Poisoner in Chief

by Stephen Kinzer

  “in the form of a concise manual”: Edwards, “Sphinx and the Spy.”

  One item in Mulholland’s personal background: Robinson, Magician, pp. 62–63.

  Few at the CIA were that open-minded: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 253.

  The letterhead said “Chemrophyl Associates”: Robinson, Magician, pp. 88–92.

  Mulholland was asked to sign a pledge: Ibid., pp. 98–99.

  “Dear Sherman”: Edwards, “Sphinx and Spy.”

  “The purpose of this paper is to instruct the reader”: Ibid.

  It was published with an apt title: Ki Mae Heussner, “Secret CIA ‘Magic’ Manual Reveals Cold War Spy Tricks,” ABC News, December 4, 2009, https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/secret-cia-magic-manual-reveals-cold-war-spy/story?id=9229248; Noah Shachtman, “CIA’s Lost Magic Manual Resurfaces,” Wired, November 24, 2009; Robert Wallace and Keith Melton, eds., The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception (New York: William Morrow, 2010).

  “The fact that he was asked to contemplate such things”: Wallace and Melton, eds., Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, p. xiii.

  Early in 1953 he wrote to ask: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 312.

  Carefully observing bureaucratic protocol: Ibid., pp. 311–12.

  “The deal was pretty simple”: Streatfeild, Brainwash, p. 66.

  Isbell’s MK-ULTRA contracts included: Central Intelligence Agency, “MKULTRA Briefing Book: Containing Brief Summaries of Each of the 149 MKULTRA Subprojects,” January 1, 1976, https://ia600206.us.archive.org/31/items/MKULTRABriefingBookListOfSubprojectsWithBriefDescriptionsJanuary1976/MKULTRA%20Briefing%20Book%20-%20List%20of%20subprojects%20with%20brief%20descriptions%20-%20January%201976.pdf; Ross, CIA Doctors, pp. 291, 296.

  One of his articles refers to a volunteer: Harris Isbell et al., “Studies on Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD-25): Effects in Former Morphine Addicts and Development of Tolerance During Chronic Intoxication,” Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, November 1956, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/archneurpsyc/article-abstract/652297.

  “I feel sure you will be interested”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 312.

  A month later Isbell provided an update: Ibid., pp. 313–14.

  Sometimes he brought Frank Olson: Ibid., p. 311.

  “What Harris Isbell did to my father”: William Henry Wall, From Healing to Hell (Montgomery, AL: NewSouth, 2011), p. 186.

  “I have 7 patients who have been taking the drug”: Streatfeild, Brainwash, p. 67.

  “It was the worst shit I ever had”: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” pp. 68–69.

  The most enthusiastic of these doctors: CIA, “MKUKTRA Briefing Book,” https://archive.org/stream/DOC_0000190090/DOC_0000190090_djvu.txt.

  “epileptic-type seizures”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 235.

  “produced a model psychosis”: Ibid., pp. 303–4.

  “We learned a lot from the Atlanta experiments”: Ibid., p. 302.

  That conclusion is richly confirmed: Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill, Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss (New York: Broadway, 2013), pp. 102–22; Wolfe, “10 Real Victims.”

  In a notebook that he wrote: Kathy Curran, “Whitey Bulger’s Notebook Chronicles LSD Prison Testing,” WBZ-TV, July 7, 2011, https://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/07/07/i-team-whitey-bulger-volunteered-for-lsd-testing-while-in-prison-in-1950s/.

  “In 1957, while a prisoner”: James “Whitey” Bulger, “Whitey Bulger: I Was a Guinea Pig for CIA Drug Experiments,” Oxy, May 9, 2017, https://www.ozy.com/true-story/whitey-bulger-i-was-a-guinea-pig-for-cia-drug-experiments/76409.

  His first assignment, which Gottlieb called Subproject 2: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 283–84; CIA, “MKULTRA Briefing Book”; Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 215; Ross, CIA Doctors, p. 286.

  Hyde had a unique credential: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 180; Ryan H. Walsh, Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 (New York: Penguin, 2018), p. 191.

  Colleagues considered him: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 299.

  As soon as the CIA began funding LSD research: Walsh, Astral Weeks, p. 192.

  Each was paid $15 to drink: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 299.

  “none of those involved in the experiments”: Walsh, Astral Weeks, p. 192.

  Gottlieb’s assignments to him were remarkably broad: Central Intelligence Agency, “List of MKULTRA Subprojects,” https://www.illuminatirex.com/list-of-mkultra-subprojects/.

  “wild and crazy”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 286.

  In mid-1953 Gottlieb gave Abramson $85,000: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 66.

  More disturbing, he developed a special curiosity: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 285.

  “It was done with great secrecy”: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 136.

  “Within the agency, Dr. Gottlieb”: Thomas, Journey into Madness, p. 237.

  “I am impatient when I hear people equate”: Margaret Gottlieb, “Autobiographical Essays.”

  To reinforce that mystique: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 103.

  “Don’t you know how foreign diplomats live in Moscow?”: George Kennan, Encounters with Kennan: The Great Debate (New York: Routledge, 1979), p. 42.

  Soviet leaders could not abide: George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 1925–1950 (New York: Pantheon, 1967), pp. 145–67.

  Kennan told friends in the State Department: Walter L. Hixon, George F. Kennan: Cold War Iconoclast (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 128.

  Inside the CIA, a darker theory emerged: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 104; CIA, “Interview with Richard Helms.”

  Allen Dulles was a member: Streatfeild, Brainwash, p. 23.

  The number of people who knew even its general outlines: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 91; McCoy, Question of Torture, p. 28.

  “Knowledge was a danger”: Don DeLillo, Libra (New York: Penguin, 1991), p. 21.

  “Sometime during the fall of 1953”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 176–77.

  “Some individuals at the Agency”: Streatfeild, Brainwash, pp. 223–24.

  “There is nothing such as a witting P-1 interrogation”: U.S. District Court 2nd Circuit, “Deposition of Sidney Gottlieb,” September 19, 1995, p. 195.

  “Sid got back from Manilla”: Margaret Gottlieb, “Autobiographical Essays.”

  7. Fell or Jumped

  Glass shattered high above Seventh Avenue: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 17–35; Bob Coen and Eric Nadler, Dead Silence (Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2009), pp. 83–102; Mary A. Fischer, “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” Gentleman’s Quarterly, January 2000, http://stevenwarranresearch.blogspot.com/2014/10/january-2000-gentlemans-quarterly-man.html; Michael Ignatieff, “Who Killed Frank Olson?,” New York Review of Books, February 22, 2018, https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/02/22/who-killed-frank-olson/; Regis, Biology of Doom, pp. 178–79; James Starrs and Katherine Ramsland, A Voice for the Dead: A Forensic Investigator’s Pursuit for Truth in the Grave (New York: Putnam, 2005), pp. 105–55.

  “In all my years in the hotel business”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 14.

  “Well, he’s gone,” the caller had said: “Frank Olson,” https://unsolved.com/gallery/frank-olson/.

  He was in training there: Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip, p. 371; Frank Olson Project, “Frank Olson Is Recruited to Camp Detrick,” https://frankolsonproject.org/timeline/.

  “Just as we speculated about the atom bomb project”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 41.

  Olson was discharged from the army in 1944: Ibid., p. 75.

  He co-authored a 220-page study: Ibid., pp. 55–56.

  In 1949 he was one of several scientists: Ibid., p. 73.

  He regularly traveled to Fort Terry: Ibid., p. 75.

  Olson learned of it: Ibid., p. 88.

  His job description was vague but tantalizing: Ibid., p. 60.

  “the airborne distribution of biological
germs”: Thomas, Journey into Madness, p. 241.

  “He’d come to work in the morning”: Author’s interview with Eric Olson, 2018.

  “In CIA safe-houses in Germany”: Richard Belzer and David Wayne, Dead Wrong: Straight Facts on the Country’s Most Controversial Coverups (New York: Skyhorse, 2012), pp. 7–8.

  It was headlined: “Deep Creek Rendezvous,” https://frankolsonproject.org/staging01/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/deep-creek-memo-1.jpg.

  Lashbrook … produced a bottle of Cointreau: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 28, 259–60; Regis, Biology of Doom, pp. 153–54.

  “boisterous and laughing”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 28.

  “I’ve made a terrible mistake”: Author’s interview with Eric Olson, 2018.

  “I think what happened was that at the Deep Creek meeting”: Ibid.

  “I think we made a poor choice of movie”: Ibid.

  “the most frightening experience”: Corey Ransom, “Paper on the Death of Frank Olson,” Seminar on American History since 1865, University of Delaware, fall semester 1999, part 6, pp. 5–6.

  “He appeared to be agitated”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 108; Regis, Biology of Doom, p. 158.

  “tighter than tight”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 59.

  He had repeatedly visited Germany: Ibid., pp. 78, 681.

  He was one of several Special Operations Division scientists: Ibid., pp. 350–57; Loïc Chauvin, “En 1951, un village français a-t-il été arrosé de LSD par la CIA?,” Rue 89, March 8, 2010, https://www.nouvelobs.com/rue89/rue89-nos-vies-connectees/20100308.RUE5429/en-1951-un-village-francais-a-t-il-ete-arrose-de-lsd-par-la-cia.html; Mike Thomson, “Pont-Saint-Esprit Poisoning: Did the CIA Spread LSD?,” BBC News, August 23, 2010, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-10996838; TootlaFrance, “The Idyllic French Village That Went Insane,” July 29, 2014, http://www.tootlafrance.ie/features/the-idyllic-french-village-that-went-insane.

  “He was very, very open”: Belzer and Wayne, Dead Wrong, p. 7.

  On May 6 a volunteer subject: Anthony Barnett, “Final Agony of RAF Volunteer Killed by Sarin—in Britain,” Guardian, September 28, 2003, https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/sep/28/military.antonybarnett; Rob Evans, “The Past Porton Down Can’t Hide,” Guardian, May 6, 2004, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2004/may/06/science.research.

  A month later Olson was back in Germany: Thomas, Secrets and Lies, p. 155.

  according to records that were later declassified: Deckname Artischocke (film).

  “visited a CIA ‘safe house’ near Stuttgart”: Gordon Tomas, “US Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld Linked to ‘Murder of CIA Scientist,’” Rence.com, June 25, 2004, https://rense.com/general54/ewerwopr.htm.

  After stops in Scandinavia and Paris: Albarelli, “Mysterious Death”; Frank Olson Project, “Frank Olson Travels to Berlin,” https://frankolsonproject.org/timeline/; Deckname Artischocke (film).

  Immediately after their meeting, Sargant wrote a report: Thomas, Secrets and Lies, pp. 155–56.

  Soon after Olson returned home: Belzer and Wayne, Dead Wrong, p. 8.

  “just got involved in it”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 681.

  “seemed to me to be confused”: Ibid., p. 119.

  “I’ve consented to take psychiatric care”: Ibid., pp. 107–9.

  He said he felt “all mixed up”: Regis, Biology of Doom, p. 158.

  Alice Olson had been told that Abramson was chosen: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 109.

  Later that evening, Abramson joined them: Ibid., p. 111.

  “You know, I feel a lot better”: Regis, Biology of Doom, p. 159.

  According to a later report: Michael Ignatieff, “What Did the CIA Do to His Father?,” New York Times, April 1, 2001.

  “became agitated when he thought”: Albarelli, “Mysterious Death.”

  He reported that he had been wandering: Regis, Biology of Doom, p. 159.

  “What’s wrong?” Ruwet asked: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 109–19.

  The next morning, Abramson, Lashbrook, and Olson drove back to Manhattan: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 87.

  “Would you happen to know where Mr. Olson’s wallet is?”: Ibid., p. 23.

  Immediately after Olson crashed: Albarelli, “Mysterious Death.”

  “Your father had an accident”: Author’s interview with Eric Olson.

  “For years after that, I was completely stumped”: “Frank Olson: Did a Government Scientist Jump to His Death from a New York Hotel? Or Was He Pushed?,” https://unsolved.com/gallery/frank-olson/.

  Later he was identified as James McCord: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 86–92.

  “Upon closing the door, Dr. Abramson and Lashbrook”: Ibid., pp. 93–94.

  The investigating police detective concluded: Regis, Biology of Doom, p. 180.

  “A bacteriologist from the Army”: “Army Bacteriologist Dies in Plunge from NY Hotel,” Frederick News-Post, November 29, 1953, https://stevenwarran.blogspot.com/2014/10/.

  “That was Bob Lashbrook and his boss”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 169.

  Later that week, “Lashbrook and his boss”: Ibid.

  “It was probably to check me out”: ABC Closeup, “Mission Mind Control,” 1979, https://boingboing.net/2015/07/21/tv-documentary-about-mkultra.html.

  “Conspiracy theories aside”: Ransom, “Paper on the Death,” part 9, p. 7.

  The CIA’s general counsel, Lawrence Houston: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, pp. 145–46.

  “I attempted to confirm what I had heard”: Ibid., p. 139.

  “There should be immediately established”: Ibid., p. 143.

  “Hand carry to Gibbons, Drum, and Gottlieb”: Ibid., p. 144.

  In the first two letters, Dulles said: Ibid.

  “I have personally reviewed the files”: Bowart, Operation Mind Control, p. 102.

  8. Operation Midnight Climax

  Senator Joseph McCarthy declared that “twenty years of treason”: William H. Chafe, The Unfinished Journey: America Since World War II (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 127.

  Congress passed the Communist Control Act: Richard Alan Schwartz, The 1950s (New York: Facts on File, 2002), p. 230.

  On December 15 the ever vigilant Office of Security: Lee and Shlain, Acid Dreams, p. 29; Streatfeild, Brainwash, p. 68.

  “Chemists of the Eli Lilly Company”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 153.

  Assured of a steady supply: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” pp. 70–71; Ross, CIA Doctors, p. 59.

  “Almost overnight … a whole new market”: Lee and Shlain, Acid Dreams, p. 19.

  Many conducted their CIA-sponsored “subprojects”: Darla Jones, “MK-Ultra Involved Hospitals, Universities and Government Facilities,” Zodiac Killer Site, November 10, 2012, http://www.zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=102&t=2025; “List of Agencies, Institutions, and Individuals Involved in Mind Control,” Global Village, http://grahamhancock.com/phorum/read.php?2,507101,507101; Colin Ross, Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists (Richardson, TX: Manitou, 2000), p. 70. “Three types of institutions surfaced as part of the MKULTRA program: academic institutions, legitimate business enterprises, and federal/state institutions. In the past several weeks, the General Counsel has notified 76 institutions of their involvement in Agency drug testing programs.” Central Intelligence Agency, “Memorandum for Director of Central Intelligence,” September 16, 1977, https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP79M00983A002200070014-3.pdf.

  Some of these drug experiments required risking the health of participants: J. Samuel Walker, Permissible Dose: A History of Radiation Protection in the Twentieth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 17; Zareena Hussain, “MIT to Pay Victims $1.85 Million in Fernald Radiation Settlement,” Tech, January 7, 1998, http://tech.mit.edu/V117/N65/bfernald.65n.html.

  Soon after Dr. Robert Hyde began giving LSD: Marks, Search
for the “Manchurian Candidate,” p. 64.

  Early in 1955 he wrote a memo: Nick Redfern, Secret History: Conspiracies from Ancient Aliens to the New World Order (Canton Township, MI: Visible Ink, 2005), pp. 159–60; U.S. Senate, Project MK-ULTRA, p. 123.

  “CIA investigators let their imaginations run”: “Mind-Control Studies Had Origins in Trial of Mindszenty,” New York Times, August 2, 1977.

  “We did do LSD-related operations in the Far East”: U.S. District Court 2nd Circuit, “Deposition of Sidney Gottlieb,” September 20, 1995, pp. 249, 286.

  In 1955, Gottlieb was drafted into a plot: Harvey Ferguson, The Last Cavalryman: The Life of General Lucian Truscott, Jr. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015), p. 351; Joseph J. Trento, The Secret History of the CIA (New York: MJF, 2001), p. 194.

  His biographer wrote that he was “outraged”: H. Paul Jeffers, Command of Honor: General Lucian Truscott’s Path to Victory in World War II (Open Library: NAL Hardcover, 2008), p. 293.

  A platoon of U.S. Marines trudging along a mountain path: Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Veterans Remember Oral History project, “An Interview with Allen M. Dulles,” https://www2.illinois.gov/alplm/library/collections/oralhistory/VeteransRemember/koreanwar/Documents/DullesAllen/Dulles_All_4FNL.pdf.

  He wrote several research proposals for Gottlieb: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” pp. 158–59.

  “changes in behavior due to stress”: CIA, “MKULTRA Briefing Book.”

  It emerged as the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology: Thomas, Secrets and Lies, p. 72.

  Soon after establishing this bogus foundation: Harvey Weinstein, Father, Son and CIA: The Riveting Account of the Destruction of One Man’s Life by Secret Mind Control Experiments Funded by the CIA (Halifax: Goodread, 1990), p. 139.

  “the areas of influencing human behavior”: Albarelli, Terrible Mistake, p. 194.

  One of the first “subprojects” the society commissioned: Marks, Search for the “Manchurian Candidate,” pp. 160–69.

  “effects of radical isolation upon intellectual function”: Alfred W. McCoy, A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror (New York: Henry Holt / Owl Books, 2006), p. 35.