George H. White

George Hunter White (June 22, 1908 – October 23, 1975) was an American federal agent. He was a Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) investigator, undercover Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative, World War II veteran, and one of the men responsible for the capture of Lucky Luciano. He remained an FBN special agent throughout his federal service – while he was in the Army, at OSS, and the CIA, he was still operating as an FBN agent, sending regular reports on the worldwide narcotics trade to Anslinger.

While working for the Commissioner of the FBN, Harry J. Anslinger, White travelled around the world in pursuit of narcotics dealers and crime lords. During World War II, he trained undercover Allied operatives for the Office of Strategic Services on the fundamentals of counterespionage before they were deployed on missions in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He was also a federal observer for the controversial narcotics experiments by the Central Intelligence Agency as part of MK-ULTRA and Midnight Climax. During the "scientific experiment" known as Midnight Climax, White was responsible for dosing gangsters, pimps, prostitutes, and other American citizens with a variety of narcotics and drugs without their knowledge, and reporting their behaviors to Dr. Sidney Gottlieb. The historian John C. McWilliams, while giving a presentation at the DEA museum, remarked:"If ever there was a rogue elephant in the FBN, it was White. He was the FBN's most unorthodox agent. He was a loner who did not want to be responsible for a partner. His personality and performance both awed and perplexed Anslinger, who saw White as ubiquitous and always ready to shake hands with trouble... A maverick agent whom even Anslinger sometimes could not control, White was a man of extreme contradictions with an extraordinary propensity to attract controversy." In later life, he served as the chief of the Stinson Beach Fire Department.

Early life and career as a crime journalist White was born in 1908 in Los Angeles, California. White grew up in Alhambra, California, attending grammar and high schools there from 1912 to 1924. Then, Lafayette was the City Manager of Alhambra for some time. At some point, Lafayette also served as Secretary of the Chamber, and also the elected Treasurer and Tax Collector for Alhambra. After this, the senior White was elected Mayor of Alhambra, serving as a member of the "Reformists." During his tenure as a Dry Chief in California, Dolley had once been accused of framing an Italian steamship agent named Morris Orsatti, but was subsequently cleared of charges. Later in his career, Dolley was accused of illegal wire tapping, but on the day he was to be suspended from federal service, the Dry Commissioner David H. Blair sent a telegram to Prohibition Director Samuel F. Rutter, demanding his suspension to be lifted. After his retirement from the Bureau, and entry into private detective work, Dolley was then accused of witness tampering in the trial of Alexander Pages. When White went to work for him, Dolley decided to hire the professional swindler, West Coast rope Iris Ford to privately tutor White about crime. White described the Border Patrol as: "a herding, harassing and alien-ejecting police force whose well-meaning but often short-tempered officers found it difficult to remember that their border-jumping subjects were human beings whose defections were not exactly heinous or vicious in nature." and was also the home to the first-ever Skid Row in the USA. Seattle had proven exceptionally difficult for the FBN to operate within. Anslinger considered the city out-of-the-way and not worth his time, and thought that placing White here would encourage the agent to "get up and go." The connection between the Mafia and the French Connection emerged as a notable focus for the FBN. The first known FBN report indicating that members of the New York Mafia were sourcing heroin from Corsican suppliers dates back to 1934. Corsica, a large Mediterranean island officially part of France, has long had a distinct cultural and linguistic identity, with many Corsicans historically advocating for independence from French rule. According to the 1934 report, heroin entering New York was being routed through Corsica and distributed under the control of the Unione Corse, a powerful criminal organization often described as the Corsican counterpart to the Sicilian Mafia. Geographic and linguistic proximity between Corsica and Sicily facilitated cooperation. Corsican shares similarities with Sicilian, making communication and coordination between the two groups relatively easy.

Around 1939 or 1940 during an FBN investigation in New York, White first encountered a gangster named August "Little Augie" Del Gracio, who was a mob lieutenant for the notorious gangster Lucky Luciano. Although Del Grazio was apprehended for opium possession, he was released due to insufficient evidence.

On June 27, 1939, White remarried to Ruth Emily Miller. The marriage was officiated in the town of Manassas in Prince William County, Virginia. They remained married throughout the war, but Ruth soon began to despise White.

World War II

Camp X

When the United States declared war on Germany in World War II, White was one person on a list of names that Anslinger sent to William J. Donovan, Millard Preston Goodfellow, and David K. E. Bruce to use in the effort against the Axis powers in their new intelligence agency - what was at that time called the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI), the direct precursor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and what would eventually become the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). One of his training instructors was Richard Melville Brooker, who became the Commandant of Camp X. White is quoted as calling this the "school of mayhem and murder." Other COI men sent to Camp X at this time included Louis D. Cohen, Philip Strong, and Kenneth Downs. Early in February, the OSS men arrived in Canada by train, and were whisked into an awaiting car which transported them to the camp somewhere near Oshawa. It is likely that he traveled to other locations during the war.

In late 1943, the OSS faced a serious intelligence breach in Calcutta, India, where Allied shipping operations in the region were centered. Air raids by Japanese forces were suspiciously timed to coincide with peak port activity, suggesting the presence of an informant within the shipyards. Despite efforts, OSS personnel were unable to identify the source of the leak. In response, Donovan sent White to investigate. Operating undercover as a longshoreman during the day, White systematically observed the port’s activity and mingled with its nightlife, including visits to local bars and brothels, in order to gather intelligence. On the OSS side, his commanding officer was the renowned biochemist, Dr. Stanley Platt Lovell, the head of the OSS Research and Development Branch (also known as the "Dirty Trucks Department"), who oversaw the T-Drug experiments for Donovan. White's job here was to dose US citizens with marijuana and other drugs and narcotics without their knowledge, and observe their behaviors afterwards.

In August 1943, a batch of the extract, produced under strict secrecy in Washington, D.C., was transported by Colonel White to New York City. The transport was closely guarded by armed counterintelligence personnel throughout the train journey.

These experiments were mostly wrapped up at the end of the war. Donovan showed no interest, and neither did the new President. White and another counterintelligence agent secured files from the FBI and continued their experiments at the FBN for several months after the OSS committee had dissolved.

White reported the matter to Donovan. While both men expressed skepticism about working directly with Luciano, discussions involving his legal representatives continued. White later remarked that entertaining such proposals was inappropriate, even within the OSS's flexible wartime framework. On July 12, 1945, following the conclusion of World War II in Europe, Colonel George White returned from overseas and spent several days in New York City before traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with Harry Anslinger to discuss White's transition back into full time FBN status. Soon after, White was discharged from both the OSS and the US Army, and was appointed branch chief of the Narcotics Bureau in Chicago. Personnel from the FBN, along with the American consulate and Italian police authorities (the Questura), had been tasked with observing various figures, including fugitive Nicola Gentile. Internal communications among these agencies referenced broader efforts against individuals implicated in narcotics violations. One memorandum, dated July 31, 1946, specifically named “Charles Lucania” in this context.

Due to concerns about legal repercussions from Frank Sinatra’s legal team, the New York World-Telegram required their journalist Robert Ruark to submit an internal memorandum outlining the basis of his reporting. Ruark stated that the general manager of the Hotel Nacional, Larry Larrea, had informed him that Sinatra was spending much of his time in the company of Luciano and a group of individuals known for their criminal associations. Larrea, reportedly disturbed by the company Sinatra was keeping, told Ruark that he avoided the hotel lobby altogether to prevent encountering the group.

When the District Supervisor of Detroit, Ralph Oyer, died suddenly, White was sent there to take over the office.

White and Williams also reported the involvement of elite circles in the trade, with reports indicating that even members of the royal family, including relatives of the Shah, benefited financially from the opium economy. While Iranian officials assured White and Williams that public opium consumption had been banned and that poppy cultivation had previously been prohibited due to U.S. pressure, enforcement remained inconsistent. In 1949, the Iranian government reversed its prohibition on opium cultivation, citing the fiscal importance of taxing the trade. This decision strained relations with both the United States and international drug control bodies, prompting more robust diplomatic engagement. Eventually, following the political upheaval that led to the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and a renegotiation of oil revenues in favor of the Iranian state, the government reinstated a nationwide ban on poppy cultivation.

Turkey had emerged as a key strategic partner for the United States in the early Cold War era. The Truman Doctrine, which pledged American support to countries facing authoritarian threats, was initially directed toward supporting Greece and Turkey against Soviet influence. Inspired by the modernizing vision of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey actively pursued closer ties with the West and became a significant beneficiary of Marshall Plan assistance.

The death of Abraham Davidan (1950) On March 3, 1950, White was interviewed by the FBI during their investigation into the death of Abraham Davidian. White stated that several months earlier, Davidian had approached his office in San Francisco, offering to provide information about a large narcotics ring. Davidian also sought assistance from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in relation to an arrest made by state authorities in March 1949. White reported that he had attempted to delay the California prosecution of Davidian in order to use him as an informant in an investigation targeting Joseph Sica. At the time of his death, Davidian was considered a key witness in a federal narcotics case. The interview suggested White was cooperating with federal authorities. However, FBI files indicated friction between federal and state narcotics agencies, stemming from White’s request to the chief of the California Division of Narcotic Enforcement to postpone the state case against Davidian. The request was denied, and White reportedly viewed the response from the state Attorney General's office as entirely uncooperative. The Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, did not even believe that such a coordinated mafia existed. Hoover thought that these were merely individual gangs and hoodlums who might know each other, but were certainly not all members of the same secret families or had taken the same blood oaths. To the majority of the law enforcement community, Ansliger was thought of as crazy for believing in this theory of a mafia. When the "Kefauver Committee" asked for special investigators, Anslinger sent two of his best men to the committee: George White and Charlie Siragusa.

In 1950, White was brought in to work for U.S. Senators Estes Kefauver and Herbert O'Conor, and the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce to investigate organized crime in the United States and corruption in the government. He also recounted in vivid detail his associations with August Del Gracio, and his part in securing Lucky Luciano his ability to walk out of prison. Among his postwar assignments, White recounted his mission to Turkey, where he worked with local authorities to suppress the production and distribution of narcotics at their source. His testimony also included detailed commentary on the trafficking and use of narcotics, informed by his firsthand interactions with individuals involved in the illicit drug trade. He also encountered the spurn of President Truman, after White insinuated that the President had corrupt ties during White's investigation in Kansas City. White also made enemies of New York Governor Thomas Dewey, when he alleged that the governor had released Lucky Luciano from prison in exchange for a major campaign contribution.

After the incident, the Chief of Police, Lawrence Donald "L.D." Morrison, relieved police Captain Foy Melton of duty and fired police Detective Sidney Smith.

The incident led to considerable controversy. Chief Morrison was also officially discovered and charged to be addicted to cocaine, and the resulting scandal reached as high as the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Morrison resigned his post and took up duties as a demoted Inspector. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics’ senior officer in Houston, who had publicly defended the local police and criticized White's tactics, was recalled and later reassigned to the New York office before retirement. According to a CIA interview with FBN agent George Gaffney, he had long harbored doubts about the suicide ruling, and also believed the death may have resulted from psychological pressure and intimidation during the interrogation, especially by White.

When he was first arrested, Braumoeller told reporters that he had been set-up and framed by the FBN. He also claimed that his arrest was spurned on by White's involvement in the death of a man named Abraham Davidan. Braumoeller eventually did plead guilty, however, to selling heroin to a known drug addict. Ludwig Frederick Braumoeller was officially pardoned by President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

In 1956, White championed the cause of convicted school teacher Robert Enzensperger, who had been falsely accused of transporting marijuana. His investigation resulted in the teacher's release and exoneration.

White continued to voice his opposition to marijuana use. Testifying before a Senate subcommittee in 1959, he advocated for greater cooperation with Mexican authorities and harsher penalties for drug offenders. Arriving without a search warrant on a rainy day, White and his team claimed to have discovered opium in a wastepaper basket and drug paraphernalia in her hotel room. Holiday, dressed in white silk pajamas, strongly denied the accusations, insisting she had been drug-free for over a year. Doubts about the arrest emerged soon after. The placement of the alleged narcotics in a wastebasket raised suspicion, and the heroin kit cited by the agents was never formally entered into evidence, but they later claimed it had been left at the scene. When asked by reporters about the inconsistencies, White's response was reportedly evasive and defensive. Doctors attempted to detox her with methadone, but the FBN interrupted the process; they also refused to let her see a lawyer. She died on the hospital bed that she was handcuffed to. The OSS had abandoned its research during WW2, and White had also seemingly ended his own experiments after the war. However, with the rise of the Cold War and into the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a global struggle for intelligence dominance. The two sides were in an arms race, each developing sinister plots and devices to be used for espionage and warfare.

In 1951, Allen Dulles received incorrect intelligence that the Soviet Union had purchased 50 million doses of a new drug from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, called LSD. In reality, Sandoz had produced only about 40 grams of LSD since Albert Hofmann first discovered its psychoactive properties in the 1940s. The U.S. military attaché in Switzerland had confused milligrams with kilograms, overestimating the available supply by a factor of one million. Due to this error, Dulles became convinced that the USSR was incredibly close at developing a mind control drug.

Dulles assembled a top-level group of intelligence and military officials to address growing concerns that the Soviet Union might gain access to LSD. The committee concluded that the CIA should secure the entire known supply of the drug to prevent it from falling into Soviet hands. Two officers were sent to Switzerland with a briefcase containing $240,000 to negotiate the purchase. The CIA proceeded with an agreement to obtain all of Sandoz’s future LSD production. Later, when the Eli Lilly Company in the United States developed a method to synthesize LSD independently, the agency arranged a similar exclusive agreement. An internal CIA memorandum to Dulles optimistically reported that the agency would soon have access to "tonnage quantities" of the substance. With the supply secured, officials were left to determine how best to use it in ongoing research and covert operations.

The operation was given the name Operation Midnight Climax, whose mission intention was more or less what its name implies: observing people high on LSD while they performed sexual activities. (It is still unknown the extent to which White was involved in several other MK Ultra and MK Search operations like Project Artichoke and Project Bluebird.)

In 1953, the CIA rented an apartment at 81 Bedford Street in New York City's Greenwich Village, which was known as a "swinging" part of town at the time. The lease was under the name Morgan Hall, which was a cover identity for White. White outfitted the apartment as a surveillance site, installing two-way mirrors and audio recording devices. Disguised as an artist and sailor, he invited individuals back to the apartment where they were given LSD, sometimes knowingly, sometimes without their consent, while their reactions were secretly observed and documented. Richard Statton writes:In an effort to school “enlightened operatives" for that eventuality, Dulles and Gottlieb instructed high-ranking agency personnel, including Gottlieb’s entire staff at TSS, to take LSD themselves and administer it to their colleagues. In truth, CIA spooks and scientists were tripping their brains out. “I didn’t want to leave it," one CIA agent said of his first LSD trip. “I felt I would be going back to a place where I wouldn’t be able to hold on to this kind of beauty."

The apartment complex at Bedford Street was also immediately sold to two unassuming women, but the CIA did not end their experiments in New York. While White was moving to San Francisco, the CIA rented-out another apartment at 105 West 13th Street. Similar to earlier safe houses established in New York and later in San Francisco, the apartment on 13th Street served multiple purposes for White and his associates. Although primarily used for CIA-linked drug experiments, it also functioned as a venue for gatherings, including celebrations, such as one for the FBN's successful dismantling of the French Connection. Officially, the apartment was said to belong to a man involved in the import-export business. According to narcotics agents who visited the site, it was carefully staged to resemble the residence of a well-traveled international businessman. Declassified CIA records indicate that the 13th Street apartment remained active until 1966. The Telegraph Hill location was not the only "pad" that White and the FBN had purchased for their operation in San Francisco.

Frank Olson's family then sued the federal government.