A federal judge has dismissed a $12Million dollar lawsuit against the government for conducting LSD-oriented mind control experiments on a former deputy marshal.
During the Cold War, hundreds of American citizens in and around San Francisco were subjected to secret mind and behavioral control experiments, which utilized LSD and other hallucinogenic. Many of the subjects were government workers. The defendant, Wayne Ritchie, believes he may have been one such subject:
Ritchie, now 77 and living in San Jose, was a 30-year-old deputy U.S. marshal and Marine Corps veteran with a spotless record in December 1957. According to his testimony, he had four or five bourbon and soda drinks over several hours at an office Christmas party, left, and soon started feeling overwhelmed by depression and paranoia.He retrieved his two revolvers, tried to rob a bar in the Fillmore neighborhood, got distracted, and was hit over the head and knocked unconscious.
At least one government Christmas party incident is officially on record as leading to the death of a man given LSD in his drink, who then jumped off the roof and plunged to his death. Perhaps Ritchie was inspired by this story - or then again, maybe he was at that Christmas party.
-San Francisco Chronicle: Bid to sue over LSD rejected
