The Horror of Holmesburg Prison

For more than two decades, incarcerated men inside Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison were used as human test subjects in experiments that sound like something out of a dystopian novel. Beginning in 1951, University of Pennsylvania dermatologist Dr. Albert Kligman turned the prison into one of the largest non-therapeutic human research operations in American history, exposing inmates to infectious diseases, radioactive isotopes, mind-altering drugs for the CIA and U.S. Army, dioxin at 468 times the authorized dosage for Dow Chemical, and injections of asbestos funded by Johnson and Johnson.

The overwhelming majority of the men subjected to these experiments were Black, and most were paid as little as a dollar a day for their participation. Kligman famously described his first visit to the prison by saying all he saw before him were acres of skin, comparing the inmates to a fertile field. His work at Holmesburg led directly to the development and patent of Retin-A, one of the most widely used skincare medications in the world, generating enormous wealth for Kligman, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johnson and Johnson while the men whose bodies made it possible received nothing.

The experiments ended in 1974 after public outcry following the exposure of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, but it would take until 1998 for the full story to reach the public through Allen Hornblum's landmark book Acres of Skin.

A lawsuit filed by nearly 300 former test subjects was dismissed on statute of limitations grounds, and Kligman died in 2010 at the age of 93 without ever apologizing. The City of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, and the College of Physicians have since issued formal apologies, but no reparations have been paid.

This episode tells the full story from beginning to end, including the prison's brutal history, the scope and nature of the experiments, the institutions that funded and enabled them, and the survivors who are still fighting to be heard.

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Disturbing History is a dark history podcast exploring unsolved mysteries, secret societies, historical conspiracies, lost civilizations, and the shadowy stories buried beneath the surface of the past.

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