Was Houdini a Spy? (2021)

Summary

The world’s most famous magician, Harry Houdini, was known as a celebrity conjurer, a practitioner of escape magic, and a master illusionist. He’s had an enduring legacy on the magical arts since his untimely demise on Halloween Day, 1926. That’s why October 31st is known in magical circles as “National Magic Day” or simply “Houdini Day.”In honor of this legendary magician, we’re exploring the effect magic, and even Houdini, has had in the realms of intelligence and espionage.Harry Houdini, courtesy of the Library of Congress It may surprise people to learn that Houdini’s magical techniques have influenced generations of clandestine officers. We even had a former CIA deputy director who was a magician himself!But was Houdini more than just an influential figure?Was he ever a practitioner in the art of espionage?Was he a spy?To answer these questions, we must first delve into the mystery of the missing magic manuals of Langley and the CIA’s first magician, John Mulholland.Vintage poster for Harry Houdini show, courtesy of the Library of Congress. Magic and Espionage at CIA“Magic and espionage are really kindred arts,” or so wrote former CIA Deputy Director McLaughlin, an amateur magician himself, in the forward to the book, “The Official C.I.A. Manual of Trickery and Deception” by H. Keith Melton and Robert Wallace.This book, created from two long-lost training guides designed to teach Agency officers how to integrate elements of the magician’s craft into clandestine operations, revealed that the CIA’s connection to the world of magic was decades old.In the 1950s, as part of the MKULTRA project, the Agency hired magician John Mulholland to teach young officers techniques of deception suitable for the field, such as smuggling assets out of East Germany during the Cold War in vehicles that resembled the magic boxes used in stage illusions.As part of his contract, Mulholland prepared two training manuals; “Some Operational Applications of the Art of Deception” and “Reco...