FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI #105
[newspaper article, undated; probably Kansas Beacon, Wichita,
Kansas, May 4, 1951; badly xeroxed]
[illegible title word] FOR DIVORCE
L. Ron Hubbard, founder of dianetics, a new mental science
designed to help the individual "control" his environment, has
found that his own marital and domestic affairs have gotten out of
control.
Hubbard, who recently established his foundation's national
headquarters here at 211 West Douglas, has been sued for divorce by
his wife, Sara, and accused of conspiring to hide her baby from
her.
Mrs. Hubbard recently filed a nine-page petition with a Los
Angeles, Calif., court, stating that she
[photograph: profile of Hubbard; captioned: L. RON HUBBARD]
had not seen the child, Alexis Valorie, [sic] 13 months old,
since the child was taken from her nursery on February 23.
The 25-year-old Mrs. Hubbard stated in the petition that Frank
B. Dessler, 39, an executive of the Los Angeles branch of the
Hubbard Dianetics Foundation; Richard B. de Mille, identified as
the 29-year-old son of Film Director Cecil B. de Mille, and her
husband had conspired to kidnap the baby.
After taking the baby, the three men returned and ordered her
into an automobile, while she was clad only in a nightgown,
according to Mrs. Hubbard. She stated that De Mille drove the car
and her husband subdued her with a "hammerlock, causing
strangulation and preventing an outcry." The two men drove her to
Yuma, Ariz., she said.
Mrs. Hubbard claimed in the petition that her husband told her
she would never see her baby again and that "if you really loved
me, you would kill yourself and thus save me further bother with
you."
Hubbard then went east by plane and Mrs. Hubbard drove the
automobile back to Los Angeles.
Hubbard, whose book, "Dianetics," was a best-seller last year
and created a nationwide following for the new science, told
reporters here recently that he intended to make Wichita his home
and concentrate his foundation's activities here.
In the divorce action, Mrs. Hubbard asked a substantial cash
settlement as payment for having given Hubbard "the golden years of
a woman's life."
Charles Leonard, director of public relations for the dianetics
foundation, said:
"This entire thing is a plot rigged up by the enemies of
dianetics to either destroy it or control it.
He said Friday morning that the charges of kidnapping had been
thrown out of court by a Los Angeles judge.
"Mr. Hubbard has no desire to make any statement in his own
defense until the divorce case enters the courts," Leonard said,
"At that time he will have a full and complete answer to every
point set forth in the petition," Leonard said.
