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On Friday, the Los Angeles Times
had a very good piece about attorney Paul Morantz, who died in Santa Monica last Sunday at 77.
The article of course describes the incident that Morantz is most well known for, when he reached into his Pacific Palisades mailbox one morning in October 1978 only to find a 4-and-a-half foot rattlesnake inside that immediately struck his arm. Its venom nearly caused his death.
He had just won a $300,000 court judgment against the drug rehab cult Synanon, and so it was assumed the rattlesnake attack was payback from the group, run by a man named Charles Dederich. Work by Morantz and others led to Synanon’s demise, but he would later say he didn’t feel entirely safe until Dederich died in 1997.
As the Times piece also mentioned, Morantz tangled with many more groups than Synanon, including the Church of Scientology.
In 2011 Morantz sent us a copy of a book he had written specifically about his court battles with Scientology on behalf of people like Bent Corydon, author of
L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?
In the book, he recounts how, after the 1978 rattlesnake attack made him famous for his efforts against cults, a man named Michael Meisner reached out to him, wanting to tell him what he knew about Scientology. Morantz said he always regretted not following up on that offer by Meisner. He didn’t realize that it was Meisner who, the year before, had been the whistleblower who had cooperated with the FBI, leading to a 1977 raid and then prosecutions that eventually put 11 top Scientologists in prison.
But Morantz had plenty of other opportunities to litigate cases against Scientology, and to tangle in particular with two of its attorneys, Tim Bowles and Kendrick Moxon.
Each was a knowledgeable and capable attorney, but like most member in-house cult lawyers, their “true believers” attitude, in my opinion, could be demonstrative to juries of the contended nature of Scientology. Bowles was pretty straightforward. Moxon was extreme in my view. Eventually one day in the courthouse he hollered at me in the hallway that some decision that had gone against a kidnapper-deprogrammer, referring to me being a part of it. Since I am actually against kidnapping/deprogramming, despite the fact that some believe it save their lives, (it is taking the law into one’s own hands and can be executed improperly) I sort of lost it and went face-to-face with Moxon, demanding he give me proof of my involvement and that I did not care for his assumptions. I never wanted to punch somebody like I did at that moment. Nose to nose I imagined the first act would be to push him back, and then if he came at me defend myself, but I assumed this would be exactly what they wanted, i.e. a lawsuit against me for battery. To their credit, it was their bodyguards that acted with cool minds and separated us. Around a week later, I was told another attorney was not able to exercise such will power and decked Moxon. To Moxon’s credit, I was told, he didn’t sue and laughed it off.
In a conversation with Morantz, he told us that one thing he hadn’t included in the book but that he was still interested in developing further, was that he believed one of the reasons Synanon had become so dangerous and lethal, developing a hard core security force that resorted to violence, was that they had learned from Scientology’s legendary spy corps, the Guardian’s Office.
Morantz told us that he believed there had actually been contact between the GO and Synanon, and that Scientology operatives had shared their ideas and tactics with Synanon. We regret that we never got to develop this idea further with Paul, and we are saddened to hear of his passing.
We wanted to quote one other passage from his book, which not only involves Scientology, but does a good job capturing Morantz as an attorney and as a man who believed so passionately in fairness and human rights. We regret that we did not get to spend more time talking to this singular person.
Perhaps my biggest moment with Scientology was an actual small event in my home town, Pacific Palisades, homes surrounded a commercial town of only a couple of blocks snuggled near the beach between Santa Monica and Malibu.
It was l995 and on a Sunday this spring there was a health fair in the Palisades community central square where various health providers and nutritionist, traditional and new age, had booths promoting their services and products. The highlight was a demonstration by our local Karate school.
As I was walking about when a man approached and asked me if I would like to be interviewed in his group’s booth about the subject of psychology. Suspicious, I asked what kind of questions he was going to ask? He showed me a sheet of paper with the questions. After I read them, seeing it was critical of psychotherapy, I said, “You’re Scientology.”
He denied it, saying they were a group of actors providing information on psychotherapy abuses. I said, “No, you are Scientology.” Thinking about it, he should have wondered how I would know that from their questions and backed off, but instead he continued his denial that they were Scientology and kept trying to lure me on stage. Finally, he confessed they were Scientologists but stated they were not there on behalf of Scientology.
I walked over to the Pacific Palisades chambers of commerce table, and spoke to the president, Arnie Wishnick, asking him if he knew who the occupants of that booth was. He repeated the same name of some Actor Association. I said that it was really Scientology. Arnie got mad that they had concealed their identity and said he was going to go over and ask them to leave. I told him not to. They will claim, I warned, their calling themselves by some subgroup name immaterial and then sue Palisades for religious discrimination, bankrupting the city through legal defense cost. “Arnie,” I said. “You are not equipped for this. Let me handle it. This is what I do.”
I wandered over to their booth. There was a considerable gathering of my town mates as the Scientologists were on stage doing a skit based on long ago actress Francis Farmer’s early 1940’s treatment with electro-convulsive shock treatment, the history of which has long been controversial and debated, but was performed here as appearing as sadistic.
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