COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA PUBLIC MEETING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON LAW AND GOVERNMENT - - - Tuesday, 5/7/02 10:31 a.m. Room 696, City Hall Philadelphia, PA - - - RESOLUTION 020171 - Authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation of allegations that biological and chemical research was forced upon people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the years 1949 to 1974. PRESENT: COUNCILMAN DAVID COHEN, Chairman COUNCILMAN ANGEL L. ORTIZ, Vice Chairman COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE L. BLACKWELL COUNCILMAN RICHARD T. MARIANO COUNCILMAN MICHAEL A. NUTTER - - - VINCENT VARALLO ASSOCIATES, INC. Registered Professional Reporters Eleven Penn Center, Suite 600 Philadelphia, PA 19103 (215) 561-2220 2 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 INDEX WITNESS Leodus Jones.................................. 14 Community Assistance for Prisoners Dr. Bernard Ackerman, Dermatopathologist...... 23 Allen Hornblum, Author, Acres of Skin......... 34 Edward Anthony, former Holmesburg inmate...... 43 Congressman Lucien Blackwell.................. 56 Alphonse Skorski, former Holmesburg inmate.... 62 Al Zabola, former Holmesburg inmate........... 83 Y. Abdulaziz (reading testimony of W. Harper) 88 Gerald O'Hara, former Holmesburg inmate....... 96 Sidney Gaines, " " " ....... 98 Warren Summers, " " " ....... 98 James Guy, " " " ....... 99 William Thomas, " " " ....... 99 Dave Carter, " " " ....... 100 Umar Ahmad, " " " ....... 101 Sandy Barnwell, " " " ....... 101 R. Johnson, " " " ....... 102 O. Pettigrew, " " " ....... 103 Lafayette Roby, " " " ....... 104 D. Armstrong, " " " ....... 105 3 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
I'll start with a brief explanation as to why we're in Room 696 instead of the Council chambers. There was a serious leak on this floor which leaked down into and flooded the Council chambers and put it out of commission. We thought it would be back by now but I'm not sure whether it's going to be ready until next fall. So the courts very graciously consented to our use of this courtroom. Therefore, if some of the facilities are not quite up to par, please forgive us. We're doing the best we can under these makeshift arrangements. This is where City Council is conducting all of its business until the fourth floor Council chambers is available. Beyond that, let me say, as most of you know, though I probably predate everybody in this room, I have had a very active Council life since 1968 -- that's about 34 years. I've participated in hundreds of hearings considering all kinds of issues, and I have to state that in my judgment, this is probably the most important hearing that I've ever been involved in because it deals with human life, it deals with the responsibilities of 4 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 government agencies, it deals with what is the responsibility of government to the people it purports to represent. It's the responsibility of the government to the people, not to the pharmaceutical companies or to universities, but to the people who they elected to protect their interests. This is a hearing in which we're going to try to give every party their right to speak. We've notified the University of Pennsylvania, we've notified the City of Philadelphia, the Mayor's Office; we've notified the two major chemical companies, the pharmaceutical companies that were involved in what's alleged to have been what seems to us to have been a horrendous process of human experimentation in which human beings, because they were vulnerable, because they were in prison -- some for reasons that later turned out to have no basis whatever -- were subjected to human experimentation, where they were taken advantage of because the folks, mostly male, almost all African-American, many with limited education, were -- all of them poor, were exposed to the temptation that for a few dollars, if they signed a 5 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 document which claimed to indicate that they were fully informed about all of the dangers, they would forever give up any rights if they were hurt, and that there would be certain medications offered to them, and they freely accepted it. Everybody knows, even today, that those statements were fraudulent because the people who were asked to sign were usually people who had very little knowledge about here rights, the circumstances which render them vulnerable to any pressures. That's why in 1974, while these experiments were ongoing in the prison system in Philadelphia and probably elsewhere, the federal government passed a law banning these kinds of experiments. The experiments we're talking about occurred in the Philadelphia prison system; that's why I'm so concerned because I have on my right Councilman Ortiz, the Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, and I'm Vice Chairman of that committee. Our responsibility is for what takes place in the prison system, to see that humane treatment is afforded all prisoners. To my left is Councilwoman Blackwell, 6 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 the Majority Leader of City Council, who, on many occasions, has distinguished herself in the cause of the rights of human beings in Philadelphia, particularly the poor and those who are disabled to protect themselves. What we want to find out is if these stories are true and let each party present their case. Let's see to it that the City of Philadelphia government ceases its dangerous stance.
Instead of answering the questions, they've tried to hide behind legal technicalities, because in a lawsuit which is pending, the defense of the University of Pennsylvania, of the City of Philadelphia, and of the pharmaceutical companies is not to attempt to justify what they're doing but to try to avoid having to answer publicly what it is that they participated in. Therefore, they come up with arguments about the statute of limitations, saying, Even if you're right, you're too late. We don't think that that kind of defense makes any sense; we think it represents a disregard for basic principles of morality and justice. I must say I'm waiting for the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia to answer the comments of 7 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 his press assistant that he's surprised that City Council would be doing something on behalf of the people who are suing the City. Well, by God, if the City is doing anything wrong with confidence in the government, the City must come forward and apologize for what it's done wrong, and we must see that every action is taken to rectify that what was wrong is being corrected. That's our duty, and if we're ever to have a government that's to have respect of the people, that must be where we stand. But we're listening to evidence today. we're going to have evidence of people who lived through this period, and we're going to give an opportunity to everyone -- the pharmaceutical, chemical companies, the City, the University of Pennsylvania. Everyone's going to have a chance to speak. Now, that may not all be doable today, and I want everybody to know in advance that the hearings are going to recess at about approximately 12:30 today and will be continued into the next date, which will be Tuesday, May 28th, the day after Labor Day [sic]. Please, when you testify, be as brief 8 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 and concise and to the point as you can. We want you have to a full opportunity to tell us your story. Other members of this committee are occupied on other Council business at this time, and whenever they get a chance, they will be coming in to participate. Our final action will be -- and I can't tell you when it will be. When these hearings finally conclude, it is my intent, as chairman of the committee, to urge upon this committee the issuance of a public report, which will find the facts as this committee finds them to be following listening to the testimony. Having said that, I'm going to call the first witness -- I've been informed -- oh, I will have the clerk of the committee read the title of the resolution. Tim?
Resolution No. 020171, authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation of allegations that biological and chemical research was forced upon people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the 9 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 years 1949 to 1974.
Mr. Kearney, I would request that you read the entire resolution in this instance, 'cause I think all of the allegations are very important.
The Council of the City of Philadelphia, Office of Chief Clerk, Resolution No. 9 020171, authorizing the City Council Committee on Law and Government to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation of allegations that biological and chemical research was forced upon people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the year 1949 to 1974: Whereas, it has been alleged that thousands of men and women who were incarcerated at various Philadelphia prisons, including Holmesburg, the House of Correction, the Detention Center, for a period beginning in the 1940s and ending in 1974, were used as test subjects for medical and chemical testing; and Whereas, this was allegedly done with the full knowledge and assistance of the City of Philadelphia, which was responsible for the care and custody of the individuals incarcerated in its 10 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 institutions; and Whereas, the individuals were purportedly subjected to testing conducted primarily by the University of Pennsylvania and doctors associated with the University; and Whereas, the testing was allegedly funded by various pharmaceutical and chemical companies, including, but not limited to, Johnson & Johnson and Dow Chemical, as well as the United States Army; and Whereas, the prisoners were purportedly subjected to tests of unknown and harmful drugs, chemicals, and radioactive materials, which caused them incalculable physical harm and damage; and Whereas, the companies involved in these experiments allegedly made millions of dollars in profits, none of it is shared with the subjects of their experiments; and Whereas, the University of Pennsylvania allegedly sanctioned these experiments as appropriate and ethical; and Whereas, many of the people so imprisoned and upon whom this research was allegedly performed are still alive, with numerous 11 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 of them living in Philadelphia; and Whereas, many of such people have purportedly become ill or died as a result of said experimentation, and many have illnesses and injuries that remain to this day; and Whereas, this group has been effectively blocked from legal and moral restitution by the same governments that allegedly subjected them to these experiments; and Whereas, this experimentation on the people in the prisons, if true, violated their constitutional and human rights and are a moral blemish in the City of Philadelphia. Now, therefore, resolved by the Council of the City of Philadelphia that City Council's Committee on Law and Government is hereby authorized to conduct a full and comprehensive investigation into the nature, character, and effect of the chemical and biological research forced upon the people incarcerated in the Philadelphia prisons during the period from 1949 to 1974 and the appropriate remedies for such involuntary experimentation; And further resolved that the 12 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 chairperson of the committee, in furtherance of such investigation, is hereby authorized to issue such subpoenas or other process, as he deems necessary or appropriate, to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents to the full extent authorized under Section 2-401 of the Home Rule Charter. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Kearney. Let me add one thing to what I said before. This is not a matter which affects only the members of City Council or the officialdom in the City of Philadelphia. Every Philadelphian bears responsibility for the actions of the government, because if the government acts wrongly and we as citizens do nothing, we're responsible for that wrongdoing. Most Philadelphians overwhelmingly know nothing whatever about what took place in the prisons. So successful has the City of Philadelphia government, the University of Pennsylvania, and the chemical companies, so successful have they been in hiding these facts 13 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 that if you were to go out among the people of Philadelphia, you would find that over 99 percent would not know anything about this. Therefore, it's very urgent that we let the people who are responsible for seeing what kind of government we have in Philadelphia, it's urgent that we left them know. And so, one of the major purposes of this hearing is to make it clear that from this day on, no one in Philadelphia will be able to say he or she is blameless 'cause they knew nothing about it. They will know, following these hearings, what took place; they will be able to form their judgment; and they will be able to be held accountable for their action. And I think those of us have the honor of serving that government ought to be able to wear that honor with distinction, rather than to have to cringe everytime everybody says, Is that the kind of government you had in Philadelphia? So it's time to get to the facts. If we were right, let's come forth with that statement; if we were wrong, let's admit it and let's make sure that it never happens again. 14 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 All right, thank you very much. The first witness will be Mr. Leodus Jones. (Witness comes forward.)
Mr. Jones, be good enough to identify yourself for the record, and then at the beginning, tell us what your role is in this. Will the Sergeant-at-Arms help Mr. Jones make sure he can be heard by everyone.
Okay, thank you. Good morning, Councilman Cohen and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and Councilman Angel Ortiz.
Good morning. You're going to have to speak into the microphone and with vigor and force.
All right, I can do that. My name is Leodus Jones, and I'm here as a representative of Community assistance for Prisoners on the behalf of the experimentation survivors. The role that the Community Assistance for Prisoners plays in this is the fact we serve as ex-offenders -- a prisoners' rights advocate group for offenders and ex-offenders. And so, therefore, 15 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 we got involved in this, and we trying to do all that we can to assist to see to it that these men and women get reparation. I understood you say to be as brief as we possibly all can, but we all have testimonies here. Will we be able to read those testimonies?
Yes. And speak directly into the microphone and try to project your voice so that everybody can hear you clearly. Don't rush so that you speak clearly and distinctly. Thank you.
Yes, sir. Okay. Community Assistance for Prisoners, hereafter referred to as "CAP" is a community-based organization with a history which spans over two decades. In spite of our limited financial and human resources, CAP has constantly demonstrated the noteworthy level of commitment and dedication to meeting this targeted population needs. We welcome the opportunity to testify before you today in reference to the experimentation that took place in the Philadelphia County prisons sponsored by the University of 16 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Pennsylvania, headed by Dr. Albert M. Kligman, head dermatologist of the medical research department at University of Pennsylvania. I'm one of the survivors. The most horrifying, humiliating, embarrassing, and depressing experience I've had was to allow myself to be used in the human experimentation/medical testing that was taking place in the Philadelphia County jails. Horrifying because I knew little concerning the test. I believed what I was being told by those who posed as doctors wearing their white coats. As a child, I was taught that those who wore white coats/white collars were to help heal the sick and men of God, only to learn in my later years that I must be made aware of the imposters. S. government, along with the medical community, made millions. I'm upset because after all of these years, I woke up to the realization that I was the victim of cohesion, manipulation, 17 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 exploitation, and deceit, along with hundreds of others, some do not wish to make it known that they took part in these studies because they have since made major changes in their lives for the best. Either they are embarrassed or afraid to come forth out of the respect for their families or losing their jobs or, in some cases, being sent back to prison. Since the book Acres of Skin hit the shelves in bookstores across the country, some 30 to 40 men have came forth, not to mention the women that were also used. These men wish to be heard. They want the public to hear directly from them what their lives has been like since the experience and the suffering they have experienced. They know now that they have been misused and abused. This has been extremely depressing. Their only wish now is to not be misrepresented and to be compensated for their pain and suffering by all parties responsible. For over 30 years, this sort of practice has been conducted by the medical community, Ivory Research, as well as corporate business and the like, understanding that the City of Philadelphia 18 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were at that time our caretakers. Today, we realize that they were more concerned about dollars and cents than human welfare. Let us examine the results of tests/sorts, let's explore. Men became bald. Some developed sores from shampoo studies. Some of the prisoners' sweat glands were removed, toxic chemicals placed on their skin. Mind-altering and halucinating drugs were being used. Toothpaste leaving men with no teeth or useless teeth studies. Pill studies from cancer, STDs, sperm tests, athletic foot tests. The list goes on and on, involving the Hippocratic Oath, the Medical Code of Ethics and the Nuremberg Code. To this day, there has been no known follow-up treatment. For too long men/women who participated in these studies have been left with unexplainable illnesses. Primary-care physician to this day do not know what the medical problems are that these men are suffering from, nor do they know how to treat them. Who's footing the bill? What should be done concerning this? 19 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted two of the four freedoms: Freedom from want and freedom from fear.
Freedom from want is economic freedom that involves basic economic rights of individuals; decent standards of living, without which, individuals are easily targeted for exploitation, abuse, and inhuman treatment. Without freedom from want, there is no human dignity. Freedom from fear serves as the basis against murder, torture, slavery, and genocide anywhere in the world. S. Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (December 1946 to August 1947). At this trial, doctors and 18 scientists accused of torturous and murderous 19 experiments on concentration camp inmates were 20 sentenced to death and life imprisonment. S. 21 judges sitting in the judgment of these doctors 22 rejected the defense argued that the defendants 23 only followed orders by their superiors. Following orders was no excuse for harmful dangers and inhuman treatment. 20 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 The judges ruled that certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts. The judges articulated a set of ten research principles, known as the "Nuremberg Code," that centers on the human rights of research subjects, the first of which is the right of subjects to refuse participation in research, and the ninth is the right of subjects to withdraw their participation to an experiment at liberty. The contribution of Nuremberg was to insist that human rights, equality and dignity, and human worth of men and women are universal. They transcend state sovereignty, state laws and practices. When developed countries conduct research in developing countries where poverty, endemic diseases, and low investment in health care are the main, they violate human rights because poor and desperate people will consent to anything. They are able to give free, voluntary, and understanding informed refusal. What the experimentation survivors is asking for is: Follow-up medical treatment at the 21 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 expense of all parties responsible; compensation for pain and suffering; financial support towards rehabilitation programs for offenders and ex-offenders; and for the lawmakers to introduce a bill to stop future practices of this sort, and; a public apology from the University of Pennsylvania for the wrongdoings that they have denied until this day. This is what the experimentation survivors is asking for. Now, we understand that there's -- some of these points that we are asking for is legal, but there is a few here that can be dealt without going to court or litigation or whatever, and we had hoped to be able to resolve that matter prior to us completing it in court. That will be left up to the attorney, Mr. Nocella. That's the testimony of the Community Assistance for Prisoners on the behalf of the experimentations survivors. Thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you very much. We understand why you are acting as the leader of this group. I know you've been very persistent in trying to get your voices heard, and 22 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 I want to congratulate you for what you're doing, and I think what you're doing shows the best kind of citizenship possible. Thank you, Mr. Jones, for being here.
I'm now going to call two people -- we're still in the introductory stage -- and they are Dr. Bernard Ackerman and Allen Hornblum to continue this introductory phase. Dr. Ackerman is an extremely well-known doctor dealing with the situation; he will tell us about his contacts with it. Allen Hornblum is the author of the book that first brought out the public's knowledge of what was taking place in Philadelphia prisons. To both of you, I think the people of Philadelphia owe a very real debt. Dr. Ackerman, will you proceed. Identify yourself first and then tell us of your involvement.
You have to speak closely to the microphone and with force. 23 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
I'm Dr. Bernard Ackerman, and I'm a dermatopathologist who has spent his entire life in academic medicine. First, Councilor Cohen, I want to begin by commending you for your opening comments because they're insightful, incisive, poignant, and touching. You went to the core of the matters on which a free society rests, and without that point of view, no free society can survive. So I want to pay tribute to you at the outset. More than three years ago, I was asked to come before the City Council of Philadelphia to share with members of it observations and reflections on my experience as a second-year resident in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania at Holmesburg Prison. " This is what I said then: It is a given that the City of Philadelphia, including officials 24 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 in City government and officials at Holmesburg Prison, as well as those at the University of Pennsylvania, including its administration and its physicians, failed the prisoners of Holmesburg Prison during the entire period that human experimentation was conducted there. By their failure to ensure that medical and ethical standards were maintained at Holmesburg Prison, they violated the Nuremberg Code that was formulated in 1947. Four years before the experiments on human beings began at Holmesburg Prison, that code was developed by American jurists following the trial at Nuremberg of Nazi physicians for crimes against humanity. I want to concentrate here on how the University of Pennsylvania not only failed the prisoners, but failed medical students and residents, such as I was then, by its forfeiture of responsibility in regard to medical and ethical standards at Holmesburg. I came to the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 to do a second year of residency in dermatology there. At the outset, I was enthusiastic about being able to do "research" 25 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 part-time at Holmesburg by virtue of repeated paeans to the marvelous contributions of the Department of Dermatology, and in particular, Dr. Albert M. Kligman was making to the inmates there. I was told that not only were we advanced in the cause of science at Holmesburg, but we were giving prisoners the opportunity to participate in the advance of science, affording them the chance to learn to be technicians and medical assistants upon their release from prison, and offering them the possibility of earning more money than they could in any other penal institution. In fact, what was purported to be research in a research institute at Holmesburg under the direction of Albert M. Kligman and under the auspices of the Department of Dermatology of the University of Pennsylvania was little more than a commercial operation in which Dr. Kligman and the University of Pennsylvania, and possibly others, reaped huge financial dividends from human experimentation. Never once during my time at 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Holmesburg -- and I was there many times, scores of time -- did I ever see anyone from the administration of the University of Pennsylvania visit the cell block on which experiments were conducted; nor was there a single attempt in word or deed on the part of the University of Pennsylvania to oversee what transpired medically and ethically at Holmesburg. At the same time that it was the beneficiary of a financial windfall, the University of Pennsylvania was not engaged in supervision of the human experimentation at Holmesburg. Not only did the University of Pennsylvania have a responsibility to the prisoners, but it also had an obligation to me and other trainees who were its charges: That responsibility was to set ethical standards to alert to violations of the Nuremberg Code and to ensure that the research done under their authority was serious and meaningful. It did nothing of the sorts. It had obligation to us to set standards for informed consent; it did not.
It had an obligation to us to mandate that scientific work at 27 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Holmesburg was truly scientific; it did not. It had obligation to us to make a clear distinction between commerce and medicine; it did not. What can be done now about the serious lapses of the University of Pennsylvania regarding the operation that it bore responsibility for at Holmesburg now that the culpable parties have either died or are autumnal? What follows is the least that can be done: 1. The prisoners are owed an apology and compensation. 2. The trainees, medical students, and residents, such as I, also are owed an apology. 3. Courses should be given to medical students and residents at the University of Pennsylvania in which medical and ethical violations at Holmesburg by the University of Pennsylvania are discussed openly and frankly, and lessons of that dismal period are learned by the next generation of medical students and residents not only at the University of Pennsylvania but throughout the world, and surely throughout our country. 4. An end should come to the University 28 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 of Pennsylvania's stonewalling, evasions, rationalizations, coverups, excuses and denials about what went on at Holmesburg, the House of Corrections, and the state homes for the feeble-minded in Vineland and in Woodbine, New Jersey. Such behavior ill becomes a great university. Until the wrongs at Holmesburg and at the schools for retarded children are acknowledged and rectified in some measure by the University of Pennsylvania, there will always be a blot worse that be any dermalogic blemish on its complexion. If the University of Pennsylvania is not ashamed, it should be shamed by force of moral authority and public outrage. You, the representatives of City government of Philadelphia, can act to right, if only and completely and very late, that which was very wrong. The response of the City Council to my comments was no different than that of the University of Pennsylvania of Pennsylvania: None meaningful at all. Now, more than three years later, I come again to this chamber and add these thoughts to 29 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 those I expressed then. Two weeks ago, I was at the Nazi concentration at Theresienstadt in the Czech Republic, where cruelty to human beings confined there knew no bounds. I have also been at the extermination camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek, of them both Poland, where horrific medical experimentations were conducted on internees. What went on at Holmesburg Prison under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania was not -- I emphasize not -- analogous to what happened with the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek, but it was by virtue of utter disregard for the dignity of men and unscrupulous advantage- taking of vulnerable population like that of Holmesburg that places like Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Theresienstadt came to be. It is for that reason that we, all of us citizens and especially we physicians, are obligated not only to take careful note of what transpired at Holmesburg Prison on the watch and under the stewardship of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, but to ensure that 30 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 that kind of activity never happens again. That is the reason why each of us must be vigilant against inhuman practices and inhumane ones like those carried out by physicians at Holmesburg, and that is the reason why those practices must be condemned in the strongest terms possible. You, the elected representatives of the citizens of Philadelphia, the city in which the unethical experiments planned and performed, have the responsibility of decrying that desecration of man and of restoring thereby the good name of Philadelphia. Just a few months ago, a new dean, a distinguished physician, arrived at the University of Pennsylvania Health Center. His name is Arthur H. Rubenstein.
In correspondence with him and during a brief meeting with him, I have been impressed with his heartfelt concern for the care properly of patients, the instruction profoundly of medical students, and the conduct ethically of research. I am confident that when Dean Rubenstein is informed fully of the wrongdoings of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 31 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 regard to prisoners at Holmesburg and the House of Correction and of the retarded children in Vineland and Woodbine, New Jersey, he will act swiftly, resolutely, and compassionately to acknowledge the wrong, to apologize to the victims, and to utilize that sorry chapter in the history of the nation's first medical school as a vehicle to sensitizing the minds and souls of medical students -- first at Penn, but then those at medical schools throughout our country and the world -- to their responsibilities as a physician and a human being to every human being in their charge. To do less than that would be to make the University of Pennsylvania forever a prisoner of its own undeniable guilt and a besmirch forever its reputation as a paragon in the panoply of medicine. In closing, I call to your attention the words of Walter B. Cannon, renowned physician- physiologist at Harvard Medical School, who, nearly a hundred years ago, said this: "There is no more primitive and fundamental right which any individual possesses than that of controlling the uses to which his own body is put. Mankind has 32 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. " Thank you.
Thank you very, very much for that statement, both the facts and of the call to conscience of all people involved and of all people that bear any responsibility for the actions of the government or the companies or the University of Pennsylvania. Like you, I feel a special responsibility in connection with the University of Pennsylvania, since, among the six members of my family, five of us have degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and I happen to have two degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. So that I feel especially sensitive about the University's reputation. And, like you, I conclude that this is a time where the University must find true. It teaches truth to the students, it teaches them how to divine the truth, but it must exhibit its ability on its own to establish truth in the first instance.
And to simply complement 33 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 what you've said, not only do I have a history with the University of Pennsylvania, my father, my brother, my nephew were all graduates of the University of Pennsylvania. My brother was the chairman of the Department of Orthodontists at the University of Pennsylvania, and I am a benefactor of the University of Pennsylvania. So my comments here are made by someone who has a sense of allegiance to the University of Pennsylvania, and that's precisely why I made them.
Thank you so very much. I want to call everybody's attention to joining us at the table is Congressman Lucien Blackwell, who, for many, many years before he went off to Congress, served as a colleague of mine in City Council; so close, in fact, we sat next to each other for many, many years in Council. Councilman Blackwell, like his wife presently, Councilwoman Blackwell, is well noted for his concern about the rights of the poor, the rights of the homeless, and of those who are vulnerable to exploitation in the community, and we're delighted that he's here today with us. 34 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Thank you. At this point, I'm going to ask -- oh, I see over to the right -- Councilman Mariano, come closer. Councilman Richard Mariano, a member of the Law and Government Committee, is also here with us. I'm going to ask Mr. Allen Hornblum, who is the author of the book that first brought attention to this -- but you know what happens to a book like this: People tend not to believe it, people tend to read a little bit about it, and it's an unpleasant thing, and like all human beings, we tend to push away unpleasantness.
It's not the kind of book, Councilman, that people want to read on the beach in Avalon this summer.
Yeah. But, Allen, you've forced Philadelphians to come to grips with this, and for that, we all, not only in this city, but throughout the country, owe you a real debt of gratitude. Allen Hornblum is also an adjunct professor at Temple University. We welcome you to this hearing. Please proceed. 35 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
Thank you. Chairman Cohen, Councilman Mariano, members of the committee, Congressman Blackwell, I would like to preface my remarks by briefly stating my appreciation to the members of City Council City Council for taking time to look into the disturbing events that took place in the City's prison system during a good portion of the 20th century. I am a firm believer that if we are to craft sound public policy, we need to grapple with troubling issues and not flee from them. In order to ensure that bad decisions and policies are not enacted or repeated, we need to understand what happened, even if the embarrassing events such as those for which we meet to discuss today occurred a half century ago. As a recent college graduate in the early 1970s, I began working as a teacher in the Philadelphia prison system. For my earliest days in the institutions, I was struck by the scores of inmates who were adorned with bandages and adhesive tapes on their backs, arms, and legs. Initially, I thought the men must have been wounded in a violent skirmish on a cell block 36 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 or possibly a riot in a prison yard; however, I soon learned the men were actually a part of a long-standing human research program conducted by the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, by the time I had arrived at the Philadelphia Detention Center, the medical experiments had been in operation for over two decades. Though correctional officers considered the inmates crazy for, as they put it, "selling their bodies to the doctors," the test subjects were desperate to earn a little spending money, and the medical studies were the best way to make a few bucks while incarcerated. Yes, the inmates admitted to me, they were fearful of the pain, rashes, and scars that they were left with and concerned with the long-term implications of the test, but they felt they had no alternative. If they wanted to make a couple bucks in jail, this was the only thing way they were going to do it. Besides, they argued, these were doctors from the University of Pennsylvania; they were the best physicians in the City; and they were told the tests were safe, and no harm would come to them. 37 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Many years later, while working in the Philadelphia Sheriff's Office, I began to investigate the medical experiments, which I had obviously never quite forgotten. My curiosity turned into a five-year investigation which revealed much about the prison system's human research studies, the callous indifference of the medical community that orchestrated them, and the City's lack of oversight that allowed them to function for over a quarter of a century. Ostensibly designed to foster rudimentary dermatologic testing, the experiments began over a handshake between an innovative Penn dermatology professor and a prison superintendent who also happened to be a physician. As the years passed, however, the medical research program took on a life of its own and developed a powerful economic incentive for all concerned, particularly so for Dr. Albert Kligman and the University of Pennsylvania. Pharmaceutical companies in post-war America were growing rapidly and in need of test subjects. Doctors who had access to institutions for the elderly, the retarded, the orphaned, the 38 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 imprisoned could call their tune financially. Almost overnight such doctors could witness a dramatic increase in their incomes. All that was required was a supply of the raw material: Humans for the experimentation. Though few City residents or government officials were apparently aware of it, by the 1960s, the Philadelphia prison systems had become one of the largest human research facilities in the United States.
Dozens of private- and public- sector agencies and corporations in the business of testing powerful new drugs, however, were aware of what was happening in Holmesburg Prison and aggressively sought out the program. Many of the largest American companies came to Philadelphia because they knew the City had well-known dermatologist and a prestigious university that cheaply and easily supplied people for risky medical experiments, experiments that would be problematic somewhere else. J. S. Army all came to Philadelphia to test cancer theories, dioxin, and chemical warfare agents, 39 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 respectively. J. Reynolds in North Carolina, Dow in Michigan, and the Army's chemical Unit in Maryland all had in-state physicians, universities, and prisons that could have been utilized, they realized that such sensitive and dangerous work could best be explored in the City of Brotherly Love. Granted, there were other prisons across the country that incorporated their charges in experimental studies during the post-war era, but Holmesburg stands out for its lengths of service, the variety of protocols undertaken, and the numbers of prisoners who participated in them. At most other penal institutions, experiments ran for a short time and targeted a particular field of inquiry. At Ohio State Penitentiary, for exampled, prisoners participated in a one-year cancer immunity study; prisoners in Virginia were involved in flash burn studies; and prisoners in Oregon and Washington were part of testicular irradiation studies. Holmesburg, however, established itself as the K-Mart of human experimentation for almost 40 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 three decades. Evidently, everything was fair game, no one was turned away. From the innocuous to the truly dangerous, all offers were entertained as long as there was money to pay for them. From deodorant and hair dye studies to injections of herpes simplex and radioactive isotopes; from chocolate studies for the candy manufacturers to belladonna incapacitate experiments for the CIA. The repercussions of this loosely established, but long-lasting medical program is incalculable. Thousands of Philadelphians who experienced these tests during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, many of them ultimately proven innocent, believe that in addition to being incarcerated, they were also subjected to science. To this day, the former test subjects are distrusting of doctors, hospitals, and the medical profession in general, and refuse treatment even when required. This is especially true for many skeptical African-Americans who believe Holmesburg, combined with the long shadow of Tuskegee, is proof enough of the systemic abuse by the American medical establishment. Just like the white mice in an 41 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 experimental lab, the Holmesburg test subject were discarded and forgotten about. The perpetrators of the sordid practive of using vulnerable citizens as experimental material have reaped financial windfalls and, for the most part, escaped the judgment of history. However, the final chapter has not been written on this story. Hopefully, the members of the committee recognize the injustice perpetrated on these men and women and will correct the tally sheet that allowed thousands of Philadelphians to be cavalierly used as experimental guinea pigs. And I would also like to thank Congressman Blackwell -- I know he was here for a time -- who was one of the first individuals in the City -- I think at that time, he was a state representative, along with David Richardson, who heard about the experiments; they had complaints from their constituents, and they went into the Philly prisons to check them out. So I take my hat off to Congress Blackwell and to you, Councilman Cohen, for holding this meeting, and for the other Councilmembers who came here and thought it was important. 42 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Thank you.
The very brief, but very cohesive, analysis you've given us is an overview of what occurred. Now I do want to mention -- because I'm frequently critical of the press -- that I thought that the column in today's Inquirer in the B section, first page of the B section over on the left by Monica Yant Kinney was one of the finest pieces of journalism I've seen. I think she carried the kind of complaints that the past prisoners complained about the experimentation, and she's brought a lot of daylight to this issue. And for that, I want to commend her and the Inquirer. It's rare these days when the newspaper and the media forgets its obligation to its shareholders to make money and, instead, concentrates in bringing out into the open human issues that are very important to deal with. We thank both of you. And, Dr. Ackerman, I know you're from New York. Now, is there anything you want to add to your statement? because we're going to move the hearing along now, we've had enough of the overview, but we want to 43 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 hear directly from the prisoners. But, Dr. Ackerman, is there anything further you would like to add?
And I think you and Professor Hornblum certainly deserve the credit of so many people for what you've been doing. The next witness is going to be Edward Anthony. Mr. Anthony, would you come forward, please. (Witness comes forward.)
Mr. Anthony, please identify yourself for the record, and you can give your name for the record so the reporter can have it.
My name is Edward Anthony. My address is 1432 Christian Street.
Now, if any of you have visible evidence on your bodies of what has been talked about by the first three speakers, I would like you to refer to it. We'll make a judgment at that point as to whether or not you can disclose it directly as, Miss Kinney argues, you're 44 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 going to be doing at the hearing.
My name is Edward Anthony. My address is 1432 Christian Street. I'm 58 years old, and I participated in the University of Pennsylvania studies during 1964 to 1966 at Holmesburg Prison. During the time I was in prison, I spent approximately the first months in Holmesburg 10 Prison. I went to the House of Corrections for the 11 last six months. When I was being checked into the 12 prison the first time, I thought it must have been 13 a crazy place with guys trying to kill each other, 14 'cause everyone was walking around with bandages on 15 heads and bodies. Later I learned from my cellmates that this was because of the medical tests. At night, the University of Pennsylvania doctors would come over and distribute pills. Another inmate had a portfolio on all the tests, and he would tell us about the tests that we could get involved in. My cell partner told the inmate to hook me up with something good. I was told that the tests were safe and that I could make some money. They were selling the tests to us. I saw 45 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 other guys on the tests and figured it was okay. I read the consent form that the University of Pennsylvania gave to us, and it scared me. The form said that I couldn't hold the University of Pennsylvania responsible for anything that happened from the tests. I asked them, What's up with this? is this risky? And the University of Pennsylvania person said, Oh, that's just a formality. I did a patch study for Johnson & Johnson bubble bath for $30. My understanding was that they were going to see how irritated my skin would be after pasting the patches with the bubble bath on open skin. They sprayed something onto my back out of a green government-issued can to make the tape stick on my back. Benzoate went into my bloodstream. As soon as I returned to my cell, I fell on the floor; I broke out from head to foot in three days and passed out. Excuse me. As soon as I returned back to the cell, I fell out on the floor; I passed out. I broke out from head to foot in three days. I complained for two or three weeks. A male nurse named Otto gave 46 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 me Emprin for my pain; that didn't help. So I kept complaining, and the University of Pennsylvania people gave me some pain relievers that were like morphine, which they got out of a safe. Then they bathed my back with a vinegar-like substance and gave me calamine lotion. My body was broke out from head to foot, like german measles. After this first experiment, I said I wasn't going to do any more experiments. My family found out, and they started doing something about it. In 1966, my rash started to recur. I went to the PGH, and they did a service treatment, a salve. I went to various hospitals and clinics too. I had an internal itch in my hands, and the only way to make it feel better was to put my hands under scalding-hot water. In prison, I would take really hot showers because that was my only relief. In 1969, I was in prison for seven months at Lexington, Kentucky, and my rash broke out again. They treated me there. They operated on my feet. I also took pills. They had me soak my hands and feet every day. I went to PGA several times. The last time was in 1973, and I was 47 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 hospitalized for three weeks. I had joined the Islamic mosque, came off the streets, and became a custodian at the mosque. One day, my feet and hands swole over three times their normal size, like boxing gloves, and they smelled bad. The stuff had gone to my hands and feet because of the gravitational pull of nature and because of my prayer ritual. At, PGH, the nurse cut off skin from my hands and feet. I was put on steroids, pain pills, Valium, and they soaked my hands and feet three times a day in something that smelled like vinegar. The doctors there never gave a positive diagnosis; they didn't know what I had.
They took me to the laboratory, and they said I was a gold mine for research. They eventually operated on my hands and feets [sic]. My doctor there was the head dermatologist. I was also on a diet test for $30 for the University of Pennsylvania. For this test, I was to take seven pills three times a day. After 21 days, I suffered hydration of the colon; I couldn't pass my bowels. They gave me laxatives. I got the piles that were incredible. 48 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 The University of Pennsylvania had no 3 one there to treat me. They were supposed to take me to PGH, but I think they didn't want PGH to see what they had done to me. One morning the institution doctor, Dr. Geizer, did an operation on me. They took me into the back of C-Block, the quarantine block, into a small room. Dr. Geizer used Novocain to numb the rectum, but three inmates had to hold me down while he cut and burned my hemorrhoids. Despite the Novocain, it was so painful that I hollered and passed out during the operation. The doctor left after the operation and didn't give me any after-care instructions. They left the drain in my rectum for three days, which should have been taken out immediately. I went back to Dr. Geizer because I was in pain, and he said, "No wonder. " He snatched the drain out, and I began to bleed, and I suffered an infection. I was sent back to the housing area, and it was three months before I could sit and eat with the other inmates. Another test I participated in was the 49 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Army test in 1965 for $75. We were paid for an injection they gave us and for each math problem we did. I was only in the primer test. This primer test was what they did to see which guys were going to be used in the Army trailers. They gave me mathematical problems to do and then they injected me with something, but I don't know what that substance was. They told us to do the mathematical problems again, but I was spaced out and couldn't concentrate and couldn't do more than three problems. Because I had reacted so badly to that first injection, they didn't take me out to the trailers for the rest of the test; I just want back to my block. They sent me back to the block, and for three or four months, I was still spaced out. Who knows what could have happened if I hadn't had friends in the jail to watch out for me. Some of guys who had done the test had to go to the mental ward in the hospital. I was a candidate for this, but because other inmates watched out for me, I never got sent there. There were three other studies I remember participating in, one involving sleeping 50 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 pills, and the other was a barbiturate test, and I also did a dye study where they shot dye into my veins. It tasted like butter in my mouth. I was in a trailer, and they monitored my arms for one night. I don't know the long-term effects of these three studies. I had a flashback occurrence in around 1969 and I was sent to the psychiatrists Dr. Guy and Dr. Case in the House of Corrections. This was the first time I was treated for my mental problems. I was diagnosed as having psychosis and paranoia. They gave me medication and I also did therapy. I was under pressure in that jail. It was so corrupt. The experiments were a release from the tension, they were a way to get out of other blocks, a social thing. I got money to get things from the commissary without dealing with the loan sharks. With the money I made in prison, I bought letterhead so I could write to my family, I bought items from the commissary such as ice cream, chips, movie tickets, candy bars. Buying these things relieved the boredom of being in prison. I had other sources of income. Every 51 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 now and again, I would get a visit, and someone would leave a few dollars. I also had a job: I worked in the knit shop and a tailor shop, but I got out of work to do the experiments.
But I eventually had to terminate my job after my hemorrhoid operation and became a worker on the C-Block area. When I had gotten out of jail, I didn't know that there was anything I could do; because I had signed that consent form, I thought I had sold my rights away. I didn't know who could show me my rights, get me a lawyer. I became suicidal. I thought there was no way of being helped. I didn't even believe there was a god. I promised that I would never let another doctor treat me. The University of Pennsylvania people had no compassion. My body, my mind are deteriorating because of the after-effects of experiments I participated in. I have hemorrhoid problems, but was afraid to go to the doctors. I used to use Preparation H or Vasoline every day to put the hemorrhoids back in place. I have developed arthritis. 52 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 I still have gastrointestinal problems. I get migraine headaches about two times a week. I've seen a psychiatrist for the last 6 years at the Warny-Smith Drug, Alcohol and Mental 7 Retardation Center. 8 I take blood purifiers -- Echinacea and 9 red clover. 10 Every day, I take the laxative tsyllium 11 to have a stool. This is because of my rectum 12 operation. 13 Last year, Dr. Khabani operated on my 14 feet from deterioration because of the patch tests. 15 I go to Dr. Strickland and Dr. Usef Khabani for my 16 skin about every three months. 17 Recently, I had an operation at Temple on my hemorrhoids because it became like a tumor. I feel used. Q. is low, and I was a functional illiterate at the time I took the experiments. When I got out of prison, I couldn't be around my kids and family because I wasn't physically and emotionally okay. I was an outcast. I've only recently been able to win back the 53 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 respect of my family and earned the right to spend time with them. I looked awful, and they didn't want me to be even in the same house. I can't work, I'm permanently disabled. Some days I feel good; the next day, I feel bad. I'm mentally strained, especially after I started working with Allen Hornblum, the author of the book Acres of Skin. I would cry and I didn't know why. And I couldn't sleep. I stopped working with him except for some things because of that. I'd like to see follow-up treatments for the guys. I don't want anybody to go through this again. I want science to be used right. Scientists should do experiments according to the Nuremberg rules. These experiments by the University of Pennsylvania are an example of injustice, inequity, and a lack of compassion.
Now it's clear why the City of Philadelphia, why the University of Pennsylvania, and why the pharmaceutical companies don't want anybody to hear your story.
It is horrendous to 54 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 believe that any human being could have been subjected by another human being in the form of a corporate representative to the kind of conditions you've been subjected to.
Before we have any questioning, I wanted Congressman Blackwell to note the testimonial offered to him and the late David Richardson by Allen Hornblum when he testified about your early work on this matter, about your going to the prisons to investigate the situation, and he offered his very public commendation, and we all join in that. And I also want to note the presence of Councilman Michael Nutter who joined us. Councilman Ortiz has returned. So that we have more than a full quorum of Councilmembers present for the hearing.
Let me ask you, just repeat simply why was the -- how much money did you get as a result of the experiments that you participated in?
Out of all of the tests 55 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 that I participated in, I could calculate about $350 in a two-year period.
And I have seen a copy of the release that everybody was asked to sign.
It clearly was written by a well-paid attorney or law firm whose rate of pay, even at that time, I'm sure, was much more than $1 a day per experiment.
And to think that these statements were taken advantage of; they were handed to people who were in no position to understand them and in no position to consider their own interests. Money was desperately needed because you had no other income, right?
So that $1 a day 50 years ago meant the ability to buy an occasional 56 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 something.
Right. I was raised by disciplinary parents, and they said, If you make your bed hard, lie down in it. So they just let me go to jail so I could learn a lesson. So this is my only way of having some type of resources.
Because $1 at that time was important when you had no other income.
And no way of buying anything. And then you were assured these were respectable people, you know, who were asking for your consent, and you were assured the signing of the form was a mere formality.
Terrible. Are there any questions by any members of the committee? Congressman Blackwell, go ahead. CONGRESSMAN BLACKWELL: Thank you, 57 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Mr. Chairman. I'll be brief. And I thank you for inviting me here today. I fully understand what we're talking about today, having investigated Holmesburg Prison as a member of the State House in the early '70s at the request of the some of the prisoners. And while I was there, they talked about allegedly, they were being abused in other ways. But I when I went to the F-Block, I was told by one of the prisoners that they were taking some of the men at night and they were coming back as though they were drunk or drugged. I asked the then-superintendent, Louis Ash (ph), who's now deceased, if that was true, and he told me no, it wasn't true. But then I was allowed to visit some of the prisoners who were involved in some of the experiments, but they said it was harmless, and they even jumped on me and they told me, they said, "Mr. Blackwell, you messin' us up because," you see, the little bit of money they were getting, 50 cents a day, not $1 a day, 50 cents a day, that's what they told me at the time. And they said that the reason we need 58 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 this money is because we have wives and children at home, and we can give 'em a little money when we go to court, we can buy some soap and a comb and comb our hair so we won't look like a animal when we go to court. And on Christmas, we can send our children a little present or at Easter, we can send them a little present, or we could buy a candy bar or something. And so this is the things they were doing, and they said, "We're doing it because we just have no other way of getting any money." And, you know, I hate to talk about the deceased, but Mr. Ash just lied to me and he told me it wasn't happening. And a few years after that, the USA Today newspaper had an article in which they talked about medical experimentation in the prison. They said that the Army was secretly conducting experiments at Holmesburg. I introduced a bill in Harrisburg under Governor Shapp outlawing medical experimentation on prisoners, and with the stroke of a pen, with the stroke of a pen, Governor Shapp issued an executive order outlawing medical experimentation on 59 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 prisoners. So these folks are right: They took advantage of these people because they know most of them didn't know what they were doing. They knew nothing about the kind of medical experiments that they were conducting. They didn't know how serious it was. I even said to one prisoner, well what -- 'cause he was jumping on me about needing this money, and I said, What if they put something in your eye and they blind you? What can you do? For 50 cents a day, that doesn't make sense. But at that time, they just didn't agree. So I thank you, whoever is responsible for these hearings, and I know you because you've always been a very decent person, and I think you're one of the greatest Councilpersons -- and I'm not patronizing you, but you've been one of the greatest Councilpersons, I think, in this country and probably in the world because you believe in helping the people who need help the most. So God bless you and God keep you.
May I make a statement, sir? 60 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
Most of the inmates at that time were functionally illiterate, most of 'em were. And we were coerced, we were coerced to take those tests. You know, they would come over there and tell you that the tests were safe, you know, and how many people they done tried on it and everything. And it made me think about the skin test where they was trying to come up with a creation like Retina A, where they making billions of dollars off of it right now. They was, like, polluting our skin. I mean, guys got burns on they bodies right now. I have samples of burns, patch marks on my arm, my back, my hands, my fingernails where I had my palms pulled off and they had to be drained and my feet pulled off and had to be drained from this toxic stuff that was in this Army can. I was wondering why did they have -- 'cause I worked at Crowne Can Company where they made cans, and I know Army cans. We had Army government contracts, and this was a green can, and it had a thousand chemicals in it. And this was to 61 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 make the tape stay on your back. That's what broke me out. And right now, I'm still suffering in my hands and my internal deterioration and my bones. I have pins in my feet, you know, and the deterioration. I asked the doctors, what is it? but they don't give me no diagnosis, you know what I mean? And they just straight-up used us, you know what I mean? They knew what they was doing. And the people who they had hired to perform the tests on us were other inmates that had a GED IQs. You know, they were taking blood pressure, they was administering medicine, promised to have jobs when they got out. None of this had took place. Plus, after you got out, if you tried to go to the PGH to try to say that you was on the tests and can they do something for you, they didn't do anything for you, you know? And this is why I have a fear of doctors. It's like it's a conspiracy between them to try to commit genocides on us and stuff, you know? 62 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 I done turned to holistic healing, herbs and stuff, food to try to get myself back to health 'cause I'm scared of doctors, you know?
Thank you. The next witness will be Al Skorski. (Witness comes forward.)
My name is Alphonse Skorski, a resident of Philadelphia for 52 years.
Mr. Skorski, before you begin, Councilman Nutter raised a very important issue. Councilman Nutter?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I apologize for being late. I was, unfortunately, out of the room on other Council business I did want to ask, Mr. Chairman, for the record -- certainly the allegations and the facts are tremendously troubling and tragic. I d want to better understand for the purposes of today's hearing, the parties that have at least been identified as participants or the main actors in 63 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 this -- we obviously have testimony from the individuals who were subject to these experiments and to possibly deception with regard to what was going on here. I did want to ask about any testimony or acknowledgment of these facts or allegations by either the prison system in general or any of the officials who were in office at that time or the University of Pennsylvania or any of its doctors, as well as any of the pharmaceutical companies. What has been their participation thus far either in this hearing or in any acknowledgment of the facts or the allegations in this particular matter?
The committee notified the University of Pennsylvania, notified the City of Philadelphia, the government, the Mayor's Office, notified the two pharmaceutical companies that were the subject of the lawsuit that's pending and has been pending for quite some time in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. We received no acknowledgment. We were told that at one point, Dow Chemical had offered an apology for what happening, saying that, of course, 64 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 we would never do anything like that again. But that was the total of what they said. The University of Pennsylvania has allegedly said it wants to have the right to examine each person and decide whether and to what extent they need medical help, and then make a decision as to whether they will offer it. We've suggested to all of them that they ought to come and tell their story. Let me ask officially for the record, is there anyone here to speak on behalf of the University of Pennsylvania? (No response.)
Is there anyone here to speak on behalf of the City of Philadelphia, the Executive Department, the Mayor's Office? (No response.)
Is there anyone here to speak on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies? (No response.)
In answer to Councilman Nutter's question, actually, Mr. Keel from the Administration -- the Administration 65 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 actually requested through Mr. Frank Keel, Mr. Frank Keel made a statement questioning why City Council was having these hearings and whether it was appropriate for us to have these hearings, which I find incredulous, first of all, to question it; second of all, to even refuse to answer any of the questions which come down. Obviously, we permitted as a city these atrocities to happen to people, and we as a city and as an administration, even 50 years later, we have to respond to that. And just like other individuals have apologized and presidents have done, we as a city and as an administration, we should at least apologize as officials of the City to these individuals for allowing this to happen in Philadelphia, and that Philadelphia City government was complicit and a party to the experimentations and the suffering. So I believe that they should be here and that they should have come, and even though the fear of litigation -- that's the thing that everybody throws up when they don't want to answer a question, but I believe that an apology is owed 66 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 to these individuals that went through our system and suffered these inhuman indignities. You only see these things happening and you look at it in war movies when you see the Nazis experimenting on human beings. Well, it shows that it wasn't just the Nazis who were doing experimentation on human beings, but our own government right here in Philadelphia. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilman, the only thing I would add to that is, certainly an apology would be appropriate. I'm sure that the individuals who have been subjected to this experimentation would rightfully expect, and make a demand for, more than an apology; that is certainly the least that can be done, that's a start of a conversation. But I would also say that before you can get to an apology, which was the purpose of the original question, there must be acknowledgment that these things happened. And it's not crystal-clear to me that there's even an acknowledgment. Now, I certainly not an expert in 67 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 this particular area -- I've read some of the materials -- but I think first, someone from any of those three entities or all of those three entities has to at least acknowledge and admit that these things happened first and foremost in order to even to get to the point of some kind of apology and any other settlement that may need to takes place. This has nothing to do with the current administration or the current mayor, but as Councilman Ortiz said, we are the government, and the government is continuing. And a government entity or a corporate entity or an educational entity has to accept responsibility for things that happened even at an earlier point in time. And so there needs to be an admittance that these things did in fact happen. Someone should explain why they happened and state for the record what they plan to do about it. And I just wondered whether there had even been the acknowledgment by these various participants that these activities had happened and that they should be here. I understand that there's a legal case going on; I certainly don't want to debate that. 68 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 But if people are going to hide behind the statute of limitations, that ignores whether or not the incidents themselves actually happened or not. The statute of limitations argument is an interesting argument for the lawyers; that does not get around the fact as to whether or not these things actually happened or not, and that ultimately becomes the bottom line of this particular story. That has to be acknowledged. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Councilman Nutter, I'm going to be suggesting that another invitation go out to these various groups for the hearing that will follow this one, on Tuesday, May 28th, the day after Memorial Day, which, this year, comes early, on May 27th, at 10:30 in the morning, in this room. And we will get another invitation out to all of them. I think the point made by Councilman Ortiz and Councilman Nutter is very important. We first need acknowledgment, then we need an apology, and then we need, What are you going to do about it? and what's got to be done is, the best possible medical care has to be provided for all victims, 69 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 and thereafter, we have to take care of the financial losses that these victims have suffered, their inability to support a family, to go to work, all of the pain and suffering they've suffered all of these years. Our system in the United States is a system of capitalism in which there is private ownership or property and businesses. People are used to the fact that corporations that exist to make profit have to consider their shareholders first, and government is different; governments don't make profits; government shareholders are the people who are elected into office as citizens. And what we have found happened in this case is that apparently, the government officials forfeited their responsibility and worked with the private sector to help the private sector achieve much greater profits. We understand many millions of dollars have been made as a result of these experimentations, and nothing for the people who were injured as a result of being subjected and treated as human guinea pigs. All of that is on the agenda for correction. And I think on behalf of the City 70 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Council, we're not going to rest until this defensive shadow-boxing by the companies arguing in a lawsuit, there's a statute of limitations and thereby using that as a technique to prevent any facts from coming out, we're not going to permit that to work. With God's help, we're going to prevail while there are survivors alive ready to receive an apology. When President Clinton apologized publicly in 1996 to the three remaining survivors of the Tuskegee Institute experiments, it was a step that was long overdue. We don't want to have to wait until there's just three survivors; we want to do it while there remains a number of survivors in Philadelphia and we want to prove to everybody that government, at least on some occasions, can follow the correct line, and the correct line is to fight on behalf of the interests of its people and to protect them, not to participate in injuring them. Councilwoman Blackwell, I know you had a -- wanted the floor.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Chairman. 71 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Certainly, I concur with all that my colleagues have said and feel that somebody owes you on apology; certainly, I'm glad to offer one on behalf of all of the people who have done wrong. Certainly I work with Lucien and worked under Governor Shapp during the days in the early '70s when Governor Shapp outlawed with the stroke of his pen medical experimentation. I remember the trips, I remember when Lucien toured the prison and said, What do they go through? and they gave him a tour and they put something in his eyes when he offered himself up to find out certainly what inmates were going through. It's been a serious nightmare for you and for all people who care. I'm interested in hearing the testimony of the gentleman in front of us whose picture I've seen; in fact, I saw it on TV. And let me say that I was looking at Mr. Jones's what-we-want items. Obviously, the apology. The follow-up on medical treatment, I've called Penn since we were here this morning and I got a number, which is 1-800-789-Penn, or P-E-N-N. that's 1-800-789-Penn, which is P-E-N-N, and that 72 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 number is available for anybody who wants to follow up but, you know, I'm sorry for those who couldn't get it before, but at any rate, I did call them and got them to give me that number: 1-800-789-Penn, or P-E-N-N. So at least, certainly, that's a start. And I'm sure my colleagues and I and the chair of this committee is glad to come up with legislation at our level to say that further practices should stop; that's something that we can do on our level as a committee. And we know that the financial support and compensation are in court. And we did try to come up with this number. And if anybody has a problem with that, if you will contact Councilman Cohen or me in my office, my number is 686-3418 or 19, and Councilman Cohen will give you his number. Certainly we'll follow up if you have any problem having follow-up with Penn or getting in touch with them about any medical issues. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell. Mr. Skorski, why don't you tell us of 73 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 your experiences.
Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Alphonse Skorski. I've been a resident of Philadelphia for 52 years now. I was incarcerated from 1970 to late 1973. During my approximately three years in prison, I spent the first two years at Holmesburg Prison. Then I was transferred to the House of Corrections for approximately a year. I finished the sentence on the work-release program. While in the prison there, I participated in two University of Pennsylvania studies. The first study I participated in was a cosmetic patch test. Someone in the knit mill where I worked at Holmesburg told me about the University of Pennsylvania experiments that were going on. I went to the prison guards and asked them if I could, you know, get signed up for these experiments; they said it was no problem. After that, a couple gentlemen dressed in long, white coats came to me. I assumed they were doctors because of the way they were dressed, but I didn't know who they were actually. These gentlemen said 74 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 that I could sign up for this patch test. They told me that there would be no side effects, no 4 damage, no harm. I also didn't see any forms like consent forms. (Sirens from streets blaring in background.)
Would you hold your testimony one moment till the noise dies down. (Pause in testimony.)
I didn't see no consent forms, which also the consent forms would have made me a little suspicious and probably caused me not to do these experiments. All right, the gentlemen looked like professional men, and I was in pretty good shape, so I believed them when they said that the experiments wouldn't hurt me. To do the cosmetic patch test, I went to the University of Pennsylvania sub lot where the experiments took place. They put some sort of substance on my left arm and on my back shoulder 75 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 blade. They covered this with gauze and then used medical tape to hold the gauze in place. I wore the patch about three or four days and then they removed it. I was paid only a little bit for this test, approximately $5. The other study I participated in was an athlete's foot test. The year was 1970 or early 1971. I was told I could get ten times more money for this test, about 40 or $50. That made it appealing. I worked at the knit mill in the prison that paid about cents a day. I needed some 13 money to buy necessities such as toothpaste, soap, 14 shampoo, combs, and cigarettes, one of the few 15 things I could enjoy while in prison. 16 For the test, I went back to the block 17 where the University of Pennsylvania experiments 18 took place. I don't remember signing no form there 19 either. They asked me for my name and number so 20 that they could pay me, and then they told me that 21 they were testing an athlete's foot deterrent. 22 They sprinkled powder on my right foot 23 and then they placed a plastic bag over my foot. 24 The plastic bag went up to the middle of my calf, 25 and then they wrapped the plastic tight with duct 76 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 tape to create a vacuum. They said they needed heat and moisture. I wore this plastic bag over my foot for one week. I was told that if I took it off, I wouldn't get paid for the test. I returned to the University of Pennsylvania testing block with three other gentlemen that also had this athlete's foot test done. They took off the plastic that had covered our feet, and I thought I was going to faint because of this test. I immediately gagged. They didn't do anything to help me with the smell in the room; I just had to put up with it for about ten minutes until they were finished. I went back to the showers to wash off that smell, and I didn't think anymore of the test. About a week went by, and one morning, as I got out of bed, I fell down to my knees. My right foot had no feeling; I couldn't control it or lift it. I stood up straight and walked by taking a step forward with my left foot and dragging my right foot. I was very upset and concerned about what was happening with my foot. In prison, you can't show any weakness; I was worried that if I was crippled, the other 77 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 inmates would treat me badly, that they would steal my stuff or harm me. I wanted to do something immediately. I went to the sergeant of the guards and asked if I could go to the doctor. I went to the prison doctor, and he couldn't explained what was happening with my foot. At the time, I didn't connect what was happening to the experiment I had participated in the week before for the University of Pennsylvania. I didn't tell the doctor about the experiment, so I'm not sure if he knew that I had participated in it. I was shipped to the PGH hospital about two days after seeing the prison doctor. Several doctors came in to see me in the examining room. My vital signs were okay, but I still had no 19 feeling in my foot. Finally, a specialist came in and did a probe on my foot. The specialist diagnosed me with nerve damage. The nerve had been severed right where the bag had been wrapped with duct tape. I had never had no problem before this. I was next sent to St. Luke's Hospital located on Eighth and Girard. I stayed in the 78 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 prison ward there for one month.
Every day I would go into a therapy room, and the nurse would put a probe, an electrical probe, on my foot and below my knee for about one hour. They would send an electrical impulse through the severed nerve for about seconds. With this therapy, they made 8 another nerve connection to replace the nerve that 9 had become severed. This was not a permanent -- 10 this was not permanent; it was just as they sent 11 the electrical pulse through that my nerve would 12 react. 13 At St. Luke's, they also made a brace 14 for me. They placed a metal plate in the right 15 foot of one pair of shoes. There were also two metal strips that went up the side of the -- up the right leg to the knee. I still had to drag my foot, but with the brace, the foot was in an upright position. " I wore the brace for one year. Every evening, I would take the brace off and work the muscle myself. Slowly the feeling came back in my foot, I don't have to wear the brace to keep my 79 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 foot up, but even today, if I don't concentrate on that right foot, it will droop down and cause me to trip. I have also experienced emotional distress because of that. I haven't been back in prison since my time at Holmesburg and the House of Corrections, and I've put this part of my life behind me. I still have this reddish discoloration on my skin, though I don't wear shorts because that foot looks ugly, and I don't want to have to explain to others, especially my children, how I came to get this scar. I don't get to do simple things, like to go swimming at the beach with my children, because then they would see this problem with my foot and ask me questions that I don't want to answer. It wasn't until I heard the other former inmates' stories that I connected my foot problem with the University of Pennsylvania's athlete's foot test. Learning this has finally given me peace of mind about what my foot had the problem it did. I want to see something done about this so it will never happen again, and I don't want others to 80 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 be put in a position where they are a human guinea pig. Thank you very much.
Could you approach and show us the scars? (Mr. Skorski shows scars on leg.) (Witness Edward Anthony approaches committee table to show scars.)
My name is Edward Anthony, and I was telling you about how my hands and feet had swollen up three times they normal size, and they had to graft my palms off and drain 'em from whatever's in my blood from that test, you know, 81 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 where they sprayed the can. And my fingernails are getting better now, but they've been like that for 30-something years, and this is good. They were that thick (indicating) and grown like claws, and this is the remains of 'em now. I used to get on buses and hide my hands, you know. Thirty-something years, and it's still this way. And I get treated every two weeks at my doctor, my primary doctor, for this, and think don't know what it is. They be thinking it's eczema, psoriasis; they been giving me different names and then I don't know what it is, and I wind up in the laboratory again. That's why I started doing holistic healing, trying to get myself together.
(Addressing Mr. Skorski.) Sir, do you have feelings? You said you don't have any feelings in your leg?
So if somebody sticks 82 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 you with a needle, you won't --
Yeah, not immediately, after a while. There's feeling there, but the main thing with the severed nerve was my foot dropped. I had no control, I couldn't lift it. There was no 11 movement. It just dropped like a piece of meat.
So the leg has been -- the nervous system in that leg has been damaged.
Al Zabola? 83 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
Is Al Zabola here? Do you want to come forward to the witness stand. (Witness comes forward.)
Could you tell us briefly what occurred to you as a result of the experimentation that you participated in.
Yes. I'd like to thank the Council for this hearing, and I hope some good comes of it. I was at Holmesburg from '63 to '64. I was on the government study/CIA study. It was --
The Army was doing the study for the CIA. They were experimenting with mind-controlling drugs.
And I participated in it. I was in the trailer. The room they kept you in was a padded room. They had cameras in it so that they could see what you were doing. And 84 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 it was -- also they had speakers in there, and I guess all of this was recorded. And I was in there from five to seven days because the drug took a very bad effect on me.
The drug study for the Army. And when I was released after five to seven days -- I don't remember exactly because I was, like, in another world -- they gave you this button to wear that you were on this study, and if you started acting irrational for the officials in prison to get somebody from the University of Pennsylvania there to handle the situation. But I'd also like to say that during the course of these drug studies in the trailer, there were men that came out of those trailers that didn't know their name, didn't know what year it was, didn't know what month it was. They were walking around like zombies. I guess I was fortune that I only had problems for a couple of years after the studies where I would get -- I would have psychological and mental breakdowns. I would get -- I guess the 85 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 medical term would be "flashbacks," and I had them for several years, and the last time I had one was around '71 or '72.
Yeah. And to Mr. Frank L. Davido, Pesticide Incident Response Officer. (Above letter attached hereto.)
After all of these letters, did they write back to you? And I just want to read it because this is to me is what governmental "bureaucracy-speak"is all about: "As a result of our investigation, we have concluded that none of the individuals interviewed can, with any certainty, be said to have participated in dioxin testing at Holmesburg. In the absence of records, we have demonstrated 86 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 that dioxin test participants cannot be possibly identified and that further investigation would be inconclusive and unjustifiable."
All of the records were destroyed. They don't... They acted like I never participated in this drug study, like it didn't exist, like it was "The Twilight Zone." And I remember every detail from the time that I went into the trailer, got the injection in my arm with the drug, the padded cell, the cameras. And then after the drug took effect, I was out of it, like, for five to seven days. After about seven days, I started to get -- I -- a little normal. I wasn't a hundred percent. Then they figured it was time they could send me back out into the population with the tag that I had to wear.
Thank you. When you said you got flashbacks, your flashbacks were you going into the trailer and what they did to you or --
Things like that, yes. 87 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 There was one incident, the last one I had, I was living with my sister at the time -- I was born in raised in Philadelphia, I'm 64 years old. I locked myself in the room; for three days, I wouldn't come out. And after about the third day, I came out, and my sister asked me what was wrong with me, and I said I don't know. I said it was probably something to do with the study I was on when I was at Holmesburg. And that was the last episode I had.
Dorothy Alston, Dorothy Alston? (No response.) (Mr. Jones returns to witness table.)
Councilman Cohen, Joe Smith was supposed to be here. 88 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
All right, he's not here. Invite him to the next meeting.
William Harper's not here, but we have someone who's going to read his testimony if it's okay with Council.
All right, 'cause there's just going to be time for one more witness this day.
Excuse me, she didn't hear you. Spell your name for the stenographer. 89 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171
This is his testimony. I'm reading it back like I'm him. "My name is William Harper. I live at 1828 West Thompson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am 63 years old. "I was in Holmesburg Prison between 1964 and 1967. During this time, I participated in one study when working in the dermatology lab for the University of Pennsylvania. I never participated in the University of Pennsylvania experiment as the subject until near the end of my stay in prison, in 1967. "I was in contact with the study before that time because I worked in the dermatology laboratory. I never had any medical training before I started working in the dermatology laboratory in the prison for the University of 90 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Pennsylvania. I only had a high school diploma. "I was trained to work in the dermatology laboratory by other inmates, Charlie Frye and Benny Trimel, who had already been working there. We were the three guys who worked in the dermatology laboratory, and Solomon McBride was our director. "I learned to mix solutions and ointments, to occlude an area for a blister, to punch a biopsy suture, to take blood, to use the autoclave and incubator and the metric system. We were only told a certain protocol to follow. We weren't told what they did with the results or what they were looking for in the study; we only knew our part of the study. "In the laboratory, we did dandruff studies, blister studies, epileptical and punch biopsies and injections. We would use Xylocaine to anesthetize areas that we were going to use. I collected cerebrum levels from people's heads. We did radiation studies and did Geiger counting off of people. There were creams that weren't labeled by name, only by code numbers. We helped administer sweat studies and do skin scraping. 91 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Sometimes with studies we used drugs like DMSO and SLS on guys. ' As I did these things, there was not a doctor present. The prison doctors knew what was going on and they didn't interfere with the experiments unless there was an emergency. "After we had done the experiments, we were told to print out the results and send them to Dr. Kligman or to the director, Mr. McBride. We also did the billing for the study. "When I began working for the University of Pennsylvania dermatology laboratory in Holmesburg Prison, I was getting paid $25 a month. I got raises as I continued working there, and when I left, I was getting almost $100 a month. At the time I left, I had been working at the dermatology lab for 16 months, and I was the head technician. The money from working in the lab was the only money I received at that time, except if a relative or friend sent me a little bit of money in the mail. "I did get some special treatment because of working at this job. I didn't have to 92 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 stay locked up in my cell all day. The prison officials didn't bother me because I worked for the University of Pennsylvania. We, the laboratory workers, were trusted, and they seldom searched what we were doing. Somebody else did our laundry, and we could arrange to get swags so that I didn't have to eat prison food all the time. "Swags were food -- usually hot sandwiches, but sometimes other things such as steaks, pork chops, or eggs. And because we had a hot plate and other things like that in the laboratory, we could make our own food. Guys would bring me this food for keeping them on the experiments. "I remember that at the time, everybody wanted to be on the H-Block for the experiments; it was the place to be. "The job working at the University of Pennsylvania consumed my time. I spent my free time trying to read up on medical information. I tried to learn all of the words and the protocol. I thought it was an opportunity to do something worthwhile. I now know I was being mislead at that time. Even though I worked in the dermatology 93 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES.
020171 laboratory over a year, I didn't gain any skills that would have helped me outside of prison. "Also, since I've seen the other former prisoners who are suffering because of the experiments they participated in, I realize that I did something wrong. I realize now that I looked the other way, so to speak, during the studies because they didn't directly affect me. "In 1967, when I was no longer working in the dermatology lab, I was a subject in a University of Pennsylvania study where they transplanted my skin. Before they did the transplants, they told me that they were going to do a biopsy of the transplant. "I had to sign a paper of release saying I knew what I was doing and that I was consenting to the test. The paper had to be signed every time a test was conducted. They explained part of what they were going to do with me, but they never explained what effects this would have on me before I signed the form. I also wasn't very capable of understanding what they were explaining because I didn't know the medical terms they would use. "There was never any follow-up to this 94 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 test. Mr. Popper from the University of Pennsylvania administered the transplant experiment I participated in. He was Dr. Kligman's brother-in-law. He put part of my lip on my arm and part of my arm on my lip. After the transplants where my lip had been put on my arm, it would chafe and sometimes it would swell. I thought they would eventually take it off; they never did, however. Even today, I still have part of my lip on my arm. "At the time, I felt that it was a simple sacrifice. I was told I would get $100, and I wanted to use that money to support my niece. I also wanted to be able to afford a lawyer. Now I realize participating in the experiment was a stupid thing to do. "I would like to see some compensation for the people who were hurt. This case is about the others, really, not about me. I feel bad about what happened at the studies at the prisons, and I have had to come to grips with my role in it. I feel like I was a part of the problem because I helped do the experiments. I would like to think that I have learned something from this whole 95 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. "
Thank you for that statement. Now, in the column in the Inquirer today, it said there might be some people or one person or more that would have injuries that they wanted to exhibit -- on their chest, on their back, or anything like that. Is there anybody here who came for the purpose of showing their physical injury? I'm referring to it because we have to recess for today, but if you did come for that purpose, would you come forward. (Individuals come forward.)
You can stay there. Could you exhibit to us the injuries you are still suffering. Let us get you on the record. Give your name, both of you.
You can come forward, and the press is welcome to take the photos.
My name is Gerald O'Hara, I'm a resident of Philadelphia, and I was incarcerated in Holmesburg from the year 1955 to 1960, at which time I was told by Dr. Kligman that he would remove scars from my face. It didn't occur; in fact, I was badly scarred from his procedure, which --
Which he told me was already an accepted form of dermal abrasion. I found out later it was not an accepted form of dermal abrasion, but by that time, the scars were there and they remain there today.
My name is Sidney Gaines. I was in Holmesburg Prison from 1959 until 1968, and I participated in many tests at that time.
Show us your scar, please. (Witness shows scar on lower right leg.
Could you show that 97 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 or would it be embarrassing?
Edward Anthony again. Again, this is a sample. This square here is like the patches that they put on my back (showing forearms). This is a sample. I had one here, and the one here over here is fading away (indicating), but I had six of 'em on my back, like a checkerboard. And they put on scotch tape and pulled it off until this area was raw, and whatever substance they going to test, they put it in a little square patch over that area and put a seal tape over it, and they never healed. And my nails (indicating) --
It's from when my body broke out from my head to the foot like the german measles, it was in my bloodstream and it settled in my hands and feet, being the two most active nerves -- this is what the dermatologist said. But what it was, he couldn't determine. He just peeled 98 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 the skin off my hand like he took off gloves, peeled the bottom of my feet, and drained them, you know, and they finally went back down to normal, but my fingernails grew like claws, and for, like, thirty-something years, I've been walking around with fingernails like this, you know what I mean? And I get treated because my hands every summer just break out with the same kind of bumps I have all over my body, and I still carry the marks of that every summer on my hands, and I have to get salves to soothe my hands 'cause they itch internally. You know, I had X-rays, and the bones have deteriorated. I have pins in my feet, permanent fusion with a --
My name is Warren Summers, and I was incarcerated in Holmesburg Prison from '65 to '68, and this is the result of the damage.
Would you spell your 99 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 name for the stenographer.
Thank you very much. MR GUY: My name is James Guy. I was at Holmesburg in 1955 to the '70s. I went through a lot of different tests, but I have a scar on my right arm where they took out my sweat gland for the sweat study, and I also have two marks on my side (indicating), one on each side. Some kind of dye was implanted there and it's been there ever since.
My name is William Thomas, and I was on the dandruff study at the detention center. I was also on the deodorant study at the detention study. I have sores in my head today that you could basically feel them in the front and back around my neck. And every so often, it bumps 100 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 up, and I have to use a certain type of antiseptic to just minimize it so that it doesn't get too bad and infected. I also have under my arm, every once in a while, I guess cysts under my left arm where I had the study for the dandruff test. And the cysts, every once in a while, it will bump up and it will get infected. I have to take antibiotics or something to get the infection down. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Anyone else? (Witness comes forward.)
My name is Dave Carter, and I was in Holmesburg Prison from '69 to '70, and I was on the patch test and the dye test, which was milk shakes and stuff and cookies about three times a day. And now I contracted, you know, allergies of all sorts. I've had vocal cord operations, ulcers, and acid reflux that I suffer from today.
My name is Titus Brown. I was at Holmesburg House of Corrections several 101 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 times during the '70s. The only experiments I recall is the cosmetic experiments in dermatology, and all the places that I had patches are now discolored, and at certain times of the year, they flare up and I have unbearable itching. I've been to dermatologists, but they never determine exactly what it is. I thought was old age until I heard about the experiments. And across my back (indicating), wherever the patches were placed, the skin is discolored.
My name is Umar Ahmad legally, and I was at Holmesburg in 1971. I was on Thorazine, Haldol, and (indiscernible), and by taking them, my chest was flat, but by taking them, they started to grow breasts. (Witness comes forward.)
My name is Sandy 102 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 Barnwell, and I was a inmate at Holmesburg Prison in 1968. I was on a depigmentation study that took the color out of my skin, and after that, a lump just rose up on my back and it never went back to normal again. (Shows scars on back and shoulder.) (Witness comes forward.)
My name is Randolph Johnson, and I was in Holmesburg Prison in 1962, and I was on the patch test. I got scars on my arm and on my back. Right now, I get the Stevie Johnson syndrome; it's blisters coming up on my mouth and over my body. I was Treated at Temple Hospital two times in the last years for the 18 same thing. 19
My name is Yusuf Abdulaziz; I was known then as Joseph Lester. I was in the prison in Holmesburg from 1961 to 1963. At that time, I participated in the toothpaste 103 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 study, and I had perfectly good teeth, but in three years, all of my teeth had to be pulled. They became soft and were just falling out. I was also on a athletic foot study which put sores between my toes, and as a result, I have athlete fungus today that constantly bothers me. I also was on a dye study that messed my bowels up. It took me a long time to have a full -- you know, actually have bowel movements, but it took years. Thank you very much.
Your name, please? PETTIGREW: My name is Oscar Pettigrew, and I was Holmesburg from the years '64 to '67. During those years, I participated in several test studies such as pill studies, the dandruff studies, the toothpaste studies, punch biopsies, which they took and punched a needle through the center of my chest to take the bone marrow from it to which they gave me arthritis with the pills that I took following the punch biopsy. That's what it was 104 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 mainly for, to see how fast arthritis would form into my body, which is what it did, and it destroyed the back of my spine to where I had to get two back fusions done and a nerve surgery done because the outer calibers of the vertebrae broke off and severely cut the nerves down on the left side of my back. And that's just about it with this study.
My name is Lafayette Roby. I was at Holmesburg Prison from 1963 to 1975, and I was on the pill tests. And from that, I've seen a psychiatrist ever since 1969 up until today. And I was on the sweat box test, and I was also on a toothpaste test and, like, in the later years, in my thirties, all my teeth came out my mouth. You know, today, I can't seem to wear dentures. And I had a biopsy cut -- they right 105 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 here (pointing to right forearm). And from that, you know, today, I still see a psychiatrist from the pill test that I was on, you know, when I was at Holmesburg.
Thank you very much, Anyone else? Just come forward. (Witness comes forward.)
Good morning. My name is Douglas Armstrong. I was in Holmesburg from 1965 to 1967. During that time, I was on a lot of tests; some of them, I've forgot. The ones that stands out in my mind now is the athlete's feets [sic] test because today, my feet, you know, they horrible. I mean, I have a fungus, you know, and the dermatologist, he can't do anything with it, okay. Also, I developed a cancer in between my thighs by the patch they put there and, you know, I don't know whether it had anything to do with the test or not but, you know, I have cancer. Thank the lord that they removed it all, and it hasn't been recurring.
Thank you very much. All right, that concludes the hearings 106 5/7/02 LAW & GOV'T COMMITTEE - RES. 020171 for today. This hearing will stand in recess until Tuesday, May 28th, at 10:30:00 a.m. in this room, Room 696. Thank you all for your cooperation. (Proceedings end at 12:56 p.m.) - - - 107 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia's meeting of the Committee on Law and Government of Tuesday, May 7, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: Resolution No. 020171 _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)