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— Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan was approached on Sept. 27 outside his Manhattan apartment building by two men who carried film and taping equipment, and said they represented SCRAM. When Donovan rebuffed their request for an interview, one of the men told him: "We are going to ruin your life, Mr. Donovan." Synanon this year filed a $76,750,000 libel suit against Time Inc. because of TIME'S Dec. 26, 1977, story about Synanon. The organization's members and backers have picketed Time Inc.'s Rockefeller Center headquarters, attempted to disrupt the company's annual stockholders' meeting there last April, and sent hundreds of strongly worded letters to Donovan and other Time Inc. executives. "I dedicate my life to harassing you and your family," one writer promised.
Dederich has not commented recently about the alleged harassment or the libel suits. But last winter he said of Synanon's critics: "I'm going to make them as nervous about the safety of their children and grandchildren as I am about mine. We never start anything. We never do and never have, but nobody's going to mess with us. Nobody."
Synanon's resident population has dwindled from 1,700 to 900 in the past six years. Some former members say they left in dismay at the group's evolution from an earnest and widely praised rehabilitation organization to a rich (current assets: almost $30 million) but capriciously governed cult. Synanon announced in January that it had bought $63,000 in weapons and ammunition for its own protection, and ex-members say it has developed a squad known as the "imperial marines," who are trained in martial arts and commando tactics. Whether some members have decided that those tactics should include assassination by snakebite is a question that may be answered at the trial of Lance Kenton and Joseph Musico.