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US Central Intelligence Agency scientist jumps to his death – New York City

Or did the CIA kill him?

No one really knows for sure how Frank Olson died, while his death was ruled a suicide many conspiracies have risen from the ashes since that fateful day, 11/23/1958.

Frank worked at Camp Detrick, which is now Fort Detrick in Maryland.

The story that is told is that he was ‘covertly’ dosed with LSD by his supervisor who worked for the CIA then about 9 days later, jumped to his death from the 13th story window of a New York City hotel room.  

11/18/1953, a group from the SO Division,  Vincent Ruwet, chief of the division, John Schwab, Frank Olson, Ben Wilson, Gerald Yonetz, and John Malinowski, went on a retreat.

The group was met at the lodge by Sid Gottlieb, his deputy Robert Lashbrook and a couple of others from the CIA.

It was on the 2nd day of the retreat that Frank was allegedly dosed with LSD.

Frank was a bacteriologist who served as a biological warfare scientist and he worked for the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

It’s been widely noted that some of Frank’s colleagues were involved in the MKNAOMI-MKULTRA program and Project Bluebird.

A was a program designed to explore the possible espionage and military uses of psychotropic drugs.

About a week after the retreat Frank asked if he could leave the program.

After the retreat Frank began to suffer from severe paranoia and had a nervous breakdown. The CIA sent him to New York to see specialists, doctors who did some work for the CIA, they recommended that Frank be placed in mental institution for some time.

What’s odd about Frank is that he didn’t seem to suffer from any mental issues prior to the retreat and LSD does not generally leave one time users with lingering effects from the drug, one of which happens to be extreme bouts of paranoia.

The sudden onset of Frank’s episodes more closely resemble someone who might have been still be using or who is trying to stop using the drug.

So the obvious question is, how long was Frank being dosed or using before he requested to leave the group?

The story the government told back in 1975, during the Rockefeller Commission when it uncovered some of the CIA’s MKULTRA’s activities, was the Frank had been dosed but only just once, during the retreat, which happened to be 9 days prior to his death.

Naturally, the family sued and received $750,000 from a settlement and that was that until Eric Olson in 1994 had his father’s exhumed so that he could be buried near Frank Olson’s wife and Eric’s mother.

Eric and the rest of the family decided to have a second autopsy conducted, I mean why not the body was exhumed right?

The second autopsy contradicted the first in that, the first reportedly found cuts and abrasions on Frank where the second did not. In fact, the second autopsy found a large hematoma (blunt force trauma) on the left side of Olson’s head and a large injury on his chest.

So the team concluded the blunt-force trauma to Frank’s  head and the chest injury had not occurred during the fall, but most likely in the room prior to the fall.

So back in 2012 Eric Olson attempted to sue the United States Government. The case of course was tossed but it did leave lingering questions with regards to Frank’s death.

It’s important to note that when the case was dismissed, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg noted that, “While the court must limit its analysis to the four corners of the complaint, the skeptical reader may wish to know that the public record supports many of the allegations [in the family’s suit], far-fetched as they may sound.”

It’s a fascinating case for sure and anyone who loves government conspiracy loves cases like this.

The lingering problem however is that Frank’s behavior after the retreat just doesn’t add up. Which leaves his death a complete toss in the air. It could have been suicide and it could have been an inside job.

He was either using willingly or not for some time, if not still at the time of his death or he really did stumble across something that he wanted no part of and simply wanted out of whatever it was he had gotten himself into.

His eagerness to want to leave his current post after the retreat sort of spells it out if you will.  

More than likely in Frank’s case because of the strange behavior after the retreat and lack of any evidence that he used LSD or any other drug prior to his death, at least knowingly, he was most likely killed or at the very least, was driven to his death.

In all likelihood, Frank learned something during the retreat, stumbled across something he shouldn’t have or simply knew too much, so much in fact that the agency felt it was too much of a risk to just let him go.  

Or

Maybe Frank figured out he had been dosed with LSD and freaked the hell out over it, which he had a right to do. He might have not only asked to leave his current post and job but might have made an unveiled threat. And, in doing so realized his mistake and felt that he had no other choice but to jump to his death.

With spy agencies, the public and sometimes even family members really don’t have a right to know what happened due to the nature of the work that these agencies do.

The government’s that have spy agencies do not require the public, family, friends or loved ones to have to like that they really have no right to know any truth.

The individuals who sign up to work for spy agencies, they understand this.

An untimely death can in fact be the result of the nature of the work that they do.

Cristal M Clark

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