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They were called crazy, delusional, and paranoid, but history would prove them right. Join us as we look at individuals who raised alarms about serious issues and faced ridicule, institutionalization, and worse. Our countdown includes Rachel Carson, Russ Tice, Christine Collins, and more! Which whistleblower or truth-teller do you think suffered the most for being right?
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00:00It was an outrageous story. I mean, I admit it, but it was true.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo. And today we're looking at those incredibly suspicious of other people
00:10or institutions and were mistreated, only to be proven right.
00:14We're teaching the politicians to be straight and not crooked.
00:19Rachel Carson. Since ancient times, farmers have utilized various forms of pesticides.
00:25This made it easy for mid-20th century America to accept the rollout of DDT,
00:31a sprayable chemical that could eradicate most insects.
00:40Some, like Rachel Carson, were against it from the beginning.
00:44In her book, Silent Spring, published in 1962,
00:48she laid out the dangers it presented to the environment and human health.
00:52No witchcraft, no enemy action had snuffed out life in this stricken world.
00:58The people had done it themselves.
01:00Her concerns were met with jeers from the chemical industry,
01:03who threw baseless and misogynistic attacks at her.
01:06I know that many thoughtful scientists are deeply disturbed
01:10that their organizations are becoming fronts for industry.
01:14Carson passed away just two years later,
01:17meaning she wouldn't live to see just how right she was.
01:20It was banned for agricultural use in 1972,
01:24but its effects still affect wildlife and human populations today.
01:28Her message was that there's an ongoing story.
01:32It doesn't just stop with the removal of pesticides.
01:35Russ Tice.
01:37A government going out of its way to spy on its own people sounds ludicrous.
01:42Yet in 2005, Russ Tice risked his job at the National Security Agency
01:47to expose that very behavior.
01:50He claimed that the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency
01:53were listening in on some civilians' conversations.
01:56It didn't matter whether you were in Kansas,
01:59you know, in the middle of the country,
02:00and you never made any foreign communications at all.
02:04They monitored all communication.
02:06He attempted to take these concerns to Congress,
02:09but was swiftly silenced in the form of being forced
02:11to undergo a psychological evaluation
02:13where he was diagnosed with paranoia.
02:16I think most people realize I'm not crazy now,
02:18but back then it was like,
02:20hey, that guy's crazy,
02:21and you and the press would go,
02:22ooh, is he really crazy or not?
02:25The whistleblower never backed down,
02:27leading to conservative figureheads like Bill O'Reilly
02:30calling for his arrest.
02:31Well, the bottom line on this is that Tice
02:34made some very serious accusations.
02:36He went on NBC News,
02:38and he can't back them up.
02:40Though President Bush admitted
02:42to allowing some citizens to be spied on in 2006,
02:45Tice wouldn't be believed until 2013,
02:48when Edward Snowden revealed the true depth
02:51of their mass surveillance.
02:52So, I just want to get a sense of
02:54why did you decide to do what you've done?
02:56So, for me, it all comes down to state power
03:00against the people's ability
03:01to meaningfully oppose that power.
03:04Adrian Schoolcraft.
03:06The idea of the police working against those
03:08they're meant to help is unfathomable to some.
03:11I've been covering the police department
03:12for almost 20 years,
03:14and this is the craziest story
03:17that I ever came across in my entire period.
03:21As a member of the NYPD,
03:24Adrian Schoolcraft was eager to help
03:25the city and its citizens.
03:27When he began to offhandedly record conversations,
03:30he got footage of the department
03:32enforcing arrest quotas
03:33and encouraging officers to charge people
03:36with whatever possible.
03:38Schoolcraft turned on his own
03:39and reported them.
03:41He was met with harassment
03:42and was even demoted to desk duty.
03:44He refused to remain silent,
03:46leading to him being forcibly hospitalized,
03:49which he also recorded.
03:50After being fired,
03:51he published everything.
03:53The commissioner is probably
03:54the most prominent law enforcement official
03:55in the country.
03:57You have a billionaire mayor,
03:58and they're worried about their legacies.
04:01And here's little Adrian Schoolcraft saying,
04:04giving a completely different narrative
04:05to the last eight years.
04:08A report made in 2012
04:10found that he'd been right.
04:12And in more recent years,
04:13more officers have come forward
04:15to speak against the quota system.
04:17The way I think about it is,
04:19say a fireman is told by his supervisor,
04:21we need you to put out 15 fires this month.
04:23And if you don't put out 15 fires,
04:27you're going to get penalized.
04:28Jean Seberg.
04:30In the mid-20th century,
04:32Jean Seberg was on track
04:33to become the face
04:34of the French New Wave film movement.
04:36Je voudrais penser à quelque chose,
04:38et je n'arrive pas.
04:40Yet, after a series of financial donations
04:43to civil rights groups
04:44such as the NAACP in the 1960s,
04:47her career was suddenly derailed.
04:49We all wear masks all the time.
04:50You never see an actor act more on stage
04:54than you see them act in a restaurant
04:55when you're having dinner with them.
04:57False stories regarding the father
04:58of her child were spread,
05:00causing her reputation to nosedive.
05:02She wasn't safe outside of the public eye either,
05:05with her phone calls being tapped and published,
05:08and her home being broken into.
05:09The entire time,
05:11she was aware of the stalking and defamation,
05:13leading to a psychological breakdown.
05:15In 1979, she took her own life,
05:18and cited her nerves as the main reason.
05:20Only then did the FBI confess
05:22to its COINTELPRO campaign.
05:25I believe one day,
05:27the truth
05:28will be revealed.
05:43Harry Markopoulos.
05:45This should be a lesson to all
05:46not to disregard credible warnings.
05:49As far back as 1999,
05:51financial fraud investigator Harry Markopoulos
05:54collected evidence
05:55implicating financier Bernie Madoff
05:57in a massive fraud case.
05:59Harry started engineering it,
06:00looking at it,
06:01and dissecting the returns,
06:03and he, after four hours of work or so,
06:06came up and said,
06:07Frank,
06:07this is a Ponzi scheme.
06:10I said,
06:11Harry, that's a strong word.
06:13And Harry says,
06:13look at this,
06:14the market goes down,
06:15he's not hurt at all,
06:16he produces 1%.
06:17Market goes up,
06:18he produces 1%.
06:20He brought his concerns
06:21to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
06:23three separate times,
06:25and was ignored.
06:26Meanwhile,
06:27the cost of Madoff's Ponzi scheme
06:29climbed higher.
06:30Markopoulos didn't give up,
06:31though he began to fear
06:32that Madoff,
06:33or one of his associates,
06:34would harm him.
06:36His 2005 attempt,
06:37a 21-page analysis
06:39dating back nearly 15 years,
06:41was still ignored.
06:42Well, if the people there
06:43aren't trained in securities work,
06:45what are they trained in?
06:46How to look at pieces of paper
06:48that the securities laws require.
06:51They can check every piece of paper perfectly
06:52and find misdemeanors,
06:54and they'll miss all the financial felonies
06:56that are occurring
06:56because they never look there.
06:58Even when pointed to fraud,
06:59they're incapable of finding fraud.
07:01In 2008,
07:02the bubble surrounding Madoff popped.
07:05By then,
07:05tens of billions of dollars
07:07had been defrauded,
07:08and Markopoulos got the opportunity
07:10to admonish the SEC
07:11for ignoring him for so long.
07:14When an entire industry
07:15that you were supposed to be regulating
07:17disappears due to unregulated,
07:19unchecked greed,
07:21then you are both a captive regulator
07:22and a failed regulator.
07:24Christine Collins
07:25In 1928,
07:27Christine Collins experienced
07:29every parent's worst nightmare
07:30when her son Walter
07:32went missing.
07:32I'm calling to report
07:34a missing child.
07:35A missing child.
07:37What's your relation to the child, ma'am?
07:39It's my son.
07:41After months,
07:42the LAPD claimed
07:44they found him in Illinois.
07:45She was relieved
07:46until she actually saw him
07:48and realized
07:49he wasn't her son at all.
07:50It's not my son.
07:51Her concerns were brushed aside,
08:03and she reluctantly
08:04took the imposter home.
08:06Weeks later,
08:07she brought dental records
08:08to prove her case,
08:09earning herself
08:10a forced commitment
08:11to a psychiatric hospital.
08:13It wasn't until
08:13the child himself
08:14was questioned
08:15that they learned
08:16he'd been lying
08:17in order to get
08:18a free trip to Hollywood
08:19to meet his favorite
08:20movie star,
08:21Tom Mix.
08:22Collins was freed
08:23ten days later.
08:25Though she was vindicated,
08:26she never saw
08:27any restitution
08:28from the police,
08:29and her son
08:30was never found.
08:30Martha Mitchell
08:50When Martha Mitchell
08:52first came to Washington, D.C.,
08:54she made a name
08:54for herself
08:55as a professional gossip,
08:56especially when
08:57it came to politics.
08:58If I'm doing anything wrong
09:00in this government,
09:01just tell me about it.
09:03When the Democratic
09:03National Committee
09:04headquarters
09:05were broken into
09:06in 1972,
09:08Mitchell suspected
09:08her husband
09:09and the Nixon
09:10re-election committee
09:11he was part of.
09:12She tried calling
09:13a journalist,
09:14but the call was cut.
09:15I'm in the office
09:16and the phone rings
09:17and it's Martha Mitchell.
09:18Days later,
09:19she was found
09:20beaten and imprisoned
09:21at the Westchester
09:22Country Club.
09:23She claimed to have
09:24been dragged
09:24and kidnapped
09:25by Nixon's men,
09:26all while they ruined
09:27her reputation.
09:29I'll tell them all
09:30and you know
09:30what they're gonna do?
09:31They'll probably
09:32end up killing me.
09:33When the smoke cleared,
09:35she'd lost everything
09:36from her marriage
09:36to her connections.
09:38In 1975,
09:40her story was corroborated
09:41by one of the perpetrators
09:42of the Watergate burglary,
09:44proving that she'd been
09:45telling the truth.
09:47Ignis Semmelweis
09:48In the 19th century,
09:50Ignis Semmelweis
09:51was a champion
09:51for women's health
09:52and lost everything
09:54because of it.
09:55Although he couldn't explain
09:56why hand disinfection
09:58was so effective,
09:59his research in 1847
10:01would go on
10:02to transform the way
10:03surgery is carried out.
10:04It all began
10:05at Vienna General Hospital
10:07when he saw female patients
10:08getting different results
10:10depending on what ward
10:11they were admitted to
10:12as one was more deadly.
10:14After extensive research,
10:16he learned that the women
10:17were being exposed
10:18to illness
10:18due to doctors
10:19handling corpses beforehand.
10:22He suggested
10:23that professionals
10:24wash their hands
10:25in a solution
10:29of chlorinated lime
10:30before each examination.
10:33Despite the fact
10:33that his findings
10:34saved several lives,
10:36his theory was ridiculed
10:37and he was fired.
10:38The medical community
10:40really didn't want
10:41to change.
10:43After continuing
10:44to defend himself,
10:45he was committed.
10:46He passed
10:47just two weeks later
10:48and his findings
10:49would continue
10:50to be ignored
10:51until Louis Pasteur
10:52expanded upon them
10:54in his own work.
10:55Gary Webb
10:56Much like
10:57mass surveillance,
10:59the idea of
10:59government organizations
11:00funneling harmful substances
11:02into civilian neighborhoods
11:04may have once
11:05sounded absurd.
11:06Gary Webb
11:06had built a life
11:07and reputation
11:08for himself
11:09as a journalist.
11:10His career and life
11:11changed forever
11:12when he worked on
11:13the Dark Alliance series,
11:15which posited
11:16that the crack epidemic
11:17in the 1980s
11:18was started
11:19by the Nicaraguan Contras
11:20supported by the CIA.
11:22We showed it
11:23very conclusively
11:23that that was the case.
11:25His claims
11:25were embraced
11:26by some
11:26and derided
11:27by others,
11:28with the administration
11:29and his publisher
11:30falling into the latter camp.
11:32What we found
11:32was that
11:33they were selling
11:35this stuff
11:35in South Central,
11:37which is, you know,
11:38predominantly black
11:39section of Los Angeles.
11:41Webb took his own life
11:42in 2004,
11:44though many suspect murder.
11:45An internal investigation
11:47found the CIA
11:48knew about Contra's involvement
11:49and that they'd stopped
11:51other agencies
11:52from investigating them.
11:53The real tragedy here
11:54is that as far as we know,
11:56no one from the CIA
11:57or the mainstream media
11:59even lost their jobs
12:00over this.
12:01The only people
12:01who suffered for it
12:02were the journalists
12:03who exposed the story
12:04and the millions of people
12:06targeted by the unjust
12:07and racist laws
12:08that were passed
12:09in response
12:10to the 1980s crack crisis.
12:12Ernest Hemingway
12:29Ernest Hemingway
12:31is widely considered
12:32to be one of the
12:32greatest American authors.
12:34In 1950,
12:36the New York Times
12:36declared Ernest Hemingway
12:38the most important writer
12:39since the death of Shakespeare.
12:41He was also convinced
12:42he was being targeted
12:43by the government.
12:45He and Mary
12:45and some friends
12:46had dinner
12:47at the Christiana restaurant
12:48in Ketchum.
12:49Still is in place.
12:51You can go there anytime.
12:53And he felt that
12:54there was a guy
12:55in a trench coat
12:56sitting in the restaurant
12:57and he thought it was
12:58an agent.
12:59He feared that
13:00they were tracking
13:00his every move,
13:02leading to intense paranoia
13:03that led to
13:04inpatient treatment
13:05and several
13:06electroconvulsive
13:07shock treatments.
13:08It's like being
13:09electrocuted
13:1020 times.
13:13It was only
13:14after he took
13:15his life in 1961
13:16that the truth
13:17came out.
13:18Not only
13:19had the FBI
13:19been tracking him
13:20since he'd patrolled
13:21Cuban waters
13:22during World War II,
13:24they had created
13:25a 124-page file
13:27about him.
13:28Though he was right
13:28the whole time,
13:30that answer
13:30came at the cost
13:31of his own life.
13:32Which of these
13:33rightfully paranoid people
13:35do you feel
13:35were the most mistreated?
13:37Let us know
13:37in the comments
13:38below.
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