Speaker 1: It's December, five days before Christmas, and a few dozen
Speaker 1: people are gathered for a big holiday party. They're at
Speaker 1: the US Post Office building in downtown San Francisco. Peeking in,
Speaker 1: it looks like a scene out of Mad Men. Guys
Speaker 1: in crisp suits, skinny ties, women in colorful dresses, everyone
Speaker 1: drinking and laughing. There's a Deputy U S Marshal at
Speaker 1: the party named Wayne Ritchie. He's got a girlfriend, but
Speaker 1: she didn't come tonight. It doesn't matter. He's just here
Speaker 1: to mingle. The mood is light, everyone's having fun whatever
Speaker 1: the small talk. The booze is flowing. Actually it's more
Speaker 1: than that. It's the sort of party where you can
Speaker 1: reach out and someone will put a glass right in
Speaker 1: your hand. You don't even have to ask. As Wayne
Speaker 1: Ritchie SIPs gingerly, the drink hits him a little too quick.
Speaker 1: This isn't just some light buzz. There's an uncomfortable feeling
Speaker 1: in his chest. Then something in his brain starts pulling
Speaker 1: him away from reality towards someplace else, a place he
Speaker 1: doesn't like. He begins seeing things. The holiday lights melt
Speaker 1: in front of him, and for some reason, creatures pop
Speaker 1: up around him. Monsters really eyeing him suspiciously. Richie's office
Speaker 1: is in the building. He excuses himself and sits alone.
Speaker 1: He spent five years in the military and one year
Speaker 1: as a guard at Alcatraz. He's a well respected marshal.
Speaker 1: But sitting there, Richie feels a surge of emotions, like
Speaker 1: he's let people down, his friends, his relatives. Suddenly the
Speaker 1: office no longer feels safe. He leaves. The monsters follow Wayne.
Speaker 1: Ritchie is out on the streets now, trying to flee.
Speaker 1: Faces don't look like faces anymore. Eyes are in the
Speaker 1: wrong places, sore noses, sore mouths. The sidewalk moves under
Speaker 1: his feet like it's liquid cement, like it never dried.
Speaker 1: Richie's mind starts to wander. He starts thinking about his girlfriend.
Speaker 1: He loves her so much. He remembers how she always
Speaker 1: wanted to visit New York, how he couldn't afford the trip.
Speaker 1: But right now, New York seems like a good idea.
Speaker 1: Right now, it seems like the best idea he's ever had.
Speaker 1: But he's got no money, not enough for that. What
Speaker 1: if he could get the money. Richie goes back to
Speaker 1: the post office building, to his storage locker, he gets
Speaker 1: his service revolver. He's not sure why he needs a weapon,
Speaker 1: but he feels better with it, safer. He begins ducking
Speaker 1: in and out of bars for more drinks. Maybe something
Speaker 1: will wash away these feelings. Then he walks into the
Speaker 1: right bar, the bar that can solve all his problems,
Speaker 1: Shady Grove. He looks around. The monsters are still there,
Speaker 1: and there are people, too many people. He's nervous. Suddenly
Speaker 1: he pulls out his gun. He aims at at the bartender.
Speaker 1: He demands money, all the money. This is not Wayne Ritchie.
Speaker 1: This man is committing armed robbery five days before Christmas.
Speaker 1: Wayne Ritchie is a U S. Marshal, sworn to uphold
Speaker 1: the law, a man who has never once broken it.
Speaker 1: Part of him is looking on in horror, not believing
Speaker 1: what's happening. Another part is totally comfortable with what's going on.
Speaker 1: He can't even be fine if the bartender pulled out
Speaker 1: his own gun and aimed it back at him. Now,
Speaker 1: he says something that feels so right and so foreign
Speaker 1: at the same time. Just put it all in the bag. Okay,
Speaker 1: take it easy. I'm gonna go to New York with
Speaker 1: my girl. Okay, Hey, hey, Mr. That last voice is
Speaker 1: an anchor. It cuts through his thoughts and pulls him
Speaker 1: back to reality. He's grateful, he turns to the person,
Speaker 1: then a blast of pain explodes in the back of
Speaker 1: his head. When Wayne Ritchie regains consciousness, two police officers
Speaker 1: are standing over him. He'll lose his job, his reputation
Speaker 1: will be ruined in an in stint, He'll go from
Speaker 1: an officer of the law to a felon. And it'll
Speaker 1: be decades before Richie has any clue what happened that
Speaker 1: he hadn't gone insane. Richie would later come to believe
Speaker 1: he'd been dosed with LSD. It explained everything, and George
Speaker 1: White's diary had a note about this exact party at
Speaker 1: the Federal Building. While Richie could never definitively prove what
Speaker 1: had happened to him that night, his story is forever
Speaker 1: late to White's reign of terror. For over a decade,
Speaker 1: George White had used LSD to summon demons that chased
Speaker 1: down innocent people, but before it was all over, someone
Speaker 1: would finally be chasing him. For I Heart Radio, this
Speaker 1: is Operation Midnight Climax, and I heard original podcast I'm
Speaker 1: Your host Noel Brown. And this is chapter eight the climax,
Speaker 1: Part one paper trail. Hey, Geo, fuck it, I fucking quit. Technically,
Speaker 1: that's how George White's career came to a close, both
Speaker 1: careers law enforcement and illegal LSD experimentation. It happened in
Speaker 1: at the San Francisco Narcotics Bureau office. In the end,
Speaker 1: it wasn't a complaint or a death or his conscience.
Speaker 1: It was invoices. All along, White had been forwarding expense
Speaker 1: invoices to his CIA supervisor, Sidney Gottlieb. White was billing
Speaker 1: the CIA for everything from prostitutes to booze. Not exactly
Speaker 1: a good move if you want to fly under the radar.
Speaker 1: And beginning in nineteen sixty three, these invoices were landing
Speaker 1: on the desk of CIA Inspector General John Eyerman. Eerman
Speaker 1: was outraged. He spoke to Gotlieb, who confirmed White was
Speaker 1: on the prowl in San Francisco. White had full approval
Speaker 1: to dose innocent people with LSD. Erman dubbed the entire
Speaker 1: enterprise a series of sophomoric procedures. He wanted it shutdown.
Speaker 1: Of course, Gottlieb and a CIA ally named Richard Helms
Speaker 1: didn't agree. Helms tried to placate Erman. You promised to
Speaker 1: sit down with CIA director John mccoon to explain and
Speaker 1: exactly what was going on. Then Helms ignored the issue completely.
Speaker 1: He never approached mccon. Erman was shocked, so Erman wrote
Speaker 1: a report and delivered it directly to mccon. Got Leeban
Speaker 1: Helm sat down with the director to argue their side
Speaker 1: of it. Sure, it looked like White was harming innocent civilians,
Speaker 1: but this was war. Helms insisted the Soviets had a
Speaker 1: stranglehole on chemical weapons and attacks. The United States was
Speaker 1: just trying to keep up. George White's brand of realistic
Speaker 1: testing was a necessity. Faced with what he perceived as
Speaker 1: two compelling arguments, McCone did what bureaucrats do. He pushed
Speaker 1: it off to the side and refused to make a
Speaker 1: decision for two years. While Erman fumed, the San Francisco
Speaker 1: safe houses were allowed to remain open as he had
Speaker 1: always done, got leave insulated wife from the bureaucracy. When
Speaker 1: mc hohne was finally convinced in k Ultra had to
Speaker 1: be stopped, it was less of an order than a suggestion.
Speaker 1: Gottlieb allowed George White to run his safe houses for
Speaker 1: another year, Hey all of his bills. Maybe he believed
Speaker 1: he could change mccowan's mind. Maybe he just wanted White
Speaker 1: to have one last go of things. But ultimately common
Speaker 1: sense prevails. There were no more last minute bailouts for White.
Speaker 1: This time, the party really was over. In He turned
Speaker 1: in his gun and badge and walked out the door,
Speaker 1: not just the CIA's door, but the door of the
Speaker 1: Narcotics Bureau too. The Narcotics Bureau had nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the CIA work, but White was indignant. He'd only
Speaker 1: remained on the job to moonlight as a psychedelic hit man.
Speaker 1: If that was being stripped from him, he had little
Speaker 1: reason to continue. All he had left was a job
Speaker 1: that was now insisting on a concept he detested, oversight.
Speaker 1: The culture was changing, police work was changing. There were
Speaker 1: forms to fill out, people to answer to. Rogue agents
Speaker 1: like White. Nike Feldman were a dying breed. Feldman had
Speaker 1: been exiled to Bangkok. He had gotten into trouble for
Speaker 1: searching a property without a search warrant and later distributing
Speaker 1: guns he'd seized to other cops. White was criticized for
Speaker 1: taking an opium scale during a raid for his extensive
Speaker 1: collection of drug paraphernalia his trophies. The Narcotics Bureau itself
Speaker 1: wouldn't exist for much longer. It underwent a restructuring. By
Speaker 1: seventy three, it had been absorbed into the newly created
Speaker 1: Drug Enforcement Agency or d e A. The world was
Speaker 1: changing around George White, who later wrote to a friend
Speaker 1: about his decision. I retired in San Francisco after about
Speaker 1: thirty two years of rumbled tumble, and I suppose I
Speaker 1: got out just in time, as I suspect I couldn't
Speaker 1: abide the current rules applying to policeman. It was actually
Speaker 1: bad health which forced me out, as the booze finally
Speaker 1: cut off with my liver and sirosis kept me in
Speaker 1: and out of hospitals for a few years. I haven't
Speaker 1: had a drink in six years, and I'm living without it,
Speaker 1: as the anti smoke TV puffs put it. And he
Speaker 1: once told a journalist, there are more clerks, more forms,
Speaker 1: more meetings, more laterals, more verticals. It serves no purpose,
Speaker 1: wastes of time and money, and I don't enjoy it anymore.
Speaker 1: I grew up in a much rougher school after decades
Speaker 1: as one of the most successful and celebrated cops in
Speaker 1: the country. George White disappeared, but the consequences at George
Speaker 1: White's actions didn't just suddenly end with his retirement. They
Speaker 1: reverberated for years. After he squeezed his last dose of
Speaker 1: LSD into a stranger's drink like a hangover, his actions
Speaker 1: would linger, and they wouldn't remain a secret forever. Though
Speaker 1: Sydney Gottlieb gave it his best shot. For a time
Speaker 1: it seemed like Gotlee ban White would get away with everything.
Speaker 1: Gotleib continued to petition for LSD experiments when and where
Speaker 1: he could, and for a time he was vindicated. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, the c i A learned that two
Speaker 1: physicians who accompanied President Richard Nixon to Moscow returned behaving erratically.
Speaker 1: One of the physicians reportedly had unexplained crying fits. He
Speaker 1: had trouble recognizing his friends. He was treated for months.
Speaker 1: Gotly believed they had been drugged by the Soviets, though
Speaker 1: was never proven. Then came Watergate. In June two, after
Speaker 1: a break in at the Watergate Hotel, Gottlieb got nervous
Speaker 1: think of all the incriminating documents related to MK Ultra.
Speaker 1: It was a paper or trail of the CIA at
Speaker 1: its most irresponsible and sadistic. A few months following the
Speaker 1: Watergate break in got leaving his colleague of the CIA,
Speaker 1: Richard Helms, decided to cover their tracks the old fashioned
Speaker 1: way by destroying every single document related to MK Ultra,
Speaker 1: and a few months after that Gottlieb retired to what
Speaker 1: he believed would be a quiet life of tennis and
Speaker 1: raising goats. He was now a bystander to LSD's evolution
Speaker 1: from a truth drug to a notorious drug. The use
Speaker 1: of LSD among the general public had gotten more popular,
Speaker 1: doing no small measure to the government introducing into the
Speaker 1: masses through frequent and covert experimentation. As Gottlieb fed it
Speaker 1: to universities and professors, it spread through college campuses, but
Speaker 1: it was getting harder for the general public to obtain.
Speaker 1: In ninety eight, possession of LSD was a misdemeanor and
Speaker 1: the sale of it a fell me Soon after, it
Speaker 1: was a schedule one substance. People like Timothy Leary, Aldis Huxley,
Speaker 1: and even actor Carrie Grant were advocating for LSD is
Speaker 1: a therapeutic, even as it was being increasingly stigmatized. If
Speaker 1: anyone found out about the government using LSD in the
Speaker 1: most dangerous way possible by giving it to people unwittingly,
Speaker 1: there would be a tremendous problem. But got Leep had
Speaker 1: made confetti out of it, erasing any trace of mk
Speaker 1: ultra from the government's collective memory, or so he thought.
Speaker 1: In four a reporter named Seymour Hirsch wrote an article
Speaker 1: for The New York Times. He detail l the CIA
Speaker 1: is a legal domestic intelligence operation which kept surveillance on
Speaker 1: the anti war movement. It was criminal and a considerable
Speaker 1: departure from the CIA's boundaries. At least, it was a
Speaker 1: departure from their public reputation of being a virtuous organization.
Speaker 1: President Gerald Ford saw the press poking around, hoping for
Speaker 1: another water game. He knew if Congress took the initiative,
Speaker 1: it might result in unnecessary disclosures about CIA activities, So
Speaker 1: Ford grabbed the wheel and announced a special commission devoted
Speaker 1: to investigating the CIA. His vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, would
Speaker 1: share it, and it was during those hearings that CIA
Speaker 1: Director William Colby wound up dropping the bombshell that the
Speaker 1: CIA had conducted LSD experiments on American citizens. Colby, unlike
Speaker 1: many in the CIA, thought there was such a thing
Speaker 1: as a bad secret, and so he simply told the truth.
Speaker 1: When the Rockefeller Committee failed to follow up on Colby's revelations,
Speaker 1: a second committee was organized, the Select Committee to Study
Speaker 1: Governmental Operations with respect to Intelligence Activities. It could have
Speaker 1: also been called what the fuck is the CIA doing.
Speaker 1: Senator Frank Church headed the group, which was dubbed the
Speaker 1: Church Committee, and unlike Rockefeller's team, they were eager to
Speaker 1: get to the truth. The call went out to CIA
Speaker 1: officials passed and present to explain themselves. Sydney Gottlieb was
Speaker 1: among them. Gottlieb didn't want to talk when he was
Speaker 1: summoned to the hearings in ninety five. His answers were
Speaker 1: sealed from the public and the press. He was finally
Speaker 1: convinced to speak a second time on September twenty one,
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, during hearings chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy.
Speaker 1: In exchange he would be immune from prosecution. Gottlieb tried
Speaker 1: to be as evasive as possible. He began by reading
Speaker 1: a prepared statement. My name is Sydney Gottlieb. At least
Speaker 1: that part was true. I would like to comment on
Speaker 1: Project MK Ultra. In the judgment of the CIA, there
Speaker 1: was tangible evidence that both the Soviets and the Red
Speaker 1: Chinese might be using techniques of altering human behavior which
Speaker 1: were not understood by the United States and which would
Speaker 1: have implications of national survival in the context of national
Speaker 1: security concerns at that time. Gotlieb admitted the CIA had
Speaker 1: targeted civilians. As far as the Bureau of Narcotics project
Speaker 1: is concerned, there was no advanced knowledge or protection of
Speaker 1: the individual's concerned. The only comment I would like to
Speaker 1: make on this is harsh as it may seem in retrospect.
Speaker 1: In an issue where national survival might be concerned, such
Speaker 1: a procedure and such a risk was a reasonable one
Speaker 1: to take. The committee asked why, if the cause was just,
Speaker 1: he had tried to destroy every document related to it.
Speaker 1: With my retirements and with the drug work over and
Speaker 1: inactive for several years, these files were of no constructive
Speaker 1: use to the agency. They were the kind of sensitive
Speaker 1: files that were capable of being misunderstood by anyone not
Speaker 1: thoroughly familiar with their background, but Kennedy and his team
Speaker 1: came prepared. God leaves paper apocalypse of a few years
Speaker 1: prior had missed a number of boxes lurking in another office.
Speaker 1: Some of the most devious minds and American intelligence had
Speaker 1: failed to cover all their tracks. More than twenty thousand
Speaker 1: documents related to MK Ultra survived. They were discovered by
Speaker 1: a journalist named John Marks, who had filed a Freedom
Speaker 1: of Information Act request to obtain them. The papers included
Speaker 1: financial records, plus evidence the CIA had used LSD on
Speaker 1: operatives as well as citizens. Got Leab took issue with
Speaker 1: the papers for one specific reason. I feel victimized and
Speaker 1: I am appalled at the CIA's policy wherein someone or
Speaker 1: some group selectively pinpoints my name by failing to delete
Speaker 1: it from documents released under the Freedom of Information Act
Speaker 1: without any permission for me. Sydney Gottlieb was suddenly worried
Speaker 1: about consent Part two implausible deniability. The hearing was not
Speaker 1: Gotlieb's finest hour, but his plan, dating back to nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty two, had actually worked brilliantly. Remember that Gotlieb hired
Speaker 1: George White as a contractor. He was never an actual
Speaker 1: CIA employee. White was a Narcotics Bureau employee. It gave
Speaker 1: the CIA one degree of separation from the horrors he
Speaker 1: inflicted At the hearings. Gotlieb argued George White had gone rogue.
Speaker 1: The CIA, in turn would declare Gottlieb was the one
Speaker 1: who had struck out on his own. No one was
Speaker 1: responsible for any thing. I might straighten one thing out
Speaker 1: here that this narcotics agent worked for the CIA. That
Speaker 1: is total distortion. He remained a very active and I
Speaker 1: understand effective Bureau of Narcotics agents and administrator. He felt
Speaker 1: that his interest and ours could be successfully intermingled, and
Speaker 1: the nature of the things that he did for us
Speaker 1: were indeed not things that he would say, well, now
Speaker 1: I am doing this for the CIA. They were meant
Speaker 1: to be useful in his own work, to the extent
Speaker 1: that he felt that way. I just want to straighten
Speaker 1: that out. He never worked for the CIA. George White's
Speaker 1: diary entry in fifty two told a far different story.
Speaker 1: Gottly proposes, I'd be a C I a consultant. I agree.
Speaker 1: Senator Kennedy press Scottie on this point. Kennedy knew about
Speaker 1: George White, about Morgan Hall, about the safe houses. Kennedy
Speaker 1: moved in on the number of victims was left in
Speaker 1: the wake of white psychedelic journey. In response to your
Speaker 1: second question of how many I testified, After carefully looking
Speaker 1: over all the files that were shown to me, my
Speaker 1: best guests would be fifty. Kennedy pointed out that among
Speaker 1: the recovered documents, they were well over two hundred checks
Speaker 1: White paid out to his underlings. The amounts ranged from
Speaker 1: fifty dollars to a hundred dollars. Many had the words
Speaker 1: stormy in the memo section. Stormy was, of course, George
Speaker 1: White's favorite term for LSD. I would agree that they
Speaker 1: probably represented at least attempts at drug administrations. The real
Speaker 1: number is unknown. Senator Kennedy asked god lead if prostitutes
Speaker 1: were involved. The element of prostitution is interwoven in the
Speaker 1: whole matter, So I am certainly persuaded that, as far
Speaker 1: as safe houses are concerned, there were prostitutes in them.
Speaker 1: Gottlieb then tap danced around a question about whether they
Speaker 1: had recorded the activities in Chestnut Street. That is another
Speaker 1: matter which I think needs to be talked about in
Speaker 1: something more than a yes or no answer. Kennedy wanted
Speaker 1: to know about self experimentation. Did Gottlieb administer drugs to
Speaker 1: any of his colleagues or try LSD himself? There was
Speaker 1: an extensive amount of self experimentation for the reason that
Speaker 1: we felt that a firsthand knowledge of the subjective effects
Speaker 1: of these drugs were important to those of us who
Speaker 1: were involved in the program. The committee also brought up
Speaker 1: Frank Olsen, the CIA employee who plunged to his death
Speaker 1: in nineteen three. Olson, you'll remember, had been dosed with
Speaker 1: LSD just days prior. They asked why it didn't halt
Speaker 1: the program, and Senator Kennedy broached the ultimate question, quote,
Speaker 1: can you tell us what you learned from the years
Speaker 1: of the operation of the safe house? Was a useful
Speaker 1: What can you tell us? I think what we learned
Speaker 1: from the safe houses was more about what you could
Speaker 1: not do than what you could do. That was as
Speaker 1: relevant as positive information. I think the conclusion from all
Speaker 1: the activities was that it was very difficult to predictably
Speaker 1: manipulate human behavior in this way, and that would be
Speaker 1: a summary statement I would make. By the time the
Speaker 1: hearing has concluded and the report issued, the CIA had
Speaker 1: been publicly scolded and reprimanded for its intentional dosing of
Speaker 1: Americans with LSD. The U. S Government banned the use
Speaker 1: of experimental drugs on human subjects without their consent in seven,
Speaker 1: although the CIA under Gottlieb's watch wouldn't have paid such
Speaker 1: a mandate much mind promised immunity. Gottlieb walked away, back
Speaker 1: to a retirement of folk dancing and his goats. But
Speaker 1: one question remained. What happened to the man who was
Speaker 1: respond posible for terrorizing American citizens with LSD for twelve years?
Speaker 1: What happened to George White? Part three? The Colonel George
Speaker 1: White grew up with the sound of crashing ocean waves
Speaker 1: in the Hambra, California. When he walked away from police
Speaker 1: work in nineteen he and his wife Albertin made a
Speaker 1: home for themselves in Stinson Beach, California, a community of
Speaker 1: about seven people. In the third and final act of
Speaker 1: his life, he returned to the sea, but Albertin wasn't
Speaker 1: known much. She was still acting as a clothing buyer
Speaker 1: for major retailers. She was also dabbling in real estate.
Speaker 1: Life kept her moving and on the road, and so
Speaker 1: for the first time in decades, George White had time
Speaker 1: on his hands. He thought about becoming a private investigator, which,
Speaker 1: given his considerable skills, the legitimate investigator would have fit
Speaker 1: him like a glove. It would have brought him full
Speaker 1: circle back to his days as a private investigator's assistant
Speaker 1: before becoming a narcotics cop. He applied for a license,
Speaker 1: but his health was an impediment of cruising the streets
Speaker 1: looking for wayward husbands. Decades of drinking had made a
Speaker 1: mess of his liver. Instead, he threw himself into Stintson Beach.
Speaker 1: He became the volunteer fire marshal, a job that didn't
Speaker 1: demand much of him. White drove around in a red jeep,
Speaker 1: sometimes driving across the lawn of residence he disliked. After
Speaker 1: an increase in vandalism, he helped open a youth center.
Speaker 1: The man who once took down a nationwide Chinese opium
Speaker 1: ring was now concerned with juvenile delinquents busting windows with rocks.
Speaker 1: We can't clean these little bastards are complete bastards until
Speaker 1: we've given them a little clubhouse where they convent their energies.
Speaker 1: If this fails, will throw them all in juvenile all.
Speaker 1: In a letter to a friend, he wrote last year,
Speaker 1: I was suckered into becoming fire chief of this village.
Speaker 1: We have two modern pumpers and about twenty volunteer firemen,
Speaker 1: all small town prima donnas. Although my heart attack last
Speaker 1: year came about when in the capacity is firewarden, I
Speaker 1: over exerted. It happened during a cliff side rescue operation.
Speaker 1: I was persuaded to take the job since it appeared
Speaker 1: I was the only two legged man who could get
Speaker 1: along with the various cliques amongst the volunteers, most probably
Speaker 1: because I was the only one who didn't want to
Speaker 1: be chief. Of course, I stipulated I wouldn't slide down
Speaker 1: the pole to send cliffs or eat smoke, but would
Speaker 1: confine my activity to deep thinking and issuing orders. The
Speaker 1: fire department was another small army White corral order around
Speaker 1: and send that on missions. Was considering his limitations an
Speaker 1: effective echo of his law enforcement work. It gave him
Speaker 1: a measure of power and control, even if it was
Speaker 1: just over fire hydrants and unpaid volunteers. But Stinson Beach
Speaker 1: was an odd choice for White. The Stinson Beach of
Speaker 1: the early nineteen seventies was full of retirees boating enthusiasts
Speaker 1: and more than a few hippies. Jerry Garcia had a
Speaker 1: place there. The smell of marijuana sometimes drifted from the
Speaker 1: shore over to the homes just off the sand. White
Speaker 1: kept a telescope in his living room and scanned the
Speaker 1: beaches looking for the tiny burst of flame that accompanied
Speaker 1: a freshly lit joint. If he saw it, well, there
Speaker 1: would be trouble. Police department, Marty, it's the colonel. People
Speaker 1: in Stinson Beach called White. The Colonel. I got four
Speaker 1: creeps here lighting up a joint right outside my house.
Speaker 1: You gotta come by and pick him up. Listen, Colonel,
Speaker 1: are you sure? Because I'm damn sure, right in front
Speaker 1: of my else. What do these kids think they are? Okay,
Speaker 1: we'll be over pump kids, hippies. Dear Paul. This afternoon,
Speaker 1: four adults sat down on the beach less than fifty
Speaker 1: ft from my front window and had a pot party
Speaker 1: on my beach. I called the sheriff and had them sneezed.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put a sign on my bulkhead. Hey man,
Speaker 1: absolutely no pot smoking within a hundred yards of this window.
Speaker 1: This means you, the man who had spent over a
Speaker 1: decade drugging unwitting subjects was now anti drug, vehemently anti drug.
Speaker 1: He once said, everyone convicted of smoking marijuana should spend
Speaker 1: some time in jail. You'd have some pretty full jails
Speaker 1: for perhaps a year. But when people learned it was
Speaker 1: dangerous to smoke grass, I think use would taper off
Speaker 1: and the problem would diminish greatly. In his writing, White
Speaker 1: laid out his basic stance, the currently premiss of attitude
Speaker 1: towards the smoking of marijuana cannot fail to breed damage
Speaker 1: for society. It has been cleaned that marijuana is not addictive,
Speaker 1: but admitted in the same quarters that a great many
Speaker 1: marijuana users progress to other drugs that are definitely addictive.
Speaker 1: As such, no apology or rationale may be made for it.
Speaker 1: White also had words for LSD, which he'd wielded like
Speaker 1: a weapon against an unknown number of people. LSD, like
Speaker 1: all the hallucinogenic drugs, is devastatingly dangerous, particularly in its
Speaker 1: social effect because of the curious endorsement given it by
Speaker 1: pseudo intellectuals, bohemians, and some of the irresponsible celebrities. There
Speaker 1: is no question that its use invites and in many cases,
Speaker 1: produces brain damage. The solution to the drug issue was,
Speaker 1: he wrote, suppression. I am convinced that the ultimate solution
Speaker 1: as of the present time lies in rigid suppression of
Speaker 1: the traffic, drying up the source of supply. The police,
Speaker 1: and the police alone are responsible for this limitation and
Speaker 1: are rarely given credit for the effectiveness of this accomplishment.
Speaker 1: In White's mind, drugs had no demonstrable benefit. Clinicians working
Speaker 1: towards therapeutic uses were spinning their wheels. Only complete and
Speaker 1: total condemnation would work. White often spoke of a desire
Speaker 1: to have power, to wield it, to have a secret.
Speaker 1: It came in the form of his badge and his
Speaker 1: gun in his exploits in foreign countries, and his killing
Speaker 1: of spies in his double life as a straight laced
Speaker 1: cop and a kinky swinger. And it came in the
Speaker 1: form of a tiny plastic ampule that gave him more
Speaker 1: power than any bullet ever could, the power to break
Speaker 1: through the psychological borders of the mind. When he could
Speaker 1: pursue it no longer, he retired distints and beach. Without
Speaker 1: his oversight, drugs were dangerous, forbidden. The question is always
Speaker 1: why why did George White drug an uncounted number of citizens.
Speaker 1: Knowing early on that LSD was never going to be
Speaker 1: the answer to brain warfare or mind control, that should
Speaker 1: have become obvious within months. The so called mind control
Speaker 1: of the Korean War was simply brutal interrogation techniques designed
Speaker 1: to break the will of prisoners. White was armed with
Speaker 1: LSD from nineteen fifty three to nineteen sixty five, a
Speaker 1: period of twelve years. Based on the small sample size
Speaker 1: of people he was known to have drugged and their
Speaker 1: resulting problems ranging from a steria at a hospitalization, George
Speaker 1: White might have driven more people to the brink than
Speaker 1: anyone else alive. Today, LSD is experiencing a resurgence of
Speaker 1: interest in legitimate and controlled medical study, its benefits hinge
Speaker 1: on proper administration and consent. The knowledge that one is
Speaker 1: taking LSD is the anchor to reality. Without you risk
Speaker 1: a fractured mind. Maybe George White believed that was a
Speaker 1: risk worth taking in the name of democracy, or maybe
Speaker 1: he'd finally come to regret what he had done when
Speaker 1: he wasn't busting pot smokers. White started scribbling on a
Speaker 1: giant sheet of counterfeit paper he'd once sees during a raid.
Speaker 1: He wanted to start chronicling his experiences in the field,
Speaker 1: a lifetime spent chasing criminals from New York City to Calcutta.
Speaker 1: He wanted to write his autobiography in a proper hard
Speaker 1: boiled style. He titled it A Diet of Danger. Since
Speaker 1: my retirement to a beachside cottage where I lived with
Speaker 1: my wife, Albertine, I find myself increasingly reflective about the
Speaker 1: full and active years just behind me, and of the
Speaker 1: social forces and defections that add up to criminal conduct.
Speaker 1: The surf rolls in at my doorstep, the fog billows
Speaker 1: over my garden. My fire burns red and hot, and
Speaker 1: the images of the past are as fresh as they
Speaker 1: were yesterday. I remember a room in his stun Bolt
Speaker 1: where heroin makers stood ready to end my life. The
Speaker 1: hot pursuit of murder incorporated through the nighttime streets of
Speaker 1: New York. I haven't forgotten a moment of my membership
Speaker 1: in a Chinese gang. Each moment was a separate adventure
Speaker 1: of itself. The past has not been though. White's autobiography,
Speaker 1: at least the partial manuscript that survives, is a curious document.
Speaker 1: It's full of the bravado you'd expect from a World
Speaker 1: War two intelligence operative and narcotics cop. But out of necessity,
Speaker 1: it lacks the most colorful portion of White's life, his
Speaker 1: relentless pursuit of LSD as a truth and mind control drug.
Speaker 1: He had taken a vow of silence familiar to intelligence operatives,
Speaker 1: magicians and Mafiosa's morals and vital truths. You'll have to
Speaker 1: draw for yourself as separate dividends. As a former newspaperman,
Speaker 1: I know better than to set down more than the what,
Speaker 1: the who, and the wire and the me. He even
Speaker 1: disclosed why Stints in Beach had such appeal despite its
Speaker 1: rampant drug culture. I am interested in content that I
Speaker 1: live on the exact epicenter of the San Andreas Fault,
Speaker 1: the historically lethal dead center of California's earthquake zone, and
Speaker 1: perhaps on some quiet, lonely night as an alien and
Speaker 1: unexplained automobile circles my Salty haven. The stimulating spark of
Speaker 1: adventure and challenge me once more glow? What better tonic
Speaker 1: could have pastured? Man Hunter? Ask for? It's been a
Speaker 1: hell of a life. The Sirosis caught up to George
Speaker 1: White on October He died at age sixty seven. It
Speaker 1: was just weeks after Gottlieb testified to the Church Committee.
Speaker 1: White's death may have cheated justice. His legacy becomes not
Speaker 1: one of a narcotic star, but a devil in CoP's clothing.
Speaker 1: Albertin remarried Stenson Beach, remembered and honored their colorful fire.
Speaker 1: Marshal White never finished his autobiography notes from publishers, so
Speaker 1: the material of a cop on the Hunt for dope
Speaker 1: fiends would be hard to market. If White had lived,
Speaker 1: he might have written about the exploits of Morgan Hall,
Speaker 1: his c I a alter ego, and that would have
Speaker 1: been a very different story epilog. Thanks to Sydney Gottlieb,
Speaker 1: the world will likely never know the full extent of
Speaker 1: the CIA's experimentation with LSD, or how many times it
Speaker 1: was actually deployed. The victims the government was able to
Speaker 1: identify came courtesy of George White, who testified from beyond
Speaker 1: the grave. Not long after White's death, his wife, Albertine,
Speaker 1: donated all of his papers to Foothill Junior College in
Speaker 1: Los Altos Hills, California. They eventually wound up at Stanford University.
Speaker 1: There are ten boxes of diaries and date books, names
Speaker 1: and dates, letters and receipts. It would be the only
Speaker 1: way George White would ever cooperate with the investigation. In
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, the CIA created a Victim's Task Force,
Speaker 1: appointing CIA officer Frank Laubinger to track down White's victims
Speaker 1: and offer whatever assistance or apology would be deemed appropriate.
Speaker 1: Labbenger used White's diaries to try and locate individuals. Initially,
Speaker 1: he was told White and only drug criminals, but as
Speaker 1: he dove into the project, he realized White had expanded
Speaker 1: his reach. The list of knowns subjects was rather short,
Speaker 1: as White's diaries were purposefully vague. Still, Labinger managed to
Speaker 1: reach Elliott Smythe, whose wife Barbara had been dosed in
Speaker 1: ninety three while their newborn baby was present. It was
Speaker 1: the first time Elliott had ever become aware of the
Speaker 1: fact Barbara, now deceased, had been drugged. Elliott sued the
Speaker 1: CIA for two point five million dollars, but it never
Speaker 1: got very far. But Clarice Stein, drugged the same night
Speaker 1: as Barbara, received a settlement from the CIA. The price
Speaker 1: for a government approved psychological assault thousand dollars. Others like
Speaker 1: the actress Linda King and the singer Ruth Kelly, were
Speaker 1: never located by the Task Force. When Labinger kept pressing,
Speaker 1: kept trying to find out why White dosed people he
Speaker 1: was either friends with or just happened across, he was
Speaker 1: told by his superiors to stop. Laubinger didn't look at
Speaker 1: Wayne Ritchie U S. Marshall, who was dosed at a
Speaker 1: holiday party in nineteen fifty seven in San Francisco. Richie
Speaker 1: didn't connect the dots until nineteen when he read Sydney
Speaker 1: got Leave's obituary and began to understand what had happened.
Speaker 1: He sued the CIA and d e A for twelve
Speaker 1: million dollars. He even deposed Ike Feldman, White's colleague. Sympathy
Speaker 1: on the part of Feldman was in short supply. He
Speaker 1: called Ritchie had Knitwitt, who simply couldn't handle the undisclosed
Speaker 1: dose of l s D given to him. Ultimately, a
Speaker 1: Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals judge wasn't convinced Richie
Speaker 1: couldn't prove some kind of LSD psychosis had led to
Speaker 1: his robbery attempt, but the judge also said had given
Speaker 1: everything that had transpired. He believed Richie might have been
Speaker 1: a victim, but there would be no recourse. And one
Speaker 1: of his final letters, White wrote to his old friend
Speaker 1: and former boss Sydney, got leap from his desk and
Speaker 1: stints and beach, the tide rolling in, and the ghosts
Speaker 1: of his past yet to catch up to him. It's
Speaker 1: probably the most extinct form of self analysis George White
Speaker 1: ever put down on paper. Dear Sid, It's pleasant to
Speaker 1: be remembered these days, since nature has steadily been decimating
Speaker 1: the ranks of my friends and acquaintances. In spite of
Speaker 1: the serrhosis, diabetes, and cardiac issues, I'll probably outlive most
Speaker 1: of my contemporaries and die with my fireman's boots on
Speaker 1: the reason I have nothing to worry about. I need nothing,
Speaker 1: and envy no one. Of course. I was a very
Speaker 1: minor missionary, actually a heretic, but I toiled in the
Speaker 1: vineyards wholeheartedly because it was fun, fun, fun. Where else
Speaker 1: could a red blooded American boy lie and kill and
Speaker 1: cheat and steal with the sanction and blessing of the
Speaker 1: all highest pretty good stuff. Brother like man, I don't
Speaker 1: care if the FBI taps my phone. I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: my crime planning while swimming in the ocean. Real cool.
Speaker 1: Keep in touch regards g h W. WE hope you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed Operation Midnight Climax and I heard original podcast excerpts
Speaker 1: from George White's autobiography and letters are courtesy of the
Speaker 1: Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries. If you enjoyed
Speaker 1: Operation Midnight Climax, I highly recommend checking out another podcast
Speaker 1: that I co host called Stuff They Don't Want You
Speaker 1: To Know. In it, we talk about things like MK
Speaker 1: Ultra and Operation Midnight Climax, everything from government cover ups
Speaker 1: to the supernatural, and even cryptids and extraterrestrials. It's a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. If you're red to the show, you
Speaker 1: can find that anywhere you get podcasts, And if you
Speaker 1: want to keep track of me, you can find me
Speaker 1: on Instagram Where I Am at, how Now Noel Brown
Speaker 1: and Now One Last Time. Operation Midnight Climax is hosted
Speaker 1: by Noel Brown. This show's written by Jake Rosen, editing,
Speaker 1: sound design and mixing by Ernie Indra Deete and Natasha Jacobs.
Speaker 1: Original music by Aaron Kaufman. Research and fact checking by
Speaker 1: Austin Thompson and MAURICEA Brown Show logo by Lucy King
Speaker 1: Tania Special thanks to Enzo Solucci, Adam Copeland, Spencer Gibson,
Speaker 1: David Crumholtz, Vanessa crum Holtz, Ryan Murdoch, and Ted Ramy.
Speaker 1: Julian Weller is our supervising producer. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Jason English and mangesh Ha Ticketer. See you on the
Speaker 1: next one MM and in our next batch if I
Speaker 1: heard original podcasts will transport you to the Great Depression
Speaker 1: and an unlikely coup attempt against President Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
Speaker 1: which oddly gets left out of the history books, and
Speaker 1: to London and Isaac Newton's forgotten second act as a
Speaker 1: ruthless cop. Will also answer age old questions like what
Speaker 1: happens when the world's biggest movie star buys your town
Speaker 1: and treats you like an extra, or when a brutal
Speaker 1: dictator's son gets arrested at Disneyland. Keep an eye out
Speaker 1: for these shows on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you find your favorite shows. That's all, folks,
Speaker 1: thanks for listening.