The CIA Murder that Exposed MK-ULTRA | The Frank Olson Assassination

november 28 1953 new york city. at 2 30 a.m the body hit the sidewalk a. few seconds later a shower of glass the. doorman of the statler hotel yelled to. the lobby that there was a jumper the. night manager rushed out and saw him a. man about 40 years old lying on the. pavement he was on his back wearing only. his underwear and blood started to pool. around him thirteen stories up a single. window is open its curtain flapping. through broken glass the night manager.

knelt beside the man whose eyes were. open and was somehow still alive he. desperately tried to speak but was. choking on blood and couldn't be. understood after a minute or two of. trying to communicate the man took a. final deep breath and was gone. nobody knows for sure what he was trying. to say before he died but one thing is. for certain it was something about the. cia.

room 1018a was registered to robert. lashbrook and frank olson the police. burst in guns raised but it was empty. cold november air was blowing through. the broken window in the bathroom was a. man sitting on the toilet resting his. head in his hands he told the police. he'd been sleeping heard a noise and. woke up one officer asked the name of. the man who went out the window the man. in the bathroom said olson frank olson. the responding officers figured this was. an open and shut case a middle-aged man.

is depressed or distraught and ends it. all by jumping just another night in the. big city but the night manager armin. pastore wasn't convinced he said it. didn't make sense that someone would get. up in the middle of the night run across. a dark room in his underwear avoid two. beds and dive through a closed window. that had the shade and curtains closed. pastore checked with the hotel operator. to see if any calls were made from the. room the operator said yes a call was. just made a few minutes ago and because.

it ran through a switchboard she heard. the whole thing the caller robert. lashbrook who is the man in the bathroom. called a number on long island which. belonged to a dr harold abramson the. call lasted only a few seconds. well he's gone lashbrook said well. that's too bad was abramson's reply a. few hours later frank olson's family was. notified they were told there was an. accident frank had either fallen or. jumped from his 10th floor room frank's. body was so badly damaged that the.

funeral was held with a closed casket. and the olsen family tried to move on. having trouble coping with losing his. father eric olsen would ask his mother. about frank from time to time and she. would always say the same thing. you're never going to know what happened. in the room that night. but 20 years later that would change. in 1975 the rockefeller commission. released information to the public about. its investigation into cia activities.

the report mentioned a civilian. scientist working for the department of. the navy he was given lsd without his. knowledge as part of a cia experiment. that scientist experienced side effects. and was sent to new york for psychiatric. care a few days later he jumped from a. 10th floor window of his hotel and died. this report was in the new york times. and washington post and made its way to. the olsen family the government. confirmed the scientist was frank olson. and just 10 days later the family was.

invited to the white house and president. ford gave them a formal apology the. director of the cia also apologized the. united states government agreed this was. a wrongful death and offered the family. a 750 thousand dollar settlement if they. agreed not to sue the olsen family. agreed to the terms alice olsen never. wanted to talk about frank's death or. his job. frank's children now in their 20s and. 30s always knew their father was a. scientist but what science's family gets.

a personal invitation to the oval office. alice olsen only knew a few things about. her husband's job she knew he was a. scientist doing important work for the. us government she knew he traveled for. work all the time and she knew he was. unhappy one of the last things frank. said to his wife was that he had made a. terrible mistake but for frank's. children this information was entirely. new and because of the investigations. and media coverage they now learned for. the first time what their father. actually did for a living.

he was no ordinary scientist. during world war ii frank olson was one. of the first army scientists assigned to. the top secret biological warfare lab at. fort detrick maryland frank's specialty. was aerosolizing living biological. agents and munitions in other words he. created biological weapons of mass. destruction now this time in history the. cia was part of the army. after becoming a civilian frank.

continued his research in bioweapons he. was lead scientist for operation harness. where animals in the caribbean were. exposed to anthrax tularemia and. brucella he was part of operation sea. spray where different strains of. bacteria were sprayed over the san. francisco bay area to test the city's. vulnerability to a bioweapon attack and. as frank moved up the ranks of the cia. he spent a lot of time at fort terry. which was a secret installation on plum. island in the long island sound plum.

island is only reachable by boat or by. air the toxins tested there are. considered too dangerous to be on the. mainland olson developed delivery. devices for these bioweapons canisters. disguised as shaving cream cans that. could disperse anthrax in a concentrated. area a cigarette lighter that emitted a. deadly gas lipstick that killed. instantly heyo when did they make. biological weapons of war crime the. geneva conventions in 1925. so all this. research was illegal right in early 1953.

the same year he died frank olson. stepped down as chief of the special. operations division he said the job was. too stressful and was causing his ulcers. to flare up you think ulcers suck try. anthrax oh no sympathy for cia. scientists huh not even a little bit so. frank stepped down but he stayed with. the cia. and that's when he met sydney gottlieb. and robert lashbrook got leave gottlieb. where do i know that name from well. sydney gottlieb ran the cia's project.

bluebird which became project artichoke. which became mk ultra bingo. during the cold war the cia specifically. sydney gottlieb was obsessed with mind. control and brainwashing there was a. fear that the soviet union was also. working on this capability and the. united states was determined to get. there first project mk-ultra was the. program intended to accomplish this. mk-ultra was brutal and illegal over.

time the experiments frank olson. conducted and witnessed started to weigh. on him during one study frank olson. observed interrogations at cia black. sites in germany detainees were called. expendables i'm assuming these. expendables were not aging action stars. they were not they were mostly suspected. spies and security leaks suspected so uh. not proven nope just suspected freaking. spooks the expendables were subject to. drug experiments hypnosis electric.

shocks isolation sexual abuse and all. kinds of torture this was an effort to. study not just the effects of extreme. torture but also brainwashing techniques. and memory deletion many of these people. were interrogated to death in other. instances frank olson saw the results of. his own weapons that were used on. expendables some of those people died. slowly and in agony and even though. frank's wife didn't know any of the. specifics it was clear that frank's work. was becoming too much for him to bear in.

november 1953 frank olson received an. invitation for a pre-thanksgiving. retreat at a cabin on deep creek lake. gottlieb ran these retreats for. scientists and staff pretty often deep. creek was a convenient place for god. leap this was one of the locations where. americans were subjected to mkultra. techniques against their will for. decades frank olson was there with 10. other scientists the first day of the. gathering was fine nothing out of the. ordinary on the second day after dinner.

the men kicked back for a post-meal. drink lashbrook got leeb's second in. command pulled a bunch of glasses and. poured everyone a generous portion of. cointreau which is an excellent orange. triple sec lakua from france right 20. minutes later gottlieb asked if anyone. was feeling odd a few of the men said. they were godly then told them that. their drinks were spiked with a heavy. dose of lsd son. frank olson was aware that the cia had. dosed entire villages in europe to.

observe the results. many innocent people died from these. experiments but he was surprised that he. would be the unwitting subject of an. experiment and frank didn't react well a. few days later he submitted his. resignation but he was talked into. staying it was suggested that he see a. psychiatrist to help him cope with the. effects of the experiment and the stress. of his work frank agreed lash brook. drove frank olson to new york to meet. with dr harold abramson this is the guy. he called after the jump right yep.

dr abramson was actually an allergist. that worked for the cia he pretended to. be a psychiatrist but frank didn't know. this after a couple of sessions dr. abramson convinced frank to check. himself into a hospital so he could. recover from stress and exhaustion frank. was actually fine with this he was. looking forward to the time off and was. already picking out what books to bring. with him and that night he and lashbrook. signed into the statler hotel room 1018a. frank had a nice conversation with his. wife she remembered him sounding more.

peaceful than he'd been in a long time. he watched a little tv and went to bed. at 2 30 am he was dead on the street. below the window over the next 12 hours. a cleanup and a cover-up by the c.i.a. ensued the police investigation was. quickly closed frank olson's family was. told he died from jumping or falling out. a window about 20 years later more. details about mk ultra emerged and the. olsen family received a settlement and. almost 20 years after that. the case would take another turn.

frank olson's wife alice passed away in. 1993. their children decided to have. frank's body exhumed and reburied next. to his wife but frank's children had an. additional plan they had james starr a. medical examiner professor conduct a. second autopsy star said there were no. cuts on frank's body and no shards of. glass which would have been expected by. jumping through a window and even though. frank landed on his back his skull above.

his left eye had a blunt force trauma. injury he had another serious wound on. his chest. starr said of his findings i think frank. olson was intentionally deliberately. with malice a forethought thrown out of. the window frank's sons sued the cia. again but because of the agreement they. signed in 1975 the judge had to dismiss. the case but the judge did say even. though the case couldn't proceed as a. matter of law the allegations made by. the family against the cia though they.

sounded far-fetched appeared to be the. truth since the lawsuit couldn't proceed. frank olson's sons went to the press. they flat out said the c.i.a murdered. their father and covered it up they also. produced interesting documents in 1954. just a few months after frank olson's. death the cia executed a document with. the department of justice that gave the. cia authority to grant cia employees. immunity from any crime including murder.

a license to kill exactly and there's a. handbook released in 1953 the year of. frank's death called the cia study of. assassination it's fascinating and i'll. link it below it describes that the best. way to assassinate a target is to drop. them from at least 75 feet onto a hard. surface the manual says when. successfully executed it causes little. excitement and is only casually. investigated in fact the mossad the. israeli intelligence organization used. frank olson's death as an example of a.

perfect murder due to the skill with. which it was executed now while there is. still no official admission of guilt. from the cia i think it's pretty obvious. what happened frank olson was one of. only a few scientists who could confirm. that the united states used chemical. weapons in the korean war this is. something that's still only alleged but. there's a lot of evidence it happened. korean and chinese soldiers were. suddenly coming down with cases of. cholera meningitis and even plague it's.

possible frank olson was directly. involved in deploying these illegal. weapons frank olson was one of only a. dozen or so people on earth who knew the. extent of mk-ultra and other secret and. illegal cia operations frank olson was a. man who committed or at least was part. of projects that committed atrocities. around the world and he was dealing with. a moral crisis and started voicing his. concerns he even quit but the cia. wouldn't allow it when he was dosed with. lsd that night in november it was a.

loyalty test to see what scientists. would say if they were exposed to the. drug frank olson failed that test and. paid the ultimate price but because of. his death and the diligence of his. family many illegal cia activities were. exposed and mk ultra was almost. destroyed. almost it continued for another 20 years. before finally shutting down in 1973 at. least as far as we know all the records. were illegally destroyed and not sydney.

gottlieb robert lashbrook or any of the. senior scientists from mkultra were ever. brought to justice in fact they all. lived out their lives on fat pensions. paid for by you and me but the cia. promises that mkultra was the last time. drug experiments were done on people. against their will and such atrocities. absolutely could not and would not. happen today. why would they lie. thank you so much for hanging out with. me today my name is aj that's hecklefish.

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