FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #103
[newspaper article]
[handwritten across the top: Hubbard Dianetic [illegible word]
[handwritten next to article: Taken from Times Herald, Tuesday,
April 24, 195[?]; probably 1951]
Wife Accuses Mental' Expert Of Torturing Her
LOS ANGELES, April 24 (UP). The wife of L. Ron Hubbard,
dianetics founder, charged in a divorce suit yesterday that he
subjected her to "scientific torture experiments" and is suffering
from a mental ailment.
Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, charged in her divorce suit that
Hubbard subjected her to "systematic torture" through denial of
sleep, beatings, strangulations, and suggestions that she kill
herself, "as a divorce would hurt his reputation."
Hubbard Called Insane
As a consequence, she and her medical advisers concluded that
Hubbard, 40, is "hopelessly insane," her petition stated.
"Competent medical advisers recommended that Hubbard be
committed to a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and
treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia," it
said.
The complaint said the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation,
which deals with the "modern science of mental health," did more
than $1,000,000 business in 1950.
Mrs. Hubbard said she married Hubbard Aug. 10, 1946, at
Chestertown, Md., on his representation he was unmarried. But she
claimed it was not until December, 1947, that he obtained a divorce
at Port Orchard, Wash., from Margaret Grubb Hubbard.
$500,000 Demanded
Should the court find she is not legally Hubbard's wife as a
result, Mrs. Hubbard demanded $500,000 damages "to compensate her
for the golden years of a woman's life.
Mrs. Hubbard asked a court to restrain Hubbard from harassing
her and to compel him to submit to psychiatric examination.
She also asked sole custody of their child, Alexis, 13 months,
after charging in a habeas-corpus action earlier this month that
Hubbard abducted the child Feb. 23.
