A bullet For The President: John F. Kennedy

In November 1953, Olson was invited to a CIA “corporate retreat” at one of the agency’s country facilities. During the gathering, LSD was secretly administered to him, as well as to other participants. Documents indicate that the purpose was to observe the participants’ reactions under natural conditions.

For Olson, the experience was a shock. He experienced a sudden alteration in perception, a loss of control, and growing anxiety. Afterward, his mental state began to deteriorate rapidly. He suffered from deep depression, paranoia, and the feeling that he was being watched.

Several days after the incident, Olson arrived in New York. He was staying at the Statler Hotel. On the morning of November 28, 1953, Olson fell from a thirteenth-floor window and died.

The official version was suicide. But later, evidence emerged that raised doubts about that conclusion. Friends and colleagues claimed that Olson had never shown suicidal tendencies, while his family stated that he had been depressed but not desperate.

In 1975, a CIA commission acknowledged that Olson had participated in MK-Ultra experiments and that the administration of LSD may have had a negative effect on his mental state. Documents indicate that the CIA deliberately altered details surrounding his death and conducted an internal investigation.

Many believe that Olson may have been killed to prevent the disclosure of secrets surrounding the MK-Ultra program. Olson’s case became one of the most notorious episodes in the history of MK-Ultra. It illustrates the terrifying logic of the program: the human being is not a subject, but an object. The experiment is more important than life, and consciousness becomes a field for manipulation.

Olson became a victim not only of the experiment itself, but also of a system that regarded him as expendable.

Before the MK-Ultra project, there was already a project known as Bluebird. Bluebird was the code name for a CIA program launched in the early 1950s (officially in 1950) with the purpose of studying methods of influencing the human mind.

The goal was the same — to develop technologies capable of controlling human behavior, obtaining confessions and information from subjects without their knowledge, and turning a person into a “sleeper agent” or a controlled operative.

The project was also classified, and it became known only in the 1970s, after leaks and investigations. Bluebird included a wide range of practices, many of which later became the foundation of MK-Ultra.

The goal was to create the “perfect agent” — a person who could carry out orders without conscious awareness and against their own will.

In the mid-1950s, Project Bluebird was transformed into Artichoke — a program with a broader range of research and a more aggressive approach. Artichoke became more aggressive and included studies of the effects of psychoactive substances on military personnel.

Experiments were conducted involving interrogations, “brainwashing,” and the creation of “zombies.” Bluebird/Artichoke demonstrate that the CIA’s experiments in mind control existed long before MK-Ultra.

In the context of the assassination of Kennedy, MK-Ultra raises extremely dangerous questions: could intelligence agencies have created an “assassin agent”? Could Jack Ruby have been “programmed” to carry out a specific action? And could Karen Carlin’s phone call have served as a trigger activating a hidden instruction?

When we talk about the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby always stands apart. His act — killing the president’s alleged assassin live on television — remains a mystery to this day.

He was a man with a criminal past, but his actions seemed too spontaneous, too artificially provoked, to be explained simply as an impulse.

Jack Ruby was a man immersed in the world of underground entertainment, familiar with both the criminal underworld and the police. He knew how to handle a weapon and was decisive, yet his action inside the police station looked like a step taken “without preparation.”

Officially, his motive was described as revenge for the president, but many researchers believe that the motive may have been artificially implanted.

The MK-Ultra program, as we already know, included methods involving hypnosis and psychoactive substances. One of its objectives was the creation of “sleeper agents” — people who would act according to a pre-programmed instruction activated by a specific signal.

Ruby could have been such an agent.

This would explain his unusual determination and the absence of any logical preparation for the killing of Oswald. Supporters of conspiracy theories suggest that Karen’s phone call may have been a trigger for Ruby — a stimulus activating a planted instruction.

Under MK-Ultra conditions, this was possible.

The program’s documents contain descriptions of cases in which a particular word, phrase, or signal led to a person carrying out actions that they would not normally have been willing to perform.

Ruby was arrested and found guilty of killing Oswald. But questions remain: why did his actions appear so abrupt and illogical?

If we accept the MK-Ultra theory, the answer is simple: he did not control his behavior. He was a “zombie” with a planted instruction, and Karen Carlin’s phone call may have been the very key that activated it.

“Ruby is a question that has no answer. But the question itself is very dangerous,” prosecutor Jim Garrison wrote.

He killed Lee Harvey Oswald live on television, but the motivation behind his action remains a mystery to this day. Many researchers describe his behavior as strange, inconsistent, and contradictory.

And in this context, the possibility that Ruby may have been the subject of a psychological experiment takes on a frightening meaning.

After killing Oswald, Ruby indeed behaved as though he were in a state of emotional and psychological shock. Witnesses noted a sudden burst of aggression followed by tearfulness. Paranoia and anxiety. Deep depression.

Ruby asked to see his dog while in his cell, and when he was refused, he burst into tears. It seemed to him to be more important than anything else in the world.

This is strange for a man who had deliberately committed a murder live on television, knowing that there would be no way back. Ruby had taken an enormous risk and carried out a spontaneous act that instantly cost him everything.

Such behavior corresponds to descriptions of people who had undergone psychoactive conditioning.

If Ruby really had been the subject of such an experiment, his action could have been the result of an external instruction — as if his consciousness had been “switched” to carry out an assignment.

After his arrest, Ruby changed. He ceased to be the confident, tough man he had once been. His behavior became anxious and uncertain. His incoherent statements, tears, paranoia, and aggression toward those around him all pointed to a man who suddenly realized that he had lost control over his own life.

But if we take the capabilities of MK-Ultra into account, this may not necessarily have been an awakening.

It could have been the “deactivation” of the implanted instruction.

The trigger that had led him to the killing had been activated, and afterward he found himself in a state of deep psychological crisis.

There are indirect indications that Ruby may have been under the influence of psychoactive substances: the strange suddenness of his actions, emotional instability, the absence of clear preparation, and the lack of an obvious motive.

Within the framework of MK-Ultra, such effects were described repeatedly. The victim receives an assignment, carries it out, and afterward experiences a profound crisis, a loss of meaning, and depression.

This completely corresponds to what was observed in Ruby.

If we assume that Ruby really was the subject of a mind-control program, then Karen’s call may have become the trigger that activated the hidden instruction — causing the emotional state necessary to carry out the assignment and “launching” him toward the killing of Oswald.

This would explain why Ruby’s actions were so sudden and appeared spontaneous.

And if Karen Carlin’s call really was the trigger, then the killing of Oswald ceases to be merely an act of personal revenge or a random impulse.

It becomes a carefully planned operation involving the CIA.

Roger Smith — an employee of the California Department of Adult Probation and Parole and a graduate of psychology at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). From 1965 to 1970, he supervised a number of programs for the “rehabilitation” of prisoners, funded through the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and private foundations linked to the CIA. According to internal UCLA records, Smith was appointed supervisor of a research project formally known as the “Behavioral Adaptation Studies.” In practice, these projects involved monitoring people who had been released from prison and analyzing their behavior in new social environments. The documents contain references indicating that Smith received instructions from a group that included representatives of UCLA, the U.S. Department of Defense, and, apparently, the CIA. These instructions concerned the selection of “subjects” for observation, data-collection methodology, and reporting forms that were never published. In 1967, Roger Smith became Charles Manson’s parole officer after his release from Terminal Island Prison.

Manson was known as a criminal with a long record. Before 1967, he had been held in California prisons for various offenses: theft, fraud, and unlawful entry. Under standard practice, the California parole system generally required strict supervision and documentation of the behavior of released prisoners. But something unusual happened with Manson: despite repeated violations of the conditions of his release and numerous offenses, he was repeatedly allowed to remain free, suggesting some form of protective supervision.

According to the archives of the Department of Adult Probation and Parole, decisions to extend his freedom were made with the participation of Roger Smith, who submitted written recommendations — and those recommendations were always approved.

In his book CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (2019), Tom O’Neill puts forward and documents a serious hypothesis about the connection between Manson, his “Family,” and the MK-Ultra program — through specific doctors, institutions, and documents. Tom O’Neill does not directly claim that Manson was an official participant in the MK-Ultra program, but he presents a chain of facts and individuals suggesting that Manson was under the observation of psychiatrists and drug specialists connected to the project. Women from his “Family” participated in experiments involving psychoactive substances, particularly LSD, sometimes under medical supervision.

O’Neill provides numerous pieces of evidence that at the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in San Francisco, founded by Dr. David Smith, studies were conducted on the effects of LSD and other psychedelics on “vulnerable groups” — hippies, homeless people, and girls dependent on Manson. Doctors at the clinic had connections with scientists who had previously worked within MK-Ultra or related subprojects studying mind control.

Manson frequently brought his girls there, where doctors supposedly “helped” them — and afterward their behavior became increasingly unstable. O’Neill cites eyewitness testimony, including that of former members of the “Family,” that Manson controlled the doses, forcing the girls to take more than he did himself. He used recruitment, suggestion, and depersonalization techniques resembling psychiatric experiments. He created an environment in which participants lost their sense of time, reality, and free will — a structure characteristic of MK-Ultra experiments.

O’Neill cites actual FBI, CIA, and prison-system reports showing that Manson was under the observation of psychiatrists connected to research institutions appearing in MK-Ultra documents, while his releases from prison often occurred on the orders of “higher authorities,” despite numerous violations.

Tom O’Neill writes in CHAOS:

“Manson became an exception to the rules. He didn’t simply get out of prison — he got out under the control of people who were clearly interested in him not as a criminal, but as an object of observation.”

“I found official notes indicating that someone was protecting him — or studying him.”

Testimony collected by journalists in the late 1970s suggests that Roger Smith saw Manson as a subject of particular interest: an opportunity to observe the development of “group dynamics” and submission to a leader. Documents declassified in 1977 indicate that the clinic was also a center of observation where the reactions of subjects to psychoactive substances were recorded. Internal clinic records contain references to “observing changes in behavior under altered states of consciousness and collecting data on social integration.”

Roger Smith organized systematic visits by Manson and his girls — Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten, and Mary Brunner — to the clinic. Medical records documented physiological data such as pulse, blood pressure, and emotional state, as well as information concerning the use of psychoactive substances and descriptions of behavior within the social group.

According to witnesses, these visits were not accidental. They were part of a systematic process of observing and documenting how psychoactive substances and isolation could create a state of submission to a leader.

From Tom O’Neill’s CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (2019):

“Dr. David Smith founded the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic in 1967. It was one of the first places in San Francisco where addicts and street kids could get treatment without being arrested. But what was less known is that Smith and his colleagues were conducting behavioral studies funded by the NIMH and linked to earlier MK-Ultra projects on LSD.”

He further states that NIMH funding was a CIA cover, with the institute allegedly being used as a channel for financing experiments on civilians.

“Manson brought his girls to the clinic frequently. They thought they were getting help; in reality, they were being watched, dosed, and recorded. Manson, according to several witnesses, rarely took LSD himself. He’d pretend to swallow, then observe his followers tripping.”

Tom also cites the testimony of Sandy Good and Diane Lake — they said that Manson “loved to control the trip.”

“He’d control every variable: the lighting, the music, the dosage, and the language. Then he’d guide their experiences, programming them, breaking them down. It was textbook MK-Ultra conditioning.”

Tom O’Neill also describes Professor J. West, known as “Jolly” West — a psychiatrist who genuinely participated in the MK-Ultra program and met with Manson shortly after the Tate murders. Strangely, after the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby, already in prison, also demanded that Louis Jolyon West be the person to treat and observe him.

Louis Jolyon West (Louis Jolyon West, 1924—1999) was a figure who was both distinguished and highly controversial. He was a psychiatrist, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a consultant to the U.S. Air Force, CIA, and FBI. But his name became associated not only with science, but also with some of the darkest experiments of the Cold War — the MK-Ultra program, mind control, and coercive psychiatric practices.

He was born in Chicago in 1924, the son of Russian immigrants. He received his medical education at the University of Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in the field of “military trauma psychiatry.” After the war, he participated in several projects funded by the CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

He participated in MK-Ultra Subproject 43, as documented in CIA records. He also worked at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, where research was conducted into “social control through drugs.” He later became director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence.

At first glance, this appeared to be a typical academic career. But his actual activities increasingly raised questions.

West appears in documents as one of the researchers involved in the MK-Ultra program — a CIA project investigating mind control through drugs, hypnosis, isolation, and electroshock. He supervised experiments involving LSD, conducted interrogations involving psychoactive substances, and participated in what were known as behavior modification studies.

In some declassified CIA materials, “Jolly West” is mentioned as a consultant conducting experiments on both humans and animals. His laboratory in Lexington, Kentucky, conducted experiments on drug-addicted prisoners, often without their full informed consent.

One of the darkest episodes occurred in 1962, when West administered 297 milligrams of LSD to an elephant named Tusko — approximately 3,000 times a human dose. The animal began convulsing and died several hours later. Officially, the experiment was an attempt to study psychosis in animals. In practice, it looked like a brutal demonstration of the effects of psychedelics.

In the 1970s, West proposed creating a center in Los Angeles dedicated to the study and prevention of violence, which critics argued effectively amounted to a laboratory for behavioral control. He wanted to use brain implants, medication, and psychiatric methods to “correct aggressive people.” The public called it an “Orwellian project,” while senators accused him of intending to turn the university into an instrument of surveillance and repression.

West also consulted on the Patty Hearst case, involving the SLA terrorist who had allegedly been “reprogrammed.” In all these cases, his involvement was accompanied by allegations of psychiatric manipulation rather than treatment.

Tom cites documents from the Bureau of Prisons and the Federal Probation Service indicating that Manson received “unusual leniency” — something that fits the image of a “test subject.”

“If you overlay Manson’s world with the map of MK-Ultra activities, you’ll see the same names, the same labs, the same psychiatrists. It’s not a conspiracy theory — it’s a convergence.”

Was Manson Recruited?

Possibly. Manson received unusually lenient treatment from probation authorities and the police. He was repeatedly released despite obvious violations. He maintained close contact with people and institutions connected to CIA research — Smith, West, and the NIMH. He also used psychological control techniques resembling those developed in mind-control projects.

Summer 1967. Charles Manson was increasingly gathering a group of young women around him — his future “Family.” According to Tom O’Neill’s investigation, Roger Smith already saw this as a “social phenomenon” — a unique opportunity for observation. Supervision reports allegedly mention that one of the objectives was “monitoring the formation of a cult and studying the mechanisms of suggestion within a closed group.” Documents from the Haight-Ashbury clinic reportedly record:

“Patients display signs of persistent dependence on the leader, particularly after courses of psychedelic use. Further observation under conditions of social isolation is required.”

Autumn 1968. Manson and his “Family” withdrew almost completely to Spahn Ranch. The ranch became a closed environment where outside control was minimal. For observers, this was an ideal “field laboratory”: the group lived under the complete authority of its leader, cut off from outside information, while contact with the outside world took place through intermediaries. Internal records from Haight-Ashbury allegedly state:

“An environment has been created in which the transition from individual will to collective dependence can be observed. Continued observation is required.”

The Mass Murders of August 8—9, 1969

The prosecution, led by Vincent Bugliosi, argued at trial that Manson was not present at the murder scenes but had issued a “spiritual directive” — “Helter Skelter” — and that the murders were his own idea, intended to provoke a race war. Bugliosi argued that the girls and men of the “Family” had been “zombified” by Manson and killed on his orders.

According to this version, there were no outside sponsors; everything was initiated by Manson and his “Family.” But the “Helter Skelter” motive appears contrived, and Manson himself did not speak about it for a long time; the explanation emerged only later. Soon afterward, some police records disappeared or were classified.

Only one thing is particularly striking: Charles Manson and those around him were under observation by the FBI, the sheriff’s department, narcotics authorities, and even psychiatrists, yet no one stopped them — as though a “protective shadow” prevented intervention.

The murders themselves looked more like a drug-related or criminal dispute — one of the men killed at the Tate residence had connections to the drug trade and acted as an intermediary — than a “ritual for Helter Skelter.” Perhaps Charles Manson was merely an instrument: his “Family” could have been a convenient tool for eliminating someone, after which all of the Family’s actions could simply be blamed on a “psychopathic cult leader.”

The fact that they were not immediately arrested despite apparent evidence, and that the investigation proceeded in such a strange manner, is still used as an argument that Manson and his “Family” may have been someone’s instrument.

There are no documents proving an official order or a connection to the CIA. There is only a chain of coincidences, “protection,” and an environment in which structures connected to MK-Ultra were operating. After the murders, society turned sharply against the entire counterculture and the hippie subculture associated with it. This coincided with the interests of the FBI and CIA, which at the time were conducting COINTELPRO operations against radicals, anti-war movements, and activists.

O’Neill writes:

“When you pull the thread of Helter Skelter, it unravels into something much darker — not madness, but manipulation.”

After his arrest, Jack Ruby demanded only one thing: that Dr. West treat him. This was strange. How did a Dallas nightclub operator know a university psychiatrist from California? Yet in March 1964, West did indeed arrive at the Dallas jail. He was allowed to meet with Ruby alone, and an hour after the session Ruby began shouting that “everything around him was melting,” that “the air was alive,” and that he could “feel people coming from the television.”

Later, he claimed that “everyone around him was Jewish” and that “his brain was under control.” According to the investigation by the Frank Church Committee, West administered a “psychotropic injection, allegedly LSD or a derivative,” to Ruby in order to “assess his condition and suggestibility.” In effect, this meant continuing MK-Ultra experiments on a key witness in the assassination of the president.