The Bizarre Case of Edward J. Pullman

[Ashton Gray]

This is information that turned up ancillary to a line of research on my upcoming book, Watergate: The Hoax, but it is so bizarre, and so directly related to the JFK assassination, that I felt I must post it here.

The way it first turned up in relation to the book is that a report of July 1972 by the Defense Intelligence Agency, called "Controlled Offensive Behavior —USSR," cites a source that is only referred to in the report as "Pullman." I'm going to put here exactly what the DIA report says about this "Pullman":

According to Pullman (92), Director of the Southeast [sic: see below] Hypnosis Research Center in Dallas, Texas, before the end of the 1970s, Soviet diplomats will be able to sit in their foreign embassies and use ESP (in this case a form of the apport technique) to steal the secrets of their enemies. (See also reference 91, p. 216) Pullman states that a spy would be hypnotized, then his invisible "spirit" would be ordered to leave his body, travel across barriers of space and time to a foreign government's security facility, and there read top-secret documents and relay back their information.

Such "astral projection" already has been accomplished in laboratory settings, Pullman said, adding that the Russians are probably now trying to perfect it. Pullman further states that the Soviets are at least 25 years ahead of the US in psychic research.

According to Pullman, the Soviets have realized the immense military advantage of the psychic ability known as astral projection (out-of-the-body travel). In this reference, details are given for some of Pullman's work in the US with astral projection.

Nobody involved in the research on my book could figure out who this "Pullman" was that DIA was citing as a source. Then a strange story turned up about a man named Edward J. Pullman involved in hypnosis in Dallas, Texas, and, again, I'm just going to quote the source, a book called Breakthrough 'Boys: The Story of the 1971 Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys:

Cowboy quarterback Craig Morton worked with a Dallas hypnotist for the last 12 games of the 1970 season on an experiment in posthypnotic suggestions.

Edward J. Pullman, 58-year-old director of his Southwest Hypnosis Research Center, met with Morton once a week during this period and used hypnosis on game days when he talked with Morton on the phone. He said the practice was without the knowledge of coach Tom Landry or Cowboy officials.

Sure enough, there is a record of a Southwest Hypnosis Research Center in Dallas, Texas (not "Southeast" as the DIA report says):

SOUTHWEST HYPNOSIS RESERACH CENTER (inactive)

5444 Anita St

Edward J Pullman, Dallas, TX 75206

Business Background Report

Registration: Dec 21, 1977

State ID: 0042364901

Agent: Dr Edward J Pullman

5444 Anita, Dallas, TX (Physical)

TIN: 30003424550

Note that here the agent, Edward J. Pullman, is listed with a "Dr." title. And what does this have to do with the JFK assassination? I'm so glad you asked. Here is a pertinent section of the testimony of Edward J. Pullman on 24 July 1964 to the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy:

Mr. GRIFFIN. In calling you, we are particularly interested in any information that you might have about the activities of Jack Ruby on November 22, 1963, and November 23 and 24, including various other people that we know who were in contact with him and also some background information of Jack Ruby in terms of the various enterprises of his in at least one or two of which I understand you were associated in with him.

Mr. PULLMAN. Yes; that's right.

Mr. GRIFFIN. And also, perhaps, some general insights to the kind of person Mr. Ruby was.

Mr. PULLMAN. How did you happen to get my name— I know I spoke to the FBI at the time.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Yes; you were interviewed by the FBI, and other people that we have talked to have indicated that you, perhaps more so than any others, knew Jack pretty well?

Mr. PULLMAN. Well, I knew him pretty well; he used to be at my house occasionally and I had an insight to his personal character.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Then, let me ask you at this point if you will raise your right hand and be sworn. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. PULLMAN. I do.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Would you state your full name for the record, please?

Mr. PULLMAN. Edward J. Pullman.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Where do you live, Mr. Pullman?

Mr. PULLMAN. 5454 Anita.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Is that in Dallas?

Mr. PULLMAN. Yes.

Mr. GRIFFIN. When were you born?

Mr. PULLMAN. July 12, 1928—no; that's July 28, 1912.

Mr. GRIFFIN. What is your occupation?

Mr. PULLMAN. I am a furniture designer and consultant—games, ideas, promotions—anything for the public; creative ideas for games and so forth.

Mr. GRIFFIN. How long have you been in that business?

Mr. PULLMAN. Oh, about 30 years.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Did you have any formal training in that?

Mr. PULLMAN. No; I just learned it all.

Mr. GRIFFIN. Are you self-employed?

Mr. PULLMAN. I am working for a company right now.

Mr. GRIFFIN. And whom do you work for?

Mr. PULLMAN. I'm working for Freed Furniture Co.

Mr. GRIFFIN. And were you working for them at the time I have mentioned?

Mr. PULLMAN. No; I just started with them. I was just working for myself—I have just started with them.

I urge you to read his entire testimony, which I'm sure any of you have the skills to find. Here is a link to one transcript:

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/pullman.htm

Note that the address as given in testimony is 5454 Anita, whereas the address given in the business listing is 5444 Anita. Note also that his birth year given in testimony is 1912. That would make him 58 years old in 1970, the exact age of the Edward J. Pullman who was using hypnosis on Craig Morton in 1970.

There's no question that this is the same Pullman who was buddies with Jack Ruby in 1963, was running post-hypnotic suggestions on a Dallas Cowboys QB in 1970, and later was quoted by the DIA as an expert in the status of psi research in the USSR—where Oswald had been. And the DIA never gave his full name in its report, while misstating the name of his hypnosis center.

Yet he was "a furniture designer and consultant—games, ideas, promotions" in 1963-64? Right.

Over to you...

Ashton

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ashton Gray

[Chris Bennett]

Edward Pullman did get several copyrights in 62-63, including one on a game.

https://books.google.com/books?id=RhwhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA687&lpg=PA687&dq=%22edward+j.+pullman%22&source=bl&ots=50mri6OQaO&sig=zgM8JnVPb8Mb_u2PSxLMn15sUlg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL_rvF-ZHLAhVV7mMKHQGfALQQ6AEIHDAB#v=onepage&q=%22edward%20j.%20pullman%22&f=false

And he and Jack Ruby were into that weird 'twist board'. If it was a cover for them, it was a surprisingly elaborate one.

Actually, I can't find any mention of either that hypnosis center or Edward Pullman after 1963, except for that Cowboys story that got a lot of coverage.

Maybe he got into the hypnosis crank business after JFK died.

Best,

Chris

[Kathleen Collins]

I don't know if hypnosis is real or not. I went to a psychologist hypnotist for awhile when I was a teenager for insomnia and emotional scars from my father who was a violent alcoholic and to overcome feelings of rejection I received from a group of kids I hung out with because I wouldn't use street drugs. I can't say I improved much at the time. So does hypnosis work? I don't know.

Could it be possible that this Dr. Pullman was hypnotizing Ruby and got him to kill Oswald? I do find it suspicious that Ruby, who loved his President and his government, wasn't outside to see Kennedy pass by, but was in the newspaper ad office about a block from the street Kennedy was riding through. Ruby was at the newspaper when he learned Kennedy had been shot. He immediately cancelled his ads for the Carousel Club that weekend. Pullman did own certain patents.

Paul "Red" Dorfman was a mobster. He had a home in Palm Springs, CA. He was awakened before 9 am California time by a phone call from Chicago columnist, Irv Kupcinet, who told Dorfman that a man named Jack Ruby or Rubenstein had just shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Dorfman was incredulous. "Sparky wouldn't do that. He's a nebbish sort of guy." Dorfman had known Ruby in the late '40's through the Waste Handlers' Union in Chicago. If there is such a thing as a coincidence, Kupcinet's daughter spent that weekend in Palm Springs too, with her boyfriend and another couple. Dorfman was surprised how easily Kup tracked him down. This info came from Irv's book, Kup: A Man, a City an Era and James Ellroy's Crime Wave, "The Glamour Jungle." also Chicago Magazine's, "The Lost World of Kup," a very interesting, thorough account of the Kupcinet family, easily found on the internet. And one of Seth Kantor's Ruby books.

Karyn Kupcinet, Irv's daughter was found dead the night of Nov. 30, 1963. She'd been murdered, possibly strangled or more likely held in a neck grip which cut off oxygen to her brain, killing her almost instantly. The coroner who worked on her was found to be a pervert who had a fascination with women being strangled or beheaded. The exhumation of 2 women showed they didn't die from strangulation or beheading but from other natural causes. This man examined Karyn and said she had a broken hyoid bone in her neck which killed her. But around this time he was known to have said, "At least I didn't break the hyoid bone on this one." Well, whose hyoid bone did he break? The story about the coroner appeared in newspapers in 1966.

Karyn had been murdered on Thanksgiving, November 28, 1963. around 12:30 am. The case was never solved. Could she have been killed as a warning to keep her father's nose out of other people's business? The book, Hit List, by Richard Belzer and David Wayne, about the dead witnesses of the Kennedy Assassination, includes a chapter on her, taken from my work as a blogger and a Kennedy researcher.

Kathy C

Edited March 1, 2016 by Kathleen Collins

[Ashton Gray]

Could it be possible that this Dr. Pullman was hypnotizing Ruby and got him to kill Oswald?

Our research led to Pullman because the CIA's mind-control programs during the Cold War are integral to Watergate: The Hoax. Here is an excerpt from my book discussing some of the CIA hypnosis experiments. This quotes several CIA documents released under FOIA. Names had been redacted in the original documents. Ordinarily a term such as “redacted” or “whited out” is used to indicate such redactions, but it reduces the subjects to impersonal objects. These subjects of experiments, often unwitting subjects, were real people with real lives, with families and feelings and hopes and dreams. For that reason, I've given fake names to them to at least preserve a sense of humanity in the book.

============BEGIN EXCERPT FROM WATERGATE: THE HOAX===============

The 1951 exposé was correct in saying that PDH [pain-drugs-hypnosis] “may be of considerably more use in conquering a society than the atom bomb,” as some of the available declassified documents on CIA mind control experiments with hypnosis demonstrate:

Hypnotic Experimentation and Research, 10 February 1954

Miss [Doe] was then instructed (having previously expressed a fear of firearms in any fashion) that she would use every method at her disposal to awaken Miss [Jones] (now in a deep hypnotic sleep) and failing in this, she would pick up a pistol nearby and fire it at Miss [Jones]. She was instructed that her rage would be so great that she would not hesitate to “kill” Miss [Jones] for failing to awaken. Miss [Doe] carried out these suggestions to the letter including firing the (unloaded pneumatic pistol) gun at Miss [Jones] and then proceeding to fall into a deep sleep. After proper suggestions were made, both were awakened and expressed complete amnesia for the entire sequence. Miss [Doe] was again handed the gun, which she refused (in an awakened state) to pick up or accept from the operator. She expressed absolute denial that the foregoing sequence had happened.

Two other subjects also carried out their post-hypnotic suggestions “to the letter” and had no memory of the experiment:

SI [special Interrogations] and H [Hypnosis] Experimentation (25 September 1951)

[Miss White] was instructed that upon awakening, she would proceed to [Mr. Black's] room where she would wait at the desk for a telephone call. Upon receiving the call, a person known as “Jim” would engage her in normal conversation. During the course of the conversation, this individual would mention a code word to [Miss White]. When she heard this code word she would pass into a SI trance state, but would not close her eyes and remain perfectly normal and continue the telephone conversation. She was told that thereafter upon conclusion of the telephone conversation, she would then carry out the following instructions:

[Miss White], being in a complete SI state at this time, was then told to open her eyes and was shown an electric timing device. She was informed that this timing device was an incendiary bomb and was then instructed how to attach and set the device. After [Miss White] had indicated that she had learned how to set and attach the device, she was told to return to a sleep state and further instructed that upon concluding of the aforementioned conversation, she would take the timing device which was in a briefcase and proceed to the ladies room.

In the ladies room, she would be met by a girl whom she had never seen who would identify herself by the code word “New York.” After identifying herself, [Miss White] was then to show this individual how to attach and set the timing device, and further instructions would be given the individual by [Miss White] that the timing device was to be carried in the briefcase to [Mr. Black's] room, placed in the nearest empty electric-light plug, and concealed in the bottom, left-hand drawer of [Mr. Black's] desk, with the device set for 82 seconds and turned on. [Miss White] was further instructed to tell this other girl that as soon as the device had been set and turned on, she was to take the briefcase, leave [Mr. Black's] room, go to the operations room, and go to the sofa and enter a deep sleep state. [Miss White] was further instructed that after completion of instructing the other girl and the transferring to the other girl of the incendiary bomb, she was to return at once to the operations room, sit on the sofa, and go into a deep sleep state.

Hypnosis was so effective at getting young ladies to do things against their will that at least one such “expert” bragged to the CIA’s head of ARTICHOKE, Morse Allen, of some of his other uses of the technique:

On 2 July 1951 approximately 1:00 p.m. the instruction began with [CIA Svengali] relating to the student some of his sexual experiences. [CIA Svengali] stated that he had constantly used hypnotism as a means of inducing young girls to engage in sexual intercourse with him. [Mrs. Clarinet], a performer in [Metropolis] orchestra, was forced to engage in sexual intercourse with [CIA Svengali] while under the influence of hypnotism. [CIA Svengali] stated that he first put her into a hypnotic trance and then suggested to her that he was her husband and that she desired sexual intercourse with him.

=============END EXCERPT FROM WATERGATE: THE HOAX===============

Obviously, I can't answer your question directly, but this tells you something about what the CIA was doing in the field of hypnosis ~10 years before the JFK assassination. I can only hope that it may help find an answer.

Personally, I don't believe at all that the involvement of Pullman and his wife with Ruby were what Pullman claims. Nor do I believe that Pullman switched from novelty dealer and furniture designer to doctor specializing in hypnosis in six years.

Ashton

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ashton Gray

[Ashton Gray]

And he and Jack Ruby were into that weird 'twist board'. If it was a cover for them, it was a surprisingly elaborate one.

The Mullen Company in Washington, D.C., was a surprisingly elaborate cover for the CIA and its minions, too. All of the covers that the CIA used for all of its members of the psycho-establishment who carried out unspeakable crimes against unwitting and unwilling subjects during Bluebird/Artichoke/MK-Ultra were surprisingly elaborate, too. They were so elaborate and effective that to this day there is no complete roster of the medical and psychiatric golems who carried out such atrocities for the CIA.

One of the most amoral members of the "intelligence" cult, Daniel Ellsberg said it well:

It became clear to me that journalists had no idea, no clue, even the best of them, just how often and how egregiously they were lied to. The lies themselves didn’t bother me.

...The overwhelming majority of secrets do not leak to the American public.

...The reality unknown to the public and to most members of Congress and the press is that secrets that would be of the greatest import to many of them can be kept from them reliably for decades by the executive branch, even though they are known to thousands of insiders.

...Once I was inside the government, my awareness of how easily and pervasively Congress, the public, and journalists were fooled and misled contributed to a lack of respect for them and their potential contribution to better policy. That in turn made it easier to accept, to participate in, to keep quiet about practices of secrecy and deception that fooled them further and kept them ignorant of the real issues that were occupying and dividing inside policy makers. Their resulting ignorance made it all the more obvious that they must leave these problems to us.

Daniel Ellsberg

Secrets

Ashton

Edited February 25, 2016 by Ashton Gray

[Kathleen Collins]

Could it be possible that this Dr. Pullman was hypnotizing Ruby and got him to kill Oswald?

Obviously, I can't answer your question directly, but this tells you something about what the CIA was doing in the field of hypnosis ~10 years before the JFK assassination. I can only hope that it may help find an answer.

Personally, I don't believe at all that the involvement of Pullman and his wife with Ruby were what Pullman claims. Nor do I believe that Pullman switched from novelty dealer and furniture designer to doctor specializing in hypnosis in six years.

Ashton

Ashton, you would be surprised how many people use hypnosis. I don't think you even have to hang a shingle out to become a "psycho-therapist." I knew a woman who was hypnotizing people for years. Eventually the real psychologists won an order for her to get a doctorate in Psychology or Social Work if she wanted to continue. Which she did in her old age. There are many people who do hypnosis, or at least in the not so distance past. Dentists, for one. And quacks. Weight control, stop smoking. Some psychotherapists use Astrology to get to know their clients.

There was an ex-model named Candy Jones who was used by the CIA. They gave her a different identity. She became Arlene Grant and wore a black wig when she was working unbeknowingly for the CIA. Under hypnosis she found out about this and remembered a time when the CIA put a long lit candle inside her vagina for other people to see how hypnosis can work. She also had bad teeth for a woman of her means -- because some dentists hypnotize their patients. She was not allowed to visit a dentist.

Kathy C

[Ray Mitcham]

Kath, have you seen this video of British stage hypnotist, Derren Brown, hypnotising a man to get him to assassinate a famous stage actor?

In the video, he mentions the Robert Kennedy assassination, Sirhan Sirhan and the blue /white polka dot dress.

It is quite long, as the video goes into how he selected the man and his subsequent training.

I sent the video to a clinical psychiatrist friend of mine, who had told me that it was impossible to make somebody do something he didn't want to do, under hypnosis. He was blown away by the results. (If you'll excuse the expression.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwNfZvoTVlU

Edited February 26, 2016 by Ray Mitcham

[Kathleen Collins]

Thanks, Ray, for providing that video. I still don't think I could be hypnotized to do something as foul as murder.

Kathy C

[Ray Mitcham]

Thanks, Ray, for providing that video. I still don't think I could be hypnotized to do something as foul as murder.

Kathy C

You're probably right, Kath, (hopefully ) but as Brown says in the video, he carefully selected a susceptible guy to train to "kill" the actor.

I'm sure the CIA had the means and opportunity to select whosoever they considered the best candidate.

[Ashton Gray]

Could it be possible that this Dr. Pullman was hypnotizing Ruby and got him to kill Oswald?

Obviously, I can't answer your question directly, but this tells you something about what the CIA was doing in the field of hypnosis ~10 years before the JFK assassination. I can only hope that it may help find an answer.

Personally, I don't believe at all that the involvement of Pullman and his wife with Ruby were what Pullman claims. Nor do I believe that Pullman switched from novelty dealer and furniture designer to doctor specializing in hypnosis in six years.

Ashton

Ashton, you would be surprised how many people use hypnosis.

Kathy, I may not be as surprised as you think I'd be.

The CIA wasn't limiting itself to the accomplishments of amateurs and parlor tricks in its exploitation of hypnosis. It also was combining hypnosis with pain and heavy drugs. The CIA use of hypnosis is covered in a number of excellent books. Just one of them I'll recommend to your attention is Walter Bowart's Operation Mind Control. It was heavily suppressed by the CIA when it came out and may be difficult to find, but an excerpt from the book on hypnosis, specifically, is here:

http://www.whale.to/b/bowart_b.html

Other works of interest include The Search for the Manchurian Candidate, by John Marks; Acid Dreams, by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain; A Terrible Mistake—The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Secret Cold War Experiments, by H.P. Alberelli, Jr.; and The CIA Doctors—Human Rights Violations by American Psychiatrists, by Colin M. Ross, M.D.

Good hunting.

Ashton

Edited February 29, 2016 by Ashton Gray

[Ron Ecker]

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of the CIA. My guess is they would puke.

[Paul Brancato]

Ashton - what's your take on Daniel Ellsberg? What does 'amoral member of the "intelligence" cult' mean?

[Ashton Gray]

I wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of the CIA. My guess is they would puke.

I couldn't agree more.

Ashton

[Ashton Gray]

Ashton - what's your take on Daniel Ellsberg? What does 'amoral member of the "intelligence" cult' mean?

Paul, I'm very sorry to be so tardy in replying. My book Watergate: The Hoax covers Ellsberg's role in detail, with new revelations never seen before. It also proves beyond any slightest doubt that his psychiatrist, Fielding, was in on the alleged "break-in" at his office, which was nothing but a dog-and-pony show to give Ellsberg a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

I'm very pleased to report that the book was released yesterday, and is now available at Amazon, iBooks, and Barnes & Noble. The trade paperback version will be available at Amazon in a matter of days.

Edited May 29, 2016 by Ashton Gray

[David Andrews]

Persons interested in current research into recreating the out-of-body experience in the laboratory may like this book, which I recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Wasnt-There-Investigations/dp/0525954198?ie=UTF8&keywords=man%20who%20wasn't%20there&qid=1464626097&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

The research encountered by the author (which may not be the only research extant) involves a combination of physical and visual stimulation that excites areas of the brain controlling perception of location, so that the mind perceives the body as located at a distance from its actual placement. Food for other thinking is here, however.

Edited May 30, 2016 by David Andrews