Dianetics Inventor Sued For Divorce

Wife's Complaint Charges He Subjected Her to "Scientific Torture Experiments"

Los Angeles Times/April 24, 1951

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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