THE SUBJECTS / INSTITUTIONS
Lexington, Atlanta and the people who could not say no.
RECORD / AT A GLANCE
DOCUMENTED
Testing on prisoners and addicts is documented. Each person’s story, including Bulger’s, depends on their own account plus a partial record.
THE EVENTS / THE CLAIM / THE RECORD
1950s
Dr. Harris Isbell tests drugs on addict-prisoners at Lexington.
7 June 1956
LSD tests on volunteers at a penitentiary are proposed.
3 August 1977
Senator Huddleston asks about Isbell’s secret correspondence with the CIA.
READ THE FILE
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WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THIS FILE
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At Lexington, addicts were paid in the drug of their addiction.
Who says it: The 1977 hearing.
OPEN THE RECORD
Numbered citations in each article identify the relevant sources. These records have different purposes and evidentiary weight.
The committee’s 1976 account of BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH, the Olson case, the 1973 destruction and the Army’s overseas LSD interrogations. Written before the 1977 discovery of the financial files.
173-page official scan. Prepared statements, questions and answers are distinguished; Appendix A reprints the relevant Church Committee investigation. Printed page numbers differ from PDF page indices.
Contemporary federal record. It documents the author’s statements and institutional actions; objectives and reported results must still be evaluated separately.
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Lexington and the penitentiary memo.
At Lexington, prisoners “who, after taking a brief physical examination and signing a general consent form, were administered hallucinogenic drugs”, according to the Church Committee. Addicts were rewarded with drugs. [1] In 1977 Senator Huddleston asked Turner about Dr. Harris Isbell, who ran the Lexington work, and his correspondence with someone at the CIA. [2]
The Subproject 47 memo of June 1956 planned studies of LSD and other drugs on volunteers at a penitentiary. [3]
What we can’t tell you. The Lexington research was also scientific work published in journals; not every study there was a CIA project.
The committee’s 1976 account of BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, MKNAOMI, MKSEARCH, the Olson case, the 1973 destruction and the Army’s overseas LSD interrogations. Written before the 1977 discovery of the financial files.
173-page official scan. Prepared statements, questions and answers are distinguished; Appendix A reprints the relevant Church Committee investigation. Printed page numbers differ from PDF page indices.
Contemporary federal record. It documents the author’s statements and institutional actions; objectives and reported results must still be evaluated separately.
Approved reader comments and ratings appear here when JavaScript is on.