- People who were seen as the least likely to put up a fight were chosen as test subjects.
- Because secrecy was so important in the project, it was important that subjects would not leak any classified information, so most were tested unknowingly.
- Most of the workers in the 86 universities and institutions administering the tests were also unaware of why they were performing the tests and who they were doing them for.
- Unknowing subjects included:
-nursing home patients
-the poor
-children(pictured at top)
-prisoners
-the mentally ill
-terminal cancer patients
-Terminal cancer patients were used because the side effects of the testing were expected to be long term, detrimental, and lethal.
-LSD was also tested on doctors, CIA agents, military personnel(the first test subjects), and even the of the general public unwittingly. - Not all subjects were unaware that they were being used for this testing. Some subjects who volunteered for testing included:
-prisoners(especially those arrested for illegal drugs) who were bribed with the promise of being given the drug of their choice in exchange for being tested on
-criminal sexual psychopaths
-prostitutes - For the most part, subjects were poor, taken advantage of, and/or too scared to go to the police to press charges because of their current status.
In the following video from the Guerrilla News Network, one victim of Project MK-ULTRA shares her experience of being a test subject from 5:35-6:09.
The effects of drugs used in testing on military personnel can be seen from 7:30-8:07.
- One of the most well-known subjects was Theodore Kaczynski(pictured at left).
- He is also known as the Unabomber after becoming famous for sending bombs in the mail.
- He was a researcher at Harvard University while experiments for MK-ULTRA were being performed there
- It is most likely that he took on the mindset of a bomber as a result of his testing from MK-ULTRA.
- One of the most well-known casualties resulting from Project MK-ULTRA is the death of CIA researcher Dr. Frank Olson(pictured at left).
- He and other CIA scientists were given LSD without their knowledge.
- Olson was the only one to show any side-effects after being given LSD.
- He jumped to his death from a 10th floor hotel window later that month.
- This jump was viewed as a suicide and the CIA claimed he had a history of depression, but others people are unsure if Olsen may have been forced out of the window by the CIA.
- When Olson’s family found his body, they saw evidence of abuse on his body, showing that he had been attacked right before he died, and raising the question of whether he was murdered by the CIA.
- The CIA later offered a settlement of $750,000, but never admitted to it.