Robert Lashbrook

Robert Lashbrook was Sidney Gottlieb's deputy in the CIA's TSS Chemical Division. He accompanied Gottlieb to the November 1953 retreat at Deep Creek Lodge where LSD was given unwittingly to SOD scientists, and he became directly involved in the crisis that followed Frank Olson's descent into psychosis.¹

The Olson Case

After Olson's condition worsened, Lashbrook accompanied him and Vincent Ruwet to New York to see Harold Abramson, the CIA-cleared allergist Gottlieb chose to treat Olson rather than following CIA regulations requiring notification of the Office of Security. Lashbrook thought a visit to John Mulholland, a magician under TSS contract to develop ways of slipping drugs into drinks, might amuse Olson, but Olson became "highly suspicious." That night, Olson became upset during a performance of Me and Juliet and told Ruwet people were waiting outside the theater to arrest him. After Olson wandered the streets tearing up his money, Lashbrook and Ruwet found him in the hotel lobby at 5:30 A.M.¹

The Death

Lashbrook was sharing a tenth-floor room at the Statler Hotel with Olson on the night of November 28, 1953, when Olson crashed through the drawn blinds and closed window on a dead run. Lashbrook woke up just in time to see it happen. Within seconds, the cover-up began. Lashbrook called Gottlieb before notifying police. When police arrived, he told them he worked for the Defense Department and claimed Olson had "suffered from ulcers." The detectives later reported that getting information out of Lashbrook was "like pulling teeth." They speculated the case could be a homicide with homosexual overtones but dropped their inquiries when Ruwet and Abramson verified Lashbrook's account and invoked high government connections.¹

The Cover-Up

Lashbrook and Abramson conspired to tell identical stories. Lashbrook dictated symptoms to Abramson, who made a recording. Lashbrook even claimed that Alice Olson had suggested her husband see a psychiatrist months before the LSD incident, an assertion Mrs. Olson calls an outright lie. The CIA's General Counsel later wrote that Lashbrook and Gottlieb maintained "completely inconsistent" positions, acknowledging LSD's triggering function in Olson's death while also claiming it was "practically impossible" for the drug to have harmful aftereffects.¹

After Olson's death, Lashbrook and Gottlieb attended the funeral in Frederick and contributed to a memorial fund. Mrs. Olson later called them "despicable."¹