Bare-Faced Messiah (PDF) - Apologetics Index

Polly was from Maryland, I don't recall where they met. I think they met in the East. Maybe Katie was
born in San Diego. She had a problem with a birthmark on her face. She was a lovely girl, I loved
her. I think she was in love with my son but he couldn't see her for sour apples. I think when Katie
was born they were in San Diego. He [Ron] worked in a radio station in Washington for some time,
as I recall, while he was at Georgetown, and he'd been out in Guam and acquired malaria out
there. He had a recurrence later on - he was in naval hospital in San Diego and my wife and I and
Polly drove down to see him. He'd come up to LA. I'd bought a clipper ship octant and we were
taking sunsights out on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. He was trying to find a record of circus
music. We spent 2-3 days there with him - I think it might have been '39, at the time of the invasion
of the lowlands [Low Countries, i.e. Belgium & Netherlands, June 1940]. We'd taken Polly down
with us from Washington.
He and Polly had made a trip to Alaska in the Maggie, the L. Ron Hubbard Expedition. Oh shit, there
were letter heads for that too with the Explorers Club flag on it. He got into a lot of things and went to
their meetings in NY; it's possible he exaggerated his exploits a little but he is a writer and had a
fertile imagination. He promoted a certain amount of equipment. He got two radio direction finders
which he got free from different companies. He was going to photograph all headlands between
Seattle and Alaska. He had borrowed a lot of photographic equipment from Fletcher Pratt, the naval
historian, who was a friend of his, and I'd insured it. They lost a little piece - we had to pay a loss on
it. They took a trip up there. He put a new engine in the boat to get up to Ketchikan, but didn't have
any money and couldn't get a defective crankshaft replaced. He had a friend with a radio station
[Jimmy Britton of KGBU Alaska] so he was doing some announcing and getting a place to live.
Ron's throwing in these tit bits on the air - "the L. Ron Hubbards are still in Ketchikan because the
Regal Company refuses to replace their defective crankshaft" - and eventually he got it replaced.
They came back and I remember talking to Ron about the war and he foresaw the war with Japan.
He figured they would drive us as far back as the Rockies.