Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share A Dangerous Doubt: Frank Olson and America’s Darkest Experiment
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
A Dangerous Doubt: Frank Olson and America’s Darkest Experiment
In 1953, a U.S. government scientist plunged ten stories from a New York City hotel window. The CIA called it suicide. The case was closed almost immediately.
Decades later, the truth cracked open.
Frank Olson was secretly drugged with LSD as part of a classified CIA program known as MKUltra. He questioned what he had seen. He wanted out. And after his death, the government lied—to his family, to investigators, and to the public.
This episode traces Olson’s final days, the illegal experiments he was tied to, the forensic evidence uncovered years later, and why many now believe his death was not a suicide—but a silencing.
A true crime story of murder, secrecy, and a conspiracy the government never fully answered for.
View all episodes
By Gavin Sowden and Matt Lepore
5
88 ratings
In 1953, a U.S. government scientist plunged ten stories from a New York City hotel window. The CIA called it suicide. The case was closed almost immediately.
Decades later, the truth cracked open.
Frank Olson was secretly drugged with LSD as part of a classified CIA program known as MKUltra. He questioned what he had seen. He wanted out. And after his death, the government lied—to his family, to investigators, and to the public.
This episode traces Olson’s final days, the illegal experiments he was tied to, the forensic evidence uncovered years later, and why many now believe his death was not a suicide—but a silencing.
A true crime story of murder, secrecy, and a conspiracy the government never fully answered for.