Jack Parsons

John Whiteside Parsons, called Jack Parsons, was born in Los Angeles on October 2, 1914, and lived most of his life in Pasadena.¹ He had no college degree. In 1935 and 1936 he and the machinist Edward Forman, who had read of rocket experiments in a local newspaper, approached the California Institute of Technology graduate student Frank Malina, and the three obtained the consent of Theodore von Kármán for Malina to work with them informally and without reimbursement.² A Caltech publication by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's historian records that a lecture by the graduate student William Bollay on German rocket-plane work drew Parsons and Forman to the campus, that Bollay referred them to Malina, and that the group acquired the name "Suicide Squad" at Caltech.³ The first test firing took place on Halloween 1936 in the Arroyo Seco above Devil's Gate Dam.³ The same history states that Parsons and Forman wanted to fire rockets into the sky while von Kármán and Malina insisted on performance data and theory.³

GALCIT, Aerojet and the Weinbaum circle

Parsons worked on solid propellants for the GALCIT Rocket Research Project and worked on the Army Air Corps jet-assisted takeoff (JATO) rockets. Two of the Caltech reports that remained in his possession in 1950 carried his name: Report No. 15, "The Development of an Asphalt Base Solid Propellant" (with M. M. Mills, October 16, 1942) and Report No. 9, "Results of Flight Tests of the Ercoupe Airplane with Auxiliary Jet Propulsion Supplied by Solid Propellant Jet Units" (with Malina, September 2, 1941).⁴

Parsons was one of the six incorporators of Aerojet (Aerojet Engineering Corporation), whose papers were filed with the Delaware Secretary of State on March 19, 1942. The initial officers were von Kármán (president), Malina (treasurer), the Washington attorney Andrew Haley (secretary), and Parsons, Forman and Martin Summerfield (vice presidents).⁵ A 1952 Los Angeles Times account states that he sold his interest three years later and quotes Aerojet's secretary-treasurer T. E. Beehan: "He was a loner. He liked to wander."⁶

In 1950 the FBI took a signed statement from Parsons about the Pasadena rocket group of the late 1930s. On January 11, 1950, when he was a physicist in the Department of Electronics and Guided Missiles at Hughes Aircraft Company, he told agents in the case on Qian Xuesen (then H. S. Tsien) that he had met Tsien in 1938 through Malina; that at Malina's house a group met to discuss communism under the chairmanship of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory employee Sidney Weinbaum; that Weinbaum had shown him what appeared to be a membership card and invited him into an "inner circle" of intellectuals; and that he withdrew from the group in the latter part of 1939. He described Tsien as interested in the theory of communism only and Malina as acting as the secretary at one meeting.⁷ The FBI's Los Angeles reports in the Tsien file identified Weinbaum as the leader of Professional Unit 122 of the Communist Party in Pasadena.⁸ Weinbaum was arrested for perjury on June 16, 1950.⁸

On October 10, 1940 Brigadier General Sherman Miles, Acting Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, asked the FBI to search a list of names against its indices. The Bureau's memorandum of October 23, 1940 (A. M. Thurston to Mr. Clegg) lists "JOHN WHITESIDE PARSONS, 10-9-40, 168 Terrace Drive, Pasadena, California, Occupation: Research Fellow in Aeronautics, California Institute of Tech. Since 1939" and records "NO RECORD WAS LOCATED."⁹

A Los Angeles FBI report of November 28, 1942 by Virgil Q. Cox (Bureau file 100-164610-1, Los Angeles file 100-8196) describes Parsons as "in charge of Gal-Cit Project No. 1 of U.S. Army Air Corps" and reports that informant T-1 stated that about three years earlier Parsons had invited him to meetings at the home of Dr. Sidney Weinbaum, 1136 Steuben Street, Pasadena, a Caltech professor born in Russia whom T-1 was "certain" was a Communist, and that informant T-2 reported that Parsons held Communist meetings at his home and "passed out Communist literature on the Army project to fellow workers" (remainder of memo missing in the released copy).¹⁰

The Church of Thelema and the Agape Lodge

From 1940 or 1941 Parsons lived at 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue in Pasadena, a house that, according to a FBI summary of local-board and military-intelligence reports, was the headquarters of the Church of Thelema, incorporated in California in April 1934 by Wilfred Talbot Smith, with about twenty active members and the maxim "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."¹¹ In his signed statement of 1950 he said: "It is probably already known to you, but I got myself mixed up with an occult group." Parsons told federal interviewers that the church was a small lodge modeled on an English society of Oriental Templars, that it could not become an official branch because of its size, that its members were anti-Communist and anti-Fascist and "100 percent in accord with the war effort," and that he belonged "because it fulfills my religious needs."¹¹ The same file notes that the 115th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment, Sixth Army, had examined the house in May 1946, that a search of the premises in 1945 found nothing of interest, and that the organization had been reported as subversive and as advocating "sexual perversion"; a confidential informant described its members' reputation among Pasadena scientists as "the love cult."¹¹

The organization was the California lodge of the Ordo Templi Orientis (Agape Lodge), whose head was Aleister Crowley. In a letter of October 19, 1943, Crowley answered a letter in which Parsons, on September 14, had tendered his resignation: Crowley wrote that Smith "was ignominiously kicked out" for "malfeasance in office and larceny," that he had asked Parsons to take the leadership in California, and that "Personal affairs and prejudices should never have been allowed to interfere with the Work."¹² In a letter of March 15, 1946 Crowley cautioned him with a quotation from Éliphas Lévi: "The love of the Magus for such things is insensate and destroys him."¹³

Parsons and his wife Helen were initiated into the Minerval and First Degrees of the Ordo Templi Orientis at the Agape Lodge at 7:45 p.m. on February 15, 1941.¹⁴ Jane Wolfe described him to Karl Germer on April 20, 1941: "Education: University of Southern Cal., California Institute of Technology... He can talk with scientist, physicist, mathematician in their own language, all 3 of which W[ilfred Smith] lacks."¹⁵ On February 27, 1942 Smith wrote to Crowley that Parsons was an "explosive engineer, if young yet it looks as if he may give us some real material support in the near future."¹⁶

On June 1, 1942 Jack and Helen Parsons took a two-year lease on 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue.¹⁷ Smith wrote to Crowley on June 10, 1943 that he had put "better than $1200, which I collected on leaving the Gas Company," into the general exchequer "to start 1003."¹⁸

The Agape Lodge was visited by the FBI on January 16, 1943, according to Tobias Churton's biography of Crowley as cited in the Crowley Timeline, "after they are told it is a house of subversive 'Sex Perversion'."¹⁹ Smith told Crowley on February 3, 1943 that two FBI men had questioned him for three hours and that "We have been harried by the FBI thrice lately." Max Schneider wrote to Germer on March 27, 1943 that the lodge had "acquired an undesirable reputation to the extent of inviting the repeated scrutinies of the local police as well as of the F.B.I.," and that Germer was "probably right about Jack Parson's unripeness" as its leader.²⁰ Karl Germer's own house in New York had been searched by FBI agents for almost four hours in March 1942.²¹ On April 1, 1943 Crowley wrote to Smith that his attitude to the FBI showed "complete unfitness for your position."²²

On September 13, 1943, according to Jerry Cornelius's biography of McMurtry as cited in the Crowley Timeline, the lodge under Parsons "temporarily suspends all activities and closes its doors."²³ On June 22, 1943 it had held a solstice party for more than forty prospective initiates, with a candlelight procession led by Parsons through the grounds of 1003 South Orange Grove.²⁴

An FBI Oklahoma City letter of March 31, 1944 (file 100-189320-2, "Church of Thelma, also known as Oriena Templus Orientus, O.T.O.," security matter G) records an informant's account of a weekend in June or July 1940 at 1003 South Orange Grove, an initiation, and 40 or 50 members; it states that the house "is said to be occupied by one Jack Parsons who is a chemist and supposedly working in a defense plant in Pasadena during the day and doing some work in his own lab. at this address at night," that "W. T. Smith is said to be the head of the organization in Calif.," and that "Orders for the activities of this organization are received from Sir. Aleister Crowley, London, England."²⁵

Hubbard, Cameron and the Babalon Working

According to the historian Henrik Bogdan, L. Ron Hubbard first came to 1003 South Orange Grove Avenue on August 1, 1945 with the illustrator Lou Goldstone, moved in, and began a relationship with Parsons's companion and sister-in-law Sara Northrup, called Betty, who had joined the Ordo Templi Orientis in 1941.²⁶ On January 23, 1946 the Agape Lodge member Jane Wolfe wrote to Karl Germer that everyone at 1003 "has to dance to Betty's whims," that Parsons had "just recently executed a will making Betty his sole heir," that Betty "has transferred her emotional life into the hands of one Ron Hubbard, a very likeable Irishman, who lives there," and that under the proposed arrangement Betty would "continue to be custodian of the property and hostess of the manage."²⁷ In a letter to Crowley written about February 1946, Parsons described "Capt. L. Ron Hubbard," who "moved in with me about two months ago," and added that Betty "has transferred her sexual affections to him." He wrote: "We are pooling our resources in a partnership which will act as a parent company to control our business ventures" and "I need a magical partner."²⁸ On January 21, 1946 he had reported to Crowley a seven-day Enochian invocation of the air elemental he called RZLA, with no manifestation other than a three-day windstorm.²⁹ On March 6, 1946 he wrote that between February 2 and March 4 he had had "the most important, devastating experience of my life," attributed to "the 9th working with the girl who answered my elemental summons," and that "First instructions were received through Ron the seer."³⁰ The rites of January to March 1946 are known as the Babalon Working.²⁶

Bogdan names the Parsons, Hubbard and Northrup partnership Allied Enterprises, formed in January 1946 to buy yachts on the East Coast, sail them to California and sell them; he gives Parsons's contribution as $20,970.80 and Hubbard's as $1,183.91.²⁶

The girl was Marjorie Cameron. The FBI's later inquiry into the marriage records that the couple married at San Juan Capistrano on October 19, 1946; he was thirty-two, a chemist, living at 1003 South Orange Grove, and she was twenty-four, born in Iowa, a painter, and had served in the Navy as a WAVE.³¹

Hubbard and Northrup went east to buy a boat. On May 12, 1946 the Agape Lodge member Louis Culling wrote to Germer that Parsons "signed a partnership agreement with this Ron and Betty whereby all money earned by the three for life is equally divided between the three," that Parsons "has put in all of his money," and that Ron and Betty "have bought a boat for themselves in Miami for about $10,000."³² Grady McMurtry wrote to Germer on May 15, 1946 that he had learned from Marie Prescott that Parsons "had put the assets from the sale of the house at the disposal of himself, Betty and Ron Hubbard," in a plan to buy "a boat and cargo" and sail it to the West Coast to unload at a profit, and Wolfe wrote to Germer on May 16 that Parsons had been "pretty thoroughly milked by Ron Hubbard and Betty."³³ McMurtry wrote on June 4, 1946: "If he can be charmed by anyone with a smooth tongue, first Smith and now Hubbard, then certainly he is poor clay."³⁴ Germer wrote to McMurtry on May 24, 1946 that Crowley's cable reply had been "SUSPECT RON PLAYING CONFIDENCE TRICK JACK EVIDENTLY WEAK FOOL OBVIOUS VICTIM PROWLING SWINDLERS."³⁵ On June 14, 1946 Crowley wrote to McMurtry that "apparently he, or Ron or somebody, is producing a Moon Child."³⁶ On July 5, 1946 Parsons wrote from Miami: "Here I am in Miami pursuing the children of my folly. I have them well tied up: they cannot move without going to jail," estimating that he might salvage three to five thousand dollars, and described a sailing attempt by Hubbard at 5 p.m. on the day of an invocation of Bartzabel at 8 p.m., after which a squall forced the ship back and "I took the boat in custody."³⁷ On July 3, 1946 Crowley wrote to Parsons that he had told Germer Parsons "was evidently the victim of a confidence trick," and that Parsons had no right to dispose of the 1003 property, whose transfer to the Order was the fulfilment of his Seventh Degree obligation.³⁸ Parsons resigned from the Ordo Templi Orientis on August 20, 1946.³⁹ On October 28, 1946 Crowley wrote to Culling: "About Parsons, all that I can say is that I am sorry, he was led astray firstly by Smith, then by a confidence man names Hubbard."⁵⁵

On October 5, 1969 The Sunday Times of London published Alexander Mitchell's account, "The Odd Beginning of Ron Hubbard's Career," drawn from papers owned by "a former admirer of Crowley" and from Parsons's record of the Working; the FBI's Church of Scientology file holds a clipping that the Washington Field Office sent to the Bureau in June 1974, after a request of May 10, 1974 from the legal attache in London, saying it came from a State Department passport file the FBI attributed to Hubbard.⁴⁰ In a statement printed on December 28, 1969 the Church said that Hubbard had been "sent in to handle the situation" at 1003 Orange Grove and that "the house was torn down."²⁶ In a letter of May 1951 to the Attorney General, Hubbard wrote that Sara Northrup "had attached herself to a Jack Parsons, the rocket expert, during the war and when she left him he was a wreck. Further, through Parsons, she was strangely intimate with many scientists of Los Alamo Gordos [sic]."⁴¹ The FBI's own file on Parsons (65-59589), as released, does not mention Hubbard.⁴²

Security clearance and the 1950 inquiry

Parsons worked at North American Aviation as a laboratory worker from 1946 to 1948. The Air Force Provost Marshal notified the company on September 21, 1948 that he was "undesirable for employment on classified contracts"; records at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base reflect denial of access on the grounds of membership in a religious cult in Pasadena and association with an alleged Communist Party member. The Army-Navy-Air Force Personnel Security Board had directed denial on August 18, 1948. The Industrial Employment Review Board reversed that decision on March 7, 1949, authorizing access through Top Secret.⁴³

By April 1949 he was employed at Hughes Aircraft in Culver City as group leader for propellants, propulsion and launching. His personnel security questionnaire of April 11, 1949 listed membership in 1946 in the American Civil Liberties Union; he told the FBI that he had subscribed to the Daily People's World in 1938.⁴⁴ His employment history submitted to Hughes listed consulting connections with the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the Los Angeles Police Department, Northrop Aircraft, General Chemical Company, the National Defense Research Council and the Office of Scientific Research and Development.⁴⁴

On September 25, 1950 the Air Provost Marshal at the Los Angeles Air Force Field Procurement Office, John T. Berdner, told the FBI that an employee of Hughes had removed classified material. The material consisted of seventeen documents on rocket propellants, a propellant loading plant for jet motors, manufacture of non-nitroglycerine blasting explosives, and a draft contract for a two-year minimum term of employment. Parsons had taken them out through Gate 19 on September 15, 1950, and had given them to a neighbor, whose husband worked at Hughes, to type.⁴⁴ In a signed statement of September 26, 1950 he said that since October 1948 he had negotiated with a North Hollywood man about a position in Israel, that he had prepared plans for an explosives plant and cost estimates, and that he planned to submit a proposal through the American Technion Society for employment in Israel.⁴⁴ The file includes a Los Angeles Zionist rally announcement stating that the American Technion Society had been designated by Israeli government and industry as the American body for technical know-how.⁴⁴ Hughes terminated him on September 26, 1950.⁴⁴

The FBI's Los Angeles office classified the case as "Espionage - IS." Thirteen of the documents were reviewed for classification; the Army later reported that eight were unclassified, one restricted and four confidential.⁴⁵ On December 15, 1950 he surrendered to the FBI seven Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory reports of the GALCIT Project No. 1, dated 1941 to 1944, classified Confidential, that he said he had kept as personal copies from his Aerojet and Hughes employment; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory told the FBI by letter of December 29, 1950 that their present active classification was three confidential, one restricted and three unclassified and that all could be downgraded, and the FBI also recorded the observation that security regulations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during his employment were lax with no charge-out system.⁴⁶

The Criminal Division of the Department of Justice replied in January 1951 that the facts appeared to constitute a violation of Section 793 and possibly Section 794 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code and asked the FBI to ascertain from the Army whether the documents related to the national defense. The Assistant Attorney General's memorandum also referred to the Los Angeles report of December 7, 1950, in which "information appears pertaining to one Professor Theodore von Karman" and stated that Parsons "had gone to [redacted] at the suggestion of Von Karman"; it then asked whether a person of the same name in "the Perl case" was the individual in the Parsons matter and whether the FBI had information relating the two matters.⁴⁷ The names in those passages are redacted in the released file.

The Army's G-2 security division (Colonel Paul G. Cramer) answered on April 6, 1951 that items 8, 11, 12 and 13 related to current confidential research and development and "should not be divulged to unauthorized persons," while an Air Force office noted that the underlying work was administered under the Army Chief of Ordnance and that some of the unclassified papers involved proprietary processes of Aerojet and Thiokol.⁴⁸ The matter went to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California on May 17, 1951. On October 25, 1951 Assistant U.S. Attorney Angus D. McEachen declined prosecution "due to the lack of sufficient evidence of intent or reason to believe that information obtained was to be used to injure the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation," and the evidence was returned to its owners.⁴⁹

On January 9, 1952 the Industrial Employment Review Board wrote to Parsons at 1200 Esplanade, Redondo Beach, that it had decided "on its own motion" to revoke the clearance granted through Top Secret on March 7, 1949, effective January 7, 1952, on the ground that he had "knowingly, willfully and without proper authority removed and applied to your own use and benefit documents and papers containing classified military information."⁵⁰ The FBI's closing memorandum recommended that the case be closed.⁴⁹

Bermite and the last year

Parsons moved to a rented laboratory behind 1071 South Orange Grove Avenue, the former Cruickshank estate. The Los Angeles Times reported on June 19, 1952 that he had worked for a year at the Bermite Powder Company of Saugus, where he headed "one of the rocket propellant detonation and pyrotechnic short-interval delay projects, a confidential research and development program," until the preceding Friday, June 13, when he left intending to go to Mexico to continue explosives research and to build miniature special effects for motion pictures.⁵¹

Death

At about 5:30 p.m. on June 17, 1952 an explosion demolished the laboratory at 1071 South Orange Grove. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that his wife ran in and dug for him, that an arm had been torn from his body, that he was alive and conscious when taken to Huntington Memorial Hospital but did not talk, and that he died about an hour later; that the couple, who had moved two weeks earlier, were to leave that night by trailer for San Miguel, an art colony near Mexico City; and that Army ordnance men from Fort MacArthur removed chemicals from the laboratory.⁵² His brother-in-law Robert Cameron said he believed Parsons had decided to finish an experiment before packing.⁵² Pasadena police chemist Don M. Harding said that mercury fulminate was "set off by a shock at floor level," that a coffee can in which the batch was apparently being mixed was "shredded into shrapnel," and that enough explosives remained to "blow up half the block"; Bermite's superintendent J. H. Arnold described Parsons as "extremely safety-conscious," careful and "scrupulously neat" and said he was surprised that Parsons had explosives in the makeshift laboratory.⁵³

His mother, Ruth Virginia Parsons, 58, who had been staying at 424 Arroyo Terrace, swallowed sleeping pills after being told of his death and was pronounced dead at 8:30 p.m.⁵² The Daily News noted that he had served as an explosives expert witness in the 1938 trial of the Los Angeles police lieutenant Earl Kynette.⁵² Marjorie Cameron later suspected that her husband had been assassinated and attempted to contact his spirit through ritual, according to the Whitney Museum's biography of her.⁵⁴