CA CA - Rose Cole, 16, Oakland, 1972 - #1

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Thanks to those of you who contacted George at the Synanon.org website. I think that he is trying to help us. I found this posted in the guest book at the site.

Several people have recently contacted us about Rose Cole, who was a Synanon resident in the early 1970's Please contact us if you have any knowledge of her.

posted :

04/16/2006 George Farnsworth
 
HeartofTexas said:
Shadow, if I'm not mistaken, that family (Gambonini) helped the kids who were running away from another Synanon facility... perhaps in Tomales Bay or Marin County. For some reason I don't think they were helping the kids who ran away in Oakland.
You are right HoT, they were in Marin county. Well, maybe they knew other people who were helping people in the other locations. I found a phone listing for the Gambonini in Marin county, maybe a son.
 
wondering22 said:
I wonder if people at Narc Anon helped her. I don't know how it's spelled, and I have no idea what their privacy policies are; however, it's possible that there are members of California narcanon groups who knew her back then. Plenty of people in 12-step programs keep up attendence forever & ever.
Wondering22, I don't think that they would release any information. It is my understanding that there is strict confindence maintained for members. I could be wrong though, lord knows it wouldn't be the first time. LOL
 
The 12 step programs (the "Anons") are just that - anonymous. There is no sign in sheet or member roster kept. People usually know each other by first names, and what goes on in closed meetings stays in the meetings. However, I think that in the case of a missing person, other members wouldn't be too reluctant to provide information that would be helpful. Of course, the members wouldn't spill the beans about *everything* that was going on, but would most likely feel comfortable saying something like, "yes, I knew her - she came to groups pretty regularly around here during the summer of 75" or something like that. (just in my limited experience! hope this helps!)
 
In the early to mid 1970s it seemed like you couldn't go anywhere in California without being "witnessed to" by what we called "Jesus Freaks". I wonder if Rose found her way into The Family/Children of God? I have been looking at ex-members sites, but no luck so far. After her experience at Synanon, some other cult might seem like rescue.
 
http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/shadow205/?action=view&current=7a07.jpg

I thought that I would post the two together to make comparing them easier. I agree that the facial features are similar. The age and physical description work too. The only thing that I have a problem with is the date of death. This Jane Doe died in 2000. I think that if something happened to Rose it happened between 1973-1975. I think that if Rose had made it to her 18th birthday she would have contacted Opal and she didn't.
 
I've been doing some research on a drug (and felons) program in San Francisco called The Delancey Street Foundation. Here's a mishmash of info I've pulled together on it, but at the bottom of this info is the contact name and phone number for the founder of this organization. I wonder if there's any chance Rose could have stumbled upon this organization (started in SF in 1971)?

"Getting Straight On Delancey Street"

Pacific Heights is San Francisco's most exclusive section—and it looks it. Pretty young socialites walk their Afghan hounds along well-kept streets. Well-heeled business executives ride by in chauffeured Rolls-Royces. Baronial mansions overlook the rest of the city. The tenants of one of these mansions do not quite fit the neighborhood picture of opulent elegance: they are 170 former drug addicts and ex-convicts who have done time for crimes ranging from petty theft to armed robbery. Calling themselves the Delancey Street Family, these unlikely tenants have formed a new "therapeutic...

http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,906971,00.html

Another article re Delancey Street:

http://www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/grassroots/delancey/

Another article that shows Mimi Silbert as the founder of Delancey Street:

Project: Delancey Street Foundation

Location: San Francisco, Calif. U.S.A.

In 1971 Mimi Silbert founded Delancey Street with four residents, a thousand dollar loan and a dream. She envisioned a place where substance abusers, former felons and others who had hit bottom would, through their own efforts, be able to turn their lives around.

Silbert has since built an empire grossing 20 million dollars a year with locations in New York, New Mexico, North Carolina and Los Angeles. She has never accepted a single penny of government funds.

http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/silbert.html

I wonder if it would be worth trying to contact Ms. Silbert to see if anyone from her organization might know if Rose ever joined Delancey Street?

Here's some contact info re Ms. Silbert:

Delancey Street Foundation
Dr. Mimi Halper Silbert, President
600 Embarcadero
San Francisco, Calif. 94107
(415) 957-9800


This well-known and widely praised program literally seems almost too good to be true. Visualize this: A full square block of stylish new stucco and tile buildings on San Francisco's busy Embarcadero, featuring nearly 200 pricey-looking townhouses, well-kept parks, a Town Hall, small businesses and a fancy restaurant with a maitre-d' standing proudly at the door -- staffed entirely by ex-convicts, former drug abusers and formerly homeless people, some 450 of these folks pulling themselves up by the bootstraps through an organization that they run themselves, led by an unpaid staff of exactly one: Co-founder and President/CEO Mimi Silbert.
 
I myself sure don't see where it would hurt anything to contact these sound's like very nice people...what we got to loose except been told no and we use to that word by now.
 
Shadow205 said:
[url="http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/shadow205/th_7a07.jpg"]http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/shadow205/th_7a07.jpg[/url][url="http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/shadow205/th_CanadaUnidentifiedfemale.jpg"]http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/shadow205/th_CanadaUnidentifiedfemale.jpg[/url]

I thought that I would post the two together to make comparing them easier. I agree that the facial features are similar. The age and physical description work too. The only thing that I have a problem with is the date of death. This Jane Doe died in 2000. I think that if something happened to Rose it happened between 1973-1975. I think that if Rose had made it to her 18th birthday she would have contacted Opal and she didn't.
I agree the date of death is a issue with this Jane Doe; however, I spent a couple of hours yesterday reading personal acounts of ex-Family/Children of God members (fanscinating read btw) and many of them stayed with the organization for a significant number of years, traveling all over the world! I had no idea how large a group it was (and still is to some degree).

I started to imagine Rose on the streets: sick, frightened, hungry, meeting up with other young people who offered her a place to stay, the people she told she was 19. Maybe she planned on trying to contact Opal, but her new friends convinced her that it was pointless. Her family had sent her away to such a harsh place, never answered her letters, why would they care about her now? That sentiment appers to be how many young people ended up stay with COG and becoming part of The Family for years.

Below are another two of the images together. I hope I did this right.
url]
 
HeartofTexas said:
I've been doing some research on a drug (and felons) program in San Francisco called The Delancey Street Foundation.
I hope that Rose did not end up with Delancey Street - they were an offshoot of Synanon. They might have turned her back over to where she ran from.
 
Wow, that's a bit disheartening to hear, Doogie. Thanks for letting me know because I had no idea. I guess poor Rose had every right to be paranoid.

I found another (rather horrifying) article about a series of murders in San Francisco in 1973 that I thought I would put here to see if we think it's worth pursuing. I don't recall hearing about the "Zebra murders" but some of you who are local to the area might recall them. I don't know if this could have any bearing on Rose's disappearance, but I did note there was a "Frances Rose" listed at the end of the article as one of the victims.

It was October 20, 1973. San Francisco had 179 days of terror to go in what history would know as the “Zebra Murders.”

In the months to come, there would be a total of 23 attacks in the San Francisco area, resulting in 15 deaths. But these murders, horrific as they were, were only a small part of the bigger picture; police eventually tied a total of 71 killings around California to the events in San Francisco.

All the victims were white, “blue eyed devils” murdered for the simple fact of their race. The killers were members of a splinter of the Black Muslims known as the Death Angels. To earn Death Angel wings, followers had to kill nine white men, or five white women, or four white children - or a combination thereof.

Four men were eventually brought to trial for the murder of three of the victims and were sentenced to life imprisonment. From time to time, their cases come up for parole.

Unfinished Business

According to Clark Howard’s definitive Zebra (Berkeley Books, 1980), about 15 Death Angels had earned their “wings” by October of 1973. This implies that at least 135 men, or 75 women, or 60 children had been murdered by that time - and this was before the beginning of the official Zebra Murders. Law enforcement agencies tentatively tied 71 killings to the cult, but based on the figure of 15 Death Angels, even this figure is probably low. What about aspiring Death Angels that only killed part of their quota and had not been awarded full status? The number of men, women, and children murdered by this racist cult may have been much larger than anyone has yet estimated.

For this genocidal crime wave, only four men were tried. But how many Death Angels were there? Fifteen? Twenty? Fifty? Only four men went to jail, and only three murders - out of what may have been scores - were accounted for.

In other words, most of the Zebra killers are still out there somewhere, free.

They’re not only free in the sense of not being in prison, they’re free in that no attempt is being made to discover and apprehend them.

You see, the Zebra case has been declared closed. Never mind that only a few of the murders were solved (A tenth? A twentieth?)…Never mind that almost all the killers are still on the streets…Never mind that the statute of limitations on murder cases never runs out.

Why is this case closed, when other unsolved murders routinely remain open as a matter of procedure? One can only guess.
http://www.eaif.org/zebra/zebra.htm
 
Here's some more re the Zebra murders:

While the Zebra killings were officially solved, some members of the Zebra task force suspected that up to 71 murders in California could have been the work of the same group since only four Death Angels were convicted out of a believed fifteen. Since many victims were drawn from homeless or hitchhikers there is no certainty about the actual numbers. Today the murders have been largely forgotten — even within San Francisco — despite the enormity of the crimes when they happened and the great effect they had on the city. Only one book on the subject, Zebra (1979), by Clark Howard was published, and that book is currently out of print.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zebra_murders"
 
annemc2 said:
The 12 step programs (the "Anons") are just that - anonymous. There is no sign in sheet or member roster kept. People usually know each other by first names, and what goes on in closed meetings stays in the meetings. However, I think that in the case of a missing person, other members wouldn't be too reluctant to provide information that would be helpful. Of course, the members wouldn't spill the beans about *everything* that was going on, but would most likely feel comfortable saying something like, "yes, I knew her - she came to groups pretty regularly around here during the summer of 75" or something like that. (just in my limited experience! hope this helps!)
I spoke with someone in N.A. and she gave me the Van Nuys chapter info which is the "Headquarters" of N.A. -she said in this case they will share the info about Rose's disappearance with the surrounding chapters. It is based on anonymity so we may not hear anything.
I don't know if the anon groups are relevant because according to Rose's best friend, she didn't abuse drugs but I will contact Van Nuys anyway.




 
And a little more info re the Zebra murders:

The California attorney general’s office had compiled a list of 71 execution-style murders committed around the state, either with a machete or a pistol, in which the killer or killers was always a well-dressed and groomed youngish black man, and the victim always white. In addition to San Francisco, the murders were carried out in Oakland, San Jose, Emeryville, Berkeley, Long Beach, Signal Hill, Santa Barbara, Palo Alto, Pacifica, San Diego, Los Angeles, and in the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Ventura and Alameda. The NOI genocide campaign had actually begun approximately three years before the San Francisco killings.
http://magic-city-news.com/article_4785.shtml
 
Just for clarification, Narcotics Anonymous (N. A.) and Narconon are two different organizations. Narconon is/was run by Scientology.

http://www.narcanon.net/

From what I recall in Caifornia in the 1970s, Narconon was the one was doing aggressive outreach in the streets. N. A., like A. A., didn't have people standing on street corners passing out flyers.
 
HeartofTexas said:
To earn Death Angel wings, followers had to kill nine white men, or five white women, or four white children - or a combination thereof.
I lived in Northern California at the time and this formula was based on the premise that murdering women and children demonstrated a greater disdain for white people (which the cult felt was a good thing and rewarded its members accordingly).
 
I wrote an email to the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office today (they don't have a Coroner, per se) requesting advice/info on how we could determine if Rose might have died in SF in 1973 with no known identification on her person. I'll let everyone know if I hear back from them and what advice they offer.
 
Christine,



I have just received your message regarding Missing Person Cole. At the time of their deaths Unclaimed Persons Patty L. Duster (Coroner case #00-5352GM) and Dianna Kimberly Green (Coroner case #00-5853JS) were both identified by fingerprints. This does not mean that the fingerprint records on which they IDs were based was correct; Cole could easily have established either of these persons as legends long ago. In addition, this department is investigating over 100 unidentified persons cases for which sex was either female, or could not be determined due to advanced skeletonization and fragmentation. Given the information provided, there is no way to rule out matches, because I have nothing to compare.



Perhaps I should describe for you the process of identifying a person who is either unable (through unconsciousness, psychosis, or death) or unwilling (through intentional misleading) to identify themselves; for Fingerprints, Dental records (X-rays), DNA, or possibly a smiling photograph (showing teeth).



For 99% of the population one of these four ways must be used. Notice I didn’t even mention photos (of either the deceased or missing person). Photo comparisons are almost entirely and completely unreliable. I can’t tell you the number of times a family member has identified a victim by photo, only to find out later they were wrong, and that the victim was someone entirely different.



What is required is for the family of the missing person to produce fingerprints for comparison with Duster and Green, and then to any of the unidentified cases for which fingerprints were available. They should then submit her dental X-rays and charts for addition to their missing persons file, including addition of dental characteristics to her NIC record. The family should then submit DNA samples of themselves for inclusion in the National DNA database (CODIS), for comparison with unidentified persons throughout the country.



Please don’t hesitate to confer with me for advice or explanation.



David Van Norman

Supervising Deputy Coroner Investigator/Unidentified Persons Coordinator
 
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