Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control

The definitive biography of Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA chemist who ran MK-Ultra from 1953 to 1964. Stephen Kinzer, a former New York Times foreign correspondent, traces Gottlieb's career from the Bronx to Fort Detrick, where he authorized experiments that dosed unwitting Americans with LSD, hypnotized prisoners, and in at least one documented case, killed a CIA employee. The chapter on the death of biochemist Frank Olson is one of the most clinical pieces of investigative writing on the program ever published. Built on declassified files, Senate testimony, and interviews with former operatives.