The Sunshine Makers (2015) Movie Script
1
Remain seated and come to order,
court will begin in session.
In today's
hearing, the government
is not dealing with the
standard playground pusher.
These men represent a new
form of organized crime,
totally different
from our previous notions.
Tim Scully was not part
of the psychedelic scene.
He was the psychedelic scene.
I wasn't interested
in personally making money.
I thought that
what we were doing
was really important, trying
to change the consciousness
of the world in a positive way.
But we all know who
is number one in this case.
It is Nicholas Sand.
I was considered
some kind of mad man,
psychedelic commando.
Because I'd go anywhere, do
anything for psychedelics.
We are talking now about
people responsible for producing
millions of doses
of hallucinogenic drugs.
And they are proud of it.
If we could turn
on everyone in the world,
then maybe we'd have a new
world of peace and love.
Call it whatever
you want to call it.
They all ended up in one thing,
the degradation of mankind.
The degradation of society.
We had the same
desire to risk our freedom,
and be what we thought
were American patriots.
Hey, partner.
Good to see you, man.
- Too long, eh?
- Yeah.
I think we're supposed to go in.
I think so.
Nice Panama hat.
It's getting a little
worn around the edges,
just like the rest of us.
- Great seeing you, man.
- Yeah.
Hey, you look good.
You look great, man.
I didn't know Nick
Sand when I first took acid.
Totally losing that hair.
It was early 1965,
and it wasn't that
easy to find yet.
I found a fellow
in San Francisco who had some.
We built a fire
in the fire place,
and took it in the evening.
I was kind of a wild kid.
I grew up
on the streets of New York.
My first experience with taking
acid changed everything.
I had very good friends
who were a couple.
We went up to their lake house
retreat in Mahopac, New York.
As the sun went down, we
took our capsules of LSD.
I was nervous when
I first swallowed the acid.
I knew that the experience
could be very terrifying.
Ordinary things could become
very ominous and scary.
But I knew also that
it could be transcendent.
And of course I was
hoping for transcendence.
I sat
in front of the fire,
with nude in the lotus position.
I just wanted to be naked.
I didn't want to be
encumbered by clothing.
Everything
that I looked at,
seemed to have
a life of its own.
The mantle piece
under the fireplace.
The fabric on my pants
that I was wearing.
Yeah. This is it.
And then it went
much further than that.
I disappeared.
I was floating in this
immense black space.
I said, what am I doing here?
As you
get very high on acid,
that's when you get
to experience oneness.
You see the whole
universe reflected
in all the other people
that you look at.
If everybody took LSD,
the entire place would
change overnight.
People would want
to be more loving.
The flash that I had
was that if everybody could
share this experience,
they'd be much less likely
to be mean to each other.
To just trash the world
by using up resources
and dumping
pollutants everywhere.
We'd avoid destroying
ourselves with the tools
we've been developing.
And suddenly
a voice came through my body.
"And it said," your
job on this planet,
is to make psychedelics
and turn on the world."
Um. It was very interesting.
As we were coming
down from the acid trip,
the world was completely
new and fresh.
Smells of the flowers
and lawns were really intense.
I thought, we could
make this stuff.
We could make a lot
of it and give it away.
We could turn on everyone,
everyone who wanted to.
And maybe it would
save the world.
With small groups of
people, you felt connected.
And in fact you were connected.
Sometimes it was just
by the intensity
of what you were experiencing.
And sometimes it felt spiritual.
It was just extraordinary, and
made you think about the world
differently.
We were always friends
and off and on we were lovers.
He was sure really wonderful
to be with in many ways.
Hey!
Hey, Trooper.
Hola.
How are you?
- It's so good to see you.
- Good to see you.
Today I feel great.
How are you doing?
I'm OK, especially
after seeing you.
That's just because I
remind you of your childhood.
He was full
of excitement about whatever
his latest project was.
He was certainly like
that about psychedelics.
He became a sort of...
He probably would
say a psychedelic warrior.
I was on a crusade.
I wanted to turn on the world.
And that was how I first
met Billy Hitchcock.
He was a chubby, not
really smart guy.
He liked to take LSD.
And he said, you've got
to come up to Millbrook.
Come on, I want you
to meet Timothy Leary.
By teaching
people how to use their head.
And in order to use your head,
you have to go out of your mind.
For the first time
I found a whole community
of people interested
in psychedelic research.
Billy Hitchcock owned
the whole property.
Dr. Leary leased one
of the houses on the property.
We would have a population fluctuating
between ten and 20 people,
working
with hallucinogenic drugs,
doing research
and experimentation.
All kinds
of scientists, physicists,
ecologists from all
over the world came.
And so it just became
like psychedelic rat wiring.
And so I stayed there
for a couple of years.
But I still wanted
to know the secrets of how
to produce very fine, pure LSD.
I started making
LSD back in late 1966.
Tim
came over to my house
sometime in the fall of 1967.
He told me that he'd
been manufacturing LSD.
Billy's
a very charming guy.
He was a patron
of the psychedelic movement,
and also a wealthy man.
That seemed like
a pretty good recipe.
Sand expressed
an interest in meeting.
I was
introduced to Nick Sand.
He struck me as being
ambitious, energetic.
I said, I would really love it
if you could teach me
to make LSD.
Tim and I decided that
the best way to discuss this
was to take an acid trip
together.
He took a whacking
dose of about 75 mics,
and I probably took more.
I told him that
I wanted to turn on the world,
and that I thought making 200 kilos
of acid would be about right.
And that ideally we
should give it away.
You know, I
thought, well that's fine.
You can give yours
away for free.
I'm not giving
mine away for free.
He's a very, very thrifty
distended Scotsman.
His comfort level
was a lot higher than mine.
He's way cheaper than I am.
And then finally I said,
"OK, come to California."
We'll work together.
I was going
to leave for California.
And I had a feeling I needed a
woman to balance my energy out.
I used to up to Millbrook
for a number of reasons.
I was kind of a horny guy,
and psychedelic chicks,
that could function on my
level were rare.
And there were a whole
bunch of them up there.
And Jill was there.
I stayed up there
working as Billie Hitchcock's
governess for his stepchildren.
I was, at that time had moved
into one of the tower rooms.
Nick just appeared
in the morning,
popped out of the closet.
And just came and got in bed.
And we turned onto LSD.
And she
was very, very beautiful.
I like thin chicks.
I was in awe
of his energy
and I really wanted to...
Staying in bed
Yeah. I mean, Nicky likes
to make love a lot, you know.
So that is important to him.
But it's almost utilitarian.
We're going to get
in trouble here.
And I said,
you got to come to California
with me because I'm going
to need someone to help me.
It wasn't so much
that Nicky was charming.
It was that Nicky knew
where he was going.
He had a strong
sense of his mission.
Those were the things
that made him attractive.
Nick thought that
he could change...
consciousness of large
numbers of people,
by making psychedelic drugs.
He thought that that
needed to happen.
We all did.
And finally,
she just decided to go with me.
And we came to the ranch
here as partners.
And she still maintains
an interest in the ranch.
Unfortunately I don't.
It was stolen from me
by the federal government.
Well, I promised you it would
be good coming out
to California.
You got stuck here,
didn't you, Jill?
I'd love
for them to film me crawling
through the attic at Millbrook
and discovering you
- in your room.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I remember
I was with one very hot
lady before I discovered you.
She was so beautiful.
Yeah.
Not as beautiful as you.
Not as beautiful as you.
Don't even think twice about it.
Tim also
is very fond of women.
Getting high with him
was really quite wonderful.
He laid out a deck of tarot
cards before the LSD came on.
And then I think we made
love for most of the night.
I'd known Nick
by then for 15 years.
And he asked me afterwards, "well,
what did you think about Tim?"
And I said, "oh, I liked him."
He's very, very odd.
But I really liked him.
He's really bright.
"But you're not going
to work together, are you?"
And he said, "well."
And I said, "good luck
with that."
I mean, they just
are so different.
Why have all of the
books got your name on them?
That's to indicate
that it's been cataloged.
Its mysteries
and science fiction.
It's alphabetical by author.
He's unusual. Yeah.
He does function
differently than most of us
in the way he relates to people.
And he does have
a touch of Asperger's.
Tim
was a very persnickety guy.
Much more uptight than I. He's a Virgo.
He's very skinny.
So we had to set
up ground rules.
As long as I didn't
transgress on his diet
of white spaghetti,
white cheese...
you know, he liked
everything white.
I used to eat spaghetti
with butter and cheese
on it for dinner,
for every night for 30 years.
Until it became
medically not possible
for me to eat it anymore.
Tim was extremely paranoid.
He thought I was just
a crazy psychedelic madman.
Nick made a commitment
to being a lifelong psychedelic
outlaw, changing identity,
being a fugitive
from time to time.
In fact, he enjoyed pulling
the wool over people's eyes.
And I got the feeling that
he was often doing it to me.
Did he want
to become the king of LSD?
Yes.
I think so.
I remember
specifically going to have
a meeting with Sand and Scully.
They were discussing
the possibility
of acquiring lysergic acid, the
starting material to make LSD.
I suggested London, England
as a possible source of supply
for this material.
And so we pooled
our resources, went to England.
Bought
the kilo of lysergic acid,
divvied it up in little
plastic bags.
So this looks very much
like lysergic acid.
One of the things we used to do
is take advantage
of natural hollows in the body.
So we'd always put
it in a place,
like, this was our
favorite place to put it.
And then this
would go like that.
And once the shirt
was pulled down over it,
it would be basically invisible.
And I smuggled my half through
the Bahamas with Alice.
Alice used to smuggle
for me all the time.
"A great smuggler.
And she's like, "la di da.
How are you? Oh, aren't the
birds chirping beautifully?"
And she'd like
totally distract you.
She's got that
kind of sais quoi.
She was perfect.
And then took
a speedboat to Miami.
And from there was taken
by another crew to California.
I was involved
in setting up an LSD lab
with Sand and Scully.
Eventually a place
was found in November of '68,
in Windsor, California.
Tim
said, "here's the deal."
I'll do the first
run with my material.
You do the second run
with your material.
And we'll be here
together for two weeks.
And in two weeks you need
to know everything I'm doing,
"so that you can take over."
Eventually I got notified
that it was my turn
to come and to meet
at a certain parking lot.
I told Nick to change
vehicles on the way to the lab.
Get one
car to drop us off,
like at a medical building
and go out the back door
and get a rented car.
A lot of the art of making LSD
involves not getting busted.
I got to the house in Windsor.
And Jill and I moved in.
The first thing I did
was draw up a flow
chart that showed
all of the steps and sequence.
It's been a lot
of years since I did this.
LSD
is lysergic acid diethylamide.
And lysergic acid
is the ideal starting material.
You're pretty much
guaranteed to get
busted if you try to acquire
the chemicals and do this.
So don't try this at home.
The first step
is to make something
called lithium lysergic.
He was a good friend
and he was a good teacher.
And we trusted each other.
And we all go forward
on the shoulders of the people
who went before us.
Meanwhile, we've previously made
something called the re-agent.
I was pregnant
at the time
and pretty far along actually.
We just kind of did the same
thing over and over every day
for, I don't know,
at least a month.
Generally,
working in an acid lab,
you do tend to get high.
So we were in an altered state.
You know,
sometimes something's
boiling over on the hot plate
and you'd grab it
and take it off
and you'd go, "oh."
Wow. That's hot.
Oh, no.
"I just took 2,000 mics
of acid."
Billy was sort
of a lab groupie.
He so much wanted
to come to the lab,
that I let him come and work
here for a couple of days.
I worked around the lab.
I ran some reactions myself.
They were manufacturing
somewhere between three
and four million tabs.
We
were hoping that there
would be a really
fundamental change,
in the world's consciousness.
That people would become
more responsible,
able to use technology more
wisely,
able to be gentler
with the planet.
We'd
work until we'd drop
and then we'd sleep
for a few hours
and get up and get at it again.
I went
to Billy Hitchcock
and asked him
whether he had ideas
for a distribution channel.
Because Billy had all
kinds of social contacts,
all over the psychedelic scene.
And he introduced me to the
Brotherhood of Eternal Love,
also known as the Hippie Mafia.
The mafia rules by fear.
The Brotherhood ruled by love.
LSD made freethinkers
out of people.
The grip that all
governments have on people
was going to probably end.
I know it sounds
ridiculously naive.
But if you've ever sat and
really seen the golden light,
and really went deep
inside yourself,
it ain't all that far out.
They were actually stickup men.
And they all dropped acid.
And they threw
their pistols away.
And they said, we're going to
form the Brotherhood of Love.
And we'll be working
with psychedelics
and we won't be sticking
up people anymore.
Our aim
was to turn the world on.
The business arrangement between
the Brotherhood and Nick
and Tim was pretty
straightforward.
Here's 100 grams about acid,
and there's more
where that came from.
We sold it all.
We had... I think
it was $72,000.
That's a lot of money now, but it
was a huge amount of money then.
And came back up
and delivered it to Nick.
That was it.
Now we were the official
distributors.
We're the ones that came
up with the name sunshine,
to this day the most
famous acid ever.
I took some acid.
Peter, what did
the acid look like?
They were these
little orange pills.
- Were they barrel-shaped?
- Uh, yeah.
OK, right. You did some
Orange Sunshine, Peter.
So we were smuggling
all through America,
all through Europe.
You know, you have to break
some eggs to make an omelet.
You're going to have to break
some laws to make a revolution.
They dealt
most of the Orange Sunshine.
They did a really good job.
It went all over the world.
India had lots of it.
In Goa and other places.
People that were smuggling
hash out of Afghanistan
were bringing acid
into Afghanistan.
I sent a bunch
through different soldiers,
to turn the soldiers on to a
higher way of looking at things
and not just take orders.
You get really stoned.
Then, you know, like,
who cares about the war?
We thought
the world was going to change
within five years or so.
The grass would
be growing in Manhattan.
We were in a fit of idealism.
I envisioned
centers all over the world.
There would be trained
guides like myself,
taking people through
their first trip.
It was a spiritual thing.
Some people say,
I believe in God.
I don't have to believe in God.
I have been one with God.
It was amazing.
We had a growing
sense of community,
among equally eccentric people.
It was a lovely time.
There
was a psychedelic nation
that was forming.
It seemed as though
it was going to work out.
You know, evangelists
have an epiphany a church.
We're the same, except
we were LSD evangelists.
Jesus, that's what
he was trying to do.
I think we did
a better job than Jesus.
Christians would hate me
for saying that but it's true.
We touched more souls
than... you know,
we just because it's a modern
world,
and Jesus didn't have no acid.
Did it feel that
you were turning on the world?
I really
thought we were on our way.
We guesstimated that maybe
three quarters of a billion people,
might be willing to take acid,
willing to give it a try.
What was that
based on? A guess?
Intuition.
Optimism.
Somebody in Africa
who's starving to death
might have relatively
little interest
in... or on the other hand, they might
think it's really cool. Who knows.
But still, we
thought that it would
be a fair shot know that if three
quarters of a billion doses
would be not too shabby.
Seven hundred and fifty million doses,
which is roughly 200 kilos of pure acid.
The next step might be 20 kilos.
And then that's sort
of what we were hoping.
How soon were you hoping
to be able to complete your mission?
I suppose
I was thinking in terms
of a couple years maybe.
When I finished
my work in Windsor,
I wanted to learn how to fly.
After I got through the basic
training, I flew up to Napa.
When I got off the airplane,
a fellow said to me,
"are you Tim Scully?"
And I said, "yes."
And somebody else
grabbed me from behind
and put the handcuffs on.
Stay there.
They said,
"we're federal agents
and we're arresting you
on a fugitive warrant
"from Denver, Colorado."
I figured that I
was in deep trouble.
Scully was advised of
his constitutional rights
and transported to the BNDD
offices, San Francisco,
California for processing.
I arrived
at the federal building,
got taken into a booking
room where they took
my picture and my fingerprints.
I was told I could get
a maximum sentence of 56 years.
I said, "oh shit."
Robert T Scully.
Male Caucasian, 23 years of
age, born on August 27, 1944.
Six foot one inches
tall, 130 pounds.
Slender build, brown
hair, hazel eyes.
I was the group supervisor,
for the investigation
of the LSD sales
in the San Francisco area.
In 1966, LSD was kiddie dope.
In other words,
kids are using this.
The real men are using
cocaine and heroin,
and those kind of drugs.
I felt it was more
dangerous because nobody
knew the outcome of where
this thing is going to end up.
And it's causing
problems to society.
I wound up as a junior
agent with Gordon White,
to fight the hallucinogen
traffic.
Most of these young people were
the first of the baby-boomers.
They saw a lot
of things in the world
they thought
were hypocritical and they
were reacting against them.
And they weren't totally wrong.
I just didn't agree with the
way they were doing it.
Peculiarities...
wears glasses and walks,
with an extremely large gait.
Associates, Donald R. Douglas.
Tim and I
met in kindergarten.
There is no question that
Tim is a science genius.
The part of him that
you mostly don't see
is the guy who figured the right
place for an accelerator pedal
is flat on the floor.
And he's the one who,
the very first time we took LSD
together, said, you know,
Don, we could make this,
with a real gleam in his eye.
What is LSD?
How does it work?
When did it all begin?
In the late
'50s and very early 1960s,
LSD samples went
to psychologists,
and psychiatrists who
were doing medical research.
It also caught the attention
of the CIA,
looking at the possibility
of using LSD in the Cold War.
CIA were looking
at it for one thing.
But the side effects
were such that a person that
would be looking for a high,
this would be the kind of side
effect that they would enjoy.
I just felt so one,
so human and alive
again for the first
time in years.
And the word
started to get around
that there was this really
interesting substance.
Magazine articles were published
and a buzz developed.
I mean, I feel as though
I have no enemies in the world.
And this is very lovely.
By 1965
the FDA had classified.
LSD as an experimental drug.
The sources of supply started
being driven underground.
And that's
about when we started looking,
at Owsley and his operation.
Owsley was the man.
He had the brand name.
LSD was being sold
on the street as Owsley Acid.
He's the pied piper.
And people would
be following him around,
'cause he's handing out
the goodies.
It was pretty easy for us
to just get in the line
and see what was going on.
Tim and I were
interested in making drugs.
And Owsley learned about
us, and he visited one day.
So I was looking around
for someone who could help.
And I ran into this
kid, Tim Scully.
I thought, hey, I need somebody.
You want to do it?
He was a bright kid.
Real bright.
We have
three by five index cards.
We'd get a big piece
of paper and it's all telephone
calls, money transfers.
You're putting together
a jigsaw puzzle.
And that's where we
would put Timothy Scully,
and Donald Douglas.
We drove
to Owsley's LSD lab.
Becoming his apprentice passed
on all the essential knowledge,
that I otherwise would have
had to learn the hard way.
Owsley and Tim
would discuss chemistry texts
at the kitchen table.
And I would try to keep
up for a little while
but then I'd just go smoke
a joint and play my guitar.
We'd tableted
up 100,000 doses or more,
of White Lightening,
and put that out on the street.
Haight-Ashbury
was an intersection of two
streets in San Francisco.
And if you wanted to deal drugs,
this was the place to be.
LSD traffickers were not
the same as other drug dealers.
Our basic tool in undercover
work was to appeal to greed.
And some of them
didn't have the greed.
I mean, some of them
really were motivated
by things other than money.
You didn't even know
if he'd show up.
And if he did, he might
want to talk about karma.
I had heard it makes you
not only closer with yourself
but with everybody.
This sort of love,
peace type thing.
I was doing it
because I thought that making
acid could save the world.
That
term, save the world.
I mean, so many of them used it.
I reacted
to those LSD people who
said, you know, how amazing
their experience had been,
the same way I reacted
to many heroin dealers
that I met who said that
heroin was better than sex.
I didn't believe it.
I knew it was going
to get bigger and bigger
and I felt we had
to do what we could
to try to slow this thing down.
You have to take
into consideration
the changes that have taken
place in the social order.
The abandon with which they
conduct themselves today.
There is nothing grown
up or sophisticated in taking
an LSD trip at all.
They're just being
complete fools.
Fear.
Almost
everybody who got turned on,
became deeply skeptical of all
governments and politicians.
And the authorities
said, "oh, we've"
got to stop this right away.
"People are waking up.
We don't want this to happen."
One reason or another LSD
was given to an elephant once.
The
propaganda machine,
telling people about
all the awful things
that would happen cranked up.
And lo and behold it
killed the elephant.
Freak-outs.
Instant insanity.
Did any of guys
have to take LSD
as part of being undercover?
"Take LSD"? Are you crazy?
A Never Neverland of no return.
No, get away.
Get away.
You might be the one guy
that trips out on this stuff.
LSD started out
a low penalty drug.
But then as people began
to learn more and more
about what it did to you, then
it worked its way up the scale.
The other
side would disagree with that
and say that maybe it was tied
to the anti-war movement
or other movements.
But my impression was that
serious people involved
in science and medicine
were seeing it,
LSD, as a bigger problem.
The manufacturer for illicit LSD
should be vigorously
sought and prosecuted.
I don't care
what the governments say.
They're all just a crock of
shit, out for power and money.
And that was not my trip.
It was too fucking much.
The law said it's no
longer legal to make LSD.
So we finished it all up.
One of the things
you need to remember
about the United States is
that it's 50 different states
and they aren't all that united.
It became illegal in California
before other places.
So that's why the Denver
lab was not in California.
I rented a house
not far from the Denver Zoo.
Setting
up the lab went well.
Owsley proceeded to come to the
lab and make acid with us.
When
that work was done,
Owsley went back
to the Bay Area to organize
a tableting facility for the
LSD we'd made in Denver.
So I went back to Berkeley.
I ordered more chemicals
through the chemical supply
house Owsley had recommended.
The chemical supply
houses
recognized that some of the
chemicals they were selling
were probably going
into illegal drugs.
They'd get an order.
They would call us.
Sometimes we would put
an undercover agent
behind the desk as a clerk.
There
was a new stock clerk
who helped me load the truck.
Aiden Hendrix assumed
the role of stock clerk.
At approximately 1:15 p.m.,
Donald R. Douglas
arrived in a van-type truck.
Hendrix would
pretend to be an employee,
meet the people, take their
order, fill it, give it to them
and tell us, hey,
OK, he's got it.
And now he's leaving in a certain
kind of car or whatever.
He got
into a car and followed us,
which an employee of a
chemical company would not do.
A list of these
chemicals is as follows,
Ten cases of chloroform.
Hundred pounds
of sodium chloride.
Fifty gallons of acetone.
Twenty five pounds of drierite.
The truck was followed to the vicinity
of Harrison Street in Stanley Place.
When we
went back to my house
we discovered that they'd put
my house under surveillance.
Highball one to Dugout.
This is Dugout.
He lived
not too far from a motel.
We could go to it
and rent a motel room,
look right out the window.
We did
see that we were being,
followed on a regular basis.
And we became a bit
thick-skinned about it.
The way I was looking
at it is that we were all
playing a game
and we just had chosen
different sides.
I did what I did, which
I thought was the right
thing for the country
and for the rule of law.
I thought I was doing something
good and we disagreed.
Spy versus
spy, cops versus robbers.
Surveillance is the key.
And that's the only way
we were able to follow.
Owsley to Arenden.
Gordon White, Special Agent
with the Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs.
We had probable cause
to believe,
that there might be some type
of drug manufacturing going on,
in the premises.
We had no response and
forcible entry was obtained.
Hey!
Don't move.
- Don't move. Get over there.
- Hey, now.
And in the house
we found Mr. Owsley Stanley.
I said,
"gee, I'd love to help you
but I just dropped
about 200 mics of acid.
"I don't think I really want
to go anywhere right now."
Then they carted me
off to the joint.
I called
the lab in Denver.
A strange voice answered, and
my first thought was, oh shit,
the lab has been busted.
I called my lawyer
and asked if he could
find out what had happened.
It turned out that
the landlord came to the house.
He smelled a really funny smell.
He thought is there perhaps
a dead body in the house?
Sheriff's office.
He called the police.
OK.
Hold on just a second.
A cop came.
The cop decided that he
would break down the door.
As soon as he went
inside, he immediately
called the narcotics police.
None of us had paid
attention to how
the laws changed in Colorado.
So when the Denver lab was
busted, each of the things
we were doing there had become
a more serious felony,
than in California.
The heat on us
was really increasing a lot.
I said that I wanted to take
a hiatus of about six months,
and go get regular jobs where
federal agents could see us do
our work, until they got
tired it
and we have
an agreed meeting place.
And at some point we'd drop
whatever it is we're doing,
meet in this place and proceed.
Tim said that he
wanted to continue.
So then I said, well
then I guess I'm out.
That's how I was out.
I was going to have
to start from scratch.
Owsley made it pretty clear
he wouldn't be financing me.
When I told him, well I didn't
really have enough money
to do it on my own, he
said, "well, how about if you"
ask Billy Hitchcock?"
And what it came down
to was seeing if Nick wanted
to set up a lab in partnership.
They said, come to California.
We'll work together.
So we pooled our resources.
I got to the house in Windsor,
and we all go forward
on the shoulders of the people
who went before us.
In 1969
we did have intelligence
that Sand and Scully were
working together on producing,
Orange Sunshine, LSD.
I mean, everybody in Haight
was talking about it.
It was the LSD of choice.
We would get reports
from all over the country
about Orange Sunshine seizures.
So we knew it was spreading
around the country.
Sand and Scully were apparently
running this lab in Windsor.
And they did a good job
of keeping it from us.
We conducted surveillances.
We talked to informants.
We did a lot of things.
But we didn't find the lab.
Stay there.
But sometime
after Scully
did get arrested
at the Napa County Airport,
for, at the lab in Denver.
I was busted
in the spring of '69.
I spent a lot of time commuting
to Denver to go to court.
Would you please relate
to this court and jury
when and where you
first observed him.
I first observed him at 1:24...
And after that,
I tended
to have paranoid trips
where I was hallucinating
police in the trees.
It was very unnerving
to think that the police
might be out in the bushes,
about to swoop down.
And I was just terrified.
So I got in touch
with the Brotherhood folks,
and basically said, you
guys have to take over.
I can't do it anymore.
Tim's timid.
He's not real brave sometimes.
Why do you think
he quit when you didn't quit
and Nick didn't quit?
Because he
didn't take enough of it.
I don't know how much acid Tim
took, but it wasn't much.
You need to keep
taking it so that you
really are current
with your spiritual feelings.
Pretend it was a momentary job,
and he did what he did.
And then he was finished.
And to me it was just
another rock on the road.
America's public enemy
number one is drug abuse.
In order to fight
and defeat this enemy,
it is necessary to wage
a new all-out offensive.
Just another asshole
trying to direct money,
and power where he wanted it.
The depth of our commitment,
our national commitment
is clear.
And the pressure
is on the criminal drug trade.
Richard Lee Rathjen, Special Agent
for the Internal Revenue Service.
I was working very closely
with the Internal Revenue Service.
Dick Rathjen.
A special group
was formed within the IRS.
It consisted of about
100 special agents
under the designation of the
Narcotics Traffickers Program.
Nicholas Sand was one of the
original cases assigned me.
Nick Sand
had a harder edge.
He was a typical high-level
drug dealer,
who was primarily motivated
by profit.
I was never out for money.
The only money I ever
wanted was enough money,
to live comfortably
and to make as many psychedelic
laboratories as I could.
Dick Rathjen
pulled his tax returns.
And from there the investigation
just grew on the tax side.
Agent Rathjen
was a very smart man.
And he figured there were a
few holes in the stories.
Mr. Sand did not report
approximately $300,000
in taxable income.
That's how
they got Al Capone, right?
Right.
He also told me he owned
no assets, held no property,
had nothing in any
nominee names or anything.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that
was a little bit of a balls up.
In other words, he
was dead broke and lived
off his common law wife.
We opened a criminal
tax investigation
on her at this point.
This is getting
too heavy.
I don't want to do this anymore.
Everything was obviously
going to have
to be done on a whole
different level,
assumed names, new identities.
By that point I was already
starting to think
about training as a teacher.
And I loved the ranch
and I really,
loved the idea of us living
here and raising children here.
So you think he should've quit?
I thought so.
I thought that there were a lot
of things that he could do.
He wasn't going
to shake this life
so that it would
be centered here.
It was going to be centered
around making psychedelics.
He began to take himself
so seriously that you
couldn't poke him in the side
and say, "oh, come
on, get off it."
I think anybody
that has to do this job,
you had to have a big ego.
I did something
I feel was really
good for millions of people,
and I'm OK with that.
I love him.
I've loved him my whole life.
But for a while he became,
the best word I can think of,
is insufferable.
We reached
a point where I told him,
you need to find somebody else.
And he did.
I went off to St.
Louis with a new partner.
I made a beautiful
laboratory, two-story brick
building in downtown St. Louis.
I'd formed this company, Signet
Research and Development.
Everybody was very happy
that industry was moving
into this impoverished
area and I
was getting kudos
from the mayor.
We made a lot
of beautiful psychedelics.
And we were right
out in the open.
One more job, one more paycheck.
We didn't really
accept checks though.
We went through all the
bank accounts for Nicholas Sand
and a number of other accounts
we located, William Hitchcock,
Robert Timothy Scully.
I was very scared.
If Nick kept
on cooking, he would
eventually bring down all of
us in a huge conspiracy case.
Billy and I tried to talk him
into taking some time out,
just the way Don Douglas
had tried to talk
me into taking time out.
Nick was totally
irresponsible in the way he
was going about his business.
And he was jeopardizing
everyone else who
was involved in the Windsor lab.
Nick responded
by saying that it was that none
of our business what he did.
And after all, hadn't we agreed
to try to turn on the world.
That's pretty common
with a high level traffickers.
They must have their own
addiction,
because they often continued a
business way beyond what, you know,
prudence would dictate.
On top of that,
I'd slowly been getting less
and less enthusiastic,
about what I'd been doing.
Things were looking somewhat
darker in Haight-Ashbury.
That group that was still left
in the Haight-Ashbury started
to seem more like lost souls.
The age of the flower children
was gone.
It was a lot more
methamphetamine.
There was a lot more
murders and violence.
There was more presence
of the Hell's Angels
and other motorcycle groups.
It was a trip.
People that I
knew had peak experiences
and had the experience
of oneness,
still treating each other
really badly and dishonestly.
I still believe that
LSD was a good thing.
But I was no longer convinced
that it was the solution
to the world's problems.
But I got turned
on to biofeedback instruments.
I'm going to measure
the electrical activity
of my brain, as it leaks
out onto the scalp.
There were some early studies
done that related the brain waves
of Zen monks yoga masters to
particular brain wave patterns,
when they were meditating.
I saw brainwave biofeedback as a
possible way of teaching people
to reach that state
of oneness with the universe,
without having to use drugs.
So you're still
trying to turn the world on?
In a kinder, gentler way.
Yeah.
And then in late 1971, I
got a phone call telling me,
I was off the hook
for the Denver lab,
because the police hadn't
gotten a search warrant.
The state Supreme
Court had ruled
that the search was illegal.
And it was tremendously
liberating.
The road ahead was clear
for doing research
in lots of different directions.
Unless Nick did
something really foolish,
I'd somehow managed
to escape getting punished
for what I'd been doing.
So here
I am in St. Louis.
It's getting very
cold in Missouri.
And we decide to go traveling in
Mexico and taking a vacation.
Unbeknownst to me, a water pipe
broke in the house.
And the neighbors,
they could see
water running down the stairs.
The sheriff for that town
breaks in.
They go up to my bedroom.
They find the leak
in the bathroom nearby.
They also go into my closet, and
they find some psychedelics.
And then they
discovered the lab.
Powder LSD capable
of producing over
fourteen million tablets
of Orange Sunshine
was found in two locations.
It was in all
the papers.
I just didn't happen
to see the papers.
When I pulled up...
Driver, step outside slowly.
Five heavy duty guys with
shotguns jumped out and said...
If you make any sudden moves,
you'll be shot immediately.
What a country.
Keep your hands away from
your body and drop full down.
It was an "oh, shit"
moment.
Not that they have busted Nick,
I think I'm in deeper hot water.
I suspected there
was a good chance that Nick
would have things with him,
that would be used
as evidence against me.
Marijuana, LSD, some mescaline.
I made a personal
bet that he'd probably still
have that flow chart with him,
that showed him the process
for making LSD on one page.
It turned out he did.
Is the gamble of drug
exploration worth this?
Is it worth the physical
and mental risk as well?
Well a grand jury
was convened specifically
to investigate
Nick, Billy, and I.
I eventually hid out
in a friend's house.
While I was there, I got a phone
call from Billy Hitchcock.
And he told me, "I
have bad news for you."
Would you say
that you were a close
personal friend of Mr. Scully?
Yes, I would.
I advised him
of my tax problems.
I told him I was cooperating
with the government
where I would have
to reveal the whole situation.
He'd been indicted
for income tax evasion,
and he didn't see
any other way out.
Billy wasn't
the final piece in the puzzle.
He was that one in the middle
that you'd spend a half an hour
looking for.
And then once you find
that one, everything,
seems to fall into place.
Owsley
and Nick Sand gave Billy
large amounts
of money to send offshore
into Swiss bank accounts.
He would
launder money for us.
Noble he was not.
It's just like fishing.
You reel it in, and you
look at it, and you figure,
I can get a bigger
one than this.
So I'll tell him, "hey, you
know, I'll throw you back",
if you can give me
somebody else."
My
lawyer came and read off
the names of the unindicted
co-conspirators.
I said, "Lenny, put it plain."
What's an unindicted
co-conspirator?"
He said, "a snitch."
Someone who has turned
state's evidence against you."
I said, "Billy?"
It's just
another example of idealism
fading in the face of reality.
He offered to loan
me $10,000, which he encouraged
me to use to hire a lawyer,
so that I could also turn and
become a government witness.
Anybody can be turned.
The question is, how
much do you have to give
them in order for them to turn?
He said, Tim
is considering whether or not
to turn state's evidence.
Do the same
thing I did and make
a deal with the government.
I was shocked,
right down to the soles
of my feet.
I said,
I'll take the money
and I'll make my best choice.
I couldn't believe it.
Remain seated and come to order,
court will begin in session.
I realized that
if I did become a witness
against Nick, that
I would end up
feeling really bad about
myself for the rest of my life.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this next case...
The way
I'd end up feeling best
about myself would
be if I faced the music
and tried to fight the charges.
Billy ended up testifying
for a couple of days.
His testimony was
pretty damning.
They were manufacturing
LSD, somewhere between
three and four million tabs.
Pretty painful to hear.
Scully made just
about a million tablets.
They knew what
we did and where we did it.
Nick came
to the Bahamas.
There's a word
that kind of describes Billy.
It's in Yiddish, but it...
it is such a perfect word.
He's a schlub.
Yes.
I met with Mike Randall.
Billy Hitchcock's
a punk and he always was.
He's a rich guy.
Don't try to take
a rich guy's money away.
I never
held that against Billy.
I think most people
would save themselves.
The stupid thing was bringing
him to the laboratory.
That he had something...
You know, there were a lot
of those blunders
all along the line that
were just... yeah, just showoff
maneuvers that were dumb.
Ladies and gentlemen
of the jury...
The trial
judge, Samuel Conti,
is known as Hanging Sam.
Oh, Judge Conti
was a fine American.
He was one of our
favorite judges.
Judge Conti was tough.
But I think fair.
The events which are the
subject of this proceeding...
In one
of the pretrial proceedings,
he said he wished he had
access to the death penalty
in our case, which
gave us a pretty
good clue of what he was going
to do in terms of sentencing.
And the man was just...
Objection, your honor.
Motion to strike.
Why don't you both
approach the bench.
Every motion that
we made, Conti just denied,
interrupted our
lawyers, yelled at them.
I mean, he's a sick man.
It was blow after
blow after blow.
And they had 63 witnesses
for the prosecution.
They spent one or two million
dollars.
I feel pretty proud that it
cost them that much to get me.
And I'm just one little guy,
you know, with a good idea.
When I
got on the stand,
I really wanted
to try to explain
why we made psychedelics.
I actually did
convince the judge
that there was a chance that
I was an idealist
rather than in it for the money.
But when he sentenced
me, he said,
"idealists are the most
dangerous kind."
And socked it to me
with 20 years.
Mr. Scully is a brilliant
man, but not very smart.
An idealist without
a conscience.
He was impeding
justice and impeding
the moral lives and well-being
of many, many citizens.
Heroically,
he stood up for us,
and really got slammed for it.
He got a 20-year sentence.
I got only a 15-year sentence.
That was a really bad moment.
And I didn't have long in the
courtroom to think about it.
I was whisked away pretty
quickly into the holding cell.
Deep in my heart
I have some sympathy for all
the people who went to prison.
I don't really have sympathy
on the basis of the chronology.
Maybe he is not doing it anymore
and doesn't
intend to do it anymore.
But the fact is, he did it, and
he was an important trafficker.
And an example has
to be set for other people
who want to enter the business.
I climbed
up on the bunk
and pulled the blanket
over my head
and cried for a while
cause I thought,
it was going to be pretty scary
being in prison for a long time.
I was going to get
sent where all
those tough guys were that I
didn't get along with very well
in high school.
It's McNeil Island
Federal Penitentiary,
the oldest federal penal
facility in the United States.
I was sent up
to NcNeil Island,
in link and belly chains
and handcuffs.
They put you through
a delousing procedure,
take away your clothes and put
you through a special shower,
a medicinal scrub.
When I first drove up I made
a naive venture, first up.
There were guys who
had been in motorcycle gangs.
Guys were there for murder.
There was one
Eskimo who was there
for eating his whole family.
They were generally
a fairly intimidating lot.
I couldn't begin to
tell you how many people in here
have had encounters
that they didn't want.
A lot of the guys
were frightened,
they would be turned
into a punk,
and be raped by the other
prisoners.
It's part of the
dehumanization process.
There's only one way to do time,
and that's to do it
one day at a time.
That's the only way you
can, and keep your sanity.
I did have
a little difficulty at first
because a number of people tried
to make me offers I couldn't
refuse to become
the distributor for all
the drugs they
expected I was going
to be bringing into the prison.
The answer I gave all of them was,
"just wait for my crime partner"
to get here.
I don't have any drugs."
Usually
crime partners,
as they're referred to,
are kept separate.
For some reason they
put us together.
We were bunkies. He had the top bunk.
I had the bottom bunk.
My girlfriend at the time
would come to the prison.
And she would have
a balloon with a variety
of psychedelics in it.
When we got up to be allowed
our one hug and kiss,
she put the balloon
from her mouth into mine
and I swallowed it.
I had to shit it out,
and I had to clean it up,
and then I had to unwrap it.
And then I had to figure
some way of dosing it out.
He starting
running sessions in the cell.
He would typically do
it after lights out.
He'd open the door to his
locker where he had
a picture of Ganesh pasted
in the door.
He'd light a candle
and he and the other folks
who were getting high
would sit around,
shielded from the guard's
vision as they walked by.
I mean, he's a great session
guide.
We formed an eight man
psychedelic cell.
Had a mafia guy in it.
He took acid with us,
because he wasn't a pussy.
"As he came out of that session
he said, "hey guys, you know,
that's the first time I've
been in church in 30 years."
I began to monitor
the delivery of food.
Somehow I got some LSD
in there and the word got out.
Everybody would rather take LSD
than being just sitting
in jail, right.
We got the whole
of the prison stoned.
This is what freedom
is really about.
It's not about not
being in chains.
It's about not having
your mind enslaved.
I just
didn't take part in it.
I went to bed and read a book
if the lights were still on.
And when the lights went
out I always went to sleep.
The prison library
was in terrible shape.
I offered to update
the card catalogs
so it would be accurate.
And the librarian
said, "OK, you're hired."
Tim got up in the morning
as soon as the gates were open.
Boom, stayed there all day.
He was studying the case, trying
to find constitutional issues,
that would help get us off.
Judge Conti
had set our bail
at a very, very high figure,
half a million dollars each.
We filed bail appeals.
So we both got out
on appeal bond.
And it was a big relief.
Get in your cells!
I said
goodbye to Nick in prison.
I remember wishing him luck.
I couldn't really
focus on anything for a while.
It's hard to come back in after
you've been in that system.
The system changes you
and not for the better.
It took a few
months for the Supreme Court
to decline to hear my case.
And when I heard we'd
lost that appeal,
I wasn't tremendously surprised,
but I was really disappointed.
I was doing everything
I could to get
ready to go back to prison.
I had a little
houseboat in Sausalito.
I was living there
with my Buddha
and all my Persian carpets
that I liked to collect.
And we were just
sitting down preparing,
for a psychedelic session that
I was going to be guiding,
for 12 people from the Bay Area.
As I was finishing up
all the preparations,
Nancy came in and said, "we've
got to get you out of here."
I just got a call from Tim.
They have denied your appeal.
And you're going
to be picked up in a few days
and taken to prison.
Good to see you, darling.
Yes.
I met Nick in 1969.
He turned me
on to Orange Sunshine.
I think this one
might be better.
And I didn't
leave that room for three days.
And I must say, I fell madly
in love with that person
and what he was.
Was Nick very handsome?
Yes.
He was different than he is now.
What
do you mean, was?
What is this negative shit?
He still is.
I was a part
of this psychedelic revolution.
He knew that he could
count on me,
to help him in any way
that was needed.
We knew that we had
to get out of there.
Ah, here we go.
When they
lowered Nick Sand's bond,
I knew he would run and he did.
And I said,
watch your rear view mirror.
If you see any cars pulling
out behind of us suddenly,
we've got a tail.
Lo and behold, there
was one of them
in my view mirror
and I thought, oh, shoot.
I said,
"OK, we've been made."
They knew
what they were doing.
They weren't easy to follow.
I said,
"drive over to Mill Valley."
And we parked behind
a row of cedars.
We would see the same car
driving up, driving back.
They did their tricks.
We did our tricks.
It came down to a matter
of who did their tricks better.
I had
a sense of their timing.
And soon as they passed
going to the right,
I said, "get out of here."
Go left. Make your first right.
Make your second left.
"Make your second right."
We just had
to go all those little
residential areas
and go shh, shh, shh, shh.
Get
us over the mountain.
And we got up there.
"And I said," wow, we're clean.
We got away. Now we just have to
figure out where to go from here."
I had heard
that Nick had vanished.
"I told all my friends," if you
hear from Nick,
please don't tell me where
he is or what he's doing,"
because I really don't
want to know.
I didn't want to be part
of whatever...
the next conspiracy might be.
My mother and my girlfriend
at the time drove me up,
and I took the ferry
across to the prison.
What I told myself
was that if all else failed,
I'd figure out how to escape
if I couldn't stand it.
But I thought I'd figure
out a way of doing the time.
Well
the plan was to drive
to Oregon and Washington
until Nick
was able to walk over
into Canada.
He certainly didn't go to sleep.
I think we just
drove the whole time.
We went
up on the most obscure route
you could say, all the way through
the forest for hundreds of miles,
up the Olympic peninsula.
After a few days journey, I
got some halfway decent ID.
Nick Sand was gone.
I went and bought a fishing rod
lures, weights, tackle box.
Now I could make my escape.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
When
I reached Canada,
a little white-haired
bouncy immigration
officer said, "and what is the
purpose of your visit, sir?"
I had my pole and my tackle
box and my fishing jacket on.
And I said, "come on."
You got to be kidding."
He said, "go on.
Have a great time."
I ran the fugitive
investigation on it
for awhile.
But we had no leads.
You know, the man had
had numerous names
and traveled all over the world.
We'd hear reports
of possible sightings.
But I don't recall that
we even came close.
So I disappeared
and continued my mission.
I lived as a fugitive in Canada.
And I carried on
making psychedelics
for the next 20 years.
If anybody beat
the system it was Nick Sand.
I was granted
admission as a PhD candidate,
so that I could be a student
while I was in prison.
I ended up by getting
a PhD in psychology.
I had a lot of help
from people on the outside
who got my sentence
reduced to ten years,
which made me eligible for
parole in three and third years.
I pretty rapidly got absorbed
by the whole computer world.
It turned out that
having made LSD
was a positive thing
in the computer business.
Tim and I were lovers
for a while in late '60s.
And then we didn't see
one another for years.
But the more the years went
by, the more mellow he became.
He's like a cat.
You slowly get to know him.
A cat reveals their personality
to you rather slowly.
As we've gotten older,
we've figured out,
both of us, what we really want,
which is to be partners
and lovers and not
to live under the same roof.
And that's worked
wonderfully well.
I scaled
back my ambitions,
to trying to just
make my own life,
and the lives
of the people that I care
about be as good as possible.
This is not perfect
but I'm doing the best I can.
That's all we can do, you know.
Perhaps at the bottom
there are some
of the chemical manuals from
the different chemical houses.
This, packed into the corner,
is the great big steel
reactionary flasks.
It's like a big pressure cooker.
They can cook it under pressure.
I'd forgotten about him.
It was a huge shock to me the
magnitudes of the laboratory.
Practical LSD manufacture.
Drug smuggling,
the Forbidden Book.
That he'd gone
that long without getting
caught, and then when he got
caught that he was involved
in such an apparently big way.
Psychedelic log.
MDA, DMT.
Acetic acid.
I don't know if there's
much he hasn't tried his hand at.
I knew he was sharp
but I was still surprised.
- Chromatography.
- "Chromatography"?
He knows his stuff, doesn't he?
Yeah.
I was eventually
arrested with enough acid,
to dose the whole
of Canada two times over.
And they sent me back
to stand trial in the US.
By some great
coincidence, they got
me back in front of Sam Conti.
They brought him
out of retirement,
so he could get me again.
I'm a warrior for peace.
I can take it.
Sure beats working
in the yard at McNeil Island.
That's for sure.
Remain seated and come to order,
court will begin in session.
In today's
hearing, the government
is not dealing with the
standard playground pusher.
These men represent a new
form of organized crime,
totally different
from our previous notions.
Tim Scully was not part
of the psychedelic scene.
He was the psychedelic scene.
I wasn't interested
in personally making money.
I thought that
what we were doing
was really important, trying
to change the consciousness
of the world in a positive way.
But we all know who
is number one in this case.
It is Nicholas Sand.
I was considered
some kind of mad man,
psychedelic commando.
Because I'd go anywhere, do
anything for psychedelics.
We are talking now about
people responsible for producing
millions of doses
of hallucinogenic drugs.
And they are proud of it.
If we could turn
on everyone in the world,
then maybe we'd have a new
world of peace and love.
Call it whatever
you want to call it.
They all ended up in one thing,
the degradation of mankind.
The degradation of society.
We had the same
desire to risk our freedom,
and be what we thought
were American patriots.
Hey, partner.
Good to see you, man.
- Too long, eh?
- Yeah.
I think we're supposed to go in.
I think so.
Nice Panama hat.
It's getting a little
worn around the edges,
just like the rest of us.
- Great seeing you, man.
- Yeah.
Hey, you look good.
You look great, man.
I didn't know Nick
Sand when I first took acid.
Totally losing that hair.
It was early 1965,
and it wasn't that
easy to find yet.
I found a fellow
in San Francisco who had some.
We built a fire
in the fire place,
and took it in the evening.
I was kind of a wild kid.
I grew up
on the streets of New York.
My first experience with taking
acid changed everything.
I had very good friends
who were a couple.
We went up to their lake house
retreat in Mahopac, New York.
As the sun went down, we
took our capsules of LSD.
I was nervous when
I first swallowed the acid.
I knew that the experience
could be very terrifying.
Ordinary things could become
very ominous and scary.
But I knew also that
it could be transcendent.
And of course I was
hoping for transcendence.
I sat
in front of the fire,
with nude in the lotus position.
I just wanted to be naked.
I didn't want to be
encumbered by clothing.
Everything
that I looked at,
seemed to have
a life of its own.
The mantle piece
under the fireplace.
The fabric on my pants
that I was wearing.
Yeah. This is it.
And then it went
much further than that.
I disappeared.
I was floating in this
immense black space.
I said, what am I doing here?
As you
get very high on acid,
that's when you get
to experience oneness.
You see the whole
universe reflected
in all the other people
that you look at.
If everybody took LSD,
the entire place would
change overnight.
People would want
to be more loving.
The flash that I had
was that if everybody could
share this experience,
they'd be much less likely
to be mean to each other.
To just trash the world
by using up resources
and dumping
pollutants everywhere.
We'd avoid destroying
ourselves with the tools
we've been developing.
And suddenly
a voice came through my body.
"And it said," your
job on this planet,
is to make psychedelics
and turn on the world."
Um. It was very interesting.
As we were coming
down from the acid trip,
the world was completely
new and fresh.
Smells of the flowers
and lawns were really intense.
I thought, we could
make this stuff.
We could make a lot
of it and give it away.
We could turn on everyone,
everyone who wanted to.
And maybe it would
save the world.
With small groups of
people, you felt connected.
And in fact you were connected.
Sometimes it was just
by the intensity
of what you were experiencing.
And sometimes it felt spiritual.
It was just extraordinary, and
made you think about the world
differently.
We were always friends
and off and on we were lovers.
He was sure really wonderful
to be with in many ways.
Hey!
Hey, Trooper.
Hola.
How are you?
- It's so good to see you.
- Good to see you.
Today I feel great.
How are you doing?
I'm OK, especially
after seeing you.
That's just because I
remind you of your childhood.
He was full
of excitement about whatever
his latest project was.
He was certainly like
that about psychedelics.
He became a sort of...
He probably would
say a psychedelic warrior.
I was on a crusade.
I wanted to turn on the world.
And that was how I first
met Billy Hitchcock.
He was a chubby, not
really smart guy.
He liked to take LSD.
And he said, you've got
to come up to Millbrook.
Come on, I want you
to meet Timothy Leary.
By teaching
people how to use their head.
And in order to use your head,
you have to go out of your mind.
For the first time
I found a whole community
of people interested
in psychedelic research.
Billy Hitchcock owned
the whole property.
Dr. Leary leased one
of the houses on the property.
We would have a population fluctuating
between ten and 20 people,
working
with hallucinogenic drugs,
doing research
and experimentation.
All kinds
of scientists, physicists,
ecologists from all
over the world came.
And so it just became
like psychedelic rat wiring.
And so I stayed there
for a couple of years.
But I still wanted
to know the secrets of how
to produce very fine, pure LSD.
I started making
LSD back in late 1966.
Tim
came over to my house
sometime in the fall of 1967.
He told me that he'd
been manufacturing LSD.
Billy's
a very charming guy.
He was a patron
of the psychedelic movement,
and also a wealthy man.
That seemed like
a pretty good recipe.
Sand expressed
an interest in meeting.
I was
introduced to Nick Sand.
He struck me as being
ambitious, energetic.
I said, I would really love it
if you could teach me
to make LSD.
Tim and I decided that
the best way to discuss this
was to take an acid trip
together.
He took a whacking
dose of about 75 mics,
and I probably took more.
I told him that
I wanted to turn on the world,
and that I thought making 200 kilos
of acid would be about right.
And that ideally we
should give it away.
You know, I
thought, well that's fine.
You can give yours
away for free.
I'm not giving
mine away for free.
He's a very, very thrifty
distended Scotsman.
His comfort level
was a lot higher than mine.
He's way cheaper than I am.
And then finally I said,
"OK, come to California."
We'll work together.
I was going
to leave for California.
And I had a feeling I needed a
woman to balance my energy out.
I used to up to Millbrook
for a number of reasons.
I was kind of a horny guy,
and psychedelic chicks,
that could function on my
level were rare.
And there were a whole
bunch of them up there.
And Jill was there.
I stayed up there
working as Billie Hitchcock's
governess for his stepchildren.
I was, at that time had moved
into one of the tower rooms.
Nick just appeared
in the morning,
popped out of the closet.
And just came and got in bed.
And we turned onto LSD.
And she
was very, very beautiful.
I like thin chicks.
I was in awe
of his energy
and I really wanted to...
Staying in bed
Yeah. I mean, Nicky likes
to make love a lot, you know.
So that is important to him.
But it's almost utilitarian.
We're going to get
in trouble here.
And I said,
you got to come to California
with me because I'm going
to need someone to help me.
It wasn't so much
that Nicky was charming.
It was that Nicky knew
where he was going.
He had a strong
sense of his mission.
Those were the things
that made him attractive.
Nick thought that
he could change...
consciousness of large
numbers of people,
by making psychedelic drugs.
He thought that that
needed to happen.
We all did.
And finally,
she just decided to go with me.
And we came to the ranch
here as partners.
And she still maintains
an interest in the ranch.
Unfortunately I don't.
It was stolen from me
by the federal government.
Well, I promised you it would
be good coming out
to California.
You got stuck here,
didn't you, Jill?
I'd love
for them to film me crawling
through the attic at Millbrook
and discovering you
- in your room.
- Yeah.
Yeah, I remember
I was with one very hot
lady before I discovered you.
She was so beautiful.
Yeah.
Not as beautiful as you.
Not as beautiful as you.
Don't even think twice about it.
Tim also
is very fond of women.
Getting high with him
was really quite wonderful.
He laid out a deck of tarot
cards before the LSD came on.
And then I think we made
love for most of the night.
I'd known Nick
by then for 15 years.
And he asked me afterwards, "well,
what did you think about Tim?"
And I said, "oh, I liked him."
He's very, very odd.
But I really liked him.
He's really bright.
"But you're not going
to work together, are you?"
And he said, "well."
And I said, "good luck
with that."
I mean, they just
are so different.
Why have all of the
books got your name on them?
That's to indicate
that it's been cataloged.
Its mysteries
and science fiction.
It's alphabetical by author.
He's unusual. Yeah.
He does function
differently than most of us
in the way he relates to people.
And he does have
a touch of Asperger's.
Tim
was a very persnickety guy.
Much more uptight than I. He's a Virgo.
He's very skinny.
So we had to set
up ground rules.
As long as I didn't
transgress on his diet
of white spaghetti,
white cheese...
you know, he liked
everything white.
I used to eat spaghetti
with butter and cheese
on it for dinner,
for every night for 30 years.
Until it became
medically not possible
for me to eat it anymore.
Tim was extremely paranoid.
He thought I was just
a crazy psychedelic madman.
Nick made a commitment
to being a lifelong psychedelic
outlaw, changing identity,
being a fugitive
from time to time.
In fact, he enjoyed pulling
the wool over people's eyes.
And I got the feeling that
he was often doing it to me.
Did he want
to become the king of LSD?
Yes.
I think so.
I remember
specifically going to have
a meeting with Sand and Scully.
They were discussing
the possibility
of acquiring lysergic acid, the
starting material to make LSD.
I suggested London, England
as a possible source of supply
for this material.
And so we pooled
our resources, went to England.
Bought
the kilo of lysergic acid,
divvied it up in little
plastic bags.
So this looks very much
like lysergic acid.
One of the things we used to do
is take advantage
of natural hollows in the body.
So we'd always put
it in a place,
like, this was our
favorite place to put it.
And then this
would go like that.
And once the shirt
was pulled down over it,
it would be basically invisible.
And I smuggled my half through
the Bahamas with Alice.
Alice used to smuggle
for me all the time.
"A great smuggler.
And she's like, "la di da.
How are you? Oh, aren't the
birds chirping beautifully?"
And she'd like
totally distract you.
She's got that
kind of sais quoi.
She was perfect.
And then took
a speedboat to Miami.
And from there was taken
by another crew to California.
I was involved
in setting up an LSD lab
with Sand and Scully.
Eventually a place
was found in November of '68,
in Windsor, California.
Tim
said, "here's the deal."
I'll do the first
run with my material.
You do the second run
with your material.
And we'll be here
together for two weeks.
And in two weeks you need
to know everything I'm doing,
"so that you can take over."
Eventually I got notified
that it was my turn
to come and to meet
at a certain parking lot.
I told Nick to change
vehicles on the way to the lab.
Get one
car to drop us off,
like at a medical building
and go out the back door
and get a rented car.
A lot of the art of making LSD
involves not getting busted.
I got to the house in Windsor.
And Jill and I moved in.
The first thing I did
was draw up a flow
chart that showed
all of the steps and sequence.
It's been a lot
of years since I did this.
LSD
is lysergic acid diethylamide.
And lysergic acid
is the ideal starting material.
You're pretty much
guaranteed to get
busted if you try to acquire
the chemicals and do this.
So don't try this at home.
The first step
is to make something
called lithium lysergic.
He was a good friend
and he was a good teacher.
And we trusted each other.
And we all go forward
on the shoulders of the people
who went before us.
Meanwhile, we've previously made
something called the re-agent.
I was pregnant
at the time
and pretty far along actually.
We just kind of did the same
thing over and over every day
for, I don't know,
at least a month.
Generally,
working in an acid lab,
you do tend to get high.
So we were in an altered state.
You know,
sometimes something's
boiling over on the hot plate
and you'd grab it
and take it off
and you'd go, "oh."
Wow. That's hot.
Oh, no.
"I just took 2,000 mics
of acid."
Billy was sort
of a lab groupie.
He so much wanted
to come to the lab,
that I let him come and work
here for a couple of days.
I worked around the lab.
I ran some reactions myself.
They were manufacturing
somewhere between three
and four million tabs.
We
were hoping that there
would be a really
fundamental change,
in the world's consciousness.
That people would become
more responsible,
able to use technology more
wisely,
able to be gentler
with the planet.
We'd
work until we'd drop
and then we'd sleep
for a few hours
and get up and get at it again.
I went
to Billy Hitchcock
and asked him
whether he had ideas
for a distribution channel.
Because Billy had all
kinds of social contacts,
all over the psychedelic scene.
And he introduced me to the
Brotherhood of Eternal Love,
also known as the Hippie Mafia.
The mafia rules by fear.
The Brotherhood ruled by love.
LSD made freethinkers
out of people.
The grip that all
governments have on people
was going to probably end.
I know it sounds
ridiculously naive.
But if you've ever sat and
really seen the golden light,
and really went deep
inside yourself,
it ain't all that far out.
They were actually stickup men.
And they all dropped acid.
And they threw
their pistols away.
And they said, we're going to
form the Brotherhood of Love.
And we'll be working
with psychedelics
and we won't be sticking
up people anymore.
Our aim
was to turn the world on.
The business arrangement between
the Brotherhood and Nick
and Tim was pretty
straightforward.
Here's 100 grams about acid,
and there's more
where that came from.
We sold it all.
We had... I think
it was $72,000.
That's a lot of money now, but it
was a huge amount of money then.
And came back up
and delivered it to Nick.
That was it.
Now we were the official
distributors.
We're the ones that came
up with the name sunshine,
to this day the most
famous acid ever.
I took some acid.
Peter, what did
the acid look like?
They were these
little orange pills.
- Were they barrel-shaped?
- Uh, yeah.
OK, right. You did some
Orange Sunshine, Peter.
So we were smuggling
all through America,
all through Europe.
You know, you have to break
some eggs to make an omelet.
You're going to have to break
some laws to make a revolution.
They dealt
most of the Orange Sunshine.
They did a really good job.
It went all over the world.
India had lots of it.
In Goa and other places.
People that were smuggling
hash out of Afghanistan
were bringing acid
into Afghanistan.
I sent a bunch
through different soldiers,
to turn the soldiers on to a
higher way of looking at things
and not just take orders.
You get really stoned.
Then, you know, like,
who cares about the war?
We thought
the world was going to change
within five years or so.
The grass would
be growing in Manhattan.
We were in a fit of idealism.
I envisioned
centers all over the world.
There would be trained
guides like myself,
taking people through
their first trip.
It was a spiritual thing.
Some people say,
I believe in God.
I don't have to believe in God.
I have been one with God.
It was amazing.
We had a growing
sense of community,
among equally eccentric people.
It was a lovely time.
There
was a psychedelic nation
that was forming.
It seemed as though
it was going to work out.
You know, evangelists
have an epiphany a church.
We're the same, except
we were LSD evangelists.
Jesus, that's what
he was trying to do.
I think we did
a better job than Jesus.
Christians would hate me
for saying that but it's true.
We touched more souls
than... you know,
we just because it's a modern
world,
and Jesus didn't have no acid.
Did it feel that
you were turning on the world?
I really
thought we were on our way.
We guesstimated that maybe
three quarters of a billion people,
might be willing to take acid,
willing to give it a try.
What was that
based on? A guess?
Intuition.
Optimism.
Somebody in Africa
who's starving to death
might have relatively
little interest
in... or on the other hand, they might
think it's really cool. Who knows.
But still, we
thought that it would
be a fair shot know that if three
quarters of a billion doses
would be not too shabby.
Seven hundred and fifty million doses,
which is roughly 200 kilos of pure acid.
The next step might be 20 kilos.
And then that's sort
of what we were hoping.
How soon were you hoping
to be able to complete your mission?
I suppose
I was thinking in terms
of a couple years maybe.
When I finished
my work in Windsor,
I wanted to learn how to fly.
After I got through the basic
training, I flew up to Napa.
When I got off the airplane,
a fellow said to me,
"are you Tim Scully?"
And I said, "yes."
And somebody else
grabbed me from behind
and put the handcuffs on.
Stay there.
They said,
"we're federal agents
and we're arresting you
on a fugitive warrant
"from Denver, Colorado."
I figured that I
was in deep trouble.
Scully was advised of
his constitutional rights
and transported to the BNDD
offices, San Francisco,
California for processing.
I arrived
at the federal building,
got taken into a booking
room where they took
my picture and my fingerprints.
I was told I could get
a maximum sentence of 56 years.
I said, "oh shit."
Robert T Scully.
Male Caucasian, 23 years of
age, born on August 27, 1944.
Six foot one inches
tall, 130 pounds.
Slender build, brown
hair, hazel eyes.
I was the group supervisor,
for the investigation
of the LSD sales
in the San Francisco area.
In 1966, LSD was kiddie dope.
In other words,
kids are using this.
The real men are using
cocaine and heroin,
and those kind of drugs.
I felt it was more
dangerous because nobody
knew the outcome of where
this thing is going to end up.
And it's causing
problems to society.
I wound up as a junior
agent with Gordon White,
to fight the hallucinogen
traffic.
Most of these young people were
the first of the baby-boomers.
They saw a lot
of things in the world
they thought
were hypocritical and they
were reacting against them.
And they weren't totally wrong.
I just didn't agree with the
way they were doing it.
Peculiarities...
wears glasses and walks,
with an extremely large gait.
Associates, Donald R. Douglas.
Tim and I
met in kindergarten.
There is no question that
Tim is a science genius.
The part of him that
you mostly don't see
is the guy who figured the right
place for an accelerator pedal
is flat on the floor.
And he's the one who,
the very first time we took LSD
together, said, you know,
Don, we could make this,
with a real gleam in his eye.
What is LSD?
How does it work?
When did it all begin?
In the late
'50s and very early 1960s,
LSD samples went
to psychologists,
and psychiatrists who
were doing medical research.
It also caught the attention
of the CIA,
looking at the possibility
of using LSD in the Cold War.
CIA were looking
at it for one thing.
But the side effects
were such that a person that
would be looking for a high,
this would be the kind of side
effect that they would enjoy.
I just felt so one,
so human and alive
again for the first
time in years.
And the word
started to get around
that there was this really
interesting substance.
Magazine articles were published
and a buzz developed.
I mean, I feel as though
I have no enemies in the world.
And this is very lovely.
By 1965
the FDA had classified.
LSD as an experimental drug.
The sources of supply started
being driven underground.
And that's
about when we started looking,
at Owsley and his operation.
Owsley was the man.
He had the brand name.
LSD was being sold
on the street as Owsley Acid.
He's the pied piper.
And people would
be following him around,
'cause he's handing out
the goodies.
It was pretty easy for us
to just get in the line
and see what was going on.
Tim and I were
interested in making drugs.
And Owsley learned about
us, and he visited one day.
So I was looking around
for someone who could help.
And I ran into this
kid, Tim Scully.
I thought, hey, I need somebody.
You want to do it?
He was a bright kid.
Real bright.
We have
three by five index cards.
We'd get a big piece
of paper and it's all telephone
calls, money transfers.
You're putting together
a jigsaw puzzle.
And that's where we
would put Timothy Scully,
and Donald Douglas.
We drove
to Owsley's LSD lab.
Becoming his apprentice passed
on all the essential knowledge,
that I otherwise would have
had to learn the hard way.
Owsley and Tim
would discuss chemistry texts
at the kitchen table.
And I would try to keep
up for a little while
but then I'd just go smoke
a joint and play my guitar.
We'd tableted
up 100,000 doses or more,
of White Lightening,
and put that out on the street.
Haight-Ashbury
was an intersection of two
streets in San Francisco.
And if you wanted to deal drugs,
this was the place to be.
LSD traffickers were not
the same as other drug dealers.
Our basic tool in undercover
work was to appeal to greed.
And some of them
didn't have the greed.
I mean, some of them
really were motivated
by things other than money.
You didn't even know
if he'd show up.
And if he did, he might
want to talk about karma.
I had heard it makes you
not only closer with yourself
but with everybody.
This sort of love,
peace type thing.
I was doing it
because I thought that making
acid could save the world.
That
term, save the world.
I mean, so many of them used it.
I reacted
to those LSD people who
said, you know, how amazing
their experience had been,
the same way I reacted
to many heroin dealers
that I met who said that
heroin was better than sex.
I didn't believe it.
I knew it was going
to get bigger and bigger
and I felt we had
to do what we could
to try to slow this thing down.
You have to take
into consideration
the changes that have taken
place in the social order.
The abandon with which they
conduct themselves today.
There is nothing grown
up or sophisticated in taking
an LSD trip at all.
They're just being
complete fools.
Fear.
Almost
everybody who got turned on,
became deeply skeptical of all
governments and politicians.
And the authorities
said, "oh, we've"
got to stop this right away.
"People are waking up.
We don't want this to happen."
One reason or another LSD
was given to an elephant once.
The
propaganda machine,
telling people about
all the awful things
that would happen cranked up.
And lo and behold it
killed the elephant.
Freak-outs.
Instant insanity.
Did any of guys
have to take LSD
as part of being undercover?
"Take LSD"? Are you crazy?
A Never Neverland of no return.
No, get away.
Get away.
You might be the one guy
that trips out on this stuff.
LSD started out
a low penalty drug.
But then as people began
to learn more and more
about what it did to you, then
it worked its way up the scale.
The other
side would disagree with that
and say that maybe it was tied
to the anti-war movement
or other movements.
But my impression was that
serious people involved
in science and medicine
were seeing it,
LSD, as a bigger problem.
The manufacturer for illicit LSD
should be vigorously
sought and prosecuted.
I don't care
what the governments say.
They're all just a crock of
shit, out for power and money.
And that was not my trip.
It was too fucking much.
The law said it's no
longer legal to make LSD.
So we finished it all up.
One of the things
you need to remember
about the United States is
that it's 50 different states
and they aren't all that united.
It became illegal in California
before other places.
So that's why the Denver
lab was not in California.
I rented a house
not far from the Denver Zoo.
Setting
up the lab went well.
Owsley proceeded to come to the
lab and make acid with us.
When
that work was done,
Owsley went back
to the Bay Area to organize
a tableting facility for the
LSD we'd made in Denver.
So I went back to Berkeley.
I ordered more chemicals
through the chemical supply
house Owsley had recommended.
The chemical supply
houses
recognized that some of the
chemicals they were selling
were probably going
into illegal drugs.
They'd get an order.
They would call us.
Sometimes we would put
an undercover agent
behind the desk as a clerk.
There
was a new stock clerk
who helped me load the truck.
Aiden Hendrix assumed
the role of stock clerk.
At approximately 1:15 p.m.,
Donald R. Douglas
arrived in a van-type truck.
Hendrix would
pretend to be an employee,
meet the people, take their
order, fill it, give it to them
and tell us, hey,
OK, he's got it.
And now he's leaving in a certain
kind of car or whatever.
He got
into a car and followed us,
which an employee of a
chemical company would not do.
A list of these
chemicals is as follows,
Ten cases of chloroform.
Hundred pounds
of sodium chloride.
Fifty gallons of acetone.
Twenty five pounds of drierite.
The truck was followed to the vicinity
of Harrison Street in Stanley Place.
When we
went back to my house
we discovered that they'd put
my house under surveillance.
Highball one to Dugout.
This is Dugout.
He lived
not too far from a motel.
We could go to it
and rent a motel room,
look right out the window.
We did
see that we were being,
followed on a regular basis.
And we became a bit
thick-skinned about it.
The way I was looking
at it is that we were all
playing a game
and we just had chosen
different sides.
I did what I did, which
I thought was the right
thing for the country
and for the rule of law.
I thought I was doing something
good and we disagreed.
Spy versus
spy, cops versus robbers.
Surveillance is the key.
And that's the only way
we were able to follow.
Owsley to Arenden.
Gordon White, Special Agent
with the Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs.
We had probable cause
to believe,
that there might be some type
of drug manufacturing going on,
in the premises.
We had no response and
forcible entry was obtained.
Hey!
Don't move.
- Don't move. Get over there.
- Hey, now.
And in the house
we found Mr. Owsley Stanley.
I said,
"gee, I'd love to help you
but I just dropped
about 200 mics of acid.
"I don't think I really want
to go anywhere right now."
Then they carted me
off to the joint.
I called
the lab in Denver.
A strange voice answered, and
my first thought was, oh shit,
the lab has been busted.
I called my lawyer
and asked if he could
find out what had happened.
It turned out that
the landlord came to the house.
He smelled a really funny smell.
He thought is there perhaps
a dead body in the house?
Sheriff's office.
He called the police.
OK.
Hold on just a second.
A cop came.
The cop decided that he
would break down the door.
As soon as he went
inside, he immediately
called the narcotics police.
None of us had paid
attention to how
the laws changed in Colorado.
So when the Denver lab was
busted, each of the things
we were doing there had become
a more serious felony,
than in California.
The heat on us
was really increasing a lot.
I said that I wanted to take
a hiatus of about six months,
and go get regular jobs where
federal agents could see us do
our work, until they got
tired it
and we have
an agreed meeting place.
And at some point we'd drop
whatever it is we're doing,
meet in this place and proceed.
Tim said that he
wanted to continue.
So then I said, well
then I guess I'm out.
That's how I was out.
I was going to have
to start from scratch.
Owsley made it pretty clear
he wouldn't be financing me.
When I told him, well I didn't
really have enough money
to do it on my own, he
said, "well, how about if you"
ask Billy Hitchcock?"
And what it came down
to was seeing if Nick wanted
to set up a lab in partnership.
They said, come to California.
We'll work together.
So we pooled our resources.
I got to the house in Windsor,
and we all go forward
on the shoulders of the people
who went before us.
In 1969
we did have intelligence
that Sand and Scully were
working together on producing,
Orange Sunshine, LSD.
I mean, everybody in Haight
was talking about it.
It was the LSD of choice.
We would get reports
from all over the country
about Orange Sunshine seizures.
So we knew it was spreading
around the country.
Sand and Scully were apparently
running this lab in Windsor.
And they did a good job
of keeping it from us.
We conducted surveillances.
We talked to informants.
We did a lot of things.
But we didn't find the lab.
Stay there.
But sometime
after Scully
did get arrested
at the Napa County Airport,
for, at the lab in Denver.
I was busted
in the spring of '69.
I spent a lot of time commuting
to Denver to go to court.
Would you please relate
to this court and jury
when and where you
first observed him.
I first observed him at 1:24...
And after that,
I tended
to have paranoid trips
where I was hallucinating
police in the trees.
It was very unnerving
to think that the police
might be out in the bushes,
about to swoop down.
And I was just terrified.
So I got in touch
with the Brotherhood folks,
and basically said, you
guys have to take over.
I can't do it anymore.
Tim's timid.
He's not real brave sometimes.
Why do you think
he quit when you didn't quit
and Nick didn't quit?
Because he
didn't take enough of it.
I don't know how much acid Tim
took, but it wasn't much.
You need to keep
taking it so that you
really are current
with your spiritual feelings.
Pretend it was a momentary job,
and he did what he did.
And then he was finished.
And to me it was just
another rock on the road.
America's public enemy
number one is drug abuse.
In order to fight
and defeat this enemy,
it is necessary to wage
a new all-out offensive.
Just another asshole
trying to direct money,
and power where he wanted it.
The depth of our commitment,
our national commitment
is clear.
And the pressure
is on the criminal drug trade.
Richard Lee Rathjen, Special Agent
for the Internal Revenue Service.
I was working very closely
with the Internal Revenue Service.
Dick Rathjen.
A special group
was formed within the IRS.
It consisted of about
100 special agents
under the designation of the
Narcotics Traffickers Program.
Nicholas Sand was one of the
original cases assigned me.
Nick Sand
had a harder edge.
He was a typical high-level
drug dealer,
who was primarily motivated
by profit.
I was never out for money.
The only money I ever
wanted was enough money,
to live comfortably
and to make as many psychedelic
laboratories as I could.
Dick Rathjen
pulled his tax returns.
And from there the investigation
just grew on the tax side.
Agent Rathjen
was a very smart man.
And he figured there were a
few holes in the stories.
Mr. Sand did not report
approximately $300,000
in taxable income.
That's how
they got Al Capone, right?
Right.
He also told me he owned
no assets, held no property,
had nothing in any
nominee names or anything.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that
was a little bit of a balls up.
In other words, he
was dead broke and lived
off his common law wife.
We opened a criminal
tax investigation
on her at this point.
This is getting
too heavy.
I don't want to do this anymore.
Everything was obviously
going to have
to be done on a whole
different level,
assumed names, new identities.
By that point I was already
starting to think
about training as a teacher.
And I loved the ranch
and I really,
loved the idea of us living
here and raising children here.
So you think he should've quit?
I thought so.
I thought that there were a lot
of things that he could do.
He wasn't going
to shake this life
so that it would
be centered here.
It was going to be centered
around making psychedelics.
He began to take himself
so seriously that you
couldn't poke him in the side
and say, "oh, come
on, get off it."
I think anybody
that has to do this job,
you had to have a big ego.
I did something
I feel was really
good for millions of people,
and I'm OK with that.
I love him.
I've loved him my whole life.
But for a while he became,
the best word I can think of,
is insufferable.
We reached
a point where I told him,
you need to find somebody else.
And he did.
I went off to St.
Louis with a new partner.
I made a beautiful
laboratory, two-story brick
building in downtown St. Louis.
I'd formed this company, Signet
Research and Development.
Everybody was very happy
that industry was moving
into this impoverished
area and I
was getting kudos
from the mayor.
We made a lot
of beautiful psychedelics.
And we were right
out in the open.
One more job, one more paycheck.
We didn't really
accept checks though.
We went through all the
bank accounts for Nicholas Sand
and a number of other accounts
we located, William Hitchcock,
Robert Timothy Scully.
I was very scared.
If Nick kept
on cooking, he would
eventually bring down all of
us in a huge conspiracy case.
Billy and I tried to talk him
into taking some time out,
just the way Don Douglas
had tried to talk
me into taking time out.
Nick was totally
irresponsible in the way he
was going about his business.
And he was jeopardizing
everyone else who
was involved in the Windsor lab.
Nick responded
by saying that it was that none
of our business what he did.
And after all, hadn't we agreed
to try to turn on the world.
That's pretty common
with a high level traffickers.
They must have their own
addiction,
because they often continued a
business way beyond what, you know,
prudence would dictate.
On top of that,
I'd slowly been getting less
and less enthusiastic,
about what I'd been doing.
Things were looking somewhat
darker in Haight-Ashbury.
That group that was still left
in the Haight-Ashbury started
to seem more like lost souls.
The age of the flower children
was gone.
It was a lot more
methamphetamine.
There was a lot more
murders and violence.
There was more presence
of the Hell's Angels
and other motorcycle groups.
It was a trip.
People that I
knew had peak experiences
and had the experience
of oneness,
still treating each other
really badly and dishonestly.
I still believe that
LSD was a good thing.
But I was no longer convinced
that it was the solution
to the world's problems.
But I got turned
on to biofeedback instruments.
I'm going to measure
the electrical activity
of my brain, as it leaks
out onto the scalp.
There were some early studies
done that related the brain waves
of Zen monks yoga masters to
particular brain wave patterns,
when they were meditating.
I saw brainwave biofeedback as a
possible way of teaching people
to reach that state
of oneness with the universe,
without having to use drugs.
So you're still
trying to turn the world on?
In a kinder, gentler way.
Yeah.
And then in late 1971, I
got a phone call telling me,
I was off the hook
for the Denver lab,
because the police hadn't
gotten a search warrant.
The state Supreme
Court had ruled
that the search was illegal.
And it was tremendously
liberating.
The road ahead was clear
for doing research
in lots of different directions.
Unless Nick did
something really foolish,
I'd somehow managed
to escape getting punished
for what I'd been doing.
So here
I am in St. Louis.
It's getting very
cold in Missouri.
And we decide to go traveling in
Mexico and taking a vacation.
Unbeknownst to me, a water pipe
broke in the house.
And the neighbors,
they could see
water running down the stairs.
The sheriff for that town
breaks in.
They go up to my bedroom.
They find the leak
in the bathroom nearby.
They also go into my closet, and
they find some psychedelics.
And then they
discovered the lab.
Powder LSD capable
of producing over
fourteen million tablets
of Orange Sunshine
was found in two locations.
It was in all
the papers.
I just didn't happen
to see the papers.
When I pulled up...
Driver, step outside slowly.
Five heavy duty guys with
shotguns jumped out and said...
If you make any sudden moves,
you'll be shot immediately.
What a country.
Keep your hands away from
your body and drop full down.
It was an "oh, shit"
moment.
Not that they have busted Nick,
I think I'm in deeper hot water.
I suspected there
was a good chance that Nick
would have things with him,
that would be used
as evidence against me.
Marijuana, LSD, some mescaline.
I made a personal
bet that he'd probably still
have that flow chart with him,
that showed him the process
for making LSD on one page.
It turned out he did.
Is the gamble of drug
exploration worth this?
Is it worth the physical
and mental risk as well?
Well a grand jury
was convened specifically
to investigate
Nick, Billy, and I.
I eventually hid out
in a friend's house.
While I was there, I got a phone
call from Billy Hitchcock.
And he told me, "I
have bad news for you."
Would you say
that you were a close
personal friend of Mr. Scully?
Yes, I would.
I advised him
of my tax problems.
I told him I was cooperating
with the government
where I would have
to reveal the whole situation.
He'd been indicted
for income tax evasion,
and he didn't see
any other way out.
Billy wasn't
the final piece in the puzzle.
He was that one in the middle
that you'd spend a half an hour
looking for.
And then once you find
that one, everything,
seems to fall into place.
Owsley
and Nick Sand gave Billy
large amounts
of money to send offshore
into Swiss bank accounts.
He would
launder money for us.
Noble he was not.
It's just like fishing.
You reel it in, and you
look at it, and you figure,
I can get a bigger
one than this.
So I'll tell him, "hey, you
know, I'll throw you back",
if you can give me
somebody else."
My
lawyer came and read off
the names of the unindicted
co-conspirators.
I said, "Lenny, put it plain."
What's an unindicted
co-conspirator?"
He said, "a snitch."
Someone who has turned
state's evidence against you."
I said, "Billy?"
It's just
another example of idealism
fading in the face of reality.
He offered to loan
me $10,000, which he encouraged
me to use to hire a lawyer,
so that I could also turn and
become a government witness.
Anybody can be turned.
The question is, how
much do you have to give
them in order for them to turn?
He said, Tim
is considering whether or not
to turn state's evidence.
Do the same
thing I did and make
a deal with the government.
I was shocked,
right down to the soles
of my feet.
I said,
I'll take the money
and I'll make my best choice.
I couldn't believe it.
Remain seated and come to order,
court will begin in session.
I realized that
if I did become a witness
against Nick, that
I would end up
feeling really bad about
myself for the rest of my life.
All right.
Ladies and gentlemen,
this next case...
The way
I'd end up feeling best
about myself would
be if I faced the music
and tried to fight the charges.
Billy ended up testifying
for a couple of days.
His testimony was
pretty damning.
They were manufacturing
LSD, somewhere between
three and four million tabs.
Pretty painful to hear.
Scully made just
about a million tablets.
They knew what
we did and where we did it.
Nick came
to the Bahamas.
There's a word
that kind of describes Billy.
It's in Yiddish, but it...
it is such a perfect word.
He's a schlub.
Yes.
I met with Mike Randall.
Billy Hitchcock's
a punk and he always was.
He's a rich guy.
Don't try to take
a rich guy's money away.
I never
held that against Billy.
I think most people
would save themselves.
The stupid thing was bringing
him to the laboratory.
That he had something...
You know, there were a lot
of those blunders
all along the line that
were just... yeah, just showoff
maneuvers that were dumb.
Ladies and gentlemen
of the jury...
The trial
judge, Samuel Conti,
is known as Hanging Sam.
Oh, Judge Conti
was a fine American.
He was one of our
favorite judges.
Judge Conti was tough.
But I think fair.
The events which are the
subject of this proceeding...
In one
of the pretrial proceedings,
he said he wished he had
access to the death penalty
in our case, which
gave us a pretty
good clue of what he was going
to do in terms of sentencing.
And the man was just...
Objection, your honor.
Motion to strike.
Why don't you both
approach the bench.
Every motion that
we made, Conti just denied,
interrupted our
lawyers, yelled at them.
I mean, he's a sick man.
It was blow after
blow after blow.
And they had 63 witnesses
for the prosecution.
They spent one or two million
dollars.
I feel pretty proud that it
cost them that much to get me.
And I'm just one little guy,
you know, with a good idea.
When I
got on the stand,
I really wanted
to try to explain
why we made psychedelics.
I actually did
convince the judge
that there was a chance that
I was an idealist
rather than in it for the money.
But when he sentenced
me, he said,
"idealists are the most
dangerous kind."
And socked it to me
with 20 years.
Mr. Scully is a brilliant
man, but not very smart.
An idealist without
a conscience.
He was impeding
justice and impeding
the moral lives and well-being
of many, many citizens.
Heroically,
he stood up for us,
and really got slammed for it.
He got a 20-year sentence.
I got only a 15-year sentence.
That was a really bad moment.
And I didn't have long in the
courtroom to think about it.
I was whisked away pretty
quickly into the holding cell.
Deep in my heart
I have some sympathy for all
the people who went to prison.
I don't really have sympathy
on the basis of the chronology.
Maybe he is not doing it anymore
and doesn't
intend to do it anymore.
But the fact is, he did it, and
he was an important trafficker.
And an example has
to be set for other people
who want to enter the business.
I climbed
up on the bunk
and pulled the blanket
over my head
and cried for a while
cause I thought,
it was going to be pretty scary
being in prison for a long time.
I was going to get
sent where all
those tough guys were that I
didn't get along with very well
in high school.
It's McNeil Island
Federal Penitentiary,
the oldest federal penal
facility in the United States.
I was sent up
to NcNeil Island,
in link and belly chains
and handcuffs.
They put you through
a delousing procedure,
take away your clothes and put
you through a special shower,
a medicinal scrub.
When I first drove up I made
a naive venture, first up.
There were guys who
had been in motorcycle gangs.
Guys were there for murder.
There was one
Eskimo who was there
for eating his whole family.
They were generally
a fairly intimidating lot.
I couldn't begin to
tell you how many people in here
have had encounters
that they didn't want.
A lot of the guys
were frightened,
they would be turned
into a punk,
and be raped by the other
prisoners.
It's part of the
dehumanization process.
There's only one way to do time,
and that's to do it
one day at a time.
That's the only way you
can, and keep your sanity.
I did have
a little difficulty at first
because a number of people tried
to make me offers I couldn't
refuse to become
the distributor for all
the drugs they
expected I was going
to be bringing into the prison.
The answer I gave all of them was,
"just wait for my crime partner"
to get here.
I don't have any drugs."
Usually
crime partners,
as they're referred to,
are kept separate.
For some reason they
put us together.
We were bunkies. He had the top bunk.
I had the bottom bunk.
My girlfriend at the time
would come to the prison.
And she would have
a balloon with a variety
of psychedelics in it.
When we got up to be allowed
our one hug and kiss,
she put the balloon
from her mouth into mine
and I swallowed it.
I had to shit it out,
and I had to clean it up,
and then I had to unwrap it.
And then I had to figure
some way of dosing it out.
He starting
running sessions in the cell.
He would typically do
it after lights out.
He'd open the door to his
locker where he had
a picture of Ganesh pasted
in the door.
He'd light a candle
and he and the other folks
who were getting high
would sit around,
shielded from the guard's
vision as they walked by.
I mean, he's a great session
guide.
We formed an eight man
psychedelic cell.
Had a mafia guy in it.
He took acid with us,
because he wasn't a pussy.
"As he came out of that session
he said, "hey guys, you know,
that's the first time I've
been in church in 30 years."
I began to monitor
the delivery of food.
Somehow I got some LSD
in there and the word got out.
Everybody would rather take LSD
than being just sitting
in jail, right.
We got the whole
of the prison stoned.
This is what freedom
is really about.
It's not about not
being in chains.
It's about not having
your mind enslaved.
I just
didn't take part in it.
I went to bed and read a book
if the lights were still on.
And when the lights went
out I always went to sleep.
The prison library
was in terrible shape.
I offered to update
the card catalogs
so it would be accurate.
And the librarian
said, "OK, you're hired."
Tim got up in the morning
as soon as the gates were open.
Boom, stayed there all day.
He was studying the case, trying
to find constitutional issues,
that would help get us off.
Judge Conti
had set our bail
at a very, very high figure,
half a million dollars each.
We filed bail appeals.
So we both got out
on appeal bond.
And it was a big relief.
Get in your cells!
I said
goodbye to Nick in prison.
I remember wishing him luck.
I couldn't really
focus on anything for a while.
It's hard to come back in after
you've been in that system.
The system changes you
and not for the better.
It took a few
months for the Supreme Court
to decline to hear my case.
And when I heard we'd
lost that appeal,
I wasn't tremendously surprised,
but I was really disappointed.
I was doing everything
I could to get
ready to go back to prison.
I had a little
houseboat in Sausalito.
I was living there
with my Buddha
and all my Persian carpets
that I liked to collect.
And we were just
sitting down preparing,
for a psychedelic session that
I was going to be guiding,
for 12 people from the Bay Area.
As I was finishing up
all the preparations,
Nancy came in and said, "we've
got to get you out of here."
I just got a call from Tim.
They have denied your appeal.
And you're going
to be picked up in a few days
and taken to prison.
Good to see you, darling.
Yes.
I met Nick in 1969.
He turned me
on to Orange Sunshine.
I think this one
might be better.
And I didn't
leave that room for three days.
And I must say, I fell madly
in love with that person
and what he was.
Was Nick very handsome?
Yes.
He was different than he is now.
What
do you mean, was?
What is this negative shit?
He still is.
I was a part
of this psychedelic revolution.
He knew that he could
count on me,
to help him in any way
that was needed.
We knew that we had
to get out of there.
Ah, here we go.
When they
lowered Nick Sand's bond,
I knew he would run and he did.
And I said,
watch your rear view mirror.
If you see any cars pulling
out behind of us suddenly,
we've got a tail.
Lo and behold, there
was one of them
in my view mirror
and I thought, oh, shoot.
I said,
"OK, we've been made."
They knew
what they were doing.
They weren't easy to follow.
I said,
"drive over to Mill Valley."
And we parked behind
a row of cedars.
We would see the same car
driving up, driving back.
They did their tricks.
We did our tricks.
It came down to a matter
of who did their tricks better.
I had
a sense of their timing.
And soon as they passed
going to the right,
I said, "get out of here."
Go left. Make your first right.
Make your second left.
"Make your second right."
We just had
to go all those little
residential areas
and go shh, shh, shh, shh.
Get
us over the mountain.
And we got up there.
"And I said," wow, we're clean.
We got away. Now we just have to
figure out where to go from here."
I had heard
that Nick had vanished.
"I told all my friends," if you
hear from Nick,
please don't tell me where
he is or what he's doing,"
because I really don't
want to know.
I didn't want to be part
of whatever...
the next conspiracy might be.
My mother and my girlfriend
at the time drove me up,
and I took the ferry
across to the prison.
What I told myself
was that if all else failed,
I'd figure out how to escape
if I couldn't stand it.
But I thought I'd figure
out a way of doing the time.
Well
the plan was to drive
to Oregon and Washington
until Nick
was able to walk over
into Canada.
He certainly didn't go to sleep.
I think we just
drove the whole time.
We went
up on the most obscure route
you could say, all the way through
the forest for hundreds of miles,
up the Olympic peninsula.
After a few days journey, I
got some halfway decent ID.
Nick Sand was gone.
I went and bought a fishing rod
lures, weights, tackle box.
Now I could make my escape.
Good morning, sir.
Good morning, sir.
When
I reached Canada,
a little white-haired
bouncy immigration
officer said, "and what is the
purpose of your visit, sir?"
I had my pole and my tackle
box and my fishing jacket on.
And I said, "come on."
You got to be kidding."
He said, "go on.
Have a great time."
I ran the fugitive
investigation on it
for awhile.
But we had no leads.
You know, the man had
had numerous names
and traveled all over the world.
We'd hear reports
of possible sightings.
But I don't recall that
we even came close.
So I disappeared
and continued my mission.
I lived as a fugitive in Canada.
And I carried on
making psychedelics
for the next 20 years.
If anybody beat
the system it was Nick Sand.
I was granted
admission as a PhD candidate,
so that I could be a student
while I was in prison.
I ended up by getting
a PhD in psychology.
I had a lot of help
from people on the outside
who got my sentence
reduced to ten years,
which made me eligible for
parole in three and third years.
I pretty rapidly got absorbed
by the whole computer world.
It turned out that
having made LSD
was a positive thing
in the computer business.
Tim and I were lovers
for a while in late '60s.
And then we didn't see
one another for years.
But the more the years went
by, the more mellow he became.
He's like a cat.
You slowly get to know him.
A cat reveals their personality
to you rather slowly.
As we've gotten older,
we've figured out,
both of us, what we really want,
which is to be partners
and lovers and not
to live under the same roof.
And that's worked
wonderfully well.
I scaled
back my ambitions,
to trying to just
make my own life,
and the lives
of the people that I care
about be as good as possible.
This is not perfect
but I'm doing the best I can.
That's all we can do, you know.
Perhaps at the bottom
there are some
of the chemical manuals from
the different chemical houses.
This, packed into the corner,
is the great big steel
reactionary flasks.
It's like a big pressure cooker.
They can cook it under pressure.
I'd forgotten about him.
It was a huge shock to me the
magnitudes of the laboratory.
Practical LSD manufacture.
Drug smuggling,
the Forbidden Book.
That he'd gone
that long without getting
caught, and then when he got
caught that he was involved
in such an apparently big way.
Psychedelic log.
MDA, DMT.
Acetic acid.
I don't know if there's
much he hasn't tried his hand at.
I knew he was sharp
but I was still surprised.
- Chromatography.
- "Chromatography"?
He knows his stuff, doesn't he?
Yeah.
I was eventually
arrested with enough acid,
to dose the whole
of Canada two times over.
And they sent me back
to stand trial in the US.
By some great
coincidence, they got
me back in front of Sam Conti.
They brought him
out of retirement,
so he could get me again.
I'm a warrior for peace.
I can take it.
Sure beats working
in the yard at McNeil Island.
That's for sure.