Gordon Todd Skinner

Gordon Todd Skinner (born July 13, 1964) is an American criminal who was involved in the world's largest LSD dealing operation in the late 1990s and 2000. He worked with chemist William Leonard Pickard and their mover, Clyde Apperson, to manufacture and distribute LSD in and from Aspen, Colorado; Sante Fe, New Mexico; and two former missile silos in Salina and Wamego, Kansas.

Skinner grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In high school, he manufactured and dealt drugs like synthetic mescaline, despite his stepfather's employment by federal drug enforcement agencies—which had agents working in Skinner's house. In the 1980s, Skinner became an informant for such agencies. He once worked with the ONDCP on a sting operation that led to dealer José Abello Silva's arrest, which, in turn, led to the fall of the Colombian Medellín Cartel.

Skinner, Pickard, and Apperson then made tens of millions of dollars off their LSD operation. Skinner then grew paranoid about an imaginary murder that Pickard had committed, and in 2000, informed the DEA of the operation. This gave him absolute immunity from prosecution. On November 6, 2000, the DEA raided the Wamego silo as part of their investigation Operation White Rabbit. The raid allegedly caused a 95% decline in worldwide LSD availability by 2004.

Pickard and Apperson were sentenced to prison, while Skinner continued dealing drugs. In July 2003, he kidnapped and tortured his drug dealing apprentice, Brandon Green, in a hotel in Tulsa. Skinner was convicted, and given a sentence of life imprisonment plus 90 years.