Fingerprints Match; ‘Case Is Closed’ : Coroner Confirms Identity of Body as Scientology’s Hubbard

Authorities Wednesday confirmed the death last week of L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the controversial Church of Scientology International.

“Yes, we have verified fingerprints taken from the body,” said San Luis Obispo County Sheriff-Coroner George Whiting.

“We confirmed them with three sources, the FBI in Washington, the Department of Justice in Sacramento and from cards supplied to us from another source,” he said.

Whiting said fingerprints were verified to allay any doubts, but Hubbard’s death occurred in the presence of a physician and, as far as the sheriff is concerned, “the case is closed.”

Hubbard, 74, died last Friday in a motor home on an 80-acre ranch in Creston, 30 miles outside of San Luis Obispo, church officials announced Monday.

His personal physician, Dr. Eugene Denk, said Hubbard had suffered a brain hemorrhage several days before his death.

Hubbard, who had not been seen in public for six years, discovered a new planet and left his body to explore it, Scientology leaders told members called together in Los Angeles before the death was announced publicly.

Hubbard’s body was cremated Saturday and his remains scattered at sea Sunday, church officials said.

In Hubbard’s will, which was expected to be filed by the end of the week, he reportedly left tens of millions of dollars to the church after making provisions for his wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, and four of his five children.

The fifth, Ronald DeWolf, was disinherited after denouncing his father and the church, Scientology general counsel John Peterson said.

On Tuesday, Whiting said blood samples provided by Hubbard’s doctor were clear of drugs, and there were no signs of bruising or scarring on the body.

After Hubbard’s death, Boston attorney Michael Flynn suggested that the death might be a hoax designed to end an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. Flynn alleged that Hubbard skimmed millions of dollars from the church and stashed it in Swiss bank accounts.

Peterson denied that any IRS investigations were under way. IRS officials refused to confirm or deny a probe.

The church, founded in 1954, has been called a brainwashing cult by many former members and critics and has waged a continual legal battle with federal authorities over taxes and tax exemptions.

In June, 1984, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul J. Breckenridge Jr. said evidence suggested that Hubbard was “a pathological liar . . . (who exhibited) egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile.”

Church members hail Hubbard as a hero, a savior who pioneered new frontiers of the mind.

Hubbard had been living in a motor home on his property while his home was being renovated, church officials said. Llamas and buffaloes roamed the hills, and Hubbard himself mingled with ranch hands when he was not working on his theories of the spiritual nature of man, they said.

Documents released by a court last year contained writings said to be among top-level studies of Scientology.

In them, Hubbard maintained that the seeds of aberrant behavior were planted in man 75 million years ago because of an evil tyrant named Xemu.

Xemu trapped people in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol and threw them in 10 volcanoes before dropping atomic bombs on the volcanoes. The people were destroyed but their spirits were freed, he wrote.

But Xemu brainwashed the spirits. The spirit clusters, known as body “thetans,” attach themselves to people, blocking their path to total freedom, Hubbard wrote.