The Confessions of Dr. Crow
Secrets Revealed
Copyright © December 2002 by Robert E Cassidy
All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 1
The Ring Stack ................................................................................................................................... 2
The Order of the Suits......................................................................................................................... 3
The Mnemonics .................................................................................................................................. 4
The Sequence of the Cards................................................................................................................ 4
Review................................................................................................................................................ 5
The Anchors ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Anchor The Bank Numbers.............................................................................................................. 6
Anchor The Court Cards.................................................................................................................. 6
Anchor The Minority Suit Sequence................................................................................................. 7
Examples............................................................................................................................................ 7
Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 8
Dr. Crow s Address Book.................................................................................................................... 8
The Kiwi Board ................................................................................................................................. 14
Introduction
Those of you who have read The Hanussen Effect, are already familiar with the enigmatic
Robert Delacroix a/k/a Dr. Crow. For the better part of a century, he has been a powerful force behind
the scenes of modern mentalism.
There of those, of course, who doubt that Crow exists, and refuse to acknowledge that he is the
true Godfather of our art, but, then again, there are those who don t believe in the Illuminati either.
The material in this e-book was obtained on a recent visit I made to Dr. Croix s home in Bayou
Delacroix, Louisiana. I had only intended to learn his card stacking system, but was pleasantly surprised
when he shared two incredible information-gathering methods with me.
The Ring Stack is one of the most fascinating card stacking systems I have ever seen. Don t
think for a minute that it is anywhere near as confusing as it may sound on first reading. It is actually very
simple. According to Doctor Crow, the most important thing is to learn the Anchors, because, in
mastering them you will find that you can actually visualize the entire stack in your mind, much as it is
pictured in the routine.
I found it necessary to describe The Ring Stack in my own words (with Crow s permission, of
course) because when Dr. Crow showed it to me it was with deck in hand and I could immediately
appreciate the visual nature of the stack without extremely detailed information. Unlike most stacks
involving memory, the use of several Anchors insures against failure should you forget one or two of
them. As Crow likes to point out, There are many ways to skin a cat, which is a good thing, if you think
about it.
The remainder of this e-book is pretty much in the doctor s own words.
The Ring Stack
Most cyclical stacks are based on either mathematical progressions (Si Stebbins) or nonsense
rhymes ( Eight Kings and John Mulholland s Hungry Jackass. ) While memorized stacks, such as the
Nikola, allow for the fastest determination of a cards position in the pack, performers who don t use the
set-up frequently generally seem to avoid the memory route. The mathematical systems, which serve as
substitutes for memory, can sometimes be difficult in performance situations. Furthermore, many of the
mathematical formulas only allow you to determine the position of a given card, and not the card at a
given position.
Hence the Ring Stack. It is a new type of cyclical stack, with a few simple anchors that allow for
the quick determination of a card s location or the identity of a card at a given number. Unlike other
cyclical stacks, it is not based on mathematics or rhymes. Instead, it is based on a few words, some
basic (very basic) mnemonics and a bit of logic. With a minimal amount of practice, it can be mastered in
a few hours.
Here is what the stack looks like:
Refer to the above layout while reading the following and the intricacies of the stack will be easily
understood.
The Order of the Suits
The Four of Clubs is the top card of the pack and the Ten of Diamonds is at the bottom. Each of
the above rows contains a bank of thirteen cards. With the exception of the court cards, the suits follow
the standard CHaSeD sequence The picture cards, however, act as placeholders for the suit that is
missing in each bank.
For example, in the first bank the suit order is: clubs clubs spades - diamonds. The second
club is always a picture card. In the first bank, the picture cards occupy the positions that would
normally belong to hearts in the CHSD sequence. In the second bank, the positions that would
normally be occupied by spades contain the court cards from the heart suit. In the third bank, the spade
picture cards replace the missing diamonds. In the fourth bank, diamond court cards occupy the club
positions. Not only does this arrangement disguise the cyclical nature of the stack when the cards are
ribbon spread face up, but it allows the performer to immediately know which bank contains any given
court card. (All of the club picture cards are in the first bank, all of the hearts in the second, the spades in
the third, and the diamonds in the fourth.)
A court card is always followed by the opposite suit of the same color. A heart, therefore, must
follow the King of Diamonds. A club must always follow the Jack of Spades. (Again, just keep referring to
the layout pictured above for clarification.)
The Mnemonics
Readers who are familiar with standard mnemonic conventions will already be familiar with the
following numeric/phonetic alphabet as described in Harry Lorayne s How to Develop a Super Power
Memory. The following correspondences MUST be memorized, but, there are only ten of them and they
are easily remembered.
The letters, or, more properly, the sounds, T or D correspond to number 1. (Just remember
that T and D are written with ONE downstroke. T and D are the same in the numeric alphabet
because, except for the fact that one is voiced and the other isn t, both sounds are formed in the same
manner through the action of the tongue on the roof of the mouth above the teeth.)
N corresponds to number 2. (There are TWO angles in the letter N. )
M corresponds to number 3 (There are THREE angles in the letter M )
R corresponds to 4. (The R sounds like four.)
L corresponds to 5. (Think of the Roman numeral for 50 L. )
CH corresponds to 6. (Remember, we are referring to sounds, not the actual letters. For the
purposes of our stack, therefore, ch will be considered a single letter. An easy way to remember that it
corresponds to 6 is to think of six chicks. SH, a soft G or a J would also correspond to 6,
because, again, the sounds are all formed in basically the same manner.)
K, a hard C or a hard G corresponds to 7 . (The letter K looks like two mirror image 7 s
lying on their sides.)
V or F corresponds to 8. (Think of a V-8 engine or the popular vegetable juice.)
B or P corresponds to 9. (Think of a P written backwards or a lowercase b turned upside
down.)
S or Z corresponds to 0. (Z for zero)
Go over these correspondences for about ten minutes or so and you will have them down pat. (I
apologize to those experienced mentalists who have used these correspondences for years - just note
that I am using the Zufall/Lorayne correspondences rather than those used by Hatton and Plate or
Nikola. If you wish to use one of the latter systems, you will have to alter the stack accordingly.)
Note that no vowel sounds are contained in the numeric alphabet. This is convenient, for in The
Ring Stack, the vowels represent the court cards.
The Sequence of the Cards
The Ring stack is based on three words, which you must memorize: RING FELT CHAMPS.
Just think of a boxing ring which has felt many champs. (The sentence is two four-letter words
followed by a five-letter word- we consider the ch sound to be one letter, remember?)
The consonant sounds correspond to the numbers one (ace) through zero (ten.) The vowels
correspond to the court cards.
C H S D sequence R I N G F E L T Ch A M P S
(Clubs Hearts Spades Diamonds) 4 K 2 7 8 Q 5 1 6 J 3 9 10
I = kI n g E = q u E E n A = j A c k
(Note that I is the only vowel in King, E is the only vowel in queen, and a is the only vowel in
Jack. )
Review
Look at the stack again. Make sure that it all makes sense to you before you proceed any further.
The Anchors
The Anchors are those built-in features of the stack that allow the performer to determine either
the position of a given card or the identity of a card located at a given position. A single anchor, or
combinations of anchors are what enable rapid determination of the needed information. I am going to
give you more anchors than you actually need to accomplish your goal. Knowledge of all of them,
however, can make the process almost instantaneous - this is what makes The Ring Stack unique.
For example, we already know that each bank starts with a four. We can also rapidly determine
the position of any card in the bank thanks to the fact that the first two words of the stack are RING
FELT - both four letter words - followed by a five letter word (CH)AMPS. Each of these words begins
with a card of the same suit that governs the bank - the first card of the bank. Thus, if we want to know
the identity of the seventh card in the third bank we would think along the following lines:
The seventh card is the third letter of the second word felt. (The four-letter word four-letter
word five-letter word combination RING FELT CHAMPS, makes this very easy.) That letter is L
therefore the card is a five. (The third bank is the spade bank it begins with the four of spades.) There
are two ways of determining the suit. Since I know the first letter of each word corresponds to a spade, I
can just count forward- spade, diamond, club, or, I can note that the card preceding mine is a Queen,
that the Queen has the same suit as the first card of the bank, and that the card following it is the
opposite suit of the same color, as described earlier. Thus, I immediately know that the card is a five of
clubs.
Anchor The Bank Numbers
The final step is to determine the card s position from the top of the pack. Obviously, the first bank
of cards occupies the first through thirteenth positions in the pack. The second bank starts at position
fourteen, the third at twenty-seven and the fourth at forty. It is an easy matter, therefore, to conclude that
the seventh card of the third bank is the thirty-fourth from the top of the pack. Unfortunately, however,
this is not the case. The seventh card of the third bank is actually thirty-third from the top. (Count through
the stack and see for yourself.) This is an easy mistake to make under performing pressure. It is only
natural to add the position of the card in the bank to the starting position of the bank. Actually, if
you were to take this approach, you would have to remember to subtract one from your final number to
arrive at the correct result.
This is a potentially confusing way of doing things which is easily eliminated by considering the
first bank to start with zero, the second with thirteen, the third with twenty-six, and the fourth with thirty-
nine. Thus, to determine the position from the top of the seventh card in the third bank, we need only add
seven to twenty-six to arrive at the correct answer, thirty-three.
(While this may well seem a bit confusing on first reading, it is really quite simple and obvious
when you think about it.)
The remaining anchors simply make your task even easier.
Anchor The Court Cards
As noted, the picture cards, all of which are represented by the second letters of each of the three
words ring felt (ch)amps, are the same suit as the first card of the bank. The card preceding them is
also the same suit, and the card that follows them is the opposite suit of the same color.
Anchor The Minority Suit Sequence
Note that the black suit banks the first and third, beginning with clubs and spades respectively
- only contain three red cards each. Conversely, the red suit banks the second and fourth, beginning
with hearts and diamonds only contain three black cards each. By minority suit , I am referring to the
three cards in each bank that are the opposite color from the bank suit. (In the first bank, for example, the
minority suit is diamonds.) By remembering the word DuCHeSs (duchess) you will immediately know
that the minority cards in the first bank are diamonds, in the second bank clubs, in the third bank hearts,
and in the fourth bank, spades.
Also note that the minority cards are at the fourth, eighth, and twelfth positions - the last letters of
the words ring and felt and the next to last letter of champs.
I use a simple memory device to help out here: I met the Duchess on July 19th.
July 19th? What, you may ask, does that have to do with anything? Simple, July 19th translates to
7-1-9, the identities of the minority cards!
Examples
Determining the card located at a given position.
What card is 17th from the top of the pack?
That would be the fourth card of the second bank, which is the heart bank. The fourth card
corresponds to the G in RING and is, thus, a seven. Seven is the minority (black) suit of the second
bank, and, according to DuCHeSs is a club.
(Of course you could just three forward from the first card of the bank, but once you have the idea of
minority suits down, you will no longer even risk a simple counting error.) Note: when you are
determining the identity of a card at a given position, subtract (or cast out) all thirteens from the position
number. Just remember which bank the card came from.
Where is the King of Diamonds?
It is a picture card and thus is located in the bank that begins with the same suit, in this case, the
fourth bank. I is the second letter of RING, thus the King of Diamonds is the second card of the fourth
bank. The fourth bank starts with thirty-nine. Thirty-nine plus two is forty-one, which is the position of the
King of Diamonds.
Summary
The thing that makes The Ring Stack practical is that it allows many ways, through the anchors,
to arrive at the solutions to positional problems. In many cases, you are able to determine the answer
instantly. The suit sequence disguises the stack well.
By making the fours into corner shorts, it is an easy matter to quickly locate or obtain any needed
card. The Ring Stack is well worth the bit of effort you must put into learning it. It is a system you will
use always.
Dr. Crow s Address Book
Dr. Crow s Presentation:
Are you familiar with the symbols used by parapsychologists when they test someone s ESP
abilities? Let me show them to you.
Dr. Crow took a worn address book from his pocket and opened the front cover. On the first page
were drawn the five standard symbols used on Zener cards- a circle, a cross, three wavy lines, a square,
and a star.
` I want you to just think of one of these symbols. Burn it into your mind and try to project it into
mine. Here, take a piece of paper and draw your symbol. I won t look.
He removed a slip of paper from the inside front cover of the book and handed it to me along with
a ballpoint pen.
Just draw your design right on the paper and, when you re done, fold it up and hold on to it.
I did as he said and carefully drew a five-pointed star on the paper, which I then folded into
quarters.
Dr. Crow, who had turned his back while I drew the picture, turned toward me and said, Focus on
it. Remember how you drew the image. Draw it again in your mind, line by line.
He put the address book back into his pocket and came out with a small envelope from which he
removed five ESP testing cards. He dealt them face down on the table. He passed his hand over the five
designs and suddenly froze over the third card from the left. He turned it face up.
It was the star.
His method:
I have taken one liberty with the above description. Dr Crow didn t use ESP cards. I seriously
doubt if he had over owned, or even seen, a pack. Instead, he used ten cards that had strange
metaphysical designs hand drawn on them. Other than that, what he did was exactly as described
above. I changed the description to illustrate how a modern mentalist might present the same effect. Any
kinds of cards can be used, but nor more than eight or ten, for reasons which will be explained shortly.
Since Doctor Crow placed the paper on the back of his address book when he handed it to me to
draw the design, I assumed that he was using an impression device. I was interested in seeing how an
old fraud like Crow would peek at the impression.
The problem was that he never did take a peek at anything. Not as far as I could tell anyway. After
I had finished drawing my design and folded my paper, he simply took the book from me and returned it
to his inside jacket pocket.
I was, therefore, puzzled when he turned over the card that matched what I had drawn.
Crow stared at me for a moment and then laughed. You re wondering how I got the peek, aren t
you?
That s another trick I taught Hanussen before he went and got himself killed. And, by the way, the
method you wrote up in The Hanussen Effect was only one of the ways he performed the place and
event bit.
This was another. Instead of laying out cards on the table, he would remove five Tarot cards from the
envelope. He would stare at them for a while before he revealed the event and place he had his sitter
write down at the beginning of the routine.
Of course you probably already figured that the address book was an impression device, but it is,
I think you ll agree, more practical and deceptive than the others you ve seen.
It was my old friend Al Baker who first came up with the idea of using a notebook as an
impression device. Fifty years later people are still inventing variations of the notebook idea. But all of
them have one serious flaw.
I interrupted the doctor. Wait a minute, you mean to tell me that you knew Al Baker?
Course I did. I knew em all back then. They were smart boys, though. They knew better than to
mention that they knew me. I had to lay low back in those days.
Why?
Because I was making my coin in the mojo business back then and didn t need to be hanging
with magicians and phony mind readers.
So what was wrong with the notebook impression idea? I asked.
Well, think about it. If you are going to have someone write something down, or draw something,
and you hand them your notebook, why would you tear the paper out first and then put it on the front or
the back of the book before they started writing? It just doesn t make any sense. It might get by, but in
the back of their minds they re going to hear a little whisper telling them that something ain t right.
He had an excellent point, of course. His idea of using an address book was ingenious. He kept a
few loose papers in the front of the book and gave on of those to his sitter to write on. Since they weren t
part of the book in the first place, there was nothing illogical about him first taking out a piece and
handing it to the spectator after placing it on the back of the book.
What about the peek? I asked him.
All smooth and sensical. Right in front of their faces, just the way you like it. About thirty years or
so ago, there was a guy in New York City who was doing the basic effect with a pocket size dictionary - it
was his variation of Al Koran s A Word in Thousands. You know, the one where you ve got a piece of
carbon paper underneath the paper jacket of the book. Anyway, this guy s idea was to put an index card
inside the cover underneath the carbon. He d get the impression on one side of the index card. On the
other side, he had the letters of the alphabet printed out. He would put the book into his pocket and later
come out with the index card, the letters of the alphabet facing his audience. He would tell them to
concentrate on the letters of their word and then he would slowly spell it out.
Now these approaches half solved the problem, but did you ever ask yourself how many people
just happen to carry a pocket dictionary around with them? Especially someone like me. Why would I be
carrying a dictionary? I cast spells; it doesn t matter if I can spell casts.
Also, what s the point of the index card? Now you and I know what the point is. While he is
showing the letters on one side to his audience, he is reading the carbon impression on the other. But, if
you ask me, the whole thing seems just too damned contrived. Sure doesn t smell psychic to me.
Does smell a bit though. What do you think of my version?
I had to agree it was brilliant. He d gotten the impression on the face of the envelope that
contained the cards! And the address book idea was perfect. That s a common thing for someone to
have on him. I got to thinking that with two address books I
could work out yet another version of my diary effect,
particularly one of the remote viewing variations. I saw right
away how that could tie in nicely with the impression idea.
Now don t go explaining what you did with the remote
viewing idea just yet, Dr. Crow admonished.
Let s keep that to ourselves for a while.
He did give me permission to show you the address
book, though. Here is the one I made up:
When I asked Dr. Crow where he bought the book, he answered,
At the dollar store. That s where I get just about everything I need.
You need to get the cheapest one you can get with a removable black plastic cover. The plastic is so
damn cheap and thin that it lets you get better impressions than you even get with that clip board of
yours.
It s a good idea to fill it up with addresses and phone numbers too, he added.
Let me see what you put in yours, I asked.
No way, my man, you get your own numbers!
This is the inside front cover of the book. You can see where I
have drawn the five ESP designs.
Under the clear plastic on the left you should be able to make
out the billet size slips of paper, one of which is used to get the
impression.
This is the inside back cover of the address book.
The back cover of the removable paper address book
has been pulled out of the clear plastic cover on the
extreme right. (It is hard to see the clear plastic in the
picture, but it is the same as in the inside front cover
as shown in the previous picture.
The top of the clear plastic pocket has been
separated, with an Exacto knife. This is to allow the
envelope to slide freely in and out. If you look very
closely, you will be able to see the carbon paper
stuck to the inside of the cover. The carboned side is
facing you.
Here is the inside back cover again. This time the
paper address book cover is back in place under the
clear plastic pocket on the right. (It s easier to see
the plastic here.)
The envelope is shown protruding from its spot
between the plastic and paper covers of the book.
Here is the back of the closed book with the envelope still
protruding.
This photograph shows the billet placed on the back of the
address book, upon which I have drawn a star.
You will recall, that after I finished the drawing, I folded up the
paper and Dr. Crow took the address book back. He placed it
into his inside left jacket pocket, with the back of the book
facing his body. Thus, when he removed the envelope a moment later, the impression was facing him.
(If you put the book into your pocket with the back facing away from you, you will be embarrassed when
you remove the envelope, as everyone in front of you will see the impression of the design.
Doctor Crow advises that, if this should happen to you, just send him a stamped self-addressed envelope
and he will send you an official Dumb Ass Certificate. )
Here is the back of the envelope as it looks to the
performer when he removes it from his pocket.
This is an actual carbon impression obtained with
normal pressure and a ballpoint pen. This should
give you a good idea of just how thin the cheap
plastic covers are.
By the way, the dollar stores are not the only places
that these address books are available. You can also
get them at discount stores or at the ever-reliable K-
Mart.
Here is what the audience sees you removing from the
envelope as you are looking at the impression on the
other side.
It is the use of the envelope, rather than an index card,
that makes this such a practical device. I asked Dr.
Crow if he was inspired by the effect Confabulation.
He replied that he had never heard of the effect but
that he made it a habit to get confabulated every
Friday night.
The Kiwi Board
When we were done discussing his address book, Crow asked me if I was still selling my
impression boards.
I never could get used to those things, he said. Where I live, on Bayou Delacroix, it is so hot and
humid that it is almost impossible to keep the covers smooth.
But you once told me that you always used clip boards, I replied.
I do, but I ve always favored wax impressions like my old girl friend Fat Annie used.
(I didn t question his reference to Anna Eva Faye, who Dr. Crow claims to have dated in the early
twenties.)
I replied, I ve tried waxing the boards, but if you use enough wax to get a good impression, the
paper is apt to stick to the board. I have heard that you can use Lemon Pledge to get a waxed surface,
but that only seems to work well on plastic boards. I have noticed that you only use fiberboard models.
That s because they didn t have no plastic boards back when I started getting impressions. But
the Lemon Pledge doesn t hold a candle to the Kiwi.
The Kiwi?
Kiwi clear shoe polish. Here look at my board. He pulled a legal size clipboard from a drawer and
handed it to me along with his secret gimmick.
This board has already been waxed with the Kiwi polish. It is totally
dry and unsticky to the touch. Since the polish is clear, it does mark or
smudge the paper on the board.
The impression is obtained by tilting the board slightly to a cross light.
Even the lightest hand will leave a clear impression of fine writing, and
yet it is totally invisible to spectators at a casual glance.
Since I started working with the Kiwi, which, by the way, is equally
effective for preshow as will as stage work, I have found it to be a
completely reliable and practical method.
If the board is being read backstage, it is not necessary to apply
more polish before sending it out again. You need only to buff it a bit
with a cotton cloth.
___________________________________________________
These are the secrets that Doctor Crow has permitted me to share with you at this time. As the
distribution of this e-book is very limited, you will find the secrets to be extremely valuable.
Use them well.
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