They based an episode of the Chris Carter series “Millennium” on this case. Such documentaries are often over dramatic and lacking concrete info for obvious reasons. One friend I have who was military intelligence once told me the best way to avoid the blame is to intentionally point fingers in every direction, including at oneself. The CIA won’t make a fuss about being among several possible causes, as long as other causes have as much or as little merit.
On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 11:37 AM Steve Timko <[email protected]> wrote: > Wormwood is a documentary and dramatization of the incidents around the > 1953 death of a U.S. military scientist working in conjunction with the > CIA. This review contains spoilers that are unwound in the six parts of the > Netflix series by Errol Morris. Consider that before reading further. > Ultimately I give Wormwood a thumbs down. There is some great filmmaking > technique but Morris is too self indulgent. He gets carried away with drama > technique and what could be told in two hours gets spread out over 4 1/2 > hours. He uses drama to set the mood and tone but ultimately much of it it > adds nothing. The film is expertly shot and the performances, especially > Peter Saarsgard, are top notch. > Frank Olson was a U.S. Army scientist working at the intersection of > intelligence and germ warfare. He dies after a fall from the 13th floor of > New York hotel in 1953. The family is told he jumped or fell. But things > don't add up. Then in 1975 the story comes out that the government slipped > Olson LSD during an experiment to test secret keeping on personnel, with > the implication being he committed suicide during a flashback several days > later. The show spends a lot of time in New York trying to recreate Olson's > last days. But this is much speculation. They have only sparse details. > The protagonist is Olson's son Eric, who led efforts to investigate his > father's death. Wormwood is as much about him as his father. Largely > through Eric's narration we learn about the family 's trip to the White > House to get an apology from President Ford and also about a visit to CIA > Director Colby. Later, Eric finds the CIA assassination manual that said > falls were the preferred method of hiding murder. Eric also has contact > with his father's former coworker who told him his father was a dissident > on germ warfare and CIA interrogation techniques. So as Morris unpeels the > onion Eric says it wasn't a bad acid trip that killed his father but rather > it was a CIA execution. The circumstantial evidence is compelling. One of > the CIA guys orbiting Olson was an assassination expert. Plus the > government story is just BS. And to wrap everything up is Seymour Hersch, > the veteran investigative reporter who says he knows something but can't > share it. The 79-year-old Hersh is lucid on camera but his reputation has > taken a beating since he wrote the Obama administration lied about the > capture and execution of Bin Laden. The New Yorker wouldn't print the story. > Plus I have other problems with the story as told by Morris. They exhume > Olson after 40 years and a family friend does another autopsy that > contradicts the official version. The new examination finds no cuts > indicating he crashed through glass. There is one type of death symptom > that disappears after two weeks. How are clues supposed to stick around for > 40 years? > I am not saying Olson wasn't killed by the CIA. But I wish the execution > story had more scrutiny. > > > > > > Not sent from an iPhone. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "TVorNotTV" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
