The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 76: The CIA Assassination of Frank Olson | The Murder that Exposed MK-ULTRA

Episode Date: September 15, 2022

November 28th, 1953. New York City.  At 2:30 AM 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. 13 stories up, a single window was 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. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish.

Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course

I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too. Spotify makes it easy to distribute your podcast to every platform and you can even earn money. I do need money. What do you need money for? You kidding? I'm getting killed on guppy support payments. These 3X wives are expensive. You don't want to support your kids? What are you need money for? You kidding? I'm getting killed on guppy support payments. These 3X wives are expensive.

You don't want to support your kids? What are you, my wife's lawyer now? Never mind. And I don't know if you noticed, but all Y-Files episodes are video, too. And there's a ton of other features, but you... But we can't be here all day. Will you settle down? I need you to hurry up with this stupid commercial.

I got a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for Podcasters. It's free, no catch, and a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for podcasters. It's free, no catch, and you could start today. Are we done? We're done, but you need to check your attitude. Excuse me, but I don't have all day to sit here and talk about Spotify. This would go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it. November 28th, 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 was 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 Olson family tried to move on. Having

trouble coping with losing his father, Eric Olson 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 Olson 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 $750,000 settlement if they agreed not to sue. The Olson family agreed to the terms. Alice Olson 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 scientist's family gets a personal invitation to the Oval Office?

Alice Olson only knew a few things about her husband's job. She knew he was a scientist doing important work for the U.S. 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. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth, while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms.

Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth,

while curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon in search of an island scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible.

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. And 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. Hey, when did they make biological weapons a 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? Trianthrax. 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 Sidney Gottlieb and Robert Lashbrook. Gottlieb, Gottlieb. Ooh, where do I know that name from? Well, Sidney Gottlieb ran the CIA's Project Bluebird, which became Project Artichoke, which became...

MKUltra. Bingo. During the Cold War, the CIA, specifically Sidney 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 MKUltra was the program intended to accomplish this. MKUltra 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 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 Gottlieb. 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, Gottlieb's second-in-command, pulled a bunch of glasses and poured everyone a generous portion of Cointreau, which is an excellent orange triple sec liqueur from France. Right. 20 minutes later, Gottlieb asked if anyone was feeling odd. A few of the men said they were.

Gottlieb then told them that their drinks were spiked with a heavy dose of LSD. Son of a... 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. Lashbrook drove Frank Olson to New York to meet with Dr. Harold Abramson. Yeah, 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 a.m., he was dead on the street below the window. Over the next 12 hours, a cleanup and a cover-up by the CIA 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 MKUltra emerged and the Olsen family received a settlement. And almost 20 years after that, the case would take another turn. Frank Olsen'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. Starr 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 aforethought, thrown out of the window. Frank's son 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 CIA 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 MKUltra 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. 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 MKUltra 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 Sidney 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. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do us a favor and like, subscribe, comment, and share. I know you're sick of hearing that from every YouTube channel, but it actually does help. So today's topic was a request by you. And if there's something that you want to see a video on, go to the Y files.com slash tips. We've only scratched the surface of MK ultra, and I know it's been covered to death, but if you'd like to go

deeper and there is more, let me know in the comments and special thanks to our patrons who make this channel possible. I couldn't do it without you. And if you'd like to support the Y files, consider becoming a Patreon member. It's cheap and it's cool. Or go to the Y-Files store and grab yourself a Hecklefish t-shirt. They're gorgeous. They are pretty nice. Links below.

That's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.