Ken Kesey

Sixty years ago today, Ken Kesey faked his own suicide and fled to Mexico—marking one of the most mythic turning points of the psychedelic era. Facing drug charges tied to LSD, the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author and Merry Pranksters staged a dramatic disappearance, leaving behind a truck near the California coast and a note suggesting he’d taken his life. Instead, Kesey crossed the border, cementing his status as both countercultural hero and outlaw. The move symbolized the end of the wide-open, playful phase of the psychedelic underground—and the beginning of a more cautious, criminalized era. The Acid Tests were over. The culture was changing. But the ripple effects of that moment still echo today.