In June 1956, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, who headed the CIA mind-control experiments known as MK-ULTRA, authorized a sub-project involving the testing of LSD on prisoners at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.
The sub-project was headed by Dr. Carl Pfeiffer, the chairman of the department of pharmacology at Emory University, who carried out experiments that included the development of an “anti-interrogation drug” that could “produce alterations in the human central nervous system” which was to be “test[ed] on human volunteers.”
In a memorandum for the record, Gottlieb, then chief of the Technical Services Section (TSS) of the CIA’s Chemical Division, wrote that $49,299.12 set aside for the sub-project would “be transferred using the [redacted] as cutout in the usual manner.”
A cornerstone of the study was evaluation of the effects of large doses of LSD-25 in “normal human volunteers.” The CIA believed that LSD-25 had “the ability to counteract the inebriating effects of ethyl alcohol” and could perform other magic functions in interrogation it wanted to further explore.
One of the subjects of Pfeiffer’s experiments, the notorious gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, was given LSD every day for nearly 15 months without being told what it was.
In a notebook, he described having “nightly nightmares” and “horrible LSD experiences followed by thoughts of suicide and deep depression [that] would push me over the edge.”
Bulger further described Pfeiffer as a “modern-day Dr. Mengele,” writing that “I was in prison for committing a crime and feel they committed a worse crime on me.” (more...)
CIA Cold War Experiments Shattered the Minds of Countless Unwitting Victims
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