Marriage to Long John Nebel and “Rediscovering” Arlene
In 1972, Candy married the popular radio show host Long John Nebel, after a one-month courtship. Nebel was the first person to notice her strange behavior. One moment his wife was the most loving, sociable, and charming woman, and the next moment she would become vicious and cruel. One night she even attempted to strangle him in a military-style manner. According to Nebel, she didn’t remember anything about her violent outbursts once she snapped out of the wild fits. What made Nebel even more suspicious about her unpredictable behavior was that his wife would often travel claiming that she works for the U.S. government.
Convinced that Jones was cheating on him, Nebel suggested to help Jones treat her chronic insomnia through hypnosis in hope to discover what’s going on during her “secret” trips. What he exposed, however, wasn’t another man but his wife’s alter ego — an extremely hostile woman named Arlene. From the audiotapes of Jones speaking under hypnosis, Nebel reported all the aforementioned details (in the second page), which Jones didn’t even recall. During her work with the CIA, Jones had the impression that she had occasionally delivered mail for her government, but she was not aware of her alter ego Arlene at all. After some time, her occasional employment with the government was no longer satisfactory and she decided to leave.
However, the only proof of her involvement in the CIA mind-control program was the audio-taped conversations of Candy speaking under hypnosis when questioned by Nebel. This led many experts to conclude that the whole thing was nothing more than just a hoax by Nebel, who was quite notorious for such stunts on radio, while several psychiatrists claimed that Candy Jones suffered from “alleged false memory syndrome.” A few years later though, Nebel and Jones’ claims gained more credibility when it was discovered that the CIA had indeed been running extensive mind-control tests and experiments under a program named Project MKUltra. The project was directed by the Office of Scientific Intelligence of the CIA and coordinated with the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories.
For over 20 years, the project aimed to “develop a capability in the covert use of biological and chemical materials.” The motivation was also defensive, as the American government was afraid during the Cold War that the Russians and Chinese had already developed weapons in this area. As the project’s proponents noted,
The development of a comprehensive capability in this field of covert chemical and biological warfare gives us a thorough knowledge of the enemy’s theoretical potential, thus enabling us to defend ourselves against a foe who might not be as restrained in the use of these techniques as we are.
Even though there are still many doubters who dismiss every claim Nebel and Jones ever made, there’s no doubt that the Cold War between the two great superpowers, the United States of American and the Soviet Union, might had not been the typical war but still had countless victims, with Candy Jones possibly being one of them.
Where Did We Get This Stuff? Here Are Our Sources
“Was This Blond Bombshell the CIA’s Secret Weapon?” Ozy. Theodore Karasavvas. 2016.
“Taking Control of Candy Jones.” Damn Interesting. Jason Bellows. 2006.
“The Control of Candy Jones.” Book. Donald Bain. 1976.
“Candy Jones – Hypnosis & Mind Control.” Mysterious People. Brian Haughton. 2003.