WEBVTT - Uncharter Waters 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:09.680 On September twelfth, nineteen fifty three, Linda King visited George 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:12.840 White at his Bedford Street pad in New York. At 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:15.560 the time, the aspiring actress thought she was there as 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:19.960 a friend, a guest. What she didn't understand was that 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:24.280 White didn't have friends. He had subjects, people he drugged, 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.160 whose names he jotted down in his diary. The CIA 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:32.360 needed data on what LSD did too unsuspecting minds, and 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:37.480 that's what George White provided. White and King made small talk. 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:42.280 He fixed her a standard drink, chin ice a floater 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:47.040 of acid. An hour passed. It wasn't long before King 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.560 found herself roaming the New York City streets, her mind 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:56.160 entering dimensions she never knew existed. White didn't chase her. 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:01.920 He never chased anyone. His experiments lack curiosity. He only 0:01:01.960 --> 0:01:05.240 cared about the short term reaction. What a person did 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.319 in the hours, days, weeks, or even years following their 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:14.399 dosing didn't matter to him. When Linda King climbed to 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:17.560 the rooftop of her apartment building that night, wondering if 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.840 she should dive off the edge to quell her sudden 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:25.120 feeling of despair, White wasn't around he was home, fast asleep, 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:33.040 but someone was there to help. Her name was Albertine. 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.360 Her friends called her team or Teeny. She worked as 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:40.440 a buyer for retail stores in New York. She was 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:43.920 friends with King. Together, the two of them drove to 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:49.040 Lenox Hill Hospital. King in a state of hysteria, Albertine 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:56.600 soothing her, It's going to be okay, relax. George did something. 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.880 He gave me something. What did he give me? Get 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:06.320 you checked out? Okay? Come on, come on in At 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.160 Lennox Hill, Linda couldn't articulate what had happened, only that 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:13.639 she felt drugged. There was nothing to do but let 0:02:13.639 --> 0:02:18.040 it pass. As the hours ticked by, King kept telling 0:02:18.080 --> 0:02:20.960 anyone who would listen that a man named George White 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.520 had done this to her. They needed to remember the 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:32.320 name George White. Eighty one Bedford Street, George White. Alberteen 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:36.560 stood by passively. She wanted to help her friend, but 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.800 she was growing uncomfortable with Linda's chant of George White, 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:46.519 George White, Someone find George White. Alberteen knew exactly where 0:02:46.560 --> 0:03:21.160 to find George White. That's because she was married to him. 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:25.639 For I Heart Radio, this is Operation Midnight Climax, and 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:30.200 I heart original podcast I'm your host Noel Brown and 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:40.440 this is chapter four Uncharted Waters, Part one. Love and Marriage. 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:45.760 Albertin and George White were married in nineteen fifty one, 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.680 just before White relocated to New York. It was White's 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.119 third marriage. He'd been married briefly. In nineteen thirty three. 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.520 He divorced his first wife after just a year general incompatibility. 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:01.440 In the nineteen forties, he married his second wife, Ruth. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:07.320 She left him while he was serving abroad. They weren't 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:10.840 a happy couple. For all of White's bravado, for all 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:13.760 the drug peddlers he pushed around, and all the gunfights 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:18.159 he got into, he wilted in front of Ruth. She 0:04:18.360 --> 0:04:22.400 verbally abused him, insulting his weight, calling him a slob. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:28.159 White would harbor a lifelong resentment over those slights. But 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:33.040 Albertine was different. She didn't see a callous narcotics cop. 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:38.000 She saw White as good at his job, effective, punctual. 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.360 She liked punctual. She liked that his picture made it 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.359 into the newspapers after big drug busts. She liked that 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:49.000 he was well read and well traveled, even if he 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:53.440 left dead bodies in his wake. And he had powerful friends, 0:04:54.000 --> 0:04:58.120 like mayoral candidate Rudolph Halle, who once to promised to 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:03.720 make White commissioner of the New York Police Departments. For white, 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.880 Albertine represented a step up society's ladder. She was a 0:05:07.920 --> 0:05:13.640 clothing buyer, She knew fashion. She always looked spectacular. White 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.720 enjoyed taking her out and showing her off, watching men 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:21.440 as they admired her, and sometimes he didn't mind if 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:28.960 they did more than that. George and Albertin were swingers, 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.040 a couple who didn't mind if one or both got 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:35.719 into bed with a third or even fourth party. But 0:05:35.800 --> 0:05:38.919 this wasn't swinging in the Internet age, where partners swapping 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.159 on an app would hardly be newsworthy. This was the 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.840 early nineteen fifties, when sex in America was still a 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:54.520 taboo subject. Alfred Kinsey had just caused a stir publishing 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.000 his research into American sex lives. The first issue of 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.920 Playboy was just around the corner, and while nudity was tolerated, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:06.880 anything beyond that would have been a problem. Porn movies 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.719 were still known as stag films. If you wanted to 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:12.280 watch people having sex, you'd have to know someone who 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:14.359 could hang up a bedsheet and set up a thirty 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.920 five millimeter projector. White was in the right place at 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:22.200 the right time. If he'd been in Middle America, he'd 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.440 be run out of town, But in Greenwich Village he 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:27.880 could be more open. It was the sort of scene 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:30.919 you could casually say you and your wife enjoyed the 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:36.239 company of others without fear. So White developed a third 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:40.920 identity want Apart from White the narcotics cop and Morgan Hall, 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.479 the CIA operative, he didn't give this one a name. 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.120 In a sense, it was White's real self, the one 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:53.400 who didn't have to hide anything, his occupation, his badge, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:59.120 his stash of LSD. In White's Greenwich Village, he could 0:06:59.160 --> 0:07:02.320 be anyone he it, and what he wanted was to 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.119 be more than a swinger. He wanted to be kinky. 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:09.800 One of White's first friends in the city was John 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:14.440 Alexander Kutz. His fans knew him as John Willie, an 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:18.360 artist and fetish photographer. Willie specialized in depictions of women 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:22.440 trust up in corsets and heels, imprisoned for some imagined 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.160 fantasy scenario. Willie even published a magazine devoted to such 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:32.640 content called Bizarre. Like a lot of fringe adult publications 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.200 of the era, there wasn't actually any sex depicted. In 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.640 bizarre there wasn't even nudity. The authorities considered the material 0:07:39.720 --> 0:07:45.440 depraved and morally corrosive. Willie took pains to avoid anything 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:47.600 that might raise the ire of people who could block 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:52.400 his magazine, but it was still dangerous business. Publishers of 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.160 similar material were routinely rated by authorities, their books and 0:07:56.240 --> 0:08:01.600 magazines ceased and brought before congressional hearings. Reading these magazines, 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.240 let alone publishing them, wasn't anything you wanted to brag about. 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.920 But like minds tend to congregate. If you're John Willie, 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.520 maybe you value having a friend who might be able 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.040 to steer some vice cops clear of your business. If 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:19.960 you're George White, you like the fact that John Willie 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:21.800 is connected to a scene you want to be a 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:28.160 part of. It wasn't long before John Willie introduced George 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.360 White to a man he'd get along with. He lived 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.959 just a few blocks away. His name was Gil Fox. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.720 Like White, he had an alter ego to several of them. 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:46.320 Dallas Mayo was one, Paul V. Russo was another. Kimberly 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:51.760 Kemp under pseudonyms. Fox wrote erotic novels with titles like 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:56.840 a Touch of Depravity and The Trouble with Redheads. Often 0:08:56.920 --> 0:09:01.959 there were lesbian storylines. This was, for a time incredibly taboo, 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.000 so much so that Fox didn't have a lot of 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:09.439 source material to call from. I would watch old movies 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:14.120 and imagine the man and woman as two women and 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:19.440 reimagine it as a lesbian scene. I'd pull a whole 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.960 scene from the Late Show and write it down and 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.360 then put it in a box. The night pool ideas 0:09:25.360 --> 0:09:28.839 from the box. But that wasn't the only place Fox 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:32.480 got ideas. Fox and his wife Pat had what would 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:36.720 today be called an ethically non monogamous marriage. Sometimes they 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.880 hopped in someone else's bed, either together or apart. Pat 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:45.960 could provide details of her encounters with other women. Fox 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:51.840 also got inspiration from friends like George White. You know, 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:58.040 I like high heels a lot high old woman as well. 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:03.240 There's just something about it. Do you think you could 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:12.600 right a scene with two women wearing high heels. Books 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.120 of this type were often sold by bookstores run by 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:20.480 the mafia, another reason law enforcement was so interested in them. 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:24.120 But Gil's books and John Willie's magazines weren't the only 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.320 way White could indulge his fetishes. Albertein knew about his 0:10:28.400 --> 0:10:32.080 fascination with high heels. She watched his White filled up 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.840 an entire closet with them for her use and his pleasure. 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.600 According to Gil, who had intimate knowledge of White's life 0:10:40.640 --> 0:10:44.520 behind closed doors, one of White's favorite scenarios would be 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.360 to take a pair of knee high boots and carefully 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:52.360 lace them up for Albertein. Gil's wife, Pat also instructed 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:58.480 Alberteen on other fetishes, like spanking. When White wanted or 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.680 needed something more extreme, he might solicit the company of 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.920 a professional. Once White invited Gil and Pat to his 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:11.800 hotel room. When they walked in, they saw White stripped 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.160 down to his underwear. Tied to the bed. Near him 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:21.080 was a dominatrix, a whip being cracked across White's ample backside, 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:27.760 and yes, she was wearing high heels. If White had 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:31.880 been in two loveless, relatively sexless marriages, he was making 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.280 up for lost time. Greenwich Village was a path to 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:40.800 indulging in anything he wanted. It was a playground. As 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:44.840 sexual escapades go. It was all relatively harmless. Gill and 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.000 Pat Fox regarded George and Albertine as like minds. All 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.200 of them were into kink. The two couples trusted one another. 0:11:52.640 --> 0:11:55.000 Though Gill and Pat didn't know George was working for 0:11:55.040 --> 0:12:01.200 the CIA, his extracurricular work wasn't disclosed to them, so 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.079 he thought nothing of it when White invited them over 0:12:04.120 --> 0:12:09.000 for drinks. Gil had been around White long enough to 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:13.520 know he was an alcoholic. White favored gin, but wasn't picky. 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.920 He regularly started his drinking in the morning and continued 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:21.199 through the day. That detail matters. If there's one thing 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.199 you want out of someone conducting an illicit CIA experiment 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:29.560 with powerful haucinogenic drugs, it's probably sobriety, and that wasn't 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:35.200 something White could offer. But just how bad was White's problem? 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.240 Bad enough that when he was on assignment with the 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.280 Narcotics Bureau to chase a trail of heroin to Turkey, 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:43.480 he passed out drunk in front of a suspect while undercover. 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.120 The criminal went through his pockets and found his badge. 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:57.040 White barely escaped with his life years later, with LSD 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.800 in his possession, he was, in all likelihood drunk on 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:05.080 the night of November two when he welcomed the Foxes 0:13:05.120 --> 0:13:09.360 to his apartment. We know the date because it's an 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.280 entry in White's diary. For him, it was a very 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.640 special occasion. He was about to take his LSD experimentation 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:37.280 into uncharted waters. Part two Dinner Parties. Gill and Pat 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.960 Fox arrived at White's apartment his real apartment, not as 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:45.840 Morgan Hall residents, and said hello to Kai Jerkinson. Kai 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.000 was a drama professor from Chapel Hill and another interesting 0:13:49.000 --> 0:13:54.520 wrinkle in White's personality. His circle of friends included murderers, informants, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.880 mayoral candidate, swingers, and apparently professors. All of them found 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.920 something alluring about White. For the criminals, fraternizing with a 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:07.760 cop felt empowering, like they were getting a peek at 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:11.800 the other side. For more respectable members of society it 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:17.640 was the opposite. White felt dangerous, unpredictable. They just didn't 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:26.120 quite understand the danger until it was too late. Welcome everyone, Pat, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:31.160 you look like a million yil. How's the magnum opus coming? Well, 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:33.880 come on in and meet the Jerkinson's Tenas getting dinner ready, 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.880 The Foxes chatted with Kai and Joe Jurgensen while White 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:41.280 busied himself at the bar. One thing Gil had noticed 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:43.880 about White was that he liked mixing two pictures of 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:48.160 martinis at his parties. One was for himself, because again 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.240 he had some kind of vendetta against his liver. The 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:56.840 other was for guests. The two pictures served a different purpose, 0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:00.360 though White wanted to keep the pictures separate so he 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:02.960 could add a little something extra to one of them 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.680 to liven up the proceedings. Drinks for everyone, come on 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:20.920 my own recipe. The Whites, Foxes, and Jorgenson's began to party, drinking, dancing, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:26.040 talking about their Thanksgiving celebrations, talking about the holiday season 0:15:26.240 --> 0:15:29.960 and about New York and their plans. Then the couples 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.880 piled into a car and began driving in the lower village. 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.040 Gil noticed it had started snowing, and he admired the 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:42.280 white flakes falling. After a few minutes, Gil stopped smiling. 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.240 The snow was beautiful, it was maybe the most beautiful 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:51.440 snow he'd ever seen, But there was something different about him. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:56.080 It began to change colors. The snow was lit up, 0:15:56.440 --> 0:16:00.120 switching from blue to green to yellow. Gil looked or 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.200 at his wife, Pat, who held an expression of pleasant disbelief. 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.600 Then he looked at Joe Jerkinson, who was holding her 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.000 arms out in front of herself like a ballet dancer. 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:12.720 Joe would later say she was admiring an ornate pair 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:19.480 of opera gloves that had materialized out of thin air. White, 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.360 having imbibed Martini after Martini, was looking at all of 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.640 it like the mad Hatter having a party. There was 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.560 Gil enjoying a winter snowstorm on a clear night, and 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:36.920 Pat quiet, Kay and Joe look nervous. They all decided 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:38.680 it would be a good idea to pile into a 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:41.960 lesbian bar, but Pat and Joe began freaking out and 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.720 wanted to go home. The night had come to an 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:51.400 ignoble conclusion. What could the c i A learn from this? 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:55.400 How to average couples responded to being dosed with LSD? 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.280 Did White even report the incident to Sydney Gottlieb or 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:01.960 did he keep it to himself knowing these people weren't 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:05.880 part of the profile gott Leap wanted. He was supposed 0:17:05.880 --> 0:17:08.560 to be dosing criminals and outcasts, so he could have 0:17:08.600 --> 0:17:12.880 plausible deniability if they ever reported him. Was he doing 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.480 it to win the Cold War? Or was George White 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:23.159 doing it just for fun. There were two important lessons 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:26.960 White learned that night about consequences for Kai and Joe 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:33.240 Jurgensen to educated, upper class professionals. They were livid they 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.199 knew why had dosed them, and Joe refused to forgive 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.480 White for what he deemed a harmless stunt. She felt 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.800 violated Her marriage toc I didn't last either. The two 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:49.080 divorced a few years later. The Foxes were another story. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.760 They too were angry with White, who had betrayed their trust. 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.439 But the fox has also fancied themselves liberal thinkers on 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.880 the outskirts of society, Gil challenging conventions this erotic work, 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:05.240 and Pat an enthusiastic partner in their swinging lifestyle. In 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.520 another city, in another life, they might have gone to 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.920 the police. In Greenwich Village of the nineteen fifties, LSD 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:17.639 was around. It was part of the lifestyle. Unlike the Jurgenson's, 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.840 the Foxes decided to stay in White's orbit. In fact, 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:25.119 they did more than that. The Foxes actually helped White 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.480 grow as pool of subjects, and this time the consequences 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:40.800 would be far more serious than technicolor snow Elliott and 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.239 Barbara Smythe were married in September nineteen, Elliott was an 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:49.080 employee at the F. L. Smythe Machine Company, his family's business. 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:53.680 After Barbara gave birth to their daughter, Valerie, Elliott persuaded 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:57.480 his beautiful new bride to relocate to Greenwich Village. He 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.119 had heard the siren call of the neighborhood's contemporary are 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:07.840 attitudes about socializing and sex. Elliott wanted to swing. Elliott 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.159 had actually swung with the Foxes before. He and his 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.960 previous girlfriend once had a foursome with Gil and Pad, 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.000 and he wanted to continue the dynamic with his new wife. 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:21.720 But with Valerie their daughter, swinging didn't seem to be 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:25.680 in the cards. Free time was harder to come by. 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.359 Gil introduced Elliott to White and the two struck up 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:34.400 their own friendship. Well, they were friendly, but what really 0:19:34.400 --> 0:19:38.000 made an impression on Elliott was Albertine, a vivacious woman 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:42.360 with poise and style. White noticed he always noticed when 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.000 men admired his wife, and he made it clear that 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:49.080 they were open to just about anything. The first time 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.200 Elliott and Barbara went over to White's apartment, White showed 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.679 him the shoe closet, heels of every color, size and 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.520 variety from basic pumps to the elaborate lacea boots that 0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:03.840 Albertine and strutted around in for White's enjoyment. This was 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.639 White's toy chest. He only showed it to a select few, 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:16.880 but he liked Elliott and he really liked Barbara Swinger. 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.280 Math is always a little hard to define. There's what 0:20:20.320 --> 0:20:23.560 a couple may want, and there's what each individual wants. 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:28.880 Elliott wanted Albertine in or out of high heels. Albertine 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:33.760 was attracted to Elliott. White was attracted to Barbara. But 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.840 and here's where the Brakes get pumped, Barbara wasn't into White. 0:20:39.920 --> 0:20:42.920 It was always a dice roll how people perceived him. 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:47.000 Some found his bad boy menace appealing, others didn't, and 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:53.600 Barbara didn't. Ordinarily that would have been fine, with the 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.560 couple still socializing, still trading stories, maybe Elliott and Albertine 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.040 stealing some time together. But reject Shin was something White 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.280 didn't like. His first wife had rejected him, his second 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:11.200 wife had rejected him. The FBI George White's personality, approach 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:17.040 and appearance is not up to FBI standards. Right, there 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.399 was a pattern before, he hadn't been able to respond 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:28.000 to it. But now things were different. On January eleven, NFTE, 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:31.600 just a few weeks after the Smythes visited, George and 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:36.800 Albertine invited Barbara over, just Barbara. Elliott was away on 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.920 a business trip, but that was okay. Barbara could come 0:21:39.920 --> 0:21:44.720 by herself, but she brought a sidekick, her baby, Valerie, 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:50.560 who was just twenty months old. There was someone else 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.640 in the apartment too, a friend named Clarice Stein, who 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:59.480 worked with Albertine. While she liked Albertine, she had apprehensions 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.639 about why gil Fox had never told Elliott or Barbara 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:06.200 about White's hobby, the one that had put him in 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:12.440 an LSD snowstorm. He should have in the apartment. Barbara 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:15.680 put Valerie down and started talking with Clarice and Albertine 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:20.040 about the apparel business. White tended bar mixing his standard 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:24.480 two pictures of Martinis, one for him, one for the guests. 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:29.280 They started drinking, Barbara keeping herself to one because of 0:22:29.280 --> 0:22:34.360 the baby. It took about fifteen minutes before the laughing started. 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:43.120 Something was funny. Barbara, Clarice, and Albertine began laughing hysterically, uncontrollably, 0:22:43.800 --> 0:22:47.240 like nitrous oxide was being pumped into the room, their 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:51.240 drinks slashed over the rim of the glass from her bassinet. 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:54.760 Valerie watches her mother seemed to be in good spirits. 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.119 But remember what the chemist Albert Hoffman said about his 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:03.440 discovery about LSD and about the dangers it posed when 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:08.560 it was outside of a highly controlled environment. The danger 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:12.200 of a psychotic reaction is especially great if l s 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:15.560 D is given to someone without his or her knowledge. 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:19.760 The conditions for the positive outcome of an l s 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:24.240 D experiment reside in the milieu of the experiment, the 0:23:24.320 --> 0:23:31.000 person's present, their appearance, their traits. Barbara, you don't look 0:23:31.040 --> 0:23:37.399 so good, you're feeling okay. The acoustic milieu is equally significant. 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:46.119 Even harmless noises can turn to torment. LSD tends to 0:23:46.880 --> 0:23:52.320 intensify the actual psychic state. A feeling of happiness can 0:23:52.359 --> 0:23:57.120 be heightened to bliss, a depression can deepen to despair. 0:23:59.280 --> 0:24:03.760 It's danger to take LSD in a disturbed, unhappy frame 0:24:03.880 --> 0:24:08.680 of mind or in a state of fear. The probability 0:24:08.800 --> 0:24:11.879 that the experiment will end in a psychic breakdown is 0:24:11.920 --> 0:24:22.200 then quite high. Before Barbara Smith could say more, there 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.320 was a knock at the door. It was Francine Kramer, 0:24:25.960 --> 0:24:29.760 one of Albertin's coworkers. She seemed to be an intrusion 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:34.119 of reality. Francine watched as both Barbara and Clarice gathered 0:24:34.119 --> 0:24:37.680 their things, Barbara scooping up Valerie and went out into 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:43.600 the night, Out into an uncontrolled environment, out to explore 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:47.240 a world bursting with their fears, the fear of being 0:24:47.280 --> 0:24:50.719 a new mother, the amplified feelings of despair that can 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.360 accompany the arrival of a living being. You're now responsible 0:24:54.400 --> 0:25:13.200 for all of it. Naked Present, m Part three, Untouchable. 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:20.560 Clarice and Barbara went their separate ways. Clarisse arrived home and, 0:25:20.640 --> 0:25:23.240 still in a state of terror, picked up her telephone 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.040 and called White, demanding to know what he had done 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:35.320 to her. Yeah, George, George, I'm so scared. What's happening, Clarice? 0:25:35.440 --> 0:25:38.520 You know what time it is? George? Should I see 0:25:38.520 --> 0:25:45.400 a doctor? You should stop calling? Go to sleep, George, George. 0:25:48.160 --> 0:25:52.640 Clarisse called again and again she begged him to tell 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:54.560 her what he had given her so she could get 0:25:54.640 --> 0:26:00.280 something to counteract it. Each time White hung up, he 0:26:00.320 --> 0:26:03.119 had gotten whatever information he wanted out of his experiment. 0:26:03.640 --> 0:26:07.120 He had no interest in consoling her. In his diary, 0:26:07.560 --> 0:26:13.359 he wrote just a four chilling words. Clarice got the 0:26:13.400 --> 0:26:18.840 horrors Barbara had made at home with Valerie safely. She 0:26:18.880 --> 0:26:22.159 didn't call White. She didn't even tell Elliot what had happened. 0:26:22.800 --> 0:26:26.200 He had no idea that night would change the course 0:26:26.240 --> 0:26:31.119 of both of their lives. Barbara grew distant. She was 0:26:31.160 --> 0:26:34.800 prone to increasing bouts of depression. If it had started 0:26:34.800 --> 0:26:38.080 as something expected, the kind of bleak moods knew mothers 0:26:38.119 --> 0:26:43.520 sometimes experience, it had blossomed into something far more serious. Elliott, 0:26:43.560 --> 0:26:44.920 I need to tell you something, and I need you 0:26:45.000 --> 0:26:49.480 to promise to believe me. I think the mafia is 0:26:49.560 --> 0:26:54.680 after me. The encroaching paranoia put a strain on their marriage. 0:26:55.600 --> 0:26:59.800 Barbara withdrew more and more, fearing her phones were tapped 0:27:00.720 --> 0:27:04.040 by She agreed it was best to be admitted to 0:27:04.080 --> 0:27:07.240 Stony Lodge Hospital, where she was diagnosed as a chronic 0:27:07.320 --> 0:27:11.800 paranoid with depression. She expressed fears Elliott was trying to 0:27:11.880 --> 0:27:16.679 kill her. Her marriage didn't survive this day. She and 0:27:16.720 --> 0:27:20.399 Elliott soon divorced, with Valerie being placed with Elliott's parents. 0:27:21.320 --> 0:27:24.080 A woman with a new child with a happy home 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:28.960 life was by nineteen sixty two receiving a lecture shock therapy. 0:27:32.560 --> 0:27:37.280 Over time, LSD researchers reputable ones would reinforce the idea 0:27:37.440 --> 0:27:41.080 that people receiving doses unknowingly were at the greatest risk 0:27:41.160 --> 0:27:45.679 for adverse reactions. They couldn't ease their minds by reassuring 0:27:45.720 --> 0:27:48.879 themselves it was a drug induced episode and only temporary 0:27:50.040 --> 0:27:55.160 traumatic flashbacks could persist for years, well beyond the initial 0:27:55.160 --> 0:27:59.920 window of hallucinations. It would be a long long time 0:28:00.359 --> 0:28:03.400 before Elliott found out what happened at George White's apartment 0:28:03.640 --> 0:28:09.480 that night in nine By that time, Barbara would be dead, 0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:12.680 having spent the remaining two decades of her life and 0:28:12.800 --> 0:28:24.760 institutions we know George White had little compassion for his subjects, 0:28:24.800 --> 0:28:27.680 like so many others. He left Barbara then for herself. 0:28:28.280 --> 0:28:31.919 But what about Albertine? She had driven Linda King to 0:28:31.960 --> 0:28:36.879 the hospital. Did she share white sampathy? Did you really 0:28:37.040 --> 0:28:40.560 not care that her friends were being irreparably damaged by 0:28:40.600 --> 0:28:47.680 his actions? In two thousand two, journalist Douglas Valentine interviewed Albertine. 0:28:48.720 --> 0:28:52.000 It was Valentine who first revealed the connection between gil 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:55.120 Fox and George White in his two thousand two series 0:28:55.160 --> 0:29:01.200 for CounterPunch dot Org. Albertine was Valentine wrote, a sweet woman, 0:29:01.760 --> 0:29:05.160 measured in her responses, professing to have little knowledge of 0:29:05.160 --> 0:29:11.760 White CIA activities. But when Valentine mentioned Barbara Smythe, she turned. 0:29:12.600 --> 0:29:19.160 She began swearing and yelling. Valentine wrote that Albertine quote 0:29:19.160 --> 0:29:22.320 descended into a string of expletives that would have embarrassed 0:29:22.320 --> 0:29:25.360 a sailor. Her tirade left his writer with the firm 0:29:25.400 --> 0:29:28.640 impression that she was thoroughly capable of having been White's 0:29:28.640 --> 0:29:34.560 accomplice in his dirty work. Albertin refused to discuss it further. 0:29:35.640 --> 0:29:38.800 Like George White had done with Clarice Stein, she simply 0:29:38.880 --> 0:29:44.640 hung up. She didn't want to hear anymore. In all 0:29:44.640 --> 0:29:48.480 of these cases, each person who trusted George White had 0:29:48.480 --> 0:29:54.240 a vastly different reaction to his dosing them. Barbara Smythe withdrew, 0:29:54.840 --> 0:30:00.440 succumbing to the paranoia. Clarice Stein phoned White and essently 0:30:00.640 --> 0:30:05.560 until she realized his approach was careless and calculating. She 0:30:05.680 --> 0:30:09.760 eventually drifted back into the White social circle. She was, 0:30:09.880 --> 0:30:13.640 after all, coworkers with Albertine. Perhaps it was easier to 0:30:13.720 --> 0:30:16.320 let the whole experience go than to create problems at 0:30:16.320 --> 0:30:21.480 her job. The Jurgensen's avoided him entirely, the appeal of 0:30:21.560 --> 0:30:27.360 his dangerous side having grown too frightening. The Foxes accepted 0:30:27.360 --> 0:30:32.200 it as a condition of their friendship with White. For 0:30:32.240 --> 0:30:35.840 a man who enforced morality, it's puzzling to consider White's 0:30:35.880 --> 0:30:38.360 own version of it and how callous he could be 0:30:38.680 --> 0:30:42.120 even to friends, though we do know something about his 0:30:42.160 --> 0:30:48.480 ethics thanks to this passage from his unpublished autobiography Morality. 0:30:49.480 --> 0:30:51.480 As far as I'm concerned, that's just a word that 0:30:51.520 --> 0:30:56.440 describes a current fashion of conduct. The Navajo Indians regarded 0:30:56.480 --> 0:30:58.880 it as a moral for old people to be permitted 0:30:58.880 --> 0:31:00.840