Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

His relief was premature. Early in 1952, a court ruled that the Hubbard Dianetic Foundation in
Wichita was liable for the very considerable debts of the defunct Hubbard Dianetic Research
Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey. It was a disaster. Purcell, now deeply suspicious that his
partner had all along deliberately suppressed the truth about the financial situation in Elizabeth,
believed the only option was to file for voluntary bankruptcy.
Hubbard would not countenance such a move, but was outvoted at an emergency meeting of the
board of directors held on 12 February. He resigned immediately and announced his intention to
establish a 'Hubbard College' on the other side of town. After some discussion, he shook hands on
a 'gentlemen's agreement' to continue co-operating with Don Purcell and the Wichita Foundation.
The 'gentlemen's agreement' was worthless, for Purcell had crossed Hubbard and had thus
become an enemy to be attacked and harassed at every opportunity. The millionaire got a taste of
what lay in store ten days later when, on the day the Foundation filed for bankruptcy, he received a
telegram from Hubbard:
'YOU ARE ADVISED THAT A $50,000 BREACH OF FAITH AND CONTRACT SUIT IS BEING FILED AGAINST YOU
PURSUANT TO FAILURE TO DISCHARGE CREDITOR OBLIGATIONS AND THAT ANOTHER SUIT FOR BAD
MANAGEMENT FOR A SIMILAR AMOUNT IS BEING FILED. I AM SORRY TO BE PRESSED TO THIS EXTREMITY.
SORROWFULLY, L. RON HUBBARD'
The final accounts for the Hubbard Dianetic Foundation of Wichita revealed an income of $142,000
and expenditure of $205,000. Hubbard had received fees amounting to nearly $22,000 while
salaries for all the remaining staff only accounted for $54,000. The assets of the Foundation largely
comprised copyright of all the tapes, books, techniques, processes and paraphernalia of
Dianetics, including the name.
Both Purcell and Hubbard claimed ownership and during the bitter feud that inevitably followed,
Hubbard mounted a campaign of vilification against his former partner and took to referring to him
as 'that little flatulence'. He accused Purcell of plotting to steal Dianetics and of accepting a
$500,000 bribe from the American Medical Association to destroy the movement. Purcell was out of
his depth: one day be arrived at the Foundation offices on West Douglas and found that all the
address plates for the mailing list were missing. Later James Elliott, a Hubbard aide, admitted
'inadvertently' removing them. (They were kept in three boxes, each two feet long and three feet high
and weighing more than twenty-five pounds.) Subsequently a number of taped lectures went
missing and when a court ordered the tapes to be returned Purcell discovered every third or fourth
word had been erased.[18]
In March, Hubbard took a break from hostilities to marry Mary Sue Whipp, who was by then two
months pregnant. To avoid the three-day waiting period required by the state of Kansas, they drove
across the state line into Oklahoma where it was possible to be married instantly by a Justice of
the Peace. Mary Sue would later provide friends with two versions of the circumstances: one had
Hubbard knocking on her door in the middle of night shouting, 'Susie, you're the girl I'm going to
marry. Get your things, we're leaving.' In the other, they eloped with her parents in hot pursuit and
got a JP out of bed to perform the ceremony, still in his pyjamas.[19]
Back in Wichita, the new Mrs Hubbard assumed partial responsibility for running the Hubbard
College, which occupied the second floor of a modern office building on North Broadway. It only
stayed in business for just six weeks, but it was long enough for the founder to gather together, by
telegram, as many loyal followers as he could find to attend a convention at which he promised to