A Marine Corps Veteran’s Psychedelic Claim
By Robert Warne - July 23, 2002When Sidney Gottlieb, the director of a CIA mind-control projected called MKULTRA died, his obituary gave Wayne Ritchie, a Marine Corps veteran a flashback.
During the cold war the CIA run MKULTRA program was set up to determine the effects of LSD and other mind altering drugs on hundreds of unsuspecting Americans. The government was in search of a way to control human consciousness. The experiments took place throughout the 1950s.
After reading the article, Ritchie believed that he might have been one of the test subjects, which would explain why his life changed so dramatically after he attended a 1957 Christmas party.
Ritchie who was 30 at the time of the Christmas party experienced a life-changing event that night. Now 75, it was reported that up until he attended the party he was a solid citizen who was a deputy marshal and had worked as a prison guard at Alcatraz. At the party he consumed a few drinks and was soon overcome by feelings of depression and thoughts that everyone he knew had turned against him.
According to his psychiatrist’s report Ritchie left the party and felt like he was walking through a tunnel without any effort while at the same time his paranoia increased. After stopping into a couple of bars he decided he would hold one of the bars up and buy his girlfriend a plane ticket to New York.
The hold-up was unsuccessful and he was charged with attempted robbery, fined $500 and received a suspended sentence.
Following that experience he remained depressed and said that he suffered from disturbing flashbacks and nightmares.
After looking further into MKULTRA, Ritchie discovered that a federal agent involved in the mind-altering experiments might have attended the same Christmas party in 1957.
A documentary on the Arts and Entertainment cable network gave some insight into the MKULTRA’s method of operation. In the documentary MKULTRA agent Ike Feldman said, “We tested these drugs in bars, in restaurants, in so-called massage parlors, any place where there was a drink and people were eating and drinking.”
Ritchie currently has a $12 million damage suit filed against the government. The government has sought for dismissal of the suit on grounds that the injury occurred while Ritchie was on duty; therefore it is a workers’ compensation matter. Chief U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said that the normal risks associated with a marshal’s job didn’t include involuntary drugging by the CIA.
Patel also ruled that in most cases personal injury claims have a two-year statute of limitations, but in this case because of government concealment, Ritchie had no idea of what happened to him until he read the obituary. So there would be no way for a reasonable person who had never used LSD to think that he had been exposed to it, she said in a July 1 ruling.
The Justice Department has one final iron in the fire to get the case dismissed. The motion that is pending before Patel is that Ritchie hasn’t presented any evidence beyond speculation.
This case isn’t the first instance that a claim has been brought against the government for it’s covert administration of MKULTRA.
Frank Olsen, an Army chemist jumped to his death from a hotel window in 1953 after LSD was slipped into a beverage he was drinking. In 1976 Congress approved a payment of $750,000 to his widow.
A suit brought against the government by nine Canadians who were subjects of MKULTRA experiments, was also settled for $750,000.
No matter what, if Ritchie’s case goes to trial, people on both sides of the issue will definitely be tripping. | 
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