Synanon Founder Dies at Age 83

The Associated Press, March 3, 1997

VISALIA, Calif. (AP) -- Charles Dederich Sr., founder of the Synanon drug rehabilitation group that turned into a cultlike religion implicated in a murder plot, has died at the age of 83.

Dederich began Synanon in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1950s and moved the enterprises from Marin County to the Sierra Nevada in Tulare County during the 1970s. By then, Synanon had launched several profitable businesses to support its growing membership.

Dederich, who died Friday of cardiorespiratory failure, proclaimed Synanon a religion and was criticized for allegedly controlling the actions and thoughts of his hundreds of adherents.

Dederich and two assistants pleaded no contest in 1980 to charges that they solicited an assault and conspired to murder a Los Angeles lawyer by placing a rattlesnake in his mailbox. The lawyer, Paul Morantz, was bitten but survived.

As part of the plea bargain, Dederich gave up control of Synanon. He served no jail time. His prominence and that of Synanon declined after that.

In a 1977 interview with The Associated Press, Dederich denied that he dictated lifestyle changes such as his decision earlier that year that all Synanon couples would divorce, then form a "love match" with anotherpartner.

"I can't demand anything," Dederich said. "All they have to do is walk out."

During that interview, Dederich talked of Synanon's attempt to achieve material wealth through its businesses while swearing off alcohol, drugs, tobacco -- even sugar.

"Lots of people in the U.S. don't eat sugar," Dederich said. "But we do a terribly frightening thing. We don't eat sugar in concert.

"There's something very fascinating and frightening about that, something very aggressive and frightening about people who do things in concert. We don't do it to frighten people. It's just what we do."

A funeral service already has been held, according to a notice in today's Fresno Bee.