How the CIA Secretly Dosed American Citizens

A top secret CIA program designed to figure out how to control people's minds with LSD sounds like something out of the X-Files. But from 1953 to 1973, it was frighteningly real. The stated purpose of MKUltra was to develop a capability in the covert use of biological and chemical materials. Whatever one may think of this goal, it is the way in which the CIA pursued it that has made the project so controversial. The existence of what was called Project MK Ultra is backed up by both eyewitness testimony and official documents that offer tantalizing clues about the nature of the experiments. Today, we're going to take a look at what we really know about the CIA's top secret MK Ultra project. Let's go Wormwood on this. The need for Project MKUltra first arose when several CIA officials witnessed the Soviet trial of Joseph Cardinal Manzenti in 1949. During his confession, Manzenti appeared to be high out of his mind, and the CIA agents in attendance suspected some drug-related trickery was being employed to make him more cooperative. Concerned that they would soon find themselves on the wrong end of a Cold War brainwashing gap, the agents undertook a concerted effort to catch up with the Soviets. It was from this effort that MKUltra would eventually be born. The Soviets may have provided the impetus for Project MKUltra, but the science itself came from a far more sinister source. For at its root, MKUltra was the brainchild of the Nazis. Dum, dum, dum. Mm, I bet you saw that coming. Just after World War II, US intelligence forces were in the midst of a top secret operation called Project Paperclip. Its controversial purpose was to capitalize on the work of Nazi scientists. And it was through these channels that the CIA became aware of the existence of potential mind control drugs. Those wily Nazi scientists informed the CIA of a substance being developed by Swiss chemists that had military applications. That drug was lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD for short. Developing LSD's military applications quickly became a priority. That sounds like a really bad trip. John Mulholland was a highly trained magician who was a friend of the legendary Harry Houdini. At some point, Mulholland was recruited by the US government to help with various aspects of their espionage efforts. Eventually, he wound up helping train agents in the skills they need to execute MKUltra for the CIA. Among other things, the magician taught agents how to slip LSD pills into the drinks of unsuspecting subjects. In fact, Mulholland wrote an entire espionage guide for the agency called The Manual of Trickery and Deception. The book teaches subjects like giving secret hand signals and how to disappear into the background. Once highly classified, this manual is now available to the general public. Imagine, you've had a hard day at work and decide to grab a beer at that nice little bar where everybody knows your name. Only instead of a relaxing good time, you find yourself on an unexpected psychedelic drug trip. Yeah, it happened. Reports on MKUltra indicate that CIA agents actually used the techniques taught by Holland to dose random people at bars and other public places with LSD and other hallucinogens. The agents would then follow the suspects to observe the results. Because of the destruction of the MKUltra files, we're not sure how widespread this highly illegal practice was. We can't be sure it was highly uncool, though. How many people died as a result of the MKUltra program can never be known. However, we do know of at least one confirmed death with connections to the program. The decedent was Frank Olson, a US Army biochemist who was fed LSD without being informed or giving any type of consent. Olson was merely one of many government employees who were secretly dosed with acid for the study. But whereas the rest of the test subjects recovered, Olson did not. The drug caused the chemist to have a complete psychotic breakdown. Olson was placed under close observation, but it didn't last very long. Though he was under the supervision of a CIA doctor, Olson fell from a 10th story hotel window and plunged to his death onto the street below. The official explanation for Olson's death was suicide, though subsequent investigations and reexaminations of the body have convinced Olson's family he was murdered. While foul play has never been proven, it can't be entirely ruled out either. Even if his death was by his own hand, Project MKUltra was still responsible for destabilizing his mental health and creating the situation in the first place. Olson's story and the allegations surrounding it can be seen in greater detail on the recent Netflix documentary Wormwood, directed by Errol Morris. Operation Midnight Climax was a subprogram of the Project MK Ultra mind control study. If you think the name Midnight Climax sounds like the title of an adult movie, well, you're not too far off. This facet of the program hired ladies of the night to lure their Johns back to a CIA safe house where the men would be secretly dosed. The men were then taken off to have trippy action in rooms with walls that were allegedly covered with images of women in bondage. It has been reported that agents would watch through two-way mirrors and take notes on what they observed while drinking martinis. Yeah, weird voyeurs. He's a genius, huh? Using LSD to facilitate mind control and brainwashing was the central purpose of MKUltra. But those behind the project weren't opposed to diversification. Experiments were conducted testing enhanced interrogation techniques, employing hypnosis and sensory deprivation. But that's not where it ended. Frighteningly, some detainees held under the auspices of MKUltra's experiments were subjected to outright torture. This was, of course, highly illegal. The CIA official in charge of MKUltra was one Sidney Gottlieb. But like a lot of bosses, he liked to delegate. One of his lower officers was an agent named George Hunter White, who was placed in charge of the aforementioned Operation Midnight Climax, the part of MKUltra that used harlots to lure unwitting Johns into the experiments. The man behind this perverse facet of the program was every bit as depraved as you might have expected. Indeed, in a memo to Gottlieb, White White wrote of his involvement with the program. I toiled wholeheartedly in the vineyard 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? White wasn't just in charge of experiments. He was a full-on participant in their execution. In 1953, he rented out an apartment in Greenwich Village, New York, which he would lure people back to and dose them with LSD, with or without their knowledge, so he could observe their behavior. So you're probably wondering why anyone would willingly volunteer to be experimented on by the CIA. In fact, very few people did. But the show had to go on. So the CIA arranged for various other organizations with better reputations to act as fronts for their work. Universities, colleges, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies, among others, were employed to run secret CIA-funded mind control experiments. Why would these places get involved with something like this? Sadly, the simple answer is greed. Being the height of the Cold War, the CIA had virtually limitless funding, and they were able to use that money to bribe other institutions into doing their bidding. Often, subjects who participated in MKUltra through satellite programs that were farmed out to places like hospitals and colleges were informed that they were taking part in a psychological study. Unfortunately, though, not all participants of MKUltra were given the benefit of that same disclosure. In fact, informed consent was often avoided, partially because knowing they were being drugged could change a subject's reaction, and agents wanted uncorrupted results. Test subjects often included other CIA agents. Unwitting participants might be given a spiked drink or a morsel of food during a meal and only informed of what they ate after the fact. And you thought your workplace was dysfunctional. One of the most infamous criminals in recent American history is Ted Kaczynski, who was more commonly known as the Unabomber. Once a brilliant young student of mathematics attending Harvard University, Kaczynski changed over the years. He developed an intense hatred of science and modern technology, and he resolved to do something about it. It has been suggested by some that the turning point in Kaczynski's life may have come when he was 17 years old. At the time, Ted had volunteered for a psychological study at Harvard run by one Dr. Henry Murray Murray is now known to have covertly been employed by the CIA. His experiment, which is believed to be about severe emotional and psychological abuse, reportedly involved berating and humiliating subjects while forcing them to hear their values and beliefs degraded. While this experiment's connection to Project MK Ultra has never been proven, many have speculated over the similarities and possible connections. The Unabomber wasn't the only famous individual who may have crossed paths with Project MK Ultra. Other celebrity volunteers are alleged to include One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey, Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter, and the well-known Boston gangster Whitey Bulger, whose life served as the inspiration for the character played by Jack Nicholson in The Departed. Despite Project MKUltra being dragged into the light, the CIA has been able to avoid pretty much any legal liability for their inhumane actions. Institutions who participated in MKUltra were required to protect intelligence sources, and the courts have refused to hold the CIA responsible. Some government employees who were unwittingly dosed with LSD even tried to sue the government, only to find they were legally barred from prevailing. Despite this, some small efforts toward compensation have been made. For example, the family of Frank Olson was paid $750,000 through an act of Congress, albeit one that admitted no legal liability. Some Canadian victims of MKUltra have also been compensated in out-of-court settlements that also seem to involve no admission of blame. In 1973, with Gerald Ford and various congressional committees investigating the CIA, agency director Richard Helms ordered a majority of the files on MKUltra to be destroyed. Four years later, a stash of surviving records were uncovered, but they were heavily redacted and reflected only a tiny fraction of the experiments conducted over the course of the 20-year program. Helms never faced any meaningful repercussions for his actions and eventually became US ambassador to Iran. Because of his order, the The true breadth and scope of Project MKUltra will likely never be known.