I'd never delved that deeply into the Charles Manson topic before researching this blog, but I probably knew about as much as your average "conspiracy theorist." I knew that Manson had some sort of ability to control other people in his cult/commune of the late 1960s. I knew that the Manson Murders were part of some "race war" that was allegedly described within lyrics of the Beatles' music and that Charlie was in and out of prison for most of his life up to that point.
Aside from the basic shocking details, I always found it very strange that although this horror seemed to originate somewhere in that psychotic gaze of Manson's, he never actually killed anyone himself. Not that we know of, anyway. Maybe that's not so shocking to people, but I found it to be a very troubling detail! How can a man be charged for a bunch of murders without actually murdering anyone? Why does popular culture consistently, year after year, revise the public's fear, awe, and mystique of this seemingly mad bafoon? And so began an unconscious mission to one day try and get to the bottom of it...
Fast forward a few years and I find myself watching a podcast where a man was being interviewed. This guy knew A-LOT about Charles Manson, and was casually revealing shocking details I'd never heard before. What captivated me most was what he said about Manson's parol officer, and how Charlie had been sort of "let out" into society, despite violating his parole repeatedly. And although I can't for the life of me remember who that guy on the podcast was, my subconscious mission became more conscious, eventually leading me to Tom O'Neill, who's book "CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties" I eventually picked up.
While it's a fascinating read with an exhaustive amount of detail, I feel it's ultimately a very well written reference book for others, like myself, to expand upon. What I found was essentially the next installment of my blog series "Acid, Music, Mindcrime" - where I explored Courtney Love and her connections to the 60s LSD mind control experiments, via her father Hank Harrisson. That's what this blog is.
DR. JOLLY
[Louis Jolyon West, Chief of Psychiatric Service at Lackland Air Force Base, early 1950s]
We are told that Operation Mk Ultra began in 1953, but when and where was the first official Mk Ultra experiment? We'll probably never know for sure, but one disturbing incident described in Oneill's book is probably one of the earlier examples on record: the case of Jimmy Shaver.
On the night of July 3rd, 1954 Chere Jo's parents left the three-year-old girl alone while they were inside the Lazy A Tavern in San Antonio, Texas. After she went missing, a car was found parked with the girl's underwear hanging from its door. The girl's body was located nearby, having been raped and murdered.
Jimmy Shaver, a technical instructor stationed at the local Air Force base, was found shirtless and covered in scratches - presumably near the crime scene. Shaver had no criminal record, wasn't drunk, and was found to be in a trance-like daze. On the day of his arrest, he apparently stated "If she was raped and if she is dead then I must be responsible since I was the one who picked her up and put her in my care." He didn't recognize his wife and recalled nothing for 2 months, until a psychiatrist named Louis West showed up.
Louis Jolyon West was assigned as Chief of Psychiatric Service at the 3700th USAF Hospital at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas at the same time Jimmy Shaver was stationed there as a technical instructor. West was ordered to conduct a psychiatric evaluation of Shaver. West hypnotized Shaver and injected him with sodium pentothal in an attempt to remove his amnesia. While Shaver was under hypnosis, his amnesia seemed to break, and he confessed to killing the young girl - though he appeared to be in a trance for the duration of the trial. Shaver was eventually executed on July 25th, 1958.
Now I don't know what's more disturbing here - Shaver's seemingly unmotivated act of brutality towards the little girl, or West's apparent ability to successfully manipulate Shaver's trance-like state. Because if West had the ability to penetrate and manipulate Shaver's trance-like state, did he also have the ability to INDUCE it?
["In 1952, China, North Korea, and the Soviet Union launched a major international propaganda campaign alleging that the United States military was dropping insects infected with plague, cholera, and anthrax. The US government denied these allegations, and declassified Soviet and Chinese archives from 1998 confirmed that the germ warfare claims were entirely fabricated." - Google A.I.]
We are told Dr West assumed his position at Lackland airforce base in 1952, roughly 2 years before the Jimmy Shaver incident. Sometime in 1953, West helped “deprogram” POWs [Prisoners of War] back from Korea who were allegedly brainwashed. Dr West got them to “renounce” their claims about the United States using biological weapons against the Koreans.
"What we found enabled us to rule out drugs, hypnosis or other mysterious trickery...[i]t was just one device used to confuse, bewilder and torment our men until they were ready to confess to anything. That device was prolonged, chronic loss of sleep." - Dr West
He then published a paper with the title "United States Airforce prisoners of the Chinese Communist. Methods of forceful indoctrination: Observations and Interviews."
In Tom O'Neil's book, he speaks of a document he unearthed among Dr West's records which included a letter dated June 11th, 1953, in which he wrote to someone with the initials "S.G.". This is thought to be Dr Sidney Gottleib, head of Operation MK Ultra. Goals were to extract info from unwitting subjects, followed by amnesia. Also, techniques for implanting false info and inducing mental disorder. Also discussed were creating “couriers of info.” [presumably, individuals with information "implanted" into their mind without their knowing, to be "extracted" at a later date]
At least one individual of note seemed to be somewhat aware of Dr West's activities. Decorated War hero General Robert B. Williams "strongly opposed," and may have played a role in Dr West's transfer to the Oklahoma School of Medicine, where he was head of the Psychiatric Department. He lied about his covert intentions there, and was financed by another MK Ultra front, the Geschicker Fund for Medical Research.
JACK RUBY
Most of you probably know who Jack Ruby is, the guy who murdered John F Kennedy's murderer, Lee Harvey Oswald, on November 24th, 1963.
“What am I doing here? What are you guys jumping on me for?”
This is what Jack Ruby said immediately after shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, according to Lawrence Schiller, a journalist who was Ruby's "Ghost Writer" for a period. These quotes seem to indicate that Ruby was in a state of dissociation immediately following the shooting, indicating accute mental issues which were not officially acknowledged until months later. But how credible is Schiller? I don't know but his resume and high profile clients over the years does carry some weight.
Although the "official account" given by police on the scene describes a decidedly more lucid Jack Ruby, shouting things like "somebody had to do it!" and "I'm Jack Ruby, you know who I am!" - these alleged statements by Ruby don't seem to be corroborated by any witnesses, so in the end, it's really a battle of narratives. The narrative convenient to the prosecution vs the one convenient for the defense [reasons of mental insanity in the case of the latter].
Now guess who they called in to "examine" Ruby in his jail cell, among a few others? Dr Louis Jolyon West, of course! This occurred on April 26th, 1964 - about 5 months after Ruby shot Oswald and 1 day after allegedly attempting to commit suicide by banging his head up against his jail cell wall [a "fact" which seems to be in dispute by at least 1 jail guard].
Following several hours alone with Ruby, Dr. West announced that he had suffered an "acute psychotic break". He officially diagnosed him with acute psychosis, a paranoid state, and suicidal tendencies. It is from this point forward that Ruby seemed hopelessly convinced that a 2nd holocaust was occuring and that Jews [like himself] were systematically being exterminated. Was it a coincidence that Ruby seemed, by all accounts, to have absolutely lost his marbles right after being visited by Dr West? Sure, he was probably already "crazy" to a degree to have committed the murder, but that's a different kind of crazy than hiding under tables terrified Jew hunters are after you!
In April 1956, 8 years BEFORE West "examined" Jack Ruby, he reported in a paper called “The Psychophysiological Studies of Hypnosis and suggestibility” in which he suggested he could REPLACE true memories with false ones without the individual knowing. Through drugs, hypnosis, LSD, Amphetamines, reserpine, and chlorpromazine. Documents with this information were not given to the senate [1970s Church?] hearings. In October of 1963, West told the Mental Health Association of Oregon that he could INDUCE insanity.
Keep in mind, few people knew about Dr West's connections to MK Ultra at the time he examined Ruby [or of MK Ultra's existence at all, for that matter]. As far as the majority involved with Jack Ruby's case knew, Dr West was as reputable as any other Dr who evaluated him. However, there was one Dr William Beavers who wondered if Ruby had been tampered with or drugged by an outsider. Did West INDUCE Ruby's insanity? Did West actually PLANT this anti-Jewish conspiracy into Ruby's mind?
[Susan Atkins, Manson Family member]
LSD RESCUE PROJECT
I can’t get him out of my head! He’s still in my brain! - Susan Atkins
Susan Atkins was a member of the "Manson Family" who is believed to have participated in the "Helter Skelter" murders of 1969, for which she was sentenced to jail for the rest of her life. Although she had confessed to participating in the murders at some point, she frequently contradicted herself and even changed her story entirely. 10 years after the incident, she stated that she couldn't get Charlie out of her head. "He's still in my brain!" Atkins clearly had mental issues, but was there something more to it? Was the Manson Family the result of some kind of MK Ultra Mind Control experiment gone RIGHT?
[Hank Harrisson was featured in the CBS documentary, "The Maze: Etched in Acid."]
[Harrison, allegedly "talking down" an individual from a "bad acid trip."]
Here's where the connection to my earlier blog series, "Acid, Music, Mindcrime" comes in, which deals alot with Courtney Love's father, Hank Harrison.
Although Harrison's early connection to the Grateful Dead [who were probably called the Warlocks at that point] doesn't seem to be denied publicly, Jerry Garcia himself later denounced Harrison and his writings about the Dead as full of lies - which says something when we consider Jerry's generally laid back and non-confrontational nature. It would seem one aspect of Harrison's incessent need to attach himself to the Dead and the Summer of Love was simple grift. But I don't think that's the whole story. I believe Tom O'neil's book may provide some explanation, which may connect him to the larger Mk Ultra Operation happening in the Haight/Ashbury at that time.
Years before writing a book about how his daughter, Courtney Love, had her husband Kurt Cobain murdered, Harrison was quite active in the Haight Ashbury. According to his ex-wife Linda Carroll [Courtney's mother] Hank was basically a broke con-artist who could bullshit a group of hippies so well they'd gather around him like some sort of spiritual guru. After preaching the gospel of freedom and LSD for a while, Harrison seems to then do a complete U-Turn, dons a suit and tie and starts talking about the DANGERS of LSD. This activity seemed to peak in the 1967 CBS produced documentary, "The Maze: Etched in Acid" where he speaks of the San Francisco LSD Rescue Project. Well what the hell is that? According to Harrison, it was basically a service provided to the young LSD taking public [hippies], to help them come down from "bad acid trips." According to an interview with KPIX's Pat Obrien, the number of "rescues" per week were in the single digits.
The fact I couldn't find out anything about this LSD Rescue Project outside of Harrison's own testimony and the short CBS documentary was probably the most nagging question mark my aforementioned blog series left me with. Then I found Tom O'neil's book, which seems to detail the blueprint behind the "LSD Rescue Project." The only problem is, it didn't seem to involve Hank Harrison at all! It did however involve someone you may have heard of recently, Dr Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West.
RATS IN A CAGE
Before we get back to Dr Jolly West, we need to talk about David Elvin Smith, founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Medical clinic in June of 1967. According to Tim O'neil's book, private federal grants fed the HAFMC. One specific project which was carried out through the clinic was called the Amphetamine Research Project [ARP], which was funded by the National Institute of Metal Health [NIMH] via the CIA. While this may or may not have involved David Smith's research on rats, where he injected them with LSD and Speed, the results were the same on humans to a degree: injecting speed into them while confined increased their violence by 4x. Coincidentally, the drug speed exploded onto the streets of the Haight/Ashbury at the same time HAFMC opened its doors. Just as I insinuated in my "Acid, Music, Mindcrime" blog series, the Haight/Ashbury itself was a sort of "laboratory" within which experiments where being condicted on the hippies who were flocking there to experience the "Summer of Love" first hand.
“They behaved, quite naturally, like rats in a cage” - David E Smith
Locals affectionaltely referred to Smith as "the friendly fed." Given Timothy Leary's specific approval of the CIA's role in releasing LSD into the public, I think it's fair to say that the idea of feds mingling with the hippies in the Haight was oddly normalized to a degree. It was KNOWN that the feds were playing a role! And so it behooved the Feds to just sort of blend in like any other group of freaks!
[Hank Harrison and an unknown individual, speaking in January of 1966 about their LSD Rescue Mission]
Although Hank Harrison CLAIMED to have recieved a grant which enabled him to start the LSD Rescue Mission [LSDRM], this is not officially acknowledged anywhere. But given the fact that we know the CIA was funding organizations such as the HAFMC and projects like the ARP, it seems plausible that Harrison DID recieve money from the feds to sponsor LSDRM. But the only thing we can point to which shows that this organization existed in reality is an alleged "hotline" and CBS produced footage of young people, presumably hippies, speaking with Allen Cohen and others who played the role of LSD Rescuer in front of the camera. And so the question is, if this was all a "front," what was it a front for and why was Harrison being paid to play it out?
Around this same time, Dr Jolly West accepted a personal invitation from David E Smith to work out of the HAFMC. He was given an office and was instructed to recruit subjects for LSD research. A fake "hippie crash pad" was created just a couple blocks away on Frederick street, where subjects would be lured for study. This project was financed by the Foundations Fund for Research in Psychiatry Inc, which was bankrolling West's other projects, according to records in files Tim O'Neil unearthed from UCLA, where West served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry later in his life. According to O'neil, the FF was a CIA front.
6 students were installed at this "hippie crash pad on Frederick," and were instructed to “dress like hippies” to “lure” actual hippies on LSD into the apartment. Stanford Psych Graduate Kathy Collins lived/worked at HAP (Haight Ashbury Project) for a summer, and worked at the "crash pad." About that project she commented, “what the hell have I gotten myself into and what the hell is Jolly [West] doing? It’s like a zoo. Is he studying us or is he studying them?” She was essentially getting paid to do nothing, hardly anyone came through apparently. Hippies looked on the house with suspicion.
I believe the above is the REAL, DOCUMENTED "LSD Rescue Mission," and that Hank Harrison's earlier 1966 prototype version was a 100% media created Psyop. I can't prove this of course, but many things fit very well within this lense.
1: The "grant" Harrison bragged about getting was probably, in reality, some sort of payment to participate in the psyop. And being the broke, sociopathic, nacassistic con artist he was, of course he'd jump at the opportunity!
2: Money WAS being put into observing hippies on drugs during this time and can be traced back to the Feds.
3: Harrison's obviously contrived LSD Rescue Mission resembles the actual documented LSD Research conducted in the Haight only months later in the same neighborhood.
It's probably worth noting here as well the parallels to what was going on in London's Psychedelic scene at the same time. Specifically, the activities occuring at 101 Cromwell Road, where a certain Syd Barrett lived for a time [link at bottom of the page].
My guess is that the remainder of Hank Harrison's life was basically him grifting off of and milking whatever he could from his little brush with the feds, and saw himself as a sort of "secret agent" of some sort. Of course, his brief connection to the Grateful Dead and his now famous daughter provided endless material upon which he could endlessly sensationalize and claim ownership of - while few would be the wiser. In reality, he was probably a very low level agent provocateur who's ego was too out of control to make him very useful in the end.
[Hank Harrison died on January 22nd, 2022 in Gault, California. I hadn't even heard about this until I starting writing up this blog! R.I.P. Lord have mercy on your soul.]
RELATED:
SYD BARRETT: FOLLOW THE ACID [PT 1]
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