What do you think?
Rate this book
A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments
Following nearly a decade of research, this account solves the mysterious death of biochemist Frank Olson, revealing the identities of his murderers in shocking detail. It offers a unique and unprecedented look into the backgrounds of many former CIA, FBI, and Federal Narcotics Bureau officials—including several who actually oversaw the CIA’s mind-control programs from the 1950s to the 1970s. In retracing these programs, a frequently bizarre and always frightening world is introduced, colored and dominated by many factors—Cold War fears, the secret relationship between the nation’s drug enforcement agencies and the CIA, and the government’s close collaboration with the Mafia.
912 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2008
49 people are currently reading
1123 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 10, 2012
HP Albarelli's book about Frank Olson, and the CIA Cold War experiments is so far the best resource I've ever read for information regarding projects like ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, MKULTRA, MKDELTA, MKNAOMI, and so many others.
Make no mistake, this isn't a light read by any measurement - it's over 900 pages long and filled with lots of dates, names, locations, project names, military acronyms, etc. To me, there's nothing more engaging. However, for readers that need more of a narrative, it may seem dry at times.
The most important part of this work, is the information that the author has compiled in the very last "book" (this work is actually separated into 5 different books, which are then separated into chapters). The last book really covers the reason why Frank Olson was killed, and who was involved.
A riveting read, and although it was hard to put down, it still took about 2 months to knock this out. I'm already thinking of re-reading it again.
Make no mistake, this isn't a light read by any measurement - it's over 900 pages long and filled with lots of dates, names, locations, project names, military acronyms, etc. To me, there's nothing more engaging. However, for readers that need more of a narrative, it may seem dry at times.
The most important part of this work, is the information that the author has compiled in the very last "book" (this work is actually separated into 5 different books, which are then separated into chapters). The last book really covers the reason why Frank Olson was killed, and who was involved.
A riveting read, and although it was hard to put down, it still took about 2 months to knock this out. I'm already thinking of re-reading it again.
September 29, 2010
After you read this book, you will never believe anything the government tells you, particularly anything about the CIA and it's history. I didn't think I was a conspiracy believer. NOW I AM!!
November 7, 2012
A TERRIBLE MISTAKE is a title that mis-informs. This non-fiction book reveals the secret drug tests done by the CIA on unsuspecting people. The terrible mistake refers to one CIA agent who was given LSD and supposedly freaked out. Actually, as the book reveals, Frank Olson was murdered. Reading this book offers you the chance to see our murderous "shadow government" in action from the 1940s to the present day. Your world-view and trust in the USA will be shaken. Unforgettable.
January 11, 2017
Wew, what a ride this book is. While reading about bio and chemical warfare, I discovered this book that contains information about what the US gorverment did during the 50's-60's biowarfare-fad and projects concerning behavioral manipulation, brainwash, mind-control and covert operations including executions. The US had its own site called Camp Detrick for bio and chemical development of weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency had codenames for specialized projects that researched with LSD (MKULTRA), crafting a truth serum(BLUEBIRD), interrogation torture/chemical enhanced techniques (ARTICHOKE) getting rid of Castro or manufacturing weapons to swiftly induce diseases (MKNAOMI), testing the famous BZ chemical and agent orange that included the Navy and Army participation among others.
The book centers in one main case, the death of Frank Olson a doctor that was part of the scientists that worked in Camp Detrick. His "suicide" happened in several odd incidents that involved CIA's MKULTRA. Olson took part or witnessed the Pont St Esprit incident in France that was resolved, at the time, as "ergot" contamination, but later came to be revealed as aerosol spraying of a potent LSD mixture part of a pre-ARTICHOKE project. Olson became a security risk when he shared information about it to several people outside Detrick. LSD was administered unwittingly to several people in the US (in Mental Institutions, Prisons, in a shelter, to prostitutes some hired by the CIA), including the same agents in charge, the army, and others. In the 70's most of the files and records of these projects were destroyed or hidden/archived. About 20 years later the goverment released the remaining documents and information under the Freedom of Information Act and people then came to discover how civil liberties can be violated in the name of national security research.
This book is like one very long X-files episode with even a little UFO chapter in between.
The book centers in one main case, the death of Frank Olson a doctor that was part of the scientists that worked in Camp Detrick. His "suicide" happened in several odd incidents that involved CIA's MKULTRA. Olson took part or witnessed the Pont St Esprit incident in France that was resolved, at the time, as "ergot" contamination, but later came to be revealed as aerosol spraying of a potent LSD mixture part of a pre-ARTICHOKE project. Olson became a security risk when he shared information about it to several people outside Detrick. LSD was administered unwittingly to several people in the US (in Mental Institutions, Prisons, in a shelter, to prostitutes some hired by the CIA), including the same agents in charge, the army, and others. In the 70's most of the files and records of these projects were destroyed or hidden/archived. About 20 years later the goverment released the remaining documents and information under the Freedom of Information Act and people then came to discover how civil liberties can be violated in the name of national security research.
This book is like one very long X-files episode with even a little UFO chapter in between.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
August 1, 2019Very long but very good book about CIA depredations, making the case that Frank Olson, a researcher who'd been given LSD, was pushed out the window of a New York hotel where he had been staying, rather than having jumped as was widely reported at the time. Albarelli painstakingly proves, at least to this reader's satisfaction, that Olson was murdered by government agents because he knew too much about CIA-sponsored mayhem.
July 20, 2012
A great but very long read. Packed with research. Intrigued? Google MKULTRA.
It's a lesson on the lengths U.S. secret agencies with top secret projects will go to in the name of "national security". Secret means no accountability, and with out that, our democracy will fail. Stories like this one and the Daniel Ellsburg case need to be well known to the public, and the facts of what our government is doing in our name need to reported in the press daily. It seems too much of the corporate owned press have become more complicit than independent protectors of our 1st amendment rights.
If you like conspiracies, this one is a whopper!
It's a lesson on the lengths U.S. secret agencies with top secret projects will go to in the name of "national security". Secret means no accountability, and with out that, our democracy will fail. Stories like this one and the Daniel Ellsburg case need to be well known to the public, and the facts of what our government is doing in our name need to reported in the press daily. It seems too much of the corporate owned press have become more complicit than independent protectors of our 1st amendment rights.
If you like conspiracies, this one is a whopper!
February 19, 2014
My running mantra throughout this book... "Wow."
I am not naive to our government's misdeeds, but I had no idea just how appalling the behavior could be - all in the name of national security. This book left me wondering what secrets they're burying now for this same reason.
The research is thorough and the content well-written. For the most part, we take a hard look at the 1940s through the 1960s. In trying to understand one man's death, we're taken through a labyrinth of secrets, lies, and cover-ups by the CIA, military, and our government.
I have to emphasize that this is not a light read. Aside from the hefty weight of the 800+ pages, the material requires concentration and commitment. We get to know the key players in the drug and mind control experiments, and we follow their careers as the pieces of the puzzle are fit together.
This is the kind of book that should be required reading in history or social science classes. The dark history of our government needs to be acknowledged and understood, or we are doomed to allow the secrecy and deplorable behavior to repeat itself.
I am not naive to our government's misdeeds, but I had no idea just how appalling the behavior could be - all in the name of national security. This book left me wondering what secrets they're burying now for this same reason.
The research is thorough and the content well-written. For the most part, we take a hard look at the 1940s through the 1960s. In trying to understand one man's death, we're taken through a labyrinth of secrets, lies, and cover-ups by the CIA, military, and our government.
I have to emphasize that this is not a light read. Aside from the hefty weight of the 800+ pages, the material requires concentration and commitment. We get to know the key players in the drug and mind control experiments, and we follow their careers as the pieces of the puzzle are fit together.
This is the kind of book that should be required reading in history or social science classes. The dark history of our government needs to be acknowledged and understood, or we are doomed to allow the secrecy and deplorable behavior to repeat itself.
August 14, 2011
I didn't do this justice. Let it sit on the bedside table too long. I'm coming back to it with the proper respect one day.
November 2, 2013
Another seminal moment in American history that nobody seems to know about .... This is far stranger than any fictionalized Bourne supremacy stuff .....
March 3, 2016
Not read this yet but investigated the subject matter scary indeed!
December 20, 2021
I waited forever to write this review. Eh, I realize I cannot do it justice. If you don't believe in conspiracy theory there is no point in writing. FACT. Frank Olson was killed by the CIA because he was against their illegal biological wars in 'Nam. The United States of America killing a million citizens to justify foreign policy.
A Terrible Mistake....Five Stars.
A Terrible Mistake....Five Stars.
October 22, 2012
Awesome fucking book. This book is a MUST read for those in the JFK student/researching arena.
May 11, 2021
Extraordinary. Well written and documented. This is the Frank Olson story IN CONTEXT. I am looking fwd to his Coup in Dallas book coming out in August I think.
April 23, 2022
A heavy, detailed slog, but worth it in the end.
November 17, 2024
2.5. Woohoo - I finally read it!
February 26, 2020
Rife with wonky formatting, grammatical errors, and flat gibberish. The editors and proofreaders should be pilloried.
Presentation aside, the book lost me in its final third. I can believe the government would kill one of its employees to keep its dirty secrets and would experiment on unwitting subjects. Sure. Standard government buttholery. But once you start insinuating that the government spooks are quietly offing dozens of people, some forty years after their misdeeds, which are now of no consequence to most people, I'm done. Albarelli seems to think that the average American idiot would give the slightest rip about a shady LSD experiment conducted on a French village in the 1950s, that not only would they give a rip, they would rise up in righteous fury and bring down the government in vengeance. Thus, the need to kill all these people and safeguard their dirty secret.
Spoiler alert: They wouldn't. Most Americans don't even care about themselves or each other, let alone a few hundred French people dosed with LSD before most of them were born. The premise doesn't hold, and the entire book collapses.
However, the book is mildly entertaining as a work of urgent, scrabbling fantasy.
Presentation aside, the book lost me in its final third. I can believe the government would kill one of its employees to keep its dirty secrets and would experiment on unwitting subjects. Sure. Standard government buttholery. But once you start insinuating that the government spooks are quietly offing dozens of people, some forty years after their misdeeds, which are now of no consequence to most people, I'm done. Albarelli seems to think that the average American idiot would give the slightest rip about a shady LSD experiment conducted on a French village in the 1950s, that not only would they give a rip, they would rise up in righteous fury and bring down the government in vengeance. Thus, the need to kill all these people and safeguard their dirty secret.
Spoiler alert: They wouldn't. Most Americans don't even care about themselves or each other, let alone a few hundred French people dosed with LSD before most of them were born. The premise doesn't hold, and the entire book collapses.
However, the book is mildly entertaining as a work of urgent, scrabbling fantasy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 13, 2016
Marking to read: recommended in Mary's Mosaic; more CIA fuckery
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews