Frank Olson

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Frank Olson (died November 28, 1953) was a U.S. Army scientist at the top secret Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, who died under mysterious circumstances in New York City. His specific research in the Army is unknown, but he was involved in biological weapons research and experimented with mind control drugs.

According to the government's version of events, as part of the MKULTRA experiments, Olson was dosed with LSD without his knowledge, and he suffered severe paranoia and a nervous breakdown. The CIA sent him to New York to see one of their psychiatrists, who recommended that Olson be placed into a mental institution for recovery. On his last night in Manhattan, Olson purportedly threw himself out his hotel room window. He fell to the pavement thirteen stories below and died.

His family had no idea of the details of the accident until the Rockefeller Commission started uncovering some of the CIA's MKULTRA activities. In 1975, the government admitted that Olson had been dosed with LSD without his knowledge. The government offered them an out of court settlement, which they accepted.

Frank Olson's son Eric does not accept the government's explanation, and he has devoted his life to researching the circumstances of his father's death. Eric Olson believes that his father was murdered by United States government agents after he began developing reservations about his work and attempted to resign. Retired Army intelligence agent Norman G. Cournoyer, one of Olson's closest friends at Fort Detrick, also denies that Olson committed suicide, relating that Olson openly expressed grave reservations about whether the United States should be developing biological weapons. Another retired colleague from the Fort Detrick biological warfare division, William P. Walter, concurs. He relates that at the time of Olson's death, his colleagues were divided on the question of whether he committed suicide or was killed.

In 1994, Eric Olson had his father's body exhumed. The forensic scientist in charge of the examination, George Washington University professor James E. Starrs, determined that Olson had suffered some form of blunt force trauma prior to falling out of the window, and called the evidence "rankly and starkly suggestive of homicide". Based on his findings, in 1996 the Manhattan district attorney opened a homicide investigation into Olson's death, but was unable to find enough evidence to bring charges.

[edit] References in pop culture

  • In the feature film Oktober, the protagonist says he "has what Frank Olson had".
  • Two similar events are mentioned in an episode of the TV series JAG.
  • The band Hope of the States recorded a song titled "The Ballad of Frank Olson". It featured on the band's earliest demo in 2001, but has never been recorded for commercial release.
  • Contemporary American Poet David Clewell has a book of poetry, Conspiracy Quartet, which includes a piece about Olson and the LSD experiments.
  • A similar event is referenced in the feature film The Good Shepherd.

[edit] References

  • John D. Marks (1979). The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate": The CIA and Mind Control. Times Books. ISBN 0-8129-0773-6. 
  • George Andrews (2001). MKULTRA : The CIA's Top Secret Program in Human Experimentation and Behavior Modification. Healthnet Press. ISBN 0-9616475-8-2. 
  • Jon Ronson (2005). The Men Who Stare at Goats. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-7060-6. 

[edit] External links

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