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Speaker 1: In the nineteen fifties, you couldn't get away with a

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Speaker 1: whole lot on radio or television. Lucy and Ricky were

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Speaker 1: still sleeping in separate beds. No one was broadcasting anything

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Speaker 1: related to sex, sitcom kids or immaculate conceptions. But if

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Speaker 1: you were living in the Telegraph Hill section of San

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Speaker 1: Francisco in n things were slightly different. Flip around the

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Speaker 1: radio dial and you might hear something unusual, something the

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Speaker 1: FCC would never ever approve of. A radio antenna at

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Speaker 1: Chestnut Street streamed sounds from inside one of the bedrooms.

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Speaker 1: Depending on who was listening to the frequency, the radio

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Speaker 1: dial might be snapped off abruptly, embarrassed parents struggling to

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Speaker 1: explain those sounds to their kids, but others would stay

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Speaker 1: tuned in, eager to hear what came next. The people

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Speaker 1: of Telegraph Hill had no idea a CIA operation was

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Speaker 1: happening inside the apartment and that it's chief investigator, a

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Speaker 1: man named George White, decided to broadcast the sounds of

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Speaker 1: sex workers and John's going at it. They didn't know

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Speaker 1: he was on a mission from the CIA to find

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Speaker 1: out whether sex and drugs could win the Cold War.

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Speaker 1: That White had explicit permission to give LSD and virtually

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Speaker 1: any other drug to anyone, anywhere, for any reason or

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Speaker 1: no reason at all. They couldn't know that as they

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Speaker 1: were listening, he was secretly watching from behind a two

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Speaker 1: way mirror, sipping a martini. George White had arrived. He

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Speaker 1: was in charge of the CIA's newest experiment, one that

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Speaker 1: would explore the effect of sex and drugs on subject acts.

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Speaker 1: The fate of the nation depended on it. Officially, it

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Speaker 1: was known as m k Ultra Subproject forty two, but

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Speaker 1: White had another name for it. He called it Operation

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Speaker 1: Midnight Climax. For I Heart Radio, I'm Noel Brown, and

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Speaker 1: this is Operation Midnight Climax, Chapter one Mayhem and Murder M.

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Speaker 1: If you're even remotely familiar with the seedier chapters in

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Speaker 1: American history, you've probably heard of mk Ultra. This was

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Speaker 1: the top secret CIA program that sanctioned the use of

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Speaker 1: psychoactive drugs on American citizens. The agency used shady psychiatrists, prisons,

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Speaker 1: and mental institutions to execute these studies. The goal was

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Speaker 1: to see how spies and other operatives could use these

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Speaker 1: drugs to our national advantage in the field. Whether it

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Speaker 1: was MK ULTRA or another government agency. Some of these

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Speaker 1: experiments felt like something a four year old would think up.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't just drugs either. Some agents injected plutonium into soldiers.

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Speaker 1: At a school in Massachusetts, kids in the science club

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Speaker 1: were fed irradiated oatmeal to see how well they absorbed

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Speaker 1: iron and calcium. And in nineteen sixty two, a psychiatrist

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Speaker 1: drugged an elephant with LSD. The poor thing keeled over debt,

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Speaker 1: and we learned elephants can't handle a bad trip. For

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Speaker 1: a good portion of the twentieth century, US government officials

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Speaker 1: were out of their collective mind, and one of the

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Speaker 1: most irresponsible things they ever did, even worse than giving

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Speaker 1: an elephant l s D, was recruiting George Hunter White,

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Speaker 1: And that was all thanks to a man named Sydney Gottlieb.

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Speaker 1: Part one not FBI material. Back in ninety two, Sydney

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Speaker 1: Gottlieb was working as the chief chemist for the CIA.

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Speaker 1: On paper, he was a straight laced patriot, but godly

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Speaker 1: had a few secrets too, And when George White's FBI

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Speaker 1: file landed on his desk, Sidney Gottlieb saw something. White

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Speaker 1: had already applied to be a federal agent a few times.

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Speaker 1: The first time was an May nineteen thirty four. This

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Speaker 1: is what the official report read. The interview reflected. The

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Speaker 1: White parents and one sister resided in al Hamburg, California,

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Speaker 1: where his father was city manager. White studied sociology at

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Speaker 1: Oregon State College from nineteen twenty four to six, dropping

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Speaker 1: from the university to take a position with the Red

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Speaker 1: Cross in Los Angeles. Nothing too unusual so far, California

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Speaker 1: kid drops out of college to soak up some sun

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Speaker 1: and ride waves. He went bodysurfing a lot. White became

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Speaker 1: a first aid director for the Red Cross before resigning

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Speaker 1: to become a police reporter for the San Francisco Bulletin.

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Speaker 1: What the report doesn't mention is that White like newspaper

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Speaker 1: work because it brought him close to the action, you know,

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Speaker 1: the action, Chasing leads, shadowing subjects, digging for clues, putting

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Speaker 1: yourself in harm's way. The truth is he'd liked danger,

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Speaker 1: but at a certain point reporting wasn't close enough. As

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Speaker 1: White once said, newspapering is all right, but it makes

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Speaker 1: a bystander out of you. I want to get out

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Speaker 1: on the field where the game is going on. That

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Speaker 1: was the other thing for White. It wasn't just the action.

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Speaker 1: It was about the game, the battle of wits and

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Speaker 1: sometimes fists. That's what White wanted. That's why he was

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Speaker 1: applying to the FBI. But the file made it clear

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Speaker 1: he wasn't a fit. According to Gottlieb's report, his personality, approach,

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Speaker 1: and appearance were not up to the bureau standards. Agents

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Speaker 1: who got to know White would later say he was

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Speaker 1: lone wolf, someone who didn't want to be a member

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Speaker 1: of any team. He was prone to slapping people he

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Speaker 1: didn't like with a black jack. A black jack, by

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Speaker 1: the way, is a leather satchel with lead in it.

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Speaker 1: He carried it to smack people. That was White. He

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Speaker 1: got dressed every morning knowing he might have to pummel

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Speaker 1: someone and play and accordingly, but the file didn't name there.

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Speaker 1: Even though White wasn't FBI material, the report made it

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Speaker 1: clear that George White had been wartime material. In fact,

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Speaker 1: George White had undergone top secret training by British intelligence

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Speaker 1: to be a secret agent. He'd attended real life spy school.

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Speaker 1: It's where White learned to be dangerous, Part two, the

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Speaker 1: James Bond Finishing School before the CIA was formed in

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Speaker 1: ninety seven. It had a precursor, the Office of Strategic

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Speaker 1: Services or OSS. The OSS needed men who could be

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Speaker 1: molded into operatives that used subterfuge and deception. They needed

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Speaker 1: men like George White. By this time, White was passed

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Speaker 1: the newspaper reporting he took up a job as a

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Speaker 1: private investigator. When the FBI rejected him, he joined the

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Speaker 1: newly formed Federal Bureau of Narcotics to be a dope buster.

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Speaker 1: His work meant chasing down dealers of everything from marijuana

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Speaker 1: to cocaine, but it also meant tailing people working under

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Speaker 1: cover and getting into violent altercations. It was spy stuff.

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Speaker 1: The OSS realized, with a little fine tuning, White could

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Speaker 1: be a major asset. And that's where Camp X came

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Speaker 1: into play, or, as White used to call it, the

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Speaker 1: School of Mayhem and Murder rumor has it Ian Fleming.

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Speaker 1: The James Bond author was trained at Camp X, and

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Speaker 1: the special training school has a storied, if secretive history.

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Speaker 1: Opened in nineteen forty one, one day before the Pearl

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Speaker 1: Harbor attacks, Camp X cater to British and American recruits.

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Speaker 1: Students spent their days learning the art of guerrilla warfare

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Speaker 1: and in Cove operations over four weeks, located on two

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Speaker 1: seventy acres of farmland on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario.

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Speaker 1: Recruits got a crash course and everything from parachuting to

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Speaker 1: burglary to learning how to kill someone quickly and silently.

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Speaker 1: Years later, when the CIA would establish their own training

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Speaker 1: facility known as the Farm, the nickname would be a

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Speaker 1: nod to the farm land at Camp X. But by

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Speaker 1: all accounts, Camp X instituted a new style of warfare.

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Speaker 1: Here's a sample from the official training manual. Being conspicuous

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Speaker 1: avoid all limelight by being an average citizen in appearance

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Speaker 1: and conduct. Be tidy. You will be a cog in

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Speaker 1: a very large machine, But that blending in always served

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Speaker 1: a larger purpose. Your aim is to kill your opponent

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Speaker 1: as quickly as possible. A prisoner is generally a handicap,

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Speaker 1: so forget the Queensberry rules. If you need to search

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Speaker 1: a prisoner, it's best to kill him first. White had

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Speaker 1: found his home. He was one of the first eight

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Speaker 1: Americans ever sent to Camp X for training. There was

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Speaker 1: no better action, no bigger game than intelligence operations. This

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Speaker 1: was a place to sharpen his sword. Students learned to

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Speaker 1: blow up bridges to operate Thompson's submachine guns to parachute

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Speaker 1: off ninety foot towers. There were martial arts classes that

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Speaker 1: showcased moves to incapacitate and kill. Instructors recommended hiding razor

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Speaker 1: blades and the brim of caps and slashing enemies in

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Speaker 1: the throat. At night, men would be roused from a

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Speaker 1: sound sleep a pistol thrust in their hand. Dazed, they

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Speaker 1: try to navigate a maze and locate targets dressed like

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Speaker 1: Nazi soldiers. This wasn't a game. The pistols had live rounds.

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Speaker 1: Instructors watched from the hind sandbacks. Targets would pop up,

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Speaker 1: who were expected to put two rounds into each one.

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Speaker 1: Speakers piped in the sound of footsteps and conversations in German.

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Speaker 1: The corridors had uneven floors that made standing straight difficult.

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Speaker 1: It was a little like being on drugs. During one

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Speaker 1: live round session, a trainee was shot and killed by accident.

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Speaker 1: The instructors treated it as though someone had stubbed the toe.

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Speaker 1: The day's schedule went on uninterrupted. As one CIA psychologist

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Speaker 1: later observed, camp Ax was best suited for sociopathic characters.

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Speaker 1: George White thrived at Camp AX, and if he didn't

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Speaker 1: seem to have any hesitation about killing, maybe it's because

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Speaker 1: he'd done it before Part three, getting into drugs. Let's

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Speaker 1: go back and get into George White's life before spy School.

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Speaker 1: Long before he arrived at Camp X, White had sent

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Speaker 1: applications to every major law enforcement agency in the country,

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Speaker 1: but the FBI and other prestigious agencies didn't want White.

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Speaker 1: He was too rough, too abrasive, not the Ivy League

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Speaker 1: types these agencies were looking for. Normally, that would have

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Speaker 1: been the end of it, but in the nineteen thirties,

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Speaker 1: a new opportunity opened up. As the illicit drug trade

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Speaker 1: began to grow, the government established the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

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Speaker 1: The Narcotics Bureau has been called the most successful law

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Speaker 1: enforcement initiative in American history, but a big part of

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Speaker 1: that is because they were able to invent their villain Weed.

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Speaker 1: As the Great Depression loomed, federal agencies started to lose funding.

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Speaker 1: The head of the Narcotics Bureau, Harry and Slinger, came

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Speaker 1: up with a scheme to ensure his department would coast

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Speaker 1: through the depression. He made a villain of marijuana. Anslinger

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Speaker 1: was one of the people who lobbied to make possession

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Speaker 1: of felony. He claimed it could cause psychosis or insanity.

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Speaker 1: In his crusade, Anslinger consulted thirty experts looking for some

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Speaker 1: kind of medical backing. When twenty nine of them could

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Speaker 1: find no reason marijuana should be considered dangerous, an sling

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Speaker 1: are stuck with the one who agreed with him, And

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Speaker 1: of course, there was a sinister racial component to this strategy,

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Speaker 1: which tied marijuana to Mexican immigrants in the black community.

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Speaker 1: By ninety seven, Congress essentially criminalized the drug with the

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Speaker 1: Marijuana Tacks Act. So, after a raft of rejections, George

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Speaker 1: White applied to the Narcotics Bureau. He got a letter

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Speaker 1: of endorsement from Senator William Gibbs McAdoo, a friend of

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Speaker 1: the family, and in nineteen thirty six George White only

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Speaker 1: got his chance to wear a badge. He was now

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Speaker 1: George White, Agent for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. But

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Speaker 1: it wasn't long before he fucked it up. An slinger

188
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Speaker 1: dispatched White to San Francisco, where he was told to

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Speaker 1: pose as a pimp in an effort to find heroin dealers.

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Speaker 1: The plan was simple, earn a dealer's trust, buy some heroin,

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Speaker 1: then make an arrest. But White was learning on the job,

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Speaker 1: so when a heroin dealer agreed to sell some heroin

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Speaker 1: to White, took White's money and then told White to

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Speaker 1: wait right there while he went and got his stash.

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Speaker 1: White trusted him. Let's cut this story short, because you know,

196
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Speaker 1: the heroin dealer isn't coming back. White was out his money,

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Speaker 1: which came out of his own paycheck, so he tried again.

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Speaker 1: This time, he told a different dealer, a man named

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Speaker 1: Tuffie Jackson, that he'd follow him back to his house

200
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Speaker 1: to make sure he didn't take off with the cash,

201
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Speaker 1: and off they went. White walked into Toffy's house and

202
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Speaker 1: forked over the cash. I got you wait here, I'll

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Speaker 1: be right there. Toffy Jackson didn't come back at all.

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Speaker 1: It wasn't long before White tracked down Toughy so as

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Speaker 1: politely as he could, White inquired as to the status

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Speaker 1: of their business transaction, Where's my fucking money? Things escalated quickly.

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Speaker 1: White identified himself as a cop and drew his gun,

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Speaker 1: but tough He wasn't going to be stopped. He pulled

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Speaker 1: a knife and charged White, so he shot Tough. He

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Speaker 1: took a point blank in the head, and well, look,

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Speaker 1: it's just a bad idea to get into confrontations with

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Speaker 1: people named Toffee. The bullet bounced off tough He's skull

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Speaker 1: and he kept coming. So he shot again, this time

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Speaker 1: aiming for Toffy's stomach. The bullet would hit its mark

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Speaker 1: and tough He would bleed out. So it wasn't a

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Speaker 1: great first day for White. He lost money to one

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Speaker 1: drug dealer, killed another. Oh and one more thing. When

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Speaker 1: White had asked the homeowner where he could find tough He,

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Speaker 1: he had told him to check the local park. So

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Speaker 1: this gunfight. It took place in full view of people

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Speaker 1: feeding pigeons and pushing babies and strollers. White didn't get fired,

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Speaker 1: but he did get demoted to Seattle. He was years

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Speaker 1: away from Camp Ax, and from the look of things,

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Speaker 1: he'd never get there with a track record like this.

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Speaker 1: But Seattle is where George White turned it all around

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Speaker 1: Part four Weaponized. When people in Seattle saw George White

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Speaker 1: roughing up a man on crutches, they probably thought he

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Speaker 1: was insane, but White knew something they didn't. Inside the

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Speaker 1: man's crutch was a hollowed out space. Once you pulled

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Speaker 1: off the rubber tip, you'd find a stash of morphine.

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Speaker 1: Arresting the dealer would have been a nice rebound, but

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Speaker 1: White wanted more. At just twenty eight years old and

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Speaker 1: with less than a year on duty, he wanted to

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Speaker 1: build a career case. So White scared the dealer and

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Speaker 1: turned him into an informant. In less than an hour,

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Speaker 1: White was standing face to face with his supplier in

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Speaker 1: a hotel room, a man named Lum Get. Get didn't

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Speaker 1: want to go to jail. He offered White what he

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Speaker 1: called the big men, the real heavyweights. This was much

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Speaker 1: bigger than a few guys selling drugs. Get worked for

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Speaker 1: the Hip Sing Tong, a massive Chinese gang that had

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Speaker 1: a presence not only in Seattle, but across the country.

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Speaker 1: White was still a rookie agent, but no agent had

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Speaker 1: ever infiltrated a Chinese opium gang before. He had a

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Speaker 1: good plan. He claimed to be a purchasing agent for

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Speaker 1: a West Coast narcotic syndicate in need of a new supplier.

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Speaker 1: The agency gave him the green light. Before long, White

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Speaker 1: had managed to land an intro to Jimmy Wong a

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Speaker 1: Tongue member who shipped drugs via mail order. White went

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Speaker 1: to New York to meet Wong in person. The bureau

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Speaker 1: set him up in a room that was wired for sound,

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Speaker 1: the same kind of setup that would soon play a

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Speaker 1: big role in his life. With agents recording, White got

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Speaker 1: Wong to admit he could sell him everything from morphine

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Speaker 1: to opium to cocaine. It was far more than White

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Speaker 1: even had the approval or funds to buy. Get. Also

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Speaker 1: introduced White to a gunman for the syndicate who was

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Speaker 1: offering drugs even cheaper than long. They got along well,

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Speaker 1: and pretty soon the gunman made White an offer that

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Speaker 1: knocked him for a loop, a chance to become a

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Speaker 1: full fledged member of the Hip Sing Tong. For close

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Speaker 1: to a year, White collected incriminating information on the gang

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Speaker 1: from the inside. On November nineteenth nine, seven agents rated

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Speaker 1: locations all across the country. Over fifty arrests were made,

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Speaker 1: including several members of the Italian mafia. It was one

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Speaker 1: of the most spectacular takedowns of a drug syndicate in

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Speaker 1: the history of law enforcement, and it belonged primarily to

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Speaker 1: George White. He was a hero in the Elliott Ness mode,

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Speaker 1: posing for pictures with an opium pipe in one hand

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Speaker 1: and a Tommy gun in the other. The FBI hadn't

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Speaker 1: wanted him, but look at George White. Now, he'd mauled

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Speaker 1: a guy on crutches and chase that lead all the

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Speaker 1: way to a fiery altar of drug empire. For most cops,

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Speaker 1: most people, this would have been it the big score.

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Speaker 1: White got a promotion to New York, which he had

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Speaker 1: fallen in love with. He had won the game. Except

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Speaker 1: this wasn't it. This wasn't White's climax, not even close.

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Speaker 1: There was still Camp X and a chance to put

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Speaker 1: those spy skills to the test. White's FBI file gets

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Speaker 1: into other chapters of his life, like his time abroad.

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Speaker 1: It's a few years later and White's been recruited by

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Speaker 1: the OSS and is finishing up his training at Camp X,

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Speaker 1: all of it based on his work as a decorated

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Speaker 1: narcotics agent who somehow managed to become a card carrying

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Speaker 1: member of a Chinese criminal enterprise. After his training, he

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Speaker 1: goes to Cairo, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, observing the

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Speaker 1: narcotics trade in territory and reporting back to the Narcotics Bureau.

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Speaker 1: No narcotics officer had ever crossed oceans to do his job.

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Speaker 1: White was weaponized now. The OSS hadn't sent him to

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Speaker 1: espionage school for fun. This was war. The fate of

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Speaker 1: the free world was on the line. In Turkey, he

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Speaker 1: convinced a gang of heroin dealers to sell to him.

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Speaker 1: They agree, but only if you'll allow himself to be

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Speaker 1: escorted to an undisclosed location. White memorizes the number of

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Speaker 1: their gas meter and calls the utility company to get

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Speaker 1: the address, which he gave to his partners. The guy

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Speaker 1: was good. In nineteen forty three, White is dispatched to Calcutta, India,

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Speaker 1: where Allied forces relied heavily on getting shipments of supplies

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Speaker 1: at the port. But the port had been repeatedly attacked

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Speaker 1: by air bombardments, which pointed to a spy somewhere nearby.

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Speaker 1: With all the skills he'd accumulated in the Narcotics Bureau

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Speaker 1: and at Camp X, White is told to find the

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Speaker 1: man and resolve the problem. White disguises himself as a longshoreman.

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Speaker 1: He stays inconspicuous an average citizen. White starts to focus

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Speaker 1: on the owner of a bootmaking shop to preserve his cover.

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Speaker 1: He has an Army sergeant confront the bootmaker with accusations

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Speaker 1: he was a spy for the Axis. The conversation doesn't

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Speaker 1: go well. The bootmaker pulls a knife and lunges for

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Speaker 1: the sergeant. White pops out and fires twice, hitting the

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Speaker 1: spy in the chest. The British weren't pleased with their

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Speaker 1: trigger happy American counterparts, but you couldn't say White wasn't effective.

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Speaker 1: A couple of gunshots and the air raids stopped? Or

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Speaker 1: has he put it? I interfered renally with their argument.

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Speaker 1: When the war was over, White returned to the United

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Speaker 1: States and resumed his work at the Narcotics Bureau, this

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Speaker 1: time in Chicago. He'd moved around for the Bureau a lot,

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Speaker 1: bouncing from one major city to the next, always garnering

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Speaker 1: attention for high profile cases and busts. In nine he

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Speaker 1: arrested singer Billie Holiday and her manager for opium possession.

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Speaker 1: He burst into her hotel room and said she tried

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Speaker 1: to get rid of the drugs in the toilet. Holiday

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Speaker 1: denied she was using drugs or that she had any

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Speaker 1: on her person at the time of her arrest. She

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Speaker 1: was eventually found not guilty. Perhaps White had planted the

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Speaker 1: drugs as part of Harry Anslinger's bizarre crusade against Billie

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Speaker 1: Holiday and Jazz. Still, it was more attention and more notoriety.

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Speaker 1: The U. S. Treasury, which oversaw the Narcotics Bureau, gave

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Speaker 1: White their metal for Exceptional Civilian Service. This was George

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Speaker 1: White's life, a celebrated narcotics agent with some very unusual skills. Still,

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Speaker 1: White felt destined for more, but the FBI wasn't interested.

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Speaker 1: The war was over. The only answer was more busts,

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Speaker 1: just like the ones before them. Except except for that

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Speaker 1: one day in nineteen fifty two, the day Sydney Gottlieb

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Speaker 1: opened up George White's file and started reading everything about him.

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Speaker 1: The Red Cross, the Hip Sing Tong, Camp X Calcutta,

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Speaker 1: Billie Holiday, everything he'd done in the last decade. Without

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Speaker 1: knowing it, George White had built a resume that made

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Speaker 1: him perfect for a job he didn't even know existed,

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Speaker 1: in a war he didn't know what was happening. Gottlieb,

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Speaker 1: you'll remember, was the CIA's head chemist, the man in

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Speaker 1: charge of mk ultra. The Cold War was a time

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Speaker 1: to explore everything from radioactive oatmeal to l s D.

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Speaker 1: He was impressed by White's file, but he was fascinated

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Speaker 1: by one thing in particular. Buried in those pages was

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Speaker 1: a classified document involving White that detailed a secret chapter

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Speaker 1: in his life, something that had happened in between Campax

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Speaker 1: and returning home from the war. It was something so

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Speaker 1: amazing that Gottli had called up White's boss at the

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Speaker 1: Narcotics Bureau that very minute and told him the CIA

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Speaker 1: needed George White. America needed George White, a sociopath who

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Speaker 1: wouldn't hesitate to interfere terminally with a problem. If it

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Speaker 1: came down to it, this secret document would change the

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Speaker 1: course of history. It would destroy a lot of lives,

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Speaker 1: and it would give George White everything he ever wanted.

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Speaker 1: The only problem. At that very moment, George White was

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Speaker 1: in jail this season in Operation Midnight Climax. Secretary couldn't

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Speaker 1: wake her colleague, so she picked up the gun, took aim,

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Speaker 1: and fired. America believes its enemies have mastered brainwashing. The

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Speaker 1: CIA is desperate to catch up. They've enlisted the help

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Speaker 1: of George White. This is the story of the experiment

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Speaker 1: Escaping the Lab. The LSD was an aerosolized form so

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Speaker 1: it could be sprayed over a population. One man going

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Speaker 1: deep cover, drugging strangers, bugging the CIA brothel, and keeping

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Speaker 1: meticulous notes on the best ways to so chaos. Sex

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Speaker 1: workers were on the CIA payroll. Can sex and drugs

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Speaker 1: win the Cold War? The Sea is willing to do

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Speaker 1: anything to find out, and along the way, many people

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Speaker 1: will lose their jobs, others will lose their minds, some

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Speaker 1: their lives. And the man in the middle of it all,

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Speaker 1: George White. It was George White. Find George White. Operation

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Speaker 1: Midnight Climax is hosted by Noel Brown. The show is

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Speaker 1: written by Jake Ross and editing by Ernie indraw Tat.

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Speaker 1: Original music by Aaron Kaufman. Research and fact checking by

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Speaker 1: Austin Thompson and Maurica Brown. Show logo by Lucy Quintinilla.

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Speaker 1: Special thanks to David Crumholtz, Vanessa crum Holtz, Ted Raymi,

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Speaker 1: Adam Copeland, Christina Everett, and Ryan Murdoch. Julian Weller is

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Speaker 1: our supervising producer. Our executive producers are Jason English and

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Speaker 1: mangesh Had Ticketer