Jack Luger - The Big Book of Secret Hiding Places

The Big Book of Secret Hiding Places
by Jack Luger

Copyright 1987 by Jack Luger

ISBN 13: 978-1-58160-619-5

Printed in the United States of America

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Paladin Enterprises, Inc.,
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

This book will give you a flying start at the art and science of purposeful concealment. These chapters will show you how to hide both large and small objects in both temporary and permanent locations.

This isn't just another "How To Construct Secret Hiding Places" book. It's not a text on carpentry or excavation. This book covers the dynamics of successful concealment to an extent that no other book in this field has yet done. Note especially the chapters on concealing weapons and on unconventional methods of getting your material "lost" for a period of time.

Some may think that hiding things is necessarily illicit, and that anyone with a clear conscience has literally "nothing to hide." This is untrue, as we can see by examining a few instances.

Let's look at a few people with good reasons to construct hiding places. The first will be someone worried about burglary. He knows that no amount of locks, alarms, and police protection guarantees against intruders ripping off his valuables, such as a coin collection.

Another example is a police officer with young children. He needs to keep his weapons and ammunition away from their small hands, as they're yet too young to understand safe gun handling and an admonition of "Don't touch!" leaves too much to chance.

Even without children, a police officer has to worry about other dangers. His home is as vulnerable to burglary as any civilian's. It can be very embarrassing when an intruder makes off with his service revolver when he's off-duty and away from home. Recently, one young patrolman was ripped off in exactly this way. What made it worse is that his father is the local Chief of Police!

Closely related to this situation is that of a hunter and sportsman who keeps an array of firearms in the house. He knows that no warnings to children below a certain age will be effective, and that even when his children are old enough to understand safe gun handling, those of visitors may not be. It's simpler all around to keep firearms safely out of sight and out of reach.

Another individual keeps a lot of valuables around because he doesn't trust banks. He knows that banks can fail, in which case his assets may or may not be protected by the government. In any event, he knows that if his bank fails, he'll have a long wait for his assets, at best. He needs a place for his bills.

A dealer in valuables, such as stamps, coins, or precious stones may use a safe and an alarm system to protect the bulk of his goods, but may want to handle especially valuable items in a special way, by concealing them.

Yet another earns undeclared income in the underground economy. He has assets to hide not only from thieves but from the government. He knows that safe-deposit boxes are not as safe as they seem, and that even a private vault means entrusting valuables to others' honesty and convenience. He decides that he wants his assets totally under his control.

Carrying concealed weapons is a special topic within the broader one. It's worth close study because, while keeping material concealed is not illegal, carrying a weapon concealed is, in some jurisdictions. Criminals, of course, tend to carry concealed weapons, which is what gave rise to the laws pertaining to them. What the law doesn't officially acknowledge is that in most instances a concealed weapon is on the person of an otherwise law-abiding citizen who carries it as a defense against crime.

You don't need to see the film Death Wish or the TV production Outrage to understand that street crime is widespread in this country. You need only read the daily newspaper or watch the TV news to see that, not only are many of our citizens victims of crime, but that the police don't do much to defend them. The first, and usually the only, line of defense is the armed citizen.

Granted it's illegal, and if you live in the hostile environment of New York City, it's verrry illegal. It comes down to the basic question: "Would you rather be tried by twelve or carried by six?"

Don't make the mistake of being too open about your hiding places. Some people brag about them, and openly display them to friends and acquaintances. Those who carry weapons, especially, are tempted to show them off. This breaks their low profile and can lead to complications. If you have a need for a hiding place, you may already have a need to be discreet. Such would be the case if you're part of the underground economy. Continue this practice and you'll save yourself needless problems.

Although people have been hiding their possessions and themselves at various times since before the dawn of written history, there is very little written on the subject. The cultural explosion of the Twentieth Century has brought about the greatest volume of literature on hiding and hiding places, and yet there are very few books as such. Previously, there was almost nothing.

Part of the reason is that most people in the world were illiterate before our time. Another is secrecy. Many of these techniques and places for hiding things and people were truly deep and dark secrets, at least in the inventors' minds.

The residue of history is legend and myth. We find this in Britain, where there are many legends about secret tunnels, and most of these legends have no factual basis.

The reason for the hidey holes was clear and crisp. Catholic priests risked execution if caught. These were the hearty Elizabethan days of the rack in the Tower of London. Sometimes the victims took days to die under torture.

In Warwickshire, Baddesley Clinton is a stone mansion with three wings surrounding a courtyard. Around it is a moat. In the back wing is a full length tunnel. One exit from it is on the moat, and allegedly there was a plank to bridge the moat for a quick escape. This is unlikely, given the forty foot length required, but the tunnel did serve as a hiding place. There was a secret entrance built into a window seat in what was allegedly the priest's room.

In Aston Hall, in Birmingham, there is a very well preserved hiding place under a stair. A chair is mounted against a wall, and this chair swings aside to reveal a room that measures six by ten feet.

A place with the guttural sounding name of Thrumpton Hall, Nottinghamshire, has a combination secret staircase and cellar room, with the entrance to the underground room hidden in the staircase. The cellar room measured two and one half feet wide by six feet long. It was a tight fit.

In Burghwallis Hall, Yorkshire, there's a false staircase head accessible only from the attic. Over a doorway is a secret trap door which leads onto a crawlway in the attic. Retracing the path along about thirty feet brings the fugitive to a six foot square hiding place at the top of the stairs.