Sophisticated Technology at Work

But Alec’s apparatus was rather specialized. It had been designed for just such a situation. The night before the Popoff meeting at the San Francisco Civic Auditorium, our sleuth had donned workman’s clothing and wandered about the place with his scanner switched on while the built-in computer plotted all the many frequencies being used during another event being held there. These broadcasts came from intercoms, communicators, and other electronic machinery. The following night, Alec was back, carrying the scanner connected to a tape recorder, and accompanied by magician Robert Steiner, who has a history of detecting and exposing fraud and was an excellent choice for this job, too. Alec Jason set his scanner to again track down frequencies in use, but he told it via the computer to ignore those frequencies detected the previous night. This way, it would lock in on only those frequencies peculiar to the Popoff operation. Almost immediately, the device locked onto 39.170 megahertz, and Jason gave Steiner the “thumbs-up” sign as he heard—and recorded—the voice of Elizabeth Popoff as she began the evening’s business by saying:Hello, Petey. I love you. I’m talking to you. Can you hear me? If you can’t, you’re in trouble, ’cause I’m talking. As well as I can talk. I’m looking up names, right now. I forgot to ask. Are you going to preach first, or are you going to minister first? Helloooo! I love you!

(On September 5, 1985, Popoff’s office assistant, Tisha Sousa, had ordered the secret radio equipment by telephone from Audio Specialties, in Los Angeles. Popoff, in person, picked up the equipment, using his platinum American Express card to pay for it, and drove away in his gold Mercedes. He was already using two of the Audio Specialties wireless microphone units, purchased earlier, but these were for regular voice-amplification use. The new technology, consisting of an induction neck loop, a tiny, nearly invisible earpiece, and the sensitive receiver, used to pick up a clandestine voice from the very high-quality transmitter operated by Elizabeth Popoff, provided the team with the means to flimflam their audiences into believing Peter had supernatural connections.) What followed the “Hello, Petey” greeting was a recitation of the names and other data that had been so carefully gathered by Elizabeth and written down by Peter Popoff on sheets of paper from which Elizabeth was now reading, while watching her husband on the TV monitors outside at the transmitter. We have some of those sheets, and we found that there were standard abbreviations used. “Del.” stood for “deliverance,” “Sal.” for “salvation.” A sample sheet, which was used when Peter had to visit tables at the Inner Circle Club in San Francisco, read as follows:A-1 Table 5. White dress with flowers. Dorothy Brownlee. Thyroid problem—needs a better job! Sal. of loved ones. Janet Perdue. Sal. of family. 4. Gives. Mae Eusz Del. from worry. Ruth’s emotional healing. Girl friend just had stroke on left side. (proxy) had to leave at 12:15 P.M. B. Table 2. Katherine Atchinson. Open doors that have increase in faith. Financial breakthrough. 3. Ruth Boyd. Legs, veins, feet swell, back, memory. 3. Table 8. Esther Dallas. High blood pressure. Dizziness. Hus. and grandma have asthma. Had stroke 6 yrs. ago.

And so on, for several pages. (The original is reproduced in Appendix III of this book.)