File 027 · 1953 · Suspicious death

The death of Frank Olson

A US Army scientist died after falling from a New York hotel window days after the CIA secretly gave him LSD. His family has long believed he was murdered.

Background

Frank Olson was a biochemist who worked at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the Army's biological-weapons center, and had contacts with the CIA. In November 1953 he attended a retreat with colleagues at Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. CIA officers there slipped LSD into a drink as part of a test, without telling the participants beforehand.

Olson became distressed and anxious. The CIA sent him to New York for treatment with a doctor, accompanied by a CIA officer, Robert Lashbrook. On 28 November 1953, in the early morning, Olson fell from the window of room 1018A of the Statler Hotel to his death. The official finding at the time was that he had killed himself.

What the record shows

• The LSD dosing is confirmed by the Rockefeller Commission and by the CIA's own acknowledgement.
• The government compensated the family and the president apologized in person in 1975.
• In 1994 Starrs's team reported a head injury that they considered inconsistent with the fall alone, and the family argues this indicates he was hit before he went through the window.
• Other experts disagree about the interpretation, and no one has been charged.

Timeline

• Nov 1953 Olson is given LSD without his knowledge at a retreat.
• 28 Nov 1953 Olson dies after a fall from a New York hotel window.
• 1975 The Rockefeller Commission reveals the LSD experiment; President Ford meets the family and apologizes.
• 1976 Congress approves compensation of 750,000 dollars for the Olson family.
• 1994 The body is exhumed and examined by forensic scientist James Starrs.
• 1996 A New York district attorney's review does not lead to charges.

Checking the claims

The claim: the CIA killed Frank Olson to stop him from talking. What is established is that the CIA drugged him without consent and that he died soon afterward. What is not established is how he died. There are two competing readings: a suicide linked to a psychological crisis caused by the drug, or a killing.

The 1994 exhumation was an important development because it challenged the 1953 account. But expert opinion on the head injury remains divided, and the district attorney who reviewed the evidence did not find enough to bring a case. The family has continued to press for answers and has made allegations that the government has not confirmed.

Claimed, but not shown

There is no proven finding that the CIA murdered Olson. The documented wrong is the secret drug test that preceded the death.

Verdict

Sources

• Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities Within the United States (Rockefeller Commission), 1975
• CIA Inspector General, Report on Inspection of MKULTRA (1963)
• James Starrs, forensic findings on the exhumation of Frank Olson (1994), as reported in scientific and press accounts

Connected files (red threads)

• Operation Midnight Climax — Another case of secret LSD dosing by the CIA
• MKUltra — The dosing was part of the CIA's drug-testing research
• The Church Committee and the 'Family Jewels' — The case became public in the 1975 investigations

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