What in The Hell is Happening?

[bunniefuu]

- [crowd chatter]
- [upbeat guitar music playing]

Reporter: We're way up
in northern Marin County

at Synanon's Ranch.
The event? A fat-a-thon.

Mike Gimbel:
At the beginning,

everybody was very excited

about the idea of losing weight.

[singing to the tune
"When the Saints Go Marching In"]

♪ Oh, when the fat,
it turns to thin ♪

Reporter: Synanon
believes in healthy living.

No smoking, no drinking,
no dr*gs.

And now, no body fat.

[singing continues]

Mike: The Lean Normal Diet
actually started as a good thing.

You met with the doctor. He
said, "You should weigh this."

Everyone got, like, a physical.

- [intense upbeat music playing]
- [cafeteria chatter]

We ate this Jell-O every night.

Yeah, I mean,
how do you make things

without sugar that taste good?
[laughs]

[sizzling]

But then, Chuck mandated
we had to exercise.

[heavy breathing]

[dark music playing]

Most of it was running in place
or step-ups.

And then, you had to be
honest about the hours.

But it felt a little weird
that it was mandated.

Was a different feeling
that you had to do it.

[birds chirping]

Your name goes up on a chart

and what is your ideal weight.

♪♪

And then, we would have
weekly weigh-ins.

♪♪

It was a little bit funny
to watch,

but I can tell you the truth,
the honest-to-God truth,

it was humiliating
to a lot of people.

[applause, cheering]

You talk about
a charismatic leader

who was getting people
to do things

that they don't think about.

And Chuck, his-his power

and his control

makes people do things.

Whether it's for him
or his cause.

And that's what
started happening.

[projector whirring]

[whirring slows down]

[dull whooshing]

[click]

[quiet chatter]

[laughter]

Terry Hurst:
Chuck had a big ego,

and everybody contributed to it.

We had people just adoring him.

I mean, people were just bowing

and scraping to him
in every way.

The show must go on.

Buddy Jones:
Betty Dederich called me in

one day and said,

"How come you don't like Chuck?"

I said, what do you mean
I don't like Chuck? She says,

"Well, I don't see you
around him that much.

"I don't see you
jumping through hoops

to get next to him
and his guys."

[cutlery clinking]

And I said, "You know, Betty,
I don't see anybody else

"pulling something
like Synanon off

"other than Chuck.
So I have great respect for him.

"But when you see him,
you have his followers.

"They're very obedient

and he likes that."

Chuck Dederich: You make
everybody make their beds

the way you want them to.

You insist that
they have manners

and that they smile and so on.

That kind of a place
makes people healthy.

It makes them healthy in mind

and body and heart and soul.

♪♪

Bill Goodson: I didn't really put
Chuck on some kind of pedestal.

That might have something
to do with the fact

that I was in Synanon
in the early years

when it was crude
and rough and new.

And what Synanon was becoming

with money and success
and power,

you could sense that people
looked at him

through a different lens
and listened to him

in a different way.

Chuck:
Now, it seems very simple.

Just do the things
we do in Synanon.

Keep the joint clean.

[over PA]
The reason you fail...

Mike: Anything Chuck was
saying was being recorded,

was being sent over the Wire.

It's on in every building.
It's on everywhere.

I mean, everywhere you go.

It kinda built into
this thing of "Chuck said."

And that was really a big thing
there. "Well, Chuck said this,"

you know, "Chuck said,
Chuck said, Chuck."

It was always Chuck.

[Chuck speaking
indistinctly over the Wire]

Things would start that way
on the Wire,

and because it was on the Wire,

all the other facilities heard.

Chuck [on PA]:
Learn to live the way we do!

If you don't or won't
or can't do that,

go somewhere else!

We stop being...

Rod Mullen: The benign
explanation for the Wire

was keeping
the community together.

- [beeping] - There were over


You had all these
different facilities.

You had three campuses
at Tomales Bay,

you had Oakland,

you had Santa Monica.

But, you know,
like any powerful tool,

a sharp Kn*fe is great
for cutting a steak.

It also is pretty good
for cutting off a finger.

And as time went on,

the Wire was used
very deliberately politically.

Rod: The Synanon
Game, in many ways,

was the primary ritual
and social glue for Synanon.

One of the really important
things about that ritual

was that it was private.

What was said in the Game

was left in the Game.

The Wire, of course, was
a complete antithesis of that.

All of a sudden, what was being
said in Games was public

for anybody to hear,

and, essentially,
the Games became

a way of conveying a message.

Are you gonna get in on this
act or are you gonna sit...

Terry: I had loved
Synanon at one point.

I grew to not love it

when I saw all
the manipulation going on.

Things had started
to deteriorate.

It was a regular Synanon Game

when I was talking about
how Synanon was changing,

everybody had to show
their loyalty to Synanon,

you had to prove that
you were worthy of Synanon.

[indistinct chatter]

I don't remember
what all I said,

but Chuck didn't like it
when he heard it.

If I was talking
negatively about Synanon,

I was talking negatively
about Chuck.

That was not acceptable.

And... boy, we got demoted
very fast after that.

[soft music playing]

You know,
Jack had been president,

and he was demoted
to being a truck driver.

Then, Chuck started
doing things to Jack.

Undermining our marriage.

Chuck: You know,
Jack's always talking about

being married 21 years
and everything.

Well, you know,
for what we look at,

they seem to be hooked up
with each other. But g*dd*mn,

they don't seem to be very happy
very much of the time.

And that-that could
certainly be a...

Terry: In the end,
Jack was in a Game with Chuck,

and I heard on the Wire
what Chuck was saying to Jack.

[Chuck continues]

Chuck said,
"Get rid of your wife,

or get the hell outta here."

I started packing.

Jack wasn't gonna leave.

[somber music playing]

I felt like the world
was ending.

I had never been hurt so badly.

It was horrible.

But Jack said,

"Chuck saved my life."

[water lapping]

[birds chirping]

Phil Ritter: There was another
woman who lived in Synanon.

When she thought
she had something

on somebody in a Game,

she would not let go.

[indistinct]

She thought she had

and indictment
on Chuck in a Game.

And she kept going on
and on and on.

I'm just talking
about the contradiction.

I'm just getting
at the contradiction

in the way you act
and the line you run.

- Chuck: Anybody who lives the life can be... What?
- I look at the way you act.

Phil: And he
walked across the room

with a can of root beer

and poured it
on top of her head.

- That was as big a no-no as you could have.
- Yeah.

Short of picking up a w*apon

and going over there
and clubbing her with it.

Jady Dederich Montgomery: We're talking
about not just a member of management,

but the founder
of the organization

crossing a physical line
with a subordinate.

Chuck Dederich Jr.: But if he
apologized for it and said, "Look,

"you know, I just lost it,
you know,

and I'm really sorry.
I shouldn't have done it."

- Jady: He did apologize.
- Chuck Jr.: He did!

- Jady: And then do you remember
what happened after? - Chuck Jr.: No.

- Jady: Then he apologized for apologizing.
- Chuck Jr.: Oh. Mm-hmm.

Jady: And then, he threw
his table upside down

in the middle of the Game.
"I'll do whatever I want."

When people do things in groups,
they must have leaders.

And the autocracy works,

the... dictatorship works.

When you try
to practice democracy,

you get an animal like that
pure half-cured drunk,

that menopausal g*dd*mn fool
that was talking

when she should've
been listening.

In a room that contained people
like my wife,

me, you see?

You know, I did a kindly thing.

I threw some root beer over her.

If Betty hadn't let her
outta the room, the next thing,

I was gonna throw her
out the window.

You see?
Because, uh,

no physical v*olence
is not an absolute in the world.

There aren't any absolutes!
There aren't any.

No physical v*olence
is the policy, I suppose,

that we will use
here in Synanon,

as long as it is feasible
and works for us.

♪♪

Pretty good, huh? Hm...

That was the beginning
of breaking the cardinal rule

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

That was it.

My dad was betraying
his own moral compass,

his own rules.

Everything he had set up.

It was a sort of
demarcation point

where Synanon departed from,

you know, nonviolence and stuff

to some kind of
activity that was not...

not good.
You know? It wasn't good.

Bill: If Synanon was going
to make some big changes,

that was also going
to trickle down to us,

the kids,

and how it would trickle down

sometimes was-was traumatic.

Members: One, two, three,
four, one, two... Three! Four!

- Leader: Go left! Right! Go left! Right!
- Followers: Left! Right!

- Leader: Hidey hidey hidey ho!
- Followers: Hidey hidey hidey ho!

Leader:
Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Followers:
Oh, oh, oh, oh!

Leader:
That's the boot camp boogie!

Followers:
That's the boot camp boogie!

Leader:
What a crazy sound!

Rod: We had a group of
kids in the Synanon school

who were getting large enough
and aggressive enough

that they were
threatening the teachers.

Pushing up against
the women in the school

and getting away with it.

That was very dangerous.

- [dark music playing]
- [quiet chatter]

Rod:
Chuck said, you know,

"I want you to take those kids
out of the school,

"and I want you
to run a little, uh...

"experiment with them.
And if they get outta line,

I want you to use
some physical discipline."

Chuck had himself been
in Catholic Jesuit school.

I think from his own experience,

he thought that was
perfectly acceptable.

Rod: We started what
Chuck called Punk Squad,

and, uh, Buddy Jones joined me.

Buddy: I was in
construction and called in

for working
with the Punk Squad kids.

The job was to let
these guys know

what it was like
to push up against some men

and to have some of
that kind of discipline.

♪♪

At the time, getting
corporal punishment was normal.

Know what I mean?
Was not a big deal.

That was part of,
you know, I mean...

Did your mother ever
send you after a switch?

Rod:
In the Punk Squad,

we just did a lot
of physical exercise

and then physical projects.

Had some kids
who just, phew, blossomed.

They're looking pretty compliant

and doing really well.

They b*at 'em.
And I just remember

hearing rumors and stuff

about kids getting b*at,

and it was so antithetical

to the way I grew up at Synanon.

♪♪

Rod: Chuck, like
the megalomaniac he was,

thought if you did something
and it worked,

that you should apply it
to everybody, you know?

Let's do this with the kids
who are currently in the school

who are not behavioral problems.

One minute, you were
a happy-go-lucky kid, sort of,

and then,
you were in the m*llitary.

[indistinct boot camp boogie]

They built this tent city.

We had these huge
barrack-type tents.

And you had a bed

and this m*llitary trunk

and that was all you had.

Josh Silvers:
I'm, like, 10 or 11 years old.

We woke up at


and then we would run
for four or five miles.

And I remember getting
smacked in the head

a bunch of times. Like, "Run!"
[imitates smack]

Then, you had to shower,

make your bed, m*llitary-style,

so you can bounce
a quarter off it.

If it wasn't perfectly
straight underneath,

they would rip up your bed,
and you would miss breakfast.

There was a lot of marching.
You had to dig holes.

And I remember
my hands bleeding.

And, you know, you're a kid.
You have no say.

Sometimes, at, like,


they'd wake you up.

Everybody would have to
come to attention.

Bill:
Screaming and yelling.

"You bratty kids.
You take everything for granted.

You think you're this,
you think you're that."

I remember one of my best
friends, Buddy Jones,

just hitting him,
like, doubling him over.

Like, he's a little kid,
and Buddy Jones' a big dude.

I just remember
being really afraid of him.

- [gentle music playing]
- [birds chirping]

Marshall Carder:
I moved in when I was 4.

And corporal punishment
was already a thing.

Buddy had a paddle
called his assistant.

"It's my assistant."

You f*cked up, they brought you
in front of the whole crew,

and they'd spank you,
paddle you, knock you down.

[acoustic guitar strumming]

I didn't...
I didn't abuse kids.

And I wouldn't abuse a child.

But in today's culture,
there is that thin line.

I don't... The older I get,
I don't know if...

if, um, if that truly
is the right way to...

treat kids.

But I-I don't see...
At the same time,

I don't see a swat on the butt
as any big thing.

[birds chirping]

Marshall: Now, Buddy and
I have a weird relationship

because Buddy whacked me
around pretty good.

A bunch of times.

And I still talk to Buddy.

And I... But, I always thought
Buddy was fair.

With Buddy,
I knew where the line was.

But there was a lot of people
that were just irrational.

Rod:
You know, people just thought

if you disagreed with a kid,
you hit him.

And who were not some of them...

Yeah, I...
[stammers]

You know, part of
the thing with Punk squad. Yeah.

I did, and I regret it deeply.

I don't wanna go there, Rory.

I-I don't.

When I said we got woken up
at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning,

it was Rod Mullen
waking us up and yelling

and in your face.

He was like our nightm...
Like my nightm...

I don't know everybody else,

but he was like
one of my nightmares.

Um, I remember him
hitting me in the head

and hitting my ear so hard

that I went flying,

and that my ear rang
the whole entire day.

And that's like one of those
memories that's never...

gone away.

Norm Johnson: My nephew
was one of the first kids

thrown into that Punk Squad.

He was so brutalized
that by the time he left,

um...

he could not fit into society.

I tried to take him to therapy.

I did a lot

in conjunction with my sister
to try to support him,

but eventually,
Danny k*lled himself

with an intentional
overdose of heroin, so...

Um, and that's
the result of Synanon.

His death weighs heavily on me.

[quiet street noise]

Newscaster: At the
Alameda County Courthouse.

The board is being asked by the
Alameda Probation Department

to add the Synanon Foundation
to a list of private agencies

for the custody of various
types of juvenile offenders.

Synanon medical director
Dr. KJ Deisler.

I think it would be ridiculous
not to utilize Synanon

as an outstandingly known,
successful,

and highly specialized
organization.

Ron Cook:
It was decided

that Synanon would bring in
juvenile delinquents.

These are a bunch of punks.

And no other way to describe it.

Bad attitude people.

Their parents
couldn't handle them.

The schools couldn't handle
them. Nobody could handle them.

And now, they're in Synanon
in a boot camp.

[marching band music playing]

Narrator:
Synanon is for boys and girls

between the ages of 10 and 18,

whose behavior is going to
force them out of their homes

and into a juvenile prison.

For a child to enter
Synanon's program,

call one of Synanon's
California communities.

Rod: Synanon started
making a real effort

to recruit more of these
juvenile delinquent kids.

[microfiche clicks]

We went to counties
and said, you know,

you have juvenile delinquents.

We have a program
based on the Punk Squad.

Guess what?
We'll take 'em for free.

- Reporter: How old are you?
- 12.

Reporter: 12, huh? How
long you been in Synanon?

- Six months.
- Reporter: Six months? Where are you from?

- Bronx.
- Reporter: The Bronx, huh?

It's a lot different
from the Bronx?

- Yeah.
- Reporter: It sure is, huh?

Rod:
The real motivation

for expanding
the juvenile delinquents

was that it would ensure
that Synanon could maintain

its 501[c][3]
tax exempt certificate,

which people were
getting worried about

because there weren't
enough drug addicts

to justify its nonprofit status.

The kids,

some of the youngsters
that we were working with,

of course, didn't like
the regimen very much

and would leave.

The punks ran away,

and they ran away
to some neighbors.

You know, I could still see,

or hear to this day,
all of a sudden,

you get a frantic
knock at the door,

and it's anywhere from,
you know, 10 o'clock at night

till 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning.

"We need to get outta here.
They're b*ating us."

We just saw the fear.

[curious music playing]

We're in rural Marin County.

Synanon bought the ranch
behind our family property.

When they first moved in,

they seemed like normal people.

Dad didn't have
a problem with them.

But then, he really started
noticing the change.

Alvina Balistreri: All of a
sudden, their heads were shaved.

And just more and more traffic.

Robert Gambonini:
It started being

a back-and-forth
bad blood situation

with the Synanon people.

You know, with-with the runaways
we were getting and...

You know,
something was definitely wrong.

♪♪

Dad would let the runaways
call their parents

and get them to go back home.

Alvin Gambonini: The youngest
we ever had was 11 years old.

They're just scared.
They wanna get away,

and they're scared
Synanon will catch them again.

Alvina: Dad would
take them to the bus stop,

give them some money.

"Dear Mr. Gambonini, we deeply
appreciate the kindness

and compassion you showed
to our son."

"Dear Mr. Gambonini, thank you
for helping me get home.

You are the nicest man
I ever met."

Rod: Synanon,
seeing the Gamboninis

as facilitating escapes,

began to characterize them
as the enemy.

Bob Navarro: To be fair,
we were out in the country,

and most of the people
around us were ranchers

and country folk, you know?

People would come by
in their trucks,

and they see a Synanon person
on these country roads,

and they would just
drive them off the road.

They would hurl insults

and racial epithets at people.

And it was, it was frightening.

[quiet chatter]

We were taught to yell,
"Hey, rube,"

if any stranger
came onto the property.

That was kind of
the call to arms.

Bill:
If you felt threatened,

if you felt like there
was something that was going on,

we all needed to gather,
grab a bat,

grab a this, grab a that,

and come running
to the, "Hey, rube."

- [insects chirping]
- [car rumbling]

[somber music playing]

Alvina: And it was probably


I actually was asleep

in the front seat
between my mom and dad.

♪♪

There was some meeting
that Synanon had,

and people were all pumped up.

I guess my dad saw
a vehicle parked.

And so, my dad parked,
and they came over.

Things happened so fast.

I just remember punches
and then blood.

- [yelling]
- [punching]

♪♪

They pulled the door
open in the car.

Some jumped on the hood,

and they were
kicking the windshield.

Then, they started
pounding me in the face,

and my wife put her hand
over my face.

I wrapped my arm
around the steering wheel,

and they couldn't get me out.

And there's one standing there
with an open Kn*fe in his hand

and another one had
a picket in his hand.

And by the time we did get
the door shut of the car,

we noticed our son was gone.

[dogs barking]

I-I just, I guess, got scared.
I mean, well, I did get scared.

So, I jumped out,

I ran, and I just remembered,

I could still see it
to this day, looking back,

and it's like a sea of people.

People and flashlights and posts

and whatever they were carrying

were just trying
to get in the car.

So I just continued on,
and I went up to the neighbors,

and I just pounded on the door
and said,

"They got my dad,
they got my dad."

We went into the house
and called the sheriff

and told him what was going on.

[police radio chatter]

The next morning,
when we did see the car,

it was shoved in a ditch.

[chatter continues]

Alvina: Synanon thought Dad
was gonna try to drive away,

so they shoved us into the ditch
so we couldn't go anywhere.

Robert:
Finally, when we see my dad,

he had a bloody nose.
His shirt was torn.

They kept saying,
"We're gonna finish...

"We'll finish you,
you two-bit farmer.

We're gonna finish you tonight,
you two-bit farmer."

Robert: He said, "If they'd
gotten me out of the car,

it would've been the end."

When people get pumped up
like that, there was just no...

no stopping them.

♪♪

Bill:
I remember thinking to myself,

this, this isn't Synanon.
What...

What in the hell is happening?

I had grown up in a place

where there's no thr*at
of physical v*olence,

let alone physical v*olence.

I felt like... I'm 19.

I have my life in front of me,

and I'm not sure
that I wanna be here.

Um, and...

that's when I left.

♪♪

Narrator: This is backcountry
in the Sierra foothills,

neighboring Sequoia
National Park.

This 360-acre camp
was once a riding academy.

Now, it's been reshaped
into a Synanon facility.

Badger was kind of isolated
up there in the mountains.

[birds chirping]

That property was really lovely,

and it was very sort of wild.

[beep]

Badger was two facilities.

The home place because Chuck
moved there with Betty.

The other property
was called The Strip.

We built a runway
that could land a 737.

It was that big an airstrip.

Speaker 1: We cut a road in
and dammed up the creek.

- [laughing] - Speaker 2: Much to
our neighbors' surprise.

Yeah, much to
our neighbors' surprise.

[trucks idling]

Chuck: There's some very
powerful people who were fixing

to make a barrel
of money on an airstrip.

Well, we put one in first!

So, uh, um, some people
may be mad at us.

We may need some defense.

We will not att*ck.
We won't go to where they are,

but if they come to where we are

and drive on our property

and thr*aten to k*ll our people,

then, of course,
we will mark them up

worse and worse and worse

until they get sick of it.
That's what we will do. Now...

Bob: By this point,
policies were being adopted

as to how Synanon

would actually, physically,

respond to-to v*olence
committed against us.

And so,

Chuck came up with the idea
of the Imperial Marines.

- [m*llitary music playing]
- [footsteps marching]

Rod: It was the Punk
Squad on steroids.

And they were gonna be
the protectors of Synanon

and make sure that no one
messed with us, you know?

Lance Kenton: The Imperial
Marines were an attempt to develop

a sort of cohesive response team

that could deal with
any kind of incident.

I got picked!
I didn't pick it.

[birds chirping]

They just put us in the middle
of nowhere with nothing.

We didn't see anybody
for three months.

We got up in the morning,
we ran,

we did karate,

we built a huge obstacle course,

we meditated,

and at nights,
we'd sit around the fire,

and we would talk, you know,
and we spent hours doing that.

Someone said, "What are we gonna
call ourselves?" And then,

"How about this?
Her Majesty's Imperial Marines."

Like, okay.

And then, "Ah, Her Majesty
sounds a bit funky.

Let's just make it
the Imperial Marines."

It was a joke.

♪♪

Bob:
Synanon had adopted a policy

of zero tolerance toward

any type of insult or intrusion

to our properties
and to our people,

and that it would be met

with this aggressive response.

Reporter: The number of violent
incidents involving outsiders

who crossed Synanon's path
has increased sharply.

Richard Marino and Calvin Smith

say they were run off this
road by Synanon trucks.

Synanon accused them
of attempting to run down

some Synanon bicyclists.

Then, Marino and Smith say
they were handcuffed and beaten

and their heads were shaved.

Hell, I thought they was, for
real, they was gonna k*ll us.

The one man came up there
and told us,

"We gotta take them both out
and sh**t them."

♪♪

Rod:
Synanon did this frequently.

We had scrapes
with the neighbors

and were involved
in some violent incidents,

showed up at somebody's
property and threatened them

and b*at up
some of the neighbors.

It was all part and parcel
of the increasing paranoia.

There were only
two categories of people.

People who were 100%
in favor of Synanon

and everybody else
who was the enemy.

Mike: As things started
to progress with the kids,

and we started taking in more
and more of these delinquents,

Chuck really got
on his bandwagon

in one of those talks

that he so often had,
and he goes,

"Why do we have children?
Why do we have them?

"Just to carry our name or have
something to look like us? You know?

"Why people are having children?
They can't take care of them.

They can't... afford them.
They end up in trouble."

Then he all of a sudden
turned into this,

"Why don't we just stop
having children?"

Chuck: But what about
childlessness? You don't have any!

[on PA] We're going to take
care of the world's children

and not indulge ourselves
by having our own!

What about that?
That's a revolutionary idea!

That was his edict.
No more children in Synanon.

Therefore,

men should get vasectomies.

I think it was
such advanced thinking.

I see sexual freedom for women,

I see men, who loved women
and cared about them,

who did that,

and I see people who could make
the decision to leave.

You could always leave.

You did not have to stay.

You were not being held c*ptive.

Now, a lot of people left.

You know, a lot of people left.
There's no question.

But I stayed. And I was...

Maybe I was brainwashed
or committed

or whatever you wanna call it.

[upbeat music playing]

We have Synanon doctors
in-house.

Next thing I know, here I am,

with a group of guys,

getting a vasectomy.

It was bizarre.
No doubt it was bizarre.

And then afterwards,
we're all... [laughs]

We're all in the same boat.
We're all sitting there

with ice on ourselves.
[laughs]

- [gentle splashing]
- [seagulls cawing]

We all went back our little
separate ways to heal.

I didn't know what
a vasectomy was.

I didn't know
what they actually did.

I was maybe 25.

I was so young and immature,

and I didn't understand anything

'cause I'd been on dr*gs
or in Synanon.

No one even discussed it.

Phil:
I felt right from the get-go

that to put any pressure at all

on one of these young kids

to permanently sterilize
themselves

was a terrible idea, and it
would make the organization

look like... a nuthouse.

[overlapping arguing]

Speaker:
What's wrong with it, Ritter?

Phil: There were
a couple of hundred,

maybe 300 guys,

who hadn't had vasectomies yet.

I guess it was Chuck,
or probably Chuck,

who decided, you know, "Hey,
it's time to wrap this up.

"Let's do all these vasectomies

over the next
two or three days."

And I just went nuts.

[motorcycle engine revving]

[rumbling]

I got on my motorcycle
and rode over

to the Marin County
Sheriff's Office.

His response was,

"Let me get this straight.

"We got a bunch
of drug addicts over there,

"who are all over 18 years old,

"and they have decided

"to voluntarily
sterilize themselves,

and you want me to go over there
and stop them?"

[Lynn laughs weakly]

That was his response.

The big sh*ts in Synanon

made it clear that
I was not welcome to return.

I was thrown out of Synanon.

And Lynn and I broke up over it.

Lynn Ritter: It was just
a power move by Chuck.

"I can do this to you."

You know, "I can do anything
with you guys."

Mike:
The childlessness edict

turned into women
who got pregnant

would also have
to have an abortion.

Less than a week
after my vasectomy,

you know, Stephanie found out
that she was pregnant.

♪♪

And I'm like,
"Oh crud, Jesus Christ,

what are we gonna do?"

And she said, "Well,

they're gonna probably
make me get an abortion."

And so, that's what happened.

Stephanie and I were just

you know, troopers
for-for the cause,

and never looked back, really,

and never talked
about it very much.

[seagulls cawing]

The older I get, obviously,

the sadder it is.

When I look at my brothers,
they all have grandkids now,

and I look at, you know, when
the family gets together and...

I-I think about how old
my child would have been

and what life
would have been like and...

You think about it because,
you know,

whatever time
I have left on this earth,

it's something that I know
I'll continue to miss

all the way till the day I die.

For sure. For sure.

- [gentle splashing]
- [seagulls cawing]

Rod: It just... The
drumbeat of this in Synanon,

first this, and then this,
and then this.

And each one of them
becoming much more difficult.

- [tense music playing]
- The shaved heads,

the vasectomies, the abortions.

All these things were ways
of stripping people

of their
decision-making process.

That was Chuck's thing.

"I'm gonna do it
'cause I can do it,

"and I'm gonna see
how far I can push you guys.

And if you revolt,
I'ma throw you out."

So it really became
authoritarian and dictatorial.

Jady: We no longer
had board members

that had any kind of check
on my dad.

There was nobody that ever

stood up to him in a real way.

It's the cautionary tale
of what happens in groups

and what happens
when someone has too much power

and that power is unfettered.

Marshall: Chuck was
a master manipulator

in so many ways,

and he kept everyone in check.

And I can guarantee you,
most of the people in Synanon

had no idea of the v*olence
that was happening.

It was very compartmentalized.

For the kids,

corporal punishment
was definitely something

that came from the top.

[somber music playing]

But, uh, for me, that really
wasn't the trauma part.

Because Chuck
also used humiliation

as a way to-to treat people.

Now here, we have demonstrators.

And these were the people
that were assigned

to work in the school.

I guess you could
call it a caretaker.

They were ostensibly
demonstrating to us

how adults behave.

And very quickly,

I developed
an adversarial relationship

to the demonstrators.

I found them to be,
uh, fearsome.

I really was quite terrified
by most of them.

Some of them legitimately so

because they had cruel streaks

and should not have been
anywhere near children.

I remember getting
a public spanking

in front of the whole school,

where they made me take down
my pants all the way,

and my underwear.
So, you know,

I had to drop trou
in front of everybody

and getting just...

And I don't remember what I did
wrong, but whatever it was,

they, you know,
the entire school was there...

you know, all the kids...
in front of all my friends.

It felt horrible.

Rebekah Crawford: The
truth is that human beings,

we need our dignity.

And the one fear was that
you would lose that dignity,

and that's, you know,
by being humiliated.

And I think that was kind of
what Synanon's power was.

Marshall: Imagine, like,
a 9-year-old girl.

And they wanna humiliate you

because they say that
your hygiene is not perfect.

And in front of
an entire room of people,

they make you
take off your pants

and your underwear and show
that your underwear are clean...

In front of an entire...
[stammers]

And still, to this day, I can
see this person's,

like, utter, like...

you know, fear and, like,
just absolutely petrified

that she's doing this or...

Yeah, pulling down
people's pants

and b*ating the daylights
out of them with a paddle

while they're naked in front
of a huge group of people.

[birds chirping]

Rebekah:
We were not bad kids.

We really were not bad kids.

But, the smallest
transgression... I mean,

even just not having
a smile on your face

could get you in trouble.

It didn't-didn't feel safe.
It felt, you know...

I mean, it was terrifying.

Jady: I was titularly responsible
for the school for years,

from 1976 on.

I had no idea that was going on.

It's horrifying to me to hear.

And painful.

And I have to say to myself,

if I had known about it,
or if I'd been sitting there...

you know, in the room
when it had happened,

would I have done anything?

I don't know.
Probably not.

I don't know.

And I have to,
you know, I have to...

acknowledge that.

[birds chirping]

My dad, he was my boss.

He controlled my life.

And I was not the personality
that was gonna stand up

on my own two legs

at, you know, 20 or whatever
and say,

"I think I'm gonna
do things differently."

I didn't have the courage.

I wish I'd had more courage.
I do.

Even Betty.
I mean, I loved her,

and she was amazing for Synanon.

And she couldn't
control him either.

And she went along, too,
with what was happening.

But that's not unique
to the charismatic leader.

That happens
in other families, too.

And then, Betty got really sick.

I just... I, uh...

Jady:
In January of 1977,

Betty started having
this terrible pain

and couldn't breathe
and everything.

We took her to the hospital.

It was lung cancer.

Very shocking.

Heartbreaking.

Heartbreaking.

Heartbreaking for my dad,

who went into overdrive
and mania around it.

And heartbreaking
for the community,

for Synanon.

It was the family business.

And he was Dad, and she was Mom.

Elena Broslovsky:
We were stunned

and sad.

[deep sigh]

Suddenly, she got
sicker and weaker.

I remember coming into the room.

She was set up in a bed.

Chuck was sitting next to her,

wiping her brow,
giving her water to sip,

and saying,
"It's alright to let go.

It's going to be beautiful.
It's alright to let go."

[sighs]

Elena: Around 3:00 that
night was when she left.

- [sighs]
- [gentle piano music playing]

- [choir harmonizing]
- ♪ Mother to so many children ♪

♪ More than you can see ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

Elena:
The entire community mourned.

It was a profound,
profound loss.

♪ Singing your song,
Betty D ♪

♪ Betty D, oh yeah ♪

Jady:
She was diagnosed in January,

- and she d*ed in April.
- [piano stops]

I was absolutely bereft.
Just outta my mind.

My dad was going crazy,

screaming all the time
on the Wire.

You know, he covered
the pain with anger

because he couldn't grieve.

[birds chirping]

And he was a forward-moving
kind of a person,

so I think he was trying
to move on because...

you know, within three months,
four months,

he was...
he had moved on.

♪♪

Rebekah:
He went on the Wire and asked

for any single woman
who wished to apply

to be his wife
that they should do so.

And my teacher, Ginny, applied.

She was teaching us
when she got the call

on the Wire that he would
like to make her his wife.

And she kind of burst
into tears,

and we were
all set loose that day.

Bob: Obviously, he wasn't
in love with this woman.

He had just selected her.

They were together,
and so it was deemed good.

So, Chuck extrapolated
from that,

as he tended to do,
to the whole community.

"Well, it was good for me.
It's good for you."

Jady:
My dad started pressuring me

about my husband and the idea

of getting me a new mate

that he thought was
somehow better for me.

I broke up with him,

and then, the gals were charged
with finding me a new mate.

I never felt like
I had an option.

It's like, oh,
this is what we're doing now.

And then, he just started
with my brother

to get him a new mate.

Like, he basically
broke up our marriages.

But then, that snowballed into

this is what we're
all gonna do now.

We're gonna do this experiment.

We're gonna make love happen.

The conversation was in the air

about relationships

and making...
making love happen.

We needed to learn
that love can be made,

and it's just a matter of

more or less kind of
a discipline

of cherishing somebody
and caring for them,

and then love would emerge.

[projector whirring]

Mike:
It was a Friday night,

and we had gotten
the "Rocky One" movie.

Adrian!

- Adrian: Rocky!
- Referee: 8-7 for Creed!

Mike:
I remember coming out.

Everybody's like
yelling and screaming

and running around...
[stammering] What's... What...

"Oh, my God! Chuck just said

"that all relationships
are over,

"and we need to find
another partner

because that's what
he did with Ginny!"

It was total panic.

And it grew and grew and grew,

and changing partners happened.

Jady: It was like, you know, names
and people being hooked up and...

It seems absolutely madness now,

looking back.

Bonkers. Bonkers.

Bob: It was more or
less a psychotic event

for a significant portion
of the people

who suddenly had to break up

with the person they were
perfectly happy with.

And, in the way
these things tended to happen,

it had this sort of
crazy drama to it.

My friend Lori Cook
changed partners,

and her life had gotten better.

I said, well, why not try it?

♪♪

Ron: I'd been married
to my wife for 17 years.

I truly was unhappy,

and she wasn't that
happy in it either.

Connie Chung:
Ron is an accountant.

He was married to Lori.

Now, he's married to Pamela.

Lori is married to Buddy.

Buddy:
The question came up,

who should be
with another person?

Who wants to be
with another person?

And it kinda caught on.

I lucked out.
I ended up with Naya.

I chose her. She agreed.

Chuck: People are
looking for a reason.

Well, why should I leave
this person? And that's absurd!

You do it because that's what
we're doing now. You see?

So there just isn't
any reason not to at all!

♪♪

Nobody was ordered to do it,
but it was suggested.

"Hey, why don't you try this?"
You know?

"Try seeing if you can fall
in love with this person."

When I say optional,
there was a lot of pressure.

You know, there could be a lot
of pressure on somebody.

When changing partners came on,
I-I didn't wanna do it.

I was in love with Teri.
I...

I thought we had
a great relationship.

She was the one that said
we need to do this.

So we did it.

Miriam Bourdette: Chuck decided
that Phil would be a good person

for me to get with.

That was it. We were together.
I mean,

there were no ifs,
ands, or buts about it.

Judi Ehrlich:
At changing partners,

all of the couples
that were married

had to get divorced.

I got assigned to, like, learn
how to do divorces. [laughs]

And, um, I think I must have
done hundreds of them.

I wound up with a woman
named Stephanie.

Her name was
Stephanie Andreucci.

She was a chef.

[breeze blowing]

Mike: Stephanie
and I, we were in love.

There was no question about it.

We were best friends.

She was just a really,
a really great girl.

But they said to
change partners, and...

We changed partners, you know?
And we did it.

[indistinct chatter]

If we were in
a normal state of mind,

we would sit there,
as the normal people, saying,

"What are we doing here?
What's this? Crazy?"

But we didn't have
those conversations.

And that's how we survived
in Synanon.

Ron Cook hooked me up
with a woman

who I thought was beautiful
and great,

and I just couldn't do it.

I could not be with her.

We had a Game.
Ron was there. Chuck was there.

I said, "I'm gonna try.
I'm gonna try."

It just went to a point
where I just said...

"I can't do it."

And I went to Ron Cook,
and I said,

"Ron, I can't do this.
I think I have to leave.

Just, you know,
just let me go." And...

This is what we do. We live
in an experimental community.

If you don't like it, go.
And a bunch of people left.

- [car rumbling]
- [gentle music playing]

Mike: Middle of the night,


they come and they get me,

and they put me
in the back of a pickup truck.

They drove me to San Francisco.

[birds chirping]

♪♪

They dumped me out in
the middle of the street

with just the clothes on my back

and no money or anything,

and that was it.
So, I was out of Synanon.

♪♪

Phil: After I was
kicked out of Synanon,

Lynn served me
with divorce papers

and gave me full-time
custody of our daughter.

Lynn stayed in Synanon.

Lynn:
Synanon could exert

a lot of pressure on people,
and I was beginning to feel it.

Phil: Lynn was welcome
to take our daughter

any time she wanted,
and one day,

she just didn't bring her back.

Synanon gave Lynn a plane ticket

and sent the two of them
across state lines illegally.

They ended up at the Detroit,
Michigan facility.

I filed a petition to the court
to bring in Chuck

because Synanon was aiding

the kidnapping of our daughter.

You know, I knew that Chuck
and the organization

were not gonna be thrilled
about the prospect

of having him on the witness
stand under oath.

I got a visit from two

high-ranking people in Synanon.

They basically said
that if I forced the issue

with putting Chuck on the stand,
that something bad might happen.

To be honest with you,

I really wasn't
worried about it.

I really didn't believe
in my heart of hearts

that Synanon would ever hurt me.

[tense music playing]

[insects chirping]

I came home,

pulled into the driveway,

and as I was heading
toward the door,

two guys came up behind me

with stocking masks on with...

three-foot-long clubs

and started b*ating on me.
[clears throat]

- [echoing b*ating]
- [yelling]

I got knocked down.
I got a broken leg.

I got a broken arm.

I got a fractured skull.

Due to the skull fracture,
I got cerebral meningitis.

So I was out for 22 days.

♪♪

[car revving]

With us this morning
is Jack Hurst,

one of the founding
fathers of Synanon.

He is now formally
out of the organization.

When I saw my good friend
Phil Ritter

laying in a hospital bed
with his head caved in,

it was very obvious to me that
it's time that I spoke out.

Synanon has, in fact,
turned violent.

They view it
as their right to, to use

any means
to bring people into line.

- [rhythmic footsteps]
- Reporter: Synanon,

under siege in what it
describes as a "holy w*r,"

has taken the offensive.

♪♪

v*olence became a solution
for Chuck at some point.

People come on the property,
they b*at the hell out of 'em.

People say bad things
in the media,

they go chase them
down at their house.

Synanon members [chant]:
Boycott "TIME"! Boycott "TIME"!

Marshall:
People sue you,

you b*at them
with baseball bats.

If you have somebody who
goes power unchecked, [laughs]

then they're gonna do
something sooner or later,

and it's gonna
spiral outta control.

[applause, cheering]

Nobody checked Chuck.

[motorcycle rumbling]

Chuck:
We never start anything.

We never do and never have.

But, nobody is going
to mess with us.

Nobody.

[tense sting]

♪♪