In 1975 the US Government had the Church Committee and the Rockefeller Commission. They investigated CIA and others dodgy activity. Before 1974 there was some media attention, was there any knowledge about these activities ?
Was anyone who published anything pre 1974 considered a kooky conspiracy theorist?
It’s a good question, though I don’t have a solid answer. I can say that the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 primed the US public to accept that some of the US government’s secret activities were dubious or worse. A boatload of illegal domestic spying was exposed by Seymour M. Hersh, working for the New York Times on Dec 22, 1974. Lead paragraph:
The Central Intelligence Agency, directly violating its charter, conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States, according to well‐placed Government sources.
Reference to counter-cultural press (at the time):
Two months ago, Rolling Stone magazine published a lengthy list of more than a dozen unsolved break‐ins and burglaries and suggested that they might be linked to as yet undisclosed C.I.A. or F.B.I. activities.
Interesting take:
Another official with access to details of C.I.A. operations said that the alleged illegal activities uncovered by Mr. Schlesinger last year included break‐ins and electronic surveillances that had been undertaken during the fifties and sixties.
“During the fifties, this was routine stuff,” the official said. “The agency did things that would amaze both of us, but some of this also went on in the late sixties, when the country and atmosphere had changed.”
As for MKUltra, the CIA gave LSD to Ginsberg and Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) as part of their experimentation, who turned around and popularized it. So there was some earlier knowledge.