Ronald Keith Siegel (January 2, 1943 – March 24, 2019)[1] was an American psychopharmacologist who was an associate research professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. Siegel was the author of several noted studies and books on psychopharmacology, hallucination, and paranoia.[2]
In 2005, Siegel was an expert witness for the defense in the Robert Blake murder trial, testifying on the long-term effects of methamphetamine and cocaine use. According to the jury foreman in the trial, Siegel was "one of the most compelling witnesses" in discrediting the testimony of Ronald Hambleton, who claimed that Blake had asked him to murder Bonnie Lee Bakley.[5] In the course of his testimony in the Blake trial, Siegel disclosed that in one study, he had taught monkeys to smoke crack cocaine.[6]
Siegel, Ronald (2006). Lullaby for morons : based on the true story of America's first school teacher murder. Utica, N.Y: North Country Books. ISBN978-1-59531-011-8. OCLC71789770.
Siegel, Ronald (2015). Hashish the Lost Legend The First English Translation of a Great Oriental Romance. City: Process. ISBN978-1-934170-57-1. OCLC892460011.
Marie-Madeleine (2016). Siegel, Ronald Keith (ed.). Priestess of Morphine: The Lost Writings of Marie-Madeleine in the Time of Nazis. RKS library editions. Process Media. ISBN978-1-934170-60-1.
^Of Fire in the Brain, Oliver Sacks wrote: "there is no one around who knows more about hallucinations than Ronald K. Siegel [...] an intensely interesting and worthwhile book -- I know of no other quite like it."