Steve Jobs’ Pentagon papers: blackmail fears and taking LSD
Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs discussed unflattering details of his personal life when applying for top secret security clearance in the late 1980s.
Steve Jobs told government officials in a 1988 interview that he thought someone might kidnap his illegitimate daughter in order to blackmail him, according to Department of Defense documents acquired by Wired through a Freedom of Information Act request.
He also discussed his drug use, which has been disclosed in news stories and the extensive biography by Walter Isaacson that was published shortly after Jobs’ death in 2011.
In the Pentagon file, Jobs said he used LSD “ten to fifteen times” in the 1970s. He also used hashish and marijuana.
“The best way I could describe the effect of the marijuana and hashish is that it would make me relaxed and creative,” Jobs said.
These details expand on what was already known about Jobs’ personal life based on a 1991 FBI file released in February 2012.
Jobs also disclosed to the Pentagon that he had been arrested in 1975 for failing to pay a $50 speeding ticket. The officer had pulled him over for possibly being a minor in possession of alcohol.
Jobs, who died last October after a long bout with cancer, went on to discuss his emotional volatility.
“I admit that in the past I have become angry, or have lost my temper when things are not going right,” he said. “I feel that this type of behavior happened when I was in my early twenties. I feel that I have better control of these emotions at the present times.”
RELATED
Will Apple release an Apple TV SDK at WWDC?
