MKUltra

MKUltra was a top-secret CIA program that ran from 1953 to 1973, focused on developing mind control techniques through the use of drugs, sensory deprivation, hypnosis, electroshock therapy, and psychological torture. The program was authorized by CIA Director Allen Dulles and operated under the Technical Services Staff, headed by Sidney Gottlieb.

At its peak, MKUltra comprised 149 sub-projects spread across 80 institutions including universities, hospitals, prisons, and pharmaceutical companies. Many subjects were administered LSD and other psychoactive substances without their knowledge or consent. Test subjects included CIA employees, military personnel, prisoners, sex workers, mental health patients, and random members of the public.

One of the most notorious incidents involved Frank Olson, a U.S. Army biochemist who was secretly dosed with LSD by his CIA colleagues in 1953. Days later, Olson fell to his death from a New York hotel window. The CIA claimed it was a suicide. Decades later, forensic evidence suggested he may have been murdered to prevent him from exposing the program.

CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all MKUltra files in 1973. However, a cache of 20,000 documents survived because they had been incorrectly filed in the financial records division. These documents were discovered in 1977 following a FOIA request, leading to Senate hearings chaired by Ted Kennedy that confirmed the program's existence and scope.

The term "MKUltra" has become shorthand for government experimentation on unwitting citizens — and for the pattern of denial, destruction of evidence, and eventual confirmation that characterizes many of the claims documented on They Knew.