Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary series living up to its title in every way conceivable, HBO’s Rory Kennedy-directed ‘The Synanon Fix’ can only be described as equal parts baffling, intriguing, and haunting. That’s because it incorporates not just archival footage but also exclusive interviews to really explore the rise and fall of the drug rehabilitation program turned new religious movement Synanon. Founder Charles “Chuck” Dederich’s daughter, Jady Dederich Montgomery is amongst those who featured in the documentary.
Who is Jady Dederich Montgomery?
It was reportedly back in the early 1950s that Jady (or Cecilia Jason) was born to Chuck Dederich and his second wife as their only child and daughter, yet she was raised alongside her elder half-brother. Though the truth is both she and Charles Jr. were primarily brought up in the communes of Tender Loving Care (later Synanon), which their father had established in 1958 upon getting fully sober. Per her narrative, her father had realized drug addicts weren’t always welcome into his haven of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), so he decided to build a safe, non-judgemental rehab space for them too.
However, neither Jady nor anybody else could’ve imagined that this significant, socially-driven organization would soon evolve into a cult of sorts as the money and people would come rolling in. “My dad – – Chuck’s story, and Synanon’s story; it’s a big, beautiful, tragic story,” she candidly said in the aforementioned original, where she spoke up about her past/father publicly for the first time. She actually still vividly remembers that while everyone in society tried to distance themselves from addicts, people of color, or anyone “different” back then, Chuck never once turned on them.
“Why [my once-alcoholic dad] wasn’t turned off by people very different from him in every way, I don’t know,” Jady said in the series. “Maybe it was his face, his disfigurement from meningitis. He was the outcast, the person who’d been a failure his whole life. A person who was broken and lost and had found his way in connection with other people,” especially as his own habit had led him to two divorces. It was thus no surprise to her when she found herself surrounded by recovering addicts at an early age or when Chuck made the “Game” part of his treatment plan — this game is a form of attack therapy at a whole other level, unlike the sharings in AA.
According to Jady, the only rules these Games and Synanon had were no drugs, no threats, and no violence — Chuck wanted his members to let their built-up anger as well as frustration loose by saying the meanest things possible, but no physicality was ever allowed. Yet little did she know that cracks had already begun to appear when she was just a young adult getting ready to take over the Synonyn School — this was a place/commune for every adult member’s child to develop, live, play, and study in, in an overall sense.
Per the series, despite being a Synanon Academy – Communiversity graduate herself, she had no idea children here were being abused for the littlest things and were rarely even given affection; in other words, she believed all their needs/wants were being fulfilled. Jady also conceded in a sincere moment that she doesn’t know if she would have actually stopped the corporal punishments or forcefulness if she ever came across it because she was wrapped up in her father’s charms, too, thinking he/his work could do no wrong.
However, everything began turning upside down in the 1970s as Synanon’s success led to insurmountable donations, requests for workshops, plus much more, eventually driving Chuck to announce LSD sessions for his clients to further deal with their emotions — Jady had her first LSD trip at 17, wherein everything she experienced related to her father and whether he loved her. This was later followed by Game sessions for non-members, national expansion, Chuck’s relapse, juvie programs, military training, member marriage changes plus vasectomies, financial misdeeds, evidence tampering, acts of terrorism, and attempted murder.
Jady Dederich Montgomery Has Moved On in Life
In the end, in December 1978, upon carefully building Tender Loving Care into Synanon before ultimately bringing it down to a cult called The Church of Synanon, Chuck was arrested for his crimes. As per Jady, he was drunk at the time officials barged in with arrest as well as search warrants, but what’s even more significant is that she was soon apprehended for her role within the infamous institution, too. However, in January 1983, alongside her father, brother, plus a fellow member, she pleaded innocent to one count of conspiracy, 54 counts of selling unregistered stock in the public market, and 54 counts of illegally selling stock through unregistered salesmen.
It’s actually unclear how this case against Jady panned out, but we do know she regrets many things to have transpired within Synanon — yet, the beginning is something she can’t and won’t ever bring herself to resent since their rehab facility did work for many. As for “what happened [as time passed by]; it was terrible. It was terrible,” she expressed in the HBO production. “People suffered. People were hurt. And [my dad] did bring Synanon down around him. But all of this… he couldn’t have done it without us enabling him. A really smart, talented, educated people – we all did things we would never do now.”
Coming to Jady’s current standing, from what we can tell, this Los Angeles native moved on long ago and prefers to lead a relatively quiet life in Berkeley, California, these days. Though we do know she has been married at least a couple of times, is a widow, has a brood of children, grandchildren, plus friends, and serves as an activist as well as a creative being through and through. In fact, this 73-year-old’s Instagram bio reads, “California girl now an older… Friend, mother, grandmother, lover, wife, member, ex-member, student, seeker, helper, poet, painter, dancer.” In other words, she now seems utterly content and happy with her life, which is honestly all that matters in the long run.
Read More: How Many Wives Chuck Dederich Did Have? Who Were They?
