The Hidden Experiments--When Governments Tested On Their Own Citizens

The Hidden Experiments: When the U.S. Government Tested on Its Own People

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For decades, the American public has been reassured that medical ethics, federal protections, and the Nuremberg Code ensure that human beings will never again be used as experimental material without their informed consent.

Yet history tells a different story.

Across the 20th century—and even into the 1990s—there are documented cases in which U.S. agencies tested chemicals, biological agents, radiation, psychological techniques, and unapproved drugs on ordinary people who never agreed to participate. Many of these operations remained classified for years. Some still are.

In this article, I explore two particularly disturbing cases—Frank Olson’s death and the Oakville, Washington “blob rain”—and place them within the broader, undeniable pattern of non-consensual human experimentation conducted by the U.S. government.

1. Frank Olson: A Scientist Who Knew Too Much

Frank Olson was not simply a scientist who “fell” from a hotel window in 1953.

He was a decorated U.S. Army biochemist at Fort Detrick, deeply involved in biological warfare research, pathogen development, and interrogation-related chemical programs that were quietly absorbed into the CIA’s notorious MK-ULTRA project.

By late 1953, Olson had:

• Become disturbed by what he had witnessed

• Expressed a desire to leave the program

• Spoken openly about the ethical horror of what was being developed

• Indicated he was considering exposing what was happening

This made him a threat. A whistleblower. And a liability.

Shortly before his death, Olson was surreptitiously drugged with LSD by CIA colleagues. Rather than reassuring him, this seems to have unmoored him further, making the agency fear that he might reveal secrets relating not just to LSD, but to covert biological and chemical testing programs operating in Europe and potentially at home.

What happened next has been debated for decades:

• The government called it suicide.

• Forensic evidence strongly suggests homicide.

• Injuries inconsistent with a fall were discovered during his exhumation.

• Multiple CIA insiders later admitted Olson had become “a security problem.”

The deepest fear within Fort Detrick and the CIA was not Olson’s mental instability.

It was what he was threatening to reveal.

His death belongs in the long, grim lineage of human experimentation without consent. But he is unique because he was not merely a victim—he was someone who tried to speak out and may have been killed to prevent it.

2. Oakville, Washington (1994): When Gelatinous “Blobs” Fell From the Sky

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Forty-one years after Olson’s death, residents of a rural town in Washington experienced something just as eerie—and still unexplained.

On August 7, 1994, during a heavy rain, translucent gelatinous blobs fell across Oakville. People touched them. Pets ingested them. Many residents became violently ill within days.

A hospital lab technician reported seeing white blood cells under the microscope—something that should not fall from the sky.

State labs later contradicted that assessment, claiming the samples “contained no nuclei.”

No samples survive today.

And in the Files of the Unexplained episode on the event, several interviewees—including at least one person claiming former military connections—suggested that what rained down resembled the residue of bio-aerosol drift tests, similar to those documented from the Cold War era.

The documentary made a compelling and unsettling point:

This tiny town’s bizarre experience mirrors a long history of open-air testing on unsuspecting Americans.

3. The Dark Pattern: Human Experiments the U.S. Government Has Already Admitted To

The U.S. government has acknowledged—through declassified documents, lawsuits, and congressional hearings—that it has repeatedly exposed unwitting citizens to biological, chemical, and radiological agents.

Here are just a few cases from the extensive list:

Operation Sea-Spray (1950)

The U.S. Navy released Serratia marcescens over San Francisco to test airborne spread. Residents became ill; at least one person died.

St. Louis and Winnipeg (1953–1954)

“Urban dispersion studies” involved spraying zinc cadmium sulfide over neighborhoods, including schoolyards.

New York City Subway Biological Tests (1966)

Army scientists released Bacillus globigii into subway tunnels to study rapid spread in enclosed spaces.

MK-ULTRA (1953–1973)

Perhaps the most infamous: unwitting subjects—including patients, prisoners, citizens in bars, and even CIA employees—were dosed with LSD, hypnotics, and other substances without consent.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (1932–1972)

Hundreds of Black men were deceived and denied treatment so researchers could study the “natural progress” of the disease.

Guatemala Syphilis Experiments (1946–1948)

U.S. Public Health Service officials infected people—including prisoners and psychiatric patients—without their knowledge.

Fallout on U.S. Citizens

Nuclear testing released radioactive materials across western states, exposing entire populations to dangerous doses.

Radiation experiments on hospital patients (1940s-1970s)

Terminally ill and mentally disabled individuals were injected with plutonium, uranium, and radioactive iron without informed consent.

Prisoner Experiments

Thousands of inmates were subjected to chemical exposure, dermatological burns, and mind-altering drugs.

Psychological Torture Research

Behavioral modification experiments on soldiers, psychiatric patients, and unwitting civilians were conducted under CIA behavioral programs like ARTICHOKE and MK-SEARCH.

These are not fringe claims—they’re documented in congressional records, court settlements, FOIA releases, and investigative journalism.

Once you understand the history, the Oakville event no longer seems like an absurd anomaly.

It looks like a continuation.

4. Why These Stories Matter Today

The ethical codes meant to protect human beings—Nuremberg, Belmont, the Common Rule, and state-level protections—were written after many of these experiments were already underway.

And none of them apply to:

• intelligence operations

• classified military research

• national security exemptions

• foreign “joint operations”

• contracted private labs working off-the-books

Which means a vast amount of testing historically occurred outside the reach of federal human-subject protections.

There is no guarantee it has stopped.

Frank Olson’s death, the Oakville event, and the long list of government experiments fuel a disturbing but reasonable question:

If this much is admitted, what remains hidden?

Conclusion

Frank Olson’s story is not just a Cold War tragedy. It is a warning.

He was a scientist who participated in secret programs, grew ethically horrified, expressed a desire to expose what was happening—and then died under violent, suspicious circumstances.

The Oakville blob incident is not just a quirky unsolved mystery. It is a modern echo of documented cases where the government tested substances in the open air, directly over civilian populations.

And the broader historical record of U.S. experimentation shows a pattern:

When secrecy meets power, human beings have repeatedly been used as test subjects without their consent.

We owe it to those who suffered—and to future generations—to keep documenting, questioning, and refusing to forget.

Complete References & Source List

1. Foundational Ethics & Legal Framework

Nuremberg Code

• “The Nuremberg Code (1947).” UNC Human Research Ethics.

The Common Rule

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. “Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (‘Common Rule’).”

California Human Experimentation Law

• California Health & Safety Code §§ 24170–24179.5.

• LSU Biotech Law. “California Laws on Human Experimentation.”

2. General History of Unethical U.S. Experiments

Overviews & General Histories

• Wikipedia. “Unethical Human Experimentation in the United States.”

• NBC News. “Ugly Past of U.S. Human Experiments Uncovered.”

• Howard Nema. “The Long History of U.S. Government Secret Experimentation on American Citizens.”

• MR Online. “Dark History: How the U.S. Experimented on Its Own People.”

• The People’s Voice. “U.S. Government Human Experiments.”

• Science Sensei. “Times When Governments Conducted Experiments on Their Own People.”

• Whiteout Press. “Secret Government Experiments on the American People.”

• Health Impact News. “From MK-ULTRA Mind Control to Lab-Created Viruses: How the U.S. Government Keeps Experimenting on Its Own Citizens.”

• Natural News. “10 Times the U.S. Government Illegally Experimented on Humans.”

• ListVerse. “Top 10 U.S. Government Experiments Done on Its Own Citizens.”

3. Academic / Scholarly Sources on Human-Subject Ethics

• Constantin, A. “Human Subject Research: International and Regional Perspectives.” Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, PMC.

4. Specific Historical Experiments (Documented Cases)

Operation Sea-Spray (1950)

• Unethical Human Experimentation in the U.S. (Wikipedia) – Entry details the San Francisco bacterial release.

• Various declassified Navy documents available through FOIA (referenced in NBC article above).

St. Louis/Wichita Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Tests (1953–54)

• U.S. Army Chemical Corps documents (summarized in NBC investigation).

New York Subway Bacillus globigii Tests (1966)

• U.S. Army Test 68-10 summary (reported in Senate hearings; referenced in multiple articles linked above).

Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–72)

• CDC. “Tuskegee Timeline.”

• Wikipedia. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment.

Guatemala STD Experiments (1946–48)

• Presidential Commission for Bioethical Issues. 2011 findings.

Cold War Radiation Experiments

• U.S. Department of Energy. “Human Radiation Experiments Collection.”

5. Frank Olson (CIA / MK-ULTRA)

• Wikipedia. “Frank Olson.”

• Olson family legal documents and exhumation forensic report (1994).

• CIA MK-ULTRA materials, partially declassified (1977).

• NBC, New York Times, and Guardian investigative coverage.

• Dr. G: America’s Most Shocking Cases, Season 1, Episode 2 – “Conspiracy Theory (Frank Olson).”

• Spyscape. “Frank Olson: The CIA’s Secret Quest for Mind Control.”

• Eric Olson’s public statements and interviews (various).

6. Oakville, Washington “Blob Rain” (1994)

• IFLScience. “Oakville Blobs: In 1994, Mysterious Gelatinous Goo Rained Down on Washington.”

• ScienceFocus (BBC). “What Were the Oakville Blobs?”

• KUOW Public Radio. “Return of the Blobs: SW Washington Revisited by Decades-Old Goo Mystery.”

• Discovery UK. “What Were the Oakville Blobs and What Caused Them?”

• Washington State Department of Ecology – Lab reports referenced in public summaries.

• Files of the Unexplained (Netflix) – Episode “Bizarre Blobs of Washington.”

7. TV Documentaries & Media Sources

• Files of the Unexplained (Netflix). Episode: “Bizarre Blobs of Washington.”

• Dr. G: America’s Most Shocking Cases. S1E2 — Frank Olson case.

• Errol Morris, Wormwood (Netflix docudrama on Frank Olson).

• Assorted interviews cited within these programs.

8. Additional Background / Secondary Sources

• LiveScience. “7 Evil Medical Experiments.”

• Ranker.com databases on unethical experiments.

• TheLastAmericanVagabond. “Human Experimentation Rampant in the United States.”