WEBVTT - Tripping 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:11.240 When Sydney Gottlieb recruited George White to be the CIA's 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.760 secret weapon in the Cold War, White didn't get much training. 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.840 What would you teach a guy like White anyway? During 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:21.959 World War Two? He'd been taught to kill with his 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:27.800 bare hands, to wire explosives, to interrogate people. He could 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:29.720 have used some tips on what to do if someone 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.040 he dozed with LSD had a psychotic episode, but that 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:38.480 never came up. Back in ninety three, Gottlieb did want 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.720 White to attend one top secret CIA class, a class 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:45.640 where the teacher could impart wisdom that no one would win. 0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.919 The CIA had. Gottlieb wanted White to take lessons from 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:52.920 a man who had learned his trade from Harry Houdini. 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.920 The CIA needed White to become a magician, not stage 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:02.880 magic where women saw it in half. Instead, White needed 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.520 a crash course in close up magic. Things like card 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:11.360 tricks and coins that appear behind your ears. It's more subtle, 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:17.880 more personal. Sometimes magicians call them slight of hand tricks. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:20.880 A lot of people think the magician is simply moving 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:23.760 their hands faster than the eye can see. That's not 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:29.000 really true. The human hand can't move faster than the eye. Instead, 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:32.440 the trick is to get the eye looking elsewhere while 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:36.240 the magician executes the trick. That's the real sleight of hand, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:41.679 tricking the brain. While it can take years or even 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:44.920 decades to master, most people can be taught the basics 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.360 of this direction fairly easily if they have a good teacher. 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:54.360 So Godly recruited a magician named John Mulholland. He wanted 0:01:54.400 --> 0:01:57.279 Mulholland to teach CIA operatives how to use the tricks 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.920 of the magician's trade to follow through on their cove 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:04.960 at activities. It was a form of social engineering. How 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.960 could they divert a person's attention elsewhere? When Gottlie realized 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.960 Mulholland could teach them all of that and more, he 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:15.720 prepared an oath of secrecy for the magician to sign. 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.640 He arranged for Mulholland to arrive at a hotel in 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:23.440 New York City to meet with his prized operative, the 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.240 same hotel where CIA employee Frank Olsen had fallen out 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:33.440 of a window. And that's how one of the most 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:37.320 respected magicians of the era wound up shaking hands with 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:40.720 George White, setting the state for what would be White's 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:45.239 most audacious project yet, using the art of magic to 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:50.760 drug people unwittingly. This one was called MK Ultra sub 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:54.639 Project four. It's how George White would later make San 0:02:54.680 --> 0:03:29.280 Francisco's sanity disappear. For I Heart Radio, this is Operation 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:33.520 Midnight Climax. I'm your host, Noel Brown, and this is 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:48.080 episode seven Tripping Current one a second home in. George 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.760 White needed a lifeline. His right hand man, Ike Feldman, 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:54.880 had just screwed up by turning their secret CIA funded 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.120 brothel into front page news. That year, the pair started 0:03:59.160 --> 0:04:03.119 working with a drug kingpin named Ronaldo Red Ferrari, sort 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:06.760 of the Tony Montana of the day. Ferrari owned the 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.360 city's heroin business, and he ruled over San Francisco with 0:04:10.400 --> 0:04:15.200 an iron fist cross Ferrari and he could make you vanish, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:20.600 not magic, Vanish, but dead and bury Vanish dumped off 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:26.200 the Golden gate Bridge Vanish. But White and Feldman weren't intimidated. 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:29.960 White was still working two jobs. By day, he worked 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:33.440 as a district supervisor for the Narcotics Bureau, and at night, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.239 well you know. But to keep his day job going, 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.680 he needed to keep making drug busts, so he did 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:46.320 double duty at the brothel. When he wasn't luring John's 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.560 applying them with LSD for his experiments, he used the 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:53.120 pad to entertain and entrapped dope pushers. And that's what 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:57.200 George White did with Ferrari. To convince Ferrari that his 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:00.000 colleague Feldman was a major player in the drug scene, 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.880 White started throwing elaborate parties at the address. Oddly, all 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.599 those lewed photos and tacky decorations White had put on 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.240 the walls helped his case. To anyone with an eye, 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.120 it looked cheap, tawdry, but to gangsters it seemed like 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:22.160 drug money couture some tasteful mafia decor. All these parties 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.160 did the trick. Feldman convinced Ferrari he was the real deal, 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:32.320 or as he put it, quote legitimately illegitimate. He paid 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:36.640 them sixty dollars for thirteen ounces of heroin, and as 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:40.440 they talked, business, microphones all over the apartment picked up 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:45.640 every word. Feldman helped indict Ferrari and his associates on 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:50.320 conspiracy to traffic in narcotics. It was good, solid police work, 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:54.520 but it also threw a wrench in White's plants. When 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:57.560 Feldman took the stand in April nineteen fifty six, he 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:01.480 had to describe as undercover work in detail, including giving 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:07.080 the address of the safe house to Chestnut Street. The 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.560 San Francisco Examiner printed the details. Oh for fox sake, 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:15.599 ike for White, it was no different than installing a 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.120 huge Neon sign out front that flashed the word police 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:26.960 at visitors for the second time in his CIA career. 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:29.800 White worried that his project was in danger of being 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.920 shut down. And if George White didn't have the blessing 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.600 and resources of the CIA, what did he have? His 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:42.080 pet birds, his leather working. It wasn't enough. He wanted 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:48.560 needed something bigger. But Sydney Gottlie, White's boss, was less worried. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.840 He reassured him, after all, word hadn't really spread in 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.320 the media. Unless he'd read the Telegraph that day, you 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.400 probably wouldn't have picked up on the news at all. Plus, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.599 as got Leap told White, the experiment was going so 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:05.839 well that no one at the CIA was in any 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.640 hurry to abandon it. In fact, Gottlie gave White the 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.120 green light to open a second safe house in the 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.440 town of Mill Valley in Marin County, far from the 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:20.640 city lights. But over the years White had become increasingly reckless, 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.800 and his new neighbors started to notice. Late at night 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.880 they'd hear commotion. Peering outside, they'd see men with shoulder 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:34.600 holsters chasing women, all in various stages of undress. One night, 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:39.440 possibly inebriated, White hidden neighbor's car. He sent got leave 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:43.560 the bill for the damage, another lapse in judgment, since well, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:46.200 it's not a good idea to make insurance claims when 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:50.720 you're working on a top secret project. White had always 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:55.320 mixed business with pleasure. Serious investigations lived side by side 0:07:55.440 --> 0:08:01.080 with hedonism for hedonism's sake. When White through parties at 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:04.320 the safe house, not only did he invite CIA operatives, 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.560 but he also called in friends from the Narcotics Bureau 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:13.600 and even San Francisco police officers. Plus there were escorts, drugs, 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:18.800 and booze. Lots of booze. White kept sending got leap 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:22.040 invoices for his alcohol supply, which seemed to be growing 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.560 at the rate of a small liquor store. And it 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:29.120 wasn't just the booze. Over the years, White had developed 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.520 reputation for experimenting with any drug, and not just on 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:39.679 unsuspecting civilians, on himself. Anything CIA operatives were scared of 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:42.680 was sent to San Francisco, where White would try it 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.280 out on his own. One day, got Leap set along 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.240 the canister that contained an experimental tear gas. White set 0:08:50.240 --> 0:08:54.520 it down, Feldman activated him, and they both ran through it. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.880 They soon collapsed in a heap of coughing and burning eyes. 0:09:00.240 --> 0:09:03.000 On another occasion, gott Leap showed up with a dart 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:05.600 gun and went for a drive with White en Feldman. 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.000 Like a marksman. He aimed at a tree and fired. 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:13.640 Nothing happened, but when Feldman drove by the same tree 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:18.120 a few days later, it was dead. Feldman thought they 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.080 had just witnessed agent orange, the toxin that would be 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:25.560 used in Vietnam a few years later. At times, the 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:29.000 new safe house in Marin County resembled a novelty toy factory, 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.280 with new chemicals showing up at White store like presents 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.720 for him to play test. In one package, White and 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.760 his men found weapons grade stink bombs, and while it 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:43.079 sounds like a gag gift, the CIA was sincere about it. 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.640 Operatives wondered if a target could be ridiculed and embarrassed 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:50.240 for smelling bad enough, or if an extreme foul smell 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:57.240 could make an entire crowd disperse. The stories of the 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.880 experiments have kind of a blooper real quality. When White's 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.240 agent decided to target a small demonstration with the stink bomb, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:07.480 he went up to a hotel room where he could 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.880 drop the tiny ampule into the crowd, but it bounced 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:16.720 off the window cell and spilled back into his own room. 0:10:16.760 --> 0:10:19.880 They were itching and sneezing powders and special needles to 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.720 inject drugs through wine corks without being detected, but not 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:26.800 all of the ideas were so childlike, and LSD was 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:32.640 still the agency's primary concern. A plan was hatched to 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:35.400 finally see what an aerosolized version of the drug could 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:39.040 do in an enclosed room full of people. White could 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.120 experiment it with this back in New York City on 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.640 a subway car, but this would be a more potent dose. 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.319 They arranged for a big blowout, with White and his 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:52.599 agents canvassing San Francisco for party goers, promising an abundance 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.160 of booze and women. The plan was to pack people 0:10:56.240 --> 0:10:58.600 up into their new safe house, where White planned on 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.280 dousing them in a plume of LSD. There was just 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.000 one problem. It was a very hot Californian day and 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.440 it was impossible to keep the doors and windows shut. 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.600 The LSD just dissipated into the air. The grand plan 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.120 to attempt a mass hallucination went out the literal window. 0:11:21.520 --> 0:11:25.000 White and gottlieb were disappointed by these attempts, but White 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:29.120 still felt he was close to something with LSD. The 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:33.240 Chestnut Streets safe house had been compromised, and luring people 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:38.280 back to another safe house was offering diminishing returns, so 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.840 White decided to return to his roots and go back 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:45.960 to dosing everyday civilians. This time, though, he would have 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:48.080 to go out into the world and hunt them on 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:52.200 their turf in the field, just like a real CIA operative. 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.240 He'd had to slip them drugged without being caught, and 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:59.320 he had those skills because there was a magician on 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:16.599 the payroll. Part two new tricks. When Sydney gottlie was 0:12:16.640 --> 0:12:19.360 getting MK Ultra off the ground, there was no such 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:23.160 thing as two out there or two unusual. The CIA 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:25.960 was determined to unlock the secrets of mind control in 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:29.760 any way possible, and that's how George White found himself 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:32.760 in the conference room of the Hotel Roosevelt in nine 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:38.880 taking a crash course in sleight of hand from John Mulholland. Okay, 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:42.480 now where's the card, George? Hopefully not up your ass. 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:46.280 Magicians don't have quite the same cache in the twenty 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:51.160 one century. A few have streaming shows. David Copperfield still 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.559 books Las Vegas. But before people had a surplus of 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.840 entertainment options, they came out and drove to see magicians 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:03.400 ply their trade on stage. Illusionists were celebrities. They also 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:06.679 lived by a code. You can't ask a magician how 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:10.280 they did a trick. Well, you can, but you won't 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.439 get an answer. You can find someone YouTube, of course, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:19.240 and there's always speculation. Sometimes a magician reveals their secrets 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.320 out of necessity. That's how David Copperfield found himself discussing 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:26.640 how a disappearing act was done. He was sued after 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:29.240 a member of his audience was injured during a performance. 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.800 So how did Sydney Gottlieb convinced John Mulholland to break 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:39.640 the magicians omerta their code of silence? The same way 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:43.400 he got everything else he wanted by appealing to Mulholland's 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:49.600 sense of patriotism. Mulholland had earned a tremendous amount of 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:54.040 respect among his peers. Born in Chicago in eight he'd 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.079 fallen in love with magic at the age of five, 0:13:57.360 --> 0:13:59.520 but by the time he was twenty he was working 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.400 for who enim Holland performed for small audiences in New 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.800 York City and for sultan's and kings. He toured the 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.200 world and even edited a magic journal, The Sphinx, which 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:13.320 is kind of like the New England Journal of Medicine 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.120 for conjurors, and he enjoyed teaching magic as much as 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:21.760 performing it. Mulholland had a library of over four thousand 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:26.240 magic books. He lectured on magic, he wrote books on magic. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.080 Gottlieb had seen him perform and was struck by how 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:32.920 easily he could fool audience members watching his every move 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.400 even though he was just a few feet away. He 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.800 was a man possessed of secret knowledge, a concept the 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:44.720 CIA and Gottlieb could only admire. Mulholland had done work 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:48.760 on behalf of the country before he performed during USO tours. 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.200 He was a proud American, a trait that Gotlieb hoped 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:55.720 to exploit, so he got in touch with Moholland and 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.080 told he wanted him to write a manual and Trickery 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:01.720 and Deception, particular early on the most effective methods for 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:04.480 putting a substance in a person's drink without the mark 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:09.240 being aware of it, something like slipping an enemy agents 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.800 and making yes John something like that. More or less, 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.280 Mulholland was eager to assist a dapper man in his fifties. 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.040 He put off his other obligations and quickly got to 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.840 work on what he officially called some operational applications of 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:30.920 the Art of Deception. Like most CIA manuals involving espionage, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.160 it wasn't supposed to see the light of day. While 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.720 there had always been rumors a CIA Magician's Manual sounded 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:41.760 to Kuki to actually exists, but in two thousand seven, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.600 authors H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace found the only 0:15:45.640 --> 0:15:50.240 known surviving copy of the complete manual. In the text, 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:53.280 Mulholland tutors the reader on how to execute slight of 0:15:53.280 --> 0:15:57.480 hand for the purposes of espionage. The basic principle and 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.680 performing a trick is to do it's of the secret 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:05.440 actions are not observed. A trick does not fool the eye, 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:11.680 but fools the brain. Nowhere does the text mentioned the CIA. Instead, 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:17.600 Maholland calls operatives performers or tricksters, and they weren't drugging subjects. 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.800 They were performing tricks. Deception, he pointed out, isn't about 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.640 rapid hand movements. It's about getting the spectator to look elsewhere. 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.920 As outlined in the manual, one of Moholland's favorite methods 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.520 was the cigarette trick. You're at a bar. It's loud, 0:16:35.080 --> 0:16:38.920 people are everywhere. You're George White, who want to slip 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:43.120 some LSD to a person's drink Unknowingly, in this case, 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.240 the bar is the stage and White is the performer. 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.600 His props aren't wands or rabbits. There are things you'd 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:59.160 expect to see, cigarettes, matches, coins, pencils. He's managing his 0:16:59.200 --> 0:17:04.359 targets line of site, in this case primal curiosity about fire. 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.720 This is the routine for the spectator who spokes the instant. 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:14.800 The performer sees the spectator take a cigarette, cigar, or pipe. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.040 He takes the packet of matches from his pocket, tears 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.520 off one match, and holds packet and match ready to 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:27.040 ignite the match. He does these things openly because what 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:29.359 he does can only be looked upon it as a 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:33.840 friendly and courteous gesture. Let me get that for you, buddy. 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.800 As soon as the spectator is ready to light up, 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.520 the performers should hold the matches close to the spectator 0:17:40.760 --> 0:17:45.240 and strike the one match. The flame comes up to 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.040 their face. That's all, they're looking at the fire in 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:52.399 front of their eyes, and while their attention is fixated, 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:55.639 White is up to something else. As soon as the 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.520 spectator has a proper light, performers should begin to lean 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.639 back to his previous position. The left hand, which has 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:06.560 been held still since the match was struck. He's brought 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:08.639 over the mouth of the glass or cup, and the 0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:13.240 pill dropped into the liquid. And, as Mulholland reminds the reader, 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.480 a small action will not be noticed while making a 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:21.120 broader gesture for which there is an obvious reason. Mulholland 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.000 had more tricks, pills that could be brushed off the 0:18:24.000 --> 0:18:27.120 side of a coin into a drink, stuffing a pill 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:29.679 in the folds of the hand. He was fond of 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:33.440 a loaded pencil which had a hollow body. The trickster 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.359 would offer to give someone directions or write something down, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:38.879 and when he pointed to something on the paper and 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:42.000 got the targets attention, the pencil would be tipped over, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:47.480 releasing a liquid or powder into the person's drink. But 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:52.680 above all, Mulholland had one important piece of guidance. Looks stupid. 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.359 A person who looked alert, like they were really concentrating 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:00.879 would be unusual. After all, everyone in a bar is 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.959 having a good time. In Mulholland's manual, and in at 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:09.399 least four meetings with the magician, George White was taught 0:19:09.440 --> 0:19:13.800 these finer points of delivering practically any drug he wanted, anywhere, 0:19:14.240 --> 0:19:18.280 at any time. It gave him freedom at a time 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:21.320 he needed it the most. It didn't matter that Ike 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.040 Feldman had entered two Chestnut Street into the court record. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.359 He didn't have to stay inside an apartment. He was 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:34.280 no longer in captivity. Mulholland, for his part, had no 0:19:34.359 --> 0:19:37.280 idea what his skills were being used for. Though he 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.680 must have suspected such training could deliver drugs or even 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.240 deadly poisons to the enemy, he couldn't know his work 0:19:44.320 --> 0:19:47.040 was being co opted by the CIA to experiment on 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:51.080 American citizens. He didn't know his sleight of hand would 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:54.760 be used to terrorize San Francisco and allowed George White 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.600 to practice a very dark and very sinister side of magic. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.600 John Mulholland had been taught magic to bring joy to people. 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:07.920 He taught magic to George White without understanding it would 0:20:08.000 --> 0:20:26.000 only bring fear pert three Street magic. It might have 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:29.199 been better if Pheldman hadn't been found out, if he 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:32.320 hadn't made the big bust and exposed the Chestnut Street address. 0:20:33.119 --> 0:20:35.639 Maybe White would have kept his experiments to John's and 0:20:35.720 --> 0:20:41.520 low level criminals. But he was feeling emboldened reckless. After all, 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.639 his LSD project had survived multiple people being hospitalized, one death, 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:51.320 and a relocation. He'd never even been reprimanded for anything 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:54.760 he'd done. So with his make believe apartment in jeopardy, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:56.880 it seemed like a good time to go out into 0:20:56.880 --> 0:21:01.199 San Francisco, armed with John Mulholland's techniques and explore the 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:10.400 last uncharted frontier of the psychokaout the general public San 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:16.440 Francisco nightlife in the Tenderloin District, jazz clubs, bars, restaurants, 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:21.760 a mix of everyone from Blue collar workers to millionaires, 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.040 all out to have a good time. Then a man 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.919 would appear easy to talk to, offered to light a 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:35.439 cigarette for them. Liquid would seep from the matchbook, and 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:38.720 then he blend into the background to watch what came next. 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:45.800 This was George White's favorite part, the shift in consciousness. 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.520 It happened in a blink. One second the world made sense, 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:56.959 and the next it didn't. Some stayed their eyes growing wide, 0:21:57.560 --> 0:22:01.640 seeing and hearing things their brains couldn't brow, says. More 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:05.080 and more matches would be struck, more and more people 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:10.000 stumbling into a waking nightmare. Sometimes White would come to them, 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:14.960 sometimes they'd come to White. An old Cia trick to 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.960 attract attention in a social setting was to start playing 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:22.880 with drink coasters. An operative would seem unusually interested in them, 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.159 trying to peel them apart. Someone would come up and 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.520 ask what they were doing. You see, Heineken is doing 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:33.240 this promotion where they're stuffing fifty bucks into random coasters. 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:37.040 You gotta take them apart to find out. No kidding, no, 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:43.560 no kidding. Hey look here. White would have already slipped 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.879 a gimmick coaster into the pile, pulling out a crisp 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:51.679 fifty dollar bill. Money was like a flashing sign, and 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:55.640 he would quickly find himself the center of attention. Later, 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:59.840 no one would remember that anyone approached them. They would 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.560 only recall being in a group taking a sip, then 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:11.040 watching the floor fall out from under them. These were 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:15.560 the kinds of bars and clubs that had live entertainment bands, singers, 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.159 and one local attraction was a woman named Ruth Kelly. 0:23:20.800 --> 0:23:24.160 Kelly was a stunning figure on stage, and White came 0:23:24.160 --> 0:23:27.560 to see her over and over again. Soon he began 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:29.760 to wonder if Ruth Kelly might want to learn more 0:23:29.760 --> 0:23:34.439 about White's swinging lifestyle. One night, before she went on stage, 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:38.520 he walked up and whispered something into her ear, something 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:45.600 salacious and unwelcome. Kelly rejected White. White had faced rejection 0:23:45.680 --> 0:23:48.960 countless times in his life, from law enforcement agencies that 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:52.880 didn't need him, to wives who didn't want him. Even 0:23:52.880 --> 0:23:55.080 the CIA job had been held up by a year's 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:59.120 worth of background checks. White by this point was drinking 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.240 more heavily than ever, more out of control than ever, 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:05.760 and so he did something that not even Sydney Gottley 0:24:05.880 --> 0:24:10.760 would have signed off on. He administered l s d 0:24:11.200 --> 0:24:16.040 out of spite. That's okay, miss Kelly. Here, let me 0:24:16.080 --> 0:24:19.040 get that for you, and he did it just before 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:21.960 Ruth Kelly went on stage in front of hundreds of people. 0:24:23.480 --> 0:24:27.480 This was something else. Kelly began her set without problems, 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:31.040 but after just a couple of songs, the acid turned 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:35.440 the audience faces into masks. The applause pounded her head. 0:24:38.000 --> 0:24:41.280 Kelly could see the words she sang, she could feel 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:45.119 the stage floating, and somewhere in the crowd was the 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:52.760 face of George White, smiling with horns. Ruth Kelly finished 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:55.160 her set without betraying that her mind was split into 0:24:55.200 --> 0:24:59.080 pieces the minute. The second she was done with her 0:24:59.160 --> 0:25:02.160 last song, she raced off the stage and jumped into 0:25:02.200 --> 0:25:06.160 a cab. She remained in a state of panic for days. 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:09.959 She didn't know what had happened, only that her psyche 0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:13.000 seemed to explode as soon as she had rejected the 0:25:13.040 --> 0:25:16.480 advances of the strange man with bright, cold blue eyes. 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:20.600 The psychological basis for this routine is that a small 0:25:20.680 --> 0:25:23.640 action will not be noticed when it is done while 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:27.360 making a broader gesture, for which there is an obvious reason. 0:25:28.680 --> 0:25:32.400 White never stopped. The bars of North Beach were overcome 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:35.399 by White and other operatives dosing people with LSD and 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.200 other drugs and hoping they'd stick around long enough to 0:25:38.240 --> 0:25:41.920 have an observable reaction. Those that ran off into the 0:25:42.040 --> 0:25:45.480 night weren't followed. No one will ever know how many 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:49.040 people shook it off and how many couldn't. In the 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:52.199 San Francisco of the late nineteen fifties, going out for 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:54.640 a good time give you a reasonable chance of having 0:25:54.640 --> 0:26:03.360 your mind destroyed. White sadistics was getting stronger, and with 0:26:03.480 --> 0:26:07.919 it a kind of self loathing was setting in. In 0:26:08.000 --> 0:26:11.200 just a few short years, he would write, a good 0:26:11.240 --> 0:26:16.040 policeman is the ultimate action arm of the legislature, the judiciary, 0:26:16.440 --> 0:26:21.120 and the executive, the thin blue line between order and chaos. 0:26:22.520 --> 0:26:25.360 It is time to consider the consequences of such stresses 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:29.080 upon an average human who becomes a policeman who must 0:26:29.119 --> 0:26:31.560 not only cope with his own book of rules, but 0:26:31.640 --> 0:26:35.800 also with the ever president, vociferous criticism from the press, citizens, 0:26:35.800 --> 0:26:40.080 review boards, the courts, prosecutors, and even his own superiors, who, 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:46.080 when the heat arrives, pass it down. One day, a 0:26:46.200 --> 0:26:48.720 technician walked into White safe house to checks some of 0:26:48.720 --> 0:26:53.640 the surveillance equipment. He hadn't been expected. The only occupant 0:26:53.680 --> 0:26:56.399 inside was George White, who was sitting in front of 0:26:56.400 --> 0:26:58.520 the two way mirror he normally sat on the other 0:26:58.600 --> 0:27:01.240 side of in order to monitor to the sexual escapades 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:04.720 in the apartment. The man looked at White, who was 0:27:04.800 --> 0:27:07.479 clearly drunk, so drunk he didn't even seem to realize 0:27:07.480 --> 0:27:09.920 the technician had arrived and thought it was better to 0:27:09.960 --> 0:27:13.760 come back another day. And then George White held up 0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:19.960 a gun, a revolver. The technician froze. He knew White, 0:27:20.480 --> 0:27:24.240 but he also knew White was a drinker. White just 0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:27.119 kept staring at himself in the mirror, like he was 0:27:27.160 --> 0:27:29.280 waiting for the man he saw in his reflection to 0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:33.280 provide some kind of answer. Then he aimed the gun 0:27:33.280 --> 0:27:38.280 at himself, at the man in the mirror, and fired. 0:27:40.160 --> 0:27:44.040 The technician recoiled. Then he looked and saw a white 0:27:44.080 --> 0:27:47.920 globe had collapsed on the surface of the mirror. It 0:27:48.040 --> 0:27:52.560 was a dummy round a piece of wax. White kept 0:27:52.600 --> 0:27:59.320 staring at himself. The technician left. White remained behind, ruling 0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:07.400 over a tiny fiefdom of safe houses. In the end, 0:28:07.960 --> 0:28:11.440 George White hadn't won the Cold War. He hadn't exposed 0:28:11.440 --> 0:28:15.480 the secrets of mind control. He was a man sitting 0:28:15.520 --> 0:28:20.720 on a portable toilet, watching people have sex and getting high. 0:28:21.200 --> 0:28:24.320 Maybe the only mind game being played was the one 0:28:24.400 --> 0:28:28.280 Sydney gottlie had played on George White. He had taken 0:28:28.320 --> 0:28:32.000