A number of top secret spy techniques that popular magicians have taught to the CIA in the 1950s

A magician treasure trick to take out coins, pigeons, sometimes people as well as "banish" in front of the audience, to take out bouquets from the empty sky. I thought that vivid handicap should be used for spying activitiesCIA (American Central Intelligence Agency)In the 1950s in the middle of the Cold War, Mr. John Mulholland, a professional magician asked Mr. Michael to teach a number of top secret techniques applying magic tricks.

The spy manual written by Mr. Mulholland was thought to have been all abandoned in 1973 and there were many staff members who thought that CIA learned magic tricks themselves as urban legends themselves but many former CIA staff membersRobert WallaceHe discovered this manual in a confidential document released in 2007, and together with Keith Melton, a spying technology expert and CIA advisor, is summarized in a book titled "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" I will.

Details are as below.When the CIA tried its hand at magic - The Boston Globe

Mr. Mulholland was a popular magician who was active in New York at the time and was active in the manual. In the manual, the CIA staff who will execute the spy technique is "Performer", the target that the performer will be deceptive to It is called "Spectator". For example, "As soon as an audience takes out a cigarette, a cigar, or a pipe, the performer will take out the matchbook from the pocket, prepare to break a match and prepare a fire.These behaviors are all friendly Because it can only be seen as polite behavior, the performers can do it dignitiously.

If you have hidden pins in the match book, you can take out with the fingers of the left ring finger, the movement is physically hidden in the match book, psychologically an open gesture to fire the opponent's cigarette It is hidden by. Also, if you are hiding a small tablet, you are advised that you can drop off your hand casually when you pass over the other's glass, while taking a match to the other's mouth.

Here is the book "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception" by Mr. Melton and Wallace, which introduced Mr. Mulholland's spy manual.

The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception


Mr. Mulholland wrote the manual of spy technique applying magic tricks for CIA in the 1950s, during the east-west cold war which can be said as a pretended spy war, Mr. Melton and Mr. Wallace were hidden in the cigarette boxCyanidePoison gun and,St. Bernard dogAgent who was disguised into a fake animal hospital, genuineScrotumPopular scrotum with radio attached to be worn from the top, a very small hidden in the capsule of suppositorypickingA number of spy movie tricks used by the Soviet and American camps, such as tools, are also featured. Compared to that, most of the tricks Mr. Mulholland has taught are a way to conceal or hide things using the magician's basic body maneuvering and hand techniques, and a sign with the assistant on the stage It seems to be like a thing with feet on the ground such as communication means applied.

In "The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception", the technique Mr. Mulholland has taught to CIA is introduced with illustration. This is a spy that hid in a fuel tank of a remodeled car, escaped from Eastern Europe, applying a box for "magic trick".


Here, a hollow for people to hide is made in the middle of the case carrying bottles of mineral water.


You can communicate information such as "there is information", "follow me", "have one person with you" etc. in the tying method of the shoelaces.


It is also effective to cover behind the neck for a secret signature. It looks better from afar, it is a natural gesture, but it is almost impossible to find a person who is hanging by chance.


In order to pick up documents from the desk casually, it is effective to lift the book with the wax and lift it.


And how to fold with one hand against the documents that picked up the thigh, how to pass in addition to the agent each book has also been described.


It is effective not to make a crisp expression to make the audience severe. That's why "How to look like a manu" is also being taught. It is good to relax the facial muscles so that the eyes do not focus.


Regarding the technique of putting drugs in sake using tablets hidden in the aforementioned match, former CIA Deputy Secretary who is writing the preface of this bookJohn E. McLaughlin"As far as we know, this technique has never actually been used," he says. However, Mr. Mulholland's spy manual was administering drugs such as LSD to CIA officials, soldiers, mentally ill patients and others without consent from the subjectsMK Ultra PlanEven if it was not used as a spy partner of the Soviet Union, it is said that it could not be said that these techniques had never been used for experiments.