Project MK-Ultra: Did CIA Scientist Frank Olson Jump or Was He Pushed? 

The death of US scientist Frank Olson on Thanksgiving weekend in 1953 is one of the most enduring mysteries of the CIA mind-control project MK-Ultra.

‍Scientist Frank Olson was a biological warfare expert, a CIA officer, and a married father of three when he 'fell' from the window of his Manhattan hotel room in 1953. He died on the sidewalk in his undershirt and shorts at about 2 am. The official verdict was suicide, but a second autopsy raised questions - although not proof - of a possible homicide. Olson’s family and many others have been searching for answers in a hall of mirrors ever since.

MK-Ultra‍

Frank Olson was 43 when he died on Nov. 28, 1953. He was a scientist at the top of his profession, a CIA officer, and one of about two dozen men who knew the true nature of the Agency’s Project MK-Ultra. The project involved mind control experiments, including tests to see if LSD could be weaponized against US enemies. The US was concerned that the Soviet Union had developed their own mind-control methods and America was falling behind.

Olson was a key insider. He knew the CIA’s darkest secrets, which made him both a privileged member of an elite group and a security threat should he expose the top-secret US project.  

Curiously, about a week before Olson’s death, he’d also been unwittingly drugged with LSD during a retreat in Maryland with colleagues from the CIA and Army. His drink was spiked, along with several others at the meeting, but Olson’s reaction was much more severe than most. He was jittery and distracted afterward. He had trouble sleeping and concentrating. He forgot how to spell. At some point between the drugging and his death, Olson blurted to his wife: "I've made a terrible mistake." Exactly what mistake, Alice Olson would never know.