Tom Cruise's Main Man

JANUARY 16--With the Church of Scientology's legal battalion threatening litigation over the widespread posting of that creepy Tom Cruise video, we thought it was the perfect time to reprise one of our favorite memos, this one from L. Ron Hubbard's FBI file.

The February 1963 document summarizes information contained in the bureau's files about the Scientology founder, including contacts Hubbard made with the agency and the Department of Justice. The memo, an excerpt of which you'll find here, notes that Hubbard had corresponded on several occasions with federal agents, apprising them of 'complaints about his wife and about alleged communists.'

But it was a lengthy May 1951 letter that was singled out in the FBI memo--surely because the claims in that missive were insane and clearly indicative of Hubbard's raging lunacy. Read the memo for Hubbard's delusional claims about an early-morning attack in his apartment and the related coronary thrombosis. Seems as plausible as all that Scientology stuff about Xenu, rocket ships, dancing monkeys, and space aliens murdered 75 million years ago. Okay, we made up the monkey stuff.

While the lasting effects of the (fictional) home invasion are unknown, Hubbard appeared to have recovered a month later when he addressed the first national meeting of Dianetics auditors. Click here to see a photo of L. Ron rocking the mic at that June 1951 confab. (2 pages)