victoria on November 27, 1963 with [[Kevin Victor Anderson]], Q.C. as its sole member, reported in 1965 that "Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community," that Hubbard "falsely claims academic and other distinctions, and whose sanity is to be gravely doubted," and that his B.S. and C.E. claims did not correspond to any [[George Washington University]] degree.[^23] The [[House of Commons]] printed [[John G. Foster|Sir John Foster]]'s enquiry on December 21, 1971; it quotes the July 25, 1968 announcement by the Minister of Health, [[Kenneth Robinson]], that the Government considered Scientology "socially harmful" and that Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue were excluded from the United Kingdom.[^22] The Foster report discusses the "Sea Org" cruising under the Panamanian flag.[^22] The [[Internal Revenue Service]] dispute with the Church, which the Associated Press dated from 1967, ended in a 1993 closing agreement under which the Church dropped its lawsuits and paid $12.5 million; the [[Religious Technology Center]]'s director, [[Mark Rathbun]], called the document "a peace treaty."[^24] A [[Los Angeles Times]] article of 1978 in the CIA's clipping file calls the [[Apollo (Scientology ship)|Apollo]], a 3,280-ton vessel, the flagship of the Church and "for nearly a decade the personal yacht" of Hubbard.[^25]
### The Guardian's Office and Operation Snow White
The grand jury indictment returned in the District of Columbia on August 15, 1978 states that Hubbard, "who held the title of 'Commodore' by virtue of his role as the founder and leader of Scientology exercised overall supervision of the [[Guardian's Office]]"; that [[Mary Sue Hubbard]] held the titles Controller and Commodore Staff Guardian; and that the head of the world-wide Guardian's Office, [[Jane Kember]], reported directly to both.[^26] On November 21, 1973 Kember directed the United States Guardian's Office to obtain all [[Interpol]] documents "connecting its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, to criminal activity."[^26] The stipulation of evidence signed on October 26, 1979 records Guardian's Office agents inside the [[Department of Justice]], the Internal Revenue Service, the [[Coast Guard Intelligence]] office and the [[Drug Enforcement Administration]]; the Justice Department agent was monitoring the office handling Freedom of Information Act suits against the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[Energy Research and Development Administration]], the Army and the Defense Department, to give "an early warning system to any potential subpoena, civil suit, or arrest warrant against L. Ron Hubbard or Mary Sue Hubbard."[^27] The program was called [[Operation Snow White|Snow White]].[^27]
FBI agents searched Scientology offices in Los Angeles and Washington on July 7, 1977.[^27] Mary Sue Hubbard, [[Henning Heldt]], [[Duke Snider]], [[Gregory Willardson]], [[Richard Weigand]], [[Mitchell Hermann]], [[Cindy Raymond]], [[Gerald Bennett Wolfe]] and [[Sharon Thomas]] were found guilty on the stipulated evidence. Mary Sue Hubbard was convicted on Count 23 (conspiracy) and sentenced on December 6, 1979 by Judge [[Charles R. Richey]] to five years and a $10,000 fine; the [[United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit]] affirmed in a per curiam opinion of October 2, 1981.[^28] The government's sentencing memorandum stated that the crimes included "infiltration and theft of documents from a number of prominent private national and world organizations, law firms and newspapers" and "the framing of private citizens who had been critical of Scientology, including the forging of documents which led to the indictment of at least one innocent person."[^29]
In its memorandum of intended decision dated June 1984, Judge [[Paul Breckenridge]] of the [[Los Angeles Superior Court]], in Church of Scientology of California v. [[Gerald Armstrong]], wrote that "The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his history, background, and achievements," that Hubbard "runs the Church in all ways through the [[Sea Organization]], his role of Commodore, and the Commodore's Messengers," and that "He has, of course, chosen to go into 'seclusion.'" The same memorandum found the testimony of former Scientologists including Gerald and Jocelyn Armstrong, [[Laurel Sullivan]] and [[Howard Schomer]] "credible, extremely persuasive."[^30]
On February 17, 1978 the CIA's [[Office of Legislative Counsel]] told the Office of General Counsel's Freedom of Information Division, in response to OGC Memo 78-0912 on the suit Scientology v. Director, FBI, that its indices and the Review Staff material supplied to Congress contained nothing on the Founding Church of Scientology and its affiliated organizations.[^31]
### Scientologists at SRI
Three people central to [[Stanford Research Institute]]'s remote viewing work (later the [[Stargate Project]]) were reported in print as Scientologists. The [[Time (magazine)|Time]] cover story of March 4, 1974, "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," called Scientology a "bizarre and controversial cult" and said [[Hal Puthoff]] was its promoter and that [[Ingo Swann]] also practiced it.[^32] The [[New Scientist]] of October 17, 1974, in an article by [[Joseph Hanlon]], wrote of Puthoff: "Puthoff has gone through encounter groups and other West Coast fads, and is now a Scientologist (as is Ingo Swann)."[^32] [[Ray Hyman]] wrote in [[The Humanist]] in 1977 that Puthoff "has made it to the level of a Class III Operational Thetan in the Church of Scientology."[^32] In a [[Washington Post]] article of 1977 [[John L. Wilhelm]] wrote that Puthoff was "a high-ranking Scientologist," that [[Pat Price]] "also was a high-level 'Operating Thetan,'" that the laboratory assistant to Puthoff and [[Russell Targ]] in many of the [[Uri Geller]] experiments was a Scientologist, and that Swann "revealed that there are 'fourteen Clears' working at SRI"; Wilhelm wrote that "the involvement of Scientologists in the tests at SRI partially accounts for at least two government agencies pulling back from funding further work there."[^33] A psychological report on six subjects in the SRI parapsychology study, held in the CIA's STARGATE collection, stated that "at least four of the subjects in this study describe to me an interest in scientology and two of them indicate that they have been involved in the Church of Scientology for some time."[^34] [[Jim Schnabel]] wrote in 1997 that Puthoff and Swann had joined Scientology in the 1960s, that Puthoff resigned in the mid-1970s and afterward supported a group of anti-Scientologists, and that Swann later resigned too.[^35] In a magazine article on Price's appointment to a [[West Virginia]] coal company, left by the CIA's [[Office of Technical Service]] with the [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] on November 16, 1977, Price "credits Scientology for 'opening new vistas and abilities of self to me.'"[^34] The transcript of an SRI remote viewing session of October 4, 1973 has Price, tracking Targ, [[Hugh Crane]] and Ann Price and Puthoff through [[Menlo Park]], say: "Just took a look at the Scientology Center. They're not there."[^34]
### Death
Hubbard died on Friday, January 24, 1986 at a ranch near San Luis Obispo, California, after a stroke, according to the [[Washington Times]] of January 29, 1986 preserved in the CIA's reading room; Church president [[Heber Jentzsch]] said Hubbard's body had become "an impediment to his research into the spirit of man" and that "he had discarded his body." The article notes that his eldest son, [[Ronald E. DeWolf]], had alleged in a 1982 lawsuit that Hubbard was dead or incapacitated.[^36] A funeral service text in the CIA's STARGATE collection, attributed to Hubbard, is titled "Founding Church of Scientology."[^37]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Los Angeles file 163A-LA-1123, teletype to Director, FBI, Attn: Liaison Section, April 12, 1967, and report of April 13, 1967 quoting San Luis Obispo Sheriff's Office record C 1396 and San Gabriel Justice Court docket 10045 (born March 13, 1911 at Tilden, Nebraska; arrested August 17, 1948; $25 fine August 31, 1948), archive.org/details/fbi.l.ron.hubbard.sara.northrup.hollister.
[^2]: National Archives and Records Administration, Navy personnel records of Lafayette R. Hubbard, service number 113392 (released copy, November 10, 2020), certificate of the Marine Corps of October 23, 1941, archive.org/details/hubbard-lafayette-r-navy-records-from-nara-website-november-10-2020.
[^3]: NARA Navy records of Lafayette R. Hubbard (cited at note 2): letter of Arthur F. Johnson, Ph.D., to Lieutenant Commander Gates, Navy Yard, Washington; Op-16-C memorandum for the Reserve Section, Office of Naval Intelligence, April 21, 1941 (serial 928116); report of the Intelligence Officer, Navy Yard Washington, June 4, 1941, file PRA:B-3.
[^4]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): Naval Intelligence Office of the Twelfth Naval District, 717 Market Street, San Francisco, orders of December 15, 1941 with endorsements of December 16 and 17, 1941.
[^5]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): report signed L. D. Causey on Lieutenant (jg) L. Ron Hubbard, USNR, "Suggestion as to nature of duty assigned," with endorsements of the Eleventh endorsement series from Brisbane, 1942.
[^6]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): Hubbard, Lieutenant Lafayette Ronald, USNR, to the Chief of Naval Personnel, October 19, 1943, "Orders - request for."
[^7]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): Chief Cable Censor to the Chief of Naval Personnel, April 16, 1942, and first endorsement of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Op-16-A-2-b, April 18, 1942.
[^8]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): board of investigation on PC-815, findings forwarded by the Judge Advocate General December 9, 1943, and fitness report entry for the board convened June 30 to July 3, 1943 (file A17-25/PC815).
[^9]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): Naval Hospital Oakland, report of Board of Medical Survey, 1945; Bureau of Naval Personnel letters on release from active duty; Physical Evaluation Board findings referring to release from active duty on February 16, 1946.
[^10]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): letter of resignation, North Hollywood, November 14, 1947; Chief of Naval Personnel to Hubbard, December 13, 1947 (Pers-3121-WQD/wcp); Hubbard's letter withdrawing the resignation; Secretary of the Navy approval of May 12, 1950; acceptance of resignation of May 27, 1950; separation record listing American Defense, Asiatic-Pacific, Victory and expert rifle and pistol.
[^11]: NARA Navy records (cited at note 2): Navy Department letter of November 14, 1972 to Russell Salamon (K. C. Walser, by direction of the Chief of Naval Personnel); letter of the Flag Operations Liaison Office, Eastern United States, A Branch of the Church of Scientology of New York, to the National Personnel Records Center, May 28, 1974; National Personnel Records Center memorandum for the record, December 17, 1984.
[^12]: Bogdan, Henrik, "The Babalon Working 1946: L. Ron Hubbard, John Whiteside Parsons, and the Practice of Enochian Magic," Numen 63 (2016), pp. 12-32, citing Alexander Mitchell, "The Odd Beginning of Ron Hubbard's Career," The Sunday Times (London), 1969, and the Church of Scientology statement of December 28, 1969, and Crowley's letter to Germer of May 22, 1946, archive.org/details/l.-ron-hubbard-john-whiteside-parsons-the-practice-of-enochian-magic-the-babalon-working-1946. Sole source for the August 1, 1945 arrival date, the name Allied Enterprises and the investment figures.
[^13]: Wolfe, Jane, letter to Karl Germer, January 23, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-01-23-Wolfe-to-Germer.htm.
[^14]: Parsons, John W., letters to Aleister Crowley of January 21, February 2, March 6 and July 5, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-01-21-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm, 1946-02-02-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm, 1946-03-06-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm, 1946-07-05-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm; the pooling-of-resources passage is printed in the transcription of the circa February 1946 letter (1946-02-00-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm).
[^15]: Culling, Louis T., letter to Karl Germer, May 12, 1946 (extract), aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-12-Culling-to-Germer.html.
[^16]: Germer, Karl, letter to Grady McMurtry, May 24, 1946, quoting Crowley's cable, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-24-Germer-to-McMurtry.htm.
[^17]: Newspaper account of the complaint of Sara Northrup Hubbard, 1951 (clipping in FBI headquarters file on L. Ron Hubbard, "Hubbard, L. Ron HQ-1"), archive.org/details/HubbardL.RonHQ1, stating that she married Hubbard August 10, 1946 at Chestertown, Maryland, and that he obtained a divorce at Port Orchard, Washington, in December 1947 from Margaret Grubb Hubbard; Navy records (cited at note 2) list the first wife as Louise Grubb Hubbard.
[^18]: Mitchell, Alexander, "The Odd Beginning of Ron Hubbard's Career," The Sunday Times (London), October 5, 1969, clipping and FBI Washington Field Office airtel (87-20913) to the Director, FBI (105-255635), June 1974, FBI file "Church of Scientology/L. Ron Hubbard," Part 6, archive.org/details/churchofscientologyl.ronhubbard.
[^19]: FBI, L. Ron Hubbard/Sara Northrup Hollister file 62-HQ-94080, section 1: memorandum on the interview of March 1, 1951 with L. Ron Hubbard, President, Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation; FBI memorandum quoting the Better Business Bureau letter of June 12, 1954 from the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, 806 North Third Street, Phoenix, archive.org/details/fbi.l.ron.hubbard.sara.northrup.hollister.
[^20]: Hubbard, L. Ron, letter to the Attorney General of the United States on Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation letterhead, 211 W. Douglas, Wichita, Kansas, May 1951, FBI file "Church of Scientology/L. Ron Hubbard," Part 5, archive.org/details/churchofscientologyl.ronhubbard; statement of Sara Northrup Hubbard dated June 11, 1951, FBI file 62-HQ-94080, section 1, archive.org/details/fbi.l.ron.hubbard.sara.northrup.hollister.
[^21]: FBI, L. Ron Hubbard/Sara Northrup Hollister file 62-HQ-94080, section 1, copy of the psychopolitics text containing the "Address by Beria" to students at the Lenin University, archive.org/details/fbi.l.ron.hubbard.sara.northrup.hollister.
[^22]: Foster, Sir John G., Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1971), ordered by the House of Commons to be printed December 21, 1971, paragraphs 14, 75 and 187 and statement of Kenneth Robinson of July 25, 1968, archive.org/details/FosterReportEnquiryIntoThePracticeAndEffectsOfScientology.
[^23]: Kevin Victor Anderson, Q.C., Report of the Board of Inquiry into Scientology (Melbourne: Government of Victoria, 1965), order of November 27, 1963 and introduction, archive.org/details/AndersonReportReportOfTheBoardOfEnquiryIntoScientology; Associated Press, "Scientologists Settled With IRS," December 30, 1997 (church founded in 1954).
[^24]: Associated Press, "Scientologists Settled With IRS," December 30, 1997; Internal Revenue Service news release IR-97-50, December 31, 1997, irs.gov/pub/irs-news/ir-97-50.txt.
[^25]: Gillette, Robert, Los Angeles Times, 1978, "Scientology flagship shrouded in mystery," in the CIA clipping file, CIA-RDP88-01314R000100040026-3.
[^26]: United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., Criminal No. 78-401 (D.D.C.), indictment of August 15, 1978, paragraphs 3 to 5 and overt act 1, archive.org/details/usa.v.msh.
[^27]: United States v. Hubbard et al., stipulation of evidence, October 26, 1979, including the Meisner memoranda of March 22, 1976 and Guardian Program Orders 302 and the "Snow White" program; United States v. Hubbard, 474 F. Supp. 64 (D.D.C. 1979) (Richey, J.), archive.org/details/usa.v.msh.
[^28]: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, United States v. Heldt et al., Nos. 79-2442, 79-2447 and related (Mary Sue Hubbard, appellant), per curiam opinion, October 2, 1981 (MacKinnon, Robb and Wald, JJ.); judgment and commitment order, D.D.C., December 6, 1979 (Richey, J.), archive.org/details/usa.v.msh and archive.org/details/USAV.MarySueHubbardEtAl.
[^29]: United States, Sentencing Memorandum, United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al., Criminal No. 78-401, December 3, 1979, pp. 2-4, archive.org/details/usa.v.msh.
[^30]: Church of Scientology of California v. Gerald Armstrong, No. C 420153 (Los Angeles Super. Ct.), Memorandum of Intended Decision (Breckenridge, J.), filed June 22, 1984, archive.org/details/armstrong.1.documents.by.date.
[^31]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Legislative Counsel, OLC 78-0684/1, February 17, 1978, "Scientology v. Director, FBI, et al.," CIA-RDP81M00980R000200010030-6.
[^32]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," Time, March 4, 1974; Hanlon, Joseph, New Scientist, October 17, 1974, and the same passage in Nature's issue of October 18, 1974; Hyman, Ray, "Psychics and Scientists: 'Mind-Reach' and Remote Viewing," The Humanist, May/June 1977; CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700110020-3, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200090024-7 and CIA-RDP96-00787R000200080037-4 in the STARGATE collection.
[^33]: Wilhelm, John L., Washington Post, 1977 (article on the military potential of parapsychology, photographs by David Suter), CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3.
[^34]: Psychological report on six SRI parapsychology subjects, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200140007-0 (also -00787R000700090021-5); Office of Technical Service memorandum for the record OTS/BAB 287-77, November 17, 1977, with article on Patrick Price, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500170001-0; SRI session transcript of October 4, 1973, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200130011-6.
[^35]: Schnabel, Jim. Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies. New York: Dell, 1997, chapter on the SRI work, archive.org/details/jim-schnabel-remote-viewers-the-secret-history-of-americas-psychic-spies_2. Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^36]: Adams, Jacqueline, Washington Times, January 29, 1986, in the CIA reading room, CIA-RDP90-00806R000100200068-4.
[^37]: "Founding Church of Scientology" funeral service text attributed to L. Ron Hubbard, CIA-RDP96-00787R000200020051-4.

110
10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/Jack Parsons.md
View file

@ -27,6 +27,22 @@ born: 1914-10-02
died: 1952-06-17
location: "Pasadena, California"
relations:
- type: partner_of
with: "[[Sara Northrup]]"
start: 1946-01
end: 1946-07
role: "partner with Hubbard in Allied Enterprises, the yacht-purchase partnership; Parsons's companion before she transferred her affections to Hubbard"
fn: 26
- type: relative_of
with: "[[Sara Northrup]]"
role: "sister-in-law and companion at 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue"
fn: 26
- type: participant_in
with: "[[Babalon Working]]"
start: 1946-01-04
end: 1946-03-04
role: "operator; Hubbard scribe and seer, Marjorie Cameron the woman who arrived January 19"
fn: 26
- type: member_of
with: "[[Agape Lodge]]"
start: 1941-02-15
@ -53,19 +69,19 @@ relations:
start: 1949
end: 1950-09-26
role: "physicist and group leader for propellants, propulsion and launching, Research and Development laboratories; terminated September 26, 1950"
fn: 35
fn: 44
- type: employed_by
with: "[[North American Aviation]]"
start: 1946
end: 1948
role: "laboratory worker; access to classified work denied in 1948"
fn: 34
fn: 43
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Bermite Powder Company]]"
start: 1951
end: 1952-06-13
role: "head of a rocket-propellant detonation and pyrotechnic short-interval delay project"
fn: 42
fn: 51
- type: member_of
with: "[[Agape Lodge]]"
start: 1941
@ -83,7 +99,7 @@ relations:
start: 1950-09-25
end: 1951-10-25
role: "subject of FBI file 65-59589 (Espionage - IS); Department of Justice found a possible violation of 18 U.S.C. 793 and 794; prosecution declined"
fn: 40
fn: 49
- type: informant_for
with: "[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]"
start: 1950-01-11
@ -93,19 +109,19 @@ relations:
with: "[[Industrial Employment Review Board]]"
start: 1952-01-07
role: "clearance granted through Top Secret on March 7, 1949 was revoked on the Board's own motion effective January 7, 1952"
fn: 41
fn: 50
- type: spouse_of
with: "[[Marjorie Cameron]]"
start: 1946-10-19
end: 1952-06-17
role: "husband (her first marriage, his second)"
fn: 29
fn: 31
- type: partner_of
with: "[[L. Ron Hubbard]]"
start: 1946-01
end: 1946-07
role: "partner in a pooled business arrangement and in the Babalon Working; later claimant against Hubbard in Miami"
fn: 26
fn: 28
created: 2026-10-05
updated: 2026-10-05
---
@ -142,37 +158,41 @@ An FBI Oklahoma City letter of March 31, 1944 (file 100-189320-2, "Church of The
### Hubbard, Cameron and the Babalon Working
In a letter to Crowley written about February 1946, Parsons described [[L. Ron Hubbard]] as "Capt. L. Ron Hubbard, a writer and explorer," who "moved in with me about two months ago," and added that Parsons's partner Betty ([[Sara Northrup]]) "has transferred her sexual affections to him." He wrote: "We are pooling our resources in a partnership that will act as a limited company to control our business ventures" and "I need a magical partner."[^26] On January 21, 1946 he had reported to Crowley a seven-day Enochian invocation of the air elemental he called RZLA, with no manifestation other than a three-day windstorm.[^27] On March 6, 1946 he wrote that between February 2 and March 4 he had had "the most important, devastating experience of my life," attributed to "the 9th working with the girl who answered my elemental summons," and that "First instructions were received through Ron the seer."[^28]
According to the historian Henrik Bogdan, [[L. Ron Hubbard]] first came to 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue on August 1, 1945 with the illustrator Lou Goldstone, moved in, and began a relationship with Parsons's companion and sister-in-law [[Sara Northrup]], called Betty, who had joined the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1941.[^26] On January 23, 1946 the Agape Lodge member Jane Wolfe wrote to Karl Germer that everyone at 1003 "has to dance to Betty's whims," that Parsons had "just recently executed a will making Betty his sole heir," that Betty "has transferred her emotional life into the hands of one Ron Hubbard, a very likeable Irishman, who lives there," and that under the proposed arrangement Betty would "continue to be custodian of the property and hostess of the manage."[^27] In a letter to Crowley written about February 1946, Parsons described "Capt. L. Ron Hubbard," who "moved in with me about two months ago," and added that Betty "has transferred her sexual affections to him." He wrote: "We are pooling our resources in a partnership which will act as a parent company to control our business ventures" and "I need a magical partner."[^28] On January 21, 1946 he had reported to Crowley a seven-day Enochian invocation of the air elemental he called RZLA, with no manifestation other than a three-day windstorm.[^29] On March 6, 1946 he wrote that between February 2 and March 4 he had had "the most important, devastating experience of my life," attributed to "the 9th working with the girl who answered my elemental summons," and that "First instructions were received through Ron the seer."[^30] The rites of January to March 1946 are known as the [[Babalon Working]].[^26]
The girl was [[Marjorie Cameron]]. The FBI's later inquiry into the marriage records that the couple married at San Juan Capistrano on October 19, 1946; he was thirty-two, a chemist, living at 1003 South Orange Grove, and she was twenty-four, born in Iowa, a painter, and had served in the Navy as a WAVE.[^29]
Bogdan names the Parsons, Hubbard and Northrup partnership Allied Enterprises, formed in January 1946 to buy yachts on the East Coast, sail them to California and sell them; he gives Parsons's contribution as $20,970.80 and Hubbard's as $1,183.91.[^26]
Hubbard and Northrup left for [[Florida]] with money and a yacht. [[Karl Germer]], Crowley's representative in New York, wrote to [[Grady McMurtry]] on May 24, 1946 that Crowley's cable reply had been "SUSPECT RON PLAYING CONFIDENCE TRICK JACK EVIDENTLY WEAK FOOL OBVIOUS VICTIM PROWLING SWINDLERS."[^30] On July 5, 1946 Parsons wrote from [[Miami]]: "Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up: they cannot move without going to jail," estimating that he might salvage three to five thousand dollars, and described a sailing attempt by Hubbard at 5 p.m. on the day of an invocation of [[Bartzabel]] at 8 p.m., after which a squall forced the ship back and "I took the boat in custody."[^31] On July 3, 1946 Crowley wrote to Parsons that he had told Germer Parsons "was evidently the victim of a confidence trick," and that Parsons had no right to dispose of the 1003 property, whose transfer to the Order was the fulfilment of his Seventh Degree obligation.[^32] Parsons resigned from the Ordo Templi Orientis on August 20, 1946.[^33]
The girl was [[Marjorie Cameron]]. The FBI's later inquiry into the marriage records that the couple married at San Juan Capistrano on October 19, 1946; he was thirty-two, a chemist, living at 1003 South Orange Grove, and she was twenty-four, born in Iowa, a painter, and had served in the Navy as a WAVE.[^31]
Hubbard and Northrup went east to buy a boat. On May 12, 1946 the Agape Lodge member [[Louis Culling]] wrote to Germer that Parsons "signed a partnership agreement with this Ron and Betty whereby all money earned by the three for life is equally divided between the three," that Parsons "has put in all of his money," and that Ron and Betty "have bought a boat for themselves in Miami for about $10,000."[^32] Grady McMurtry wrote to Germer on May 15, 1946 that he had learned from Marie Prescott that Parsons "had put the assets from the sale of the house at the disposal of himself, Betty and Ron Hubbard," in a plan to buy "a boat and cargo" and sail it to the West Coast to unload at a profit, and Wolfe wrote to Germer on May 16 that Parsons had been "pretty thoroughly milked by Ron Hubbard and Betty."[^33] McMurtry wrote on June 4, 1946: "If he can be charmed by anyone with a smooth tongue, first Smith and now Hubbard, then certainly he is poor clay."[^34] Germer wrote to McMurtry on May 24, 1946 that Crowley's cable reply had been "SUSPECT RON PLAYING CONFIDENCE TRICK JACK EVIDENTLY WEAK FOOL OBVIOUS VICTIM PROWLING SWINDLERS."[^35] On June 14, 1946 Crowley wrote to McMurtry that "apparently he, or Ron or somebody, is producing a Moon Child."[^36] On July 5, 1946 Parsons wrote from [[Miami]]: "Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up: they cannot move without going to jail," estimating that he might salvage three to five thousand dollars, and described a sailing attempt by Hubbard at 5 p.m. on the day of an invocation of [[Bartzabel]] at 8 p.m., after which a squall forced the ship back and "I took the boat in custody."[^37] On July 3, 1946 Crowley wrote to Parsons that he had told Germer Parsons "was evidently the victim of a confidence trick," and that Parsons had no right to dispose of the 1003 property, whose transfer to the Order was the fulfilment of his Seventh Degree obligation.[^38] Parsons resigned from the Ordo Templi Orientis on August 20, 1946.[^39] On October 28, 1946 Crowley wrote to Culling: "About Parsons, all that I can say is that I am sorry, he was led astray firstly by Smith, then by a confidence man names Hubbard."[^55]
On October 5, 1969 The Sunday Times of London published Alexander Mitchell's account, "The Odd Beginning of Ron Hubbard's Career," drawn from papers owned by "a former admirer of Crowley" and from Parsons's record of the Working; the FBI's Church of Scientology file holds a clipping that the Washington Field Office sent to the Bureau in June 1974, after a request of May 10, 1974 from the legal attache in London, saying it came from a State Department passport file the FBI attributed to Hubbard.[^40] In a statement printed on December 28, 1969 the Church said that Hubbard had been "sent in to handle the situation" at 1003 Orange Grove and that "the house was torn down."[^26] In a letter of May 1951 to the Attorney General, Hubbard wrote that Sara Northrup "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 Alamo Gordos [sic]."[^41] The FBI's own file on Parsons (65-59589), as released, does not mention Hubbard.[^42]
### Security clearance and the 1950 inquiry
Parsons worked at [[North American Aviation]] as a laboratory worker from 1946 to 1948. The Air Force Provost Marshal notified the company on September 21, 1948 that he was "undesirable for employment on classified contracts"; records at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] reflect denial of access on the grounds of membership in a religious cult in Pasadena and association with an alleged Communist Party member. The [[Army-Navy-Air Force Personnel Security Board]] had directed denial on August 18, 1948. The [[Industrial Employment Review Board]] reversed that decision on March 7, 1949, authorizing access through Top Secret.[^34]
Parsons worked at [[North American Aviation]] as a laboratory worker from 1946 to 1948. The Air Force Provost Marshal notified the company on September 21, 1948 that he was "undesirable for employment on classified contracts"; records at [[Wright-Patterson Air Force Base]] reflect denial of access on the grounds of membership in a religious cult in Pasadena and association with an alleged Communist Party member. The [[Army-Navy-Air Force Personnel Security Board]] had directed denial on August 18, 1948. The [[Industrial Employment Review Board]] reversed that decision on March 7, 1949, authorizing access through Top Secret.[^43]
By April 1949 he was employed at Hughes Aircraft in [[Culver City]] as group leader for propellants, propulsion and launching. His personnel security questionnaire of April 11, 1949 listed membership in 1946 in the [[American Civil Liberties Union]]; he told the FBI that he had subscribed to the Daily People's World in 1938.[^35] His employment history submitted to Hughes listed consulting connections with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the [[Los Angeles Police Department]], [[Northrop Aircraft]], General Chemical Company, the National Defense Research Council and the [[Office of Scientific Research and Development]].[^35]
By April 1949 he was employed at Hughes Aircraft in [[Culver City]] as group leader for propellants, propulsion and launching. His personnel security questionnaire of April 11, 1949 listed membership in 1946 in the [[American Civil Liberties Union]]; he told the FBI that he had subscribed to the Daily People's World in 1938.[^44] His employment history submitted to Hughes listed consulting connections with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the [[Los Angeles Police Department]], [[Northrop Aircraft]], General Chemical Company, the National Defense Research Council and the [[Office of Scientific Research and Development]].[^44]
On September 25, 1950 the Air Provost Marshal at the Los Angeles Air Force Field Procurement Office, John T. Berdner, told the FBI that an employee of Hughes had removed classified material. The material consisted of seventeen documents on rocket propellants, a propellant loading plant for jet motors, manufacture of non-nitroglycerine blasting explosives, and a draft contract for a two-year minimum term of employment. Parsons had taken them out through Gate 19 on September 15, 1950, and had given them to a neighbor, whose husband worked at Hughes, to type.[^35] In a signed statement of September 26, 1950 he said that since October 1948 he had negotiated with a North Hollywood man about a position in [[Israel]], that he had prepared plans for an explosives plant and cost estimates, and that he planned to submit a proposal through the [[American Technion Society]] for employment in Israel.[^35] The file includes a Los Angeles Zionist rally announcement stating that the American Technion Society had been designated by Israeli government and industry as the American body for technical know-how.[^35] Hughes terminated him on September 26, 1950.[^35]
On September 25, 1950 the Air Provost Marshal at the Los Angeles Air Force Field Procurement Office, John T. Berdner, told the FBI that an employee of Hughes had removed classified material. The material consisted of seventeen documents on rocket propellants, a propellant loading plant for jet motors, manufacture of non-nitroglycerine blasting explosives, and a draft contract for a two-year minimum term of employment. Parsons had taken them out through Gate 19 on September 15, 1950, and had given them to a neighbor, whose husband worked at Hughes, to type.[^44] In a signed statement of September 26, 1950 he said that since October 1948 he had negotiated with a North Hollywood man about a position in [[Israel]], that he had prepared plans for an explosives plant and cost estimates, and that he planned to submit a proposal through the [[American Technion Society]] for employment in Israel.[^44] The file includes a Los Angeles Zionist rally announcement stating that the American Technion Society had been designated by Israeli government and industry as the American body for technical know-how.[^44] Hughes terminated him on September 26, 1950.[^44]
The FBI's Los Angeles office classified the case as "Espionage - IS." Thirteen of the documents were reviewed for classification; the Army later reported that eight were unclassified, one restricted and four confidential.[^36] On December 15, 1950 he surrendered to the FBI seven [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] reports of the GALCIT Project No. 1, dated 1941 to 1944, classified Confidential, that he said he had kept as personal copies from his Aerojet and Hughes employment; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told the FBI by letter of December 29, 1950 that their present active classification was three confidential, one restricted and three unclassified and that all could be downgraded, and the FBI also recorded the observation that security regulations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during his employment were lax with no charge-out system.[^37]
The FBI's Los Angeles office classified the case as "Espionage - IS." Thirteen of the documents were reviewed for classification; the Army later reported that eight were unclassified, one restricted and four confidential.[^45] On December 15, 1950 he surrendered to the FBI seven [[Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory]] reports of the GALCIT Project No. 1, dated 1941 to 1944, classified Confidential, that he said he had kept as personal copies from his Aerojet and Hughes employment; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told the FBI by letter of December 29, 1950 that their present active classification was three confidential, one restricted and three unclassified and that all could be downgraded, and the FBI also recorded the observation that security regulations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during his employment were lax with no charge-out system.[^46]
The Criminal Division of the [[Department of Justice]] replied in January 1951 that the facts appeared to constitute a violation of Section 793 and possibly Section 794 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code and asked the FBI to ascertain from the Army whether the documents related to the national defense. The Assistant Attorney General's memorandum also referred to the Los Angeles report of December 7, 1950, in which "information appears pertaining to one Professor Theodore von Karman" and stated that Parsons "had gone to [redacted] at the suggestion of Von Karman"; it then asked whether a person of the same name in "the Perl case" was the individual in the Parsons matter and whether the FBI had information relating the two matters.[^38] The names in those passages are redacted in the released file.
The Criminal Division of the [[Department of Justice]] replied in January 1951 that the facts appeared to constitute a violation of Section 793 and possibly Section 794 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code and asked the FBI to ascertain from the Army whether the documents related to the national defense. The Assistant Attorney General's memorandum also referred to the Los Angeles report of December 7, 1950, in which "information appears pertaining to one Professor Theodore von Karman" and stated that Parsons "had gone to [redacted] at the suggestion of Von Karman"; it then asked whether a person of the same name in "the Perl case" was the individual in the Parsons matter and whether the FBI had information relating the two matters.[^47] The names in those passages are redacted in the released file.
The Army's G-2 security division (Colonel Paul G. Cramer) answered on April 6, 1951 that items 8, 11, 12 and 13 related to current confidential research and development and "should not be divulged to unauthorized persons," while an Air Force office noted that the underlying work was administered under the Army Chief of Ordnance and that some of the unclassified papers involved proprietary processes of Aerojet and [[Thiokol]].[^39] The matter went to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California on May 17, 1951. On October 25, 1951 Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Angus D. McEachen]] declined prosecution "due to the lack of sufficient evidence of intent or reason to believe that information obtained was to be used to injure the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation," and the evidence was returned to its owners.[^40]
The Army's G-2 security division (Colonel Paul G. Cramer) answered on April 6, 1951 that items 8, 11, 12 and 13 related to current confidential research and development and "should not be divulged to unauthorized persons," while an Air Force office noted that the underlying work was administered under the Army Chief of Ordnance and that some of the unclassified papers involved proprietary processes of Aerojet and [[Thiokol]].[^48] The matter went to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California on May 17, 1951. On October 25, 1951 Assistant U.S. Attorney [[Angus D. McEachen]] declined prosecution "due to the lack of sufficient evidence of intent or reason to believe that information obtained was to be used to injure the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation," and the evidence was returned to its owners.[^49]
On January 9, 1952 the Industrial Employment Review Board wrote to Parsons at 1200 Esplanade, [[Redondo Beach]], that it had decided "on its own motion" to revoke the clearance granted through Top Secret on March 7, 1949, effective January 7, 1952, on the ground that he had "knowingly, willfully and without proper authority removed and applied to your own use and benefit documents and papers containing classified military information."[^41] The FBI's closing memorandum recommended that the case be closed.[^40]
On January 9, 1952 the Industrial Employment Review Board wrote to Parsons at 1200 Esplanade, [[Redondo Beach]], that it had decided "on its own motion" to revoke the clearance granted through Top Secret on March 7, 1949, effective January 7, 1952, on the ground that he had "knowingly, willfully and without proper authority removed and applied to your own use and benefit documents and papers containing classified military information."[^50] The FBI's closing memorandum recommended that the case be closed.[^49]
### Bermite and the last year
Parsons moved to a rented laboratory behind 1071 South Orange Grove Avenue, the former Cruickshank estate. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 19, 1952 that he had worked for a year at the [[Bermite Powder Company]] of [[Saugus]], where he headed "one of the rocket propellant detonation and pyrotechnic short-interval delay projects, a confidential research and development program," until the preceding Friday, June 13, when he left intending to go to [[Mexico]] to continue explosives research and to build miniature special effects for motion pictures.[^42]
Parsons moved to a rented laboratory behind 1071 South Orange Grove Avenue, the former Cruickshank estate. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 19, 1952 that he had worked for a year at the [[Bermite Powder Company]] of [[Saugus]], where he headed "one of the rocket propellant detonation and pyrotechnic short-interval delay projects, a confidential research and development program," until the preceding Friday, June 13, when he left intending to go to [[Mexico]] to continue explosives research and to build miniature special effects for motion pictures.[^51]
### Death
At about 5:30 p.m. on June 17, 1952 an explosion demolished the laboratory at 1071 South Orange Grove. The [[Los Angeles Daily News]] reported that his wife ran in and dug for him, that an arm had been torn from his body, that he was alive and conscious when taken to [[Huntington Memorial Hospital]] but did not talk, and that he died about an hour later; that the couple, who had moved two weeks earlier, were to leave that night by trailer for San Miguel, an art colony near Mexico City; and that Army ordnance men from [[Fort MacArthur]] removed chemicals from the laboratory.[^43] His brother-in-law Robert Cameron said he believed Parsons had decided to finish an experiment before packing.[^43] Pasadena police chemist Don M. Harding said that mercury fulminate was "set off by a shock at floor level," that a coffee can in which the batch was apparently being mixed was "shredded into shrapnel," and that enough explosives remained to "blow up half the block"; Bermite's superintendent J. H. Arnold described Parsons as "extremely safety-conscious," careful and "scrupulously neat" and said he was surprised that Parsons had explosives in the makeshift laboratory.[^44]
At about 5:30 p.m. on June 17, 1952 an explosion demolished the laboratory at 1071 South Orange Grove. The [[Los Angeles Daily News]] reported that his wife ran in and dug for him, that an arm had been torn from his body, that he was alive and conscious when taken to [[Huntington Memorial Hospital]] but did not talk, and that he died about an hour later; that the couple, who had moved two weeks earlier, were to leave that night by trailer for San Miguel, an art colony near Mexico City; and that Army ordnance men from [[Fort MacArthur]] removed chemicals from the laboratory.[^52] His brother-in-law Robert Cameron said he believed Parsons had decided to finish an experiment before packing.[^52] Pasadena police chemist Don M. Harding said that mercury fulminate was "set off by a shock at floor level," that a coffee can in which the batch was apparently being mixed was "shredded into shrapnel," and that enough explosives remained to "blow up half the block"; Bermite's superintendent J. H. Arnold described Parsons as "extremely safety-conscious," careful and "scrupulously neat" and said he was surprised that Parsons had explosives in the makeshift laboratory.[^53]
His mother, Ruth Virginia Parsons, 58, who had been staying at 424 Arroyo Terrace, swallowed sleeping pills after being told of his death and was pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m.[^43] The Daily News noted that he had served as an explosives expert witness in the 1938 trial of the Los Angeles police lieutenant [[Earl Kynette]].[^43] Marjorie Cameron later suspected that her husband had been assassinated and attempted to contact his spirit through ritual, according to the Whitney Museum's biography of her.[^45]
His mother, Ruth Virginia Parsons, 58, who had been staying at 424 Arroyo Terrace, swallowed sleeping pills after being told of his death and was pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m.[^52] The Daily News noted that he had served as an explosives expert witness in the 1938 trial of the Los Angeles police lieutenant [[Earl Kynette]].[^52] Marjorie Cameron later suspected that her husband had been assassinated and attempted to contact his spirit through ritual, according to the Whitney Museum's biography of her.[^54]
### Footnotes
@ -201,23 +221,33 @@ His mother, Ruth Virginia Parsons, 58, who had been staying at 424 Arroyo Terrac
[^23]: Cornelius, Jerry, In the Name of the Beast (2005), as cited in the Crowley Timeline, entry for September 13, 1943, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Years/1943.html.
[^24]: Kansa, Spencer, Wormwood Star (Mandrake of Oxford, 2020), as cited in the Crowley Timeline, entry for June 22, 1943, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Years/1943.html.
[^25]: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Oklahoma City letter to the Bureau, March 31, 1944, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Diaries/Law-Enforcement/Parsons/1944-03-31-FBI-File.html (scanned in the FBI Parsons file, archive.org/details/JohnParsons).
[^26]: Parsons, John W., letter to Crowley, circa February 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-02-00-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^27]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, January 21, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-01-21-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^28]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, March 6, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-03-06-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^29]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Los Angeles report of March 1951 (Orange County marriage record, license October 17, 1946; marriage October 19, 1946) and Washington Field Office check of Veterans Administration and Navy records on Marjorie Cameron.
[^30]: Germer, Karl, letter to Grady McMurtry, May 24, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-24-Germer-to-McMurtry.htm.
[^31]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, July 5, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-07-05-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^32]: Crowley, letter to Parsons, July 3, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-07-03-Crowley-to-Parsons.htm.
[^33]: Parsons, resignation from the Ordo Templi Orientis, August 20, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-08-20-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^34]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, report of November 22, 1950 (Cincinnati office, Wright-Patterson records) and Headquarters U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations memorandum to E. S. Sanders (Army-Navy-Air Force Personnel Security Board, August 18, 1948; Industrial Employment Review Board, March 7, 1949).
[^35]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of November 2, 1950 (documents list; statements of September 26 and 28, 1950; Hughes background records; American Technion Society).
[^36]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of December 7, 1950; Part 2, Department of the Army G-2 memorandum to the FBI, April 6, 1951, and FBI closing memorandum.
[^37]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of December 19, 1950 (statement of December 19, 1950 on the seven Guggenheim reports) and Part 2, report quoting Jet Propulsion Laboratory letter of December 29, 1950.
[^38]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, memorandum of the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, to the Director, FBI, January 1951.
[^39]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Directorate of Research and Development, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force memorandum on classification, 1951.
[^40]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Assistant Attorney General's memorandum of May 17, 1951 and closing memorandum (T. F. Oglesby) recording declination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angus D. McEachen on October 25, 1951.
[^41]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, letter of the Industrial Employment Review Board, Department of Defense, to John Whiteside Parsons, January 9, 1952, and FBI cover memorandum.
[^42]: Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1952, p. 4 (cited at note 6).
[^43]: "Blast Kills Pasadena Rocket Man," Los Angeles Daily News, June 18, 1952, p. 2, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Articles/1952/1952-06-18-Daily-News.
[^44]: Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1952, p. 4 (cited at note 6).
[^45]: Whitney Museum of American Art, artist biography of Cameron, whitney.org/artists/10843.
[^26]: Bogdan, Henrik, "The Babalon Working 1946: L. Ron Hubbard, John Whiteside Parsons, and the Practice of Enochian Magic," Numen 63 (2016), pp. 12-32, archive.org/details/l.-ron-hubbard-john-whiteside-parsons-the-practice-of-enochian-magic-the-babalon-working-1946 (August 1, 1945 arrival; Northrup joined the OTO in 1941; Allied Enterprises and the figures; Church of Scientology statement of December 28, 1969). Sole source for the passages so cited.
[^27]: Wolfe, Jane, letter to Karl Germer, January 23, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-01-23-Wolfe-to-Germer.htm.
[^28]: Parsons, John W., letter to Crowley, circa February 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-02-00-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^29]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, January 21, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-01-21-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^30]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, March 6, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-03-06-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^31]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Los Angeles report of March 1951 (Orange County marriage record, license October 17, 1946; marriage October 19, 1946) and Washington Field Office check of Veterans Administration and Navy records on Marjorie Cameron.
[^32]: Culling, Louis T., letter to Karl Germer, May 12, 1946 (extract), aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-12-Culling-to-Germer.html.
[^33]: McMurtry, Grady, letter to Karl Germer, May 15, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-15-McMurtry-to-Germer.htm; Wolfe, Jane, letter to Karl Germer, May 16, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-16-Wolfe-to-Germer.htm.
[^34]: McMurtry, Grady, letter to Karl Germer, June 4, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-06-04-McMurtry-to-Germer.htm.
[^35]: Germer, Karl, letter to Grady McMurtry, May 24, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-05-24-Germer-to-McMurtry.htm.
[^36]: Crowley, Aleister, letter to Grady McMurtry, June 14, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-06-14-Crowley-to-McMurtry.htm.
[^37]: Parsons, letter to Crowley, July 5, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-07-05-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^38]: Crowley, letter to Parsons, July 3, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-07-03-Crowley-to-Parsons.htm.
[^39]: Parsons, resignation from the Ordo Templi Orientis, August 20, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-08-20-Parsons-to-Crowley.htm.
[^40]: Mitchell, Alexander, "The Odd Beginning of Ron Hubbard's Career," The Sunday Times (London), October 5, 1969, clipping and FBI Washington Field Office airtel (87-20913) to the Director (105-255635), June 1974, FBI file "Church of Scientology/L. Ron Hubbard," Part 6, archive.org/details/churchofscientologyl.ronhubbard.
[^41]: Hubbard, L. Ron, letter to the Attorney General of the United States, Wichita, Kansas, May 1951, FBI file "Church of Scientology/L. Ron Hubbard," Part 5, archive.org/details/churchofscientologyl.ronhubbard.
[^42]: FBI, John Whiteside Parsons file 65-59589, Parts 1 and 2, archive.org/details/JohnParsons.
[^43]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, report of November 22, 1950 (Cincinnati office, Wright-Patterson records) and Headquarters U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations memorandum to E. S. Sanders (Army-Navy-Air Force Personnel Security Board, August 18, 1948; Industrial Employment Review Board, March 7, 1949).
[^44]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of November 2, 1950 (documents list; statements of September 26 and 28, 1950; Hughes background records; American Technion Society).
[^45]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of December 7, 1950; Part 2, Department of the Army G-2 memorandum to the FBI, April 6, 1951, and FBI closing memorandum.
[^46]: FBI Parsons file, Part 1, Los Angeles report of December 19, 1950 (statement of December 19, 1950 on the seven Guggenheim reports) and Part 2, report quoting Jet Propulsion Laboratory letter of December 29, 1950.
[^47]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, memorandum of the Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, to the Director, FBI, January 1951.
[^48]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Directorate of Research and Development, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force memorandum on classification, 1951.
[^49]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, Assistant Attorney General's memorandum of May 17, 1951 and closing memorandum (T. F. Oglesby) recording declination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Angus D. McEachen on October 25, 1951.
[^50]: FBI Parsons file, Part 2, letter of the Industrial Employment Review Board, Department of Defense, to John Whiteside Parsons, January 9, 1952, and FBI cover memorandum.
[^51]: Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1952, p. 4 (cited at note 6).
[^52]: "Blast Kills Pasadena Rocket Man," Los Angeles Daily News, June 18, 1952, p. 2, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Articles/1952/1952-06-18-Daily-News.
[^53]: Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1952, p. 4 (cited at note 6).
[^54]: Whitney Museum of American Art, artist biography of Cameron, whitney.org/artists/10843.
[^55]: Crowley, Aleister, letter to Louis Culling, October 28, 1946, aleistercrowleytimeline.com/Correspondence/1946/1946-10-28-Crowley-to-Culling.htm.