cP _ . Approved For Release 2000/08/+8enGIAF+RDP96200791 YRGHT Yasha Katz, Since Uri Geller first challenged scientists five years ago, he has been widely branded as a fraud and equally widely hailed as a. miracle worker. Last week, for the first time, someone from inside the Geller organisation has pro- vided an answer. Yasha Katz, Geller’s manager when he frst came to Britain in 1973, admitted on RALTV, Rome, on Saturday, that he helped Geller cheat. When Geller was still in Israel, Katz signed an agree- James Randi is a member of the Inner Magic Circle, London, and author of The Magic of Uri Geller ( Ballantine). ‘ment to manage Geller outside the US for a percentage of Geller’s income. He now says Geller never paid him and sent him packing after Geller really got rolling in the US. Bitter and angry, Katz finally told his story. At first, he said, he believed in Geller. Even after he became aware that Geller at least sometimes used tricks, Geller continued to perform for him as if it were all real. Eventually, however, Geller announced to Katz that he would have to act as a confederate by sitting in the audience and signalling to the stage. Katz realised that it _ was because Shipi Shtrang (Geller’s main assistant in these matters} was not there on that occasion. He was given the . gesture code, which was done by the position of his cigarette (pointed up to designate the colour “blue”, down for “green”, etc) and the hand signals as well. He served in this way many times at public performances, and Geller presented it as genuine ESP. Katz observed that Geller took notes, assisted by Shipi, of the licence-numbers of cars driven by members of the audience as they arrived. He was able to reveal these details to the spectators as if he obtained them by ESP. Once, Katz watched Geller take down a description and plate-number of a special-model Porsche, and he waited to see if Geller would use the information at the press con- ference being held. He did. © Geller took Katz entirely into the fold when he stationed him at the door of the theatre to note details about seating _and possessions of certain people. Thus, Gelier could tell _ a lady that she had some sort of object in her purse, and . reporter for L’Express, spoon in the air to hit the ceiling, . “teleportation”. The reporter was 1 identify her by the seat number. All of this was relayed to. Geller backstage just before the show started. - Flying spoons st In Paris, while Geller was being interviewed by a Katz was instructed to throw a to. create the effect of a impressed, and wrote it up as a miracle. Frequently, says Katz, he saw Geller throw objects from behind his back, over his shoulder, unnoticed, to create the “teleportation” effect. Geller and Katz visited the wife of a well known entertainer in Hollywood. She offered Geller a piece of heirloom jewellery, a valuable “fork” used in family ceremonies at her home. Katz reports he saw Geller snap it in both hands while she was not looking, and he presented it as a psycho-kinetic effect. In London, at a hotel, Geller was trying to impress a publisher who was attempting to pry him away from Doubleday, with whom he had signed for the publication of Dr Puharich’s book Uri. Geller arranged a subterfuge with Yasha. When Geller got up and left to go to his room and leave Katz and the visitor to talk alone, Katz was to call GellerAPPravactizo rRetease 200HO8(hO 201A - - ba nlaced it on the floor so that the conversation = ame 0. Wate had - Tel Aviv, R000100450002-7 ——————————— Geller a fake, says ex-manager who brought Uri Geller to England, admits he helped Geller trick the press and public extracted a number of personal details from the visitc and repeated them close to the active telephone, Gell came bursting into the room and repeated the conversatio which he pretended had come to him by telepathy. Ti publisher was very impressed. One of Geller’s standard tricks, recreating a drawing, done in several ways. Sometimes, Katz noted that Gell would simply pretend to write down a guess of what i! subject was thinking, then when the subject made tl drawing, Geller would quickly sketch an approximatic surreptitiously and show it as a previously-made imprc sion, Geller always showed great excitement and satisfe tion at the results, At other times, Katz actually had help when Geller found he could not see through a hea envelope used to conceal a drawing. For a TV programn in San Francisco, Geller instructed Katz to secretly ope the envelope while Geller distracted the staff at the f side of the studio. Katz did so, and told Geller just befo he went on the air. In Palm Beach, Florida, Katz first saw Geller sneak t) lenscap off a “sealed” camera lens to create a “psychi photo effect. When Geller was due to appear in Birmingham, wo arrived backstage that the front row was packed wi - magicians. Geller, said Katz, turned white, and refused go onto the stage. He begged Katz and Werner Schm; the impressario, to tell the reporters, management a audience that there had been a bomb scare. Katz w appalled a little later to Jearn that he was being blam for the cancellation, and that Geller was saying that wanted to perform, but Katz would not allow it. The sh: was cancelled. ; While they were in Italy, Katz had a bad scare. Togeth: he and Geller visited a jewellery shop to price expensi watches, They left without buying. Moments after th had. rounded the corner, Geller exclaimed that a “te portation” had taken place; a new wristwatch was on . arm. Said Katz, “I knew he had stolen it”. Although he now says he was brainwashed, it is curic how simple the tricks were that Geller used to convir Katz. Two remained complete mysteries until I interview him for RAI-TV. One involved the “teleportation” of heavy potted-plant holder that he claimed had been fou outside the apartment he shared with Geller, when K returned from buying a newspaper. He said that it wor have been impossible for Geller to have lifted this, since took the two of them to replace it inside the apartment aga The same planter was there in his apartment with him and against his protestations, I easily lifted « a couple of plants, moved the planter several feet, and ; the extra pots back. He dropped his claims on the mat at.that point. ‘He went on to describe an event which he had forgot having told me about several years before in New Yc and I was astonished to hear how much the story | gained in that time. It involved a theatre chair arm-r that he claimed had been “levitated” and allowed to fal: a puddle. He had the arm-rest with him there, and asser that after he’d lifted it from the puddle, it had been be dry! I poured a glass of water over it right before h and showed him that the vinyl plastic arm-rest was jusi dry then as it had been when the Geller miracle took pli ‘As the Geller myth finally disintegrates, Geller ; other miracle workers.