All language subtitles for Deadly Cults - 2x08_track3_eng

- Charles Dederich
saw himself as a messiah,

a leader that could
make people do anything.

- Synanon touted itself
as a model for the world.

- This isn't just
an experimental community.

This is sinister.

- It reminds me--at least what
I think of as a cult.

- They took her
and would not let her out.

There was evil going on there.

- Started to get a lot
of paranoia about

being attacked by people
from the outside.

- Charles Dederich
began to advocate

Synanon protecting itself
by any means possible.

- This was
a first-class opponent.

People were armed
with machine guns and AK-47s.

- They would do anything
for him,

including kill for him.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

[projector clicks]

- In the '70s,
in Los Angeles,

you can see sort of
a spiritual movement

start building up.

Especially in Santa Monica,
a lot of the craziness

that had gone on in the '60s
was kind of mellowing out,

and Americans
were turning inward.

I think a lot of them

were just really
disillusioned with society.

A lot of people
were in the market

for an alternative lifestyle.

♪ ♪

Synanon creates a template
for modern drug treatment

in America.

- Synanon started in 1958
as an addiction rehab place.

Its founder, Charles Dederich,
was credited with saying,

"Today is the first day
of the rest of your life."

The name Synanon
comes from "syn",

meaning S-Y-N,
coming together,

and then the "non"
from Alcoholics Anonymous.

But as time went by,

Synanon members weren't just
alcoholics or drug addicts,

but other people who
were clean started to join.

To make things
better for the world.

Synanon had a good idea
at the beginning.

In those days, there were
a lot of cult-like communities

being started and failing
and falling apart.

They didn't do anything
except hang out together

and smoke pot or something.

And Synanon was
accomplishing something,

with at least some of
the addicts who came there.

We were not just detoxing,
but training people

to be useful members
of the community.

Synanon touted itself

as becoming a model
for the world.

This is the way
the world should be.

People should be able
to get along,

whatever their differences.

Eventually, that kind of...

kind of trailed off.

- In 1978, I was a reporter
for the "Los Angeles Times."

It was around this time

that I had started reporting
about these communities.

The very first story I did
on Synanon was a weird one.

This guy's wife was walking
on the beach in Santa Monica.

Her name was Frances Wynn.
She was kind of depressed.

- And she did have
a history of psychosis.

- And these people
started talking to her,

and she left with them.

Her husband, meanwhile,
is going crazy.

He didn't know what happened
to her except she went

for a walk on the beach.

And someone said,

"Oh, I think she was talking
to some people from Synanon."

And it turns out they took her
and would not let her out.

- Pretty soon,
Frances Wynn was on a bus

up to northern California.

She had no idea where she was
going or what was going on.

- So I started looking
into it,

and I had to call Synanon
to see,

"Why wouldn't you let
this woman go?

Why won't you let her husband
talk to her?"

But they didn't want
to talk about it.

Her husband went to the police,
and they said, "She's an adult.

This is her choice.
There's nothing we can do."

And then he went to Paul.

- Paul Morantz made a name
for himself

as a tough lawyer suing
mental health organizations.

And he told Synanon,
"Frances Wynn,

we want her back now
or there's gonna be trouble."

At that point, I think,

Paul Morantz
went to pick her up.

And Morantz says that
when they went to pick her up,

everyone was smiling,
and they all had shaved heads.

And he just got goose bumps,

and he knew that something
was seriously wrong.

- I was working very closely
with Paul,

because he was
a great source,

and he was telling me
what was coming out of Synanon.

Paul said, "Narda, this is
a much bigger story."

I could only imagine
how many people

Synanon found
wandering on the beach,

who they got into their
facility and never let out.

- Paul Morantz got
Frances Wynn back,

but he wasn't quite done
with Synanon.

- Frances Wynn
and her husband sued Synanon

for imprisonment
and other charges,

and they won a settlement.

- Morantz won

and got a $300,000 judgment
against Synanon.

Dederich was just enraged.

Three weeks after the lawsuit,

Paul Morantz wants to go home

and drink a beer and watch
Game One of the World Series.

- It was in October of '78.

It was the Dodgers
and the Yankees, I believe,

and he's a huge baseball nut.

- And he's looking forward
to it.

He gets home to his house.

♪ ♪

- He had one of these houses

where the mailbox comes
right into the house,

and you reach in
and get your mail.

- He sees an object
in his mailbox.

♪ ♪

- But it's dark inside
the mailbox.

- In there, he sees what looks
like a weird looking package.

- He didn't think anything
of it, and he put his hand in.

And then he had
this searing pain.

- And he is bitten
by a rattlesnake.

♪ ♪

He ran out of the house
screaming,

"Help me. Help me.
It's Synanon.

Synanon got me."

- They immediately raced him
into the hospital,

and the first thought
I had in my mind was,

"I hope he's not dead,"

'cause rattlesnakes
are really bad.

The venom can kill you so fast.

♪ ♪

- I went to work, and two
Los Angeles police officers

from major crimes told me

that a rattlesnake
had been put in a mailbox,

and the occupant of the house
had reached in

to get his mail
and been bitten.

And I said, "What?"

I was very puzzled by that,

and it was a such an odd way
to do anything.

Not a gun, not a baseball bat,
but a rattlesnake.

♪ ♪

The Pacific Palisades,
where Paul Morantz lived,

was full of rattlesnakes.

Maybe one of the rattlesnakes
crawled in the mailbox.

Seemed a little unlikely,
but I don't know.

So I asked
Dr. Finley Russell,

because he's the world's
leading expert

on rattlesnakes.

And he said this rattlesnake
that you're showing me pictures

of would never be
in the Pacific Palisades

to crawl into the mailbox.

He just look at the scales.

The pattern of the scales
is different.

He said that snake
was hundreds of miles

further than it could have
gone on its own.

So that rattlesnake that was
in Paul Morantz's mailbox

was transported.

As I'm hearing him talk,
my prosecutor's mind is going,

and I'm thinking,
"This is good, good evidence."

This could be an attempt
to commit murder.

So now,
the question in my mind was,

"Who is responsible
for that snake attack?"

Because when the first
responder showed up,

Paul Morantz said,

"Synanon, Synanon,
Synanon, Synanon."

♪ ♪

I devoted virtually all of
my attention to this one case.

Paul Morantz, from word one,
was talking Synanon.

There was no doubt
in his mind

that Synanon was responsible
in some way,

but at the same time,

I didn't know much about
the Synanon organization.

So the question was,

if this was an attempt
to commit murder,

why would a rehabilitation
center try to kill somebody?

- We are an
experimental society.

- He saw himself
as a sort of messiah.

- They ran that thing like
a military operation.

- I don't want to be here
anymore.

- We're gonna need
to protect each other.

♪ ♪

- It was in October of '78

when Paul was bitten
by the rattlesnake.

I thought, "This is
really, really bad."

I was crazed
that he was gonna die.

♪ ♪

- As a criminal prosecutor,

I knew that Mr. Morantz filed
a lawsuit against Synanon,

so the question remained,

did this motivate
his attempted murder?

In order to determine this,
I needed to learn

virtually everything
about the relationship

between Paul Morantz
and Charles Dederich,

who was the president
and the head of Synanon.

- I don't think
Synanon would exist

if it weren't
for Charles Dederich.

- There are far more
pathetic sights around

than some kid running
around on the street

shooting milk sugar
into his arm.

- Charles Dederich was
a heavy drinker.

Dederich goes to AA,

and he gets invited up
to the podium to share.

People listen to him,

and when he's done,
they applaud.

And he is hooked,

because Dederich likes
to hear himself talk.

- But Charles Dederich

didn't think AA was doing
its job properly

of keeping people
off their addictions.

He wanted to start
his own rehab,

but unlike
Alcoholics Anonymous,

it took in drug abusers too.

So Charles Dederich started
Synanon in Santa Monica.

It started out
being a rehab place,

where people would come
to try to be cured

of their addictions.

By 1965,
it was very successful.

There was a lot
of word of mouth

about the success
of this place by the beach,

and then it grew.

They had a facility
in Marshall,

they had a facility
in Tomales Bay,

and they had one
in Tulare County.

They went to parts
of California

that were basically isolated.

They needed space.

- By 1968, the organization
has 1,100 members.

It's receiving $2.5 million
in donations every year.

And then non-addicts
start coming to Synanon.

Dederich is just everything
to this group.

He's the comic relief,
he's the lecturer,

and, of course,
he's the ringleader.

- He convinced a great
many people like myself

that Synanon was accomplishing
something great.

And people trusted him.
I trusted him.

- He's deaf in one ear,
he's an egomaniac,

but one of the wisest persons

that I've ever met in my life.

♪ ♪

- Synanon revolved around
this thing called The Game.

It was a big part
of rehabilitation.

- Chuck believed in his method
of talk therapy,

one person to another.

- Dederich's
group therapy sessions

were heavy on tough love.

[overlapping shouting]

- The subject
of The Game would sit

in the middle of the group,
people around them,

and they would hurl insults
at these people.

- It's primarily for indicting
another person,

accusing them
of some transgression.

They smelled bad.
They were too fat.

They didn't work hard.

It was a little scary, 'cause
there was a lot of yelling.

It was difficult,
painful,

but it was part
of the environment.

It was what we did,
and I did it.

It worked for a while.

And when that started
to happen,

he was pleased with that.

- Dederich just loves
the aggressiveness.

He likes it when people
at shouting at each other,

and so they play
The Game all the time.

- They did everything they
could to break down the person

who was the center
of The Game.

They would try to just strip
away all of their personality,

who they were,

and that was considered
to be therapeutic in some way.

- This was seen as a very kind
of hip form of therapy.

So in the early '70s, Dederich
makes a conscious decision

to morph into
a lifestyle community.

This was sort of a way
to retreat from commercialism.

This was a way
to drop out of society

while finding spirituality,
and that's very popular.

[crowd clamoring]

- We are
an experimental society.

♪ ♪

- Synanon really followed
the whims of Charles Dederich.

If he decided that he wanted
to shave his head,

pretty soon everyone
was shaving their head.

And if he started
wearing overalls,

everyone else
was wearing overalls.

And his wife died,
and he re-married,

and pretty soon,
everyone was getting divorced

and getting remarried
in a very large group wedding.

And it was in many ways
a 20-year long game

of Follow the Leader.

♪ ♪

- Chuck began to think about
how we should take care

of the children separately
from the parents.

So Synanon decided
to start a school,

and the children would live
in a separate village.

It was called The Hatchery.

- I was four years old.

My mom and dad
were not together.

And my mom said,
"You're gonna come with me

and we're gonna go
to this place called Synanon."

The way that my mom
expressed it, it sounded like,

"Oh, I'm gonna take you
to Disneyland."

When we got to the dormitory,
we walk in

and there's
a group of children

who have shaved heads
and they're in overalls,

and nobody says anything.

And one of the first things
that happens

is a couple of the kids
walk over

and they start
stroking my hair.

Then this young woman says,
"Come with me."

So she takes me down
the hallway to this bathroom,

and she says,

"You know, you're very lucky
that you get to be here."

And I didn't say anything.

♪ ♪

So she used some clippers
and she shaved my head.

♪ ♪

I'm so traumatized
at that point.

I look very alien to myself.
I couldn't look at myself.

My mom wasn't allowed to talk
to me or even look at me.

And it was just
really devastating.

I was always wishing
that I could leave,

and wondering,
"When are we gonna leave?

"I just want to have
a normal existence.

I don't want to
be here anymore."

♪ ♪

- By 1974, Synanon is
completely unrecognizable

from the drug rehabilitation
that it used to be.

People are living there
full-time, working,

and the money goes to Synanon.

♪ ♪

- I think it was a lawyer
who said,

"Why don't we incorporate
as a church?"

So they became a church.

Which meant all this money
they were making,

they didn't have to pay taxes.

Dederich named them
the Church of Synanon.

- And, of course,

Dederich himself was becoming
fabulously wealthy,

and lived in a big house.

He was very open about that.

He liked living
a certain lifestyle.

- He saw himself as
a sort of messiah,

a leader that could
make people do anything.

And I think he got
a kick out of it,

because he had
such power over people.

- I was just beginning
to learn the power

that Charles Dederich had
over these people,

as I heard the various things

that he could make them do
by telling them to do it.

It felt like a very,
very dangerous alignment.

One man, great power,

great money,
and absolute control.

But I don't have any evidence
that connects Mr. Dederich

to the rattlesnake attack
on Paul Morantz.

I was gonna have to fall back

and think if he,
in some other way,

made himself
legally responsible.

We're gonna need
a big break in the case.

- The rattlesnake attack
was a very dramatic attack

on Paul Morantz.

People pointed to Synanon being
responsible for this attack,

but the police had to prove it.

- During the ongoing
investigation,

I talked to very many people
connected to Synanon.

There were people
who left the organization

that spoke to us,
and we would hear stories

of things
that Charles Dederich

had commanded them to do.

There were rumors about
very unusual things

happening in Synanon.

It reminds me--at least
what I think of as a cult.

- At one point,

Chuck had been feeling
the kids were costing a lot,

to raise us
and to take care of us.

So Chuck decided members
couldn't have kids anymore,

but the some of the women
were already pregnant.

So they were told, "You need
to end the pregnancies."

These women
that wanted to stay,

they were forced
to get these abortions.

- Dederich said,
"Having an abortion

is no different
than popping a pimple."

I think that shows his opinion
of children in general.

♪ ♪

- And then it became mandatory
that any man 18 years or older

had to go in
and get a vasectomy.

- In my case,
I had a vasectomy.

But, you know,
many of them didn't,

and many people split
because of that.

And Chuck would put
a positive spin on it and say,

"Well, they were not committed.

They didn't want to be
part of Synanon."

- After the abortion edict,
a lot of people started

to think, like,
oh, this isn't quite right.

This isn't just
an experimental community.

This is something
a bit worse than that.

This is sinister.

- Some people left
without their kids.

Some people left their kids
and their spouse there,

'cause the spouse
didn't want to leave.

They tried to get them back.

Paul, by this point,

had learned what Synanon
was up to with Frances Wynn,

and he eventually got her out.

She and her husband
sued Synanon

for imprisonment
and other charges,

and they won a settlement,
a judgment.

And then, I started working
with Paul on Synanon.

I wrote about how it was
unregulated by the state,

because it considered
itself a religion.

Being informed by Paul
and being informed

and interviewing people
who had lived there,

I found it to be
a rather horrific thing

that was going on.

Paul never wavered.

He wanted to bring down
what Synanon had become

because there was evil
going on there.

- Their stories were so wild
as to be incredible.

I knew that the relationship
between Paul Morantz

and Charles Dederich
was contentious,

because Mr. Morantz
sued Synanon for kidnapping.

And I thought,
"Could this be enough reason

to want to try
to kill somebody?"

If Charles Dederich
held the power

that he had over these people,
could he persuade them

to execute
that rattlesnake attack?

♪ ♪

- Before this attack,
neighbors had seen a white van

outside Morantz's house.

And actually, I think,
one of the neighbors

had written down
the license plate number.

- So the police ran
the license plating--

the license plate--

and it came back registered
to the Synanon Foundation.

After the attack,
the same car seen outside

our victim, Paul Morantz's,
house was driving

near Pacific Palisades.

And a police officer
noticed the license plate,

so he pulled them over.

Real quickly,
he found the occupants,

Joe Musico and Lance Kenton,
who were members of Synanon.

♪ ♪

These men were at
the lowest rank of Synanon,

and in my opinion,

Kenton and Musico
were not masterminds.

There was one ruler,
and it was Charles Dederich.

If this was
Charles Dederich's doing,

I wanted him as a defendant
at the defense table

facing these charges,
along with Kenton and Musico.

I wasn't allowed to talk
to these two men,

because their attorneys
made it clear

they were not gonna
talk to me.

So I kept gathering
information,

and I began to accumulate files

and police reports
and documents.

And while this process
is going on,

we had now discovered
this group

called the Imperial Marines.

- Chuck Dederich started
to get a lot of paranoia

and fear about being attacked

by people from the outside
who would come in,

maybe even someday
by law enforcement.

It was the foundation
of his group

called the Imperial Marines.

- The Imperial Marines,

which as basically
a paramilitary force

with its own form
of martial arts called Syndo.

- There were many
violent incidents

involving the Imperial Marines,

and Dederich
was controlling them.

- They would do anything
for him,

including kill for him.

- We had discovered both
Joe Musico and Lance Kenton

were members
of the Imperial Marines,

and I believed
that Charles Dederich

ordered Kenton and Musico
to kill Paul Morantz.

♪ ♪

- Musico and Kenton
were interviewed,

and as a result of that,

we had now discovered both
Joe Musico and Lance Kenton

were members
of the Imperial Marines,

and they were very proud of it.

I knew that Charles Dederich
was a very powerful guy,

because of what he could
make people in Synanon do

by telling them to do it.

Therefore, I felt
that Charles Dederich

having the position of power
that he had,

Joe Musico and Lance Kenton

would have to obey him
at his every whim.

But I still needed evidence

that Charles Dederich
ordered Kenton and Musico

to execute the rattlesnake
attack on Paul Morantz.

♪ ♪

We were informed
that some of the people

that had left
the organization

said Charles Dederich
had a sound system

whereby they could
all hear him,

and then he would just expound
on what he was thinking.

- When a person comes in
to Synanon,

we do not have
a potentially violent person.

We have a person
that is looking for someone

to tell him what to do.

- In Synanon, they broadcast
Charles Dederich talking

over the wire,

and the wire was a very big
deal for Synanon life.

- Every facility and
every public area of Synanon

was wired into a system
of leased phone lines.

- It was really the only thing
that was connecting

all these different locations.

I mean,
people in Tomales Bay

would never have even heard
of people down in Santa Monica,

but the wire
was that connection.

- The wire helped
communicate everything.

Synanon governance.

And Chuck would float his ideas
on the Synanon wire.

We had a practice of writing
down every word, practically,

that Chuck said,
as sort of a Holy Writ.

And they were always recorded
on brand-new tapes,

and we had every tape
kept track of.

- Chuck Dederich rants
about the enemy

that they were having
on the outside,

about, you know,
"We'll take care of them.

"We're gonna fight back,

and we're gonna fight back on
our terms, not on their terms."

- Chuck grew more paranoid
and began to advocate

Synanon protecting itself
by any means possible.

♪ ♪

- I do remember that Chuck
started to sound violent

over a question
of this lawyer, Morantz,

who had sued Synanon on behalf
of a client who had left,

and Chuck was offended
by this.

- Paul Morantz was making
some headway

and letting the public know

about what was happening
with Synanon,

and Chuck decided
that he wanted to do away

with Paul Morantz.

- And he began to rage
against all lawyers.

And he began to,
you know, rage about,

"We need to get rid
of this lawyer.

"I feel like I'd like to
rip off his own arm

and beat him to death with it."

He was recorded on tape
saying these things.

- His words were thought
to be so important

that he was passing
on a higher truth.

It reminded me of people
saying that, you know,

"God speaks to me, and I'll
tell you what he said."

- Until further notice,

no member of the California
Department of Corrections

is permitted
on Synanon property

unless he has the permission
of Charles Dederich,

Chairman of Synanon.

- Apparently, Charles Dederich
had expressed

his strongly negative view
of attorneys in general,

and Paul Morantz specifically.

If that was true,
then I wanted to hear that.

When a person in my role
as a prosecutor

hears about tape recordings,

your ears go up,

because you're thinking:
evidence.

Permanent.

Tape recordings
are pretty hard to dispute.

So when I heard
that there's a tape

that expresses his feelings
about lawyers in general,

or maybe really,
if I got lucky,

Paul Morantz specifically,

that would be something
that would be "Exhibit 1."

While maybe Charles Dederich

ordered Kenton and Musico
to go do that,

I probably would never know.

But I did think
if I got that tape

and it said what those people
said it said,

that I would have enough
to charge Charles Dederich

with a conspiracy
to commit murder.

I thought there was
probable cause to believe

that that tape recording
might exist

in the Tulare County facility.

The next thing I think of
is search warrant.

- This one unit
in the police department

sent people
to central California

as part of the investigation.

It would have been
the equivalent

of a terrorism unit today.

- We need to commit
whatever it takes.

This is a first-class
opponent.

There were rumors
that people were armed,

people with machine guns
and AK-47s.

It's a very,
very dangerous situation.

They ran that thing like
a military operation.

And if there's a firefight,

then we're gonna need
to protect each other.

- The month after
the rattlesnake attack

on Paul Morantz,
a tremendous amount of effort

had gone into
the search warrant,

because I want to seize
whatever will help demonstrate

the truth of the charges
against Charles Dederich.

We had a lot
of police officers,

including the LAPD SWAT unit,

because Synanon
and Charles Dederich

had the Imperial Marines,
and if there's a firefight,

we're gonna need
the SWAT unit.

We knocked on the door
and said, "Here we are,"

gave them the search warrant.

The search went
very peaceably,

and they made sure everybody
in Synanon stood back.

They did not interfere.

And a major crimes

investigating detective
from LAPD

found the tape that had this
particular rant about lawyers

that had the broken arm,
broken leg,

cutting the arms off
narrative,

and we seized that,

and that became
the pivotal piece of evidence.

When we found the tape

and it was played for me
for the first time,

I felt a tremendous sense
of relief and vindication.

I was sitting there listening
to Charles Dederich

soliciting crimes,

including everything
that Paul Morantz

had been saying
for all this time.

I felt for the very first time
that I could go to a court

and convict Chuck of conspiracy
to commit murder.

- It was no secret that
Charles Dederich wanted

to at least hurt Paul Morantz,
if not kill him.

So Lance Kenton and Joe Musico
thought up this plan

and they went
and found a rattlesnake.

- It was a 4-foot rattlesnake

put into this little,
tiny mailbox.

Must have been crazy mad
by the time Paul got there.

♪ ♪

He was writhing on the floor.
He was in incredible pain.

He knew he was gonna be
unconscious,

and he thought
that he was gonna die.

♪ ♪

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- When they put me
in the ambulance,

I didn't know
if I was going to live or die.

I asked the drivers
to keep talking to me,

to keep a conversation.

At the same time,
I thought that if I died,

that I hoped there was
a heaven

and that I would see
my father

and all the dogs
that I had all my life.

♪ ♪

- Someone called me.

I found out the hospital
where you were taken.

I rushed to the hospital,

and I went to
the intensive care.

♪ ♪

Paul was in terrible pain,

but I think he thought
at the time, this is really

them gone too far.

This is end.

This is the end
of the Church of Synanon.

- And I remember the doctor
looked at me and she said,

"What is a young, strong boy

like you doing getting bit
by a rattlesnake?"

I said, "It was in my mailbox,
and it was a murder attempt."

And she looked at me
really strange

until she looked behind her

and she saw all the police
that were lining up,

guarding the door.

And then she knew
that I was telling the truth.

- The rattlesnake attack
on Paul--

first of all,
it blew away anybody's doubts

about where this organization
was headed.

I think nobody believed
that Chuck Dederich

had nothing to do with it,
which is what he was saying

and what his lawyers
were saying.

Paul wanted to expose Synanon
for what it really was,

and he worked tirelessly at it,
and people trusted him.

- Paul Morantz, he's a hero.
There's no question about it.

I had enough to charge
Charles Dederich

with conspiracy
to commit murder,

but now
I needed to arrest him.

We were informed,
by somebody leaving Synanon,

they had a place
in Lake Havasu, Arizona,

and that Chuck was there.

We went out under
the leadership

of the local sheriff
to the house.

When we got there I said,

"I want to see
Charles Dederich,"

and they said
it wouldn't be possible.

He wasn't willing.

And I said, "Well, I have
an arrest warrant here,

and I'm gonna see him whether
you guys like it or not."

They took me to where he was.
He was laying down.

He was responding,

but I couldn't make sense
of his words.

He was babbling.

He gave all
the appearances of a man

who was very, very drunk.

- When they arrested him,
he was so drunk

that he had to be carried out
in a stretcher,

and there was a bottle
by his side.

And so Dederich,
who his life, really,

was premised on sobriety,

had been drinking
for some time.

- We flew him to Los Angeles.
They booked him into jail,

and they gave him
medical treatment.

He needed some sort of a way
to detox.

It was time for
Charles Dederich to face trial.

People from Synanon were
trying to delay everything.

He's too sick,
he's too this, he's too that.

And the judge had him examined

by independent
medical practitioners,

and they said
that he was very, very sick.

It's possible the trial
might not continue.

[suspenseful music]

- We were going to start
the trial

against Charles Dederich,

and that's when the Synanon
people started saying,

"Let's see if we can reach
a settlement in this case

without going to trial."

Synanon doctors presented
records of how sick he was,

and how he probably wouldn't
live until the sun went down.

I went back to Paul Morantz
to get his opinion.

♪ ♪

- Dederich really belonged
in prison

for the rest of his life.

He had all these
doctor reports on his heart

saying that he would die
quickly in prison.

And I could not willfully
make a choice

that would result
in a man's death,

and so I allowed the deal.

♪ ♪

- When Lance Kenton
and Joe Musico

came up for sentencing,

Paul asked for leniency
from the judge,

because Paul had learned
what cults do to people.

♪ ♪

- My principal goal was that
the truth be known,

and I felt that, by this stage,
the truth was known.

Their reputation had turned,

and the general public
thought of them as a cult

capable of very serious
criminal activity,

and that really
was the end of them.

♪ ♪

- They were forced to pay
$17 million in back taxes.

It actually bankrupted them
in the end.

♪ ♪

- For me, by that time,

you couldn't ever
had persuaded me to stay.

And I bought a car
and got the kids and I said,

"We're going back
to Virginia."

I liked being at Synanon,
really did.

I had a good time there.

I didn't think of it as a cult
until the very last bit.

And then I got fearful
of the paranoia

and the dangers
I saw coming down the pike.

- I was a young girl when
I left Synanon with my mom.

For the most part, I feel like
a lot of that is behind me,

but there's something
inside of me

that will maybe always
be there.

Because of what happened
at Synanon,

I've been situations where
I should have been scared,

but instead
I've been really angry,

and I just want to fight.

I'm not a violent person,

but I feel like if I'm pushed
to a certain limit,

that I could be.

- Paul and I grew very close
because we had the same goal,

which was to expose Synanon
for what it really was.

It was a great pleasure of mine
in my journalism career.

[somber music]

You actually opened the
floodgates for my reporting.

- Narda, you're leaving out--
- What?

- You're leaving out

the most important thing
that happened that day.

- What's that?
What?

- That after you got in
to see me

and you got the lone
exclusive

as to what happened
that day from me,

you reached down,
and you kissed me on my cheek.

The moment in
our relationship that, to me,

is the most special.

- Maybe that's why you had
the big smile on your face.

- It probably was.
It probably was.

- That was the beginning
of Paul's lifelong illness

where he needs blood
transfusions every other week.

It's somehow related
to the venom

that's in his system
that will always be there.

♪ ♪

- It's a good thing that
Synanon was disassembled,

because it had become
capable of evil.

The public memory
is very short.

If you told me that another
organization just like that

was forming now
behind another guy

who was just like
Charles Dederich,

I wouldn't be
the least bit surprised.

- I think Synanon certainly
proved that power corrupts,

and that when you center
an organization like this

around a cult of personality,
it will inevitably go haywire.

♪ ♪

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