Naman Shrestha
In Netflix’s ‘Chaos: The Manson Murders,’ the focus is on Charles Manson, his cult, and how he convinced his followers to commit seven murders in Los Angeles in August 1969. The documentary film, which is based on the 2019 book titled ‘CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties’ written by Tom O’Neill and Dan Piepenbring, delves deep into the brutal killings and also touches upon the possible involvement or influence of Dr. Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, who had been working on a mind control experiment at the time of the murders.
Dr. Louis “Jolly” West Was a Famous Psychiatrist Known For His Mind Control Experiments
On October 6, 1924, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant named Albert Jerome West and a Brooklyn-based piano teacher named Anna Rosenberg. Growing up in a financially unstable household along with a couple of siblings, he went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Iowa before earning his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1949. Following his graduation, he did his psychiatric residency at the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, which is now called Weill Cornell Medicine, until 1952. A couple of years later, in 1954, 29-year-old Louis was appointed as a professor and the chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, where he remained until 1969.
For the next two decades, from 1969 to 1989, he not only served as the chairman of psychiatry but also the head of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. During the Korean War, he also served as an Air Force physician and worked on brainwashing techniques to exonerate US servicemen who were suspected of treason. Louis was known for his extensive studies on several clinical psychiatric issues, such as alcoholism, sleep disorders, cults, drug abuse, violence, and more. Following his impressive work in the Korean War and experience in the field, he was approached by the CIA, with whom he allegedly worked in secret for several years. During his association with the CIA in the 1960s, he reportedly researched extensively on LSD — its use and abuse.
According to the show, he conducted studies on unwilling patients to see the effects of LSD and sleep deprivation in them. By the end of his career, he was not only known for his expertise in hypnosis and brainwashing but also for the CIA mind control project and the MKUltra project. His examination of Jack Ruby, the killer of Lee Harvey Oswald, was also something that made him a popular figure in the psychiatric field. Louis helped Jack by convincing the court not to give him the death penalty, which is something he was against. A trustee of the American Psychiatric Association, he also served as a consultant to the Peace Corps, the United States Information Agency, and the United States Air Force. The established research scientist was also involved in the Civil Rights Movement as he participated in rallies and sit-ins.
Dr. Louis “Jolly” West Had Been Battling Cancer at the Time of His Death
Apart from having a well-established and successful professional career, Dr. Louis “Jolly” West also had a stable and close-knit family life. Around the mid-1940s, he tied the knot with the love of his life, Kathryn, who was also a distinguished clinical psychologist based in Los Angeles, California. Over the following years, they gave birth to three children — two daughters named Anne and Mary and a son named John. From what we can tell, he was also particularly close to his sister, Nancy Wheeler. In 1998, the world-famous psychiatrist and his family were shocked when he was diagnosed with metastatic cancer, which is a rapidly advancing malignant tumor.
The doctors reportedly gave him six months to live. Another devastating news came when Louis’ wife, Kathryn, also reportedly developed Alzheimer’s disease. As time passed, Louis decided that he wanted to end his life, so he reached out to his son, John, about it. After convincing his son about the plan, he took a deadly cocktail of pills assembled by John on the evening of January 2, 1999, in his Los Angeles residence. By the following morning, the 74-year-old psychiatrist was found dead in his bed. Although his family assumed that the cause of his death was metastatic cancer, his son, John, revealed the alleged truth in a 2009 memoir titled ‘The Last Goodnights.’
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