This is the story of Synanon and its founder Charles Edwin Dietrich. Charles was born in Toledo, Ohio on March 22nd, 1913. He lost his dad in a car crash at the age of four, and lacked a father figure throughout his life. He became an alcoholic in his teens and went to Notre Dame where he flunked out after eighteen months. After that, he dropped out of Toledo University, and become a travelling salesman and sales executive for Gulf Oil for nine years. During this time he was left by his first wife because of his drinking, and decided to make a change by moving to. There, he lived the life of a beach bum and eventually got a job working for Hughes Tools and making models for Douglas Aircraft. He married for the second time to Ruth Elisha who also eventually left him because of his drinking. At this point, he knew he needed help, but it took several instrumental events to foster the change he was looking for.

Charles Edwin Dietrich

The first event was that someone found him drunk on a kitchen floor and shamed him for his weight, and recommended he go to Alcoholics Anonymous. He took this rude stranger’s advice, and in 1956 at age 43, he went to his first AA meeting in Beverly Hills. He loved it and he started going to meetings every day. 

While attending the AA meetings, he read Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson after having a nervous breakdown. The book spoke to him on a deep level and made him want to devote his life to helping other alcoholics. This led him to lead talks for AA around the state. As he put it “I say this with as much humility as I am capable, which isn’t very much, but when I sit down and start to talk, people start gathering, it’s inevitable no matter where I do it. It just happens, I can’t stop it.” Charles also started volunteering for experiments at UCLA with Dr. Keith Dittmann in order to make some money. The experiment was to try to cure alcoholics by giving them LSD. When he took LSD he didn’t hallucinate, but he did have an epiphany. His epiphany was that good and bad were the same and that he was God.

In 1958, Charles decided to gather some of his AA students and have private meetings in a storefront next to his apartment in Ocean Park. He used his thirty-three dollar unemployment check to rent out the storefront. This new group that he formed went by the name, The Tender Loving Care Group. He let fifteen recovering alcoholics live in this space and they would shower using a hose he stuck through the window. He counselled them using tough love, and had wonderful sayings like, “who needs alcohol here, we can get drunk with ideas,” and his most famous saying, “today is the first day of the rest of your life.” When one of the members slurred together the words, symposium and seminar, he ended up saying Synanon. This new name stuck and was used for the next four decades. His little beachfront practice was the first self-help, no doctor involved rehab, with treatments involving tough love and attack therapy. This became his main method of therapy and was later named “the Game.”

When playing “the Game”, Dietrich would gather eight to ten participants, put them in a room together and pose a question, something along the lines of “who’s the most boring person here.” From there, anybody could say anything they wanted to anybody else, and could be as mean and as cruel as they wanted. “Talk dirty and live clean” was Charles’ motto. There were only two rules, no violence and no threats of physical violence. Other than that, the participants were encouraged to take out all their anger and aggression to get a reaction out of somebody, tearing each other down to nothing until they were forced to face their own demons and admit what was wrong with them. 

According to Dietrich, there was always something wrong with addicts. He would make it clear to them, and to get into Synanon you had to admit you were an addict. You were reminded of that every single day as Dietrich said, “Crime is stupid, delinquency is stupid, and the use of narcotics is stupid. What Synanon is dealing with an addiction to stupidity.” He would often state one cannot get up until he’s knocked down, once you were knocked down, he could rebuild you with his own ideas. Eventually, hard drug addicts started attending which the alcoholics didn’t like, so he responded by kicking out all the alcoholics and focusing solely on drug addicts. He’d used “the Game” to attack them for their past mistakes. He would tell them they had parent issues, would try to control who they dated, and instilled in them that if they gave up on his program they’d be lost forever. He also expressed that they shouldn’t talk to their families until the treatment was over.

Early Synanon leadership L to R: Wilbur Beckham, Charles Dietrich and Reid Kimball giving a seminar.

Some people were critical of this brainwashing, but he responded by saying “Brainwashing is a very app term, we get very dirty brains.” He often told his patients to try not to question what he told them to do, just do what he said and act like it was right, thinking on their own is what got them here in the first place. He felt that giving a dope addict the freedom to think was like giving a gun to a baby.

He used “the Game” to gang up, break down and bend one to his will. If someone was caught using, they were given a “haircut,” which meant that they would be publicly shamed in front of all the others and their head would be shaved.

On September 15th, 1958, Dietrich registered Synanon as a non-profit organization since they were a drug treatment facility. This meant that they now didn’t have to pay taxes. This eventually drew attention from the law, and in 1961, Dietrich was sent to jail for a few weeks for zoning violations and operating without a license. This publicity was by far the best thing that happened for the organization. The government had gone after the little guy who was just trying to help drug addicts, giving him media coverage and allowing him to become a martyr for the cause. When the powerful people of the world were alerted to the existence of the struggling enterprise, they did whatever they could to help. Big companies donated food, clothes, furniture, whatever they needed. Life magazine did a spread on them, Governor Edmund Brown Senior passed the bill that made Synanon exempt from health licensing laws, so they wouldn’t be hassled in the future. No rules were ever actually set for how they should operate. 

Senate Hearing on Drug rehabilitation 1962 Top: Frank Lago, Synanon resident with Dr. Lewis Yablonsky and Bottom: CED(L), Jack Hurst (Synanon resident) and Dr. Yablonsky. Senator Dodd called Synanon “The Miracle on the Beach”

At this point, Synanon had several hundred patients. To enter the treatment, one had to quit their drug addiction cold turkey upon entering, share in the chores and labour, and pay one-thousand dollars. Their schedules consisted of seven, six-hour days of “motion” (work), and then seven days of “growth” (attack therapy). If one was slacking off on their duties, they were called out by their peers in “the Game” and shamed into keeping up their responsibilities.

In the compound, there was very little privacy. Dietrich utilized “the wire”, an in-house radio network that was broadcasted 24/7, preaching the ideas of Dietrich and keeping everybody on the right track. 

The Synanon CONNECT was the front desk in the lobby of any facility. It was the first thing a visitor or potential resident there for an interview would see when they arrived. Here is the Connect in Santa Monica Del Mar with Tom Hudson 1967.

In 1964 they had 500 residents, and by 1969 they had 1400. In the ten years that they had existed, some six to ten thousand addicts had passed through. The House of Representatives called it, “the miracle on the beach courts” and would send addicts to go live at the compound for treatment. It became very popular among Hollywood celebrities and a movie called Synanon in 1965 was created by Columbia, staring Chuck Connors and Richard Conte. Around this time, Synanon was also known for great parties with talented musicians, since many patients were jazz players. 

Tromboneist, Frank Rehak, playing with John Coltrane and Miles Davis in 1958. Frank came to Synanon for treatment and became a well-loved music teacher to many young people in Synanon. Frank died in Synanon in the late 1980s

From the outside Dietrich’s program seemed so successful that other places around the country adopted his methods, including the Terminal Island Prison. He claimed that recovery rates were between 80-100%. This wasn’t true. Most people graduated after two years, and once they left, went straight back to using. In 1968, Dietrich saw an obvious solution, nobody would graduate anymore. Once someone joined Synanon, they were now in for life, and together they would build a new utopia with Dietrich as their leader. 

Around this time Dietrich wanted more money brought into the enterprise. He wouldn’t accept government grants because then he’d have to be evaluated on the success of the treatments. To bring in more money, he opened up the doors to people who weren’t addicted to anything. The people who weren’t addicted were referred to as “squares” and had to give all their possessions to Synanon. Dietrich came up with a new even more extreme version of “the Game” that appealed to the drug culture at the time, and promised to open up your mind without LSD, this was called “the Trip.” 

It would start on a Friday with a group of approximately fifty new patients, who were led through candlelit, incense-filled hallways, through their compound, and into a big room lined with army cots. Each person had a cot and a set of white robes for them to wear. Their watches were taken from them so they wouldn’t know how much time had passed. Then “the Game” would begin and their guides would yell at them and turn them against each other until they were depressed and ashamed of who they were. These guides had researched each person in the group in order to get personal information to bring up every bad thing they had ever done. The recruits were deprived of sleep and were subjected to the witching hour, where two witches dressed in black and white robes, using an Ouija board, would spell out Emerson quotes from Self-Reliance. They would tell them that they had to accept Synanon or they’d go to the fifth circle of hell. Once everyone was beaten into a bloody mental pulp and was rebuilt with the Synanon ideals, they were marched out to band music into a ballroom filled with a cheering crowd. 

Synanon had its own special dance called “THE HOOPLA”…..a form of line dance where everyone could dance with no partner but in synchronicity with the whole group.

By 1972, Synanon had become more a way of life than an addiction recovery program. This became the period of huge growth. They became the second largest firm in the United States and ran many local businesses. In 1968, they were taking in around 1.2 million dollars a year. By 1976 it was 8.7 million and they were doing business with over 20,000 businesses and organizations. One out of every five companies on the fortune 500 list were involved. They laundered this money through a self-owned, private corporation in Lake Havasu.

New members had to pay monthly dues of:

•  $450 for an individual

•  $750 for a couple

•  $440 for a child 

With the increase of income, the IRS started to get suspicious, mainly because Synanon wasn’t a nonprofit organization, This audit created talk of revoking their tax-exempt status. In 1974 Diedrich came up with the perfect solution, Synanon was no longer a drug treatment center; it would now be the Church of Synanon. 

In the early 1970s all the Women in Synanon shaved their heads as a demonstration of equality with men.

Synanon’s patients were subject to the impulses of their new God Dietrich. When Dietrich had to go on a diet, all the followers had to go on a diet. When he had to start running in place to lose weight, everyone had to run in place to lose weight.  When he took up whittling so did everyone else, when he quit smoking nobody was allowed to smoke. He decided all women had to have four earrings and all men had to have one. In the mid-70s, he decided that all men and women had to shave their heads, this happened to be just the look George Lucas was searching for when he was making the film “Thx 1138,” many of the extras were members of Synanon.  Dietrich performed raids where he would randomly enter people’s rooms and take away excessive personal possessions. He experimented with the 24-hour day, where half the people worked during the day and half the people work during the night. Whatever idea came into his head, he tried it out.

Synanon was health conscious and had weigh ins to help keep people fit and trim. In this photo measurements are being taken as well as weight

Dietrich was a big proprietor of racial integration and wanted to set an example for the rest of his followers. He married an African-American woman and encouraged all his followers to find partners outside of their races. The members did however have to get permission from an elder to date somebody. During this time, Dietrich and his wife were known to sit on thrones wearing robes. In 1977 his wife died of lung cancer, and he decided that every couple in the compound had to not only break up, but also get together with new Synanon picked love matches. In this plan, every three years a member would have to break up again and get rematched with someone in a mass wedding, so no one could get too attached. 

Children born in Synanon were dealt with in a typical cult fashion. When a woman was seven months pregnant, she had to move into a separate area called the hatchery and was required to stay there until the baby was six months old. Many people believed that the removal of the father figure from the children was related to Dietrich’s upbringing. After this, the kids were taken from their mothers and raised communally, only seen by their parents once a week. The children alternated between three weeks of school and then three weeks of apprenticeship in specific trades. When these kids took national achievement tests, they scored above average. 

Synanon School kids Game 1976

In 1972 Dietrich decided that all of the children should be moved to the Marin County compound. Despite the outrage from the parents, the move was successful, and the kids were made to start playing “the Game” at age four. Naturally, kids ran away all the time, but the local sheriff, Dave Mitchell, had been elected with Synanon support, and thus, the reports of child abuse were ignored and the kids were returned and continued to be abused. In 1977, Dietrich got tired of having kids around and decided they were a waste of money. Thereafter, all men were required to get vasectomies and the women who were pregnant were forced to have abortions. Dietrich however never got a vasectomy, he said: “I am NOT bound by the rules, I make them.”

In the Early 1970s Synanon moved its School, for children and its Newcomer Intake programs to the Magetti Ranch property. Shown here the Newcomer “boot camp” drilling.

Synanon was still a harmless organization bound by the worlds of no violence or threats of violence until 1970. The change was sparked by Deidrich when playing “the Game.” Dietrich was talking and a woman kept interrupting him. He got so annoyed with her that he dumped a can of root beer on her head. This was a direct violation of the no-violence rule, and everyone was shocked. He justified himself by saying I gave the woman a lesson in manners, and that was the beginning of the culture of violence inside of Synanon.

Thereafter, Diedrich created The Imperial Marines led by a man named Dr. Douglas Robson. The Marines patrolled their compounds in Santa Monica and when people trespassed on their property they were taken into the basement and beaten. They also went after ex-members and enemies, one such enemy was a guy who cut off Dr. Robson while driving. Later on, while playing “the Game,” Diedrich shamed Robson for not attacking the guy who had disrespected him. So Robson took a troop of Marines, tracked down the car that had cut him off, went to the guy’s house, held his family at gunpoint, and then pistol-whipped him while his family watched. If one of the soldiers were caught, they were trained to go to jail and say nothing of their involvement.

One of their biggest enemies was a LA lawyer named Paul Morantz. Morantz’s attention was first brought to Synanon because a woman who was having a pre-psychotic break checked herself into Synanon. Then, when her husband found out where she was and went to get her out, they said that they already sent her to their facility in Tomales Bay and that he couldn’t have her. Morantz went on to lead many legal battles against Synanon. 

In October, 1978, Morantz’s address was put on a memo that was given to the Synanon legal department. They immediately gave this information to Dietrich, who then read it over “the wire” and asked, “who among them [referring to the patients] would have the guts to do something about it.” He wanted Morantz dead, but he didn’t want to pay a hitman to do it. Synanon’s Marines went to his house and put a rattlesnake into his mailbox. When he got home, he checked his mail, reached in, and got bitten by the snake. He survived but he was in the hospital for 11 days. 

Paul Morantz on a gurney, still recovering from the incident, and talking to reporters.

The downfall of Dietrich started when he sued a developer in DC, in regards to property. This enabled the prosecution to access the wire radio network which kept recordings of everything that was ever said. The tapes that the authorities were given were heavily edited but there was still enough evidence. There were recordings of the threats of violence, there were recordings of people being beaten, there were even recordings of what Dietrich had said about Marantz leading up to the snake attack. The exact words were, “don’t mess with Synanon, you can get killed physically dead. I am quite willing to break some lawyer’s legs and neck, break his wife’s legs, and threatened to cut their child’s arm off. Try me, this is only a sample you son of a B****, I want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk.” The Jonestown Massacre had just happened a few days before, and an arrest warrant was out for Diedrich, as well as the guys who had placed the snake. 

On December 2nd, They finally found Dietrich in a house in Lake Havasu. He was drunk, which was very hypocritical. Diedrich just got five years of probation and a $5,000 fine, however he was forced to step down as chairman of Synanon and could no longer be involved with the church and religion that he had created. On top of that, Synanon was essentially categorized as a terrorist organization, which made future cases easier to win. The big companies that still supported Synanon like IBM and Heinz severed ties, and the IRS came asking for the taxes that they owed them. In May, 1982, they finally lost their tax-exempt status, thanks to the same judge from the Watergate case. The money continued to bleed out until 1991 when they finally ran out of funds, and Synanon was closed for good.