Page 146 - History Facts

CIA Field Agents would Secretly Slip Each Other LSD as a Prank!

LSD has had quite a history with the CIA. It all started with the 1950 trial of double agent Jozef Cardinal Mindszenty for treason to Russia. During the trial, Josef was observed to be incredibly "high" and figured that he had been drugged into testifying by the Russians. 

Under the fear of a "large scale drug attack," the CIA launched an extensive, decade long program focused on LSD. Their main goal, according to interdepartmental memo revealed to Congress was to see if they could "get control of an individual to the point where he will do [their] bidding against his will and even against fundamental laws of nature, such as self preservation," aka; mind control. 

But they also managed to sneak in some time for fun and games. They would also secretly dose one another with LSD. It was so common at one point that the CIA even hired stage magicians to train agents in sleight of hand techniques. It's always nice to know that the people responsible for national security have their priorities straight. 

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In 1897 a ghost's testimony convicted a man to life in prison.

Elva Zona Heaster was found dead on January 23, 1897. When the doctor and coroner arrived an hour later, her husband, Edward Shue, had moved her body to the bedroom and dressed her for burial. 

He dressed her in a high-necked dress with a stiff collar, placed a veil over her face, and covered her neck with her scarf. When the doctor and coroner arrived, Shue was sobbing so hard that the body was only given a brief examination. 

The only thing determined was that there was bruising on the neck. Shue wouldn’t let the doctor look any closer. Elva's parents were told about her death, and this is where the story gets stranger. 

Four weeks after the funeral, Elva appeared to her mother in a dream. She said that Shue was a cruel man who abused her and had broken her neck when she didn't cook meat for dinner. The mother convinced the prosecutor to exhume Elva's body and perform an autopsy. The autopsy confirmed that her neck had been broken and her windpipe smashed.

Shue was brought to trial for murder on June 22, 1897, and Elva's mother was the star witness. Shue's lawyer tried to prove Mrs. Heaster unreliable, but she wouldn't waver in her recounting of the ghost story. The judge tried to get the jury to discount the ghost testimony, but it was difficult to poke any holes in it, because Elva's mother was so consistent in it.

Because the autopsy had revealed that she had actually died of a broken neck, the story was considered very credible, and Shue was convicted to life in prison.

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A man was hanged for tearing down a US flag during the American Civil War.

On April 26th 1862 in New Orleans, Captain Henry W. Morris sent ashore Marines from the USS Pocahontas to raise the US flag over the confederate one. As they tried to raise the flag, a group of 7 angry, local individuals, including William Bruce Mumford decided to remove the flag from the mint. 

The Pocahontas fired and Mumford was injured by a flying brick, but he still managed to take the flag to the mayor at city hall.  By the time he got there, it had been torn to pieces by onlookers.

Mumford was arrested and charged with "high crimes and misdemeanors against the laws of the United States." He was hanged in the courtyard of the mint itself. 

Before the execution however, he was allowed to give one final speech, in which he talked to the multitude that had assembled about patriotism for the Confederacy and his love for the true meaning of the American flag. 

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Alaska had a ghost ship for nearly 40 years!

The Baychimo was a trading ship built in Sweden and owned by the Hudson's Bay Company. In October 1931, the ship was trapped in ice, and the crew abandoned it for a couple of days to take shelter.

When they came back, the ship had gotten free from the ice, only to get trapped in ice again in a few days. The company had to send an aircrew to rescue most of the ship's crew. 15 people stayed back to get the ship back whenever it got freed from the ice.

They waited in a wooden shelter they built some distance from the ship. Not a month later, a powerful blizzard struck the area, and there was no sign of the ship anywhere. They thought the ship had sunk.

However, they heard reports that the ship had been seen some miles away, but they couldn't find it. The ship was sighted many times over the next 38 years. Some people even boarded it but weren't able to salvage it because they didn't have enough people or the equipment necessary.

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A man named Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger in a concentration camp.

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar. Born January 8, 1894 as Rajmund Kolbe, he was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church in 1982 for taking a stranger’s place in the Auschwitz concentration camp. 

To the Catholic readers, this may not be a surprise, as he is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement. The late Pope John Paul II even declared him "The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century."

 During World War II, Kolbe provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including more than 2,000 Jews that he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary. He was also an anti-Nazi radio host during this time. On February 17, 1941, however, he was caught and arrested by the Gestapo. 

On May 25, he was moved to Auschwitz. In July of that year, a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, in what was believed to be an escape attempt. In order to discourage further attempts, the deputy camp commander picked ten men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13, which was notorious for torture.

One of the chosen men, named Franciszek Gajowniczek, was hysterical over the idea of never seeing his family again. Kolbe took his place. During the starvation time, Kolbe led the men in song and prayer. After an incredible three weeks, Kolbe and three others were still alive. 

They were all killed by an injection of carbolic acid. The worst part was that the man who was thought to have escaped was found drowned in the latrine. Gajowniczek survived to be liberated from Auschwitz, though, which means Kolbe’s sacrifice was still worthwhile. 

Though his sons had died, Gajowniczek’s wife had survived. He lived with her until her death in 1977. Gajowniczek himself died in 1995. 

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