Harold Blauer

Tennis career Blauer reached the round of 16 in the 1935 United States Professional Tennis Tournament losing 3–6, 3–6, 3–6 to tennis legend (and eventual tournament champion) Bill Tilden.

Death Blauer checked into the New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI) in late 1952, seeking help for depression following a divorce. While at the facility, he was used as a test subject in experiments conducted by the Army Chemical Corps. The Army had a classified agreement with the psychiatric institute that allowed them to study possible chemical warfare compounds by administering the substances to patients. In turn, the newly created Central Intelligence Agency had a relationship with the Army's Chemical Corps.

Between November 1952 and January 1953, Blauer was given injections of various chemical analogues of mescaline. He was first given relatively low doses of MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), then DMA (3,4‐dimethoxyamphetamine), MDPEA (3,4‐methylenedioxyphenethylamine) and DMA once again. Blauer requested to withdraw from these treatments because he got strong hallucinations from the injections. Despite this, on December 30, 1952, at 9:53 a.m., he was injected with a fatal dose of 450 milligrams (mg) of MDA. The injection caused sweating, tremors, flailing, and frothing at the mouth; after going into a coma, Blauer was pronounced dead at 12:15pm. NYSPI has claimed that the overdose was accidental since the safe doses for these mescaline analogues were based only on a guess. In 1987, a United States District Court judge awarded Blauer's estate over $700,000 in a ruling that described Blauer as a "guinea pig" whose medical records had been altered to disguise the actual cause of death.