In 1955, the CIA concluded that tests in a controlled environment-at the agency and in hospitals and prisons-were no longer sufficient, and, to make sense, they had to be conducted in normal social situations., All along, Gottlieb had been trying to persuade his CIA superiors that experiments on unwitting subjects were necessary. But after Alice died in 1993, Eric, with the consent of Nils, decided to exhume his fathers body. employee. See how in this scenario a slice of Jim Channons First Earth Battalion (harsh light and noise) and a slice of Frank Olsons Artichoke (a whole new category of longing) come together like two pieces of a jigsaw. The aim, Gottlieb explained, was to investigate whether and how it was possible to modify an individuals behavior by covert means. LSD, he hoped, would turn out to be the Swiss Army knife of mind controlan all-purpose drug that could ruin a mans marriage, change his sexual behavior, make him lie or tell the truth, destroy his memory or help him recover it, induce him to betray his country or program him to obey orders or disobey them. That, at least, is one thing of which Olsons son is now certain. The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Frank Olson counted himself in this number. Harvard psychologists Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert were discovered by the media in 1962, and the craze was on. And he certainly wasnt someone who would be involved in terminal interrogations. On April 3, 1953 Richard Helms, the Agencys Acting Deputy Director, had proposed an ultra-sensitive program of research and development in clandestine chemical and biological warfare. We may never know the full truth about projects ARTICHOKE and MK-ULTRA, and, if we do, it probably wont come from Gottlieb. Chapter Eleven of Simpsons book, Guerrillas for World War III, deals with the recruitment of former Nazis to carry out American-ordered assassinations in Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Cardiovascular Research, 116(5), E54-E55. And Gottlieb knew how and was willing to use them. Eight miles of paved roads run past more than 34,000 graves. Hereafter, assassinations in which the subject is unaware will be termed simple; those where the subject is aware but unguarded will be termed chase; those where the victim is guarded will be termed guarded., If the assassin is to die with the subject, the act will be called lost. If the assassin is to escape, the adjective will be safe. It should be noted that no compromises should exist here. But in reality, the participants, one of them Frank Olson, were to be placed under the influence of LSD. This was followed by up to sixty-five days of powerful electroshock therapy, where each jolt was twenty to forty times more intense than standard electroshock treatment. The only way to be sure is to demand that federal officials open the files on biological and chemical experiments, just as they did on radiation experiments. Says Eric: I knew that my father couldnt have jumped out through that closed hotel window even if he wanted to., That same year Eric, Nils and Alice paid a visit to Sidney Gottlieb at his secluded farmhouse in Rappahannock County, Virginia. The guilty ones will not be allowed to get away with it. Or as Fox Mulder would say, The truth is out there., A film by Egmont R. Koch and Michael Wech, Camera: Sven Kiesche The bespectacled researcher was a passionate believer in psychochemical warfare and dedicated his time to LSD testing, highly sophisticated experiments in hypnosis, and the search for hallucinatory materials in exotic mushrooms and flowers. While the operational manual was now complete, John Mulhollands work for the CIA was far from over. But when we opened the casket a lifetime later, I knew Daddy at once. And five days after that (July 28) we were having lunch with CIA Director William Colby in the Directors 7th floor office at Langley, receiving an apology from the CIA, along with what we were told was the complete CIA file on our fathers death. (Picador Books, Sept. 2004; Simon and Schuster, April, 2005.). However, CIA spokesman Paul Nowack insisted: The CIA fully cooperated in allowing the truth to surface. Lashbrook, now 80, refused to respond to the request for an interview, so the DAs office issued a subpoena. For example: we intend to investigate the development of a chemical material which causes a reversible non-toxic aberrant mental state, the specific nature of which can be reasonably well predicted for each individual. where he acquired the rank of lieutenant colonel and made future contacts. Blauer, a widely respected tennis professional, died nine months before Olson after being injected with a massive dose of a mescaline derivative at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Notes on Evan Thomas book, Injuries are generally categorized as blunt-force trauma, gunshot, and sharp-force trauma. Clinching the story Over the years, as he came to think about the claim that his fathers death resulted from a fatal nervous breakdown, he discovered that his father had been an employee of the C.I.A. Another answer is suggested by a colleague: It is well known, wrote Dr. Howard Abramson after Olsons death, that it is an occupational hazard to mental stability to be doing the type of work connected with his [Olsons] duties. The report added that Dr. Agent Walter P. T. heard Abramson remark to Lashbrook that he was worried as to whether or not the deal was in jeopardy and he thought the operation was dangerous and the whole deal should be reanalyzed. What was the deal which both Dr. Abramson and CIA Agent Lashbrook knew about? Castro survived. 1.36 Assassinations. The family wanted answers, but Gottlieb, true to his espionage training, was evasive. But the diaries and personal papers of the Central Intelligence Agency operative who ran safe houses in San Francisco and New York in which drug-addicted prostitutes gave LSD and other drugs to unsuspecting visitors tell a different story. While we had no reasonable doubt about the identity of these remains, we decided to go one long stride forward with new technology still on the scientific cusp to attempt a computerized superimposition of the skull to known photographs of Frank Olson. It is altogether improbable that Dr. Olson would have gone unresisting to his death if he were conscious of a third persons trying to force him out the window to a certain death. He must have put a curve on what he said, for the woman gave a low intimate laugh. Eric Olsons house and Eric would be the first to admit this could do with some re-decoration. Geologist George Stevens, Ph.D. of The George Washington University was in charge of any geological assessments. Cold War research ran the gamut, from investigations of sleep deprivation to perfecting anthrax delivery systems. told him about his death. The meaning of Schwab activity is not apparent from the documents you have. 11.07 Their suspicions were in another direction. I also learned upon a visit to the window shades manufacturer in Alexandria, Virginia, that the shade, if drawn, would have impeded Dr. Olsons exit making it implausible that he could have exited with it drawn at the time. The agency preferred to conduct such clinical trials outside the United States because sometimes they were terminalthe human guinea pig ended up dead. Perhaps Frank Olson had voiced his dismay and disgust over this inhumane behavior and was for that reason considered a potential security risk. Lets go outside. operatives may have slipped the LSD into his fathers drink to get him talking, and once they saw his reaction, decided to get him to New York where the suicide could be faked convincingly. Hanging, obstruction of airways with some object, smothering, or strangulation can cause asphyxia and each has specific manifestations. Miniccino adds, So if Frank Olson expressed serious doubts about the MK-ULTRA project to Sargant, then he signed his own death warrant.. His books include one on E. Howard Hunt, Jr., Compulsive Spy (Viking), and a study of Nixons foreign policy to appear in January, The Illusion of Peace (Viking), LSD-25 was the 25th in a series of compounds derived from the rye fungus ergot in routine research at Switzerlands Sandoz Pharmaceutical Laboratories. ORGAN HUNTER By following a path of moral agnosticism, they reached a dead end. ''When it is over. It would be difficult even to find Chestnut Lodge. By then, Dr Sargant was physically not a well man but his memory was still good. to experiment with LSD on his mental patients. But this is far more than a family story, which is why for many years it has been avidly followed by many people in this country and others. Even more remarkable than what he did not find was what Starrs did find: A large bruise over Olsons left eye, which suggested to Starrs that the victim had been smashed on the head before plunging through the window. By then, Olson had become increasingly paranoid, as the CIA report put it, and was convinced that the Agency was putting Benzadrine or some other stimulant into his coffee to keep him awake. The assassination range of the sub-machine gun is point blank. The man was given the drug while attending a meeting with CIA personnel working on a test project that involved the administration of mind-bending drugs to unsuspecting Americans and the testing of new listening devices by eavesdropping on citizens who were unaware they were being overheard. What exactly was this highly classified national security information? He entered the meeting with a negative frame of mind, wondering aloud why such a cold case would be deserving of his or anyones attention. The CIA had learned a great deal about LSD during its first four years of experiments, but it was also aware of wide gaps in its knowledge. Although Feldman never met Erics father personally, he discovered some information about the circumstances of his death. So, what are they doing in New York? to assassinate particular individuals. What transpired between Lashbrook and Abramson? On another level, the above ground one, it partook of investigations into the facts and circumstances of Olsons death. After an intensive ten-day search of the Wicomico River in Southern Maryland, where he had last been seen canoeing by himself, the former CIA chiefs body washed ashore. I find an unholy desire to tell you about the worst fiasco we ever had, which is why this letter has to be UltraBAP [Burn After Perusal]. Eric Olson in New York. According to the hotel switchboard operator, who had listened in, it was a short conversation consisting of only two lines: Well, hes gone, a man in the hotel room had said. Working with a team of 15 forensic experts, Starrs quickly discovered a number of peculiarities in the New York Medical Examiners 1953 report written by then-Assistant Medical Examiner Dr. Dominick DiMaio. When George White left the CIA his letter of resignation read, in part, I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyards because it was fun, fun, fun Where else could a red-blooded American boy lie, kill, cheat, steal, rape and pillage with the sanction and blessing of the all-highest?. What little else they knew came from a small article in their local paper: Army Bacteriologist Dies in Plunge from NY Hotel. In order to assure his family of Civil Service benefits, the CIA had his death officially recorded as a classified illness.. I had a strong reaction to the letter. We gave serious consideration to whether the hematoma to Dr. Olsons skull had occurred at the street level when his body, determined to have been traveling in excess of sixty miles per hour, struck one or more hard and unresisting objects. The most likely source revealing such a happening was Olsons head. There were so many ways for Eric to recount his new version of the story at the press conference. So Ruwet and Lashbrook took Olson to New York, supposedly to see a psychiatrist. Everest, confident as God. Acid Dreams. Here was a top government scientist, engaged in some of the most secret projects at the height of the Cold War. Four tests were begun on unsuspecting persons in 1953, then expanded two years later under what the commission called an unfortunate arrangement with the federal Bureau of Dug Abuse Control. PHYSICIAN EXTRAORDINARY At the funeral, attended by several dozen relatives, friends of the family, and members of my team, the remains were lowered into the ground for what could be their final rest. The fear that I was being used by Harlot in careless fashion had just been confirmed. The confluence of scientific fact and investigative fact points unerringly to the death of Frank Olson as being a homicide, deft, deliberate and diabolical. Drug experiments. 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