Nightmare Fuel for Volunteers
Today, we know that acid is best taken in small doses. In the 1950s, this wasn’t the case. The lab-made acid would be liberally administered to prisoners, often in doses that would make them lose their minds.
Each volunteer was injected with LSD, which meant they received an extraordinarily high dose. No one knew what acid would do to you, either. So, one can only imagine the horror they faced when they were dosed.
Whitey Bulger a mobster who volunteered for the experiments in 1957, noted, “Eight convicts in a panic and paranoid state. Total loss of appetite. Hallucinating. The room would change shape. Hours of paranoia and feeling violent. We experienced horrible periods of living nightmares and even blood coming out of the walls. Guys turning to skeletons in front of me. I saw a camera change into the head of a dog. I felt like I was going insane.”
