We have a follow-up to our story Wednesday about Scientology doing what it can to erase L. Ron Hubbard’s second wife, Sara Northrup, from the historical record.
We had some help from Lauren Wolf, who worked as research assistant to author and New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright on his 2013 book, Going Clear. It was Lauren who had spotted a photograph in a Scientology publication that erased Sara Northrup from a 1946 photo with Hubbard. She told us she had found it too late for Wright’s book, and we were grateful that she brought it to the Underground Bunker.
We told her we’d be happy to take any other tips from her — her knowledge and research into Hubbard’s life is top notch. And sure enough, she took us up on it!
Once again, she had a fun tidbit about Hubbard’s marriage to Northrup, which happened in Maryland in 1946 (even though Hubbard was not divorced from his first wife until 1947).
As we pointed out on Wednesday, Hubbard had met Sara in Pasadena at the home of John Whiteside “Jack” Parsons, the Caltech rocket scientist and occultist. The three of them had cooked up a business scheme that involved Hubbard and Sara going to Miami to buy a sailboat with money that was nearly all Jack’s, then sailing it back to California to sell for a profit. But once Hubbard and Sara went to Florida and bought a boat, they didn’t go anywhere, and Jack ended up suing them. The lawsuit was settled, Hubbard and Sara sold the sailboat, and then they went to Maryland, where they were married.
By 1951, the marriage had turned into a nightmare, and after they split, Hubbard did his best to erase from the record that Sara had ever been a part of his life.
Anyway, Lauren said she had found a couple more pieces of evidence showing to what ends the Church of Scientology goes to erase Sara Northrup from history.
She says she was searching through records at the US Copyright Office for anything written by L. Ron Hubbard. In that search, she found two items from 1946 that piqued her interest.
They were records of short pieces of writing by Hubbard that don’t seem to exist in print anywhere. And their titles give a pretty good clue as to why that is. Here are the records she found at the US Copyright Office…
We sure would like to see a one-page written Hubbard work titled “Nuptials” which was created the year he married Sara Northrup. And even better, a two-page poem titled “Sara.” How romantic!
Lauren assumes that the church will keep these items under wraps, and we agree with her. (If you’re interested in sampling Hubbard’s poetry which the church will let you see, you can find his poems collected here. “Sara” is not among them.)
Thank you, Lauren, and we hope you keep those tips coming.
Meanwhile, we heard from another tipster after Wednesday’s story who had another nugget from Hubbard’s post-war years.
It’s a copy of the temporary restraining order that Jack Parsons took out against Hubbard and Sara!
We’ve looked around, and we suspect this may be the very first time this document has been put online. It’s not long, but it’s a treat for longtime Scientology Watchers…
Jack Parsons TRO against Hubbard 1946
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 17, 2014 at 07:00
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UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
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