American scientist and occultist, he was a rocket propulsion expert who partnered with Aleister Crowly and later L. Ron Hubbard of Scientology fame. A lonely child whose wealthy parents divorced while he was young, he gravitated toward science as a teenager. Although he had no formal education past hgh school, his brilliance and fascination with fuel and explosives led to experiments with rockets in the 1930s at CalTech. As an adult he co-founded Jet Propulsion Laboratories and later Aerojet Engineering. Along the way he became fascinated with the occult and joined the Agape Lodge, the California branch of Aleister Crowley’s Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) in 1941. He reportedly gave financial backing to Crowley. Parsons met L. Ron Hubbard through the Lodge as well. Their shared project, Babalon Working, was designed to invoke spirits, especially the ideal mate for Parsons, by shattering time-space dimensions and to give rise to an era of free love. Hubbard eventually ran off, reportedly with Parsons’ money and a mistress.
He continued his Babalon Working project with artist Marjorie Cameron in 1946. The FBI began investigating Parsons for his work in the occult and for labeling himself the AntiChrist. He died in an explosion on 17 June 1952 at 5:45 PM PDT in his home laboratory in Pasadena, California. Although the death was deemed accidental, others have voiced suspicions. His mother committed suicide soon after.
Link to Wikipedia biography