Speaker 1: Raffie is the voice of some of the happiest songs
Speaker 1: of our generation. Baby So who is the man behind
Speaker 1: Baby Beluga? Every human being wants to feel respected. When
Speaker 1: we start with young, all good things can grow from there.
Speaker 1: I'm Chris Garcia, comedian, new Dad and host of Finding Raffie,
Speaker 1: a new podcast from My Heart Radio and Fatherly. Listen
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Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Executive producer Paris Hilton brings back
Speaker 1: the hit podcast How Men Think, and that's good news
Speaker 1: for anyone that is confused by men, which is basically everyone.
Speaker 1: It's real talk, straight from the source. How Men Think
Speaker 1: podcast is exactly what we need to figure them out.
Speaker 1: It's going to be fun and formative and probably a
Speaker 1: bit scary at times because we're literally going inside the
Speaker 1: minds of men. Listen to How Men Think on the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. The Gangster Chronicles podcast is a weekly conversation
Speaker 1: that revolves around the underworld and criminals and entertainers to victims,
Speaker 1: crime and law enforcement. We cover all facets of the game.
Speaker 1: Gangster Chronicles podcast doesn't glorify promotilstit activities. We just discussed
Speaker 1: the ramifications and repercussions of these activities because after all,
Speaker 1: she played gamester games. You are ultimately rewarded with gangster prizes.
Speaker 1: Our Heart Radios number one for podcasts, but don't take
Speaker 1: our award for it. Find Against the Chronicles podcast and
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast. Well,
Speaker 1: come to spookke You Week, a week where we are
Speaker 1: not really any spooky or honestly than the average things happening,
Speaker 1: because everything happening is is terrifying and like ghosts and
Speaker 1: Google's are are a lot more fun. Anyway, what are
Speaker 1: you hang up in this podcast? Don't listen? Go watch
Speaker 1: Herbert West Reanimator have some fun um. But if you
Speaker 1: decide to keep listening to podcasts for some reason, we
Speaker 1: have a bunch of spooky content for you this week.
Speaker 1: How was that? How was that introduction? Sophie? Oh bad? Right?
Speaker 1: Get going? Do your think? Yeah? My my thing? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're doing We're doing spooky Spooky Week, which is very
Speaker 1: excited about. But yeah, every everyone I've told about Spooky
Speaker 1: Week they're like, oh, so it's just a regular week
Speaker 1: for for the show, Like, yeah, pretty much it's more fun,
Speaker 1: but it is in a few ways. It is actually
Speaker 1: gonna be more fun because this the spooky spooky mind
Speaker 1: goddamn bit. Yeah, spookoky mind bedding kails actually do have
Speaker 1: do have some more fun than just the solely depressing ones.
Speaker 1: I mean, was this was the first theme week that
Speaker 1: we all agreed upon. This the first like, can we
Speaker 1: do something around spooky nous near Halloween? And everybody youtly
Speaker 1: said yes, yes, this is the first theme week. Um,
Speaker 1: we have we we have. We have been promising Nut
Speaker 1: Week coming up. Eventually we're going to tease about things
Speaker 1: that made us nut or where we talk about the
Speaker 1: legumes mostly legumes. Okay, that's fair, Um, but anyway we
Speaker 1: should we should have start off our first, our first
Speaker 1: spooky tale. Um, so I'm going I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: a very very spooky tale of a of an entire
Speaker 1: French town going going mad over the course of a
Speaker 1: single week. Hell yeah, probably probably with the help of
Speaker 1: psychoactive drugs and a certain three letter agency. You know what,
Speaker 1: I think we're going to get to do. Garrison, somebody,
Speaker 1: you can't be racist against the French. They're like the
Speaker 1: British or Americans. I didn't get a new messages saying
Speaker 1: that your French accent was very racist to the French.
Speaker 1: There is a certain number. It's like the Germans. There's
Speaker 1: a certain number of genocides after which people get to
Speaker 1: make fun of your country and it's not racist. And
Speaker 1: that number is, let's say three. Honestly, the worst part
Speaker 1: of this story is that we're probably doing critical support
Speaker 1: for France. I mean in a way. Well, honestly, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be kind of more critical support to the CIA
Speaker 1: by the end of this one. Um. Yeah, that's that
Speaker 1: is the most critical support can be. So anyway, our
Speaker 1: very spooky tale begins in nine in a small, charming
Speaker 1: French village called Pont Saint a Spray, which is how
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that. Yeah, there you go. Um. So,
Speaker 1: not much happened in this little, picturesque, little little town
Speaker 1: on the south side of France. You know. Uh. On
Speaker 1: the day we start, it's just like a regular summer day.
Speaker 1: People are going about their routine, going to their jobs,
Speaker 1: kids are playing in the street, enjoying some delicious freshly
Speaker 1: baked bread. Um. But suddenly strange things begin happening. Um,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna start off with some of the more mild,
Speaker 1: mild mild effects here. So on in August fifteen, first dozens,
Speaker 1: then hundreds of people began first just complaining of nauseau,
Speaker 1: you know, and some people with some like stomach and
Speaker 1: abdominable pain. They're coming up less often, less often noted,
Speaker 1: there was a few instances like vomiting and diarrhea. Um.
Speaker 1: Only about thirty percent of people had diarrhea. That is
Speaker 1: that is a weirder, weirder thing. Yeah, that is on
Speaker 1: like a town wide basis three significant sorry, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a significant strain on the sewage of the people affected.
Speaker 1: It's just going to be like a few hundred versus
Speaker 1: I was taking drugs with a group of friends. The
Speaker 1: third of them had diarrhea. I would say, we might
Speaker 1: need to go to a hospital. We have taken some
Speaker 1: of that. Perhaps what we got was tainted. There is
Speaker 1: there is Yeah, well, well we're talking about what actually
Speaker 1: what the actual drugs being used here are going to be,
Speaker 1: but something where that's not an uncommon side effect. But yeah, yeah, first,
Speaker 1: first nausea, a little a little bit of vomiting, stomach pains, cramping, um.
Speaker 1: Hospitals began reporting people experiencing alternating warm and cold waves
Speaker 1: over there in body. Uh. The British Medical Journal recalls
Speaker 1: abundant sweating and a disagreeable odor, which I'm guessing the
Speaker 1: odor is just because there's all those sweating people in
Speaker 1: the same cramped hospital room in the summer, in the
Speaker 1: summer heat. Yeah, so anyway in their fringe, so a
Speaker 1: lot of scargo sweats. I don't want to get more
Speaker 1: messages like that. I have to stop to do it more.
Speaker 1: By the way, do we know that the diarrhea was
Speaker 1: the result of whatever substance or maybe it's just the
Speaker 1: wine ships Again, we don't we there's no way to tell.
Speaker 1: So yeah, patients began complaining about weird pains and pressure
Speaker 1: around their neck, which yeah, um. And one of the
Speaker 1: one of the most reported symptoms was insomnia, in some
Speaker 1: cases lasting several days. Uh. Quoting the British Medical Journal,
Speaker 1: the first symptoms appeared after a latent period of six
Speaker 1: to forty eight hours. The digestive disorders quickly became worse,
Speaker 1: with burning sensations through the entire digestive tract. Some experienced
Speaker 1: sensations of burning at the anus, a state of giddiness persisted.
Speaker 1: I mean, who's not giddy when your anus is burning?
Speaker 1: Am I? Right? I do like like this is like
Speaker 1: this is like the like the clear side that there's
Speaker 1: like some some psychoactive job going on because like your
Speaker 1: anus is burning and yet your very born. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like that sign from that what is that from a
Speaker 1: rejected by what? What? What's the cartoonist? Like myanus is bleeding,
Speaker 1: but like you're down, you know, you're down for it. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're John Millenney impression. No no, no, it wasn't
Speaker 1: a John Lillinny impression. So that's just your poison, the
Speaker 1: millennial brain. Don Hertzfeld. Yeah, great artist, Yeah, great artist.
Speaker 1: So these pale and limp patients, still quoting the British
Speaker 1: Medical Journal, these pale and limp patients showed inconspicuous trembling
Speaker 1: of the extremities, and they complained of disorders of the
Speaker 1: visual accommodation and especially being unable to read. So this
Speaker 1: this is this is the more mild. This could be
Speaker 1: a long one there. So this is for many people affected,
Speaker 1: this is where the symptoms stopped. After suffering for insomnia
Speaker 1: for a while with you know, mild disorders of the
Speaker 1: visual accommodation UM, and you know, and the stomach pains
Speaker 1: and like weird like neck things. After they were able
Speaker 1: to sleep. That was the sign of their recovery. Is
Speaker 1: like the ability to sleep again, Afric the insomnia war off,
Speaker 1: but in a in around fifty of the cases reported,
Speaker 1: the effects were much more intense. Um. I'm going to
Speaker 1: continue from the from the medical journal first and then
Speaker 1: get into some of the more colorful reporting around the incident. Uh.
Speaker 1: Quoting the Medical journal again, Vivid visual hallucinations appeared, in
Speaker 1: particular themes of visions of animals and of flames. All
Speaker 1: of these visions were fleeting invariable in many of the patients.
Speaker 1: They were followed by dreamy delirium. Yeah, that's that's about right.
Speaker 1: That's actually pretty good description of like l s A LSD.
Speaker 1: Those kind of like the movies always get it wrong
Speaker 1: because you're not usually not like you're not seeing some
Speaker 1: sort of like visual like cartoon world. It's it's these
Speaker 1: kind of like fleeting impressions of visions and things in
Speaker 1: the corner of your eyes. Yeah, it's a pretty good
Speaker 1: especially on lower like it is unclear what exactly they
Speaker 1: were on because then they definitely can be the more
Speaker 1: cartoon lag. I mean, you can get full open eyed hallucination,
Speaker 1: like especially the shogun chemicals will do that, but I
Speaker 1: don't get it so much with like LSD L s
Speaker 1: A L s A. If you want to shoot yourself
Speaker 1: that is that is some Hawaiian baby wood row seats
Speaker 1: from home depot and have yourself a horrible right. So
Speaker 1: the delirium seems to be systematized with animal hallucinations and
Speaker 1: self accusation. It's weird, weird terms from them from self accusations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I think I think they're trying to get at
Speaker 1: ego death, but they don't have terms for it yet,
Speaker 1: either that or that like sometimes you're hallucinating it like
Speaker 1: overcomingly guilt like oh I did this terrible thing or yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody's angry at me or whatever like can continuing from
Speaker 1: the Medical Journal self accusation and and it was sometimes
Speaker 1: mystical or macabre in some cases terrifying visions were followed
Speaker 1: by fugus, which is an old um for like fugues.
Speaker 1: It says, it says fugues. Yeah, it's it's like it's
Speaker 1: it's like it's like extreme. It's extreme dissociation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're kind of a little bit. Yeah and two and
Speaker 1: two patients threw themselves out the window. Um. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: delirium was of a confusal kind, which could be interpreted
Speaker 1: for some moments by a strong stimulation. Every attempt at
Speaker 1: restraint increased the agitation. Well, yeah, that's it restraining. I've
Speaker 1: had to restrain a number of people and it does
Speaker 1: not calm anyone down, especially especially when you're tripping hard. Yeah.
Speaker 1: This sounds like a real, real bad time. Not the
Speaker 1: thing to do. In severe cases, muscular spasms appeared. The
Speaker 1: duration of these periods of delirium was varied. They lasted
Speaker 1: several hours, several hours and some patients and in others
Speaker 1: they persisted overnight. So that and then here it's it's
Speaker 1: we're gonna get a little bit darker and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna have more fun. Um. We observed four fatal cases,
Speaker 1: three men and one woman. Three of these people were
Speaker 1: old and in bad health. One of the men was
Speaker 1: only twenty five years old and had been in good
Speaker 1: health previously. They died in a muscular spasm in a
Speaker 1: state of cardiovascular collapse. I think this is probably mostly
Speaker 1: due to how the doctors were handling these patients. I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously your your blood pressure wanto can elevate when you're hallucinating.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think it also has a lot to
Speaker 1: do with the way they were being handled. Yeah, you're right. Um,
Speaker 1: the disorder has developed more quickly in children, but also
Speaker 1: left them more quickly. An interesting feature some of the
Speaker 1: cases was that the delirium it was the first sign
Speaker 1: to be noted. So it depends people come up came
Speaker 1: up on different ways, right, Some some of them first
Speaker 1: had weird body feelings, some of them first started just
Speaker 1: seeing stuff. Um. One other interesting tidbit that we're not
Speaker 1: going to spend much time talking about, but like around
Speaker 1: two weeks after this initial incident, some symptoms started to reappear,
Speaker 1: either through like a secondary poison egg or it was
Speaker 1: like some kind of like acid flashback. Yeah it must,
Speaker 1: it must, because I've done a buckload of acid. I've
Speaker 1: never had a flashback. Um I did at one point.
Speaker 1: I mean I have like done some damage and so
Speaker 1: I have permanent tracers. But it's not like my guess
Speaker 1: is they got I think the idea that there are
Speaker 1: like acid flashbacks that are vivid hallucinations has been pretty
Speaker 1: heavily debunked. My guesses they got redosed. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I might fight you good. It's like it could be
Speaker 1: that it was traumatic enough that like they're having they're
Speaker 1: dealing with PTSD and kind of that's what's happening. But
Speaker 1: I don't know, And I think I definitely have seen
Speaker 1: enough reports that would see acid flashbacks definitely actually being
Speaker 1: a thing in some cases, especially in the early days
Speaker 1: of studying these types of drugs and like the sixties,
Speaker 1: like the CIA reported a lot of stuff around acid
Speaker 1: flashbacks around the people that we tortured. But I guess
Speaker 1: it's it's tied to torture. That could just be PTSD.
Speaker 1: Stuff could be PTSD. It's also I mean, one thing
Speaker 1: you have to know, and I don't know what kind
Speaker 1: of dose these people were getting with the CIA, with
Speaker 1: dose people, they were sometimes of people doses people do
Speaker 1: not take, like you do not take that much, like
Speaker 1: hundreds or thousands or millions of yeah, ridiculous irresponsible doses. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So now now we're going to get to some of
Speaker 1: the some of the more fun descriptions here, which we
Speaker 1: can actually kind of like based on our experiences can
Speaker 1: actually kind of see like what was actually going on
Speaker 1: in these people's heads. Um, So basically we had at
Speaker 1: least dozens and dozens of people tripping very very hard. Um.
Speaker 1: The local postman was doing his rounds on his bicycle
Speaker 1: when he was suddenly overwhelmed by nausea and wild hallucinations.
Speaker 1: Quoting him, it was terrible. I had the sense, I
Speaker 1: had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and the fire
Speaker 1: and the serpents coiling around by arms. Yeah, that guy
Speaker 1: had some other stuff going on. Yeah, because the very
Speaker 1: first acid trip was on a bicycle when Heinrich Kaufman
Speaker 1: like made it, dosed himself. He started coming up I
Speaker 1: believe it was in Amsterdam, like riding his bicycle, which
Speaker 1: is like, well, this is lovely. Yeah, I've made something cool.
Speaker 1: Why is the postman riding a bicycle to deliver packages?
Speaker 1: And because it's fifties, it's not there to France. I
Speaker 1: mean that's I'm sorry post So Yeah, the mailman fell
Speaker 1: off his bike and was taken to the taking into
Speaker 1: a hospital in a nearby town. He was putting a
Speaker 1: straight jacket and he shared a room with three teenagers
Speaker 1: who were also tripping and the teenagers would change to
Speaker 1: their beds to keep them under control. Yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: how it sounds horrible. Flashbacks to this, to being chained
Speaker 1: to a bed tripping, Yeah, that's bad. Some of my
Speaker 1: friends trying to get out the window. They were thrashing
Speaker 1: wildly screaming, and the sound of the metal beds and
Speaker 1: jumping up and down, the noise was terrible. I would
Speaker 1: prefer I would prefer to die then go through that again,
Speaker 1: which you know, totally terrible. This sounds like like the
Speaker 1: worst acid trip you could go. That sounds like about
Speaker 1: the worst way you could have a trip go. It
Speaker 1: sounds awful. So back in the French town, a little
Speaker 1: girl screamed as she was being chased by man eating tigers.
Speaker 1: A woman sobbed about how her children had been grounded
Speaker 1: into sausages. Oh great, and specific a large men founded
Speaker 1: off terrific beasts by smashing its furniture and using the
Speaker 1: wood as weapons. Good for you, buddy, Good for you.
Speaker 1: Husband and wife right around chasing each other with knives. Again,
Speaker 1: probably something else going on there. My guesses we're not
Speaker 1: just talking the acid and that, because I have again
Speaker 1: been on acid a lot around knives and other weapons.
Speaker 1: I have never chasing someone. I've never chased someone around
Speaker 1: with knives like a couple who was on the verge
Speaker 1: of a knife chick. I think I think the important
Speaker 1: part here is that like in this French town, like
Speaker 1: acid wasn't a thing yet, Like like like lucinogenic drugs
Speaker 1: weren't a thing right, even like even like mushrooms weren't
Speaker 1: popular around this time, no one knew what what the
Speaker 1: hell was going on. Like they just think that they're
Speaker 1: just basically losing their minds, like they're like there's there's
Speaker 1: no other explanation for what's happening to them. And let's
Speaker 1: just say that the most shocking thing that has come
Speaker 1: out so far as that when Robert was on acid,
Speaker 1: he wasn't chasing people with knives. That seems like it's honest,
Speaker 1: Like depending on your acid trip, you wouldn't want to
Speaker 1: chase some with a knife, Like it's not that's not
Speaker 1: the kind of we would we would like during this
Speaker 1: we would we would take a bunch of drugs and
Speaker 1: grab my a K forty seven and hike out into
Speaker 1: the woods and we would shoot down a fir tree
Speaker 1: and we would drag it back to a clearing and
Speaker 1: we would bury it standing up, and we would drape
Speaker 1: it in pig and testines and put a pig's heart
Speaker 1: on it, and when we cover it in gasoline and
Speaker 1: light it with firecrackers and dance around it like the
Speaker 1: pagans of old. But there was nothing aggressive about no.
Speaker 1: You you you very rarely would want to hurt somebody
Speaker 1: on acid. And my experience like you generally a generally
Speaker 1: are at least like way more compassionate in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. Um. But if you have no idea what
Speaker 1: acid is and you're just you're in the nineteen fifties
Speaker 1: and you're losing your mind and you're seeing weird things that, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can see how this would maybe cause some other
Speaker 1: types of behavior you just think that is angry at you,
Speaker 1: like like like it's like they're not they're not dosing
Speaker 1: themselves either, like they're being dosed right like they don't.
Speaker 1: It's very different where like you're deciding to go with
Speaker 1: a trip versus this is happening to you, and you
Speaker 1: have great decision. I think for basically anyone in this position,
Speaker 1: the logical assumption would be, oh, the devil has taken
Speaker 1: over our town and our minds have we have been
Speaker 1: infested with demons? Like that's what else are you going
Speaker 1: to assume? You're not gonna be like, oh, this drug
Speaker 1: that's just barely been invented and that nobody really knows
Speaker 1: about yet except for weird nerds. It must be some
Speaker 1: version of that that I've taken accidentally. No, you're going
Speaker 1: to your blood. So one interesting time. But before we
Speaker 1: before we go and break um, even some of the
Speaker 1: local animals had been affected by whatever poison the town. Um.
Speaker 1: There there was there was one dog in particular that
Speaker 1: kept chewing on rocks until its teeth chipped away. I
Speaker 1: don't like this. And and ducks were behaving very odd. Um,
Speaker 1: it's described they were. They were walking around erect and upright,
Speaker 1: like penguins in a line, and they're just like weird,
Speaker 1: weird behavior from ducks. Kind of thing I've heard so
Speaker 1: far that kind of makes me want to dose our
Speaker 1: ducks scared. We are not We're not wasting acid on
Speaker 1: the ducks. I mean, there's a lot of things you
Speaker 1: could give ducks. We're not. We're not giving ducks asset.
Speaker 1: That's not a thing about giving ducks drugs is they're
Speaker 1: all monsters. That is true. They are monsters and rapists,
Speaker 1: every one of them. Yeah, ducks. So anyway, a reoccurring
Speaker 1: theme was that people were running around wildly and being
Speaker 1: very fearful of like monstery animals and encroaching flames. Um
Speaker 1: it sounds like the ducks were having a good time
Speaker 1: though their ministry of silly walk shit, Like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what all these people are bummed about. This is
Speaker 1: rad okay. So when when you first said that, I
Speaker 1: heard dogs, and I was like, that is the most
Speaker 1: terrible I ever heard. Ducks is much funnier. It's like
Speaker 1: duck standing like very upright, like penguins walking around in
Speaker 1: the line. I think ducks might enjoy it. I think
Speaker 1: dogs are a little too aware of what's going on.
Speaker 1: Grison dog. The stone thing was about the dog, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the dog scar Yeah. I just don't know that the
Speaker 1: dogs enjoy because, like I've seen dogs accidentally eat large
Speaker 1: amounts of pot and whatnot and they get weird. They
Speaker 1: they're they're pretty scared. They're pretty they're pretty scared. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you know what is also very spooky? Yeah, capitalism
Speaker 1: had all of these spooky advertisements to sell things advertisements
Speaker 1: are also a form of mind control. Speaking of the
Speaker 1: CIA in the fifties anyway, profoundly damaging. What's up? Guys,
Speaker 1: Shop Blow and I'm Troy Millions and we are the
Speaker 1: host of the Earnier Leisure podcast where we break down
Speaker 1: business models and examine the latest trans and finance. We
Speaker 1: hold court and have exclusive interviews with some of the
Speaker 1: biggest names of business, sport, and entertainment, from DJ Khaled
Speaker 1: to Mark Cuban, Rick Ross and Shaquille O'Neil. I mean
Speaker 1: our alumnilists expansive. Listen to as our guests reveal their
Speaker 1: business models, hardships and triumphs and their respective fields. The
Speaker 1: knowledge is in death and the questions are always delivered
Speaker 1: from your standpoint. We want to know what you want
Speaker 1: to know. We talk to the legends of business, sports
Speaker 1: and entertainment about how they got their start and most importantly,
Speaker 1: how they make their money. Earn your Leisia is a
Speaker 1: college business class mixed with pop culture. Want to learn
Speaker 1: about the real estate game, unclears, how the stock market works?
Speaker 1: We got you interested in starting the truck and company
Speaker 1: or vendor machine business? Not really sure about how taxes
Speaker 1: or credit work. We got it all covered. The Earnier
Speaker 1: Leisure podcast is available now. Listen to Earnier Leisure on
Speaker 1: the Black Effect podcast network, I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts. The Gangster Chronicles podcast
Speaker 1: is a weekly conversation that revolves around the underworld and
Speaker 1: criminals and entertainers to victims's crime and law enforcement. We
Speaker 1: cover all facets of the game. Gangster Chronicles podcast doesn't
Speaker 1: glorify promotilst of activities. We just discussed the ramifications and
Speaker 1: repercussions of these activities because after all, she played gamester games.
Speaker 1: You are ultimately rewarded with Gangster Prizes. Our Heart Radios
Speaker 1: number one for podcasts, but don't take our award for it.
Speaker 1: Find against the Chronicles podcast and I Heart Radio app
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jake Halbern, host
Speaker 1: of deep Cover. Our new season is about a lawyer
Speaker 1: who helped the mob run Chicago. We controlled the courts,
Speaker 1: we controlled absolutely everything. He bribed judges and even helped
Speaker 1: a hit man walk free until one day when he
Speaker 1: started talking with the FBI and promised that he could
Speaker 1: take the mob down. I've spent the past year try
Speaker 1: to figure out why he flipped and what he was
Speaker 1: really after. From my perspective, Bob was too good to
Speaker 1: be true. There's got to be something wrong with this.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't trust the guy. He looks like a little scum,
Speaker 1: big liar, still big, and he looked like what he
Speaker 1: was or at. I can say with all certainty I
Speaker 1: think he's a hero because he didn't have to do
Speaker 1: what he did, and he did it anyway. The moment
Speaker 1: I put the wire around the first time, my life
Speaker 1: was over. If it ever got out, they would kill
Speaker 1: me in a heartbeat. Listen to deep Cover on the
Speaker 1: I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. We are back from the spooky advertise. Yeah anyway. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I think another another reoccurring factor for why a lot
Speaker 1: of these people have very similar types of experiences around
Speaker 1: like snakes um which we're talking about later, and like
Speaker 1: flames is like with this many people trapping and no
Speaker 1: one has the tripping as I think it's really easy
Speaker 1: for an idea or a fear to spread from one
Speaker 1: person to another while they're tripping. Um. With like this
Speaker 1: many people, I think if someone says something, it's gonna
Speaker 1: start happening to someone else. And it's kind kind of
Speaker 1: kind of this like cascading effect where they're all developed
Speaker 1: these very similar fear is because it's almost like being
Speaker 1: spread like an infection. Um. So there was there was
Speaker 1: a one man convinced that red snakes were devouring his
Speaker 1: brain and he jumped out a window. Oh did he
Speaker 1: live this? He did live. Um, I'm not guessing a
Speaker 1: lot of these. It's it's like France and the fifties,
Speaker 1: So I'm guessing most of these buildings are not super
Speaker 1: They're they're not super high up now, No, they're like
Speaker 1: fall enough foot or two. Although here we have another one.
Speaker 1: Another mad reportedly left for a window, yelling, look everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm a dragonfly. Men. The men broke. The men broke
Speaker 1: both legs, but he stood up and continued running, looking
Speaker 1: d king Sigma stigma behavior. Yeah, absolute, this is a
Speaker 1: new kind of man. Just drapped. Look everyone, have a
Speaker 1: dragonfly breaks both legs, he keeps running. Based on the
Speaker 1: information you've provided us, I can't say he's not a dragon. No,
Speaker 1: he is an absolute, absolute king. Good for I hope
Speaker 1: he had a great life. Yeah. Another one saw his
Speaker 1: heart escape through his feet and beseeched the doctor to
Speaker 1: try to put it back into place. You don't want
Speaker 1: to have that happen. That doesn't sound fun. You want
Speaker 1: to keep that somewhere around the middle of your body.
Speaker 1: Someone sprinted down the lane, claiming that he was being
Speaker 1: chased by bandits with donkey ears. A nearby river, a
Speaker 1: man was convinced that he was a circus tight rope
Speaker 1: walker and attended to balance his way across the cables
Speaker 1: of a suspension bridge. How do you know it doesn't
Speaker 1: say the report does not tell you sound like he's
Speaker 1: not in the death report. Yeah, he's therefore, and therefore
Speaker 1: another another person did try to die in the river.
Speaker 1: He tried to jump into the river, only to be
Speaker 1: saved by his friends. And he was screaming, I am dead,
Speaker 1: I am dead, and my head is made of copper,
Speaker 1: and I have snakes in my stomach and they are
Speaker 1: burning me. It's such a weird description of like tripping
Speaker 1: and saying like my head is made of copper. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think of, like what was going on? What,
Speaker 1: like what what series of events did did he spiral
Speaker 1: down in his brain to have that sentence I did?
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure it's it's it's definitely I can
Speaker 1: definitely see it happening. I just I just can. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think, like we're exactly what what happened to
Speaker 1: get to that point. It's really real interesting. I think
Speaker 1: some of these are hard because again, it's like these
Speaker 1: people just think literally think they're going insane or that
Speaker 1: like this stuff is just actually happening to them. Like
Speaker 1: you were, like when when you're tripping on acid, you
Speaker 1: already kind of have the feeling that there is moments
Speaker 1: where you feel like this is like this is like
Speaker 1: never gonna end, even though even though you know you
Speaker 1: know you're on acid. These people don't know that, right,
Speaker 1: Like these people don't have the reassearnce like no, I
Speaker 1: took acid, I'm on a drug, this is gonna be over.
Speaker 1: They think this is gonna last forever, right Like they
Speaker 1: think this this is just the world now, Like this
Speaker 1: is just one of those Robert Anton Wilson, who is
Speaker 1: a thinker I enjoy a lot, writes a lot about
Speaker 1: how to calm people down when they've taken too much,
Speaker 1: and most of his advices around talking about like okay,
Speaker 1: well how long ago did you take it? Hey, Well,
Speaker 1: that the good news is that this is going to
Speaker 1: end here. You know, it's only gonna last this long,
Speaker 1: like you're you're through this point. Oh, this is the
Speaker 1: this is the second hour, freakies, and by the third
Speaker 1: hour you'll be fine again and enjoying it. Like it's
Speaker 1: all about making keeping in people's minds like this is
Speaker 1: going to pass. So yeah, you're right, like this is
Speaker 1: the fucking worst way to take drugs, alright. So local newspapers, uh,
Speaker 1: and also like in national newspapers described described this as
Speaker 1: a among the stricken delirium rose patients thrash wildly on
Speaker 1: their beds, screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies,
Speaker 1: people throwing themselves from rooftops, men and women throwing their
Speaker 1: clothes off and running in the streets naked, and children
Speaker 1: complaining their stomachs were infested with coils and snakes, Which
Speaker 1: I mean half of that sounds like, yeah, that's like
Speaker 1: a normal good time just running around the streets naked
Speaker 1: on acid other and I was like, yeah, that doesn't
Speaker 1: seem pleasant with coils and snakes near stomach, but also
Speaker 1: like flowers blossoming fund your body. I can I can
Speaker 1: I can understand that kind of sensation. Um, but like
Speaker 1: it definitely definitely wasn't all horrible and the night like
Speaker 1: nightmares we we were. We already mentioned the giddy people
Speaker 1: with burning anuses, um, but for like the full on
Speaker 1: tripping folks. According to the New York Times, there's reports
Speaker 1: of people like hearing heavenly choruses and seeing you know,
Speaker 1: bright colors. The world look beautiful to them. Um. Apparently
Speaker 1: the head of the farming co op wrote hundreds of
Speaker 1: pages of like enlightened tripping poetry. That that guy must
Speaker 1: be as because knowing nothing, he starts tripping, not knowing
Speaker 1: he's tripping. It's just like time to make some fucking art,
Speaker 1: you know what? This head state is good for writing
Speaker 1: some ship just like went to his cabinets, wrote poetry.
Speaker 1: That's fucking awesome. That's a guy. I'll bet he handled
Speaker 1: just everything that life through it. Well, Like that says
Speaker 1: a lot about you when you're like, oh, demons have
Speaker 1: infiltrated my brain. I guess I'm gonna hang out in
Speaker 1: my cabin and write some poems hundreds of pages. Wow,
Speaker 1: like I could. I could hardly write ship on acid.
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine trying to write poetry. I've done a
Speaker 1: lot of creative stuff on acid, creative stuff. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just feel like specifically, like reading and typing can can
Speaker 1: be hard at certain points, you know, if if you're
Speaker 1: like coming down that it can be easier, but really
Speaker 1: good for like writing, It's good for ideas that you
Speaker 1: later can flesh out into writing. But yeah, so unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you know, because this was you know, no when it
Speaker 1: was going on, many people were taken to local asylums
Speaker 1: in straight jackets and tied onto beds, making things undoubtedly
Speaker 1: worse for people tripping. It's one of those things I
Speaker 1: can't even be angry at them because like they don't
Speaker 1: know what's going you know, like you have no idea
Speaker 1: what's going on the whole, Like every attemptant restraint increased
Speaker 1: the agitation line is like horrifying from the concept of
Speaker 1: like you're tripping, you you you do, you don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on, and people are tying you down to beds,
Speaker 1: making you feel like you're even more stuck in this
Speaker 1: permanent seat of delirium. It's just it just it is
Speaker 1: the worst nightmare. Yeah, all of this is horrible. The
Speaker 1: mayor of the town said, like, I've seen healthy men
Speaker 1: and women suddenly become terrorized, ripping in their bed sheets,
Speaker 1: hiding themselves beneath their blankets to escape their hallucinations. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's if you, if you, if you don't know
Speaker 1: what's going on, pretty pretty pretty scary except for the
Speaker 1: poetry guy. Good for him, Yeah, good for him. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So by by the time the effects had subsided for
Speaker 1: everyone affected, which is around like a few days after
Speaker 1: the initial reported like nausea, like, you know, it didn't
Speaker 1: affect everyone at the same time. You know, some people
Speaker 1: got dosed later on. It's it's unclear what exactly because
Speaker 1: it's of the fifties, we didn't have a great idea
Speaker 1: of the exact timeline of events of like when the
Speaker 1: first effects were felt and like how all the spaced out.
Speaker 1: But this whole instant arrassed lasted around like a few
Speaker 1: days for like everyone, everyone totaled. Um. It was supported
Speaker 1: that anywhere between like three hundred and five hundred people
Speaker 1: had felt the effects, um, you know, around fifty feeling
Speaker 1: very very extreme like open eye like hallucinations of objects
Speaker 1: that aren't even there, like like very extreme hallucinations. Um.
Speaker 1: And and four people did die in connection to the poisoning.
Speaker 1: UM at least where people died. It's again it's unclear
Speaker 1: for exact numbers for a lot of this stuff. UM.
Speaker 1: An investigation into the sudden outbreak of the madness was
Speaker 1: probably underway. Town officials wanted to get to the bottom
Speaker 1: of this as quickly as possible. Do you want to
Speaker 1: figure out what was happening? Yeah? Um? And the blame
Speaker 1: fell onto a single batch of bread what so among
Speaker 1: the common denominator among those affected that they all allegedly
Speaker 1: consumed bread from one specific baker. He was accused of
Speaker 1: using er got contaminated rye flower, and he was arrested
Speaker 1: and a temporary imprisoned. UM. Also, a nearby miller that
Speaker 1: he got the flower from was also arrested and given
Speaker 1: some of the blame. UM. The funny part is that
Speaker 1: around this time, the French government had a very top
Speaker 1: down grain distribution system that originally controlled everything about where
Speaker 1: the grains were milled, where they were sent, and what
Speaker 1: bakers could use which flower, so bakers had no choice
Speaker 1: and what type of flower to use or what kind
Speaker 1: of grain they could use in baking. It was all
Speaker 1: decided by other people. Bread is like real big deal
Speaker 1: and pretty pretty pretty important. Yeah, for the record, just
Speaker 1: like air got poisoning. There are a lot of cases
Speaker 1: of like different like dancing manias and whatnot in like
Speaker 1: the medieval in midi e. Full Europe, or like whole
Speaker 1: towns will be well, everyone will start like dancing or
Speaker 1: like hallucinating, and you know, they always came down as
Speaker 1: like these people assumed apocryphal of stories about like demon
Speaker 1: possessions or whatnot. And now a lot of the suspicions
Speaker 1: like oh yeah some aragod gotten No, yeah it was
Speaker 1: it was it was just or poisoning. It seems like
Speaker 1: one of the rougher trips to go on. I'm not
Speaker 1: super clean, it's no. I mean I've done l s A,
Speaker 1: which I think is similar similar to yeah, they're tripp
Speaker 1: to means that are like really rough and it's I
Speaker 1: would not don't don't do l s A. No, Hawaiian
Speaker 1: baby would row seeds for if you're going to take
Speaker 1: L s A, then actually like synthesizing, which is a
Speaker 1: felonate um. But you can just buy Hawaiian baby wood
Speaker 1: roase seeds and eat them and you will have maybe
Speaker 1: the worst trip of your life. Great advice from the
Speaker 1: from the pod. Um so yeah, on on on on
Speaker 1: the on the on the rye and ergot topic, The
Speaker 1: past growing season was especially wet and ergot fun guy
Speaker 1: did grow across the country's rye fields. Um. But the
Speaker 1: amount of ergot on the rye and the amount of
Speaker 1: rye used in baking was thought to not be enough
Speaker 1: to induce any any type of poisoning. UM. In fact,
Speaker 1: that the last time or like orgot poisoning had struck
Speaker 1: France was back in was back in eighteen sixteen, so
Speaker 1: almost like a century and a half before this incident.
Speaker 1: And there was a century if it's the fifties, right,
Speaker 1: little less than a century no, so the last instant
Speaker 1: was eighteen sixteen. This was no no so a century
Speaker 1: and a half ago. Um. And no other towns anything,
Speaker 1: and no other part of France was affected by anything
Speaker 1: similar to this. Um So the ergot thing is kind
Speaker 1: of iffy um it. But the organ explanation was the
Speaker 1: only thing that doctors investigators could come to would do,
Speaker 1: like you know, the their their limited knowledge around brain
Speaker 1: altering substances, and just pressure from town officials to get
Speaker 1: to the bottom of this so that they had something
Speaker 1: to blame and people could like move on. Um. But
Speaker 1: you know, as a result, not much evidence really backs
Speaker 1: up there backs up, there got claim and a lot
Speaker 1: of experts today kind of deem it bunk um it
Speaker 1: doesn't There's and and there's a bunch of like, um,
Speaker 1: there's this thing hike key on that the Greeks would
Speaker 1: take that was like this Greek hallucinatory thing that they
Speaker 1: think it was because they were putting grain and wine
Speaker 1: and it might have been air got poisoned, but also
Speaker 1: like people enjoyed it. And so there's a lot of
Speaker 1: debate over whether or not it could have been argot
Speaker 1: But I don't know, Um, I don't know what else is.
Speaker 1: There are other other theories about what it might Boy
Speaker 1: is it the CIA? Where can they get to it? So, yeah,
Speaker 1: it doesn't really make much sense that the high amounts
Speaker 1: of ergot rye would only be in one batch of grain,
Speaker 1: used in a single batch of bread from just one
Speaker 1: bakery and one small town. Doesn't doesn't really make sense. Um.
Speaker 1: Other explanations um that people have come to includes like
Speaker 1: mercury poisoning and overuse of other fungicides. These have been
Speaker 1: mostly disproven. Yeah, that seemed like mercury poisoning. No, but
Speaker 1: there is a guy who likes to drink some mercury,
Speaker 1: you know boy. So yeah. So there's a lot of
Speaker 1: other theories around, like fungicides being used, but those have
Speaker 1: been kind of disproved by some people, but others still
Speaker 1: point to them as possible explanations. But but there is
Speaker 1: one other theory that we will focus on that features
Speaker 1: two of my favorite things, LSD and the nineteen fifties CIA.
Speaker 1: Because if you're gonna pick a c I A, they
Speaker 1: had the most fun, the most right, like, you know
Speaker 1: who else has a lot of fun? Garrison who is
Speaker 1: also the nineteen fifties c I A whoms our sponsors,
Speaker 1: Oh really to happen here is sponsored only by the
Speaker 1: fifties CIA, only the one from the fifties. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: you order any of our product products, they will come
Speaker 1: to your house and inject you with seven thousand hits
Speaker 1: of LSD. Hey free, Hey, that is that sounds like
Speaker 1: a great deal on a You're saving a lot of money.
Speaker 1: You are saying that that is a lot of free
Speaker 1: a lot of acid for the amount of money you're spending.
Speaker 1: You won't do more acid. That's for sure. That that's
Speaker 1: acid for life. You want do it again? Yeah you might,
Speaker 1: you probably, probably you won't have to do it. You want?
Speaker 1: You want to do any expenses ever again? Yeah you'll,
Speaker 1: You'll survive, You'll just be a very different person by
Speaker 1: the end of the Yeah, you you won't survive your
Speaker 1: body with someone. At the end of that trip, someone
Speaker 1: else will wake up. So speaking of waking up, here
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Speaker 1: to Before Breakfast wherever you get your podcasts, Hey Leath
Speaker 1: the listeners take here. Last season on Lethal Lit, you
Speaker 1: might remember I came to Hollow Falls on a mission
Speaker 1: clearing my aunt Best's name and making sure justice was
Speaker 1: finally served. But I hadn't counted on a rash of
Speaker 1: new murders tearing apart the town. My mission put myself
Speaker 1: and my friends in danger, though it wasn't all bad,
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Speaker 1: But now all signs point to a new serial killer
Speaker 1: in Hollow Falls. If this game is just starting, you
Speaker 1: better believe I'm gonna win. I'm Tig Torres and this
Speaker 1: is Lethal Lit. Catch up on season one of the
Speaker 1: hit murder mystery podcast Lethal Lit, a tag Torre's mystery
Speaker 1: out now, and then tune in for all new thrills
Speaker 1: in the season two, dropping weekly starting February. Subscribe now
Speaker 1: to never miss an episode. Listen to Leave the Lit
Speaker 1: on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. When P. T. Barnum's Great American
Speaker 1: Museum burned to the ground in eighteen sixty five, what
Speaker 1: rose from its ashes would change the world? Welcome to
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild presents an ongoing journey into the strange,
Speaker 1: the unusual, and the fascinating. For our inaugural season will
Speaker 1: be giving you a backstage tour of the always complex
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Speaker 1: the story than meets the eye. So step right up
Speaker 1: and get in line. Listen to Grim and Mild Presents
Speaker 1: now on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more over at Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild dot com. Slash Presents SO nineteen fifties c
Speaker 1: I a UM Wild Time in two US A nine.
Speaker 1: Hank p. Albarelli is an an American writer and journalist
Speaker 1: released a book called A Terrible Mistake, which focuses on
Speaker 1: the suspicious death of a CIA scientist named Frank Olson,
Speaker 1: who worked on the CIA mind control experiments during the
Speaker 1: late forties and early fifties. While researching the book, Albarelli
Speaker 1: claims to have come across a number of old CIA
Speaker 1: and White House documents referencing the pont St De Sprite incident,
Speaker 1: and he claims that the village was the target of
Speaker 1: a CIA experiment on the mass effects of LSD and
Speaker 1: that around the time that Frank Olsen wanted to sever
Speaker 1: his ties with the Army and CIA. Frank started talking
Speaker 1: about his participation in the experiment, which may have led
Speaker 1: to the government off in Olson. So I know that
Speaker 1: is a lot and it is slightly more than justice speculation.
Speaker 1: We're going to get into the evidence here shortly. UM.
Speaker 1: But by now it's pretty well known that throughout the forties, fifties,
Speaker 1: and sixties, both the U. S. Army and the CIA
Speaker 1: tried to use hallucinogetic hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD as
Speaker 1: both an offensive weapon and as a way to make
Speaker 1: like psychic super soldiers. The programs like MK Ultra and
Speaker 1: k Naomi, Project Bluebird, Project Artichoke, UM, lots of lots
Speaker 1: of these things were trying to find different ways of
Speaker 1: using LSD for like offensive and defensive means. UM. Some
Speaker 1: of the interest was promoted by it was was prompted
Speaker 1: by reports of the Soviet Union doing experiments with drugs
Speaker 1: around the same time. Also stuff around like you know,
Speaker 1: hYP like like like like psychic powers and hypnosis. This
Speaker 1: was very popular around this time for for lots of
Speaker 1: different intelligence agencies. UM. But so albare Eli uncovered report
Speaker 1: from nineteen forty nine by the director of the Edwood
Speaker 1: Arsenal which many which which was where many US government
Speaker 1: LSD experiments were carried out. And this report stated that
Speaker 1: the army should do everything, everything is post everything, everything
Speaker 1: possible to launch so called field experiments using this drug. Later,
Speaker 1: in his to us A nine book, Albrely claims that
Speaker 1: he found references to a government document with the label
Speaker 1: RETTU SPRI and f Olsen files s O span slash
Speaker 1: France Operation File inclusive Olsen Intel files. Hand Carrie to Bellan,
Speaker 1: tell him to see to it that these are buried. Um,
Speaker 1: this document does exist like we we were like we
Speaker 1: we we we do have this label on on this document. Um,
Speaker 1: but like the actual contents of documents are are gone.
Speaker 1: But this is this is this is this is just
Speaker 1: a label that is being referenced as so the document
Speaker 1: label references Frank Olson and David Bellan. So Bellan was
Speaker 1: the executive director of the Rocketeller Commission, created by the
Speaker 1: White House in the mid seventies to investigate abuses carried
Speaker 1: out worldwide by the Central Intelligence Agency. So Albrely believes
Speaker 1: that the that the French town Lst incident Um, which
Speaker 1: is like the Ponce St Spre, which is the name
Speaker 1: of the town and the Ethelson files mentioned in the
Speaker 1: document would definitely show that if the document hadn't been buried,
Speaker 1: as it was said in the in the label the CIA,
Speaker 1: it would show that the CIA was experimenting on the
Speaker 1: townspeople by dosing them with what he thinks was LSD UM.
Speaker 1: Now there is also a bit more to it than
Speaker 1: that um. Using Foya's he got ahold of another CIA document,
Speaker 1: a two page report from my team fifty four detailing
Speaker 1: a conversation between a CIA agent and a representative of
Speaker 1: the San DAWs Chemical Company. So this the San Das
Speaker 1: base was the place where Albert Hoffman invented LSD in
Speaker 1: night Um and it was it was it was only
Speaker 1: a few hundred kilometers away from pont st A Spree,
Speaker 1: the town where this happened, So the chemical company was
Speaker 1: actually pretty pretty close relatively to like europe um and
Speaker 1: it was also the only place where LSD was being
Speaker 1: made at the time. And they were providing both the
Speaker 1: Army and the CIA with a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of acid. But you mean they're also giving it like
Speaker 1: they're also giving it to universities. They gave lots to
Speaker 1: Timothy Learia. Initially they were they were, they were they
Speaker 1: were giving a gut to a lot of different universities
Speaker 1: and people, but including the US government. So the c
Speaker 1: I A. The CIA agent wrote um in this report
Speaker 1: that was like he was detailing a dinner he had
Speaker 1: with this representative of the chemical company, and he reported
Speaker 1: that after having several drinks, the scientists started talking about
Speaker 1: the pomp sat desprite incident. The send off official burned
Speaker 1: out the pomp sat a spirit secret was that it
Speaker 1: was not the bread at all. Continued to send off
Speaker 1: official for weeks. The French tied up our laboratories with
Speaker 1: analysis of the bread. It was not the grain ergot,
Speaker 1: It was a die ethyl laminated Sorry it's it's the
Speaker 1: last part of the LSD. Yeah, the die ethel lemonide
Speaker 1: like compound. So yeah, surgic diethyl acid is what LSD
Speaker 1: stands for. So yeah, he the side just said that
Speaker 1: it was. It was like it was like basically an
Speaker 1: LSD like compound. Um. So that's that was the that
Speaker 1: was reported detail like a dinner that a CIA agent
Speaker 1: had with this scientist. Um. And that document was uncovered
Speaker 1: and that was it was from like the fifties. Now
Speaker 1: this this this next part has a little bit less
Speaker 1: proof to it because there's no documents backing this up.
Speaker 1: But l Brelli also claims that Dirk is diggig to forward.
Speaker 1: CIA researchers reached out to him and revealed that revealed
Speaker 1: some details of some possible details of the method of
Speaker 1: the poisoning. They told him that the village was subjected
Speaker 1: to an air blitz of pull rized LSD. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: that's fucking based so to force the people taking the
Speaker 1: substance through the air. According to the researchers, this manner
Speaker 1: of of this manner of distribution proved mostly unsuccessful, um,
Speaker 1: forcing the CIA to move onto phase two, which was
Speaker 1: contaminating local food. So apparently the air if if the
Speaker 1: air blitz was a thing, it didn't work super well. Um.
Speaker 1: Although actually about to have Sophie Bias a plane. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about this later, but um, the c A did
Speaker 1: do more air blitzing um of of acid in New
Speaker 1: York City. Actually, they would ride around in cars um
Speaker 1: in like poorer and poorer more like multicultural areas, UM
Speaker 1: shooting LSD out of the back of the car to
Speaker 1: see what would happen to FA, I mean take out
Speaker 1: the racism and that really is a dream job, just
Speaker 1: driving around cities air dosing people with acid and random
Speaker 1: smoking cigarettes. Probably. So with the conclusion drawn that it
Speaker 1: was one of the town's bakeries being the source of
Speaker 1: the poisoning, Albrel says it was possible that LSD was
Speaker 1: put in or onto the bread um. So yeah. And
Speaker 1: also lots of the scientists, lots of the scientists dispatched
Speaker 1: to investigate the reasoning after it took place, where actually
Speaker 1: from the Sandaws Chemical company. Um. They studied the situation
Speaker 1: for like two or three weeks UM and gave the
Speaker 1: explanation that would later be kind of disproven, uh, that
Speaker 1: it was got poisoning, which they they told the town
Speaker 1: officials and the British medical journal. Um what what? What
Speaker 1: no one knew at the time was that one the
Speaker 1: existence of LSD in the first place, UM, and two
Speaker 1: that San DAWs was the company making it and giving
Speaker 1: these drugs to the U. S. Army and to the CIA. UM.
Speaker 1: And apparently apparently Albert Hoffmann himself went to the town
Speaker 1: to investigate this incident UM. So yeah. And one last
Speaker 1: thing on like the physical evidence side of things UM.
Speaker 1: Albarelli also found an undated White House document that appeared
Speaker 1: to be part of a larger file that had been
Speaker 1: sent to members of the Rockefeller Commission, uh, containing the
Speaker 1: names of two French nationals who had been secretly employed
Speaker 1: about the CIA, and made direct references to the quote
Speaker 1: pont Saint Sprit incident um. Also it was linked the
Speaker 1: document linked former CIA biological warfare expert and the chief
Speaker 1: of the Fort Derek's Special Operations Division. So those are
Speaker 1: all places that they were experiencing with this similar kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Um we we we have mentioned the Rockefeller
Speaker 1: Commission a few times now for remember the names uh,
Speaker 1: Frank Olsen, the guy one of the CIA researchers on LSD,
Speaker 1: and David Bellan where they were they were? They were
Speaker 1: on the label of that missing document. So but Bellin
Speaker 1: was the executive director of the White House Commission to
Speaker 1: investigate the CIA's abuses and crimes, which was called the
Speaker 1: Rockefeller Commission. It was formed by President Ford in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy five to investigate abuses and other activities by the
Speaker 1: CIA and a few other intelligence agencies that were operating
Speaker 1: within the States. Um. So the Rockefeller Commission revealed not
Speaker 1: only like the reason why we know, but M Kaeltro
Speaker 1: was because the Rockefeller Commission this is this is how
Speaker 1: we know this was a thing. Um. So it not
Speaker 1: only revealed stuff about like programs around m k Ultra,
Speaker 1: but also revealed the details of the CIA dosing their
Speaker 1: own scientist Frank Olsen with LSD and possibly killing him. Um.
Speaker 1: There's also so like, there's like a Netflix series about
Speaker 1: this called Woodwords, haven't. I haven't actually watched yet, so
Speaker 1: I don't know how good or accurate it is, but
Speaker 1: they did. They did make a series a few years
Speaker 1: ago about the death of Frank Olson. Um and all
Speaker 1: of the weirds got yourself surrounding both his job and
Speaker 1: and and and and his death. Um. We do love
Speaker 1: the CIA, folks. So the The commission also concluded that
Speaker 1: the head of the CIA's LSD program, doctor Sydney ghost Leap,
Speaker 1: destroyed all of the drug programs records in nineteen seventy
Speaker 1: three to hide the details of possibly illegal actions, and
Speaker 1: he was personally involved in the torture of Frank Olsen. Um.
Speaker 1: Twenty years after Mr Olsen's death and ten years after
Speaker 1: the elistic experiments were halted, a doctor Godlieb ordered the
Speaker 1: destruction of all the records of the program, including a
Speaker 1: total of one hundred and fifty two separate files. This
Speaker 1: came shortly after other reports that that that records were
Speaker 1: being destroyed by Richard helms the the then Director of
Speaker 1: Central Intelligence. So it's undoubtedly true that the CIA was
Speaker 1: up to up to some ship involving LSD around around
Speaker 1: the exact time period of this French Town incident. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's certainly not like you're not coming out of nowhere
Speaker 1: suggesting the CIA may have dosed all these people, but
Speaker 1: they set it to a bunch of folks. If they
Speaker 1: didn't do it here, they've done similar ships. It's also
Speaker 1: it's also worst mentioning at this point that like this
Speaker 1: is like the point where the CIA is also running
Speaker 1: this like enormous heroin network out of France, as like
Speaker 1: if they basically basically had this whole they have this
Speaker 1: deal with the French where they're like, okay, so the
Speaker 1: French mob can like basically move all the heroin they
Speaker 1: want and exchange they'll like stop the communists and taking
Speaker 1: control of the point of Marseillas. And so this is
Speaker 1: this is all also going on like at the same
Speaker 1: time that they're doing the LSD stuff. It's great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so's there's some storians that think the LSD theories not
Speaker 1: hold enough water. Um. Stephen Kaplan, it's the US historian
Speaker 1: specializing in the French food history and the author of
Speaker 1: the two book Cursed Bread, which follows this incident. Um.
Speaker 1: He says that he is h I've numerous objections to
Speaker 1: this paltry evidence that this that this against the CIA.
Speaker 1: First of all, it's clinically incoherent. LSTI takes effects in
Speaker 1: just a few hours, whereas the inhabitants, where the inhabitants
Speaker 1: showed symptoms only after thirty six hours or more. For
Speaker 1: the more, LSD does not cause the the digestive elements
Speaker 1: or the vegetative effects described by the townspeople. Um. And
Speaker 1: So to both those claims, I say they're not necessarily true. Um.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's unclear how soon the delirious effects took
Speaker 1: place for some people. They were they forced effect felt Um.
Speaker 1: So the whole thing about like the effects only taking
Speaker 1: effect after thirty six hours, that's not that's not necessarily true. Um.
Speaker 1: And Also LSD can definitely have nauseating or digestive effects.
Speaker 1: Yet so that's that's that's that's not that's yeah, and
Speaker 1: and but but like there were other types of symptoms
Speaker 1: that are not common for what we think of as
Speaker 1: like modern LST. Again, this is the nineteen fifties, and
Speaker 1: we don't know what they were actually on it did
Speaker 1: It's maybe not. It may not be what we think
Speaker 1: of as like LSD. Now it could be slightly that
Speaker 1: you know that this is a whole class of psychoactive
Speaker 1: drugs that's unclear what they were all actually being dosed with. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who the funk knows what they were being given and
Speaker 1: who the funk knows what the actual like dose amount was. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we no no idea. It's also you know, I think
Speaker 1: it's leary was the origin of the phrase that like
Speaker 1: the things that determine what happens on a trip or
Speaker 1: set setting in dose, so your mindset, where you take
Speaker 1: it and who you take it around and the dose
Speaker 1: and the fact that these are somewhat unique symptoms could
Speaker 1: be to the fact that like other people taking acid
Speaker 1: have never taken it this way and without knowing what
Speaker 1: acid is like. So Kaplan's other objections revolve around like
Speaker 1: the delivery system. He says it's absurd this idea of
Speaker 1: transmitting a very toxic drug by putting by putting it
Speaker 1: in the bread as for pulver as to get for
Speaker 1: ingestion through the air. That technology wasn't even possible at
Speaker 1: the time. Most compelling lee why would they choose the
Speaker 1: town of pont Sta Spree to conduct these tests. It
Speaker 1: was half destroyed by the U. S. Army during fighting
Speaker 1: with the Germans in the Second World War. It makes
Speaker 1: no sense. And and to that, I say, that makes
Speaker 1: it the perfect town for the CIA to funk with me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they generally would choose to dose someone with acid because
Speaker 1: it sounded funny, Like. I think the fact that this
Speaker 1: town was already kind of like only half inhabited and
Speaker 1: half destroyed by the by the Second World War, that
Speaker 1: makes it the perfect town to funk with like. And
Speaker 1: also they also, the CIA and the government very much
Speaker 1: did have the means to try to distribute stuff via
Speaker 1: the air, because we can see other we can see
Speaker 1: other documents around the time of them doing this too,
Speaker 1: specific areas of of New York City. They also tried
Speaker 1: to poison the entire New York Subway with LSD in
Speaker 1: the fifties, but that was shut down by higher ups
Speaker 1: in in the central intelligence. Um. Fortunately, God, what a
Speaker 1: time that would have been. But but cap But but
Speaker 1: Caplan isn't sure or got the responsible either. Um. He
Speaker 1: says that inhabination would not have worked because it doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense that only one sack of grain would have
Speaker 1: been affected. Um and he says if it was, the
Speaker 1: effects would have been way more widespread. He rules out
Speaker 1: LSD in the grounds and the symptoms of people suffered,
Speaker 1: although similar don't quite fit what we modernly think of
Speaker 1: the drug. Also, I don't I don't think Captain's ever
Speaker 1: taken LSD, so I don't think I think it probably
Speaker 1: not being air got. But I don't think you know
Speaker 1: as much, yeah, he all he also he also He
Speaker 1: also points out that LSD probably wouldn't have survived the
Speaker 1: fierce temperatures of the Baker's oven, although Albarelli counters that
Speaker 1: it could have been that LSD could have been added
Speaker 1: after the fact to the surface of the break. You
Speaker 1: could just drop it on, you could you just drop
Speaker 1: it on with like with like liquid blodders, which also
Speaker 1: explain how the effects were so different from person to person,
Speaker 1: because one person maybe having a whole drop of LSD
Speaker 1: where somebody maybe only have like a tiny little like
Speaker 1: you know, spec of like speck of like like moist liquid.
Speaker 1: So I can explain some things. But you know, this
Speaker 1: is still pretty much a mystery. You know, it's very clear,
Speaker 1: this very much, very well could have been some kind
Speaker 1: of hidden LSD c I a experiment UM, or the
Speaker 1: CIA could have just been, you know, interested in studying
Speaker 1: what happened the town since they were also doing studies
Speaker 1: into psychoactives substances at the time. Um, it could be
Speaker 1: either or UM. And that's where its spooky because you'll
Speaker 1: never know. So, yes, that is that. That is the
Speaker 1: spooky incident of a French town basically thinking that they
Speaker 1: lost their minds. And then you know they love to
Speaker 1: see it, do we. It's it is a little funny.
Speaker 1: It is definitely a little funny. Um. It's it is
Speaker 1: a great example of like the worst way to trip. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that that's that's pretty high up there. Um. Anyway, critical
Speaker 1: support to the CIA for josing random people with acid.
Speaker 1: Always one of my favorite sets of stories. You you
Speaker 1: love to see it, so yeah, tune tune in, tune
Speaker 1: in tomorrow for more spooky, spooky story and you can
Speaker 1: follow the spooky social media that poisons your brain at
Speaker 1: papen here pod and cool Zone Media which yes, Twitter
Speaker 1: will poison your brain. That that's justice, spooky um, spooky
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