Another horrible story and crime whose victims are still waiting for justice.
Oak Ridge, a mental asylum for criminals, closed in 2014, was part of Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre (http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Penetanguishene_Mental_Health_Centre). In the 1960s/70s it carried out a program to “cure (undiagnosed) psychopaths”, including with LSD, scopolamine and other drugs, along with torture and all techniques used in the notorious brain washing operations (but “we don’t use that term”, says in an interview Dr. Elliot T. Barker, one of its main psychiatrists at that time, still professionally active.). The supposedly “tremendously successful” program failed, and the "psychopaths who participated in the program had a significantly worse outcome than the psychopaths who did not participated in the program but went to prison instead", says Dr. Marnie E. Rice, Director of Research at the mental Health Center (http://www.waypointcentre.ca/research_academics/researchers/MarnieERice/) "This was truly remarkable that you could unchanged their behavior but that was for the worse", she adds with a smile on her face.
One of the program survivors, Steve Smith recently published a book The Psychopath Machine: A Story of Resistance and Survival, which is described as follows (http://ahp.apps01.yorku.ca/?p=6474):
More:
What happened at Oak Ridge Psychiatric Unit?
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hiddenpersuaders/blog/happened-oak-ridge-psychiatric-unit/
Steve’s Blog: http://www.thepsychopathmachine.com/oak-ridge-resource.html
Remembering Oak Ridge https://historyexhibit.waypointcentre.ca
Videos:
Jim’s story (15 mins)
https://youtu.be/879UUw4u9q8
Steve Smith re-visiting Oak Ridge, with old footage (16 mins)
https://youtu.be/s-FbXDuiINY
Peter Woodcock aka David Michael Krueger, whom you can see in the 2nd video, died at the Oak Ridge facility in 2010
https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2010/03/09/the_serial_killer_they_couldnt_cure_dies_behind_bars.html
Another page with an entry on Woodcock:
http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/krueger-david.htm
F-Ward by Norm Perry and the patients at Oak Ridge (48 mins)
https://youtu.be/q6OBy-9s_p0
Oak Ridge, a mental asylum for criminals, closed in 2014, was part of Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre (http://www.asylumprojects.org/index.php?title=Penetanguishene_Mental_Health_Centre). In the 1960s/70s it carried out a program to “cure (undiagnosed) psychopaths”, including with LSD, scopolamine and other drugs, along with torture and all techniques used in the notorious brain washing operations (but “we don’t use that term”, says in an interview Dr. Elliot T. Barker, one of its main psychiatrists at that time, still professionally active.). The supposedly “tremendously successful” program failed, and the "psychopaths who participated in the program had a significantly worse outcome than the psychopaths who did not participated in the program but went to prison instead", says Dr. Marnie E. Rice, Director of Research at the mental Health Center (http://www.waypointcentre.ca/research_academics/researchers/MarnieERice/) "This was truly remarkable that you could unchanged their behavior but that was for the worse", she adds with a smile on her face.
One of the program survivors, Steve Smith recently published a book The Psychopath Machine: A Story of Resistance and Survival, which is described as follows (http://ahp.apps01.yorku.ca/?p=6474):
When Steve Smith set out to hitchhike from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario to Canada’s west coast back in 1968, he was just an eighteen-year-old hippie with an appetite for adventure. But a short way into his journey, a reckless decision to steal a car landed him in police custody. Afraid of getting caught with the two tabs of acid in his pocket, Steve popped them into his mouth. It was one of the worst decisions of his life.
Mistaking his drug trip for a mental breakdown, the authorities placed him in Ontario’s notorious Oak Ridge mental health facility. While there, not only did he find himself shoulder-to-shoulder with people like notorious child killer Peter Woodcock and mass murderers Matt Lamb and Victor Hoffman, he also fell into the hands of someone worse: Dr. Elliot T. Barker.
Over the next eight months, Barker subjected Steve and the other patients to a battery of unorthodox experiments involving LSD, scopolamine, methamphetamines, and other drugs. Steven also experienced numerous other forms of abuse and torture.
Following his release, Steve continued to suffer the aftereffects of his Oak Ridge experience. For several years, he found himself in and out of prison—and back to Oak Ridge—before he was finally able to establish himself as a successful entrepreneur.
Once he began investigating what happened to him during his youth, not even Steve was prepared for what he would discover about Barker, Oak Ridge, and one of the darkest periods in Canada’s treatment of mental health patients. The question remains: Was Oak Ridge and Dr. Barker trying to cure psychopaths or trying to create and direct them?
More:
What happened at Oak Ridge Psychiatric Unit?
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hiddenpersuaders/blog/happened-oak-ridge-psychiatric-unit/
Steve’s Blog: http://www.thepsychopathmachine.com/oak-ridge-resource.html
Remembering Oak Ridge https://historyexhibit.waypointcentre.ca
Videos:
Jim’s story (15 mins)
https://youtu.be/879UUw4u9q8
Steve Smith re-visiting Oak Ridge, with old footage (16 mins)
https://youtu.be/s-FbXDuiINY
Peter Woodcock aka David Michael Krueger, whom you can see in the 2nd video, died at the Oak Ridge facility in 2010
https://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2010/03/09/the_serial_killer_they_couldnt_cure_dies_behind_bars.html
“Woodcock arrived in Penetang just as psychiatrists began trying to find ways to cure psychopathic offenders. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was fed LSD. He participated in something called "The Hundred Day Hate-In," where psychopaths were jammed into a room together to force them to develop empathy. He was given powerful drugs and lived in a giant, dark artificial womb for several days. These treatments did not work.”
Another page with an entry on Woodcock:
http://murderpedia.org/male.K/k/krueger-david.htm
F-Ward by Norm Perry and the patients at Oak Ridge (48 mins)
https://youtu.be/q6OBy-9s_p0