WASHINGTON -- Three former Synanon Foundation members have told investigators the organization had a 'hit list' of enemies who were to be seriously injured or killed, Justice Department lawyers alleged in documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court.
Government lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Charles Richey to order the Synanon Foundation to turn over all information about destroyed or hidden materials detailing alleged criminal activities, or to dismiss Synanon's lawsuit against the United States.
Synanon, a drug rehabilitation organization founded in California that now describes itself as a religion, lost its tax-exempt status last year and has sued to recover it.
'Destroyed evidence would have shown, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that Synanon was not a tax-exempt organization at all, but rather a violent and militaristic cult dedicated to attacking and hurting its perceived 'enemies' and ... to enriching (Synanon founder) Charles Dederich and the other Synanon elite with the public's money,' the government's court documents said.
The Justice Department said former Synanon members Naya Arbiter, Bette Fleishman and Rodney Mullen, all granted immunity from prosecution, told government investigators the organization's officials tried to hire a professional 'hit man' to assassinate attorney Paul Morantz, and 'developed a 'hit list' of Synanon's enemies who were to be attacked and physically hurt.'
Morantz, a lawyer engaged in a lawsuit against Synanon, was seriously injured Oct. 10, 1978, when he reached into his mailbox and was bitten by a four-foot rattlesnake whose rattles had been cut off.
The Justice Department charged in the court papers that Dederich ordered Morantz attacked Aug. 28, 1978, and again gave the order the following month.
'He (Dederich) said that, if someone sued Synanon, that Synanon would go right after their lawyer,' the Justice Department documents said.
On a tape recording to Synanon members, Dederich allegedly described his 'new religious posture' as basically, 'Don't f-- with Synanon. In any way ... Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead. Physically dead,'' the Justice Department documents said.
The Los Angeles Police Department seized the tape in 1978.
Subpoenaed evidence was destroyed during the same period the IRS was auditing Synanon's activities to determine whether Synanon's 1960 exemption from federal taxes should be revoked, the Justice Department alleged.
The government alleged Synanon's Imperial Marines prepared a 'hit list' of Synanon's 'enemies,' who were to be physically attacked and hurt. The list was given to Walter Lewbel, Dederich's executive secretary, for review and approval.
Among those on the list was Morantz, Mike Garrett, the former head of Synanon security who was cooperating with California authorities investigating Synanon, and former Synanon residents Phil Ritter, Jack Hurst, Bill Crawford, Jack Tolchin, Dan Ross and Bobby Kohl.
Lewbel allegedly took Hurst and Garrett off the enemies list.
Ritter had his face crushed in a beating Sept. 21, 1978, at his Berkeley, Calif., home.
'Until today, the vicious attack on Phil Ritter has been an unsolved crime,' the Justice Department alleged in its court filing, adding that Imperial Marines Alan Hubbard and Musico 'viciously beat Phil Ritter with wooden mallets ... from Synanon's 'hobby lobby.'
Musico and Hubbard fled when a crowd gathered. Ritter was not killed in the beating. While hospitalized afterward, he developed meningitis.
