Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [86]
The letter that I now had from Katz was quite a surprise. He had read my book and had decided it was time to tell of how Geller had used him. He wanted me to go to Israel to get the story, and since I was about to visit Italy to work on the Italian RAI-TV network with journalist Piero Angela, I agreed to stop over in Tel Aviv. A few days after a quick phone conversation with Yasha, I was in his apartment awaiting his revelations. I was in for an earful, and filled eight long tape cassettes with Katz's account.
His main concern was a very large sum of money that Geller still owed him. An agreement he had had with Geller entitled him to a percentage of all income that Geller earned outside the United States, and he had been strung along for many months as he traveled all over the globe with the Israeli wonder. Finally, Geller had dumped him and Yasha knew he was of no further value to his employer But another facet of all this was obviously a much more important reason for the parting. It developed that Katz had been pressed into service as an accomplice when the usually ubiquitous Shipi Shtrang was unavailable. In other words, Katz was admitting to me that he was not the innocent lackey I'd thought but instead a full-fledged trickster!
It had come about gradually, said Katz. There had been several serious talks with Geller and Shipi during which they tried to convince him of certain personality differences that he denied vehemently. There were hints that he would be taken into the Inner Circle if he would see reason, and he was not too willing to listen. Shortly thereafter, just before a performance, he was suddenly told about the "gesture code" that they were using to signal audience-selected colors and numbers to Geller onstage during the show, and Katz was shocked that evening to find himself sitting in the front row, in place of Shipi, with a cigarette in his mouth tilted upward to signal "green" to a not-so-psychic Geller.
After that, things accelerated, with Katz going along—rather unwillingly, by his account. At a meeting in London with a book publisher, a plan to convince the victim of the miraculous powers was put into effect. Geller stood up, yawned, and went off to his own room, far down the hall. Katz continued talking with the publisher, answering the phone when it rang and replacing it beside the bed with the receiver still "off" so that Geller, who had been the caller, could hear the subsequent conversation in his room. Shortly afterward they were startled when Geller burst into the room to announce that he had just "astrally projected himself" while asleep, and that his "spirit" had been in that very room and had heard every word! He repeated parts of the conversation, to the astonishment of the credulous publisher.
At a planned performance in Birmingham, England, Katz was really left holding the bag. Minutes before the show, with the house packed full, Shipi rushed backstage to tell Geller that the front row was full of local magicians, who were sitting with the press ready to expose the tricks that Geller claimed were genuine psychic demonstrations. Geller turned white and refused to give his performance. The show was held up while Geller and Katz conferred with Werner Schmidt, the promoter. Geller insisted that the management tell the audience that there had been a bomb scare and that the show was canceled. Poor Katz had to appear before the irate audience, who were in no mood to buy such a feeble story, and tell them their money would be refunded. Then he learned that Geller, talking backstage with the reporters as he ran for the car that was to whisk him