Charles E. Dederich had a good, useful idea, but it went askew. Having suffered from alcoholism, he knew a thing or two about how to help people with addictions and even figured out how to make lots of money doing so.
His rehabilitation program in Santa Monica, California,lost its compass, however, and morphed into cult, which was named Synanon. Members lived in what amounted to a commune and had to surrender themselves to the will of Dederich and other Synanon leaders. Some came to call this lifestyle a reign of terror, and after a lawyer unfriendly to the cult had a rattlesnake put in his mailbox, Dederich was taken to court.
At that time, Dederich lost control of Synanon, which fell apart in 1991.
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