Throughout history, a number of scientists have had untimely deaths, and The Science Channel is out to see what were the shadowy circumstances behind them.
“Deadly Intelligence” explores those deaths and searches for answers to the open-ended questions still surrounding them.
Its premiere episode takes a closer look at the death of Frank Olson, a biological scientist who worked for the CIA in the early 1950s. He fell from a window of a New York City hotel in 1953, but the incident remains shrouded in mystery.
Olson worked on an “above top-secret” project for the CIA known as “Project Artichoke,” which used questionable interrogation methods — including drugs. Olson’s job was to “refine” the methods for using the drugs.
The episode will explore whether he committed suicide after witnessing Project Artichoke, or murdered for knowing too much about it.
In the clip above, which is exclusive to TheWrap, experts explain that Olson was “deeply traumatized” by what he saw.
“There was one school of thought when he was in Germany, that he had seen things that disturbed him,” one expert says, adding that Olson found the experiments to be “unethical.” But when the hotel room from which he fell is visited, the question arises of how he could have fallen from the window.
Watch the full clip above.
“Deadly Intelligence” premieres on the Science Channel Sunday, April 8.