Browse Items (10 total)

This is Mike Schmidt's commutation of his sentence. It says that he was released due to his voluntary participation in the TB experimentation. It is signed by Governor Edwin Johnson.

This shows Carl Erickson's date of admittance into the prison on October 31, 1915. It also shows the record of his parole on December 20, 1934.

This is Mike Schmidt's original inmate record file. He was received in the prison for rape on December 9th, 1922. Schmidt received parole on December 12th, 1934 after his participation in Dr. Corper's TB tests. In 1946, he received a full pardon…

When this article was published, it had been a few months since the testing on Schmidt and Erickson began. By this time, both inmates had received two rounds of the vaccine and had been injected with tuberculosis germs, enough, the article says, "to…

This article marks the day Carl Erickson and Mike Schmidt were released from prison following the conclusion of the testing. Dr. H.J. Corper publicly "announced the test successful."

Following his release, with the prison's $5 compensation,…

This article marks the beginning of the tuberculosis tests. Mike Schmidt and Carl Erickson received physical examinations before they were injected with the serum. Interestingly, while the country at the time was largely unconcerned about…

Of the 800 inmates who originally volunteered for the tests, Warden Roy Best narrowed the list down to 25 inmates. Notably, every individual on the list was serving a life sentence, the majority of whom were convicted of murder. This list would be…

This article is the final article discovered in the chronological timeline. Erickson, who was 69 years old when he died, had reportedly "suffered from a heart condition for several years." Erickson's death, according to physicians, "was not traceable…

This article announces the first two inmates to undergo experimentation. Mike Schmidt (left), and Carl Erickson were both serving life sentences at Colorado State Penitentiary.

This article from the Canon City Daily Record announces that tests of a tuberculosis vaccine were to be performed at Colorado State Penitentiary. Inmates chosen to receive the test would be injected with the vaccine and then injected with…