ATASCADERO - Authorities yesterday confirmed that it was indeed L. Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded the controversial Church of Scientology International, who died Friday.

     The death of Hubbard, who was last seen publicly in 1980 at a ranch in Gilman Hot Springs in Riverside County, was reported Monday by church officials.

     A dispute over whether Hubbard really was dead, church officials told a news conference in Los Angeles, had been created by enemies of Scientology in a last effort to denigrate Hubbard.

     San Luis Obispo County Sheriff-Coroner George Whiting said: "We have verified fingerprints taken from the body."

     "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 yesterday. Whiting said the case was closed.