Suicide or Murder? page 2 of 2

by Wesley Fager (c) 2000

"A fair number of kids have attempted suicide or contemplated suicide. We cannot leave them alone . . . We had one instance where a young lady tried to hang herself with a towel in the bathroom."  Bill Oliver, Straight's national executive director

 

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Suicides in the other Straights

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"I don't believe it. I'm sitting here at work, trying to keep the tears from coming down my face. Not about Jamie, but about everything that 
happened. It's like ripping a scab off an old wound. Right now I just hurt so much. As I was reading that letter, I was remembering all the shit that happened to me and the others. I am being overwhelmed now with waves of rage, hurt, hatred and deep, deep pain. Man, I thought I was over it! Isn't 12 years enough time? Because that was ME! I attempted suicide three times in Straight. And it was fucking BULLSHIT! Everything they did, it was just criminal! I almost did not SURVIVE. How can people DO that? This is supposed to happen under Hitler or Stalin, NOT in America, godammit!"
John H., a former client of Straight-Detroit reading Brian Bell.'s posting about Jamie on the Straight Alumni Internet forum. (From another post  John stated,  "Funny, even though I've had problems with depression most of my life, I never did that [attempted suicide] before or after Straight, only while I was in there.")
"I've actually been afraid to reach out to anyone from there - I've heard Vietnam vets and ex-cons suffer the same anxiety.  For me, it's a fear that someone's going to say "you fucked me up for life when you were a staff member".  Still, I did my best, and if you're one of those people, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, and I really was trying to help.  That place put kids - fucked up kids - in charge of other kids' lives.  I've been to a therapist.  In the U.S. an advanced college degree is required to do what I did with a single year of drunken college.  Getting a D in psych 101 didn't make me a therapist."
Paul M., client, staff in Straight-Springfield and Boston
"From my point of view, in order to save my son, I allowed Straight  to take over my home, my marriage, my job, my friendships, my relationships  with other family members and my very life.  I had five kids in my house, even when Chip was set back on first phase.  They were growing boys and ate well here.  We took out a second mortgage on our house (just to buy food,  smile)."
Jane, a former Straight parent and poster to Straight, Inc. Survivors
"I know when I left Straight I felt so bad that I just wanted to stay stoned all the time. My drug use was how I dealt with my craziness and I was really crazy. You know trying to hang myself, wandering around the streets at all times of the night, etc. Yes, I was a mumbler Yeah, but I was told all those things after I left Straight and still I put a belt around my neck and jumped off a jungle gym. Fortunately the belt broke. . . you know one one of those stretchy 80's belts. I'm better now. I was about 21 at the time. I was one crazy "muther" fucker for many years . . . am amazed I've come out of it as well as I have."
Claude [not his real name], a  former student in Straight-Saint Petersburg

update 1/20/05 The Oakton Institute has been investigating the status of a former client from South Carolina who was in Straight-Atlanta. We are happy to report that we heard from this person who is alive and well--but is still troubled by Straight.

Lisa D. had been in Straight-Orlando in the late 1980s. An informant told this writer that she had been sexually abused by someone close to her before Straight. After Straight she got married and had three children. There were domestic problems and she left losing custody. On February 18, 2001 Lisa called all of her friends. She was sobbing because it was her son's birthday and she could not see him. My informant says that that night Lisa started breaking beer bottles and cutting herself. She hung herself on February 19, 2001 in a hotel in Deland, Florida.

Brian Bell was in Straight-Atlanta. Here he recalls the story of Jamie C. (last name withheld by author) in an eMail he sent me.  This report is un-substantiated.  Please write the author if you have any information on this at wes@wesfager.com . 

"One night I was a newcomer staying at this kid's Wayne's house. We had finished our MI's and so Jamie, my oldcomer and me went to the bathroom for showers. I remember Jamie went first. My oldcomer and I were going over my MI when we heard a tremendous thump in the bathtub. My oldcomer yanked back the shower curtain and face down lay Jamie. Ashen and blue-lipped. He was under so much stress he just wanted to die. He had fucking tried to drown himself in the shower. Having had first aid training during an EMT class just before entering Straight, my learned instincts took over. I yanked Jamie from the shower and started CPR. He still had a pulse, but was not breathing. My oldcomer yelled for his mother who was a single parent. Following Straight protocol she dialed Straight instead of calling 911. She was kept on the phone until I had sucessfully resuscitated  Jamie. I carried Jamie to the "phaser bedroom" and lay him on the bed. Meanwhile Straight sent another 5th phaser over to "help" supervise. The next day in Group Jamie was confronted. Fried...grilled... for well over 3 hours. I was even made to stand up and tell him how I felt. I started off telling in front of the Group of 92 phasers that I was hurt. But someone set me straight and called out, "No Brian... that's not how you felt... you are angry... Tell Jamie how angry you are at him !!! Tell him how mad he makes you!! Tell him he's worthless for doing that!!!!" So, as instructed, I did. That just fed into the Group's frenzy. Over and over, this person who had just attempted suicide less than 12 hours before, was being told how worthless he was. Theraputic? I think not. At that point, Jamie totally gave up. He would not conform to the program at all. I don't blame him either. Later that same day, an oldcommer ran his knuckles down Jamie's back in order to get him to sit up straight. (This was an all time favorite: to run your knuckles down someone's spine up and down as hard as you could in order to get them to sit up straight. I must have been the Groups favorite recipient of "knuckle" therapy because even though I had then and still suffer from low back disc degeneration, no one at Straight believed me. And even though it was physically impossible for me to keep my back arched and sit up straight, I was the poster child for receiving this painful abuse.) Anyway, when they did this to Jamie, (and mind you it hurt like hell to have it done to you) Jamie jerked. The Group who was already fired-up over Jamie's suicide attempt, threw Jamie to the floor. He was screaming. God he was screaming in pain. I have never heard a scream like it in my life. It was more of a loud crying shriek. It was haunting. The whole time, with counselors yelling in his face, "Did it feel good?" "Do you want to 'act out'!" "Hope it hurts Jamie!!!!" FUCK!. Why????. Then I think most of us that were within 20 people of him heard the snap. The sound of a bone being dislocated at the elbow. Then silence, I guess after the sobbing, Jamie's poor helpless body had finally gone into shock. He was back that evening in Group, with hissling and support bandages... Everyone pretty much left Jamie alone, at least for a few days. 

I remember after I was home and my mother was on the phone with another Straight mom. I remember the somber look on my mother's face as she told me that Jamie had committed suicide. I still feel to this day that maybe there was something I could have done... Should have done.... And even to this day, I feel and share Jamie's pain." 
 

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Travis Stone tried to warn his untrained counselors at Growing Together that he was suicidal. But they thought he was just being manipulative. Later he committed suicide by taking some pills and then placing a plastic bag over his head.

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In memory of Jeff Leugers-- an All American boy

In January 1993 Travis Stone, a student in Growing Together, a Sembler-based synanon still in operation in Lake Worth, Florida, told his peer counselors that he was feeling "depressed and overwhelmed," and would commit suicide if sent back to jail. But his unqualified counselors discounted him as only being manipulative. Six months later, perhaps afraid he would be turned in for having a girl friend, Mr. Stone committed suicide by placing a plastic bag over his head. The official state report says that a tragedy might have been avoided if program officials had acted upon Mr. Stone's earlier feelings.(28)

The author has been corresponding with a man named John who had been in Straights in Texas and California from 1988 to 1990.  I have learned from him that Dan Brown, his host brother from Straight-Southern California,  committed suicide within a year of graduating from that program. 

Danny and Jeff. Danny [not his real name] will never forget the night of November 19, 1982 when his friend and junior staff member Jeff Leugers told him he would be Seventh Stepping. Both Danny and Jeff would go on to become President of their local Seventh Step Society in Cincinnati. Danny had been old for a Straightling.  Amazingly, he had breezed through Straight-Saint Pete in less than a year--and without a setback.  Danny feels that he did have a substance abuse problem and for almost 20 years he was grateful to Straight for turning his life around.  He even started a popular Internet discussion forum to reach out to former members of Straight,  and he started writing a  book on his memoirs on Straight.  But one day he had a flashback while writing and it suddenly dawned on him that he had carved on his body while in Straight.  Unexpectedly,  he started hearing  more and more stories of abuse at Straight on his own web forum.  It has taken a long time,  but Danny is beginning to understand that there was abuse at Straight and he is not happy about it.  Today he still feels grateful to Straight for giving him some tools like the 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer to help him cope with addiction,  but beyond that he admits that an incident at Straight almost cost him his life.   Soon after his graduation from Straight Danny was an officer of  Straight's Seventh Step Society.   At that time he engaged in a one-time sexual encounter with an old high school sweet heart. He writes:


"I knew that what I did was wrong and knew that I should tell someone, but I was too scared of the consequences to come forward. The paranoia was unbearable. I even thought at one point that the girl I had sex with would actually call Straight and tell them what we did. After about 4 weeks on Staff, I couldn't take it anymore and confessed. I was taken to the Assistant Director's office and told that I had no Staff responsibilities, had to attend 7th Step Raps and tell everyone there what I did, and started writing MI's again.

Even after getting my responsibilities back, it took me a while to realize it, but it became clear that the other Staff Members didn't support me anymore. I even think that some Staff members thought I should've been terminated for what I did. My own Junior (the person that was responsible for helping me become a Junior Staff member myself) point blank told another Staff member that he was going to bust his ass and help John, another Trainee with his own Junior, become the next Junior Staffer. I was devastated. 

That's when the depression, loneliness, and suicidal ideation's began. Sitting in the parking lot at the end of a long day at Straight, tears streamed down my face. Pulling out of the parking lot, I started thinking about pulling my car directly into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer on SR 28. I thought about this almost daily. Everyday I had to work at Straight, I dreaded. I was yelled at almost constantly. Getting Rap idea's approved became nearly impossible. One time, after I assisted in a Pull Conference, I told my Junior that the person was going to cop-out that night. He thought I was crazy. The next day, when I saw his name on the cop-out list, I said out loud, "I knew it, I knew he was going to leave." My Junior heard what I said and questioned me. When I explained that I knew this person was going to cop-out, he confronted me and asked why I hadn't said anything to anyone? I told him that I had... "I told you!" I yelled. He, of course denied it, knowing that his failure to act upon such information would get him in hot water too. We argued so loud that it got the attention of a Senior Staff Member. When he asked what was going on, my Junior said, "[Danny] failed to report a possible cop-out." &n! bsp;  I was furious and began to argue even more. I was eventually asked to leave the office. Later that day I was demoted to 5th level Trainee. My Junior denied that it had anything to do with the discussion we had earlier, but I knew better. 

This was the kind of thing that went on daily and it just became too much. The other Trainee's stopped talking to me and now, I felt like a man without a country. The depression got so bad, that at times, I left the group room and went to an Intake Room or a bathroom and cried. No one ever saw me or knew how bad things were for me. I tried to act like every thing was all right. I even started to believe that I really wasn't ready to be a Junior, because that's what I was told all the time. 

After a messy two week leave of absence, I left Staff. Almost immediately, the loneliness, depression and thoughts of suicide vanished. I knew it was time for me to move on, and I did." 
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Meanwhile Danny's friend Jeff Leugers had a relapse and was sent down to Straight-St Pete where once again he Seventh Stepped. In fact, after Danny left, Jeff took over the job as President of Danny's local Seventh Step Society. It is believed that Jeff may have had some underlying mental health issues when growing up, but you wouldn't suspect it by looking at him. Jeff was a good looking blond hair guy with a full set of teeth. They say he was an all American boy. But like Danny, Jeff also had thoughts of killing himself. Only Jeff did it. One day he went home and wrapped himself up in a sheet to confine the mess. As he lay there he shot himself dead with a powerful handgun.
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The Oakton Institute is investigating the alleged suicide Rob H. who attended Straight Cincinnati and who allegedly committed suicide after Straight.  Rob had attended Anderson High School in Anderson, Indiana.  It is reported that he hung himself in his mother's backyard and that he mentioned Straight in a suicide note. 

The Oakton Institute is investigating the alleged suicide of Dane W. who attended Straight Cincinnati and who allegedly committed suicide after Straight.  It is reported that he died of carbon monoxide poisoning in his mother's garage and that he mentioned Straight in a suicide note.  Dane had attended Highland High School,  also in Anderson, Indiana,  however preliminary data does not indicate Dane's death and Rob's death occurred near enough together to be ruled a double suicide. 

The Oakton Institute is investigating the  alleged suicide of a former client from Straight - Cincinnati named Paul.  

Brian Neal, a Canadian,  was in Miller Newton's KIDS program in New Jersey before becoming a counselor at Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center (AARC)--a KIDS spin-off program. He left AARC and later  hung himself.  Dr. Dean Vause, who operates AARC,   spoke at Brian's funeral. 

Kimberely Fee recalls Ryan K. sitting passively in Group, not-motivating, because he really had nothing to motivate about. He was just a kid, without a sordid past, who wound up in Kids of North Jersey. Kim says that she thought of Ryan often because he simply did not belong in Kids, and yet, she feels, Kids made his parents believe he was such an awful child. "He was so scared and timid all the time," Kim writes in 2002. Ryan had been in and out of institutions and jail since he left Kids. In early 2002 Kim was informed that Ryan had hung himself. The Oakton Institute is investigating the death of Ryan K. If you have any information on this suicide, please let us know.

Phil Winograd was in Kids of Bergen County in the 1980s when he was transferred with 18 other clients to the new franchise in El Paso, Texas. At one point Phil and his family had been featured in an article in an El Paso newspaper which had praised Kids for bringing Phil's family back together. Phil graduated Kids and became a senior staffer before being sent back to the New Jersey program on a graduate refresher. Tragically, Phil later died of an overdose of prescription medications at his parent's home.  


The Oakton is investigating the suicide of Albert Perez, a former client of Miller Newton's expansion program--Kids of El Paso. Albert did not graduate Kids,  but he got a GED after leaving Kids. He resided in El Paso at the time of his death. 

The Oakton Institute is investigating the suicides of Ron Hill and of his father. The Hill's were from Indiana and were described by those who knew them as the ideal, all American family. But Mr. Hill committed suicide around 1996. And then two years later, his son Ron committed suicide in his car behind the pawn shop where he worked. It is believed that this death occurred in Glendale, Arizona.

The Oakton Institute is investigating the possible suicide of  Richard B.--probably formerly in Straight-Boston.

The Oakton Institute is investigating the possible suicide of Andy M. from South Carolina, formerly a client at Straight-Atlanta. 

 

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Jerry Vancil may have closed Straight down at the outset after he reported a gang beating to the Saint Petersburg Times. Prominent citizens including a judge and the man who would become chief of police investigated Bob Marshall who was the state's principal investigator. Mel Sembler, AO, admitted that Straight board members complained to the Secretary of Health about Bob Marshall's investigation of Straight. Jerry Vancil disappeared and Bob Marshall was fired. [Photo: Saint Petersburg Times.]
It has been reported to me that between July 18, 1988 and May, 1990 a very pretty girl with curly hair had made third phase at Straight--Dallas and was then finally allowed to go home and not be monitored. And that at her home, which may have been in Colleyville, Texas, she hung herself.  And there are other are other alleged suicides and  accidental or suspicious deaths of former students from Straight-like rehabs that we are investigating. Here are some of them. From the KIDS program in New Jersey: Tracey B--an apparent overdose. David  Sc.--automobile accident. Rachel R. (often touted as one of KIDS' best success stories) died of an "epileptic attack" in the bathtub. Another David Sm. (KIDS c. 1994) killed in an auto accident. A former male client who shot him a few years ago. Shirley C., a staff member from KIDS of Salt Lake allegedly committed suicide c. 1999. There is a report that David Su. and  a boy named Wayne may have committed suicide. There's the story about a former client in the 1980s who either killed his girlfriend or her kids. The story is that the newspaper account was shown to clients who were told the same would happen to them if they left the program. There's a report that a kid who was in Straight-Dallas killed himself after his experience there. There is a young woman who was in the process of suing Straight-Dallas when she was killed in an automobile accident.  There is a report of a former client of Straight - St Pete who jumped to his death off a bridge c. 1998.  Peter C., a former student turned counselor at Straight - Boston, was stabbed to death by a friend as they argued who would sit in the front seat. Gregory McDonald graduated from Straight - Boston in 1986 and was killed in a motorcycle accident the next year.

Jerry Vancil escaped from Straight around 1977 and got to a reporter of the Saint Petersburg Times and told of a  beating he had received in a timeout room by numerous old comers. The Times investigated and got statements from several of the alleged old comers who admitted that a confrontation had occurred but not like Jerry Vancil had stated. It was Jerry Vancil who had attempted to beat them all up so they had to protect themselves. State health official from Florida's HRS Robert G. Marshall investigated the matter and publicly stated that if the allegations proved to be true it would become a criminal matter and be given over to the State Attorney's office. And then Jerry Vancil just disappeared. Straight could have been closed down at that time based on Jerry Vancil's story and others beginning to emerge, but the state's star witness just disappeared. Bob Marshall said that without a witness there was no case. The state of Florida did not look for Jerry Vancil and as far as I know Jerry Vancil has never been seen again, dead or alive. Jerry Vancil is from Tennessee. If you have any information on Jerry Vancil, please contact me. If you have any information on these or any other suspicious deaths or suicide attempts involving students or former students of Straight-based synanons please contact the author. I will respect your confidentiality in these matters.
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"These teens literally become 'violence addicts as a result of subjective perception of a 'high' in the feelings of anger and rage."
Father Doctor Miller Newton

 

"Spanking demonstrates to impressionable minds that there are violent methods of dealing with frustration."
Dr. Bruce A. Epstein, pediatrician and former Straight board member.(28.2)

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"By the end of the year, we'll have 2,500 kids straight in Saint Petersburg."
Seed founder Art Barker addressing The Saint Petersburg Bar Association Monthly Luncheon on September 5, 1973

 

Amazingly, in his 1995 book Adolescents: Guiding Youth Through the Perilous Ordeal, Father Doctor Miller Newton acknowledges that people can be addicted to violence! [p.145] In it he recognizes two basic causes of adolescent violence and aggression. His first cause is that many kids become violent in response to physical or psychological threat. This man, who placed thousands of kids in an environment where they were in constant threat of physical violence and psychological torture and where they had to administer physical violence and psychological pressures on others in order to advance themselves, admitting that that kids in such an environment can become addicted to violence.  The other cause, Dr. Newton writes, is based on personal power needs. "These teens  literally become 'violence addicts�", he writes, "as a result of subjective perception of a 'high' in the feelings of anger and rage."   I do  not discount for one moment the rush or high a person might feel bungi jumping, parachuting or even punching someone in the nose, but it is the Straights themselves that are teaching violent highs.  What kind of a clockwork orange is this man describing? 

One Friday evening when I was in the cult they were passing the microphone around to all us  parents to give us a chance to blast our  children. This one lady took the cordless mic and just barely got out the name Joey [name changed] when all of a sudden this big kid, I mean like about 230 pounds, solid, stood up and screamed to the top of his lungs:  "fuck you mother", "you bitch", "I hate you", "fuck you", "fuck you", "fuck you."  He was screaming violently.  Blood curdling screams.  He was filled with rage,  this huge boy. The student on his right tried to grab him, then the one on his left and the one behind him and in front of him. The fifth phasor guards around the perimeter moved in. Kids and even adult counselors started piling on, holding his arms and legs; hands over his mouth. In all,  a mass of about 15 kids had ganged-tackled him and sat in a pile on top of him. They could have subdued Mohammad Ali by the sheer weight of  boy-power. We parents were terrified. I mean the screams were really blood curdling. This kid, in my opinion, had he been alone with his mother at that time, would have beaten her to death with his bare hands. I later found out that that boy had been transferred to one of the special extension apartments run by kids down the block at Chelsea Square. A new sense of urgency came over all of us parents after that incident.  "Look what drug use had led this one kid to," we thought. Years later I tried contacting this child-man to tell him we didn't know. That had I known then what I now know I would have come to his aid in the free-for-all. That it had not been drugs that had led him to violence against his own mother, rather it had been Straight. But the child-man did not want to correspond with me. Later I learned that Straight had recognized his special abilities as an interrogator and had allegedly turned him into one of their "spitters." Today I know that this kid was so angry with his mother for having placed him into Straight where he was systematically abused that he could have killed her. I do believe he would have killed her had he been alone with her on that night. But suppose he had escaped. Suppose he learned to fake it and harbored all that hatred until the day he made phase so he could have been alone with her. Then what Mr. Sembler?
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Could Dr. Rosenberg be right? Can homicide be suicidal depression turned outward?

 

The $ traights have been ripping families apart since 1976. Do you believe a child could be so upset with his parents for having placed him or her into a Straight that he could kill them? How about former Straight - Dallas student Timothy Nixon? In 1990 he took a baseball bat and beat his mother to death with it, spattering the walls and floor with her blood. He and his brother then wiped up the blood from the floor and walls and placed her bludgeoned body in the trunk of her car and rode around town asking his friends if they wanted to take a ride. He was planning the murder of his father when he was arrested. Timothy is now serving 99 years in a Texas prison.(31)

The above is a petition from the state of Texas to Straight - Dallas for the medical records of Straight's former student Timothy Nixon.  Note the state simply says "the crime is extremely serious."
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A person has posted on our discussion forum that a former client at Straight - Cincinnati or Straight - Detroit left Straight and murdered his grandparents. The evidence clearly shows that Straight teaches kids to be ultra-violent and that the Straight experience, in some cases, can drive a person to kill himself or to kill his loved ones. But is Dr. Rosenberg right when he says that homicide might be suicidal depression turned outward? Can the Straight experience lead to out and out murder? Former Straight - Saint Petersburg client, 32 year-old Michael Gallagher, who had a long history of crime, had been on medication to control his sex drive when he followed a woman into the ladies room in a bar on Jul 10, 1995 and threatened to rape her at knife point, fled, tried to break into several nearby homes, charged a cop with a PVC pipe and was fatally shot.(30) Bradley Martin spent two years at Straight-Springfield never progressing beyond fourth phase. After he got out he allegedly went on a killing spree killing a man in Pennsylvania and another person in Utah. He was on the TV show America's Most Wanted. Today he is on death row in Pennsylvania for the 1993 slaying of a Pennsylvania man.(29) Richard Bradbury and I have been working with his appeals team in an effort to spare his life, asking the court to consider Bradley Martin's Straight experience.

In 1983, defending Straight's position on accompanying kids into bathrooms, Straight's national executive director Bill Oliver acknowledged that:

A fair number of [Straight] kids have attempted suicide or contemplated suicide. We cannot leave them alone . . . We had one instance where a young lady tried to hang herself with a towel in the bathroom.(32)
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Richard Bowman, apparently the husband of Growing Together's [a Straight-spinoff program in Lakeworth, Florida] executive director Micky Bowman said it this way:

Sure, a teen will stand by while a newcomer uses the toilet. That makes sure the newcomer does not escape through the bathroom window or try to commit suicide. They're not sitting there eye-balling them.(32.1)
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John Haven of Atlanta, Georgia was in Growing Together. He says that he was always contemplating "how to kill myself" when he was in there.(32.1)  Suicide attempts are very commonplace at the Straights. Coincidentally Straight's national research director, pediatrician Dr. Richard Schwartz, conducted a NIDA funded study to determine why so many female teenagers were cutting on themselves. His results are published in the 1989 report "Self-Harm Behavior (Carving) in Female Adolescent Drug Abusers."(33) In sworn court deposition while he was Straight's national clinical director, Dr. Newton once stated:

At any time about a third of the young people in the program had made suicide attempts in the past.(34)
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Even Father Newton acknowledges that depression is the leading cause of suicides. In his 1995 book Adolescence: Guiding Youth Through the Perilous Ordeal, for which he received a Ph.D. in neuropsychology, Miller Newton acknowledges that, "Current standards in psychology and counseling fields state that depression is the primary cause of both suicide attempts and suicide completions" [p. 154] Further on in his book Newton talks about a 15 year-old girl named Peggy who had been suicidal and diagnosed as schizophrenic at a local county mental health hospital. During admission to his KIDS' program they discovered her primary problem was really drugs and alcohol. He writes that he had to wait out and extinguish her "hospital developed" behavior before treating her. At KIDS they worked on her "self esteem" and her "sexual excitement" associated with "drug use" image. Now she has graduated magna cum laude from college in music.[pp.211-213] The message is that Kids of North Jersey is also a treatment center for treating adolescent suicides!
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PANDAA is a tough love parent's association in Northern Virginia founded by former Straight parent Joyce Tobias in the early 1980s and staffed by many former Straight volunteer parents. The Virginia State Police is a frequent sponsor of PANDAA. PANDAA has worked hard to put pressure on county judges for stiffer sentencing in drug related offenses. Bill Burns, a Straight parent on President Reagan's staff, hosted STRAIGHT TALK, a weekly radio talk show on drugs which was advertised in PANDAA's newsletter PANDAA Besides promoting Straight and books for Straight's Dr. Robert DuPont and Dr. Miller Newton, PANDAA is chock full of articles by Straight's Bob DuPont, Harold Voth [affiliated with DFAF], Will Knisely and Richard Schwartz. The article above appeared in the June 1993 issue of PANDAA and is by Father Doctor Miller Newton. He writes, "Of course, some suicide attempts are 'non-serious.' That is, the attempts are ill-considered efforts to feel better about one's self by being the center of people's attention. Unfortunately, young people are neither pharmacologists or surgeons. Consequently, these 'non-serious' attempts sometimes result in accidental death." But then he also writes that 100,000 automobile accidents occur each year involving juveniles which don't involve other automobiles. "These accidents," he writes, "cannot be explained by road conditions, weather conditions, or mechanical failure. Although there is seldom a suicide note, these accidents should be considered as adolescent suicide attempts." Why that just does not make sense. If many kids die from apparent suicide attempts which were really just attention getting behaviors gone awry as Newton writes, then how can he say that all traffic accidents involving youths which can not otherwise be explained are suicide attempts. Why can't some of these also be just attention getting behaviors too?

 

Judge allows psychological autopsy of suicide vctim to see if she was driven to suicide by mother Notice that most of the reported suicide/suicide attempts discussed in my report are related to Straight - Springfield, Virginia in the 1980s and 1990s. This is because the author lives in that area and has better collection resources there than elsewhere about the country. Since it is virtually impossible for anyone to find data on suicides, especially juvenile, anywhere, the author assumes that there are many other as yet undiscovered psychoses, suicides, and murders involving former Straight clients--both in the Washington, DC area and in other areas of the country where abusive Straight-type programs have operated. No one knows how many kids have gone through Straight and its look-alike programs, but perhaps there have been as many as 20,000 to 35,000. In light of the high number of suicide incidents related to Straight students, one can't help but wonder about the unusually high rate of juvenile suicide incidents reported in areas where Straight has operated. Consider:
  • According to statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, in 1987 the Tampa Bay area (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas Counties) had the highest suicide rate in the country.(35) It's not just because of the large number of retirees there either. The juvenile suicide rate in Pinellas County rose 130% between 1980 and 1986.(36) A 1992 study found that 1 out of 4 girls in neighboring Pasco County attempted suicide in 1991 (national average was 10%).(37) And in neighboring Hillsborough County the juvenile suicide rate rose from 3 in 1980 to 9 by 1987.(38) 19 youths committed suicide in Pinellas/ Hillsborough Counties in 1989 [up to nine of these were gay.](39) Straight operated its founding center, Straight-St Pete, in Saint Petersburg, Florida in Pinellas County from 1976 to 1993.

  • In 1986 a Straight-like program called Outreach was opened in Cape Coral, Florida. Next year in 1987 a community task force was put together to find out why 19 youths aged 14 - 17 had attempted suicide. [I have no data whether any of these youths were at Outreach, nor do I have any data showing that Outreach was an "abusive" Straight-like program.](40)

  • In 1988 the National Center for Disease Control launched a study on juvenile suicides in Cobb County, Georgia because its suicide rate of 14.7 for every 100,000 was 3 higher than the state average, and 2 times higher than the national average. Straight-Atlanta, operated in Marietta, Georgia in Cobb County.

  • Dr. Richard Schwartz, medical research director for Straight-Springfield, noted in an article for Straight's newsletter EPIDEMIC , Vol 6, that suicide was the fifth ranked cause of death of American teenagers in 1964, third in 1978 and second in 1983. But Straight had started operating in late 1976 and had centers in Cincinnati, Springfield, Virginia, Saint Petersburg and Sarasota by 1983. Suspiciously, the rise in juvenile suicide rates coincide with the rise in the the number of Straights.

I think there is sufficient evidence for the federal government to launch a national-level study to determine the extent to which the Straights have caused an increase in juvenile suicides since 1976.  So what you can do to help?  Click here and help us make the National Center for Disease Control and the American Association of Suicidology aware of  our data.   They're the experts.  How will they know to investigate unless we tell them about the potential problem.
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Should the Straights, their clinicians, executive directors and board members have a civil liability for the suicide of current or former clients?

In 1989 13-year-old Shawn David Wyke hung himself in his Lake Wales home in Polk County, Florida. One witness later testified in court that prior to the suicide she had witnessed Shawn Wyke in the bathroom at McLaughlin Junior High School where he tied a football jersey around his neck and tied the other end to the top of a bathroom stall. The witness testified that she told James Bryan, dean of students at the school, about the incident and that he promised to take care of it. The issue became one of in loco parentis or one of having responsibility over a minor under one's supervision. Carol Wyke, Shawn Wyke's mother, sued POLK COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, Max Linton, individually and as Principal of McLaughlin Junior High School of Polk County, and James Butler, individually and as Vice-Principal of McLaughlin Junior High School of Polk County.

The suit was brought in federal court by Clay Rood, Ms. Wyke's attorney, on the grounds that the boy's civil rights had been violated arguing that the school district should have had a suicide prevention program. The case went to trial in 1995 but the judge threw out the civil rights violation part. That left a simple negligence case. Did school officials know that Shawn was suicidal and fail to do anything about it? School official James Bryan denied that he had been told of the prior suicide attempt at school. But the jury did not believe him and found for the plaintiff. Ms. Wyke was awarded $500,000. But in a strange quirk the jury found that Mrs. Wyke and Helen Schmidt, a "grandmother" figure in whose home the boy was living also shared in the blame. Thus they found the school, Ms. Wyke and Ms. Schmidt each equally liable for 33 1/3 % of the loss each and Ms. Wyke was awarded 1/3 of $500,000 or $165,000. The school board appealed but lost the appeal in November 1997 in the United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. Here is the appeal.(40.1)

Straight-like programs insist on in loco parentis for all newcomers through third phase, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Abusive Straights drive kids to carve on themselves and to have suicidal ideations. Many Straight kids try to kill themselves and the Straights seldom tell their parents or state health officials. How many former students from a Straight-like program either tried to kill themselves or expressed a desire to like Leah Bright, but their parents were never informed and neither were state health officials as in the case of Travis Stone? How many of those, like Travis Stone, went on to kill themselves?

The United States government has frequently considered cases of massive civil rights violations and human rights violations that occurred several years ago. Look at the case of American Indians for one; or that of Japanese American citizens interned in World War II for another. Internationally, look at German reparations to Jews after World War II. This web page has done a fair job already in showing that the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department, the Saint Petersburg Police Department and certain Pinellas county judges abetted Straight in its efforts to run a private jail for kids in violation of their civil and human rights. If you have any additional information, including precedent cases, of why the Straights should be held accountable for destruction it has caused please let the author know.

Straight kids are forced to verbally and/or physically brutalize other kids in the program as a condition of Seventh Stepping so that they can one day graduate--the same as their counter-parts in Chinese Seventh of May Schools. Their parents, usually clueless as to the real nature of the Straights, are grateful to the Straights for saving their child and are eager to pay back by doing volunteer work for the Straights and sometimes taking paid positions. These duped people should be exempted from any liabilities. But what about program clinicians who knew they were abusing children? What about program directors who ran the camps in spite of ever growing press of the abuses? What about board members whose names are in the the news who lend their names to these places so they can increase their revenues?
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When does suicide become murder?

This essay on Straight has documented numerous incidents of death attempts and deaths involving Straight students caused by negligence, cruelty and the psychological destruction of children's minds. Here are a some precedent cases where those responsible for the death--by suicide--of others have been prosecuted and sometimes convicted.

  • On October 30, 1987 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida a trial by jury found Ms. Theresa Jackson guilty of child abuse resulting in the death by suicide of her 17 year-old daughter Tina Mancini. Ms. Jackson had forced her daughter to dance nude at a topless bar so the mother could live off the earnings. This was a third degree felony. Another applicable precedent set in this case is that Broward County Circuit Judge Arthur Franza allowed expert testimony as to "state of mind" of the dead girl to be entered into evidence when he allowed Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Jacobs to testify about his 'psychological autopsy" of the dead girl.(41)

  • In 1989 in Dallas assistant district attorney Cecil Emerson looked into whether mind control can be blamed legally for contributing to the deaths over the past 12 years of 8 followers of Terri Hoffman, mystical leader of the Conscious Development of Body, Mind and Soul movement. Relatives of ex-followers had claimed in lawsuits that Hoffman influenced their kin to kill themselves after they had given her or willed her their possessions.(42)

  • In October 1996 a French court convicted Jean-Jacques Mazier, the former head of the Church of Scientology in France, of second degree murder and fraud for his role in the suicide of a member of that church.(43)

 

The Straights and the Charles Manson Legacy.

 

 

Early next morning (August 12) Manson sought her out. She was to put on a straight dress, then take a message to . . . Sybil Brand[prison].
Prosecutor Bugliosi explaining why the state's star witness Linda Kasabian waited 3 days after the murders to flee Spahn Ranch [Helter Skelter, p. 389]

A world-renown thought reform specialist once stated: "You can convince anybody of anything if you just push it at them all of the time. They may not believe it 100 percent, but they will still draw opinions from it, especially if they have no other information to draw their opinions from." Do you know who that thought reform specialists is? It is Charles Manson speaking at his murder trial which began in June of 1970. Actually Charles Manson has a special place in our story. In August 1969 Charles Manson took his band of middle class and above white teenage boys and girls and young adults out for two evenings of brutal murder the likes of which the world had never seen.

The Establishment had long held that psychedelic drugs made kids disobedient and made them lust for sex--maybe even worse. And now our suspicions had finally been vilified. Drugs not only make kids lethargic and sex craved; drugs turn kids into cold- bloodied, ruthless killers capable of stabbing pregnant women and little babies. Exactly five days after the La Bianca murders and nearly 2,000 miles away, tens of thousands of "pot smoking" kids, "high on LSD" assembled for a rock n� roll concert in a place called Woodstock, New York Some of these kids were long-haired hippies. But then too, there were many from good high schools and colleges--all apparently using drugs! Two months later, after his daughter jumped out of a window to her death while high on LSD, television personality Art Linkletter was at the White House meeting with President Richard Nixon when he, Mr. Linkletter, agreed with the president�s summation that his [Art Linkletter�s] presence, "gives a lie to the idea that this is something that simply happens to the poor. It is moving to the upper middle-class and so forth." Art Linkletter told the president, "Diane was not a hippie . . . she was well educated . . . from a family . . . that has been straight."
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I�ve seen many organizations in the rehabilitation and prevention field. STRAIGHT is one of the best. You couldn�t go straighter than to go with STRAIGHT if you want your dear ones off of drugs. STRAIGHT is straight with me.   Art Linkletter, from a Straight brochure, 1989

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were in my nose and my mouth and my throat, choking me, strangling me. Tapeworms, larva, grubs, disintegrating my flesh, crawling on me, consuming me.

The best seller Go Ask Alice published in 1971 sold 3 million copies. Copies of it were always laying around Straight. The book is reportedly the real-life diary of an anonymous, middle-class 15 year-old, heroin using teenager. The above quote talks about a bad LSD trip she had. In another passage Alice walks in on her boy friend finding that drugs have driven him to have sex with a male friend. The world will never know who Alice is. Whether she was who she said she was or whether she was a man working for the drug rehab industry, the world will probably never know that either. Fact or fiction the book continues to make money for the Straights.

o

Six months after the Manson killings and 2000 miles away in Fort Bragg North Carolina an Army doctor named Captain Jeffrey MacDonald brutally murdered his wife and two young children and staged the crime scene to look as if drug crazed hippies were at it again. [Author: as a young Army intelligence officer I happened to move onto Castle Drive across the street from the crime scene six months after the murders.] The last of the Mansonites were apprehended by December 1969 and in the three months between December 26, 1969 and March 20, 1970 Time magazine and its popular subsidiary Life (a picture magazine, now People Magazine) ran a series of often seemingly unrelated, yet very disturbing articles about juvenile drug addiction in America. Further fuel was poured on by Reader�s Digest. Though Time-Life quoted drug abuse experts from around the country, by far the majority of its sources (and statistics) came from New York City and from three doctors in particular. [You�ll have to read my book to find out more.] In the spring of 1970 President Nixon called all the nations� governors together for an historic meeting in Washington D.C. where he told them that drugs were no longer just in the ghettos, but had spread to the middle class and were "no longer limited to any one region of the country."(44)

It would take a year before The Family by Ed Sanders was published and another three before Bugliosi�s Helter Skelter. They would have some answers as to how Charles Manson was able to persuade affluent American kids to murder for him. From Sanders and Bugliosi we learn that Manson was a murderer who used a variety of tools to get his people to do his biding. Sex and fear were two tools. Isolation, repetition, and religion were others. Drugs was another. According to Dr. Richard Blum, former director of the Psychopharmacology Project at Stanford University and a former consultant for the Center for Drug Abuse at the NIMH, writing for Look magazine in April 1970 "drugs don�t cause violence: people do. . . No drug can put murder in a man�s heart, but if murder is already there, the drug might help unleash it." [Look, 4-7-70, p. 59] Straight adopted many of Manson�s control mechanisms. Sex was a highly controlled activity in both the Manson cult and in the Straight cult. Both cults fostered violence. Both Charles Manson and Mel Sembler kept kids away from their parents. Isolation was used by both men. Bugliosi tells the story of a young woman leaving Manson�s cult who did not know that Richard Nixon had been elected president several months before so controlled was access to TV�s and newspapers. A woman has posted on our discussion forum that when she escaped from Straight-Orlando she did not know that George Bush had been elected president several months earlier. There were no clocks on Spahn Ranch and Straight treatment rooms allow no clocks either. Charles Manson was trying to start a war with the black race and Straight targeted the children of affluent white parents. I discuss Manson�s control devices at more length in my book, but for now I�ll simply say that Charles Manson�s followers killed because that�s what he wanted them to do just like many of Jim Jones followers voluntarily committed suicide because that�s what Jim Jones wanted them to do. But in June 1970 parents did not know that. In June 1970 they did not know that Jeffrey�s MacDonald�s family had not been murdered by "drug-crazed" hippies at all. It would be years before they learned that Kimberly and Kristern Macdonald had been slain by their own father. By then it would be too late.

From August 9, 1969 when the first Manson murders occurred until April 19, 1971 when Charles Manson, Susan Adkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkel were sentenced to death for those murders, the American public and world public had been bombarded with news about these "drug-crazed" hippies who had committed those heinous acts. It had been the longest murder trial in American history and the most expensive. Of the 92 seats in the courtroom, including those reserved for the judge, DA, defense, and security, 55 were reserved for reporters. NBC and CBS television reporters were there as well as reporters from many American newspapers and magazines like The Washington Post, New York Post, Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, L.A. Times, Chicago Tribune, Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, and Daily News. International reporters were there from La Stampa, Il Messaggereo, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, France Soir, Toronto Star, London Daily Express. Harold Frediani was covering for Harpers, the Village Voice and Der Spiegel. In the hallway outside the courtroom was a table with ten telephones some with direct hookups to newspapers. There was also a wire-service teletype machine with an operator at the ready to type of dispatches. [The Family by Ed Sanders, pp. 398 - 399.] The media hype began with the murders in August 1969 and continued hammering away at our daily lives, every day for the next year until reaching a crescendo in June 1970 when Charles Manson finally went to trial.

From August 1969 till June 1970 when the Mansonites finally went to trial, the press had told us nothing but that drugs make kids want to cut open pregnant women and stab their babies. In its last issue of 1969 (December 26) Time magazine ran an article called "Why Did Walter Die?". It was the tragic story of 12 year-old Walter Vandermeer from Harlem, "the youngest child on record to die from heroin in the city." He had been wearing a Snoopy sweatshirt bearing the words, "I wish I could bite somebody . . . I need a release from my inner tensions." A week later the January 1970 Reader�s Digest carried two articles back-to-back. I. Marijuana: How Dangerous Is It? which contained an insert article condensed from Life titled Should Marijuana Be Legalized (the answer was no). The second article was II. The Horrors of Heroin. The message from the titles alone was if you smoke marijuana then you�re flirting with heroin. In February the Reader�s Digest carried an article by Art Linkletter titled, "We Must Fight the Epidemic of Drug Abuse!," in which he wrote, "Today the shadow of the tragedy that struck us looms over every family regardless of education level, regardless of wealth or position, regardless of everything." On February 16, 1970 Time reported in an article titled "The Junior Junkie" that drug abuse was moving from ghetto kids to the children of the middle class and gave examples of kids as young as 11 and 12 selling and using heroin. Two years later Robert DuPont�s predecessor as Drug Czar Dr. Jerome Jaffee would say, "Along with the increased interest [in psychoactive substances], we have seen a phenomenal rise in the number of articles and books dealing with the topic--leading more than a few cynics to speculate that the public concern is due more to articles than the growing use of drugs.

It all came to a head in June of 1970 the month Charles Manson went to trial. In May, just days before, Narconon, the bizarre drug treatment program affiliated with the Church of Scientology, was incorporated in Los Angles to service drug users. And in June 1970, the same month Charles Manson went to trial, a former comedian named Art Barker incorporated The Seed in Fort Lauderdale to service the kids there. Of course Straight grew out of The Seed and so a cult that had been created to keep affluent white kids from becoming drug-crazed, murderers wound up running a reign of terror that has out-lived the Manson cult 30 times over and is now may be responsible for causing many times the deaths as the Manson cult which had led to its creation in the first place!
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Suicide and Double Speak

It got so hard to breathe and I could feel my blood seeping out of my body. It really smelled bad. I reached over to get a cigarette and could see the blood spurting out of me. . . The paramedics arrived real quick [after being discovered 2 hours later] and found no pulse or heart beat. But I was still conscious . . . It turned out I missed my heart by 1/4 of an inch, punctured my lung, hit an artery and lost half the blood in my body. It was 3 hours between the time I pulled the trigger until the medi-copter took me to the hospital. . . aThis is George's accounting of how he hit an artery coming directly out of his heart and watched the blood spurt out for 3 hours and yet survived to be cared for by Straight!

Behavior (not the "self"!) is examined, and if it is ridiculous, the person is ridiculed. He is often laughed at by the group for certain acts. When he begins to laugh with the group at himself, he is considered to be on the road to recovery." SYNANON: The Tunnel Back (p. 384) by Synanon board member and UCLA Professor of Sociology Lewis Yablonksy

 

Pinellas County's Sunshine Skyway Bridge,   notorious for suicidal jumpers. Did it claim at least one Straight victim?
In 1990 Pinellas County deputy sheriff David Fisher, MS (now PhD) wrote an article titled HIGH SCHOOL SUICIDE CRISIS INTERVENTION. In it he tells the story of how Dixie Hollins High School in Pinellas County formed an effective suicide crisis intervention team after a double suicide at that school triggered a rise in the number of reported suicide threats. In his report Dr. Fisher has but one footnote. That footnote references the report Teenage Suicide: Symptom or Disease by Straight-Springfield's medical research director Dr. Richard Schwartz, MD. That article had been the feature article of EPIDEMIC, Vol 6, Straight's newsletter which is titled:

SUICIDE Teenage Suicide: Symptom or Disease?

A smoking handgun completes the title. Dr. Schwartz's work is actually on page 4 and titled SUICIDE: A Pediatrician's View. Now in his amazing article on juvenile suicide Dr. Schwartz's notes that a medical doctor once wrote that there is no typical profile "of a suicidal adolescent," but there are "two major types of behaviors which may signal an impending suicide attempt." And he tells us what those two behavior types are: "depression, and preoccupation with death." And then Dr. Schwartz gives us what he calls the four symptoms of depression:

  1. persistent apathy, boredom, loneliness, or dejection. But Straight made kids sit around all day long for years with nothing to do. No home work, no sports, no TV, no games. Nothing but pure apathy. They're lonely, friendless, beaten down and dejected.

  2. Impaired concentration and scholastic underachievement. But how can you concentrate when you're sleepy, hungry and have to go to the bathroom! Scholastic underachievement? At Straight there is no education at all. None, period at certain stages.

  3. eating disorders. (overeating or poor appetite) or sleep disorders (difficulty falling asleep or excessive sleepiness during the day). Straight kids are starved on special peanut butter choker sandwiches and denied sleep at night.

  4. impaired communication. The young person may be unable to express, even to loved ones, the source of his/her distress. . . You may be suicidal at Straight but you are forbidden to communicate that or anything else about your present state of mind to your own parents.

What is this Dr. Schwartz, 1984 Double Speak or what? What kind of a clockwork orange is this man preaching? He says that apathy can drive a kid to suicide when Straight bores a kid. He says impaired concentration can lead to suicide when Straight deprives him of sleep. He says eating disorders can lead a kid to suicide when Straight starves him. He says impaired communication with loved ones can lead a kid to suicide when Straight forbids any communication with one's parents. These are the four symptoms of depression. Dr. Schwartz says the other behavior type is preoccupation with death. In his seminal work on brainwashing Robert J. Lifton gives the 12 psychological steps involved in the thought reform process. Step 4 is THE BREAKING POINT: TOTAL CONFLICT AND THE BASIC FEAR. Lifton states: This is the point at which physical and mental integration break down. Some prisoners may be brought by their severe anxiety and depression to the point of suicidal preoccupations and attempts. Dr. Schwartz is a member of the American Psychiatric Association, The American Society for for Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Academy of Psychiatrists in Alcoholism and Addictions. How could he not know about Robert J. Lifton's world-renowned psychiatric study on brainwashing? How could he tell parents that kids filled with a preoccupation with death could become suicidal and then let Straight brainwash them?

Included in that newsletter is the front page story of a Straightling named George. George was a pot head who had shot himself a month ago, but is now happily recovering at Straight. Opening the glossy magazine is a two-page picture-spread of a young boy sprawled dead on a bed, a bottle of pills by his side. This article is by Sergeant John H. Bocchichio, the Public Information Officer of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department no less. Sgt. Bocchichio gives some sound advice to parents to keep them from being suicidal, "My best advice to parents is to spend more time with your children." He wrote this to a parent audience which is forbidden from spending time, any time, with their children! Dr. Schwartz had written, "Any suicide attempt must be taken seriously. A tormented, depressed adolescent must be helped to believe that someone will listen empathetically . . ." You got Dr. Schwartz saying any suicide attempt must be taken seriously and you got Straight child psychiatrists heeding Dr. Newton's advice that not all suicide attempts are actually suicide attempts rather they are just children trying to be the center of attention, so Straight kids laugh at them and scream at them. In the case of Travis Stone you have him telling his child psychiatrists that he might be suicidal but they just think he wants attention so they ignore him and then he kills himself! You got Dr. Schwartz saying that depressed kids may become suicidal and then Straight depresses them! You got Straight board member Dr. Bruce Epstein, like Schwartz a pediatrician, saying, "From the onset, spanking as a means of behavior control seems doomed to failure. The emotional wounds that it inflicts far outlive the physical wounds. It humiliates the dignity of the child, alienates the parents and, in fact, may encourage retaliation"(28.1) And you got Dr. Miller Newton saying that kids can become addicted to violence and then he has them beaten! You got Sergeant Bocchichio telling Straight officers, counselors and parents alike that a suicidal kid should talk to his parents when Straight specifically forbids a child from talking to his own parents!   Parents like Tom Hughes who was forbidden from even looking at his own son. Tom Hughes and his wife Barbara were divorced when she put their son Gregg into Straight. On April 10, 1984 Thomas R. Hughes joined the list of many parents who had to file a writ of habeas corpus to see their own child. Straight forbade Mr. Hughes from seeing his son and time with his son was especially precious to Mr. Hughes because they didn't have much time left. You see Straight denied this man his constitutional right to see his own son and next year was too late. His son Gregg Hughes was one of the two Robertson High School students who hung themselves in 1985.  

Go back and look at the suicides that I have identified from former Straight students. Notice that a large percentage of them were in Straight-Springfield. There is a reason for this. I live in the northern Virginia area where that particular treatment camp had been located. It is very difficult to uncover a suicide, more especially that of a youth. A child dies and an obituary might give the date of the funeral. That's it. When two kids commit suicide in a pact, the newspapers will do the story if they know about it as in Chris Kelly and Duane Rholf. Straight's newsletter had a mention of the death of Duane Rholfs, which it rarely does. Detective work by me led to the discovery that he had been involved in a double suicide. I investigated the double suicides of Gregg Hughes and Jon Guyton for three years before an internet informant I'll call Joe told me that he had been a student at Robinson High School when Gregg Hughes and Jon Guyton died and had been called into a guidance counselor's office and asked if he was OK since both of the dead boys had been in Straight and the counselor knew that Joe had also been in Straight. Joe did not know the two boys. I have subsequently confirmed by a reputable source that Gregg Hughes had indeed been in Straight. I am still working on confirmation of Jon Guyton. If you check the newspapers around the country, double suicides by juvenile males just don't occur that frequently. Fairfax County, Virginia had two double suicides of teenage boys in an 18 month period. Both incidences had at least one former Straight student involved and there is a plethora of other suicides of former Straight students who had been forcefully treated at Straight. I have reported on the deaths of former Straight students from Straight - Springfield using the meager resources I have available. I predict that there are more in this area and I suspect that I have just scratched the surface on the total suicide-related deaths from all the Straights. This is now a police matter and I encourage the reader to join with me to make law enforcement and other government agencies like the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia aware of this apparent problem.


Serial killer Ted Bundy left his special marks. Teeth bites, handcuffs, young white women, brunettes, a Volkswagon near the scene. The Sons of Sam killers followed a pattern. Young attractive, white girls, lovers lanes, murders occur near Satanic ritual evenings, single shot to the head at close range. So too should we look back at old suicides and suspicious accidents of American young people. Was the victim white? Young: aged 11 - 35? Male? Did he have a reputation at some point in his life for using drugs? Was it a double suicide of white males? Did it occur in an area where a Straight has operated or continues to operate? Did the victim not finish high school? Or finish late? Or receive a GED? Was his parents upper middle class or above? Was he quick tempered? Did he attend AA Meetings? Carve on himself or herself? Had he or she been in a Straight? Did he fear he had a sexual identify problem? Could he have suffered from undiagnosed post traumatic stress syndrome? Did the victim have a poor relationship with his or her parents? Deputy David Fisher of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department started off his article informing us that a double suicide at Dixie Hollins High School in Pinellas County triggered a rise in the number of reported suicide threats. This is precisely the footprint of a Straight serial suicide that must be investigated. A double killing of high school age kids in an area where Straight operated. I know that Pinellas County law enforcement officials will be skeptical of all this because they are part of the problem themselves. They will probably want to point to the Sunshine Skyway bridge, a high rise bridge down there notorious for suicidal jumpers, and ask, if Straight drove any of our kids to suicide then why hasn't any former Straight student jumped from it? Actually around 1999 a former Straight client did jump to his death off it. It may have been Brendan K. In November 2000 Rodney Kibler, 30, had entered into a suicide pact with his friend, Arthur "Bill" Clark, 28, both of Saint Petersburg, Florida. Kibler jumped to his death first, but a police officer arrived and managed to talk Clark out of it. There is a report that a Kim K. had been a student in either the Saint Petersburg Straight or the one in Sarasota and had married another straight student. That they both became police officers her husband shot and killed Kim K. 

It's uncanny when you hear of some bizarre suicide by an American youth to learn that some how an associate of Melvin and Betty Sembler might be linked to the story.
  • On March 11, 1987 Lisa and Cheryl Burgess, Thomas Rizzo and Thomas Oltonfour, four teenagers from Bergen County, New Jersey committed suicide by automobile exhaust fumes. Exactly one month and one week later former Straightling Duane Rholfs and his friend Chris Kelley committed suicide by automobile exhaust fumes. Regarding the four deaths in New Jersey, Miller Newton, Melvin and Betty's former national clinical director at Straight, made an immediate press release blaming drugs even before the coroner's autopsy. Fair Oaks Hospital in New Jersey also called a press conference to sound the dangers of teen drug use, but the spokesperson was taken aback when a reporter asked him whether one of Fair Oak's former patients had not been one of the deceased kids. In fact, Thomas Olton had been a patient at Fair Oaks Hospital. The nation-wide drug rehabilitation program for the Fair Oaks was the brain child of Dr. Mark Gold. In the 1980s Fair Oaks ran a national-level TV ad advising us to call 1-800-COCAINE if you had a loved one in trouble. Turns out if you called in and had a good insurance plan you were referred to one of their hospitals at $1,000 a day, but if you did not you were given the number for your local city social services department. The front page of Straight's newsletter EPIDEMIC, Vol. 10 carried this statement by Arnold Washton, a psychopharmacologist at Fair Oaks. "Crack is the most addictive drug known to man right now. . . It is almost instantly addictive." That statement scared the hell out of Straight parents. [Washton had made a statement about the addictiveness of crack cocaine in the March 17, 1986 edition of Newsweek, the veracity of which has been in question.] Straight had two drug czars associated with it, another drug czar is apparently associated with Fair Oaks. Today Dr. Mark Gold is a director on Save Our Society (SOS), another Betty Sembler charitable organization, this one to save us form drug use.

  • In 1983, in Plano Texas, over a short period of time five teenagers committed suicide. No Straight wasn't there in those days but Straight's national clinical director showed up to see what was happening. His inquiry led to the establishment of Straight-Dallas and within five years Timothy Nixon got out of that treatment camp and beat his mother to death with a baseball bat.

  • Her disarming good looks play in her employer's favor as she meets with journalists to defend one wacky juvenile treatment program after another. This time it was the Lippman Family Center in Broward County, Florida run by another charity the Lutheran Services Florida. In July 2000 a 15 year old boy named Anthony Dumas tied a belt around his neck and hung himself from his bunk bed. Program officials walked in and saw him hanging there, still alive and just stared at him. Youth care specialist Sandra Trotter allegedly took six Polaroids of Dumas as he hung there dying and somebody called 911. The police arrived and cut him down. Today the boy is apparently brain dead. The attractive woman is Joy Margolis, spokesperson for Lutheran Services of Florida. "Taking pictures like that that is not our practice because nothing like this has ever happened there before", said Ms. Margolis. For years until it closed down under charges of child abuse, Joy Margolis had been Melvin and Betty's mouth piece for Straight, explaining off to newsmen one charge of child abuse after another.

So what are Mel and Betty up to these days to save America's youth from drugs. For one thing they still run Straight Foundation, Inc. (Straight's education arm) only now under the name the Drug Free America Foundation. George W. Bush and Barbara Bush have been actively involved with the charity. The DFAF claims that it is working to help develop drug policy for the incumbent president. Meanwhile Florida's governor Jeb Bush , whose finance co-chairman was Betty Sembler, has openly endorsed SAFE, a Sembler-based synanon in Orlando. In 2000 Governor Bush of Florida, who refers to Betty Sembler as Mrs. Ambassadorable, declared her birthday to be a special day in Florida, in part for her work with Straight. After laws were passed authorizing the government to give financial aid to programs which had established Employee Assistance Plans or EAPs, Straight's newsletter EPIDEMIC ran a big promotional article for EAPs. Today, Straight's former paid consultant Robert DuPont assists businesses in setting up EAPs from his offices in Maryland and Chicago. Even Straight now called the DFAF assists employers in the Tampa Bay region in setting up EAPs. Wood and Associates is a competing EAP services provider in Tampa which deals with "sexual identify" problems and crisis intervention such as suicide besides providing assistance for employees with drug and alcohol problems. Is the DFAF addressing "sexual identity" problems and suicide issues too?

Pinellas County Florida has a team called the JAC which is intended to serve as a "one-stop shop" for intake, assessment (including suicide assessment) and follow-up, of youth taken into custody by law enforcement officers. The planning team includes organizations like the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office; the Florida Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), The Pinellas County School Board; the State Attorney's Office and Operation PAR. Operation PAR had been setup by Republicans in 1970 to meet the 1970 drug threat that led to the formation of The Seed and of Narconon also in 1970. Where Straight tried to meet the needs of affluent white kids, Operation PAR serviced lower income blacks and was priced accordingly. Straight's former executive director Randy Ratliff went on to work for Operation PAR and Betty Sembler is now a director there. In 2000 when Florida's Governor Jeb Bush announced his $60-million drug control plan, he made the announcement at the Shirley D. Coletti Academy for Behavioral Change, a PAR residential treatment center for juvenile offenders. Rebecca Wade is a PAR's nurse educator. She has publicly commented that, "the lack of an education and jobs are what hold addicts back. It's a vicious cycle. It's hopelessness. . . [mothers] receive counseling and advice on sexual trauma. They also attend classes on depression "(46)

According to writer Shelly Sigo of Bizjournals.com/tampabay, besides his keen business acumen one of the reasons for Mel Sembler winning the "prestigious" Florida Enterprise Medal from the Merchants Association of Florida Inc. in 1999 is because Mel Sembler is known as a "drug warrior". Mel Sembler joins good company with the winners of that medal too. Take for example fellow multi-millionaire John Sykes of Sykes Enterprises Inc. in Tampa. In 2000 John and Susan Sykes gave $36,000 to Republicans and Mel and Betty Sembler only gave $35,000. The Crisis Center of Tampa Bay is a charity dedicated to mental wellness and suicide intervention in the Tampa Bay area. It's building was donated by John and Susan Sykes.
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WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Robert F. Horan, Jr. Commonwealth Attorney for Fairfax County Virginia. He let them go in 1992 not knowing their true colors. Is it too late for him to take action now?

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.A Call for Action. Through the years the Straight's have been expert at dodging state criminal investigations, often voluntarily closing down amidst criminal investigations in many states. And the politically connected Straights have often enjoyed special relationships with state prosecutors. Pinellas County Florida prosecutor James T. Russell may have been forced by public pressure and Congressional inquiry to investigate Straight on numerous occasions but he never once prosecuted Straight except for the one counselor he sent to prison for sexual molestation of minors. And yet his counter-part in neighboring Sarasota County was prepared to indict them there when they decided to voluntarily close. Prosecutor Russell had invited The Seed to Florida and, Allen Alweiss, one of his principal assistant states attorneys was on Straight's board. When Straight's former national education director Dr. George Ross was criminally prosecuted in Kentucky for charges relating to his own program called Possibilities Unlimited, Ross was successfully represented by former Commonwealth of Kentucky attorney for Fayette County Larry Roberts. Which brings us to the man in the photo. He is Robert F. Horan, Jr.,  Commonwealth Attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia. I have been told by a Fairfax County police detective that Straight was under criminal investigation when it voluntarily closed in Fairfax County and hopped over the state line into Maryland to setup operations there without bothering to get a license. I was told that someone on high in Fairfax County had said that the state had decided not to prosecute because the main thing was that "we got them out of Virginia." To me, if that 's true, it's like saying to Straight, if you want to abuse Virginia kids then take them over to Maryland, but we'll prosecute if you abuse one more Virginian in Virginia!
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In 1972 attorney Ronald Goldfarb wrote a book on prison reform titled Jail the Ultimate Ghetto in which he called for synanon-style programs for drug rehabilitation to be used in the nation's prisons.  His reviewer on his section on synanons was White House Drug Czar Bob DuPont who went on to become a paid consultant and expert witness for Straight.  It was Bob DuPont and Ronald Goldfarb who led the defense for Straight in its 1983 loss to Fred Collin's.  In his book,  Goldfarb name's just one jail and its administrator as a model for the entire country.  Robert Horan's jail for Fairfax County Virginia.  can Straight really be all that bad when Ronald Goldfarb and Bob DuPont are behind it.  If they glorify you in a book,  how can you be hard on them.  I don't know.  But I do know that through the years Robert Horan has refused to answer any of my registered letters to him to discuss these delicate issues.

Amnesty International has been looking at juvenile boot camps since 1994 when two youths from New York fled a boot camp in Canada and committed suicide together.(45)   I think somebody ought to investigate the double Dixie Hollins High School suicides in Pinellas County Florida as well as other suicides of juvenile suicides down there.  And I think Robert Horan should investigate suspicious suicides of kids in Fairfax County starting with  Jon Guyon who committed suicide by hanging within days of his friend Greg Hughes who had been in Straight.  Had Jon Guyon also been in Straight as has been reported to me by a very reliable source?  And also starting with Annandale High School seniors Eric Ragland who committed suicide on September 17,  1987,  Shane Benson who committed suicide on September 30,  1987 and  William Wakefield  who shot himself on or about October 28, 1987. [See The Washington Post headlines above.]   All were seniors at Annandale High School in Fairfax County.   In April 1987 Duane Rholfs and Chris Kelly,  two seniors at George Marshall High School had committed suicide. Duane Rholfs had been in Straight. The next day a former female student at that high school was killed in an automobile accident in Vienna,  Virginia.  That summer a senior at Annandale High School was killed in an automobile accident.  In early September a former Annandale student was accidentally killed by  automobile exhaust fumes.  M.M another former Annandale student has told this  writer that when he was in Straight - Saint Petersburg,   a search of belongings did not uncover a razor blade.  He said his treatment there was so inhumane that he sliced his wrists with the  intent of killing himself.  Former Straight-Springfield student Chris Weiss,  another Annandale student shot himself in 1985. 

What you can do.  Professionals who study suicide and prosecutors who investigate mysterious deaths need to be apprised of our findings.  Click here if you want to help. 

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ENDNOTES:

28.1 SPT 4-27-1993, p. 3B, Section Tampa Bay and State

28.2 , SPT 8-10-92

32.1 Richard Bowman as quoted in the Sun-Sentinel, March 26, 1990, Section B. The article identifies Richard Bowman as a Growing Together parent from Jupiter, Florida. Micky Bowman, executive director of Growing Together, is also from Jupiter, Florida.

40.1 Saint Petersburg Times, 5-10-95, Dateline Tampa, pp. 1B, 5B

44. Ladies Home Journal, May 1970, p. 112.

45. New York Post, AMERICA'S GULAG FOR CHILDREN by Daniel Jeffrey, 12-19-2000.

46. Saint Petersburg Times Online by Bill Maxwell, 5-21-2000

This web page is offered as a public service and as an educational resource to those interested in learning about the potential dangers of abusive Straight-based synanons. The page is the on-line publishing arm of the Oakton Institute for Cultic Studies.