Myths and illusions have surrounded Harry Houdini, the famous illusionist who became famous for his complex tricks with liberation from various types of confinement, for almost his entire life. Legends surround his untimely death on October 31, 1926, right on Halloween. The official cause of death of the master is complications after appendicitis, but many suspect that the death of the great wizard was either deliberate or due to negligence.
Risk and glory
For more than thirty years, Houdini made audiences around the world freeze with bated breath, thanks to his unique tricks and inhuman endurance. The famous illusionist jumped off high bridges while being shackled, freed from tightly sealed milk cans filled with water, and escaped from the world's most heavily guarded prison cells, including Crosses. Despite the fact that Houdini was primarily an illusionist, his stunts were very risky and more than once led to injuries. In 1915, the master almost suffocated while trying to get out of the grave.
Unexpected death
Houdini built his career around surviving near-impossible scenarios, which only added to the mystery of his unexpected death in 1926. At the age of 52, the illusionist finished his performance in Detroit on October 24. After the curtain fell, the master lost consciousness and was sent to the hospital with acute appendicitis. Houdini died in hospital a week after surgery from peritonitis, as a result of a ruptured appendix. His obituary expressed the shock and surprise of the public, fans and those close to the death of a man who daily teased death with his ability to avoid her scythe.
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The bizarre series of events leading up to Harry Houdini's death began a few weeks before Halloween 1926. During his performance in Albani on October 11, Houdini hit his foot on heavy metal equipment and cracked his left ankle. The master did not go to the doctor and instead continued his tour, going to Montreal.
In Montreal, Houdini gave a lecture at McGill University, where he invited several students to speak on October 22nd. Students came to the dressing room to talk with the illusionist before the performance. During the conversation, Houdini, who was still tormented by his swollen ankle, was sitting on the couch. One of the students, Gordon Whitehead, asked the master if it was true that he could withstand the blows of enormous force - words that Houdini himself repeated more than once in front of the public.
According to witnesses, after Houdini confirmed his words with a nod, Whitehead delivered several hard punches to the stomach without warning the master. Houdini asked him to stop and give him time to prepare. After the illusionist got up and tightened his abs, the student struck him a few more blows. Despite the fact that the first unexpected blows caused Houdini visible pain, he did not cancel the performances.
Last performance
After performing in Montreal, Houdini began to suffer from discomfort and stomach cramps. On the train en route to Detroit for his next show, Houdini's condition deteriorated significantly. He began to complain of severe pain, and the master's temperature rose to 40 degrees. The doctor who examined Houdney on the train suggested appendicitis and advised him to go straight to the hospital, but he did not want to postpone the performance. He completed all the planned stunts and passed out after the curtain fell.
Official reason
The performance on October 24 in Detroit was the last in the career of the great and legendary Harry Houdini. On the same night he was taken to a hospital where he was operated on. The doctors successfully removed the appendix, but it turned out that its contents had already significantly poisoned the internal organs. Despite predicting an imminent death, Houdini clung to life for a week and died on October 31 in the company of his wife Bess and his two brothers.
Houdini's official cause of death was peritonitis caused by a ruptured appendix. At the time, doctors were convinced that the condition had developed due to blows from Gordon Whitehead. Such cases of "traumatic appendicitis" are extremely rare, but in 1926 the diagnosis was confirmed without hesitation. The insurance company even had to pay Houdini's wife twice the compensation for accidental death.
Rumors and legends
Houdini was buried in a cemetery in Queens on November 4, 1926, but rumors of his unexpected death continued to spread throughout the cities and towns. Many assumed that the death of the master was associated with his exposing actions against pseudo-mediums, psychics and other adherents of spritism.
When the current grew and attracted illusionists, who began to hide their tricks under the influence of otherworldly forces for the sake of money, Houdini embarked on an active exposing campaign, which greatly angered the so-called mediums.
Great debunker
Could a feud with popular mediums and psychics cause the premeditated murder of Harry Houdini? In 2006, William Kalush and Larry Sloman published a biography of the master called The Secret Life of Houdini. One of the ideas developed in the book was the likelihood that the death of the illusionist and activist came as a result of poisoning ordered by a guild of psychics working in Washington. Four days before hospitalization, the illusionist spoke before Congress, insisting that the huge number of medium salons operating in the center of the capital be closed and charlatans arrested and punished. In addition, mediums not only belonged to a kind of organized criminal group, but were also famous for the fact that many of their enemies died from poisoning in a timely manner.
Accident
Many also still accuse Gordon Whitehead, a student at McGill University, of causing his unexpected blows to rupture the appendix that led to peritonitis. In addition, there is an opinion that the student could be associated with mediums or be the executor of a contract murder. However, this idea has no basis. The fact is that Houdini really had an "iron" abs and several punches in the stomach could not cause death. And the student could not know about appendicitis. Whitehead's only possible involvement in the illusionist's death is through negligence.
Houdini's session
The absolute truth about the escape master's death will likely never come to light. Today, most historians and biographers of the great master consider rumors of premeditated murder to be nothing more than unfounded speculation. No consensus has been reached on the unfortunate involvement in the death of the student who struck the blows. There is a possibility that traumatic appendicitis was indeed the correct diagnosis and the cause of Harry Houdini's death, and perhaps the blows only made the master pay attention to the condition that had previously tormented him. In any case, when he turned to doctors for help, it was no longer possible to save him.
It is curious that during the active struggle with pseudo-mediums, Houdini often joked with his wife Bess, promising that after death he would do everything possible to contact her. For ten years, the widow held annual sessions of spiritualism on Halloween, on the day of the death of the great wizard, but his spirit never showed up. Today the "Houdini Session" has become a Halloween tradition for fans of the great master of illusions.
Hope Chikanchi