Book/Movie Plot or True Story?

Thanks to a reader for pointing us to JeepBastard's blog (run by former hacker John Lee, who at least used to live in Brooklyn). Tech geeks will enjoy the blog, but we're not here to talk about geeks. What we're here to talk about is JeepBastard's assertion that at 80 Hanson Place, the site of a Brooklyn Academy of Music expansion, used to be a biowarfare lab and that lab monkeys were routinely heard screaming from that location during the 1980s crack years. Also several people died (along with some monkeys). Is this just strange or does it fall into the strange but true category?  Perhaps it's a little bit of both. The NYTimes confirms it used to be a medical testing lab. But ... a biowarfare research lab?

(Whatever you think, the photos are cool.)