Harry Houdini's Murder and Last Halloween Séance Appearance

In a series of Halloween articles, I have been finding all manner of free Halloween treats for my readers: fifty free pieces of classical music (here), a hundred free movies (here), and a library of free books (here) and audiobooks (here). So, if you just stopped by here for treats or tricks, let me give you your goodies before the article.

You can listen to the voice of Harry Houdini, the most famous magician of all time (here) in an Edison recording of 1914.

Although he is known as a magician, Harry Houdini was also an author. You can find these books by him for free:
The Adventurous life of a versatile artist: Houdini - book
The Miracle Mongers, an Exposé - book | audiobook
The Right Way to Do Wrong: An Exposé of Successful Criminals - book | audiobook

Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for creating the extremely logical Sherlock Holmes, he was himself a strong believer in spiritualism. If you go all the way down to Australian Project Gutenberg (or, at least, click here), you can read his 1930 book about spiritualism, The Edge of the Unknown, the first chapter of which is "The Riddle of Houdini."

Finally, you can get a half-hour audio documentary about Houdini's final séance, where he may or may not have put in a final appearance, ten years after his death (here).

The Halloween Death of Harry Houdini

Although a writer of fiction could not get away with this, Harry Houdini (born Erik Weisz, later spelled Ehrich Weiss; 1874-1926) did indeed die on Halloween Day. There is much to be said about his life. Wikipedia has a great introduction (here), and there is "Houdini Tribute," a crowded website that, like some of those bizarre devices that Houdini wrestled with, seems almost impossible to escape; there is always one more link, one more unexpected treasure to keep me from leaving.

The well-known story of the death of Houdini seems to be true. A cocky college student challenged the cocky magician to endure some blows to the abdomen. Houdini accepted the challenge and died about a week later of complications from a ruptured appendix.

In 2007, MSNBC reported that one of Houdini's great-nephews wanted to exhume Houdini's body (video) to investigate the possibility that he had been murdered, poisoned. This was not condoned by most of Houdini's family (source), and the exhumation never took place.

Who would have poisoned the beloved magician?

Harry Houdini and the Spiritualists

After the death of his mother, Houdini wanted to get in touch with her. As someone whose profession was tricking people, he saw through the machinations of the Spiritualists to whom he turned. (You can learn more about the Spiritualists here.) He eventually began exposing the spiritualists, somewhat as does the contemporary magician, James "the Amazing" Randi (website).

In exposing fraudulent Spiritualists, Houdini lost the friendship of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. After Houdini's death, Conan Doyle published The Edge of the Unknown, the first chapter of which is "The Riddle of Houdini," which you can read (here).

Soon after Houdini's death a rumor sprang up about the possibility that the Spiritualists had killed him, which was picked up by William Kalush and Larry Sloman in their biography, The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero, which you can access (here).

No matter what one thinks of the beliefs of the Spiritualists, there is nothing about them that suggests that they would be murderers. Publicity surrounding the possible exhumation, which never took place, may have been a stunt to call attention to the book.

Harry Houdini's Last Halloween Séance Appearance

Houdini and his wife Bess made a pact that whoever died first would try for ten years to get in touch with the other, and they maintained a secret code so that neither of them would be taken in by a hoax (source).

Every year, for ten years, on the anniversary of Houdini's death, his wife held a séance to try to get in touch with him. In 1936, on the tenth anniversary of his death, she invited a variety of purported psychics and researchers... and... you can listen to an audio documentary (here) to find out what happened.

It was the last year his wife held such a séance. Ironically, this was not the last separation from her husband she experienced. At her death, since she was a Christian, she was not allowed to be buried next to her husband, who lies in a Jewish cemetery. You can learn more about Houdini's burial and see photos of his grave (here).

You can learn about Harry Houdini's movie career here.