132 - Awful Peanut

[0] This is exactly right.

[1] Hey, this is exciting.

[2] An all -new season of only murders in the building is coming to Hulu on August 27th.

[3] Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back as your favorite podcaster, detectives.

[4] But there's a mystery hanging over everyone.

[5] Who killed Saz?

[6] And were they really after Charles?

[7] Why would someone want to kill Charles?

[8] This season, murder hits close to home.

[9] With a threat against one of their own, the stakes are higher than ever.

[10] Plus, the gang is going to Hollywood to turn their podcast into a major movie.

[11] Amid the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, more mysteries and twists arise.

[12] Who knows what will happen once the cameras start to roll?

[13] Get ready for the stariest season yet with Merrill Streep, Zach Alfinacus, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Melissa McCarthy, DeVine, Joy Randolph, Molly Shannon, and more.

[14] Only murders in the building, premieres August 27th, streaming only on Hulu.

[15] Goodbye.

[16] Hello.

[17] And welcome to my favorite murder.

[18] the true crime podcast you were waiting for while it uploaded while it uploaded and you were waiting for it to upload Can you believe technology It's so crazy how long it takes But also how fast it is I mean within a minute Georgia what's your would you say as your favorite part of technology Oh My first thought was alarm clocks That can't be right That's not right I'm not going to go with that I think you should I think it's first of all that makes it sound like you love getting up I love alarms I love alarms I love to be alarmed I love to be scared I love to be woken up when I don't want to be like deep R .m. sleep boom I'm sitting up I'm upset that's my favorite thing yeah that's it what's yours my favorite part of technology that has been Twitter right I was gonna say email can we check your phone and it'll tell us how long you've spent on Twitter sure okay is it like gigabytes uh it'll also tell you time like the amount of time really go okay go to stephen you might have to she actually put her hand out like i was going to give her my phone she would not pass it to me there's no way you can access my phone okay here's how you do it all of my dick picks that i'm sending everywhere um um general general Stephen you're old young Stephen how do you do the battery oh yeah if you go to battery settings battery oh yeah if you go to battery settings battery oh Okay.

[19] And you can look at last 24 hours or last seven days what you've been using the most.

[20] Okay.

[21] So you go to settings and battery and then let's do last seven days.

[22] What's the number one thing you've spent?

[23] Twitter, 56%.

[24] Wow.

[25] And then I come in with your favorite, my home and lock screen, which is 25%.

[26] Oh my God.

[27] Text is only 6%.

[28] You need to start texting more.

[29] That makes me actually, that just made me cry a little bit.

[30] You're on Twitter more than you're texting your good, good friends.

[31] Then actual interaction with the people that care about me. Instead, I'm on Twitter going like, now I don't want to do a pun, but I do have this idea.

[32] But this is really funny.

[33] Oh, yeah, sorry.

[34] What's yours?

[35] Mine's 23, the first ones, don't fucking reach your hand out to me. Like, I'm going to say, I'm going to send you my checking out my alarm clock.

[36] What if I just handed you an alarm clock?

[37] My most precious alarm clock, this is what I used the phone.

[38] Yeah.

[39] What if I called my phone, my alarm clock?

[40] And I just, that's all I use it for.

[41] This is, you've been, the facade has gone on for three years and now I realize you're fucking crazy.

[42] I'm insane.

[43] Oh, really stupid.

[44] Here's my phone.

[45] Like, way more stupid than you initially thought, you know?

[46] It never seemed like she was stupid on the road.

[47] Yeah.

[48] But I never saw her around the alarm clocks on the road.

[49] I never, you never weigh my hotel room with me. I've never been in Europe.

[50] Well, that's not true in Australia.

[51] We had a, we snuggled up.

[52] We did.

[53] That's fun.

[54] I've trashed hotel rooms because I didn't like their alarm clocks before.

[55] what if that were true and also I'm picturing I don't know what kind of alarm clock you're picturing the first one I pictured was like a grandma yeah the kind you wind up oh I'm thinking of the ones like from the 70s that had like the flaps the numbers were like oh yeah those are the best ones yeah right the flip over yeah because then the one I had I was given an alarm clock when I was like eight and it was my most precious possession I won one when I was like eight in a bingo And it was like the first thing I had ever won.

[56] Read digital letters?

[57] I mean, yes.

[58] No, it had letters.

[59] Karen.

[60] It was just like, wake up, bitch.

[61] Georgia.

[62] It's an 803.

[63] Yeah, I was like really excited about it.

[64] Did you put stickers on it?

[65] No. I put stickers on mine.

[66] What kind of stickers?

[67] Satan symbols.

[68] Don't forget to worship Satan.

[69] And then I'd set the alarm.

[70] For 20 minutes of Satan worshiping.

[71] You got to get that.

[72] It's like meditation app, but it's 20 minutes of Satan.

[73] and worshipping.

[74] I'm so old.

[75] I'm so old that like we used to listen to FM radio, like leave the radio, clock radio and you could put a timer on.

[76] No. And listen to the radio and it would turn itself off in like 20 minutes or whatever.

[77] That's so advanced.

[78] Well, I mean, that's what Santa brings to the Kill Garrett household.

[79] Maybe because I'm Jewish and can only win good shit in Bingo.

[80] That's right.

[81] But I fucking, I mean, that's the only time I've ever won Bingo before and I still remember walking up to the stage and just being like, oh my God.

[82] And I don't know.

[83] Pick any prize.

[84] And I was just like, this is the most amazing moment of my life.

[85] Yes.

[86] I remember it exactly.

[87] Of course.

[88] A pick.

[89] Okay.

[90] For all adults that are planning things for children.

[91] Yeah.

[92] If you can set up a pick any prize if you win, raffle or bingo like you're saying, whatever we love a black elephant.

[93] What's the one where you can be like, what I'm trying to be inclusive.

[94] I'm thinking I'm the black sheep.

[95] That's what I'm.

[96] was thinking right uh that's fun yeah too no but i remember my sister there was like a fireman's daughter's luncheon that we went to when i was probably eight or ten that sounds amazing and they had a pick any prize raffle and the shit was like 10 speed bikes dude crazy i mean like stuff some poor kids ended up like has to get the last like a cork board the last prize like they get a cork board or even sadder yeah the ones that get nothing no you still Like Karen Kilgara?

[97] Shut your face.

[98] When my sister got an electric motherfucking brother typewriter that was blue.

[99] She got an electric typewriter.

[100] She walked up, picked her prize, shopped.

[101] That's like a $200 thing.

[102] There was really good prizes.

[103] And you got nothing?

[104] No, I'm sorry.

[105] Firefighters.

[106] You've done great up until this point.

[107] We love 9 -11.

[108] But you thank you for everything.

[109] It's your biggest.

[110] Everyone knows your biggest hits.

[111] Thank you.

[112] Right now they're fighting insane wildfires in California.

[113] All over California and Arizona.

[114] But learn how to play a bank.

[115] game we're going to get so much hate mail for this I mean no no because my father being a being a fireman our favorite thing to do in the past I'd say 15 years is anytime my dad is in any way an asshole we go America's hero ladies and gentlemen in restaurants if he's mad that like parking is good or something oh look at the American hero that's so mean and I love it that's how we are um what do you have today oh for our audience for our audience Yeah, by the way, yeah, let's, uh, I like how when we started this, we used to be worried about how much people didn't like it that we started the podcast this way.

[116] And now it's as if we're going off and do a tangent and just pushing away anyone who might try to approach this.

[117] Purposefully.

[118] Purposefully.

[119] Get out.

[120] Get out of here.

[121] Great movie.

[122] Okay.

[123] Not a great tactic for podcasting.

[124] No, for trying to be popular.

[125] But that's just it.

[126] Like, we're not trying to be popular.

[127] You can't try.

[128] to be a popular like you just are you aren't it's as simple as it's a natural born saying be drunk though while you're doing that what be drunk though while you're doing that voice look you can say you you know how to be popular that's what you're like but sh shh sh just come here come here come here you can't try to be popular fuck yes drunk karen drunk karen drunk karen love to whisper okay perhaps one of the more exciting pieces of email that we have gotten in my experience on this show.

[129] Oh my God.

[130] I like to overstate things.

[131] You know that.

[132] I like to over, um, react.

[133] So let's do it.

[134] So let's fucking make podcast.

[135] So this is why we work together.

[136] This reads as such, on July 12th, while driving home from a long day at work and listening to episode 129, Karen mentioned her good thing for the episode.

[137] Lo and behold, your favorite.

[138] thing was the show I work on.

[139] I screamed and pull over and texted all my fellow, fellow Endeavor crew murderinos.

[140] Remember I said I love that show Endeavor?

[141] Yeah.

[142] And went on and on about how much I love it.

[143] Yeah.

[144] This is an email from people who work on the television show Endeavor.

[145] And she had a freak out, like I'm having a freak out right now, hearing that I said that.

[146] And she said, so I texted all my fellow Endeavor Crew murderinos of which there are so many.

[147] Holy shit.

[148] I've been a long time listener of the podcast and I've been recommending it to everyone I meet.

[149] Thank you.

[150] But on the other, but on no other job have I found so many murderinas.

[151] Of course, the ones in my department were known to me that the assistant producer dropped, dropping a stay out of the forest on a particularly wooded location day changed everything.

[152] Holy shit.

[153] Now I'm just in my mind.

[154] First of all, I would just like to say this season of endeavor, I've watched them all twice already.

[155] So now I'm just trying to think back of like which one to play.

[156] which you said that.

[157] Holy shit, dude.

[158] I'm so excited.

[159] It's like you're basically the star of the show.

[160] I think I've been cast.

[161] You're the most popular person on that show.

[162] Attaches a photo of just a few of us outside the wonderful, handsome and fabulous Sean Evans trailer who plays Endeavor.

[163] Morse, the detective, the longstanding famous British detective, Morse.

[164] And the second photo is a local Endeavorino's stocky photo of me and Molly with Sean whilst filming on location in Oxford.

[165] Your podcast has given us endless conversation starters on what are some of the longest days at work.

[166] Yeah, it can be long.

[167] Mostly at night, in forests, down dark alleyways, filming murders and crime scenes.

[168] Our t -shirts and pin badges are the talk of the set, and we speak about it so often that most of the cast, including Sean himself, I want to start crying, are involved now too, and you can hear by -ease ringing through the trucks and around.

[169] That's so cute.

[170] Which is, we have taken a saying from Alaska on RuPaul's drag race and transitioned it all the way over across the pond to endeavor.

[171] In order to seek out other more shy murderingos, we occasionally ask if anyone would like a cookie and wait for a meow.

[172] We are so ridiculously excited to hear that you are endeavorinos.

[173] I can't.

[174] And if you guys find yourself in London again anytime soon, we'd love to have you come visit.

[175] us and take part in our own 1960s murder world that we call work.

[176] Tudel Pipp and Tata for now.

[177] Yolanda, Molly, Lauren, Caroline, Amy and all the endeavor murderinos.

[178] Stay sexy and endeavor to not get murdered.

[179] Bye.

[180] Wow.

[181] That is so exciting.

[182] That's incredible.

[183] Sorry, that's just a straight up nerd out fan email.

[184] That's incredible.

[185] For me. For me. For me. Also, because I'm these world, like there's so many, it's so hard for me to find a show that serves all the things I need.

[186] Yeah.

[187] Which is oftentimes in being in the past, procedural, British, you know, a lead man that is like more interested in doing the crossword.

[188] Botherly -ish.

[189] Yes.

[190] I mean.

[191] Not threatening.

[192] I'm very easily threatened.

[193] I scare easy when I watch TV.

[194] Karen just starts pepper spraying the TV sometimes when it's too aggressive.

[195] It's just so exciting That's great I love it I love it Congratulations Thank you I wanted to say That I have a letter two Oh yeah It's called Oh yeah?

[196] Listen to it It's called Stephen's mustache Lost a Roller Derby bout to Elvis Oh shit I owe somebody $50 Damn it Stephen and all Last week Thousands of skaters Traveled to Las Vegas for RollerCon, the annual Roller Derby Convention.

[197] And I have to say, like, I fucking love Roller Derby.

[198] My good friend of my Megan.

[199] Her name was Judy Gloom.

[200] She was like an incredible skater.

[201] I used to go watch her all the time.

[202] It's like, most, if you have a chance to go watch Roller Derby, go.

[203] It's the most fun.

[204] Roller Con is the coolest thing.

[205] I never even knew that existed.

[206] And they're like such badass women, the Roller Derby gals.

[207] So touted as the bastard daughter of dozens of leagues.

[208] Roller Con brings together skaters from all across the world for challenges, workshops, blah, blah, blah.

[209] So this year, this is someone named Nat organized a challenge about against a team called Steven's Mustache and the team called Elvis wants a cookie.

[210] Yep.

[211] Long story short, uh, Steven's Mustache got their beautiful derby butts handed to them, but it was one of the funnest games, final score 128 to 61, so much love from MFM, Derby Reno sisters, Franny Panties, number 210, Rage City Roller Girls, Anchorage, Alaska.

[212] That's awesome.

[213] Nice from Alaska.

[214] Yeah.

[215] That's so cool.

[216] Yes.

[217] Go see Roller Derby and support the gals.

[218] That is, yeah, I saw that on Twitter.

[219] I didn't realize it was RollerCon.

[220] Yeah.

[221] Because I skim, you know me, and the skimming with the reading.

[222] But they just said that these two roller teams or derby teams are about to go up against each other and they name the two.

[223] And I...

[224] Oh, you were serious.

[225] You were like $50 on...

[226] I just wrote back $50 on Steven's mustache.

[227] And I only picked that team because it sounded funnier than $50 on Elvis, do you want a cookie or whatever.

[228] Essentially, you owe me. 50 bucks it's turning into me now you yep because it's your cat that's my cat all right i'm sorry i let you down karen stephen put your skates on right now stephen's mustache be quiet um someone tweeted us sorry about it someone tweeted us the other day why don't you let stephen laugh what does that even mean i'm not sure somebody is interpreting things that we've said on here as like that it's somehow our rule that we have a team meeting before the show's starts that Steven's not allowed to laugh.

[229] It sounds like a 1980s, like, made for TV movie.

[230] Like, why won't you let Stephen laugh?

[231] Steve, we won't let something, you know?

[232] Open on an alarm clock with the flippy numbers.

[233] Click 8 a .m. But it's letters.

[234] Isn't that weird?

[235] It's so weird.

[236] It's so weird.

[237] It's very weird.

[238] Okay, we have some summer camp.

[239] We have a line of merch.

[240] It's special.

[241] It's temporary for the summer.

[242] It's summer camp themed.

[243] So cute.

[244] So cute.

[245] It's got those, like, those, like, mugs that look like tin.

[246] campy mugs so cute hats all kinds of clothing a fucking duffel bag that like i kind of need to get yeah there's some good stuff good shit check it out lots of um different styles of shirts because we know everyone likes a different kind so check that out my favorite murder dot com go to the shop yeah it's in there it's in there yeah um i don't have anything else to you don't step i saw stephen move quickly out of the corner of my eye no he flips his page around a lot.

[247] Oh, I see.

[248] Stephen, don't laugh and don't move too quickly.

[249] Don't move.

[250] Yeah, go move slowly.

[251] Or we're going to have a...

[252] Actually, can you sit in the closet?

[253] That'd be great.

[254] The thing that I like about that comment, too, is Stephen is the consummate podcast producing professional.

[255] Like, he does this for lots of people.

[256] If you could hear him laugh, he'd be doing a bad job.

[257] Everyone would fire his ass.

[258] Can you imagine if you're trying to record your podcast and, like, have a conversation someone's like, uh -huh, well, someone besides me and you.

[259] we don't count I can laugh like I can guffaw all I want yeah we get to and also the goal is that you make Stephen break and actually make a noise right he laughs but he doesn't that yeah he knows he knows he's good trust Stephen I say to whoever made that comment he's been here for 400 episodes yeah he knows what he's doing and we don't even have 400 episodes that's how long he's been here he's most popular in all the land who goes first this week Karen goes first is it me because last week Was the lie?

[260] Was store Bergwell?

[261] Oh, okay.

[262] Karen, you know I'm all about vintage shopping.

[263] Absolutely.

[264] And when you say vintage, you mean when you physically drive to a store and actually purchase something with cash?

[265] Exactly.

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[279] Important note, that promo code is all lowercase.

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[281] That's Shopify .com slash murder.

[282] Goodbye.

[283] Hey, this is exciting.

[284] An all -new season of only murders in the building is coming to Hulu on August 27th.

[285] Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez are back as your favorite podcaster, detectives.

[286] But there's a mystery hanging over everyone, who killed Saz, and where they've really after Charles?

[287] Why would someone want to kill Charles?

[288] This season murder hits close to home.

[289] With a threat against one of their own, the stakes are higher than ever.

[290] Plus, the gang is going to Hollywood to turn their podcast into a major movie.

[291] Amid the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles, more mysteries and twists arise.

[292] Who knows what'll happen once the cameras start to roll?

[293] Get ready for the stariest season yet with Merrill Streep, Zach Alfenakis, Eugene Levy, Eva Longoria, Melissa McCarthy, Davey, Joy, Randolph, Molly Shannon, and more.

[294] Only murders in the building, premieres August 27th, streaming only on Hulu.

[295] Goodbye.

[296] This, I am so excited to do this one.

[297] And I was glad to have the extra time because I needed to, you know, I need to actually work on it.

[298] Right.

[299] It helps sometimes.

[300] Yeah.

[301] And I love it because it is from near my hometown.

[302] Oh, my God.

[303] And it is a creepy cult, which is one of my favorite things.

[304] It is.

[305] And I had, so I was telling you.

[306] you the um inciting incident as they call it in uh writing so i have this memory um if you don't know anything about my hometown of petaloma which you probably don't no everyone knows if you don't know about everyone we all know so basically every picture you see of the golden gate bridge is the stance is or the view of it is you standing on alcatraz in the bay looking uh basically what would be westward toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

[307] So above that to the right is northern, above Northern California.

[308] 30 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge is my hometown Petaluma.

[309] And that's the first city in Sonoma County.

[310] And up there, that's all dairy ranches.

[311] That's where he used to be the chicken.

[312] Pettling used to be the chicken capital of the world or the egg capital of the world in the 30s.

[313] Where's the chicken capital in the world?

[314] Do you guys fight them?

[315] We couldn't hit the number of chickens.

[316] but we fucking turned out those eggs Get those eggs Yeah, I don't know how they decide Which of those products you're going to choose Yeah But because it was called the egg basket of the world Anyway And then, but right outside of my town So that's the town itself I grew up five miles outside of that town In the where there was like basically cattle ranches And then further out 10 miles to 15 miles out of town It's completely undeveloped dairy ranches So they're big, huge ranches with thousands of acres because the cows need to graze and they need to eat grass all day long and they make real good milk, not homogenized.

[317] Because they're happy cows.

[318] Make happy milk.

[319] That's right.

[320] That's right.

[321] So, and you've seen this part of the country.

[322] They shoot car commercials out there all the time.

[323] It's very picturesque.

[324] They shoot cow commercials out there all the time.

[325] They shoot cows out there all the time.

[326] commercials for cows.

[327] A lot of shooting.

[328] Lots of shooting.

[329] So it's just incredibly picturesque.

[330] And it's also, if you go a little bit south of that area, it's, it's Marin County.

[331] It's West Marin.

[332] But still this exact same thing and the exact same kind of farmland.

[333] And it's awesome.

[334] So in, when I was eight years old, I was driving, my parents used to, when people come and visit us they the big thing that they would do is drive people to uh essentially bodega bay which is um the ocean and we would drive out these windy roads with these beautiful rolling hills and we would end up at the bay oysters uh yeah all kinds of lobsters there there was a place i think it's i want to say it's it's something landing it was a place that we would always go and end up and they had a restaurant and they had a fresh fish market where literally those are my favorite fucking places not just the restaurant but like they're always in cool like vacationy spots right where they're like a guy just pulled up on his boat and brought these four lobsters now they're on ice yeah and then here's some fish with their eyes in still on ice like all that shit and when you're eight um my sister and i used to be get car sick really easily so we're always in the backseat of these cars that were like winding winding winding and then you get to um the day a bay and it would be like probably low tide or at noon and so we'd have to get out of the car and then go into the fresh fish market and then go into the restaurant and have our choice of what clam chowder or some soul or fish sticks and so that's why I cannot eat fish that's right so you would you associate the smell of fish and fish and eating fish with being nauseous yeah with being cars and the smell oh my god so you won't eat fish can't eat fish that's so funny and they made it that way they made both of us that way my sister just ruin you in special little ways they really do and those are the kind of things you can't really anticipate so anyway um uh all of that is to say on one of those trips one time uh we were driving and i saw and everyone in the car saw there was like four people on the side of the road and they were dressed in all white in these weird rapy things that it was weird they were dressed and they were dressed They were dressed very odd for the time.

[335] Like robes and flowing things and shit.

[336] Well, it was like, yeah, I can't really remember.

[337] That might be an exaggeration in my head.

[338] They're just wearing white.

[339] But they all had shaved heads.

[340] And it was women and men.

[341] And I remember hearing my mother say to my father, oh, Jim, be careful.

[342] And like, basically go around.

[343] Make sure you don't go anywhere near them.

[344] Which gives them supernatural power.

[345] Like, if you can't even drive near them.

[346] Right.

[347] And my mom who was Mrs. Oh, please, never scared of anything, never like intimidated.

[348] And she was like, keep away.

[349] And I, of course, as we drove by, I stared at all of them.

[350] And they were just these weird people that were like staring straight ahead riding these bikes.

[351] And then, of course, I'm like, why?

[352] Why can't we go near them?

[353] And my mom's like, we'll tell you.

[354] My mom would always say, we'll tell you later.

[355] And she made it sound like, we're going to tell you when we get home.

[356] But she meant like 25 years.

[357] so it turned out that they were members of a cult called synanon oh my god and synan was this um cult that i'm about to tell you all about right now but it is so they're known for a bunch of stuff they're synonymous with a bunch of stuff come on come on they started as a rehab center essentially oh that's a good like oh yeah yeah that's how you get people yeah yeah and also the guy that started it the tenants of the of the beginnings of this organization actually it's like he went off and went cult direction and then most of what modern rehab facilities what there's the systems and the way they do things are based on is based on synon wow like it started there but then they took it one went science and the other went i am you know got a golden god or whatever um and the interesting thing is if you've ever seen the George George Lucas's first movie, which was called THX 1138.

[358] Oh, yeah.

[359] Which is all shot in a white negative space.

[360] Robert Duvali has a shaved head and they're wearing all white and they have these weird things around their neck.

[361] Remember that?

[362] Yeah, very vaguely.

[363] It's like this creepy dystopian future where people aren't allowed to have relationships, have children, everyone's, they take drugs to repress their emotions.

[364] And there's, it's very like Orwellian horrible.

[365] future and there are the extras in that movie because it was the early 70s and when George Lucas went to shoot that movie no actors wanted to shave their heads because it was the 70s and it's like who are you Steven Spielberg yeah you're like a kid you're no one we don't know you you're like a local um making a movie so he went and got synanon cult members to come and be in his movies so if you ever rent or watch that movie and there's ever like a group or kind of city they're trying to make it seem like they're in a city area a lot of the people in the background are cult members wow that's a cool and they're and synon the cult is is actually thanked in the thank yous of the movie so it's really it's such a crazy story all right so let's do it i've just i've painted as much of the personal picture as i can you know i love talking about myself i would continue but we have to get into the actual facts tell more about your car sickness well what's weird about this is when this cult moved in, the people in the dairy ranchers and the people that I grew up around, they're very modest people.

[366] They're very keep to yourself, good fences, make good neighbors.

[367] A lot of them are crazy wealthy, but you would never fucking know it because they work on their own ranch all day long.

[368] Yeah.

[369] And they save and they don't, they just drive trucks.

[370] They don't want flashy shit.

[371] No, that's not their style.

[372] And so this cult moves in and buys this ranch.

[373] It sounds like, like wild wild country it's that's what i was going to say oh my god it's basically a very small version of that same thing but in white and not maroon in white and we they didn't try to make a whole fucking city or whatever yeah but it's the same thing where it was just like everyone's looking around going okay sorry what's this now what are we doing okay so here's the beginning okay uh this synanon was founded by a man named charles e drederick uh oh by the way um i should say that I got a lot of information.

[374] There's really good YouTube short films and interview type things that I got a lot of this from.

[375] But there's a 2014 article for Paleo Future blog on Gizmodo written by a guy named Matt Novak that has tons of great information and is really good.

[376] So I got a lot of it from there.

[377] And also from an attorney named Paul Morantz.

[378] He has a website, Paul Morantz .com.

[379] and he's attorney that got ended up getting involved in basically taking down this cult and so he knows a lot of great information cool okay so the founder of synanon was a man named charles e diderick he was born in to lito oh upper middle class parents um oh also again wikipedia thank you so much for everything you do no shit no shit his father dies in a car crash when he's four when he's four when he's eight his younger brother dies of the flu very common back then and then his his mother kind of in her grief makes him he's he's really young but he she relies on him like he's the head of the household which is a bad setup because four years later she gets remarried and then he's out doesn't he doesn't take it well he doesn't like the man she's marrying anyway and then he's basically out and all bad he becomes a serious drinker before he's even in high school What?

[380] Yeah.

[381] So he manages to graduate from high school.

[382] He gets into Notre Dame.

[383] He flunks out of Notre Dame 18 months later.

[384] Still, he's part of our club.

[385] Yeah.

[386] And then he spends the next 20 or so years getting and losing jobs, getting married, getting divorced.

[387] He moves to Santa Monica, decides he's going to be a beach bum.

[388] He gets remarried.

[389] Is that something you decide to do or you just do?

[390] I mean, the word decide was in the sentence.

[391] But, yeah, sometimes you just end.

[392] up in Santa Monica asking for coffee money.

[393] He gets remarried again and his second wife begs him to go to AA and he finally does.

[394] She ends up leaving him anyway, but he does get to AA from her recommendation in 1956 and it works.

[395] He totally gets sober.

[396] He gets really into it.

[397] He's a devotee.

[398] And he's like a natural salesman type be gregarious and outgoing so everybody loves him and he becomes you know like this is his community until they don't love him anymore because he's one of those uh as my friend bradford calls them a dominant psycho so he's the kind of person that can't sit back and let other people do things and it always has to be you know controlling just a typical addictive personality yeah um and he also starts doing the thing which happens a lot in program where you get in your life is fucked up, you're insane, you get healthy, you get a little sobriety, and then you start going, this program doesn't work, and here's why.

[399] And you know, suddenly you know better than everybody.

[400] Very typical.

[401] So he did started doing that, but he was actually kind of right, because the problem he had was that AA would not let drug addicts come to AA meetings.

[402] They'd already established narcotics anonymous, but they weren't consistent.

[403] They didn't have consistent meetings.

[404] It wasn't like as strong of a program as AA.

[405] So people that were drug addicts trying to get sober kind of had nowhere to go.

[406] And Charles Diedrich was like, that sucks and that should, you know, those people need help to.

[407] I couldn't read anywhere where it said he in particular was a drug addict, but it seemed like he had a lot of compassion for people that were like hooked on heroin.

[408] Yeah.

[409] So around this time, there's a doctor named Dr. Keith Dittman, and he does an experiment.

[410] It's taking volunteers for an experiment to see if LSD can cure alcoholism.

[411] He has this theory that, like, if you break from reality and you can kind of, like, reset your brain and then not be a drunk anymore.

[412] That sounds fun.

[413] Right?

[414] Some people believe in it.

[415] No, it's totally.

[416] Yeah.

[417] It kind of makes sense.

[418] I think ecstasy as well, or Rund DMC, what does it call?

[419] RONDMC is very helped me get clean.

[420] You know.

[421] my Adidas walk on out of floors and walk all over Coliseum floors Stephen cut that Okay so while he So he signs up for this experiment And while he's tripping He has this epiphany Where he decides If AA is not going to do it I'm going to do it I'm going to start my own rehab And it's going to take people that are addicted to drugs and it's going to be called the tender loving care club.

[422] TLC?

[423] Yeah, baby.

[424] He's clearly on drugs.

[425] Whoa.

[426] That's something that only someone on LSD would think of and be like, that's a great idea.

[427] You know what the best name is.

[428] Because everyone needs it.

[429] And it's just the truth.

[430] Let's say it.

[431] Yeah.

[432] So that's what he actually does.

[433] He starts meeting with people that are kind of, you know, there are people that are drawn to him.

[434] He has a very plain, speaking way of, you know, he's a truth teller and he's like one of those kind of people and he encourages other people to be that way.

[435] So he has people start meeting at his Ocean Park apartment and he makes up this thing that becomes one of the hugest parts of this cult and it's, it's what do they call it?

[436] It's called the game.

[437] He calls it the game.

[438] But basically it's a version of talk therapy where you sit in a circle it's usually like 10 people or so and it starts off with quite really like normally upsetting questions like who's the most boring person in this group or what's the what thing happened today with someone in this group that made you really mad talk about it or whatever and basically someone gets picked out of the group and then everyone starts attacking that person what the fuck uh -huh everyone starts telling that person what's wrong with them why they suck, why they're a bad person, what they do that's irritating, and they just rail the person.

[439] And they can even say things that aren't true.

[440] But it's just basically this a barrage of shittiness and insults to break the ego down.

[441] I think this is a bad idea.

[442] I just want to go ahead and give my medical expertise thoughts on this.

[443] Well, I was thinking about how that would feel.

[444] Like, I told you that story of how one time I thought my therapist tricked me into going to group therapy and I got really mad because she's she recommended like a meditation group but when I got there they were all talking in a circle and I had this panic where I was like I'm firing her she tricked me because it's so frightening the idea of having to sit there and be in therapy in front of like eight strangers or 10 strangers so this idea really does it's almost like a emotional bungee jumping but I have to say group for people group therapy can be great for people yeah therapy isn't like that no no no so that specifically sounds i mean i don't know maybe it works but it sounds insane well i think what happens is and they and they talk about it in in a lot of these articles and stuff is what it is is you get broken down yeah and then and much in the way that like the theory of like the lSD would break you from reality or whatever you get the theory is you're going to get broken out of your little world and have to kind of face the possibility of the other, you know, like what other people think of you or just that the world is much different than you think.

[445] Or like maybe the worst is happening.

[446] Like maybe for some people, the worst is like getting yelled out by a bunch of fucking strangers about how much they suck.

[447] Right.

[448] Because if you are, I mean, that is a thing of like being, when you're, you know, having been in a program a little bit, the thing that is very true is addicts have a, this it's a combination of a sense of grandiosity about themselves and incredibly low self -esteem which is a terrible combination yeah so it's like you hate yourself and then don't let anyone fucking see that no and and at the same time you also think you're the best thing ever and you can't be told anything everybody know and you know better than everybody and yeah the same things that happened to all the other addicts isn't going to happen to you that's right you're different you're the exception to the rule right yeah all these things so I think the game maybe was structured in the beginning to set up to kind of break that but in this very public very forced and very kind of awful way that most people fear i mean like you don't have to be an addict to be like yeah i don't want people yelling at me no i don't want that at all ever so but here's the weird thing people love it so the people that are in this and also he calls it the haircut when you're you're getting a haircut oh um weird yeah basically uh the sessions the way he did them they could go on for up to 72 hours what the fuck yes that doesn't sound okay no no it's well that's where the extreme part comes so when when he first starts setting up this rehab thing he's like oh you have to do like three to four hour sessions three times a week but then the more you sit in it because did you see that movie about what's his name el Ron Hubbard that's exactly what I was thinking yeah it's that except for it's much more aggressive.

[449] Where that was more of like you kind of don't know what's happening.

[450] You're like, how are they doing this?

[451] Because I don't know what this is about.

[452] This was more like, we attack you.

[453] You don't defend yourself and that's the game.

[454] Can you deal with not defending yourself and being broken down?

[455] So, but when they start going into like 72 hour sessions is when he starts getting the sense of how sleep deprivation opens you up to being controlled.

[456] Yeah.

[457] And sleep deprivation, you know, there's, um, shit, I should have printed it up.

[458] There's like the seven or ten brainwashing steps that you can take where you can brainwash people if like you remove the protein from their diet, you don't let them sleep, you repeat the same things over and over, you separate them from their family, all these things.

[459] So basically this is what he was doing.

[460] But in the beginning, it was with the best intentions.

[461] But as he sat there and was able to kind of like commandeer people.

[462] He's probably not sleeping either.

[463] So he's going a little bananas as well.

[464] Yeah, exactly.

[465] And kind of loving these results.

[466] Because the results are all coming back and being to his credit.

[467] And everyone's starting to hear about it.

[468] And people, and the word around town is this is actually working for people.

[469] People are actually getting clean.

[470] So like it starts to get popular in Hollywood, of course, because like this town is of course filled with addicts and people who love things like that, the attention.

[471] So they used to have like a night where people would show up that weren't in rehab, but they would just go to play the game.

[472] Just to be in there, like Leonard Nimoy used to do it.

[473] Yeah, like, yeah, that's the one name that stands out.

[474] But then, but also it was popular because a lot of jazz musicians who were really popular at the time were addicted to heroin and went there to get off.

[475] And so they started having these music nights.

[476] So people were just there.

[477] And it became this community where people were like, this is a cool place to be and you don't have to drink and you don't have to do drugs.

[478] But all this cool stuff is happening.

[479] And people are being real and people are telling it like it is.

[480] So people get really into it.

[481] So it starts getting all this good press.

[482] Diedrich is claiming that there's an 80 to 100 % success rate.

[483] that's not a thing you should say yeah it's that seems a little extreme yeah um but that's what he's saying they start to get really good press life magazine does a 14 page spread on syn and on and on and the title of the article is a miracle at the beach and they start and eventually they made a movie about it a couple years after that um it becomes like the talk of the town and so once all of that kind of positive press some politicians talked about it on the senate floor like there was finally a cure addiction and so they start getting crazy amounts of donations and huge donations to the point where they go from they had a house in Venice Beach that was kind of shitty and they make so much money that they buy um you know right on the one when you write um in Santa Monica when you get onto the one and you start driving up PCH and there's that big like hotel on the beach that's all kind of old fashion looking I think so yeah um so that place hold on let me Turn the page.

[484] It was called Club Casa Del Mar, and they moved synodon into that place.

[485] Oh, my God.

[486] They were at one point making $10 million a year.

[487] Holy shit.

[488] With this rehab facility.

[489] It's like us in this podcast.

[490] So, Earth, the Kit hangs out with us.

[491] All the great jazz nights.

[492] He makes Stephen play all the instruments.

[493] Now, the problem is, there are.

[494] no licensed therapists.

[495] It's all based on Diedrich's theories and the game.

[496] And there's no governmental or like health department overseer of any kind.

[497] And of course, that plus $10 million people go nuts.

[498] So more money, more crazy people.

[499] Yeah.

[500] That's what they say.

[501] It's that's the how that old rap goes.

[502] So the first 10 years of Sinanon can be, called a success because he really did set up this program for people to go to.

[503] But then the next 10 years start.

[504] And of course, everything goes apeshit.

[505] So in 1968, two things happened that changed everything.

[506] They had started a what they called a club for the non -addicts that wanted to come and play the game.

[507] And there was at one point 3 ,400 members of this club.

[508] Holy, of the non - Of non - addicts, but they would go down to that crazy place on the beach and they would go do these sessions and get real with everybody and yell and be told things about themselves and so Charles decides to open up the community because you were when you were there you had to when you signed up you got there you immediately quit whatever drug or drink cold turkey so you just had to get through your withdrawals and everything by yourself or like you know just wrapped up in a towel or whatever And then you had to stay, um, at the facility, uh, for two years.

[509] And that's how you, that's how you rehabbed.

[510] Um, so there was, so that's in when they started the house in Venice, he really was giving people who are like, you know, heroin addicts that were literally on the street, a place to live, jobs, things to do.

[511] Yeah.

[512] Um, they moved to the Venice, I'm sorry, they moved to the San Monica beach, uh, uh, the crazy hotel.

[513] Like, if you saw this place it's so crazy that there was a rehab center there yeah um an unqualified rehab center and so everyone starts working at the rehab center so so um they decide that the people who have joined the club um are now allowed to with uh hundreds of dollars a month donation they're allowed to live in the facility and experience the lifestyle so just don't do drugs yeah but it's the um you know you learn to play an instrument or you like whatever chop vegetables or whatever you do you do whatever and participate in the cult well in the organization right um without having to be an addict and so that was that brought in a whole other revenue stream and so weird but then also Charles made a new rule which was instead of the two years because what was really happening in reality um uh which went against his 80 to 100 % success rate, the fact was that when people would leave after two years, they would immediately go back to doing drugs.

[514] And so he decides, he tells everybody instead of two years, you now have to live for the rest of your life here.

[515] And that's how you're not, you get clean and then you take all of that health and well -being and you put it back into the organization and you stay.

[516] That's bananas.

[517] It's crazy but that's what people started doing so it becomes this like it's like a commune it's like he's trying to build a utopian society there's he you know that's his whole line of thinking and the pitch is like we're we're remaking how you live yeah and that's why those lifestylers would come to live because they're like I'm not on drugs but I love this idea that's when it sounds like a cult to me that as soon as this that happened that sounds like a cult that you live here forever now.

[518] Then it's like, okay, this is a fucking cult.

[519] Yeah.

[520] I mean, I feel like that's the number one rule is giving your entire life over to someone else's made up belief system that they were not qualified to make up in the first place.

[521] And then they have no autonomy anymore.

[522] Right.

[523] Yeah.

[524] That the idea is no autonomy.

[525] They like that.

[526] Yeah.

[527] And that's crazy.

[528] Yeah.

[529] And but all these people do it.

[530] And smart people and talented people and people who are, have.

[531] lawyers and doctors and shit like that.

[532] So they really are starting to build this community and it's making a ton of money and it's branching out everywhere.

[533] There's people everywhere, even if they're not addicts, that are kind of devotees to the syn and on organization.

[534] So he starts calling it when he says now you're going to stay here for life.

[535] He starts calling it, it's not a rehab facility anymore.

[536] It's a human progressive program.

[537] beam me up scotty do you want to progress then you better stay in this hotel on the beach sounds like a human progressive program that just sounds like a way to mask like if you were to be like it's you're not eating human flesh you're eating the protein of a you know of your fellow man right um just like rewording something really awful well and also i think it speaks to how much the game instead of being this like i had a break through it was actually breaking people down yeah because it is detrimental to your ego right to your self -esteem and everything to have people just being like you know what I hate about you or it's like then also like the people who are yelling all these things at you like they're getting this fucking complex too probably where they're getting total boners by screaming at people and telling them how fucked up they are of course and everyone and you know if you're whatever it is that's going on there if you're not sleeping whatever kind of if you're on a restrictive diet yeah if you don't have enough, like, protein in your system or too much sugar.

[538] And you're an addict who fucking wants drugs and shit.

[539] Yes.

[540] So you already have tendencies, like, for me, if I'm not drinking or if I'm not doing drugs, then I'm just doing something else to the extreme.

[541] I'll shop all day long, like weird shit.

[542] And that's the personality because it's about, like, it's about consuming.

[543] Consuming and quantity.

[544] Yeah.

[545] And all this.

[546] It's so crazy.

[547] And you don't trust your own brain.

[548] Yeah.

[549] So essentially, he breaks people down, brainwashes them to believe that they need to live there.

[550] And then they're like, you're right.

[551] I do want to be in rehab for the rest of my life.

[552] Okay, I can't, because I can't, I tried it and I can't function in society.

[553] So, yeah, I'm going to fucking stay here.

[554] It's so much easier to be here, be sober, and just do whatever this guy says.

[555] Man, I was in rehab for 14 days.

[556] And I was like, get me the fuck out of here.

[557] You noped out.

[558] I noped out.

[559] I was 14 and I knew better.

[560] Yeah.

[561] Okay.

[562] Um, so, so they take, they're taking, the whole time they're taking this money and buying big amounts of property with this money.

[563] So they buy, in Oakland, they bought things called the Athens Athletic Club, which was this big, gorgeous old building cost $10 million.

[564] Oh my God.

[565] Yeah.

[566] And they're, and they're basically, you know, putting these rehab centers in places where they're really needed.

[567] Or, you know, there might be a bunch of drug addicts or whatever.

[568] and then it's just basically they're like absorbing up all of the people of society that like AA doesn't isn't going to deal with them right the cops don't want to deal with them or whatever so they just are like yeah you know you'll live in this big house yeah we've solved your problem you're not going to do drugs and you have a place to live and work for the rest of your life yeah now do every single thing we say right so um so they're doing that all around and basically when the authorities start hearing about the lifelong rehab facility thing, they smell a rat, but before they can investigate.

[569] And they had so many lawyers and they had so much money.

[570] It reminds me so much of the bad blood thing I went on and on about last week, but, or last time, it's that thing where when you have so much money that you don't have to do what the normal law says.

[571] Yeah.

[572] And that people can't fight you and you know it, so you just break people.

[573] Yeah.

[574] Like that's, it's, that's what happened here.

[575] So before, anyone can do anything about you're not allowed to have a lifelong rehab center they move out of southern california and they move up to marshall which is basically the town which is tiny tiny that's in that area that i was talking about outside of petaluma that's on fucking car sickness road it's basically halfway between my hometown and budega bay center of car sickness right so they first First land in Tamales, which was our rival high school.

[576] Okay.

[577] We used to play Tamales and hate them.

[578] And it's hilarious.

[579] But there was nothing else around.

[580] It's like both schools had 300 kids.

[581] But then that was that they bought like an old radio station in Tamales.

[582] But then they ended up buying Walker Creek Ranch, which was a 1 ,700 acre ranch that was, I mean, like right, it's so funny.

[583] it's just right where I grew up.

[584] And they begin this utopian society, like, on this ranch.

[585] So they build these hexagonal yurt type of things, these buildings that are in hexagon shape, so they don't need heating, you know, they don't need, like, they're doing all these things kind of to be the cheapest, it's like the cheapest way they can live because they have to house, like, thousands of people.

[586] They all start wearing overalls.

[587] Oh, you're laughing.

[588] me yeah um in my child's memory they were not wearing overalls on those bikes they were wearing like almost like harry krishna white things maybe they were higher -ups or something oh yeah maybe they had bike privileges in that they were in charge that you don't have to bike you don't you don't no one can bike in overalls everyone knows that no it's flowing cloth that you want to bike in you got to white claw near spokes um at some point to show solidarity solidarity with the men, all the women shave their heads.

[589] And I swear, I mean, I know it's a cool look, especially if you, like, have a nose ring or, you know, you're a punk or whatever, but seeing just like a bunch of 37 -year -old women wearing, like, glasses of the day, those weird round secretary glasses, but with shaved heads is so unnerving.

[590] Yeah.

[591] It's really crazy.

[592] Well, There's something about a group of people with perfectly shaved heads, like, more than one, essentially, like, with the same length hair that you're like, they're up to something.

[593] That's a gang.

[594] They're up to something.

[595] No good.

[596] It's a gang or a concentration camp.

[597] Like, nothing good.

[598] Nothing good is that visual.

[599] Totally.

[600] It's upsetting.

[601] Totally.

[602] So they also, they declare, Charles declares synodon as now a church and so he gets tax -free status.

[603] shit because because they can't be they're not a nonprofit anymore right is what they were when they were centered in san monica right um so he has to make that change so now they're a church they're tax free and all the money that they're starting to make is just go straight into his pocket and they had started getting people um to be this is something the moonies did too they basically got the the members who were in like full like cult mode to go to out and get donations from businesses and from like individuals and uh that the donations made up a huge a huge amount of the income of the of the organization because there would just be these like shaved heads like zealots that were like getting or religion people were a religion and we're curing people of addiction okay um so they were really selling that that point at this point Charles has married his third wife, Betty, and he sets up something called the wire where it's essentially a PA system that goes to every building they own.

[604] And then he hangs a microphone.

[605] The one article I read, it said they hung it right above his seat at the dinner table.

[606] And he would just sit there and talk all day and all night.

[607] He sounds like Jim Jones.

[608] Yes.

[609] It's totally Jim Joe.

[610] And it's the same time period too, isn't it?

[611] In fact, a month, When they went down, well, we'll get to that later.

[612] Will you remind me?

[613] Yes.

[614] Actually, there's part of that in my story, too, so I can.

[615] Is there really?

[616] Okay.

[617] So it's totally Jim Jones where he's, it's just droning on about what they are versus the outside world.

[618] So you never, like, have thoughts.

[619] Nope.

[620] And it's always him.

[621] It's what he's telling you it is.

[622] So he's telling you, the outside world is, you know, we need to keep together this society is the best way to live.

[623] The outside world is trying to make us addicts again.

[624] We can't let that happen.

[625] And he's just brainwashing constantly, brainwashing everybody.

[626] In October of 1972, the San Francisco Examiner runs two articles about Synan, one describing it as, quote, the racket of the century.

[627] And Synanon sues the Hearst Corporation for $40 million.

[628] Holy shit.

[629] That's balzy.

[630] It's super balzy.

[631] They, what's crazy is the Hearst, Hurst settles out.

[632] of court with them for $600 ,000.

[633] Hersk gives them fucking...

[634] Gives them almost a million dollars just to go away.

[635] And they see that as this huge victory.

[636] Not only do they have way more money, but then they also are keeping people from exposing them, essentially.

[637] And so then it kicks up a notch.

[638] In 1974, Sinanon starts contacting parole officers around the Bay Area, asking if they have any juvenile offenders.

[639] Uh -oh.

[640] because they'll take them in.

[641] And so the, the court system starts sending juvenile offenders to Synanon.

[642] And it's like, yeah, it's such a bummer.

[643] It's kind of like the, what later on is like those outward bound kind of like, are you a bad kid?

[644] We'll make you hike it off.

[645] Oh, God.

[646] Except for Sinanon was just this ranch.

[647] And these, these, it was mostly boys.

[648] They would show up and they were just like, what the fuck is this?

[649] And they were, of course, made to do the game.

[650] and they were made to but none of them wanted to do it so they weren't there voluntarily and they weren't addicts so they were rebellious and so they were like yeah fuck this game and I'm not doing this and fuck you if you're telling me I'm a piece of shit and like they fought everything they were made to march like day and night they got woken up in the middle of the night made to march and when they rebelled when they were trying to do the game and Charles Didrick realized they weren't going to be willing participants he removed the one tenant of the organization that the organization was founded on, which was no violence.

[651] Yeah, and he starts this thing called the Imperial Marines.

[652] Oh, no. Which is basically his muscle security within the cult.

[653] The Imperial Marines.

[654] The Imperial Marines.

[655] So when these punks are up doing the game and they're not playing, three guys walk up and just beat the living shit out of a kid and with all the other kids sitting there watching.

[656] So, kids start running away from this ranch.

[657] Yeah.

[658] But you're out, this is, okay, I'm telling you.

[659] Now I've complained that like, oh, we couldn't get pizza delivered and we never had cable and all that shit.

[660] Yeah.

[661] Out where these people are, there's no street lights.

[662] You are out in the middle of nowhere and it's pitch black at night.

[663] You see, it's like the stars in the moon are your light.

[664] Holy shit.

[665] And that's fucking it.

[666] And cars driving down the street.

[667] And one car would drive by, maybe you, once every four hours.

[668] Like you're out in the middle of nowhere.

[669] So these kids would get up in the middle of the night and run away and they would go to the neighbor's ranch and the neighbors were two people named Alvin and Doris Gambini.

[670] Now the Gampanini's ranch was really well known in Petaluma because they used to have these big barn dances out there.

[671] So if you lived in Petaluma, you would go out, you pay like 10 bucks and they had like live music and people would dance and they had a bar and it was like a whole thing that they used to do.

[672] It's very country of like, we'll have our own bar.

[673] I love it.

[674] We'll make our own fun.

[675] And the Gambini family, you know, they were cattle ranchers.

[676] I can't remember if they were dairymen or if they actually bred cattle, but they had a humongous ranch of their own.

[677] So they were like, when they moved in, it was just like, oh no, who are these weirdos?

[678] But for the most part, people kept themselves.

[679] It was not that big of a deal.

[680] Well, suddenly in the middle of the night, you know, teenagers knocking on the door who are beaten senseless.

[681] There was one kid.

[682] There was a really amazing obituary when Doris died.

[683] When she died, they talked about all of this involvement that they had, you know, against their will, but kids would knock on the door, they'd bring them in.

[684] She would comfort them.

[685] She would give them something to eat.

[686] And then Alvin would pay for their bus ticket home.

[687] And they would be the ones that were like getting these kids out of this cult.

[688] And they said in this obituary that she kept all the things.

[689] thank you letters from the parents when the kids finally got back home and were like these are the people that helped us get there oh my god so the gamboninis were like huge in helping these poor track children and these poor people who are just like out in the mole of nowhere but they so the rumor starts going around town that like that these people are getting violent and they're getting militaristic and they're starting to buy guns and so they're starting to get worried and they're like there's a there's a they own a they have a common fence line there's an easement on it from the Walker Ranch side and they're like starting to get worried about who owns what and like it's starting to get worrisome and the and they start finding out that the kids are running away and the Gambini's are helping them escape and one night Alvin and Doris are driving up their driveway to go home and their truck gets surrounded by all these shaved head overall people with hammers and they attack the truck they bust out the driver's side window they grab Alvin and Doris has to hold him and keep him in the truck because they're going to pull him out to beat the shit out of him and they get away they get home they get safe they actually knocked out Alvin's front teeth what the fuck yeah and so like it's fucking like it's on it's like war with them and everybody around them and it's really violent it's like they're they're letting people around the area know there's another story about somebody in a purple truck hit a synon member who was on a bicycle and oh that's why your mom was like give them a wide fucking birth that's what it is because then they went into the town of tamales found a purple truck waited for the guy to get into his truck and then beat the living shit out of the guy that was in the truck holy shit so they're going crazy and it's all being fed by charles dedrick on the wire telling everybody that everyone's trying to get them yeah and they need to get get get they get got type of shit yeah so in 1977 oh and by the way just just because it's like you then you hear that story about the gammonini's and you're like so call the cops have them fucking arrested but these people had illegal teams they had so much money and they had so many lawyers they knew that if they called the coughs on them they get arrested they get out and then the revenge would go totally so they didn't do anything um and they found out that over 20 000 businesses and organizations were giving to or interacting with Synanon by the late 70s.

[690] Oh, my God.

[691] So it's one out of five corporations in the Fortune 500 were donating or doing business with the organization.

[692] What the shit.

[693] Like they were, they had infiltrated all these places under the guise of we're helping addicts get clean.

[694] We're the new, we're a rehab center.

[695] Yeah.

[696] Okay.

[697] So in 1977, Charles' wife Betty dies of cancer.

[698] Okay.

[699] And this is when it all goes crazy.

[700] because up until this point it's crazy enough but they said that his weirdest craziest tendencies she was keeping under control and when she dies he now decides he's going to have he's going to pick a new mate he picks a he's in his late 60s he picks a 31 year old then he decides no one should be married if he can fall in love with a stranger so can anybody else so all the married couples have to they're switching partners and the and the The cult decides who their new partners are.

[701] They put out, and they make a big spreadsheet.

[702] Oh, my God.

[703] And reassign everybody's partners.

[704] It's like a wedding dining seating chart.

[705] Yes.

[706] But so that year that he decided to do that, 600 couples got divorced.

[707] What?

[708] So they could be reorganized into different couples.

[709] And that's true love.

[710] It's so crazy.

[711] And in the big, he never liked kids being around.

[712] So he'd always kept them separate.

[713] And that would always be like, you can see your kid once a week.

[714] And in the early days, for a lot of people, they were like, you're insane.

[715] But then, of course, later on, it was how it should be.

[716] So all the kids were kept at the school, what they called the school, and they basically listened to his teachings, were taught to worship him.

[717] The little kids did the game.

[718] Oh, my God.

[719] There's a picture.

[720] You can look it up.

[721] There's a picture online of a little boy sitting in a chair yelling, like he's doing it to somebody else.

[722] We'll put it on Instagram, guys.

[723] It's fucking nuts.

[724] Okay.

[725] So everybody, everybody.

[726] Everybody gets a new husband or wife.

[727] He tells all the men they have to get vasectomies.

[728] Any woman who's pregnant has to get an abortion.

[729] They're shamed into getting abortions, yes, because he doesn't want kids there.

[730] Holy shit.

[731] Yes.

[732] So the health department, there's been complaints everywhere, but nobody can take action.

[733] The health department contacts Sinan to say they're going to come and inspect the ranch because they have gotten reports of child abuse there.

[734] And Synodon's, Charles basically tells them, if you should.

[735] show up, you're going to get a beat down.

[736] Holy shit.

[737] Yeah.

[738] And they think that when he won the lawsuit against Hearst publishing, they think that's what made him start to believe he had all the power.

[739] And that like basically his money was going to buy him out of everything.

[740] So, but these, but hearing that, he's getting more and more paranoid.

[741] Yeah.

[742] And his, and his, what he's saying on the wire across the wire is getting more and more paranoid and all about basically, it's turning into a militaristic.

[743] thing.

[744] He then decides he has to cut out the uncommitted members of the organization.

[745] And he brings the membership down to a thousand people.

[746] So, uh, sounds like it was pretty huge at one point.

[747] Yeah.

[748] But he basically is so paranoid that even the people that are there that are shaved heads, vasectomies, dedicated their whole life.

[749] He's like, not enough.

[750] You're out.

[751] Damn.

[752] Look, they got lucky.

[753] I know.

[754] For real.

[755] So then August 1978, the NBC nightly news airs a segment about synonon.

[756] and how it's a cult.

[757] And after the broadcast, several executives, NBC executives and corporate chairman get hundreds of death threats, hundreds of death threats, because there's so many synodon members kind of like all around and supporters of it.

[758] And then soon after this, two members of the Imperial Marines put a deraddled four and a half foot diamond back rattlesnake.

[759] into the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz.

[760] He reaches in to get his mail.

[761] He gets bitten by a four and a half foot rattlesnake.

[762] No. Humongous.

[763] And he is hospitalized for six days.

[764] So what happened was Paul Morantz brought a lawsuit against Sinanon because, and they'll try to tell us the quickest way possible, but essentially what happened in 1977, this woman was kind of having a nervous breakdown.

[765] Her husband was really worried about her.

[766] He was like, they were trying to make a plan of where they could bring her what to do.

[767] And he had her drop him off at work.

[768] And she went to the family planning clinic in her neighborhood to ask if she could have a tranquilizer because she was like, she was having like all these thoughts and she couldn't calm down.

[769] She couldn't stop crying.

[770] And she was losing her shit.

[771] And the woman who worked at this family planning center was in synodon.

[772] and so she was she sent her to synon they take her in they don't let her leave she's like no no no I don't want to be here and they're like no you need to be here and she's like I need to call my husband and they're like no he wants you to be here he doesn't want you holy shit and he they're like we're your family now they keep her for two days in that Santa Monica crazy hotel on the beach and then they ship her they bus her up to Walker creek ranch where they do the game on her they do all this shit and she has a psychotic break.

[773] Oh my God.

[774] Because she's like...

[775] Kidnapped.

[776] She's been kidnapped.

[777] She's been told her husband doesn't want to be married to her anymore and that this is her new life.

[778] Oh my God.

[779] So when they finally...

[780] So the husband, of course, is frantic.

[781] He calls the police.

[782] They say there's nothing they can do.

[783] She's a grown woman.

[784] If she wants to join that cult, she can.

[785] Like all that shit, he can't get anybody to help.

[786] And he finally gets referred to Paul, Morantz, the attorney, who had had a little bit of experience of getting people who had been put into nursing homes against their will that's how he'd kind of started and so he was like and he heard the story and was like I absolutely have to do this this is fucking crazy because he finds out when he calls like the health department and all that the people are like talking and whisperers like yeah we really can't do anything and whatever and he's like who are these people so he devises this plan he has the husband call the wife they demand to talk on the phone and then he basically says keep asking her if she wants to come home until you get her to say she wants to come home so that we have the verbal thing that she's being held against her will and then he went in and was like now we're taking her and they're like fine you can take her she's like because she wasn't contributing in any way that was meaningful she couldn't go out and get donations she's psychotic and so they said you just have to sign this waiver saying that we're not responsible for anything that happened to her while she was at Walker Creek Ranch.

[787] And he was like, sounds great.

[788] I'll sign that waiver.

[789] Signs the waiver as the attorney.

[790] They leave and he slapsed on the lawsuit for what happened to her in San Monica when she first got taken.

[791] Because he was like, are you crazy?

[792] Like, we're taking you down.

[793] So he sues them for damages.

[794] And he wins and they have to pay him $300 ,000.

[795] Oh, my gosh.

[796] And so that's when Charles Diedrick is like, we have to take care of this guy.

[797] Yeah.

[798] And sends out two members of the Imperial Guard to, put a fucking rattlesnake in his mailbox.

[799] That's crazy.

[800] Which absolutely would have killed him.

[801] Like a snake that size.

[802] Yeah.

[803] So insane.

[804] Okay.

[805] So that basically is the beginning of the end.

[806] When that story breaks that they have done this thing, they get caught like it's all immediate on top of the news reports that had started to trickle out, they go and they arrest Charles Diderick.

[807] He's drunk when they arrest him.

[808] Because it didn't work.

[809] No. This whole time.

[810] time he's been running this fucking cult.

[811] He's been drinking.

[812] And apparently at one point he reintroduced acid where he was like, yeah, and you guys can't drink or do drugs, but we should all be doing acid because it's going to help us open up.

[813] It's probably so bored having to say in that fucking ranch all day.

[814] It's like, you know what?

[815] Acid's fine now.

[816] As it's fine too.

[817] But he was completely a drunk.

[818] He agrees to a plea bargain to avoid jail time because his lawyers say that his health is so bad that he wouldn't he would die if he went to jail he in that plea agreement he stipulates he has to discontinue serving as an officer and the director of synon and the other two cult members um plead no contest and they end up going to jail even though they were brainwashed into fucking doing it by him for him yeah so in 1980 and this is the coolest part and this is the part where like the movie will be based all around these people in my opinion yeah there's A tiny, so Point Raise is a tiny town.

[819] Oh, yeah, they get good cheese.

[820] That's right, right north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

[821] If you basically went left instead of up the freeway and you went stick to the coast, Point Raise is right there.

[822] There's a very famous lighthouse, and it's like, it's gorgeous.

[823] They have a newspaper there called the Point Raise Light.

[824] And in 1975, it was bought by a husband and wife, Dave and Kathy Mitchell.

[825] And so they've owned it for five years.

[826] They keep hearing these stories about Synodon.

[827] So in 1980, they, along with Professor Richard Offshe, who taught at Berkeley, they write an expose of Synanon, and the articles that come out in this paper break nationwide, basically crack the story open, like, as what it is.

[828] And they end up winning the Pulitzer for it, this tiny newspaper in a town that probably has 800 people in it.

[829] So basically, the IRS gets rid of synon's tax -exempt status and orders them to pay $17 million in back taxes for all those years that they pretended to be a religion.

[830] That's got to hurt.

[831] So they go bankrupt, and by 1991, they're disbanded, although there is a branch of synon that was founded in Germany in 1971 that still exists to this day.

[832] Oh, my God.

[833] And Richard Diedrich died in 1997, which means he completely could have gone to jail and should have because really he made those two guys or just brainwashed cult members do it, but he didn't.

[834] And, oh, and then Richard Offshe, that professor, says that of the 6 to 10 ,000 residents of Synodon between 1950 and 1968, only 65 people were ever rehabilitated and lived normal lives in.

[835] society afterwards.

[836] What the fuck?

[837] That the entire thing was a fucking lie.

[838] Well, no shit.

[839] And that is the cult of Sinanon.

[840] Dude, that's the craziest story I've never heard of in my life.

[841] Isn't it the best?

[842] Shave your head.

[843] Okay.

[844] Okay, I'll do whatever.

[845] I'm not wearing overalls.

[846] That's where I drop.

[847] I'll join a cult.

[848] I'll shave my head.

[849] I'll fucking handle snakes.

[850] Not wearing overalls.

[851] You'll put a snake in a mailbox if need be.

[852] Anywhere.

[853] But not.

[854] You won't go.

[855] so far as to wear overalls.

[856] No. Well, that was amazing.

[857] Great, thank you.

[858] Great job.

[859] Thank you.

[860] Thank you.

[861] Um, I have to be.

[862] All right.

[863] Well, I just get, I sometimes get these like, uh, you know that nervous fluttery feeling getting your heart?

[864] Yeah.

[865] Like what I'm about to start my story.

[866] Yeah.

[867] Sometimes I get those and I'm just like, you know, nervous.

[868] Well, you are about to tell me something terrible.

[869] Yeah.

[870] But just like suddenly I have to give a presentation.

[871] Oh, right.

[872] Like it doesn't happen we go on stage but for some reason like right now it's like it's all you dude don't forget your gestures don't fuck this up yeah okay so webster's dictionary defined no sorry go ahead no i wrote a rap about the murder to the song of the mom spaghetti no okay okay so i'm really obsessed with this podcast right now called teachers pet that i can't stop listening to that's this investigative journalist podcast about this probable murder in Australia in the 80s, so that's where my fucking brain is right now.

[873] I was listening to it while I was in Hawaii.

[874] Me too.

[875] And did you really?

[876] That's what my Hawaii was.

[877] He didn't talk about, though.

[878] No. That's funny.

[879] And I was, I kept doing the thing where I fell asleep listening to it.

[880] So I would listen consciously to two episodes and then subconsciously to eight.

[881] Yeah.

[882] And it was weird because then I would re -listen to like, oh, now I'm on the third one.

[883] But I'd be like, I know what's going to happen.

[884] That's weird.

[885] Yeah, I do that too It's such a good It's such a good podcast It's so good and it's like It's going to break As it's happening right now Like there's no It's great And so creepy So creepy Okay I love it So my brain is there right now And so I'm doing a A story in Australia Same time period I am doing The death Of Azaria Chamberlain AK

[886].A