Later an anthology on Synanon alone.

People were pushed to get rid of kids, and live in.

Life trauma was a factor. Big at Center was they were young adults afraid of their future, and the bad guys offered them a guarantee of success.

Thanks for question

“I can’t explain it to you what it is like to be a grown up human being with a grown up body and brain. It would be like trying to explain how a chocolate soda taste to an Eskimo who’s been eating whale blubber for 30 years.”

That had me cracking up in the wee-wee hours very early this morning. Great prose. For all you’ve been through, you do not seem to be reticent about sharing your insight as to why Synanon was so attractive to so many. Hindsight being 20/20–it’s easy to now see how it all went so vey wrong…but I’ll tell you this, There was a point during my internship there where I never felt so alive in my life. Therein lies the problem. Feelings will change like the shifting sand dunes on Lake Michigan and often lie.
(check your message box for a private communique about some constructive editing…if it’s not to late”
Tim Hurley

I just wanted to say hello, and thank you for all that you did. That was a major turning point in my life and you were a big part of it. You are doing excellent work and should be commended for it. Thank you.

I am doing very well now, I’m still living in Southern California and I am working for USC Surgeons Inc. at the moment. My family and I are all doing really well.

I just thought it would be nice for you to hear that something positive did come of all of it.

Thank you again!

Lissa

“If people only knew how much the battle with Synanon cost you… Reading this I was taken on a journey through my memory. You had cast iron cajones my friend, these folks were some dangerous people. You did a good thing getting those kids away from there. I was always closest to Mischa (Joey), he was a cool kid and had his eyes wide open to things.

“Mrs. White was my Dad’s childhood friend in Atlanta, GA and as a teenager I worked in her shop sometimes, a long with Rita, the kid’s Mom. When Rita came to Synanon we lived in the same facility and I was so happy to see her. Her passing was really hard to take. Betty Dederich was aware of all of this and when Mrs. White first made contact with Synanon (before you were involved) Betty summoned me to her house and she and Chuck questioned me about what kind of woman Mrs. White was and what might she do with regard to the kids. I can’t recall exactly what I told them but Betty was quite worried after our discussion. Folk’s in Detroit knew that Mrs. White was nobody to trifle with, she had loyal friends and had been in her shop (around the corner & up the block from Motown records, where my Mom worked.)a long time. At that point their Dad was also still in Synanon and there were some confrontations in Santa Monica that could’ve every easily have gone South and gotten someone hurt. The best thing she did was contact you & you got them out 6 months after I left there. This was around the time we met, in some cheesy restaurant near downtown, as I recall.

“An aside: Wasn’t that PDID who picked you up from the Hospital? I could swear that was Detective Cottle opening the door for you in that video clip. I was standing nearby with Lt. Engquist but that was so long ago I don’t remember the details.

My response to Ben:

Yes it was PDID (police intelligence). They had taken me personally under their protective wing. They felt they had been too slow to respond to warnings to get me protection and now they were going to see to it nothing happened again.. To understand their feelings towards me see under cults “How I saved Los Angeles Police Depart.” I edited into above story your additions about you and Ms. White growing up. I forgot them, and they are an amazing coincidence in the tale.