French Bread

An American journalist claims he's uncovered evidence that during the Cold War, the CIA slipped LSD into the bread supply of a tiny French village, setting off a wave of hallucinogenic reactions that had people thinking they were or on fire, or flying, or being attacked by snakes. In 1951, the residents of Pont-Saint-Esprit, in southeast France, "were suddenly racked with frightful hallucinations of terrifying beasts and fire." Five people died and dozens were insitutionalized. At the time, scientists concluded that the bread of the most popular baker in town had been accidentally contaminated with a hallucinogenic mold. But now, an American journalist says he has evidence that the entire "Cursed Bread incident" was the result of a CIA mind-control experiment. While researching the supposed suicide of an Army biochemist, H.P. Albarelli Jr. came across records of a conversation in which a CIA agent told a scientist the hallucinations were caused by diethylamide (the D in LSD), not by mold. A White House document on CIA abuses makes reference to the "Point St. Esprit incident" and CIA documents mention the "secret of Pont-Saint-Esprit."