The MKULTRA experiment is a part of the CIA's history that makes you wonder just exactly what else was going on behind closed doors.
MKULTRA was the CIA's attempt at mind-control over large segments of a population. They tested the effects of narcotics (specifically LSD) on volunteers, inmates, and randomly selected targets who had no idea what was going on, mostly with disastrous results.
LSD comes with a variety of physical and psychological effects including: delusions, visual and auditory hallucinations, impaired perception, fear and paranoia, severe terrifying thoughts and feelings and panic.
There were mixed results with every person who was tested, some even died after being made a part of MKULTRA. Here are 5 people that were targeted by the CIA for experimentation.
1. Ken Kesey
You likely know him as the author of the class novel One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but before that he was a star student-athlete at Stanford University, even earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team as an alternate.
Before accidentally becoming a part of the experiment he had never done any drugs or even tasted alcohol. He was told that these experiments were being done to try and help cure insane people. Decades later he found out it was just the exact opposite.
2. Whitey Bulger
Whitey Bulger was as gangster as it gets. A true danger to those who crossed him the wrong way, he evaded capture by the police for years. When he was eventually taken into custody he volunteered to be part of the experiment in exchange for a lighter sentence. He experience horrible depression and suicidal thoughts during the experiment, he even compared the doctor running the study to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
Bulger was so pissed when he found out why he was being experimented on that he considered having Dr. Carl Pfeiffer killed.
3. Robert Hunter
Hunter was long-time musical collaborator of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead. Hunter went through the same testing as Ken Kesey but had completely different results. He didn't know why he was taking the drugs that hadn't hit the streets yet, but by all accounts he enjoyed the experience. Let's be honest, someone who works with the Grateful Dead enjoying a psychedelic experience isn't all that strange.
4. George H. White
An agent for the US Bureau of Narcotics (now known as the DEA), he was the head of Operation Midnight Climax. By all accounts he oversaw his subordinates with an iron fist, and none of them would move on anything without his express consent.
While working out of a San Francisco safe-house, the use of LSD and other "things" got a little out of hand. Neighbors often complained of seeing armed men chasing half naked women from the house. White fully admitted that the LSD completely compromised his ability to work professionally.
5. Harold Blauer
A former professional tennis player who fell on hard times after going through a divorce, Blauer checked himself into the New York State Psychiatric Institute. It was his death sentence, he was diagnosed as a "pseudo-neurotic schizophrenic," and was dead in just over a month.
Doctors at the facility were giving him injections of something that they didn't even know what it was. A top-secret agreement between the facility and the Army had doctors testing narcotics on patients as part of MKULTRA. The injections Blauer was receiving were actually a form of mescalin, and his death started a massive cover-up. It wasn't until the 1970s that the government admitted to causing Blauer's death.