November 28, 1953, New York City. At 2.30 a.m., the body hit the sidewalk. A few seconds

later, a shower of glass. The dormant of the Statenel Hotel yelled to the lobby that

there was a jumper. The night manager rushed out and saw him. A man about 40 years old

lying on the pavement. He was on his back, wearing only his underwear, as blood started to

pull around him. Thirteen stories up, a single window was open. It's curtain flapping through

broken glass. The night manager knelt beside the man whose eyes were open and was somehow

still alive. He desperately tried to speak but was choking on blood and couldn't be understood.

After a minute or two of trying to communicate, the man took a final deep breath and was gone.

Nobody knows for sure what he was trying to say before he died, but one thing is for certain.

It was something about the CIA.

In 1947, the National Security Act was signed into law. It called for a complete overhaul of

all foreign policy. Less than two months later, the Central Intelligence Agency was formed.

Their mission was, quote, to gather and share intelligence to protect our nation from threats.

In December of that year, they were sanctioned to perform covert operations. At the immediately

started taking action all across the world, overthrowing dictators and organizing coups.

But by 1953, the CIA had become the threat. Not to criminals, not to foreign leaders or corrupt

politicians, but to its own citizens. On the CIA website, you can find a timeline noting its

major achievements. What you won't find on this list is a project called MKUltra. MKUltra was a

CIA human experimentation program aimed at developing procedures and drugs to use in interrogations.

The goal was to break the subject's mind and force them to confess. Guilty or innocent,

it did matter. All that mattered was get the confession.

Electroconvulsive therapy or ACT was used by the CIA to deliver controlled shocks to the

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