Harold Blauer and MKULTRA

[Ron Bulman]

Harold Blauer died January 8, 1953, at the age of forty-two, at the New York State Psychiatric Institute . . .  a professional tennis player was, suffering from depression due to a failed marriage.  Harold had known his wife Amy since childhood and they had been married seventeen years before separating.  When Amy had flown to Mexico to obtain the divorce, Harold had fallen into a state of depression.  He felt that divorce was tantamount to failure, and he was deeply concerned about the welfare of his two daughters.

As his depression deepened, Harold was unable to sleep or eat.  He lost all interest in work and grew increasingly despondent.  His personal physician recommended he go to New York's Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation and help.  After five weeks in Bellevue, Blauer was responding well to treatment . . . they had him moved to the New York State Psychiatric Institute (anticipating his release).

Amy had returned from Mexico.  She was quite concerned about Harold and had been visiting him in the hospital almost every day.  Indeed, to many friends and family members, the couple appeared as if they were on the verge of reconciliation.  

Unknown to Harold and Amy Blauer in 1953, the NYSPI was conducting aggressive psychopharmacology experiments on patients without their consent.  

The day before Harold Blauer was to be discharged from NYSPI and return home, he was given an injection of a highly potent experimental mescaline derivative code-named EA-1928 by the Army's Chemical Corps.  The drug had been concocted in the laboratories of Camp Detrick's SOD which since October 1952 had been under the direction of Dr. Frank Olson.  NYSPI records reveal that Blauer attempted to refuse injection because four previous injections of the drug had made him extremely uncomfortable and frightened.

Notes made by Dr. James P Cattel, NYSPI senior research psychiatrist and the psychiatrist who injected Blauer with the fatal dose as well as the previous four injections, reveal that Blauer was "very apprehensive" about receiving the fifth injection and that considerable persuasion [was] required" to make him accept.  Additionally, Cattel's notes reveal that before the fourth injection, Blauer told the doctor he did not want to receive any additional shots, but that his protests were ignored.

There is no evidence Blauer gave written consent, not required in the early 1950's.  "no idea that he was being usesd a guinea pig" . . . 

When Dr. Cattell and attending nurses persisted in telling Blauer he needed the fifth injection, Blauer insisted that he did not.  "Besides the last shot made me feel terrible for a week," he argued.  Indeed, Institute records reveal that the fourth injection had cause Blauer great distress.  "Two hours after receiving it he was trembling uncontrollably.  He lay in bed for nearly two days shaking and moving his head back and forth.  "I'm in an awful shape ." he told his nurse.  "I feel as if something is inside my head.  I don't know if I can stand it."  

Blauer continued to protest as nurses readied him for his fifth injection.  Under the protocol Dr. (Paul) Hoch (I'm not kidding) designed for the experiments, the fifth injection of 450 mg of EA 1298, which Blauer received was sixteen times greater than his previous injections.  

I'm fine now, Blauer told Cattell.  I'm going home tomorrow.  I don't need to be given anything. 

Despite this the fifth injection was administered.

Within seconds, Blauer became highly agitated.  He began sweating profusely, his legs and arms flailing wildly.  Attendants were summoned to restrain him.  Within three minutes of the injection his body stiffened grotesquely, as though he had been electrically shocked.  Thick froth poured from his mouth, covering his chin and throat.  Approximately thirty minutes later he began convulsing and the lapsed into a coma.  He died one hour later.

The NYC medical examiner determined "a therapeutic drug admistered that aggravated a previously undetected heart problem."  

Amy Blauer was informed of his demise in about an hour.  Troubled by little information, she sued.  

"Government attorneys then raised the settlement offer to $18,000."  Amy and he two daughters received about $10,000.  $115,500 today.  

"and they still didn't learn a thing about the true facts surrounding Harold Blauer's death or the USA's involvement int it."

Pg's 162-165, A Terrible Mistake, Hank Albarelli.  

For the forums resident psychiatrist Dr Niederhut and others.

[Ron Bulman]

Reading this stunned me.

When Dr. Cattell and attending nurses persisted in telling Blauer he needed the fifth injection, Blauer insisted that he did not.  "Besides the last shot made me feel terrible for a week," he argued.  Indeed, Institute records reveal that the fourth injection had cause Blauer great distress.  "Two hours after receiving it he was trembling uncontrollably.  He lay in bed for nearly two days shaking and moving his head back and forth.  "I'm in an awful shape ." he told his nurse.  "I feel as if something is inside my head.  I don't know if I can stand it."  

The next step is even more so.  After the reaction from the last injection why would anyone in their right mind increase the dosage, on a Human Being, by 16X?  Experiment be Damned.

Under the protocol Dr. (Paul) Hoch (I'm not kidding) designed for the experiments, the fifth injection of 450 mg of EA 1298, which Blauer received was sixteen times greater than his previous injections.   

 

 

 

[W. Niederhut]

44 minutes ago, Ron Bulman said:

Reading this stunned me.

When Dr. Cattell and attending nurses persisted in telling Blauer he needed the fifth injection, Blauer insisted that he did not.  "Besides the last shot made me feel terrible for a week," he argued.  Indeed, Institute records reveal that the fourth injection had cause Blauer great distress.  "Two hours after receiving it he was trembling uncontrollably.  He lay in bed for nearly two days shaking and moving his head back and forth.  "I'm in an awful shape ." he told his nurse.  "I feel as if something is inside my head.  I don't know if I can stand it."  

The next step is even more so.  After the reaction from the last injection why would anyone in their right mind increase the dosage, on a Human Being, by 16X?  Experiment be Damned.

Under the protocol Dr. (Paul) Hoch (I'm not kidding) designed for the experiments, the fifth injection of 450 mg of EA 1298, which Blauer received was sixteen times greater than his previous injections.   

 

 

 

Ron,

    This is a horrifying story, in more ways than one.

    I think Dr. James P. Cattell was either the uncle or brother of my former psychoanalyst, one of the founders of the Denver Psychoanalytic Institute.

    I should mention that there are a number of distinguished physicians in the Cattell family, including the famous Harvard surgeon, Dr. Richard B. Cattell, who once operated on British Prime Minister Anthony Eden.

    But it sounds like Dr. James P. Cattell was an MK-Ultra man... 😬

[Ron Bulman]

I am finally, slowly working my way through Hank Albarelli's A Terrible Mistake - the Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments.  It has 706 pages of text, 826 total including the Appendix, Photographs and Documents, Notes and Index.  I ordered it in great part because I'd read it offered more information on George Hunter White, Pierre Laffite and others.  I also ordered it because I'd seen the Documentary Wormwood and read that was based in part on this book but didn't do the book justice.  Boy Howdy, is that an understatement.  I didn't count on the depth and detail in the subtitle part, "and The CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments."  A mistake on my part.

I've finally made it to the actual chapter 6 on MKULTRA.  In Book Two - From Brainwashing to LSD.  The part about Harold Blauer was in Book One 1953-1956. 

I thought I knew a little about Dr. Harold Abramson, the "psychiatrist" in NYC the CIA was taking Dr. Frank Olson to when he "jumped" out of a hotel room window on the 13 floor.  After being dosed by his employer a week before with LSD, having a bad trip, and paranoid flashbacks, acting erratically.   

How little I did know.  He was an allergist.  His only medical qualification.  Only the CIA considered him a psychiatrist.  One they gave many thousands of dollars to, to study the effects of LSD on human beings.   From pages 285/286.

"By all accounts, Abramson enjoyed turning his friends on to LSD as much as George (Hunter) White did.  Former colleagues of Abramson's recall LSD sorties held at his Long Island home.  Said one former colleague, who declined to be identified, "These LSD parties were held well before the hippie stuff of the 1960's and 70's, but were just as wild and crazy, right along with all the sex and what have you."  Said another, "You'd be very, very surprised at who attended some of these events,  ..."

Then on pages 291-292.  MKULTRA and Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.

In Jr College, 1975-76, I read Ken Kesey's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the Merry Pranksters, the bus, the US tour, the acid test in the woods.  Then One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and saw it in a theater. 

"A talkative Gittinger also revealed that at least two other CIA researchers from TSS's Chemical Division had attended, as "curious observers," Ken Kesey's "Trips Festival" in La Honda, California and an "Acid Test" at San Francisco's Longshoremen's Hall.  The "Trips Festival" held in 1966, featured what Gittinger called "an oddball mix of music, merriment, and bizarre behavior."  Music for the event was provided by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring, a then unknown Janis Joplin.  LSD was liberally distributed by the legendary San Francisco outlaw chemist Owlesy Stanley.  Stanley described the event:

It was completely out of control... Back in those days, we were really rough with [LSD].  A large dose was really rough.  It would be a hell of a jolt for a guy in his late thirties to suddenly come face-to-face with the universe that way.

A few weeks latter, Gittinger's two TSS colleagues attended one of the earliest "Acid Tests" held outside San Francisco.  The "test" (really a psychedelic party) featured huge bowls of LSD spiked punch nobody had any idea how much of the drug had been added to the mixture of fruit juice and soda.  Music was provided by a group called the Warlocks , soon to become the Grateful Dead. 

Recalled CIA man Gittinger.

Once, after the LSD parties had become more commonplace, [Alfred] Hubbard and some doctor, I can't remember his name, tried to attend one event.  It was crazy from the start.  These two bald-headed, portly guys in dark suits walking into the middle of all this madness.  You can imagine the paranoia count went through the roof as they tied to mingle with the crowd and people began melting away from them. . . .  At least when we went to these things we made an effort to blend in with things."

The musical story of the merry pranksters US tour.

  

 

[Ron Bulman]

The chapter on MKULTRA is interesting.  It wasn't just about LSD and other drug experiments though those seem to be a major focus.  

The focus of what I've read before was on the experiments at safe houses in Greenwich Village and then San Francisco.  Also, Detroit and Chicago.  Not just this chapter but scattered throughout the book thus far are references and details of the program.  Such as experiments on (paid) volunteers, unwitting mental patients, federal prisoners, at "respected" universities and hospitals.  The names of such and their employee's is interesting.  E.G., hypnotism and magic are discussed elsewhere.

These are the subtopics in the chapter. 

- The Occult Side featuring Alester Crowley, a demented and perverted person?

- Ken Kesey, Acid Tests, see prior post.

- Cancer and MKULTRA, short, not much there, but elsewhere?

- Radiation and MKU, experiments on people.

- Dr. Robert Hyde and LSD.

- In turn, Producing a Model Psychosis.

- Nixon and LSD attack.  More tomorrow.

- Krulak to McNamara on CIA op in Cambodia.   

[Ron Bulman]

Regarding Nixon and LSD Attack, from pages 306-306.  I don't remember ever reading anything about this.

In September 1977, in a closed hearing, Gottlieb told a group of U.S. Senators that during one of President Nixon's trips overseas in 1972 "members of his staff were drugged," and "displayed signs of disoriented behavior."  Senator Edward Kennedy incredulously asked Gottlieb "Members of the Presidental party?"  Gottlieb replied, "Yes, And specifically it included the President's physician himself and some of his associates."  . . .

Replied Gottlieb, "My remembrance is that they decided it was an "indeterminable" thing, that long after the incident they could not, at least unequivocally, conclude that this behavior was due to some covert drugging."

Gottlieb was reluctant to go into detail, couldn't remember exact dates for Kennedy.  Declined comment to reporters.  Dr. Kasch refused to answer any questions.

The incident involving Nixon's staff occurred in May of 1972, Gottlieb claimed Nixon was on Moscow for a summit conference with the Russians.  . . .   One of the men in the President's party was especially affected.  At one point the drugged man begged the Secret Service to have him flown back to the United States.  "I can't stay here any longer," he said, "I'm losing my mind.  I'm falling apart, I'm falling a part.?  For months after the man had returned to Washington, D.C., he acted so bizarre that he was sent twice for psychiatric observation. . . .  physicians concluded he may have been given LSD or BZ in a time released form.

Another member of Nixon's summit party was also strangely affected long after the trip.  this man, a White House staffer, had actually been apprehended by Soviet security and intelligence agents outside the Kremlin where he had wandered late one night.  There, on Moscow's streets, he had walked aimlessly about, asking people where he could find Rasputin and "what time did the pharmacies open."  The man had also reportedly thrown his passport away, telling Soviet agents that it contained "tracking devices inside."

Said Gottlieb, "We kept a close eye on these men for a number of years after they were drugged.  We were concerned about their well being."

Krulak in the next day or two.    

[W. Niederhut]

On 3/23/2024 at 8:52 PM, Ron Bulman said:

The chapter on MKULTRA is interesting.  It wasn't just about LSD and other drug experiments though those seem to be a major focus.  

The focus of what I've read before was on the experiments at safe houses in Greenwich Village and then San Francisco.  Also, Detroit and Chicago.  Not just this chapter but scattered throughout the book thus far are references and details of the program.  Such as experiments on (paid) volunteers, unwitting mental patients, federal prisoners, at "respected" universities and hospitals.  The names of such and their employee's is interesting.  E.G., hypnotism and magic are discussed elsewhere.

These are the subtopics in the chapter. 

- The Occult Side featuring Alester Crowley, a demented and perverted person?

- Ken Kesey, Acid Tests, see prior post.

- Cancer and MKULTRA, short, not much there, but elsewhere?

- Radiation and MKU, experiments on people.

- Dr. Robert Hyde and LSD.

- In turn, Producing a Model Psychosis.

- Nixon and LSD attack.  More tomorrow.

- Krulak to McNamara on CIA op in Cambodia.   

Interesting stuff, Ron.  I need to read Albarelli's book.

Is it entitled, A Terrible Mistake?

I read Stephen Kinzer's, Poisoner-in-Chief, but I don't recall any references to Nixon and his associates being given LSD by Gottlieb.  Or Krulak and McNamara.

I've also been intending to re-read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which I read almost 50 years ago.

I listened once to an interesting History of Rock 'n Roll interview of Jerry Garcia, where Garcia talked about the early days of the Grateful Dead, and his experiences at Kesey's Acid Test parties in the Bay area.

As for the English occultist, Aleister Crowley, there has been a scurrilous rumor circulating on the internet for the past 20 years that Crowley was Barbara Bush's biological father, and the grandfather of George W. Bush.  If true, Dubya Bush is an erstwhile spawn of Satan-- an appealing concept for liberal partisans... 😂

Legend has it that Barbara Bush's mother, Pauline Pierce, was involved in some sort of occult sex/magic ritual with Crowley, in Paris in the 1920s, nine months before Barbara Pierce was born. 

This rumor is probably unworthy of an Education Forum reference, but it is somewhat titillating.

According to the Internet, Aleister Crowley Was George W. Bush's Grandfather (gizmodo.com)

 

Edited March 25 by W. Niederhut

[Ron Bulman]

Yes, A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments: Albarelli Jr., H. P.: 9781936296088: Amazon.com: Books 

It doesn't say Nixon was given LSD, but his Doctor, a SS agent and a White House staffer likely were.  Not by Gottlieb but in the Kremlin in Moscow by Soviet agents.

[Ron Bulman]

Regarding Krulak as his name has surfaced recently (again) in relation to Prouty I thought this might be of interest to others.  Not involving Prouty, but insightful regarding Krulak.

In late January 1963, Marine Corps Major General V.H. Krulak wrote a top secret memorandum to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara regarding the "special prisoner interrogation project" authorized by McNamara for use in Vietnam.  That project, employing techniques developed under project ARTICHOKE, according to Krulak, was overseen by a " U.S. Army project officer who is most knowledgeable, having been in the program from it's inception" . . .  Krulak reported that the use of these techniques in Vietnam held "great promise for assisting in the production of timely tactical intelligence, with little difficulty and risk of exposure.

However, one particular technique showed special promise, wrote Krulak.  He stated:

There are many promising - and far more secure - opportunities for employing the technique in the field.  A case in point is Plei Mrong, a Montagnard training center set up by U. S. Army Special forces in pure Viet Cong territory, 25 miles from the Cambodian border.  The center sustained, and repulsed after many casualties, an attack by a force of several hundred hard core Viet Cong.  Several prisoners were taken and were vigorously interrogated  by our people.  A few broke down and disclosed valuable information . . . It is the view of the Army project officer that . . . on the spot use of the interrogation technique would have broadened greatly this valuable intelligence break-through, and on a most secure basis, since the subjects were too simple, too ignorant, to have any idea what was going on.

IOW, give them a dose of LSD, their mind would be blown, and they would spill the beans so to speak.

I've come to think maybe Prouty, Krulak, McNamara weren't fully in agreement with all they were ordered to do.  They still make me think of this song.

 

[Ron Bulman]

On 3/24/2024 at 10:30 PM, W. Niederhut said:

As for the English occultist, Aleister Crowley, there has been a scurrilous rumor circulating on the internet for the past 20 years that Crowley was Barbara Bush's biological father, and the grandfather of George W. Bush.  If true, Dubya Bush is an erstwhile spawn of Satan-- an appealing concept for liberal partisans... 😂

Legend has it that Barbara Bush's mother, Pauline Pierce, was involved in some sort of occult sex/magic ritual with Crowley, in Paris in the 1920s, nine months before Barbara Pierce was born. 

This rumor is probably unworthy of an Education Forum reference, but it is somewhat titillating.

According to the Internet, Aleister Crowley Was George W. Bush's Grandfather (gizmodo.com)

He is most interesting in the book.  I went looking on the worldwide web and immediately ran into Ozzie Ozbourne.

ozzy osbourne mr crowley lyrics - Search (bing.com)

 

[Ron Bulman]

On 3/24/2024 at 10:30 PM, W. Niederhut said:

Interesting stuff, Ron.  I need to read Albarelli's book.

Is it entitled, A Terrible Mistake?

I read Stephen Kinzer's, Poisoner-in-Chief, but I don't recall any references to Nixon and his associates being given LSD by Gottlieb.  Or Krulak and McNamara.

I've also been intending to re-read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which I read almost 50 years ago.

I listened once to an interesting History of Rock 'n Roll interview of Jerry Garcia, where Garcia talked about the early days of the Grateful Dead, and his experiences at Kesey's Acid Test parties in the Bay area.

As for the English occultist, Aleister Crowley, there has been a scurrilous rumor circulating on the internet for the past 20 years that Crowley was Barbara Bush's biological father, and the grandfather of George W. Bush.  If true, Dubya Bush is an erstwhile spawn of Satan-- an appealing concept for liberal partisans... 😂

Legend has it that Barbara Bush's mother, Pauline Pierce, was involved in some sort of occult sex/magic ritual with Crowley, in Paris in the 1920s, nine months before Barbara Pierce was born. 

This rumor is probably unworthy of an Education Forum reference, but it is somewhat titillating.

According to the Internet, Aleister Crowley Was George W. Bush's Grandfather (gizmodo.com)

 

I had never heard of Crowley until reading of him in ATM.  The reviews of this book at amazon are enlightening.  Apparently there are several other biographies of him.

Aleister Crowley: The Biography: Spiritual Revolutionary, Romantic Explorer, Occult Master and Spy: Churton, Tobias: 9781780283845: Amazon.com: Books

The part in ATM is under a subtitle of The Occult Side of MLULTRA.  From pages 288-289.

The MKULTRA program funded drug experiments conducted by Alister Crowley, a controversial and some would say depraved, practitioner of the "black arts" and considered a "high priest" of occultism.  The World War II 'truth drug' research conducted by Stanley Lovell's OSS department had briefly examined Crowley's experiments with drugs, but had discarded them because OSS scientists found Crowley "simply too difficult to fathom."

Nonetheless the CIA took a second look.  . . . was a lifelong intelligence operative for the British government.  . . .  Crowley apparently enjoyed the effects of drugs upon himself, as yeas later in the 1920's he was experimenting with mescaline, and in the late 1930's he was introduced to the wonders of peyote by Aldous Huxley.  Compounding matters was Crowley's long time addiction to heroin, which had first been prescribed for treatment of his severe "spasmodic asthma".

What seemed to attract the CIA's scientific attention was Crowley's use of drugs such as datura, and a hallucinogen called "Raziel's Sapphire" that was used by Native Americans in Florida.  Crowley variously combined these drugs with sexual practices and wrote of his experiences in lurid detail.  Apparently, this tied into safe house experiments . . .  Gittinger would say years later:  Yes, we were interested in the combination of certain drugs with sex acts...  For a while we employed several prostitutes for project-related work in the safe houses.  They would lure clients in for the purpose of drawing information from them while they were preoccupied or distracted.

This would fit neatly with Crowley's practice of "sexual magik" and drugs.  Grant writes that Crowley used them [drugs] all in his search for the mysterious elixir potent to unseal the gates of the invisible world.  He also wished to compare the states of consciousness induced by their use with those resulting from madness, obsession and mystical exaltation." 

[Ron Bulman]

ATM, Book Four - 1975-1985, Chapter -5- August 12, 1975, Harold Blauer Redux.  Pages 528-532.

On August 12, 1975, following several news reports about Army-sponsored experiments similar to those of the CIA, a Pentagon spokesman disclosed that Harold Blauer, a 42- year old patient at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, had died the same year as Frank Olson, after Blauer had unwittingly ben given a massive amount of mescaline during a secret Army experiment.  Like the Olsons, the Blauer family had been kept in the dark about the death for over twenty-two years. 

The name of the victim is being withheld while the Pentagon tries to locate surviving relatives.  . . .  a representative of the Army Inspector General's office had come across "a file disclosing the death while examining records discovered in a safe at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland."  Before concluding the press conference, Laitin said that the Army experiments with mescaline, LSD and other drugs had been halted only three weeks earlier, as a result of the revelations about Frank Olson, and the Army's experiments had involved altogether "about four thousand soldiers and civilians."  The following day the New York Times reported that the unnamed NYSPI victim had been identified as Harold Blauer.  The Army identified him after one of Blauer's two daughters, Elizabeth Barrett, had been contacted.

Thirteen at the time. She recalled her mother telling her at the time that her father had "reacted badly [and] been very upset" by drugs he had been given at NYSPI.  She further told Treaster (NY Times) that her father had "absolutely not" volunteered to participate in and Army drug experiment, and that he told her mother, Amy, that "he didn't like" the drugs he had been given at the Psychiatric Institute.

To be continued.  

[W. Niederhut]

On 3/26/2024 at 9:57 PM, Ron Bulman said:

Regarding Krulak as his name has surfaced recently (again) in relation to Prouty I thought this might be of interest to others.  Not involving Prouty, but insightful regarding Krulak.

In late January 1963, Marine Corps Major General V.H. Krulak wrote a top secret memorandum to Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara regarding the "special prisoner interrogation project" authorized by McNamara for use in Vietnam.  That project, employing techniques developed under project ARTICHOKE, according to Krulak, was overseen by a " U.S. Army project officer who is most knowledgeable, having been in the program from it's inception" . . .  Krulak reported that the use of these techniques in Vietnam held "great promise for assisting in the production of timely tactical intelligence, with little difficulty and risk of exposure.

However, one particular technique showed special promise, wrote Krulak.  He stated:

There are many promising - and far more secure - opportunities for employing the technique in the field.  A case in point is Plei Mrong, a Montagnard training center set up by U. S. Army Special forces in pure Viet Cong territory, 25 miles from the Cambodian border.  The center sustained, and repulsed after many casualties, an attack by a force of several hundred hard core Viet Cong.  Several prisoners were taken and were vigorously interrogated  by our people.  A few broke down and disclosed valuable information . . . It is the view of the Army project officer that . . . on the spot use of the interrogation technique would have broadened greatly this valuable intelligence break-through, and on a most secure basis, since the subjects were too simple, too ignorant, to have any idea what was going on.

IOW, give them a dose of LSD, their mind would be blown, and they would spill the beans so to speak.

 

Ron,

      This immediately brings to mind Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant movie, Apocalypse Now, where Martin Sheen travels up a river to the Cambodian border to find Col. Kurtz-- a Special Forces commando who has gone rogue to create a guerilla army of indigenous people.

       The movie is, essentially, about Joseph Conrad's turn-of-the-century African colonial novel, Heart of Darkness, but also features many spell-binding details about Vietnam, French colonialism, and the dark side of the U.S. military industrial complex.

       One of the greatest movies ever made?

 

[Ron Bulman]

17 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

ATM, Book Four - 1975-1985, Chapter -5- August 12, 1975, Harold Blauer Redux.  Pages 528-532.

On August 12, 1975, following several news reports about Army-sponsored experiments similar to those of the CIA, a Pentagon spokesman disclosed that Harold Blauer, a 42- year old patient at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, had died the same year as Frank Olson, after Blauer had unwittingly ben given a massive amount of mescaline during a secret Army experiment.  Like the Olsons, the Blauer family had been kept in the dark about the death for over twenty-two years. 

The name of the victim is being withheld while the Pentagon tries to locate surviving relatives.  . . .  a representative of the Army Inspector General's office had come across "a file disclosing the death while examining records discovered in a safe at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland."  Before concluding the press conference, Laitin said that the Army experiments with mescaline, LSD and other drugs had been halted only three weeks earlier, as a result of the revelations about Frank Olson, and the Army's experiments had involved altogether "about four thousand soldiers and civilians."  The following day the New York Times reported that the unnamed NYSPI victim had been identified as Harold Blauer.  The Army identified him after one of Blauer's two daughters, Elizabeth Barrett, had been contacted.

Thirteen at the time. She recalled her mother telling her at the time that her father had "reacted badly [and] been very upset" by drugs he had been given at NYSPI.  She further told Treaster (NY Times) that her father had "absolutely not" volunteered to participate in and Army drug experiment, and that he told her mother, Amy, that "he didn't like" the drugs he had been given at the Psychiatric Institute.

To be continued.  

In early September 1975, Elizabeth Barrett, distressed and angered about revelations concerning her father's treatment and death, filed an $8.5 million claim against the Army.  Barrett was especially angry about details she learned concerning the involvement of the State of New York and the U.S. Justice Department in the cover-up of the facts surrounding the Army's tests at NYSPI.

Early in Marrazzi's twenty-five page report, the doctor clearly admits that had it not been for the Army's secret experiments, . . . ,  Blauer would have been discharged from NYSPI and sent home.  Instead, states Marrazzi, Blauer died under conditions that were not "in accord with good medical practice and free from negligence."  (The understatement of the decade, if not century? RB).

In July 1954, Army attorneys met with attorneys in Burger's office (Warren Burger - future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) and decided they would ask David Marcus, the New York assistant attorney general in charge of defending the NYSPI against the Blauer's to offer Blauer's wife Amy, $15,000 to settle the case ($173,000 in 2024).  The Army agreed to pay $7250 of the settlement as long as the Army's role in Blauer's death was kept secret from Blauer's family, the Blauer's attorney's, the judge hearing the case, and of course, the media.  

Amy Blauer refused the settlement offer for several months, but her own poor health and the needs of her daughters forced her to reconsider.  After a few days of negotiations, and threats that doctors at NYSPI could reveal "very embarrassing details" of her marriage if the case went to court, Amy settled for $18,000, only because the judge in the case objected to $15,000 as an appropriate amount.  (I.E., today, here's $200,000 since we killed your husband, shut up and go away).

In 1987, ten years after Elizabeth Barrett filed her $8.5 million dollar suit against the United States Government, she was awarded a little over $700,000 ($1.9 million today).  Defending against Barrett's claims for justice was then United States Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani.  Giuliani argued strongly that the government was not responsible for Harol Blauer's death, but the court found otherwise.