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BARE-FACED MESSIAH -- THE TRUE STORY OF L. RON HUBBARD |
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Photographs
Abram Waterbury, L. Ron Hubbard's great-grandfather, playing the fiddle carved with a negro's head that became part of the family legend.
Ron's grandfather was supposed to have owned a quarter of the state of Montana. Here he is seen as he really was, a struggling veterinarian, pictured with his wife and their first child (Ron's mother) at Tilden, Nebraska, around the late 1880s.
Ledora May Waterbury, Ron's mother (left), with an unknown relative, her sisters Toilie and Midgie and brother Ray photographed in their home town of Helena, Montana.
Ron's long-suffering mother. He remembered his mother sometimes with affection, sometimes with deep dislike. Harry Ross Hubbard in the dress uniform of an officer of the U.S. Navy. Promotion eluded him and debtors pursued him.
The hospital in Tilden, Nebraska, where L. Ron Hubbard was born in 1911. His aunt Toilie, who worked in the hospital, is second from the right.
Little Ron in a sailor hat. One day he would be the self-appointed commodore of his own private navy.
The budding science-fiction writer poses at his typewriter during a visit to his parents on the island of Guam in 1928.
Hubbard learned to fly a glider while at George Washington University. He acquired the uniquely appropriate nickname of 'Flash' and liked to be described as a 'daredevil speed pilot and parachute artist'.
Dianetics makes its inauspicious début, in the pages of a pulp science fiction magazine.
Between his second and third marriages, Ron dallied with his public relations assistant, luscious Barbara Kaye. She would soon conclude that he was paranoid.
Richard de Mille and Barbara Kaye at the house in Palm Springs where Hubbard plotted to kidnap his daughter Alexis.
The portly Nibs (second from right) posing with his father and friends in a London garden in the 1950s - the smiles would soon turn to tears when father and son fell out.
Hubbard as 'revolutionary horticultural scientist', proving that plants can feel pain. (Rex Features Ltd)
Dr Hubbard, the 'nuclear scientist', on the steps of Saint Hill, the Georgian manor house he bought out of the proceeds of Dianetics. (Photo Source Limited)
Hubbard as genial family man. From the left Suzette (4), his wife Mary Sue, Quentin (5), Arthur (1) and Diana (7). All were to suffer in various ways. (Photo Source Ltd)
Hubbard with his friend Ray Kemp on a two-day trip to Ireland during which he hoped to solve the 'Irish problem'.
Hubbard believed he was a reincarnation of Cecil Rhodes and liked to sport the kind of hat worn by the founder of Rhodesia. Fortunately, he did not know Rhodes was homosexual.
Rare picture of the 'mystery ship', the Royal Scotman, in which the commodore sailed the Mediterranean. (Granada Television Ltd)
Arthur Hubbard and Doreen Smith, one of the messengers, playing with fire in the Californian desert. Like his father, Arthur collected guns.
The family business: Hubbard and his daughter Diana. At 17, she was a senior officer on the flagship. (Copyright © Times Newspapers Ltd.)
Under a portrait of a benign L. Ron Hubbard, an officer of the Sea Org hands out certificates at Gilman Hot Springs in 1981. The founder of Scientology had already gone to ground.
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