early 1960sReputable sourceWell documented

Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA's Poison Lab

On the timeline · around early 1960s ·

What happened

Many of the plots' weapons came from one man: Sidney Gottlieb, the chemist who ran the CIA's Technical Services Division and its notorious MKULTRA mind-control program. His lab devised the botulinum toxins, treated cigars and disease-causing agents intended for Castro.

Why it matters

Gottlieb's shadowy laboratory was the technical heart of the campaign — where the CIA's strangest assassination weapons were actually created.

Sources

The National Security Archive, George Washington University. The Top Secret Testimony of CIA's MKULTRA Chief, 50 Years Later (2025) · Reputable source

Part of a timelineThe Plots to Kill Castro32 events · Exploding cigars, Mafia hitmen, a poisoned milkshake, a booby-trapped seashell, a lethal pen handed over the day JFK died — and decades of exile plots after. The CIA's documented campaign to assassinate Fidel Castro, and the man who outlived it all.View all →