Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

eautiful, the most gorgeous, intelligent, sweet, wonderful girl. I was so much in love with her and I
knew she was a woman I could never have. Then Hubbard comes along and starts having affairs
with one girl after another in the house and finally fastens on to Betty. I couldn't believe it was
happening. There he was, living off Parsons' largesse and making out with his girlfriend right in
front of him. Sometimes when the two of them were sitting at the table together, the hostility was
almost tangible.'[11]
Alva Rogers, too, sensed that Parsons was suffering. 'Jack had never boggled at any of Betty's
previous amorous adventurings, but this time it seemed somehow different . . . although the three
of them continued to maintain a surface show of unchanged amicability, it was obvious that Jack
was feeling the pangs of a hitherto unfelt passion, jealousy. As events progressed, Jack found it
increasingly difficult to keep his mind on anything but the torrid affair going on between Ron and
Betty and the atmosphere around the house became supercharged with tension.'
Nevertheless, Parsons clearly remained convinced that Ron possessed exceptional powers. After
Ron had left to report back to Oak Knoll Naval Hospital, Parsons wrote to his 'Most Beloved Father'
to acquaint him with events: 'About three months ago I met Captain L. Ron Hubbard, a writer and
explorer of whom I had known for some time . . . He is a gentleman; he has red hair, green eyes, is
honest and intelligent, and we have become great friends. He moved in with me about two months
ago, and although Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affection to Ron.
'Although he has no formal training in Magick, he has an extraordinary amount of experience and
understanding in the field. From some of his experiences I deduced that he is in direct touch with
some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel. He describes his Angel as a beautiful
winged woman with red hair whom he calls the Empress and who has guided him through his life
and saved him many times. He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete
accord with our own principles . . . I think I have made a great gain and as Betty and I are the best of
friends, there is little loss. I cared for her rather deeply but I have no desire to control her emotions,
and I can, I hope, control my own. I need a magical partner. I have many experiments in mind . . .'[12]
In early December 1945, Ron showed up again at South Orange Grove Avenue, still in uniform,
having driven directly from the Officer Separation Centre in San Francisco. He parked his Packard
and his trailer at the rear of the house and walked back into the complicated, enigmatic lives of
Jack Parsons and Betty Northrup. To Parsons's secret distress, Betty and Ron immediately
resumed their affair.
Alva Rogers and his girlfriend were perhaps the only two people in the house who really knew how
much their friend was suffering. 'Our room was just across the hall from Jack's apartment,' Rogers
recalled, 'and in the still, early hours of a bleak morning in December we were brought out of a
sound sleep by some weird and disturbing noises as though someone was dying or at the very
least was deathly ill.
'We went out into the hall to investigate the source of the noises and found that they came from
Jack's partially open door. Perhaps we should have turned around and gone back to bed at this
point, but we didn't. The noise, which by this time we could tell was a sort of chant, drew us
inexorably to the door, which we pushed open a little further in order to better see what was going
on.
'What we saw I'll never forget, although I find it hard to describe in any detail. The room, in which I
had been before, was decorated in a manner typical of an occultist's lair, with all the symbols and
appurtenances essential to the proper practice of black magic. It was dimly lit and smoky from a