Covert

chose twenty two undergraduates. The researchers felt that telling the students the truth about their experiment would taint the results, so naturally they lied. Each student was instructed to write an essay explaining their worldview, philosophy, and objectives. Afterward, they were told that meet with their fellow test subjects and

debate their topics. But Murray had other plans. Had come to Harvard after working with the CIA during World War Two, had once trained spies, and now he wanted to know how to break them. Using intense interrogation methods, the students served as stand ins. Each participant was given a code name to protect their identity. One student was a seventeen year old genius who had entered Harvard at sixteen. They

dubbed him Lawful. Considered precocious by his peers, a Lawful found himself too young to connect well with his older college classmates, and being an outsider may have made him an easy target for Murray. Like the others, Lawful finished his essay and was taken to the annex instead of the promised debate. Murray and the team put each student in a chair facing a one way mirror. The psychologists connected electrodes to them and shined spotlights on their faces.

Lawful could barely see from there. Murray and the psychologists subjected him to what was described as broad, forceful, and personally abusive interrogations. The psychologists repeatedly and systematically attacked his and the other students ideals and beliefs, and the abuse didn't stop there. The psychologists recorded every outburst, every fit of anger or emotional pain. Then they cruelly played them back for all to see, mocking and belittling the student's reactions.

Their goal learn which interrogation methods might work best on breaking the enemy. If you're seeing a problem here, then we agree that These were kids, young adults, not trained military or secret agents with the knowledge of how to respond. Throughout the two experiment, Murray and the team emotionally beat down Lawful and the others, repeatedly subject them to hours of humiliation. That kind of abuse undoubtedly left emotional scars

that students carried for the rest of their lives. It broke trust with the school, the teachers, and probably affected all of their other relationships as well. There isn't any record that the students were offered psychiatric help to overcome the trauma of the experiment. For young Lawful, those scars ran deep and did eventually resurface. He graduated from Harvard in nineteen sixty two and enrolled at the University of Michigan. There he earned a master's and a doctorate in mathematics.

He remained quiet and kept to himself. After graduation, he taught at Berkeley before abruptly leaving in nineteen sixty nine without giving an explanation. In nineteen seventy one, he moved into a remote Montana cabin, living a life without technology, electricity, or even running water. Above all, he avoided human contact. By ninety five, he was sabotaging the housing developments that had begun to spring up around him, using booby traps or arson. To say he didn't like technology would be

an understatement. He had developed an immense hatred and distrust for technological advances between nineteen seventy eight and nine. That hatred spurred him to send bombs to people and locations that he felt were the biggest threats, resulting in three debts and twenty three people injured. On April third of nine, police arrested him. He pled guilty and was handed eight

life sentences without the chance for parole. To this day, mental health specialists debate if Theodore Kazynski, also known as the Uni Bomber, committed the crimes in part due to the experiment at Harvard, from a diagnosis of schizophrenia, or both. Whatever the case, one thing is certain, Kazynski's story only scratches the surface of psychiatric experiments on unsuspecting America gins

during the Cold War. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, both the government and public believed communist countries were performing acts of mind control on American citizens. To the CIA, finding out how to stop it became an issue of national security. Learning how to do it better, though, became something else entirely. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. In times of combat or even tension, like during the Cold War, spies have been a key component to collecting

enemy intelligence, often by any means possible. It's not an American invention, of course. Espionage has long been a part of any culture In conflict, and captured spies have often found themselves tortured, beaten, bribed, whatever it took to get them to divulge what they knew. So the trick was to never get caught. The second trick was to operate collectively. During the American Revolution, the Culper Spy Ring, operating out of Long Island, worked in plain sight, using codes they

had learned from the military. The ring had been so successful they uncovered an American spy for the British, none other than Benedict Arnold. Spies also came into play during the Civil War, effectively used by both the Union and the Confederacy. They were mostly one offs, though individuals are small bands. The government didn't have a dedicated espionage division until World War Two. The bombing of Pearl Harbor shook the public government officials thought the nation had been unprepared.

Both the general public and federal leaders believed that if the country had had better intelligence, the attack may never have happened. The thing is, the Navy and the FBI had observed odd behavior from Japanese diplomats and the weeks before December seven. The Navy had also recently cracked codes that the Japanese military were using. They just didn't have a way to effectively put the knowledge to use since

the information was scattered. In response, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created a centralized agency to collect, interpret, and organize such information during the war. On July eleventh of nineteen forty one, he appointed prominent New York lawyer William Donovan to lead an agency that would focus on military intelligence and covert operations. Donovan had commanded the hundred and sixty five Infantry Regiment during World War One and was one of America's most

decorated military heroes. As the director of this new agency, his first undertaking was to create an overseas radio show in certain territories abroad. Knowing the power of propaganda, he assigned American playwright Robert Sherwood to write the scripts. On February one of nineteen forty two, the radio program Voice of America premiered. The host opened with the pledge, Today and every day from now on, we will be with

you from America to talk about the war. The news may be good or bad for us, we will always tell you the truth. Donovan valued propaganda as something tactical, while Sherwood was more about public diplomacy. The unending conflict between the two men caused Roosevelt to split the Department

into two factions on June ninety two. He thus created the Office of Strategic Services or OSS, and the Office of War Information or o w I. The creation of the OSS provoked distrust with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the War Department's Military Division. The men at the helm of both agencies detected a bit of overlap and responsibilities and favoritism from the President. Roosevelt didn't help alleviate

their concerns. He gave the OSS the power to run special operations that fell just outside of the military normally controlled by the Joint Chief of Staff, making matters worse. Donovan and the heads of each military branch didn't exactly see eye to eye, the military blocked his access to certain communications. In response, Donovan recruited people in the States and around the world to create a counterintelligence branch called

X two. In late nineteen forty two, the team traveled to North Africa, working as vice consuls and establishing networks of locals to covertly collect vital information. With the information in hand that would advance Allied troops, OSS officers parachuted into Nazi occupied France, Belgium, and the Netherlands before d Day. Their mission coordinate air drop supplies, assist resistance groups, and

begin guerrilla attacks on the German troops. Donovan might have gone behind the backs of military divisions, and he hadn't been forthcoming with the details on how his men acquired their intel, but the President was pleased with the outcome. By late nineteen forty four, thirteen thousand men and women worked for the OSS, with just more than half stationed overseas. Instead of military types and uniforms, Donovan's teams were designed

to blend in with society. Their ranks included some Americans who were or would become fairly prominent, such as Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, baseball player and coach Moburg, and even a young Julia child. Roosevelt's pet agency came to an end when Harry S. Truman became president. To him, the OSS no longer had a purpose once the war ended in nineteen forty five. However, he couldn't ignore the agency's methods of accomplishment, even if they weren't fully sanctioned.

Truman decided to keep the Secret Intelligence and X two branches while the war was over. By ninety seven, Americans feared a new threat, communism that witness Hitler's reign and occupation of other countries during the war, and increasingly worried that a similar horror might arise at home. Fostering those fears was Congress's newly minted National Security Council. To the public, if the threat wasn't real, then why create such a council,

but anti communist propaganda high. Truman rolled the two former OSS branches into a new organization, the Central Intelligence Agency. The president envisioned the CIA as his eyes and ears. They had report back on potential threats. Their focus would be to act as a news agency of sorts to get the information Truman wanted. The CIA found that clandestine maneuvers and often less than ethical methods were both highly effective and essential. Compared with Russia, Americans were behind in

all manners of espionage. To keep Americans safe, the CIA believed they needed to match the Soviet Union's methods. After World War Two, the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in numerous political and economic disagreements, otherwise known as the Cold War. The clashes and rivalry between the two superpowers became so intense that another war of real war seemed to loom on the horizon, and the fear of

communism skyrocketed. When a Miami Daily News headline in nineteen fifty shocked the nation brainwashing tactics forced Chinese into ranks of Communist Party. Journalist Edward Hunter's story detailed how the Red Army was using an ancient and terrifying method of brainwashing to convert the country citizens into mindless communist robots. The article warned Americans of the dangers of mind control.

Edwards hinted that liberals and socialists were using these methods in schools and libraries to convert Americans, and citizens across the nation were terrified. Something had to be done. They called it Operation Paper clip, a combined effort between the CIA and the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency, wherein special agents sought out German scientists and engineers still living in post

World War two Germany. The operation's primary goal was to give the US an advantage over the Soviet Union in military espionage and the space race. The fear of a Communist takeover was growing. On March twenty one of ninety seven, German issued Executive Order nine three five, the Loyalty Order. It's specified that to determine loyalty to the US government,

all federal employees were to be analyzed. As you might imagine, those citizens valuing personal liberty and privacy didn't take to the order very well, and it didn't do much to tamp down conspiracies regarding a Communist takeover either. By the early nineteen fifties, Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged to the Communists had infiltrated every part of the U. S government. He had no proof, no names, just allegations masquerading as fact.

His use of intimidation and hearsay to garner power in a fading political career was reckless, without ever producing a single investigation that uncovered a single Communist plot back in his claims, he managed to whip the American public into hysteria. He painted opponents or of those who spoke against him as Communist sympathizers. In public speeches, he strongly implied that communists were coming to take over every aspect of American

life and freedom. Americans panicked, and conspiracy theories and suspicions spread. Newspapers and networks featured emotionally charged headlines and stories. The people began to conspiracy shop, a method of looking for sources that fed their fears. Political leaders like McCarthy went on tour, telling the crowd that communists could be lurking anywhere a school, teachers, journalists, neighbors, and that they were

singularly focused on spying on and converting Americans. Although McCarthy was debunked time and again, those who already believed hailed him as an expert. In turn, his fellow party members found him useful. His riled up fan base was likely to vote them into office, so they helped the senator

fuel his conspiracies for their political gain. Once Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in nineteen fifty three, McCarthy's reign was nearing an embarrassing end for the CIA, though public fear of communism allowed them to acquire funding for more projects, especially when it came to gathering intelligence. Soviet Union spies had a reputation of being tough when it came to interrogation,

both in extracting information and in keeping quiet. They weren't the only concerned, though Americans shifted their worry just a hundred and three miles off the Florida Keys, Cuban leader Fidel Castro had turned against the United States and sided with the Soviet Union. The CIA recruited Cuban exiles to effectively invade their homeland and overthrow Castro, but the plan, poorly executed, didn't take root, leaving the CIA to figure

out another way to eliminate the Cuban leader. From nineteen sixty to nineteen sixty five, they used agents and attempts to assassinate Castro. Several of their plots sounded like something straight out of a spy movie. Exploding cigars, poisoned pills, ballpoint pens full of lethal drugs, and even a fungus laced wetsuit in an exploding seashell. Since the leader enjoyed diving.

Other concepts were stranger. A One plot was to fill Castro's shoes with thallium so that his iconic beard would fall out, theoretically making him lose popularity among his supporters. There were other odd projects too. In N seven, Operation Acoustic Kitty, the CIA spent millions of dollars trying to train domestic cats to spy on Russian diplomats. Yes, cats, the cats were fitted with listening devices, but as anyone who's ever met a cat knows, they have their own agendas. Ultimately,

the project was scrapped. Additionally, the CIA operated Air America, an airline that allowed operatives access to Cambodia, allows and Vietnam, where they could better track China's influence. It also allowed the agency to traffic drugs into the areas and attempts to destabilize them. The idea of mind control resurfaced in the public eye when five thousand prisoners of war petitioned the United States government to end the Korean War based

on war crimes. Twenty one men refused to be repatriated. Many Americans thought the soldiers had turned against America because they had been brainwashed. The more the Democratic Party denied the brainwashing, and the more people believed the conspiracies to be true. For them, any denial was proof of a cover up. Though most political powers felt certain the men hadn't been brainwashed, the CIA decided to do their own experiments in the study they argued might be beneficial in

times of warfare. In three, CIA director Alan Dulles authorized a series of psychological experiments using hallucinogens, sleep deprivation, and electric shock. Of course, the CIA kept the study a secret, so secret that most of the participants were unaware that they were about to take part in it, and they called it mk Ultra. When we think about experiments, we

think of highly controlled laboratories and appropriately informed subjects. The CIA's mk Ultra project took a more direct and insidious route the American public. No labs required. The project ran from nineteen fifty three until nineteen seventy three and included over a hundred and fifty different subjects. The experiments were carried out across eighty different institutions, including hospitals, prisons, and

universities like Harvard. In fact, Henry Murray, who was in charge of Harvard's experiment, had been one of the agency's former employees tasked with mentally stressing recruits. Under the supervision of Sydney Gottlieb, the CIA began to test the effects of l s D on their subjects. The agency funded research on the drug at Columbia and Stanford, among a few other schools. They also began testing mescalin, heroin, and psilocybin,

sometimes known as magic mushrooms. College students weren't the only test subjects, though, The CIA tested their own agents, and like the students, they were completely unaware until after the fact. Frank Olsen had always loved science. A graduate with a doctorate in bacteriology, he found work with the U S Biological Warfare laboratories while serving during World War Two. After his time in the army, he continued his work as a civilian at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, as part

of the CIA's Special Operations Division. His work entailed creating new ways to spread germs and toxins among enemies during wartime and to come up with ways to prevent similar attacks on Americans. Biological warfare was fast becoming a worldwide threat, and Olsen worked on several highly classified projects, with some particularly lethal vectors. In a short time, he developed a wide range of discrete aerosols neatly disguised as shaving cream

or insect repellents. The contents were designed to cause food poisoning, staff and actions, or encephalitis. Olson worked with materials ranging from toxins to anthrax. Delivery methods included lipstick that killed on contact and a cigarette lighter that released deadly gas. Working on such projects often took him to Plumb Island, as some materials were too deadly to bring to the mainland.

His hard work paid off, and within a year Olson was promoted to chief of the Special Operations Division, but the pressure was too great and Olson stepped down in early The CIA asked him to join them directly. It was an odd switch since he would still be at Fort Detrick doing almost the same work, and Olson learned the hard way that his job with CIA would be even more stressful. He worked with Gottlieb and Robert Lashbrook, who were just getting the mk Ultra project underway. Gassing

animals began to wear Olson down. Every morning had walk into the lab to find several monkeys dead in their cages. The job also took him to other countries and locations where he was asked to supervise the use of experimental drugs and gases on human subjects. The use of hallucinogens,

along with physical torture, caused a few debts. Olsen's coworkers seemed bless, upset that the attempts at brainwashing people to extract information weren't working, and while he noticed their lack of compassion and empathy, they noticed his reluctance to participate in the experiments. In November of ninety three, Olsen and several others were invited to a retreat at a cabin deep in western Maryland. The first night, the attendees conducted

business and discussed key projects. The second night, the men all but Gottlieb and Washbrook drank heavily. Not long afterward, the men all felt off, many, including Olsen, began to hallucinate. Got Lieb admitted drinks had been spiked with LSD. The work, the pressure, and the betrayal were too much for Olson. On top of the hallucinations, he experienced a nervous breakdown. The next morning. After he felt slightly better, he fled. He showed up to work a day later and informed

his boss that he was thinking about quitting. Knowing that Olson was privy to a lot of confidential information, his boss did his best to convince Olsen to stay at least for a while. Olson complained that the LSD had really messed him up. Even days later, he felt disoriented and had difficulty with simple everyday tasks. Gott Leap sent him to see a doctor closely tied to the mk

Ultra project in New York. Dr Harold Abramson listened carefully as Olson complained that he couldn't focus, had difficulties sleeping, and that at times he forgot how to spell. He said that the job had gotten to him and that the betrayal of being doped at the cabin had been the last straw. Abramson assured him he'd be perfectly fine and gave him some medication to help steady his nerves. Olson took one of the pills before his flight back

to Maryland, and at first they seemed to work. He felt calmer once back home, though he became belligerent to everyone around him. Later, he apologized for his behavior, though he didn't recall all of what he had said and done. His boss and Gottlieb sent him back to New York once more, suggesting he needed some time away from the office.

Lashbrook accompanied him, and the two checked into the Statler Hotel, Room ten eighteen A. When Olson talked to his wife on the morning of November, he told her he was feeling much better. At two forty five that afternoon, though, Olson went out the window and fell to his death. By three, the mk Ultra project had come to a halt. The scrutiny over the Watergate documents had the CIA feeling

a bit uncomfortable with the project's details. Aside from the psychoactive drugs, electric shocks, torture and sensory deprivation, agents had employed hypnosis, isolation, and verbal and sexual abuse. Richard Helm, then Director of the CIA, ordered most of the records destroyed most but not all, in nive. President Gerald Ford's Commission on CIA activities, also known as the Rockfeller Commission, got under way. The sudden destruction of the documents brought

mk Ultra into the commission's focus. With so many files missing, the investigation had to rely heavily on key testimonials from the victims and participants. The testimony was then matched to the twenty or so remaining documents, One of them, written by a field agent, Pigott Leab in ninety one, stated that it had been fun, killing, cheating, and stealing, all under the sanction of his superiors. One of those victims named in the remaining documents was Frank Olson. Within days,

his family sat in the Oval office. President Ford apologized for the decades long smear campaign that had tarnished Olson's name. The family had insisted all along that he would never have jumped from the hotel window, nor would he have accidentally fallen as was recorded in the CIA's report. Testimony and a paper trail also showed that Olson hadn't been drugged just once. His anxiety and problems functioning hadn't been entirely due to job stress that CIA had repeatedly and

covertly dosed him after he threatened to quit. During the investigation, the CIA denied that Olson's death had been anything other than an accident or suicide, but after his death the family had paid for a second autopsy. Evidence suggested that Olson had suffered injuries before his fall, though until now that report had been dismissed. Aside from Lashbrook being in the room at the time of the supposed accident. The investigation revealed a second agent had been involved, Sherfield Edwards,

was known for cleaning up messes during botched missions. Records show that both Edwards and Lashbrook had strongly persuaded New York police to not investigate Olson's death. In the end, the Rockfeller Commission reports stated that Olson hadn't died due to a bad reaction to LSD. They determined that had died because of the concern that he might divulge information about the CIA's interrogation programs. In other words, it wasn't the drug that killed him, after all, it was secrets.

There's more to the story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. Black limos and SUVs, men and women in black suits surrounding the President and the First family wherever they go. The Secret Service employs some of the best trained bodyguards in the world. Yet the Secret Service didn't even exist until after the Civil War. Now, you'd think Lincoln's assassination might have spurred the agency's creation, but their original purpose wasn't to protect the president or

any high ranking official. In eighteen sixty five, when the agency was founded, the Secret Service worked with the Department of Treasury. The rise in fraudulent banknotes and counterfeiting was the new agency's focus. All of that changed in one that year, Americans flocked to Buffalo, New York for the Pan American Exposition. The fair, held from May first through November two that year, showcased a nine pound elephant and the eighty nine ft tall electric power powered by Niagara Falls.

One of the biggest attractions, though, was President William McKinley. The President liked to make himself available to the public every day except Sundays. That was his advisers were less fond of his appearances for safety reasons, but McKinley insisted he had been touring the country with his wife, and speaking at the exposition had been in his plans for months.

Over a hundred and sixteen thousand people crammed into the expo on September five to hear the President's speech and watch the patriotic firework display and pyrotechnics spelled out Welcome President McKinley, Chief of our Nation and our Empire. On September six, people lined up for the meet and greet with the President. The summer heat was sweltering, but McKinley still wore a dark suit and hat as he climbed the stairs to the Temple of Music inside a box

sonata play. As people passed in line, they shook the president's hand. McKinley's staff was nervous, and with good cause. Two presidents had been assassinated in recent years, Lincoln and James Garfield. Near the front of the line stood Leon Joel Gosh. The twenty eight year old scanned the room, shuffling from one foot to the other. He noted the extra policeman, soldiers, and presidential staff standing nearby, and before he left his job as a steelworker, co workers had

described Leon as shy, quiet and brooding. He had arrived in Buffalo two days previous, bringing with him a thirty two caliber revolver. He nervously eyed the crowd. If he went through with the assassination, he didn't think he would walk off the fair grounds alive. Yet, as he watched person after person greet the president, he felt rage rising inside him. The people treated McKinley like a ruler, and that couldn't stand. A self described anarchist, Leon didn't believe

in rulers. In his mind, McKinley had to be dealt with right then and there. He decided he'd go through with it. At four oh seven pm, when it came his time to shake the president's outstretched hand, Leon withdrew his pistol from his waistcoat and shot McKinley at point blank range twice. For a fraction of a second, there was silence as everyone registered the shots. Then a bystander punched Leon before he could fire off a third shot. Police and soldiers tackled Leon to the ground. McKinley lay

bleeding on the music Halls floor. His secretary rushed to his side. The president's last orders were to take care with how they broke the news to his wife, but his prognosis seemed good at first. Rushed to a nearby hospital, the surgeon noted that one bullet had ricocheted off a jacket button and done only minor damage. The second shot had gone cleaned through the president's stomach. This urgent stopped the bleeding and sutured McKinley up, and for several days

he appeared to be making an excellent recovery. Relieved that the president was doing well, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt went on a camping trip, but within the week McKinley took a turn for the worse. Infections set in At two fifteen in the afternoon on September, McKinley died with his wife at his side. Roosevelt returned from his trip to be sworn in as president in two Following McKinley's death, Congress tasked the Secret Service with protecting presidents in their families,

as well as visiting diplomats and other political leaders. It took the assassinations of three presidents to spur Congress into taking this action. To date, four American presidents have been assassinated. Attempts have been made on others as well, though how many you might wonder, according to government archives, all of them. Yeah.

American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit Grim and Mild dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts