Sidney was born in the Bronx under the name Joseph Schneider . He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. A stutterer from childhood, Gottlieb got a master's degree in speech therapy. He also had a club foot, but this did not stop him from practicing folk dancing, a lifelong passion.
In 1951, Sidney Gottlieb joined the Central Intelligence Agency.
poison expert,
As a
he headed the chemical division of the
Black Sorcerer" and
Technical Services Staff (TSS). Sidney became known as the "
". He supervised preparations of lethal poisons and experiments in mind control. the "Dirty Trickster
In April 1953 Sidney Gottlieb headed the secret Project MKULTRA which was activated on the order of CIA director Allen Dulles. Gottlieb
LSD drugs
and other
was known for administration of
psycho-active
to unwitting
subjects and for financing
psychiatric research and development of "techniques that would crush the human psyche to the point that it would admit anything." He sponsored physicians such as Ewen Cameron and Harris Isbell in controversial psychiatric research 323