Kingpins

“The Acid King” Pt. 2: William Pickard

After the 1988 bust of his Mountain View LSD lab, William Pickard turned to academics and convinced his colleagues he was done cooking acid. In truth, he set up a new lab in a retrofitted Cold War silo and started making LSD by the kilo — becoming the drug’s largest producer in the history of the U.S.

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Undeniable power. Unbelievable stories. Unlikely origins. Kingpins follows the rise and fall of rulers of the underworld. Every Friday, we examine the leaders of organized crime rings, and how money and power corrupted and changed their communities. What makes a kingpin or queenpin, and how can we stop them? Kingpins is a Spotify Original from Parcast.