Dederich was living on $33-a-week unemployment checks, and he began to taper off from AA. “Pretty soon, Frances Winn was on a bus up to Northern California.

Synanon mobs attacked teenagers and youngsters who got too close to the property. [33][34], On October 10, 1978, Morantz was bitten by a rattlesnake which had been placed in his Pacific Palisades home mailbox by two members of the Synanon Imperial Marines, Lance Kenton and Joe Musico.

Sometimes this occurs when personal incidents in the leader's life change things irrevocably for others, including those who simply live nearby.

“They don’t get me with this. Synanon enterprises would run gas stations, pottery making, apartment buildings and other income businesses without having to pay workers or taxes. Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.

Yet the Imperial Marines were named officially “Her Majesty’s Imperial Marines,” and she was often at their training and spoke of a militant Synanon (Wendell Stamps Imperial Marine diary). “We don’t understand it either,” the health official said. At 7 p.m. on Friday the chosen Trippers, around 50 in number, of all ages, were met in the Del Mar lobby by people dressed in long white robes and yellow silk scarves. Should patients be medicated? Local authorities refused to investigate after the Gran Jury report issued and this caught the attention of Dave Mitchell who ran a small weekly, “The Point Reyes Light.” Mitchell found the report rejection was led by Sheriff Lou Montanos who turned out to have been nominated for Sherriff with Synanon help and who had given gun permits to Dederich and second in command Dan Garrett.

The Synanon leader was so intoxicated that he had to be carried out in a stretcher. Correcting Claire Clark’s “Recovery Revolution”, Book– Escape: My Life Long War Against Cults, Court of Appeals finds Bradford Thomas Bradley guilty of fraud And orders them out of the Hunters’ home, Designated Dancers by Alice Rost–A book review.

Synanon! Synanon purchased in 1967 the Club Casa del Mar, a large beach side 1926 hotel in Santa Monica (during WW II it was a military headquarters), and used it as a center and dormitory for drug treatment and business operations. Life Magazine did a 14 page photo spread, which a Congressman called the “Miracle on the Beach”, and Columbia Pictures made a movie “Synanon, ” starring Edmond O’Brien, Chuck Conners and Stella Stevens. It was a weird scene, I got caught up in it.” Coleman would relapse a number of times, but she always returned, eventually marrying Dederich. I could have run a state, a country, a city, it doesn’t make any difference. Paul Robert Morantz (born August 16, 1945) is an American attorney and investigative journalist. Watson tracked Dederich to a home in Lake Havasu, Arizona, and he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Through a telehone call to Paul Morantz by the Marin County council, the Supervisors requested Morantz lobby to defeat the bill which was in its last committee for vote.

“More than 80 people had been attacked by Synanon,” Morantz said. Synanon began to welcome nonaddicts like Ritter, too, and Dederich suggested that he was “getting out of the dope-fiend business.” He created the “punk squad,” a sort of boot camp devoted to disciplining “juvenile delinquents” sent to Synanon by their parents and the courts. I went to Yale Graduate School, but then I decided I had to do something different.

Dederich came out west to Santa Monica at 40, his second marriage in mid-collapse.

He wasn't wearing his contact lenses, so wandered over to inspect the "mystery" object, assuming it was a scarf. Someone should make a movie about this Morantz guy. Its members believed in Synanon enemies and encroachment of spies, created their own words (synanese), sought isolation from outside contaminants and committed to its destiny.

In l977 in Santa Monica, Synanon took in a woman in a pre-psychotic break, and would not return her to her husband and transferred her to Tomales Bay. Unsurprisingly, abused kids began running away, helped by an 'underground railroad', led by neighboring rancher Alvin Gambonini, who tried to reunite them with their parents. [20][21], After graduation, Morantz became a Los Angeles public defender. Dederich broadcasted his teachings to multiple Synanon facilities through “The Wire,” a low-power FM radio station, and the lengthy sermons were often recorded on tape. 'I want you to take these two, I want that one's legs broken, I want this one's legs broken, and I want you to shove him into the back of his car, and run it off the pier'. “If trouble should occur, we’re prepared to handle it.”, But if anything, Synanon was increasing the crime rate.

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“What Synanon is dealing with is addiction to stupidity.”, Bill Lane was a 20-year-old junkie living in Brooklyn when his mother heard about Synanon on TV.

I just got caught up in what was going on. Now, in this important and compelling book, Mr. Morantz offers a comprehensive account of the origins and activities of cults and how they prey on society s most vulnerable elements. [67][68], "In 2016 a bill Morantz worked on for several years to protect minors from abusive live-in institutions was passed in California and signed into law by Gov. [37], Morantz represented approximately forty ex-members of the Center for Feeling Therapy who after nine years rebelled against the Center, leading to its closure in 1980. From Miracle to Madness 2nd. The four-and-a-half foot reptile, its rattler removed to keep it quiet, dropped to the floor and recoiled. Morantz had successfully brought suit on behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon, winning a $300,000 judgment, obtained release of children, gave information to the press and lobbied (defeating) another Synanon bill written by Herschel Rosenthal. Every Saturday night Synanon threw a huge party, open to the public, with a jazz band. Dederich officially declared it a “Holy War.” (Dederich letter to Mike Garrett, Synanon Holy War file, 1978 Board minutes of Synanon—Jady Dederich, Morantz vs Synanon, IRS vs. Synanon. (Robert Jay Lifton, Coercive Persuasion, the Psychology of Totalism). Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry. This, she was told, was her new home. Dederich was familiar with “Walden’s Pond” and the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and B. F. Skinner. Morantz came to Parlier to help the town. (IRS vs. Synanon). News anchor Walter Cronkite called it “bizarre even by cult standards.” In time Morantz would have his revenge, laying bare a grim tale whose genesis could be traced, appropriately enough, to an LSD experiment.

(Robson card, Morantz memorandum).

Despite the Trip conversion success, the old-timers, the Retired Dope Fiends, aka The Walking Dead, remained a problem. [49][50], In 1988 Morantz successfully took on representation of former female patients of preacher-psychotherapist John Gottuso for sexual misconduct with his patients as an aid to their psychological and spiritual life. The gang does not expect me to, well let me, let me say this terribly unforgivable thing that is true of all people in position: I am not bound by the rules.

Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. Many of us do not realise that the situation can happen to virtually anyone, and this book describes in easy-to-read language what can happen when it does. In 1977 Morantz began a battle to expose Synanon for civil liability for brainwashing and other torts and for criminal conspiracy to commit terrorism against its enemies. Early on, the Los Angeles Times ran a two-part feature on the group. “I don’t know what action they might take against the people responsible, their wives, their children….

It was difficult, painful, but it was part of the environment. Crying, Trippers embraced, feeling euphoria and transcending love.

After Morantz contact and warnings, LAPD and its Union ended associations and training with est after one session had taken place. Ironically, once authorities found him, Dederich “gave all the appearances of a man who was very, very drunk,” said Watson. Eventually followers took on the paranoia of its founder, Synanon developed the Imperial Marines and commenced a Holy War against its enemies.