Operation White Rabbit: LSD, the DEA, and the Fate of the Acid King

by Dennis McDougal

A search for the truth behind the DEA’s life imprisonment of acid's most famous martyr.
 
Operation White Rabbit traces the rise and fall—and rise and fall again—of the psychedelic community through the life of the man known as the “Acid ” William Leonard Pickard. Pickard was a legitimate genius, a follower of Timothy Leary, a con artist, a womanizer, and a believer that LSD would save lives. He was a foreign diplomat, a Harvard fellow, and the biggest producer of LSD on the planet—if you believe the DEA.
 
A narrative for fans of Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind, Pickard’s personal story is set against a fascinating chronicle of the social history of psychedelic drugs from the 1950s on. From LSD distribution at UC Berkeley to travelling the world for the State Department, Pickard’s story is one of remarkable genius—that is, until a DEA sting named “Operation White Rabbit” captured him at an abandoned missile silo in Kansas. Pickard, the DEA said, was responsible for 90 percent of the world’s production of lysergic acid.
 
The DEA announced to the public that they found 91 pounds of LSD. In reality, the haul was seven ounces. They found none of the millions of dollars Pickard supposedly amassed, either. But nonetheless, he is now serving two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole. Pickard has become acid’s best-known martyr in the process, continuing his advocacy and artistic pursuits from jail.

Pickard has successfully sued the US government because his requests for information on his case returned two blank DEA documents. But the appeals of his sentence have continually failed. The author visits him regularly in jail in an effort to find the truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Crime, Drugs, American, True Crime

288 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 7, 2020

About the author

Dennis McDougal was an American author and newspaper journalist, who has been called "L.A.'s No. 1 muckraker". His book Privileged Son was described as "illuminating reading for anyone interested in 20th-century Los Angeles or modern-day newspapering" by The New York Times. A native of Southern California, he lived near Memphis, Tennessee.

Reviews

[Don Gorman · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2). I am not going to run for public office so I can freely admit that I am familiar with the subject matter in this book. I was always curious about the business side of psychedelics during the 60’s and we get an education regarding that here. McDougal does a nice job giving us an in depth look at two amazing and crazy (seemingly) leaders in this area. The deceit, naïveté, cunning and extreme behavior of all involved is truly nuts. The Federal Government’s attempts to pursue and track these folks down is also quite a story. Not a great read but certainly interesting to those of us who grew up in this era and those looking for a psychedelic history lesson. Reasonable stuff.

[Ady · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do not give ratings to non-fiction books, but I will say that I am disappointed with this one. The content was so fascinating that I was looking forward to diving into this book. For my “bunny book” TBR this month (ie. books with rabbits on the covers), this was one of my most anticipated reads. But the organization of this book left a lot to be desired and the writing was reminiscent of sensational journalism. I think that this book would have benefitted greatly from additional editing. I wouldn’t say that this book was a complete waste of time because I AM interested in the content and I made it through the entire book for that reason, I just wish that the execution had been better. Honestly, I could see this book being a fantastic Netflix documentary.

CAWPILE Score: NA
Star Rating: NA
Pages: 288
Read in Print

[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

terribly disjointed, with atrocious editing ("had him in their sites [sic]", footnotes on nearly every page that could easily have been folded into the text; at one point, a footnote duplicates, word-for-word, text from the same page). i had hoped for more details on how pickard got his erogtamine tartrate and ergocristine, and lab details, and distribution network mechanics, but there's very little of that. todd skinner sure was a dickhead though.

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you ate acid in the late 90s, you can probably thank Leonard Pickard. (Thank you Leonard.) The fact that he made millions of hits of LSD a month while also doing research on drugs of abuse for the State Department and accurately predicting the current fentanyl epidemic is possibly the least interesting thing about the perpetual student, egomaniac, Buddhist priest, drug war victim, and subject of this flawed true crime/sociological study. I was pleased to get a better picture of Leonard than I had from the magazine coverage I’d read, but frustrated by McDougal’s inability to take the disparate narratives of Leonard’s truth and the objective facts and meld them into a compelling story. The author did an excellent job of sketching the psychedelic history of the 20th century to give the uninitiated a picture of the alchemical superstars, but really, who is reading this book who doesn’t already know about Owsley and Albert Hoffman? Still, it’s a fascinating story, with cameos from Bob Mueller, Sting, and Paul Simon, plus a true villain (two if you count the US drug laws) and an unlikely happy ending.

[Ian Schlake · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rambling and honestly poorly written at times. Author seems like a fanboy for the hallucinogenic 70's, writing this book to live tangentially and vicariously through the characters. The story isn't very coherent, he can't seem to settle on one name for any single character, there are over 100 names in the book to keep track of, and it gets confusing. Honestly not a very satisfying or educational book. The author probably should have centered it on SKinner.

Also the author doesn't seem to know which Wicked Witch gets Dorothy's house dropped on her. For shame.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this because the subject matter was interesting but I did not enjoy the writing style. It introduced too many players too quickly and jumped around quite a bit. This made it difficult to keep track of who everyone was. I somewhat enjoyed reading this despite the flaws in style (for me). The information and main players were intriguing I just wish it didn't get so bogged down in the details of the ancillary characters.

[Isham Cook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating story to rival the likes of Timothy Leary.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting if not spectacular. At times the author was a bit too sympathetic to his subject and accepting assertion unquestioningly.

[Nico Medina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subject matter is very interesting, but unfortunately the writing and organization left a lot to be desired.

[David Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coherent telling of the biggest producers of LSD and the biggest bust of it ever. It could have flowed a little better, but the story is there. The last part of the book dealing with the bust and the aftermath was the most engaging. Getting the two opposing views of reality from the two sides of the court case got a little tedious, but worth reading.