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Sinister UK: Another Outlaw Masterpiece

PostPosted: Nov 3rd, '06, 15:48
by DrTodd


Sinister, UK

$60 from Outlaw Effects (http://www.outlaw-effects.com)

The Effect:

In 1959 the Service Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of the Metropolitan Police Service distributed a confidential and classified 60-page booklet entitled Criminal Analyst Report to its rank of Detective Chief Inspectors.

The report contained over 150 ‘profiles’ of men that had committed multiple capital crimes (murder). Each entry in the report has a detailed psychological ‘description’ of the killers along with the names of several of their male and female victims.

For example, one entry reads:

Ethan Huntley (age 34)
His crimes are premeditated and well structured.
He is very intellectual. He will have a good income.
There will be no evidence found. He will pursue the accounts of his crimes in the daily.
He will remove the body from the crime site.

No. 31826
Lucy Wyndham 32, 66 Bickenhall Marylebone.


The Report was used as a training tool for the police, who would study the profiles and learn from the different methods, orientations, and styles of the killers contained with its pages to be better detectives while solving such heinous capital crimes. Detectives could look up a case number in the book, and then look at the crime scene file and make notes about the particulars of the crime, which in turns lets them use the profile information to identify the kind of killer for whom they are looking.

The book is handed to a spectator, who can freely choose any page in the book and any entry from that page. They then are asked to select mentally any victim and focus on one word in the victim’s details.

Using minimal information gathered from the spectator (and it is really minimal), the performer can then describe the crime scene, give an accurate profile of the killer, and name the killer!

You do not need to know the page number (yes the pages are numbered!). You do not need to peek the book. The spectator has a free choice of any page and any entry. The book is 4 1/2 inches X 3 1/2 spiral bound down the side and completely aged.

This product can be used as a stand-alone effect or with the other Outlaw products, namely Homicide UK and White Chapel. In fact, the information in all three books is linked in an ingenious fashion for a combined routine. All the "killers" in Sinister are also all the male customers in the pawn shop book (i.e. White Chapel). The names have all been re-arranged in the Sinister book so they do not appear together on the same pages as either of the other two books. Once you know the information from one book, you also know the information in the entries in the other books!

Outlaw Effects offers a special package deal to get all three.

Difficulty: 2 (minmal preparation)

Review:

My book arrived still damp from the ageing process and looks absolutely fantastic! It looks as though it was published in 1959 and has been knocking about the backroom of a London borough police station. The cover of the book looks great (see the Outlaw web page for a picture) and the text is typewritten in an authentic font throughout. The pages are dog-eared and worn, and the spiral bound side looks old and well used.

The revelation system is easy to learn and organisation of information is very clever since it appears absolutely random. The spectators have complete freedom to choose the page, victim, and focus word. Yet, you can reveal so much detail about the crime and the killer. Apart from explaining the basics, the instructions give many examples of different revelations to show you how flexible the effect really is.

The presentation of this effect, like that of Homicide UK and White Chapel, will make all the difference whether you use them all together or Sinister simply by itself. In my own view, Sinister is the strongest of the three and its presentation can be couched in the larger context of psychological profiling, which has not always been used by the police. You can become a mental Cracker, but one whose methods remains a mental mystery!

Overall:

Excellent value for money. The quality of production is very high. It looks completely authentic and is beyond suspicion. This is a book test with a dark and macabre difference.

Sinister is truly another Outlaw masterpiece! 10/10

For additional help, the Outlaw site has a special forum for users. I also recommend Patricia Conrwell's Portrait of Killer, which is about Jack the Ripper (also good for the effect From Hell) and Caleb Carr's The Alienist, which is set in New York City and provides an excellent and accurate history of the science of profiling.

If you like the darker side of mental effects and you love to spin a good yarn, then this is the effect for you! :twisted:


PostPosted: Nov 3rd, '06, 18:45
by Jerome the French
a very good review, but not an effect for me. :)


PostPosted: Nov 5th, '06, 09:09
by MagicShop
Well done Roth! 10/10 from me


PostPosted: Sep 24th, '07, 23:37
by Beardy
*This is a notification of your payment of $52 to OUtlaw Effects*

Grrrrrrrrrr

a bit more cash and I would have purchased all 3 :P

I guess 1 by 1 shall have to surfice

and this is the one I want most, and will fit me best :twisted: