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CIA House

New York City

History

Location of Some Trippy Experiments

81 bedford street cia safehouse greenwich village
  • 81 Bedford St, New York, NY 10014

About CIA House

 & why it made the Carpe City list

  • 81 Bedford Street was a secret CIA safe house where agent George White started the infamous MK-Ultra program, a CIA LSD experiment to create a truth serum.    
    • In the early 1950s, unwitting New Yorkers were the test subjects; the CIA created “aerosol LSD” and sprayed it in subway cars.  
  • Operation Midnight Climax, a covert drug-testing operation, started in 1953.  
    • George White, under alias Morgan Hall, rented an apartment at 81 Bedford and set up two-way mirrors and surveillance equipment. He lured unsuspecting subjects to the apartment to test out drugs. 
    • The CIA tipped off police and local hospitals, so someone complaining of being drugged was sent home and told they were mistaken. 
  • In 1955, the operation moved to San Francisco and continued until 1965, when the CIA admitted that drugging people without consent was unethical.  

Carpe City Trivia

One of George White's favorite spots was right down the block

White frequented Chumley’s, the speakeasy at 86 Bedford, sometimes with CIA chief James Angleton.

By: Lucie Levine
  • 81 Bedford St, New York, NY 10014

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