1 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:08,039 Speaker 1: When the Hotel Statler opened, it had twenty two hundred 2 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:12,040 Speaker 1: rooms in nineteen nineteen, that made it the largest hotel 3 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,400 Speaker 1: in the world. Just across from Penn Station on Seventh 4 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,439 Speaker 1: Avenue in New York City, the hotel had a real 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,479 Speaker 1: old school charm for decades. Guests could put their clothing 6 00:00:23,520 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: and shoes in a servador, essentially a special cabinet that 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:29,840 Speaker 1: allowed items to be passed to and from rooms without 8 00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:34,880 Speaker 1: guests having to interact with employees. It wasn't great for tipping, 9 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:37,800 Speaker 1: since it eliminated the social presence of an outstretched hand, 10 00:00:38,520 --> 00:00:43,519 Speaker 1: but the servador service was clandestine private fitting since the 11 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:47,960 Speaker 1: Statler was also a popular hangout for CIA operatives, including 12 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: one who checked out through a window. Every story you 13 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: read or here about Frank Olsen starts just like this 14 00:00:57,760 --> 00:00:59,920 Speaker 1: with his body pitching out of a tenth story win 15 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:04,280 Speaker 1: dough at the Hotel Statler. It happens around two thirty 16 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:10,720 Speaker 1: am on November ninety three. Olsen is a biological warfare 17 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,600 Speaker 1: scientist working for the United States Army and the CIA, 18 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:19,000 Speaker 1: and he's not well. He's in the city to get treatment. 19 00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: Olsen has been exhibiting suspicious behavior enough to make him 20 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: a security risk. So Olsen is at the Statler, but 21 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:33,399 Speaker 1: he's not alone. Robert Lashbrook, sleeping in the bed nearby, 22 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,840 Speaker 1: is there to look out for his welfare. He doesn't 23 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,479 Speaker 1: do a very good job of it, because one moment 24 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:46,199 Speaker 1: Olsen is in bed, the next he's going out the window. Well, 25 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,760 Speaker 1: that's not quite accurate. He goes out the window, yes, 26 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: but first he goes through the glass pane of the window, 27 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:57,440 Speaker 1: shattering it. He doesn't even bother pulling up the blinds, 28 00:01:57,880 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: so he goes through those two. He falls for a 29 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:06,360 Speaker 1: few seconds, then lands on the sidewalk below. Pedestrians crowd 30 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: around him, horrified. He's on his back and still in 31 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:15,520 Speaker 1: his undershirt and shorts. He would soon succumb to his injuries, 32 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:21,680 Speaker 1: but he wasn't dead yet. After he passes, and for 33 00:02:21,720 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: the next seventy years, Olsen's family, journalists, and even intelligence 34 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:27,720 Speaker 1: operatives will search for the words he didn't have the 35 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:32,880 Speaker 1: strength to utter. Did Frank Olsen die by suicide? Was 36 00:02:32,880 --> 00:02:37,480 Speaker 1: in an accident? Or did the CIA's grand experiment with 37 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: LSD finally go too far and prompt the sanctioned execution 38 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:47,880 Speaker 1: of a government employee. The information may have been on 39 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:50,799 Speaker 1: the tip of Frank Olson's tongue, but he couldn't answer, 40 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:55,160 Speaker 1: and if his death was indeed a homicide, that silence 41 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:59,400 Speaker 1: was the whole point. Frank Olson had seemed too much 42 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:04,800 Speaker 1: and was in danger of unmasking the whole affair. Olsen 43 00:03:04,880 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: wasn't the only death on the pavement that night. Many 44 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: secrets of the Cold War, of cruel and outrageous human experimentation, 45 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:18,680 Speaker 1: died with him. That's where Frank Olsen's story always ends, 46 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: and where it always begins, through the window and down 47 00:03:23,320 --> 00:03:27,000 Speaker 1: to the pavement. In a movie, the camera would pan 48 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: down as he fell. Instead, it should pan back up. 49 00:03:32,960 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: It should move past the windows and brick exterior of 50 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:40,640 Speaker 1: the hotel Statler, past the curtains and flagpoles, and right 51 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: back into the room ten eighteen A, where Robert Lashbrook 52 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,400 Speaker 1: is sitting bolt upright in his bed, confused, or at 53 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:56,080 Speaker 1: least seemingly confused at what had just happened. When he 54 00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,080 Speaker 1: gets dressed and follows the police to the station, they'll 55 00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:02,080 Speaker 1: find a small slip of paper inside his pants pocket. 56 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: The camera should zoom in on it so you can 57 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: see the ink stains on the paper, the indentations of 58 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: the pen strokes, the paper is important. According to HP Albarelli, 59 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:18,440 Speaker 1: the paper has a set of initials on it. G 60 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:25,080 Speaker 1: W for George White, MH for Morgan Hall, White's alter ego. 61 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:31,560 Speaker 1: And then address one Bedford Street, where George White was 62 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:35,320 Speaker 1: conducting an illicit LSD campaign just a mile and a 63 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:40,919 Speaker 1: half away. Maybe Frank Olson had been there, maybe he 64 00:04:41,000 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: was going there. Either way, his death would change everything. Yeah. 65 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:21,280 Speaker 1: For I Heart Radio, this is Operation Midnight Climax and 66 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: I Heeart original podcast, I'm Noel Brown and this is 67 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:37,080 Speaker 1: episode five The Window, Part one, a Living Nightmare. When 68 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: the CIA's chief chemist, Sidney Gottlieb hired George White, he 69 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: was looking for a psychedelic mercenary, a predator he could 70 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: unleash on the general population. When White sent back details 71 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:54,640 Speaker 1: of his experiments in Greenwich Village, Gottlieb devoured them. But 72 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: those weren't enough for him. In Gottlieb's head, for America 73 00:05:58,760 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: to emerge victorious the Cold War, he had to know 74 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,159 Speaker 1: everything about LSD and how it would affects people in 75 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:11,680 Speaker 1: the intelligence field, starting with himself. On the surface, it 76 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 1: sounds almost ethical, Gottlieb claimed he'd administered asset to himself. 77 00:06:16,760 --> 00:06:19,920 Speaker 1: More than two hundred times. It was like a physician 78 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:23,720 Speaker 1: following his own prescribed diet, But there was a key difference. 79 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:28,479 Speaker 1: Gottlieb was a consenting subject. He knew exactly what he 80 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,880 Speaker 1: was ingesting. But the drug works differently on people who 81 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,680 Speaker 1: don't know they're being dosed, and as George White found out, 82 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:42,200 Speaker 1: acid had an unpredictable effect on subjects. Bad trips sent 83 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,640 Speaker 1: some people to rooftops to contemplate suicide, or landed them 84 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 1: in sanitariums LSD was a kind of psychic scalpel. In 85 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:56,640 Speaker 1: the right hands, it could be beneficial. In the wrong hands, 86 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:01,359 Speaker 1: it was assault, and make no mistake. In November nineteen 87 00:07:01,400 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: fifty three, Sidney Gottlieb committed widespread assault, and even though 88 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,560 Speaker 1: George White wasn't anywhere near the CIA retreat where it happened, 89 00:07:09,920 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: the consequences would eventually shut down his whole New York operation. 90 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:20,800 Speaker 1: That weekend, Gottlieb but organized retreat at Deep Creek Lodge 91 00:07:20,840 --> 00:07:23,840 Speaker 1: in Maryland for some of the CIA's chemists as well 92 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:26,640 Speaker 1: as those who worked for the Army's Special Operations Division. 93 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: The two groups often worked together on various biochemical projects. 94 00:07:32,760 --> 00:07:35,880 Speaker 1: This was a world beyond drugs, one in which the 95 00:07:35,960 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: CIA sought ways to kill or incapacitate enemies using biological warfare. 96 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: If George White was a mercenary. The chemists of the 97 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,880 Speaker 1: government supplied the weapons, and Frank Olsen was one of 98 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 1: the people who was there that weekend. As a chemist, 99 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 1: Frank Olsen had been recruited into the Army's Chemical Development Division, 100 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,240 Speaker 1: though he was technically a CIA employee. He studied ways 101 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:04,600 Speaker 1: to weaponize germs, obscuring them in shaving creams or insect repellents. 102 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,200 Speaker 1: There was a lighter that, once flicked, would dispense a 103 00:08:08,280 --> 00:08:12,880 Speaker 1: lethal gas in a pocket spray that could induce pneumonia. 104 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,840 Speaker 1: Olsen sometimes went to a secret Army base on Plumb 105 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: Island off of Long Island, where chemicals too dangerous for 106 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:26,160 Speaker 1: the mainland were studied. In nineteen fifty, intelligence operatives released 107 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:30,080 Speaker 1: a cloud of traceable but harmless bacteria over San Francisco 108 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:34,920 Speaker 1: using large aerosol hoses. They called it Operations Sea Spray. 109 00:08:35,480 --> 00:08:38,400 Speaker 1: They wanted to see how far a chemical attack could travel. 110 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:43,880 Speaker 1: Before long, eleven people checked into hospitals with urinary tract infections. 111 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:50,040 Speaker 1: The microbe wasn't as harmless as they thought. When American 112 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,080 Speaker 1: soldiers captured in Korea confessed to using biological weapons. The 113 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: CIA insisted it was brainwashing. Frank Olsen believed they were 114 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,880 Speaker 1: telling the truth, that the anther acts and other deadly 115 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:03,480 Speaker 1: pathogens he brewed in his lab were being used on 116 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,839 Speaker 1: the enemy. He knew the chemicals were in the hands 117 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: of the United States because he had held them in 118 00:09:09,400 --> 00:09:14,360 Speaker 1: his own hands. Olsen was a lab geek, a man 119 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:18,600 Speaker 1: of science. He was quiet and reserved, A family man 120 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,719 Speaker 1: with a wife and three children. He didn't have the 121 00:09:21,800 --> 00:09:26,760 Speaker 1: kind of callousness intelligence operatives developed over time, yet he 122 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:29,200 Speaker 1: was often called to the scene of experiments that would 123 00:09:29,280 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 1: rattle his conscience. Toxic clouds were administered to laboratory animals 124 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:38,040 Speaker 1: like monkeys, their bodies being added to a rising pile. 125 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,960 Speaker 1: Olsen witnessed fierce interrogations in foreign countries where humans writhed 126 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,360 Speaker 1: in pain in response to experimental chemicals that would burn 127 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:54,120 Speaker 1: their eyes or disrupt their breathing before killing them. Once 128 00:09:54,240 --> 00:09:58,040 Speaker 1: Olsen had visited a microbiological research lab at Porton Down 129 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,920 Speaker 1: in Wiltshire, England. Volunteers had agreed to be dosed with 130 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,040 Speaker 1: nerve gases. Olsen watched as one man collapsed in front 131 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:10,680 Speaker 1: of him, foaming at the mouth before he died. Olson 132 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:14,320 Speaker 1: later told a British psychiatrist named William Sergeant that he 133 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,559 Speaker 1: had been to American and British testing sites in Frankfurt, Germany, 134 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:23,480 Speaker 1: and that he'd seen something awful. Sergeant recommended Olsen never 135 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:27,000 Speaker 1: be allowed back to Porton Down. He was a security risk. 136 00:10:27,679 --> 00:10:50,760 Speaker 1: Anyone with a conscience was a security risk. As an 137 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:54,320 Speaker 1: expert in biological warfare, Olsen had been summoned to examine 138 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:57,120 Speaker 1: the fallout of a mass hysteria event that occurred in 139 00:10:57,120 --> 00:11:01,920 Speaker 1: the small French town of Point Saint Aspri in August. 140 00:11:03,640 --> 00:11:06,840 Speaker 1: It's one of the strangest chapters in twentieth century history 141 00:11:07,200 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: and foreshadows the worst of George White's domestic exploits in 142 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:14,400 Speaker 1: the years to come. Point Santa Spree is the kind 143 00:11:14,440 --> 00:11:18,679 Speaker 1: of small town in France people describe as idyllic. Classic 144 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: architecture is everywhere. A bridge made of stone extends over 145 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:25,960 Speaker 1: the Rhone River, and the tiny streets act as arteries 146 00:11:26,000 --> 00:11:28,760 Speaker 1: for the residents to exist in a kind of suspended 147 00:11:28,880 --> 00:11:32,480 Speaker 1: state of simple living that sustained them for hundreds of years. 148 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 1: The Bouvier family hails from here, one of their own. 149 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:44,200 Speaker 1: Jacqueline Bouvier became Jacqueline Kennedy. That simplicity, that isolation, may 150 00:11:44,240 --> 00:11:47,199 Speaker 1: have been why someone turned the dream of Point Santa 151 00:11:47,280 --> 00:11:56,560 Speaker 1: Spree into a living nightmare. A postal worker was in 152 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,080 Speaker 1: the middle of his shift when he began to feel it, 153 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:05,160 Speaker 1: a sensation. He was shrinking, growing smaller and smaller as 154 00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:09,120 Speaker 1: the small town around him grew larger and larger. He 155 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:13,520 Speaker 1: saw and felt fire raging all around him. Snakes crawled 156 00:12:13,559 --> 00:12:16,480 Speaker 1: up his legs and around his arms, dragging them down. 157 00:12:17,840 --> 00:12:22,440 Speaker 1: He was descending into madness, and so were hundreds of 158 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:29,840 Speaker 1: other residents. The townspeople began shrieking, crying, moaning. A man 159 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:32,960 Speaker 1: was convinced he had transformed into a plane and jumped 160 00:12:32,960 --> 00:12:36,360 Speaker 1: out of a second story window, arms spread like wings. 161 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 1: He broke both of his legs, then stood up and 162 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:44,160 Speaker 1: kept running, more terrified of whatever was chasing him than 163 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:48,160 Speaker 1: the pain of his broken bones. Many grew so manic 164 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,200 Speaker 1: they had to be herded away. The postal worker was 165 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:53,880 Speaker 1: brought to a hospital and put in a straight jacket. 166 00:12:55,400 --> 00:12:58,920 Speaker 1: Three teens were chained to a bed. They were fighting 167 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:02,800 Speaker 1: their own demons, and nothing could soothe them. Their mettal 168 00:13:02,840 --> 00:13:11,000 Speaker 1: bed frames shook as they struggled. Over the next few days, 169 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,040 Speaker 1: more and more people were hospitalized or put in asylums 170 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: with hallucinations. One villager put it this way, I am dead, 171 00:13:19,960 --> 00:13:22,520 Speaker 1: and my head is made of copper, and I have 172 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 1: snakes in my stomach and they are burning me. At 173 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:32,120 Speaker 1: least four people died. No one has ever conclusively proven 174 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:36,360 Speaker 1: what happened in Point Santa Spree, but some blamed ergot 175 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:42,640 Speaker 1: poisoning ergot, which is highly toxic, and large amounts may 176 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:46,360 Speaker 1: have gotten into the bread in the local bakeries. Others 177 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:50,680 Speaker 1: of theorized the CIA made Point Santa Spree one huge 178 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:54,200 Speaker 1: chemical trial, which is why Olsen was in the vicinity 179 00:13:54,320 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: to assess the outcome. It was just another chapter, and 180 00:13:58,080 --> 00:14:00,800 Speaker 1: what he feared was a madness, not on the part 181 00:14:00,800 --> 00:14:04,000 Speaker 1: of the people, but in the corridors of American intelligence. 182 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,840 Speaker 1: George White mentioned Point Cenisprie briefly in a letter to 183 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:12,520 Speaker 1: a friend in nineteen fifty four. He called it the 184 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: Little French Villages Stormy epidemic. Stormy was a George White 185 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:22,800 Speaker 1: slang term for LSD that was the dark side of 186 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:29,440 Speaker 1: intelligence work, and Olsen's mood grew darker with it. Two 187 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: years later, Frank Olsen was one of the employees invited 188 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,240 Speaker 1: to Sydney Gottlieb's retreat. Gottlieb wanted to make sure the 189 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:39,840 Speaker 1: CIA and the army scientists at Fort Dietrich were working 190 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:43,480 Speaker 1: in tandem, that they were on the same page. But, 191 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:46,800 Speaker 1: and this was usually the case with Gottlieb, he had 192 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:51,520 Speaker 1: another motive. He wanted to dose everyone there with LSD. 193 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 1: Gottlieb gathered the men in the lodge and gestured for 194 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,040 Speaker 1: his colleague Robert Lashbrook to begin pouring drinks from a 195 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:06,720 Speaker 1: bottle of Quantros, an orange flavored liqueur. Lashbrook filled glasses 196 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: with Quantros and then, of great discretion, added an ampule 197 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:14,600 Speaker 1: of LSD to each. He handed the glasses to the 198 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:18,080 Speaker 1: gathered scientists, and he and Gottlieb watched as they began 199 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:23,240 Speaker 1: ingesting the concoction. Within twenty minutes, the men began to 200 00:15:23,320 --> 00:15:31,640 Speaker 1: experience the expected early symptoms confusion, hallucinations, fear. The severed 201 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: and mounted heads of hunted and captured deer in the 202 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:38,920 Speaker 1: lodge began to stare them down their lips moving, gentlemen, 203 00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 1: I assure you what you are feeling is completely normal. 204 00:15:42,720 --> 00:15:48,440 Speaker 1: You've all been administered a dose of LSD. Gottlieb spoke calmly, 205 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,080 Speaker 1: like he was informing a group of people to proceed 206 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:54,160 Speaker 1: to a fire exit. The men went off into their 207 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:58,760 Speaker 1: own corners of consciousness, grappling with the newly open borders 208 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: of their minds. But unlike George white seemingly random drugging 209 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:06,520 Speaker 1: of Linda King and Barbara Smythe, Gottlieb took a special 210 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:10,800 Speaker 1: interest in how Frank Olson reacted. He'd been earmarked as 211 00:16:10,840 --> 00:16:16,240 Speaker 1: a possible problem. Gottlie pulled Olson aside and began asking 212 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:20,480 Speaker 1: him questions, Questions that might one day be posed to 213 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:26,040 Speaker 1: Olsen by enemy agents, the invisible Soviets who loomed large 214 00:16:26,040 --> 00:16:30,440 Speaker 1: in the American imagination of the day, Questions that might 215 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:34,400 Speaker 1: wear down someone under the influence of both drugs and morality. 216 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,520 Speaker 1: What exactly was said in those hours, only Sidney Gotlieb 217 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,120 Speaker 1: could answer, and when he was eventually asked years later, 218 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:48,400 Speaker 1: he wouldn't. But we know what happened. After the retreat 219 00:16:48,480 --> 00:16:52,320 Speaker 1: came to an end, Frank Olson returned home and Withdrew 220 00:16:53,280 --> 00:16:55,520 Speaker 1: his wife and children were greeted by a husband and 221 00:16:55,600 --> 00:16:59,880 Speaker 1: father who seemed more uncertain about his work than ever Brad. 222 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: It was simply the accumulation of horrors Frank Olsen had witnessed, 223 00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:07,159 Speaker 1: or maybe it was the LSD tearing down walls he 224 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:12,359 Speaker 1: had erected in his mind to compartmentalize his responsibilities. Something 225 00:17:12,400 --> 00:17:17,080 Speaker 1: had shifted and Olsen wanted out. He went to his 226 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:21,879 Speaker 1: immediate supervisor, Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Ruett, and said he was resigning. 227 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,240 Speaker 1: Ruett begged him to reconsider, not to do anything. Rash 228 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:31,760 Speaker 1: ru had also phoned Gottlieb to express his concern. Remember, 229 00:17:32,040 --> 00:17:34,600 Speaker 1: Olsen was one of perhaps only two dozen people in 230 00:17:34,640 --> 00:17:37,560 Speaker 1: the world who had knowledge of the CIA's top secret 231 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:41,920 Speaker 1: experiments like mk Ultra. For one of them to abruptly 232 00:17:41,960 --> 00:17:47,879 Speaker 1: announced they were finished done well, it wasn't possible. It 233 00:17:47,960 --> 00:17:50,360 Speaker 1: was akin to a mafia member turning up one day 234 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:54,440 Speaker 1: and saying, is giving up the life. Some places don't 235 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 1: have an exit door. Gottlieb told Ruett and Lashbrook to 236 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:01,919 Speaker 1: take Olson to New York City, where he saw a 237 00:18:01,960 --> 00:18:05,960 Speaker 1: doctor named Harold Abramson. He was an allergist who was 238 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,520 Speaker 1: giving LSD to his patients on behalf of the CIA. 239 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:12,960 Speaker 1: If Olsen revealed something he shouldn't it would be okay. 240 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:18,400 Speaker 1: Abramson was one of them. He prescribed sedatives in Bourbon, 241 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,160 Speaker 1: but Olson's mood didn't improve. He didn't want to see 242 00:18:22,200 --> 00:18:27,240 Speaker 1: his family, He kept insisting he wanted to, in his words, disappear. 243 00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,520 Speaker 1: They went to Long Island to see Abramson again, this 244 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:34,200 Speaker 1: time at his home, then went back to New York. 245 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,080 Speaker 1: One night, Olsen wandered out into the streets, throwing away 246 00:18:40,119 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: his wallet and identification cards, a gesture that seemed to 247 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:48,399 Speaker 1: indicate he wanted to throw away his government identity, but 248 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 1: he couldn't. Gottlieb would never allow that. They convinced Olsen 249 00:18:55,680 --> 00:18:58,200 Speaker 1: he would be best off in a sanitarium in Maryland 250 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,640 Speaker 1: to get round the clock care. He seemed agreeable, if 251 00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,440 Speaker 1: you believe Lashbrook. He even seemed happy. The two men 252 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:08,720 Speaker 1: planned to drive back to Maryland the next day to 253 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:11,639 Speaker 1: check Olson into a facility. They got a room at 254 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:16,840 Speaker 1: the Hotel Statler. They went to bed. When Lashbrook woke up, 255 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:20,720 Speaker 1: Olsen was already on the pavement where he would never 256 00:19:21,080 --> 00:19:26,960 Speaker 1: regain consciousness. A flurry of phone calls followed, which the 257 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:31,679 Speaker 1: hotel's telephone operator overheard. Lashbrook called Abramson's telling that Olson 258 00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,600 Speaker 1: was quote gone, not that he had died by suicide 259 00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:39,040 Speaker 1: or jumped or fell out of a window, but just gone. 260 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,200 Speaker 1: The authorities were called. They talked to Lashbrook, who told 261 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: them he awoke to the sound of crashing glass. At 262 00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:49,920 Speaker 1: the police station. He emptied his pockets, which had a 263 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:52,879 Speaker 1: slip of paper with George White's address and initials on it. 264 00:19:54,520 --> 00:19:58,639 Speaker 1: Frank Olson's family was notified. No one told them Olson 265 00:19:58,720 --> 00:20:01,720 Speaker 1: had been dosed with LSD days prior to his death. 266 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,000 Speaker 1: The whole affair was documented as a suicide. Olsen had 267 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:09,680 Speaker 1: either fallen or jumped out of the window. No one 268 00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:14,199 Speaker 1: said he was pushed. But if he had been pushed, 269 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,360 Speaker 1: If Sydney gottlie But decided Frank Olsen had become too 270 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,520 Speaker 1: dangerous to try and contain, and arranged for someone to 271 00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:26,240 Speaker 1: push him, who would it be. Certainly not Gotlei himself, 272 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:30,600 Speaker 1: who was nowhere near the Hotel Statler that night, and 273 00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:34,119 Speaker 1: certainly not Robert Lashbrook, who was a CIA employee, not 274 00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:39,280 Speaker 1: a field operative, not someone with experience, nothing out of life. 275 00:20:40,080 --> 00:20:43,080 Speaker 1: If you were Sydney Gottlieb and you needed to dispose 276 00:20:43,119 --> 00:20:50,399 Speaker 1: of Frank Olson, whose number would you call at his 277 00:20:50,520 --> 00:20:54,000 Speaker 1: federal Bureau of Narcotics Office, George White kept a photo 278 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:58,160 Speaker 1: of a corpse on the wall, a real corpse. When 279 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,120 Speaker 1: people would ask why an obvious as many people did, 280 00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,040 Speaker 1: White explained that the photo was of a spy he 281 00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:06,280 Speaker 1: had been forced to kill with his bare hands during 282 00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:10,679 Speaker 1: the war. He was, after all, a graduate of Camp X, 283 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,800 Speaker 1: the school of mayhem and murder. To take a human 284 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:17,439 Speaker 1: life in the name of national security was nothing to 285 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:20,720 Speaker 1: be ashamed of. To White, it was something to put 286 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:25,000 Speaker 1: in a frame. When Sydney Gottley decided Frank Olsen was 287 00:21:25,040 --> 00:21:28,360 Speaker 1: a problem, he had to have called someone. And while 288 00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: there was no shortage of CIA assassins, Godly had few 289 00:21:32,040 --> 00:21:35,119 Speaker 1: men he could trust, even fewer who knew about him 290 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:37,760 Speaker 1: k Ultra and the effects of LSD on the mind, 291 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,600 Speaker 1: and only one with a photo of a dead man 292 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:52,879 Speaker 1: on his wall. Part two, The Coincidence. So where was 293 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:56,439 Speaker 1: George White during all of this? Frank Olson's trip to 294 00:21:56,440 --> 00:22:00,159 Speaker 1: New York, his visits with Robert Lashbrook, his wandering the 295 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:03,600 Speaker 1: city streets, and its plunge from a ten story window. 296 00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:07,480 Speaker 1: If Sydney Gottlieb had his way, White would have been 297 00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:11,080 Speaker 1: glued to Olson the entire time. Got Leave had called 298 00:22:11,080 --> 00:22:14,600 Speaker 1: White to ask him to do exactly that, to escort 299 00:22:14,640 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 1: Olson back to Maryland and right into a mental health facility. 300 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,240 Speaker 1: The conversation got far enough along that White scribbled down 301 00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:27,200 Speaker 1: Frank Olsen's home telephone number. But then White told Godle 302 00:22:27,520 --> 00:22:31,440 Speaker 1: something he had never told him before. I can't said, 303 00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:35,959 Speaker 1: mind you, this wasn't necessarily an assignment to get rid 304 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:39,359 Speaker 1: of Frank Olsen, just escorting him around at the time. 305 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,640 Speaker 1: But White said no, and the reason was something Godlie 306 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:51,560 Speaker 1: couldn't argue with. George White's mother was dying, so White 307 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:55,639 Speaker 1: got on a plane on November eleven nine and headed 308 00:22:55,640 --> 00:23:01,399 Speaker 1: straight for Carl's Bad, California. Her funeral was novemb He 309 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: didn't return to New York until December. That meant White 310 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,880 Speaker 1: had missed the Deep Creek Lodge meeting, Frank Olsen's slow 311 00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:14,840 Speaker 1: descent into despair and his death by weeks. On both sides. 312 00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,560 Speaker 1: If anyone could claim they had virtually nothing to do 313 00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,760 Speaker 1: with Olson's death, it would have to have been George White. 314 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,280 Speaker 1: But here's a recurring thing about White. He didn't need 315 00:23:26,320 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: to be on the scene to be involved. White could 316 00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:33,680 Speaker 1: put wheels in motion. He was, after all, not physically 317 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,520 Speaker 1: present for dozens of arrests in the famous Hip Sing 318 00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:40,480 Speaker 1: Tong drug ring case that made his career, But none 319 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,840 Speaker 1: of those arrests would have been possible without him. So 320 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,840 Speaker 1: if White couldn't have been around Frank Olsen in the 321 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 1: last weeks of his life, what could he have done? Hello, Pierre, 322 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:59,480 Speaker 1: It's g Pierre Lafitte. The name sounds like a French 323 00:23:59,560 --> 00:24:02,480 Speaker 1: capper lar in a detective novel, and that wouldn't be 324 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,119 Speaker 1: too far off. Lafitte was a narcotics agent and a 325 00:24:06,200 --> 00:24:10,119 Speaker 1: close ally of Whites. He was instrumental in making Whites 326 00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:14,280 Speaker 1: New York lsd pad a hopping social scene, recruiting guests 327 00:24:14,280 --> 00:24:16,960 Speaker 1: for White to dose and then watching from behind a 328 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:22,800 Speaker 1: two way mirror for the effects to materialize. White trusted 329 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:25,879 Speaker 1: Lafitte enough to bring him into an exclusive inner circle, 330 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:28,760 Speaker 1: one in which he got c I a security clearance. 331 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:32,840 Speaker 1: He knew a lot of the government's dirty secrets. He 332 00:24:32,880 --> 00:24:36,720 Speaker 1: was a world traveler, having helped White on drug excursions overseas. 333 00:24:37,720 --> 00:24:40,240 Speaker 1: Pierre Lafitte was the kind of man who might need 334 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,399 Speaker 1: to keep track of which name he was using on 335 00:24:42,440 --> 00:24:48,280 Speaker 1: any given day. There was something else about Lafitte Earlier 336 00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:51,440 Speaker 1: that year, White had made arrangements for Lafitte to begin 337 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:55,080 Speaker 1: working as a bell captain at a hotel, the Hotel Statler. 338 00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,000 Speaker 1: Could it have been a simple moonlighting job. That seems unlikely. 339 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:05,159 Speaker 1: Just a month earlier, Lafitte had made national headlines for 340 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,520 Speaker 1: his undercover work recovering paintings stolen from a church in Kentucky. 341 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,960 Speaker 1: This was something else White might have wanted to keep 342 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 1: watch on the drug investigation there. He might have suspected 343 00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:21,280 Speaker 1: hotel employees of some kind of wrongdoing. He needed a 344 00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,080 Speaker 1: pair of eyes the Statler for reasons that have never 345 00:25:24,119 --> 00:25:30,840 Speaker 1: explicitly been spelled out. So out of the dozens or 346 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:34,199 Speaker 1: even hundreds of hotels in New York City, why did 347 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,719 Speaker 1: Robert Lashbrook book himself and Frank Olsen into the Hotel 348 00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:42,520 Speaker 1: Statler the night of Olsen's death? Of all the hotels 349 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,679 Speaker 1: in Manhattan, why did those two just happen to be 350 00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,760 Speaker 1: in the one hotel. Pierre Lafitte had the freedom to 351 00:25:48,880 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 1: roam where he was a familiar face to hotel employees, 352 00:25:53,400 --> 00:25:57,320 Speaker 1: where he could, if he wanted, unlock any hotel room 353 00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:01,399 Speaker 1: door that had something he wanted on the other side. 354 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,879 Speaker 1: When White had to turn down got leave because he 355 00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:07,680 Speaker 1: had to be in California. He asked Lafitte to keep 356 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:12,000 Speaker 1: an eye on Olsen to monitor the situation. We know 357 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:15,439 Speaker 1: Lashbrook had White's initials and pad address, as though he 358 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,920 Speaker 1: expected to make contact with White at some point during 359 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:23,439 Speaker 1: the trip. Maybe White was expected back earlier. Then Olsen 360 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:31,199 Speaker 1: died by suicide. Allegedly, it was always a strange premise 361 00:26:31,280 --> 00:26:34,200 Speaker 1: to begin with the idea he would launch himself through 362 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:39,119 Speaker 1: a window. No matter how despondent someone becomes. They're easier ways, 363 00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:42,480 Speaker 1: and most people would at least bother to pull up 364 00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:50,440 Speaker 1: the blinds. First. Decades later, Frank's son Eric Olsen would 365 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: walk into room ten eighteen A and see how small 366 00:26:53,800 --> 00:26:57,240 Speaker 1: it was, how unlikely it was that anyone could get 367 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:01,200 Speaker 1: a running start to launch themselves out the window. Olsen 368 00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:04,919 Speaker 1: had even tracked down a long retired Sidney Gottlieb, asking 369 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,640 Speaker 1: him what had happened to his father. Gottlieb would say 370 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:13,359 Speaker 1: only that everyone, Gottlieb the CIA Olson had perhaps gone 371 00:27:13,400 --> 00:27:16,560 Speaker 1: too far in their search for mind control, but he 372 00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:21,679 Speaker 1: still insisted Olsen had died by suicide. He even suggested 373 00:27:21,840 --> 00:27:24,679 Speaker 1: Eric find a support group for children whose fathers had 374 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:32,439 Speaker 1: taken their own lives. Eric took another approach in he 375 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,520 Speaker 1: had his father's body exhumed so a professor of law 376 00:27:35,520 --> 00:27:38,960 Speaker 1: and forensic science could examine him. Eric had wanted to 377 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:41,560 Speaker 1: wait until his mother had passed away before pursuing his 378 00:27:41,720 --> 00:27:44,520 Speaker 1: hunch that there was something amiss about his father's death 379 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 1: that Sydney Gottlieb was lying. The autopsy was a fascinating 380 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:54,040 Speaker 1: look at the final moments of Frank Olston's life, articulating 381 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:57,679 Speaker 1: more and more of the words he couldn't speak. It 382 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:02,480 Speaker 1: revealed Olsen had a previously undis closed head injury, ahematoma 383 00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:06,400 Speaker 1: on the left side. He may have been struck by 384 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:12,040 Speaker 1: a blunt object before landing on the pavement. Who hit him, 385 00:28:12,040 --> 00:28:15,960 Speaker 1: not Lashbrook, probably, but someone could have opened the door 386 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:20,000 Speaker 1: to ten eighteen A that night. Someone who confronted Olsen, 387 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,280 Speaker 1: who wanted to orchestrate something that looked like a suicide. 388 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:27,480 Speaker 1: Someone who was following a CIA manu on the Ideal 389 00:28:27,520 --> 00:28:31,560 Speaker 1: Methods of Eliminating a target, a document that was later 390 00:28:31,640 --> 00:28:39,600 Speaker 1: declassified in and described preferred method of murder. The most 391 00:28:39,640 --> 00:28:43,960 Speaker 1: efficient accident in simple assassination is a fall of seventy 392 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:49,520 Speaker 1: five ft or more onto a hard surface, elevator shafts, stairwells, 393 00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:53,440 Speaker 1: unscreened windows, and bridges will serve. In chase cases, it 394 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:56,720 Speaker 1: will usually be necessary to stun or drug the subject 395 00:28:56,960 --> 00:29:00,920 Speaker 1: before dropping him. Care is required to en No wound 396 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,520 Speaker 1: or condition not attributable to the fall is discernible after death. 397 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,880 Speaker 1: The facts of Frank Olsen's death or that he was 398 00:29:12,960 --> 00:29:17,000 Speaker 1: dosed with LSD in November of nine and didn't react 399 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:20,040 Speaker 1: well to it, He had already been concerned about the 400 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,560 Speaker 1: kind of work he was being asked to do. He 401 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,320 Speaker 1: was checked into a hotel that was very familiar to 402 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:28,200 Speaker 1: the CIA, with a former Bell captain who would have 403 00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,800 Speaker 1: done virtually anything George White or Sydney Gottlieb would have 404 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:36,320 Speaker 1: told him to do. It doesn't mean Pierre Lafitte murdered 405 00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:40,480 Speaker 1: Frank Olson. It's a theory, maybe even a fanciful one, 406 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,320 Speaker 1: And if we stopped there, maybe we could say it's 407 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:49,800 Speaker 1: all a bit strange but mostly circumstantial, if we stopped there. 408 00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,360 Speaker 1: Following Olson's death, White felt compelled to make sure his 409 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:59,400 Speaker 1: friend and colleague Pierre Lafitte got out of town. White 410 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: arranged Lafitte to travel to St. Petersburg, Florida, and stay 411 00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:05,480 Speaker 1: at a property owned by one of White's friends, a 412 00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:10,000 Speaker 1: well known drug kingpin. If Lafitte had nothing to do 413 00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: with Frank Olson's murder, why was George White so insistent 414 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:16,240 Speaker 1: that Lafitte get out of the state and stash himself 415 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:19,280 Speaker 1: away on the estate of a renowned mafioso for an 416 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:39,880 Speaker 1: indeterminate period of time. Part three shut it down. The 417 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:44,000 Speaker 1: months following Frank Olsen's death were memorable for everyone. The 418 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:48,000 Speaker 1: Olsen's got repeated visits by Vincent Ruett, Olson's former boss, 419 00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:52,280 Speaker 1: who tried to console the family. The CIA could tell 420 00:30:52,320 --> 00:30:55,280 Speaker 1: them only that Olsen had gone out the window. That 421 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,200 Speaker 1: he had been dosed with LSD would not be disclosed 422 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:02,280 Speaker 1: for another twenty years. When The Washington Post obtained classified 423 00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,480 Speaker 1: documents that referred to a CIA employee who had fallen 424 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,760 Speaker 1: out of a window. The Olsen's knew immediately the story 425 00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:15,760 Speaker 1: referred to Frank. In nineteen five, the same year chevy 426 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:19,840 Speaker 1: Chase was impersonating Gerald Ford as a clumsy incompetent, the 427 00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,960 Speaker 1: President invited the Olsen family to the White House to 428 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:28,120 Speaker 1: make an apology. They accepted a financial settlement in exchange 429 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,640 Speaker 1: for agreeing not to sue the government. Over the death. 430 00:31:31,680 --> 00:31:35,320 Speaker 1: This was before the autopsy, before it looked more and 431 00:31:35,400 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: more like Olsen had been scrubbed from the world with 432 00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:44,000 Speaker 1: great deliberation. Of course, Sidney Gottlieb knew what had happened, 433 00:31:44,600 --> 00:31:47,600 Speaker 1: and while his superiors the CIA were fuzzy on the details, 434 00:31:48,080 --> 00:31:50,720 Speaker 1: they knew that Olsen's death was related to god Leave's 435 00:31:50,760 --> 00:31:57,080 Speaker 1: increasingly out of control LSD program. People began asking Gotleib questions, 436 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:02,120 Speaker 1: questions he didn't particularly care to answer. He was used 437 00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:06,560 Speaker 1: to autonomy, to being left to his own devices. Now 438 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:09,959 Speaker 1: there was a threat of oversight. He and Lashbrook were 439 00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:17,360 Speaker 1: given a reprimand Lashbrook left the agency. Gottlieb stayed, but 440 00:32:18,120 --> 00:32:21,840 Speaker 1: the CIA's psychological warfare program had been put on notice. 441 00:32:26,720 --> 00:32:29,880 Speaker 1: Gottlieb wasn't prone to panic, but in light of the 442 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:34,000 Speaker 1: controversy surrounding Frank Olsen, the idea of George White drugging 443 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,920 Speaker 1: hapless civilians all over New York City suddenly seemed unwise. 444 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:43,600 Speaker 1: Gottlieb phoned White shut it down. George said, I've only 445 00:32:43,640 --> 00:32:47,360 Speaker 1: just gotten started. It's we need to shut it down. 446 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,880 Speaker 1: White broke his lease at eighty one Bedford Street, where 447 00:32:52,880 --> 00:32:56,720 Speaker 1: he'd been doing brisk business as Morgan Hall LSD provocateur, 448 00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: and it probably broke his heart a little too. He'd 449 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:02,960 Speaker 1: been at it for only six months before Godli pulled 450 00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:07,200 Speaker 1: the plug. It struck him as slightly unfair. It was Godlib, 451 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:11,600 Speaker 1: after all, who had dosed Frank Olsen, not White. Even 452 00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:14,680 Speaker 1: though White had himself released countless people into the streets 453 00:33:14,720 --> 00:33:18,760 Speaker 1: of the city suffering from hallucinations, he'd covered his tracks well. 454 00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,600 Speaker 1: He hadn't gotten sloppy and targeted a high profile government 455 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 1: intelligence operative the way Godly pad. For a time, White 456 00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:31,120 Speaker 1: focused on his narcotics work. He was still an employee 457 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:36,280 Speaker 1: with the Narcotics Bureau, working to erase the scourge of marijuana, opium, heroin, 458 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,520 Speaker 1: cocaine and other drugs being delivered into the country by day, 459 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,040 Speaker 1: even as he distributed them to innocent people at night. 460 00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:48,120 Speaker 1: But the past few months had been extremely hard on White. 461 00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:52,840 Speaker 1: His mother had died, Frank Olsen had disrupted his LSD projects. 462 00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 1: For a brief period, George White seemed to submit to 463 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,720 Speaker 1: a few feeling of melancholy. It comes through in the 464 00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:05,320 Speaker 1: correspondence he wrote to friends and colleagues at the time, 465 00:34:06,240 --> 00:34:10,279 Speaker 1: some of which resides at Stanford University. There's a sense 466 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,720 Speaker 1: of loss, not only for his mother but for his work. 467 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: Without the pad the CIA safe house, White was just 468 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:22,799 Speaker 1: another cop. He had once again become what he had 469 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:30,439 Speaker 1: always feared. Average His letters, hundreds of them, are often 470 00:34:30,440 --> 00:34:34,399 Speaker 1: innocuous in the extreme, speaking of travel and inquiring about 471 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:40,719 Speaker 1: mutual friends. At first glance, none seem particularly incriminating, But 472 00:34:41,560 --> 00:34:44,520 Speaker 1: if you know about Pierre Lafitte and the Hotel Statler 473 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:48,960 Speaker 1: and Frank Olsen, some passages take on a different meaning. 474 00:34:53,239 --> 00:34:57,440 Speaker 1: In October n White wrote a letter to Garland Williams, 475 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: one of the supervisors at the Narcotics Bureau and White's 476 00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:09,719 Speaker 1: good friend. It's cryptic, deliberately so and unsettling. White makes 477 00:35:09,719 --> 00:35:13,080 Speaker 1: two mentions of what he calls the Oldsen thing and 478 00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,160 Speaker 1: how it's behind him. Of course, he could just mean 479 00:35:16,200 --> 00:35:19,439 Speaker 1: the pressure over the incident was winding down. But then 480 00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 1: he writes, our friend decided that his term at the 481 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:29,520 Speaker 1: Statler was overextended. White seems to be referring to Pierre 482 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:33,680 Speaker 1: Lafitte because he goes on to say, maybe after our 483 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,240 Speaker 1: friend returns from his jaunt out west, he can return 484 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:39,920 Speaker 1: to France for a few weeks. I suspect his moonlighting 485 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,640 Speaker 1: work at NYC Hotels is over once and for all. 486 00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:49,719 Speaker 1: Teen loved him in his Bellman's office. Involved or not, 487 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:55,640 Speaker 1: George White was profoundly affected by Frank Wilson's death. It 488 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:59,080 Speaker 1: meant his work as a man possessed of secret knowledge 489 00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:09,040 Speaker 1: was her. People have never stopped asking questions about Frank 490 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,399 Speaker 1: Olson's death, but they stopped asking enough in nineteen fifty 491 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:15,000 Speaker 1: four for Sydney Gottleib to feel like the worst was 492 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,839 Speaker 1: behind him. The CIA had forced him to pause mk Ultra, 493 00:36:19,280 --> 00:36:22,560 Speaker 1: but not to dismantle it. The CIA was able to 494 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:25,320 Speaker 1: enter into a new contract with drug maker Eli Lily 495 00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:31,040 Speaker 1: for more LSD and tonnage quantities mass amounts. So in 496 00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:35,000 Speaker 1: late nineteen fifty four, a rejuvenated Sydney Gottleib traveled to 497 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,720 Speaker 1: New York to pay a visit to his dejected friend, 498 00:36:37,920 --> 00:36:42,440 Speaker 1: George White. Gottlieb explained that the LSD experiment in New 499 00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:46,319 Speaker 1: York was done and done for good. There would be 500 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:50,440 Speaker 1: no grand reopening of eighty one Bedford Street. Naturally, White 501 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:55,239 Speaker 1: was disappointed. Let me ask you something, Geo. You're from California, 502 00:36:55,239 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: aren't you born and raised? You want to go back? 503 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:03,680 Speaker 1: The CIA didn't want to get rid of George White. 504 00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: They just needed to get rid of New York City. 505 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,840 Speaker 1: George White could relocate to another hip community, one bursting 506 00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:14,879 Speaker 1: with liberal thinkers, an entire population full of people who 507 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,719 Speaker 1: were probably high on drugs already. We want you to 508 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:23,320 Speaker 1: move to San Francisco. White was ecstatic, and then Gottlieb 509 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,880 Speaker 1: took out a manual, one written exclusively for the CIA. 510 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:33,919 Speaker 1: This wasn't the assassination manual, but something new. White looked 511 00:37:33,920 --> 00:37:36,920 Speaker 1: down at the cover. It was an academic primer on 512 00:37:37,040 --> 00:37:41,480 Speaker 1: the best way to extract information using drugs and sex. 513 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:47,920 Speaker 1: Gottlieb smiled, sid this is the greatest day of my life. 514 00:37:49,200 --> 00:38:20,000 Speaker 1: George White's climax was still ahead of him. H Operation 515 00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:23,400 Speaker 1: Midnight Climax is hosted by Noel Brown. This show is 516 00:38:23,440 --> 00:38:27,319 Speaker 1: written by Jake Rosson, editing, sound design and mixing by 517 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:32,480 Speaker 1: Ernie Indradette and Natasha Jacobs. Original music by Aaron Kaufman. 518 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,400 Speaker 1: Research and fact checking by Austin Thompson and Maurica Brown. 519 00:38:37,520 --> 00:38:42,000 Speaker 1: Show logo by Lucy Quintinia. Special thanks this episode to 520 00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:46,400 Speaker 1: David Crumholtz and Ted Ramy. Julian Weller is our supervising producer. 521 00:38:47,280 --> 00:38:50,640 Speaker 1: Our Executive producers are Jason English and Mangesha ticket Ter 522 00:38:52,239 --> 00:38:53,000 Speaker 1: See you next week.