The FBI's file on former Chief Justice William Rehnquist -- made public more than a year after his death -- offers insight into hallucinationsand other symptoms of withdrawal that Rehnquist suffered when he was taken off a prescription painkiller in 1981. A doctor was cited as saying that Rehnquist, an associate justice of the Supreme Court at the time, tried to escape the hospital in his pajamas and imagined that the CIA was plotting against him.
Now, in my younger days, I partaked in a few contraband subtances, but unless my memory is hazy, I didn't try escaping a hospital detox ward wearing my nightshirt worried about black helicopters chasing me down the hallways. That kind of memory is a kodak moment to say the least. He started taking placidyl the year he started on the bench in 1971. Due to the fact that the side effects include hallucinations and convulsions, it is rarely prescribed for over 7 days. Rehnquist was on it for 10 years.
We the people, of course, did not get the full truth about it when he was nominated as Chief Justice in 1986. (A side thought. That HMS Pinafore outfit he made for himself during the Clinton impeachment trial makes a lot more sense now). We also did not get the full truth about the racism in his past including his restrictive land deed on property he owned in Arizona.
The documents show that the FBI was aware in 1971 that Rehnquist had owned a home in Phoenix with a deed that allowed him to sell only to whites. The restrictive covenant was not disclosed until his 1986 confirmation hearings, at which Rehnquist said he became aware of the clause only days earlier.
A little background here. In the article it turns out that several evil cast of characters including John Bolton and Strom Thurmond were using the FBI to investigate Rehnquist critics. This happened both in 1971 when he was placed on the court, and in 1986 during his Chief Justice hearings. The FBI learned of the housing covenant because they were trying to actually nullify any criticism against him. It continued in 1986 with Bolton being given a list of negative witnesses, and through his position in the Reagan administration, investigating the witnesses for dirt.
These bastards just didn't become this way recently. Rehnquist's hearings were a sham. Our FBI helped cover up the fact that Rehnquist was a serious drug addict who went on the detox crazy train, and knew for 15 years at least that his house's deed forbade him to sell the property to a non white.
So now, Rehnquist has been dead a year, and NOW we get to know.