01x04 - Strap Yourself to the Mast

[bunniefuu]

[birds chirping]

Member 1: Here come some
more guests, ready for the sh**t.

It's a jitney full of people.

Aha!

[laughter, soft chatter]

- Hello!
- member 2: Welcome to the sh**t!

Member 3:
Bang, bang, bang.

- Member 1: Let me help you out.
- [g*nsh*t]

- [g*nsh*t]
- Chuck Dederich: There you go!

[overlapping chatter, laughter]

- Bang bang bang bang bang bang.
- Chuck: Alright.

This is the way you walk
around here with a g*n.

Always, like this.

[g*nshots]

[tense music playing]

[clicking]

Member 1: There's no reason
ever to sh**t a handgun for anything.

Chuck:
No, except to k*ll people.

- Member 2: Oh, come on.
- Pistols have one purpose.

That is to k*ll people.
There's no other reason.

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

We take careful aim,
and we fire!

[g*nshots]

- [projector whirring]
- [dark tone playing]

[projector whirring down]

[echoing click]

[highway noise]

[bus rumbling]

[quiet office chatter]

Narda Zacchino: You know, the
whole thing about investigative reporting,

I think,
is just to reveal the truth.

That's very simple.
Revealing the truth.

That's my favorite
kind of journalism.

In 1977,

I was a really young reporter
at the "LA Times."

One day, an attorney
named Paul Morantz called me.

He said, "I have a really
good story for you guys.

"It's about a woman.

"Her name is Frances Winn,

"and she was, um,

she was having sort of
a nervous breakdown."

- [seagulls cawing]
- [mysterious music playing]

She was walking on the beach

in front of
the Synanon headquarters

in Santa Monica,

and, uh, she ran into somebody
from Synanon

who talked her into
going into the building,

the Casa del Mar.

And, uh, they didn't
wanna let her out.

So, they convinced her

that her husband
didn't love her anymore.

She became very upset.

She believed them.
They then put her on a bus,

and they shipped her up
to Northern California,

where they had another facility.

[soft somber music playing]

[breeze blowing]

Paul Morantz:
I, uh, had a client

who said that his wife
was in Synanon,

and that the organization
was refusing

to allow him to see
or speak to her or take her out.

We got her out at approximately


and, uh, we filed a lawsuit.

And, of course,
then the question was

how and why did all this happen?

Paul and the husband charged
that Synanon kidnapped her.

All of this was revealed
in an article

I wrote in the "LA Times."

When the thing with
Frances Winn was happening,

there was a lot
of other stuff going on.

There was, um, you know,

the Moonies were in the news.

Scientology was in the news.

The Manson chicks
had shown up at court

for Manson
with their shaved heads.

I didn't feel like a Manson,
but I felt like

the community at large
was gonna view us that way.

♪♪

Paul:
You know, what is a cult?

Quite often there's one leader,

one charismatic man
that sets the policies,

sets that ideology,
and everyone follows.

The one thing that I've become
concerned about is that

when you follow the evolution
of many of these groups,

that while they may
start off benign,

they quite often
end up malignant.

[indistinct yelling]

Lance Kenton:
Paul Morantz is a litigious,

ambulance-chasing lawyer

who's never been to Synanon.

He doesn't know
anything about it.

And, um, you know,
he was a proponent

of just negative thought
after thought after thought.

Ron Cook:
Morantz's case, the husband

who wanted his wife back
and claimed

that we kidnapped her
and brainwashed her.

What did we want her for?

That lady came in, saying,

"My husband's b*ating me,
I need help."

We did what decent
people would do.

We took her in off the street,

sent her to Tomales Bay.

Yeah, she shaved her head.

Everybody had shaved
their head at the time.

But nothing bad happened to her.

She wasn't restrained.

She could've left any day
she wanted to.

Narda: After I wrote the
story about Frances Winn,

I started getting calls from
people, and so did Paul.

People who had been in
Synanon couldn't get out.

Families had been broken up
and separated.

We realized
this was a much bigger story.

Newscaster: On March 3rd,
the Marin County grand jury

released a report
criticizing Synanon

for actions that have
left people worried and uneasy.

The grand jury referred
to the number of reports

it had received about
child abuse inside Synanon.

Narda: Finally,
there was a grand jury

that was called in Marin,

which did a study of,
basically, of child abuse.

They had testimony
from kids themselves.

It shocked people into realizing

that this wasn't a utopia.

Newscaster:
Julie Moncharsh, 16,

who ran away from
Synanon two years ago,

says she was punched and beaten

and saw many others beaten.

One boy was physically beaten

because he did not do the 20
push-ups which he was assigned.

He was hit in the head
and then socked in the stomach.

[panting]

Newscaster: Synanon says the
allegations about child abuse are lies.

[children chanting]

It also denies that children
are being held prisoner.

[drill instructor yells]

Judi Ehrlich: I think at that point
things really started to become

stranger and stranger,

and Chuck became very defensive

and, you know,
felt like a lot of people

were targeting Synanon
and were gonna come after us.

The threatening telephone calls
are incredible!

I can't brush this off!
I just can't!

Threatening notes,
filthy mail, and-and-and so on!

Rod Mullen:
Chuck had a table

down at the Home Place
with a microphone,

and he would rage on
about the enemies.

[curious music playing]

"Enemies of Synanon were
determined to bring us down,

and we have to
protect ourselves,"

and, you know,
"We're under att*ck."

Talking people
into that posture.

- [Chuck laughs]
- [indistinct]

- [car rumbling]
- [crow squawking]

The controversial drug
rehabilitation center

is arming itself

with $63,000 worth of
g*ns and amm*nit*on

for a 150-person security force.

♪♪

Federal and state authorities
say the arms purchase

is not illegal,

but authorities do
wanna make sure

that Synanon is operating
within the law.

[crow squawking]

Bob Navarro: The weapons
purchase was meant as a warning.

Because it was publicized.
We didn't do this in secret.

We publicized it.

The whole idea was to tell
people, "Hey, we're serious.

Leave us alone."

You know,
I'm not a violent person.

I could never think
about k*lling anybody.

I can't think
about hitting people.

That's alien to me.

But what's not alien
is when you have

these legal cases coming,
one after another,

and all of these newspapers,
the television...

Officials plan to meet
next week.

...it feels like
you're in a w*r.

[indistinct chatter]

[g*nshots]

- Chuck: I'll load it, Frank.
- Frank: You wanna load it? Alright, that's fine.

See, it's supposed to stop
in that position.

[laughing]

♪♪

Rod: Here's a nonprofit
organization

that's supposed to be
helping people

arming itself.

Everybody outside of Synanon
knew we were crazy.

[birds chirping]

But, most of the people
in Synanon

opened wide and swallowed.

[g*nsh*t]

[g*nsh*t]

There were all these things
that, "We're under att*ck,

"so everybody, you know,
sleep with your clothes

"right beside your bed, so you
can jump into your clothes

and immediately respond
to the att*ck that's coming."

[g*nsh*t]

And people did it! I did it!

Uh... uh... you know...

[sighs] It was insane.

Bob:
All of this is happening.

There's investigations
in Synanon

from the attorney general
here in California

over the child abuse incidents.

Um, and...

they take off.

Chuck, members of the board,

Chuck's daughter, Jady,
and they go on a trip.

- [wind humming]
- ["Formia" playing]

♪ I've heard all the stories ♪

♪ Of all of the glory ♪

♪ Across the sea ♪

And then,
they finally ended up in

this little coast town
in Italy called Formia.

[singing continues]

And they settled there for,
I don't know how long.

It was a couple of months
or something like that.

♪ There's something
happening there ♪

♪ Formia ♪

- ♪ For you-a, for us all ♪
- [seagulls cawing]

- [song ends]
- [gentle splashing]

Rod:
Chuck and the leadership

were in Formia
and running Synanon

in exile, so to speak,

and, uh,
and Chuck started drinking.

[ice rattling in glass]

It didn't take him long
before he was right back

probably where he had been


[crowd chatter]

He was done.
He was done being sober.

He had totally relapsed.

Somewhere after that,

I had a drink because
that's what I was told to do,

you know,
and that's what was happening.

That's what we did.

People who were close to me
that were on the board,

that were alcoholics,

I guess they wanted to drink.
I don't know.

I guess we all did

because we weren't willing
to say, well, what are we doing?

We don't drink.
We're not drinking.

But we couldn't.

Formia was a very
intense period of time.

I felt very bad for Chuck

'cause I adored him.

I mean,
he felt like a father to me,

and it was awful
to see your father

in that kind of state of mind.

♪♪

He would, uh,
drink all the time,

and, uh, sometimes
end up in a stupor.

It's unclear when he actually
started drinking.

[somber music playing]

I think one of our friends
was bringing him vodka,

you know, secretly, way before

anybody knew that
he was drinking.

Ron: I later learned that he
started just before Betty d*ed,

when she was sick,
and nobody knew it.

So, the essence of Synanon,
speak your truth,

the openness,
and all that stuff.

Speaker: Nothing. [laughs]

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker: Right.

- [birds chirping]
- [leaves rustling]

Ron:
When we came back from Italy,

everybody was trying to figure
out what to do with him.

The board was set up in order
to protect the foundation

from any kind of incursions,

but, mostly, it was dominated
by Chuck and his family.

♪♪

Jady Dederich Montgomery: There
were no outside board members anymore.

My dad was both
the chairman and the CEO.

He was not accountable
to the board.

If anything, the board
was accountable to him.

Ron:
Nobody would publicly say

Chuck is in no position
to lead this organization.

But, at times,
he was not very coherent.

Rod: We tried to
convince people,

buy him a ranch someplace
and get him on it,

give him some people
to take care of him,

and get him the hell outta here.

But no one would listen.

[birds chirping]

Elena Broslovsky: Chuck was
having his own mental health problems.

He was a wounded wildebeest

is the way I've described it,

with people closing in on him

in the community
and out of the community.

Things began to deteriorate
in every, every aspect.

Rod: Chuck, when
he was a drinking guy,

like many serious alcoholics,
destroyed his family.

He destroyed
everything around him.

After Italy,
when he started drinking again,

he just did the same thing.

He just had a much larger family
to destroy.

He had lost whatever
made him happy,

and, by God, you were gonna
lose everything that made you happy.

I remember him
saying on the Wire,

"I'm gonna ruin the place,

"and I'ma ruin
all of you with it.

So strap yourself to the mast."

I mean, it was intentional.

[ominous music playing]

After Paul Morantz got
Frances Winn out of Synanon,

Paul and the Winns sued Synanon.

Connie Chung:
A judge today ordered Synanon,

the alcohol and drug
rehabilitation center,

to pay Frances and Edward Winn
of Los Angeles $300,000.

Frances Winn claims
she was brainwashed, tortured,

and held against her will
by Synanon.

Phil Bourdette: I mean, I know
that Chuck was not happy.

He was ranting
about Paul Morantz

and that something
should be done.

[whirring]

♪♪

I, at this time, received, uh,

regularly, for about
the past two weeks,

phone calls with hangups,
sometimes three, four in a row.

Quite often,
they're at midnight.

There are Synanon people
who have gone to my friends,

members of my family,

going to restaurants
that I, uh, that I go to.

Newscaster: Jack Hurst was a
member of Synanon for 17 years.

This is what he told
NBC's Rick Davis.

We have proof positive that
for the last five weeks,

over the Synanon Wire,
that the loudspeaker system,

uh, Paul Morantz's name,
his address,

his telephone number has
been announced over the Wire,

and the pleading was, why
doesn't somebody go out there

and teach Paul Morantz a lesson?

Narda: Paul went to the Los
Angeles Police Department

and the attorney
general's office

to report the threats
against him.

The California attorney
general interviewed him

on October 10th of 1978.

He left that interview.

[TV chatter]

He goes home.

He goes and gets a drink,

puts on the first game

of the Yankees-Dodgers
World Series,

and then, he decides
to get his mail.

It was one of these mailboxes
that has an opening

in the outside of your house,

and you get the mail
from inside your house.

So, he opened up the mailbox,

and he saw something in there,

but it was dark

and he couldn't
really see what it was.

And he put his hand in.

[tense music building]

And a rattlesnake bit him.

[siren wailing]

Newscaster 1: Details of the
story now of the attempted m*rder

of attorney Paul Morantz.

Newscaster 2: Neighbors say they
saw two men put something in the mailbox

at the home of Paul Morantz.

When Morantz reached inside,
he was bitten by a rattlesnake.

The snake was a little
over four feet long.

The rattles had been removed,
apparently,

so there would be no warning.

[camera shutters snapping]

Narda: Paul ran out
the door, yelling for help.

He's on the lawn.
He's screaming in pain.

He said, "Synanon got me.
Tell them Synanon got me."

And then he said,

"Somebody call Narda
Zacchino at the 'LA Times'

and tell her she's next."

[siren wailing]

I raced to the hospital.

I thought Paul was gonna die.

I went up to this nurse,
and I said,

"I need to see Paul.
Paul Morantz."

And she said,
"Are you next of kin?"

And I lied. Immediately I said,
"Yes, I'm his sister."

[beeping]

So, I walked in,
and his whole arm

was wrapped
in this huge bandage.

Paul had this big grin
on his face,

and I bent down and kissed him
on the cheek,

like his sister would do,

and he said,
"I knew you'd get in here."

[laughs]

[somber music playing]

They had the anti-venom
there at that hospital,

which is what saved his life.

- [shutters snapping]
- [indistinct chatter]

Newscaster:
Paul Morantz is recovering

from the bite of the rattlesnake

that someone placed
in his mailbox.

The lawyer said he had
received reports of threats

made against him
by the Synanon organization.

Though Morantz
did not name Synanon

as being responsible
for the attempt on his life,

he did say they had a motive.

Those people who put
the snake in my mailbox

do not think of themselves
as criminals, I'm sure,

but believe themselves
to be serving a higher purpose.

[shutters snapping]

Newscaster: Morantz is recovering
from the rattlesnake venom.

Doctors say there will be
no lasting effects.

Narda: Before this, Paul
had told all of his neighbors

that his life
was being threatened.

So, luckily,

one neighbor saw a car

and wrote down
the license number.

Police quickly traced the car

that neighbors saw
in front of the Morantz home.

It was registered to Synanon,

and police
are taking into custody

and charging with
attempted m*rder

Lance Kenton,

a Synanon member
and a son of Stan Kenton.

You know, I got a phone call
from my father,

who was watching NBC news.

"They're looking
for Lance Kenton,

who is at large,
armed, and dangerous."

And my father immediately
called up there and said,

"What the f*ck is going on?"

And he said,
"I wouldn't run if I were you."

I go,
"Run? Where am I gonna go?"

Newscaster: Two men were
arrested at the Synanon compound

near Badger, California,

and brought to Los Angeles
early this morning.

Police believe that
Joseph Musico, age 28,

and Lance Kenton, age 20,

were responsible
for putting a rattlesnake

in the mailbox of lawyer
Paul Morantz.

Bob:
We saw it on the news.

That was the first hint

I had of the rattlesnake att*ck.

It looked like something

that could be existential
for Synanon.

I was wondering, is this gonna
bring the whole edifice

crashing down on us,
and everybody with it

who had nothing to do with this?

Miriam Bourdette: Undoubtedly,
a couple of Synanon residents

placed a rattlesnake
in Paul Morantz's mailbox.

Joe Musico definitely [laughs]

Was one of them,

and I know that
because he told me that.

He told me that
before he was arrested

and before everybody arrived
on our property.

The "Los Angeles Times" reports
that a ranch operated by Synanon

in a remote area of
Tulare County, California,

was raided yesterday
by two dozen investigators

armed with search warrants.

They were looking for all tapes

making reference to Los Angeles
attorney Paul Morantz.

Miriam:
They found some tapes.

Disastrous tapes.

Crucial tape recording
was played today

in a Visalia courtroom.

They were played over
and over again

for all to hear.

I do remember hearing Chuck
say these words.

I was the person that recorded
them and made a label,

and I did not take
that literally.

I thought
that's his dream language.

This is a man
who feels threatened

by people closing in on him.

I never for a minute
thought that that was real,

but apparently it was.

Chuck [on tape]:
I wanna cr*ck some bones.

Not too many.
You don't have to.

Bob: With all of
the law enforcement scrutiny

on Synanon over this,
Chuck disappeared again.

This time into Arizona,

where we had some properties.

Ron:
In Lake Havasu, Arizona,

I lived in
the apartment building.

Chuck was living
in a little house in the back.

One day, I got a call.

I put on flip-flops,

and I walked back to the house.

There was about...
looked like a, uh,

SWAT team of people

with all their r*fles
pointed at me.

[helicopter whirring]

Newscaster: Synanon founder
Charles "Chuck" Dederich was arrested

and charged with conspiracy
to commit m*rder.

[somber music playing]

Ron:
So I went into his house.

He was on an ambulance gurney.

He couldn't walk.
He was that bad with alcohol.

[police radio chatter]

And he looked up at me.
He says, "Oh.

Everything's fine now.
Cook's here."

I felt terrible.

I truly loved the man.

I went over and held his hand

and said,
"Everything will be okay."

And he says, "Oh, thank God
you're here. I feel better."

[quiet street noise]

Newscaster: Dederich
was arraigned in a room

inside this hospital
in Kingman, Arizona,

after his doctors said he was
too sick to appear in court.

The judge who presided said
Dederich seemed unconscious

throughout the proceedings.

His eyes was closed. He was
laying flat on his back.

I do not know if he knew
what was going on or not.

He does have a mental problem

and I understood that alcohol
is also a problem.

Jady: He was later
diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Now, we didn't know that.
He didn't know that.

So, he was suffering
his whole life

in a way that was not yet
really defined or understood.

And he was self-medicating
with alcohol.

I, I never noticed
cycling before,

between the-the depressive part
and the manic part,

but that probably
was there all along.

The restlessness,
the needing to move,

the constant need
to change things.

Chuck: I am
surrounded by people

that I'm just nuts about,

and-and-and,
and just about all of them,

I-I think, are-are
nuts about me.

Rod: Charismatic leaders
are inherently unstable.

It's part of their personality.

And whether they're
mentally ill or-or not,

they just are unstable people.

[applause, cheering]

These kinds of leaders
always crash.

They're good for a while,



and then they all crash.

Jady:
As we sit here today,

my father,
who is a 65-year-old man

who has dedicated his life

for the last 20 years

to saving people

that no one wanted
to have anything to do with,

is dying in a jail cell

in the Kingman County Hospital
in Arizona!

[muffled chatter]

Rod: With the
rattlesnake in the mailbox,

Synanon wanted to make sure

that Lance and Joe
got all of the heat

and nobody above them
who directed them got any heat.

Lance was such
a promising young man.

He was very kind.

He was very
enthusiastic and funny.

Lance: At one point,
before the trial,

I was requested
to go see Phil Bourdette.

And Phil said,
"Lance, sit down."

He had a whole set of documents
in front of me.

Said,
"I want you to sign these."

Said, "What are they?"

And he said, "Basically,
it's a declaration that Chuck

never inspired you
or told you to do anything."

And I said, um,
"Why am I signing this now?"

He goes, "We just want it.
We want it in the file.

"We want you to sign this.

You can sign it, Lance."
I'm like, "No.

I'm not gonna sign it."

I never trusted Phil Bourdette
again after that.

Well, I-I did not talk...

Lance Kenton and, um, Joe Musico

were the other two people
charged in the criminal case,

and they had their own lawyers.

I never talked to them.

I-I don't know

how that...
how they got involved

in putting the rattlesnake
in the mailbox.

I was wounded.
No, I was wounded.

I felt really assaulted.

And then, when my father d*ed,

he left me a little
insurance money.

It was like
$25,000 life insurance.

Ron Cook, he said to me,
"Now, Lance." He goes, "Normally,

"when people inherit money
in Synanon,

"they donate most
of it to Synanon,

"and they keep a little bit
to play with, you know.

"So why don't you
put 20,000 into Synanon,

"and keep 5,000
and play with the stocks

or whatever of your own?"
And I turned to him.

I said, "Are you out
of your f*cking mind?"

I said, "I'm under criminal
indictment in Los Angeles,

"and any minute, I'm gonna have
to defend myself at my own cost.

"And you want me to take every
penny I own and give it to you?

You're outta your f*cking mind!"

And I left and didn't
talk to him ever again.

I felt like all of these people,
in which I was trying my best

to protect, um, my whole life,

in being there,

that they were willing
to turn on me on a dime

and throw me out as bait.
You know?

Cast me aside to protect Chuck.

But, um,
I don't believe Chuck had

that kind of deviousness

to directly ask me
to sacrifice myself.

I think these people
were acting on his behalf,

but it wasn't
under his direction,

and I don't think
he would've done it.

He was a very moral man,
you know?

Basically, one day,
the DA came in and said,

"Man, we're sick
of this f*cking case."

And, uh, my lawyer, he said,
"Well, then drop charges."

The DA said, "Tell you what.

"If your clients
will plead no contest,

we'll let 'em go
with time served."

And so I said,
"So what does Chuck wanna do?"

And he said,
"Chuck says he'll do anything

as long as he doesn't
have to go back to court."

I said,
"Well, tell 'em I'll plead."

At that age,
he was failing anyway,

and, you know, to have to get
up every day and go to court,

and then, of course, sit there
with Morantz, who he despised.

He deserved not to have
to go through that, you know.

And so we go to court,

and I remember my lawyers
in chambers

having a conversation
with the judge.

And when he comes back,

he won't look me in the eye.

And I thought,

oh, man, this is not good.

[tense music playing]

Newscaster: 22-year-old Lance
Kenton and 30-year-old Joseph Musico

pleaded no contest to charges

of conspiracy to commit m*rder.

Judge William Hogoboom

sentenced both Kenton and Musico

to three years' probation,
the first year to be spent

in the LA County Jail.

♪♪

Lance: Apparently, the judge
was very conscious of his role

in a high-publicity case,

and he thought there would be
a public outcry

if we got off
without serving time.

Newscaster: Hogoboom argued
that while he was not convinced

the two meant to k*ll,
he was convinced

they meant to do
serious v*olence.

Paul Morantz, the man
bitten by the rattlesnake,

reacted favorably
to the sentence,

if not the reasoning.

There's speculation as to
what one was intending,

however, uh,

the rattles were removed.
Why remove the rattles

if it was only to scare me
or intimidate me?

- [shutters snapping]
- [overlapping chatter]

- Don't push.
- Get to the car, please.

Get your hands off me.

Tom Brokaw:
Charles Dederich,

the man who founded
and led Synanon,

today was sentenced to five
years' probation for his part

in a plot to k*ll a lawyer
with a rattlesnake.

[chatter continues]

In sentencing Dederich
to probation,

the judge praised
his early Synanon work.

He then concluded
that he was sorry

the program had degenerated.

[shutters snapping]

Very good, gentlemen.
Thank you. Thank you very much.

[chatter gradually fades out]

I went straight
from Synanon to prison.

♪♪

I left everyone who as a kid
I grew up with

since the fifth grade.

You know, to live in a loving,

genuinely friendly
family environment

and to go from that,
in 24 hours,

to incarceration
and solitary confinement.

In hindsight, yeah,
you do things,

I would do things differently.

[shutters snapping]

I would not have gone to jail.

I would not have allowed

other people to get off
scot-free.

[Rory Kennedy speaking]

You know, that's an answer
that I've never discussed

with anybody. My involvement
and whether or not I did it,

I took responsibility for it.

[shutters snapping]

So it doesn't matter
what I say, you know?

It's something that
I keep with inside me,

and I don't talk about it, so...

Once Lance and Joe were in jail,

uh, my wife Naya and I
left within a week.

If anybody had any doubts

that we had lost
contact with reality

and-and lost complete contact

with our original mission,

that did it.

And, you know,
when people ask me,

"Well, why'd you leave Synanon?"
I said,

well, I physically left,
but, honestly,

Synanon left me.

I still believed
what I believed when I joined.

But Synanon no longer

represented any of those things.

Judi: Chuck did not serve
time for the rattlesnake case.

He was placed on five-year
probation as a result

and paid a $5,000 fine.

And during probation,
and thereafter,

he was not allowed to ever have
any kind of managerial position

in Synanon again.

Chuck was pissed off.

♪♪

I think he felt somewhat
victimized by all of this,

but he put Jady in charge.

Jady:
I was anointed as chairman

to get my dad
out of the line of fire.

I felt like, like my whole being

just kind of went down
into the center of the earth.

It was playing a role.
I was playing a role.

I was the chairman,

but my dad was in control.

You know,
when he wasn't inebriated,

and even sometimes when he was,

he was in charge.

Chuck: We've got a problem
now with that dunce Helen.

Now, she wants to live
in one of our guest houses,

you know, and so on...
Bullshit!

And, and my kid doesn't know
how to handle it

and she's going to come up
with a counterproposal.

I don't want any f*cking
counterproposal! No, no, no!

Member: Jady, why are you
mumbling under your breath?

- That is what you said.
- That's what you said!

- Member: That's the essence...
- That's what you said!

You do that all the time!

You can't be definite!
You can't say no!

I'm not in the business
of entertaining counter...

Bob: By that point, the
Game became a sort of

laboratory for...

f*cking with people.

- You're dead wrong.
- It matters to me!

Bob: He had lights
and video cameras,

and that would be broadcast
to a big screen in the lodge,

and people would watch it.

It was sort of
Roman spectacle-like.

Hyperbole, distortion...

Marshall Carder: Chuck
and the executives would sit

around their table
in the other room,

and they would have a box,

and they'd be patching in
and directing the Game.

- If we ran customer service, okay, Dennis? Uh...
- [phone beeps]

Chuck [on speakerphone]: Be careful
you don't turn this Synanon Game

into a business meeting.

Marshall: But you weren't
allowed to talk back to the box.

They were making
these people fight.

It was just like the ultimate
of manipulating the people

through the game.

[indistinct yelling]

The Synanon Game
was a thing that tied

all of Synanon together.

From the beginning, it was
the basic core of Synanon.

Never really talk to people,
like, just like people-people.

- Do you see what I mean? Do you understand?
- I do. Yeah.

And then, you know, at the end,
I hated the Game.

Wait, wait, wait!
Let me just say this...

Every other part of the whole...

It's in the nature
of man to fight...

[overlapping yelling]

- [Game chatter fades out]
- [birds chirping]

- [splashing]
- [pool chatter]

Bill Goodson: Chuck
drinking, I think, I heard,

not so much that
Chuck started drinking,

but I heard
they started drinking.

[party chatter]

I remember we had
a high school reunion,

and we were allowed
to return to the property.

And this was at Badger.

We had the most incredible time,

but the oddest thing was,
in the evenings,

there would be,
like, an open bar.

[shrill whistle]

Bar closes in two minutes!

Two minutes!

[bar chatter]

Bill:
People started drinking

and getting drunk and messy.

And that was a very,
very bizarre moment,

to think that Synanon

had somehow come to this.

We're here at
the Badger Home Place Lodge

for the 179th consecutive
sellout Saturday night party.

They do love their parties
here in Badger.

Bill:
That the fundamental pillars

that founded the place,

no dr*gs, no alcohol,

no physical v*olence,
no thr*at of physical v*olence.

Those principles were
thrown out the window.

Judi:
I had spent so many years

defending and defending
and defending and defending

Synanon in the legal department.

I had a lot of resentment
within myself.

These were my 20s,
and this was time

when I should've
been out having fun.

I felt like Synanon had
run its course.

But I was so undecided.

[somber music playing]

Jady came up to me and said,
"You're leaving.

"You need to go.
Go live your life

and tell me what it's like."

She wanted to live vicariously.

I think she just, you know,
she had her own thoughts

that she could not verbalize.
I mean, Jady was the chairman.

Jady was Jady.

Her commitment to Synanon

could not be questioned.

I understand it better now
but, you know, at the time,

I remember being
sort of flabbergasted.

But I did what she said.

I rented a car, and I drove it
down to Los Angeles.

And I, I left.

[birds chirping]

[wind blowing, trees rustling]

[bikes rattling]

During the '80s, AdGap,
selling advertising gifts,

was still making millions
for Synanon.

Reporter: The business
is providing companies

with promotional items bearing
their corporate symbols.

Rebekah Crawford:
They wanted all hands on deck,

doing sales and making money.

So, they made the decision

that the Synanon school
would no longer exist.

I think it was taking up
too many man-hours.

They cut loose
all of the teachers,

and, for the kids,
we were all just, like,

beside ourselves with joy.

["Just Like Heaven"
by The Cure playing]

[student chatter]

♪♪

- [cheering]
- I was now finally gonna go

to a normal public high school,

the kind I saw in movies.

We dusted off an old bus

and 17 of us, you know,
loaded up in there

on our first day of
normal school. [sighs]

♪ Spinning on that dizzy edge ♪

♪ Kissed her face
and kissed her head ♪

Rebekah:
It was my sophomore year.

[inaudible]

We didn't have
the right clothes,

we didn't have the right hair,
you know?

But none of us were shy
about participating.

We were very good students.

All playing sports.
We made friends.

We did really well.

There was a guidance
counselor, and she said,

"You have two years left,

"and if you take these classes,

then you can go to college."

And that was my ticket out.

♪ You, lost and lonely, you ♪

♪ Just like Heaven ♪

[song ends]

But, when you're in high school,

what do teenagers do?

They drink and they smoke.

Eventually,
there was a group of us

that were going out
on Friday nights

and, you know,
drinking and smoking

with the kids from the Valley.

[laughter, chatter]

I don't even know what
tipped off the adults,

but I drove us home from school,

parked, came back,
and it was just like,

okay,
something very bad has happened.

We go up to the Game.

They didn't let us sleep.

And then, we were up,
I think three or four days.

[hair clippers buzzing]

We got our heads shaved.

And then, we were, you know,

every morning,
up at, like, 5:30

to run a couple miles,
then eat silent breakfast.

[footsteps running]

We left school in
the same way we came in.

In the middle of the year,
just evaporated.

Never went back.

It was... That was really
a very tough moment for me

just because I was so close.

[sighs]

But no.

♪♪

Then we went to work
in the factory,

just boxing pens for AdGap.

I think they really,
legitimately thought

that we would
just stay in Synanon.

Even as Chuck was unraveling.

[ominous music playing]

Miriam: At this point,
Chuck was drinking vodka.

And we're mixing more
and more water into it.

[cymbal rolls]

One day, I was sitting
by the pool

at the Home Place with Chuck.

I heard him talking,

and he was talking to
his brother, who was dead.

[indistinct shouting]

He was having
an active conversation.

A hallucination, a delusion,
whatever they're called.

- [tense music playing]
- [indistinct shouting continues]

The doctors diagnosed him

as being in a psychotic state

of bipolar disorder.

Certainly, the alcohol
did not help.

I don't know at what point

you could say
it became psychosis.

I think it was hard
for all of us

to accept the fact
that this man we loved...

I mean, he was
my second father figure.

He really was psychotic.

- [insects chirping]
- [leaves rustling]

Bob: One night, it
was around midnight,

I'd gone to bed

but there was a knocking
on the door,

which was kind of unusual.

And somebody was saying,

"Everybody,
everybody has to come down.

There's a general meeting."

- [tense music playing]
- [insects chirping]

So we went down.

[soft chatter]

Everybody, uh, was nervous.

Chuck patched in over the Wire,

and he starts off.

Chuck [on PA]: How come
I'm the only full-grown man

in this whole f*cking joint?!

Bob: He says, "When I sat
down at my desk this evening,

"as I do all the time,
and I reached for my glasses,

"which I keep in a certain spot
all the time,

"and they're not there.
And so, I'm looking around,

"and I see that the glasses are
on the other side of the desk,

where I never keep them."

So then he says, "Well, you know
what this means, don't you?

"That somebody would come in,
move my things around on my desk

without my permission."
He says,

"That means
that I, I have been violated."

He says,
"I have been so violated

"in a way
I've never been violated before.

I can say
that I have been r*ped."

[dramatic music playing]

Rebekah: The kids, we
were all just in disbelief

'cause you could hear Chuck
on the Wire.

"There's a r*pist!

Who stole my glasses!"

You know, and just going out,
like batshit crazy.

And so, we're kind of
looking at each other,

just like, when are these
people going to notice?

♪♪

This is the ravings
of a lunatic.

- [tense music playing]
- [indistinct Wire chatter]

Chuck started getting women
who had been r*ped

to talk about... You know,
really pressuring people,

"Get it off your chest
if you were r*ped."

They began this long,
long gaming situation.

[overlapping Game shouting]

Rebekah: I think, at
around 4:00 in the morning,

they told us, the kids,

that we could leave
and go to bed.

And so, we all ran out
of that shed, just laughing.

You know, like, oh, my God,
the emperor has no clothes.

Chuck [on Wire]: ...hoping all
the time that he would get up

and get the f*ck
out of my house!

Bob: You don't command
people to come down

and run their most traumatic,
intimate stories.

[Chuck continues indistinctly]

It was, it was a profound
breach of decency.

[indistinct Wire chatter]

That's when people
really got it.

The old man is...
[muttering]

The old man is, uh...

He's crazy.

Chuck [on Wire]: One of the
smartest people in Synanon.

I may be the smartest person
in Synanon.

I probably am
about this business.

Chuck Dederich Jr.: He was outta
control. So, I went under his building

and cut the wires loose.

[static]

Rebekah:
The writing was on the wall.

This was just becoming madness.

[ominous tone playing]

And there was no way in hell

that I was not gonna
go to college.

I wanted hair,

I wanted an education,

and I really, really, really
wanted, like, a normal life.

But, I could not go
to any college

with my lack of education.

The Synanon school
was not accredited

so that doesn't hold any muster
in the real world.

That's like saying
you don't go to school.

♪ Doctors have come ♪

Lewis Yablonsky,
who had written a book

about Synanon in the early days,

was still teaching
at Cal State Northridge.

I wrote him a letter
explaining my situation,

and he got me in.

♪ They say I must be
one of the wonders ♪

♪ God's own creation ♪

I bought a Volkswagen Bug
and drove on July 4th weekend

to Los Angeles.

♪♪

I started at Cal State
Northridge,

and then I transferred
to Barnard in New York

and graduated from Barnard.

And my hair
was even almost long.

♪ She'll make her way ♪

♪ Hey hey hey ♪

♪ She'll make her way ♪

I was so happy.
I was so happy.

- [song fades out]
- [birds chirping]

Tom Brokaw: On special
segment tonight,

Synanon means many things
to many people.

[office chatter]

It means big business,
and some say big scams.

Steve Delaney: Companies that
donate to Synanon and companies

that do business with
Synanon do it, they say,

because they believe
they are helping alcoholics

drug addicts,
and other people in need.

That may have been true
in the beginning,

but Synanon is a long way
from its beginnings.

Synanon's actions contributed

to the loss of tax-exempt status

for its church and federal
liens of $55.6 million

in back taxes and penalties
against the organization.

Bob: The IRS was
asking for millions.

And so, the question was,

to the extent that it
even was a question,

whether Synanon would be able
to continue to exist

after meeting
this court obligation.

Newscaster: Synanon bills
this little shindig

as its first
and last annual auction,

subtitle
"Bye-bye, San Francisco."

There's everything from
furniture to office supplies,

from appliances to books.

We had, at one time,
the Oakland Athletic Club,

and that was sold.

And then, we had the Del Mar
Club, and that was sold,

and we had a bunch of apartment
buildings that were sold.

I mean, it was very depressing.

It was not wind in your face,

and look at all the excitement
and the laughter.

And at that point,
Chuck was a broken man.

[quiet room chatter]

Chuck Jr.: The place was
a wreck after a while.

It didn't have any...

It wasn't,
it wasn't Synanon anymore.

It was just a bunch of people
kinda figuring out

what to do next, really.

We couldn't fix the culture
after a certain point.

We didn't have his touch.

He knew how to fix cultures.

[soft music playing]

Bob:
Synanon had lasted 33 years.

And I thought, well, you know,

that may be the lifespan of a...

[sniffles, sighs]

Of... [clears throat]

Of that particular experiment.

[tools scraping]

Miriam:
We decided to leave.

I said, "This is not
what I wanna do."

And Phil did not wanna
do it either.

We talked about it, and I said,
"I just don't think

Synanon is here
for me anymore."

Bunch of us started moving down
the hill here to Visalia.

[birds chirping]

Elena:
Eventually, Chuck and Ginny,

they moved to Visalia, too.

They lived in a trailer park.

And then, he was in
a small care facility.

And I-I went to visit him.

He had no idea
who I was at that point.

And he said, "Why are you
visiting the old fart?"

I said,
"Well, I love the old fart."

"Oh." And then, he said,

"Well, when you,
when you get to be my age,

you're gonna really
laugh at things."

I said, "At what?" He said,

"Just the human condition.

It's very, very funny."

That was the last time
I saw him.

[somber music playing]

Phil:
It was in the '90s sometime

and his wife Ginny called me.

Told me he'd passed away.

[applause]

That he was gone.

[applause fades out]

[mysterious music playing]

[indistinct Game chatter]

Bob:
I believe that Synanon

is a promising message

and a cautionary tale.

[quiet street noise]

It started out as a way
to address addiction

and alienation
in the United States.

Chuck: We've come
from all over the earth.

People who got off of dr*gs

and built a kind of
life for themselves.

I still love the old man.

Without him and his crooked face

and his loud noises, right?

I wouldn't be here.

He helped save my life.

♪♪

Mike Gimbel: There's no
doubt in my mind I'd be dead

if I didn't go to Synanon.

Synanon saved my life.

But, at the same time,

you know, it screwed it up, too.

Whether it's brainwashed
or committed or dedicated,

we were so into Synanon

where we never
questioned anything.

We did what we were told.
We were good soldiers.

[m*llitary chanting]

Marshall: There's always
this thing in life

where there's everything
is a mixed bag.

And there's just so many good
things that came out of Synanon

and so many good people

and so many great relationships
that we all have.

But that doesn't mean
that a lot of really dark stuff

didn't happen.
And it did.

♪♪

For me, the thing that makes
me cry is the other people,

because a lot of people
got messed up.

And, I mean...

[sighs] Yeah,

that's the sh*t that'll
make you sad, you know?

Rod: The excuses
you make in your head.

"Well, this is just one thing.
It doesn't...

"I don't like this,

but I-I'm okay with
about 90% of what's going on."

And then another thing happens,

and you rationalize that,
and another thing happens.

"But all my friends are here
and my family is here,

and I love these people."

There are so many forces

to kinda keep you going
along with it.

But it's very,
very hard to leave.

Bob: I have felt this
sense of loss about...

Synanon
since Synanon ceased to be.

There's many things
that I regret

that I may have done

or didn't do
while I was in Synanon.

But, overall, I don't...
[clears throat]

I don't regret
having been there.

Because community
is so difficult,

and the bonds
created in community

are powerful.

[sighs] And lasting.

Why did people do it? I think
I know why, a large part.

♪♪

I talked with people,
and I asked them,

"Why did you stay?"
You know?

And they said, unapologetically,

you know,
"I needed that community.

"It just filled
such a hole in me.

"I was so lonely.

I was so lonely."

So it was always about that.

It's about community.

[hopeful music playing]

♪♪

- [seabirds chirping]
- [sea breeze blowing]

[shutter snaps]

[sea breeze fades out]

♪♪