John Lisle

The town's called Pointe Saint-Esprit, I believe.

But yeah, there were multiple dozens of people who came down with hallucinogenic symptoms.

One guy stripped naked and started running around the street.

Multiple people died after this.

But that was one of the things that led the CIA to become really interested in hallucinogens because if a poisoning from a bakery could cause that much havoc within this one French town...

how much more damaging would it be if the Soviets did that to a city's water supply?

And so that kind of leads the CIA.

That's the justification.

So they start dosing the coffee pots.

And they're running brothels.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, the guy who actually ran that is a guy named George White, and he was involved in the OSS.

So he was, you know, I mentioned Stanley Lovell and the THC acetate.

George White was the guy who was hired to do that in the OSS.

Then Sidney Gottlieb, when he's thinking, I need to do these drug experiments for myself, who am I going to get to do it for me?

I need someone who has connections to the underworld, who has criminal connections.

George White was a Bureau of Narcotics officer, and so Gottlieb was going through the OSS files, and it turns out, oh, this guy's already done these experiments.

I'm going to hire him.

So that's how George White eventually gets involved in the CIA stuff.