When I finally sat with Leary in Tucson, we renewed acquaintances. A couple of his old friends were at our house when he visited and he was glad to see them. Since I'd last seen him, almost ten years before, his nose appeared to have been broken and his dentures no longer fit. All agreed, after he left, that this was not the same man we'd known before he'd gone to prison.
We couldn't tell if he'd changed because of the normal prison brutality, or because he was under some great pressures or had been tortured. In those days nobody believed in mind control. Few knew of the clandestine experiments on U.S. citizens which were run against their will and without their knowledge.
The first thought I had when seeing the altered Leary was, "He's been the victim of one of the secret prison mind control programs."
Wow, I had no idea Leary had been in prison, or maybe I once knew and forgot. The book Mary's Mosaic is by Mary's nephew and is a good read and very informative. There's a documentary as well.
I just now remembered the "wicked dentist" who, unbeknownst to them, spiked The Beatles drinks with LSD. Dentist to the stars.
The dentist's decision not to tell the boys what he was doing led to George's term of opprobrium for him. "We were innocent victims of the wicked dentist whom we'd met and had dinner with a few times," he says in the Anthology.
Riley's illicit action certainly went down badly with the band. Though his brush with the celebrities brought him a fleeting role in the film The Texican, all contact with him was severed after the LSD incident. He died in a car crash in Ireland in 1986. Cynthia Lennon evidently still hasn't forgiven him. "When you go for dinner with your dentist, you don't imagine a professional man would do something like that," she told Turner.
That was a good article you posted, I'm always fascinated by this stuff, my 'acquaintance' knew all the Laurel Canyon bands and celebs, he is a musician and was a child actor, and I asked him once about the CIA aspect but got no response, maybe he didn't get my DM. He knew Jerry Garcia and the others in the group as well.
view the rest of the comments →
bopper ago
"Oh yeah! I knew Shawn Phillips who played with the Beatles and Donovan...that's Atlee Phillips' nephew."
Acquaintance said this last year, I didn't know that. Another musician linked to CIA way back (David Atlee Phillips.)
kestrel9 ago
Found this an interesting look at Leary via an author who corresponded with him and years later met with him. http://constantinereport.com/timothy-leary-and-the-cia/
bopper ago
Wow, I had no idea Leary had been in prison, or maybe I once knew and forgot. The book Mary's Mosaic is by Mary's nephew and is a good read and very informative. There's a documentary as well.
I just now remembered the "wicked dentist" who, unbeknownst to them, spiked The Beatles drinks with LSD. Dentist to the stars.
That was a good article you posted, I'm always fascinated by this stuff, my 'acquaintance' knew all the Laurel Canyon bands and celebs, he is a musician and was a child actor, and I asked him once about the CIA aspect but got no response, maybe he didn't get my DM. He knew Jerry Garcia and the others in the group as well.