The Cult, The Lawyer, and the Snake

Summary

Crimes of the Times: "The Cult, The Lawyer, and the Snake"

Host: Christopher Goffard
Date: April 1, 2025
Podcast: L.A. Times Studios

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Overview

In this gripping episode, Christopher Goffard uncovers the dark legacy of Synanon, a notorious organization that began as a revolutionary drug rehabilitation center but devolved into a violent cult. At the heart of the story is Paul Morantz, a tenacious Los Angeles attorney who became Synanon’s fiercest critic and target—famously surviving an assassination attempt involving a rattlesnake in his mailbox. Through interviews, archival tapes, and first-person accounts, the episode exposes how idealism turned to fanaticism and violence, and how one lawyer’s relentless pursuit of justice helped bring about Synanon’s downfall.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Climate of Fear Around Paul Morantz (00:01–02:45)

• Introduction of Paul Morantz:
  By October 1978, attorney Paul Morantz was living in fear, checking his car for bombs, warning neighbors, and carrying a shotgun due to violent threats connected to his work challenging Synanon in court.
  • Narda Zacchino: “He told them that his life was threatened and if they saw anything suspicious, to let him know.” (00:41)
  • Richard Ofshe: “He was enemy number one. I mean, Dieterich hated him.” (01:07)
• The Snake Attack:
  As Morantz reached into his mail slot on October 10, 1978, he was bitten by a rattlesnake intentionally left for him by Synanon operatives.
  • Morantz reflecting: “I just didn't think...With all these precautions, I just didn't think...” (01:53)
  • Immediate reaction: He ran outside screaming, “Synanon got me!” and collapsed (02:39).

2. Origin and Early Success of Synanon (03:08–06:52)

• Chuck Dieterich/“Big Daddy”:
  • Founded Synanon in the late 1950s as a drug rehab center for “dope fiends.”
  • Early coverage hailed it as a miracle, with celebrities visiting and participants experiencing a strong sense of community.
    • Ofshe: “Diedrich claimed that Synanon was the key to curing heroin addiction...which it was not.” (05:18)
• The Game:
  Synanon’s signature form of group therapy involved intense, uninhibited verbal attacks designed for catharsis.
  • “It was based on what he called, quote, uninhibited conversations, yelling, castigation, aggression, lying.” (05:52)
  • Ofshe: “You could directly confront somebody, or make up stuff and attack them for the fun of attacking them...” (06:18)

3. Escalating Abuse, Loyalty Rituals, and Violence (06:52–10:32)

• Cult Practices:

  • Vasectomies: Members were pressured to undergo sterilization as loyalty tests.
    • Ofshe: “When they broke, they were let out...into an operating room set up by Synanon doctors.” (07:24)
  • Forced partner swapping, violence as a test of loyalty, and the creation of a private paramilitary group, the “Imperial Marines.”
    • Ofshe: “That's what Diedrich did time after time after time...It wasn't just the vasectomies.” (08:33)

• Dieterich’s Paranoia:
  Escalated focus on enemies, especially Paul Morantz, justifying extreme actions in the name of group preservation.

4. Synanon's Aggression Toward Journalists and Critics (13:03–15:21)

• Attack on Media:
  Narda Zacchino recalls targeted intimidation from Synanon members and describes intense legal scrutiny before publishing anything on Synanon.
  • Zacchino: “Every single story I wrote, I had to sit down with the lawyer, go over every word. It would take sometimes two days...” (15:07)

5. Aftermath of the Rattlesnake Attack (16:16–20:44)

• Morantz's Survival and Public Reaction:
  Hospitalized but energized, Morantz saw public opinion turn sharply against Synanon.
  • Zacchino: “He felt, like, euphoric because finally, this is like, nobody is going to support these people after this, right?” (17:04)
  • Morantz to the press: "Those people who put the snake in my mailbox do not think of themselves as criminals...but believe themselves to be serving a higher purpose." (17:43)
• Evidence and Arrests:
  Thanks to alert neighbors and a recorded Synanon vehicle plate, police raided Synanon, finding tapes of Dieterich openly threatening violence.
  • Tape excerpt: “Don’t mess with us. You can get killed. Dead, physically dead. ... I want to crack some bones. This is only a sample, you son of a bitch. And that’s the end of your lawyer.” (19:36)
• Personal Fallout:
  Morantz’s fiancée, terrified by the threats, left him.
  • Morantz: "I looked at her face and I knew she was gone." (20:25)

6. Prosecution, Decline, and End of Synanon (20:44–22:41)

• Legal Aftermath:
  Dieterich and two of his Imperial Marines, Joseph Musico and Lance Kenton, were prosecuted; Dieterich avoided jail time but was stripped of leadership.
  • Morantz’s perspective: He saw the two Marines as victims of Dieterich’s mind control.
• Synanon’s Demise:
  The IRS revoked its tax-exempt status, leading to its dissolution in 1991. Dieterich died six years later.

7. Reflections and Lingering Questions (26:57–33:07)

• Lance Kenton’s View:
  The only surviving perpetrator interviewed by Goffard, Kenton remains loyal to Synanon’s memory, expressing respect for its ideals and denying knowledge of some violence.
  • Kenton: Called Synanon “probably the single greatest community to grow up in.” (26:57)
  • Defends Dieterich, arguing he was unaware of all violence—an assertion challenged by Ofshe (29:57).
  • Ofshe: “Total bull. As far as not blaming Dieterich, I mean, that's absurd.” (29:57)
• Lingering Trauma:
  Morantz’s life was forever changed—through physical pain, lost relationships, and professional obsession.
  • Morantz: “I was captured. I was past the point of no return and Diedrich was captured by me. ... We both had a sort of morbid curiosity about the other.” (22:41)
  • On loss: “My fiance at the time...became too afraid and left. ... the life that I thought I was going to have was gone.” (32:25)
  • He later reflects, “If all that had happened, he would not have been born and Curiosity might have crash landed on Mars.” (32:53)
  • “I would have stuck my hand in the mailbox...” (33:07)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Morantz on Precaution and Attack:
  “This was a time...I would search underneath [my car]. I wouldn't enter my house if my dogs weren't barking. And yet...I just didn't think...” (01:53)
• On Synanon’s Cult Dynamics:
  Ofshe: “Pressure was put on every male in Synanon except Charles Diedrich to get a vasectomy. ... And in the next room an operating room had been set up...” (07:24)
• On the Poison’s Effects:
  Morantz: “Part of the poison kills, but another part destroys tissue and softens it...That's very painful.” (18:34)
• Dieterich’s Menacing Tape:
  “Don’t mess with us. You can get killed. Dead, physically dead. ... I want to crack some bones.” (19:36)
• Goffard on the Impact:
  “The rattlesnake attack was Synanon’s Pearl Harbor—the event that exposed what he called a cesspool ruled by violence and one man’s madness.” (22:57)
• Morantz's Bittersweet Reflection:
  “If all that had happened, he would not have been born and Curiosity might have crash landed on Mars.” (32:53) “I would have stuck my hand in the mailbox...” (33:07)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01–02:45: Introduction; Paul Morantz’s life under threat and the rattlesnake attack.
• 03:08–06:52: History of Synanon, Dieterich’s vision, and the inception of the “game.”
• 06:52–10:32: Escalation of abusive practices and the origins of Synanon's violence.
• 13:03–15:21: Synanon’s legal assaults on critics and targeting of journalists.
• 16:16–20:44: Aftermath of the snake attack, media furor, discovery of Synanon evidence.
• 20:44–22:41: Prosecution of Synanon leaders and the group’s demise.
• 26:57–33:07: Reflections, interviews with Lance Kenton, and Morantz’s final thoughts.

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Final Reflections

The story of Synanon is a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked power, groupthink, and the capacity for idealistic movements to become vehicles for authoritarianism and violence. The podcast’s nuanced exploration of Paul Morantz’s personal and legal crusade spotlights the personal toll of standing up to power—and the unforeseen ways such events ripple through lives and history.

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For additional details or to watch the video episode, visit latimes.com/crimesofthetimes.

Transcript

[A]

This is an LA Times Studios podcast. The lawyer was expecting assassins. His work had made him dangerous enemies and he was taking every precaution. And so by October 1978, Paul Marans was checking underneath his car for bombs and warning people in his Pacific Palisade's neighborhood to look out for strangers.

[B]

He went door to door and told all of them, if you ever see a suspicious car in front of my house, please write down the license number.

[A]

This is Narda Zacchino, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who knew Paul Marantz well and worked with him.

[B]

And he told them that his life was threatened and if they saw anything suspicious, to let him know better than anyone.

[A]

The 32 year old attorney was aware of the violent side of the drug rehab organization he'd been aggressively challenging in court. And Synanon, the group's increasingly unhinged and paranoid founder, Chuck Dieterich, who called himself Big Daddy, harbored a special animosity for Paul Morantz.

[B]

He was enemy number one. I mean, Dieterk hated him.

[A]

Paul Morantz had purchased a shotgun in case his enemies burst through his door. He had alerted the local authorities that his life was in danger. But Marantz was distracted as he arrived home on the late afternoon of October 10, 1978. Distracted because he was an exuberant baseball fan and the World Series was about to start with the hometown Dodgers playing the Yankees. Distracted as he reached into the mail slot of his living room wall to retrieve what looked like a package.

[C]

I wasn't wearing glasses because I didn't own any because I was too vain. And I often didn't put in my heart contacts because they were too painful.

[A]

This is Morantz, decades later describing that moment to an interviewer.

[C]

This was a time in which before I start my car, I would search underneath it. I would look both ways, crossing the streets. I wouldn't enter my house if my dogs weren't barking. And yet, with all these precautions, I just didn't think he did not hear.

[A]

The rattlesnake coiled inside the mail slot because its rattles had been removed. It was a fully grown snake, four and a half feet long. The fangs sank in just below his left thumb.

[C]

When the head came out and bit my hand, I remember thinking, no, this one was too stupid. They can't pull this off.

[D]

Everybody knew it had to be Synanon. He's yelling out, synanon got me. Synanon got me. And then he collapses.

[A]

Richard Offshie is a retired Berkeley sociologist who studied Synanon and wrote a book about it. Marantz was screaming for help as the venom coursed through him.

[B]

When he was laying on the grass, he said, please, please call Narda Zecchino at the LA Times and tell her she's next.

[A]

Today on Crimes of the Times, the story of Synanon, a rehab group that was once widely celebrated, and the rattlesnake attack against a lawyer who had made it his mission to take them down. Before we get to the snake bit attorney writhing on the lawn outside his house that day in 1978, it's important to understand what Synanon was and where it came from. It was the brainchild of Chuck Dieterich, who called himself Big Daddy, the Chief or the Old Man. He was a recovering alcoholic with a harsh booming voice and a face half paralyzed by a childhood bout of meningitis. Since the day he founded Synanon as a home for so called dope fiends in Santa Monica in the late 1950s, he had been its unquestioned leader. Richard Offshie, the sociologist, told me Synanon's origins could be traced to Dieterich's involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous.

[D]

He was a belligerent sort of drunk. Even when he wasn't drunk, he was a grifter. Proved himself to be a con man as soon as he got the opportunity to con somebody about just about anything. And so he's taking part in these AA meetings. But he was such an egomaniac that he just couldn't follow the AA format. Stand up and say his thing and then sit down and so on. He just was more interactive than that. Some addicts started hanging out at this rented facility which was where the AA meetings were held. Heroin addicts, they needed a place to stay.

[A]

Synanon took over the sprawling Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica. And Dieterich promised revolutionary success in how drug addiction was treated. Celebrities showed up to be seen there. Life magazine called it the Miracle on the Beach.

[D]

Diedrich claimed that Synanon was the key to curing heroin addiction. It was sort of cutting edge in that way, if it were true, which it was not.

[A]

Synanon grew into a multi million dollar business and members became known for their shaved heads and farmers overalls. The group commanded intense loyalty from members. Many of them swore it had saved them from addiction. The group's governing ritual was a form of group therapy called the game. In the game, members sat in a room and unleashed verbal attacks on one another. It was supposed to provide catharsis for the emotionally throttled. Dieterit described the game as a gimmick that no One else seems to have. It was based on what he called, quote, uninhibited conversations, yelling, castigation, aggression, lying. He said anything goes short of physical violence or threats of physical violence.

[D]

You could directly confront somebody about something, or you could make up stuff and confront them about things that you made up and just attack them for the fun of attacking them. Deidre claimed that participation in the Synanon game was what made the difference and allowed these people to live in Synanon and to get rehabilitated eventually. Diedrich admits that it only works as long as you are resident in Synanon.

[A]

The group expanded far beyond drug rehab and established what it billed as a utopian community. By 1977, after years of glowing and unskeptical stories, the news coverage had become darker and more critical. Time magazine was calling Synanon a kooky cult. The magazine highlighted how Dieterich, now in his mid-60s, was aggressively encouraging his members to get vasectomies. The so called game was a tool to break down the resistors.

[D]

Pressure was put on every male in Synanon except Charles Diedrich to get a vasectomy. The scene is there'd be a marathon Synanon game going on in one room, big room. People who were resisting would be dropped into that marathon game until they stopped resisting. And there would be a preponderance of people who, who were there to attack them. And some people who were being rotated in to be worked on. When they broke, they were let out through a door and in the next room an operating room had been set up and the Synanon doctors sterilized the people who had just been broken in the Synanon game and were subjecting themselves to vasectomies. I remember there was a story about a father who went in with his two sons and all three of them got sterilized together.

[A]

Afshi told me that Dieterich demanded these sacrifices as a way of weeding out the uncommitted. They were loyalty tests.

[D]

The one thing that Diederich understood was if you're gonna be an authoritarian leader, loyalty is more important than anything else. It's not population size that matters. It's the average level of loyalty in the group that really matters. You're much better off to get rid of the people who are possible dissenters because you'll constantly have a problem with them. That's what Diedrich did time after time after time. It wasn't just the vasectomies. At one point, Diederich declared everyone in Synanon had to change partners. Every married couple had two to split up and be reconnected with somebody else.

[A]

Another test of loyalty, Afshe told me, was the willingness to use violence. It was an inversion of the nonviolent ethos that he had originally preached.

[D]

That was another one of the principles of the utopian community, nonviolence. So if you want to find out who's going to object, take the principles that attracted people to the organization, reverse those principles, see where you get resistance, and then drive those people out.

[A]

Reports of violence associated with Synanon were multiplying as its soldiers punished critics and defectors. Dieterich had launched a private security force called the Imperial Marines. A prosecutor would describe it as, quote, a combat ready paramilitary unit trained in martial arts weapons, high speed automobile chases and the like. Here is Dieterich explaining to a reporter why he was building a security force.

[C]

I can't brush this off.

[D]

I just can't. Threatening telephone calls, threatening notes, filthy mail, and so on.

[A]

Dieterich cast his antagonists as mortal enemies who are trying to destroy all of Synanon's good works. Increasingly, he was fixated on one Los Angeles lawyer in particular.

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[A]

Los Angeles Attorney Paul Moranz had become one of Synanon's most visible critics. He represented a woman who said members had kidnapped and brainwashed her. He had tried to get Synanon leader Chuck Dieterich to testify under oath and had won a $300,000 judgment when Dieterich refused to submit to a deposition. Marantz had been following reports of violence associated with the group. Members had beaten neighbors near Synanon's remote mountain compound in Central California. A former member had been attacked and nearly killed outside his home in Berkeley. Marantz knew that he was in danger. He also feared for Nardo Zacchino at the Los Angeles Times, who had been writing critical stories about the it took.

[B]

A while to get people because they were frightened.

[A]

He had been directing sources to Zacchino, encouraging them to trust her.

[B]

Paul they trusted him so much because they knew what he was trying to do. He would talk to people and then say, would you be willing to talk to a reporter?

[A]

One day Sinan sent a man to her door.

[B]

I think he had a shaved head when they were shaving their heads and it scared me. He said, I know you're in there. I heard your television. So I immediately went to the phone and called my city editor, not the police, my city editor. And I said, synanon's here. And he said, narda, don't open the door here.

[A]

Editor called police. But it turned out that the Synanon member lived in the same apartment complex, so they had to employ a ruse to separate them.

[B]

We can't make him go away because he lives in this complex. The officer came in, he said, here's what we're going to do. He said, we're going to walk him over to his building, walk him as slowly as we can. If you want to leave, you can leave. And so I packed a bag as fast as I could.

[A]

Sinan had discovered the tactic of discouraging critical coverage with lawsuits, and the Times lawyer wanted to proceed cautiously.

[B]

Every single story I wrote, I had to sit down with the lawyer, go over every word. It would take sometimes two days, trying to protect us from getting sued because they knew that Synanon was so litigious.

[A]

On October 7, 1978, Zakino reported that New York and Berkeley authorities were probing threats that Synanon had made against journalists. She knew Synanon was also under investigation for threatening enemies in Los Angeles, but she couldn't get that part past the newspaper lawyer. She wondered whether that might have deterred the attack on Paul Marantz. Three days later, when Marantz reached into his mail chute and the rattlesnake's fang struck. He ran outside yelling for help and found neighbors who sprang into service. One brought ice. Another used a shirt to make a tourniquet. A firefighter decapitated the snake with a shovel and flushed the head down the toilet. Zakino got the call, conveying Marantz's warning that she was next, and she headed to the hospital to find him.

[B]

It was like pandemonium. There were cops everywhere. Everybody was there. Media was there. And I went up to the desk and I said, I need to see Paul Marantz. I think I said, I'm his sister and I need to see him. And they let me in right away. And he actually laughed. I walked in the room, he said, I knew you'd get in. He was smiling, and he said, if they had taken me to another hospital, I could have died there.

[A]

At USC Medical Center, Marantz was wheeled out in his hospital bed to face the press. He had no doubt this snake had come from Synanon. Looking at photos of Marantz, it's possible to see a kind of relief in his face, not just because he'd survived, but because now people would begin to take him seriously about the group's violent side.

[B]

I think he felt, like, euphoric because finally, this is like, nobody is going to support these people after this, right? Nobody. I mean, just the horror of it. You put in your hand to get the male, and the snake bites you with its fangs in your hand. The idea of that is, like, nightmarish. These things don't happen. How does this happen? I mean, that's craziness. If you think you're going to kill somebody that way, and you put a snake in their mailbox. Your imagination kind of goes wild. What else have they done? Or what else could they do?

[A]

Speaking to the media from his hospital bed, Moran said, those people who put the snake in my mailbox do not think of themselves as criminals, I'm sure, but believe themselves to be serving a higher purpose.

[D]

That was back in the days when the national news came on at 6 o' clock at night and everybody had dinner and the national news at the same time.

[A]

This is Richard Offshe, the retired Berkeley sociologist.

[D]

The lead on that went a crime happened today that is weird even by California standards, or something like that. And then reported the Synanon, the rattlesnake attack. It certainly got Synanon into the public eye.

[A]

Here is Marantz, years after the attack, describing the pain of the rattlesnake bite to the interviewer Martin Lasdin.

[C]

See, part of the poison kills, but another point destroys tissue and softens it so that it can swallow the animal. And that is very painful because it's destroying the tissue inside your hand. I once made comparable to having your hand in a vise and someone's cranking it up and then there's a pause and then they start re cranking again.

[A]

The crime was swiftly solved. An alert neighbor had seen two men approach Marantz's house and put something hastily in his mail slot before driving away in a green sedan. The neighbor made note of the plate number and police traced it to the Synanon compound in Badger. The odometer showed the car had traveled 1,000 miles the week of the attack. It was the distance of a round trip to and from the lawyer's block in Pacific Palisades. Police seized 13 audio tapes from the compound. They found hours of Dieterich ranting menacingly. In his distinctive bombastic growl. He could be heard inveighing against what he called greedy lawyers and describing his so called religious posture. Don't mess with us. You can get killed. Dead, physically dead. Dieterich said, I'm quite willing to break some lawyer's legs and then tell him, next time I'm going to break your wife's legs and then we're going to cut your kid's arm off. Try me. This is only a sample, you son of a bitch. And that's the end of your lawyer. I want to crack some bones. The menace of Dieterich's message alarmed the woman Paul Moranz had planned to marry. She had two children from another relationship and was terrified of what Synanon might do.

[C]

Diedrich talked about the training of the Imperial Marines People they had beaten up that they were going to kill people. And they mentioned that the lawyers were the worst enemies in the end of the tape. Then we get his wife and then we get his kids. And I looked at her face and I knew she was gone.

[A]

The media got the tapes and played them endlessly. A Synanon lawyer explained that Dieterich didn't really mean it. He was just a sick old man who talked like a dockhand and indulged in hyperbole. But public anxiety about cults and violence prone messiahs had reached new heights just a month after the rattlesnake attack on Marantz. People's Temple founder Jim Jones presided over the mass suicide of his followers in guyana. More than 900 people died, many of them after drinking cyanide laced punch. When police came to arrest Chuck Dieterich, he was too drunk to walk. The man who boasted of rescuing thousands of addicts was now being charged with conspiracy to commit murder. Two of his Imperial Marines were arrested on suspicion of executing the attack. One was Joseph Musicon, a 28 year old Vietnam War combat veteran who struggled with heroin. The other was Lance Kenton, 20 years old. Police had lifted his fingerprint from the window of the green sedan. He was the son of the famous jazz musician Stan Kenton and had been raised by Synanon while his dad was on the road. In July 1980, the three defendants pleaded no contest to charges connected to the attack. Morantz did not want long sentences for men he considered victims of Dieterich's manipulation. He said, I can't find it in my heart to feel that Kenton and Musico should spend their lives in prison. Dieterich was spared jail time but barred from a leadership position in the group he had founded, his Imperial Marines. Each got a year in jail. Morantz wrote a memoir called My Lifelong War Against Cults with a rattlesnake on the COVID In it, Morantz wrote that he had developed an obsession with Dieterich and that when he finally met him at a deposition, he sensed, quote, a powerful, creepy bond with him.

[C]

I was captured. I was past the point of no return and Diedrich was captured by me. I was out there to destroy him. And so we both had a sort of morbid curiosity about the other.

[A]

Marantz called the rattlesnake attack Synanon's Pearl harbor, the event that exposed what he called a cesspool ruled by violence and one man's madness. But what really destroyed Synanon was the Internal Revenue Service, which revoked its tax exempt status and stuck it with a massive bill for back taxes and penalties. The group dissolved in 1991. Its founder survived six more years, along with Dieterich Musica, one of the Imperial Marines convicted in the snake attack, is dead. That leaves Lance Kenton, the son of the famous musician. I wanted to know what he had to say about what he had done and why, nearly half a century later, what he told me after the break.

[F]

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Entered the foster care system at the age of 11 and I aged out at the age of 21 and it was not an easy time to be a foster child. It never is. Being in foster care, it really truly taught me resilience in a way that has set me up for life, but in the way that saddens me because no children should feel the feeling of survival, the need to be resilient. At the end of the day they should be carefree and enjoy their childhood. So CASA is a non profit organization that stands for Court Appointed Special Advocate and they specialize in making sure that the child's needs are met, whether it's medical, health, educational and ensuring that the child is receiving the most ability they.

[A]

Can I wanted to talk to the men who had put the snake in Paul Morantz mailbox and only one of them is still alive, Lance Kenton. He's in his mid-60s now and managing properties in Malibu. We talked briefly by phone, but I couldn't get him back on the line to record him. My guess is he did not like the direction of the conversation. He had only nice things to say about Synanon. He called it, quote, probably the single greatest community to grow up in. He told me he was sent there at age 11. His father, the jazz musician, was frequently on the road and paid the group $7.50 a month to take care of him. In his early teens, he moved to the group's mountain compound in Badger, California. He said it was a happy childhood, full of freedom with a sprawling non biological family. He was an enthusiastic participant in the game. He told me it was catharsis and a lubricant for a community. In his words, it enabled all of us to err and share gripes and move forward. Here in society, you walk along with prejudice. In Synanon, there was none. Kenton told me he submitted to a vasectomy just after he turned 18 because it made philosophical sense to him. He said, why not be a parent to someone who needs a parent instead of having your own child? That increases the population of people who need parents. When Dieterich launched the Imperial Marines, Kenton was picked for the three month training. He loved Synanon and believed in its mission. He was good with snakes. He did not want to talk about his role on the attack on Paul Morantz, to which he had pleaded no contest. But his disdain For Morantz was strong. Nearly half a century later, he spoke of him as a man who didn't understand Synanon and only focused on its disgruntled former members. As Marantz was recovering from the snakebite, the attorney told LA Times reporter Nardo Zacchino that police had found a second rattlesnake in the canyon behind his house and that he believed it had been intended for her.

[B]

I've always wondered. I always wondered, was that second snake for me? Is it true what Paul said?

[A]

Recently at a screening party for a documentary about Synanons? Aquino spotted Lance Kenton and walked up to him. She wanted to know if she had been marked for death.

[B]

I said, I just need to know. I want to know, was that second snake for me? And he said, I don't know about a second snake.

[A]

During my brief conversation with him, Kenton told me he does not blame the founder, Chuck Dieterich, for the violence that became associated with Synanon. He said people decided to do things that he didn't necessarily know about.

[D]

Total bull. As far as not blaming Diederik, I mean, that's absurd.

[A]

But do you think that Diederich was a charlatan and a malevolent personality all the way along, or did he start with some kind of good intentions and then become corrupted? What's your opinion about the.

[D]

I think he was a grifter and a con man his whole life, even to this day.

[A]

People who've been through the program, people like Hinton, they still speak in terms of reverence, almost worship about Dietrich.

[D]

Of course they do, because they were believers.

[A]

The year of the rattlesnake attack, afshe was working as a consultant for the Point Reyes Light, a tiny weekly newspaper in Marin county where Synanon had its headquarters. The paper was run by a husband and wife team. Editor David Mitchell spearheaded a series critical of Synanon coverage, which would win the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1979. Paul Morantz died at age 77 in 2022. The snake attack made his name, but it cost him heavily. The pain in his hand never really went away. There was bone cancer, chemo, and red blood cell aplasia that left him needing regular transfusions.

[D]

Paul was hit with a very serious arthritic illness. He was very debilitated for the last 15, 20 years of his life.

[A]

It was impossible to prove, but Marantz thought the venom had been killing him slowly for decades.

[D]

Anything could happen to anybody. But I think there's reason to believe that the rattlesnake venom could have started that going.

[A]

Marantz had a son, Chaz, who told me that former Synanon members regarded his father as a hero and a friend. He had a reputation as a kind of niche lawyer who specialized in cults. His son took inspiration from his father's favorite film, Apollo 13, and joined the big team of engineers that put the rover Curiosity on Mars. But listening to Marantz boast about him, it was easy to think his son had done it single handedly. In his late 60s, Marantz told an interviewer about how much his battle with Synanon had cost him. It had scared away the woman he planned to marry and wrecked his health.

[C]

My fiance at the time I was going to get married, had two kids and she became too afraid and left. And I took that very hard. So the life that I thought I was going to have with her was gone.

[A]

But if he had not put his hand in the mail chute, his fiance might have stayed and he would not have married the woman who gave him a son who helped steer a wheeled robot across the surface of the red planet.

[C]

If all that had happened, he would not have been born and Curiosity might have crash landed on Mars.

[A]

Knowing that his son's existence hinged on it, he said he would not have done anything differently.

[C]

I would have stuck my hand in the mailbox and.

[A]

From LA Times Studios, this is Crimes of the Times. To read more about these cases, check out Crimes of the [e-mail] we also have a link to our video episodes in the show Notes this episode was written and reported by me, your host Christopher Goffard. Our senior producers are Mary Knoff and Jonathan Shiftlet with sound design by Jonathan Shiflett. Executive editor is Deborah Anderloo. Associate producer is Jordan Patterson. Video editing by Cooper Kenward. Production services provided by JTB Studios. Our camera technicians and operators are Jeff Amlott, Julia McCabe and and Jason Newbert with additional production support from Andrew Gombert, Patrick Stewart and Anne Marie Hauser. Denise Callahan is our studio manager. Ben Church is our production manager. Thanks to Martin Lasdin who hosted the show Legally Speaking for permission to use his 2013 interview with Paul Marantz. Special thanks to LA Times Studios President Anna Mazanian, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Los Angeles Times, Chris Argenteri and executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times, Terry Tang. Crimes of the Times is executive produced and co created by Darius, Derek Shahn and me, Christopher Goffard.