March 25, 2007
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The Daily News
Harry Houdini (1874-1926)Was Houdini murdered?
1 Recent reports abound that the great Harry Houdini, magician, anti-spiritualist, possibly spy, and definite escape artist, may have been the victim of a murder.2 The reports have brought together a group of forensic experts who hope to exhume the body for evidence of arsenic or of lead. The group has received an okay from the family of the world-renowned magician.
3 This stuff came at me last week, and I thought it might make an interesting piece.
4 So what is this story about? Well, the classic Houdini death story is that he had been punched in the stomach a few days before doing his now famous Water Torture Cell Escape and died several days later in the midst of performing the escape. The coroner’s report was that Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. Hollywood has several versions where a guy with an ax breaks the glass of the water cell, releasing the water, but too late for the magician. He subsequently died on Halloween in 1926.
5 Well, there is a book entiled The Man Who Killed Houdini by an suthor by the name of Don Bell. His theory is that a college student named J. Gordon Whitehead visited the magician with several others, and when Houdini talked of his muscle strength, rabbit-punched Houdini before the magician could blink, and continued until the latter protested. This supposedly caused the rupture which brought on the peritonitis, and the author spent years hunting down Whitehead.6 A more sinister theory comes to us from a book entitled The Secret Life of Harry Houdini by William Kalush and Larry Sloman. They have a different theory, one that includes Houdini’s discrediting of people who have spiritual gifts. Houdini spent a good part of his life exposing people claiming to have spiritual powers, the same way the Amazing Randi spent much of his career discrediting people like Uri Geller and Sylvia Browne. Houdini felt that such people preyed on the sadness of people, and was adament about showing the world all of their tricks and deceitful scams.
7 Enter the famous Sherlock Holmes author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle into the mix. Doyle, who was an earlier friend of Houdini, felt later that Houdini was trying to hide the realities of spiritualism, and that Houdini’s powers were real. He formed a group called the Spiritualists, a group who claimed that spiritualism was real, and that Houdini was hurting people who were completely honest, the most famous of whom was a gal by the name of Mina Crandon, aka “Margery”, a spiritualist whom Houdini had particularly criticized as a complete and absolute sham.
The immortal Basil Rathbone as thequintessential Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle(1859-1930)Author of the Sherlock Holmes storieswas quite cozy with the Spiritualists8 Margery was married to a fellow by the name of Dr. Le Roi Crandon, who became more and more angry with Houdini. They became arch enemies, and Crandon purportedly talked of the spirits taking Houdini away if he displeased them.
9 On July 23, 1924 ”Margery” tried to win a prestigious prize offered by the very respectful magazine Scientific American. At the time, Margery was extremely popular, and SA was interested in her purported abilities with telekinesis, the moving of things with the mind.
10 The prize committee included several prominent psychic researchers including William McDougal, professor of psychology form Harvard University, another magician and author named Herewood Carrington, and Houdini.
11 Houdini scandalized Margery, immitating every one of her tricks and even writing a pamphlet about her claims. She was found by the committe to be completely fraudulent and was not given the prize. The only member of the committe to vote for her was Carrington, with whom she was having an affair.
12 Doyle was not convinced, nor was Dr. Crandon, and certainly not Carrington.
13 The rest of the story is left to the authors, as well as to history. As of March 24, 2007, the exhumation has been okayed by the family of Houdini, who would like to have the body detected for poisoning, as well as perhaps prompting an investigation into one of the most mysterious deaths of the 20th Century.
14 A lot to chew on. Here is the website from which much of this information was gleaned. Feel free to explore and enjoy this new story, which certainly has some fun legs!15 I think I’ll leave the rest up to you. Get out your spyglasses and follow this intriguing little story. I have to put down my pipe and violin for now.16 I have to go. Xanga wants everything centered today so all apologies for the sudden change in format. Meanwhile, enjoy your research. This was just the tip of the story, which sounds pretty fun. There’s a lot more to it, but this ought to get you going.
17 Have a fun Monday everybody.
18 Peace.
~H~
