Tim Scully
Tim Scully | |
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software developer |
Robert "Tim" Scully (born August 27, 1944) is an American computer engineer, best known in the psychedelic underground for his work in the production of
Early life
Scully grew up in
LSD production
1965: Apprentice to Owsely
Scully knew the government would move quickly to suppress LSD distribution, and he wanted to obtain as much of the main precursor chemical,
1966: Point Richmond lab and "White Lightning"
Owsley took Scully to the Watts Acid Test on February 12, 1966, and they built electronic equipment for the Grateful Dead until late spring 1966.
In July 1966 Owsley rented a house in
1967: 1st Denver lab and STP
Scully set up the new lab in the basement of a house across the street from the Denver zoo in early 1967. Owsley and Scully made the LSD in the Denver lab. 100,000 tablets (270 micrograms each) of Monterey Purple were made in Denver for the
1968: 2nd Denver lab and the Brotherhood of Eternal Love
Tim Scully first met William "Billy" Mellon Hitchcock, grandson of William Larimer Mellon and great-great-grandson of Thomas Mellon, through Owsley in April 1967. They became friends and Billy loaned Scully $12,000 for the second Denver lab in 1968. The product from the lab was distributed by The Brotherhood of Eternal Love; Scully was connected with the Brotherhood via Billy Hitchcock. The second Denver lab was discovered in June 1968 by the police while Scully was in Europe searching for a new supply of precursor chemicals. His lab assistants were arrested there when they returned a few days later. Scully was not arrested at that time. The search was eventually ruled illegal and the case was dropped,[4] but the lab had cost approximately $25,000 to set up and now Scully was looking for a new lab in addition to precursor chemicals.
1969: Windsor lab and "Orange Sunshine"
In December 1968
Investigation, arrest, and trial
In May 1969 Tim Scully was arrested in California for the 1968 Denver lab. The search was eventually ruled illegal, but Scully decided to retire from clandestine chemistry and pursue electronic design instead. In 1969 Scully formed his own corporation, Aquarius Electronics, and he was president and sole designer from 1971–1976.
The government had been building a case against Nick Sand, Tim Scully's partner in the 1969 Windsor lab, since late 1971. In early 1973 Billy Hitchcock was threatened with 24 years in prison for tax evasion if he didn't help the government convict the prime movers of the LSD cartel. Hitchcock provided evidence and testified against Scully and Sand, and they were both indicted in April 1973. Scully's defense was that he was producing ALD-52, which was legal, and not the controlled substance LSD-25.[5] Scully lost the case and was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1974. Scully's appeals ran out in late 1976, so he sold his stock in his company and began serving prison time in early 1977.
Scully spent his time in prison helping design and build
Later life
Following his release from prison, Scully was a lecturer in
He has retired from his career with Autodesk as an AutoCAD dealer (1983-1987), consultant (1987-2000) and senior software developer (2000-2005) and is currently researching a book on the underground history of LSD.
See also
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- Casey William Hardison
- History of lysergic acid diethylamide
- William Leonard Pickard
- Psychonautics
- Nicholas Sand
- The Brotherhood of Eternal Love
- Owsley Stanley
- The Sunshine Makers
References
- ^ Inmate Named Man of the Year at The Hour, February 2, 1979
- ^ Waiting for the man: the story of drugs and popular music, by Harry Shapiro, 1988, Quartet Books
- ^ William Pickard's long, strange trip / Suspected LSD trail leads from the Bay Area's psychedelics era to a missile silo in Kansas from the San Francisco Chronicle, page 2, June 12, 2001, by Seth Rosenfeld: "There was a break, and I walked out into the hall, and he introduced himself as a fellow chemist," recalled Scully, once an "apprentice" to Augustus Owsley Stanley III, the most infamous psychedelic sorcerer of the '60s."
- ^ Walker, Chris (2017-10-31). "Acid Trip: Denver's Secret LSD Labs Fueled the Psychedelic Revolution". Westword. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
- ^ United States v. Sand at Open Jurist