Visionary chemist Sidney Gottlieb was the CIA’s master magician and gentle-hearted torturer―the agency’s “poisoner in chief.” As head of the MK-ULTRA mind control project, he directed brutal experiments at secret prisons. His mind-altering experiments spread LSD across the United States, making him a hidden godfather of the 1960s counterculture.
Stephen Kinzer, author of groundbreaking books about U.S. clandestine operations, draws on new documentary research and original interviews to bring to life one of the most powerful unknown Americans of the twentieth century. Poisoner in Chief reveals him as a clandestine conjurer on an epic scale.