Speaker 1: You're listening to American Shadows, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Everyone knew
Speaker 1: it simply as the Annex. While it's gone, now replaced
Speaker 1: by Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, it once
Speaker 1: served as a laboratory for the Department of Social Relations,
Speaker 1: and in the fall of ninety nine through the spring
Speaker 1: of ninety two, the Annex was home to one of
Speaker 1: the most disturbing experiments the schools. Psychologists, led by Henry Murray,
Speaker 1: chose twenty two undergraduates. The researchers felt that telling the
Speaker 1: students the truth about their experiment would taint the results,
Speaker 1: so naturally they lied. Each student was instructed to write
Speaker 1: an essay explaining their worldview, philosophy, and objectives. Afterward, they
Speaker 1: were told that meet with their fellow test subjects and
Speaker 1: debate their topics. But Murray had other plans. Had come
Speaker 1: to Harvard after working with the CIA during World War Two,
Speaker 1: had once trained spies, and now he wanted to know
Speaker 1: how to break them. Using intense interrogation methods, the students
Speaker 1: served as stand ins. Each participant was given a code
Speaker 1: name to protect their identity. One student was a seventeen
Speaker 1: year old genius who had entered Harvard at sixteen. They
Speaker 1: dubbed him Lawful. Considered precocious by his peers, a Lawful
Speaker 1: found himself too young to connect well with his older
Speaker 1: college classmates, and being an outsider may have made him
Speaker 1: an easy target for Murray. Like the others, Lawful finished
Speaker 1: his essay and was taken to the annex instead of
Speaker 1: the promised debate. Murray and the team put each student
Speaker 1: in a chair facing a one way mirror. The psychologists
Speaker 1: connected electrodes to them and shined spotlights on their faces.
Speaker 1: Lawful could barely see from there. Murray and the psychologists
Speaker 1: subjected him to what was described as broad, forceful, and
Speaker 1: personally abusive interrogations. The psychologists repeatedly and systematically attacked his
Speaker 1: and the other students ideals and beliefs, and the abuse
Speaker 1: didn't stop there. The psychologists recorded every outburst, every fit
Speaker 1: of anger or emotional pain. Then they cruelly played them
Speaker 1: back for all to see, mocking and belittling the student's reactions.
Speaker 1: Their goal learn which interrogation methods might work best on
Speaker 1: breaking the enemy. If you're seeing a problem here, then
Speaker 1: we agree that These were kids, young adults, not trained
Speaker 1: military or secret agents with the knowledge of how to respond.
Speaker 1: Throughout the two experiment, Murray and the team emotionally beat
Speaker 1: down Lawful and the others, repeatedly subject them to hours
Speaker 1: of humiliation. That kind of abuse undoubtedly left emotional scars
Speaker 1: that students carried for the rest of their lives. It
Speaker 1: broke trust with the school, the teachers, and probably affected
Speaker 1: all of their other relationships as well. There isn't any
Speaker 1: record that the students were offered psychiatric help to overcome
Speaker 1: the trauma of the experiment. For young Lawful, those scars
Speaker 1: ran deep and did eventually resurface. He graduated from Harvard
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty two and enrolled at the University of Michigan.
Speaker 1: There he earned a master's and a doctorate in mathematics.
Speaker 1: He remained quiet and kept to himself. After graduation, he
Speaker 1: taught at Berkeley before abruptly leaving in nineteen sixty nine
Speaker 1: without giving an explanation. In nineteen seventy one, he moved
Speaker 1: into a remote Montana cabin, living a life without technology, electricity,
Speaker 1: or even running water. Above all, he avoided human contact.
Speaker 1: By ninety five, he was sabotaging the housing developments that
Speaker 1: had begun to spring up around him, using booby traps
Speaker 1: or arson. To say he didn't like technology would be
Speaker 1: an understatement. He had developed an immense hatred and distrust
Speaker 1: for technological advances between nineteen seventy eight and nine. That
Speaker 1: hatred spurred him to send bombs to people and locations
Speaker 1: that he felt were the biggest threats, resulting in three
Speaker 1: debts and twenty three people injured. On April third of nine,
Speaker 1: police arrested him. He pled guilty and was handed eight
Speaker 1: life sentences without the chance for parole. To this day,
Speaker 1: mental health specialists debate if Theodore Kazynski, also known as
Speaker 1: the Uni Bomber, committed the crimes in part due to
Speaker 1: the experiment at Harvard, from a diagnosis of schizophrenia, or both.
Speaker 1: Whatever the case, one thing is certain, Kazynski's story only
Speaker 1: scratches the surface of psychiatric experiments on unsuspecting America gins
Speaker 1: during the Cold War. In the nineteen fifties and sixties,
Speaker 1: both the government and public believed communist countries were performing
Speaker 1: acts of mind control on American citizens. To the CIA,
Speaker 1: finding out how to stop it became an issue of
Speaker 1: national security. Learning how to do it better, though, became
Speaker 1: something else entirely. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows.
Speaker 1: In times of combat or even tension, like during the
Speaker 1: Cold War, spies have been a key component to collecting
Speaker 1: enemy intelligence, often by any means possible. It's not an
Speaker 1: American invention, of course. Espionage has long been a part
Speaker 1: of any culture In conflict, and captured spies have often
Speaker 1: found themselves tortured, beaten, bribed, whatever it took to get
Speaker 1: them to divulge what they knew. So the trick was
Speaker 1: to never get caught. The second trick was to operate collectively.
Speaker 1: During the American Revolution, the Culper Spy Ring, operating out
Speaker 1: of Long Island, worked in plain sight, using codes they
Speaker 1: had learned from the military. The ring had been so
Speaker 1: successful they uncovered an American spy for the British, none
Speaker 1: other than Benedict Arnold. Spies also came into play during
Speaker 1: the Civil War, effectively used by both the Union and
Speaker 1: the Confederacy. They were mostly one offs, though individuals are
Speaker 1: small bands. The government didn't have a dedicated espionage division
Speaker 1: until World War Two. The bombing of Pearl Harbor shook
Speaker 1: the public government officials thought the nation had been unprepared.
Speaker 1: Both the general public and federal leaders believed that if
Speaker 1: the country had had better intelligence, the attack may never
Speaker 1: have happened. The thing is, the Navy and the FBI
Speaker 1: had observed odd behavior from Japanese diplomats and the weeks
Speaker 1: before December seven. The Navy had also recently cracked codes
Speaker 1: that the Japanese military were using. They just didn't have
Speaker 1: a way to effectively put the knowledge to use since
Speaker 1: the information was scattered. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Speaker 1: created a centralized agency to collect, interpret, and organize such
Speaker 1: information during the war. On July eleventh of nineteen forty one,
Speaker 1: he appointed prominent New York lawyer William Donovan to lead
Speaker 1: an agency that would focus on military intelligence and covert operations.
Speaker 1: Donovan had commanded the hundred and sixty five Infantry Regiment
Speaker 1: during World War One and was one of America's most
Speaker 1: decorated military heroes. As the director of this new agency,
Speaker 1: his first undertaking was to create an overseas radio show
Speaker 1: in certain territories abroad. Knowing the power of propaganda, he
Speaker 1: assigned American playwright Robert Sherwood to write the scripts. On
Speaker 1: February one of nineteen forty two, the radio program Voice
Speaker 1: of America premiered. The host opened with the pledge, Today
Speaker 1: and every day from now on, we will be with
Speaker 1: you from America to talk about the war. The news
Speaker 1: may be good or bad for us, we will always
Speaker 1: tell you the truth. Donovan valued propaganda as something tactical,
Speaker 1: while Sherwood was more about public diplomacy. The unending conflict
Speaker 1: between the two men caused Roosevelt to split the Department
Speaker 1: into two factions on June ninety two. He thus created
Speaker 1: the Office of Strategic Services or OSS, and the Office
Speaker 1: of War Information or o w I. The creation of
Speaker 1: the OSS provoked distrust with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover
Speaker 1: and the War Department's Military Division. The men at the
Speaker 1: helm of both agencies detected a bit of overlap and
Speaker 1: responsibilities and favoritism from the President. Roosevelt didn't help alleviate
Speaker 1: their concerns. He gave the OSS the power to run
Speaker 1: special operations that fell just outside of the military normally
Speaker 1: controlled by the Joint Chief of Staff, making matters worse.
Speaker 1: Donovan and the heads of each military branch didn't exactly
Speaker 1: see eye to eye, the military blocked his access to
Speaker 1: certain communications. In response, Donovan recruited people in the States
Speaker 1: and around the world to create a counterintelligence branch called
Speaker 1: X two. In late nineteen forty two, the team traveled
Speaker 1: to North Africa, working as vice consuls and establishing networks
Speaker 1: of locals to covertly collect vital information. With the information
Speaker 1: in hand that would advance Allied troops, OSS officers parachuted
Speaker 1: into Nazi occupied France, Belgium, and the Netherlands before d Day.
Speaker 1: Their mission coordinate air drop supplies, assist resistance groups, and
Speaker 1: begin guerrilla attacks on the German troops. Donovan might have
Speaker 1: gone behind the backs of military divisions, and he hadn't
Speaker 1: been forthcoming with the details on how his men acquired
Speaker 1: their intel, but the President was pleased with the outcome.
Speaker 1: By late nineteen forty four, thirteen thousand men and women
Speaker 1: worked for the OSS, with just more than half stationed overseas.
Speaker 1: Instead of military types and uniforms, Donovan's teams were designed
Speaker 1: to blend in with society. Their ranks included some Americans
Speaker 1: who were or would become fairly prominent, such as Supreme
Speaker 1: Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, baseball player and coach Moburg, and
Speaker 1: even a young Julia child. Roosevelt's pet agency came to
Speaker 1: an end when Harry S. Truman became president. To him,
Speaker 1: the OSS no longer had a purpose once the war
Speaker 1: ended in nineteen forty five. However, he couldn't ignore the
Speaker 1: agency's methods of accomplishment, even if they weren't fully sanctioned.
Speaker 1: Truman decided to keep the Secret Intelligence and X two
Speaker 1: branches while the war was over. By ninety seven, Americans
Speaker 1: feared a new threat, communism that witness Hitler's reign and
Speaker 1: occupation of other countries during the war, and increasingly worried
Speaker 1: that a similar horror might arise at home. Fostering those
Speaker 1: fears was Congress's newly minted National Security Council. To the public,
Speaker 1: if the threat wasn't real, then why create such a council,
Speaker 1: but anti communist propaganda high. Truman rolled the two former
Speaker 1: OSS branches into a new organization, the Central Intelligence Agency.
Speaker 1: The president envisioned the CIA as his eyes and ears.
Speaker 1: They had report back on potential threats. Their focus would
Speaker 1: be to act as a news agency of sorts to
Speaker 1: get the information Truman wanted. The CIA found that clandestine
Speaker 1: maneuvers and often less than ethical methods were both highly
Speaker 1: effective and essential. Compared with Russia, Americans were behind in
Speaker 1: all manners of espionage. To keep Americans safe, the CIA
Speaker 1: believed they needed to match the Soviet Union's methods. After
Speaker 1: World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union
Speaker 1: engaged in numerous political and economic disagreements, otherwise known as
Speaker 1: the Cold War. The clashes and rivalry between the two
Speaker 1: superpowers became so intense that another war of real war
Speaker 1: seemed to loom on the horizon, and the fear of
Speaker 1: communism skyrocketed. When a Miami Daily News headline in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty shocked the nation brainwashing tactics forced Chinese into ranks
Speaker 1: of Communist Party. Journalist Edward Hunter's story detailed how the
Speaker 1: Red Army was using an ancient and terrifying method of
Speaker 1: brainwashing to convert the country citizens into mindless communist robots.
Speaker 1: The article warned Americans of the dangers of mind control.
Speaker 1: Edwards hinted that liberals and socialists were using these methods
Speaker 1: in schools and libraries to convert Americans, and citizens across
Speaker 1: the nation were terrified. Something had to be done. They
Speaker 1: called it Operation Paper clip, a combined effort between the
Speaker 1: CIA and the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, wherein special agents
Speaker 1: sought out German scientists and engineers still living in post
Speaker 1: World War two Germany. The operation's primary goal was to
Speaker 1: give the US an advantage over the Soviet Union in
Speaker 1: military espionage and the space race. The fear of a
Speaker 1: Communist takeover was growing. On March twenty one of ninety seven,
Speaker 1: German issued Executive Order nine three five, the Loyalty Order.
Speaker 1: It's specified that to determine loyalty to the US government,
Speaker 1: all federal employees were to be analyzed. As you might imagine,
Speaker 1: those citizens valuing personal liberty and privacy didn't take to
Speaker 1: the order very well, and it didn't do much to
Speaker 1: tamp down conspiracies regarding a Communist takeover either. By the
Speaker 1: early nineteen fifties, Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged to the Communists
Speaker 1: had infiltrated every part of the U. S government. He
Speaker 1: had no proof, no names, just allegations masquerading as fact.
Speaker 1: His use of intimidation and hearsay to garner power in
Speaker 1: a fading political career was reckless, without ever producing a
Speaker 1: single investigation that uncovered a single Communist plot back in
Speaker 1: his claims, he managed to whip the American public into hysteria.
Speaker 1: He painted opponents or of those who spoke against him
Speaker 1: as Communist sympathizers. In public speeches, he strongly implied that
Speaker 1: communists were coming to take over every aspect of American
Speaker 1: life and freedom. Americans panicked, and conspiracy theories and suspicions spread.
Speaker 1: Newspapers and networks featured emotionally charged headlines and stories. The
Speaker 1: people began to conspiracy shop, a method of looking for
Speaker 1: sources that fed their fears. Political leaders like McCarthy went
Speaker 1: on tour, telling the crowd that communists could be lurking
Speaker 1: anywhere a school, teachers, journalists, neighbors, and that they were
Speaker 1: singularly focused on spying on and converting Americans. Although McCarthy
Speaker 1: was debunked time and again, those who already believed hailed
Speaker 1: him as an expert. In turn, his fellow party members
Speaker 1: found him useful. His riled up fan base was likely
Speaker 1: to vote them into office, so they helped the senator
Speaker 1: fuel his conspiracies for their political gain. Once Dwight D.
Speaker 1: Eisenhower took office in nineteen fifty three, McCarthy's reign was
Speaker 1: nearing an embarrassing end for the CIA, though public fear
Speaker 1: of communism allowed them to acquire funding for more projects,
Speaker 1: especially when it came to gathering intelligence. Soviet Union spies
Speaker 1: had a reputation of being tough when it came to interrogation,
Speaker 1: both in extracting information and in keeping quiet. They weren't
Speaker 1: the only concerned, though Americans shifted their worry just a
Speaker 1: hundred and three miles off the Florida Keys, Cuban leader
Speaker 1: Fidel Castro had turned against the United States and sided
Speaker 1: with the Soviet Union. The CIA recruited Cuban exiles to
Speaker 1: effectively invade their homeland and overthrow Castro, but the plan,
Speaker 1: poorly executed, didn't take root, leaving the CIA to figure
Speaker 1: out another way to eliminate the Cuban leader. From nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty to nineteen sixty five, they used agents and attempts
Speaker 1: to assassinate Castro. Several of their plots sounded like something
Speaker 1: straight out of a spy movie. Exploding cigars, poisoned pills,
Speaker 1: ballpoint pens full of lethal drugs, and even a fungus
Speaker 1: laced wetsuit in an exploding seashell. Since the leader enjoyed diving.
Speaker 1: Other concepts were stranger. A One plot was to fill
Speaker 1: Castro's shoes with thallium so that his iconic beard would
Speaker 1: fall out, theoretically making him lose popularity among his supporters.
Speaker 1: There were other odd projects too. In N seven, Operation
Speaker 1: Acoustic Kitty, the CIA spent millions of dollars trying to
Speaker 1: train domestic cats to spy on Russian diplomats. Yes, cats,
Speaker 1: the cats were fitted with listening devices, but as anyone
Speaker 1: who's ever met a cat knows, they have their own agendas. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: the project was scrapped. Additionally, the CIA operated Air America,
Speaker 1: an airline that allowed operatives access to Cambodia, allows and Vietnam,
Speaker 1: where they could better track China's influence. It also allowed
Speaker 1: the agency to traffic drugs into the areas and attempts
Speaker 1: to destabilize them. The idea of mind control resurfaced in
Speaker 1: the public eye when five thousand prisoners of war petitioned
Speaker 1: the United States government to end the Korean War based
Speaker 1: on war crimes. Twenty one men refused to be repatriated.
Speaker 1: Many Americans thought the soldiers had turned against America because
Speaker 1: they had been brainwashed. The more the Democratic Party denied
Speaker 1: the brainwashing, and the more people believed the conspiracies to
Speaker 1: be true. For them, any denial was proof of a
Speaker 1: cover up. Though most political powers felt certain the men
Speaker 1: hadn't been brainwashed, the CIA decided to do their own
Speaker 1: experiments in the study they argued might be beneficial in
Speaker 1: times of warfare. In three, CIA director Alan Dulles authorized
Speaker 1: a series of psychological experiments using hallucinogens, sleep deprivation, and
Speaker 1: electric shock. Of course, the CIA kept the study a secret,
Speaker 1: so secret that most of the participants were unaware that
Speaker 1: they were about to take part in it, and they
Speaker 1: called it mk Ultra. When we think about experiments, we
Speaker 1: think of highly controlled laboratories and appropriately informed subjects. The
Speaker 1: CIA's mk Ultra project took a more direct and insidious
Speaker 1: route the American public. No labs required. The project ran
Speaker 1: from nineteen fifty three until nineteen seventy three and included
Speaker 1: over a hundred and fifty different subjects. The experiments were
Speaker 1: carried out across eighty different institutions, including hospitals, prisons, and
Speaker 1: universities like Harvard. In fact, Henry Murray, who was in
Speaker 1: charge of Harvard's experiment, had been one of the agency's
Speaker 1: former employees tasked with mentally stressing recruits. Under the supervision
Speaker 1: of Sydney Gottlieb, the CIA began to test the effects
Speaker 1: of l s D on their subjects. The agency funded
Speaker 1: research on the drug at Columbia and Stanford, among a
Speaker 1: few other schools. They also began testing mescalin, heroin, and psilocybin,
Speaker 1: sometimes known as magic mushrooms. College students weren't the only
Speaker 1: test subjects, though, The CIA tested their own agents, and
Speaker 1: like the students, they were completely unaware until after the fact.
Speaker 1: Frank Olsen had always loved science. A graduate with a
Speaker 1: doctorate in bacteriology, he found work with the U S
Speaker 1: Biological Warfare laboratories while serving during World War Two. After
Speaker 1: his time in the army, he continued his work as
Speaker 1: a civilian at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, as part
Speaker 1: of the CIA's Special Operations Division. His work entailed creating
Speaker 1: new ways to spread germs and toxins among enemies during
Speaker 1: wartime and to come up with ways to prevent similar
Speaker 1: attacks on Americans. Biological warfare was fast becoming a worldwide threat,
Speaker 1: and Olsen worked on several highly classified projects, with some
Speaker 1: particularly lethal vectors. In a short time, he developed a
Speaker 1: wide range of discrete aerosols neatly disguised as shaving cream
Speaker 1: or insect repellents. The contents were designed to cause food poisoning,
Speaker 1: staff and actions, or encephalitis. Olson worked with materials ranging
Speaker 1: from toxins to anthrax. Delivery methods included lipstick that killed
Speaker 1: on contact and a cigarette lighter that released deadly gas.
Speaker 1: Working on such projects often took him to Plumb Island,
Speaker 1: as some materials were too deadly to bring to the mainland.
Speaker 1: His hard work paid off, and within a year Olson
Speaker 1: was promoted to chief of the Special Operations Division, but
Speaker 1: the pressure was too great and Olson stepped down in
Speaker 1: early The CIA asked him to join them directly. It
Speaker 1: was an odd switch since he would still be at
Speaker 1: Fort Detrick doing almost the same work, and Olson learned
Speaker 1: the hard way that his job with CIA would be
Speaker 1: even more stressful. He worked with Gottlieb and Robert Lashbrook,
Speaker 1: who were just getting the mk Ultra project underway. Gassing
Speaker 1: animals began to wear Olson down. Every morning had walk
Speaker 1: into the lab to find several monkeys dead in their cages.
Speaker 1: The job also took him to other countries and locations
Speaker 1: where he was asked to supervise the use of experimental
Speaker 1: drugs and gases on human subjects. The use of hallucinogens,
Speaker 1: along with physical torture, caused a few debts. Olsen's coworkers
Speaker 1: seemed bless, upset that the attempts at brainwashing people to
Speaker 1: extract information weren't working, and while he noticed their lack
Speaker 1: of compassion and empathy, they noticed his reluctance to participate
Speaker 1: in the experiments. In November of ninety three, Olsen and
Speaker 1: several others were invited to a retreat at a cabin
Speaker 1: deep in western Maryland. The first night, the attendees conducted
Speaker 1: business and discussed key projects. The second night, the men
Speaker 1: all but Gottlieb and Washbrook drank heavily. Not long afterward,
Speaker 1: the men all felt off, many, including Olsen, began to hallucinate.
Speaker 1: Got Lieb admitted drinks had been spiked with LSD. The work,
Speaker 1: the pressure, and the betrayal were too much for Olson.
Speaker 1: On top of the hallucinations, he experienced a nervous breakdown.
Speaker 1: The next morning. After he felt slightly better, he fled.
Speaker 1: He showed up to work a day later and informed
Speaker 1: his boss that he was thinking about quitting. Knowing that
Speaker 1: Olson was privy to a lot of confidential information, his
Speaker 1: boss did his best to convince Olsen to stay at
Speaker 1: least for a while. Olson complained that the LSD had
Speaker 1: really messed him up. Even days later, he felt disoriented
Speaker 1: and had difficulty with simple everyday tasks. Gott Leap sent
Speaker 1: him to see a doctor closely tied to the mk
Speaker 1: Ultra project in New York. Dr Harold Abramson listened carefully
Speaker 1: as Olson complained that he couldn't focus, had difficulties sleeping,
Speaker 1: and that at times he forgot how to spell. He
Speaker 1: said that the job had gotten to him and that
Speaker 1: the betrayal of being doped at the cabin had been
Speaker 1: the last straw. Abramson assured him he'd be perfectly fine
Speaker 1: and gave him some medication to help steady his nerves.
Speaker 1: Olson took one of the pills before his flight back
Speaker 1: to Maryland, and at first they seemed to work. He
Speaker 1: felt calmer once back home, though he became belligerent to
Speaker 1: everyone around him. Later, he apologized for his behavior, though
Speaker 1: he didn't recall all of what he had said and done.
Speaker 1: His boss and Gottlieb sent him back to New York
Speaker 1: once more, suggesting he needed some time away from the office.
Speaker 1: Lashbrook accompanied him, and the two checked into the Statler Hotel,
Speaker 1: Room ten eighteen A. When Olson talked to his wife
Speaker 1: on the morning of November, he told her he was
Speaker 1: feeling much better. At two forty five that afternoon, though,
Speaker 1: Olson went out the window and fell to his death.
Speaker 1: By three, the mk Ultra project had come to a halt.
Speaker 1: The scrutiny over the Watergate documents had the CIA feeling
Speaker 1: a bit uncomfortable with the project's details. Aside from the
Speaker 1: psychoactive drugs, electric shocks, torture and sensory deprivation, agents had
Speaker 1: employed hypnosis, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse. Richard Helm,
Speaker 1: then Director of the CIA, ordered most of the records
Speaker 1: destroyed most but not all, in nive. President Gerald Ford's
Speaker 1: Commission on CIA activities, also known as the Rockfeller Commission,
Speaker 1: got under way. The sudden destruction of the documents brought
Speaker 1: mk Ultra into the commission's focus. With so many files missing,
Speaker 1: the investigation had to rely heavily on key testimonials from
Speaker 1: the victims and participants. The testimony was then matched to
Speaker 1: the twenty or so remaining documents, One of them, written
Speaker 1: by a field agent, Pigott Leab in ninety one, stated
Speaker 1: that it had been fun, killing, cheating, and stealing, all
Speaker 1: under the sanction of his superiors. One of those victims
Speaker 1: named in the remaining documents was Frank Olson. Within days,
Speaker 1: his family sat in the Oval office. President Ford apologized
Speaker 1: for the decades long smear campaign that had tarnished Olson's name.
Speaker 1: The family had insisted all along that he would never
Speaker 1: have jumped from the hotel window, nor would he have
Speaker 1: accidentally fallen as was recorded in the CIA's report. Testimony
Speaker 1: and a paper trail also showed that Olson hadn't been
Speaker 1: drugged just once. His anxiety and problems functioning hadn't been
Speaker 1: entirely due to job stress that CIA had repeatedly and
Speaker 1: covertly dosed him after he threatened to quit. During the investigation,
Speaker 1: the CIA denied that Olson's death had been anything other
Speaker 1: than an accident or suicide, but after his death the
Speaker 1: family had paid for a second autopsy. Evidence suggested that
Speaker 1: Olson had suffered injuries before his fall, though until now
Speaker 1: that report had been dismissed. Aside from Lashbrook being in
Speaker 1: the room at the time of the supposed accident. The
Speaker 1: investigation revealed a second agent had been involved, Sherfield Edwards,
Speaker 1: was known for cleaning up messes during botched missions. Records
Speaker 1: show that both Edwards and Lashbrook had strongly persuaded New
Speaker 1: York police to not investigate Olson's death. In the end,
Speaker 1: the Rockfeller Commission reports stated that Olson hadn't died due
Speaker 1: to a bad reaction to LSD. They determined that had
Speaker 1: died because of the concern that he might divulge information
Speaker 1: about the CIA's interrogation programs. In other words, it wasn't
Speaker 1: the drug that killed him, after all, it was secrets.
Speaker 1: There's more to the story. Stick around after this brief
Speaker 1: sponsor break to hear all about it. Black limos and SUVs,
Speaker 1: men and women in black suits surrounding the President and
Speaker 1: the First family wherever they go. The Secret Service employs
Speaker 1: some of the best trained bodyguards in the world. Yet
Speaker 1: the Secret Service didn't even exist until after the Civil War. Now,
Speaker 1: you'd think Lincoln's assassination might have spurred the agency's creation,
Speaker 1: but their original purpose wasn't to protect the president or
Speaker 1: any high ranking official. In eighteen sixty five, when the
Speaker 1: agency was founded, the Secret Service worked with the Department
Speaker 1: of Treasury. The rise in fraudulent banknotes and counterfeiting was
Speaker 1: the new agency's focus. All of that changed in one
Speaker 1: that year, Americans flocked to Buffalo, New York for the
Speaker 1: Pan American Exposition. The fair, held from May first through
Speaker 1: November two that year, showcased a nine pound elephant and
Speaker 1: the eighty nine ft tall electric power powered by Niagara Falls.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest attractions, though, was President William McKinley.
Speaker 1: The President liked to make himself available to the public
Speaker 1: every day except Sundays. That was his advisers were less
Speaker 1: fond of his appearances for safety reasons, but McKinley insisted
Speaker 1: he had been touring the country with his wife, and
Speaker 1: speaking at the exposition had been in his plans for months.
Speaker 1: Over a hundred and sixteen thousand people crammed into the
Speaker 1: expo on September five to hear the President's speech and
Speaker 1: watch the patriotic firework display and pyrotechnics spelled out Welcome
Speaker 1: President McKinley, Chief of our Nation and our Empire. On
Speaker 1: September six, people lined up for the meet and greet
Speaker 1: with the President. The summer heat was sweltering, but McKinley
Speaker 1: still wore a dark suit and hat as he climbed
Speaker 1: the stairs to the Temple of Music inside a box
Speaker 1: sonata play. As people passed in line, they shook the
Speaker 1: president's hand. McKinley's staff was nervous, and with good cause.
Speaker 1: Two presidents had been assassinated in recent years, Lincoln and
Speaker 1: James Garfield. Near the front of the line stood Leon
Speaker 1: Joel Gosh. The twenty eight year old scanned the room,
Speaker 1: shuffling from one foot to the other. He noted the
Speaker 1: extra policeman, soldiers, and presidential staff standing nearby, and before
Speaker 1: he left his job as a steelworker, co workers had
Speaker 1: described Leon as shy, quiet and brooding. He had arrived
Speaker 1: in Buffalo two days previous, bringing with him a thirty
Speaker 1: two caliber revolver. He nervously eyed the crowd. If he
Speaker 1: went through with the assassination, he didn't think he would
Speaker 1: walk off the fair grounds alive. Yet, as he watched
Speaker 1: person after person greet the president, he felt rage rising
Speaker 1: inside him. The people treated McKinley like a ruler, and
Speaker 1: that couldn't stand. A self described anarchist, Leon didn't believe
Speaker 1: in rulers. In his mind, McKinley had to be dealt
Speaker 1: with right then and there. He decided he'd go through
Speaker 1: with it. At four oh seven pm, when it came
Speaker 1: his time to shake the president's outstretched hand, Leon withdrew
Speaker 1: his pistol from his waistcoat and shot McKinley at point
Speaker 1: blank range twice. For a fraction of a second, there
Speaker 1: was silence as everyone registered the shots. Then a bystander
Speaker 1: punched Leon before he could fire off a third shot.
Speaker 1: Police and soldiers tackled Leon to the ground. McKinley lay
Speaker 1: bleeding on the music Halls floor. His secretary rushed to
Speaker 1: his side. The president's last orders were to take care
Speaker 1: with how they broke the news to his wife, but
Speaker 1: his prognosis seemed good at first. Rushed to a nearby hospital,
Speaker 1: the surgeon noted that one bullet had ricocheted off a
Speaker 1: jacket button and done only minor damage. The second shot
Speaker 1: had gone cleaned through the president's stomach. This urgent stopped
Speaker 1: the bleeding and sutured McKinley up, and for several days
Speaker 1: he appeared to be making an excellent recovery. Relieved that
Speaker 1: the president was doing well, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt went
Speaker 1: on a camping trip, but within the week McKinley took
Speaker 1: a turn for the worse. Infections set in At two
Speaker 1: fifteen in the afternoon on September, McKinley died with his
Speaker 1: wife at his side. Roosevelt returned from his trip to
Speaker 1: be sworn in as president in two Following McKinley's death,
Speaker 1: Congress tasked the Secret Service with protecting presidents in their families,
Speaker 1: as well as visiting diplomats and other political leaders. It
Speaker 1: took the assassinations of three presidents to spur Congress into
Speaker 1: taking this action. To date, four American presidents have been assassinated.
Speaker 1: Attempts have been made on others as well, though how
Speaker 1: many you might wonder, according to government archives, all of them. Yeah.
Speaker 1: American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was
Speaker 1: written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced
Speaker 1: by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show,
Speaker 1: visit Grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts