John Jack" Whiteside Parsons, a founder of the legendary Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a maverick visionary honored with a moon crater bearing his name, gave no early hint of the inner stirrings that propelled him to worship the devil and lead an extraordinary double life: respected scientist by day, dedicated occultist by night. Parsons earned his bread and butter working on a jet-assisted takeoff unit that developed into a solid-fuel rocket that would help win World War II. In 1942, Parsons and his wife, Helen, moved into an aging Pasadena mansion, [and] converted the rooms into 19 apartments. The residents mockingly named the place "the Parsonage," for it was anything but. Soon the house on South Orange Grove was a laboratory ... for black magic. In 1944, Parsons resigned from JPL in favor of whizzing through time and space via ... hallucinogens. Helen became pregnant by another member of the Parsonage circle, and Parsons took up with Helen's beautiful 18-year-old sister, Sara Northrup. L. Ron Hubbard, the future founder of Scientology ... moved into the house [in 1946] and later married Sara, Parsons' lover and sister-in-law, before divorcing his first wife. After one reputed out-of-body experience, [Parsons] acquired the name "Belarion Armiluss Al Dajjal, antichrist." But even the antichrist had to eat. Low on funds, he worked for various local aviation companies ... and bootlegged nitroglycerin. The FBI [began] investigating him on ... cult activities; the scrutiny cost Parsons his government security clearance.