Gordon Todd Skinner | |
|---|---|
 Skinner in 2024 | |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Drug manufacturing |
| Criminal charges | Kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy of kidnapping |
| Criminal penalty | Sentenced to life plus 90 years |
| Criminal status | Convicted |
| Parents |
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Gordon Todd Skinner is an American former drug manufacturer and convicted kidnapper who was involved in the world's largest LSD manufacturing organization in the late 1990s and 2000. He worked with chemist William Leonard Pickard and their associate, Clyde Apperson, to manufacture and distribute LSD in Colorado, New Mexico, and in two former missile silos in Salina and Wamego, Kansas.
Skinner grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and started manufacturing and distributing various drugs in high school, despite his dad's relation to federal drug enforcement agencies. In the 1980s, he became an informant for multiple agencies. Around 1997, he met Pickard, and the two made tens of millions of dollars in LSD distribution over the following years. Skinner grew paranoid of Pickard and, in 2000, he informed the Drug Enforcement Administration about the operation, which gave him immunity from prosecution for his involvement. On November 6, 2000, the DEA seized the organization's property as a part of their investigation "Operation White Rabbit"; the administration claimed this led to a 95% decline in worldwide LSD availability by 2004. Pickard was given two life sentences in prison, and Apperson was given 30 years.
In early 2003, after the trial, Skinner continued drug dealing with his wife, Krystle Cole, and their apprentice, Brandon Green. During the Fourth of July weekend, Skinner kidnapped and tortured Green in a DoubleTree hotel in downtown Tulsa. Skinner's associate, William Hauck, drove Green to Texas City, Texas, where a policeman found him. Skinner was given a life sentence plus 90 years.