There was no candlelight vigil following her indictment in the notorious Operation Snow White case, which involved the infiltration of government agencies to obtain classified information … a secret program authored by L. Ron Hubbard in 1973. Her husband never issued a public statement of outrage. Perhaps as a rehearsal for the next wife of a Scientology leader, Mary Sue Hubbard just disappeared from the church consciousness.
Mary Sue Hubbard, wife of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, was once a prominent figure within the church. She played a crucial role in its operations, particularly in the establishment of the Guardian’s Office (GO), a secretive branch responsible for intelligence gathering, public relations, and legal defense.
However, her fortunes took a dramatic turn with the exposure of Operation Snow White, a covert GO operation involving the infiltration of government agencies to steal classified documents. The operation was part of a broader campaign by the church to discredit its critics and suppress negative information.
Mary Sue was indicted and convicted for her involvement in Operation Snow White, along with other GO members. This marked a turning point in her relationship with the church. Despite her previous dedication and loyalty, she became a liability. Her actions had tarnished the church’s image and undermined its credibility.
Mary Sue Whipp was a fiery redhead who was a no-nonsense administrator and helped Hubbard run his worldwide empire after marrying him in 1952. They ran Scientology from England after 1959 and then from the helm of the yacht Apollo from 1966 to 1975.
In the aftermath of her conviction, Mary Sue gradually faded from the public eye. There were no candlelight vigils or public outcries from her husband or the church. She simply disappeared from the church’s narrative, a stark contrast to her former prominence.
This sudden erasure from the church’s consciousness was likely orchestrated by David Miscavige, the current leader of Scientology. Miscavige, who rose to power after L. Ron Hubbard’s death, had his own agenda and saw Mary Sue as an obstacle to his plans. He skillfully manipulated the narrative, portraying her as a traitor who had betrayed the church’s mission and its founder’s teachings.
Mary Sue’s downfall serves as a cautionary tale of the ruthless power dynamics within Scientology. It highlights the church’s willingness to discard even its most devoted members when they no longer serve its interests. The story also raises questions about the true nature of loyalty and devotion within a secretive organization where dissent is not tolerated.
The mysterious disappearance of Mary Sue Hubbard remains a stain on the history of Scientology. It is a reminder of the dark side of a movement that claims to offer spiritual enlightenment and salvation.
It is doubtful that the average public Scientologist knows much about the individual who became the second-ranking member of L. Ron Hubbard’s infamous “church,” which has rightfully earned the moniker … “It’s like Amway without the useful cleaning products.” Inside the bubble of Hubbard’s secretive organization, the name “Mary Sue Hubbard” has been masterfully erased from the archives.
The disappearance of Mary Sue’s name from the Scientology ecosystem is confirmed by former member, Mike Rinder on his blog, “Something Can Be Done About It.” (note the significance of his use of the lowercase “s” in his mention of Scientology).
The usual scientology method is to pretend things no longer fashionable never existed. Like Key to Life (the “breakthrough that would save a “world out of comm”). Or the Life Orientation Course. Or the Class VIII Course. These were all great “discoveries” of Hubbard at one stage, but are now no longer talked about (or available). Disappearing historical facts is a specialty of scientology. Hubbard did it with his second wife (Sarah) of whom he said “I didn’t have a second wife” and nowadays all his wives have disappeared from scientology history including Mary Sue — who featured prominently at St. Hill and was mentioned numerous times by Hubbard in his lectures there (she has been “edited out” of all of them, along with dozens or perhaps hundreds of others who subsequently fell into disfavor).
Thankfully, the technology of the World Wide Web was still in development during Hubbard’s final days, and had he lived long enough, he probably would have claimed himself as one of the software engineers responsible for its breakthrough. We can thank a real computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee (and many others), for bringing us a global communications network that was just a few notches above telex, the only electronic “tech” Hubbard had any working knowledge of.
Thankfully, the Internet is a source where many details about the life of Mary Sue Hubbard can be found. One starting point is the Internet’s free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Mary Sue Hubbard (June 17, 1931 – November 25, 2002) was the third wife of L. Ron Hubbard, from 1952 until his death in 1986. She was a leading figure in Scientology for much of her life. The Hubbards had four children: Diana (born 1952), Quentin (1954–1976), Suzette (born 1955), and Arthur (born 1958).
She became involved in Hubbard’s Dianetics in 1951, while still a student at the University of Texas at Austin, becoming a Dianetics auditor. She soon became involved in a relationship with Hubbard and married him in March 1952. She accompanied her husband to Phoenix, Arizona, where they established the Hubbard Association of Scientologists – the forerunner of the church of Scientology, which was itself founded in 1953. She was credited with helping to coin the word “Scientology”, going on to play a leading role in the management of the church of Scientology and rising to become the head of the church’s Guardian’s Office (GO). In August 1978, she was indicted by the United States government on charges of conspiracy relating to illegal covert operations mounted by the Guardian’s Office against government agencies. She was convicted in December 1979 and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and the payment of a $10,000 fine. She was forced to resign her post in 1981 and served a year in prison in 1983, after exhausting her appeals against her conviction.
In the late 1990s, Hubbard fell ill with breast cancer and died in 2002.
It commemorates the occasion upon which Mary Sue Hubbard (at that time the wife of L Ron Hubbard) celebrated her ascension to the state of Clear -the 208th person to achieve this status.
There are only two pages of text (the other two are devoted to the title and a picture of Mary Sue). This consists of a potted biography of the lady which begins by describing her participation in Scientology’s early development, particularly the history of the Dianetics Institutes.
It also bestows the fulsome praise required to create a cult of personality for Mary Sue herself, so that she may be seen to be worthy of her place at the side of the founder of Scientology. This was not to last. Nine years later, in 1976, she would fall from grace in a most extraordinary way.
A website containing the most extensive historical perspective and timeline about Scientology, seeming unbiased, is found at WiseOldGoat.com. The writer claims,
My approach has always been to present everything as objective as possible with data directly taken from the original sources. People have to be able to figure it out for themselves, just present the data. One should thus keep in mind that they are in fact a result of actual research. I do provide for extensive documentation, so that you as the reader basically can verify how I came to certain conclusions.
Besides some general information about Mary Sue Hubbard it is my idea and my intent to try to address various matters concerning her that are not found already elsewhere on the Internet. Of course my main approach is also here to primarily focus on her achievements, acknowledgements and other data as found in the actual Scientology published writings and that which can be confirmed. Some attention however has also been given to a few theories.
Not all will appreciate a page like this. The Church of Scientology has been very silent about her existence since the early ’80s. And even when she died in 2002 (see death certificate on the right) the Church of Scientology gave no notice whatsoever about that happening to its parishioners. What did happen though is that her name silently disappeared out of the listing of contributors in the magazine ‘Impact’ (periodical from the International Association of Scientologists). Still she had been married for so long with the founder of Scientology, and was there at his side during all these rough developing years of Scientology as early as 1951. Did she not earn any appreciation at all?
For years I had been hearing that Mary Sue remained ‘in good standing’ as a Scientologist and all that. During the late ’80s I was told at Flag (Clearwater, Fl) that these words came from Mr. David Miscavige. If true, they are empty words if you’d ask me. She never appeared at any international church meetings since the early ’80s, or even during the ’70s for that matter. No one knew really where she was. When she died, she received not a single word of appreciation of any kind, it was not even mentioned that she had passed away! The Church of Scientology officials passed it all by completely in silence.
The devastating tale of Mary Sue’s oldest son, Quentin (22 at the time), via Tony Ortega’s blog:
On November 12, 1976, Quentin committed suicide, in his car. There have been a few theories of why he did. The most likely theory is that he was in fact gay, and knew he could not tell anyone.
But not only did Quentin want to die, he wanted to disappear utterly. He chose a telling spot to park his car for the last time, a side road at the end of a runway at the Las Vegas airport, from where he could see the planes land and take off. Before running the carbon monoxide tube into the cab with the engine running, he removed the license plate and hid it under some rocks nearby, and he stripped naked. Perhaps in his naivety he thought he would remain forever a John Doe and thus avoid causing a “PR flap” for Scientology. But he was soon discovered by police, unconscious with the car still running, so he did become a John Doe, lying in a coma in hospital for fifteen days, before he died, tragically alone. He was soon identified through his vehicle number, which linked him to his address at the Fort Harrison.
Then the Guardian’s Office set into motion an elaborate set of actions to “handle the situation.” Astonishingly, Quentin’s medical records were actually stolen from the hospital. A form signed by his parents was produced to authorize the release of the body, under the pretense that they were away in Ireland and could not attend – they were in fact at their ranch in La Quinta, California. The body was quickly cremated, and a Scientologist’s light plane was procured to spread Quentin’s ashes over the ocean. For anyone who asked, stories were put out that Quentin had been on holidays to take flying lessons and that he had died of encephalitis. Mary Sue reportedly asked for two additional autopsies and the cause of death was modified to “unknown.” Lies, deception, theft of documents, cover ups. Business as usual, then.
Quentin’s death was never publicly announced to Scientologists. A blow from the Sea Org, homosexuality, a suicide. It would all have been entirely too much of a stain. There was no memorial, there was no celebration of his life with family and friends. He was just gone. Rumors started up that he had been murdered. How convenient.
L. Ron Hubbard’s alleged reaction upon hearing of his son’s death was, “That stupid f**king kid! That stupid f**king kid! Look what he’s done to me!”
(Source: “Bare Faced Messiah” by Russell Miller)
ORTEGA: Jon, you had an interesting anecdote for us this week about Mary Sue Hubbard. She was L. Ron Hubbard’s third wife, and they had four children together. They were married in 1952, and she was an enthusiastic Scientologist and helped him run his movement, including the years from 1967 to 1975, when they ran Scientology from sea. But you say that didn’t always go smoothly?
ATACK: Otto Roos was the first OT VIII and one of only five Class XIIs trained by Hubbard, personally. While he was Hubbard’s auditor, aboard ship, he overheard Mary Sue loudly castigating her husband. Imagine, the wife of the Founder, the Deputy Commodore and Controller of the Guardian’s Office, was shouting at the Old Man of the Sea Org and calling him a fraud and a charlatan!
ORTEGA: That is startling. Let’s explain a few of those terms. While Hubbard ran Scientology from the yacht Apollo in the early 1970s, the crew was busy with a lot of auditing and training to be auditors. Otto Roos was one of a few auditors who was trained personally by Hubbard to the highest rating, Class XII. He also reached the highest level of spiritual advancement, Operating Thetan Level Eight, when it was released years later. Mary Sue, meanwhile, was not only the wife of Scientology’s founder, who called himself “Commodore,” but she also ran the Guardian’s Office, the notorious spy network of Scientology. But in spite of her high position, she called Hubbard a fraud?
Mary Sue Hubbard Mary Sue Hubbard, wearing sunglasses in the center of the group, wife of the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, leaves court in Washington.
After Mary Sue Hubbard got out of prison,
Hubbard discarded her,
erased her from Scientology’s history and
she was sequestered in a house in Los Feliz.
