12: MKUltra: Mind Control, Drugs and Robocats
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Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. My name is Bailey Sarian and this is the Dark History Podcast. Welcome. If you're a curious cat like myself, then let's go on a journey and let's learn something new, shall we? Today's story, kind of wild, but let's start with a question. What do Charles Manson, Allen Ginsberg, the Unabomber, and my Uncle Bob who lives off of the grid all have in common?

They all claim that they were test subjects of the government's secret mind control experiments. I didn't say it, they did, okay? Now, if you know me, if you know anything about me, you know I love a good conspiracy theory. Like, we never went to the moon. The earth is flat. Avril Lavigne died and was replaced by a body double.

Now, do I believe these conspiracy theories? No. But I enjoy a good bedtime story with like a side of paranoia. And why not? You know, life is short. Have some fun. It's just fun to imagine that this might be true. You know, why not? So if you're interested in conspiracy theories like myself, then you are probably familiar with the big old daddy conspiracy himself, MKUltra.

Well, to make it clear, this is no theory, friends. What if I told you the government was testing on thousands of unwilling patients all over the country in the hopes to achieve mind control? Oh, yes. Or what if I told you that the CIA was cutting up cats and putting microphones in them to create a little like little adorable spies? It's so cute, but like weird.

What if I told you there was a CIA agent whose job it was to sit on a toilet, pants down, sipping a martini, watching people have sex, all in the name of national security? Would you believe me?

Well, by the end of this, you will. Now, I know what you're thinking. This couldn't sound any more like a conspiracy theory. Like, okay, Bailey, let me go get my tinfoil hat. But let me tell you listeners and viewers at home, the CIA's documents on this issue were released and the story we're telling you today, it really happened. Okay? Like this actually happened here in America, land of the free, allegedly. Well, not

Well, not even allegedly. It really didn't happen. So let's go on a journey and talk about some juicy government goss and maybe understand how the hell we got to that point. Shall we? Let me open up my book of secrets to a blank page with nothing on it.

Right here, page one. Let's get into it, shall we? Let's do it. Let's start with a guy named Frank Olson. Now, Frank was a little smarty pants. Okay, he was a biological warfare scientist. And then in 1953, the CIA reached out to him in hopes to work together and develop some kind of new technology they wanted to use.

Frank agrees and the CIA tells him that they really want to develop some kind of mind control technology and Frank would be the best one to do that. I know, already I can tell I'm losing you, but they really did hire someone to develop actual mind control technology. I'm not just saying that. At this time, the CIA was wondering, "Hey, can we get control of an individual to the point where they will do like whatever we want and then they won't remember any of it?"

And Frank was like, "Yeah, I'm sure I could like help you out with that. Let me get started." Now, Frank was passionate about his new project. He wanted to help the CIA and keep America strong. But as time went on, Frank was noticing something a little suspicious going on. Day after day, he would come into work and see that the CIA was, you know, maybe abusing their power. There was one instance where Frank witnessed a few interrogations that were

a little inhumane. Then there was another time when he started to see the test subjects being tortured extensively and brutally. Frank read over his job description. He's like, yeah, I don't see anything in here about having to kill test subjects or participating in anything inhumane. So he's feeling a little guilty. He was really affected by this and he was very upset.

So Frank, he put his foot down and decided to say something. And he's like, hey, you guys, you guys, I don't think this is a good idea what you're doing. So then he gets invited to a men's retreat. And he's like, oh, my God, cool. Men's retreat. Bonding with the coworkers. Love that. So Frank gets to the retreat and he's handed a drink. And they're like, here, you're thirsty, Frankie. And he's like, oh, my God, yeah, so thirsty. You know? So he's taking a drink, as you do. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm.

And some time goes by and Frank notices that he's feeling a little, he's feeling a little funky. You know, the walls all of a sudden just start melting. The piano in the corner is speaking Mandarin. He can smell the color purple. And he's like, you know, something ain't right here. Something ain't right.

And that's when it was announced to everyone in the room, like an announcement was made. Pay attention, everybody. And they're like, hey, so your drinks were actually laced with LSD. It was their turn to be the test subjects. They told them after they consumed it. Was it a good time at least? No, no, it wasn't. Frank was in a new setting surrounded by people he's not even sure he can trust.

Well, obviously he can't because he just was given a drug against his will that he has seen being used to torture people. So with this mindset, it led to Frank having a very bad trip. Oh, yeah. Luckily for him, he makes it out. And once he leaves the men's retreat, he has this feeling of great sadness, regret.

You know, what has he gotten himself into? He doesn't even know anymore. How could these people he trusted and worked for turn the tables and now treat him like a test subject? He went to a coworker and he confided in them about how unhappy he was in the position and that he didn't like where all this was going.

So days go by. Frank was just feeling worse and worse. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't concentrate, and he was having trouble spelling words. Now these were things he could easily do before this little men's retreat. Now was this all because of the LSD he was given? Question mark? You know? It was suggested to him that he be hospitalized, which Frank agrees to, and the hospital would

The hospital that was recommended to him, it was out of town and they only checked patients in during the morning. So Frank, his doctor and a CIA coworker who were there to like assist Frank and make sure he gets checked into the hotel the night before and then take him to the doctors of the hospital the next day. So we're all there. There's the three of them.

They go to the hotel. The three of them that night have dinner. And Frank told the CIA agent that he was looking forward to his hospitalization because it was going to give him time to regroup, read some books that he's been putting off forever, maybe watch some TV, you know? So the night comes to an end. Frank goes back to his hotel room. And what happens next, my friends? Well, it's different depending on who you ask.

So Frank never made it to the hospital the next day because he allegedly jumped out of the hotel window and fell to his death, which was then labeled a suicide.

But here's what many think really happened. You see, the night before Frank's quote unquote suicide, a phone call was made from his hotel room. Now, this phone call was made to somebody within the CIA. And allegedly, this caller wanted to let them know Frank had died. Now, that's very unusual because Frank hadn't died yet. Unless that person making the call was...

was a wizard or something, you know? It just really doesn't make any sense. Another thing that was very unusual was that Frank's son asked for a second autopsy to be performed because he too was like feeling a little unsure about this suicide situation.

So when the second autopsy came through, it found out that Frank had no facial scarring or cuts associated with jumping out of a window. In fact, there were signs he had damage suggesting he had been hit directly in the head. Now, I don't know about you,

But when you jump out of a window, it's going to look like you jumped out of a window. You know, like the type of damage that comes with jumping out of a window, it would be way more severe. And it wasn't just lining up with this head trauma that he had. So what does it all mean?

Well, that's the big question. Because isn't it a little odd that shortly after confiding in his coworkers at the CIA about how unhappy he was and how cruel these experiments were, he just mysteriously died? And the wounds didn't line up?

What did Frank see that was so bad that it broke him the way it did? Did he know something much bigger was going on? Well, let's dive into these experiments and try to figure out what Frank saw. And the only way we can do so is to dig a little bit deeper into these cruel mind control experiments that were being run and funded by the CIA. Hmm.

But first, this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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Like that workout you try to squeeze in between kids' activities, work, and everything else you have going on, and before you know it, it gets pushed to tomorrow. Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

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Okay, so picture this. It's the late 1940s and the Americans are scared shitless of Russia and Korea. Now, Americans were watching Russia, who at this time, they were economically strong. And also they had a very big military. They also see they're successfully testing nuclear bombs. So America is thinking to themselves like, shit, that should have been us. You know, we should have, we should be making these bombs.

They're feeling threatened. Like, why aren't we number one? We're America. We're supposed to be number one. Then there's Korea. In 1950, America and Korea go to war. Russia and Korea had similar beliefs in like how to run a country. And these beliefs did not vibe with America's idea of where we should be at in the world. And since, you know, we're so competitive with them, everything they did felt like a threat to America.

For some reason, Russia really gets under America's skin. It sounds like a very personal problem. Like, what to do? Like, what? Did Russia sleep with America's mom or something? I mean, that's how it feels. Lady Liberty is low-key a MILF. So now, American soldiers who were captured by the Koreans, because remember, we're in war with them, they returned to America and they were like, hey, the bad guys really aren't that bad. They're running a pretty cool show over there.

So the CIA is listening to these guys like, what? This isn't very American of them. You can't think or say that about our enemies. They must have been brainwashed. Obviously, jump into wild conclusions, but that's exactly what they were thinking. How dare you feel bad for the bad guys? You're not supposed to have feelings.

Kind of like when you're dating a new guy and he doesn't respond to your text messages and you're like, oh my God, it's over. He's probably talking to a bunch of chicks. Like this was all a game. Everyone was right. And then you start planning your revenge Instagram hot girl posts to make him jealous. You know, just jump into wild ass conclusions. That's exactly what the CIA was doing. And they were planning their hot girl revenge.

And at this moment, the CIA decided if they're going to do mind control, we're going to do mind control, but 10 times better. Mm-hmm.

So mind control is a very broad concept and it can mean so many different things. And I don't think the CIA knew what they were looking for. They just wanted to see what was possible, you know? From their perspective, they could get America's own soldiers to be like killing machines who would forget their mission as soon as they get captured to keep secrets safe from the enemy, you know?

Or like if we captured an enemy, we could use mind control to make them tell us their secrets. Or what if they could like put some serum into the city's water supply and make them all turn on their own government? That'd be cool. So they saw their own soldiers come back from Korea with nothing but nice things to say. And they were totally convinced that everyone else had mind control abilities and we were behind. We needed to catch up.

When the CIA had stumbled upon LSD, they were sure, they were sure they had found their mind control answer. Now, when you think of LSD, I know you're thinking about your Uncle Bob watching the Grateful Dead concert. Uncle Bob calls it acid, but the scientists, they call it LSD. It's the same thing. So if you hear me call it acid, LSD, it's the same thing, okay?

Anyway, the CIA was betting on LSD being the answer to control people's minds. And they were betting millions on it. Now, if you're unfamiliar with LSD, it's a synthetic drug that causes shit to just start melting. Okay? You start losing grip of time and space.

Some people experience like their third eye opening up and like you see crazy pictures in your mind, crazy shapes and just all the colors that ever existed. And best of all, you can't really overdose on it. That's great. And these effects, they can last anywhere from eight to 10 hours.

Now there are some people who have experienced negative side effects. Again, you can't overdose on LSD, but it can cause psychological damage, okay? And leave you with a distorted sense of reality, which in some cases may or can lead to self-harm. So pros and cons, pros and cons.

LSD was invented by a scientist in Switzerland who discovered it by accident. Yeah, he just like mixed a few chemicals together and was like, whoops, made LSD. Now, he was trying to make something completely different. It was basically an early form of like an EpiPen, just a stimulant that counteracted a respiratory failure or something. It doesn't really matter because that's

Not what he made. When he touched this new drug he created, it was absorbed through his skin and he began to feel some very interesting side effects. Okay. The scientists said that he was experiencing like an extremely stimulated imagination. Kind of like he was in a dreamlike state and he was seeing fantastic

pictures and extraordinary shapes. He literally had to stop work in the middle of the day and go home. His wife was probably like, babe, what's wrong with you? Barely touched your cheese, you know? And he's like, honestly, babe, babe, I'm tripping balls. Okay. I don't know who's talking to me. You look like a pterodactyl that's melting. Like, it's kind of funny.

Now, this is a little bit of a side story, and it's also kind of funny, and so I'm going to share it anyways. But three days after his accidental trip, the scientist, he wanted to do more. I think he was still, like, experimenting, you know? So then he went on to take 250 micrograms of LSD.

Now this trip though, he got really high. Okay. So his assistant's like, hey, let me take you home. Let me take you home. Like you're not doing good. And he's like, okay, but I only have my bicycle. So he hopped on his bike and he like, he's riding home just high as a kite on his bike, like freaking Dorothy or something. Oh my God. Wait a minute. Is the Wizard of Oz about acid?

I mean, she was sucked into a damn tornado. She talked to a freaking scarecrow. Her slippers were a time machine and a lady from a bubble told her what to do. The more I think about it, the more I'm certain she was probably high. Good for her. Good for her. Live your life, girl. Work.

Now we're going to pause for a little bit.

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Okay, so I've gotten off track. Okay, I'm talking about the Wizard of Oz and like Jags and stuff. So let's go back to the scientist. He accidentally made LSD, okay? He was a true believer, if you know what I mean. And he thought this was cool. He thought he could make a lot of money off of this new invention. And he started calling it a new miracle drug that could produce a model psychosis, basically meaning a way to study crazy people without actually having to be around them.

They instead could create crazy people with this drug for a short period of time and then use it for their studies. Word of this new drug got back to the CIA in America, who again, they were looking for ways to control people's minds. Oh, they were interested. They were very interested. On top of that, they didn't want Russia or any other country to get their hands on this magic drug before they could.

So they decide, the CIA, to like, "Hey, what if we just bought all of the drugs?" I'm not talking most of it, I'm talking about all of it. And that's exactly what they did. The CIA bought 100 million doses of LSD from the Swiss lab. The man behind this large drug transaction, you ask? Well, his name was Sidney Gottlieb. I think I said that right.

You were actually introduced to this mastermind earlier in our story, and you didn't even know it. Remember that little men's retreat I mentioned earlier with Frank Olson? You know, where he got his drink spiked with LSD? Well, it was spiked by none other than Sidney himself. Oh, yes. You see, Sidney had some big plans for how LSD could be used, and he was willing to do whatever it took to get what he wanted.

Sidney was born August 3rd, 1918, so he was a Leo, and he would go on to spend a huge chunk of his life looking for some kind of purpose, you know, as we all do. He jumped around from religion to religion just looking for a sense of community or just meaning. Now Sid, he was deeply patriotic. He freaking loved America, all right? He was like, "Fuck yeah, America." And when World War II came around, he was first in line to sign up for that ride.

Now, unfortunately for him, he had a bit of a birth defect that made his foot a little funky. So he couldn't really walk straight. And the army was like, you know, sorry, man, like hard pass. Now this was disappointing. Okay. Because like, what was he supposed to do? He wants to go to war. He wants to fight for this country. He just wants to be there. So he is just so disappointed. Okay.

Well, he ends up going to college and he gets his PhD in chemistry in 1940. And then in 1953, Sid joined in on the fun over with the CIA, taking a position as a poison expert. Now, literally months after taking the position, Sid was put in charge of a new project called MKUltra. Do-do-do-do-do.

You know? Yeah, you get it. Anyways, the goal was to find the answer, again, to mind control. The whole thing was actually a lot of smaller, like, projects underneath the MKUltra umbrella. Now,

Sid was excited about this new opportunity. I mean, he couldn't go fight for America in the war, but he could fight for America within the CIA. So this was like his new purpose, his calling, and he was so passionate about it. So when LSD came onto the market, Sidney jumped at that opportunity and bought all of it in the name of liberty, of course.

Now, Sidney would be in charge of approving and distributing LSD across the country to different colleges and hospitals in hopes to find volunteers to test the drug on. Now, there's a lot of holes in the story at this point, honestly. That's because a lot of the documents and records regarding the program, MKUltra, they were destroyed later on. But what we do know is that the experiments were performed all over the country that were also financed by the CIA. Hmm. Let's...

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Sound familiar? But it's the moments when you feel like you have no time for yourself when those non-negotiables are more important than ever. Those are the things that keep you strong, healthy, motivated, and prepared to take on everything life demands of you. So why not make therapy one of them?

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So just a few miles away from the CIA headquarters is a place called Georgetown University, filled with many students who I'm sure they could test on, you know? So the CIA tried to establish a secret mind control research center within the university. All low key, of course, like they weren't going to say anything about it, but they were like thinking about doing it.

So during one of these mini projects, the CIA told the test subjects that they were just trying to make a drug that would help them not get drunk, but also like give you a permanent high for the rest of your life.

This was their cover. And they're like, "Hey, college kids, go ahead and booze it up, 'cause, you know, we want to help you get back to studying faster." That's how they're presenting it to them. So of course, what college student wouldn't jump at this opportunity? Hello? So many participated in these trials without the full understanding of what it was for, who it was for, and why they were even doing it in the first place.

The goal of these tests was just to see if it was possible to control their impulses and their thoughts. So there really wasn't like a conclusive ending. They just kind of like, again, wanted to see what would happen.

And all that really did happen was that LSD became a huge hit in colleges everywhere. Now, the project, again, it was huge and involved stuff other than LSD. I mean, yes, LSD was like the star of the show, but there were also things like a knockout pill, which you could just, it would just make you forget stuff. And this pill could be put in anything. They

They also were trying another substance that would basically make you paralyzed in your legs for some time. Also, substances that would alter people's personalities where they would become dependent on another person or even lower their ambition and general drive of working men.

I don't know, I mean, the list goes on. But they were trying many different techniques, mixtures, dosages, all in the hopes of mind control. The CIA was willing to let anyone try anything if it meant they could have more super secret agent drugs. Another example that was financed by the CIA was a project led by a world famous and well-respected doctor and psychiatrist named Dr. Ewan Cameron.

Now, Dr. Cameron, he was very interested in something called de-patterning. It has nothing to do with quilts. But instead, he believed it would allow him to erase a person's mind and replace it with whatever type of behavior you wanted.

For example, maybe you want your mom to stop asking you when you're going to have kids, you know, so you can like erase the urge from her brain. And instead she asks you like what you want from your Amazon wish list. Or you want to train someone to kill a world's leader. You can just erase rationality and replace it with murder. Easy. This is what science is for.

Dr. Cameron already worked with a wide variety of patients that suffered from things like postpartum depression or psychological issues. So he thinks they are the perfect test dummies to give LSD to and see like if it could break down their behavioral patterns. Kind of like in our lobotomy story. You know, this is just like another version of a doctor trying to find another solution to mental illness.

And people with mental illness were willing to try anything. But this time, instead of holes in the head, they have LSD. So, I mean, that's a lot easier, you know, at least I think so.

But now remember, his goal was to break down your behavioral patterns. And the way he did this was by trying extremely experimental tactics. One of them being electroshock therapy, where they literally electrocute your brain. Yeah, you're not supposed to do this more than a couple times a week at most. Okay, and this doctor was doing it to people multiple times a day, which is, hello, very, very dangerous.

He also used something called a sleep room, which I know you're probably thinking, oh, a sleep room. Like, that sounds so nice. Where do I sign up? My version of a sleep room is like just laying in bed, watching Designing Women in my jammies and just not thinking about work.

But this was not that. A sleep room was where they put patients in a drug-induced coma, but in a room with no lights and no windows. So over the speaker, there would be an endless recording repeating the same messages over and over and over again, just speaking to the patient's subconscious, attempting to reprogram new behaviors deep into the brain. Yes, bitch. Thanks. Easy. Do it right now, you wanna?

Now, the goal, the goal was to eventually be able to control people by implanting new motivations and skills into their brain. I know, which is actually kind of cool. Like, I wish they could make me, you know, just like do really cool shit, like be smarter or something. But instead, they're ruining people. Great. Okay. Anyways, I mean, obviously, we know now that it's ridiculous and it never worked. But I love the optimism they had. Beautiful.

I can't believe they could get funding for this shit. Trying to get millions of dollars for mind control experiments is a very big ask. Like where do you even start? So in a couple of cases, this went on for months with the longest sessions being anywhere between 39 and 65 days. Could you imagine being locked in a room with voices telling you to do shit for 65 days? No, no, I don't think any of us can.

I mean, I imagine that's maybe what a sorority is like. Maybe. I don't know. Anyways, one of Dr. Cameron's patients was a woman named Velma Orlico. She was a patient of his at the Allen Institute after a friend suggested that she go and receive some treatment for her postpartum depression.

So she's looking to receive treatment and she instead was turned into a guinea pig by Cameron, who injected her with LSD and forced her to participate in one of his sleep room studies. Velma in later interviews remembers being dosed with LSD, but at the time she had no idea what it was. After she received treatment, she would say she couldn't do simple things anymore like read or write.

She also had huge blank spots in her memory where she literally had no idea what the book went on for periods of time. Honestly, this kind of sounds like an alien abduction story, right? It's kind of similar, kind of. But Velma first learned that she was a test subject from the media who reported on what took place at the Allen Institute.

This had a lasting effect on her, and at one point, she was so devastated from the treatment and overall power abuse that she was on the brink of walking into traffic and just ending it all. Luckily, she didn't go through with it, but she did battle these thoughts up until her death in 1990. Now, Dr. Cameron would retire at some point in the 1960s, and the person who replaced him concluded that,

Nothing was concluded. The only takeaway they got from the follow-up study was that 60% of Cameron's patients experienced amnesia for anywhere from six months to 10 years. That's called blacking out from trauma. Thanks, Dr. Cameron. Thanks, CIA. You really came through with some groundbreaking information.

Later on, when the media questioned the Allen Institute on like, why in the hell they were running these experiments in the first place, they were like, well, really, were the victims here? Okay, were the real victims? The treatment wasn't that bad. It was actually much harder on the staff. I mean, they had to work really long hours feeding everyone and wiping their ass. The staff suffered, not the patients.

I freaking roll. Yeah, of course. Once again, another large organization not taking responsibility for their actions. The Allen Institute's project turned out to be a total flop, but that didn't mean Sidney from the CIA was going to give up easy. He still had lots of ideas up his sleeve to achieve the overall goal of mind control.

Now, Sidney had another idea in mind, another project, one that he would call Midnight Climax. Now, this one's fun. I mean, it kind of sounds like the name of an 80s porno. Maybe it was. Let me check my phone, BRB. Where is my phone? Oh, oh.

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Not a porno. And we're back. Operation Midnight Climax. This, too, was a series of experiments funded and conducted by the CIA, organized by our guy Sidney. Again, with the goal of finding out if LSD can control people's minds. You get it.

So they would like set up these places called safe houses in New York and San Francisco. And Sidney couldn't do it all alone. He needed help. That's when he brought in a former narcotics agent and a bigwig CIA guy named George Hunter White. And this guy was going to help facilitate the study. Now, let me tell you, this study was all sorts of freaky.

The CIA bought a bunch of little apartments, they furnished them, and then they would set up a two-way mirror in the room, and then they would bring in local sex workers to help with this project. They wanted these rooms to look super normal, but secretly were designed to allow for experimentation and observation. So they paid the sex workers to lure Johns into these rooms, then offered them something to drink.

Harry, you want something to drink? And the Johns, they had no idea that these drinks were laced with LSD.

Now, this might not make much sense, but the thought process here was that these Johns may involuntarily reveal secrets when they were intoxicated. And the victims were sometimes fed subliminal messages in hopes to essentially brainwash them into committing criminal activity like robbery, assaults and assassination. The reason they were doing this with sex workers and Johns was because they

You know, since sex work is technically illegal, they would probably never say anything about it. And even if they did say something about it, nobody would believe them because they would just sound crazy to their friends and family. It was the perfect setup. Like who would believe this story? No one. The part where this gets even more freaky is that behind the two-way mirror, there was someone watching the whole time. Yeah, the whole time.

Mr. George Hunter White. He wasn't just watching like your classic voyeur. This sweaty monster was on the other side of the two-way mirror observing. For science. For science.

He's just over there breathing heavily. He's sipping a martini. And he's also sitting on a toilet he had installed so he didn't have to, like, get up and leave the room. He didn't want to miss any of these, like, salacious moments. That's a true story. He literally had a toilet installed and he was, like, sitting on it and stuff. Like, this guy's full of alone just creep. Again, it was all in the name of science, I guess. And, of course, if a CIA agent is invited to a pizza party, you know, they're going to have a few slices of pizza, right? Yeah.

In other words, what I'm getting at essentially is that they took some of the LSD and they enjoyed the services of the sex workers. You know, normal pizza party stuff. Well,

This study, it concluded that men will talk after sex with or without drugs. Something I'm sure I could have told them for free. Literally. No serious results ever came out of this experiment. It honestly sounded like a personal interest just funded by the CIA, if you ask me, but no one's asking me right now. Okay, so America's tax dollars, yeah, they were not just used to buy all of the LSD, but also to pay for a brothel run by the CIA.

So the thing is, no one really knows when MKUltra came to an end, but officially, quote unquote, it ended in 1973. But it could still be going on now for all we know. And nobody really knows the full extent of it. So if your Uncle Bob starts rambling about men in suits shoving him into the back of a truck, or that like the government is watching him or something, you know, I guess maybe like actually believe him. Yeah.

MKUltra actually ended up accomplishing nothing other than ruining people's lives and wasting tax dollars. Because remember, their original goal was to master the art of mind control, to create super soldiers, and they thought LSD was going to be their answer. So let's go back to Sidney Gottlieb.

After Frank Olson's death, you know, the guy from the beginning, he attended his funeral and came extremely, extremely close to admitting just how bad MKUltra really was. Sid went on to tell Frank's son that maybe they went a little too far and maybe they did things that they shouldn't have done. I think that's the closest we will get to him admitting the truth at all, but he kind of admitted, you know.

Sidney would continue doing the CIA's work and running MKUltra projects for years. In later years, he started this thing. Oh, this one's kind of funny. It's not funny, but it's kind of funny. It's kind of funny because in later years, he started this thing called Operation Acoustic Kitty, which I just I want to start a band just so I can call it Operation Acoustic Kitty. This is a real thing, I swear.

But it was where they basically turned a cat into a robot. So they sewed, they performed surgery on the cat and they sewed a microphone into the cat's body in hopes to spy on people. So they put the microphone in there and then they stitch the cat up. Cat wakes up. He doesn't even know he's a secret spy, you know, and they send them out there to spy. The only problem was that they forgot to train the cat.

Yeah, literally. They put this cat in a park to spy on someone and it just like ran away. And this is also true. It ran away and it got hit by a taxi. I know it's sad, but honestly, that's kind of funny. That's kind of funny. Come on. That's kind of funny. It's not funny, but it's kind of funny. It's something out of a movie. It's kind of funny.

It's kind of funny. We can laugh, but it's not funny. It just got to a point where it seemed like they were just trying whatever the hell they wanted, honestly. I mean, who thinks of putting a microphone in a cat? It's kind of creative. There was nobody to even check up on Sidney. The only person who was above him was like the actual director of the CIA. So Sidney just had a green light for anything. So later in life, Sidney moved to India and he opened a hospital for those who were struggling with leprosy.

Yeah, super random, you know? I think he just wanted to, which is nice. It was like a part of his late life attempt to feel like he was maybe doing something good in the world. Sidney was honestly a weirdo, but he tried to do some good, great, and then he would eventually retire and then die in 1999.

The CIA, on the other hand, they created their own monster. They jumped to a wild conclusion, assuming that mind control was the new hot thing and they like needed to get behind it. And all in the name of protecting the people. But it backfired because in the 1960s, the hippie movement was on the rise. And one thing that kept the hippie movement strong was

Babe, it was drugs. Drugs. You know what I'm saying? The only thing MKUltra did at the end of the day was introduce LSD to a bunch of college kids. They were having a good time. They were telling their friends about it. I mean, it was just a big party. I wish I was there, honestly. So their big secret mind control mission ended up being the spark to a whole free thought movement. Whoops.

The worst of these experiments were not even reported for a few reasons. Number one, the CIA, they have a lot of secret detention centers that don't have to follow like any US laws. So they can detain enemies, I'm using air quotes, and practice like weird shit on them. It shouldn't be a surprise that that type of stuff doesn't really come out too often. Yeah.

Number two, the CIA director was at risk of being fired, which would blow the roof off the whole MKUltra thing. So they panicked and they literally destroyed all of the documents.

And then number three, because the majority of the documents were destroyed, nobody really knows like the full extent as to what was going on in these experiments or for how long. I mean, how many people were affected by this? Just imagine how many other experiments were run and freaking eaten by the government paper shredders. That's my paper shredder noise.

Well, in 1974, documents relating to MKUltra were released to the public, whatever documents were left, mind you. Now, it's weird because you would think, you would think it would be trending, hot news, you know, but it wasn't. The story seemed to just kind of get pushed aside and nobody was really talking about it that much. I think it's because during this time, the Nixon Watergate scandal was going down.

Yeah. So maybe that was done on purpose. Maybe not. But many to this day consider MKUltra just a silly conspiracy theory, even though it's literally not. It's literally not a conspiracy theory.

So when word got out to the public what was really going down in these experiments, people, they freaking wanted answers, okay? There were several lawsuits from victims, some receiving settlements from the CIA, like Frank Olson's family. They got a settlement and also a public apology from the president himself.

Oh, thanks. You know, whatever. Velma's family fought hard to go after the government and hold them accountable for what they did. But in the end, the government prevented her family from being compensated in any way, and they succeeded at that. For what? Jeez.

And then eventually the Supreme Court ruled that it was absolutely unacceptable for the CIA to ever conduct experiments on Americans without knowledge or consent. Which, hey, that's kind of cool, I guess.

I'm rolling my eyes if you can't see. I'm rolling my eyes. I'm rolling my eyes because I believe that's probably not true. When you look at the bigger scale of things, nobody was really punished or held accountable for what took place under MKUltra. After all, it's kind of hard to hold someone accountable when a ton of documents were destroyed and there's literally no proof of what was done. You know?

But throughout the years, there have been many people who have come forward saying that they were for sure drugged at some point in the 50s. And their stories take off all the boxes of MKUltra shit. But since they couldn't prove it, many were labeled as crazy or kooky. So, I mean, that sucks. I'm sure you can think of some people who get labeled crazy. Anyways, in conclusion, what the hell is going on with the CIA?

They were trying so hard to learn mind control, but Steve Jobs came in and accomplished that in 2007. It's cute to think that MKUltra was just a one and done deal. You know, well, that didn't work. Oh, well. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm sure the CIA has adjusted their approach to the situation as to how they can control our minds. I'm sure.

But isn't that the point of all this? The government is kind of inept in trying to control minds. They created a culture of free thought. It's sort of like when you're a kid and you think like adults just know everything. They have all the answers. And then you grow up and you learn, well, once you become an adult, you're like, oh shit, we sure do not. We sure do not have the answers. You know, we don't know what the hell we're doing. We're just like trying to figure it out.

Well, the government is kind of the same way. Just because they're big and have money, we think they're going to make some sound decisions. But they don't. I don't know what the hell they're doing. They put microphones in cats, for God's sake. RoboCats? Jesus. And in the end, the CIA's ego is, it's too big to lose. So they probably walked away from MKUltra thinking they won. I mean, they got laid and did a bunch of acid. And that's a win if you ask me. Anyways...

I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you know more about this? Let's continue the conversation over on social media using the hashtag dark history. And don't forget to join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs and also catch my murder mystery and makeup, which drops on Mondays. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices and I'll be talking to you next week.

Bye. Don't get brainwashed. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by me, Bailey Sarian, Chelsea Durgan from Slash Management, and Fanny Badri from Wheelhouse DNA. Produced by Lexi Kiven, Daryl Christian, and Spencer Strassmore. Research provided by Ramona Kivett, writers Jed Bookout,

What a great name.

And also, I'm your host. Hello. Hi. How's it going, princess? Princess of the dark, Bailey Sarian.