A Major Exposure

Popoff was featured on the NBC-TV “Tonight Show” (popularly known as the “Johnny Carson Show”) in February 1986 (repeated in June 1987)—but not in quite the manner he might have chosen. Having obtained strong evidence that proved he was lying to his congregation and presenting faked miracles, my teammates and I went to several federal and local officials in California and asked that they take action against him. They clucked a great deal, promised to “look into” the matter, and then apparently forgot all about it. One U.S. Attorney wrote me that in March 1986 he had “referred the matter to the FBI with a request for input from the Postal Inspectors and Internal Revenue Service.” He said that he expected to hear from them “within a few days” and that he should have “a better fix on what action might be appropriate” within a week. As this book goes to press, it is 16 months later. Nothing has been done. Finding that the government (both state and federal) was uninterested in what had been uncovered, I was forced to present the case to the American public via television, on one of the most popular network programs. The major item in the Popoff exposure had been the revelation of his rather advanced technique for “calling out” audience members. Armed with the broadcast videotape of a portion of the Popoff show recorded in Anaheim, California, I approached the producers of the “Tonight Show”—a show I’d been on many times before—and shortly thereafter I appeared there and played two tape segments. First was a 60-second segment of a “healing” by Popoff exactly as Popoff had presented it on his own telecast. He had called out names and addresses of people he had not spoken to, and then he had “healed” them. I informed Carson that we’d discovered that Popoff had a tiny hearing aid in his left ear, connected to a high-frequency receiver, and we showed that same tape segment again, this time with the added audio track of Mrs. Popoff’s voice, broadcast to Peter from backstage, giving the needed information to Popoff and directing him to the right people. The audience was amazed at this blatant deception, and Johnny himself made his dismay quite clear in his comments. I explained how Popoff had sent Reeford Sherrill (his “front man”), Volmer Thrane, and his wife, Elizabeth, into the audience in advance, equipped with transmitters to gather and broadcast the needed data backstage to the reverend. I cannot resist the temptation to demonstrate that Popoff’s gimmick had been prophesied in Matthew 10:26-27:For nothing is covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known. That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.

Following this national exposure, everything hit the fan. Carson, long known as opposing such flummery, had given my campaign exactly the impetus it needed. Consternation took over at the Upland camp. Only a few there had known anything about the electronic device, because it had been secretly obtained for Popoff by Volmer Thrane, through another employee, Tisha Sousa. Volmer is the brother of Nancy Thrane, Popoff’s general manager, who is in complete control of the computer records. She is also the employee who has been with the organization longest—eight years. Early the following morning, an emergency meeting was held. Popoff was bewildered, never having had to answer the kind of serious questions the media were now asking him. He floundered, and he made the wrong decisions. At that crisis meeting, the public relations person was instructed to answer all inquiries by saying, “Everything Amazing Randi says is not true.” Callers were asked to “pray for the ministry.” Popoff also averred that he was going to sue me, though for exactly what we never learned. David Alexander offered to immediately produce me, live, at the Upland office of the Peter Popoff Evangelical Association to be served with papers by the Popoff lawyers. The offer was not seized upon. The phone message was the total official response at that time. The Reverend Popoff tried to explain himself to those of the staff who had not known about the electronic assistance that he had been giving to God. There were some resignations by longtime associates of the ministry. Among those resigning were a few who then promptly contacted my group with some very important inside information about further chicanery within the camp. But one of the principal officers, Garry McColman, president of marketing for the Peter Popoff Evangelical Association, remained faithful. As he later confided to a television producer, he gave Popoff some excellent advice. In answer to the question of the day, “What shall we do?” he simply said to Popoff:Peter, cover your ass! If the government people come poking about here, make sure your ass is covered before they get here!

On Day Two following Armageddon, the Upland office was claiming that NBC had hired an actress to impersonate Mrs. Popoff on a “doctored” videotape. That explanation didn’t sell too well, and the media continued to press for the truth. Finally, on Day Three, Reverend Popoff admitted the existence of the radio device, claiming, incredibly, that “almost everybody” knew about the “communicator.” And, he added, “My wife occasionally gives me the name of a person who needs special prayers.” Since that time, in response to further pointed questions, Reverend Popoff has also stated that he never tried to imply that he was using his Gift of Knowledge for the “calling out.” He said that he uses the “communicator” for two reasons: one, “to keep in touch with the television crew,” and, two, as a convenience, so that he does not have to carry the “healing cards” around with him. And he promised to insert a disclaimer at the beginning of his TV broadcasts. More on that shortly. This claimed use of the device to talk to the TV crew, we knew just wasn’t so. In all of the many hours of recording we have of Mrs. Popoff speaking to Peter on the “communicator,” not once is the television operation referred to. And the channel used by the TV crew never attempted to get information to him. As for the “occasional” name given him by Elizabeth, we found that all the names of the people he “called out” were given him via the secret transmitter and that no names were given to him that he did not call out. Volmer Thrane, former Popoff confidant and vice-president of the ministry, informed us that the reverend did not obtain and start using the secret radio device until March 1985. Before that, he said, Mrs. Popoff would do audience interviews, then just take the data backstage to Peter, who would memorize it as best he could. Thrane had noticed early on that the people Elizabeth and Reeford talked to before the service were the ones Peter eventually “called out.” Thrane was not allowed to be backstage before the action started, but Rod Sherrill was. Thrane told us that, at one point, Rod told him, “You’re going to have to know.” In January 1985, he said, he was told about the interview angle, but not about the radio device. Then, in March, Thrane was invited to get involved in the information-gathering process, and, of necessity, he was told the whole story. It is just not true that, as Popoff claimed, “almost everybody” already knew about the device he was using to fake the Word of Knowledge. To examine this claim, members of the Bay Area Skeptics, the Southern California Skeptics, the Houston Society to Oppose Pseudoscience, and the San Diego Skeptics (in particular, Don Henvick, David Alexander, Bob Steiner, Steven Schafersman, and Ronn Nadeau) tracked down a good number of Popoff’s victims. All but one of them, a woman who mistakenly believed that Popoff had her healing card in his hand when he called her out of the audience, asserted that they believed Popoff knew their names and addresses by the Gift of Knowledge. That, in itself, should show that Popoff’s excuse has failed. But there is much stronger evidence available.