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Los Angeles Times
April 24, 1951
Dianetics Inventor Sued For Divorce
Wife's Complaint Charges He Subjected Her to "Scientific Torture
Experiments"
Mrs. Sara N. Hubbard, 26, who charges that her husband, L Ron Hubbard, 40,
inventor of Dianetics, subjected her to "scientific torture experiments,"
sued for divorce yesterday In Superior Court.
The complaint also made an alternative plea for $500,000 damages in the
event that the court should determine that the marriage in which Mrs.
Hubbard participated with the man credited with developing "a new brand of
psychology" is invalid.
Mrs. Hubbard's petition said the marriage took place in Chestertown,
Maryland, Aug. 10, 1946, and that it was not until later that she learned
that his first wife, Mrs. Margaret G. Hubbard, had not obtained a divorce
until 1947.
Says Baby Concealed
Even so, Mrs. Sara Hubbard adds, she relied on his assurance that their
marriage was legal and on March 8, 1950, became the mother of his daughter,
Alexis Valorie. But following their separation last Feb. 24th, she charges,
Hubbard caused the baby to be concealed from her and to this day she does
not know her child's whereabouts, despite a recent effort to smoke out the
information with a writ of habeas corpus.
The complaint further accuses Hubbard of having made threats against his
wife's life and once suggested that she ought to commit suicide if she
really loved him.
She also told the court that Hubbard suffers from "paranoid schizophrenia,"
according to reports given her by "competent' medical advisers."
Mrs. Hubbard, represented by Attorney Caryl Warner, asks that the court
names a receiver for Hubbard's business interests here and that she be
awarded custody of the child and support allowances.
The suit includes as defendants Frank B. Dessler, 39, manager of Hubbard's
Los Angeles offices; Richard B. DeMille, 29, son of film director Cecil B.
DeMille, and Vince McGonigel, operator of a nursery where Hubbard is said to
have kept the child for a time under another name.
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