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Among the many tricks hidden up the CIA’s sleeve during the Cold War was a top-secret manual of deception written by American magician John Mulholland. The Agency paid Mulholland $3,000 to write a how-to guide that would educate CIA spies on how to exploit conjurers’ tricks for covert operations. (See Mulholland’s 10 Tips below.)
Mulholland advised officers on how they might send messages with their shoelaces, thwart communist Cuban leader Fidel Castro, or smuggle an agent out of a hostile country.
The guide is divided into sections on how to perform tricks with pills, liquids, and small objects. Other chapters deal with how to make people ‘disappear’ and ‘reappear’.
MKUltra
The manual was part of the top-secret MKUltra project, a CIA program that investigated mind control.
Mulholland’s 1953 guide - classified as MKUltra Subproject Number 4 - was supposed to be destroyed in the 1970s but an archived copy reappeared, as if by magic, decades later.
Retired CIA officer Robert Wallace and Navel intelligence historian Keith Melton republished the manual as The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception, adding illustrations and a history of the broader MKUltra project.

Sleight of hand
For spies new to the dark arts, magician John Mulholland describes sleight-of-hand tricks: “A small action will not be noticed when it is done while making a broader gesture for which there is an obvious reason.”
In another section, Mulholland describes how to put a dab of wax on the side of a briefcase to surreptitiously pick up papers on a flat surface or desk.
Mulholland’s Houdini-like advice also included tips on how to smuggle an agent out of a dangerous place using a secret compartment in a vehicle.
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Mulholland’s magic
Mulholland was well known to the US government. Some 100,000 copies of his earlier book, The Art of Illusion: Magic for Men To Do, were distributed to US soldiers during WWII.
The Chicago-born magician was also popular worldwide having traveled with his show to more than 40 countries, written 10 books, and performed multiple times at the White House.

During the Cold War between Washington and Moscow, Mulholland shut down his prestigious magic magazine, The Sphinx, on the pretense of ill health, and began his collaboration with the Agency in 1953.
He died in New York City in 1970 and his books, papers, and magic collection are now owned by David Copperfield.