WEBVTT - A Waste of Sin 0:00:04.000 --> 0:00:08.280 In a politician named George Christopher promised to clean up 0:00:08.280 --> 0:00:12.119 San Francisco. The mayoral candidate swore of voters that all 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:15.760 manner of vice would be eradicated, from drugs to illegal 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:20.640 gambling to prostitution. No sin would go unnoticed under Christopher's watch, 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:26.439 and his campaign worked. His administration endorsed s squads, cops 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.600 whose sole duty it was to patrol San Francisco streets 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.680 looking for signs of bad behavior. They arrested or intimidated 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:39.160 all manner of people in the red light district. The muggers, gamblers, 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:42.200 and dealers weren't having a good time under Christopher's watch, 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.000 but the prostitutes, at least some of them had a 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.800 way out. They just needed to say a name. George White. 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.640 White was there get out of jail free card. The 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.080 local cops knew his authority as a narcotics officer superseded 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:00.840 their own when it came to sex workers, and so 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:04.720 many prostitutes mentioned his name that law enforcement started referring 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:11.920 to them as George's girls. San Francisco Narcotics Bureau. This 0:01:12.040 --> 0:01:14.400 is White got a lady of the night here says 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.160 she doesn't belong to jail, So cut her loose any 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:22.720 special reason. Why, Let's just say that lost souls get 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:31.120 to me. Thanks boys. Why did White care so much 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:34.360 about getting escorts out of jail, Well, he owed them 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:39.199 a favor. That's because George's girls had some additional responsibilities. 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.440 They were an extension of his experiments, subcontractors to one 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.000 of the most powerful government agencies in the world, and 0:01:48.080 --> 0:01:51.000 not even the mayor of San Francisco had enough power 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.080 or influence to keep George White from doing his patriotic duty. 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.480 And in this case, George White's patriotic duty was to 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:03.960 observe them from behind a two way mirror, watching them 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.960 having sex while sitting on a portable toilet and drinking Martini's, 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:14.959 often recording it though they didn't know it themselves. George's 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.640 Girls were the CIA's prostitutes, and they would help George 0:02:19.639 --> 0:02:52.679 White reach the most depraved heights of his career. For 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.040 My Heart Radio, this is Operation Midnight Climax and I 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:01.880 Heart original podcast, I'm Noel Brown and this is Chapter 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:11.320 six A Waste of Sin, Part one The Wild West 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.200 in nineteen fifty three, George White was like a traveling 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.960 salesman running out of new customers. He targeted and drugged 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:24.280 his friends, friends of friends, strangers, and more than a 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:29.480 few criminals. But things were getting dangerous in Greenwich Village. 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:32.440 Word had spread about the man with cold blue eyes 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.160 who liked to invite you home and serve lsd on 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:40.000 the rocks. But it wasn't just the rumors that worried him. 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:45.200 George White was being followed. It started after White was 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.720 told to close up shop at his Greenwich Village pad 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.960 and take on a new assignment, this time in Houston, Texas. 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.320 At the time, the police force was embroiled in a 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:59.080 controversy involving crooked cops who were selling stolen heroin back 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:03.920 to criminals, so White flew down. He started by interviewing 0:04:03.920 --> 0:04:08.400 a detective named Martin Bill Knitzer, but the case quickly stalled. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:13.280 The very next day, Bill Nitzer shot himself, well appeared 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:18.040 to have shot himself. White thought it was murder. It's 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:23.400 very difficult to shoot yourself in the chest. Houston police 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.400 weren't happy about an outsider sticking his nose in their business. 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.840 They called his boss, Harry Annslinger, to complain that he 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:35.240 wasn't welcome. One cop even approached White in a diner 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.280 gun on his hip and told him he leaned too 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:42.880 hard on his friend. White shrugged it off. Then the 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.800 man stepped back, eyeing White like they were in an 0:04:45.800 --> 0:04:49.320 Old West saloon, and told him they could settle things outside. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:53.200 George White might have wound up in a duel if 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.080 cooler heads had n't prevailed, but that wasn't the end 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:01.159 of it. Back in New York, White realized he was 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:04.680 being tailed by Houston cops. They were hoping to find 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.760 evidence he was a Communist at the time, a kiss 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.279 of death that could have ruined his name and career. 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.320 Of course, they didn't understand White had been busy fighting 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:19.200 Communism for a very long time. Still, White realized it 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:22.880 was a good time to leave New York City. Sydney Gottlieb, 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:27.320 White supervisor, didn't want to stop drug experiments, so he 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.880 proposed that White relocate to San Francisco and resume his 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:35.680 activities there. But there would be a twist. While White 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:37.919 had been occupied with the roll of drugs and getting 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.880 the truth, Gottlieb now wanted him to weaponize sex as well. 0:05:44.240 --> 0:05:48.360 Spies and sex have a long tradition together. Seduction has 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:51.800 always played a role in foreign intrigue. And espionage, especially 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.640 in the movies, and the principle was similar to the 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.440 one behind LSD. It was about someone letting their guard down. 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:04.200 Sex may to subject vulnerable. Maybe Sidney Gottlieb had been 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.599 looking for the weapon to win the Cold War in 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:11.279 the wrong places all along. Maybe sex was the ultimate 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:17.479 truth drug. In March nineteen fifty, White and Albertine packed 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:21.400 their things and headed to San Francisco. The couple maintained 0:06:21.400 --> 0:06:24.240 a separate residence there, but the real action would be 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:27.839 at the l Shaped Department at two Chestnut Street and 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:32.040 Telegraph Hill, a scenic neighborhood overlooking the San Francisco Bay, 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.960 Fisherman's Wharf, and even Alcatraz, where some of the dope 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.240 pushers White had long ago put away. May have been idling. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:47.000 Why did Godliev select San Francisco In the nineteen fifties. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:50.719 The city was alive with art and music. The thinking 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.479 was progressive. Like Greenwich Village, the city had embraced the 0:06:54.520 --> 0:07:00.520 Beat generation and the counterculture movement. In October d five, 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:04.400 it hosted the famous Six Gallery Reading, where poets including 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:08.280 Alan Ginsburg and Michael McClure read their work. It was 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.680 the first time Ginsburg ever read Howell in public, and 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.200 it was met with a raucous reception from drunk spectators, 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:21.680 including Jack Kerouac. Cynically, Gottlieb targeted San Francisco because the 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:26.200 gay community was stirring there. Sex positivity was in the 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.120 first lesbian rights organization, the Daughters of Belitas, had just 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:32.960 formed in the city. If the CIA was going to 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.560 study sex, it needed to be in a place where 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:41.560 sexuality was thriving. But before White's work could begin, the 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.040 Chestnut Street apartment needed a makeover. Part of it was 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.880 for surveillance purposes. White hired an engineering student from cal Berkeley, 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.680 a tech whiz, to wire microphones into wall outlets. A 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:57.760 movie camera was obscured behind a two way mirror where 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:02.080 White could observe and record any d that unfolded. The 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:06.239 radio antenna was intended to let agents parked outside listen 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.240 to what was happening in the room. Maybe they were 0:08:09.240 --> 0:08:12.240 there to watch the door to take surveillance photographs for 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:16.320 CIA blackmail purposes, But that audio signal is how the 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:19.280 live sex shows wound up getting out over the airwaves 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:24.520 to anyone picking up the frequency. White wasn't just concerned 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:29.280 with the technical stuff he wanted atmosphere. To find it, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.040 he looked to Hugh Hefner and tried to ape the 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.079 Playboy Aesthetic record show that he expensed over a hundred 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:41.120 items to the CIA, including drapes, a mattress, art, and 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:45.680 a telescope. With the CIA's money, he also bought several 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.880 reproductions of Henri de toluz Latrex works, the nineteenth century 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:54.240 artist who was fascinated by Paris's lurid underbelly. White thought 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:57.920 the paintings, mostly of naked women kissing and embracing one another, 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.120 set the mood he all so brought along some photos 0:09:01.160 --> 0:09:04.520 of women in bondage, likely supplied by his old friend, 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.920 the fetish publisher John Willie. All of it gave Chestnut 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.559 Street a kind of ci a Bordello aesthetic, a strange 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:18.199 mix of softcore porn and cheap elegance. Henri de toluz 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:21.360 La trec was also fond of depicting prostitutes in his work, 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.080 and that was another reason San Francisco was ideal for 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:28.680 White's purposes. In order to crack the code of sex 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.000 and drugs as matters of national security, he needed the 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:38.160 sex he needed professionals, and for that the CIA would 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:56.520 need a pimp pert two staffing up. Normally, procuring female 0:09:56.679 --> 0:09:59.320 escorts would have fallen on Pierre Lafitte, who had been 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:01.319 White's right hand a man back in New York City, 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.439 but the FEET was still taking a vacation of sorts 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.040 in St. Petersburg, Florida. That's where White had sent him 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:11.520 to lay low following the controversial death of CIA employee 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:16.160 Frank Olsen. He had lost his Robin, so he did 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.360 the same thing Bruce Wayne once did in the comics. 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:23.000 He got himself a new sidekick. White summoned a man 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:28.000 named ira Ike Feldman. Of all the characters to pass 0:10:28.040 --> 0:10:31.240 through White's life, Feldman was one of the most outrageous. 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.439 He was a fellow in Narcotics Bureau agent whose exterior 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:39.320 helped obscure a fierce intellect. A former military intelligence officer, 0:10:39.559 --> 0:10:43.360 he spoke fluent Russian and Mandarin. He was also good 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.839 with the undercover work. In fact, he'd spent the past 0:10:45.880 --> 0:10:48.880 several months posing as a heroin dealer in pimp under 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.400 the alias Joe Capone. The two men knew each other 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:59.200 by reputation. In journalist Richard Stratton tracked down Ike Feldman, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:03.040 and rather than being evasive or contrite about his CIA work, 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.559 Feldman was all too happy to talk about it. Here's 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.680 what he said about working with George White. White was 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:12.040 the son of a bitch buddy who was a great cop. 0:11:13.720 --> 0:11:16.320 That was Feldman's way of saying he liked White, and 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.600 just like White, he had taken his alter ego to extremes. 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:24.600 His persona of Joe Capone was flamboyant, prone to blue 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:28.480 suede shoes, pinstriped suits, huge hats, and a massive fake 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.640 diamond ring. Feldman was just five ft three, but quick 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:37.079 with his tongue and his fists. Like White, he was 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:40.640 from the old school of law enforcement. His preferred method 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.480 of getting people to talk involved a hammer. Sometimes when 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.559 people had information, it was the one way you could 0:11:46.600 --> 0:11:48.480 get it. If it was a guy, you took his God, 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:50.920 can you hit it with, Amma, and they talked to you. 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.640 But White made an appeal to Feldman's curiosity. What if 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.720 there was a good way to get people to talk 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:07.319 without hitting their dicks with hammers? White explained the program. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.080 He would supply the drugs, typically LSD, but whatever struck 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.640 his fancy, from sedatives to uppers too, experimental drugs that 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.880 didn't even have a name yet. The CIA would supply 0:12:17.920 --> 0:12:21.560 the safe house, and Feldman, as the pimp, would supply 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.640 the women, ladies he recruited from bars and massage parlors. 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:30.079 Feldman would later argue he was only posing as a pimp. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.480 He was an undercover cop playing a role, and the 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:35.640 role of Jo Capone called for him to take on 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.280 the profile of a drug dealer and vice kingpim. But 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:42.680 when you're recruiting actual prostitutes to have actual sex with 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.680 actual customers and paying them actual money, well doesn't that 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:52.240 make you an actual pimp too. It wasn't long before 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:55.840 Ike Feldman CIA pimp had assembled a harem for George 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.920 White's brothel. The prostitutes probably didn't know about the CIA part. 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:03.200 They just knew Feldman and White were paying them between 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:05.959 fifty two a hundred dollars a night to bring John's 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.920 back to the Chestnut Street apartment, where they were to 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.959 serve the men drinks dosed with LSD or other drugs, 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:14.880 and then they were supposed to indulge in whatever the 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.400 John's desired. The women could keep whatever fee they normally 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:22.760 charged for services rendered, whether Feldman took a cut of 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:27.160 that to keep up his pimp appearances is unknown. But 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.800 the women had another far more important incentive to work 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.520 with White and Feldman. White promised each one that if 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.800 they were ever busted by San Francisco police for their 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:39.800 escort work, they could call him and he would arrange 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.440 for their immediate release. The more men they brought to 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:47.440 the pad, the more favors White would owe them. Georgia's 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:52.600 girls had virtual immunity from the local police. Why it 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.360 wasn't someone who looked down on sex workers. Long before 0:13:56.360 --> 0:13:59.120 he became an narcotics agent, White worked for the United 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.320 States Border but roll and at the border he fell 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:08.120 for one. In his autobiography, he wrote, her name was Estrellita, 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:13.040 and it was clear that she loved me with deep passion. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.400 Otherwise would she have taken time off from her duties 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:21.880 to lose herself in my embraces coming home? However, she 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:26.440 subsequently fractured some of my ideals, if not my heart. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:30.320 When it came time to murmur audios that night, she 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.840 rubbed her fingertips together in a manner that didn't at 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:38.640 all suggest deathless love. Money, She said, you get paid 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:43.480 for your work. I get paid for mine. Estralita made 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:47.640 quite an impression. Later, while working as a narcotics cop 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:51.360 in Omaha, White made the acquaintance of another prostitute named 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.760 Babe Barnes, and it might have been his first experience 0:14:54.800 --> 0:14:58.320 as a bowyer. Babe freely permitted me to use her 0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:01.880 workshop as my observation. Most regularly. I was able to 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:06.560 maintain a surveillance of her visitors, particularly the narcotic minded ones, 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.480 from the clothes closet in her room or even from 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.040 under her busy bed. Much of my knowledge of the 0:15:13.080 --> 0:15:17.120 more esoteric facts of life, not to mention, my information 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.520 on the local narcotic traffic, was game in this somewhat 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:25.640 clinical fashion. When why it was about to be transferred, 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:30.240 he visited Babe Barnes one last time. I paid one 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.400 more visit to Babe, whom I had learned to like. 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:35.760 She was in the Council Bluffs jail during sixty days. 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:38.280 It was a sad sort of rainy day, and she 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:42.880 was pretty low, having run out of money, friends, and cigarettes. 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.040 I restocked her in at least one or two of 0:15:46.040 --> 0:15:48.880 these categories, and suggested that she tried some other profession 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.720 when it was over, which was like trying to persuade 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:58.520 Campbell to stop carrying soup. What's funny? I was thinking 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:03.160 about you and under my bed to get junkies. What's 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:08.720 funny about that? Nothing except you're probably the first guy 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:13.520 who ever learned my business from the ground up. So long, baby, 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:19.280 So long, George. I'll see you again sometime now, he won't. 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:25.880 It never happens, but good luck, and it never happened. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:35.600 Of course. It was the closest George White ever came 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.560 to explaining why he could respect the law even though 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.120 he didn't mind and even respected those who kept breaking in. 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.920 She was a lost soul. Lost Souls Get to Me 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:11.840 m Part three Breakthrough. In the spring of nine, everything 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.920 was in place for George White. He'd finally be able 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:17.640 to find out whether a combination of sex and drugs 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.760 was the key to breaking down the walls of discretion. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.000 If it worked, maybe the Cold War would swing in 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:30.040 their favor. If it didn't, George White, renowned sexual deviant, 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.840 would still get paid to watch live sex shows. The 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:37.280 apartment on Chestnut Street was fully wired for audio and video. 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.840 White and Feldman had girls, LSD and an ample supply 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:47.359 of subjects. White even gave his project a name, Operation 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:53.200 Midnight Climax. The escorts would go out on the prowl 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.520 and quickly and snare a man using time tested methods 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:01.840 of seduction. You want to fuck, it's twenty dollars. White 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.280 sat behind the two a mirror recording for ambience. White 0:18:06.320 --> 0:18:10.200 display his extensive collection of opium pipes collected from years 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.520 of drug busts. In front of him was a large 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.520 Martini picture, which he drained over the course of an evening, 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:19.119 peeing it out into the toilet underneath him so he 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:23.040 wouldn't miss a minute of action. Sometimes, when he was 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.199 particularly struck by an escorts beauty, he turned to his 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:30.720 colleague and say, that's a waste of a sin. The 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.160 escort and her john would step into the bedroom, clothing 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:38.200 falling to the floor. White told the women to approach 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:43.040 anyone they liked, from outcasts to white collar professionals. Like 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:46.639 any serious scientist, White wanted a cross section of subjects. 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:49.600 The weather, it was at the bar, or in the 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.919 living room, or even in the bedroom. The john's were 0:18:52.960 --> 0:18:58.920 always offered a drink, often with something in it. As 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.000 the LSD worked its magic, the escorts would do what 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:06.000 escorts do. At first, White wanted to see if they're 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.600 willingness to try things sexually had any influence on whether 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:15.200 the man would loosen up. Positions played out like a 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.200 Comma Sutra page come to life. They assumed whatever role 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:24.240 their partner wanted. A scolding teacher, a jilted lover. A 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.760 closet full of sex toys was at their disposal, everything 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:32.240 from dildo's two paddles. After experiencing their fantasy of choice, 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.159 the men would enter their refractory period, and it was 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.359 here George White would lean forward, martini in hand and 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:44.320 wait for a revelation. The escorts would poke and prod 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:49.360 the John's about their profession, their family, their friends. Sometimes 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:54.399 they were politicians, sometimes millionaires. Others worked for companies that 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:59.840 demanded discretion. What would they say in George White's fantasia, 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:04.719 a place where pleasure was always on tap. Basically, they 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:09.560 talk about their wives, about their kids, about their bosses. 0:20:10.640 --> 0:20:14.359 Sometimes it was under the influence of LSD. Sometimes just 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:18.440 sex would be enough. White always learned what the men 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:21.680 did for a living, but he was looking for more. 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.520 Would an airline pilot talk about the technical issues of 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.879 a passenger plane? Would a lawyer talk about a client. 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.640 The CIA's theory was that men were most vulnerable as 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:38.159 they neared orgasm. Their hormones had completely taken over by 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:42.040 that point, and if the escort could somehow delay their climax, 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:48.080 they might talk. This didn't work. When the escorts tried 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:51.560 to stall or converse, the men were virtually in a trance. 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:56.280 Their hormones were the dominant force in their brains, so 0:20:56.359 --> 0:21:02.879 the CIA tried other things. Years later, Feldman would recall 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:05.879 the CIA shipped a new aphrodisiac to the Pad for 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:09.119 White and his girls to try out. Not long after, 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.119 the women brought back a number of Russian sailors and 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:16.280 served them this concoction, which CIA chemists had informally dubbed 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.960 the sextender. White wanted to know all kinds of crap, 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.400 but they weren't talking, so we had the girl slip 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:26.600 him this sex drug. These guys went crazy. White found 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:30.159 out what he wanted to know. What Feldman was describing 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.800 was something remarkably like viagra, which wouldn't go on sale 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.359 for another forty years. But there was a missing piece 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.800 of the equation. White was a master interrogator, someone who 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.199 could make a mime talk, but Now that the prostitutes 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:47.840 were the public face of this experiment, they had to 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:53.600 learn a different kind of manipulation, and so did the CIA. 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.040 Remember that even though George White had been around the block, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:00.879 the CIA hadn't not when it came to actual coercion. 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:04.040 They wanted to know everything they could about the role 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:08.199 of sex and espionage, so they constantly dispatched psychologists to 0:22:08.240 --> 0:22:11.400 interview the women, asking them about how they approached men, 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.800 how they made them comfortable, what men liked, what they didn't. 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:21.119 They didn't know what a trick was, what a john was. 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:24.360 It wasn't uncommon to walk into the pad and see 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:28.040 a CIA shrink, white dress, shirt, sleeves rolled up and 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:30.800 fogging up their eyeglasses as a prostitute told them the 0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.000 best ways to use sex to get what they wanted, 0:22:34.160 --> 0:22:38.720 in their case money. For the CIA, it was secrets. 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:45.639 Sometimes these exchanges bordered on the ridiculous. Once Feldman walked 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.200 in to find CIA psychologist John Gittinger on the floor 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:53.440 with two prostitutes using bendable pipe cleaners the kind you'd 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:57.000 find in school art projects, as the women contorted them 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.359 into human shapes to illustrate the various acrobat next their 0:23:00.400 --> 0:23:06.080 clients liked getting Jer photographed these tiny dioramas for posterity, 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:10.919 carrying them all back to CIA headquarters. But most of 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.119 the time no psychologists or mental health professionals would be 0:23:14.160 --> 0:23:17.720 on hand to oversee the experiments. Most of the time 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.880 it was just George White, inebriated, sitting on the portable 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:28.760 toilet behind a mirror, taking notes. White was many things, 0:23:29.240 --> 0:23:33.639 a cop, a brawler, a patriot, but he wasn't a doctor. 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:38.320 His observations were superficial in the extreme. He could only 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.399 record and comment on whether a subject had spoken freely, 0:23:42.080 --> 0:23:46.080 not about their overall mental state. From his perch, White 0:23:46.119 --> 0:23:49.600 absorbed only the most salacious elements of this grand experiment. 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:55.760 He was a CIA sanctioned voyer, just as he had 0:23:55.760 --> 0:23:58.800 with Babe Barnes back in Omaha. White took a liking 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.560 to one escorton which to kill her. Her name was 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:05.879 Liz Evans, and she spent hours with both White and 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:09.880 Gettinger filling them in on every possible nuance of her profession. 0:24:10.920 --> 0:24:13.040 She had no idea they were acting on behalf of 0:24:13.040 --> 0:24:17.480 the CIA. White was just a narcotics cop and Gettinger 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:22.560 a very curious associate. On a few occasions. White asked 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.600 her to accompany foreign dignitaries to some black tie events, 0:24:26.480 --> 0:24:29.840 then retreat with them back to their hotel rooms. Was 0:24:29.880 --> 0:24:33.480 White behind a mirror in an adjacent room filming? Was 0:24:33.520 --> 0:24:35.760 he under the bed as he had been with Barnes? 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:40.680 Evans never said, though she did have something to say 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:44.879 to write our hp Albarelli Jr. I was paid to 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.879 practice my womanly charms. I'm sure George filmed parts of 0:24:48.880 --> 0:24:52.000 those encounters if he could have a lot of the 0:24:52.040 --> 0:24:55.159 times there were guys with George read movie cameras and 0:24:55.320 --> 0:25:01.000 sound equipment. Even more curiously, Evans recalled the whites experiments 0:25:01.040 --> 0:25:06.120 sometimes involved some very unconventional means of influence. We used 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:11.400 to play these crazy games hypnosis and like that. Yeah, 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:14.119 I think I was hypnotized once by a friend of George's. 0:25:16.160 --> 0:25:19.679 White peered through his looking glass for weeks and then months, 0:25:20.359 --> 0:25:24.120 the film camera capturing all of the encounters. He spent 0:25:24.200 --> 0:25:27.679 his days hunting drug dealers and his nights watching naked 0:25:27.680 --> 0:25:32.000 bodies contort themselves into any and every sexual position imaginable. 0:25:34.000 --> 0:25:38.520 The results were always unpredictable. The men seemed guarded, even 0:25:38.560 --> 0:25:42.720 after drinks, even after hallucinogenic chemicals turned the pad into 0:25:42.760 --> 0:25:47.520 a world of bright colors and four breasted women uncloid. 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:52.800 I know we're close. What was missing was something prostitutes 0:25:52.840 --> 0:26:02.840 didn't normally offer, intimacy. White took the prostitute aside and 0:26:02.880 --> 0:26:07.800 told them to try something after sex, after climax. They 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:10.680 would usually hurry out of bed, get dressed, and get 0:26:10.720 --> 0:26:13.920 the john out the door like a restaurant. High turnover 0:26:14.040 --> 0:26:17.560 was good for business, but White told them to linger instead, 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:21.320 to just stay in bed and talk. The CIA had 0:26:21.359 --> 0:26:23.800 been looking at this experiment as a two sided equation 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:27.399 between sex and drugs, but White saw a third side, 0:26:28.080 --> 0:26:31.840 the male ego. When a prostitute began taking an interest 0:26:31.880 --> 0:26:35.000 in the man beyond there a lotted time, they were flattered, 0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:40.600 They felt special, and they wanted to reciprocate by talking, conversing, 0:26:41.080 --> 0:26:44.240 sharing themselves, just like their escorts appeared to be doing. 0:26:45.440 --> 0:26:49.560 As one CIA officer later said, to find a prostitute 0:26:49.600 --> 0:26:51.720 who is willing to stay is a hell of a 0:26:51.760 --> 0:26:55.240 shock to anyone used to prostitutes. It has a tremendous 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:58.040 effect on the guy. It's a boost to his ego 0:26:58.119 --> 0:27:01.080 if she's telling him he was really and she wants 0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:04.280 to stay for a few more hours. Most of the 0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:07.040 time it gets pretty vulnerable. What the hell is he 0:27:07.080 --> 0:27:09.840 going to talk about? Not the sex? So he starts 0:27:09.880 --> 0:27:12.920 talking about his business. It's at this time she can 0:27:13.040 --> 0:27:18.520 lead him gently. The simple act of human proximity and 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:21.320 a very reduced sense of inhibition thanks to the drugs, 0:27:21.880 --> 0:27:25.480 led to the john saying things they shouldn't private, things 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:33.560 things one wouldn't normally say to an escort. Everyone is 0:27:33.600 --> 0:27:40.040 taking kicked back to Sydney Hall. Everyone, you sure, just 0:27:40.119 --> 0:27:48.600 tell you play the game. The prostitutes weren't there solely 0:27:48.640 --> 0:27:52.480 for the John's. When George White's boss, Sydney Gottlieb came 0:27:52.520 --> 0:27:55.800 to visit, they were there for him too, Just as 0:27:55.840 --> 0:27:58.640 he had with L. S. D. Gottlieb liked to take 0:27:58.640 --> 0:28:02.480 a hands on approach. Several times Sydney Gottlieb came out. 0:28:02.560 --> 0:28:04.800 I met Gottlieb at the pad and a White's office. 0:28:05.160 --> 0:28:06.840 White used to send me to the airport to pick 0:28:06.920 --> 0:28:10.320 up Sydney in this other wacko John getten you the psychologist. 0:28:11.240 --> 0:28:14.160 Sydney was a nice guy. He was a fucking nut. 0:28:14.800 --> 0:28:20.240 They're all fucking nuts. Feldman claimed, Gottlie availed himself with 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:23.840 the hired help, retreating to a private space with the prostitutes. 0:28:25.160 --> 0:28:28.480