Rose Lena Cole Missing Since 1973

About me:

Rose Lena Cole was born December 23, 1956 in Flint,MI. Rose was the second of 3 children. Her parents, Jesse Cole Sr. and Willie Mae eventually divorced while the children were still very young and Jesse Sr., having some status in the community, was awarded custody of the children. The eldest was Jesse Jr., Rose was the middle child, and her younger brother was Pose. Jesse Sr. later remarried a woman named Opal who had three children of her own, Billy, Brenda, and Norma, whom he adopted Jesse was not an easy man to live with, both as a husband and a father and, though the siblings were never close, Billy was looked up to as the "protector" of the family. Not much is known about just what went on behind closed doors, but Jesse was considered abusive. When Rose was 14, she began experimenting with alcohol and perhaps other drugs. April 1, 1971, she ran away from home but was found by authorities the following day and released to her stepmother, Opal. Rose was given a court date and, on April 21, she was assigned a parole officer. When Rose continued to get into trouble, she returned to court in 1972 on charges of running away and though she was not brought in on charges for drugs, it is said she told the Judge she would quit doing drugs, but she wouldn't quit selling them. No one is really sure if she was serious, if she was trying to be kept from being sent back home, or if she was just being a smart mouth, but the Judge ordered Rose, who had always been described as a shy child, to be sent to Synanon Foundation in Oakland, CA, over 2,300 miles away Synanon is often referred to as a "Cult" or "Sect" that was founded in 1958 by Charles E. Dederich, a recovering alcoholic, for the purpose of rehabilitating alcoholics, drug addicts, and criminals. It started out as a small group of men who met while attending AA meetings. They began their own meetings, and eventually grew into an alternative community which received national recognition with their first facility being opened in Santa Monica. Facilities began sprouting up across the country and people would go there of their own free will or be sent there by the courts. Rose Lena Cole arrived at the Synanon facility located in Oakland, CA. sometime prior to November 1972. Rose wrote letters home to her step-mom and talked of how much she missed her family,loved them and most of all wanted to come home. She spoke of running away from Synanon but said that she returned. Then the last letter was received from Rose. It was written on her 16th birthday, December 23, 1972 but was not mailed until February 1973. Rose said that she had runaway from Synanon again and talked of living on the streets in China Town. She said that she was sick, a kidney infection. It is unknown if she ever got medical treatment. Rose Lena Cole was never heard from again. Rose said in her last letter that she was not going to write home again because she was afraid that the people from Synanon would find her and take her back. She did say that when she turned 18 she would find her step-mom no matter where she was. Rose has never been seen or heard from again. Takes to Pias for some exerpts that I used in this summary.Her site can be foound here http://hot-on-the-trail-at.blog-city.com/the_mystery_of_rose_cole.htm ..
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Synanon Rose was sent to Synanon in the summer of 1972 by the Judicial System in Flint, MI. Synanon was initially a drug rehabilitation program founded by Charles Dederich Sr. (1913–1997) in 1958 in Santa Monica, California. By the early 1960s it had become an alternative community as well, attracting people with its emphasis on living a self-examined life, as aided by group truth-telling sessions known as the "Synanon Game". Synanon ultimately became the cultish Church of Synanon in the 1970s and the group disbanded finally in 1989 when the doors were closed by the Internal Revenue Service. Dederich was a reformed alcoholic and regular attendee at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous who made an impression as a speaker on many attendees. Drug addicts were not accepted into the AA at that time so he created his own program to address their needs. Synanon began as a two-year residential program, but before long Dederich decided that members could never graduate, that full recovery was never possible. The community developed a business selling promotional items, a successful enterprise that generated roughly $10 million per year of revenue. The Club Casa del Mar, a large beachside 1926 hotel in Santa Monica, was purchased and used as a headquarters and dormitory for drug treatment. Children were reared communally in the Synanon School, and juveniles were often sent to Synanon by the courts. Professionals, with and without drug addictions, were eagerly invited and were expected to turn over their assets to the group. Control over members was imposed through the "Synanon Game". The "Synanon Game" could be considered a therapeutic tool, likened to group therapy, a social control, in which members humiliated one another and encouraged the exposure of one's innermost weaknesses, or both [1]. Beginning in the mid 1970s, women were required to shave their heads, married couples were made to break up and take new partners, males were given forced vasectomies, and a few pregnant women were even required to have abortions.[2] [3] [edit] Lifetime rehabilitation concept Beginning in 1974 the authorities began to question Synanon's promises and practices. The concept of "lifetime rehabilitation" did not agree with therapeutic norms, and it was alleged that the group was running an unauthorized medical clinic, and that on remote properties in California such as Tomales Bay in Marin County and Badger, Tulare County, the organization had built unpermitted buildings, a trash dump, and an airstrip. Tax issues came up. To dodge these accusations Dederich declared that Synanon was a tax exempt religious organization, the "Church of Synanon." The change did not make the problems disappear. Children assigned to Synanon began to run away, helped by an "underground railroad" that sought to return them to their parents. Beatings of opponents and ex-members, "splittees", occurred across the state. A Grand Jury in Los Angeles issued a scathing report in 1978 attacking Synanon for its child abuse and for the profits that flowed to Dederich, and also attacking authorities for their lack of oversight. Remarkably, the authorities still did nothing. Though local newspapers and broadcast media covered the case, they were largely silenced by lawsuits from Synanon lawyers charging libel. Those suits ultimately turned out to be Synanon's undoing, giving journalists access to internal documents. [edit] Criminal behavior On March 20, 1978, a former member of Synanon was severely beaten (for being a "splittee") during his honeymoon when he took his bride to see where he had once lived on the Walker Creek Ranch. They also beat a neighbouring rancher who was helping children run away from Synanon and return to their parents. On September 21, 1978 ex-member Phil Ritter, was beaten into a week long coma by two members. Fluid leaked into his spine causing a near fatal case of spinal meningitis. Several weeks later, October 11, 1978, two Synanon members placed a de-rattled rattlesnake in the mailbox of attorney Paul Morantz in Pacific Palisades, California. The resultant bite did not prove lethal. Mr. Morantz had successfully brought suit on behalf of a woman abducted by Synanon. Six weeks later the Los Angeles Police Department performed a search of the ranch in Badger that turned up a recorded speech by Dederich in which he said that ""We're not going to mess with the old-time, turn-the-other-cheek religious postures ... our religious posture is: Don't mess with us. You can get killed dead, literally dead...these are real threats," he snarls. "They are draining life's blood from us and expecting us to play by their silly rules. We will make the rules. I see nothing frightening about it ... I am quite willing to break some lawyer's legs and next break his wife's legs and threaten to cut their child's arm off. That is the end of that lawyer. That is a very satisfactory, humane way of transmitting information. ... I really do want an ear in a glass of alcohol on my desk." [4] A drunken Dederich was arrested on December 2. The two other Synanon residents pleaded "no contest" to charges of assault and conspiracy to murder. While his associates went to jail, Dederich avoided imprisonment by formally stepping down as Chairman of Synanon. Much of the violence was carried out by a group within Synanon called the "Imperial Marines." The tiny Point Reyes Light, a weekly newspaper in Marin County, received the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1979 on account of its coverage of Synanon when other news outlets avoided covering the group. Synanon struggled to survive without its leader and with a severely tarnished reputation. The Internal Revenue Service revoked the group's tax exemption and the properties were confiscated or sold. By the mid-1990s the community had essentially folded. ..