Annie Jacobsen recounts engineer’s claim of human experiments on disabled people

What was said

"And he said, I realized when my grandchild was born that I was being punished by God because the experiments, the human experiments, were done on people who were handicapped. I said, why are you telling me this and not a priest? And he said, because you won't judge me."

Author Annie Jacobsen tells host Danny Jones that Alfred “Al” O’Donnell, an EG&G engineer she describes as a nuclear weapons “trigger man”, later became emotional and framed his account as a confession. Jacobsen says O’Donnell told her he believed God was punishing him, alleging that “human experiments” were carried out on handicapped people, and that he chose to tell her because he expected not to be judged. The segment is presented as Jacobsen’s recollection of what O’Donnell told her, with no documentation offered in the clip.