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John Mulholland was never a household word, like the world famous escapologist Houdini or, more recently, the illusionist David Copperfield. But among professional magicians from the 1930s to the 1950s, he was seen as the very model of what a magician should be-urbane, highly skilled, inventive, and prolific. He was very successful professionally, entertaining mostly in New York City society circles. He published widely on magic, both for the general public and for the inner circle of magicians who subscribed to the professional journal he edited for decades, The Sphinx. His impact on the art of magic was enormous. Mulholland’s 1932 book, Quicker Than the Eye, was one of the first books I stumbled on as a magic-struck boy combing the public library in the 1950s. I fondly remember being transported by an author who seemed to have traveled the world and witnessed marvelous things I could only imagine. That’s what fascinated me about Mulholland then. As a lifelong amateur magician who spent a career in American intelligence, what fascinates me about Mulholland today is the way the story told here resonates with something I came to conclude in the course of my professional life: that magic and espionage are really kindred arts. The manual that Mulholland wrote for the Central Intelligence Agency and that is reproduced here sought to apply to some aspects of espionage the techniques of stealth and misdirection used by the professional conjuror. Many may ask what these two fields have to do with each other. But a cursory look at what intelligence officers do illustrates the convergence. Just as a magician’s methods must elude detection in front of a closely attentive audience, so an intelligence officer doing espionage work must elude close surveillance and pass messages and materiel without detection.
Introduction: The Legacy of MKULTRA and the Missing Magic Manuals
Some Operational Applications of The Art of Deception
Introduction and General Comments on The Art of Deception
Handling of Tablets
Handling of Powders
Handling of Liquids
Surreptitious Removal of Objects
Special Aspects of Deception for Women
Surreptitious Removal of Objects by Women
Working as a Team
Recognition Signals
Notes
Selected Bibliography
About the Authors
Other Books by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher