Episode #85
The CIA, MK-Ultra & the Death of Frank Olson
In the middle of the night, a window shattered on the 13th floor of a Manhattan hotel. Moments later, government scientist Frank Olson was found dying on the sidewalk below. Authorities called it suicide. But Frank worked inside some of the most secretive programs in the United States government and in the days before his death, something had gone terribly wrong. It would take 22 years for his family to learn the first secret the government had kept from them. And once they did, they began questioning everything they had been told about Frank's death. Was this really a tragic suicide or was there another reason Frank Olson went through that window? This is the case of Frank Olson. Sources John Marks, The Search for the Manchurian Candidate — ch. 5, full text. Source for the real Gottlieb and Ruwet quotes. National Security Archive — Vincent Ruwet's Dec. 1, 1953 statement on Olson's death. Frank Olson Project — James Starrs' exhumation memorandum. Backbone of the entire Scene Six autopsy material. Olson v. United States, 953 F. Supp. 2d 23 (D.D.C. 2013) — the actual court opinion, including Judge Boasberg's quote. A Study of Assassination — the declassified CIA manual, via The Black Vault. The Washington Post — 1994 exhumation coverage ("Digging for New Evidence," "Tests Contradict U.S. Story of Man's Suicide"). The Baltimore Sun — 1994 exhumation coverage ("Study of Exhumed Body Hints at Homicide"). CovertAction Magazine — "There's Something Rotten in Denmark," source for the Cournoyer/torture material. New York Review of Books — the Ignatieff/Leitenberg exchange on the biological-weapons motive. The New York Times — "Sidney Gottlieb, 80, Dies" (1999), source for the 174-day LSD dosing detail.
