Times-Herald "Hubbard Tortures Wife"

Wife Accuses Mental Health Expert of Torturing Her

April 24, 1951

The wife of L. Ron Hubbard, dianetics founder, charged in a divorce suit yesterday that he subjected her to "scientific torture experiments" and is suffering from a mental ailment.

Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, charged in her divorce suit that Hubbard subjected her to "systematic torture" through denial of sleep, beatings, strangulations, and suggestions that she kill herself, "as a divorce would hurt his reputation."

Hubbard Called Insane

As a consequence, she and her medical advisers concluded that Hubbard, 40, is "hopelessly insane," her petition stated.

"Competent medical advisers recommended that Hubbard be committed to a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia," it said.

The complaint said the Hubbard Dianetics Research Foundation, which deals with the "modern science of mental health," did more than $1,000,000 business in 1950.

Mrs. Hubbard said she married Hubbard Aug. 10, 1946, [?]t Chestertown, Md., on his representation he was unmarried. But she claimed it was not until December, 1947, that he obtained a divorce at Port Orchard, Wash., from Margaret Grubb Hubbard.

$500,000 Demanded

Should the court find she is not legally Hubbard's wife as a result, Mrs. Hubbard demanded $500,000 damages "to compensate her for the golden years of a woman's life.

Mrs. Hubbard asked a court to restrain Hubbard from harassing her and to compel him to submit to psychiatric examination.

She also asked sole custody of their child, Alexis, 13 months, after charging in a habeas-corpus action earlier this month that Hubbard abducted the child Feb. 23.

[This article obtained from Hubbard's FBI file]