On this day, Jan. 21, in 1970, psychedelic psychologist Timothy Leary received a 10-year prison sentence for possessing two partially smoked marijuana joints in Laguna Beach, Calif. Leary had been a huge influence in the era of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, encouraging people to use LSD and, famously, “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
President Nixon labeled Leary “the most dangerous man in American.”
In prison, Leary was given a gardening detail that allowed him to easily escape. Members of the Weatherman Underground smuggled him and his wife to Algeria, where they stayed with the Black Panthers.
Authorities finally captured him in Afghanistan in 1974.
Leary was placed in a cell with Charles Manson in Folsom Prison. California Gov. Jerry Brown later released Leary in April 1976.
He died at his house in Beverly Hills in 1996, at age 75.
Scott McCabe
